Arrival in Cairo!

I got to Cairo safely on Sunday afternoon and was so overcome with fatigue and allergies that I fell asleep on Monday at 6 pm and slept through till this morning. Tuesday we went to the American University in Cairo for our Arabic language orientation. My first impression of my teachers was that they seem overly intense. They thought it was completely unacceptable that the lot of us haven't read a library's worth of Arabic literature and poetry and consequently questioned our abilities to read at all by requiring one of us (not me luckily) to read the newspaper headline aloud. Savages. I'm terrified. The group of teachers furthermore assured us that Arabic is easy. Jerks. Anyway, I have had ridiculous allergies since Monday afternoon and was checked by a doctor who assured that I don't have H1N1 but I do have "allergy to the weather" in Cairo. Good thing I brought Zyrtec--I am congested, have a TB sounding cough and a runny nose. Festive!
The work week in Cairo is from Sunday to Thursday, so today (Friday) is our free day. The first 2 days of class were less daunting than that first day of orientation. Turns out that the really mean guy won't be teaching us till July, so that's a relief. My colloquial teacher is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Other than class I've been doing amazing things every day. Tuesday was the first day of the Refugee Film festival and I went after class and saw 2 films--
and Salt of this Sea and Giraffe in the Rain. Wednesday night I went to Khan el Khalili to see some Sufi whirling dervishes and filmed part of it. I'll upload it to Youtube.

Last night I went to see 3 tenors at the Cairo opera house. And today, my precious free day, I finally unpacked, made my first trip to the grocery near my residence and successfully negotiated the delivery of 4 boxes of water to our room for my roommate and me. Afterward my Cairo man protector, Blake, and I went to the Grand Hyatt Hotel. From the 40th floor panoramic view of Cairo I finally laid eyes on the Pyramids of Giza. Breathtaking. We then saw a movie called "Omar wa Salma" that was far too loud and totally inscrutable.

I'll likely spend the rest of the day smoking lemon flavored sheesha and relaxing! We head off to Memphis tomorrow.