The American University in Cairo-A Beautiful Place to Call Home

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Hi Everyone, Ahlan wa Sahlan!

I was hoping to be writing my next journal entry on my trip to Alexandria this past weekend, but I woke up on Friday to find out the trip had been postponed because of the rallies in Tahrir Square. For safety reasons, when word gets out that there will be a rally they close all the surrounding streets down, making it impossible to enter or leave Cairo. While I was bummed about now having to cook this past weekend, I knew it was part of the adaptability I would have to encounter this upcoming year, and that's what I signed up for! Besides, I got an email today that the trip has been rescheduled for this weekend, so inshallah we will be able to make it North to the Mediterranean City!

Anyway, to compensate, I went around campus on Saturday and took some pictures of my home away from home for this upcoming year and thought I would explain a little bit about it. The American University in Cairo was founded in 1919 and its old campus was in Tahrir square. While they still have some classes there, the majority of their classes are now on its beautiful 3 year old 400 million dollar campus in New Cairo, a suburb of Cairo, approximately 40 minutes from downtown. However, there are shuttles that take you into Zamalak, an island residence on the Nile right near downtown for shopping and just to get off campus and grab a bite to eat.

My classes so far are fabulous! I have classes on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. The weekend is Friday, Saturday, and we don't have classes on Tuesday. When I asked a student why, they just said it was a nice day off to be with their families. Family life is very important here in Egypt, so this made sense. But, if you have labs, tough luck, because they are usually on Tuesday (sorry pre-med people!).

I have Arabic class (Modern Standard Arabic) 4 times a week, and Macro-Economics, World Literature, Non Muslim Communities in the Muslim World, and Introduction to Sufism twice a week. I really like the Arabic culture classes because they are classes I can take here that are not offered really anywhere else in the world (no offense to Macro or World Lit).

For my non-Muslim class we are going through the Jews, Copts, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Pagans, and those who practiced Zoroastrianism from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and everywhere in between from Pre-Islamic Times to present day. It's really quite interesting to go through the history and see how the different groups interacted with one another, even before the birth of Islam in the region.

Intro to Sufism is also extremely interesting. Sufism is the inner, hidden, mystical, esoteric, initiative dimension of Islam (I may have had to memorize that). Pretty much this class is a mystical philosophy class delving into why Sufi's go above and beyond what is required of a normal Muslim (extra fasting, extra prayers, etc) and why they can't be separated from Islam, like some people who say they are Sufi's in America seem to claim. Mainly, from what I gather, it's to form a closer connection to God, because it's their life goal to go from the finite to the infinite, or the roots (aka supreme divine) that we once all originated from. Got that? Good.

Macro and World Lit are pretty self explanatory. Macro deals with looking at the aggregate side of the economy or the totals and big picture, rather than micro which looks at individuals rather than the whole. For World Lit we are reading things like the ancient Babylonian Epic Gilgamesh to Nobel Prize Winning Egyptian Author Naguib Mafouz's Midaq Alley.

Arabic is me trying to speak, read, and listen to Arabic four times a week without making a fool out of myself. So far, so good, and I've found some great Egyptian students who want to do a language exchange with me. I speak Arabic to them, they speak English to me and we correct each others mistakes. Really it's they correct my 80 million mistakes, while I listen to them speak English. They're really helpful, though, and I am optimistic that I will improve greatly over the year, the main reason why I came to Egypt in general and for a year instead of a semester.

I'm extremely happy I stuck with my decision to come to AUC. The campus is beautiful, the dorms are nice, the classes are great, the food is pretty cheap, the weather is gorgeous, the students and faculty are welcoming, and the classes are challenging. I hope to grow and learn this upcoming year and share my insights and travels with you all. Thanks for reading, enjoy the pictures!

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Photos

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Pretty View

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Revolution Poster

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Class Buildings

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Fountain in the Garden

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Revolution Poster

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Garden Area in the Dorms

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Fountain in the Common Area

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Outdoor Seating

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Main Gate

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Garden

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Flowers