My First Mosque

So I've been meaning to post for a couple of weeks, so my entries will have to work backwards for a few days.

This is the St. George church, which is odd because there are no dragons in Egyptian culture, so not sure why they love this guy so much, but he's everywhere.

I arrived in Cairo on Friday night and have barely been able to catch my breath. The American University of Cairo (or AUC for short) is the school where I'll be for two years, and boy do they have the schedule packed. A four-day orientation filled with lectures, activities, food, sight-seeing, a dinner on a Nile barge, and a welcome dinner tomorrow night with traditional food, dancing and music.

A really flattering photo of my pink fake in front of the only remaining Roman tower of Bablyon. 

The "peers" that shepherd us through the paperwork, visa application, and sign-up for side- trips are really fun, enthusiastic students themselves. The staff of the dorm where I'm staying, and that run the bus that shuttles us everywhere are really cool. And no, they're not paying me to say any of this. It's just such a great feeling to arrive in a place where I can't communicate in the native language yet and have someone to offer such help.

The entrance to the so-called "Hanging" church because it was built on a  column  of the old Roman Fort. 

So a few pictures, and I'm off to bed. My training for the language lab where I'll be working starts tomorrow and runs from 9-3, followed by a break until 6pm when we have the Maghraba, or, Welcome Party. And AFTER THAT is yet another event. I fall into bed around midnight each day and fall asleep before I can even read a page of my book. I promise to catch up with tales of administrative abuse in Germany, but great photos of their museums, and a few stories about France too.

My first mosque. Egypt's oldest built in something like 600 AD, the original part, and now enough to hold a thousand people.  

This is a view from one side to the other of one portion of the mosque. If you look really close you can see the women clad in green robes they had to wear to hide their hair and clothes like shorts or skirts. 

But this clever classmate brought her own scarf! Genius!

It is very, very hot here, and most amazing of all. Guess where I'm living?! On an island in the middle of the Nile called Zamelek. Here's Google link!