The ToDo List

We were “warned” by a former faculty member that To Do lists were different in Cairo. One makes the list, just the same as in the States, however, in Cairo, one designates a time to stop for the day, does as much of the list as possible up to that time, and then stops. The list is RARELY finished!

I had a list today as I went to school for my first “real” day. Orientation is over. Students are back on campus. Faculty are back. Classes begin in 2 days. My list had about 7 items on it – I accomplished 2! Getting on to my office computer and getting the programs loaded that I wanted turned out to be more time consuming than I’d imagined. However, I now have administrative access to my computer! I have Firefox and have banished IE and RealPlayer to the bowels of the Program list.

The trip to the bank was a disaster! About 15 to 20 minutes in line to be told that “There is no money yet for the new faculty” I was told “Monday or Tuesday, insh’allah” Welcome to Cairo.

Actually getting to other buildings and offices didn’t even come CLOSE to happening. Although I did get to the Faculty Lounge for lunch. Other than that there was a lot of social interaction with members of my department as we met and running from one office to another trying to find common items. (Apparently there are only 3 pair of scissors in Egypt, I couldn’t find a pair to save my sanity!)

By tomorrow (the day before classes begin) I should know my teaching schedule! Oh joy – I’ll have a day to make syllabi and try to figure out what I’m going to be doing in classes I’ve never taught. I seems that I’ll be teaching a general education class called “Scientific Thinking” and perhaps some labs for the general biology class for non-majors and/or labs for the science curriculum biology class. My classes may begin as early as 8am or end as late as 6pm. I’ll know, bukra, inhs’allah.