Chinese New Year

One of the Modern Standard Arabic teachers asked if we would be interested in attending the Chinese New Year party.

The Romanian woman was not interested, but I was.

However, I expressed my concern that perhaps the Chinese might have a problem with a British person attending (perhaps I still remembered the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia or perhaps it was the Opium Wars that bothered me).  I was reassured by the teacher that my attendance would result in the opposite effect.

She was right!  From that point onwards I never felt alone in the centre and I enjoyed practicing MSA with them 🙂

The most significant contact I made was a Chinese student from the Faculty of Arts (Literature).

After the party, some of the Chinese took me outside with them (to the corniche).
I was nervous, but I had no other friends in Alexandria and wanted to exploit every opportunity.

I got to know some of them a little better. They seemed so soft, friendly, open-minded and attractive.

During our walk-around, I noticed some Egyptian boys talking about us, but I was not certain.  As we walked by, one of them asked if I was Egyptian, so I told them that I was not.

Then the girls wanted to go home, but as they made their way towards the tunnel (for crossing the busy road), they were followed by these boys until one of the men sitting nearby told them off!

The Egyptian boys then decided to come towards me. Once around me, they asked if I was wanted to buy weapons, a knife, etc.  This question annoyed me, but before anything else happened, one of the Chinese boys interrupted and suggested we just leave.  So we did, and as we walked away they told me to ignore (and avoid) them as they were uneducated (ignorant).  I was relieved to know that they were not following us.

The evening of the same day I was given a gift by the most eloquent (in Arabic) of the Chinese boys (the same one from the Faculty of Arts) and got to meet their Arab friends from the halls of residence.  They also convinced me that I should move in with them.  After a meal in a Syrian restaurant we finished up in mahatat Raml, near my hotel.

What an interesting day!

A week later, I told one of my teachers what happened and she explained that these Egyptian boys thought I was Egyptian and were jealous because I was with foreign girls.
I replied that actually I only spoke to the Chinese girls when I was on campus and that once outside I was only with the Chinese boys, who in turn were with the Chinese girls.
The teacher clarified her point by saying that it was enough for them (the Egyptian boys) to see that I was with the same group, which included foreign girls as well as boys.