A couple of days before coming back to the states, Renata (one of the students) organized a day trip to the Red Sea that would have to be financed by students, if enough people showed interest. At first, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to go: it was winter and the water would be too cold; what else is there to do at the sea if you can’t swim? In the end, however, I ended up going. And it was a great decision.

First, I loved passing through the outer (and much more sparsely populated) parts of Egypt. Cairo is beautiful and I love it, but it’s definitely not a good representation of what most of the country is like (the same way that NYC is not at all similar to Upstate NY or any part of Kansas). Next, going to the beach turned out to be awesome!

We stopped along a part of the beach called Ein el Sokhna, and it was beautiful. The beach was deserted for the most part (except for 4 creepy guys sitting there and watching us for 3 hours, and two guys that obnoxiously came over on their jet skis and splashed water in our faces and then left) and the water was so blue.

beautiful!

i'm going to let the photos do the talking

cuties in the water 🙂

So while a few of us had not brought clothes to swim in/change into (because we’d assumed the water would be too cold to swim), we jumped in anyway, some with makeshift outfits of scarfs and tanktops…and me with my jeans and Jose’s huge shirt (<3 so grateful), which I had to sit in for 2 hours afterwards. I’m so surprised I didn’t catch pneumonia. Or a severe cold.

It was such a great day, though. Spending two hours backfloating and holding onto people when I couldn’t touch the ground anymore, freaking out about not being able to breathe in 4 feet deep water, etc: it couldn’t get any better :).

We also went to the Suez Canal later (it felt so cool and weird being at such an important landmark…we’ve read so much about the Canal and how important it is in foreign trade relations) and watched boats pass through :).

All in all, it was a fantastic and relaxing day. Loved it.

Is it weird of me that I think koshary and hardees deserve a whole post of their own? Maybe. Am I too food-obsessed? Maybe. Do I have a problem? Shut up.

Anyway, among all the happiness, rainbows, puppies and puddles of chocolate Cairo was providing me with, there was one area that had failed to shine: the food. Don’t get me wrong: I’m sure the food is amazing….for meat-eaters. As an only-chicken + vegetable lover, the food was kind of overwhelming. There was meat in EVERYTHING. And vegetables were hard to find. The day after we went to the pyramids, we visited a really nice restaurant (buffets are my best friends) where we had everything from rice in grape leaves, fried eggplant, to fried cauliflower, and falafel. delicious delicious delicious. Unfortunately, this was not an accurate depiction of what a typical meal in Zamalek would be like. To sum it up: I ended up eating so much Koshary and Hardee’s (for noobs: Hardee’s is the better version of McDonald’s. The ingredients are fresher (or so we tell ourselves) and it’s just so good.) that the workers at both places knew me and my order by heart. I got the same thing every time. Judge all you want. The spicy Santa-Fe Chicken was out of this world, okay? And those frenshy fries. <3

Now, let me explain what Koshary is….I actually have no idea. It’s some mixture of pasta, beans, lentil sauce, a tomato sauce and spices? Either way, it was 3 pounds (less than $1) for a filling bowl and pretty damn tasty.

NOM NOM NOM koshary

So yeah, in terms of food, I was a bit disappointed. In the beginning of the month, I never really felt satisfied after my meals; on the contrary, I was always eating to fill myself up but never really full or content. (Hardees changed this :3). But this is also probably because 1) I’m a poor college student so I was less willing to try better, if slightly more expensive, places, 2) If I’d taken the time out one day to really walk around and search for a different place, I might have found one. But I am stupid. Also the Pizza Hut in Cairo is really good. And the KFC. You can stop judging me now.

This has been a post.

Just a heads up: my entries are going to be in random order because I’m writing as I remember each visit.

One of the parts of Cairo that we visited and I really liked was Islamic Cairo and the Khan el-Khalili.

We started our Islamic Cairo visit at Bab Zuwayla (which translates to Gate Zuwayla) and was the Southern gate built around the city by the Fatimids a couple of centuries after Cairo was founded.

The two minarets flanking the gate when we arrived were a great preview to all that we would find inside.

The gates were certainly in deteriorating condition but still a sight to see. They rose into the sky (just how high, we would find out personally), two pillars guarding the city contained inside. (photo to the right).

When we climbed up the minaret (all the way up, including up the rickety, completely unstable and shaky, looking like it was built 2000 years ago staircase at the top), the view was breathtaking (and breaths I took. A lot of them. I found out just how out of shape I am on this trip. FML).

But the view the top provided was ridiculous. All of the old city was splayed out in front of us, with minarets rising and dotting the landscape as far as my eyes could see (which admittedly wasn’t very far because I’m legally blind without my glasses, but you get the point).  Another thing we found out on top was that most people always leave the top floor of their homes under construction so they can avoid paying property taxes. The laws in Egypt only tax completed houses, so if you say you’re still building a floor, you won’t be taxed. Genius (on the taxpayers’ parts). Kind of dumb on the government’s part.

a view from the top

The actual markets inside the city was bustling, even though we went on New Year’s weekend (did I mention that getting used to a Friday-Saturday weekend and Sunday-Thursday work week was harder than expected? And it wasn’t very hard but I did notice a difference. So Thursday nights were Friday nights. Mind-blowing? I know.) and most things were supposed to be closed. The streets are not really friendly to walking (which I found out the hard way in my shibshib (flip-flops)), with holes, uneven bricks, dust and CAT FECES EVERYWHERE. I put that in capitals because I just realized that I forgot to talk about how many stray cats there are in Cairo. A LOT. Stray dogs? I saw a few near the pyramids, besides that, nothing. The cats, on the other hand….the cats. I’ve seen cats climb up to places never before discovered by man (okay, so I’m exaggerating a little bit but let a girl tell a story. sheesh). There were ninja cats that nimbly ran on the spiral tops of gates; there were crazy cats that ravaged through garbage bags and were as big as some dogs. They also had the crazy eyes one only hears of in ancient legends. I don’t think you understand…I was terrified of these cats. And Ioana (in her mother’s spirit) was sure they had rabies and walked far away, while crossing herself, every time. (<3)

….Anyway, back to the markets.

i can actually sense the atmosphere on the street that day

The Khan el-Khalili was also a marketplace of sorts, but it was a bit farther down from Bab Zuwayla. The Khan (originally created as a resting spot for merchants and travelers, where they would continue trading while they rested before going on to their destinations). It’s a massive area, lined with stores and storeowners vying for your attention with calls of “sister, come in here” to “I kill my wife for you!” You can probably find everything you see in one store for 10 pounds cheaper at the next store, but part of the experience is letting the sellers charm their way into your wallet.

We made good friends with the sellers in one of the first stores we went to, two guys named Abdo and Hany, who actually gave us good prices. (If I asked for the price for something, Abdo would ask if I was going to try to bargain or not. If I said bargain, he’d say an outrageously high number and if I said no bargain, he’d say a fifth of the original number haha). That’s part of the fun of shopping in the Khan. Being creeped on, making friends, bargaining for the price, etc. Set prices, shmet shprices.

I’ve been wanting to write an entry about this movie for a while but I haven’t gotten around to it. For our first snapshot assignment, we were supposed to watch an Arabic movie (without subtitles) to see how much we could learn about the movie simply from tones/expressions and body language.

First off, let me just say that the movie theatre (and whole mall complex) was freaking gorgeous. I probably couldn’t afford anything in the stores themselves so I satisfied myself with a mocha frappe from Starbucks (it was like being in heaven :3) and window-shopped until the movie began.

Once we were inside the theater, escorted to our nice, soft, red velvety seats (…what? in a movie theatre you say?) and the movie began, we realized that there was a moshkela kiteer (big problem): the movie had subtitles. While this put a giant roadblock in the path to completing our assignment, it was for the best in the end because I’m so glad I understood the movie and was able to appreciate it fully.

The movie was 678 (the number of a bus) and dealt with the issue of sexual harassment in public buses (and later, harassment in general) and how three very different women come together (in a way) and deal with it. There’s Fayza, the traditional, conservative wife who experiences harassment practically every day (which seemed a bit exaggerated at times) on the bus to her office, and this leads to a decline in her relationship with her husband, since she is turned off by all sexual activity. Then there’s Saba, who was assaulted many years ago and was shrugged off by her husband when she needed him most. Saba is more modern, but still holds the weight of her past experience and has started a class to educate women on how to deal with sexual harassment. Finally, there’s my favorite character Nelly, a modern woman who is a stand-up comedian (a bad one) and is in love with and engaged to a man who is also a stand-up comedian and supports her in all ways. When Nelly gets sexually harassed and wants to take the case to court, however, his family demands she drop the case to avoid bad publicity for the family’s reputation.

I won’t give away any more than this (because I’m going to naively assume that some of you may watch this movie based on my glowing recommendation :D. Which you really should do. Seriously.) but I will say that the way the movie was filmed, the plot, even the unexpected twists were all fantastic. It wasn’t perfect, of course; it seemed a bit unrealistic at points for one thing, but the positives outweigh the negatives a whole lot.

What I also liked about the movie was that it dealt with an issue that applies not just to Egyptian women and Egypt, but to many people in many places. Have you ever taken the 7 train? Or any crowded train on the NYC subway? Then you know what I’m talking about. While we may gasp at the things the women face in the 678 bus, we must not forget that we face similar things here and similarly, most of us don’t speak up either.

Here’s the trailer:

678 Trailer

There’s no subtitles, but you’ll get a feel for the movie. I don’t think it does full justice to the movie, though, so you should just listen to  my expert opinion and watch the movie. 🙂

So I started this entry …… 2 weeks ago. heheheeheheh. I know, I know, I should be updating more, this is like a journal, I should write daily, etc. But due to: 1) the shitty subpar internet provided by the oh-so-lovely 1 star Horus House Hotel (it’s a love and hate relationship), and 2) the busy days we’ve been having, it’s really hard to sit down and let myself just write. This also kind of shows that I’ve been doing a lot here, so that’s a good thing (or this is just an excuse for my abysmal blogging-ethic).

The original purpose of this entry was to talk about starting Arabic, but since the final is this week, I’ll just talk about the general progression of Arabic. To start off, I love the language. Love. I always listened to an Arabic song every now and then and loved how beautiful the language was. It flows off the tongue but is also punctuated by erratic glottal stops and noises that you’ve never heard before. I love it.

Learning it….is a whole different experience. It’s both harder and easier than I expected. On the one hand, I realize that I grasp words and vocabulary relatively quickly, but then re-learning how to read and write from right to left (in a completely different alphabet) is pretty difficult. (Italian, I’ve never appreciated you more.) But I also feel super-cool when I read a sentence. Or write one. (I have terrible handwriting. Arabic is like art because you have to let your hand be free and yet in control. I’m a failure. My writing looks like chicken-scratch written by a drunk chicken). But I still feel very proud of myself every time 😀 (until I find out that what I wrote/read was completely off. Whatever).

I definitely want to continue studying it when I get back to the states; perhaps in the form of a class or just reviewing myself. (ruhroh we know what that means 🙁 ). I just don’t want to waste the work I’ve put in here, and Arabic is so beautiful (and spoken in so many places) that it’s only a win win for me to continue studying it. My dreams of being bajillion-lingual are a small step closer to being realized.

I’m also thinking about coming back here for the summer for the St. Andrews Church internship. I still have to think about it though; and I don’t know how my parents are going to react at all. But it seems like a great opportunity. And I love this city…and maybe there’s other reasons for coming back too. Es posible.

This hasn’t been an exciting entry (it’s late. I need fresh material). I’m just really grateful for all things we’ve done and seen in this SHORT time (I don’t care what anyone else says, this ~month went by really fast :/). I have to sit down and run through everything and write about it, because it’s all been a great blur at some points.

Today. was. amazing.

I’m really glad (and I don’t want to jinx this) that the first day here did not let me down at all. After getting to Cairo last night at around 10pm, we met Abduh, Professor Sullivan’s habibi and our amazing tour guide, who drove us back to the hotel in Zamalek (it was about an hour away). We were ridiculously tired since the time zone change had taken a night’s sleep from us and when I get movie options on a plane, sleep is no longer a priority. (I watched Step Up 3, Slumdog Millionaire and The Hangover this time. Successful plane ride? I think so).

After settling into our rooms (which are decent, but the bathrooms. Oh man, the bathrooms. Think big, think porcelain and speckless. Best part? We have a butt-washer. Let’s not be embarrassed to talk about this now. It’s one of those amazing contraptions (in case you don’t know what I’m talking about) that is kind of like a lower toilet seat and you kneel over and it squirts a jet of water, cleaning errythang, errywhere. Let’s leave it at that).

So, this morning, we woke up (bright and early at 7:30 a.m. after sleeping at 2:00a.m. last night and being super tired from the plane) to head off to the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx. It. was. surreal. There really is no other word for it. I remember spending 3 years in elementary school, studying Egypt and the Pyramids, learning about the Nile, how to write our names in Hieroglyphics, etc. The first thing you think of when you think of Egypt is either the Nile or the Pyramids. Being on a camel (named Whiskey, who was uber-cute, if rather unsightly) walking towards the Pyramids in the Sahara Desert was unbelievable. It was a culmination of all those years of study, and it did NOT let us down at all. The desert felt serene and quiet at the same time (besides the 30 American tourists on camels, posing and saying “Aloha” (don’t ask) for photographs every minute of the entire trip. I was obviously one of them :3), with a slight wind blowing at the same time (did I mention I LOVE the weather here? I LOVE the weather here). It was a very ethereal feeling to be honest, passing by dead horse carcasses as our camels made their way through the vast Sahara.

One thing I will say here (and I’m the first one to be guilty of this) is that I think we spent too much time taking photographs and not enough time appreciating the fact that we were in front of the Pyramids. I would be snapping away and realize that a photograph will never recreate the exact feeling and I should just try to take in as much of that as possible. So I did. For awhile. Because the other side of the argument is that we will (most likely) never be there again and it’s justifiable to want to take as much of the place back with you as you can.

This camel is ridiculously cute.

Next, we visited the Sphinx, which I’ve got to say was awesome but definitely less than I expected because of all those photo-shopped photos where the Sphinx is standing alone in the middle of the desert. In reality…not quite.

To round up the day, we visited the Papyrus Museum near the Sphinx (it’s literally leads up right to the edge of the city, it’s eerie and awesome) and learned how to make papyrus from the papyrus plant from a man who spoke 390493 languages (that is a rough estimate) and looked around the store and bought some things.

THEN, WE HAD LUNCH. At that point, I was starving and would have eaten someone’s arm without seasoning, but the restaurant we went to was (I’m not very creative with these adjectives, I know) amazing. We had authentic hummus (DELICIOUS. and this is coming from someone who wasn’t of big fan of hummus previously), Egyptian pita bread, Sticky rice wrapped in cabbage leaves, falafel, and the main course of chicken, lamb and beef grilled meat. I was stuffed to the top and would wait for a burp to make more room and continue stuffing (this sounds really unattractive. which is true. don’t judge me).

After lunch, we were on our own to make plans for new year’s eve, which was slightly disappointing at first, but in retrospect, it’s the best thing that’s happened in a while. (More on this later). Professor Sullivan did recommend an Oud concert by Naseer Shamma, renowned Oud player, that was happening that night in the neighborhood tonight. We decided to buy tickets and go to the concert and then see if we could perhaps make it out to the feluccas for a ride on the Nile on New Year’s Day.

The concert was phenomenal. I had average expectations, mostly because I have a short attention span and I was expecting to get bored at some point. I was engaged during the whole concert. The Oud is really a beautiful instrument; it kind of resembles a guitar but it has a hollowed out back (google it) that gives it a slight echo with each note. Every time I listen to Arabic music, and especially tonight, I felt like I was leaving something behind. That is always the feeling I get from it, a sad or sometimes happy feeling about moving away from something and remembering it through the song. And, oddly, it reminds me of the desert as well.

The second good thing about the Oud concert was that I sat next to someone who was being taught by Naseer Shamma, and translated/explained many things to us during the concert. It was really lucky of us, actually, because he spoke very good English and was very helpful. Egyptians are really friendly. And even if they don’t speak english, they will try to work something out for you. 🙂

For the rest of the details on what we did for New Year’s Eve, please just ask me because this entry is very long and I’m about to fall asleep. Wake up tomorrow at 8, we’re going to Islamic Cairo! And then during the afternoon, Ioana, Albina and I are hanging out with a new friend we made. 🙂

Good night/Good Morning Guys! It’s 4.am here. Some habits die hard. You already know.

EDIT: before I begin, I’m writing this to say that this entry is quite long and quite rant-like. Read at your own peril (boredom).

You know those times in life when you think everything is working against you? Well, last night was one of those times.

After trekking out to Newark in a blizzard on a shuttle bus with a huge suitcase and a twisted ankle, I was pleasantly surprised at seeing that out of all the flights from Newark, mine was one of three or four that was actually ON TIME,  all lit up in bright green, adamant letters, next to the red CANCELED signs framing every other flight.

These other flights were at all different times of the day and even those late at night had been canceled early in the morning. But of course, this didn’t seem weird to us. Okay, maybe a little weird. We (Albina, Ioana and I) saw the massive line for “Reaccommodation Services” and giggled, at how our flight was so badass that it was at 6pm and still going to fly out. I mean, never mind the fact that we couldn’t see the planes 20 feet away from the window, and that there was a state of emergency being declared….those are just small details. If Continental says that we’re flying, we’re flying.

After waiting in the airport for 4 hours (and during these 4 hours, we were staring out the gigantic windows airports so generously provide at the worsening storm. They really need curtains for times like these), we were (at our disbelief) boarded onto the plane. This is where we (or more specifically me and Albina) started praying a bit. We were trying to be calm, and trying to un-see all the metaphors for death that seemed to pop up in everything from a chicken caesar wrap to expressions of exhaustion.

Once we’re all buckled in, the pilot (who we analyzed prior to the flight and came to the conclusion that he looked inexperienced and yet capable, confident but still cursing his luck a little bit) made the announcement that we would have to de-ice the plane for 45 minutes to 1.5 hours (….if that much de-icing is necessary, maybe we should reconsider the flight…) and then take off. So at this point, we’ve gone past the point of being (too) scared and I sent out my byebye texts and called my mom, telling her that the flight has not been canceled and we’re actually taking off. My mom, always full of surprises, said “Isn’t this exciting?!” whereas i expected her to tell me to get off that plane right that moment. Which I may or may not have wanted her to say.

Finally, they came to their senses and deplaned us, canceling the flight and leaving us to try to reschedule a new flight from the leftovers of all those people who’d been rescheduling all day before us. And the cherry on the top was that we got an incompetent nincompoop (I only use this word when I really mean it) of an agent, who spent more time laughing at a bad joke about hamburgers made by a colleague than looking for alternative flights for us. After 30 minutes of trying to call up other airlines to see if we could get a flight to Cairo from anywhere in Europe, we returned to the counter, finally attended to by someone who quite clearly wanted to get us a flight. In about 5 minutes, she gave us three confirmed tickets for the 29th (not the best thing but better than nothing by far).

Yay! Ordeal over, right? JUST KIDDING, that would make life way too bearable! After 7 hours of being in the airport, Continental decided that it wouldn’t be able to find Ioana’s suitcase…even though the plane didn’t even take off so there’s really nowhere it could have gone. After arguing with them many times, and 3.5 hours later, they *magically* found Ioana’s suitcase (it must have gone on a walk, you see). This, unfortunately, was about 30 minutes after Albina’s dad came and picked her up or we could have just gone with them. But anyway, the suitcase had been returned!

So hooray! We could go home now! JUST KIDDING, all the shuttles/air train back to NYC had completely shut down because the blizzard had gotten out of control! That’s okay, we could just take a cab….JUST KIDDING, cab companies said they were booked till Tuesday Morning (this was Sunday night)….Our only other alternative was the seedy man in a black coat and shifty eyes who said he needed two more people for his van to NYC and he was only charging a nice rate of $80 per person! This added to the fact that I was 80% sure he was going to sell us into prostitution, and our decision to spend the night in heatless, seatless and unhelpful Newark Airport was made.

To sum up the rest of this saga, we got home at 2pm on Monday. That’s only because my uncle drove out and picked us up (New favorite uncle? I think so).

Moral of the story: If there’s a blizzard, don’t go to the airport. If you go to the airport, expect to be there for 384304838 hours. If you’re there for 343043843 hours, bring food and warm clothing.

I am kind of glad the plane didn’t take off though, because who knows what would have happened. There’s a saying in Hindi Jaan Bachi To Lakhon Paaye. “Life saved, Gained Millions” (everything beautiful about this was killed in translation. R.I.P) basically meaning that as long as you have your life, you’ve gained a lot more (and not lost anything…besides two days in Cairo :'( )

If your flight leaves Christmas Weekend, make sure to check that you have all necessities before Christmas eve, because it may just happen that you will realize that you don’t have converters or adapters. And almost all stores are closed on Christmas, so you will be fretting about a couple of hours before your flight on the 26th, looking for these things. Your mother will laugh at you, while ignoring your tears (just kidding, not crying…yet) and telling you that this is what you do every time you go somewhere (which is also somewhat true).

Old habits die hard. (So do yourself a favor and don’t let them develop) (Who am i kidding?).

So I *finally* began acting like I was getting on a plane in 3 days and went shopping for Egypt-appropriate clothing (long skirts :3, shawls, pants thinner than jeans, more flipflops, light cardigan, etc) and I’m really getting into the swing of things now.

Cairo, I’m coming. 😉

*This is a photo of Zamalek, Cairo where our hotel is!*

Hello (non-existent) readers (for now :D),

It’s the Tuesday before I leave (which is on Sunday, the 26th). I am finally finished with finals as of 11 this morning. So I can now begin worrying about what to pack, what to leave here (the Mac?? I still need guidance on this one), what’s appropriate to wear in Egypt and what’s not, to take cash or traveler’s checks, etc etc etc. It’s exhausting just thinking about it.

But then I’ve always loved this part of every trip; the packing and the small nervousness in your stomach hinting that you forgot to pack something (probably your toothbrush), or you left your passport at someone’s house (true story). It’s nerve-wracking (SO nerve-wracking) but also so exciting. It’s a sign that, WOW, you’re really going on this trip! So that’s where I am right now, in between giddiness and chaos.

Also, last Saturday, I was walking my dog (who is REALLY cute, and you should all meet him) who decided that the leaf moving in the wind behind us was more exciting than the path we were on, and so he jerked and ran in that direction, causing me to trip over my own graceful feet and land on the ground. With a twisted ankle. So, there are about 5 days left till I leave, and I’m hoping this very becoming limp I’ve developed goes away by then. (And if not, I will just limp my way into Cairo, no biggie.)