An Interesting Set of Events

So the past couple of days have been a little intriguing. Sorry I haven't gotten to write sooner, I've really been slacking off when it comes to blogging. This past weekend was really fun. It started with us girls minus Deb (partly because she was sick, partly because we she's our Karen) going to Cafe Vivant, one of our absolute favorite places to go, for dinner/dessert/cards. Kayla taught us this really intense game that they call "Nubbins" in Michigan. You don't even have to wonder... of course we changed the name. Our version was called Radio-shecck. It's pretty simple to learn but gets really intense the more people that you get to play. So it goes like this.

First off, every teams needs their own deck of cards to play, preferably ones that can be easily differentiated from each other. You play in teams of two and one person is in control of the 10 deck and the other in control of the 3 deck. There are a set of 4 cards laid out between the two set up in a type of solitare setting. The whole point of the game is to be released of your 10 deck and at that point one person on the team (usually the person who has the 10 deck) will call out NUBBINS! (Or Radio-shecck in this case, which was shortened to Shecck). So the game begins and out of the 4 cards laid out, you can lay one card on top of the other, colors must be alternating, to make space for another card from the 10 deck. The person with the 3 deck is constanting flipping over 3 cards at a time trying to find cards to raise the decks in the center of all of the teams. The piles start with the Ace card and everyone contributes to them trying to get as many cards in as possible to win. Everytime someone comes across an Ace they can put it in the middle and everyone has to compete to get their cards in before the next. The cards must be stacked in numerical order until it reaches the King card which is the highest in this game. You can use cards from the 3 deck to put on one of the cards in the pile of 4 to get rid of some. The team to get rid of all 10 cards in the 10 card deck "wins". I put this in parentheses because the team that gets out first isn't necessarily the winning team. So the teams left at the table have to count the cards left in their 10 deck and for every card that they have left, they have -2 points. After totaling this up, the winning team pools together all of the cards piled up in the center and put them in their own stacks according to deck. Each team gets back their cards and count them. They get 1 point for each card. You then total the number of positive points you have with the negative amount from your 10 deck and that is your total score.

It sounds quite complicated but once you get the hang of it, it can get pretty intense. Kerry and I played on a team together, Shelby and Mae, Kaitlin and Cate, and then since we had an odd number Kayla played by herself. We stayed there for HOOOUURS playing this game it was so intense. Kayla and Cate left early because they had things to do in the morning but the rest of us stayed until about 2:30 am playing until we finally left.

Friday, Kaitlin, Kayla, Shelby and some other girls wanted to go around coptic Cairo to see the different mosques and sites. I wanted to go but was tired and didn't really feel like doing anything so Deb, Kerry and I watched Pineapple Express which was pretty hilarious. By the time we were done watching that it was around 2 pm and Kerry had left for a supper party she was invited to. Mae was with her aunt and uncle spending the day, and we were at a loss of ideas on what to do. Deb and I ended up going to Khan el-Khalili and although crowded and harrassing, we had a great time. Turns out Deb is actually good for something and managed to get us amazing prices on everything, even though it was pretty cheap as it was. I finally got my water boiler so I can make tea in the morning, a scarf, and a handmade dress like the Egyptians wear. Deb got some beautiful handmade earrings, a shirt similar to the dress I got but in pink, and a scarf as well. We spent hours there perusing all of the little shops and stands in the market. When we first got there however, we were approached by this man who apparantly remembered me from about two weeks previous (and by my toe nail color, no less). He wanted to show us his shop, promising that between he and his family we would see some of the greatest things ever made.

We were a little skeptical at first but ended up following him down these little streets where Deb got swatted at by an old woman on the ground and cats running all over the place. He was talking to us all the while, asking us about where we were from and telling us how he had just returned from Tailand or someplace where he was learning how to give massages. Apparantly he was a linguist as well, because he spoke to us in French and Spanish as well. So we get to his shop and he tells us that we have to follow him upstairs. The building looked seedy and run down. He (his name is Mohamed by the way) lead us up flights of stairs that seemed to be neverending with Deb telling me the whole way about how we were about to die.

But we got to the top where his shop is and oh my goodness, you wanna talk about beauty? The walls of the place were covered in paintings done on papyrus and the images that were portrayed were so gorgeous. He said that he wasn't going to try to sell us anything but of course tried to anyway but I must admit he was a very good salesman. I didn't end up buying anything but I might actually go back sometime to do just that. He was very polite and offered us some tea, and he made a point to tell us that is was not the Lipton kind but authentic Egyptian. It was good and we drank while we looked and he told us some of the stories on the papyrus, but in the end we still didn't buy anything from him.

He took us back downstairs after giving us some of his cards, and he told us that if we wanted he would take us to see more of Cairo if we could get together a group of friends that wanted to go or he would just take us. Shady sounding, I know. He even offered to take us to Alexandria and to an Egyptian wedding to see what it's like and how they celebrate. So who knows if he was being genuine or not. He also showed us another shop that his family owns where they handmake those jewelry boxes that you see which were also beautiful. They came in all different shapes and sizes and they were covered in shiny materials that shined when you held them up to the light. Turns out that they use real camel bone in them. Go figure.

So Deb and I decided to leave after hours of shopping and had no problem getting back to Zamalek. We were very proud of ourselves and didn't even get lost on the way back! By the time we came back, everyone who went to coptic Cairo was there and we shared all of our stories with them and showed them what we had bought. We were trying to figure out what we were going to do for the night and ultimately we ended up at this kid Tim's apartment in Zamalek where he was having a little house party. It was pretty fun, we met a lot of different people but a lot we already knew as well. We met this guy Mohamed, Omar, and a few others who were talking to and some of them were practicing Arabic with them and helping them with their English. Omar I believe was from Saudi so we were asking him about that. The apartment that they have is really nice and spacious with two balconies and lots of room. Almost makes me wish I had thought about getting one instead of living in the dorms, but then I thought.... housekeeping...more room...caf underneath me...balcony? And then I remembered that I like the dorm life :)

We didn't back until really late...or early depending on how you look at the time so the next day I didn't wake up until 2 in the afternoon. We usually play volleyball at 3 on Saturdays so I kinda just hung out for that hour not doing much. Deb didn't come because she was still feeling sick so Mae, Callie, my roommate Cate and I went downtown to play and had a great time. The two girls who intensified the game last week weren't there so it was even better because we just got to play a normal intramural game. Towards the end one of them showed up and then it became a two person team and at that time we decided to leave. I picked up some apples at one of the little street vendors for during the week and then we headed back to Zamalek.

Sunday's I have class so that we pretty much the extent of my weekend, and I woke up feeling sore as ever from volleyball. I did make a trip to Metro where I got this package box of chocolate covered "digestive" cookies. I had them once and they were really good so I decided to pick some up....bad, bad idea. I went through the box like nothing and really regretted it the next day. :( So today is a much better day for me, but unfortunately for Shelby she did the same thing I did so today's not such a good day for her either.

I witnessed my first rain in Egypt yesterday too! It was a crummy day from the beginning and in the afternoon it rained for a few minutes but didn't last too long. I suppose it's good for things down here especially since it rains less than 1 cm per year. Of course the architect who built our school that that it was a fabbbbulous idea to put tile inlaid in the ground so the entire campus had slippery blocks on it and on my way to the bus I almost busted my head open. While most would find this embarrassing I started laughing, just imagining it happening to someone else. But still...not safe!

Two days ago, a bomb went off in Khan el-Khalili and a French tourist died and several others were hurt. Thankfully, no one I knew was there and as far as I know, no students from AUC was there at that time, so I hope no one is worrying about us. My sincerest regrets goes out to the family of the tourist and I will definitely be keeping her in my prayers; I hope everyone else does the same. I hope that people don't start to see Egypt as this dangerous place now, because it really isn't and anyone who was thinking of visiting, please still do. You cannot live with terror, for then you'll never know what you're missing out on.

On that note...I hope everyone is safe and do not forget to send your prayers out to the family of the tourist who was killed.

Fiesta Fiesta

So our dorm decided to throw us a party with an "Aloha" theme but served Mexican food which was really all good because the food was amazingly delicious. It was pretty much my first "home-cooked" meal since I've been in Zamalek and it was most welcome. They decorated our lobby and pretty much the entire downstairs with beautiful bright colors, I wish I had taken more pictures of the decorations. There were cloths draped from the ceiling all in bright colors, and tiki branches covering all of the windows and walls. They also had barrels as decorations with fruits on their sides. The tables all had bowls on the with a flower bed underneath them and there were live goldfish in the bowls on the table. It really was amazing. A lot of people attended which was surprising because all of the other events were half attended by the kids in the dorm. After our little fiesta we just pretty much went to bed since we all had classes the next day.

Susie, The best Receptionist EVER!!!

The next day our RA put this event together for the girls to get to know each other better since there are still a lot of us that don't know each other in the dorms. This is especially true for the Egyptians vs. Americans. I've noticed that we don't really mingle that much and I know it's partly our fault but it seems as though everyone here from previous years have already formed their cliques and don't really welcome outsiders. It's actually the same way on our campus I've noticed which kind of bothers me because I thought that I would be able to mingle with lots of different people here and while I have made a lot of Egyptian friends, I feel as though a lot of people at our school look at us as outsiders and aren't very welcoming. My experiences with people in the streets and in the stores though have been more than what I expected. Everywhere I go, the people who are there are more than willing to accomodate us and are even helpful and patient when we try to speak Arabic with them.

So my whole point in really telling you about the get together that we had for the females in our dorm is that there was free food and you know where there is free food I'm there! They had Euro Deli delivered for us, which as implies in the name is a deli nearby. They have amazing sandwiches and food there though so I was definitely happy to have been fed two days in a row. I didn't really meet anyone new there, the RA mostly talked about the rules of the dorm to us again and it was so cold out that everyone pounced on the food and left really. They had sandwiches, salads, french fries, potatoes, and different drinks.

That was last night and then today I just had class. Mondays and Wednesdays are the days I dislike the most. My days are so long and I usually am so worn out by the end of the day that my bed looks like a little slice of heaven. I wake up at 6:30 to take a 7:00 bus to campus for a class I have at 8:30. Then after that class I don't have class again until 12:30 so I have about 3 hours to do homework or whatever else is on my agenda. I usually just end up falling asleep in the library :). We're not doing anything tonight because everyone is saving up some money so that we can take a trip next weekend or even go out this weekend. We're still not exactly sure what we're going to do though.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY =)

So Happy Valentine's Day first and foremost to all you lovebirds out there. Unfortunately I'm missing it in the US but luckily Chris brought it to me, having a dozen red roses and a teddy bear delivered to my dorm. :) So that's how my day started, not too shabby I must say LOL. That was around 11 AM for me and then I kind of just bummed around my dorm not really doing much. This afternoon Deb, Mae, and I went to the old campus to play intramural volleyball which turned out to be amazing but a little harassing. It was a lot of fun to run around and actually get some exercise after so long but some of the girls who were playing were beasts. They were really good and knew it therefore trying to dominate the court. Next week will be a different story though. The team is just intramural so it's not too rough on requirements thankfully. Guys and girls both play, but today we just played against girls. We stayed for about 2 hours more or less and then came back to Zamalek.

Tonight to celebrate Valentine's Day we're all going to go out to eat at a restaurant and we also did Secret Valentine (Think Secret Santa just a different holiday) but we can't exchange gifts because some of the girls aren't here due to a desert trip, so we'll probably exchange them tomorrow or Monday.

Sooooo I finally got some roommates! I'm happy about this and sad at the same time. Happy because I finally have some people to talk to (and both are really nice and CLEAN, not like the first time around), but at the same time it's a loss of privacy too. But one of the girls who came the day before yesterday is from Tunisia. Her name is Wafa and her dad works as an ambassador for Tunisia (cool, huh?). The other girl I actually met already when I first came to Egypt. We came in on the same day at the airport and I briefly met her that day but we were on different campuses so we never really spoke. Her name is Kaitlen (dunno if that's the right spelling though) and she's really nice as well. She's going to come with us to dinner tonight so that she can meet some of the other girls and get to see a little bit of who we are.

I still don't know where we're going tonight for dinner, but the food here is so delicious that it doesn't even really matter where we go. We frequent this one place called Cafe Vivant where they absolutely LOVE us. They tell us that we light up the place and the other day we went there when it was packed and the guys took seats from a bunch of tables and gave us a nice spot right by the window. They're always really nice with us and Kaitlin (not my new roommate but a.k.a Shakira) taught them a new handshake that we always do with them now.

Yesterday we all went to City Stars, the hugest mall in the country and has just about every store you could possibly imagine, even some of the same ones in America too. They even have a supermarket/Wal-Mart type store at the bottom of the mall! They have a Cinnabon, Chilis, H & M, and various other stores there. It's very popular and packed every single time we go so we don't really shop there that much, plus it's a little on the pricey side. We went yesterday to go to Chilis which was AMAZING by the way and it was so nice to not eat falafel or kushery for one day. Afterwards we just came back and was going to watch a movie but apparantly there's something wrong with the DVD player in our lobby so we just watched TV instead which was very entertaining. There was a show on almost like "America's Funniest Home Videos" and we saw the funnnniest skits! It was definitely a good way to end out night.

The day before yesterday a couple of us went to eat at Vivant and then Kerry, Deb, Mae and I went to go play some pool which was SOOOOO much fun. We won every single game by default which was really retarded of us. Mae and I were on teams and Deb and Kerry played together. They were terrible and knew it so they stooped down to the lowest level ever by taunting us into making bad choices. We still had a great time together and hopefully will go again soon so that we can beat them and show them how REAL pool players win. The place that we went to is right down the block from our dorms and was filled with guys so I'm guessing that pool isn't really too popular among women down here. No one really paid us any attention which was highly welcomed and a great change from the normal catcalling from men on the street.

I know this post is a little backwards and incoherent but I hope everyone can understand the events that happened. Class starts again tomorrow but thankfully I only have one class. And I found a place on campus that serves Euro Deli sandwiches which I'm really excited about because I don't want to have to eat refried beans for lunch every day!

A Whole Lot of Nothing

So the last few days I haven't posted anything and that's because nothing much has really been happening besides school. During the week we don't really go out since all of us have different schedules and have to get up early for classes. Monday night our dorm had a movie night where they showed Eagle Eye with Shia LeBouf. It was actually surprisingly good, except the ending. I think if they would have left out the last "romantic" scene it would have been a little better. They made popcorn for us and bought some soda which was nice of them. We made friends with our receptionist Susie, so she was hanging out with us for a little while, mostly helping Kerry with her Arabic homework (yes, it's true)...

Other than that I haven't really been up to much. I am trying to find out about playing volleyball here though. Another girl here, Callie, who is interested in playing got word from the coach that they first practice is this Saturday at the old campus so we'll see how that goes. I don't really want to play for the school is was just looking for some intramural play time, but I'll take what I can get. I don't even know how good the players are here but supposedly they compete at the national level.

I also made friends with an Egyptian student in my morning class today, Professional Selling. He came into the classroom speaking Arabic to me, which I of course didn't understand at all. I told him I didn't speak Arabic and he didn't believe me at first and he told me that I look very Egyptian. I'll take that as a compliment LOL. His name is Kareem and since this is the class where I have the professor randomly ranting in Arabic, he was translating some of his mini speeches for me which was nice of him. Soooo this is the first Egyptian friend I've made by myself! Mae introduced us to a girl Dalia who is really nice as well and she seems like she'll be a cool addition to our group of friends.

BTW I finally uploaded the pics from the soccer game but since I'm not on my computer, I can't upload them now so I'll do this either later today or tomorrow.

Pyramids and Football!!

So yesterday was a very interesting day. We started off by heading to the pyramids, Me, Shelby, Deb, Kerry, Kayla, Kaitlin, Alex, and another girl in our dorm. We'd never been there before and so we weren't exactly sure about how to get there. Shelby had looked on the internet and gotten directions on which bus to take to get there but they were still a little confusing. We had to catch a cab to Tahrir Square where all the buses go and apparently we were supposed to catch one of the Cairo Transportation Authority buses and we had the number for it but we couldn't find it. The directions said that we might have to hail one down but none of us were trying to do that. After being confused for a few minutes, Kaitlin went over to ask one of the bus drivers what we were supposed to do. The driver was really nice and took us over to the booth to ask for us and not only did he find our bus but he even flagged it down for us since it was flying down the street! We ran to get on and finally we were on our way to the pyramids. I thought that the ride would be about 2 hours or so to get there and since I hadn't slept much the night before I decided to take a nap. Much to my surprise though we got there in about 25 minutes so I didn't get much rest at all :(. The upside was that the bus ride was only 2 LE which is about 40 cents for us....amazing.

We had to walk a little bit up the road to get to the actual pyramids and were haggled the entire time by men who were asking if we wanted to ride a camel or horse. After refusing time and time again while quickly walking away the men finally got the point to leave us alone. At the admission gate to the pyramids we found out that the entry ticket for students was 30 LE and that was just to walk around the area. The ticket to go inside the Great Pyramid was another 50 LE. After paying the 80 LE, which was a scheme to make money, we finally got through and saw what we'd been waiting 2 weeks for....one of the ancient wonders of the world...PYRAMIDS!! We took a few pics before heading to go inside of the pyramid and everything was so beautiful. We were there really early...about 9 am so thankfully it wasn't too crowded. We climbed up the great pyramid to get inside and couldn't take our cameras in so I couldn't get any pictures of the actual inside. It was lit up by flourescent lights on the sides to easily see and VERY cramped. Most of the time we had to duck down in order to climb to the top and the shafts reminded me of a mine. The entire climb was eleveated upwards with slats of wood in a perpendicular position to climb up. It was a bit hard to get up with a lot of people trying to come down but we finally made it up there and got to the final room. It was so amazing to be inside the actual Great Pyramid of Giza. The room was very muggy and felt like Jersey on a hot summer day. We walked around for a few minutes, felt the granite walls and peered into the tomblike structure on the far side of the room. I don't think it was an actual tomb since they're supposed to be at the bottom of the pyramids but it was still interesting to see.

We climbed back down to the entry of the pyramids telling the tourists how amazing it was up there. Some of them didn't look amused at what we were saying but they just had no sense of humor. We took more pictures on the pyramid, goofing off and then got down just to be harrassed by another man trying to get us to ride a camel. He wanted to charge us 50 LE, but after walking another 5 minutes we found a guy who was only going to charge 20 LE for a short ride. Kayla and I, Deb and Kerry, and Shelby and the other girl from our dorm rode camels together. It was the craziest thing ever. The ride itself wasn't scary, just getting on the camel and it lifting itself up and then also getting down. We had a pretty good ride and I forget our camels name but the other girls had Michael Jackson. The guy who was leading us stopped when we saw a family of tourists so that he could take pictures with them. Afterwards when they wanted to give him a tip he tried to rip them off taking a 10 euro tip and still asking for more. Since he upset them so much they took all of their money back and we went on with our camel ride. After leading us for about 5 more minutes, our trip was up and we got off of the camel and gave him the fee he had asked for in the beginning of the trip, 20 LE. He tried to ask us for more obviously trying to scam us but we refused and left him there with his camel. A few seconds later a police officer told us to take him picture on his camel and then tried to ask us for a tip! People in these tourist areas are a bunch of hustlers.





After the camel rides we made our way down to the Sphinx which was almost better than seeing the pyramids and we took more pictures down there. On our way down we passed groups of kids who were screaming out to us, smiling and waving. I don't know if it was because we were American or what but we definitely felt like we had celebrity status. At the Sphinx we met up with Shelby and her camel mate. We left after a few minutes to go back to Zamalek because we were all weary and hungry and ready to go. Trying to get a taxi was almost impossible. Either the driver didn't know where Zamalek was or was going to try to charge too much. Thankfully the girls all speak a little Arabic, so with all of there skills we finally got a cab back for 45 LE, breaking down to about $1.25 per person.



The cabbie was good and dropped us off about a block away from our dorms. We got back fine and were all beat so we just took showers, went to grab some lunch and then took naps because some of us were going to a football match later that night and some were going to go out to celebrate with Jackie, another girl in our dorms, since it was her birthday. I uploaded my pics on my facebook page, talked to my cousin for a little, and then went to sleep. The football match started at 7:30 so we were planning to leave the dorms around 5:30 but then around 5 pm Mae calls me telling me that I had 5 mins to get ready because the gates were supposed to be closing for the match at 5:30. I had just woken up from my nap and so had to rush to get ready, met up with the girls and then we took a cab to the stadium. We had a little trouble finding the place where our other friend Binita wanted us to meet her at but finally found her and the people that she was with. There was 6 of us girls and 2 guys who we came to be very happy to have with us. It was so crowded it was almost like a mosh pit, football is very popular over here! The guys were able to get us through most of the crowd after talking to the cops and we speedily got through the crowd instead of waiting in line with everyone else. We still got pushed and shoved but thankfully everyone was alright. The security was like nothing I've ever seen before. There must have been about 250 cops keeping the line in check and even more when we got into the stadium. We sat far up and had a clear view of the field. The match hadn't begun yet so we were just talking for a little while, taking in our surroundings. There was a guy next to us that wouldn't sit down, getting up to dance every few minutes. It was entertaining but a little annoying at the same time and then Deb and I had a girl in front of us who would turn around every time we made noise. So during the match while we were yelling and screaming we got a lot of looks from her. The match itself was crazy, the stadium was almsot filled to capacity with the opposing team's side near empty. Everyone was cheering for EL AHLY, Egypt's football team, singing chants and yelling to show their support. We ended up winning and afterwards everyone left the stadium yelling and people on the streets were endlessly beeping their horns in victory.

One of the guys that we were with, Mustafa, supposedly had a restaurant he wanted to take us to that he "owned" and since it was still early (the game ended about 9:30) he wanted to take us there so that we could eat and then he was going to drop us off where Jackie was celebrating her birthday. So after squishing into one car (imagine 8 people in a small Hyundai) we left to go to this restaurant. After a long, cramped and fast car ride we were all happy to be on our feet again and in one piece. The restaurant was beautiful on the outside and inside. I had a chicken mozzarella sandwich which Deb thought was disgusting but I thought was amazing and an Oreo cheesecake for dessert. The dinner was supposed to be free but of course nothing in Egypt ever is so we had to cough up money for dinner we weren't even planning on going to but only did because we thought it would be on this kid who supposedly owned the restaurant. Not a big deal. What really got us mad was that Mustafa's friend had to go somewhere and didn't get back for 3 hoursssss. Not 1, not 2, but 3 hours he was gone so by the time he finally got back it was 1:30 am and we still had to go celebrate with Jackie. We left as soon as this kid came back and made him drive us to where the rest of friends were. After many stops and asking for directions, we made it and left him for good for the night.

We didn't stay too long with Jackie because there was a 17 LE minimum to stay at the place they were going so we hung out for about 20 minutes and then Mae, Deb, Kaitlin, Kerry and I left to come back to the dorms. We got here and all had to sign in since it was past 10 pm and the guard gave Deb a hard time about if she lived here, wanted to see her id, keys and even went to look up to see if she really lived here. Out of 5 girls she was the only one who had trouble getting into the dorms and I told her it's because she's colombian LOL. So all in all we had a long day and even LONGER night but we still managed to have a lot of fun together. I haven't uploaded the pics from the soccer game but when I do I'll post some on here and my facebook.

Classes have Begun!

So I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I am excited to have started classes and meeting even more people than I met before (especially a LOT more egyptians) but on the other hand I was having so much fun just hanging out with the girls and going out every night that I guess I got spoiled.

I wrote in the last blog how I had missed my first class, and the rest of them went alright. My next class was International Finance which seems like it's going to be tough but the professor is very intelligent. I don't like pompous people and he seems to talk about himself A LOT especially how intelligent he is and how he finished college at 19 and went straight to Wall Street. Whoop dee doo. Anyhows it's going to be challenging but I'm always up for a good tussle with the books so bring it on. My next class was People and Culture of the Middle East & North Africa which is completely not what I expected. I don't really know what I expected but I feel as if what we talk about has nothing to do with the title of the class. Maybe it's too early to tell and I will save my judgements for another post but for now this is how I feel about it. On top of the class being dry I already found that one person who's going to be the "Miss Know IT All" during the semester and always has to object the class to her opinion even if it's on the syllabus. After that course I had Ancient Egypt which seems like it will be pretty easy for the most part and the coolest thing is that we'll be going on field trips for the class to the pyramids and also to the Egyptian Museum.

Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be my longest days because I have 4 classes, the 3 I mentioned above and the one that I missed, Professional Selling. I went to this class today and was so shockeddddd. My teacher is a tiny man with a HUGE mustache that grows over his lip and he must have the loudest personality of any teacher I've ever had in my LIFE. Taking this as an 8:30 AM class prooooobably wasn't the best idea on my part since it's comparable to sitting in front of the loudest amp in the loudest club in NYC. The professor practically yells at the top of his lungs and then randomly explains things in Arabic (which I of course don't speak). The class itself seems extrememly easy for a 400 level course and the teacher explains everything from the powerpoint which of course comes straight from the book.

My other class which I have on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday is Ancient Egyptian Religion & Ethics. This class I think I'm really going to like, even though the professor speaks very sloooowly. I don't know if it's because I'm from the East Coast of the US and we tend to speak faster but I always just want to finish her sentence and have her move on to the next instead of spending 5 minutes on one thought. Regardless, I've heard that she's a great teacher and I'm looking forward to the class.

The past couple days have been good so far. The other night was Shelby's birthday so we went to Cafe Vivant to celebrate it with her which was amazing. The staff there LOOVE us and we always joke with them and practice our Arabic with them. They have the most amazing food and dessert one could every dream of and it's so quick. I'll have to take a picture of my favorite dessert there next time I go, the chocolate crepe. It's to die for...

Today I met a really nice girl in a couple of my classes. I've been trying to make friends with the Egyptians here but a lot of them are cliquish and don't seem to want to talk. Regardless her name is Imane, and I actually saw her in my first and second class but didn't really pay her any mind until I heard her speaking in French. After class I caught up to her and asked her if she was French and she told me that she was Moroccan which is even more astonishing! So we chatted for a few minutes and exchanged numbers and she told me to call her if I needed anything so I might practice a little french with her while I'm here which is really cool.

So tomorrow I just have my one class, Ancient Egyptian Religion and Ethics, and then I think I'm just going to stay in the library for a while to do some homework since I have nothing else to really do for the rest of the day. I also need to reflect on what's important in my life and come to realize what's best for me instead of putting everyone else's needs first.

What was supposed to be my 1st day of classes

So yesterday was supposed to be my "official" first day at AUC but I wanted to switch out of the course I had for the day since it conflicts with the volleyball schedule here and I really want to play volleyball. I opted to go for Ancient Egypt Religion & Ethics instead of taking Cultural Anthropology because the time fit better and also it sounds more interesting. Mae and I got to campus earlier than expected so we went to finally get our ID cards and then we went to the CORE building to try to switch some classes. Why I thought this would be a simple process is something I still try to figure out. So we get to this place where two women are trying to handle about 20 kids trying to change their schedules around and it's so unorganized it's pretty ridiculous. We got there around 11 and Mae's class started at 11:30 and so did the one that I was trying to switch into, so I'm thinking, "Hey, maybe I can get this switched and still be able to get to class for the intro and all that jazz"... Boy was I wrong. Not only did I have the most horrible experience with this woman ever, I was there for over an hour and a half trying to do the most simple thing.

So it's my turn in line and I'm sitting there with my paper all ready to tell her the class that I'd like to switch into and she goes to me "CLOSED!" I try another class and she goes "CLOSED!", after attempting 4 other classes and getting the same response, she asked me if I could move to the side to let some other people go while I looked for another class to get into. I was amazed at how she could tell me this without even lifting a finger to her computer. By this time I was so frustrated that I just left to meet the girls for some lunch and then I figured I'd attempt to go back afterwards.

I met Mae and one of her friends outside and we chatted for a while, then started walking to this bagel place on campus. On the way there we bumped into Kerry, Kayla and Deb (who wasn't feeling too well). Kerry and Deb were heading back to Zamalek and Kayla walked with Mae and I to the bagel place. After sitting down to eat, we went back to the dreaded Add/Drop room where I waited in line for the other woman sitting there helping people. After waiting for about a half hour for her, I sat in the chair and told her which class I wanted to take...and guess what? I got WITH NO PROBLEM! Feeling relief yet angered at the same time, I was so excited to have finally gotten my class that I just thanked her and walked away, letting everyone in my path know not to go to the other lady but to wait for Rhonda.

By this time it was around 1:45 pm and I had been on campus since 10:30ish and the next bus didn't depart until 2:45 so I stuck around with Kayla for a bit since Mae had to go to class and we went to the library for a few. I had to leave around 20 mins after we got there because the bus was coming but Kayla apparantly made a new friend (LOL).

I got back to Zamalek around 4 and didn't have much to do at all so I cleaned my portion of the room, walked around a bit and finally settled down to re-read The Secret Life of Bees which I remember being a really good novel in high school. I also met my roommates sister who had come in to begin packing all of her sister's things to move out and she was really nice to me, apologizing for the mess and saying how she knew I must have been pissed (she didn't know the half of it) but since she was moving out there was no need for me to release any anger out on her especially since she was being mature about the whole situation. So I started to watch Pink Panther on my computer which is HILARIOUS for anyone who hasn't seen it, and then Mae Skype'd me letting me know she was back so I headed up to her floor so we could watch it together and by that time Kayla was back from class so we just headed to meet her instead to grab something to eat. Kerry joined us to go to this really good falafel place near our dorms where they both got falafel and I got this other patty like thing filled with meat which was so delicious and Mae had already eaten so she didn't get anything.

After that we just walked back to school where we ate in the caf and then went up to see how Deb was doing. She was still not feeling well so we cheered her up a little with our loveliness and then we left because we all had class in the morning. We went down to check out the ping pong room and the basketball court which isn't really all that but better than nothing. Then I went to bed, or tried to at least because I needed to catch the 7:00 bus for my 8:30 class.

Another story all in itself. My alarm didn't wake me up in time for the bus so I ended up missing that class today and luckily I had a break between that class and my next one which is at 12:30 and that is why I'm sitting here typing this all out now in the library waiting for my next class while having a little heart-to-heart with Jamila.

My posts probably are going to get fewer in between since the "newness" of Cairo has pretty much worn out, but I will definitely write about how my classes are once I finally get to all of them and if I do anything important. Also just to say how everything is going, but I don't want to get redundant or make you readers weary of long posts, so until next time!