Today I had my orientation at American University of Cairo (AUC). I still have some forms to submit, so it was no surprise that I wasn't in the registration list upon arrival. Nonetheless, I really feel more positive about my time here now that I spent a little time at the campus and with some future students. While 80% of the school population consists of wealthy Egyptians, the majority of foreign students in attendance are only there for a study abroad semester. The president of the school mentioned some interesting statistics in his welcome speech regarding study abroad students that I thought were worth sharing. Apparently the number of U.S. college students undergoing a study abroad program has favorably risen 120% in the last 10 years, encompassing 250,000 students, yet out of 15 million college students in America, this consists of only 2% of the student population. Of that 2%, over half attend schools in Europe, with Italy, France, the U.K., Ireland, and Spain in the lead. The remaining 40% attend schools mostly within Australia, Costa Rica, and China. Of the top 20 nations attracting study abroad students, not a single one is in the Middle East, a jarring concern given the monumental significance that the Middle East holds within our world.
Already within one week, I am finding my time here within the general region of Middle East / North Africa as being overshadowed by the weight of history, all the while, with one foot moving toward the future. Each day I walk down my street, 26th of July Street, and I follow in the footsteps of Napoleon's army, who conquered this city on that very day. Walking into AUC, I step across French boulevards and into the campus's Oriental Hall, an elaborate building constructed in 1919 using western technology and Islamic motifs. Yet Oriental Hall, like its colonialist namesake, is simply an infant within the urban chaos of Egypt. Next to my apartment is a mosque that is probably older than all the castles in Europe, and yet here, it is simply one amongst the many. As for the pyramids, I haven't gone over to that part of town, yet the weight of their stories certainly requires little description.
One of the greatest joys I have derived from my studies of Architecture and Planning is ability to walk down the street and to not only see the cityscape, but to read it. To make mental notes regarding the construction and historicism of the buildings, to observe the variations of concrete in the sidewalk, or to study the undulating widths of the streets. These characteristics, when combined with others, does more than a subjective idea of 'where I am,' but further tells me what this place has been and provides an objective understanding of what it is. With enough attention to detail, and a little outside knowledge of the local history, I can usually determine when parts of the city where constructed, who lived there, how much money they had, perhaps why they left or what mechanisms have enforced historic change. But in Cairo... I'm lost. The city is to thick with time, its physicality is massive, and its humanity is sprawling. I'm only now becoming oriented in its physical geography, while all the cultural and socio-economic, or historical minutiae remain beyond perception. While other places in the world taught me something about humanity, it seems that Cairo holds a new lesson. Of course I can't predict what that will be, but I suspect that it will have less to do with people, and more to do with the weight of time, the monstrosity of the past, and horizon of the future.
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