Finally

So finally I am updating my blog....

Its crazy really how busy I've been and how much I've settled in all at the same time. When I was abroad last summer it seemed that I blogged nearly daily - but it feels different now. Then - I knew there was an end date in sight and I knew just how temporary the situation was and wanted to record every moment. Now - things feel different. I'm not here for six weeks. I'm here for two years. It feels so much more permanent and so blogging about it seems weird- because now I'm not blogging about an adventure abroad - but I'm blogging about life.
And at the same time - that feels more appropriate - so I think i'm going to start blogging more often.

Classes are amazing. Hard - and amazing. They aren't hard in the traditional sense that I have a lot of homework and its hard. Or even that the material is somehow hard to grasp or understand - it's hard because all I do is sleep, eat and READ. I read until I think my eyes are going to bleed sometimes. Thus the nature of law classes I suppose.
Most of the grad students take three classes - but I'm doing four. That's partly because I'm doing a Master's and a Grad Diploma so I have more classes to fit in. And partly because if I only did three I think I would be bored. It's honestly a lot - but just enough at the same time. I think because if I had less - I would be more tempted to hang out with friends and go out more and put it off. But the workload is such, that I know I can't afford to get behind - so it keeps me in the books and on my toes.

I have met a lot of friends here. And I think good friends that I'll keep for a long time. There's Kais - the German/Tunisian. We go out for koshry after class and play backgammon for a couple hours twice a week after our classes. Then there's the Lebanese crowd. I like Ramy and Sheeraz the most - we like to talk politics and world affairs in the commons. There is the Egyptian Hassan. My god, we start talking about whatever at 9pm and then crap! when did it become 3am! There's plenty of Americans I've gotten to know well too. The only unfortunate thing is that most of them are study abroad for a semester or year and so soon they shall be gone... the Arabs are here to stay longer term and so I really feel the opportunity to get to know them and build friendships is better.

The students here on campus are sooooo young. I've helped I think 5 students now learn how to do laundry for the first time. I was doing laundry by the time I was 10! They're 19 and don't know how... must be nice. They don't know how to cook or grocery shop for themselves. They don't know how to write papers / source them / notecarding research methods / how to use commas and semicolons... the list goes on and on. I help so many of them with so much, and the fact that I'm the second oldest in all the dorms - has earned me the nickname of Gdo. Gdo is Egyptian for grandpa. Its really funny to me - because I honestly do feel that way sometimes. LOL

So for now it's getting late and Gdo needs to go to bed.... see you all very soon.

new post.....FINALLY

SO.... I know its been a while. A week actually since my last post. It has been soo soo very busy here in Cairo. So much has gone on that I don't know where to start. I will write a couple of blogs tonight so I can catch up without overwhelming those of you reading my blog.
First things first.... thanks to my friend Amy's message, I realized that the auto settings for my blog required you to register an account to leave a simple comment. I thought that was silly and would LOVE to hear your comments on my blog - so that has been updated to allow for comments. However, if it doesn't give you a spot to put a name, please do in the comment or I wouldn't know who you are! I'm still figuring out how blogger works....

I LOVE it here in Egypt. Since we last left off, I have been on many adventures. The cool thing is that the Housing and Res Life here on campus makes every effort to plan a lot of trips. This really gives us the chance to get out and see Egypt. This is a popular university for semester and year-long study abroad. They have one of the best Arabic Language Institutes around so many people come here to enroll in their intensive and beginner Arabic programs. So they know each semester new people come and go and they repeat trips each semester accordingly.
Last Tuesday before classes started, there was a trip to the pyramids with lunch after planned. Many of us went, although the only Arabs, or Muslims for that matter, that went were the tour guides and the RAs. This is because it was during Ramadan, the holy month of the Islamic calendar. As such, during Ramadan, Muslims fast each day from sunrise to sunset. Egypt actually backs it time up an hour during Ramadan to make this easier on its residents. So from about 4:30AM to about 6:30PM (though it moves up a minute each day so it changes) they cannot eat or drink ANYTHING - not even water. So a trip to the pyramids at 11AM during the hottest part of the day in one of the hottest months of the year in August - isn't really wise if you can't drink or eat.
It was a blast. It was a funny feeling. It was a lot like seeing Stonehenge last year for me. There they are - standing right in front of you - 5000+ years of history and architecture, I climbed on them, touched them - smelled the inside of the millenia old tombs - and then we left.
Its such a wierd feeling that I find hard to put on paper. It is so AMAZING to see and touch them, but then its over. They don't do tricks - they don't speak to you of their mysterious architecture and hallowed history - and you realize that they will be here for still more milennia to come and that's it. The mystery fades as quickly as it captured me when I was 8 or 10 or whatever age I was that I became fascinated with the Egyptian pyramids. I think, at least for me, I hype these things up in my mind, I build them up expecting some great euphoric moment when I see and touch this amazingly historical item and it doesn't come.
And my friend Ahmed, an Egyptian from Giza pictured with me above, has lived for 19 years in the shadows of the pyramids and this was his first visit. To him, and his family its nothing special. They've been there for generations, and will be for more and it was nothing special. It was really interesting to find the ambivalence of the pyramids that many Egyptians have b/c it is something they see everyday of their lives.
But I must profess - as cynical as the above sounded - it was INCREDIBLE and I'm SOOO glad I did it. But it was the tourist trap of all tourist traps. You are basically hounded from all sides, angles and locations by people wanting you to buy anything - even your own camera back from them....
The general rule for materials sold at these areas seems to be "if its already in your hand..... you've already bought it". They place an item in your hand, you take it, look at it and say no thanks, but they won't take it back and they expect payment. EVERYONE is out to make a buck. Literally - they didn't want to be paid in Egyptian pounds - they all but demanded payment in US Dollars. Even the security guards were out to make $$. Don't climb on the pyramids, the signs read - but for a tip you could climb as high as you'd like. Don't take pictures in the tombs and in the pyramds, but for a tip, take as many as you'd like.
Justin, and I (pictured with me on the camel) met a "nice" Egyptian man who wanted to dress us in turbans and pose for pictures with us. We knew this would require a tip, or "baksheesh" after, but we didn't care - we thought it would be fun. That is until he all but ran away with my camera - sort of. There are Egyptian Tourist Police everywhere, so he wouldn't have gotten far with it - and didn't intend on it anyways. He led us over to his camel. Before I could get my camera back (because he selectively spoke English only to his benefit), Justin and I had to sit on the camel to pose for a picture. No sooner had the flash gone off, he signaled the camel to stand. We immediately started protesting this, to which he answered, "you'll have fun!" We protested no - its' not fun - stop~! and let us down.... to which he suddenly spoke no English again. We steadily protested for what seemed like ages, while we watched our friends Tiffany, Lizzy, Mike, etc all parade by on camels screaming "Stop! Let me down!"
It seems we had all been had almost simultaneously at different points around the Great Pyramid. We finally found our way down, and got my camera back after negotiating a tip with our camel-kidnapper. We survived and had a great story to tell and pictures to prove it.
I survived my first ever Cairo Tourist Trap....

More Cairo

So I freaking love being in Egypt.

I have already made some really good friends. There are a few Americans that I have become friends with but I have actually became better friends with some Egyptians and mostly with some Lebanese.

The Jordanians and Lebanese that I have met, I have hit it off with the most. I love the people over here so much. There are 7 Lebanese students here and I've become good friends with them all. Nancy and Nataly are twins and Rasheed, Mohamad, Ramy and Mostafa are all sophomores at AUC. They are all on MEPI scholarships which are U.S. State Department scholarships. They all also participated in the YES program which is an exchange program which sends students from abroad to US high schools. Nancy spent a year at Perry Meridian in Indianapolis. She misses the people in Indy and her host family and its cool to meet someone who lived in Indy from the Mid East so we have bonded over our love of the Colts as well. Mohamad spent time in Toledo, OH and Mostafa was in Michigan and in true Michigander fashion, when I asked where he was at in Michigan he got out his hand and pointed. There is something re-assuredly American about them, but wholly and completely Arab too. The 7th Lebanese is Shiraz and she is in my graduate program in Migration and Refugee Studies. Mostafa's girlfriend, Sherri, is from New York and she is in my grad program of International Human Rights Law. So I think it was providence that I fell into that group.

There are also 6 Jordanians that I have met as well - and I love the Jordanian people as well. The two cultures are less conservative than even in Egypt. Egyptian conservatism can be seen and experienced right on campus nearly every day. In order to attract Egyptian students the University reflects the values of the greater Egyptian culture which means that there is great separation of sexes. Being on the other sides' dorm area is immediate expulsion. PDA of any kind gets you points and 7 points gets you kicked out of housing. Liquor is completely forbidden and gambling as well. So no poker and beer on campus for me.... Although I'm quickly learning that these are more "official" policies than they are actually enforced. There is a bit of a double standard for Americans as well. While they want to appeal to Egyptians with their conservative values, they want to appeal to Americans so they tend to look the other way and hand out a lot of warnings to Americans as opposed to how they treat Arabs. Its not really fair, but its the way it is....

It turns out that they forgot to tell me and all the other grad students in the program that our classes are all downtown and not at the new campus. Because a lot of law students in Cairo also work in the law field and criminal justice system in Egypt, they keep their classes all at night and all downtown. But those of us who thought it would be a good idea to live on campus - whoops! They forgot to tell us and so we will have an hour bus ride each day, each way to get to our classes. My first class is tonight. Classes are held Sunday - Thursday because Friday and Saturday in Egypt are the weekend days.

This is the tail-end of Ramadan so a lot of schedule stuff is messed up anyways because of the required fast for all Muslims every day in the month of Ramadan. Muslims fast while the sun is up, so Egypt bumps back the time during Ramadan, to make it easier on its citizens so they cannot eat from 4:30AM until 6:30PM. 6:30 is Iftar which is the breaking of the fast when they eat. I've been hanging out with my Lebanese friends a lot and so have kind of accidentally fallen into their fasting schedule. I stay up with them and eat at 3AM and then go to bed and sleep till noon and don't really get hungry till around 5:30 or so, so I just wait and break fast with them at 6:30. Although they have to fast from EVERYTHING including water and cigarettes too...so I'm not fasting but am definitely on their eating schedule by now - I'm gonna have to transition off soon because Ramadan ends soon with the upcoming Eid holiday on September 9-12 where we have a four-day weekend - Thursday through Sunday.

I'm ready for classes to start tonight. Although this first week instead of classes being from 5:00 - 8:00 like normal, they are all from 8:00 - 10:30 this week to allow for the breaking of the fast (Iftar). Its amazing to be here and experience the diversity of thought, opinion and background here and the great bonds we have in spite of the differences. Last night I was at dinner with Lebanese, Jordanian, Puerto Rican, American and Palestinians.

Its a great atmosphere. There are a LOT of students here who have one (or both) Arab parents but have always lived in the US, so now that they are here they are experiencing their own culture for the first time. And although they may have never lived in Palestine, Egypt or wherever, they are accepted by those groups as if they always had....

I cant wait for two more years here.... so so so excited for the adventure to continue!