My class list this semester:
1. Intro to Colloquial Arabic
2. Chemistry, Art, and Archeology (Sometimes I call this class my "chemistry and art class" and sometimes I call it "forgeries class")
3. Architecture: Art or Engineering?
4. Marriage and Family in the Middle East
5. Caliphs and Sultans in the Age of Crusades and Mongols

Anyway, I didn't plan my schedule very well. Both art classes are on the same day (although Art and Engineering is a lecture that is only on Thursdays) and both of my history classes are back to back. My Arabic class is at 8:30 issobh (morning), so I have to get up at 6:00 take the 7:00 bus to get to campus on time, four days a week. On Sundays (because the school week is Sunday through Thursday) I have to get to campus for 8:30 class, which goes for an hour, and then I have five hours of free time before my 2:30 class. In any case, classes are mostly pretty interesting. The Caliphs and crusades class is a little boring, but in Marriages and Families, we were just talking about feminism in the Arab world, which was really interesting. Did you know that there was a feminist movement after Napoleon's conquest of Egypt? One of his generals married an Arab woman, and she told all of her friends about how he was actually very chivalrous towards her, which led to a petion for Napoleon to make all Arab men treat their women the same way. Of course, some things happened between then and now, I don't want to bore you with details, but I thought it was still really interesting.

Today was the equivalent to Friday here, so some of my roommates and I went out to dinner in El Maadi, which I guess is like "American" town. I think a lot of ex-pats live there and so there are a lot of western chains, such as Baskin Robbins and Pizza Hut. We ate at a restaurant called Lucille's, which Time magazine said has the best hamburgers. I got Tex Mex though, and onion rings. At this point, I will also mention that the first night I got to Cairo, we went to this really great Lebanese restaurant. The food was excellent, but the service was terrible. I think waiters recieve a guaranteed income, so they have no incentive to work hard. If I remember correctly, we had to ask for bread at least ten times before they brought it to us. Anyway, at Lucille's it was exciting because in addition to free refills on pop, the waiter was really cheerful and excited and he wore a leather vest. After dinner, we took a horse drawn carriage back to our apartment. It was so touristy, it was a little mortifying.

Half of Claire, the driver, and traffic. Did you think they drove the horses on the sidewalk? Because they don't. And because we're like the only horse drawn carriage on the road, we were like a huge touristy spectacle.

Anyway, here are more random photos.
This is a close-up of the view of the pyramids from our apartment.

The other night, we heard what sounded like artillery. But it ended up being fireworks. These ones we saw from our balcony, but later in the night, we went up to the roof of our building to watch fireworks in a different part of town.

Here are some more pictures of campus.

This is one of my favorite spaces on campus, that I've found so far. I like it because usually there is no one there. I like the asymmetrical steps. I like how there is no roof. I don't really know actually. But everytime I walk in the art building, I get really happy when I see this space.

My second favorite space, currently. What I really enjoy is the fact that this is a really bizzare hallway. It's got an open roof, ramps on the left and stairs on the right. I think maybe I like it because it just feels excessive, especially for just a hallway. Also, the open roof and sunlight makes everything look really cute.



I decided today that being able to take this picture made waking up at 6:00 issobh a little bit worth it. Because at 7:45, when the library isn't even open, there aren't a lot of people around and because the light is pretty fantastic.

A lot of windows have this sort of wood thing over them. I don't know what it is. I think it's like Islamic influenced or something? It's really pretty though, and I think it contrasts the other materials they use here very well.

Prayer space on the 2nd floor of the art building.


These pots are all over campus. I've got to say, they are maybe the classiest ashtrays I have ever seen.

A lot of my friends are doing fun things this weekend, but I think I'm just going to wander around and do readings.

P.S. Valentine's day is coming up. I wouldn't care, but Egyptians seem to be really into it. There's this one store on the street called the 26th of July. Once I passed it a week or so ago, and there were some cheesy red and pink things outside it, like what looked like a red feather bird cage. But the other day, on the bus, I noticed that the amount of cheesy Valentine's day gifts had drastically increased. And it seems that half the time that I buy random things, I get wished a Happy Valentine's Day. And when I bought my sunglasses, I got a discount because they were having a Valentine's Day sale.