Yesterday, I arrived in Cairo, Egypt. It's still surreal to say it, and even more so to think it. On my way from Cairo International to the Zamalek Dormitories, I could not believe that I had traveled half way around the world!
I'm spending the fall semester of my junior year at Notre Dame, where I am majoring in Political Science and Arabic, studying abroad at the American University in Cairo. My goals for the semester are to become more fluent in Arabic and to experience as much of Cairo, Egypt, and the surrounding areas as possible. I think I'll have plenty of opportunities to do both.
On our (there's four other students here from Notre Dame-Caitlin, Matt, Ryan, and Rob and many other American students) first night here, we went on cruise on the Nile. We went on small sailboats with about 20 students per boat. It was beautiful. Everything was lit up along the river. It was also very Americanized; there are a lot of American hotels and restaurants along the river.
Today, we toured Old Cairo, which I took to be one of the more religious sections of the city. We visited St. George's and St. Sargeous (both coptic churches), Ben Ezra Synagogue, and a mosque, where everyone had to remove their shoes, men and women had to enter separately, and women had to be covered from head to toe (we wore green gowns with hoods). For me, one of the most interesting parts of the day was the noontime call to prayer, which really can be heard throughout Cairo. It's Ramadan right now, so it's also interesting (and a little challenging) that most Muslims are fasting and abstaining from sun-up to sun-down. It definitely eye-opening to see the culture on such a first hand level.
Being in Old Cairo was also eye-opening, as it seemed to display more signs of poverty than Zamalek (which is a wealthy area). I'm sure I'll have more experiences and more to say about that later in my trip. It was also my first real experience with mid-day Cairo traffic. Let's just say I'm not going to be looking out the window much when I travel by bus this semester! I'm sure I'll have more to say on that tomorrow, as we are taking our first trip to AUC's new campus in New Cairo. That's where I'll have all of my classes. Hopefully I'll adjust quickly to having to deal with that commute everyday! I'll post again soon about my classes and other adventures!
