Semaine Deux

I apologize...I'm still getting caught up, so I can start making posts on a more regular basis.  It's Labor Day, and my long weekend is almost over.  I still can't get over how much I have done since I arrived. It feels like I have been here so much longer than 2 weeks.


Monday & Tuesday were my internship days at the Egyptian Embassy (as usual....Wed, Thurs, and Fri are all dedicated to class and guest speakers).  I was assigned a new project this week, and I am pretty confident so far.  Last week, I was asked to fully outline the government and economy of California, and give a detailed report on how business owners (specifically foreign business) would go about setting up business in the state of California.  This required researching all of the different registration processes, finding specific forms for each step of the process, and detailing every element of business anywhere from tax regulations to finance.  After my first project was approved, I was asked to continue researching in the field of business.  I was asked to write a report detailing why American business owners and investors should do business and invest with the Arab Republic of Egypt.  I've had to thoroughly research all the economic reforms since 1991 (which weren't really expedited until 2004), and demonstrate why Egypt is a more ideal environment for business than it was 6 years ago.  Did you know that one eighth of our exports go directly to Egypt already?  In return, one fifth of Egypt's exports head to America.  So the internship is going great, overall.  It's still Ramadan, so I've taken this opportunity to go off sight during my lunch break (for obvious reasons).  Embassy Row is conveniently located just a couple blocks away from some great local restaurants, and a "cupcakerie" which I am no longer allowing myself to step foot inside of :)


Now as for classes this week, we actually only had one lecture.  We are still building a strong foundation for our lesson, so we are taking a very detailed look at the political and religious history of Islamic societies.  This upcoming week, we are closely examining the challenges of the "Modern Islamic State", and discussing the difficulties of colonialism, democracy, secularism, and nationalism (not necessarily now, but throughout history).  Here's what we did this past week!


Monday &Tuesday- Internship


Wednesday- After our lecture, our class had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Abdul Aziz Said from American University.  He has been at American University for over 50 years!  He spoke to our class on the resilience and dynamism of Islam, Sufi traditions, and the spirit of Ramadan


Thursday- We had our first off-campus guest speaker on Thursday.  It was about 5,000 degrees outside, and we had kind of a hike after we got off the metro.  After living in Seattle for 20 years, hot weather and I don't get along too well, but thankfully this experience was worth the discomfort.  We conveniently passed by the Library of Congress and the United States Supreme Court, which I had never seen before.  Both of those buildings are so magnificent! Shortly after I was done obsessing over the fact that we had just passed Supreme Court, we arrived at the Methodist building in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. planned his famous speech in Washington DC.  This is where we met with the Islamic Society of North America to discuss Islam and world affairs.  Our class met with Dr. Sayyid Muhammad Syeed who is the director of ISNA.  During our session, we were encouraged to ask questions that related to our studies.  I asked Dr. Sayyid if he could describe his experience as a leader of the Islamic Society of North America after 9/11, and how this event affected the goals, mission and activities of the organization.  It was an emotional moment in the conference room when he described the events of September 11th, and how the FBI showed up at the office and asked all employees to immediately leave for their security.  Feelings in the room began to brighten as he described the reaction of members of the surrounding community.  When he initially expected protestors to surround the building, large groups of community members, specifically members of local churches showed up with flowers and gifts.  

Friday- We met with Dr. Imad A. Ahmad, Philosopher and President of the Minaret Freedom Institute.  Dr. Imad filled our minds and notebooks with information that no other speakers had not even remotely touched on.  He discussed the relationship between Islam & science, and Islam & Liberalism.  


Overally, we had a busy and productive week! On Friday, Lupe, Amalee, Lily and I took the metro up to Friendship Heights, got frozen yogurt and saw Going the Distance with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long.  After the movie, we decided that it was Friday and it would be lame of us to go back to campus, so we decided to have an adventure.  We took the metro over to the Adams-Morgan/Woodley Park area and ended up walking all the way to Dupont Circle.  It was a very cool district with a lot of local, international shops, restaurants, bars and clubs.  I could not believe how hot it was outside though! It was literally 90 degrees at 10 PM....and HUMID.  The whole concept of being red and sweaty regardless of how much water you drink and how few clothes you wear is not really okay with me.  Overall, it was a cool night! I'm glad I got to walk around and explore a new part of town.

Saturday was quite the adventure too.  A few of us from class decided to meet up, go out to a local restaurant and go downtown.  Somewhere along the way, we met a few kids on campus from Korea and Japan who tagged along.  Our intention was to go to a local club, but that plan went down the toilet.  There was some confusion as to whether the club was 18+ or 21+, and we learned the hard way at the door that half of us would be denied for not being of age. That's okay though, because downtown is a cool place to be at night regardless! The group just ended up going out for pizza and planning our next night out excursion where all of us could get into a club.  Apparently on Tuesday there is a Lady Gaga concert after party at a 18+ club downtown........yikes :)