Carlock visits Egypt through AFS

FALLBROOK — Alison Carlock, a senior at Fallbrook High, recently completed a four-week American Field Service (AFS) student exchange to Egypt with a group of six other American students. Alison first learned of this opportunity when she visited an AFS booth during College Night at the high school. She completed an extensive application and interview process and was one of 19 students selected from approximately 180 applicants. The US State Department sponsored her exchange along with the other accepted students through the Youth Ambassador Language Institute as a way to help American youth better understand the Egyptian people, culture and language.

Alison was placed with a host family in the town of Helipolis, a suburb of Cairo. She attended classes five days per week, except Fridays and Saturdays. She studied the Arabic language, spoken and written, and the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. She also visited many historic sites, including the pyramids, the Sphinx, Mt. Sinai and many museums exhibiting ancient Egyptian artifacts. One museum, the Cairo Museum of Ancient Antiquities, contains over 120,000 artifacts.

Alison indicated she was most surprised by how friendly the people were. She considers Cairo to be a very safe city, and she felt comfortable walking the streets alone. She said one of her fellow travelers twice left her purse by mistake in a taxi, and each time the driver returned the purse. Her only concern was crossing streets, since traffic was more like a scrimmage than a flow. She always crossed streets with an Egyptian guide who understood the rules of the road.

Alison said she had difficulty at first adjusting to the temperature. The low temperatures at night were in the mid 90s, and her home did not have air conditioning. After a few days her host family obtained a fan for her room, and then she was able to sleep better. However, a lot of the activity was at night to avoid the heat of the day. For instance, she climbed Mt. Sinai at 2 a.m.

Alison is the daughter of Jim and Elaine Carlock of Fallbrook.