Thursday, October 7, 2010

time keeping fail

I am actually ashamed to write this in my blog. I overslept and missed the bus to school this morning, thereby missing my first day of work. Lovely.
I talked to my boss and it's all okay, but I feel really bad about it. I triple checked my cell phone alarm last night, but either it didn't go off this morning or I turned it off and don't remember.
That was a really great start to my day, as you might imagine, but luckily, except for a few low points, it did get better.
Art and Architecture was fun as usual, although I was disappointed to find out that the class trip to Saqqara and Dahshur is scheduled for the same weekend that the Mt. Sinai trip was rescheduled for. Since I paid for the Sinai trip, I'll definitely be going on that one, it's just annoying to know that I won't get to visit Saqqara and Dahshur with Professor Ikram. At least I've already been to Saqqara so I won't miss out too badly.
After class, I had taamiyya (falafel) for lunch, which was delicious and cost three pounds, which is why I love Egyptian food so much. It is ridiculously cheap and very very good.
When I finished my lunch, I went to the library to do some reading for class, where I saw this informative warning sign:
but i really really wanted to take notes with my quill pen!
At one point, I checked the time, and saw it was 2:15. "That's okay," I said to myself, doing some math in my head. "My next class doesn't start until 2:30." The math in my head went something like this: All the classes here are an hour and fifteen minutes. I had class this morning at 11:30, and it ended at 12:45. That means the next class started at 1:00, and ends at 2:15, so my class must start at 2:30.
Regrettably, while my math was correct, I neglected the fact that AUC makes no sense, and therefore there is no 1:00 o'clock class. I turned up half an hour late, for no real reason. Worse, I'd talked to my professor in line at lunch earlier. French the llama. It turned out alright though, because all we did was watch a youtube video that I'd already seen. The video is pretty interesting actually, even though it's really long. You can watch and learn all about web 2.0 here if you're interested.
Also, here's the famous video that went viral a few years back, all about how web 2.0 is changing the world and us:

In Arabic class, I turned in my paragraph, described some object, and made up sentences like 'the girl in the television is happy' and 'this man is old and tall'. I know, I'm practically fluent already, right?
After Arabic, I headed to the library to research more for my Dramatic Lit paper. I had only been in the library for 45 minutes when suddenly I noticed that it was really quiet and there weren't many people left. I knew that the library wasn't due to close for another four hours, but it still really creeped me out to have it be so empty when it's usually bustling and loud, at least on the ground floor.
I ended up finding a really useful book for my paper, and decided to call it a day in time to catch the 6:30 bus home. I tried to check the book out at a self-check station, but the computer told me there was a problem with my card, so I had to go to the front desk.
While the librarian was half way through checking out my book, and making me fill out information about my address (which is apparently what the hold on my card was all about), an Egyptian girl came up to the counter to ask a question. Instead of finishing up with me, which would have taken about 20 seconds, he went immediately over to help her, making me wait at the desk for ten minutes for my book to finally be desensitized and handed over. So that was fun.
I did get my book eventually, though, and went out to see AUC's campus in the dark for the first time. It was actually really pretty, and I wish I hadn't had to hurry to catch the bus so I could have snapped a better picture. This one will have to do:
the deadly fountain doesn't look so dangerous at night...

The bus ride home was made quicker because I had someone to talk to, since Maggie was on the same bus. When we got back to Zamalek, I ate some weird pasta from the cafeteria and went upstairs. Tomorrow is another day, the start of my second weekend so far this week. Should be fun, if I manage to keep track of the time.

2 comments:

  1. That's quite the informative sign! I never realized that ink could stain paper.

    Seeing as how time seems to be quite inconsistent in Egypt, I would think that arriving on time to class is optional.

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  2. i was SOO NOT on that bus! lol sorry i had to point out the obvious. lol

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