In Alexandria

So far, I've lost two posts because I lose connection so I'm going to try and publish this now and see if it goes and then I'll edit it if it does.

It went!  But I think I need to keep the edit short.  I'm writing in the computer lab of the TEFL International apartment block in Alexandria in Egypt.  This seems to be the gathering point for everyone who is enrolled in the course as I am or who work here in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language).  Most of the people who are enrolled are young American men and many are computer savvy and experienced travelers.   I have just been talking with a young Englishman who is trying to travel through Libya after the course as I plan to do.  But he is trying to do it without having to get a local travel agent to invite him and arrange his visa.  So he is bravely trying to negotiate the Egyptian bureaucracy in Cairo.  Getting my visa was complex enough doing it through a Libyan travel agent that I contacted via the web from Australia but I would find it very daunting to try and do it from Egypt without a Libyan invitation.  

We will have our orientation at the college campus this evening at seven.  

This was one of the posts that went missing when I tried to add to it from the wireless lab at the apartments so I'm continuing this from the ethernet labs in at the college campus.  I can't believe now that the orientation was only one week ago.  We have all crammed so much into this first week from phonology, to learning some arabic, to grammar, to teaching techniques, to learning some Swahili.  Not to mention trying to work out customs and appropriate behaviour.  At first I thought it was going to be impossible for me to go outside the apartments on my own but I have been experimenting with small excursions like to the local supermarket or the main shopping street and have discovered that if I just get on with things, mostly people ignore me or just want to acknowledge me.  I am still very cautious and anxious about appropriate ways to show respect but I no longer feel trapped in the domestic sphere!  I know I would have become very grumpy if I wasn't able to go off on my own from time to time.

The photos I am adding to the posts were taken on our daily bus ride into the college or on my lunchtime walks along the corniche which is the front or esplanade on the mediterranean that people may be familiar with from postcard pictures of Alex.  I'll add one here taken on our first bus ride to the orientation.