ana mish khoaga (i am not a foreigner)

(Edited on 2/6/2010 to add more photos!)

So it's been nine days since I arrived in Cairo, and one minute I feel like I've been here a lifetime; the next I feel like I just stepped off the plane. Every day the city becomes more detailed and deeper to me, and I'm learning so many new things with every passing hour that it would be a monumental task to report them all here. In fact, the idea of summarizing my experience in Egypt so far has been so daunting that I have dreaded making this blog post. Suffice to say that living here is indescribable.

I feel constantly pulled in several directions. There's school (my purpose for coming here); the American University in Cairo is the most prestigious university in Egypt and the study abroad kids agree that it makes us feel like first-week freshmen at an extremely snobby and wealthy high school. With over 6,000 students, it's sizable, but nowhere near USC's 17,000; the campus is a luxurious $400 million modern-Arabic work of art in the middle of nowhere. It's located about 45 minutes (or up to two hours, depending on traffic-- more on that later) from Zamalek, where I live, in the heart of New Cairo. New Cairo reminds me of developments like Atlantic Station in Atlanta; there are huge, opulent homes and shopping centers going up everywhere you look, and everything seems to be perpetually under construction. It's the polar opposite of the crowded, dilapidated high-rises that make up the majority of Cairo itself.

AUC's student body represents the wealthiest elite of Egypt, and it shows in the gorgeous campus (I'll put up pictures) and in the students' imported designer handbags, eyewear, boots, leggings, and Longchamps (some things don't change between Columbia and Cairo!). The campus is a long thoroughfare of quadrangles, flanked by the classroom and administration buildings and linked by archways. One of the most crowded of these is called "Gucci Alley" because of the way the students use it as a place for one and one's outfit to see and be seen. Needless to say, I don't really fit in-- everything from my hair to my croakies and Sperrys screams American. But I'm dealing with this by thinking of myself as a kind of cultural ambassador for South Carolina and Georgia. As much as I want to learn from Egypt and its people, I hope that maybe they can learn something about where I come from as well.

School is much more than just fashion; I have been to four classes at this point, but I'm still putting together my schedule (advisement and registration is here is SO much more complicated than anything I've ever dealt with at USC), so I'm going to two new ones tomorrow, in addition to Arabic and my Self and Society philosophy class. We get Tuesdays off here, but Sunday is a school day, since the whole country takes Fridays off (Friday is the Muslim holy day). Weekends are going to be spent traveling around Egypt and nearby places in the Middle East!

In addition to class and adjusting to AUC, I spend a good amount of time trying to set up times to Skype with my parents and friends; since Egypt is seven hours ahead of the U.S., this can be really difficult, and I haven't been successful yet. I'm jealous of my roommate, Lea, whose parents live in Germany and are thus only an hour behind us. Even though I'm free of extracurricular responsibilities (at least until the next Garnet & Black Magazine issue comes around!), there's still plenty of work to be done!

The hardest aspect of life here to balance with school and staying in touch is, of course, this amazing city and the equally amazing people I've met here so far. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every single day I go somewhere new, experience something I never have before, learn more about the Egyptian culture, and make new friends. Last week, among many other milestones, I visited the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza (and went inside a pyramid!), rode a horse for the first time in at least ten years (around the Pyramids, no less!), took a cruise on the Nile (the water is filthy, but so beautiful at night with all the bright lights of downtown and Zamalek reflected in its surface), and witnessed Egypt beat Algeria and then Ghana as the Egyptian football team won the Africa Cup of Nations.

My view from the base of the Great Pyramid at Giza, built by Cheops (Egyptian name: Khufu) and completed around 2551 BCE.

Guards napping at the Great Pyramid-- don't worry, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the World is in great hands.

I look like I was photoshopped into this, but I am actually standing in front of the Sphinx!

Yesterday alone, I visited Harea for the first time (please see the picture below; it has to be seen to be believed), and went to a restaurant called Felfela where Jimmy Carter has also eaten (!!) and ate grilled pigeon (!!!). It's only 8:30 pm here, and already today I have seen the ENTIRE Egyptian Museum (which my guidebook swore could not be toured in a day alone), gotten a marriage proposal, eaten lunch and dinner combined for the Egyptian equivalent of two U.S. dollars, and ridden the Cairo Metro for the first time (it's cleaner than any city street here-- go figure).

Outside the Egyptian Museum! (No pictures allowed inside, sadly-- the mummies are amazing to see and definitely worth the extra fee!)

Harea, the most ridiculous bar I have ever seen. Check out that table chilling in the broken window.

PIGEON! And Egyptian beer-- there are three kinds here, and Sakara is the nicest. That means it costs about 19 pounds (4.00 USD) instead of 9 pounds ($2.00).

This definitely made me miss The Carter Center, but how cool is it to find connections to home so far away from Atlanta?!

Most remarkably, I have managed NOT to die in the traffic here. Please trust me when I say there are absolutely no rules to driving in Cairo. I can't imagine what it takes to receive a driver's license here, besides creativity and a death wish. There are no traffic lanes, no traffic signals, no stoplights, no stop signs, and there's definitely no such thing as yielding to pedestrians. Sitting in the passenger seat of a taxi or bus is enough to make you cry from terror. Let me leave you with this one story to back up these statements, because I'll keep writing all night otherwise: On Sunday night, my friends and I boarded the 5:00 shuttle home from classes at AUC, hoping to get into Cairo in time to watch the Africa Cup of Nations final football game at 6:30. The traffic, as you can imagine, was even more horrendous than usual, and after trying several shortcuts, our bus driver-- a contracted, professional driver, piloting a bus of at least 100 students and professors-- decided to drive in the WRONG DIRECTION, into oncoming traffic on a FOUR-LANE HIGHWAY. Ignoring all of the cars honking at him (honking is just a normal traffic action here; pay no attention), he drove about a mile into a roundabout, where he proceeded to merge into the traffic going the right direction, hitting several other cars in the process. To solve this issue, he exited the bus, as did the drivers of the other cars, and argued with them in the street until they decided the game was more important, and returned to their vehicles. Please see the picture below. I don't think I've ever had a near-death experience until now; this is just one of the wonderful things about Cairo.

The scene outside our bus. Notice how the cars are definitely not going in the same direction that we are.