Top 4 Worst Things about AUC

I recently returned to the dorm from campus and was unfortunately reminded of all of the reasons I harbor a distinct dislike that borders on hatred for the school I take classes at here in Cairo. Don't get me wrong, it has its redeeming qualities, but I know something is wrong when I find myself almost instantly grumpy & sometimes even angry whenever I walk onto campus. I am generally very cheery. Anyway, the following are my top 4 least favorite/worst things about AUC.

4. Disrespect for professors:
This is fun. Students show up late (when they show up), argue, aren't prepared, don't pay attention, and just generally dont give a shit about the professors opinion. At AU (I assume this is true of most universities in the States) almost everyone is on time to class all the time, you speak to the professor in a very respectful manner, you don't have side conversations in class, and you participate in discussions etc when appropriate. All of this has been super basic classroom etiquette in all my college classes, even when you really dislike the professor and think you know more about the subject than she/he does. It essentially never happens that a student at home would respond to a professor's description of the homework by saying "No, we're not doing that. That's too much, we are doing something else." And yet it happens here. It reminds me of how we used to test new teachers in high school by seeing how 'flexible' (ie how much of a pushover) they are. Its childish and has no place in college. This attitude probably stems from the next point ...

3.Lack of motivation: Pretty much no one wants to be in class. You can tell the vast majority of students are here just to go through the motions and end up with a piece of paper that puts them in a higher social class than those who can't afford university. Its disgusting, there are students (even in the US) who would work themselves into the ground trying to afford this kind of education, and most of the students here would much rather sit in the sun and give themselves lung cancer than go to class and have something intelligent to say. This is most likely a result of point #2, and also brings down the level of education for those of us who do really want to be here & learn. I can't explain the frustration.

2. Snobbery: This is a good one, which they actually tried to warn us about before we got here. Nearly everyone has designer bags, jeans, sunglasses, shirts, headscarves (yes I have seen Chanel & Armani headscarves!) shoes etc etc. I am a big fan of jeans, tshirts, & flip flops, but when I wear my usual attire I tend to feel like a huge slob. Its the kind of thing where the girls sometimes size you up as you walk past and immediately dismiss you because your jeans are from the Gap and not Diesel. Or whichever ridiculously expensive place girls buy jeans from. This snobbish way of thinking about clothes really just informs the wider issue of how painfully spoiled rich these kids are, & explains my all time favorite AUC behavior....

1. Invisibility: Erin tells me that study abroad/international students make up about 10% of the AUC student body at any given time. Also, since most students are rich & all are at least bilingual, they tend to be well traveled. They are no strangers to white people who can't speak Arabic well. You would think this would have evolved into a general lack of judgment about where people are from or whether or not they 'look' Arab or what language(s) they speak. No no, instead, they like to pretend we aren't there. Greek campus is where everyone hangs out in between classes (think the centrality of main quad, but the crowding &social aspect of the LA quad on warm weekend evenings plus1000 more people). There are people abso-fricken-lutely everywhere, on every bench step chair table tree wall hallway you can see, and they dont fucking move. ever. I will have 5minutes to get to class, and there will be people blocking the stairs I need to take. I used to try to catch their eyes and politely motion for them to move. They would literally look through me and pay no attention. You can tell they know you're there and understand that you need to get through, but they just don't care and will not move under nearly any circumstances. Its like high school at lunch time, but worse, and all day long. Now I know the only way to make any progress is just to push, but gently, otherwise you risk pushing a cigarette into someones eyeball. Maybe I will learn how to light/hold cigarettes just to wave about as flaming weapons when walking across campus. So out of control.

DISCLAIMER: I suppose these are supposed to come at the beginning, but I just reread this and while its all true, there are obviously exceptions to all of these behaviors/attitudes and I'm sure theres a great population of kids somewhere in AUC who don't conform to any of the above. Those are the kids I actually interact with sometimes, because they will bother to talk to me after class or whenever. They just aren't nearly as ubiquitous as the kids I described.