i never thought i’d have a blog, but they say that study abroad changes you. here are some quick egyptian updates:
august 24th-26th: arrival at a cheerful hostel unfortunately infested with bedbugs. i spent a couple days traipsing midan tahrir and the crowded streets of cairo on my own before stumbling into AUC orientation.
august 26th-29th: orientation, met swarms of american students, made some friends, took advantage of orientation trips. found a great flat and moved in. the highlight? horseback riding at the pyramids at dusk.
august 30th-september 4th: trip to dahab on the sinai peninsula, spent a few days snorkeling and riding camels and drinking bedouin tea. sinai really feels like the land of the bible, and the drive out there was 8 hours of darkness in a hurtling minibus. masha’allah, we made it there and back in one piece.
september 4th-6th: school trip to alexandria; cool but structured touring to the roman ampitheater, catacombs, and citadel – unstructured ice cream, midnight mediterranean, and cat-snatching (more on that later).
today? the first day of class on the new AUC campus. it was a fiasco to say the least – i caught the 8:30 shuttle bus a couple of blocks from my apartment, and arrived at the sand and saw-dust covered swanky desert campus with half and hour to spare before my 10:00 class. None of my professors showed up, the buildings are passable but several are significantly unfinished, and I grumpily caught a two-hour bus ride home at 2:30 without having learned even one fact.
maybe the chaos will coalesce into something resembling a university? if my 18 days here have taught me anything yet, its that chaos is a constant and essential part of egyptian life. chaos and patience. things here often don’t work on the first try, and trying to make a plan is like trying to climb a mountain of dried fohoul beans – everything will scatter to the floor. there are people around all the time: bowabs watching apartment entryways, vendors touting their goods, men hissing and businessmen catching the microbus or a taxi to work. the only egyptian i met who owns a car got in a minor accident three days after its purchase and had to hire a driver because he couldn’t find his way home through the twisting, poorly marked streets of the city.
cairo is a crazy place, but i’m adjusting and learning to have some fondness for it. its a city unlike any other, or so my better-traveled acquaintances tell me. it has quirks and secrets and if i’m lucky i’ll root them out. my apartment is clean, very comfortable, and i’m feeling quite healthy (thats for you, parents). i watched some arrested development after dinner. life is good, when it’s not terrifying. sometimes, i catch myself thinking that maybe it should be both.
yahoo!
your friend,
becca
