Updates on recent experiences

The past week has been relatively uninteresting, but here are a few things of note.

On Friday I went to the Hard Rock Cafe with some friends, which was basically devoid of any sort of Egyptian culture. It's located in the basement of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Garden City, which is one of the biggest hotels in Cairo. All the other customers were American tourists. And, for the first time, the prices were comparable to prices one would pay in the US.

On Saturday, I went to a Syrian restaurant in Mohandeseen with a friend, called Abu Sharqa, across from al-Salam Hospital. The food was excellent, with large portions of meat for very inexpensive prices.

Twice in the past week I've noticed large groups of riot police at my bus stop. Originally I thought it was a training drill, but an AUC girl told me they were planning on having riots or protests there, since my bus stop is across the street from the state court on Charles de Gaulle Street in Doqqi. I take the early bus, so there wasn't any activity there while I was waiting.

I wish I could say my classes are going well, but unfortunately some of them are not. The major problem is that the professors have missed many classes without explanation.

As mentioned in the AUC newspaper, the AUC campus is slowly turning into Sooq AUC, meaning AUC market. Today was a fair of sorts, with merchants selling goods in booths across the quad. There have been a number of concerts in the past few weeks on campus during the 10:00-11:00 AM classes-free block; they're seemingly random.

I'll put my thoughts and assessments of AUC into context in a more complete post toward the end of the semester.

Since "trying out" the various churches in Cairo, I've stuck with St. Joseph's Church in Downtown (near Abdeen Palace). There is a 5:00 pm Mass in English, which has three priests - one from Philippines, one from Ghana, and one from Indonesia, who rotate their homilies. It's a pretty small congregation, as the demand for English Masses in Cairo is fairly low. Still, it's a diverse crowd, and it seems like I'm the only one there that speaks English natively, as everyone else is from other parts of the world. The church is cordoned off behind the altar so there is another space for smaller Masses, which is where the English Mass is held.

I've been collecting the Arabic Mass bulletins so that I can bring them home and read them when I am better in Arabic. I can pick out a few words in the readings, but for the most part they are too advanced for me. Interestingly, the Arabic biblical translation is much shorter than the English version, because of the fact that many Arabic verbs can express more thorough meanings than their counterparts in English.

Yesterday was the hottest day I've spent in Cairo, as it reached 95°F. Yet I still saw the majority of Egyptian males wearing their trademark slacks, dress shirt, and woolen sweater. Today was not as warm, reaching the eighties.

I am leaving this Thursday evening for Amman, Jordan, where I will participate in the Dead Sea 50k ultramarathon. I'm going to spend a few days in Jordan, sightseeing, and then head to Turkey for same. Among the sites I hope to see in Jordan are Petra, Wadi Rum, the Baptism Site, and whatever else I have time for. In Turkey I hope to see the Hagia Sofia, the Blue Mosque, and possibly out easts to see Nemrut Dagi and Lake Van.

It seems like most of the study abroad students will be traveling for the spring break. Of the people I've talked to, others are going to Israel, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and Sinai and Luxor/Aswan of Egypt. It seems like I'll be the only one at school on Thursday, since I have an exam in the afternoon, whereas most study abroad students are leaving Wednesday morning, since classes after noon are canceled due to International Day.

I may skip my Wednesday class and instead get ready for my trip and perhaps visit a certain site here in Cairo, since I'm running out of time to visit sites in Egypt that I haven't yet seen.

After that, I will likely not make posts here for about two weeks, though I will have detailed reports of my trip when I return.