This weekend was fun. Thursday after class we traveled en masse to the village of our Arabic teachers' boss. Met his family, helped (uh, questionably) them make fteer for all of us. Which was delicious. Saw lots of little kids running everywhere. Had them tell us the Arabic names of the animals that were wandering around, that I've now forgotten. Picked strawberries and mulberries and you know, rejoiced in a life of simplicity away from the noise and anger of Cairo proper. (That last statement was kind of tongue in cheek, dunno how well tone gets conveyed here—don't want to exoticize/simplify/excessively valorize/etc. rural life, but it was a nice change of pace.)
Friday we went to the Ahly–Zamalek football/soccer game. We were Ahly fans, and wore red and got our faces painted appropriately to show it. We sat in first class with like, a super clear view of everything. Right by the field. Also a super clear view of the helmeted-and-masked policemen surrounding it. And of the less intense policemen who protected us Amurricans as we entered and left the stadium.
I don't know anything about soccer but it was super intense, was tied 2-2 for a while, Zamalek scored again real close to the end, we left to beat traffic, as we were walking out we heard the cheers etc surrounding another Ahly goal. Woo. So it was tied. And I guess you're allowed to leave it tied, apparently. So yay, or something.
Saturday I went to Khan al-Khalili again. Probably the coolest place in Cairo haha. Bought a sweet looking dagger with the shahada inscribed in the scabbard. I'm kiiiiind of a Muslim terrorist. It happens. I also really want to buy an oud but I don't know how much that would cost / how feasible that is. Hm.
Anyway yeah weekend. Ho hum classes now. Islam and Politics midterm today. As usual I'm terrible at that. Wrote the long essay and time was up. Oops. Didn't get around to the short essay. So I guess uhhh we'll see how that goes.
Speaking of Islam and Politics, we have a term paper due coming up prettttty quickly. I want to write about the idea of fitna, I think. Something about the relation between women's bodies and political bodies it creates, between chaos and seduction, and the impact this has on the creation of a feminist Muslim imaginary.
Or at least, I thought it sounded like a good idea. I asked my professor if she could like, point me in the right direction and give me some resources to start out with, though, and she was just like ... uh, no, maybe try emailing this other person? So I did, but she hasn't responded yet. Rawr. I will be grumpy if I have to change my topic. This idea makes sense, darn it! ...Right? If you are reading this and can help me out PLEASE DO. I will be eternally grateful.
Ha. Okay that's it for now. Later!
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