ok. so I haven't written much about what it is like being here in cairo. and of course, the longer I am here, the more everything mixes together and becomes harder to single out interesting incidents to catalogue. Which makes it sound like I'm a museum. or something. but don't worry i didn't come to egypt to turn into a taxidermist. Alright enough nonsense. So where to begin. I'll start with classes, because that is freshest on my mind. My classes are:
- Intro to Sufism- j'aime the professor, but the class so far is really unstructured, she just sort of asks if anyone has questions on the readings and then she talks about random things
- Intro to Islamic Art & Architecture-yea it's cool. we haven't learned much, ummm squinches are my fave architechtural term thus far.
- Arabic Literature in Translation: Literature and History- same sort of deal, unstructured but the prof is good.
- colloquial arabic- my prof is silly. he makes fun of us, mostly.
- and finally modern standard arabic
khalas. so that's the classes. The American University in Cairo is in the middle of downtown Cairo. Cairo is a large city, well large doesn't do it justice, This is what people say: Cairo is busy, crowded, and polluted. This is true, but doesn't really tell you anything concrete about the city, as I discovered once I got here and actually realized how busy, crowded and polluted actually feels. I live in Zamalek, a neighborhood on Gezira island (on the nile duh) which is greener and more chi-chi than downtown. AUC is like a bubble of manicured lawns, expensive sweaters and un-egyptian male-female interactions within downtown, which has a little bit of everything, but is definitely not cosmopolitan. There's a mix right in the area, of really western style coffee chains and mcdonalds, with koshary and fatir hole in the wall type places around the corner. Foul sandwiches (ie bean sandwich) for 50 piasters, which is like 10 cents. Koshary = macaroni style noodles, spaghetti noodles, rice, lentils and chick peas with some tomato sauce, fried onions and lemon garlic sauce. One girl said that Koshary is a lot like cairo. I don't know how, but I believe her. Fatir is like pancake pizza things that can be desserty or pizza-y. So I didn't mean just to write about food... butimean... Mostly downtown just means lots of people. My favorite are the guys who ride around on bikes (which is insane in this city where 3 lanes = at least 5 cars across, i mean lanes? what?) balancing a large wooden plank of bread with one hand. And traffic here, it really is no joke. So these are sort of the things that everyonetalksabout because these are the first things you notice.
My favorite AUC thing is this Egyptian dude in my sufism class, who, when asked whether he had done the reading said "I don't read, I know." Not that that reflects the general attitude, because I haven't encountered enough AUC students to know... but I definitely don't think he's the only one. It's hard to get into school, but jooknow. Ok, i'm really not in the writin mood. Blergh...
2 comments:
Oh, everything sounds supercool and overwhelming but in an amazing way. I definitely remember it being crowded and polluted, and have you seen someone blow their nose onto the pavement yet? it's an amazing feat.
It's also funny how it seems like study abroad experiences always lead you to these little western "bubbles" no matter what country you're in, it's something that I hear a lot about. And it also reminds me of being with the embassy, and it's something i got kind of sick of after a while.
So what about how people treat you, as an american? Or is it a non-issue? And what's the dynamic like in the classes and how's it different? Do you still walk around a lot downtown?
Did you go to Gaze yet to see the pyramids? I know it's touristy, but it's also really humbling because it makes you realize how significant Egypt is in terms of history and stuff....Hmm so are you happy? Am I asking too many questions?
I miss you! :)
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