Great to hear from you! I know what you mean about traveling alone. Hard to find a place to settle in and people-watch when you feel you're the one people are watching. Being female can add to that sense, which is why I always wander with a book or magazine so I can bury my nose in something when I need to create a bit of space for myself. Once you get back, it will be interesting to have your impressions of the Egyptian higher education system -- or at least Am Univ in Cairo. Your trip's well timed, since the topic's on the front burner after the ruling party's convention. Per AFP today:

Egypt plans to reform its overburdened higher education system that is grappling with a host of problems, including staffing shortages, a decline in standards and funding difficulties. The issue featured prominently during the ruling National Democratic Party's annual three-day conference this week, with experts predicting a tough debate on the best way forward. They were expected to draw up broad outlines on the party's vision on how to reform the education system and refer them to parliament for approval.

Seems ed reforms are one of Gamal's key agenda items. Apparently the current university sytem's size has exploded in terms of numbers of student, but not numbers of facilities or teachers. The article said that 2 million students are enrolling this fall, compared with 500,000 just twenty years ago. The dreadful part is not just the inadequacy of the educational facilities but what in the world graduates do once they have their degree. Just not absoptive capacity in the private sector, and everybody seems to hang around waiting for a public sector job. If anything creates an environment for social tension, it's a bunch of educated, unemployed young males hanging around with nothing to do but talk to each other about complaints and big dreams. AUC sounds rather pleasant by comparison -- the article said it has the luxury of only about 25 students per class, rather than in the thousands for some classes at a typical Egyptian university! At that size, they might as well webcast it to the internet cafes.