The beat goes on

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After the chaos of the Big Move, I feel like everything is starting to calm down, and the population of AUC is getting the hang of things. It still takes me 20 minutes to find some of my classes, and there is still a fair amount of bureacratic difficulty, but hey, it took me 30 minutes before, and there's always bureaucratic difficulty in Egypt.

In the absence of chaos, one thing that I'm slowly realizing is that AUC very often feels like high school. The girls come to school dressed in their very best, as if they're going out for a night on the town, rather than to class. I am clearly out of fashion here due to my lack of skinny jeans, 80's-esque flats, and Fergie style sunglasses. The American girls, who are quite used to going to school in sweats and t-shirts, feel like bumpkins here. Every time I go to the bathroom I have to navigate around a line of girls perfecting their image in the mirror. We're not talking about just a simple glance here, this is approximately a ten minute process.
People stand around in cliques between classes, and groups of girls gossip and giggle loudly. I always wondered what it would be like to do high school over again as the person that I am now. I realize now that that is a bad idea.
I fully admit that my interpretation could be due to an inability to comprehend the culture. I know that clothing is a status symbol here more so than in the U.S., and I am also used to going to a school with many graduates and older students returning to complete their education. I'm trying to keep an open mind about everything that I see here.

On that note, I think that I should tell you about Cairo traffic.
First of all, riding in a car at any time of the day or night is not an endeavor to be attempted by the weak-hearted. Sure Cairenes have heard of traffic laws...in jokes. Traffic lanes are completely arbitrary. Cars weave between each other, often coming within inches (or less) of touching. Horns are a means of constant communication, indicating that a driver is passing, is about to be hit, is going too slow, that one is frustrated by the traffic jam, etc. Turn signals are used about a quarter of the time, maybe less. Yesterday when I was on the shuttle bus home we were on a fairly busy road, something that would constitute a state highway back home, and we were stuck in traffic. Besides the usual weaving and honking, in the span of two miles we saw two cars and a CITY BUS drive over the three foot wide, sidewalk-height divider and start going the WRONG WAY on the other side.
And yet, I've never seen a car crash or a car that looked like it had been in a car crash. About half of the cars have scrapes along the side, but not the nice ones. I've gotten used to it now, and cab rides have become almost boring.

Okay, so I apologize for going political on y'all (not to mention that you're basically all liberal anyway) but this article describes why Sarah Palin scares me: NY Times Sarah Palin

Take care dear family and friends.
May the Force be with you.

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Comments

[molly]

Lauren, you are so awesome without extravagant clothing and accessories. And a note on the traffic issue: scary. haha, love you.

[Rowan]

:D Maybe one of your fabulous corsets would help me be more snazzy...