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Hi everyone!!
Well, I've now spent 3 full days in Cairo. It's quite the city! It's one huge blend of new and old, rich and poor. I've spent the past couple of days just exploring and getting to know the city. Our dorm is located in the neighbourhood of Zamalek, which is a wealthier neighbourhood on an island in the Nile. The dorm is really nice. It kind of feels like a hotel that was a 5 star hotel in its day. Since then it's developed some cracks in its tile floors, but it still has a classy feel to it. The housekeeping staff is really great (so much better than Prague for those of you who remember!!) and does a good job keeping the place clean. Our rooms are huge! Roughly about twice the size of my room back home. The dorm has a number of other advantages, such as a gym, a computer lab, an open courtyard with a garden, a sports court, big screen television in the lobby, a free shuttle that goes directly to campus 3 times an hour, and a laundry service. Some drawbacks include having the security guards look through your bag every time you come into the dorms and needing parental release to avoid the 10pm curfew if you're under the age of 21 (which obviously doesn't concern me).
We've had to attend a number of orientations in the past couple of days. One was on the residence. We went over all of the rules of the dorm in detail. Another one was the academic advising orientation at the school. I was torn over which Arabic class I should register for. While learning Egyptian colloquial would be good, I think I've decided to take the Modern Standard (the written form) class. Apparently the colloquial classes assume a knowledge of the Arabic alphabet and I definitely don't have that! I register tomorrow so I'll have to spend some time tonight figuring out what else I want to take.
The people:
So far everyone that I've met has been extremely nice. I heard one girl talking about how this is similar to the first week of freshman year in US colleges. Everyone is so desperate to make friends that everyone's nice. It's neat now that I've been here for a couple of days. People are starting to form groups of friends instead of the general superficial nice-ness that was the past couple of days. My roommate is nice. She's from Ohio and is here studying archeology and Egyptology. As for the Egyptian people, they are extremely friendly and helpful. For those of you who were concerned about a blonde going off the Egypt, you're fears have not been realized (yet anyways). I haven't had any problems. When a group of us girls are walking around (especially in downtown by the school) we have comments made towards us, but we just ignore them. So far, no problems with that.
The food:
The food is really good here. We've been eating a lot of Middle Eastern dishes, which are so incredibly cheap it's unbelieveable!! I had falafal sandwiches for both lunch and dinner for just a pound each (roughly 20 cents Canadian)!! We've been warned against all the possible health risks from eating fruits and vegetables (especially lettuce), but I've been venturing into sketchier foods and so far I've been okay. I figure that because I'm here for 4-5 months it's better to get my stomach use to these things. That being said, I just spoke to the girl that I had dinner with last night and she spent this morning in the hospital with stomach problems and a high fever... Maybe I've spoken too soon. We'll see...
Arabic:
So I decided (again after much contemplation) to fork over the $200 and take the 5 day survival Arabic class. I think that it's been a good investment. I've definitely learned some phrases to help me. I really like our teacher too. She's really nice and we have a portion of the class dedicated to us asking her questions about Cairo, Islamic culture, etc. It helps make the 4 hour class go a little quicker. I just wished that the class focused more on the actual phrases that would benefit us the most rather than stuff like grammer. It kind of reminds me of the Czech language class that we took in Prague. But overall, it's definitely helpful.
Traffic:
So I know that I've already commented on the traffic of Cairo in my previous entry, but I've now had a couple more days of experiencing Cairenes' driving. I honestly believe that they are likely the scariest drivers in the world. There are lanes marked on the roads, but they apparently exist for no reason at all. Drivers drive and park where they please, even on the sidewalks. Despite the discussion between many of us, no one can figure out how they manage to parallel park their cars into a space where there is only 6 inches of space between cars. We also can't figure out what a driver does when he needs to use his car and it's wedged into a spot and there's also two more rows of cars triple parked beside it. Crazy. I guess that's why they advised us not to drive here.
Strays:
Kitties, kitties everywhere!! I cannot believe that number of stray cats that are in Cairo. I just saw my second dog today, but I've probably seen 200 cats and kittens. I knew that Cairo had strays, but not like this. It's so hard because I feel so bad for them. We saw a 6-8 week old kitten yesterday and it had a sore on its leg. Trust me, I would have taken it home if I could!! I think it's hilarious because the woman in the New York office told me to get the rabies shot only if I couldn't resist petting the strays. I don't have to resist! These cats, especially the ones at the dorm and at the school, are so tame that they'll jump in your lap. So much for my plan of keeping my distance. It's funny. I was eating a sandwich at the school yesterday while we were on our break for our Arabic class and this little white cat wouldn't leave me alone. He was a determined little thing. He even followed me up to the 3rd floor and would have followed us into the classroom if the door hadn't been shut on him. So cute though. I was tempted to give him some, but then I would have been stuck with him for the rest of my stay I'm sure.
Security:
The other thing that I'm having difficulty getting used to is the number of police at are everywhere. Most of them are carrying machine gun/rifles. They generally leave the tourists alone, but it's still a little intimidating. On my first day here we went and checked out the Egyptian Museum. It had so many things that it was overwhelming. Unforunately, some of it was poorly marked so unless you either have a passion for Egyptian history, it was difficult to figure out exactly what you were looking at and the significance of it. We did check out the mummies though! It was excellent and really neat to see. Definitely worth the $7 Canadian extra to see the display. Speaking of security though, I don't think that I have seen so many armed security guards and police in my life. I guess due to it's high attraction of Western tourists, it's needed though.
Well now that I've bored you half to death with all the little details of my life so far in Cairo I think that it's time for me to wind this little entry up. Thanks for reading it and check back soon!
Katie
For those that want to write:
Katie Birdsall, Room 406
16 Mohammed Thakeb St.
Zamalek, Cairo
11211
Or phone:
00-202-739-7406 (I'll be getting a cellphone soon, so I'll let you know the phone then)
previous travel blog entry
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