I went to Egypt on the 21^st of January after a very long attempt to be accepted as a non-degree graduate student at American University in Cairo. The process of this attempt was more complicated and difficult than I had expected. It took me more than months only for waiting for reply. I got the acceptance letter from AUC three days before my departure, and I hurried for the spring semester of 2009 at AUC.

I took graduate courses at AUC in the beginning. They were 1.Economic Development in the Middle East; 2. World System and Development; and 3. Middle East Society and Culture. Also, I audited one undergraduate, 400-level class, which was Islamic Law. All the classes were run by seminars. The classes were three hours long. Professors gave an hour-long lecture and students discussed about relevant issues for the remaining class time. I had to one of the classes later just because the workload was overwhelming for me.

In the beginning I was scared about discussions. I could not speak much not because I did not know how to express my ideas in English but because I did not know what to say. I was totally lost in the class. The whole new educational system came to me as a shock so I needed some time to absorb the difference. After about a month, I think I got used to the new environment and I started to participate in class discussions.

It did not take me a long time to realize that each class contains within it at least a hundred and twenty pages of reading per week. It was a shock to me because the reading workloads were so heavy. Also I had to write 1000-word essays every week for every class after finishing the reading material. They were not simple essays looking for my opinions. They were essays which asked for well-organized summary of the reading, shrewd analysis and my own but acceptable and logical understanding of the reading. I did not know much about economic and anthropological theories, so I had to look up all the concepts that I was not familiar with from encyclopedias. All my classmates were already familiar with those concepts and theories. They had clear ideas and they expressed them well. I was surprised to see how smart and intelligent AUC students were. The lectures and lecturers were great, of course, but what struck me the most from experiencing AUC school life was that I had so much to learn from students. I made the nicest friends there too who did not let me feel lonely.

Overall, I had a very nice time staying at AUC. AUC-style administrative processes were very annoying throughout the whole semester, which always made me wait endlessly without any notifications. The school curriculum, however, was recommendable and well-organized. Experiencing Egypt for seven months, which I think is a long enough time for me to feel the ambience, will remain precious to me. It was a pity that I could not spend much time on studying Arabic there because of school workload. I regret this. On the other hand, the period gave me a chance to learn more colloquial Arabic and made me become closer to local people. I strongly recommend my HUFS colleagues to take advantage of the 3+1 program.