Well, like with my rather forlorn livejournal account, I seem to be often delinquent in updating this thing. So, over the course of today and possibly tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to get this thing up to speed. I'm guessing one long post about my first week here, and a few posts about the second week. So yeah.
I first landed in Cairo around 11 pm two Sundays ago (that'd be the 21st of January), with absolutely no idea how long I had spent getting there. I left DC around 10 or 11 pm, flew to Heathrow, had a layover of somewhere between 4 and 6 hours, and only then departed for Cairo. Between uncertain flight times and uncertain layover times and uncertain clock adjustments, my transit time comes out to anywhere between 20 and 40 hours. Although I think it was closer to the 20 hour end, I'm not about to be bothered enough to figure it out. At the time, the only part of the calculus that I cared about was that I had actually landed. I did see the pyramids on my way in though, which was really cool.
Fortunately, it didn't take me long to fumble my way through the airport, and I quickly met other international students as well as the AUC guide (AUC = American University in Cairo). We picked up our bags, slogged through customs, clambered onto the buses and were quickly whisked off to the dormitories. "Whisked," incidentally, is used here as a euphemism for "careened through the streets of Cairo at speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour while dodging all manner of cars and generally ignoring what passes for traffic law." More on that later. We did survive the journey, which I suppose is really the only important thing, and before long I was passed out in the dorm room.
Four hours of sleep or so brought me to 7:45, at which point I was scheduled to be waking up to go to morning orientation. That didn't exactly happen as planned. My morning pretty much went to hell in a hand basket (I say this tongue and cheek, because I'm really not unhappy about how things went) right from the start, because my alarm didn't go off loud enough; I had my computer set up to play music at 7:45 am so that I could catch the 8:30 shuttle to campus, but apparently the software I downloaded didn't work as advertised. (I actually did bring a real alarm clock with me to Cairo, but I still can't find it anywhere in my bags/stuff). Adding insult to injury, I actually had awakened at 7:30, but I made the mistake of trying to catch an extra ten minutes of sleep. I didn't come to again until 8:15 or so.
A super fast shower followed by clothes dressing and running down stairs got me to the front of the building (and thus, the bus stop) just after the shuttle left. I learned from the front desk that the next shuttle wouldn't be coming until 9:30, and I theoretically was having an arabic placement exam at 9. I decided therefore to walk, expecting it to take "about a half hour, maybe a little more," as the man at the desk put it. If I was late to the test, oh well, I figured that I would be able to work it out (all this week is sort of hang around/orientation - more on that later). Unfortunately, the map I was given didn't cover the whole route. It had detailed descriptions of the beginning (the dorm) and the end (the campus), but sadly, insufficient information about the middle portion of the journey - you know, the part about getting between one and the other. The man at the desk seemed to indicate that this essential middle portion was fairly straightfoward. Oh how wrong he was. Allow me to explain:
Now, our dorm - Zamalek - is on the island of Zamalek, situated on the Nile river. I assumed, silly me, that when the directions said to find El Tahrir street, that they meant the one on Zamalek Island. No, no they did not. I ended up wandering the island (which is not small) for a goodly long while, before finally crossing on the El Tahrir bridge and stopping in a Hilton (I think it was a Hilton) to ask for directions. It turned out that AUC is/was on the other side of the Nile - the east side - near Tahrir square (you should be noticing a pattern with the Tahrir thing - its kind of a critical nexus for slightly too many things). So, I recrossed the Nile (twice, and again, the Nile, like Zamalek, is not small), and then managed by a process of trial, error and triangulation, to close in on my destination. I ended up walking for almost 3 hours before I got to the campus, but the trip was actually kind of fun. The people here are extremely friendly, and more than put up with my miserably small arabic vocabulary. I met a very nice man who helped me cross the traffic on one of the larger streets, and then took me back to his shop for tea. Of course, he also got me to buy things from him (which I imagine was the entire purpose of his goodwill effort in the first place, but it was worth it for the kind words and the incredibly good tea. I did bargain with him a little too (you should be proud of me), but not too hard, since I was feeling guilty (well, not guilty, but obliged).
The main upshot of my oddyssey through Cairo was that in addition to buying things and drinking tea, I got a good sense of the area around campus and also an excellent opportunity to stretch my legs. I actually got to AUC around 11:30. The campus is broken primarily into two sections, roughly the size of a small city block each. "Main Campus," including administration, science and the International Student Study Office (ISSO), is surrounded by a hedge wall, giving it a lovely bunch of gardens around the main buildings, as well as some security (the gates in are controlled). There's lots shade and places to sit and socialize. Its sister campus, the "Greek Campus" (called greek for reasons utterly unknown to me - as there are no fraterneties and Alexander the Great and his ilk had nothing to do with it), is roughly a block away (diagonally). It is enclosed on all sides by the library, social studies building and other structures, leaving a large terraced courtyard in its heart.
I first landed in Cairo around 11 pm two Sundays ago (that'd be the 21st of January), with absolutely no idea how long I had spent getting there. I left DC around 10 or 11 pm, flew to Heathrow, had a layover of somewhere between 4 and 6 hours, and only then departed for Cairo. Between uncertain flight times and uncertain layover times and uncertain clock adjustments, my transit time comes out to anywhere between 20 and 40 hours. Although I think it was closer to the 20 hour end, I'm not about to be bothered enough to figure it out. At the time, the only part of the calculus that I cared about was that I had actually landed. I did see the pyramids on my way in though, which was really cool.
Fortunately, it didn't take me long to fumble my way through the airport, and I quickly met other international students as well as the AUC guide (AUC = American University in Cairo). We picked up our bags, slogged through customs, clambered onto the buses and were quickly whisked off to the dormitories. "Whisked," incidentally, is used here as a euphemism for "careened through the streets of Cairo at speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour while dodging all manner of cars and generally ignoring what passes for traffic law." More on that later. We did survive the journey, which I suppose is really the only important thing, and before long I was passed out in the dorm room.
Four hours of sleep or so brought me to 7:45, at which point I was scheduled to be waking up to go to morning orientation. That didn't exactly happen as planned. My morning pretty much went to hell in a hand basket (I say this tongue and cheek, because I'm really not unhappy about how things went) right from the start, because my alarm didn't go off loud enough; I had my computer set up to play music at 7:45 am so that I could catch the 8:30 shuttle to campus, but apparently the software I downloaded didn't work as advertised. (I actually did bring a real alarm clock with me to Cairo, but I still can't find it anywhere in my bags/stuff). Adding insult to injury, I actually had awakened at 7:30, but I made the mistake of trying to catch an extra ten minutes of sleep. I didn't come to again until 8:15 or so.
A super fast shower followed by clothes dressing and running down stairs got me to the front of the building (and thus, the bus stop) just after the shuttle left. I learned from the front desk that the next shuttle wouldn't be coming until 9:30, and I theoretically was having an arabic placement exam at 9. I decided therefore to walk, expecting it to take "about a half hour, maybe a little more," as the man at the desk put it. If I was late to the test, oh well, I figured that I would be able to work it out (all this week is sort of hang around/orientation - more on that later). Unfortunately, the map I was given didn't cover the whole route. It had detailed descriptions of the beginning (the dorm) and the end (the campus), but sadly, insufficient information about the middle portion of the journey - you know, the part about getting between one and the other. The man at the desk seemed to indicate that this essential middle portion was fairly straightfoward. Oh how wrong he was. Allow me to explain:
Now, our dorm - Zamalek - is on the island of Zamalek, situated on the Nile river. I assumed, silly me, that when the directions said to find El Tahrir street, that they meant the one on Zamalek Island. No, no they did not. I ended up wandering the island (which is not small) for a goodly long while, before finally crossing on the El Tahrir bridge and stopping in a Hilton (I think it was a Hilton) to ask for directions. It turned out that AUC is/was on the other side of the Nile - the east side - near Tahrir square (you should be noticing a pattern with the Tahrir thing - its kind of a critical nexus for slightly too many things). So, I recrossed the Nile (twice, and again, the Nile, like Zamalek, is not small), and then managed by a process of trial, error and triangulation, to close in on my destination. I ended up walking for almost 3 hours before I got to the campus, but the trip was actually kind of fun. The people here are extremely friendly, and more than put up with my miserably small arabic vocabulary. I met a very nice man who helped me cross the traffic on one of the larger streets, and then took me back to his shop for tea. Of course, he also got me to buy things from him (which I imagine was the entire purpose of his goodwill effort in the first place, but it was worth it for the kind words and the incredibly good tea. I did bargain with him a little too (you should be proud of me), but not too hard, since I was feeling guilty (well, not guilty, but obliged).
The main upshot of my oddyssey through Cairo was that in addition to buying things and drinking tea, I got a good sense of the area around campus and also an excellent opportunity to stretch my legs. I actually got to AUC around 11:30. The campus is broken primarily into two sections, roughly the size of a small city block each. "Main Campus," including administration, science and the International Student Study Office (ISSO), is surrounded by a hedge wall, giving it a lovely bunch of gardens around the main buildings, as well as some security (the gates in are controlled). There's lots shade and places to sit and socialize. Its sister campus, the "Greek Campus" (called greek for reasons utterly unknown to me - as there are no fraterneties and Alexander the Great and his ilk had nothing to do with it), is roughly a block away (diagonally). It is enclosed on all sides by the library, social studies building and other structures, leaving a large terraced courtyard in its heart.
Greek Campus, view from the library entrance into the courtyard Greek campus seems to be the real center of most socialization on campus, and I imagine I'll be there a lot as history and political science courses happen there. On the whole, however, campus is pretty small and is built directly into the city blocks, so where the one ends and the other begins is not rigorously defined; some of the University's other buildings dot the surrounding area, and students can be found on all of the streets between. I certainly spend more time on the streets than I do in campus, though the courtyards are nice, shaded and relatively quiet retreats from the hustle and bustle of city life.
Well, back to my main story. After finding the ISSO, I quickly found what I needed to do and also determined that I hadn't missed much; orientation was universally described as unhelpful, and the arabic placement exam was described both as "impossible" and as "available tomorrow." I got some informational packets, took a look at some possible courses to register for, and put my name on the advising sheet. This turned out to be the only downside of my lateness; the best time I could get was the following saturday, which was unfortunate because that meant most of campus got advised before me. As a result, I did not get all of the classes I wanted, but I'm working on wheedling my way into them anyway.
After some hanging out and socializing, I went to my Colloquial Arabic crash course class at 3. It was seriously intensive (as well as being four hours long). We learned a lot, but all of us were dying of exhaustion by the end. I grabbed the shuttle (thank god, or I suppose I should say, al-hamdulilleh!) After some socializing at the dorm, I went to the room and then went to bed.
On Tuesday, I got up early and caught the shuttle, getting to campus in time for the arabic placement exam. The exam itself, however, lived up to its description - the "impossible" part, and I gave up after 10 minutes. I've decided to take the accelerated arabic course that covers the first two semesters of normal arabic. Ideally, this will mean that I can continue senior year if I so choose - barring that, I'll at least still be able to add on to what I've already learned so far.
Between the arabic exam and class at 3, I had basically nothing going on. I first figured out my classes situation (I'll tell you more about it once it's confirmed), and then met up with some guys to go get food. We found a great little place that sold shwarema for 4 Egyptian pounds, which is some 60 cents US. So, for under a dollar, I got an entire meal. Thank god for favorable exchange rates! In general, the smaller egyptian establishments are about an order of magnitude cheaper than the more upscale restaurants. The upscale places cater to expatriates, mostly Americans and Europeans who come to Cairo so that they can live like they were in the West. Apparently, there are whole suburbs of them. I think its ridiculous. The cheaper places serve better food, to be honest, and certainly more authentic food. There is probably a slightly higher probability of getting sick from something, but not enough to be a problem. I've learned that if the place has a crowd around it, its a good choice for food. Places without crowds have done something horrible to earn the disfavor of 18 million plus Cairenes!
On Tuesday, I got up early and caught the shuttle, getting to campus in time for the arabic placement exam. The exam itself, however, lived up to its description - the "impossible" part, and I gave up after 10 minutes. I've decided to take the accelerated arabic course that covers the first two semesters of normal arabic. Ideally, this will mean that I can continue senior year if I so choose - barring that, I'll at least still be able to add on to what I've already learned so far.
Between the arabic exam and class at 3, I had basically nothing going on. I first figured out my classes situation (I'll tell you more about it once it's confirmed), and then met up with some guys to go get food. We found a great little place that sold shwarema for 4 Egyptian pounds, which is some 60 cents US. So, for under a dollar, I got an entire meal. Thank god for favorable exchange rates! In general, the smaller egyptian establishments are about an order of magnitude cheaper than the more upscale restaurants. The upscale places cater to expatriates, mostly Americans and Europeans who come to Cairo so that they can live like they were in the West. Apparently, there are whole suburbs of them. I think its ridiculous. The cheaper places serve better food, to be honest, and certainly more authentic food. There is probably a slightly higher probability of getting sick from something, but not enough to be a problem. I've learned that if the place has a crowd around it, its a good choice for food. Places without crowds have done something horrible to earn the disfavor of 18 million plus Cairenes!
Arabic class was again stimulating and tiring. I hightailed it back to Zamalek residence, and then met up with some people to go to food. We didn't find any good local places so ended up settling for a more refined place called Cafe Tabasco (basically, we got tired of walking). The food was decent, but not worth the vastly higher (4 or 5 x) price tag and ridiculous amount of smoke. I had to shower off when I got back just so that I could breathe again.
My Wednesday was heavily abbreviated, in that I was unconscious for almost all of it. I stayed up late watching Battlestar Galactica on my laptop (it is by the way incredibly cool to be able to sit in bed and watch shows - I love having a portable computer). Bronwyn, if I didn't love the show so much, I would have to hate you for destroying my ability to do anything of value. Anyway, I went to bed quite late, at which point I discovered how jet lag works. Rather than waking up around noon, which would have probably happened had I done this in the states, I ended up only coming to around 5 pm. This, interestingly, corresponds to a 10 am wake up time in the States (7 hours difference between EST and Cairo time). As you might guess, I missed colloquial arabic, and really did nothing of value at all besides get dinner.
Thursday and Friday passed relatively quickly. As you've probably gathered, week one "orientation" was pretty unscheduled; other than the arabic course, we didn't do a whole lot. Wandering around the city with various groups of people, however, was a blast, so I'm not complaining. On Friday night, we went into so-called "Islamic Cairo," which is an older part of town with a great number of mosques and a huge bazaar/market.
Bizzare Bazzars - well, not really, but it has a nice ring to it. I resisted the urge to buy anything this time around, but I'm confident that I will in the future.
On Saturday, many people went to Giza to see the Pyramids, but I was sadly unable to join them as I had my advising session. In fact, I'm one of a very few people who hasn't made it out to the Pyramids yet. I'm working on getting out there, but there's not much sense in going alone, so I'll have to convince people. I did, however, get out to the Cairo Museum, which is the home of all things Pharonic - at least, those things that can be physically picked up and moved. Cameras are not allowed inside the museum, so I've only got pictures of the outside. Eventually, they'll be on facebook.
Well, I'm going to wrap this up (finally, I know!), but check back for more posts later this weekend!
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