Day One

January 21st,

I arrived in Cairo at 3:00 today. It was raining. I travel half-way around the world to the biggest desert in the world and its raining? How ironic. Getting into Egypt was actually remarkably easy. They stamped our passport and simply waved us through customs. Outside of customs we met our driver who would load us all up into a van and take us to our dorms.
This brings me to the first topic I want to discuss in Cairo: Driving. Its complete Chaos. The road of the Airport is a two lane one way road. There were four different actual lanes of traffic. No one obeys any traffic laws. People would rapidly swerve in between the "lanes" constantly wailing on the horn or flashing their lights at the slower drivers. I would describe it kind of like driving in Grand Theft Auto. You know, you go as fast as you want, you race around slower cars and burn through corners. However imagine Grand Theft Auto with everyone being the main character. It was absolutely nuts. But our driver was ridiculously good and got us to our destinations amazingly in one piece.
Another thing about driving. J-walking is common in this mad. So not only are cars going every which way but they also have pedestrians dodging in and out. Stoplights are ignored and often just blink yellow. Sometimes you will have police men at intersections, but its still crazy.
My last story about driving in Cairo is about the taxi ride I took by myself from AUC downtown back to my dorm at Zamalek. For those of you who don't know Zamalek is the island in the middle of the Nile which I live on. The roads inbetween are not a grid, they are a labyrinth of unlabeled one-way streets that are simply lined with parked cars. In this taxi we raced through these streets and were at times merely inches away from the two cars on either side of us. I am suprised that people still have side-view mirrors. Okay, the crazy thing about the story was that the driver got lost. So it was raining again, nobody puts their lights on at night (unless they are flashing people to get the hell out of their way) and we were driving through random streets, and every so often the driver would stop, ask directions from someone, then switch directions. I eventually made it back but not before backtracking the wrong way down one way streets at top speeds.
What's worse is that I couldn't help him at all in directions. Partly because I am overwhelmed and lost in the immensity of the city and also because the locals don't speak the same arabic that I do. The arabic that I took for 4 semesters was fusha arabic, or formal arabic used in newspapers and in business. The arabic that everyone speaks on the street and what most of the country actually understands is called aleema, or the colloquial Arabic.
Luckily the two are kind of similar. And in my first outing, walking through the neighborhood in our quest or a place to exchange money, and buy food and soap, we ended up being very successful. We know enough arabic to get around, and just using is incredibly rewarding, both for learning the language and not being an annoying stupid foreigner.
Walking around Cairo: Surreal. First of all, Cairo is huge. It is also the most densely populated city in the world. We drove through only a small part of it and walked in an even smaller part but there was no green space. It was building, next to building, next to building. Everything is 4-10 stories and the same hue of dirty brown. However, I would not say the city is by any means ugly. Its tough to describe the character. Its a blend of mostly old, with some 3rd world and a splash of modernity. I'll work on putting together my intial feelings of Cairo as soon as I can absorb it all. I'll also take more pictures as soon as I can.
One thing about pictures. There are a lot of places where you can't take them. Basically any place that might be a terrorist target. That being said, I didn't really try hard to take pictures today because A. I think that too many times tourists forget about actually looking and remembering and instead rely on the camera to take down memories for them, and B. I think taking a camera out on the first day screams tourist, an image I am trying to avoid.
My final point deals with what is like to be an American in Egypt. I was worried before I came here because America is so hated in the world. However, in Egypt, the people of Egypt are second class citizens to Americans in their own country. Americans have way more rights and privledges then the nomal citizens. I think JP put it well, when he said that the police are your friends. They are here to protect Americans from Egypt. As such, I am able to walk around wherever I please and do whatever I want. No One is allowed within about a two block radius of the US Embassy. They have the streets blocked off and guarded by well-armed police men. These police men stops any Egyptian who doesn't have official business in the area. But I on the other hand strolled right by with simply a "Salaam" John-Paul said that everyone at class envies Americans and wishes they were us. I am not quite sure why, other then the fact that we are so rich and privledged. Just goes to prove the saying true. Cash Rules Everything Around Me. Money does make the world go around. Money and connections. Its not that knowledge isn't power, its that knowledge buys friends or earns Money and Money makes us powerful.
On a closing note, I am overwhelmed by the language barrier. My interaction skills with Aleema are terrible. So is my pronunciation and listening. I am really impressed with John Paul, who when he left Notre Dame, I would say struggled with Arabic, now he has shown his skill in being able to navigate the weird world of Cairo.
Okay I am exhausted, as I still really haven't slept since leaving Spokane on Saturday. I will see how I feel in the morning. Either way, judging by how intense the first 9 hours were (I got back in the dorm at midight, and even more crazily spent a lot of that time unpacking) and how it feels like I have already seen enough for a week, this is going to be an incredible trip.

So it goes...