just an ordinary day

There are a number of things that I now view as ordinary or normal that I initially would not have seen as such. These are some of the things I have grown accustomed to since my arrival over one month ago.

We don't use paper towels. The bathrooms all over campus are equipped with a roll or two of toilet paper at the sinks for drying hands. Even the kitchen downstairs (every cottage has a kitchen) has a couple toilet paper rolls for drying dishes or cleaning up messes. The toilet paper isn't quality, it's rather rough. But maybe that's why we use it up in such a way. Toilet paper is also thrown in the trash and never in the toilets (Creel anyone?). I remember the first time I paid attention to the toilets flushing. First of all, the 'handle' is a button at about belly button level on the wall behind the toilet (are you getting a visual?). But these toilets flush like a tidal wave! The water rushes up instead of around. Does this make any sense? It looks like a wave is about to come out of the toilet! It doesn't though, thankfully.

About 20 girls in each cottage share the kitchen on the bottom floor. That is, one fridge, one microwave, two hot plates, one sink, and one electric kettle. There are no ovens! I don't cook for myself enough for this to become problematic, but it is sad, good thing I'm not a stress baker! No toasters either...

I have scheduled two times a week for the cleaning ladies to visit my room. Their job is to sweep, mop, wipe down surfaces, and change the sheets/make the bed. It's strange when they come because I'm required to stay in the room and be here, in the way, while they do their job. One minor problem is the scheduled time for monday, I have aerobics at that time so I'm not here to watch them clean the room which means they only come once a week, which is plenty. They are very sweet ladies but we can't communicate at all :( language barrier.

For Lent I'm taking up aerobics 3 times a week. So far so good! This is something I did not see myself ever doing but I exercise to release some of the stress that comes with having a history course. It's fun and I feel great afterwards, so that's good. It's completely normal to me now so it might continue after Easter.

The students here are really fashionable. Designer clothes and this season's best outfits! It's fun to look at, similar to window shopping. On the other hand, girls are likely to wear suede boots and long-sleeve sweatshirts on a daily basis (even when it's 80 degrees). I'm not sure if this is because it's still technically "winter" or because they are being conservative or it's the fashion. It seems sweaty but I'm used to seeing this style by now, I'm sure these women are handling it fine. Also, people are fairly affectionate when they greet one another, but this is only boy/boy or girl/girl. I've seen grown men hug one another and even kiss one another on the cheeks! The men never greet women this way (or vice versa) and at first it was perplexing but now it's just cute. Men usually greet women with a hand shake, a very gentle one, like when a prince bows to kiss the top of her hand but here it's without the bow or the kiss on her hand, see what I mean? I've seen plenty of men holding hands or walking with arms around each other, but still never a man with a woman.

I'll close out with the silliest commonplace thing around here, our cellphones. I have a Vodafone cellphone, I got it only one day after my arrival. It was obnoxiously inexpensive and about 60% (or more) of the international students here have the same carrier. Whenever you call a Vodafone cellphone there is a "ring back tone." Apparently this tone is popular in Egypt. I find it catchy and I even like to dance to it while I'm waiting for someone to pick up the phone. It goes something like, "heyyyyy hey. he-he-he-heyyy. heyyyy hey..." if the person doesn't answer for about 10 seconds of the "heys" it goes into a verse completely in Arabic, but I usually don't wait that long. I think I'm going to miss this song when I come back.

Last weekend I spent an evening out with friends at a club. It was enclosed, loud, and crowded. Worst of all, over half of the people there were chain smoking. Ever since that night my throat has been scratchy. I've been clearing my throat a lot and also coughing. I went to the clinic on campus today and got some antibiotics along with some other drugs I'm supposed to take. It turns out my throat is having a reaction to the smoke and smog. Lucky for me the air on campus is cleaner than downtown. I'm glad I went to the medical center but now I have to work on making my throat all better! Other than that, everything's dandy. I hope all is well with you and your ordinary days wherever you might be. Love!