Orientation

I had my first day of orientation today (for those of you confused, I had been mistaken about the date on which it began, so I may have told you otherwise). It wasn't very comprehensive, just a bunch of booths in a room that told you what to do. I received my medical insurance card and my student ID, and was registered for my student e-mail address. I am in the process of applying for my residency visa, which is required for foreign students beyond just the tourist visa. I also registered for classes. I am taking:

Arabic
After Empire: Nationalism and Social Change in the Middle East 1914-Present
Intro to Sufism
Political and Social Thought in the Modern Arab World

I'm very pleased with this, especially After Empire, which caters directly to my strongest academic interests, and Intro to Sufism, which is taught by a professer, Huda Lutfi, who wrote an article which I found very interesting, which I read for Formation of Islamic Societies at AU.

There isn't much interesting stuff going on tomorrow - basically the same thing as today, which is fairly useless since I've done it. I may just hang out in the apartment and go back on Wednesday, when they start having lectures and things. I still have to finish my visa stuff and buy notebooks and things, but I can do that on Wednesday, because there's really only one interesting session that day.

The weather today was lovely, a little cool, but it's supposed to get even chillier the next few days. Apparently this is the coldest winter Egypt has seen in awhile. Still, highs are a bit higher than in the states, and lows aren't near as low. Temperatures are supposed to be back up again on Friday.

Oh, I forgot to mention something: cats everywhere here, in the streets but especially roaming campus, and even inside some buildings. I took some pictures... here's my favorite:


Aww!