Marhaba!Â
I am Dan! I am a junior at St. Olaf College and I am studying abroad in Egypt.Â
My first week here was pretty much setting things up like registration, Visas, and other bureaucratic stuff like that. I also went on a couple faluka (boat) rides on the Nile, while seeing Cairo at night, which is pretty fantastic.
My second week right before classes I headed to Dahab with some friends, which is a small coastal city located on the Sinai. I had the time of my life! I went ATVing through the desert and valleys, drank bedoiun tea every night along with countless shishas (hookahs), and rode camels on the beach, while I watched the sunset.
(The above picture is of the beach in Dahab, after I went ATVing.)
My third week here was filled with rushing to class and trying my classes in the labyrinth that is the AUC campus, and witnessing a student and worker strike at the university. Students are protesting the spike in fees and all of the campus staff are protesting the low wages and lack of social services. It is clear that it is monumental time in Egypt and it is incredible to be witnessing it firsthand, not only through Arabic media outlets but also right as I am walking to class sipping my coffee.Â
*Daniel Sacerio ’13 is studying at the American University of Cairo in Cairo, Egypt  for the whole year. He majors in  Sociology/Anthropology and Middle East Studies.