PRESIDENTIAL INTERNAL AFFAIRS INTERNSHIP NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2013 A MESSAGE FROM THE NEW COORDINATOR Inside This Issue: Hello everyone, from the east coast of Canada. But that is what Arabish: The Language of 2 My name is Andrea makes living here so Cairo by Charlie H. MacDougall, and on behalf fascinating! I have been Cairo Traffic by Ryan C. 3 of the entire AUC privileged to get to know community, I would like to some amazing people and Cairo Confusion by 4 welcome the 2013 - 2014 to explore this incredible Christine C. Presidential Interns to The country. It is my hope that American University in you will not only have a Changing Perspectives by 5 Cairo (AUC). valuable professional Kyle G. experience, but also have Power Hungry by Sam H. 6 I have been living in Egypt a great cultural for five years and am still experience. Touring Egypt by Kate R. 7 fascinated and amazed by this incredible country and Together I expect we can Striking Students by 8 its people. I am originally work together to make Yusuf A. from Halifax, Nova Scotia, your time in Egypt a Alumni Updates 9 and it goes without saying positive and fun one. that Egypt is very different Meet the New Interns 17 CAMPUS SHUTDOWN What’s New? 18 When student protesters chained the time, they were meeting with gates of AUC closed for more than students in order to negotiate an end two weeks, many of the students, to the strikes. faculty and staff of the University did The interns, being new to Egypt, did not know what to think. not know what to think. So, as we sat Students called for better education outside under the Cairo sun, we and lower tuition. The administration talked to anyone we could about what responded by reminding everyone was happening. At the very least, we that AUC is one of the best knew we were witnessing AUC institutions in the region and that the history being made. University is already running a deficit. Even though the events of Fall 2012 The administration held emergency will have an impact on the University meetings in order to salvage the for years to come, in the end, the semester, frantically trying to put an University came together as a family. online system into place. At the same Page 2 INTERNAL AFFAIRS ARABISH: THE LANGUAGE OF AUC AND CAIRO By Charlie Huntington As a linguistics major that studied Spanish and Arabic yet didn’t study abroad, I arrived in Cairo very excited to hear Arabic in action, especially in my office at AUC. Though now somewhat estranged from the world of scholarly articles on vowel formation and double-object constructions and the like, the scholar in me still marvels at the ways English and Arabic interact in my daily life. Any notions I had of working in an Arabic immersion environment were quickly reconsidered after my first few days in the Office of Communications. If any part of AUC should have the strongest English skills, it’s this one, but that hardly means that I never hear Arabic — in fact, I hear it all the time. My colleagues slip flawlessly between the two languages, maintaining a conversation with me in English and another in Arabic with someone else. Even a single dialogue can alternate between the two, often for reasons inexplicable to me (words spoken in Arabic in italics): “This headline is too long. What should we do?” “I don’t know. Can we take out this word?” Charlie, Swarthmore College ’12, hopes to continue working in “Okay. Okay. Let’s do that.” academia and ultimately earn a PhD in comparative literature. In editorial meetings, the sentences come fast and furious in driver directions means using Arabic only, but ordering a sit- both languages, my superiors often beginning their trains of down meal in Zamalek often results in one of those awkward thought in the language the previous speaker used, only to transitions: “Please, I want the mixed grill with French shift gears mid-sentence without missing a beat. They are all fries.” I’m proud of the progress I’ve made with Arabic, so clearly accustomed to this code-switching, and the challenge there’s something frustrating about the English-only menus of following along is both amusing and invigorating. On the that appear frequently in our part of town. occasions that I have something to contribute, my English- speaking male voice sounds strange in a mostly-female, Although the deck is in some ways stacked against us, it all mostly Egyptian room. In all-office meetings, when people of boils down to persistence and patience. When my tutor tries varying English abilities are assembled for updates on the to explain something to me in English, I always respond in department’s goals and progress, we revert to English for the Arabic, and, like a switch was flipped, he reverts to his sake of the two native English speakers in the room, and I native tongue. Nevertheless, learning Arabic often seems a remember again what an unusual place AUC is. Sisyphean task. I think often of something a professor once told me: “After about ten years of studying a language is Outside of the office, language is a different matter, when you really start to take off.” My first year of learning complicated by the uncertainties of how much English the Arabic on the ground has shown me how far there is to go – other speaker may know. Buying koshari or giving a taxi and thankfully, it’s inspired me to keep trying. Page 3 PRESIDENTIAL INTERNS HIP NEWSLETTER CAIRO TRAFFIC: A DAILY ADVENTURE By Ryan Creps Cairo traffic is congested. Wait, that's an understatement. Cairo traffic is hectic. Cairo traffic would make a hormonal, thrill-seeking sixteen-year-old boy hang up the keys and leave the Mustang in the garage. It's NASCAR on steroids, sprinkled with buses and construction equipment, blanketed in smog and noise, and mixed with thousands of daring souls, Ryan, Grinnell College ’12, looks forward to a long and diverse who play real-life Frogger career in higher education administration. everyday as they cross through traffic on foot. chaos. Cairo traffic would outperform Barnum and Bailey's, my career in higher education Cairo traffic is the reason out-stunt Evel Knievel, and redefine 2Fast2Furious. It's the my daily round - administration. Little did I know embodiment of free market economics with few traffic lights that each and every day would trip commute to work — fewer that are even respected — and no enforcement of ranges unpredictably from be filled with its own adventure traffic laws as people practice the five D’s of navigating, enduring, and two to three hours. Thus of dodgeball (dodge, duck, dip, dive and DODGE!) through Cairo traffic is a main avoiding Cairo traffic. Cairo traffic with such finesse and grace. Cairo traffic is in source of much of my equilibrium, and thus Cairo traffic is beautiful. frustration. Cairo traffic is a fitting microcosm of life in Cairo. It’s Unlike my colleagues, I arrived in Cairo last August with no Yet, at the same time... grinding and, if you let it be, knowledge of Arabic and only slightly more knowledge overwhelmingly frustrating. On about the region. I was drawn to the program because of the Cairo traffic is fascinating. days when everything goes adventure of living and learning in a place so different from uncharacteristically right, the Well, in the abstract sense. my small town home in Iowa, while setting a foundation for Cairo traffic is organized joy is uncontainable and equally overwhelming. The key to serenity is to learn to ride out the highs and lows without falling to the extremes. It is important to stay positive and even more important not to assume one positive experience will repeat itself the next day. With this as my mantra, I’ve taken advantage of the long and unpredictable commute to read books that I was otherwise too busy to read in college, study Arabic and occasionally, if the person next to me doesn't have their headphones on, make small talk with them about must -see places in Egypt, the latest political protests, our favorite restaurants or, if all else fails, Cairo traffic. Page 4 INTERNAL AFFAIRS CAIRO CONFUSION BY CHRISTINE CLARK Cairo is one of those innately confusing cities, and it continues to baffle the most intrepid of travelers. Those who haven’t grown up among its winding streets, hectic souqs and many smoky cafes often find themselves confounded by the seemingly illogical logic of Cairo. The streets run in circles, the roads remain unlabeled (and sometimes unpaved), and things close and open without warning or reason. Learning to navigate this city is always a challenge, and I tend to spend more time looking for my destination than actually spending time there. Christine, University of Virginia ’12, hopes to work in government before eventually returning to the academy to pursue her PhD Of course, this confusion is all part of the allure of Cairo. The journey is far more important than the Most importantly, destination and arriving somewhere hours late is neither an issue nor unexpected. I’ve found that always pay attention the search is generally the most interesting part of to the guy yelling the trip, and I learn the most about Cairo when I’m when you wandering through the street — seeing what many ”!ﻻ ,ﻻ.ﻻ“ would term “real Cairo” — than I do in countless start walking down museums, historical mosques and monuments.