Tuesday Night Studying

I am studying Arabic outside a coffee shop when all of a sudden the song Dancing Queen by Abba starts blasting from a cell phone on a table next to me. A 50 year old man answers it with the typical greeting: Salamalekum.

1 hour later: it goes off again!

And later on, one of the waiters looks at me and says اوجع. I look it up 30 seconds later and I learn that he feels my pain.

That's a typical weekday night in Egypt.

The Great Library of Alexandria

It hasn't been around for over a thousand years. But, there's a new library in Alexandria called Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

In all fairness, the new library is awesome. Just check out the pictures, the architecture is awesome. One might say, it's a modern marvel.

But, it's a joke. The library wasn't built as a center for learning and studying. It's a tourist trap. It even has a planetarium connected to it. You can't even bring books into the library. It's not even open past 8 p.m (it closed at 2 p.m during Ramadan). And, anyone who has seriously studied anything knows that the best learning goes on past 2 a.m (But, I'm just asking for a library open until at least 10 p.m).

Huge tour buses are always parked in front of the library and tours go on all day long. There's even a concert hall right next to the library (referred to in my Franki Valli and the ... post). It even has the fastest book publishing machine in the world -- they needed some superlative. 

The new library was a great investment for the Egypt. Not only does it increase tourism, but it also gives pride to the Alexandrian people. Not only is it a tribute to when Egypt was on the top of the world, but it also shows that Egypt can still build wonders.

As a college student, my problem is that this place is not a real library. Sure, it has 3-4 million books, it's very quiet, and there's internet access. But, you can't bring in books, check out books, stay past 8 p.m, or find books critical of the Egyptian government. I've talked with taxi drivers, library employees and a manager about the rule against bringing in books; they all say that there's plenty of books inside the library and I can just read one of those. 

If you're into architecture, come check this library out. Other than that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is just a sub-par library.

I hate to rail on something that people put so much hard work into, but truthfully, all I want to do is go in the library and study.

A New Form of Studying

Going out and drinking every night!

Coffee, juice, and Shisha. (Sorry college kids, alcohol is pretty hard to find). 

Well, Turkish coffee is quite strong. The most popular juice here is Mango juice and that's interesting... full of flavor at least. And then, we have Shisha. It is huge in Alexandria. In Egyptian colloquial, we say "drinking" not "smoking" Shisha (hence, why I included it with the drinks).

And of course, we're speaking Arabic the whole time, so I can say I threw two stones at one bird (or however that goes). 

Edit: This doesn't mean I don't study because I do that a lot. It just means that studying is a 24/7 activity here.