barira's magic carpet ride: 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!