Egypt: Take Two!

After a brief return to the states, I have once again found myself back in Egypt. I lasted only about two and a half weeks in America and was sick with strep throat the whole time. Home basically consisted of drinking too much with mom, being sick in bed, and paying a small fortune in medical bills. I've never had a cavity in my life, but after a year in Egypt, I came back with five. Most expensive day at the dentist ever.

People tried to warn me about the reverse culture shock I would experience upon returning home, but it didn't hit me in ways I was expecting it to. I was expecting to be shocked by women walking around in mini skirts and tank tops in the summer heat, and by the constant assault of advertising (although the latter wouldn't be too much different from Cairo). However, the first thing that struck me was all the English!! Granted, this should have been a bit obvious, but I really had trouble filtering it all out! People's conversations, music, television, airport announcements- I couldn't focus! On the other hand, in Cairo, the Arabic just sort of washed over me like beautiful background noise. Meaning usually only came to me if I was actively concentrating on the sounds. Another shocking thing was just how quiet it was on the drive home from the Charlotte airport. No honking, no call to prayer, no music, just me and my dad in the mountains. It was eerie how silent it was.

The first week or so being back was rough. I never really felt the effects of jet lag, but I couldn't get rid of this anxious sinking feeling in my stomach like I was not supposed to be there. It felt wrong. Deep down, even being surrounded by my beautiful mountains and loving family, I didn't know what I was doing out of Egypt. It was almost as if I had spent so much time being outside of my comfort zone, that I was more uncomfortable being in it. I was uncomfortable being comfortable.

So why did I come back? Well, there's an expression here that says Once you drink from the Nile, you have a passion to drink it again, and you will always long to return. Of course, if I literally drank from the Nile, I would probably die, but now I know what they mean. Even with all the traffic and pollution and constant cat-calls, I love Cairo. I love the nightlife, the call to prayer, the people I've met here, being able to have literally ANYTHING delivered right to my door, and the fact that I never have to drive. I also met someone amazing right before I left Cairo, so I guess I returned for a shot at Love. It's cheesy and I don't want to jinx it, so that's all I'll say for now.

I'm really happy to be back, but I'm sorry I didn't get to see many people while I was home. I miss everyone, and I'll probably be back in September or October.

Love!

Things I'll need to write about next time i actually have time to blog...

-My last trip to Morocco for Fadwa's wedding

-Dad's trip to Egypt

-trip to Dahab and Ras al-Shatan (Devil's Head)

-closing thoughts/what I've learned in Egypt

Sorry I've been so crappy about updating this thing. For one thing, I've been super busy. The other thing is that I've been really happy this semester, and have therefore felt less the desperate need to connect to people across the Atlantic through the internet. Which is not to say I don't need you all or love you all any less, just that I've been pretty satisfied lately and less lonely, which is a good thing, right?

Anyway, pictures are finally up on facebook. Check them out!

I will be home on May 25th! Summer plans are to live at home with Mom and possibly work for her at the wine shop. Fall plans: grad school? Who knows!

Today is Mawlid al-Nabi

Today is the celebration of the Prophet's birth, called Mawlid al-Nabi. As some friends of mine explained, this holiday is more spiritual and less cultural than some of the others. The Eids (Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha), for example, and even the mawalid of some saints, are observed more publicly and usually with some celebrations. But Mawlid al-Nabi is observed a little more quietly. There is a certain dessert served especially on this day, but that's about the only public observance, as far as I can tell.

A lot has happened since my last post. I broke up with Sherif, who then left a cat on my doorstep. I tried to get rid of the cat, but decided to keep her after no one else offered to take her. I named her Carlos, after the baby in The Hangover, because that's pretty much the state I was in when I found her. Apparently it's pretty easy to travel with cats overseas, so Carlos may be coming back to the states with me.


Classes are going well. I now get up at 6:30 every morning and go to the gym pretty much every day. I'm smoking shisha about once a week now instead of every day, and for the most part I'm staying on top of my work. It's been a very productive month, and I feel awesome. My listening comprehension in Arabic has increased dramatically in the past couple weeks alone, primarily because of my daily media class, in which we listen to the rapidly-spoken news on TV. I feel much more in control of things here downtown, as well. I can manage the streets by myself, although that's usually not necessary because I'm making a lot of new friends. No more loneliness, no more nightmares, no more constantly wanting to punch Egyptian men on the streets. I feel like I've finally settled into the Acceptance stage of the adjustment process, and it feels damn good.

Ok, so last post I promised to (finally) update everyone on Mom's visit to Egypt last month. We had a blast together. I think this was the first time we'd ever spent such a long time together just the two of us, and it really couldn't have been any better. Here's the rundown:
Mom arrived on Jan. 5, and I greeted her with champagne and chocolates from Paris. We took a walk along the Nile, got some shisha and Turkish coffee to help fight her jet lag, then went to Horraya's for cheap beer. We spent the next couple of days in Cairo. We went to the Cairo Museum (about a 5 minute walk from my house), ate pizza cones at City Stars (the largest mall in Africa), took a camel ride around the Giza pyramids and the sphinx, sang karaoke, and smoked plenty of shisha. The pyramids and sphinx were amazing. It was my first time seeing them up close (although I'd seen them from a distance in Cairo a number of times), and Mom and I went both inside and on top of the pyramids. We really shouldn't have climbed them, but our guide had already tipped the guards on duty and we were so overwhelmed by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that it was hard to put aside our own selfish desires and consider the ethics of climbing one of the ancient wonders of the world.



On the night of Jan. 8th, we took an overnight train from Cairo to Aswan with no plans for what to do when we got there. Our trip was plagued by tiny bugs that looked like ticks and lived in the train seats. We killed probably about 30 of them within an hour or two. An Australian guy who was sharing our cabin was covered in bites, and the Egyptian with us refused to help us solve the problem. Neither the Australian nor his girlfriend from Sri Lanka spoke any Arabic, so it was up to me to try to find the train director and get us moved to a tick-free cabin. After telling us there were no other seats available (not true), they finally moved us at about 4am. We arrived in Aswan at around noon, which was a couple hours past our scheduled arrival. Mom and I made our way to the tourist office to see if we could score a Nile cruise up to Luxor. Because of our late arrival, we weren't very hopeful. Miraculously, we were able to find a boat that was leaving in less than an hour, and someone came to pick us up and take us to it within fifteen minutes of our arrival to Aswan. Win!

The cruise was absolutely gorgeous. It was only two nights, which was actually perfect. Mom and I made friends with a lot of the staff (my Arabic made me pretty popular, but mostly they just liked making fun of me), especially the bartender (of course) and the massage therapist onboard. We made a couple stops on the way to Luxor to see some temples, usually at night or at dawn. We sat out on the upper deck during the day (the weather was so beautiful-- and in January!) until it was time for some of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen. One of my favorite parts of the cruise experience was our tour guide, Muhamed, and the way he voice went into falsetto every time he started talking about Horus, the falcon god.

Luxor itself was incredible. We packed so many things into two days: Karnak Temple, hot air balloon ride at sunrise, Ramesseum, Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, Luxor Museum, and, my favorite, Luxor Temple. We also made friends with a tour guide, Yusef, and the driver he set us up with, Muhamed (not to be confused with our previous tour guide Muhamed). We even went to Muhamed's house for tea, which was a welcome relief from the hours we had spent on our feet in the heat, trying to avoid paying for the ridiculously overpriced water (1.5 LE for a small water in Cairo, 15 LE for a small water in Luxor). We met Muhamed's mom, who was very excited about her unmarried 30-year old son bringing home a girl who could speak Arabic. When we both wanted the same amount of sugar in our tea, she insisted we were meant for each other, despite the fact that 3 spoonfuls of sugar is fairly standard for tea here. Anyway, they were really nice, and showed us the animals they kept (baby ducks, chickens, and bunnies) and their garden in the back. Luckily we were spared the full extent of Egyptian hospitality (it can sometimes take hours just to say goodbye), and were sent back to our sight-seeing adventures feeling refreshed and grateful for the genuine kindness that was shown to us.
Muhamed's mom showing us the baby chicks

The monuments and temples in Luxor were truly spectacular. Karnak temple was huge, and quite impressive. After that we started to get a little temple'd out, until the last one: Luxor temple. Just when we thought we'd never want to see another temple ever again, we found this gem. We walked along, seeing the now familiar views of Horus the falcon god (which Mom and I never tired of repeating in screeching falsetto), until we looked closer at one of the walls and realized that we were surrounded by ancient erect penises. Luxor temple was dedicated to the god Amun, who, according to my guide book, was associated with fertility and "was often drawn as a human form with twisted ram horns and two tall feathers as a headdress, a sceptre/crook in one hand and a cermonial flail in the other, an erect phallus and a black pointed beard." And yes, we are that immature.
(sorry it's sideways, but you get the picture)

After our amusement at Luxor Temple, we got shisha with Yusef, who then took us to the airport (and refused to take a tip for taking such good care of us, including paying for our shisha and tea).

We got back to Cairo pretty late at night. After the unending generosity of the people we met in Luxor (not including the people who were trying to rip us off for being tourists), we had a bit of shock when we arrived back home and we had one of the sketchiest and most unsafe-feeling taxi rides I'd ever experienced. Thankfully, nothing more happened than us just feeling really creeped out and incredibly uncomfortable, but it did enough to dampen our spirits a bit after such a wonderful trip. The next day we went to Al-Azhar park, which completely made up for it. The park is by far the most beautiful place in Cairo. We could see all of Old Cairo and Islamic Cairo, including the Citadel and Garbage City. There are fountains and a lake and the whole place smells so strongly of flowers instead of the usual pollution and car exhaust and burning garbage. I was downright giddy. After such a bad experience in the taxi, it was nice to have a reminder that this, too, is part of Cairo. Mom and I watched the sunset from an outdoor hilltop restaurant, where we feasted on a sampler of various grilled meats and veggies. Needless to say, al-Azhar Park is my new happy place in Egypt.
(our lunch- so good!)

Afterwards we went to Khan al-Khalili, the big bazaar in Islamic Cairo, to get some final souvenir shopping done. The last thing on our list of things to do was go to the top of Cairo Tower, where Mom said goodbye to the Cairo city lights from 600 ft up. We were the last people to leave the tower, at 1am, and the folks working there were nice enough to serve us a couple of beers before kicking us out. It was a nice, relaxing way to wind up one whirlwind of a trip.

As always, there are plenty more photos on facebook. I'm not sure how we managed to fit so much stuff into a 10-day trip, but we really did do it all. After feeling like a stranger for so many months, it was nice to have my mama here with me for a while. Turns out we're pretty good travel companions, and I make one helluva tour guide.

Holiday Season Recap

Well, the holidays came and went and I hardly noticed. I suppose that's what happens when Christmas songs are not forced upon me for two months solid. I spent Christmas Eve with some friends, and there was much eating, drinking, and merry-making. Christmas day I spent with Sherif. Santa ate the cookies I left out for him, but was disappointed by the lack of beer or milk. In place of a Christmas tree, I went out and bought some poinsettias, and pretty much skipped the gift-giving entirely. Alone for most of the day, I spent a good deal of Christmas Day crying and missing my family, but felt much better once Sherif showed up. We went out to dinner and saw an Arabic movie together, called Amir al-Bahr (Prince of the Sea). I didn't understand 98% of it, but it was a comedy with a simple enough plot that understanding the language was not entirely necessary.

On the 27th I left for Paris to spend New Year's Eve with some Hampshire friends-- Ellen, Max and Chris. Chris is from Paris, and his family was nice enough to let us all stay at their house. I don't know how we crammed so much stuff into one week. As soon as I arrived, we walked down to the Christmas market for some hot wine. We crossed the Seine river and saw the church of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois. Somewhere along the way we ran into a Gaza protest, where there were more police and riot cops than I care to be around. We took the metro to Montmartre, where we climbed some steep steps that seemed to go on forever until we reached the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. We also went to Moulin Rouge and looked at sexy things, then smoked shisha at a place called The Prince? with a question mark.

Dec. 28 - Chris, Ellen and I went to the Louvre. We all got in for free. Chris, for being a French citizen, and Ellen and I because some woman came up and gave us her tickets. The Louvre was amazing. The statues were my favorite. Pictures are on facebook. We went to the Egypt exhibit (because I don't see enough of Egypt!), and on our way out, we ran into the Venus de Milo quite by accident. Afterward we met up with Max and went to a cafe on the Seine, followed by happy hour at the Fumoir. That night we went to a boat party, which turned out to be full primarily of drunk high school students. I was definitely the oldest person there. Still, we had a good time. I learned how to say "I am from America" and "Where is the crepe?" in French. I was quite proud of myself. We got a little lost on the way home, and wandered about in the rain for awhile. Cold and rain are two weather conditions that I am not used to in Egypt, and to have them both together was a bit of a shock to my system.

Dec. 29 - Ellen, Max and I went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where Ellen kissed the grave of Oscar Wilde. After some happy hour cocktails and chocolate croissants, we went home. There, I met Najiba, a friend of Chris's family. She's from Algeria and didn't speak English, so we chatted entirely in Arabic. Our Arabic was at about the same level, which made it much easier to communicate. We both tripped over our Fusha, but ultimately did a pretty good job of communicating. That night, I met up with my friends Julia and Katrina who I went to Morocco with in the summer of 2008. Julia's also from France and knows Chris's family. (It seems like every time I travel abroad, I meet someone who knows Chris. Here in Cairo, I met a girl who used to date his brother). Anyway, it was really awesome to see them again. We reminisced about all the crazy stuff we did in Morocco. Also ran into a few brawls in the street and possibly saw a dead body. Paris is a scary place at night.
Dec. 30 - Saw the Eiffel Tower with Ellen and Chris, then went to an English-language bookstore. That night we went out with Chris's friend Helene to her favorite bar (where we drank mojitos straight out of a pitcher) with Chris's brother and another girl from Cairo.
New Year's Eve - Max and I went to the Museum of Islamic Art with Najiba. I got to practice my Arabic some more and see some really cool stuff. That night there was a cocktail party at Chris's house. I pigged out on foie gras, shrimp and champagne. Afterward we went to a party at Helene's house, where I felt much more in my element. I met a lot of really cool people and got plenty of kisses at midnight.
Jan. 1 - We took it easy on New Year's Day. We woke up late and ate some eggs at home (no black eyed peas or collard greens, unfortunately). I read for most of the day, then we went to a carnival at the grand palace. Max and I pwned everyone at bumper cars, but I skipped the rest of the rides because they were so ridiculously expensive (7 euros to be spun around upside-down? No thanks!). Max and I got some McDonalds (French McDonalds is tasty!) on the way to a fondue restaurant where we met Chris's family for dinner. We all ate way too much and passed out pretty much as soon as we got home.
Jan. 2 - Max and Chris left early in the morning to go back to the states, so Ellen and I had a shopping day just the two of us. My goal was to find some shoes, since Egypt does not carry my size, but I quickly found that Paris doesn't either. One guy literally started laughing at me when I told him how big my feet were.
Jan. 3 - Ellen left early for the states. I love my friends, but they are not always good about communication, which meant that I was accidentally staying with Chris's family by myself for 24 hours. I felt like I was overstaying my welcome, but they were super nice about it. I finished the book I was reading, did some exploring on my own (kind of terrifying), and went out to a bar with Julia, Chris's sister. The bar we went to was really strange and a lot of fun. They had board games to play with, they served their drinks in baby bottles, and instead of peanuts they gave us candy to snack on.
Jan. 4 - Somehow managed to make my way to the airport by myself, knowing only a few words in French. When I got home to Cairo five hours later, I discovered that both the electricity and the water had been cut off. My fridge was full of nasty rotting food and there was a giant cockroach lurking in the kitchen. What a welcome home! Fortunatley, I got all that fixed fairly quickly.

Mom arrived in Cairo the next day, but I'm going to save our adventures for another post!

Egypt is constantly full of surprises

For some reason I haven't been posting as much as usual this month. So let's see... I finished my exams. All of them went really well, except for my media final, but even that wasn't too bad. Now we have a week of class left to make up for swine flu. Yesterday was the Islamic New Year, which went by almost completely unnoticed by most of the Egyptians I was with. The response I got was more or less a "oh, it's the new year? Oh, that's cool, I guess. Kul sana w enta taib." Last night, a bunch of us gathered at my friend Frankie's apartment for some real Louisiana gumbo! Even though guava leaves had to be used in place of bay leaves, it was still delicious. Frankie is quite the cook, and lives in a beautiful apartment overlooking the Nile. And everything in there actually works!

In completely different news, I found out something very shocking the other day. Turns out that one of my teachers spent 22 months in jail with no charges against him. He just got released in November 2008. Apparently he went to a party that was hosted by a guy who tried to join a jihadist movement in Iraq. The police told his mother that he was being taken in for questioning and that he would only be gone for an hour, and then he disappeared for almost two years. The thing is that Ehab, my teacher, is one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life. He has the demeanor of a kindergarten teacher. He doesn't even haggle when he's shopping because he's too nice, even when he knows he's being ripped off. The idea that he could be a threat to anyone or anything is completely ridiculous. And yet they held him for 22 months without a trial and without any charges being filed against him. Increased "security" since the assassination of former president Sadat made this completely legal. Now, I've been asked not to write about Ehab's arrest to protect Egypt's image, but this is not the first time that I've thought the Egyptian government did something completely stupid and wrong. Another example is killing all the pigs because of swine flu. My disclaimer is that I don't think particularly highly of any government, and I still think Egypt is an amazing country with some really wonderful people. But I absolutely believe that governments should be criticized when they are in the wrong. If a government is so concerned with its image, then it should act in accordance with what it would like its image to be. That goes for the United States too (equality and freedom for everyone? Ha!). Anyway, the only articles I could find on Ehab's imprisonment were from old issues of the Caravan, the AUC school newspaper. Click HERE and HERE to check them out.

the past few weeks...

Well, I guess I've got some catching up to do, regarding Thanksgiving, Eid al-Adha, and my new apartment.

I always have mixed feelings about Thanksgiving. Certainly, I have a lot to be thankful for and I love eating huge platefuls of all my favorite comfort foods and being with family, etc, but I also cringe every time I hear someone say "Happy Thanksgiving." I mean, what's so happy about the genocide of Native Americans? What about all those smallpox blankets? Did we forget about those? So for my Arabic class, I wrote a paper about the history of Thanksgiving and about the myths we've created around the holiday. Keeping this history in mind didn't completely stop me from enjoying the feast, though. I had my feast at the Maadi House, which is some sort of hangout spot or something for people connected with the US embassy. For Thanksgiving, they opened it up to American AUC students and served turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. It was so good! I even drank wine for the first time since I've been in Egypt. Then when I got home, I got on skype and got to see the majority of the Campbell clan at Sue's house. This was very special to me, and it meant a lot to be able to see and talk to everyone as if I was right there in the room. Modern technology is truly amazing sometimes.

The day after Thanksgiving marked the first day of the four-day feast of Eid al-Adha (عيد الأضحى). Eid al-Adha is a religious holiday in which everyone who can afford to slaughters cows, goats, or sheep in honor of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God (in the Islamic tradition it is Ishmael instead of Isaac who is being sacrificed). Unfortunately, I missed the first day when all the slaughtering takes place. But I swiped some pictures from a friend's facebook (thanks, Carl!):

Yeah that second picture is a bunch of kids standing next to a pile of heads. So I missed all the cool stuff (this coming from a former vegan!), but I heard all the shouting and partying going on until 2 or 3 in the morning outside my window every night. Seems like a pretty good holiday, in my opinion.

Other news is that I've begun moving into my apartment downtown. I definitely romanticized it before, but it's still better than being on campus. My first week there, the kitchen sink broke, the toilet stopped working, there was no hot water, and the light went out in my room and in the main bathroom. The bawab (doorman) got someone to fix the sink and toilet, but everytime I talk to him about the lights he says, "mumkin bokra, inshallah" (maybe tomorrow, God willing). That's a fairly common response when trying to get things down around here, I've found. I'm not too worried about it though. I understand the importance of being patient and flexible, and lights aren't as pressing as the kitchen sink and toilet. In the meantime, I'll get a lamp for my room. Everything else about the apartment is great though. It's less than a 10 minute walk from the bus stop and the metro, and on my street there's a bakery, a liquor store, a grocery, a shisha cafe (shisha and tea for less than a dollar!) and a fresh fruit and juice stand. Basically everything I could possibly want, and it's all just right outside my door.

Now I'm getting ready for finals, which seems weird. We've missed so much school this semester because of swine flu, and the weather just started feeling like October last week. In two weeks I leave for Paris to spend New Year's Eve with Ellen, the Mom gets here on Jan. 5th. The next month is going to move so quickly!

Riots and Birthday Celebrations

Things have been getting a little crazy over here ever since Algeria's soccer team first entered Cairo. It was made worse after Egypt lost to Algeria in Sudan on Wednesday. My media teacher told me on Thursday morning that 12 Egyptians had been killed in Sudan by Algerian football fans. I haven't heard anyone else saying anything about it and am 95% sure that this is false, but I have heard several accounts now of Algerian fans coming after Egyptian fans with knives after the game. The news reports I've been reading have been saying drastically different things. Egyptians were attacking Algerians; Algerians were attacking Egyptians; everyone peacefully parted ways after the game without the slightest fuss. I don't trust a lot of the things I hear here in Egypt (many have said that the Algerian soccer players injured themselves when they got to Cairo), and international news sources tend to talk about Egypt and Algeria in sensationalized and often racist terms, but there is definitely something going down and I want the full (and factual) story. President Mubarak has recalled the Egyptian ambassador from Algiers and is talking about "defending Egyptians' dignity," while calling for Algerian officials to ensure the protection of Egyptian citizens in Algeria. I passed by a protest in front of the Algerian embassy Thursday night while celebrating my birthday, but I wasn't around when people started flipping police cars and stuff. See here for a video of the riots: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8369983.stm. I don't know how much international coverage this is getting, if any, but it's all anyone's talking about here.
(Yes, things are a little crazy and some people are getting a little rowdy downtown, but I assure that I am safe and everything is ok.)

For the most part, however, I was in my own little American world this weekend (for better or worse). Birthday celebrations included beers, karaoke, staying in my apartment for the first time, and a rowdy and mish munasib (not appropriate) 80s-themed felucca ride. Mostly the felucca ride was a chance for drunk heterosexual Americans to get away from the gender segregated dorms and make out with each other, but there was also a lot of dancing and I had some good chats with some friends from class. The two Egyptian guys who were running the felucca wanted me to take pictures of them kissing each other. While I thought this was totally awesome, I was also surprised by how open they were being about it. Of course, then one of the guys went around trying to kiss all the girls on the boat and ended up getting punched in the face by a girl from my class. Most of the time I feel horribly embarassed whenever I am in a large group of Americans, especially a large group of drunk Americans, because they inevitably make fools of themselves or are otherwise loud and obnoxious or just plain offensive. I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't have a good time, because I did, it's just that a lot of the stuff that was going on on the boat were not Egypt-appropriate, and if I hadn't had a few drinks I would have felt extremely uncomfortable. On the other hand, sometimes it is nice to have an outlet in which to let loose and forget about what's "appropriate" for a few hours.

Anyway, I will be 22 in a few hours. I guess that's pretty cool. Time to study for my next media exam.