Getting through the day with coffee and smiles

Kenzie Ali, The American University in Cairo

Description or Abstract

My name is Kenzie Ali, a senior at the American University in Cairo. I'm a Communication and Media Arts student, and this project, my audio diary, is for my Audio Production course (JRMC 4460) of the Spring 2018 semester taught by Professor Kim Fox. This project documents my usual day, waking up to my alarm, getting ready and arriving on campus. Coffee is an integral part of my day, and so is smiling. Smiling to others, and receiving smiles. My dogs' smiles are also very important to me. Script: Fade In: Birds chirping then Fade Out Fade In: Dogs barking Enter Cold: Alarm going off My least favorite sound in the universe. I groan. I wobble into the bathroom to start getting ready for my day. Fade In: Sound of water running in the bathroom and brushing teeth then Fade Out Fade In: Walking down the stairs and saying good morning to my grandpa Greeting my grandpa as I kiss him on the cheek every morning always makes me smile, my dogs, Oreo and Kai, a stray dog and Husky, and are always excited to see me and run towards me when I open the front door, they give me big smiles. Fade In: Getting into the car, listening to Nile FM then Fade Out Driving in Egypt is always an adventure, but James and the music on the radio keeps me company so I don’t end up losing my mind on the highway to campus. James is what I named my car, after two of my favorite fictional characters, James Kirk from “Star Trek” and James Howlett also known as Wolverine from “X-Men”. I prefer to listen to the radio because I like the spontaneous and unpredictable songs that play. I live in Sherouk City, so I listen to Nile FM for about twenty five minutes on my way to university. I arrive to campus at nine forty, twenty minutes before my first Media class of the day. Fade In: Swiping my ID then Fade Out Sliding my ID across the scanner to enter campus, I realize that I have enough time to get a much needed cup of coffee. Fade In: Coffee then Fade Out I always smile and greet the baristas with a good morning. I’m a regular at the coffee shop, L’Aroma, on campus because it’s the closest one to me on my way from the parking lot to my classes, so they always prepare my order for me, a large caramel macchiato. Fade In: Classroom door opening and closing, sound of professor and students talking then Fade Out It takes me about three minutes walking from the coffee shop to reach my class, where I greet my friends and the professor. Fade In: Turning off the car I arrive home in the evening and being greeted by my dogs is my favorite thing. Enter Cold: Dog barking then Fade Out It’s almost like they’re saying YOU’RE HOME YOU’RE HOME! Their tails are wagging from side to side when they see me bring out the bag of dry food, this is probably one of their favorite parts of the day. Enter Cold: Sound of dogs crunching dry food They start munching away, each one’s face buried in their stainless steel bowls. Fade Out: Sound of dogs crunching dry food I retreat into my bedroom after a while, some of the walls are beige, while the others are light burgundy, the cover on my bed is the same shade of burgundy. I have pictures of my mom and I framed on the walls, and some posters of New York, my favorite city. My room is my safe space, my bubble. I get some work done and then I start writing around nine in the evening. Enter Cold: Typing on the laptop Being an aspiring screenwriter and novelist, writing is my craft. I can lose myself in it for hours. It’s the ideal end to my day. The #AUCdiaries project is an oral history project that documents the life of the AUC community. The project was initiated by Kim Fox in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC) along with Hoda Mostafa, Maha Bali and Nadine Aboulmagd, all from the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT). The bulk of the content that was created for the #AUCdiaries podcasts was completed by students as part of AUC courses. As such, this is both a digital pedagogy project, since students learn while producing, and a digital scholarship project, since the output is considered to be digital scholarship.