People and cars crowd Talab Harb Street, one of the main shopping strips in downtown Cairo. This area is a student hangout because of its proximity to American Unviersity in Cairo. (photo courtesy of David Harvey)

The sound of honking horns filled the air, engines rumbled
and shouts rang out from behind me. The buildings along Kasr el-Aini, the
avenue running perpendicular to the main campus of the American
University in Cairo,
rose up into the fog of pollution.

My return to Cairo
after 30 days of travel was a bit surreal. I was excited to be home. I
considered it home now — despite my lack of an actual house or apartment — and
while I was eager and happy to land once again at the Cairo International
Airport, I felt a bit strange returning to a place where so many of my friends
would no longer be living, and where I knew I would be in limbo until classes
start on Feb. 4.

Nevertheless, the chaotic life of Cairo
pouring west from Talat Harb Square
and the Tulip Hotel, where I spent my first few nights in the city five months
ago, was a warm welcome back. From Tahrir Square,
the smog and shouts, the noise of
commuting masses drifted down past the campus alongside Garden City,
home to many study-abroad students and several embassies, right to the street
off Kasr el-Aini where I spent a large part of the afternoon searching for
apartments.

Wandering the streets of Cairo and searching desperately for
a decent but affordable apartment in the city’s center took me back to my first
few days in Egypt, when I found myself alongside several curious Americans,
bustling through the shock of a new place and a new culture.

An apartment building in Doki, west of the Egyptian Nile and across from downtown Cairo, where several study-abroad students choose to live because it’s close to the metro line. (photo courtesy of David Harvey)

Many of those students have since returned home. My first
semester roommate Ben Barclay left with no small amount of sorrow but was
content to face new challenges at his U.S.
university in Minnesota. Others I
knew left eagerly, longing for the ease of the comfortable surroundings they
grew up with. Missing friends, family and, in some cases, baseball, these
semester-long study-abroad students did not regret their choice to spend a
shorter time overseas.

During a recent chat about departing American students, an
Egyptian friend said she thinks most students coming to Cairo
leave without fully experiencing the city, without knowing what it is to be an
Egyptian, or to truly live in Cairo.
Foreign students’ semesters abroad in Egypt
are bullets on resumes — foreign experience for international relations
students — and little more.

If I had left Cairo
in December, I’m not sure my study-abroad experience would have been much more
than a bullet point for me either. I cannot be certain that after a full year I
will have even touched on what life in Egypt
is really all about. Studying at the university we are surrounded by a bubble —
one that is hard to break — but after reflecting on the experience during my
winter travel, I intend to try harder during the second half of my year by
speaking Arabic more often, spending time with Egyptian friends rather than
only American students and finding an apartment in the heart of downtown.

Unlike myself, Brigid Grund, an archaeology major from Boulder,
Colo. who began studying at AUC in the
fall, would rather head home now. She has discovered what she wants out of Egypt,
and learned it is not for her. Brigid’s issues with Cairo
relate to some of the challenges that come with being a woman in the Middle
East, such as harassment. But no matter the city, someone will
always be too far out of their element.

The view from the mosque Minarut in Islamic Cairo shows the weathered apartments and shops. (photo courtesy of David Harvey)

Around 1 a.m. on
Jan. 25, Becky Fogel and Anoush Suni from Claremont
arrived in Cairo, elated to be in Egypt
and to start their spring semester. They were immediately offered a slew of
unsolicited advice and enthusiastic stories. Certainly, many of the spring
semester’s new arrivals will find the same — a stark contrast to the confusion
and learn-by-mistake approach of fall’s arrivals. They’ll still have a chance
to learn for themselves, but with added guidance, spring students like Fogel
and Suni may have the opportunity to make more of their time in Cairo.

The choice whether to study abroad can be a bit daunting;
choosing where can present another challenge. But perhaps one of the hardest
decisions, in retrospect, would be how long to stay overseas. The problem I am
discovering is that there is no good way to determine which choice will be the
right one, and students I’ve met studying abroad in Paris,
London and of course Cairo,
all have ups and downs. Everyone knows a student who wished they could be home,
or could have stayed longer.

The atmosphere of the second semester is likely to be much
different from the first, and I would bet that the spring semester students
will be caught up in it, rather than follow the trends we experienced in the
fall. Does this mean they will have a fuller experience? Perhaps. But really,
the experience is about the person and about their goals and choices. Barclay,
Grund, Fogel and Suni, as well as myself, are testaments to the diversity of
students here in Cairo and the
diversity of options. How can you be sure which choice is right for you? You
can’t. One thing I can say for sure, no matter when you choose to study abroad,
where you choose to study abroad or for how long — just make sure you get
something more than a bullet on a resume.