We are in Day 2 of classes and all seems well ... our Arabic teachers (Nermeen, Peter, and Syonara - yes, an Egyptian woman named Syonara!) and Dr. Mo are all very impressed with our students, their enthusiasm, their engagement in the classroom. And our "service folks" (Yasmina and Youssef) are equally impressed with the level of student excitement for our projects with them. After classes today and tomorrow, we will visit the NGOs and the sites where we will be working.
ON A SEPARATE NOTE: "Food prices" ... all of us have been a bit "shocked" by the cost of food in Egypt. Prices have gone up markedly in the past year; and - just as it has done in Europe - the dollar has taken a "dive" here as well. Let's see, who do we "thank" for the US$ being in the dumpster globally? Who do we "thank" for the high cost of food globally, and especially in Egypt, perhaps due in some measure to the astronomical rise in oil prices, which does affect the production and distribution of food? Is this another "legacy" of our own President and his across-the-board failures - in Iraq, the Middle East generally, oil/energy policies, and everything else he's touched? (thus endeth the editorial ...)
BUT - we have found some great deals in the last 24 hours which will help all of our students' pocketbooks. AUC's cafeteria has the best food prices in town! A couple of bucks a day (literally!) will buy us huge meals. Plus, a local grocery store (which most students now frequent) has the best prices in town (Zamalek, where our hotels are). So, we hope this will help everyone manage their budgets better.
3 comments:
I think this sums it all up. This is on my daughter's AIM message:
AMAZING CHEAP FOOD!!!!
Jo-Ann Peshniak
My daughter mentioned that the food is much better. She mentioned in the beginning that she was living on corn flakes & bread!
Thank you Prof. Sullivan for all of your hard work and dedication to this trip.
and thanks to you all as well ... what you hear directly from your children is very helpful to me ... I am an open and accessible person, as is Cynthia, and still we won't always get the "unvarnished truth" ... plus, you will sometimes hear partial stories/views, so somewhere in between it all, we will know what our children (yours as well as my own), my students need.
Also, now that we are in our routine of classes, things are much more settled ... with the caveat that "this is Egypt ... and things are subject to change." :-)
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