Le School

Today was the first day of school.  I missed my bus this morning but still managed to make it to the campus before my first class was scheduled to end but when I finally found the classroom, there was no one there.  This was indicative of most people's experience.  The move to the new campus has been chaotic to say the absolute least.  No one has any idea where anything is, professors included so many simply did not come to classes today. 

The campus is beautiful but not, um, finished.  There are not desks or chairs in many of the classrooms, no lights in the bathrooms, no ac in most places and construction on many of the buildings is ongoing.  I am sure it will be lovely once the move is complete but right now it is totally disorganized and somewhat discouraging.  

The students, egyptian and foreign alike, all agree that it is somewhat of a rediculous perdicament.   For instance, there are TWO places to get food/drinks for over 5,000 students.  There are no signs on any of the buildings and the maps are worthless because they have different names than the abreviations on the course catalgous.  We get most of our information through the rumor mill which is not all that accurate.  Plus, the class schedules and bus shedules are shifted because of Ramadan, which makes it even more difficult to navigate.

Right now I feel like this was just another disorganized AUC outing which would be fine, but the thought that it is what I have to deal with for the next couple of weeks at least is not a pleasent thought.  

Alexandria

AUC sponsored a trip to Alexandria for the past few days.  The upside was: meeting lots of new international students, seeing the sights with a guide, a decent hotel and food included.  The downside was: having to travel with about 100 other people.  I am definitely a small group/solo traveling type of person.

Two of my friends and I decided on the second night to try to find a bar we had heard about downtown.  Because it is Ramadan, many thing are not open until after Iftar (dark) and of those that are, most do not serve alcohol.  We caught a cab to downtown and then quickly realized that we no idea what to do next.  I called another friend to try and get directions but the combination of loud noise and my lack of Arabic made understanding the street names impossible.  We asked a waiter at a restaurant for directions and were directed around the block to a newspaper man who "know everything".  The newspaper guy pointed us in the right direction.  We wandered for a while without sucess, eventually ending up in a square. Out of nowhere a man approached us and asked if we were lost.  We tried to ask him the name of the street and he asked where specifically we were going.  We told him we were looking for Spitfire and his face lit up.  He then asked if we knew Yousse. Puzzled we said no. I remembered that one my friends who had told me about the place was named Joey so I asked if maybe he meant Josef.  "Yes" he exlaimed. "Youssef! I will take you to him. He is good friend." I was dubious because a common strategy of shop owners here is to offer to show a tourist where something is and the take them to their shop and try to sell them things.  However, since we had no idea where we were, we took him up on his offer.  Miraculously, he led us straight to the door of the bar we wanted and left without asking for any baksheesh, only a promise to get in touch with him if we needed any hashish. (We didn't).

We walked into the bar and met up with our friends. When we told them what had happened they all laughed and said the man had randomly appproached them with offers of hashish and they really did not know who he was.  We still have no idea how he knew we were looking for them or where they had gone.

Flaming Butt Pee

Is the horrifically graphic but accurate description many of the international students have adopted to describe our various gastrointestinal maladies.

Contemplate....

Gross, yes?