Underground Adventures

I still have not taken any good photos of AUC's campus, and for this I apologize. I've gone every day since I arrived here, and it has always been for the purpose of getting things done and then getting the hell out. Although the buildings are largely air conditioned (and even the parts that are not, such as hallways, are much cooler simply for lack of direct sun), it is unbelievably hot here, and the heat is starting to take its toll on me. We keep the air conditioner in our room on at all times, and the curtains shut (which to some extent is a practical adjustment, since Nafiza understandably likes to go hijab-less in our room), and walking in after a long morning at campus feels wonderful in a way that cannot be properly understood anywhere that isn't routinely in the upper 90s F.

One of my major adventures this week has been conquering Cairo's Metro system. After ALI orientation and lunch out on Tuesday, Caprill and I decided that rather than wait almost an hour for the next shuttle bus to arrive, we would take the Metro from Sadat (which is the station located under Midan Tahrir) to El Behoos, which is the nearest stop to our dorm in Doqqi. We paid a guinea (LE1, approximately $0.20) each for the privilege of riding what I can honestly say is the cleanest and most idiot-proof public transportation system I've ever encountered. Like many other local rail transport systems, the Metro requires only that you know what the last stop on your line is (though knowing your own stop would also be beneficial), which made my complete lack of navigational skills a non-issue.



We walked down two flights of stairs to get to the platforms, all of which are painted in bright colors and air conditioned. Because it's so cheap and efficient, the Metro is also usually quite crowded; when we got to the platform at approximately 1 PM there was a train waiting, but we elected to wait for a second, less crowded train. On all trains, the first car (and sometimes both the first and second cars) are reserved for women and children, and therefore are much less crowded and generally considered safer and more comfortable for individual or groups of women travelers. Through Caprill and I attracted a fair amount of staring from our fellow passengers (which is why I didn't take any photos), this was nothing compared to what we'd have encountered on the mixed-gender cars. To be honest, I think that even if I were traveling with a group of guys, I'd probably elect to take the women's car simply for spatial (to say nothing of physical) comfort.

Overall, I haven't found the harassment that I was warned about to be problematic. Since I'm usually with a group of girls who are all obviously American (except for Nafiza), we tend to attract stares wherever we go - even on campus - but so far I've only had a few men be so bold as to whistle or comment aloud. It helps, too, that I don't have the vocabulary to understand the conversations that occur as we pass; thus even if Egyptians are commenting on us, I don't have any way of knowing for sure. I've been wearing my sunglasses anytime I go out on the streets, not just because of the sun, but because eye contact is often construed as an invitation for interaction. (I was wearing my big sunglasses when Nafiza and I were exploring Midan Tahrir recently, one guy yelled at me "Hey, nice shades!" which I found more amusing than anything.)


I'll definitely be using the Metro again soon; even with the walk home from the station, it was much quicker than the shuttle and comes every ten minutes (as opposed to the shuttle, which comes every hour, and only until 7:30 PM). And, with the way traffic works in Cairo, it's probably safer to not be on the road! I took this photo as Caprill and I were waiting to cross the road to get to the Metro station in Midan Tahrir; as you can see, traffic is very heavy, and it hardly ever lets up. Midan Tahrir reminds me of Place d'Etoile in Paris - many, many "lanes" of traffic, where everyone essentially drives wherever they want to and lays on the horn when somebody gets in the way. All of the traffic circles have lights, which are occasionally obeyed, and some have police directing traffic during rush periods who are, again, occasionally obeyed. My friend Sara equated crossing busy streets to playing Frogger, but we've become astonishingly bold in just a week of being here; none of the American kids think twice anymore about crossing halfway and waiting in the street for traffic to slow enough to cross. (Mom, please pretend you didn't read that.) And people think Chicago residents are aggressive about crossing the street...

(FYI: The red building at the back of the lower photograph is the Egyptian Museum, which I may be visiting as early as this weekend. The study abroad kids depart for El Gourna either tomorrow or Friday, and so Caprill and I are planning to hit up some sites so that we don't die of boredom at Kanzy all weekend. From the perspective of the photo, the university is behind me and to the left, but from this point all one would see is the wall surrounding Main Campus.)