I just purchased plane tickets for our post-Ramadan break: 8 days in Morocco. Now I need to figure out the rest of the itinerary. I'm thinking Fez and Marrakech. One of the fellows that I'm traveling with has some friends who live in Morocco, so we may alter our trip slightly for that if they are willing to be our hosts or tour guides.
Since AUC decided today that they would have a holiday Thursday for Egyptian Armed Forces Day, I think that I'm going with some friends to the Black and White Desert for a camping trip.
I have a meeting later this week talk to the director of a school that teaches Sudanese refugee children English, where I will probably be tutoring this semester.
In other news, not much new has happened. The 104-degree weather this weekend discouraged me from venturing out too much, though I did make it to Khan el Khaleely, the bazaar that's been around for about a millennium, Friday night. Some parts of it were extraordinarily touristy, but some parts of it were really cool. We wandered down a few of the streets (streets being a loose word since they are about 4 feet wide -hallways might be better) and found some areas that looked like they hadn't been updated that much since the Middle Ages.
As you walk along the busier streets, you constantly encounter people saying, “I have exactly what you're looking for,” “high quality products,” or “best price.” We passed one shopkeeper who was instead shouting, “How can I take your money?” At least someone is honest. We passed by Al Azhar University (the Islamic university in Cairo) and listened to a few minutes of the Council of Islamic Issues have a debate. Unfortunately, none of us know enough Arabic to actually understand what they were saying - it sounded important though.