Day 134

Monday June 2^nd,

Today was actually a productive day. I went to the library and used my boss’s id to check out a bunch of books I need for the summer. They shut the library down for me, so I effectively stuck it to the man. It would have been awful if that hadn’t worked out because these books are really sweet and will be really helpful. After hanging out there with Scott, I went back to the dorm and tired to work out, but found that the gym is closed until the sixth. The man wins round two. There are very few study abroad students left from the spring and a lot of summer students are showing up. For dinner we took out KC and Alice from Notre Dame to dinner and tried to give them some information about Cairo. A group of other new students came with them and it kind of felt as if we were passing the torch on to a new generation. It also felt as if we were the experienced, hardened ones of cairo, and here were all these fresh, soft, plastics coming in. They had all the youthful bounce, where everything was new, and they didn’t really know what was going on. I am a seasoned veteran, except my Arabic still isn’t that great. Kind of unfortunate. It’s also weird to think that all these new kids are going to have similar but altogether very different experiences from us. They will have similar expeditions to the khan and take felucca rides and have similar experiences. It makes our experience, the spring semester of 2008 seem like such a drop of sand in a much larger bucket. It kind of makes me feel small and insignificant, and I should realize that I am not special for being in Cairo, but I should make Cairo special for the experiences and relationships we shared. It’s a humbling experience, but also a rewarding one. I will treasure the memories that I have made, for although they may not be special in the grand scheme of things they are special to me and those around me, and I guess that is all we can really hope for.