0W6D An Oasis in the Desert

It still amazes me that it is only day 6 here. The couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.org) friends I’ve made have made me feel so welcome and made the transition into N. Africa better than I could have ever imagined. Not only that but it allows me to explore the city in the eyes of a local and try to understand the culture rather than hopping around from site to site.

I find I am eating less here because it is so hot. Thank goodness…

Yesterday’s agenda was exploring Islamic Cairo during the day. Islamic Cairo is a labyrinth of mosques and souks. The city was initially developed as a series of extensions and new walled mini cities radiating in a NE direction. The outside may not be so clean but the inside of the Mosques with the white marble floors and columns and wood structures really surprised me. It was exceptionally quiet because it was the day of the feast, so people had been out all night celebrating. More on this later…

Today I am at American Univ in Cairo to buy some books and spend some time at the library doing research. The architecture book collection here is massive – actually the library here itself is not a bad place for research. The campus is best described as an oasis in the desert…because it literally is in the middle of the desert. It is located in New Cairo, about 40 min from downtown old Cairo and is a campus done by a collaboration between architects of 3 countries. It incorporates materials and patterns of Islamic nature but done in a modern way – there is a main avenue that connects all the 6 schools here with plazas, courtyards, bridges, corridors and stairways connecting all the in between spaces and allowing for social interaction, in the same way that Islamic Cairo allows social interaction. It is similar to the mini labyrinth of Islamic Cairo.

It essentially feels like a mini western community – girls without head scarves, people speaking English, overpriced food, and clean toilets and public spaces (as compared to what I have experienced in Cairo thus far.)

This oasis cost 290 million USD (no wonder the tuition is over 20,000 USD) to build – now I wonder how much it costs to run with the AC running non stop as I sit in this frigid cold library and the fountains and green patches of grass that sprinkle the campus.

But this oasis for me is much needed and is a nice place to do some research and meet students and professors in the architecture department. I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time on this campus.

Now back to work…