Settling In

Well, I am officially not in Texas anymore! It has been dawning on me these days that this is really happening, and I think that I am beginning to get used to the extreme differences between Egypt and America. I am no longer jet lagged, and have even been doing orientation at my University here, the American University of Cairo (AUC). I have been getting up every morning at 6:30 to take a large bus that leaves from my dorms on Zamalek, a large island on the Nile, to New Cairo, which is 45 minutes away, in the desert, and home to our brand-spanking-new campus (pictures below!). I will be doing this every day this semester as well, since my Arabic class is at 8:30 AM every day! It is an opportunity to catch a quick nap in, and possibly if needed, some studying as I see it. This week thus far has really been an eye opening experience. I have encountered some incredibly frustrating things here in Egypt, and I have also had one of the single most exhilarating experiences in my life as well. So lets start with the bad, so I can end on a good note shall we?

Learning the Egyptian way of business:

The hardest thing this trip thus far has not been the heat in Egypt, the cultural differences, nor the terrible pollution. It has been experiencing the differences in how Egyptian society runs versus how everything is run in America. Orientation at my school was a perfect example of this. The first day of orientation was basically a treasure hunt, but instead of finding fun things like Easter Eggs and chocolates, we were searching for visa papers, offices with suffixes that were completely unknown to us, and mostly being sent from one office to another. The system that they have here seems to be horribly inefficient, from banks to AUC's orientation. On top of all this, it is Ramadan, in which Muslims fast all day, and the majority of banks and shops close around 2 pm and re-open late at night. My friend from CU who is here studying abroad as well summarized Ramadan like this: "It's like Christmas, but it sucks..."

It seems that is might be the view of most of the study abroad students, but I look at it as an opportunity to experience something new, and also to observe a type of mainstream spiritual devotion simply not present in the United States. I am enjoying being the outsider for once in my life, being the minority, and learning all the things that scream to the locals "THIS GUY IS AN AMERICAN!"

So in summary of the bad, maybe it isn't actually so bad. It is just adjusting to a completely different society, where I'm realizing that if you come to the table with too may assumptions or pre-conceptions (the American way I might add), then you are really in for a hard time.

Alright, so now on to exciting news!

The new campus that AUC has just completed (mostly) is absolutely stunning. I really can't describe it but I'll try. I think of it as Egyptian-Roman-modern-Islamic-esque architecture. In America, we have a campus in the city, or even in the country. If a building becomes old, it is demolished, and usually replaced with a nicer one with improvements. Well at the American University of Cairo, they completely move out into the desert, and....POOF! After a few years appears a multi-million dollar campus that is so ground-breaking and beautiful that a kid from America is spending far too much time talking about it on his blog... Enough said, I'll just let you see some pictures for yourself :)

Now on the coolest thing I have done thus far this trip. It was taking a taxi from my dorm to another neighborhood in Cairo, about 40 minutes away (due to traffic). It was the most exhilarating experience of maybe my whole life. Words cannot even describe what these taxi drivers do, I think only black magic or something can. I have never seen a little soviet-era car fit into so many tight spots so effectively and quickly. The cab driver was very nice, and we spoke in what little Arabic I knew and English he knew. For those of you who don't know, Cairo has some of the worst traffic in the world, and understandably so, the cities population is nearly 8 million people! So as I said in my other post, there is an organized chaos to the madness, and I think that I truly enjoy being part of it, especially in a cab :)

So there you have it! I start classes this coming Sunday, and have a little bit of spare time these next few days with which I'm not sure what I will do. A trip to Alexandria perhaps...? Who knows! Thats the beauty of this whole experience.

Stay tuned for a live, in-taxi experience filmed by myself which I plan to film and post next blog!