Day 3

So I just wrote an email to my m from which a good portion of this post came...

Orientation went alright- I'm registered for 3 courses. I'm probably going to just get an arabic tutor on my own time- its much easier and much cheaper.

I'm less and less confident about this whole grad school thing though. Everyone there (theres about 25 people entering my program- so about 50-60 total) was VERY passionate and had specific things they wanted to study, and I was just kinda sitting there being like I wanted an adventure. I also just think that I wanted to go abroad more than I wanted to go to grad school- I kinda don't want to go to school for a while. I'll see how classes go though.

However, I DID meet an Egyptian/American girl named Nedda who grew up on long Island. We became Orientation buddies- she offered to take me out with her Egyptian friends as well. Hopefully I can learn some arabic from her as well. You know, its not really an issue that I don't speak Arabic, but it makes me feel like such an idiot. Everyone here speaks multiple languages, and almost all of the students in my department know Arabic. There was this one guy who spoke like 6 languages- it was intimidating.

The apartment is great- they're all kinda crappy, but this one is on the 11th floor in a very safe neighborhood. I'm living with my friend Jenny from high school, who is here teaching English for the year. Its nice having someone that I've known since I was 14 here to show me around and help me get on my feet. So apartments here are very weird. They suck at kitchens. I'm pretty sure my bed is a futon. I have a gross but comfy couch in my room. Pictures are coming- I swear. I'm a 5 minute walk from the bus stop for school/metro station which will take me to my classes and what not. All my classes are on the downtown campus, but all the administrative stuff is on the New campus, which is really annoying.

I still have to get my ID card on the new campus, but that's the last of the administrative stuff I need to do with school. Next step is registering with the US embassy and getting my residency visa- which should take a few hours. The building to do that is right across the street from the Egypt Museum, so me and Jenny were going to go kill 2 birds with one stone.

Other than that its standard study abroad jitters and what not. I haven't really stepped out on my own yet, but I'm going to be doing that this week until I start classes. Theres a general sense of unease and a perpetual knot in my stomach- which is normal apparently.