Day Nine

January 28th,

Jet-lag no longer effects me. I am now adapted to at least the time difference between Spokane and Cairo. As for everything thing else that has yet to be seen. We started out survival Arabic classes today. This is the material we will need to know to get around on the streets and actually survive in a city where the majority of the people not only don't speak Arabic, but also don't speak the Arabic I have been learning for the past four semesters. This is the first time I have been in a class since the middle of December. Luckily this Arabic is just for our own benefit and there is no grade given. This provides a nice transition into the classroom setting after such a long break.
I am trying to cut down my spending. Today I didn't spend any money until dinner because I was able to wait around AUC until the gave free food to the Student Leaders and then I just snuck in with them. I then managed to spend all of $5 on a rather large dinner complete with milkshake. It was pretty awesome. Tomorrow, the gameplan is to get by without spending any money. It will also be nice when Notre Dame starts giving us the $400 to live off us. With that much money I will be making money in Cairo by going to school (kind of).
In other news the job search for a Cairo Job goes on. I am going to stop by the American Embassy tomorrow just to see if by stopping by I can get a job. Once again, I have never gotten a job because of my own qualifications, it has always been because I knew someone. I guess that's just the way the world operates.
I did find some time to go wandering by myself today. This was a much needed change because I get tired of having to go about campus/city in a large group of Americans. Traveling by yourself although a little bit more intimidating and at times boring definitely gives you the ability to set your own pace and schedule and see things efficiently. You don't have to wait around for somebody to catch up or run ahead because somebody doesn't care as much as you do. Its also nice to be alone because it gives you time to think and interact with people you couldn't interact with in a group. To these regards, I walked around and found all my classes so I wouldn't be completely lost when classes start on the 3rd. It turns out that the architectural style of 1919 when Main Campus was built was that of Mazes. There are like 15 different stair cases in that building, of which 2 let you out on every floor. However, there are no hallways that span the entire length of the building. Instead you routinely have to go out on the roof down a staircase, up another staircase through several doors and random turns just to get inbetween rooms 409 and 410. Luckily it doesn't rain to much in Cairo (except this week apparently) for Cairo is not geared for dealing with large amounts of rain. I still saw huge puddles of water that cover entire streets. It didn't rain today at all.
I was wandered over and circled the US Embassy. It is a massive fortress in the middle of downtown Cairo. It's really quite around the building as all the traffic is kept away. I really hope Mubarak stays in control of Cairo for as long as I am there. He keeps Americans safe and for that I am thankful for him. As for his other polices... well a 25 year state of emergency leads something to be desired.
I am so glad I live in America. The wind started picking up today and the dust just went everywhere especially into my eyes. Otherwise the weather is just about perfect here. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. As the AUC administration likes to tell its frustrated students (rather then actually fixing their problems) life is beautiful, relax, don't worry, and things will work out fine. It's easier to do when I have to problems, well at least relatively to some people.