It's Trigonometry ... There's Nothing Obscene about Trig

Well, the routine has been set.  There are times when it results in far less sleep than I would like (and enough illness that I haven't been around much lately), but my teaching life has become somewhat predictable.

What's wrong with this?

Overall, Heritage did a fairly good job of preparing us to deal with our students.  We learned many of the do's and don't's of living in Egyptian society ... and they have helped a ton.  Not that I would ever refer to my students using an animal reference, but there are colloquial phrases that might have been uttered ... and these are seen as grave insults in Egyptian culture.

Similarly, never show the soles of your shoes to someone as it implies that they are worth what's stuck to the bottom of them.  Given the collection of refuse on the streets, I can see how this might be extremely offensive.  But ... what could possibly be wrong with trigonometry?  Seriously?

The unit circle is our friend too.

Well, for those who haven't heard about my teaching style, it's rare that I will resort to the pedagogy that I enjoyed as a high school student.  I have an intense dislike of drill work so my students will rarely get a list of 50 repetitious questions to do the next day.  I'm also not a huge fan of rote memorization of formulae - if it can be developed, discovered or learned in any other way, I'll always encourage my students in that direction.  Add my liberal arts background, and I'll throw anything I can at my students from any discipline I can think of to ensure that they find a different way of seeing things.

Well, in trigonometry, there are a group of "special" triangles.  Usually, these angles (30º, 45º, 60º) are taught as another set of rote formulae.  So when I learned about the trigonometry hand, I was immediately a huge fan.

My version's better

Without going into extensive details, point your baby finger horizontally, point your thumb vertically, and your fingers will naturally point towards 30, 45 and 60 degrees.  Even more exciting, if you fold over the finger of the angle you want to work with, by counting the fingers above and below that finger, you can find the sine and cosine.  Many of you may not be terribly excited, but I can assure you that the math and physics teachers out there are gushing with excitement once they learn this

So I'm in front of my class, showing them this for the first time, and I fold over the 30º finger and ask them what the sine and cosine are of 30º.  Since one of the girls in my class missed a significant amount of school, I folded over my 45º finger and asked her what that meant.  Well, she became very silent and looked down.  A few of the guys in the class started to giggle a bit ... and I knew that something was amiss.  Well, picture the middle finger's connotations in North American society, and add some parental nuances ... Once I realized what I had done ... I was slightly mortified and couldn't apologize enough.

Aside from these very rare moments, I'm having a great time with my classes.  Oh, they have good days and bad days, but overall, they're an awesome group.  The hour bus ride to and from school has become my marking time and I'm hoping that I can finally start the habit of getting most of my lessons planned for the week on the weekend.  I finally learned the lesson that 4.5 hours sleep only does you for so long.  It took a week of stomach issues transitioning into a week of cold/flu issues for me to learn the lesson, but I did actually get some rest time towards the end of last week, so life is at least a lot more rested.  I also purchased a new course to help learn colloquial Arabic ... and this one doesn't seem to require an Arabic teacher.  Plus, I try to find a way to learn a word or phrase per day from one of my classes.

Well, paperwork is caught up so it's time for a quick nap before I start prepping my classes for next week.  12 smartboard presentations, 12 accompanying worksheets, some pencasts, and a few quizzes ... and I'm ready for the week.  Although I have a snowball's chance of completing all that tomorrow, I'm finally healthy enough that I can knock off half of that on a Saturday.  It's going to be a great week :)

I was going to pack my sense of humour but there was a 2 bag limit

I would have got away with it too, if it wasn't ...

Usually, I can find the right euphemism along with a positive spin to minimize frustrations.  When I can’t find those tools in my back pocket, expressing myself through a liberal use of double negatives usually helps to moderate my level of angst.  Tonight, my tank was empty and I barely avoided screaming some form of profanity at the top of my lungs.  Although I would be using a different language, the thoughts of trying to educate my neighbours on the meaning of Fuddle Duddle and the associated explanations of Trudeaumania wouldn’t help moderate my urge to yell “jinkies.”

I imagine that these days of futility are just part of the settling / culture shock process; but for now, all I can do is remember that tomorrow is another day ... and with each new day I get a step closer to acceptance and a cozy place that I can call home.  Unfortunately, the path to acclimatization is sometimes paved with shattered expectations.

I’ll pick things up at the middle of the day.  I’d arrived home an hour and a half late from school (30 mins traffic delay, 60 mins the bus’ decision to depart later) and learned that I couldn’t arrange wifi again.  This time, the phone company was open; but due to the problems with my landline, I couldn’t get the process going.  Given that Egypt Telecom is only open 8 to 4 ... and I leave at 6:30 and get home at 4, I’m not sure when I can deal with my land line issues again.  Without a landline, there’s no way to get wifi ... and in the spirit of in sha’allah, who knows when the technician will actually show up.  After a brief shopping trip, I arrive home around 5:30 to discover that my USB internet is down again.  I would have spent longer than 2 hours trying to get my connection working, but the power went out for an extended period of time.  While I wandered around with my cell phone (as my only source of light), I realized that I hadn’t eaten since 7:30am and it was probably time for dinner.  I left my apartment, tried to get back in (while in the dark), and realized that my door would no longer open despite the keys being in my hand.  15 minutes of try to open, re-lock, try to re-open, relock ... frustration led to a call to our VP.  By about 9:30, he was able to arrange for someone to come over and get a locksmith to get me back into my apartment.  I’m now on lock number 3 and I’m hoping that my door issues are done for a while.

Well, to add insult to injury, I found a brief spurt of foolish optimism so I figured I’d call technical support to see if they could help with my USB internet issue.  He gave me a 5 minute process to complete and advised that he’d call back in 10 minutes.  After having waited an hour, I called back and got some text message replies in Arabic (without me being able to talk to anyone).  I’m guessing that the shift ended somewhere between 10:30 and 10:45 ... so Microsoft word is my blogging platform for the night (yes, this was backdated).

I'll be raiding neighbourhood gardens for this

Overall, I can only look back on one event from the latter part of this evening and find a modicum of hope.  I couldn’t do my lesson planning, nor could I do any of my other paperwork to prepare for my students first class on Wednesday (and yes, this means that my 6 hours spent at school instead of enjoying the holiday only allowed me to tread water).  During my moment of frustration when I finally realized I could not get into my apartment, I went down stairs and placed the call to my VP for help.  Once that call was done, and I started the waiting process for someone to look at my door.  Although we have significant difficulties communicating, the doorman must have read my facial expression and realized that I was surfing the continuum between frustration and futility.  While I sat on the steps, he brought me out a cup of hyacinth tea.  During these days when I’m a little too myopic to see that light at the end of the tunnel, these moments are the ones that will get me through it.  (addendum:  as I said to many people today, even when Egypt doesn't seem to love me, I still love the people here).

Finding some semblance of comfort

The school feels vaguely movie-like - at times I'm Clueless

After a little over a week of trips to and from here, I'm starting to feel a little more grounded.  Oh, I still have my Alicia Silverstone moments while there, but I'm feeling vastly better than I did 10 days ago.  My classroom is coming together, and along with an extra day of work time (Sunday wouldn't have felt like Labour Day anyways), I'll be at the point where I can say enough.

Yup, palm trees in the courtyard.

Getting ready for class has been a relatively all-consuming endeavour for the past week.  A large part of my workload has been developing and arranging all of those things that I never anticipated would need to be considered.  What's my late policy?  How will I deal with classroom management issues?  I assure you that this isn't going to devolve into one of those "teachers are underpaid because nobody knows all the things we do..." soapbox sessions, but I never really realized how much goes on behind the scenes.  Even having done my three practica during teachers' college didn't really prepare me for this.  But, given that today was payday, I shan't dwell on the negatives for too long.

6th of October City

During the trip home today, I was looking out of the window and realized that surprisingly enough, Cairo is starting to feel like home.  Oh, it's a little bit lonely at times, and my list of valuable phrases has only increased from about 5 to 15, but I'm at that point where sights are starting to seem familiar.  I'm no longer shocked by the pedestrians that cross the highway in the morning; although they are helped by the speed bumps in the highway (Giza's way of trying to encourage drivers to maintain a speed of 60 km/h), I still don't see myself trying that crossing anytime soon.  I've actually started to internalize the sensations felt during the drive so I can slip in and out of consciousness on the way home and wake up when we exit the highway at Maadi.  I'm even starting to recognize some of the strays in my neighbourhood.

In case anyone is considering visiting me, my current list of valuable words/phrases is:
Sah-baht  al  Care ... Good morning                             Mah-sah  al  Care      ... good evening
beh-kom  dah       ... How much is this                          Mah-ah-sah-lah-mah ... goodbye
Lao  Sah-maht      ... Please                                          Fa- heem                  ... I understand
Mish  Fa-heem     ... I don't understand                         Shh-mel                    ... left
Share-ah  meh-teen  Cam-sa - sab-bah-een ... Road 275
Yeah-mean           ... Right                                            ah  lah  tool               ... straight ahead
Yell-ah                  ... Let's go (thank you True Lies)     in shah-al-lah            ... "if god wills it"

As I'm sure you can imagine, I rely heavily on Mish fa-heem right now.  I'm sure there will be others that I thoroughly enjoy, but in shah-al-lah has to be my favourite.  Although there are theological overtones of fatalistic beliefs ... that isn't the true meaning in practical use.  The first usage is ... I've got a two o'clock appointment and I'm running behind and traffic is hell ... I will arrive there in shah-al-lah (ie  at some unknown later time).  When I return to Canada, and Shannon asks me when I want to go to Red Lobster, I will definitely employ the second usage.  Given that underwater cockroaches (lobster, shrimp) are my least favourite meal, in this case it means something like "if god wills it, I'll go there but don't expect that I will unless fate compels me."  In effect, it's a very polite euphemism for never.

Just a couple of quick vignettes from tonight and I'm done.  I decided that I'd walk to a new wireless store to get my data topped up, and couldn't find where it was located.  Oh, I'd drawn myself a sketch of my route ... but street signs don't exist here (that I've seen), and I soon realized that I was within a couple of blocks but couldn't find the store.  After walking up and down what I believed to be road 216, I knew that it was time to ask for directions.  So I wandered in to the closest grocery store and was thrilled to find that they had my favourite pop.  If I haven't mentioned it, most of the pop over here is either Coke, Pepsi or fruit based ... and my favourite has to be Schweppes Gold Pineapple pop.  Well, I asked the cashier and he wasn't too sure.  The moment that I pulled my map out to try to figure out where I was, someone else in the store came over and tried to help me.  When he couldn't, he walked out to the street and found someone who knew where the store was and made sure that I knew where I was going.  Although I didn't understand the directions, as he kept saying "momen", I wandered where he was pointing, and found the store beside a coffee shop named "Mo'Men."  When I say the service is excellent here, I mean it.  The moment you're lost or confused, people always go out of their way to help.

My second event during my walk tonight occurred at my favourite stationery store, Samir and Ali.  I'm sure it's a standard practice, but once you find somewhere that you feel comfortable (when you're not familiar with the area), you automatically head to that store or location no matter what.  There's a pharmacist right beside my building, but I always walk 10 minutes to the Grand Mall despite the limited selection because he understood my drawing of bandaids.  Similarly, I buy my water from one store (by Grand Mall) and my bread from another store (especially since I just found marmalade there) - even though both stores sell both items.  Well, I was at Samir and Ali tonight getting some school supplies and happened to run into one of the managers there.  When he found out that I was a teacher, he invited me in to his office and we chatted for about 30 minutes about politics, religion ... and he translated some additional phrases for me.  (Please note that I would never broach one of these subjects myself, but was happy to discuss them once he started the conversation).  During our chat on religion, he confirmed that the reason why he was helping me was that it was part of his faith.  And given the number of people that have helped me out and gone above and beyond what I could have expected, I realize that his behaviour is typical - people really do walk their talk in Egypt.  It's definitely a refreshing change from the West where many many people only seem to dust off their faith around Easter and Christmas.

Mistaken Assumptions and Pleasant Surprises

Well, it's time for one of those look back and laugh kind of posts.  I've been here a week, and still find myself more dazed and confused than confident.  I'm fairly certain that I'll get more up-to-speed on how life is over here, but for now, I figured that I'd best leave a touchstone for the anxiety / negotiation part of culture shock.  For as much as I'm loving many of the things here, I'm starting to feel some of the set-up anxieties that will usher me in to stage 2 of culture shock sometime soon.

Here are just a few of the differences that I never expected:
Sunlight:  I figured that the sun would rise at about the same time everywhere.  Well, tomorrow the sun rises at 5:27 and sets at 18:27 in Cairo vs 6:30 sunrise and 20:07 sunset in Thorold.  I'm not sure that the sun ever rises at 5:30 in Ontario.

Financial Transactions:  I'm used to a world where everybody takes credit cards and debit cards.  Even though I was aware that Egyptian society was far more cash-based, I have yet to find a shop that accepted anything but money.  I'm taking my debit and credit cards out of my wallet as they're rarely any use.

Pricing:  No price in Egypt is fixed.  I figured that upon visiting one of the Souqs ... of course it would be barter based.  But cab prices, store prices ... pretty much anything but food prices are negotiable.  If you don't like the price, you ask them to lower it.  If you still don't like the price ... you leave.  (please note that I have yet to master this skill).

Change:  Nobody has change.  And if they do have change, they rarely admit it.  If your cab ride comes to 5 LE, and you only have a 20 LE note ... you're lucky if you get away with only a 5 LE tip.  And, if you want to see the unhappy side of a storekeeper - hand them a 100 LE note for a 10 LE purchase.  Usually, you want to eliminate your small bills and coins ... here, you hoard them.

Language Barrier:  Yes, I admit it.  Despite realizing that this was an Arabic country, I had the unconscious belief that "of course everybody speaks English if there's an English sign out front.  I will be learning Arabic as soon as possible (to avoid my current frustrations at not even being able to say good morning comfortably), but I have learned that there's nothing more important than a piece of paper and a pen.  I've been able to draw things a number times to make myself understood.

Sanitation:  I've posted about this before, but I'm amazed at the amount of garbage that is left lying around.  I've seen city workers cleaning it up from time to time, but there are some sections of the city that seem to never receive a clean-up.

Animals:  I've never seen so many feral dogs and cats.

Politeness:  I knew that Egyptians appreciated the visits of westerners, but I had no idea the extent to which they would go out of their way to help you.  Staff hold the doors for you at fast food restaurants.  People often stop you to say hello and are thrilled to learn that you're from Canada.

Taxis and Deliveries:
Everybody takes taxis everywhere and everything gets delivered.  I'm still trying to do almost everything by foot ... and I'm running into problems because of it.  Aside from the blisters (drew band-aids yesterday), I'm going to have to realize that to get groceries and the other items I need, I'm going to have to shell out the 5 LE for a cab ride more often.  It's not the money that makes me reluctant ... it just seems so lazy to call up someone to deliver a fast-food dinner or to hop into a cab to avoid a 10 minute walk.

Toilets:  Yup, there's a different flushing mechanism over here.  No little handles that torque downwards here as toilets are flushed by pushing in a button.


Overall, I'm going to have to start "doing in Rome."  The main reason why I haven't got enough groceries is that I haven't yet found somewhere close where I'm comfortable getting them (along with a lighter for my stove).  Even though there is a store about 5 doors down from me, I'm uncomfortable shopping there as they speak next to no English and the prices aren't fixed.  As foolish as it is, and as much as I thoroughly enjoy the local Egyptian fast food restaurant Arzak (falafel and kofta tonight), I need to stop fighting it and just grab a cab and get the groceries.
The other thing I need to do is learn a bit more Arabic asap.  I had hoped to wait for the Arabic staff to return to school (as they're more than happy to instruct the newer teachers); but, my current vocabulary isn't cutting it.  I'd hoped that google translate would do the trick ... but Egyptian Arabic is not the same Arabic used in google translate (there goes my idea of typing in what I want to say and clicking the sound button when the electrical bill collector comes to my door in 2 weeks).  Currently, I have about 10 words at my disposal ... and there are too many situations where my words and gestures / drawings aren't cutting it.

Speaking with one of the other staff members, he indicated that within two weeks, all of these set-up issues will be things of the past.  For now, I'm back in the position where my to do list keeps growing ... and nothing is coming off of it.