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One of the many things a foreigner (a white foreigner especially) must get accustomed to living in Egypt (aside from the traffic, pollution, lack of sanitary establishments, linguistic differences, and the constant reminders of globalization) are the different attitudes towards your presence. Simple traveler generalizations, such as "everyone is so nice there" and "they all hate us", cannot be applied to Cairo, or really to any experience in a foreign country. Here are just a few of the experiences I've had in the last few weeks:

While trying to hail a cab near the dorm, a cab drove by and, without even slowing down, yelled out of the window "no foreigners" and kept driving. He must have strong feelings about us foreigners, considering the general poverty of most cab drivers and the prevailing stereotype that white people bleed money - not to mention that we are ignorant of what a proper fare should be and can easily and unknowingly be ripped off.

While riding on a horse around the pyramids with a guide named Saed, he asked where I was from. When I told him Chicago, his eyes beamed. "Ahhh. America!. I love Americans, but hate your government." I agreed. He then went on a bizarre tirade against Japanese tourists, about how they all just sit on the horses and refuse to make conversation (despite both parties being able to converse comfortably in English). Americans, he said, loved to talk and were some of the friendliest people he'd met. He then pointed to his hat, which had written on it Los Angeles. "It's my dream," he said, "its always been my dream to go there. Is it true that you can say whatever you want in America?"

A few moments later, after being dropped off by Saed near the Sphinx, I had to look for a side staircase. There was another man near the staircase (just a few rocks piled on top of each other) trying to sell horse rides. When he noticed that I was lost he pointed to the "staircase" near him. I thanked him and walked down. "Where are you from?" he asked. "America." "Ahhh! America! I love Americans.....but I think George Bush is the devil." I smiled and said thanks again. I was starting to get tired of this typical response, but respected their ability to see the difference between the government and the people.

After a long day walking around Coptic Cairo, we (myself and 2 friends) decided to make a detour to the mosque of Amr Ibn al-Aas, the first mosque in Africa, established by the man who conquered Egypt during the Arab/Islamic conquests. We were sitting in the corner of the courtyard, trying to be discreet, when we were approached by a young man who did not look Egyptian. He was from Russia, as it turns out, and barely spoke any English, so we had to converse in our broken Arabic. After getting through the basics (where we were from, what we were doing in Egypt, so on and so forth) a group of this man's friends approached us. "You're from America?" on of his friends asked us. We nodded yes. He smiled, and I felt relieved. He then sat down in front of Jeff (a friend I was with) and patted him on his wrist, then pointed to him. "Anta. Muslim, Maseehi, Yihoodi?" Translation: You. Muslim, Christian, or Jewish? I didn't want to answer the question, so I feigned ignorance of what he was asking. He was adamant, and went through the list again, this time with hand gestures making it unmistakable what he was asking. We relented. "Maseehi" I responded. "Jesus?" "Yes", I said, "Jesus." His face dropped, his original friendly tone suddenly gave way to shock and disgust. He took one look at his friends, all standing up at the same time and began walking away. We had a conversation with them for roughly 20 minutes before the questioning of our religion, and they left without even saying bye, giving us hostile looks as we walked away.

Walking down the street towards the local grocery store, people shout out comments like "Welcome to Cairo," How was your flight?" (my favorite, considering its the same guy who has asked me everyday since I arrived a month ago) and "Enjoy your time here." These comments usually come in rapid fire succession, with barely anytime to respond to each person.

I could go on forever, but for the sake of my time and yours, I'll stop here. A few quick updates:

For Eid (a week-long holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan) myself and my roommate will be heading to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (again). We will be leaving Cairo next Monday.

School is easy to say the least. A lot of the Egyptian students complain about the abundance of work, which for me is a welcome relief from the rigorous atmosphere at DePaul. The campus is not done yet (despite the school's promises to the contrary), and getting to school requires a bus ride that is roughly an hour and a half each way. A huge drain on everyone's days.

Other than that, my life has settled into a routine here, which is exhausting. Not a whole lot else to report.

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