It's Egypt

Some pictures of AUC's new campus. The top is the main gate, middle is some of the buildings (ya they all look the same...confusing), bottom the corridor where everyone stops because it is shady...hard to walk through...none of the buildings are actually buildings. It is hard to explain but they are just classrooms, no hallways. To get from class to class you have to walk outside.

The second big thing that happened in the recent past was my first week of class. That was interesting. AUC is in the transition phase between the old campus and new campus, which would be fine except everything is literally still in transition. Buildings are not completely constructed, desks aren’t all there, professors don’t have offices, classrooms are double booked, kids and professors were given different room numbers for classes, no one knows where anything is, etc. One of my classes was scheduled in HUSS 1016 which happened to be a men’s bathroom. Guess they had the wrong building written down originally…oops. Things like that happened all week. My drawing class was re-scheduled for a different time and classroom except no one was informed about it; I still haven’t been to that class. I think most of the kinks have been worked out now but I know a lot of kids were really frustrated at the beginning of the week. I am going to be teaching an English class on Monday nights to 20 kids who attend Egyptian public universities with an organization called Better World. I will keep you updated on this as I think it is the thing I am most excited about right now. They are also working with the harassment and environmental issues in Egypt. Seems like a pretty swell organization to be involved in. The commute to and from the new campus isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It takes about 45 min. in the morning (but that means on Mon. and Wed. I have to get up at 5:45…gross) and between 1-2 hours at night depending on traffic. I have never seen so many ipods in my life. Pretty much everyone brings headphones, a book and/or sleeps. Professors and students alike sit and watch out the window to see what interesting things will happen that day. One day I saw a man peeing in the street, another person witnessed a group fight, we see donkeys running along with traffic, and many other entertaining/interesting things. Could be worse.

Traffic. Taken from the coach bus on my ride home this afternoon

A couple of observations I have made about AUC and/or Egypt in general:
1. Students who attend AUC are exempt from many cultural standards upheld throughout the rest of Egypt. Examples include style of dress and PDA.
2. The same students exemplify other Egyptian cultural norms such as lateness, leaving garbage where ever, and a nonchalant attitude toward pretty much everything.
3. The kids who go to AUC are rich. Really rich. Like AUC holds the most rich people I have ever seen in one place. Gucci bags and sunglasses galore.
4. I would say that ¾ of the student population at AUC is attractive. Good looking rich kids are somewhat intimidating.
5. Egyptians are some of the friendliest people around, even if a lot of the time it is because they want to sell you things. People will just come up and talk to you on the street trying to put into practice the English that they have learned or even just play a little conversational churades. They ask where you are from, what your name is, what you like, show you around, take your picture and/or yell "Welcome to Cairo!" (I am pretty sure that I will get welcomed to Cairo until the day I leave...)
6. Children in Egypt do not have any sort of regular sleep schedule. They are out at 4 in the morning and fall asleep on their parents shoulders at random times throughout the day.
7. Seat belts/Car seats do not exist. Kids sit in the front seat, stick their bodies completely out of windows, sit on their parent’s laps, etc. Cairo has pretty crazy traffic. I find it befuddling that we put so much importance on something that we need probably about 1/5 of the amount that they do and it is not even a thought in their minds. I guess the traffic is slower for the most part but even so...I think I will do research on car accident statistics here and in the U.S...hmmm...
8. Garbage piled on the sidewalk smells bad.
9. Getting your haircut in Egypt is a scary but rewarding experience.

Pretty much I have learned here that you just have to roll with the punches and when something doesn’t work out, do as the locals do, shake your head and say “It’s Egypt…”