The Madness Begins

The last two weeks have brought a sense of the reality that will be my semester, a reality filled with too much intellectual stimulation, too many challenging cultural interactions, and far too much fun. I've been hit with the reality that I will be extremely busy the rest of this semester while being thoroughly challenged in a variety of ways.

Classes have started and we've just begun to scratch the surface. I have Arabic class four days a week, and it's actually really fun. Arabic is obviously an extremely challenging language, but we have been taking it pretty slowly and we have a good teacher. It's also exciting to be able to learn the language of the people around us and be able to say more than "hello," "good bye," and "How are you doing?" to them. Although we haven't moved much passed that, we are moving slowly.

The other classes I'm taking are making me more excited to learn than I probably ever have in my entire life. The first day of my Islam class I spend the afternoon touring ancient Mosques which displayed the changes and history in Mosque Architecture. It's not everday one gets to learn about Islam from a practicing Muslim, in a place rich in Muslim history, while visiting ancient Muslim places of worship. I heard a lecture on the 5 pillars of Islam in an Iwan of a Mosque built in the 13th century, it was an incredibly surreal experience.

My other classes are just as interesting as we get speakers from different vocations and walks of life to speak to us on different subjects concerning Egypt and it's political situation. This way of education is so much more raw and real than anything I have experienced in my educational career. It's a completely different way of looking at things and is challenging in many different ways. The speakers often have very different ways of looking at the world and I nearly always have more questions and greater challenges to deal with. To quote one of speakers, "When I get done I will will have just as many questions, but these questions will be on a much higher level." I already am feeling my perpectives being stretched and the challenge of stepping outside of my own western perspective. I'm striving to understand more about myself and the way the people here precieve others, themselves, and truth.

Keep me in your prayers!

Jonathan