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):

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.

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 😉

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: