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Published: September 11th 2008
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Vicki and I
On the shuttle to our first day of class...this was at 7am...we were very, very sleepy, so say the least! Hello all!
So I'm officially a student at AUC and have finished my first week of real classes. Its been interesting. Actually, interesting is a gross understatement! For those of you who are unaware, the campus of AUC has been located in downtown Cairo for about 90 years. This year campus moved out into a suburb called New Cairo onto a new campus. Think giant, established university picking up and moving. Its as if GW moved from where it is, to somewhere in rural Virgina overnight...CRAZINESS!!
Where to begin? The new campus is in a suburb, which in Egypt means in the middle of nowhere in the desert. New Cairo is being built up as we speak, but for the moment there is nothing out here but partially finished houses, and one or two other university campuses. I think the aim is to make this a really nice area of Cairo, but right now its one big construction site in the middle of the desert. No people really live out here yet, which makes it kind of like a reverse gohst town. Wierd. Campus itself is pretty...until you go inside any of the buildings. Apparently when they said campus
Vicki and I
Ummm, no comment. was ready, they meant that the buildings where up. That did not translate into usable buildings, however. Classrooms are covered in rubbish (as my british roomate would say 😊), there aren't any basic classroom supplies (think dry erase markers, paper, working airconditioning, ect) and, to quote Vicki yet again, "the lous are flooded!" (Don't worry, there are working bathrooms, you just have to search them out). Most buildings don't have computers (departments, registrar, ect) and there are no xerox machines, printers or paper for professors to use (believe me, I've heard about this fact multiple times in all my classes!). The online networks don't work (no blackboard) which means we have to scrounge up the articles oursleves, which has mainly meant our professors have one copy of something and ask a student to make enough copies for the whole class. There are 3 places to get food on campus. Guess what one of them is? Cinnabon! Yup, I'm stuck on campus in the middle of the desert, and one of the only places I can eat is Cinnabon, but when I searched for one in D.C. I couldn't find one anywhere. Isn't life just nice and ironic? The other two
New Campus
The entrance to main campus...it was early morning, so empty, but it fills up quickly! are also chains, a place called Cilantro (I think its a European chain) and a bagel place. The shuttles run every hour to my hotel, which is actually really nice because the shuttle to the other residence area only leaves 3 times a day, at 2:15, 4:30, and 11:00, which sucks for the kids living out there! From my hotel its about a 30 min commute without traffic (which really only happens at 7am) and can take up to 2 hours with traffic (the rest of the day). This basically means I'm stuck on campus from 7:30 ish (my first class is at 8) until after all my classes are done (early afternoon, like 2ish). Needless to say, I'm getting pretty sick of Cilantro sandwiches and bagels!
Despite all of that, I am having a great time. Its very amusing to me that no one has any idea whats going on, and I think its easier for us study abroad kids than the full time students. At least we have no clue what AUC is supposed to be like! The professors have all been very apologetic and fairly understanding. The campus itself is kind of confusing (especially with no
signs or labels...think UCLA or some other big state school, but nothing has a name or sign!) so most of my professors are okay with you being a few minutes late...they keep getting lost too. I think in about ten years, when the campus is fully functional and New Cairo isn't quite so new, this will be a pretty sweet place to go to school. Maybe I'll come back and visit 😊. The dorms and other random facilities (theatre, sports, ect) don't look anywhere near completed, so we'll see if we actually end up moving out here in November like we're supposed to. I have mixed feelings about that. While it would be nice to roll out of bed 10 min before class starts and not have to worry about a shuttle, it will be kind of annoying to be in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Plus, I don't really want to have to move for a third time, so we'll see what happens.
Now onto my classes. I'm taking 5 classes here (a full load...yuck!) and they all seem to be interesting. I'm in Arabic 101, which is already way over my head, but I'll get
New Campus
For some reason, this is where most of the Egyptian students end up hanging out, which makes it virtually impossible to walk through here, which is unfortunate, because everyone needs to walk through here to get anywhere! the hang of it eventually, insha'allah. Random people (both on campus and around the city) keep coming up to me and rattling off in rapid Arabic, thinking that I'm Egyptian, so I have amazing motivation to actually learn the language. I'm taking my Anthropological fieldwork methods class, which means I will have to do a research project in a country where I don't speak the language...talk about getting a true taste of the life of an anthropologist! My Development Economics class isn't going to actually start until the 17th because the professor is still traveling. I think its awesome, but would never actually happen in the states... I'm in another Econ class (political economics) and the professor is scary. She looks like she's in her late 30s and she is probably the strictest prof. I've had here or in the states. She kicked a kid out of class the first day because his phone rang, even though it was still the first day and legit locks the door 5 minutes into class. Needless to say, she has scared me into reading every page she's assigned and its only the first week! When she starts onto the material though, its really
Karl
He was very excited to find cheese from some small town in Wisconsin the Spinneys (the supermarket we keep going to in the mall). interesting, and she's very, very passionate about it. Today (the third day of class) the class size had cut down to about half of the original number, so it appears that I'm not the only one she scared. My last class is ancient Egyptian Literature in Translation, which I'm really excited about. The professor is a crazy looking old lady...the kind of woman I want to be when I'm old! My roommate Vicki is in that class with me, which is nice, because all of my other classes mostly comprise of Egyptian students. A great way to meet new people, but at the moment it means I don't know anybody.
What else? My hotel still doesn't really have working internet, so my roomie and I have been spending mass amounts of time at the mall in this cafe (Cafe del Doge, a European version of Starbucks) that has free wi-fi. They already know us by name, which is immensely amusing. This weekend we're just staying in Cairo and exploring and hopefully catching up on sleep (I still haven't done that yet!). Vicki has a friend coming to visit which should mean we actually do touristy Cairo things, as opposed
to making the excuse that since we are here for 4 months we don't have to do it now.
I hope that wherever you are reading this from you are safe and sound and that all is well! I miss everyone lots and hopefully I'll figure out some regular skype time soon!
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Bethany
non-member comment
Hi
So I said I would comment on you blog if you would comment on mine. You've commented, so now it's my turn. Egypt sounds amazing! Mad jealous of the whole hotel thing...:) When I saw the pic that referenced "Vicki and I", I was really confused. I was like, "Why is she saying her name twice/referring to herself in the 3rd person?" It was amusing. I've been drinking enough coffee to kill someone. Vienna is literally built around coffeehouses. You would be in heaven here! I keep telling stories that involve to you to my friends here. You are officially "my friend who is in Cairo". :) I'm going to Bucharest by myself this week. Doesn't that sound like something you would do? I might go crazy dealing with the crazy Eastern Europeans by myself! I hope you keep having a good time! I skyped Amanda/Sammy yesterday, so you're next on my list! Get ready for it!