Use Your Words

While I should really be getting to bed since I have to be up at 8 AM, I felt that I needed to do some writing to ease my mind. Now that the semester is approaching its middle my classes have been requiring more of me than during the entire first month of classes. In many ways it seems like several professors have suddenly realized that the semester needs to be salvaged somehow since a month was spent sorting through the mess that has been AUC's grand journey to New Cairo. A brief note about the new campus. It is absolutely beautiful, with its Arabesque decorated buildings and rows of young palm trees dotting the otherwise bleak, tan landscape. With that said, I would like to relate to you how unorganized the administration is here, which detracts from an otherwise great experience in Egypt. Not that I have not scratched my head at some of Ursinus's actions in the past, but AUC's inemptness triumphs all. For example, the administration here has repeatedly withheld information pertaining to the completion of important facilities on campus, like student housing, cafeteria, and gym complexes. Just this past week it was made known across campus that the dormitories would not be complete until early 2009, well after the November 1st deadline widely publicized at the beginning of the semester. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to move out of the temporary hotel housing earlier and move into an apartment. In response to this issue and others, a number of international students developed an organization to address their concerns, calling it the Foreign Students' Association. As a result of being in the right place, at the right time, I was named president by the group's founder, Phil Zager, a student from USC. For whatever reason, I have been responsible for crafting several letters written to various members of the administration addressing the myriad of issues facing both international and Egyptian students.
I am extremely happy to lend any of my talents, although I do not see them as anything special, to the group with the hope of leaving a positive mark on the university. I know that I probably should not care so much since I am only here for a semester, but I cannot deny my passion for serving something bigger than myself. This semester has definitely been an experience beyond anything that I thought of before arriving in Egypt. I have already learned a great deal about the differences between Western and Eastern mentalities when it comes to problem solving, politics, love, etc. I am not in the position to pass judgements - there is still too much I do not know. What I do know definitively is that if I can help bridge some of these gaps in understanding somehow, either directly or indirectly, then all the risks I took coming here have been worth it.

Ma'salaama for now,

Andrew

Currently listening to: Owen "The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi"

Could you love someone enough
after all you've had and you've lost?
It's a simple question
I'm only asking 'cause I don't want to die alone

Could you love someone completely?
and yes, by "someone" I mean me
Spoiled sick like milk you let sit too long
It's a simple question