I had to put bandaids on all my toes today because they're blistering =/
Last night AUC rented out a club (La Piste) in Mohandiseen for us new students to get funky. The club itself was really cool, on the 14th floor with a big balcony and a gorgeous view, but the party itself was pretty predictably lame. When we got bored, Sara and I left and went shopping. I love a city where you can shop at 11pm! I made my first Egyptian clothing purchase!! It's a really cool purple and silver knit dress - hard to describe, but it's fun to wear and it looks great on. And I'll think of Cairo every time I wear it.
We met up with Charlie, his roommate Chris, and a girl named Lindsay at midnight, and headed over to the Nile Hilton to go to Latex. Yes, Latex - could there be a sleazier name for a club?? There was a 100LE minimum charge (GASP!!), but it came with 100LE worth of drinks, which softened the blow. The club was fun, very American - hip hop night, lots of AUC kids, some scandalous dancing - probably not something we'll want to do often, but definitely a good time.
This morning we began the second phase of our apartment hunt...
Alhamdulillah! Mineet is wonderful! She is our simsar, and she took us to several lovely apartments this morning. We went to three in Zamalek this morning. While they were all very nice, we decided that we definitely don't want to live in that neighborhood - where you can go for months without having to speak Arabic! We want to feel like we're living in Egypt, so we're going to stick to the downtown area. Also, the apartments were HUGE! Very nice and swanky, but way too much space for just the two of us, and a little above our ideal price range. Once Mineet realized we wanted something a little smaller and cozier, she suggested some apartments that sound great. We visited one in Garden City, which was pretty teeny but very cute. It also had really high ceilings, so it didn't feel cramped. The only deal-breaker for me was that the kitchen was truly minuscule, and I really really want to be able to cook a lot.
Tomorrow she's taking us to a slightly larger apartment downtown - from her description it sounds almost perfect...inshallah! It's in between the Zamalek apartments and the Garden City apartment in size and furnishing, and it has all the amenities included. Also, it's about 3 minutes from the AUC campus and in a building that houses a lot of other American students. Sounds like a good way to live right in the thick of things, but also have a community of fellow ex-pats (me, an ex-pat?? oh I wish!)
Mineet is hilarious - we laughed practically the whole ride from Zamalek back to downtown. We talked about boys (she likes girls much better), men (who are always thinking about sex...if they could, they'd carry their beds around with them, she says!), marriage (it gets boring after 20 years), religion (she is Christian), and the importance of relaxation (she's going to take Sara and I for a massage with she and her daughter once we're moved in!)
She doesn't take a cut off the top from us, but instead gets paid through the owners, so it is in her best interest to keep looking until we find a place we love. Also, she says "I am with you all the way, I don't just rent to you and then leave!" - so we can call her if we ever have problems, or need a plumber or something. She's at once businesslike and maternal, and it's comforting to have her leading us through the process.
For lunch, Sara and I went to this adorable upstairs cafe which looks out on the hustle and bustle of Midan Tahrir. It was kind of pricey compared to what we're used to ($4.50 for lunch?? Come on now!), so we just got baba ganoush, yogurt, and french fries - all delicious. We sat at a table in a little nook right next to the windows and people-watched.
I still love this city, I still love Sara, and I'm looking forward to our apartment - though I will of course miss the Desert Safari and all our buddies here.
Fun facts about elevators: Usually there are two, one for the odd floors and one for the even floors. Some don't have doors. Some have no numbers, just a go button and a stop button - so you count floors and press stop when you want to get out. Charlie pointed out that elevator permits are probably about as common as car insurance around here - aka non existent.
It feels weird to see women walking around without their hair covered now, even though I'm one of them. I spot non-Egyptians everywhere, we stick out. I smirk at tourists, but if they asked for directions I'd be polite, of course.
Tonight at 8 we are meeting up with Hana to go over to her house! I'm going to buy some pastries to bring to her family.
More pictures later, mumkin!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Search, day 1
At 11pm we decided to stop being lumps and go for a walk to the CitiBank ATM in Garden City. It was out of service, so we took a moonlit stroll along the Nile. Then we crept around the Semiramis International, which is probably the most extravagantly beautiful hotel I've ever seen. We tried to go into the casino, but apparently even in Egypt you have to be 21 to gamble - not that we had much money with us, anyway. Then we walked back along the Nile and found the Hard Rock Cafe, which is in the Grand Hyatt (also home to the most expensive restaurant in Cairo, a rotating French restaurant on the roof). The music was deafening, the drinks were overpriced, and the male to female ratio was somewhere around 30:1, but we had a lot of fun. We even got up on the dance floor, along with about 20 other enthusiastic folks. We finally left around 2:30 - much later than we had planned on staying out, but hey - TIC! When 8am Arabic classes start next week, we won't be able to be quite so spontaneous.
Sara and I spent this morning/early afternoon apartment hunting. We walked to Dokki first, to get a feel for it and ask around about housing. The walk was on the long side, but if we had loved the area it probably wouldn't have mattered. We didn't, though - it felt as busy as downtown, and even dirtier, and the residential neighborhoods were not particularly appealing. We decided to go with instinct and didn't waste too much time there.
Back in Garden City, we searched and searched for a building we had found the night before, where the bawba (doorman) had said there were rooms available. We had a lot of trouble finding it in the daylight, but we stopped in at almost every building we passed to ask if there were open apartments. Half of them
turned out to be office buildings, and in the ones that weren't we either couldn't find a bawba, or there were no flats available, or they said to come back with a simsar. The closest we got was one building where rooms were rented out, but they did not provide full apartments. We were pretty discouraged by the time we gave up the search.
But we do have a meeting with a simsar tomorrow at noon, so inshallah we will find something! We will have patience, and after all we are happy in the hostel, if a bit cramped.
We are somewhat resigned to looking for flats in Zamalek, because even though it's a bit further from campus and from downtown, there seem to be more availabilities there, and rent is better.
There have been two mosquitoes in our room in the past day (both have been swiftly dispatched to the Great Beyond). Eee! I've never worried about West Nile before, but now that we are next to the Nile...
I bought bananas and they are delicious.
I also wandered around the AUC bookstore, which is wonderfully full of piles and piles of good books. I bought The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and The Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali. Also, The Ultimate Dining Guide and The Ultimate Shopping Guide to Cairo, only 20LE ($3.60) for both!
I have a stray cat obsession.
Oh! Last night we saw a stray FERRET!!! It was really cute.
Sara says it's either her or a (stray) pet. I'm thinking long and hard about whether she is worth keeping around.
Sara and I spent this morning/early afternoon apartment hunting. We walked to Dokki first, to get a feel for it and ask around about housing. The walk was on the long side, but if we had loved the area it probably wouldn't have mattered. We didn't, though - it felt as busy as downtown, and even dirtier, and the residential neighborhoods were not particularly appealing. We decided to go with instinct and didn't waste too much time there.
Back in Garden City, we searched and searched for a building we had found the night before, where the bawba (doorman) had said there were rooms available. We had a lot of trouble finding it in the daylight, but we stopped in at almost every building we passed to ask if there were open apartments. Half of them
turned out to be office buildings, and in the ones that weren't we either couldn't find a bawba, or there were no flats available, or they said to come back with a simsar. The closest we got was one building where rooms were rented out, but they did not provide full apartments. We were pretty discouraged by the time we gave up the search.But we do have a meeting with a simsar tomorrow at noon, so inshallah we will find something! We will have patience, and after all we are happy in the hostel, if a bit cramped.
We are somewhat resigned to looking for flats in Zamalek, because even though it's a bit further from campus and from downtown, there seem to be more availabilities there, and rent is better.
There have been two mosquitoes in our room in the past day (both have been swiftly dispatched to the Great Beyond). Eee! I've never worried about West Nile before, but now that we are next to the Nile...
I bought bananas and they are delicious.
I also wandered around the AUC bookstore, which is wonderfully full of piles and piles of good books. I bought The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and The Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali. Also, The Ultimate Dining Guide and The Ultimate Shopping Guide to Cairo, only 20LE ($3.60) for both!
I have a stray cat obsession.
Oh! Last night we saw a stray FERRET!!! It was really cute.
Sara says it's either her or a (stray) pet. I'm thinking long and hard about whether she is worth keeping around.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Our wild night!
Instead of going clubbing at one of the Nile Hilton's clubs, Charlie came over to the hostel and we have not moved since.
We are spending the night taking pictures of each other and singing Hebrew songs (softly). Sara is serenading us, accompanying herself on guitar.
Charlie and Sara are singing their 8th grade graduation song. No, they didn't graduate from the same school - they're just Jewish :)
If Alisa, Charlie, Sara and I could find a nice cheap apartment together, I would be one happy bint!
Charlie says "And we'd be one happy osra!"
Also, he claims that he is starting a blog, but I am skeptical. Though he does have a killer name already picked out - "What Charlie Sphinx"
Okay, update. We have now adapted some popular tunes.
To be sung to the tune of "the M.T.A. Song":
Now let me tell you a story of a man named Charlie
On this tragic and fateful day
He put 10 piasters in his pocket and kissed his wife and family
Went to the ride on the metro
Chorus:
But did he ever return? No, he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever through the streets of Cairo
He's the man who never returned
Charlie handed his ginee at Anwar Sadat Station
And he changed for Mohandiseen
When he got there the conductor told him, "One more piaster!"
Charlie couldn't get off that train (chorus)
Now all night long Charlie rides cross the Nile
Saying what will become of me?
How can I afford to see my friends in Zamalek
Or my habibti in Dokki? (chorus)
Charlie's wife goes down to Midan Tahrir
Every day at hamza'tasher lee itnayn
And through the broken window she hands Charlie falafel
As the train comes rumblin' through (chorus)
Now you citizens of Cairo, don't you think it is a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay?
Fight the fare increase, vote for Hosni Mubarak
And get Charlie off the me-e-troo! (chorus)
We are spending the night taking pictures of each other and singing Hebrew songs (softly). Sara is serenading us, accompanying herself on guitar.
Charlie and Sara are singing their 8th grade graduation song. No, they didn't graduate from the same school - they're just Jewish :)
If Alisa, Charlie, Sara and I could find a nice cheap apartment together, I would be one happy bint!
Charlie says "And we'd be one happy osra!"
Also, he claims that he is starting a blog, but I am skeptical. Though he does have a killer name already picked out - "What Charlie Sphinx"
Okay, update. We have now adapted some popular tunes.
To be sung to the tune of "the M.T.A. Song":
Now let me tell you a story of a man named Charlie
On this tragic and fateful day
He put 10 piasters in his pocket and kissed his wife and family
Went to the ride on the metro
Chorus:
But did he ever return? No, he never returned
And his fate is still unlearned
He may ride forever through the streets of Cairo
He's the man who never returned
Charlie handed his ginee at Anwar Sadat Station
And he changed for Mohandiseen
When he got there the conductor told him, "One more piaster!"
Charlie couldn't get off that train (chorus)
Now all night long Charlie rides cross the Nile
Saying what will become of me?
How can I afford to see my friends in Zamalek
Or my habibti in Dokki? (chorus)
Charlie's wife goes down to Midan Tahrir
Every day at hamza'tasher lee itnayn
And through the broken window she hands Charlie falafel
As the train comes rumblin' through (chorus)
Now you citizens of Cairo, don't you think it is a scandal
That the people have to pay and pay?
Fight the fare increase, vote for Hosni Mubarak
And get Charlie off the me-e-troo! (chorus)
Snippets of today
Orientation was nice, very similar to any American university - tours, information tables, lots of forms and booklets and packets, orientation leaders in bright red t-shirts. I got kind of antsy because I am not very good at listening to long lists of important details, but I found out lots of good stuff about getting my student visa.
There were sign-up sheets for trips organized by the Student Activities people, but a lot of them were full by the time Sara and I got there - I'm not sure I want to do all the trips with a big group of AUCians, anyway. Much more my style to go explore with a small group, and I have 4.5 months to fit all of that in. For now, I just want to live here.
When I got back to the hostel this afternoon, Amir and Tabib had just sat down for a home-cooked meal and they insisted I join them. There was some kind of meat (probably beef or lamb) and potatoes, tomatoes, salty rice, and pita. It was all lazeez (delicious), and I was soon shebAb (full). Also, Amir gave me a little bracelet of wood beads! I'll be sad to move out, but Sara and I are resolved to visit often.
I spoke with Mineet, our simsar, on the phone today. We will meet up midday on Wednesday in front of the main AUC gate, and she'll show us some apartments available in Garden City.
This afternoon on the way home:
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Why are you so beautiful?"
I cracked up - that's a great line, buddy.
Also, I ran into my "nice sunglasses" friend from the first day, and he said he's sad that I haven't come by the Pharaoh's Palace yet. I told him "mumkin, mumkin!"
"Khalas" and "mumkin" are the most valuable words I know right now. "Khalas" means "enough," and it's great for getting rid of persistent salesmen or overly-friendly men.
I'm getting pretty good at doing time conversions in my head.
There are stray cats everywhere and they are beautiful. Sara, Jen, and Alisa keep reminding me not to touch them - I won't, I swear!
Greek Campus is gorgeous.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Flirting with fry-cooks at Falfela
We were all sleepy so we wanted quick and easy food - queue our first trip to Falfela, the Egyptian fast food restaurant! DELISH. You order at the front - shawarma, falafel, fuul (fava bean stew), french fries, fried eggplant...such a selection! And then you pick up your food from the various cooks, and along the walls they have bar tops where people stand to eat their food. Makes a lot of sense, and the food was really good.
There was an adorable boy working behind the counter at the fry station, and he was the first person to ask us about Bush since we got here. Sara and I both made faces and he said "yes! Bush is bad, very very very bad!" Sara asked why, and he didn't really have the English to explain, but when she asked again he mimed shooting - yes, we agree, very very bad.
It's funny, because in the midst of primary season at home I almost forgot that we still have an idiot president to be held accountable for abroad - but so far I have encountered zero anti-American sentiment.
We wandered around "shopping" after dinner, and all of a sudden in one of the shops Sara made friends with this gorgeous Egyptian girl, Hana! She's about our age, and goes to al-Azhar University
She asked about getting a work visa in the U.S., and whether it is difficult and expensive. None of us knew, really, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it would be very difficult to get a work visa from Egypt to the U.S. Sara was great, really quick with her vocab, and I was able to pick up on and translate most of what Hana was saying. After a lot of confusions and back and forth translation, she and Sara exchanged number and we made plans. We're going to meet up with her again on Thursday, and then on Friday we'll go to her house for dinner and then she'll take us out dancing with her friends!
SO FUN! I feel like I'm already building a base vocabulary of amiyyah words, and once I start actual classes in colloquial I feel like it will come quickly. It really is much easier than fusHa - a lot of the pronunciation is simplified so almost all of the hardest sounds are taken out, among other things. Also, the grammar seems to be a lot simpler.
Woohoo! Okay, up too late, time for bed. Tomorrow there is some sort of orientation starting.
Xs and Os to my loved ones!
There was an adorable boy working behind the counter at the fry station, and he was the first person to ask us about Bush since we got here. Sara and I both made faces and he said "yes! Bush is bad, very very very bad!" Sara asked why, and he didn't really have the English to explain, but when she asked again he mimed shooting - yes, we agree, very very bad.
It's funny, because in the midst of primary season at home I almost forgot that we still have an idiot president to be held accountable for abroad - but so far I have encountered zero anti-American sentiment.
We wandered around "shopping" after dinner, and all of a sudden in one of the shops Sara made friends with this gorgeous Egyptian girl, Hana! She's about our age, and goes to al-Azhar University
She asked about getting a work visa in the U.S., and whether it is difficult and expensive. None of us knew, really, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it would be very difficult to get a work visa from Egypt to the U.S. Sara was great, really quick with her vocab, and I was able to pick up on and translate most of what Hana was saying. After a lot of confusions and back and forth translation, she and Sara exchanged number and we made plans. We're going to meet up with her again on Thursday, and then on Friday we'll go to her house for dinner and then she'll take us out dancing with her friends!
SO FUN! I feel like I'm already building a base vocabulary of amiyyah words, and once I start actual classes in colloquial I feel like it will come quickly. It really is much easier than fusHa - a lot of the pronunciation is simplified so almost all of the hardest sounds are taken out, among other things. Also, the grammar seems to be a lot simpler.
Woohoo! Okay, up too late, time for bed. Tomorrow there is some sort of orientation starting.
Xs and Os to my loved ones!
This is Cairo!
This one kid last night wouldn't stop saying "This is Cairo, man!" "We're in Cairo!" "What happens in Cairo stays in Cairo" - that kind of stuff. Oy vey.
Anyway, Sara and I have adopted TIC, semi-ironically.
Some random pictures and thoughts...This Is Cairo:
Everything is on the 5th or 6th or 7th floor! I have never taken so many stairs and/or terrifyingly rickety elevators in one day in my life!
When it rains - and the other day it DID - the streets fill with gigantic puddles. What, you Americans expect a drainage system?? Mafeesh mumkin!
Dear Sir: Why do you look so grumpy? Are you selling stools? I would like one stool, please! Love, Meredith
This is my elevator! This morning I pinched my finger in the gate. It lurches a lot when it starts and sometimes I think I will plummet to an early grave. So far, I have not. Updates to follow.
This is the view from a window in the stairwell and from my balcony, looking over to the balcony next door, and of some shack below my window?...Abey baby, these are for you!
Nothing is finished - there are bricks and building materials everywhere, and half-empty buildings sans explanation.
Garden City, obvi
Mehfeesh mushkilla!
Translation: No problem! No worries, mate!
What a day! Sara and I have been super productive and now I finally get some downtime.
This morning we got up at 8:15 (Cairo time! I swear!) and rushed over to campus to get our registration figured out. By 9:15ish we were both registered for Arabic classes, hamdulillah!
All we had to do was tell the head of the Arabic department what chapter we'd gotten to in al-Kitab and five minutes later we were registered!
I'm enrolled in the second session of "accelerated" fusHa (modern standard Arabic), which means I will finish two semesters worth of material in one semester (inshallah), and I'm also signed up for beginning amiyya (colloquial Egyptian). My fusHa class is 4 days a week at 8am, which I think will be good for me. I say this now, but class starts next week so we'll see. A lot depends on where we end up living - the hostel is only 5 minutes away from classes, but we may end up being a 10 minute taxi or bus ride away. All together, I'll be taking 13 hours of Arabic a week - and I'm going to look into getting a tutor on top of that. Whew! Inshallah, this will make up for Brandeis' less than stellar Arabic language program - though I adore Lutf, we have been moving too slowly and missing lots of important grammar lessons.
The next part took a lot longer and was much more typical of AUC - chaotic, in other words. Even though web registration already happened, and worked to varying degrees for some people, official registration doesn't begin until tomorrow. Which is odd considering a lot of classes were already filling up! Anyway, when we went this morning they were totally overwhelmed, so we went out to breakfast across the street with some kids from the Zamalek dorms - lots of sweet, interesting people here, and from all different majors and backgrounds.
Once we went back there was a little more order, but the office was still packed, so they had us sit in a back office to wait. Sara and I didn't notice that there was a sign-up sheet for registration appointment times though, so after filling out our course request forms and waiting around for about 45 minutes we finally got added on to the end. Oh well!
There was a long line, so in the meantime we got our student IDs - now I feel like an official AUCian - and then met up with Kearney for coffee and shisha. It was so great to see her, and she's a total pro at navigating around downtown. She took us to one of her favorite spots for shisha and I finally had my first Arabic coffee in Egypt. We spent a nice lazy hour and a half talking about classes, Cairo, Egypt, her first semester, travel, politics, and bars. It was really interesting to talk with Kearney (who is Jewish but not religious and not a big fan of Israel), and Sara (who is also Jewish, more religious, and not particularly political but definitely Zionist) about perceptions of Arabs, Palestinians, the situation in Gaza, et al. I have a ton of respect for what Sara has decided to do by coming here - it seems like she has had a fairly standard American Jewish upbringing, but she chose Egypt to force herself to experience and understand the other side of the equation.
[Chelsey - I've been thinking of you a ton, habibti, and talking about you! "Oh, my wonderful friend who was here last year says this, so it must be true..." Also, there is a girl who is sending blankets and supplies to Gaza who was asking anyone who was interested to help out, so I'm going to get in touch and see what she needs.]
Anyway, after our lovely interlude the registrar's office was much quieter. Now, in addition to my Arabic classes, I'm signed up for "Caliphate and Sultans in the Age of the Crusades and Mongols" - sounds totally cool and will fulfill a Classical Islamic requirement for my major. Also, I could potentially take a graduate level class in International Human Rights Law called "Human Rights in the Middle East," but I have to go to the class on the first day and get professor permission in order to register. If the class expects a lot of background in law I'll be in trouble, but other than that I should be fine! That's only 4 classes, but my accelerated Arabic class counts for 6 credits, so I'll still have enough to get credit from Brandeis.
Also, we ran into 3 guys who have already gotten an apartment in Zamalek, and they gave us the name and number of their simsar (go-between, basically), who they said is a wonderful woman and really helpful. They are each paying $400 a month, which apparently is on the high end - we can expect to pay less because there are 4 of us. So once we are all here (Aliche, our 4th roommate, gets in tonight) we can give the simsar a call and get our apartment search going!
So - bismillah, after many hours we are finished and feel very proud of ourselves! Tomorrow orientation starts, and I am going to try to sneak into a Survival Arabic class, even though I didn't sign up ahead of time.
Sara is playing her guitar and we're singing "The Circle Game" and "Puff the Magic Dragon" - hahaha I love this girl, I love this city!
One thing that I've noticed (though I'm not surprised) is that we've interacted with men almost exclusively on the street and in stores - women are everywhere, as well, but they don't chat with us the way that men do, and there seem to be very few working in the service industry. Kearney said that after 6 months of living here, she has several close male Egyptian friends, but no Egyptian female friends. There are lots of women working in the AUC offices though, and they've all been very friendly and helpful.
So far, at school and in Egypt in general, nothing works quite right or exactly on time, but almost everything is good-natured and often hilarious - PERFECT for Meredith Ives. I am pretty obviously in the euphoric stage of adjustment, and I'm sure I'll eventually find things to grumble about, but for now every quirk and miscommunication is endearing!
Okay, this is a long and rambling entry - probably uninteresting to anyone but myself and Mom, but also: I love you all so much! You must must must come visit me! This is a crazy, incredible place.
What a day! Sara and I have been super productive and now I finally get some downtime.
This morning we got up at 8:15 (Cairo time! I swear!) and rushed over to campus to get our registration figured out. By 9:15ish we were both registered for Arabic classes, hamdulillah!
All we had to do was tell the head of the Arabic department what chapter we'd gotten to in al-Kitab and five minutes later we were registered!
I'm enrolled in the second session of "accelerated" fusHa (modern standard Arabic), which means I will finish two semesters worth of material in one semester (inshallah), and I'm also signed up for beginning amiyya (colloquial Egyptian). My fusHa class is 4 days a week at 8am, which I think will be good for me. I say this now, but class starts next week so we'll see. A lot depends on where we end up living - the hostel is only 5 minutes away from classes, but we may end up being a 10 minute taxi or bus ride away. All together, I'll be taking 13 hours of Arabic a week - and I'm going to look into getting a tutor on top of that. Whew! Inshallah, this will make up for Brandeis' less than stellar Arabic language program - though I adore Lutf, we have been moving too slowly and missing lots of important grammar lessons.
The next part took a lot longer and was much more typical of AUC - chaotic, in other words. Even though web registration already happened, and worked to varying degrees for some people, official registration doesn't begin until tomorrow. Which is odd considering a lot of classes were already filling up! Anyway, when we went this morning they were totally overwhelmed, so we went out to breakfast across the street with some kids from the Zamalek dorms - lots of sweet, interesting people here, and from all different majors and backgrounds.
Once we went back there was a little more order, but the office was still packed, so they had us sit in a back office to wait. Sara and I didn't notice that there was a sign-up sheet for registration appointment times though, so after filling out our course request forms and waiting around for about 45 minutes we finally got added on to the end. Oh well!
There was a long line, so in the meantime we got our student IDs - now I feel like an official AUCian - and then met up with Kearney for coffee and shisha. It was so great to see her, and she's a total pro at navigating around downtown. She took us to one of her favorite spots for shisha and I finally had my first Arabic coffee in Egypt. We spent a nice lazy hour and a half talking about classes, Cairo, Egypt, her first semester, travel, politics, and bars. It was really interesting to talk with Kearney (who is Jewish but not religious and not a big fan of Israel), and Sara (who is also Jewish, more religious, and not particularly political but definitely Zionist) about perceptions of Arabs, Palestinians, the situation in Gaza, et al. I have a ton of respect for what Sara has decided to do by coming here - it seems like she has had a fairly standard American Jewish upbringing, but she chose Egypt to force herself to experience and understand the other side of the equation.
[Chelsey - I've been thinking of you a ton, habibti, and talking about you! "Oh, my wonderful friend who was here last year says this, so it must be true..." Also, there is a girl who is sending blankets and supplies to Gaza who was asking anyone who was interested to help out, so I'm going to get in touch and see what she needs.]
Anyway, after our lovely interlude the registrar's office was much quieter. Now, in addition to my Arabic classes, I'm signed up for "Caliphate and Sultans in the Age of the Crusades and Mongols" - sounds totally cool and will fulfill a Classical Islamic requirement for my major. Also, I could potentially take a graduate level class in International Human Rights Law called "Human Rights in the Middle East," but I have to go to the class on the first day and get professor permission in order to register. If the class expects a lot of background in law I'll be in trouble, but other than that I should be fine! That's only 4 classes, but my accelerated Arabic class counts for 6 credits, so I'll still have enough to get credit from Brandeis.
Also, we ran into 3 guys who have already gotten an apartment in Zamalek, and they gave us the name and number of their simsar (go-between, basically), who they said is a wonderful woman and really helpful. They are each paying $400 a month, which apparently is on the high end - we can expect to pay less because there are 4 of us. So once we are all here (Aliche, our 4th roommate, gets in tonight) we can give the simsar a call and get our apartment search going!
So - bismillah, after many hours we are finished and feel very proud of ourselves! Tomorrow orientation starts, and I am going to try to sneak into a Survival Arabic class, even though I didn't sign up ahead of time.
Sara is playing her guitar and we're singing "The Circle Game" and "Puff the Magic Dragon" - hahaha I love this girl, I love this city!
One thing that I've noticed (though I'm not surprised) is that we've interacted with men almost exclusively on the street and in stores - women are everywhere, as well, but they don't chat with us the way that men do, and there seem to be very few working in the service industry. Kearney said that after 6 months of living here, she has several close male Egyptian friends, but no Egyptian female friends. There are lots of women working in the AUC offices though, and they've all been very friendly and helpful.
So far, at school and in Egypt in general, nothing works quite right or exactly on time, but almost everything is good-natured and often hilarious - PERFECT for Meredith Ives. I am pretty obviously in the euphoric stage of adjustment, and I'm sure I'll eventually find things to grumble about, but for now every quirk and miscommunication is endearing!
Okay, this is a long and rambling entry - probably uninteresting to anyone but myself and Mom, but also: I love you all so much! You must must must come visit me! This is a crazy, incredible place.
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