I am wondering whether I want too much out of life, or if I am just not organized enough to do all the things I want to do. I am here in Alexandria to crack the Arabic language. I see Arabic as a code. Once you have learned the alphabet you can decipher it bit by bit. It has been a long road, I can tell you and I still got some way to go. My aim is to return to the UK speaking Fus-ha- Modern Standard Arabic- fluently. That is an ambitious goal. Is it too ambitious? Life is about a lot more than learning Arabic and I try the make good use of my time here. I want to keep up with my writing and I want to stay active. In London I used to cycle almost every day and I do miss it. I want to join a gym and practice yoga which I can do at home. Until last week I practiced yoga at least four times a week. I haven’t done anything for the last 10 days and I have yet to join the gym. I also work from home for two London based companies, which takes an average of 15 hours a week of my time. Despite being the Queen of Egypt, I don’t have a housekeeper, so I also have to go grocery shopping, clean and do the laundry. And then there are the social and cultural activities. I am in a foreign country after all and I feel obliged to take excursions to other exotic places and mingle with my fellow and sister students, who are all good people. Now, I could have a strict schedule in which my activities and duties are set out by the minute. But what is the fun in that? I am split between my head strong little self –it has been done by others so I can do it too- and my more relaxed/ lazier/ less-confident self. This more relaxed self doesn’t mind admitting she is not Wonder Woman and as a lesser mortal, she just wants to enjoy the ride. Can’t I be Wonder Woman enjoying the ride?
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Dark Fairy Adventures 
While reading this post I couldn’t help thinking that your “life” sounds kind of similar to someone I know. Well, actually my mum. My mum is a German who studied in London at SOAS Arabic, she lived in Alexandria for 10 months to learn the arabic language. Well, to encourage you my mum speaks arabic fluently both fusha and the local. She know works as a translator for an embassy.
She actually lives now in Bahrian in the persian gulf, and is married to an arab, my father. But the people from the gulf say that the Egyptians messed up the arabic language and I bet the Egyptians say that about the gulf region.
I bet you miss London, I just moved here to go to uni and I love it 🙂
Hi Mariam
Thank you for your comment. Your mum probably did the same/ similar course as a few of my fellow and sisters students from SOAS. Of course I don’t know how proficient your mum was in Arabic before she came to Alex but if it is more or less on the same level as my Arabic (two years) it is definitely an encouragement.
I haven’t hear any arguments on who ‘corrupted’ the Arabic language. Fact is that the Egyptians are very proud of their colloquial which to me is like learning a new language.
I am glad you like London. It is an amazing city. I don’t miss it (just yet). I haven’t been here that long and I will be back next summer, insha allah. I do miss the big city a bit. Alex is quite provencial but if I were in Cairo I probably would get to distracted of all the suff there is to do!
Woah pretty lady! Breathe! Consider all the things you’ve just listed, see if there are any that you could drop (from the looks of it, no, but there might be things there that, on second viewing, might not be That Important after all…) then take a deep breath and enjoy them! Most of that sounds like a hell of a good time to me, so stop looking at them as chores.
(yes, even the cleaning and the groceries, personally I find cleaning very therapeutic in a meditational moment of zen kind of way -plus if you do it thoroughly it’s also a bit of a work out, bonus! and a chance to sing along at full volume to your favorite songs, more bonus!- and shopping abroad is ALWAYS fun, even if it is for lamo daily groceries)
The trick is to keep breathing… 😉
Hi Miekje
Indeed I could drop something from my list (like cleaning the flat ) but tthat would not be good for hygienic or other reasons 😉 and I think I just don’t want to. If I won’t do it now when will I ever do it?
I very much like the idea of not seeing these activiteis as chores. If I can’t/ refuse to change the circumstances I can change my attitude towards them. I am gonna try the cleaning-as therapy right this weekend.
Thanks and hope your well
X
Breath! You don’t have to do all of that right NOW!
I didn’t get the hang of getting all I wanted out of my London experience in my first few months either. Finding a balance between the demands of my MA and exploring London while real life raced by wasn’t easy. There were exhibitions and plays I missed because I was still trying to find my way around the various libraries. Equally, there were essays I’m still not happy with because I am the queen of procrastination and found far too many too exciting things to do. Even going for a weekly drink after our friday class wasn’t established until the end of the first term!
Of course I’m not a good example as I came to London for a year and I’m still here :p
Hallo Belgje
I am still breathing, thanks.
The ‘good’ thing is that compared to London there is (culturally) far less to do in Alex. And the ‘bad’ thing is that everything is relatively cheap (like having breakfast in the Four Seasons or going to Dahab for a few days) so you ‘have’ to do them. It is also not very likely that I’ll be staying for more than a year since I want to finish my course (in London). But let’s give myself a few weeks/months more to get into the groove.
🙂