Having lived in London I’m used to a bit of classism although it was something getting used to coming from Lowlands country where people are much less class aware. But being in Egypt I have to get used to it all over again it seems. Here it seems normal not to treat common folk with... Continue Reading →
Gold in Beautiful Dry Lands
Arriving in the Sinai after an overnight trip from fertile, cloudy, autumn-like Alexandria is like arriving on a moon where the sun always shines. Funnily enough I slept like a baby on the bus - I normally don’t tend to sleep well on overnight journeys- and woke up a few minutes before we were due to arrive... Continue Reading →
Gold in Bone dry Lands
I have never been to Dubai. I would like to visit it but I don't think I would like it. I imagine that I would find it artificial and the weather too hot to be healthy. One of our sister students Dee is British and grew up in Dubai. She doesn't particularly like the UK... Continue Reading →
How to go about Californication and other naughtiness
If you’re from the Lowlands or London censorship is a very alien concept. I don’t watch a lot of telly, but I love films and now and again Anna and I watch a film or two on a lazy evening on MBC which is a satellite channel . The films are broadcast in the original... Continue Reading →
Do Mingle
I wonder what life would be like if you’re used to a separation of the sexes, if you don’t really socialize with members of the opposite sex unless they are close family, which is quite normal in the Arabic world. I wonder how you would perceive men (when you’re a woman). What makes them different... Continue Reading →
Sister is doing it for herself?
There are probably just as many pre-assumptions made on Arab women in the West as there are prejudices on Western women in the Arab world. Arabs very much like to change western prejudice on Arab women. I studied several text on this matter at uni in London and Egyptians are very keen to point out... Continue Reading →
Cracking the Code
A few days ago I'd seen the light, I felt the force, I had an epiphany. I would not say that Arabic is a difficult language to learn. I would say that Arabic was 'invented' to discourage the non-native speaker as much as possible from learning it. If one wants to learn or master Arabic... Continue Reading →
The Wall and Ageing
There comes a certain time in ones life when one starts realizing that one is ageing. A few days ago it really hit me. This month it is exactly 20 years ago when the Berlin Wall fell, an event of which I did not understand the implications but which I vividly remember, and here I am studying... Continue Reading →
Dark Fairy Adventures 