An American (University) Girl

Well well. Here I am, sitting in the library of AUC, with a 6-hour break between my second class (Arabic 201) which ended at 2 pm, and my third class (Islamist Movements from Militancy to Power Sharing), which starts at 8 pm. Faced with such a daunting gap, but unwilling to make the 30 - 40 minute commute back to the apartment, only to return later, I visited some departments to see about drop/add issues, tried to momorize the layout of this very large and very confusing campus, and have now holed myself up in the library, to document the events of the very busy past few days.

To begin with, though, a word about AUC.

American University in Cairo recently finished the construction of its new campus.

It is not in Cairo.

It is in the middle of the desert.

In order to get to this new location - in the middle of the desert - the University runs several buses at theoretically convenient hours from a multitude of theoretically convenient locations. I say theoretically because it is convenient assuming that the bus shows up on time and shows up at the right place.

For example. Last night I checked the new Ramadan schedule for the buses, and saw that there would be a bus leaving from Sakinaat al Maadi, the local train station, at 9:10 am. I had a class at 11, so I thought this would be perfect - get to campus by quarter to ten, have some time to walk around, check out the buildings, visit the bookstore, etc. However, from experience I already knew that the bus would not be coming to Sakinaat al Maadi at all. The bus would be stopping at a round-about some two minutes down the road from Sakinaat al-Maadi. The only way I knew this was because last week I waited for an hour and a half for the bus to arrive at Sakinaat al-Maadi, only to give up in despair and take a taxi with four other confused and desperate students who also just wanted to get to orientation. We later learned that the bus was just a few yards down the road - though, of course, around the corner and thus out of sight.

Having gotten over this speed bump I felt fairly confident about catching the bus this morning. Of course I was late - I tend to always run 10 to 15 minutes behind - but Egyptians usually run 15 - 60 minutes behind so I figured I would be fine as long as I walked briskly. I arrived slightly out of breath and knocked on the door of a big coach bus parked by the side of the clearing, and found that it was indeed the AUC bus. So I climbed on, and told the driver about how worried I had been that I would miss the bus - at which point he looked at me confusedly and said, "But why? The bus does not leave until 9:55."

That's when I realized I was only the second person aboard.

It could have been worse though! Turns out that other passenger was one of the students I had split the taxi with after the disastrous bus attempt last week! And unlike me, he had arrived at the stop a full hour and a half early. We were both glad for the company and spent the waiting period and subsequent ride in pleasant conversation.

New Campus may be in the middle of nowhere, but it is absolutely gorgeous. And imposing. The buildings are all in stripes of pink and tan and beige sandstone, and there are more fountains than you could shake a stick at. Lots of palm trees, too. Egypt also has this interesting way of making everything in it look ancient - there's so much dust that even this brand spankin new campus looks like it's been snuggled among the dunes for centuries. The layout is not so conducive to hot weather, though. A walk across campus involves crossing multiple large, open, stone places while the Egyptian sun beats mercilessly upon your poor skin. And although campus is scattered with little sitting areas - inviting little spots with palm trees and stone benches and more fountains and symetrical streams babbling by them - it's too beastly hot to enjoy them just yet.

Give it a month or two though, and this place will be heaven.

The best part, though: My sexy, sexy classes. My schedule is bursting with all sorts of juicy polisci courses - Islamist Movements from Militancy to Power Sharing, Economic Development, Modern Human Rights in Egypt - oh god, it's so good! My brain is drooling already (Wow, what a gross image...) But seriously, I don't even mind being here until 10:30, because the Islamist Movements class is going to be incredible insha allah.

Only four more hours to goooo...

Haha, but for now, I'll post this entry and then start a new one for my trip to Alexandria, which we returned from last night. At least this break means my blog will be getting the attention it deserves!

Prepare yourselves, dear readers.