After a whirlwind of graduation celebrations, packing, and goodbyes, on May 29th I headed off to Cairo, Egypt to begin my Center for the Study of Arabic Abroad (CASA) fellowship. From a mishap with my baggage stickers and crying babies to an unintentional seven hour layover in the Istanbul airport and a 3 hour minibus ride through an unfathomable amount of traffic and near car accidents, the journey was a little rough. I eventually arrived at the African House Hostel (about 10 hours later than expected) and met up with my Tufts friends (and their friend from Middlebury). The hostel has worked out really well so far and for $8 a night includes free breakfast (though the lack of toilet paper was a little unexpected!)
On my first real day in Cairo we went apartment hunting in Dokki. While finding a place to live in Cairo seems a little complicated (dealing with Afghani, Yemeni, and Egyptian land lords etc) I'm sure we'll find a more permanent place to live soon (in sha' allah). I think the major challenge will be avoiding getting hit by cars as crossing the street here is always an adventure. Dokki seems like a really cool area to live in--- conveniently located by a metro stop about a 10 minute ride away from where CASA classes will be held, full of fruit and vegetable carts, bakeries, falafel, shwarma, and juice stands, and tree lined streets. We saw a couple of places today and hopefully will have more luck tomorrow!
We were also able to check out the America University in Cairo's Tahrir campus where our classes will be held. The campus is beautiful and the facilities seem much nicer than those at the University of Jordan, though I didn't get a chance to fully explore (we'll have a full tour in a few days)
Tonight we met up with most of the rest of the CASA fellows and we'll continue our apartment search tomorrow. I can't wait to really be settled in somewhere so I can buy everything we'll need for an apartment, start learning my way around and getting my bearings classes start. I'm also hoping to pick up some of the revolution paraphernalia being sold at Tahrir square (t-shirts, bumper stickers, posters etc)
Time to try to sleep off the rest of my jetlag!
On my first real day in Cairo we went apartment hunting in Dokki. While finding a place to live in Cairo seems a little complicated (dealing with Afghani, Yemeni, and Egyptian land lords etc) I'm sure we'll find a more permanent place to live soon (in sha' allah). I think the major challenge will be avoiding getting hit by cars as crossing the street here is always an adventure. Dokki seems like a really cool area to live in--- conveniently located by a metro stop about a 10 minute ride away from where CASA classes will be held, full of fruit and vegetable carts, bakeries, falafel, shwarma, and juice stands, and tree lined streets. We saw a couple of places today and hopefully will have more luck tomorrow!
We were also able to check out the America University in Cairo's Tahrir campus where our classes will be held. The campus is beautiful and the facilities seem much nicer than those at the University of Jordan, though I didn't get a chance to fully explore (we'll have a full tour in a few days)
Tonight we met up with most of the rest of the CASA fellows and we'll continue our apartment search tomorrow. I can't wait to really be settled in somewhere so I can buy everything we'll need for an apartment, start learning my way around and getting my bearings classes start. I'm also hoping to pick up some of the revolution paraphernalia being sold at Tahrir square (t-shirts, bumper stickers, posters etc)
Time to try to sleep off the rest of my jetlag!
