Teaching in Egypt (13): 'Hey, update your blog!'

A question I often get asked in regards to these 'Teaching in Egypt' blog posts is: 'Don't you get in trouble for it?'. Surprisingly, no. Some of my students read this blog and they curiously seem to enjoy me poking fun at them.

Last night was the first lesson of the new course, and after doing the introductions my new students all got to ask me one question. Generally, these are always the same: "Are you married?", "Do you have a boyfriend?", "How old are you?", "Where do you live?", etc.


But this time one of the first ones was: "Miss, your blog hasn't been updated in about a week, have you stopped writing?". The guy who asked the question had a pretty earnest look on his face too. 

I was momentarily taken aback. "You read my blog?"

"Yeah, we all do!", another student said, while the rest of the class nodded their heads vigorously.

"But I write about all of you. Don't you mind? I don't think I would like it if my Arabic teacher wrote about me..."

"No, it's cool", he said. "I don't mind, as long as you write that I'm a very handsome guy." I'm not sure if he was joking about that last part.

"I like your stories, they are insightful", someone else added. "They make me laugh", another one said. "Tone it down on the political stuff though, that's boring", a third chimed in. 

And as I came walking out of the teaching institute after class, another one of my former students just yelled "Hey, update your blog!" at me, before disappearing into a taxi.

Ticking that box. And you're welcome, guys.