omg omg omg

I know I said I'd update with photos but I forgot to take any today. Oops. I will soon I promise.

It's past one a.m. and more orientation stuff starts tomorrow at 9 am but I'm maaaybe too excited to sleep right now. I'm so psyched for this program. The American guy in charge seems reallllly helpful and organized and nice and generally with it, unlike certain other mudeer/-as I could name. So go him. Today we just had orientation talks, and then he walked us around our part of the city and showed us how to use the metro (haha), and such.

Then we had free time to wander around by ourselves, so I did. I accidentally talked with a guy who was all, "Come visit my art shop! My sister and brother are getting married tomorrow! Please come see?!" ... So how could I not? And then of course I was forced into paying way too much for a stupid painting on papyrus. Oops. But whatever. These are things I do in America too. Maybe this is something I should work on.

Wandering off to this guy's shop made me late (oops again) for our group dinner-Nile-cruise. Luckily Matthew waited for me and we got to the boat before it left. (Not being late for things: also something I should probably work on.) The dinner itself was unspectacular, as was the entertainment, but it was really great because I got to meet most of our teachers and chat in Arabic with them. They all seemed really nice and helpful and awesome, and were all "yeah we definitely want to teach you useful vocab," which like YES PLEASE I HAVE WAITED SEVEN SEMESTERS FOR THIS. I reeeeally hope they stay true to that. And during orientation we were told that the colloquial class will be focused entirely on like, Things We Will Be Needing To Say. So I'm looking forward to that a lot. The whole program just seems very organized and culturally aware and lots of good things. And AMIDEAST's whole motto is something about building bridges and bringing people and cultures together...the organization is responsible (both directly and indirectly with like, partner institutions) for a lot of English education in Egypt and all of the Middle East, and for administering standardized tests (TOEFL, etc), and like getting Middle Easterners grants to study in the US and stuff, and we are told there are going to be movie nights and discussions and language partners and stuff with the Egyptian students who are also affiliated with AMIDEAST. (And two of the American students here did the same program in the fall too, so they can confirm these aren't just hypothetical, never-to-be instances of interaction, again different from certain mudeer/as' programs I could name.) So basically, all great signs so far.

Anyway, suuuuuper giddy to be in Cairo. I'm sure it'll fade but I'm enjoying it right now. Tomorrow we have a three-hour placement exam (ew, haven't prepared, sigh) and more orientating, after which they should deliver my suitcase to my apartment (yay). OK SLEEP TIME.