Day 24

February 12th

Well it was another day of class. I am starting to fall into my routines and pick up on the inns and outs of day to day life at AUC. I sent in my passport for my visa today, only to find out that the student type only lasts until the end of June. This is unfortunate, but it just goes with the territory of Cairo. You can't expect everything to work smoothly or the way you want it to. In other news, I got to see a whirling dervish today at a welcoming party held in Zamalek. Initially I was quite happy simply because there was free food. Then the whirling dervish sufi came in, and let me tell you, they are mighty impressive spinners. I think I can now understand how the spinning supposedly connects you to God. The man is spinning for at least 20 minutes, at that point he must be losing sense of the world around him and thus when you start to overcome the physical world and the lower self you are able to connect in with God. It's kind of like fasting, but really quickly.
I also joined the boxing team today. They only have practice two times a week, but it looks like a lot of fun and its a pretty good workout. I learned from my first day though, that I should probably just avoid all fights because, well, I suck. Other than that, all well in Cairo.