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Published: August 27th 2008
After counting down the days for the last two weeks, and royally freaking out, I made it to Cairo, finally. I hardly slept on the plane, even though it was a 15 hour flight, so I could barely keep my eyes open when I got here. As much as I wanted to see the city, all I could think about was getting into my room and crashing on my bed. I was picked up from the airport by an AUC driver, and before I feel asleep I saw that a lot of the city looks really run down. All of the buildings are the color of dust because of the wind that blows the sand in, and then it almost never rains, so the dust perma-coats the buildings. There are many apartment buildings, all with airconditioners sticking out of the walls in every unit, and laundry hanging on lines below the balconies. Downtown there are some beautiful buildings, mainly big hotels and embassies.
I got to Zamalek, the dorm I'm staying in for orientation until the hotels are ready for us to move into (the dorms on the new campus aren't ready, so we're going to be in hotels
until November) and was shown into my room, where my roommate was sleeping. Oops. I followed her lead and took a two hour nap, then woke up and made myself look presentable to go on a Nile dinner cruise. The Nile cruise was one of the touristy things that I least wanted to do, but I wanted very much to meet people and see some of the city. The food was alright, but pretty bland for what was supposed to be a 5-star dinner, by Egyptian standards, and the entertainment was awful! The belly dancer spent more time posing for pictures than half-heartedly belly dancing. Two men came out after her and started to do a dance, and kept looking at each other to see if they were in sync (they weren't). I gave up on the entertainment and went up on the top deck where I talked with other students and watched the city go by. There were many boats that were decorated like it was Christmastime in Portland, with flashing strings of LED lights all over, and we passed several party yachts. By the time the cruise ended at 1 in the morning, I was ready to crash
Dance floor
Later to feature belly dancers and othersin bed again. Other people advised me to sleep for as long as I wanted to, and taking their advice, I didn't wake up until 8:30pm. So much for overcoming jet lag. Since women aren't supposed to go out by themselves at night, I'm stuck in the dorms until tomorrow morning, when I will go to the old campus for orientation.
All of the international students I've met are really nice, and easy to talk to, but it's kind of intimidating since they've been here for a few days already and have already formed groups. I guess that will mostly change when we move to the hotel though. I've made friends, but it seems like there's always so many new faces. I still feel disoriented, but I think that I will feel much better tomorrow after going to the campus and getting a chance to see the city by foot.
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Jason Stanley
non-member comment
Glad you made it
Hey, Glad to hear you made it in one piece. It seems like only yesterday we were in classes togehter, and now you are half way around the world. I wish you nothing but great adventures, and life changing experienceses. To bad you can't go out at night, but it is always better to be safe than sorry. Don't worry about not fitting in right away. I am sure your bubbly personality will intoxicate those around you, and you will be at the center of a clic of friends you will always remember fondly. It is funny to me that you didn't know what the desert does to the buildings in it. Having grown up in the desert it just seems like second nature to me. Enjoy every minute of your adventure, because things like this don't happen everyday. Peace and Love Jason.