2017-2018
MARCO POLO FUND Study Report
This form needs to be completed by every student who has received a scholarship from the Marco Polo Fund.
Last name*Please write your name as shown in
your passport Fuchs
First name*Please write your name as shown in
your passport Mella
RUG Student Number S3186849
Please enclose a 2 page report on your experiences abroad, using the following headings:
My experience abroad was amazing. It took some time to get used to the hectic and noisy life of Cairo, a city of 22 million! The city is very dirty and polluted, very crowded, and very big, but that’s also what makes it so interesting and impressive.
1. Study programme
The study programme was good. We spent most hours on Egyptian colloquial Arabic, which was the most useful and fun course since you could use every new word directly on the streets and it was very interactive with great teachers. The Middle East programme consisted of three other courses;
migration, gender and archaeology, which were really surprising and interesting courses. The
Netherlands-Flemish institute is a very calm, quiet place to study and to escape from the chaos in the city. All teachers were really friendly and ready to answer your questions. The teachers’ decent was mixed; some Egyptians, some Dutch or Flemish, and even a Hungarian and they were all interesting people.
2. Language
The Arabic language is, of course, quite difficult, and sometimes I got really disappointed in the slow progress I was making and disappointed about all the things I didn’t yet know. But sometimes I surprised myself and discovered I actually knew more than I thought. Thus, it was a rollercoaster. You shouldn’t expect to learn Arabic fluently, that will take a lot more time than these four months unfortunately. Nevertheless, these four months help you to get used to the sounds and they help you to get out of your comfort zone and speak! because quite a few Egyptians don’t know any word in English. Since there are many Egyptians studying Dutch at the institute, the institute arranged for us to have language partners. We helped them with Dutch, and they helped us with Arabic. I would really recommend doing this! It is an easy way to make an Egyptian friend, and it is really helpful to have someone who can help you with your homework, oral exams, etc.
3. Finance
Egypt is very very cheap for foreigners at the moment, so we were living the high life there; we could go to restaurants every night, afford the best food, and we never had to cook. Apartments are also cheap. You can get one for 120 euros per month if you want. We chose to live a bit more expensive because we wanted to live on Zamalek and have balconies, but we payed 250 euros each, which is also not very expensive. I recommend doing your groceries at markets, not in super markets, since the latter tend to be very expensive, and the food is better at the market anyway!
4. Preparation and contacts with the faculty before, during and after your stay
The preparation for our stay abroad was very minimal. There was one Q&A session about the
programme in Cairo, but this was very shortly before our departure. Looking back now, it was actually an adventure to fix everything ourselves (like finding apartments, getting to know the city, etc.) and so it didn’t really matter that the preparation was minimal. During our stay we didn’t have any contact with our faculty, but we didn’t need to. I haven’t had contact with the faculty since I am back, but again, I didn’t need to.
5. Housing
When we arrived in Cairo, we received a list with estate agents. We called (one of) them and they showed us the available apartments. Me and my friend arrived a week later than most students, so we had not as much choices as they had, but we found a great apartment, so that was no problem.
We had a good experience with our estate agent. They all try to get as much money as they can of course, but our estate agent did help us if something was broken and we could get in contact with him very easily. With most things, though, the buaab (doorman) helps you. The other students had some issues with installing the internet or broken washing machines etc., but none were major problems. Overall, it was very easy to get an apartment. The standard is lower than in Holland, so it might not be as clean as you wish, or some things might not work properly, but overall it is fine, and part of the experience.
6. Culture
When you are a student Middle Eastern studies you already know a lot about the culture you will be dealing with in Egypt, but still, sometimes it is overwhelming. For me the most difficult thing was to discover that women do really have a different position in society than men, and get treated differently as well. Our male classmates would very easily get in contact with people and become friends with them, whereas me and my female friend wouldn’t really easily get in contact with women since they are shy, or they seemed to look down upon us, and men only seem to be
interested because of how you look and how “easy” you are (to get in bed, or whatever reason). Also, taxi drivers would often tell their political opinions and other interesting things to our male
classmates, but to me and my friend they didn’t say a word, except for asking us to marriage or asking for a photo/number. That’s a huge difference, but you get used to it, and there are also a lot of nice people of course who do want to genuinely become friends. But the culture is also very special and beautiful. Especially the Ramadan was nice to experience and the Friday prayers, calls to prayer, etc.
7. Free time
We didn’t have a lot of classes so we had a lot of free time. We had three days weekend and most days we were free from classes early. So in the weekends we could make trips all around Egypt, and through the week we could visit all sorts of things within Cairo. The danger sometimes was that we didn’t spend enough time on our homework or for studying, but eventually we managed fine.
8. Travelling
We could travel every weekend to wherever we wanted, which was amazing. Public transport is very very cheap, and hotels/hostels are also never really expensive. Also, organized desert trips are cheap and amazing. At the institute they can help you with arranging desert trips, or you can look it up on the internet. The trips really were the most enjoyable things there; to be able to flee from the
polluted, chaotic city in the weekends and relax at the sea or in the quiet desert. We never felt unsafe during our travels. You shouldn’t go to North Sinai of course, but besides that, nearly everything’s fine.
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Date: 18-06-18
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