hello again

sorry for the break in posting; we've been busy exploring and staying up til ungodly hours.

thursday we had class, and because of a scheduling conflict with another course being offered, i had the pleasure of having a double session (two and a half hours) of oil & gas law. basically, one of the two lawyers teaching International Criminal Law (the one who was supposed to teach the first half of the course) had a commitment during our first week of class. but because she's the Chief of the New York Office of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, i think i'll give her a pass. because she's a week late, each class met twice on one day last week so that this coming week each class will have a day off to let the Criminal Law students catch up.

after 3 hours and 45 minutes of classes (again, i live a very difficult life), we returned to the Victoria Hotel, packed our bags (which we never really unpacked in the first place), boarded a bus and moved into the AUC dorms on Zamalek Island in Cairo. we had been told that the dorms were really nice, and we had good reason to believe that because AUC is one of Egypt's finer universities...

...but in reality, the dorms are not very nice. i suppose that they're quite nice by egyptian standards, but as americans, i think it's fair to say that my classmates and i are disappointed by the quality of the housing. the rooms are big enough, and we each have our own desk, which is a must with all the reading we have. my bed is about as comfortable as a sleeping bag on a concrete floor. i'm using the heavy blanket provided by AUC as a makeshift mattress pad.

there's still a lot to get used to here.