A few bland, random, updates:

Justin's teaching (paid!) twice or so a week (whenever he gets called) as a substitute down at a fancy, dancy American K-12 school in Ma'adi. He's been called quite often to substitute for math and science classes, which it seems he really has enjoyed.  There's a home cooked meal in the teacher's lounge every day which he tends to utilize for lunch.  He's also volunteer teaching twice a week (except when he has to call in when he gets called to sub in Ma'adi) at St. Andrews Refugee School, teaching mostly Sudanese youth in higher level chemistry and biology.  He's also still working for COAR on the website. 

I usually spend my days cooped up in various locations reading until my eyes are bloodshot, then writing some sort of paper of varying length and quality attempting to not just simply regurgitate what I've just read, but instead "react".  Most people told me taking four grad classes in the Migration and Refugee Studies program was usually a bit too much for students. Wanting to complete the masters coursework in one year rather than 1.5 I was overly-confident and assumed I would be fine with four seeing as how I'm not working for the first time in a long time.  I was wrong.  Whenever my colleagues taking three classes discuss how they're freaking out and they don't know how they're going to keep up with coursework while completing three final papers (one for each class),  I sort of wonder what the heck I'm doing taking four.  I am learning bunches, though, I Justin reminds me of that alot .  As the topics and themes and ideas become more familiar the readings are going faster as I'm not having to learn the basics and can instead focus on the nuances. Most of my classes are aspects of the same ideas, just different emphases.  My law class is sooooo interesting, and refreshingly pragmatic in the context of all my other classes. My other classes identify problems and issues in the humanitarian regime and refugees in various contexts, with very little practical application.  It's important, and it's honestly what I'm most drawn to, but it's just so refreshing to sit in a class focused on "These are our tools.  These are the limitations of these tools. And this is how we use them".  I'm really really excited about my final papers, though, which has a surprise to me.  I mean, physically writing them will be miserable, but searching for, finding, and reading all the articles to plan them out has been fun. For one class I'm writing on livelihood strategies of refugees in refugee camps...and how age and gender affect livelihood strategies...and the motivations for these strategies...and the differences between strategies initiated by refugees themselves or by camp administrators.  For my three other classes, in efforts to not completely recreate the wheel everytime, I'm writing on some aspect of people trafficking.  For my law class, I'm writing on the circumstances under which trafficking victims fulfill the requirements for refugee status (rarely and it's a stretch), for my Migration in the Middle East and North Africa, I'll be looking at trafficking of persons into the Middle East (probably mostly of women, since many women are trafficked in as domestic workers and sex slaves) and for my Migration and Globalisation course I've yet to narrow too well, but am considering looking at trafficking big-picture  the flows of people and the analysis some researchers use looking at "supply and demand".  I get annoyed looking at migration through purely "supply and demand" terms, particularly when it involves people moving against their will, but it's an interesting perspective nonetheless.  So these papers have me re-interested, which is a nice change from the drudgery of the last few weeks.  I'm still not sure exactly how I'll get all these papers done in the next little while.  Ah well, Ma'lesh (Egyptian for 'whatever').

Instead of working on my final papers and other coursework tomorrow Justin and I are heading on a Fulbright organized group trip out to the Fayoum Oasis and then the desert to look at million-year-old-whale bones! I'm super excited about this, as one of the Fullbrights is a paleontologist working out there and he'll be showing us around.  And the Fayoum Oasis is sort of hard to get to without hiring a car/minibus.  So this is a fun opportunity I'm looking forward to it! Will prob post pics sometime in the next week or so.