Khan el Khalili

So today we didn't have class or anything really to do so Kayla, Costa and I went down to Khan el Khalili which is this marketplace in Cairo similar to Chinatown or Englishtown in the respect that it's a huge marketplace, but imagine either one of those times 60 million more people. It's ridiculous how huge it is. Deb decided to stay in because she wasn't feeling too well and Mae was hanging out with her family today so she didn't come either. The 3 of us braved it and took a black and white taxi instead of the yellow metered one because we would have had to wait for about 3 1/2 hours for it, so we just walked out to grab a regular taxi. After flagging one down, we traveled for about 15-20 mins and was there! The traffic wasn't really too bad and we didn't almost kill anyone or thing thankfully.

We got there and was immediately harrassed by multiple people trying to sell us things or trying to get our green cards (LOL) but we made our way through the crowds and picked up a few things. I found a really nice leather belt that I got for 15 LE thanks to Costa's great haggling skills (go Kerry!) which is only about $3 US dollars, and I picked up some q-tips since I forgot mine at home. Kayla finally got her blow dryer she's been wanting and even got a great box to go with it and it actually works really well. So yay for all of us! The market was very amusing with men screaming out "Shakira!" every 5 seconds... apparantly we resemble her in some manner. One man was very honest with us and told us, "I already have a wife, I just want your money". Kerry's gonna make a book of all the hilarious things we've heard so far and publish it and make tons of money.

We had a little trouble finding a cab that knew his way back to Zamalek, but when we did he was really nice about everything and even tried to show and point to us different streets and landmarks on our way back to the dorms. We got back fairly quickly and decided to get some school supplies seeing as though classes are starting tomorrow. We went to Alfa to grab some things and then decided to get something to eat because we were all starving and hadn't even had breakfast. Kerry and I went to get some falafels which were fantastic and 2 of them were only 3 LE which is about .60 cents. Afterwards we just hung out with Kayla and Deb in their room for a little while chatting. After parting for a little while, we ordered some pizza with the girls next door Shelby, Kaitlin, and Alex which was more like cheesy bread but still really good.

I came back to my dorm room after dinner and Skype'd it up with my cousin Aida and my aunt back home which was cool and even got to talk to my dad and grandmother in St. Martin. Everyone is doing well which is really good to hear and it was especially good speaking to my dad after like a week of not talking to him at all! So tomorrow is the start of our classes and I'm supposed to be having one tomorrow but I'm trying to switch out of it because it conflicts with the volleyball schedule here which I really want to participate in. So technically I won't have any class tomorrow but I'll still need to switch that and get my AUC ID card.

Marhaba!

So today was pretty interesting... I planned on waking up early to go to New Cairo so that I could finally get my student ID but of course that didn't happen. I've usually been waking up around 7ish every morning just by myself so I didn't set my alarm clock even though I was supposed to meet up with some people for the bus ride to New Cairo. Soooo I woke up at 12 pm and had to rush to get ready because the bus supposedly only comes once an hour on the 40 minute mark, so I had about 35 mins to get ready and still had to walk to the bus stop. I got ready and left the dorm, rushed to the bus stop where I saw some other kids waiting as well....and I waited....and waited....and waited. When the bus didn't come by 1 we had all figured something was wrong which was most likely this bus schedule which according to my RA is apparantely all made up in the bus drivers mind anyway. When a bus finally came around 1:10ish he told us that he was not leaving until 1:40 so one of the other AUC students and I decided to go and get something to eat. We went to this spot near my dorm where the sold kusheri which is made of pasta noodles with lentil beans and chickpeas. Might not be what I would throw together for dinner at home but it is surprisingly delicious and filling. They also have this tomato sauce that goes on it and hot sauce too!

After eating we rushed back to the bus stop since we only had about 9 minutes to get there and luckily we made it with a few minutes to spare before the bus took off. While eating with this kid, we realized that I know one of the guys he went to high school with who goes to college at Fordham with me only going to show how small the world really is.

So I get to school and my friend Mae was also on the bus so we walk to get our IDs together only to find that the place where you are supposed to get your ID from was closing early for some reason or other and they would not allow us to get our IDs today. Perfecttt. We ran into some other friends of ours who were getting their IDs so we all just walked to the McDonalds on our campus (yes, I know we copped out) to get some ice cream.

There was an event going on tonight which was going to be a type of party with dancing, music, and food so we headed over there even though it was early since there was really nothing else to do. Walking there, we didn't even realize that where it was was even really there! My campus is so huge here it's like 4 times that of Fordham Rose Hill. The event was being held in a sort of ampitheater with a stage and a place on the side which was set up for food.

The SOLs (Student Orientation Leaders) gave us Egyptian scarves and/or thin scarves with small coins on them that jingled every time you move sort of like the ones you see on belly dancers. They were pretty cool to dance with and the music that they were playing was a mixture of American and Egyptian. There was one guy who was dancing the ENTIRE time even when no one was there. He was by far the most energetic person I saw tonight and he looked like he was having a great time. Gradually a bunch of us joined him and more and more people started to come.

We headed over to get some food after a while and at the stands they were serving gyro styled meals with either chicken or beef, a pizza like dish with very thin crustlike covering, fried dough saturated in honey (almost like zeppolis minus the powered sugar and with honey), and kusheri. Sorry I don't know the official names for these dishes I'll have to find them out for you. Everything was so delicious, especially the fried dough dessert but since I had just eaten not too long ago, I didn't eat as much as I usually would have.

After eating, that's when the real party began! We were all just dancing for a while to the music playing but there were official dancers who came out and like the guy from the Nile Cruise began to dance with the skirt that turned into one of those pins that you turn on the floor. But tonight there were 2 kids at first who were doing it and then an older kid and an adult came out to finish up the act. They were very good, even the kids for what the act called for. After they left we danced a bit more and then a group of men came out to dance and it was sooo fun to watch them! The were dressed in white robes and they looked so at ease with their dance moves and very happy to be there with us. We were all called to join them in dance which we did, and we formed a conga line a few times around the dance floor which was fun. So we continued to dance and dance and dance for a while more, and they played some Spanish music and even a Soca song (which really excited me)!

After Marhaba was done (the name of the event) the girls and I decided to take the bus back to Zamalek where I completely knocked out after discussing music tastes with Deb and Mae. I was so exhausted from the night and the nap was a refreshing. So we just got back to Zamalek about an hour ago and now I'm gonna go freshen up and find something to do with the rest of my night. Until tomorrow...

*BTW sorry I forgot my camera in my dorm room today so I'm gonna steal some pics from Deb's page when she puts them up and then post them on here.

Nile Cruise and New Cairo

So yesterday was my first day of orientation at AUC which was held on the new campus in New Cairo, about an hour and a half from my dorm in Zamalek. The bus over there was crazy, the bus squeezed through the littlest spots that I didn't think even NY cabs could. Even though the bus belongs to AUC (I'm guessing) the sides of them say "Family Transport" which is a little weird but nonetheless I got to campus safe and sound and realized that it truly is in the middle of the desert. I feel so bad for the kids who are dorming on the new campus because although it is GORGEOUS, there doesn't seem to be anything around to do and the campus itself is actually still not completed. You'll still see workers all around campus sanding and cementing structures... you'll see them in my pictures from today.

So yesterday upon getting to campus I was immediately awed at the architecture and colors that were used in the construction of the buildings. The colors are eye popping bright and the architecture is very modern. The campus itself is HUGE, it probably takes around a half hour to walk from one side of the campus fully to the opposite. The pictures truly don't do the campus justice and I wish everyone who reads this could experience for themselves how great it is. On campus they gave us breakfast which consisted of local food... some fuul, falafel, and I don't know the exact word for the last one but it was pretty much a small omelette with shredded lettuce and white sauce in a type of pita bread. Fuul is beans in the same bread and falafel looks like a patty almost a burger but it is made of fried chickpeas along with some other ingredients I was told. All of it was delicious and then there was also rice pudding, some fruit (which had seen better days) and tea or water.



After breakfast we had orientation where the staff told us more about themselves as well as the school and then they proceeded to show us a slide show of different images of Egypt and some sites within it. We did a roll call of nations which consisted of a country being called out and everyone from that country standing up to represent it. I found out that some of the international students here came from Norway, UK, and India. A lot more were called out but I'm guessing that those students either just haven't arrived yet or didn't want to stand up. Of course when the US was called out, 98% of the room stood up, which was no surprise to me.

After being talked to for what seemed like forever, lunch was served which was even BETTER than breakfast! We had pasta covered in a creamy white sauce I've never had before (no, it wasn't alfredo), parm chicken, vegetables, and the most delicious chocolate cake and cheesecake I've ever had. MMMMMMMMMMMM so good!

So after lunch the school had a few booths up where you could talk to some reps about the sports, residential life trips, health care center, etc. They also made us get cell phones in case of emergency they needed a way to contact us, but honestly I think it was pointless and I put it off anyways because I came here to get awayyy from those types of things. The sports seemed really interesting and I think that I'm going to sign up to play volleyball, which I've been dying to do ever since I got out of high school and since I'm finally not working, going to school and doing a million other things at once I'll actually have time to do this.

Lunch passed and then a group of us went to find out how and where to get our AUC ID's as well as some other things the school wanted us to do and when we finally did the lines were so long for everything that we just ended up doing nothing really and decided to do it today instead. Two girls that I've met here who are really cool, Kayla and Deb, and I decided to take the bus back to Zamalek to get ready for the cruise on the Nile that we had signed up for. So we got back to the dorms and I decided to unpack my suitcases (yes they had finally arrived!) and tidy up my room a bit. By the time I was finished with that and Skyping and IMing my friends and fam it was time to get ready for the outing.

The Nile Cruise was the most amazing cultural experience that I've had here yet. The boat was huge and the music, dancing and food was soooo great! There was a woman belly dancer, a guy who danced in a skirt which then turned into a spindle, and a live band. Everyone was so full of energy and enthusiasm the whole night. The girls and I sat at our table and enjoyed a great view of everything but what wasn't so great was that the performers then targeted us out to dance with them. After the show and dinner a group of us decided to go to the top deck of the boat for the view and to take some pictures. It was quite chilly but so beautiful that it definitely made up for it. The whole experience was about 2 hours or so, but I wish it had lasted a little longer. When we docked, we took some pics of the boat and the structures around it and then boarded the bus to go back to Zamalek.





When we got back to Zamalek it was still quite early so Kerry, Alex and I decided to explore the streets a bit and to try to find some cheap cells to keep in contact with each other. We did find some good stuff and after we got back to the dorms we went to Kayle and Deb's room to hang out and chat for a bit which went on for hoursss but seems like minutes. Most of the girls here that I've met are really cool people and I'm glad to have met them.

Today we had to go back to school for more orientation and had the same thing for breakfast and pretty much for lunch as well but the topics of discussion were a little bit different. There was a professor who was speaking on Egyptians and why AUC had moved to New Cairo (which from my understanding was mainly due to the pollution in Cairo as well as more space for expansion). It was interesting but what I really wanted to hear about was the sports which I had apparantly missed but hopefully they'll have some things around campus to learn more about them here.





So the girls and I attempted to get our IDs again today but to no avail because apparantly it takes about 15 mins p/person and there's always a million and ten people waiting for IDs so maybe tomorrow will be a better day. :) After that we just boarded the bus back to Zamalek and Mae and I shopped around for some things. She for a voltage converter and me for a cell and some flats (which I still haven't found). The sand around here really isn't that bad but most people wear closed toes shoes and so I feel as if I should as well. I didn't carry any but one pair of sneakers because they would have taken up way too much space and weight in my suitcase.

Tonight is up for grabs as to what we are going to do, but we might head out to a local restaurant or go to play pool at a local place. There are many things to do here and slowly we're going to try and do a little of everything. The nights here come very quickly and since we don't really have school for a couple days we're going to try to explore as much as possible now before we get bogged down with homework and schedules.

My First Whole Day in Egypt

Soooo... I finally made it to Egypt! After a 13 hour flight it felt so good to stretch my legs and see the country that I would be staying in for the next 5 months. Of course the airport lost my luggage but I decided not to freak out right away and save it for today. Supposedly my luggage is on a flight for today but we shall see how this works out.

Egypt is surprisingly not too different from home. The streets are crowded, the driving is terrible, yet the people are very friendly and accommodating. Of course there is this language barrier between us that I am determined to break down, but other than that things aren't so different. I can't wait to explore more of this city and its culture. Going to the bank this morning to exchange currency, I learned from one of the guys at my dorm that guys are not supposed to cross their legs in a way that people can see their feet or skin because it is taken as a rude gesture and since I seem to be the ONLY person here who hasn't studied Arabic in some form they taught me a couple words today too.

When I came back to the dorms I met up with some girls that I met last night at dinner and a whole group of us went to walk around a bit and grab a bite to eat where I met a couple more people coming from all around the globe. As big as this world is, it never ceases to amaze me how small it is at the same time. I met a guy last night who not only comes from Jersey but lives in the same city and on the same street as my boyfriend!!! Talk about weird...

So all in all, although missing my friends and family, I'm starting to like it here and slowly getting to meet people. I haven't been on campus actually yet but will be tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have even more to write about! Pics coming soon...