First Week of Classes

So I successfully completed my first week's worth of classes yesterday, but that's not to say there weren't (and still aren't) some bumps on the road. For one, we (the students) weren't entirely sure if classes were starting on Sunday or if they were being pushed back a week in order to allow more time for the completion of the campus. Unfinished buildings, classrooms, and offices aside, my classes started for the first time Sunday morning at 10 am. During the month of Ramadan, classes start earlier and are actually a slight bit shorter as well. I have to get up pretty early because I need to make the 8:30 shuttle so I can get to class on time. The ride in the morning is about 45 minutes, but the ride back can be as long as 2 hours (yesterday, my ride was 2 hours long because Thursday afternoon traffic here is the equivalent of Friday afternoon traffic in the states). My Modern Standard Arabic class meets 4 times a week for 2 or 3 hours depending on the day. I really like my teacher and her style of instruction, we little to no English in class, and she explains grammatical concepts in Arabic. We are starting a couple of chapters before where I ended last spring, but finishing at the point I need to be at. My other Arabic class is called Media Arabic, and we will learn the necessary vocabulary to read a newspaper, watch the news, or listen to the radio and actually understand what is being said. My other classes are a history class called "Gunpowder Empires," which will focus on the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. For the first two classes I couldn't tell whether my professor was a man or woman. It was an awkwardly androgynous situation. It turns out that the professor is in fact a woman. My fourth class is the one I'm most excited about taking. It's entitled Art and Architecture in Ancient Egypt. It's sort of an inter-disciplinary course because it combines ancient Egyptian history, art history, archaeology, and anthropology. The professor is a big name in her field, a specialist in animal mummification, and even designed the animal mummification portion of the famous Egyptian Museum in Cairo. She's also taking us on field trips to the museum, which should be quite the experience. That way, I won't be walking around aimlessly when I go there. I also am looking forward to this class because it's the one class I'm taking that has a lot of Egyptians in it. I came here for a unique academic experience, and right now, I'm thinking this Egyptology course will lead the way in this regard.

AUC's new campus is beautiful, or I should say, the parts of campus that are completed are beautiful. I sort of wish that I was studying abroad here five years from now because I feel as though the campus would have developed a character of some kind by that point. Also, it'd be nice to have some signs to show me where certain classrooms or offices are. I have all my classes in the same building, and honestly, without any signs in it, it's like trying to navigate a maze. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of it before the end of Ramadan.

The students at AUC are clearly the wealthiest bunch in Egypt. I have never seen so many people wearing so many designer clothes. The students here make Georgetown students look like slobs (sorry Hoyas). However, a lot of the shirts the guys wear are ridiculous in that they usually have some overt sexual innuendo depicted on it; for instance, I saw a guy wearing a shirt that said "I make good babies" on it. I definitely wasn't expecting that sort of thing in a predominantly Muslim culture. Also, the girls wear very form fitting clothing. Before leaving, I remember our orientation advisor telling the girls to wear loose fitting clothes, and most of them followed that direction. The Egyptians, on the other hand, didn't quite get the memo. Thus far, the native students seem very clique-y in the sense that they mind their own business. I guess I'll have to take some initiative to really get to know my Egyptian classmates.

Tomorrow I'm planning going on a day trip to Coptic (or Old) Cairo. In shah Allah, I can resume my traveling type of posts. Here are some pictures of the new campus.

This is the library. It's nice and cool on the inside and has an excellent selection of Middle Eastern related books (not surprising). Brett, there's no lower level.

This is the main walkway leading to the academic area of campus. It's also become the spot where all the Egyptian students hang out. I'm sure the nice shade played a part in that decision.

This is what I deal with coming home everyday- absolute chaos. By the end of the week, they started putting signs out to guide us to the right bus.

Well, I had a great week on the whole. I still have to get some things squared away (student visa, bus pass, and gym card), but I'm looking forward to the academic experience that lay ahead.

Ma'a salaama,

Blair