You are currently browsing the daily archive for October 2nd, 2007.
In yet another instance of AUC forgetting to tell the international students valuable information, we learned that Sunday has now been declared a national holiday. A quasi-Egyptian version of Armed Forces Day falls on this Saturday, October 6. In Egyptian history, this date symbolizes the surprise attack of the army against the impenetrable Israeli forces across the Suez Canal in the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The Egyptians, under Anwar Sadat, broke through the forces and made it 15 km into Sinai (only to be heavily defeated the next week and the Israelis actually invaded into Africa…everyone tends to forget that part) but anyways… everything is named after October 6 around here. So this day is pretty important around here.
This year, October 6 is on a Saturday (which is a weekend) so I assumed that they would have observed the holiday on Sunday, but much to my dismay, everyone said that we wouldn’t have an observation day.
Until now. Hosni Mubarak (my favorite Egyptian President) declared that Sunday is now a national holiday. Which means we get classes off! Not that it matters since I don’t have any classes on Sundays anyways, but now other people will be more willing to do something Saturday night… Yes. So anytime your country decides to create a national holiday (i.e. Great Britain, you know you want to), take advantage of it. Good thing I hadn’t planned anything this weekend since we now have a national holiday on our hands. I also will be sure not to plan anything for November 24, 2501, because that is Thanksgiving in the U.S. and you should plan to keep that day open as well.
