First Week in Cairo

I can't believe I've been here for a week already. I also can't believe that classes start the day after tomorrow.

Unfortunately I don't have too many good pictures yet. I've had one tourist-y day, where I visited Coptic Cairo, Ben Ezra Synagogue, the famous old souk (marketplace/bazaar) Khan al Khalili, and very briefly Al-Azhar Mosque. My camera died about seven pictures into Coptic Cairo but I'm here for almost four months so I will definitely have the chance to return.

I guess for a recap/overview: I flew in last Thursday from JFK (accompanied by my lovable but overprotective father) and arrived in Cairo around 4:00 pm local time. The first night I met up with Jesse in Zamalek, the residential area where my dorm is, and we had dinner at a great Egyptian restaurant and then walked around the area a bit. I didn't actually move in until the next day.

Some people have issues with the dorm, but right now at least I'm really enjoying living here. It's much nicer than any room I've had at Bryn Mawr! HUGE closet space, and AIR CONDITIONING. Very nice. Amusingly enough, my assigned roommate was Jesse, but she'd been here for two months this summer and opted for an apartment in the neighborhood instead (an incredible, huge apartment btw but...no air conditioning). AUC apparently didn't remove her from the dorm list so I didn't get a replacement roommate and right now have this huge double to myself.

Speaking of AUC, the actual campus is in an area named (perhaps somewhat optimistically) "New Cairo," which is an hour away from these dorms. The campus used to be in Tahrir Square, downtown Cairo, but a year ago they opened this new campus in the desert since they ran out of space downtown. There will be days where I'll hate the commute, I'm sure, but until then I'm just so excited to be in the city, in the midst of things, especially with Ramadan going on.

My dad was a little annoyed when he found out about the commute and tried to convince me to move to the new campus when we toured it on Sunday. I've seen a bit of the downtown campus which is nice, but the new campus is stunning. Really shiny and new. Someone described it as a modern day Agraba, haha. It's funny though, as we were arguing, we ran into a friend from my Arabic class at home (Stephanie who goes to Haverford), who is living on the new campus and not especially enthused about it.

She described it as living in a gated community: every possible amenity is there, everything is so easy and convenient, but outside of the campus there's nothing. She predicts that in 10 years it will be a great place to live, when New Cairo has expanded to touch the rest of the city, but until then the closest attraction is City Stars Mall.

Which, I am curious to go to. First, I'm from Jersey so I know malls, and second, I've also been to the ridiculous mega malls in Dubai so I wonder how Cairo compares. Also there is a movie theater there and they are currently playing the charming Zac Efron film 17 Again :)

But you can only go to the mall so many times (especially since, as someone explained to me, the prices are the same as in the US/Europe, just in Egyptian pounds. Not the US value in Egyptian pounds, sigh). What's great about Zamalek is its location in proximity to the rest of the city and easy access to transportation. The metro is small here still, and I believe there are plans for a third line to be built, but for 1 pound each ride (about 18 cents) you can explore so much. Sadly there is no metro stop in Zamalek yet, but Tahrir is about a 5 pound cab ride away and I believe Sadat Station is a transfer point so you can get anywhere from there.

It is so easy to find a cab here, though I've had some trouble finding ones with meters. I'm not confident enough in my Arabic to ride an older one w/o a meter and run the risk of being severely overcharged (I've heard that for a trip a local may pay 5 pounds for, an obvious outsider could end up being charged 50).

I'm trying to get more comfortable just walking places also. AUC gave us this great book of maps, but I am just hopeless sometimes at finding places (Washington, DC is probably one of the easiest cities in the world to navigate but don't ask me to lead you around in spite of living there for 2 consecutive summers). I did successfully find the grocery store today, as well as this lovely pastry shop and Jesse's apartment. Which was nice, b/c the other night she had a small (well it started out small) party at her house and I got so lost ("What do you mean you're by Pizza Hut? Okay stay there") she had to come get me.

Random observation about Egypt (sorry if this seems incoherent and poorly organized): I really really REALLY love the fact that my name is not weird here. After years of having it mangled in some very creative ways (I've gotten Sundance more times than I care to remember, as well as the truly ugly sounding Soon-deez), it's such a great feeling to introduce myself and have people recognize the name. "Oh my best friend is named Sundes!" I like how sometimes people will nod approvingly. "Yes, Sundes. Good name."

Other random thought (more like venting, really): At Jesse's party the other day I was introduced to a group of AUC students from the dorms, hadn't met any of them before. I was drinking from a water bottle, most people opted for different beverages, whatever. This guy sits next to me, and, not even a "Hi, hello, Izaik, Salaam" blah blah whatever, says (first thing): "So, are you religious?"

Ummmmmmm why the hell would you ask me that? You would not ask any of the white ladies at the party that, I'm absolutely certain. And he continues, "Yeah I noticed you weren't drinking" but he still asked me that b/c presumably his thought was well she's not drinking but hmm I can see her hair how strange?!? Also it's not a big deal some people don't drink why are you getting so insecure about it GOD

I think I was pleasant enough, I ended up talking to him for a good while and afterwards wondered if I maybe judged him a bit harshly (perhaps he's just awkward) but still why would you ask me that? I get it, I'm ethnic, whatever, but...I dunno, it rubbed me the wrong way (can you tell, haha). Are you religious?!? What the hell.

I'm not especially religious, I often question whether I believe in God. I'm not really sure what I believe or how I feel, although I do know that seeing people in the Hanging Church and Al-Azhar made me feel something...regret, maybe? Like I'm missing out somehow. In the church there were so many paintings and depictions (I even saw a needlepoint one!) of Saint George killing a dragon and people would walk up, press their fingers against it and look so HAPPY and touched and I dunno, made me feel sad. Walking through Ben Ezra Synagogue, stunning but no pictures or video allowed, believed to be near the site where Moses was found among the reeds. Al-Azhar is gorgeous, especially at night... I'm not sure what I'm getting at here. Religion makes me feel sad b/c I'm not a part of any tradition. Felt very much on the outside looking in and there were moments where I deeply wished I was part of it all.

Of course then I start to think about other things related to religion and I get so ANGRY and I condemn it forever so yeah I don't really know.

Anyway, back the point, I was really annoyed when he asked me that. Later, I was further annoyed when I walked back to the dorms with a separate group of people, none of whom I knew, and the conversation turns to where everyone was from. One boy was particularly insistent.

So, where are you from? New Jersey, where are you from? Austin, Texas so were you born in New Jersey? No actually, born in Houston Texas. Hey how about that blah blah we talked about Texas a bit and how in my opinion Houston is a very underrated city (the museum district by Rice University is AWESOME) but Austin is apparently the coolest part of Texas and this was fine, a nice conversation actually until...

So, are your parents from Houston too?

Oh ok, I get it, where are you from means where are you REALLY from blah blah blah obviously not NJ since I'm brown and all anyway my parents are from Pakistan. Oh Pakistan that's great you must be fluent in Arabic no they don't speak Arabic there it's a language called Urdu some similar vocab but not really oh cool do you go there often etc etc etc then we finally got to the dorms and good night.

Where did so many people get the idea that Pakistan is part of the Middle East?? It's pretty distinct culturally so...whatever.

In other news, my parents are still worried as evidenced by the fact that my dad calls every day and my mom sounds overjoyed everytime she hears my voice. Which I personally find very pleasant, I mean she's so excited whenever I call. Makes me feel loved <3

I meant to check out some nearby museums/attractions today (there is a planetarium and modern art museum in Gezira, which is like the lower half of Zamalek--Zamalek is an island on the Nile) but I'm ridiculous so I woke up ~2:30 and ended up just grocery shopping and exploring the neighborhood a bit. Hopefully I can check out the museums tomorrow, since Sunday is our first official day of school. I'm taking 4 classes out of a possible 5 (you're still a full-time student with 4 classes but I think generally people take 5 for a full semester) but I'm still nervous. Didn't practice Arabic *at all* this summer so I hope school doesn't get too stressful.

After all I need to reserve some time for relaxing in cafes and channeling the spirit of Naguib Mahfouz and hopefully write something decent.