First full week done

Today marks my first full week completed living in Doqqi.

These are some pictures from last night, same place as yesterday along Qasr al-Nile in Giza. It's interesting that the most recognizable buildings of the Cairo skyline, with the exception of the Hitashi building, are all hotels.




This is Midan al-Galaa' (midan means square) in Doqqi, which connects Tahrir Street with Giza Street. Along the right is the Sheraton Cairo hotel, which is one of the best hotels in the city and attracts many Westerners. Just beyond Midan al-Galaa' you can take Kubry al-Galaa' (kubry is bridge) across the Nile and into Gezira/Zamalek and then downtown.



I was disappointed to find out the AUC sports facilities won't opened for an indeterminate amount of time (I'm guessing 2-3 months). The facilities look extremely impressive, even to an American. The athletic director explained that AUC is sort of blazing a path with this construction, as it will probably be the biggest athletic facility in Egypt when it's completed. In Egypt, the highest level of sport are the Olympic national teams, followed by the club-based teams. The various sporting clubs in the Egyptian cities recruit athletes who are considered professional athletes. Below that are the university club teams, although they play at a lower level of competition than NCAA teams in the USA.

As a result, I decided to get membership at Gold's Gym in Giza. It's only a couple minutes walk and it's open 5am to midnight so it'll be worth it. It's located on Qasr al-Nile (same place as the pictures from above and yesterday) and sits on a houseboat in the Nile, so the views are pretty nice. The only thing that was really different was seeing prayers to Mecca on prayer rugs in the locker room. Also, mostly everyone was wearing pants in the gym, for modesty's sake I suppose.

I haven't run since I got to Cairo but now I have a gym where I can. I still haven't found any place that looks okay for a longer run. I have seen a few people running on the streets in the past week, some Westerners and some Egyptians. The women that I saw running were covered head to toe as they normally are, which I expect must be very uncomfortable.

I discovered the Alfa Market yesterday which is a few blocks from Midan Al-Galaa'. It is a supermarket with a combined household goods, clothing, and sporting section. It's the closest place to a Wal-Mart that I've seen. This is going to be my grocery store from now on, as it has great selection and lower prices than Metro. Mostly everything is cheaper than in America even after adjusting for currency differences. (There are 5.55 pounds per American dollar.) The exceptions are imported goods, especially any sort of candy, ice creams, peanut butter, and canned fruits and vegetables.

I have my first two classes tomorrow, Computer Oranization\Assembly Language Programming, and Microeconomics. If possible I would like to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow, but I'm not sure where to find it.