Maria Alexandra Laborde Algarin, a senior at UT, was awarded the Boren Scholarship to study abroad in Egypt for one year. The Boren Scholarship is a highly competitive scholarship for which thousands of students apply.
Q: What made you want to study in Egypt for a year?
A: I have been fascinated with ancient Egyptian culture since I was young.
I remember seeing pictures of pharaohs for the first time and getting obsessed with them. Last year, I found out about the Boren Scholarship that grants up to $20,000 a year to study abroad in exchange for learning a unique language. I applied to study Arabic at the American University in Cairo, and several months later I found out that I won the scholarship.
Q: Has anything about the Egyptian culture shocked you?
A: The main things that shocked me are the different views of Islam, even within the same social class.
For instance, some of my teachers do not wear the hijab or cover their hair or head.
At first I thought they were all Copts (Egyptian Christians), but then they explained to me they were, in fact, Muslims.
When I asked why they didn’t wear the hijab, they said it is not required by Islam!
One was frank enough to tell me that the whole hijab idea came from the gulf countries trying to influence the rest of the Arab World. In the words of my teacher’s husband, ‘They don’t really own land like we Egyptians do, so they treat their women as property.
This is one way for them to show that.’ Then, I went to one of my best Egyptian friends, who also is from high class, and he told me that the hijab is required by the Islam and was offended that someone said differently. I was so shocked at the different perspectives.
Q: What is a typical day like for you?
A: I wake up around 7-8 a.m., eat either fuul (slow-cooked fava beans), taameya (Egyptian version of the falafel) or an egg sandwich in pita bread.
Then I take the bus to school in the middle of the desert, about 50 minutes away from the center of Cairo. I take Arabic classes from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., then stay around three hours in the library studying.
For dinner, I eat kushari, which is like mom’s left-overs all dumped in the same plate, but actually tastes delicious.
I also eat spaghetti with meat or a shawerma sandwich. After dinner, I go to bed. The language program is so intensive that I really don’t have time to do much else during the week.
Q: Have you traveled to a lot of interesting places?
A: I have been to so many places. I went to the Red Sea, The Saqqara Pyramids in Egypt, a cruise down the Nile River and Aswan (a very cool city in Egypt).
I went on a camel safari to the beach in Ras Abu Galum in the Sinai Peninsula, I have toured the oasis of Bahariya, Dakhla, Kharga and the Black and White Deserts.
I have been camel riding in the desert, and I attended all kinds of festivals during Ramadan.
I also went to Hebron, Israel in the West Bank, the second most violent place in that region.
Q: What things were difficult to get used to?
A: The pollution! It’s ridiculous! I got sick for the first two months or so.
It hits everybody differently. Seeing my apartment with a light layer of dust just two hours after cleaning is frustrating to say the least.
I don’t want to remember how it looked when I returned after being gone for five weeks this Christmas!
The double standards and sexual harassment are ridiculous. To me the whole idea of men staring at you is not new.
Puerto Rican men are almost the same. Another thing, and probably the scariest one, is traffic.
People drive crazy! You fear for your life when you attempt to cross the street. I know my mother would die of a heart attack if she saw a video of me crossing the streets in Cairo.
Q: What perceptions do Egyptians have of Americans?
A: It depends. The general idea about foreigners, especially women, is that they are very easy. Many Europeans are known to come here just to have Egyptian lovers, so that has affected the image of all foreign women.
However, the higher the class the more open-minded, understanding and less judgmental they are, as you would expect.
A lot of my Egyptian friends will avoid the topic if I ask them directly how they feel about Americans.
Q: What attitudes do people have about the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
A: Most Egyptians sympathize with the Palestinians, even though most of them, if not all, do not consider themselves Arabs. Many actually dislike Arabs, especially those from the Gulf.
Q: Are there any differences between college students in Egypt and those in the United States?
A: Some friends and I were talking about how most of our Egyptian friends call us too much. Sometimes, I will have eight missed calls in a row in addition to text messages.
They are always asking where you are or who you are with as if they were our boyfriends.
My Egyptian friend Moussa said that is normal in Egypt, and that is why foreigners are told that to keep a friendship with an Egyptian is very draining and hard work because they expect a lot of attention.
However, at the same time, expect to be getting as much attention from them. It is different, but it is fun!
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