this is the life

~~~~ Satisfied

This has been a fun week before classes start. The on-campus orientation was a little boring on Monday but one of the professors got up to talk to us for a while and I'm actually taking his class, Geography in Ancient Egypt. I know the class doesn't sound very interesting but all the locations we discuss we actually get to visit so I think it'll be a lot better then it sounds and the professor was engaging.

Tuesday we left for Alexandria. The bus ride wasn't too bad. They got us nice charter buses and on the way out of Cairo we saw the pyramids in the distance. It was really beautiful. In Egypt they organize people by first name instead of last so I was on the bus with Nick, a guy who goes to Claremont College, and the Pete from Pomona I was suppose to meet. So now I have officially met Pete. He was an Australian accent like Heath Ledger! After we got to Alexandria we checked into this beautiful five-star hotel with this incredible view of the Mediterranean. I roomed with two girls named Mary and Mary-Clare, since we were in alphabetical order by our first names. Thankfully I was not in a room of three Megan's like I thought I'd be in originally. We all went to lunch together and had this fantastic buffet meal in the hotel. Afterward we wandered around the hotel, bought some postcards, and explored. For dinner we went to this fish house and had a not so good meal. They served opened-face fish with the tails and eyeballs still intact! Needless to say I had rice for dinner... After dinner we went back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby-area. There was a band playing and they served us coffee and ice cream so it was a fun time to socialize and get to know a lot of the kids
we hadn't met yet.

Wednesday we woke up bright and early for breakfast in the hotel. After that we had to sit and listen to Tomander, our academic adviser talk for a long time about cultural adjustment and such. It kinda took too long but we discovered our cell phones have a form of pong on them so we were entertained! Tomander talked until lunch and after another lunch in the hotel we explored the grounds. There was this bridge that went out to a lighthouse in the Mediterranean that we walked out to. The views were incredible and the Mediterranean was so blue! After that we met up with one of the full-time AUC students who came along and we went out to the city of Alexandria. He took us to a beach where we ordered drinks and
played in the sand. It was really nice. We stayed there until it was time for dinner so we got cabs and went back to the hotel. Dinner was better then the night before. We went to a steakhouse and I had a big plate of steamed vegetables... something I've been missing since I got here because I haven't had the time to cook my vegetables to keep me from getting sick. They even had okra. And creme brulee for dessert! After dinner they took us to a mall which I actually really didn't like because I felt like we were right back in America. There was an Adidas store, a Starbucks, even a Fudruckers! It was funny to see that no matter where you go, everything is pretty much the same.

Thursday we woke up early again and got ready to leave Alexandria. We ate breakfast at the hotel then set out to see the Roman catacombs. They were beyond description. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside so I can't even show what they looked like. But the Romans who built the catacombs tried to emulate the style of the ancient Egyptians so all the tombs and walls were covered with beautiful Egyptian decorations. After the catacombs we visited a Roman amphitheater and got a group picture taken of all the International students. Hopefully Mohamed will send the picture out soon! Then we went to the pharos which the location of the original lighthouse of Alexandria but is now an old battlement. That was amazing to see and explore and was probably my favorite thing to visit out of the day. After the pharos we went to lunch at a restaurant
overlooking the Mediterranean. The food was really good and we even got ice cream for dessert! After lunch we went to the library of Alexandria. I'm glad I went to see it but it wasn't as spectacular as the original library would have been. Then we loaded up the buses, came back to Cairo, did some laundry, and went to bed. I'm glad I am now able to say that I've been to Alexandria but overall I thought it was a little overrated and I am definitely more in love with Cairo.

Last night we went over to Nick's apartment for some... um good old American fun. ;) Nate, Katie, and I hung out most of the day. We got Nate a cell phone, I added some minutes to mine, we had karkaday at our favorite coffee shop... which I don't know the name of by the way... hmmmm. Got take-away Koshari, and hung out until we decided we wanted to order Drinkies. The only problem? We didn't know the number for Garden City Drinkies! So we took a cab to Zamalek ("which Mohamed sheriya?" "Ismail Mohamed" "Which sheriya!?" ... "supermarket?" "aiwya, metro supermarket" "supermarket?" ummmm, that's alfamart...) and proceeded to get lost on the way to Nick's apartment. But we ran into a random other AUC guy who was just looking for someplace to eat so he got Hardees and came back with us. Hahahaha :p what a random event! Drinkies came, we hung out. Talked. It was beyond amazing. Something I don't get in Miami, that's for sure! Only problem? By the time we were ready to leave it was four in the morning and Kaite and I weren't willing to take a cab back! So we crashed on Nick's couches... with Nate ;) This morning we woke up, got coffee, and stopped by Alfamart for some essentials... umm, Nate's not allowed to shop with us anymore. Hahahahaha.

Classes start tomorrow. Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday I have Intro to Ancient
Egypt and Intro to Historical Theory and Method. Monday, Wednesday I have
Anthropolgy Social Movements and my Culture and Geography of Ancient Egypt
class. I really want to take a fifth class but I need to wait until add /
drops happen to see.