The ground level exit from my apartment building
Cairo Tower from east side of the Nile
The old campus of American University in Cairo
Some pictures of the Nile from various points on the east and west bank
Friday, February 6, 2009
Pictures from around the city
I brought my camera along with me for a walk today.
The ground level exit from my apartment building
Cairo Tower from east side of the Nile
The old campus of American University in Cairo
Some pictures of the Nile from various points on the east and west bank
The ground level exit from my apartment building
Cairo Tower from east side of the Nile
The old campus of American University in Cairo
Some pictures of the Nile from various points on the east and west bank
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Classes summary
I had each of my classes at least once so far. A summary of my five classes:
Microeconomics: Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays at 1:30pm. It's my biggest class with about twenty-five students, all of them appear to be Egyptians except for myself. The course and professor seems very easy so far, but it may be too soon to determine.
Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming: Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays at 10:30am. We've had two classes cancelled already, for unknown reasons. However, I think I will enjoy this class, and the professor has done a lot in the CS field. There are about twenty students, and all of them appear to be Egyptian except for myself.
Quantum Mechanics: Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:30pm. There are only four students in the class, two Egyptians, one student from India, and myself. The professor is pretty good, but the class seems pretty easy already.
Calculus IV: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00am. There are about twenty students in this class, mostly Egyptian except for myself and same student from India. So far this professor has been excellent, even better than my last calculus professor at Fordham. It seems like it will be similar in terms of difficulty as my previous calculus class.
Arabic of the News Media: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30pm. So far this course is excellent. There are about six students, five from the US and one from Slovakia. My Arabic courses at Fordham were mostly taught in English, but this course is almost entirely in Arabic, yet I don't have any problem comprehending what is being taught. I was afraid the other students would be far more advanced than me, especially since some of them studied Arabic intensively at AUC last semester, but that's not the case. I am the only student who is not currently taking another accelerated Arabic class, but I don't think that will be a problem since the material taught in this course is very specific.
The commute to and from campus became tiring very quickly. The bus ride from Downtown to New Cairo takes 45 minutes, and the ride from New Cairo to Doqqi takes about 65 minutes. I've been taking the bus in from Downtown because I'm not really sure where I should wait for the bus to pick me up in Doqqi. I waited this morning at one of the pickup stops that are listed, but it didn't stop and I'm not sure why. I shouldn't have to take the subway to Downtown every morning just to catch the bus when there's a stop in my neighborhood.
There's a lot being done on the AUC campus. There is an invitation-only inauguration of the new campus this Saturday, so I expect they're doing a lot to make the campus look presentable. Most of the construction appears to be done, but there are so many men doing work all over the campus, however none of the work seems productive. There has been a crew cleaning or rearranging the stones of the main plaza every day I've been here, and I'm not sure what the purpose is, since they don't look any cleaner. There has been a crew cleaning the windows of the library every day this week. A small crew could easily have all the windows done in one day, but it's been a week and they've not even completed half. They have one man up on a ladder washing the windows, while the rest of the crew watches him. I guess it's true that work gets done very slowly in Egypt.
The classrooms here are pretty nice, because they're new. The buildings are so big that the rooms take forever to locate. The library is the place where most students do work in between classes, so it's convenient but it's not very quiet.
So far things are going smoothly.
Microeconomics: Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays at 1:30pm. It's my biggest class with about twenty-five students, all of them appear to be Egyptians except for myself. The course and professor seems very easy so far, but it may be too soon to determine.
Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming: Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays at 10:30am. We've had two classes cancelled already, for unknown reasons. However, I think I will enjoy this class, and the professor has done a lot in the CS field. There are about twenty students, and all of them appear to be Egyptian except for myself.
Quantum Mechanics: Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:30pm. There are only four students in the class, two Egyptians, one student from India, and myself. The professor is pretty good, but the class seems pretty easy already.
Calculus IV: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00am. There are about twenty students in this class, mostly Egyptian except for myself and same student from India. So far this professor has been excellent, even better than my last calculus professor at Fordham. It seems like it will be similar in terms of difficulty as my previous calculus class.
Arabic of the News Media: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30pm. So far this course is excellent. There are about six students, five from the US and one from Slovakia. My Arabic courses at Fordham were mostly taught in English, but this course is almost entirely in Arabic, yet I don't have any problem comprehending what is being taught. I was afraid the other students would be far more advanced than me, especially since some of them studied Arabic intensively at AUC last semester, but that's not the case. I am the only student who is not currently taking another accelerated Arabic class, but I don't think that will be a problem since the material taught in this course is very specific.
The commute to and from campus became tiring very quickly. The bus ride from Downtown to New Cairo takes 45 minutes, and the ride from New Cairo to Doqqi takes about 65 minutes. I've been taking the bus in from Downtown because I'm not really sure where I should wait for the bus to pick me up in Doqqi. I waited this morning at one of the pickup stops that are listed, but it didn't stop and I'm not sure why. I shouldn't have to take the subway to Downtown every morning just to catch the bus when there's a stop in my neighborhood.
There's a lot being done on the AUC campus. There is an invitation-only inauguration of the new campus this Saturday, so I expect they're doing a lot to make the campus look presentable. Most of the construction appears to be done, but there are so many men doing work all over the campus, however none of the work seems productive. There has been a crew cleaning or rearranging the stones of the main plaza every day I've been here, and I'm not sure what the purpose is, since they don't look any cleaner. There has been a crew cleaning the windows of the library every day this week. A small crew could easily have all the windows done in one day, but it's been a week and they've not even completed half. They have one man up on a ladder washing the windows, while the rest of the crew watches him. I guess it's true that work gets done very slowly in Egypt.
The classrooms here are pretty nice, because they're new. The buildings are so big that the rooms take forever to locate. The library is the place where most students do work in between classes, so it's convenient but it's not very quiet.
So far things are going smoothly.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
First day of classes
Today was the first day of classes at AUC. My first class was computer organization and assembly language programming at 10:30am, and the classroom had been changed on the schedule today. When I went, there were a few students there, and one of the students received a call that the class was canceled. I don't know the reason, but my guess is some sort of AUC administration failure.
The classrooms at AUC have an interesting design; while there are buildings, the classrooms are not entirely within the building. The doors to the classroom open directly to the courtyard outside rather than to a hallway. The School of Sciences and Engineering building is gigantic, so it took me 15 minutes to locate my classroom.
My second class, Microeconomics, was brief. It may be too early to tell, but it should be an easy class.
This was the first time I really got to see the regular AUC student body. The school is slightly smaller than Fordham in terms of undergraduate population, with a little over 4,000 students. There may be a gender discrepancy at AUC just like Fordham, as it seemed like there were more females than males.
After school I went to Maadi for Mass. There are a few Catholic churches in Cairo and Maadi was probably the furthest away, but I wanted to see what Maadi was like. I took the subway from Doqqi to Sadat (Downtown) and then switched lines to get to Maadi. The ride took longer than I thought, so I ended up being late for Mass.
The church was a small parish called Holy Family on Road 15. The 6pm Mass was in English by a priest who had a French accent. The congregation was very diverse with people of all different ethnicities. I don't think I'll return there next week because it was too far of a commute.
Holy Family Catholic Church, Maadi, Cairo
The suburb of Maadi is very different from Cairo, at least the part that I saw. The streets are quiet but are not well-lit. Most of the houses that I passed were quite luxurious, and the strip of stores and restaurants near the metro station were well-kept and modern. To me, it remembles the similar suburb of Newton, Massachusetts. Maadi is known for having the second highest concentration of foreigners, after Zamalek, and I did in fact see more Western faces than in Cairo.
The classrooms at AUC have an interesting design; while there are buildings, the classrooms are not entirely within the building. The doors to the classroom open directly to the courtyard outside rather than to a hallway. The School of Sciences and Engineering building is gigantic, so it took me 15 minutes to locate my classroom.
My second class, Microeconomics, was brief. It may be too early to tell, but it should be an easy class.
This was the first time I really got to see the regular AUC student body. The school is slightly smaller than Fordham in terms of undergraduate population, with a little over 4,000 students. There may be a gender discrepancy at AUC just like Fordham, as it seemed like there were more females than males.
After school I went to Maadi for Mass. There are a few Catholic churches in Cairo and Maadi was probably the furthest away, but I wanted to see what Maadi was like. I took the subway from Doqqi to Sadat (Downtown) and then switched lines to get to Maadi. The ride took longer than I thought, so I ended up being late for Mass.
The church was a small parish called Holy Family on Road 15. The 6pm Mass was in English by a priest who had a French accent. The congregation was very diverse with people of all different ethnicities. I don't think I'll return there next week because it was too far of a commute.
Holy Family Catholic Church, Maadi, Cairo
The suburb of Maadi is very different from Cairo, at least the part that I saw. The streets are quiet but are not well-lit. Most of the houses that I passed were quite luxurious, and the strip of stores and restaurants near the metro station were well-kept and modern. To me, it remembles the similar suburb of Newton, Massachusetts. Maadi is known for having the second highest concentration of foreigners, after Zamalek, and I did in fact see more Western faces than in Cairo.
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