Storming Cairo, Hijabi-style

Day Two, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Economy.

Today was a multitude of tasks, but before I go into that let me tell you (my loyal readership) how much getting emails, Skypes, Facebook messages, etc has meant to me. Being here in Cairo is an exhausting experience, but you often wonder if traveling a few thousand miles means you're forgotten. It's nice to know that I'm not. I miss you folks like hell, each one. I miss our jokes and stories, I miss chatting with you over food in Leo's, over sweaty selves at practice, over dinner at home, at family parties, on the rare occasions I see some of you. I miss you all and just thank you for helping me with this transition. It's not every day you pack up and change from arguably the most affluent society to somewhere that the minimum wage is LE 20 a month...that's about USD $4.

So my adventures. First I got up and took the shuttle to the university, hadn't done that before, with a girl from Georgetown. She lives on my floor, we had second year Arabic together, and she's a sweetheart. She had her course registration appointment, and I wanted to try and figure some things out, including my placement in Arabic (from yesterday's awful, jet-lagged placement test), sports/athletics, and where to go this weekend.

I got there and checked the results of my Arabic test. Arabic 203, they said. I checked the course description. It said something about mastering paragraph structure...but I wrote a five-page paper last semester! So I freaked out, and started trying to find the Professor (the Head of the Arabic Language Institute) to try and argue into a higher class--everyone said you could. Ok, so about 90 minutes of walking around the various University campuses, people making phone calls, and wandering MORE, I found the guy. He was administering the make-up test. So I waited for him to come out and asked (in Arabic) if we could talk about my placement in Arabic. (Well, I asked if it was possible, to which he responded very possible.) So we started talking in a sort of half English/half Arabic about my placement. Finally he opened the paper and showed me which classes did which lessons from which books and I'll be darned! They put me in the right class! The course description in the office certainly dumbed the class down and didn't put Books and Lessons. So, alhamdulilah, I'm in the right class.

Next jaunt was to get a cell phone. Radio Shack (or as their credit card reciept says "Radio Shach") was more than willing to sell me a phone. The basic thing in Egypt is prepaid minutes, everybody does them. There's no such thing as calling plans, free nights and weekends. So I bought the cheapest phone they had plus 100 local minutes... USD $72.17 . I wish Votaphone would come to America!

Went to lunch after that. Two Georgetown girls and I ended up going a bit upscale for lunch--less Egyptian food. It was a French-ish restaurant. So I paid LE 11 for a Greek salad and toast. It wasn't bad...first fresh green food I'd had!

Then we got onto the shuttle--which left a half an hour after we thought it did (so we sat in the stuffy van for almost 40 minutes because we weren't sure when it would actually depart), and came back to the dorms.

I finally gathered some gumption and went to the gym. I wasn't sure what to wear. I had planned on long sleeved tshirt and long gym shorts, but chickened out and wore long pants. When I got there the nice guy with bad English (he spoke English and I spoke Arabic) explained the procedure for getting an AUC gym ID....which involves a physical exam by an AUC doctor. Trusting they ain't, I guess. Although I found out that I can wear whatever I want to work out. But he let me use the equipment anyways. I got onto the treadmill and was way too impressed with my time....I mean I know I can't do a six minute mile and feel that nice! That was when I realized it was in minutes/km. Oops. But let me tell you, running in a tiny airless hole on a treadmill in long cotton shirt and pants is no treat. No treat at all. In fact, more of a penance. But I did an honest 5k, which is short but I was feeling tired.

Then I left the gym, another guy had come in and was chatting with the gym manager. There was only one working treadmill and I was on it, the guy tried the other one so as soon as I finished I got off and went out to the courtyard. A few minutes later the guy walks by with a cup of tea and a bottle of water. He hands me the bottle of water and we're going back and forth a little in Arabic. He says I need more water, I'm saying thank you but no (I mean, who knows if he put something in it? I'm a careful girl.). We start chatting, and he eventually sits down and is quite nice. His first comment to me was "Oh, you're the veil-girl!" Apparently not so anonymous... He's actually Saudi, but all his uncles worked for Aramco in the 80s so he grew up speaking English, listening to Aerosmith, G'n'R, U2. He gave me a really nice...well...I guess affirmation. I commented that whenever I spoke to people in Arabic, and he jumped in and said "they answer you in English" and I said yeah! He told me to just keep speaking to them in Arabic, because they want you to get better and are flattered that you take the time to try.

Oh, and the water? I carried it back up to my room, and checked it when I got there. It was sealed. Nice guy.

Just thought I'd put this out there. Mom is scared I'm going to marry an Egyptian guy. Don't anyone get that idea. I've met two guys here that aren't study abroad who I would even speak to in casual conversation...and both are highly westernized. They talk about the beautiful meeting of cultures in marriage, I don't think I'm cut out for that.

This evening I tried the food in the dorm cafeteria (lame), And ended up going out with a bunch of other American kids. We ended up splitting up, but seven of us went to a silly overpriced American-ish restaurant. And I had a blast sitting around with these six other kids just talking about home and our experiences here thus far. We got goofy at the end but it was worth the LE 18 of food for me just to sit and laugh with them.

Some more American friends, a Saudi friend. Things may actually be looking up!

Plans for this weekend: Luxor, Karnak, and Valley of the Kings!