As Ani would say..."I'm illegal!"

On Saturday Peter and I will have been here four weeks exactly. On that day, we will also be illegal aliens. Why? Because the american university in cairo lost our VISAs. Also, our campus is in the middle of a desert.

Everyday we get on a bus at 8:30 in the morning, and get to campus at around 9:30. Then we get back on the bus at 4:00 and get back to the dorm at 5:00. (Yes...just like middle school) About half of the new campus is "ready" and by ready I mean, just barely usable. Fortunately I really like all of my classes, and despite the condition the campus is in we're still getting the same education.

In May students were allowed to decided if they wanted to live on Zamalek in the middle of Cairo, or on the new campus in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately some people actually chose to live in the middle of the desert. Those people are paying for it, literally. The new dorms were supposed to be finished in June..then August..then November..now not until next semester. So those students who were supposed to live in the new dorms are now living in hotels in a neighborhood that doesn't supply them with the basic amenities like ours does, mainly food. They also don't get the internet, and the hotels are also segregated by sex, so boys and girls can't even go near the other hotel. And, although the girls' hotel has a nice swimming pool, they aren't allowed to swim in it because they are females over the age of 12, scandalous.

Yesterday at the student forum several international students decided they wanted to demand refunds. Mainly the students who are paying to live at the state of the art new campus dorms and have instead been thrown into the shabby hotels. (I guess there's a huge waiting list to get into the dorm we're living in.) Also two international students decided they wanted to sue the university for false advertising, hahaha. Basically they took 135 publications from the AUC's website, which included pictures and descriptions of the buildings and their dates of completion, and then went around campus and took pictures of what the buildings actually look like (inside) and interviewed staff and construction workers to get an idea of a realistic completion date. Then they turned it in to the president and demanded a refund because they are paying a tuition which includes all the facilities on campus, yet we are only allowed to use roughly 50% of them. And it's not just the students, the teacher's are just as fed up because most of them are without phones, internet, or even an office.

I just want a cafeteria (Peter as well...but I think that goes without saying).

Now I'm going to play soccer and eat yummy Egyptian food (at the old campus).