Hello, Blogosphere old friend!

I got a lovely email from my father today, in which he gently reminded me that I have been neglecting my poor blog for some time now. Too true, padre. So here I am, to update the world on all the going’s-on of the past week.

For the most part there hasn’t been too much to report. After much running around and groaning and planning and replanning my schedule finally ended up exactly how I wanted it, which is a miracle and a half. The final line-up (drumroll, please): that Islamist Movements class that I had been so excited about, in addition to Economics of Developing Nations, International Organizations, Comparative Politics, and a 3-credit Arabic class, as opposed to the 6-credit beast I had originally planned on taking. I sighed a little sigh to let it go, but it means that I can now take all the classes I need to take, and will even graduate on time when I return home.

And that was just a little too sweet to pass up.

My classes contain mostly Egyptians, which lends a very interesting perspective to the discussions. I’m always a little self-conscious about being from Big Bad America (we pretty much screwed the entire world with our irresponsible financial scheming), but everyone has been very nice about it so far. There was one girl who was convinced we live in a Communist-China-esque state of isolationism and censorship (“They just feed them information!” she proclaimed passionately in our International Organizations class), but we explained to her that we do actually have internet access, and that not everyone subscribes blindly to Fox News, so hopefully this rather unflattering idea has been duly corrected.

Everyone on campus has been very friendly and I’ve had a great time meeting new friends. I had hoped to make lots of Egyptian friends and expected to make many American ones, but a large number of my recent acquaintances are coming from somewhere entirely unexpected:

Norway!

There are a small number of Norwegians on campus – nine, I believe? or 11? something around there – and at this point I’ve met just about all of them. How did I get adopted into the Norwegian camp, you ask? Well it’s all because of my Islamist Movements class, really. The first day, I left class with this nice blond girl who had been sitting in the same row as me. I had noticed her because – actually – I thought that she might be Norwegian, and I love Norwegians! When I was in Tunisia one of my sisters was an exchange student from Norway, and this girl in class had that certain Norwegian look to her, just like Stine (my sister) had. So imagine my delight when I found out she actually WAS from Norway!

Anyway, her name is Trude (pronounced Trrrrruda) and she’s absolutely lovely, and really very fascinating. She worked in Lebanon for a time as a Red Cross aid worker and is studying at AUC for (I believe) two and a half years, insha allah. She’s taught me all sorts of things about Norway – about the government, the economy, the history, the geography – and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s just about the best little country in the whole wide world. I’ve fallen in love! I think I’ll be applying for my citizenship before the year’s up.

I’m terribly nervous now though, because tonight is the election for the new Prime Minister and parliament. We’re rooting for the incumbents, the Red party, which is the Socialist party and the current majority. Their opponents, the Blue party, have been putting up a fierce fight though. But we don’t like them. The Blue party wants to cut off immigration, do away with the government agency that distributed loans to college students, and – worse of all! – they want to take money from the National Fund!

[The National Fund is an account where the Norwegian government has deposited billions in profit from their oil sales. This way, when the oil runs out and Norway loses its main source of income, the economy won’t collapse. Future Norwegians will have this money saved up so that they can still survive even without oil. Ridiculously progressive, eh? I wish MY country thought a little more like that…]

The Blue Party also has a reputation for being homophobic, racist, and prejudice in general, so we REALLY don’t like them. Election results are supposed to come out at 1 am, and I can’t wait to see who wins! I’ve instructed Trude to call me or text me so I know what happens.

So yeah. That’s me becoming Norwegian.

Now, I unfortunately have something unpleasant to document. I don’t like to dwell on negatives but I feel like it needs to be included. Basically, the unpleasant thing is this: I had my first experience with sexual harassment today.

Like every other woman who ever travels to the Middle East, I of course heard all the horror stories and received all the warnings before I came. However, up until now I really haven’t had much of a problem. The fact of the matter is, though, that Cory arrived on his visit just a few days after I moved in, and stayed for over a week, and I think it’s truer than I realized that men won’t touch a woman if she’s with another man. Now that I’m by myself I guess I’m fair game.

Either way, I was walking to the bus, probably a ten minute walk along fairly busy roads. I do this walk every day, no big deal. It was around 9:30 in the morning. I was walking behind this kid who looked to be about 15 years old – tall and gangly and scrawny, a pretty unfortunate looking child. So I’m walking pretty fast, and as I’m getting closer to him I see him turn around and look at me and then sort of slow down and drop behind me as I pass him. And I’m walking by, when all of a sudden I feel his hand between my legs.

I’m not talking a friendly swat on the bum. I mean, between.

And when I look back, absolutely horrified, he’s already walking away – and he blows me a kiss.

I could have killed him. I swear to God, I could have. If I hadn’t been so shocked I honestly think I would have punched him then and there, in the middle of the road in Maadi. How dare some punk ass little 15-year-old do that to any woman?! And in the middle of the street, in broad daylight! It was absolutely disgusting.

The most frustrating part of this whole experience, though, is that there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about it. The gender relations in this country are sickening. This is what you get when young men and women aren’t allowed to interact naturally with each other. The two sexes don’t understand each other at all, and thus the men behave like 10-year-olds.

Autumn and I were on the train the other night, and these two boys, probably around 16 or 17, were standing two feet away from us, openly staring and giggling like schoolgirls behind their hands. They would stare – whisper whisper – and giggle madly. It wasn’t funny though, is the thing – it’s not like it had some endearing, innocent quality to it. Their behavior and attitudes were blatantly inappropriate and sexually-charged. But it’s because of all the sexual repression that they behave like that!

It’s never good to generalize though. The majority of the young men I’ve met here have been wonderful, and in my three weeks this is the first problem I’ve had.

It’s just too bad there had to be a problem in the first place.

So that was undeniably unfortunate. Other than that everything has been going well though. It’s far too hot, which is another reason that I think I’ll have to move to Norway when I’m done with my stint here. I need to not sweat for a while.

An exciting thing: only three more days til our Eid break! We’ve got some five or six days off, and we’re determined to use them well, though we’re not quite sure of our plans yet. But it’ll be grand!

And insha allah, will not involve any groping.