Last week in my amiya class, I gave a presentation on my life at Fonduq Kanzy. After describing my room with its small bathroom and ugly furnishings, located far from campus and in an area with few shops, restaurants or things in general, the floor was opened for questions. The girl sitting next to me raised her hand and asked, "Why don't you move?"
This week, we've been lucky enough to have our refrigerator, air conditioning and toilet fixed (all in two days), though I have still not managed to find the right tone of pleading/persuasion/sheer annoyance to convince the housekeeping staff that after three weeks, our room (especially the bathroom) desperately needs to be cleaned. The shuttles seem to be running on time this week - maybe the 4,000 complaints I logged in the last two weeks had some effect after all. Even with the forty year old furniture and carpet, the cramped quarters, and the quasi-functional washing machine (to say nothing of the elevators), it could be a lot worse.
For example, I could have been forced to live, as was originally planned, in Marwa Palace Residence.
This article appeared in AUC's student newspaper The Caravan on September 13. The Facebook group it references, for those of you who are on Facebook, can be found here.
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2 comments:
Liz,
I have continued to enjoy reading through your blog site and appreciate your taking the time to chronicle your Egyptian adventures. Looks like you have moved on from the Marwa?? My son, Jeffrey, remains at "the Palace" but has at least made friends with other palace-mates. He sent us some photos recently... everyone looks very skinny! Must be the fasting. We tried to send granola bars to the Marwa, but sadly the package never arrived.
Hope all continues to go well for you.
Anne Marie Taylor
Liz,
Your blog has been really interesting to me as I am departing for Cairo to study Arabic at ALI in about 9 days. I have just received word that I have been assigned to stay in Kanzy as well. I was initially hoping for Zamalek as I had the impression that it was kind of the "main" dorm and nearest the gym, although I thought I would just wait and see what Kanzy is like. However, after reading your description (which I linked on my blog here: http://jenniferm.blogspot.com ) I am wondering whether I should go ahead and begin the process of switching to Zamalek. Could you tell me how that compares and what your thoughts on the matter are?
I would rather not post my e-mail address online, but replies to this comment will be e-mailed to me, as will comments posted to my blog.
Thank you!
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