American University of Cairo (AUC)

On the way to AUC: Back in the day (built in 1919) the campus was located on Zamalek (the island I live on) but over the past several years they have expanded the campus and moved it to the outer edges of Cairo.  Basically HELLA far from where I live and in the middle of the freaking desert, in the middle of nowhere. You can choose to live on campus there, but there is no way of getting off/out of that deserted area when the buses aren't running.  The New Campus is a 45 min commute from Zamalek and charter busses are provided to and fro the New Campus and Zamalek.  The bus is air conditioned and even has wifi!!! But basically... everyone passes the F out on the bus until they reach their destination.  Lol.  The ride there is crazy, and has a better glimpse of Cairo.  Here are a few photos of the ride to AUC.

Leaving Zamalek

Beautiful masjid on the way to AUC

Desert land all around nearing AUC (and what surrounds it)

The Campus: The university is pretty small... well for me especially.  Its total enrollment (undergrad/grad) is a little over 6,000 while Cal's is nearing 40,000!  The campus however, OMG.  It is beautiful.  It looks exactly like what I imagined!  Only thing is that... its SO hot!!! And you would think they would put some shady trees all over the place, but no!  They have dinky palm trees everywhere and as dehydrated as the desert makes you feel, there are dozens of fountains on campus.  Every time I see them, I literally want to jump in them and stay there forever.  Here are photos of AUC campus...

Settling In In Zamalek

Since I am new to the country, language, and culture... Therefore, I chose to live in the campus dorms until I get settled into get an apartment.  So I live in Zamalek which is an island in the heart of the Nile River (probably like 3 miles or so in diameter), kinda like a district within Cairo.  Its actually pretty cool to be surrounded by the Nile River and be connected to the rest of Cairo with three bridges.  First impressions?
1) It is HELLA hot.  Literally... it is hot all day and night and you keep sweating.
2) The area is pretty dirty/filthy/unsanitary/gross.  Dirt paths everywhere, dead rats and random stuff laying around.  Thousands of street cats that are kinda like squirrels for back home.
3) By the time you walk around for a bit in flip flops your feet will be covered in nasty-ness.  I find myself washing my feet often...  lol

Zamalek Area: The area outside the dorms is hella jainky looking but thats coming from my American bias.  There are hella parked cars everywhere and they people just park literally wherever they want even if its blocking the road.  Parallel parking here is no joke, they will ram into the bumper if it saves room!  Hahha.  I haven't explored Zamalek completely but have gone on several walking journeys and taken a few pix to give a little glimpse of what its like.  I'm starting to get used to it... =)

Nearby streets in Zamalek

Parallel parking LOL

Cars parked randomly in every walk way/street

Heart attacks for sale even in Cairo, hahaha

My Dorm: My dorm room is very spacious.  It really feels nice coming back to it, I have the AC on blast 24/7 so it also gives me a reason to NOT want to leave.   I live in a single, there are doubles available I think.  There are WAY more international students than Egyptians living in the dorms because living in the dorms is not so much an Egyptian thing to do since a lot of them live in Cairo.

Rules and Regulations: LOL.  So being in the Middle East, there is pretty strict policy's on everything in terms of gender mixing and other stuff.  There is a point value system for breaking the rules... 7 points gets you kicked out.  Possession of alcohol is 4pts, for weed its 7pts, PDA (public display of affection) is like 3 points, which includes hugs.  It wierd to be in a setting like this when I'm so used to Berkeley and knowing the million people who couldn't last a day here.  On top of that... when you walk into the dorms, you go through a metal detector, get questioned if you REALLY live there, and get your bags checked.  So that is also different.  Also... there are security guards standing around in all official suits everywhere and outside both entrances for men and women to make sure no men go into the women's dorms and vice versa.  That is automatic suspension and just asking to be kicked out.  Hmmmm....

My room <3

Its too hot to sleep with blankets right now! =(

Old school closet

Welcome Activities: Its weird living in the dorms as a resident now, since I'm so used to being the RA.  LOL.  This is also coming from my Residential Life training and all... But RA's here don't really focus on community building very much!  I mean, I don't even have a doortag!!! I would make my own, but then thats just weird.  I've been here for 4 days now and there was only 2 events/activities planned.  1) The felucca ride on the Nile  2) A trip to the local bazaar (open markets) in Cairo, the mainland part of it (but that was canceled).  At Cal we have never ending activities planned out to get some mingling going on, not here! The RA's kind of hang out together in the lobby thats it.  But anyway... thats whatevs, I'm obviously not at Cal right now so I've been planning and joining in on group events on my own and am meeting tons of new people from all over the world!

My first meal to break fast! (With chicken!) Not spicy =(

Felucca ride on Nile

Halima and I

The Nile River at night

Sweets and Pepsi with our RA on the Felucca ride

Departure and Arrival

I officially departed from SFO on Wednesday, Aug 25th.  5 hour flight to JFK airport in NY.  3 hour layover and then with a 12 hour flight to Cairo.  This was my first time leaving the country in my memory so the plane ride alone was extremely exciting and surreal.  Here are a few pix I took in amazement from departure to arrival.

Goodbye Bay Area, especially Berkeley =,(

Some famous NY Bridge!

Italy? Lol

Clouds... Simply beautiful!

Cairo.  My home for the next year. 

Flying is such a crazy experience.  I never realized how beautiful the earth is (like to this point) until I saw all the different forms of terrain, mountain ranges, deserts, oceans... just amazing.

It also made me think of back back in the day when Saima, Safa, and mostly Mohammad and me would run around in the backyard and remembering the times when planes would fly over the yard and I would stop whatever I was doing to jump up and down and scream/wave hi.  I really thought they could see me then, and although I grew out of that... (Lol!!! JK, I still do it. Hahahhaha JK!) and got old enough to know they cant.... this finally flight proved it to me.  Wow, what a waste of my life!

When we arrived, everyone on the plane clapped and I couldn't stop smiling.

Why Egypt?

**Disclaimer: My blog posts will NOT be this long from here on out... I have a life and will be spending more time experiencing than writing, but it being a slow settling in week before classes begin, I wanted to really get out there what being here means to me.  Enjoy! <3**

So to start from the beginning I'll answer why I chose to go to my current destination for those of you who may not know.  I honestly always pictured myself studying abroad in a Latin American country since I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and thought I was hella hardcore with it and all.  LOL. But as I thought about it, and talked to Xou about it while he was doing his quarter in Japan, I decided upon Cairo, Egypt as my destination of study for my entire 3rd year.  I feel very lucky and privileged to have grown up in South Sac where its hella diverse with a majority Black, Latino, and Southeast Asian population.  I definitely learned a lot from my peers whether it was in school/academic settings or while I played basketball and ran cross-country and track.  And as a social welfare major and education minor at Cal, I've gotten an even deeper understanding of these communities, their contemporary issues (specifically in the public educational system, since that is my focus), and am interested in working/doing research with underprivileged communities in the future, especially refugee populations and eventually get all up there as I continue with my higher education after Cal.  Anyway, after much thought I realized that I wanted to go to a Mulsim country for many reasons.

1) I feel very ignorant about social problems in the Middle East and the Muslim World especially since I didn't grow up with a Muslim community, or maybe just that I wasn't too involved in the ones that were there.   Anyway, I feel that going to a Muslim country would challenge me more much more since I can connect more with some of my own moral/ethical upbringings in my Paki house.  Also knowing that trying to adjust to a whole new setting that is yet familiar and foreign at the same time will really hit home for me and challenge me in so many ways that staying at Cal or going to a Latin American country wouldn't.

2) I want to be able to go to a country and eat whatever the hell I want for the first time EVER in my life! (Well, from what I can remember cuz I don't remember much about going to Pakistan when I was in 2nd grade).  One of the biggest parts of a culture is the FOOD!!!  And going anywhere else, I would be eating grass or something since most places aren't halal or even "vegetarian friendly" as much as Berkeley is.  So by picking a Muslim country, where Halal meat would be the only option, I wanted to PIG out.  (Hahaaha, "pig out" That wasn't intended to be funny, but in context it is).

3) After taking some extremely empowering courses at Berkeley I'm currently interested in doing research and working with refugee populations globally and their impact/role in the public school system in America.  Being in North Africa and specifically Egypt... there is thousands of refugees coming from throughout Africa (Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia) and Palestine in which I knew I work with, learn, and get involved.

4) Why Egypt still?  Yea theres other Muslim countries I could have chosen like Turkey or something.  But come on... its EGYPT!  Pyramids.  Mummies.  King Tut.  4th grade textbooks and class material exotifying its history definitely intrigued me then and still does today.  

5)  A YEAR?  Yea, for some reason Egypt was one of the few many programs at Cal that offered a year minimum to participate and I was actually even more excited about that.  I really felt like I needed to leave and put my life in perspective and spread my wings.  

Below is a picture of me when I went to the Berkeley Hills with my family and I hella love it cuz well yea... it IS pretty tite. LOL. But idk, I've never felt so strong, empowered, and determined as I have been lately.  I literally feel on top of the world.  And before I left one of my close friends gave me a really sentimental gift with this on the cover and a quote below. 

"The world is at your fingertips, go and get it" -Liz Solorio