Salam wa aleikum! Peace be upon you.
I googled that. It's the traditional way to say hello in Arabic, according to the internet. But tomorrow I'll be getting a crash course in Arabic so I'll let you know if that's correct! We arrived in Egypt today at about 3:00 pm, and the view from the plane was an exaggerated version of what I had been expecting. I was thinking there would be sand, but not THIS much. The whole city of Heliopolis (where the airport is) is full of it! I even thought we were going to land on the sand for a bit because I didn't see the tarmac at first. It was scary. We took a bus through the city and on to the American University of Cairo, which is in the Zamalek area (it's a pretty safe area, so don't worry). On the way I saw some pretty tough sights from the highway. The road went above the buildings sometimes so we were looking down at the tops of them, and there was so much trash and junk on every building, it was overwhelming. Someone asked if these buildings were deserted, that's how run-down they were. But then we saw people on the top doing their laundry amidst the trash, and they looked up at us and all of a sudden all I could think of was how we looked: Americans riding by in a high-class bus, taking pictures and looking pretty wealthy compared to them. It was a sad feeling. I think it's a good thing for me to see these things though; one of my goals this trip was to MAKE myself see things that are tough to look at because sometimes I feel that I'm in the American bubble and I haven't realized what much of the world is living like. I feel very blessed to live in the US after today.
Anyway, we got to the AU and unloaded our stuff. Our dorm rooms are HUGE, much bigger than any St. Olaf dorm room, and it was nice to unpack all of my stuff instead of living out of a suitcase. After unpacking we went on the hunt for some food and found a cute deli down the road that delivers food for free (good to know for later). My whole meal (which was a Mocha frappe and an omelette, as well as splitting a piece of cake) was 32 Egyptian pounds, which averages out to about $5.30 US dollars. Nice deal, huh? We were so excited about it. After dinner we ventured back and had a mini-orientation session with an RA from the campus. There are about 100 international students here right now and I'm excited to meet all of them! They're throwing a party for us tomorrow night with an Egyptian theme, so that should be fun. They all kind of stared at us though and everyone knows we're the newbies on campus. OH, and the rules are very strict here. There's a point system, and if you get up to 7 points for violations you are EXPELLED. These points come from things like not leaving the building during a fire alarm, public displays of affection, swearing or wearing inappropriate clothing, being loud, playing cards, drug usage, drunken behavior, etc. So I can't hold hands with all those people anymore, darn it! Just kidding.
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| The trash on top of the buildings |
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| The Nile River! |
We're all pretty tired from a day of travel, and it's quiet hours so we're heading to bed. Hasta la vista! (that's not Arabic, I know. I'll let you know what the Arabic version is tomorrow ;) )
I googled that. It's the traditional way to say hello in Arabic, according to the internet. But tomorrow I'll be getting a crash course in Arabic so I'll let you know if that's correct! We arrived in Egypt today at about 3:00 pm, and the view from the plane was an exaggerated version of what I had been expecting. I was thinking there would be sand, but not THIS much. The whole city of Heliopolis (where the airport is) is full of it! I even thought we were going to land on the sand for a bit because I didn't see the tarmac at first. It was scary. We took a bus through the city and on to the American University of Cairo, which is in the Zamalek area (it's a pretty safe area, so don't worry). On the way I saw some pretty tough sights from the highway. The road went above the buildings sometimes so we were looking down at the tops of them, and there was so much trash and junk on every building, it was overwhelming. Someone asked if these buildings were deserted, that's how run-down they were. But then we saw people on the top doing their laundry amidst the trash, and they looked up at us and all of a sudden all I could think of was how we looked: Americans riding by in a high-class bus, taking pictures and looking pretty wealthy compared to them. It was a sad feeling. I think it's a good thing for me to see these things though; one of my goals this trip was to MAKE myself see things that are tough to look at because sometimes I feel that I'm in the American bubble and I haven't realized what much of the world is living like. I feel very blessed to live in the US after today.
Anyway, we got to the AU and unloaded our stuff. Our dorm rooms are HUGE, much bigger than any St. Olaf dorm room, and it was nice to unpack all of my stuff instead of living out of a suitcase. After unpacking we went on the hunt for some food and found a cute deli down the road that delivers food for free (good to know for later). My whole meal (which was a Mocha frappe and an omelette, as well as splitting a piece of cake) was 32 Egyptian pounds, which averages out to about $5.30 US dollars. Nice deal, huh? We were so excited about it. After dinner we ventured back and had a mini-orientation session with an RA from the campus. There are about 100 international students here right now and I'm excited to meet all of them! They're throwing a party for us tomorrow night with an Egyptian theme, so that should be fun. They all kind of stared at us though and everyone knows we're the newbies on campus. OH, and the rules are very strict here. There's a point system, and if you get up to 7 points for violations you are EXPELLED. These points come from things like not leaving the building during a fire alarm, public displays of affection, swearing or wearing inappropriate clothing, being loud, playing cards, drug usage, drunken behavior, etc. So I can't hold hands with all those people anymore, darn it! Just kidding.
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