University Class

Today was the first day of my university class (as in a class full of Egyptian students!). My course is a fourth year course on Maritime Archaeology, and although it's only the first day, I really think I'm going to enjoy it. It only meets one day a week for two hours, which is perfect, because I don't have much spare time as it is. My professor is Dr. Emad Khalil, who is also my boss at my internship, and I've already mentioned how great of a guy he is. The first half of the class was just a discussion of what we would be covering in the course, and a review of materials from previous courses. I am quite pleased to say I understood the entire lecture, and even knew the answers to some of the questions before the other students did (although I was way too scared to actually raise my hand and give the answer in front of the whole class). My goal for the semester is to be able to answer a question or participate in a discussion in class without embarrassing myself. Anyway, then the second half of the class we watched a film/documentary about an underwater excavation...which was in English and of very bad sound quality. At the end of the video, the professor asked the class if anyone understood anything that was said, and no one else did whatsoever. I know I shouldn't have been as happy about this as I was, but I felt a great deal of satisfaction in this. In a society and culture where nothing comes easy to me and I get stared at and made fun of a lot, at least whenever we watch poor-quality English films I'll be the only one who can answer the professor's questions. Ha. Take that, Egypt.

For this class I have an academic partner, who will attend the class with me and meet with me at least two hours a week outside of class to discuss the material. I met her for the first time today and I really like her! Her name is Rawan and she's in her second year of school studying archaeology. She's very friendly, talkative, and helpful, without being annoying or overbearing (which is rare among Egyptian personalities). All in all, it was a great first day as an Egyptian student!