Almost two months in!
It has been about two weeks since my laptop died. I'm strangely okay with it and I think I've finally made peace with Cairo and Egypt in general. When absolutely ridiculous things happen to me or my friends now that would never happen back home, I'm much more to the point of shrugging it off. I think it took a little longer because of the fact that we didn't go to school for two weeks after we first got here, so we were really removed from the culture both of the administration and Egypt (and I have learned the two are not synonymous!)
Case in point: I've met obviously a ton of people here. One of these girls two weeks ago started to have an excruciating pain in her foot. She was pretty sure it was broken, and was able to walk due to a high pain tolerance (more power to her, I know I certainly couldn't do that). So over two weeks she tries and tries to get the clinic here (which is staffed with witch doctors--errr I mean highly intelligent people. *cough*yeahright*cough*) to get her an appointment at a real hospital in Cairo with an Xray machine. It took two weeks for them to finally listen to her and stop giving her bullshit remedies (like a cream that was basically Icy Hot) and got her an Xray at a hospital in Cairo. Guess what? The foot is broken!
This poor girl has been walking on a broken foot for TWO WEEKS. And it's entirely AUC's fault, they refused to do their jobs and help her see someone who could take care of her! It just really characterized the attitude of the university here, it's so sad!
But beyond that, I'm feeling strangely at peace. It's frustrating not being able to leave campus during the week and it's hard to do it on weekends unless you make a special effort, but I've accepted it. I found a few girls in a smaller group than what I started out in and they're genuinely inclusive rather than exclusive (this include the girl who broke her foot). So maybe that will improve things--since it's only 3-4 people it's easier to decide on what to do and when.
Arabic is frustrating me, mostly because I feel like I once again ended up in a class where there's little structure and you don't necessarily learn a lot. I really want to learn this language but every time I'm in a class it's like the professors don't want to teach it, or don't know how. It's a very strange situation. At least in this class I'm learning common sense words that I never learned in the al-Kitaab book...
Oh shit. I have a presentation on Thursday. This was forgotten.
I wonder if one can get a high off of Sudafed. My allergies here are practically nonexistent (as opposed to my parents' home!), except for this past few days there has been a) a heat way in excess of 100 degrees (the days before that it maybe reached mid-80s) and b) in combination with this, they are doing a lot of burning of fields and garbage in Cairo. So I have been very stuffed up (and then it drips). I finally broke down and took a dose of Sudafed a few hours ago. I didn't even notice it was working, that's how good I started to feel, and until I felt it I hadn't realized how crappy I had been feeling! I brought with a rather large supply, anticipating that I was going to have a lot of problems, so I should have more than enough left to last the last two months (I go home December 18th).
I hope this calm lasts. I'm kind of done with the constant up and down emotions!
Peace out.
Case in point: I've met obviously a ton of people here. One of these girls two weeks ago started to have an excruciating pain in her foot. She was pretty sure it was broken, and was able to walk due to a high pain tolerance (more power to her, I know I certainly couldn't do that). So over two weeks she tries and tries to get the clinic here (which is staffed with witch doctors--errr I mean highly intelligent people. *cough*yeahright*cough*) to get her an appointment at a real hospital in Cairo with an Xray machine. It took two weeks for them to finally listen to her and stop giving her bullshit remedies (like a cream that was basically Icy Hot) and got her an Xray at a hospital in Cairo. Guess what? The foot is broken!
This poor girl has been walking on a broken foot for TWO WEEKS. And it's entirely AUC's fault, they refused to do their jobs and help her see someone who could take care of her! It just really characterized the attitude of the university here, it's so sad!
But beyond that, I'm feeling strangely at peace. It's frustrating not being able to leave campus during the week and it's hard to do it on weekends unless you make a special effort, but I've accepted it. I found a few girls in a smaller group than what I started out in and they're genuinely inclusive rather than exclusive (this include the girl who broke her foot). So maybe that will improve things--since it's only 3-4 people it's easier to decide on what to do and when.
Arabic is frustrating me, mostly because I feel like I once again ended up in a class where there's little structure and you don't necessarily learn a lot. I really want to learn this language but every time I'm in a class it's like the professors don't want to teach it, or don't know how. It's a very strange situation. At least in this class I'm learning common sense words that I never learned in the al-Kitaab book...
Oh shit. I have a presentation on Thursday. This was forgotten.
I wonder if one can get a high off of Sudafed. My allergies here are practically nonexistent (as opposed to my parents' home!), except for this past few days there has been a) a heat way in excess of 100 degrees (the days before that it maybe reached mid-80s) and b) in combination with this, they are doing a lot of burning of fields and garbage in Cairo. So I have been very stuffed up (and then it drips). I finally broke down and took a dose of Sudafed a few hours ago. I didn't even notice it was working, that's how good I started to feel, and until I felt it I hadn't realized how crappy I had been feeling! I brought with a rather large supply, anticipating that I was going to have a lot of problems, so I should have more than enough left to last the last two months (I go home December 18th).
I hope this calm lasts. I'm kind of done with the constant up and down emotions!
Peace out.