Who Needs Sleep?

So it is actually only 1:00am -- which isn't too late at all but I should be in some subconscious dreamland rather than sitting here in the dark full of energy and excitement.

Tonight was my last class to teach -- now I just have their exam on Thursday. It is really quite sad, actually, because I love teaching. Today an Egyptian girl studying to become a teacher observed my class and said she really enjoyed it. She wanted to make sure it was alright to e-mail me with her questions. I reminded her that I really have no idea what I am doing. The whole coversation was pretty edifying and if I relayed the conversation here it would only be for my ego so I will refrain.

Come 9:30 I couldn't seem to get my students to leave. It was 9:35 when I said "don't you want to go home? see your families? eat dinner? anyone?" Still I was there for another ten minutes (which I really don't mind at all, I just don't understand) answering questions and making photocopies. Downstairs at the copy machine I could see in Jake's classroom where his students had completely bombarded him as well.

Post we had the usual discussion of ideas for dinner. My earlier attempt at cooking (potato, tomato, egg white, & feta) turned into a pitiful attempt at sustenance which Jake cited as "peasant food." He settled on schwarma and I was going to get a Double Cheeseburger (plain, of course) and a yogurt from the grocery store.

As soon as I opened the door to McDonalds I saw two of my students (and they saw me) and we smiled. The two sisters sit in the front and smile every time we make eye contact. The girls are lovely, and funny -- today I gave them a vocabulary list to see which words they were unsure of and it only took two minutes before one raised her hand and declared that she could not share with her sister -- "She is so selfish!" They are also two of the girls who asked me to teach them next level -- I hate being their teacher only because they are the type of girls I would hang out with at home and the teacher/student relationship is an awkward one to trample on.

They invited me to eat with them, so I dissed my plan of yogurt and got french fries instead. While the situation had awkward written all over it, I didn't feel so at all and my fries went cold from talking (granted, whether or not they felt awkward is a different story). We giggled like girls through most of dinner and I wish I could just give them their exam so I could hang out with them already with out the teacher-comes-with-baggage-feeling.

I found out a lot about their life; things I wouldn't expect. They are also two of the very few Egyptian girls I have gotten to actually talk to, so I found my education coming alive while they told me facts about Egypt and Islam that I had long since read in a text book or article somewhere.

They actually have relatives in North Carolina and have been trying to get their visas worked out to come work with their family in the States. Inshallah they will come visit soon.

We of course also had the food discussion, because in the beginning all I ate was McDonalds and my students know it. They said that I must like McDonalds very much -- so then I explained my situation when it comes to consumption in Egypt: either I don't like it or my stomach can't handle it.

I came back to my apartment thrilled and still giggling over seeing them there -- only wishing I had someone to share my excitement with. I think that is why I am so restless now -- either that or my body is finally going into shock over all the fast food I have eaten.

Tomorrow I get to grade papers and make an exam all day.... and yet there is something strangely satisfying about that thought.