So, it's been a couple of weeks. Just enough time to settle down and really situate myself in Cairo. Things started looking up after Tom came. After a few exhausting days of searching, we found an apartment in the middle of downtown. It's very small, but we love it. Great air conditioning. And after weighing all our options about where to live--whether to live a little bit close to the AUC by living in a suburb, or embracing the chaos that is downtown--I believe we made the right choice. It's noisy, dirty, crazy, but it's where all the action is, and I think Tom and I would have deeply regretted leaving downtown. Also, most of the people from the CASA program live downtown or close to downtown, so it's easier to meet up with them. I love having my own kitchen, for the first time in my life. It's started to really hit me that I am no longer an undergraduate, I am living a more adult life.

As many of you have heard, the start of my classes was delayed for a week after two American students from the AUC got swine flu. Unfortunate of course for them and everyone involved, but the delay did give me a chance to find the apartment with Tom and get settled before starting classes. Finding an apartment and making the necessary trip to Carrefour to buy all the necessary furnishings (bed sheets, pots and pans, trash cans, pillows etc...) is a very overwhelming and stressful process. I don't think either Tom or I could have done it on our own.

What I love most about our apartment, is the neighborhood. It's only a ten minute walk from my bus stop and midan tahrir, the center of downtown with tons of Western coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and cafes. But the neighborhood itself isn't touristy. There is a wonderful souk right behind our building with vegetable stands and sweets shops. We've made friends with some of the men in the cafes on our street, who always offer us tea and a chance to chat in Arabic when they see us. They refuse to let us ever pay. Also, we live right next to a shed that sells government subsidized bread. It's pretty crazy to leave the apartment in the morning and walk right out into a chaotic line of poorer Egyptians waiting to buy bread.

The worst part of my daily routine, is the commute to school. A year ago, the AUC moved its campus from downtown to outside of Cairo in the middle or nowhere. No one seems happy about the move. While the new campus is impressive, it's just so far away from anything. You can only buy expensive American fast food on the campus--think McDonalds and Cinnabun. Gross. In the morning, my commute on the AUC bus takes 45 minutes. But coming back it takes about an hour and twenty minutes. I hate it. So I leave my apartment at 8:10 in the morning and don't get back until five. It's a very long day.

My classes are great so far. Really incredible hard, but wonderful. The program is very well organized, and I feel so lucky to be a part of it. We have about 4 hours of homework every night, which isn't that fun after I've been out from 9 hours. But I knew to expect that it would be a tremendous amount of work. It's blood, sweat, tears, and many hours of homework if I am to ever learn Arabic.

That's it for now. I am looking forward to a couple friends from Brown visiting for my birthday weekend. It's going to be a blast. I hope all is well at home, and I deeply miss everybody.

-Andrea