The best time to see Les Miserables for the first time, you ask?
> Definitely on Valentine's day when you're in the Middle East trying to learn Arabic and your last French class was six or so years ago and there are no subtitles.
This is what I did for my Valentine's, along with going to class.
Definite highlights:
-Our Fusha teacher told us she would bring stickers soon to class, furthering my inkling that I really am back in Elementary School (more so because I found I was actually really excited about it, I intend to hold her to her promise).
-A Valentine's Day ice cream come lunch with some lovely ladies, pictured below.
-A date with Sarah to see Les Mis at the French Cultural Center here that ended with me literally barely understanding what happened at all but was prefaced by dinner with an SIT teacher at some Lebanese pizza place that was delicious. too bad there weren't any candles involved, that was really all that was missing... and wine...actually, lots of things, but let's not linger.
Low points:
- The lack of candles at what was supposed to be my candlelight Valentine's day dinner date, geez Sarah ;)
- The lack of gym time post ice cream and shower that would have followed.
- The lack of vegetables and spinach in my life.
- The cab ride was not free tonight.
- The absence of notecard buying and Arabic studying that NEEDS to happen tomorrow! What language did I come here to learn again??
Anyhow-just a quick update of an interesting night. Also, tomorrow is prophet muhammad's birthday and everyone in the country has a holiday, except for SIT. And this news came just after we had a lecturer who spoke to us about Islam and Modernity and Secularization. Purrrfect.
Speaking of the lecture, I don't think I realized how much of a gay rights activist I was until I came here. Post lecture I'm still so confused about Islam and its relationship to modernity and the increasingly secular world. Here's the thing, I have a feeling that the lecturer was not with the popular majority of public opinion so everything was sort of skewed to begin with. That, coupled with the fact that I am basically a first grader when it comes to understanding Islam and the Middle East in general made it very hard for me to weed through everything and figure out what he was trying to propose. Needless to say, at one point I asked a question about how Islam will respond to globalization and the subsequent increased contact with the secular world (thinking specifically of the gay rights movement in the U.S.), the lecturer in a round about way equated being gay with being a prostitute (I think...) and how the Qu'ran would propose we address the problem before punishing (increasing education for those in that position, etc, etc). Except being gay is genetic...being a prostitute is not(at least to my knowledge)...
ummmmmm.....
Aside from that little issue, he was a pretty good lecturer, I think... like I said, it was difficult to follow. Most of the answers were hard to follow and I'm not sure of his bias SO...who knows. We have 2 more lecturers on political Islam, so hopefully some clarification will occur soon.
I feel like I should wear a sign over my head that says [Warning]: super feminist gay rights activist walking. or maybe I should not have come to this region of the world.... oh well, too late right?! MUMTAZ! Actually, maybe it'll be good for me to be here, or at least informative so I'm no longer operating under tragic stereotypes because those suck.
Okay, off to sleep soon, hopefully. Exhaustionnnnnn, must start getting to bed before midnight.
> Definitely on Valentine's day when you're in the Middle East trying to learn Arabic and your last French class was six or so years ago and there are no subtitles.
This is what I did for my Valentine's, along with going to class.
Definite highlights:
-Our Fusha teacher told us she would bring stickers soon to class, furthering my inkling that I really am back in Elementary School (more so because I found I was actually really excited about it, I intend to hold her to her promise).
-A Valentine's Day ice cream come lunch with some lovely ladies, pictured below.
-A date with Sarah to see Les Mis at the French Cultural Center here that ended with me literally barely understanding what happened at all but was prefaced by dinner with an SIT teacher at some Lebanese pizza place that was delicious. too bad there weren't any candles involved, that was really all that was missing... and wine...actually, lots of things, but let's not linger.
Low points:
- The lack of candles at what was supposed to be my candlelight Valentine's day dinner date, geez Sarah ;)
- The lack of gym time post ice cream and shower that would have followed.
- The lack of vegetables and spinach in my life.
- The cab ride was not free tonight.
- The absence of notecard buying and Arabic studying that NEEDS to happen tomorrow! What language did I come here to learn again??
Anyhow-just a quick update of an interesting night. Also, tomorrow is prophet muhammad's birthday and everyone in the country has a holiday, except for SIT. And this news came just after we had a lecturer who spoke to us about Islam and Modernity and Secularization. Purrrfect.
Speaking of the lecture, I don't think I realized how much of a gay rights activist I was until I came here. Post lecture I'm still so confused about Islam and its relationship to modernity and the increasingly secular world. Here's the thing, I have a feeling that the lecturer was not with the popular majority of public opinion so everything was sort of skewed to begin with. That, coupled with the fact that I am basically a first grader when it comes to understanding Islam and the Middle East in general made it very hard for me to weed through everything and figure out what he was trying to propose. Needless to say, at one point I asked a question about how Islam will respond to globalization and the subsequent increased contact with the secular world (thinking specifically of the gay rights movement in the U.S.), the lecturer in a round about way equated being gay with being a prostitute (I think...) and how the Qu'ran would propose we address the problem before punishing (increasing education for those in that position, etc, etc). Except being gay is genetic...being a prostitute is not(at least to my knowledge)...
ummmmmm.....
Aside from that little issue, he was a pretty good lecturer, I think... like I said, it was difficult to follow. Most of the answers were hard to follow and I'm not sure of his bias SO...who knows. We have 2 more lecturers on political Islam, so hopefully some clarification will occur soon.
I feel like I should wear a sign over my head that says [Warning]: super feminist gay rights activist walking. or maybe I should not have come to this region of the world.... oh well, too late right?! MUMTAZ! Actually, maybe it'll be good for me to be here, or at least informative so I'm no longer operating under tragic stereotypes because those suck.
Okay, off to sleep soon, hopefully. Exhaustionnnnnn, must start getting to bed before midnight.
Ginny and Megan, gotta love em'
Also- the Egyptians cleaning up and re-planting things in the square after protests is endearing to the nth degree. Well done Egyptians. Well done.
Love until next time!
1 comments:
Not every cab ride can be free. You're spoilt.
<3
Post a Comment