Pen pals in Egypt

If you send a message to a pen pal in Egypt on a Sunday morning, they are probably at school or work. The Egyptian weekend falls on Friday and Saturday, so the week starts on Sunday, and "see you after the weekend" means something different from what it means in much of Europe. You will each be living slightly out of step with the other's week.

Life along the river

Egypt is large, but most people live in a narrow ribbon of green along the Nile and in the wide, fertile Delta where the river fans out towards the Mediterranean. The rest is mostly desert. That means a pen pal is likely to live somewhere busy and close to the river: Cairo and Giza, Alexandria on the coast, a Delta city such as Mansoura or Tanta, or a town further south in Upper Egypt, where accents, food and pace of life can feel quite different from the capital. Egypt even crosses continents, with the Sinai Peninsula lying in Asia.

One misconception worth correcting gently is that Egypt is hot all year round. Summers are certainly hot, but winter evenings in Cairo can be genuinely chilly, and Alexandria gets most of its rain in the cooler months.

The state school year usually starts in September and runs to early summer. For older teenagers the final secondary exams, known as Thanaweya Amma, are a serious milestone that shapes which university course they can follow, so a pen pal in that year may be studying hard.

Two religious calendars, one country

Most Egyptians are Muslim, and there is a long-established Coptic Christian community, so the year has markers from both.

• Ramadan, the month of fasting, moves about eleven days earlier each year because it follows the Islamic lunar calendar. Daytime is quieter, but evenings come alive after the sunset meal, iftar, and streets are hung with lanterns called fawanees.
• Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan and Eid al-Adha comes about two months later; both are public holidays and times for family visits.
• Coptic Christmas is celebrated on 7 January and is a national public holiday.
• Sham el-Nessim, a spring festival with very old roots, falls on the Monday after Coptic Easter, usually in April or May. Families head outdoors, colour eggs and eat salted fish.

Arabic, the Egyptian way

The official language is Arabic, but what you will hear on the street is Egyptian Arabic, which differs from the formal Modern Standard Arabic used in news and official writing. Thanks in part to decades of Egyptian films, television and music, it is widely understood across the Arabic-speaking world. If you are learning Arabic, a pen pal can help you see where the spoken and written forms part ways. English is widely studied at school, and some pupils also learn French. A simple Ahlan ("hello") is a friendly start.

What to ask first

• What does your Sunday look like, now that it is the start of your week?
• Which part of Egypt are you in, and how is it different from Cairo (or, if you live there, from the rest of the country)?
• What does your family eat for iftar or on a holiday?
• What is the weather like where you are this month?

International post can be slow, so many pen pals keep things digital and save postcards for special occasions. For tips on writing across different traditions, see our guide to writing across cultures.