First Day

I wish I could say I arrived in perfectly good spirits last night. But honestly at nearly 4am, feeling a bit sick and not perfectly comfortable in my room, I was in a pretty shitty mood.

It definitely got better as the day went on, and continues to improve as I write this. I overslept, which is annoying since I STILL have not caught a shower, missed breakfast and coffee/tea. After I ate and had a coffee though around midday, I felt way better. The staff is great. The director is hilarious, very pragmatic and approachable on first impression, the two deputies are also amazing, one is a UWC grad Palestinian woman and the other an American Midd grad with inspiring Arabic abilities and a great attitude. 

Good reviews on my first impression of everyone here honestly, and as I talk to people I get less stressed about the language pledge and the difficulty of everything. I won't be the best, but I probably won't be the worst, and I feel like no one will, it'll be a struggle for everyone. 

Taking the tour of the neighborhood around the University of Alexandria was great. Seeing real live students hanging out and being in their classrooms and the shops was awesome, and I felt really comfortable. We took a tour of the Library of Alexandria, a recently completed project a few hundred meters from the original. I can honestly say that it rivals the Library of Congress. Modern, impressive facility with definite care to maintaining classical attitude, its huge, well organized, impressive security and had a really academic atmosphere. I think I'll buy a yearly pass and spend a good amount of time there. It closes really early, which is annoying, but maybe I'll work early? The exhibits were awesome as well, and I look forward to study breaks of exploring them. They have some really cool projects going on too, pretty cool for you obnoxious French speakers out there, here. 

Living conditions: Well, for the first time in many years, I have my own room with a locking door. It's small, about the size of my LPC corner, or about 8'x8', I have a window that looks on to a courtyard between dorm buildings. I would say the overall living conditions are about as spartan as LPC was, maybe a bit more so. The room is a scuffed up off white, with a 3'x2' shaky desk, a book shelf hanging on to the wall by a prayer and a cupboard-closet thing. I'm glad I packed light, otherwise I would be super claustrophobic and I don't really need much. We live in a dorm building about a 15 minute ride from the U of Alex campus, other than that I can't yet orient it in the city at all. My language partner, a native Egyptian student also fluent in English, lives across the hall and by my luck has met and talked to Amr before through mutual friends at Midd. I have mutual friends with several other people in the program, proving a small world.

Sleep is beyond necessary.