The Flight from America

Cairo is awesome. The airport is beautiful, the people drive like maniacs, and the language is impossible to understand. Fantastic.

Seriously though, people don't know how to drive. No body stays in any one lane - they constantly take up two or use the sidewalk or median as they please. There seems to be no speed limit anywhere. The cops on the sides of the road just look on to make sure no body catches fire. It seems that children are allowed to hang off of buses and motorcycles like any of us could. You are not driving economy class unless every square inch of your vehicle is filled with people mass. There are no traffic signs accept the triangle with the exclamation point. I don't understand how people know where they are going or what road they are on. Ever.

Backing up though, I had no idea business class was such a nice way to fly. OMG! Everything that happened was a surprise. The wine, the blankets, the movies, the chair, the mood lighting, everything. Just simply pleasant.

I was able to watch Easy A (just as enjoyable as I suspected), Despicable Me (though it had its funny parts, not great but alright), and The American with George Clooney (awful terrible movie).

I read some of a book Brendan lent me last year. It is entitled The Diamond Age. It is a sci-fi novel about nano science plus a bunch of other things. It really sort of bothers me how he will explain some minor new age science technology they have in the future for a few pages, but will then limit all character interaction to a paragraph. I see this book as more of a "I am going to put everything cool I can think of into a novel and tie it to some random story line." When explaining the Matter Compiler, you only need to explain to me once that it manifests anything you want, limited to its size and power. Just once. You also need to explain the piece of paper that takes audible commands to display anything you want just once. I have heard of the internet buddy...

I cannot sleep on a plane to save my life. Seriously. Nearly half a day on a plane, and 22 hours traveling, and I got maybe a half an hour of nap time. Weak.

Sharing a room with three other guys. It is a sizable room, mirrored on itself. We are right across the hall from the bathroom, which I must say, has some of the best showers I have ever used ever. It is like... a frisbee sized disc of the decently most powerful shower heads you have ever used. The water can get to magma boiling hot. The curtains work. There are hooks in there.

They made these bathrooms right.

My room has a maid service and sheet service. They clean the sheets every two weeks, and the room nearly the same amount. The only caveat is that someone has to be here when they do. Which blows, cause I don't want to be in this room any more than I have to.

It's like 9 AM back home, but 5 in the afternoon here. Remember that.

I would post some photos, but I am throwing those all up on Facebook.

Pre-Exam Post

Well, truth be told, nothing much has happened since I last posted. In fact, it has been a clutch period for final projects and exam preparation at Marquette.

I do regret not putting up some photos of my campus if not only to remind myself what I will be leaving behind. Then again, I could take a photo of any pile of snow, and be remarkably happy. Similarly though, I never get in with pictures of my friends. Probably because girls take those pictures, and I don't know any of them...

My roommate, Dan, on the other hand, is less than pleased I am leaving. Policy of the the campus says that he will have to get a new roommate - and if he doesn't find one, they will. Needless to say, Dan really enjoyed rooming with me. We get along, understand each other's humor, and have a similar work ethic. To get a new roommate now (the last real semester before we are allowed to get apartments) means that he will probably end up with one of the ruffians that nobody else could tolerate. The "bad egg" so to speak. It will be interesting for Dan to say the least, but I told him I would bring him some "Magical Egyptian Sand..." so we will see how that goes.

I have some tentative concerns however about seeing people. It has seemed that more people are concerned for me to go, than I am. As a result, people want to see me or throw parties of whatever. Since the semester has been winding down, and people get busy with exams, I have been seeing them less and less. It is a little saddening, but also no different than if I were to come back next semester. Life just goes on.

Somewhat, I hope my experience is like that of Nebel - who is studying abroad in Sweden presently. Every other week or so, he is able to post pictures from another city or country he had the opportunity to visit. Beer in hand, eyes glazed over, friends around him, he has been having the time of his life. His classes were somewhat of a joke and he was able to be pretty free to move around.

If it pans out for me, I sort of want to do the same things: Visit historical sites, enjoy a good Arabian brew, check out the metropolises (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jerusalem, Beruit, Etc), chill on the Nile and bounce around in the Mediterranean. I have a feeling that my classes may be a bit more difficult but Math doesn't get easier with an Abacus.

The image is a map showing the different dialects of Arabic. Notice how Egypt has its own dialect almost completely different from all the neighboring areas. This means that I won't be able to successfully communicate across the Middle East and Africa, as well as in Egypt.

Excellent. I am a good mime.

Whatever, I like Adventure

Well, this is the beginning. First let me explain how I decided to travel to Egypt for my study abroad experience.

I decided I wanted to study abroad when I was in high school and my buddies Poom from Thailand and Daniel from Australia visited our small High School in Wisconsin. They were amazing people and I am sorry to say that it just very difficult to go to their homes and visit them.

So this year when I was looking at my options I based my decisions off of what places had the most information about them. If a college in Europe had three pages of description versus one in China that had a page of description, I presumed that the European one had more to offer cause someone took the time to write more.

First I wanted Germany. Good beer, Eurotrip, close to many big sites - sounded like a great idea. Then they told me I needed 9 years of German. So I looked elsewhere. Then I thought that maybe France or Spain would be pretty sweet - I was shot down cause I am not a Junior, but a Second semester Sophomore. I thought Italy would be righteous, though lots of people go there from Marquette - but none of my Business Credits would transfer.

So I was left with England, Belgium, or Cairo.

Cairo had the most information on it. It had to be good. I filled out some forms, talked to some people, and boom - I am on my way.

However, it was not until a little later on in the process when I realized that I am going alone and that no one else has ever gone from Marquette. I am the sole ambassador from Marquette to ever go.

Whatever, I like Adventure.

So since I have been officially accepted (maybe, two weeks ago), I have been getting Visa information out, working on costs, and had an orientation through Marquette to say "Don't be dumb. Know what to have on you, don't offend anyone - you are American." How useful. They were able to talk to individual people about everything from Culture to Language and customs except for me.

I never liked people telling me what to expect anyway - they are usually biased.