When we travel to a place, we leave with a certain fantasy about the place in our mind. Whether it be a picturesque landscape that one saw in a travel guide photo, the sound of the music of an artist from that place or a particular scene in a movie, what we were exposed to before travel constitutes our fantasies and expectations for the trip. Just before the trip I had taken one semester of Arabic. I found the language extremely fascinating, and I wanted to see and experience more in depth the culture that the language was living in. So in summer 2019, I went to Egypt for a 7-week intensive Arabic Program at Hedayet Institute located in Maadi, Cairo with the fantasy of learning Egyptian arabic while also exploring Egyptian culture.
I regret to say that I chose a wrong program, as it turned out to not suit my needs and made the overall experience in Egypt rather unpleasant. While I had expected to learn more of colloquial Egyptian dialect in the heart of Cairo, the classes were more focused on Fusha or standard Arabic used in newspapers or in other formal occasions. For the relatively small number of Egyptian dialect classes, the instructor kept digressing in English to talk about her family, and I felt her teaching methods were ineffective for me. Also, the Fusha class I was placed in with a student pursuing a Masterś Degree in Arabic was very challenging for me. I often felt agonized on the nights I realized I cannot finish the assigned workload in any way after giving up excursions and staying at home or a cafe with classmates for the most part of the week. Ironically, the music elective class I chose was too basic that it was hardly intriguing. While I craved an alternative way of learning Arabic in Egypt, I was not sure how to do it with whom. Many times I felt I might learn more from skipping class and having conversations with Egyptian friends (which I did try), but it lacked structure and for the price of the program the option of skipping classes seemed spoiled. The deadlock dropped the morale for learning Arabic and made me question what I had to come to Egypt for.
For a foreigner who is not accustomed to the 'Egyptian ways', some cultural differences were also difficult to understand and feel comfortable in. For one thing, in a city where not a lot of Asian people lived, I became too visible. I cannot recall a day that I was not asked if I were Chinese while walking on the street. Some would ask, 'Chinese or Japanese?', some would ask for a photo together. Some would simply shout out 'Hello!'. Some kids would run to catch a glimpse of me through the window of the metro that was leaving; I remember another group of kids rushing to me and suddenly catching my arms and hands and saying something in Arabic, which surprised me greatly. Although I knew that for many it was an expression of curiosity and there was no evil intentions, the loss of anonymity manifested by new strangers asking to clarify my national identity became very exhausting and frustrating. One night I was also harassed sexually. On one of the first weeks in Egypt, I was walking back alone around 11 pm from a cafe, when a man touched my hips and left with an unapologetic glance and wave of a hand. While the support of the Colgate professors, friends and people I knew in Egypt made me understand the norms in Egypt, the experience left me feeling so alarmed. I remember how I felt when I wanted to explore the city center in my last days in Cairo but decided to stay home instead because I could not brace myself to endure five another 'Chinese?' or be in the state of heightened vigilance.
I want to state clearly that these issues are not particular to Egypt; one can have similar experiences in United States as well and anywhere else in the world. Also, everyone has a different experience in one place and my experience does not predict or represent anyone else´s experience. But because of many factors my experience of Egypt this time was not enjoyable, and it taught me an important lesson that even the most unpleasant experience teaches something about yourself. People often do not share what was bad about their experience, or in general, what they felt was a ´failure´. Yet, looking back on what exactly made oneself feel bad gives an insight on what kind of person one is, in terms of what kind of things one can endure (to which degree). I did not like the crowdedness and pollution of Cairo and lack of anonymity. I believe that this taught me where (or in which type of environment) I feel happier, which will help me when choosing a place to live in in the future. Also, time in Cairo gave me more questions to wrestle with than lucid answers. I began to think about the different sensitivity towards what is considered microaggression or racism in different countries and wonder what would be the wisest way to answer those questions on the streets in the Egyptian context. I wondered if my Egyptian dialect teacher was an ´archetypical´ teacher in Egypt and how Egyptian public education system looked like. In a more general context, I noticed that many Egyptians were overweight and wondered why it was so. And why were there so many (seemingly) unfinished buildings with bricks on the top? How difficult was Egypt´s economy for there to be a vendor (from an elementary school kid to a woman in burka or a man with a cane) in every metro compartment? Why did I get so many stomach issues and why were there so many pharmacies on the streets? Small, trivial details caught my attention which led me to do more research after coming back.
When we travel to a place, we leave with a certain fantasy about the place in our mind. Then we encounter and experience what we did not expect, and we come back as a slightly different person that we did not foresee. Egypt last summer was tough for me but I am glad I was still able to draw some lessons out of it. I would love to visit Egypt again, then as a tourist, and visit different places of Egypt that I could not afford to go to. Egypt is a big country and I regret not having been able to visited the magnificent beaches in the Sinai and Red Sea area. For now, the memories of the savory Egyptian food -- mahshi, shawarma, kofta, ful, hummus with bread, duck meat, om ali and all kinds of fruit juice that I loved -- and the hospitality of so many Egyptians I met (from the custodian who let me stay in the mosque and draw it during the prayer hours to friends who helped me with Arabic homework out of kindness) and the beautiful sound of Quran prayers which was broadcasted everyday along the setting sun would suffice to keep me happy when remembering Egypt.
