beautiful day in the neighborhood

This is the most gorgeous weather day in Cairo that I can remember in the past several years. My sweater is finally off. Went out for a haircut (wasn’t getting long, just a little shaggy).

Starting tomorrow, I’m the m.c. for the annual AUC Research Conference, which has an interesting schedule for tomorrow– our keynote speaker is Dr. Ismail Serageldin who is the Director of the new Alexandria Library. (It’s also probably a good sign if you have 22 honorary doctorates from around the world).

Day one closes with a flute and rhythm ensemble from Ghana on the plaza in front of the new library.

Speaking of the new campus… though I’ve always enjoyed it, it’s starting to become much more enjoyable as memories gradually build up there. Some of the initial complaints about the new campus were along the lines of “sterile!”. Well, the architecture is not the least bit “sterile,” as even its stylistic critics would have to admit (and I love it; no critic here).

I did feel that there was a grain of truth in the “sterile” comment, however. And now I realize it was probably just a result of the nostalgia deficit on the new campus. No one had any history there. There were no memories of having had conversations or classes in this or that place, and thus it didn’t feel home-like during that first semester. But by now we do all have histories at the new campus, and more so every month.

For similar reasons I always find the first few weeks of January depressing… 2009, or whatever year it may be, just doesn’t have much of an identity yet in early January. This may also be why America can feel “sterile” compared with Europe, and the Persian Gulf region feels extremely sterile compared with Egypt. Sterility is less a visual or lifestyle issue than one of memory. Things and places become enriched as they build up a history. (For similar reasons, while young people are energetic and fun, it’s generally more interesting to speak with old wise people. There is a moral authority to their utterances, which were won through experience rather than through abstract principle. I love talking with 70-year-olds, for instance.)