Saturday, October 06, 2007

the gam3eet el qahira exberience

you know your'e in cairo university when :

1- you decide to go for an aimless amble , promptly get lost and navigate your way back to your modarag by trying to keep the infamous dome of the main building . its basically the lodestar of the entire university

2- the farash is your best friend . if there are books to be brought , burecratic procedures you can't be arsed to do or you have a terrible hankering for tea , he's the guy to go to. however make sure "te3ayedi 3ali" every once in a while , sweetening him up with cleopatra ciggies also does wonders

3- its probably the only university in the world with shoe shine chaps at every corner

4-your dining choices are somewhat limited . its either; koshary , foul (faculty of science), very dubious kebda and panee sandwhiches (law) or crepes (tegara)

5- beware of obese toothless men who offer to stand in line and pay your fees for you

6- the only protests are held by the muslim brotherhood

7- you get kicks by sneaking into other peoples lectures , causing a ruckus and getting kicked out by irate proffessors

8- you have to mentally prepare yourself for any burecratic procedures/paperwork at least a week in advance , also get the numbers of a psychiatrist and a decent masseuse . your going to need them pretty badly after getting it done

9- you realize that the cairo university employees are somewhat like the vogons in"the hitchikers guide to the galaxy" I find this to be a very apt description of them:
"They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters."

to be continued.......

3 comments:

That Guy said...

LOL, hilarious!

inmotion said...

LOL

I loved this!

Mo-ha-med said...

You forget the couple of shops across from Seyassa wiktesaad - my alma mater - which were once a KFC, a Pizza Hut and a McD - but were trashed during demonstrations in april 2003 (beginning of the occupation of iraq) and have now been replaced by... eeeeeh... foul and falafel and koshari.

:-P

(Oh, and YES for the description of the admin staff of the uni!) Great post!