hardtoimpress

Is it dangerous? Has anyone done it? What were your experiences?

Thanks .

alwaysfaithful

I lived in Egypt for one year, I went to an international school there. I have to say Egypt is an amazing country and is one of the safest country in the Middle East. There have been a few terrorist attacks in Egypt in the last five years but they were targeted at popular tourist places quite far away from Cairo and were very rare. One thing that Cairo is notorious for is its traffic. It's horrendous. There's no traffic light and cops don't do **** except for carrying outdated rifles around and smoking. But other than that, Cairo is an extremely Western friendly city, and is probably one of the most liberal Muslim city. Women don't have to wear scarves there and they drive as much as men do, (probably just as poorly considering the traffic).

hardtoimpress

Thanks! My parents are a little leery. I want to study Arabic at the American University in Cairo. I don't mind traffic - I wanted to go to school in LA :P.

Any other opinions?

notredamebrother

My sister studied there last year- from what I know, she enjoyed herself. Alwaysfaithful is right about the traffic. And you should be warned about the taxi drivers; they'll almost always will overprice you (in some cases they follow you if you refuse to overpay. From what I here from my sister, alot of the classes at the American University in Cairo are fairly easy. If your'e a female, you might get hissed at (especially if you're obvioulsy a westerner or if they mistake you for a Sudanese refugee).

Socially, my sister said Cairo pretty diverse. The food is suppose to be moderately cheap, though some it is questionable. She also stated that a number of students play American Music- though, they often like to play it over and over (she heard Celine Dion and Kelis everyday).