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.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
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!
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!
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