هل تحب أن تأخذ صورتي

But I did already. Many many times. Because this month has been one of the most amazing months of my life. To think that I almost did not apply to the program is crazy, because I am so utterly grateful to have gone. I have met a group of amazing 20-something people, met and made new Egyptian ( and Qatar 😛 ) friends, and done some pretty awesome things. To think that someday I would have family and friends in Egypt, it is really touching and here I am, crying at my keyboard again. I’m crying because I miss Egypt dearly. But I’m also crying because I am so happy that all of this has happened. Day by day, I am still replaying all the trips and events over in my head. I am walking through Horus House Hotel, wandering the streets of Zamalek and sitting in our tiny Arabic classroom. I’d like to thank our bus driver for giving us some of his CD’s because that is the best souvenir I could take away. I have this strange way of imprinting all my feelings, reactions and memories into the music I listen to during that period of my life. So every time the “yani yani yani…shisha” song comes back on, I feel as if I am transported back into that white van, on my way to class or a lecture. From the pyramids to downtown Cairo, I fell in love with every part of that city. Many natives do not like living there, and I am sure that if I had to live there for longer than a few months (and needed to find a job there), the wonder would fade away.Coming back to Cairo is definitely on my to-do list…and perhaps it will happen during spring break, or maybe the summer. Or maybe I’ll even get an internship there for three months. Who knows. But this dear city will stay in my heart forever, all of it (even the poverty, even the lack of traffic lights, and even the deathly smog that always floats over the city).

I also dearly love everyone I met on the trip. I still wake up in my room now and expect to see my sleepy roommate Simmi. When I come down to breakfast, I miss seeing everyone’s faces, usually buried in their Arabic books because they are doing some last-minute studying for a test. I miss talking to all of them and making all the inside jokes we came up with…(“No, these are bananas.” “But we will though, but we will!” “Izquerda, itnasher, el bano!” “Yeah, sure” “Getting into cars with strangers again” “Hit me with a phonebook” “I kill my wife for you” “ROMANIA!” “Give me a hug, I like your body” etc etc)

I miss making late-night scary movies and having massage chains in our rooms. I miss going out to Hardee’s (the shame, oh the shame) and Koshery and Pizza Hut. I miss blowing the smoke into your faces when we do shisha, I miss going out and driving around Cairo at night (while asking for directions over and over again) and I miss just sitting in class with you, learning Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. I also miss the adults (because god knows, the rest of us were all children on that trip :P), Abdo, our teacher Aya, Dr. Denis (lovingly dubbed by Simmi as D-Dog <3), Nevenka, Rahim, Jamal and the hotel guy who taught us new arabic phrases at dinner. Thank you all for making this such an unforgettable experience. Though this month can never be recreated, I hope every amazing detail of it will stay in my heart and mind.

Finally, our whole awesome, awesome group of people on our last Arabic class day in the park (minus Abdo, Nevenka and Rahim):

Okay, okay, I’m not that silly to have thought that the red sea would be red. I just thought that the title would be more interesting rather than “A Day at the Red Sea,” which is what this post is about. I’ll let the pictures do the talking once again, because I am passing out and tired.

our first view of the red sea 🙂

Yayy!! (What am I doing here?!) But anyway, YAY!

yes, we silly people went swimming in the Red Sea. Then I developed a nasty cough and flu…but lets not talk about that. The funny part was that we all thought it would be too cold to swim…so most of us didn’t bring swimming clothes. I ended up swimming in my underwear, white shirt and someone’s scarf (that I cleverly utilized as a skirt…). Once we got out of the sea…I changed back into my plaid shirt and jeans. I don’t think I ever appreciated the warmth of dry clothes more than on that day.

We also got to see the Suez Canal!

And even witness a boat pass through:

I thought I should do one entry on some of the food we ate here in Egypt.

So lets start with the cheapest. For the whole month that you are staying at the Horus House (now read that name very fast… ;P) you can have the same exact exciting filling breakfast…every…single…morning. At least it’s good! Lets see now…you got your croissants, toasted bread, some weird cheese with a laughing cow on it, some other kind of cheese, hard boiled eggs (not pictured below), cucumbers and tomatoes, butter, hot water for tea or coffee and some ham. Take your pick.

For three pounds (yes, 3 pounds, believe it:P), you can get some filling koshery from Alex Top (nothing exciting about that name) around a few blocks away form our hotel. It actually tastes really good. But from what I heard, there are much better Koshery places farther away from Zamalek.Though you won’t get the wonderfully creepy men smiling at you as they hand you your food in other places. Or maybe you will. This is Egypt,after all.

Koshery, if I were to explain just what it is, is basically cut up macaroni, plus some angel-hair pasta and rice…topped with crunchy lentils? Oh and some tomato sauce. Yep, I think that sums it up.

A word about Cafe Noir. Actually two: It Sucks. Don’t get anything there besides their hazelnut hot chocolate, pictured below with deceiving smiley face…as if its trying to say it is worth the 16 pounds you’re paying for it (it’s not), and their banana smoothies, which are absolutely heavenly.

Then if you can shell out 20-something pounds, get your butt over to Hardee’s. It is close to Horus House (…say that name again to yourself if you didn’t get the joke last time). It is AMAZINGLY GOOD. A thousand times better than McDonalds or any otehr fast-food burger place. Be warned, you will go there a lot. The workers will know you. You will have to cover your afce by the endof the month to pretend you’re someone else…but you will keep coming back. Because Hardee’s is frigging tasty. Remember to try their Combo #4 – the Chicken Fillet, and ask for some American Cheese on it. :] You’re welcome. #4 is pictured below…with a bite because I couldn’t wait to try it.

Back to cheap things, because we are college students after all. Thankfully the next cheap thing is a staple of Egyptian breakfast and is common all around Cairo. The falafel sandwich…I think it is called Tamaniya [?] is so so tasty and cheap. We got the Falafel and fries combo pictured below near Khan il Khalili for 8 pounds, but there were cheaper places near the hotel that would give us five for seven pounds.

If you get the Fool and Tamaniya (yes, fool, its called Fool!), you will get the falafel sandwich and the vegetable dip-thingy that I didn’t really care for. But some people loved it.

Shabrawi’s, a restaurant near our Arabic language school, served pretty good Fool. They also served AMAZING chicken shawerma sandwiches. If you don’t go there for the food…go there just for the menu, it will make you laugh. Zoom in on this picture for all your sandwishes to come true. And order yourself some Brian while you’re at it 😛

Near Zamalek you can find Crumbs, the cupcake store. No, not the NYC Crumbs. This is a bit different. But the cupcakes will blow your mind and your wallet. They go for one per nine pounds I believe. But here is a tip: whenever you feel like you are spending too much on something, convert it to USD and that will instantly erase all traces of guilt.

If you are doing some shisha at Gould (I think that is the spelling of it), located close to the hotel, and you need something to fill their 30 pound per person requirement with…try ordering their crepes, which are delicious as well:

In case you are not satisfied with any of the above…there is always Pizza Hut, which I do not have a picture of. It will be the classiest pizza hut you will ever eat…because you’ll eat it on a ceramic plate, with a knife and fork. Now that’s classy.

After we had a guided tour of Islamic Cairo with Dr. Tariq [I hope I have the spelling right], we were required to do a tour of our own according to a textbook. So me, Simmi, Bing, Carissa, Ioana and Rosie hit the narrow streets to do some exploring of our own. Since a picture is worth a thousand words (if you aren’t lazy to come up with that many words for it, that is. Otherwise it is probably worth like 100), I’ll let them do the talking. Also because I’ve done a paper with my group on this tour and I don’t feel like writing again. Yes, I am lazy.But if I were to give a general impression, it would be this: Yes, there was a lot of trash, dirt, garbage and decaying buildings. Yet I found beauty in everything I saw. It is probably true if I said that the only reason I see all this as beautiful is because I am a tourist experiencing a culture shock. In reality, the area is probably far from beautiful for the people who have to live with all the dirt, trash and mud there everyday.

So earlier on we had learned a bit about calligraphy. We were told we would learn to write our names in several different styles of Arabic calligraphy. On the day we were supposed to have a test, the director of the Arabic language school we go to, thankfully, shoved us all into another classroom. No test? We were overjoyed already.Each one of us was supplied with many clean papers, a little container of ink and a calligraphy pen-thingy. Many trees probably died that day, seeing as we all went crazy and doodled our lives (and names) away. The lady who was giving us the lesson and demonstrations wrote our individual names for us. Then we all began trying replicate the beautifully inked letters. Some (cough-the asians of the group-cough) were able to do this quite well. The less-artistically endowed could only manage a similar shape. But whether our name was recognizable after we wrote it or not, I’m sure all of us had a lot of  fun.

My name, written before I was shown how to properly do it.

To the left is the way the teacher did it, to the right is me trying very hard to replicate it.

Ioana, as it is written in Arabic, looks a lot like Lil G…

Bing made us envy her calligraphy-writing skills. I told you the asians were good!

Our Arabic teacher, Aya, with her name.

Before this program we were emailed a guide of things to pack and what to expect of Cairo. While it was useful to some extent, there are so many things that I feel were not included or were not clear enough. So this is my list of things to pack and what to expect.

1. If going during the winter break (a.k.a. January like me) BRING SWEATERS…more than you think you would need and some jeans. I had the silly notion that  I would be rocking a t-shirt and light cargo pants because, well, this is the desert and its hot! Right?  The truth is that it is so much colder than expected here. I wear jackets inside and outside here. I wish I brought more sweaters because it is chilly all day long. Some days are warmer, sure. Especially when we go out to the pyramids and places like that. But I think many people on this trip would agree that it is much colder than expected.

2. Bring some conservative clothes, but really, you can wear anything you want. We were under the notion that baggier clothes would be the way to go…but most people on this trip still wear tight jeans and shirts and they do not get extra harrassment or anything of the sort. As long as your shirts do not expose you cleavage or more skin than necessary, wear what you would usually wear to college.

3. Bring much more cash than you think you’ll need. During days that we go on excursions to touristy places, money somehow flies. When you go shopping in the marketplaces, pounds will fly as well. You can spend up to 100 dollars or more in a day if you go shopping. Extra sights and more souvenirs, money will slip out of your hands. We were told that around three hundred dollars would be enough for food for the month…and to some extent this is probably true. But i only brought three hundred dollars extra after that and I am quickly realizing how badly I wish I had more. I brought 600 dollars, and with 2 weeks still left…I have about 150 dollars left. O_O

4. Cartouches. Some people will tell you to buy them at certain stores…but trust me when I say that is not the cheapest ones you can get. Shop around and see what you can get. The best cartouches we found were the ones that were offered to us on our tour bus in Luxor. They were amazingly cheap and beautiful [13 to 18 dollars].

5. Plan your evenings here well. most of your mornings and afternoons will be busy with lectures and classes, but you will haeva  tendency to get tired and want to spend the night in at the hotel. Force yourself to go out, make plans before hand. Ciaro is huge and there is so much to see and take in.

6. Don’t be afraid to talk to and make friends with Egyptians. Sure some people, especially if you’re a girl, will try to harrass you. But you can weed those people out. For the most part, talking to Egyptians around you will yield some interesting and maybe even hilarious stories.

7. Wet wipes, which we were told to bring lots of, are actually not that convenient. Liquid hand sanitizer is so much easier to use on the go…not to mention more useful.

8. Bring medicine for colds/flus, and stomach things. ‘Nuff said.

…This is it for now, but if I feel strongly about something else, I will add it on here.

😀

I know I don’t update this as often as I should. But every time I set foot into my room, I turn into a zombie who, instead of wanting brains all the time, just wants sleep. So I walk around my bed, then I sit on it…and eventually it claims me and I wave away all the journaling, blogging and arabic studying I have to do. If my arabic teacher does ever read this: Aya I study really well every night. Two hours minimum! Me good student! (JKLOLSNOIDONT)

So for your sake and mine, since it is 3am, I will try to keep this mainly to pictures. I’ll talk about the felucca ride and what we did this friday. AS for my overnight trip to Luxor (which was rushed but so worth going on), that will be up tomorrow…unless my bed wins again.

since we never went on a felucca for New Years like we planned, Simmi, Ioana, our local friend and I went on one at night! The view was gorgeous and the boat was very…erm…colorful? At least our was not spazzing out with lights. Some of the boats that were passing us on the Nile looked like they could trigger an epilepsy attack with their lights. O_O

Then on Friday we went to Dashur and Saqqara pyramids. Dashur was very impressive. It was massive and we had to climba  good amount of life-threatening steps to get to the entrance of it. Observe stairs and epic-ness:

The view from the little “porch” before the entrance to the staircase offered a breath-taking view:

This was the entrance, along with the mister man at the entrance, to the long and scary staircase. You had to be crouched over, going down a steep plank with raised metal bars (these were the “steps”) and your head kept touching the “ceiling”. I was sad that halfway down I quit and climbed back up. The air was getting too thin for me and I was getting dizzy and panic-y. But some people who did manage to go down all the way brought back pictures (even though they were not allowed to take them).

Around Dashur, there were so many adorable stray dogs that looked bug and rabies-free. They would walk after you and stand there next to you…waiting for either food or scratching of the back.

After Dashur we visited Saqqara:

and then after a good lunch, we were off to our horse-riding. I was scared to death, having had a bad memory of a horse ride from childhood. But the horse I got, a four year old filly named Shakira, was one of the most calmest horses there. I was so thankful for her. We almost got run over by an RV buggy and Shakira didn’t even flinch. She was so lanky and skinny though, it made me sad thinking that maybe she wasn’t getting enough to eat. But she was in a better state compared to some of the other horses. This a photo of me and my shakira. the shorter horse behind me was Simmi’s and was also named Shakira 😀

The view was amazing as always:

Luxor, a touristy area that seemed to be built around ancient ruins to which all tourists flocked. The moment we existed the airport, after a brief and bumpy one-hour ride, I knew this was far from Cairo. The Nile was a beautiful blue and hotels lined the road. The tourism didn’t conceal the decaying buildings and poverty that was exists here as well, but the cuteness of some of the streets did take one’s attention off of the harsher reality of some the Egyptians living there. Within an hour of our arrival we were on our way to see the Temple of Karnak, and others. Let’s just say that seeing those sights and temples was a bit like getting a pony for Christmas; I never thought it would happen, but then it did and it was amazing. 🙂 Ponies aside, the next day was way too rushed. Valley of the Kings was our first stop, and we spent our time intruding other people’s resting places.  I found it strange. Going into tombs and gawking at everything. The ancient people who ordered these sites to be built kind of wanted to be left alone there, with all their goodies, for a very very long time (aka eternity). Think about how well sealed all those places were. And here we are, taking all their possessions out, putting them up for display in museums around the world, and then letting thousands of people run around their tombs everyday. I bet if they were alive, this would be the kind of thing that would go on Jerry Springer or something.

Having spent a good amount of time in the Valley of the Kings, where we were not allowed to take pictures, we were given 30-10 minutes in other sites, such as the Temple of Hatshepsut. Forgive me for whining, but 10 minutes is not enough to even tour the Hatshepsut temple completely! On the other hand, we got to spend a considerable amount of time in a pottery-place-thing-workshop where everything was overprices. Oh yeah, our tourist guide probably got  a lot of commission out of that one. Let me just say that he took his time with the shisha in that store. But despite all the rush, Luxor was still an amazing experience.

There was a stone scarab in the Temple of Karnak, and the myth was that if you walked around it 3 times, you would have lots of luck. 5 times and you would have love. 7 times and you would have love and marriage. Or you could make a wish and walk around 7 times and that would come true too. I went with the last option 😉

Yes, I copied the title of this post exactly the way it was on my worksheet, so that I don’t make any embarrassing mistakes. Shhh.

So while my crazy roomate Simmi is out having fun god knows where, I am sitting in our hotel room writing this. Most of the time here I am cold and hungry, and now is not different. We haven’t found good places to eat dinner in yet and most of the time we just have no time to eat dinner (for mischivieous reasons I cannot mention). I am stuffing my face with BBQ chips, so when Simmi arrives, there will be none left for her. But I mean, I’m the one staying in and starving here! 😛 BBQ chips and iced tea. What a classy dinner.

The days are starting to take on some form of a routine. I never know what day of the week it is, but that doesn’t really matter since classes flow into tours and tours turn into nights out in town and then the morning brings more classes. Time just flows and I can’t believe it is the fourth of January tomorrow. Arabic classes are fun and our teacher is the sweetest, most cheery person ever. She smiles even though most of the time our class gives her blank stares of outright confusion. Her cheery aura rubs off on you and you end up just feeling very happy sitting there. The classes are two to three hours long, with a thirty minute istraha (break) but they go by so fast!

 [some of the people from our beginner (noob) class]

The other day we had a tour of Islamic Cairo and Bab Zuwayala, which is one of the few remaining gates of the ancient royal city. The gate has two minoret towers and the view from the roof is absolutely beautiful:

Past the roof, one can climb up the stairs of the minorets to get an even better vista. But oh the price you oay for that view. We climbed the spiraling staircase of doom in fear. The spiraling steps are very narrow and very high. There is NO railing and at times it is pitch black so you have to feel around with your feet to find the narrow winding steps. Just when we think that pitch blackness in an ancient narrow tower can’t get any worse…it does. As one emerges into open air at last, the stone steps become metal strips that wind their way up in an even more terrifying way. It is like someone took a ladder, and made it a winding staircase. Now, let me just say, me and my friend  werevwearing skirts. Not only did the skirt keep getting in the way of my feet, making it even more hazardous for me, but the person climbing up behind me was a guy. And its a winding ladder. To make the story short, we made himclose his eyes until we went up the metal death thing and CLIMBED OVER THE EDGE OF A STONE WALL to emerge onto a small balcony that went around the top part of the minoret. Yep. Twas fun.

This is the view of the minoret across from us, but we were on this same kind of balcony, and you can even see the winding ladder of death in the center of the columns  if you squint:

We decided not to even go on the top-most balcony for fear that we will fall doing it. Going down was even scarier and we had to feel around with our feet, arms and bodies to make it back out to the roof safely.

After that we went into a very stunning mosque. Stunning is a strange word to describe a mosque, I know. Its more like the word I would use if one of my friends got dressed up and asked me how she looked. (Response: Gurrrlll you look stunnin’.) But since I overuse beautiful anyway, I thought I would mix it up. Bear with me here. We had to take off our shoes and put on scarves and this is a picture that Ioana took of me.

Simmi and Ioana made me look all contemplative and stuff…I swear I don’t usually stare out into space like that. I think. But I’m rocking that pink pashmina thing. 😛

And then we posed in various places around the mosque. Because camwhoring is what we do best, naturally. I actually really like the pictures I took of Ioana and Simmi around the mosque. 😀

Anyway, after that we did some stuff. And I’ll just move on and leave it like that, just to keep you guys guessing on what it is that we (the continental three, as me, Simmi and Ioana are called) did. 😛

Today we had class and after that we finally had really good food. Abduh, our tour guide, go to guy and helper, also long time friend of  Professor Sullivan (:P), hosted a lunch at his house. His wife and daughter made SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. I swear, I will come back an emanciated child after this trip because I don’t eat. But seeing all that food, I think I put more on my plate than I could handle.

Muffin, or Muffy (as she likes to be called), soon became the star of the lunch, and got passed around more often than food. She must have been in everyone’s arms at some point. That doggy is one small fiesty biter. BUT SHES SO CUTEEEEEEEEEE >.<

Here is a photo of Simmi and me harrassing Muffy:

As you can see, Muffy out-camwhored us in this photo with her cuteness. :3

Abduh (whom we all love) played a game with some of us towards the end of the dinner. Since I am an immigrant, of course, I don’t know the name of this game. I would call it the violently agrresive game where you stare at someone as you slap their hands and pretend it’s fun game. Abduh was very fierce at this game and Tyra Banks would approve of his poker face as he slapped our hands so hard that they turned red. He was fully of glee when he would win:

Because that is just how Abduh rolls.

We successfully arrived in Egypt last night and thankfully, our baggage wasn’t lost. Some people from our group were not that lucky and about  ten lost their baggage. After stopping by a cafe and getting dinner, me and my roomate Simmi finally crashed and slept like babies. We rolled out of bed the next day and dragged ourselves downstairs for a quick breakfast.

At 8.30 we set off to see the pyramids and I got my first look at the streets of Cairo. For some reason, I kept feeling like I was back in Uzbekistan, even though the trees and sand should have told me I was in Egypt. The exhaust from the cars, the air, everything just screamed, “You’re back in Tashkent!”

But despite trash scattered on the streets and rubble everywhere, Cairo has a certain beauty about it. The green fields contrast with the pale yellow buildings and the dark Nile, creating a serene and exotic look.

Once our van dropped us off next to the camels, it was all uphilll from there. Or downhill, depending on how tightly you held onto the saddle. First of all, I never knew camels can be so cute. Some may call them fugly, (coughsimmicough), but I beg to differ. I can’t say I was all brave and jumping on the camels at first. Actually, I was scared out of my mind. Let’s just say I was holding on to both horns of the saddle (the front and rear one) as the camel stood up. That frightening moment when you are about to make an embarrasing scene as you awkwardly fall off the camel….yep, I could totally picture being in that situation. No, seriously, when that tall, but cute, animal first straightens out its LONg back legs and you lunge forward in that cloth saddle…..let me tell you, you are praying you don’t just roll off its back. Once it decides to straighten out the front legs, then you are back in the safe zone.

But riding through the desert on a camel, and wondering if this mode of transportation would be acceptable on Park Avenue, was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. As Boris, my camel, trudged through the sand with the view of the pyramids and the desert surrounding us, I forgot al about rolling off the back of my camel and just couldn’t believe I was actually here. Well, I was concerned when the guide gave me the rope to lead my own camel, because I was sure I would crash it into some rock, somewhere.

The pyramids. thy Sphynx. We read about them and see pictures of them, but to be there, in the flesh, its almost a bit unbelievable. Especially on the back of a rocking camel.

After we checked out the pyramids and the sphynx, we headed to the Papyrus museum and I managed to get some souvenirs for my parents. And since I know they are reading this, I realize I’m giving away part of the surprise….

Then we were off to finally eat some lunch! God knows I was dehyrdrated and starving. Yes, I was smart enough to not take any water in the DESERT. Thats how I roll. We tried all sorts of things from rice, potatoes, kebabs to hummus and Egyptian bread. I have to say it was so delicious and the hummus was the best I ever tasted. My hummus loving friends: be jealous 🙂

On the way back, we rode with our professor and his old friend, who taught us a catchy song so that we could learn the arabic numbers. Finally we got back Horus Hotel (take the shady elevator in our buidling up to the fourth floor and you’ll find yourself there), and crashed for a few hours. Even though we now felt the jet lag creeping in, my friend Simmi was limping more than usual (she has a foot injury, just so you know), and the camel rides left….painful memories in our legs, we proceeded to go to a concert.

No family dinner, no ball dropping in Times Square. A great oud concert was the way to greet 2011. The music breathtaking. I do not mean to be cheesy, but since I said ‘breathtaking’ already I might as well be cheesy and go on to say that each song was like a story unfolding and revealing itself to my ears with each note. We were lucky enough to sit next to a student of the famous oud player who was on the stage, and he became our first friend here in Egypt. let us say that 2011 already gave us new friends, new memories and I can only imagine what it holds in store. Lesson learned: go with the flow and drive around 😉

Happy New Years to all my friends back home, and all my friends around the globe!

This camel wishes you the best and dares you to get on him: