Public transportation in Egypt can be a little intimidating, and one of the more “sha3by”* (aka pro/local) ways to travel is via minibus. Minibuses, or mashrou3s, as they are known in Arabic, are little 10-12 passenger vans that constantly are zipping around the city on specific but mysterious routes. They can be flagged down on the road much like a taxi, and are almost always crammed with riders going many different places along the route, so it’s always a mixed bag of who you’ll end up riding next to. I’ve never been able to figure out whether there is some secret way to tell from the outside where the minibus is headed, so I always ask whether they’re going in my direction (my ‘hood for the next few days is Al-Shatby). You pass the driver some money, (it’s less than one Egyptian pound for the average trip, making it one of the cheapest ways to get somewhere quickly) and he’ll fiddle with his wad of cash to pass change back and forth to those who need it. All while navigating the crazy traffic, of course. When you see your street flying by, you can get the driver’s attention by yelling, “ALA GAMB! (to the side!)” and hop out after he swerves across lanes of traffic to the curb.
Tonight I was on my way back from downtown Alex, planning to jam into a cab with some friends going back to an area somewhat near mine, but decided to woman up and take my first solo masrou3a ride! And, success! I was a little nervous because the one I happened to flag was very full, and almost all men. But, everything went off without issue, and I even got to be in charge of slamming the door shut when we picked up new passengers. Hooray!
In other news, I got my class schedule and we have our first day tomorrow!! I have:
Sunday: 9-10:50 Egyptian Colloquial Arabic
Monday: 9-10:50 Modern Standard Arabic
Tuesday: 9-10:50 Egyptian Colloquial
11:30-1:20 Modern Arabic Literature
Wednesday: 9-10:50 Modern Standard Arabic
The rest of the time is free for work at our internships, meetings with language and academic partners, and for our direct enrollment course at Alexandria University, which are yet to be determined. So far, it seems like a great schedule, even if I do have the early morning class every day, boo. It’s been a little weird being here without having any real obligations, so I’m actually kind of excited to be starting classes! I’m sure I will be longing for this break later, but ma3lesh (a great word that Egyptians use all the time, which can be translated along the lines of oh well, or no worries.)
*Note on pronunciation: When Egyptians transliterate words (write them in English the way they sound in Arabic), they use some capital letters and numbers to designate sounds specific to the Arabic language that are not found in English. For example, when I use the number 3 in Arabic transliterated words, you should read it as a sort of A sound deep in your throat, kind of like you’re beginning to choke or vomit (I know that sounds gross, but yes this is a consonant in Arabic). And an apostrophe’ signifies a glottal stop, like what you do in the middle of the word, “uh-oh.”
Agnabiyya 