International Practise Your Arabic With Old People Week

Last week we had tests at school, so most of the time was spent catching up on school work. After our last test on Thursday, we went to visit a neighbour on the floor below us, a sweet old lady who always peaks out of her door when we walk past and who always tries to invite us in, but this was the first time we’ve actually been able to take her up on her invitation. Her family came around as well and we were served cookies and cakes and were chatting to them for a few hours – very nice and very good Arabic practice. I was particularly pleased as I earlier in the week felt like I couldn’t speak any Arabic at all, so it was great discovering that that is actually not the case.

I have been wanting to do some volunteer work, in order to do something meaningful with my time at the same time as meeting new people and practising my Arabic. A girl working at school put me in contact with Rotaract Cosmopolitan, one of Rotary's youth clubs in Alexandria. Saturday three girls from Cosmopolitan were gonna visit an old people's shelter, and I decided to join them.We were just sitting there talking to the old people for an hour or so, but they seemed to enjoy it, and so did I. One of the perks of being such a strange creature - that is, an Arabic student from some place no one's ever heard of far up north in the world - is that it's impossible to run out of conversation topics as people's curiosity is endless. 

Afterwards I went for lunch with the girls from Cosmopolitan, and another girl from the group also joined us. I had a very good time with them and am eager to get to know them more and take part in more of their activities. It seems to be a very diverse group: among the girls I met that day both Armenian Christians, Copts and Muslims were represented.

The next day Chiara and I went to the Alexandria National Museum, which is only five minutes away from our home. It is a pretty small museum, and in a couple of hours we saw everything. I do quite like that though - big museums stress me out a bit as I like to see everything and see it properly as well. It was definitely worth the visit! There is one floor dedicated to the Pharaonic Period, one to the Greco-Roman Period and one to Islamic and Coptic Egypt. Everything was great, and I especially found the Pharaonic section fascinating. There were so many beautiful old artifacts: incredible statues and offering tables and amazing sarcophagi. Last year Chiara did a course on hieroglyphs, so she could read some of the inscriptions, which I found really cool. Another must-see in the museum was a silver shield from the Islamic Era, it had such detailed and beautiful engravings that I could hardly believe it. Unfortunately this is the sort of place where you can't take pictures, and words really can't describe these things, so I suggest you come see for yourself!

I and Chiara outside of the museum

It has been quite a good week, but still, for some reason, I've been sad a lot. I've really been missing my mum, who died five years ago. Some days I just wake up and it hits me what her being dead actually means - it's such a hard concept to grasp. I guess the last week has been full of such days. Oh well, such is life. At least I got to share 15 years with my awesome mum.