Breath Before the Leap

10/27/09

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it has been so long since I updated. It has been the equivalent of finals week for us for the past two weeks. We had two finals, one in Arabic and the other in Islamic Thought and Practice. We also had our first batch of papers of due: 1 for Islam (mine was over the sura in the Qur’an that says God is the Light), one paper on whether or not imperialism is still effecting the region, one about if religion is the biggest challenge to human rights in the Middle East, and the last one about the relationships between the East and the West Church and Islam and Christianity. All in all it was a ridiculous couple of days. We go through the same thing when we have four more papers and a debate due at the end of November after we travel.

Speaking of traveling, tomorrow morning, we start the travel component of the semester. We have an early flight to Turkey, where we stay in Istanbul for six days before going to Ankara, the capital. Then we head to Syria for three days and then Jordan for two. Then we head off to Israel. We stay in Jerusalem for a week and then we travel to Tel Aviv and hit up Galilee, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the Golan Heights for the next week. In total we are gone a month and get back to Cairo on November 25. During this travel we are meeting with guest lecturers almost every day and sometimes we have up to three in one day. We are also supposed to be reading and writing those papers that are due when we get back. Busy month….

We also went to Alexandria two weekends ago. It was absolutely amazing! Me and one other guy stayed at a really nice hotel on the Mediterranean and just chilled the first night. Then the next day we did all the sightseeing stuff. I went to the catacombs that are there and they were some of the coolest things I have ever seen. And then there was the library. Wow. That was one of the coolest pieces of architecture that I have ever seen.

Well next update will be from somewhere on the road!