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 chicksThe 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.
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