Yesterday

last night was pretty fun.

my roommate and i went out to dinner at this italian place-- i felt kind of guilty, like i was caving to my own familiar tastes in food. but, quite honestly, there are not a lot of quality egyptian style restaurants in this neighborhood. on the other hand, there is a bunch of italian, american (mcdonald's, kfc), and even asian restaurants. after that, when we were hanging out outside the dorm for a couple minutes, one of his friends from his arabic class, along with this girl she had met a couple of hours before, showed up, and invited us along in their search for some sort of bar. so, we ended up going to a place about half a mile away. after staying about half an hour, we searched for the 'sandbar' (what a clever name), but without success. instead, we stumbled upon a wealthy, upscale type place, where drinks were really expensive. after this, we caught a taxi to a place across the nile, and about two miles away, that ryan's friend had heard about. this and a place about three blocks away proved too expensive.

after this, we spent about 40 minutes searching for the restaurant/bar in the hotel odean, which, according to a guidebook, was cheaper. finally, we happened upon our original taxi driver, who gave us directions to the place, without even taking a tip (though i tried offering him one). i don't know what the chances are of encountering the same cab driver, in two different parts of cairo, on the same night, but i have a feeling that they are on the low side. after 10 minutes we got to this place, thought for a moment that the elevator was jammed, and made our way to a pretty sweet open air restaurant. there wasn't a great view, but the few buildings we could see, along with the breeze, and especially the hard time finding the place, made it worth it.

so, that's the story. we took a cab back to zamalek, where the dorm is, after about forty minutes, getting back at probably around 3:30am.

it was a pretty uneventful day besides for this, but this part was great-- meeting new people, wandering through the city by foot. it's unreal how awake the city is, even at 1:30am or later (earlier?). all sorts of vendors are out doing business, people are walking around, some with their children in hand. then again it was the weekend.

and traffic. traffic here is crazy. i think to get a ticket you would have to drive into the river or something. it's the complete opposite of the rigid, structured traffic that is aimed for in the states. this is something very organic. people often disregard lane markings, carving their own, and vehicles merge there way into the flow on major streets like they would if they were walking-- they just push their way along, and the other cars have to make way. i haven't really seen any accidents or anything. i guess when everyone follows the same rules, and accepts that other people will weave infront of or behind them seamlessly and without warning, the system holds itself up. it's just so foreign to me. crazy.

that's my theory for now at least.

love

Trip to New Campus

Today was an alright day. In the morning i hopped on the 1030 shuttle to the Cairo campus and attended a couple of orientation lectures-- one on egypt's relevance to us today, and the other on basic, boring, albeit important u.s. embassy info. the afternoon arabic lesson was ok-- nothing special. covering alot of practical things, of which, despite my year of studying the language, i am virtually clueless of. huh.

that got out at 4:30, and almost immediately after all the int'l students caught a ride on buses to the new campus, which is in a new suburb, "New Cairo", on the outskirts of the suburb limits, i think. driving out was crazy. mile after mile was filled with construction projects of new apartment blocks, often constructed very simply-- looking like massive towers of brick and concrete, with little to distinguish them. what struck me was the sand everywhere-- i guess i should have known, given that the city is surrounded by a desert. still, it's crazy to me. when we got to the campus, there was nothing manmade visible-- only sand.

the new student party was kind of lame. for the hundreds of students there, the university only organized three food carts. the lines were unbearable. i was able to sit with some of the people i've met with so far, which was fun. our movement around the campus, which supposedly is very large, was restricted-- i think largely for liability purposes, considering it is still somewhat under construction. basically, we were confined to the entrance plaza and a little ampitheater they built connection to it. it was pretty, but kind of boring. basically, the thing went on for too long. while there was some dancing, it was fairly half-hearted, with most people staying out of it. i have to admit that i never got in on it, so i have no right to complain. but i won't let that stop me.

i just went for a walk, exploring a new street i haven't seen yet. even though it was about 1:30am, the streets are still pretty lively-- vendors, grocery stores, restaurants all open for business. i stopped and grabbed a snickers, which for some reason i have become reliant on these last couple days. i guess its because there delicious, and you can find them on virtually any block.

one woman tried speaking to me while i was wandering around, and this very short-lived 'conversation' proved to me just how little i know. i believe she thought i was lost, and after thinking about it for a second, i realized that i had no way to convey to her that i was only walking. that's a pretty simple thing to say. oh well.

i'll try to upload some pictures from the night.

love

Second Day (What an Original Title)

Today was ok. At 8:00 took a shuttle bus with the other international students to the downtown campus, which is where classes have been held until this year-- now many classes will be in the "New Cairo" campus, a new suburb located, I believe, on the fringes on the desert. There was a very long wait in a sweltering line for some breakfast, than the typical welcome speech and a bunch of booths with information on various practical needs-- transportation, health, visas, cash, etc.

I took a brief hour-long bus tour around the city-- it was actually pretty lame. I knew I should have just walked around...i'll remember that next time. Tonight was fun though- I wandered around with my roommate Ryan searching for a place to eat some actual Egyptian food, and after probably half an hour and a lot of retracing our steps we found a grubby little joint on one of the main roads leading into the neighborhood. It was similar to pita bread, in that it opened up, and I chose some sausage-type meat, salad, and a tomato-cheese-ish sauce to put in mine. I got two, which were pretty good, for only 3 pounds-- about 60 cents. Not bad. Then we wandered around to see if we could grab a beer somewhere, but there were no visible places that were not clearly really expensive-- not the local kind of establishment we were looking for.

I've been bumming around in the room since then-- a few minutes ago I realized that less than a day after starting this blog thing, I'd already managed to lock myself out. Solid. So i got a new password.

With love

First Day

I got into Cairo last night at about 12:30 am. I and a bunch of other students recognized one another and made our way to the man who was picking us up. The bus made it to our dorm at about 1:30 at the earliest. With checking in and setting up, and such, I got to bed around 4:45am. Good stuff.

Today was fun. I woke up at 3:00 pm-- probably the latest I've slept in my life-- and went to a preliminary orientation at 4:00. A couple hours later the international students all went on a university-organized boat ride, on a medium sized sailboat called, if I recall, a "falookah". That could be wrong. Later, I found a couple of random people to get dinner with, and came close to getting lost looking for a currency exchange shop. And now I'm here.

I won't lie-- I am still a little on the scared side. Entering a situtation where you know virtually know one, in an unfamiliar place, is always (at least for me) intimidating and frightening, but that will pass.

Peace.

ps. I love you for taking the time to read this if you have! Feel free to respond. I'm gonna try to put some pictures up.