A few from Leeds

Just a couple of pictures of the uni we're leaving behind. There would have been more had most of the year not been spent (ab)using the camera as a pretentious ice breaker.

That's it now until September 2012... sob

One bourbon one scotch one Burger King - the intro post

It begins, inevitably, with a traffic jam.

Not the one that will take me across the country to Alexandria, or even the one to the airport as so far flights remain unbooked, visa unsorted and passenger uninsured, but just the one home from Leeds University at the end of the first year. It’s sweaty. I have just eaten an Angus Burger the size of my head and am listening to some badass George Thoroughgood with my foot in a box of chargers while ominous signs for the sprawling mass known collectively as ‘THE SOUTH’ speed by, each one reminding me that none of us will be back to the land of Greggs for another year and a half. And when we do return, it will be as third-year Arabic students, returned from a year in Egypt that will probably have changed us fundamentally as people - and hopefully got us a bit of a tan.

The car seems about twice as full as it did when we first drove down here in September last year. While some of it is probably down to my having expanded since then, for the most part the problem is the year’s worth of accumulated student rubbish I couldn’t bear to throw out, ranging from torn play tickets to fancy dress costumes (when the apocalypse happens I‘ll certainly be wanting my bee outfit) to books enthusiastically bought with exams in mind that then remained untouched for the rest of the year. When we go to Egypt there’ll be none of this. One suitcase crammed mostly with T-shirts that go past the elbow, various forms of sun protection and a hefty digital SLR named Boris*.

And then of course there’s Al-Kitaab fi al Ta’allum al-Arabiyya volume one, which amongst other things charts the story of the fictional but sultry Maha Muhammad Abulayla and her family, and from which we have learned most of our spoken Arabic. It’s because of Maha et al that we can enthuse about chess, admit to being secret smokers and bemoan our failings with the opposite sex but not yet say the colours or ask where the toilet is. Maha fandom is nothing new; she already has a dedicated facebook following and has spawned a number of youtube copycats.

Our group is made up of 23 students, some of which are depicted above at our first social event of the year; another 19 defected to Morocco. The majority are flying over to Egypt in September, with term starting near the end of the month. Most are planning to rent houses around the city because, as with more or less everything there, it’s so much cheaper - interestingly tuition fees for the whole year are £900 which, given that we receive the same number of hours per week as we would in the UK, makes our system here and its perceived value look more than a little ridiculous. The most expensive part will be the flights and already various cost-cutting routes such as flying to Sharm El Sheikh and taking the train to Alexandria have been looked into; once there, of course, visiting other places by means of the falafel bus (thanks Jenny Castle) or otherwise will be an option, including some kind of Moroccan invasion.

But of course there will be plenty to keep us occupied in our chosen country: following the carnage earlier this year during which the previous set of Leeds students had to return home, our group will be around to witness the presidential election in October or November which promises to be interesting, to say the least, and as far as flashcards, sign language and garbled fuṣḥā will allow I look forward to finding out what the people of Alexandria have to say. This comes second obviously to the excitement of seeing the pyramids, Luxor and Abu Simbel, and discovering just how many camels/Lamborghinis your soul is really worth.

On the North Circular now so with London in sight, I’ll wrap this up by saying I hope when things kick off in September this blog provides a useful insight into goings-on in Egypt with regards to not only our group but the country’s other inhabitants, from families to businesses to students like us, and the suited men that have so royally pissed them off. Until then please bookmark this page, and have a wonderful summer.

Hannah

*this is after Boris Grishenko from GoldenEye, as he too was invincible.