Adventures in You-Know-Where

Disclaimer: posts from now on will NOT be in chronological order, unless it just happens to work out that way. sorry.


You-Know-Where. The-Land-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. Israel.
I went there because I figured I should visit the motherland while I was so close - Cairo. Also I have cousins there I'd never met. They turned out to be fantastic! It was kind of a whirlwind 2-day visit, so I really only got to see old city Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, but my cousin is a trained tour guide so I definitely got a good deal.

I did, however, get detained at the border because of a certain stamp in my passport from a certain country (syria) that the Israelis were not thrilled about. I was pretty annoyed, because I thought I would have a straight ticket in being that I was there to visit family and all. The fact that the border guards looked like a bunch of giggling 18-year-old girls didn't help ease my frustration.

But after they made me wait an hour and a half (comparatively short, i realize), i got through, then on to a great weekend with Azoffs! they even have the same last name! I definitely have to go back and spend more time in this beautiful and fascinating country.

I was pleasantly surprised in Jerusalem to find the Arabs and Israelis living in such close proximity and friendship. On saturday morning, my cousin, Maya, took me to a nearby Arab village to buy fresh bread, and traded news of the family, etc with the shop owner who she's known since childhood. It was very nice to see, and I got in a few words of Arabic which made me feel better about not knowing any Hebrew.

more soon!

O Beautiful, for Spacious Skies

Yes, I have returned to America. it's true what they say, reverse culture shock is worse than forward culture shock. mann, who knew America was so strange?

I have obviously been extremely delinquent in my blogging the second half of my semester. so, now that i am in the US with nothing better to do than lots of packing and unpacking, I will - inshahallah - be updating like crazy over the next few weeks with fun stuff from April and May.

so stay tuned! and check out the photobucket or facebook for lots of pictures!

Bon Voyage! Ma'Salaama! Ciao! etc

There will be an even bigger lack of posting (I apologize for my tardiness recently, if I blogged about everything I wanted to blog about, I would be sitting in Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for like three weeks straight) in the next 18 days when I'm off on my spring break adventure.

The plan is: Leave from Cairo travel to Jordan via ferry where we will see Amman, Petra, and the Dead Sea

Next, cross the border (inshahallah) to Syria and see many things, including Damascus, Hama, Crac de chevalier (which i can't spell but apparently is the best-preserved crusader castle in the world), and Aleppo (where I will spend Eastern Easter)

Take a bus across the border to Adonna, Turkey, where we catch a plane across the country and arrive in Istanbul for a 6-day stay before returning to Cairo successful and exhausted and probably quite disgusting. I've never had to pack light for such a long trip before, wish me luck!

Plan on there being lots of pictures upon my return, you won't be able to handle it.

Lots of love,
Ariel

We Bought Gallabiyas!

so i never told you about #2

THAT TIME WHEN I WENT TO THE CAIRO POLICE STATION

So in all my years at Georgetown I've only lost my GoCard once, and of course within a month in Egypt I'd lose my AUC ID card, which you need to get onto campus and into the library and to get discounts at historical sites around the country. I needed a new one, but I didn't want to pay 250 pounds (about $50) to get it, so I went to the security office where I was told to fill our a report that it had been stolen - which was of course a complete lie, I probably just dropped it somewhere.

Went back to the office several times before they had time for me, at which point I waited for a university security guy to escort me across the street to the AUC security office, where another security guy met me and said he was going to take me to the Cairo police station to make my report.

My guy's name was Hassan. Very nice guy, didn't speak any English. I think I spent around 3-4 hours that morning without speaking a word of English - crazy. We took a cab to the police station (which I paid for) and when we got there had to wait around for my turn, meanwhile I was chatting with Hassan as best I could. Basically what I got is that he likes his job, has been working there for 3 years, before which he was in the army (compulsory for Egyptian men)and feels very lucky to have such a good job. Then he asked me if I had two pounds to slip the policeman behind the counter to move things along. in egypt we call this "Baksheesh".

To make a long (seriously, long) story short, I went from there back to the security office to the ID office back to the security office again then to the cashier then back to the ID office where I finally got my new ID. I think I will never complain about US bureaucracy again. Living in Egypt is very entertaining sometimes, but it also makes you grateful for what you got back home.

another funny food observation

Addendum to earlier post about food names meaning different things here:


كوسة = Zucchini= government corruption

Shwaya Anticlimactic

There was supposed to be a big strike today. Bread prices are going up and people are generally unhappy. My understanding of the situation is that there was to be a strike at a textile factory and anti-government groups planned to piggy-back on it to call for a larger general strike. No one was supposed to go to work or buy anything, we were supposed to wear black and fly the Egyptian flag ( i do, incidently , have an Egyptian flag in my window from when we won the match -see below).

Unfortunately, Egypt has been under emergency law since 1967, and it's only been lifted twice for a few months each time, then reimposed. Under emergency law striking and demonstrating of any kind are prohibited. Which is why the thing today was kind of a bust. Sadly. I didn't come downtown because foreigners aren't allowed near demonstrations by law, and I was told it would be dangerous. I considered going somewhere to see what was going on from a safe distance, but I checked in with some friends who live downtown and they said all they saw was a large military presence and no demonstrators. Some news sources (linked below) have pictures of demonstrations but I don't know where they are and if they're even from today. Oh well. I didn't buy anything today in solidarity, but I'm afraid the workers here didn't quite make the statement they'd hoped.

I saw some of the emails that were circulating and my professor helped us translate them. They were very inspiring - calling for civil resistance and peaceful protest and using phrases like "Just sitting still and hoping God will fix your life won't get you anywhere." Apparently the Muslim Brotherhood was supporting the strike too. In Egypt they're prohibited from participating in Government but they run many charity NGOs and programs that really help people, and many Egyptians I've spoken with want them to have a say in the parliament.

In other news, the editor of a major oposition paper - Al-Dostur (the constitution) was convicted of something or other and sentenced to 6 months in prison for writing about the president's health. Oy. Egypt.

Here's more on the strike:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/04/05/egypt.strike.ap/index.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7332929.stm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/52949F62-D450-42C2-A194-17AE16404ABC.htm

For Dad

so i never told you about #1

THAT TIME WHEN EGYPT WON THE AFRICAN CUP

It was really pretty spectacular. For all you Hoyas reading this, think: Georgetown when we got to the final four x20 million. Seriously, it was ridiculous.

The actual game was slightly anti-climactic for me since Egypt was only up 1 point and they won when time ran out. But see, the announcers were speaking Arabic so I didn't know that time was running out until all of the Egyptians in the cafe we were watching it in stood up and started hugging each other and screaming. That as exciting though. Oh, my adopted country.

What they cheer:
1. Misr! Misr!Misr! (Egypt!)
2. ole, ole, ole, ole (which is weird because it's definitely from Latin America)
3. Abu Traika!!! Zidan!!! (names of players)
4. honk honk honk honk honk honk-ety-honk honk (a car horn)

I now own an Egyptian flag.


The streets were so flooded cars couldn't move. Everyone was singing and setting off sparklers and fireworks and waving flags and dressed in the Egyptian colors (red, white, black).

Sabrina and I were in the back of a car driving over a bridge waving our flags when our car was descended on my jubilant Egyptian youths who held a large flag for us to drive under. it was pretty f-ing sweet. We were with our friends the Mostafas. (I call them this because one's name is Mostafa and the other is Ahmed Mostafa). I am including 2 videos to give you a better idea of the excitement. The second one is me. Both were taken by Sabrina (thank you Sabrina) because my camera died and hers is better anyway.

Disclaimer: Mom, this was very safe, I am taking good care of myself, please don't be worried when you see me hanging out of a car waving a flag through a celebratory mob of Egyptians

Caption Contest!

I took this picture during my trip to the Saqqara pyramids. Will someone wittier than me please come up with a good caption for it? Please comment on this post with suggestions (New Yorker style, if anyone reads the magazine you know what I mean)


p.s. the woman on the left was a European tourist who probably paid too many pounds to this guy to dress up like a Bedouin. sucker.

I guess I'm pretty ethnically ambiguous

People always ask where I'm from. I like to make them guess, it's more fun. The most popular guesses are: Spanish, German, French, Turkish. I've also gotten Lebanese once and Egyptian twice, which is quite flattering on account of it means my pronunciation is decent, inshahallah. But last night something fun happened:

(imagine this in Arabic)
Man in convenience store: Where are you from?
Me: What do you think?
man: hmmm. Yugoslavia??

fantastic. how'd he guess?

Saqqaraaaaaa

Please allow me to apologize for my delinquency lately. My life got filled up with stuff. somehow that even happened to me in Egypt - I have a problem.

So this post actually took place 2 weeks ago, Saturday.
We wanted to go to the Saqqara pyramids by ourselves because we heard things mish kwais (not good) about the AUC trip. We decided the best plan would be to hire a cab for a day because it would be cheaper and transportation around those big piles of rocks is mish kwais also.

So that's when we found Abdullah. He is awesome. Speaks shwaya (a little) English, and was very helpful with my Arabic. I went with Sabrina and Dan, and Dan gave Abdullah his phone number because he promised to take us to the zoo, on him. (Dan has subsequently ignored his phone calls - we'll have to remedy this soon).

Anyway, the pyramids were pretty sweet. I mean, they're PYRAMIDS. these are the Step ones, the big ones at Giza are visible in the distance. from Saqqara, you can see like 10-15 pyramids dotting the landscape, it's pretty cool, and we also saw some pretty awesome hyroglyphics inside one of them. Not much more to say about pyramids, they're pretty self-explanatory. I took a bunch of pictures, check them out on photobucket. But here are a couple, a preview.
The tunnel down into the burial chamber (pays to be short sometimes):

not to be a downer but...

Very interesting article on the cover of the NYT today talking about the unemployment problems in Egypt and how it's driving the younger generation towards Islam.

From my own observations this is definitely a very religious society. and I have met a ton of college graduates in places you wouldn't expect. Some examples:

- the waiter in the cafe i'm in right now is a lawyer.
- my cab driver yesterday, when he found out I can read Arabic, gave me a photocopy of his diploma to read. He has a degree in Accounting and Commerce.
- Another cab driver works for the government making maps in the mornings and drives a cab at night
- man we haggled with to buy some scarves on the street told us he is a student at the Egyptian Museum

I'd definitely welcome comments on this, it's a very sad situation to be sure, though the religiosity of folks here seems to be a comforting thing, not necessarily as dangerous as the NYT makes it out to be. what does everyone think?

Aleskandria

Last weekend I went on the AUC-sponsored (and supposedly subsidized) trip to Alexandria.
A little anecdote about EST (Egyptian Standard Time): we were supposed to be in front of the dorm building at 8am to get a bus to campus, from where we would leave at 9. we woke up at 8. mish mushkila, we said (not a problem), we'll just cab there. the cab from dorm to campus is 3-5 pounds, if you're savvy, which is less than $1. mish mushkila. but when we wandered down at around 8:45 the buses from the dorm were just loading. we should have known. mish mushkila, we got there no problem in time to see the library of Alexandria and a beautiful sunset.

The ancient library of Alexandria was destroyed by an earthquake a long time (note my historical accuracy) ago, but a new one was built in 2003, and it's pretty amazing. I mean, the heirogliphics etched on the outside are shwaya (a little) tacky, but mish mushkila. it's one of (if not the) biggest in the world and the inside is designed to minimize shadows and maximize natural light. (see picture above right.)

<- I thought this was fun. In case you need a pepsi after prayer, you're all set with this Pepsi-Mosque. other sites we saw were: Pompey's Pillar, the Roman Ampetheater, the Catacombs, and the Citadel. then we had amazinggg seafood at the restaurant "Fish Market." For the tourist attractions I'm not going to post individual pictures, but there's a compilation of sorts on the top of this post. The citadel was pretty magnificent though, it was built on top of the ruins of the old lighthouse and now is basically just used for tourism revenue. I took about a hundred pictures of it, but here are a few of my favorites.we didn't get time to go inside (I plan on going back), but there was an amazing old mosque which we are told is the largest in Alexandria, and it looks magnificent from the outside. The sun is positioned just right in this photo, maybe it is Allah? It does say "Allah" in neon lights on top. That's something I've found very strange in Egypt. Mosques use neon lights. Either the word "Allah" appears, or the entire building is lit green or pink or another outrageous color. For me that would kind of detract from the religiosity of the place, but I guess it's intended to do the opposite. Funny. Anyway, I took about a hundred photos so if you'd like to see more, here's the link to my photobucket page: http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg67/aazoff/

Enjoy!

dilemma

I am a nice person. Whenever I see the guards or receptionists in my building I say the proper Arabic greetings. In the morning I say صباح الخير! (roughly "morning of goodness") and at night I say مساء الخير! (night of goodness). But no one ever taught me what to say in the middle of the day! So between the hours of 12pm and 4pm-ish I am very impolite.

Misr!

Egypt beat Cote D'Ivoire in the Semi-Finals of the African Cup tonight. very exciting. Afterwards I felt like i was in Georgetown when we made it to the final four. Shouting and singing and flag waving through the streets, cars beeping horns and little boys waving sparklers and everyone chanting "Misr!" ("Egypt").

In the in the grocery store the radio was playing Ana Misry by the beautiful Nancy Ajram on repeat. (i felt really cultured when I recognized the song from Arabic class last semester)

Look out for the final game on February 10th!

in other news: I'm going to Alexandria tomorrow so stay tuned for pictures and such.

Random story: had a really awesome cab driver today. he said "I love speaking English!" and I said "but I want to speak Arabic!" so that's what we did. I spoke Arabic and he answered in English. He told me he hates Mubarak but he loves Bush and Sharon because they are men that love their countries. He loves any man that loves his country, like he loves Misr. we then proceeded to talk about politics and religion and life in general and he offered to give me his mobile number if i ever need anything or any information about egypt ("Because I have all the information about Egypt!". Nice guy, really

it's the little things in life

Egyptians are at the same time a very kind and very obnoxious people. When a woman walks down the street men will make comments in Arabic and sometimes harass her, but at the same time the culture is inherently kinder than ours. I use that word because it seems the most appropriate.

Example: I rode the metro for the first time on Friday to the neighborhood Maadi. When you get on the metro you slide your ticket through and retrieve it, but I didn't know that and left my ticket so on the other end I was stuck. An old woman, seeing my confusion, simply motioned to her son to give me his. I was struck at how genuinely caring and decent this was, but also how that kind of gesture is commonplace here.

People do things for each other. it's a novel idea, I know, but it's very heartwarming to see. Even the greetings mean things like "I'm better to know you" and "Morning of Light" and "Peace be upon you/Go with peace." Walking down the street in Maadi an old woman said something to us, and at first I thought she was begging, but actually she was telling us "كل السنة وانتم طيبين" which translates roughly as "All the years and you are well." A random stranger. That's just how it is, and it's lovely.

On the metro we rode the women's car. I think I would have felt uncomfortable on the mixed cars because here as a girl I am much more conscious of men looking at me (they stare at everybody, it takes some getting used to). The women on the car were also very gracious, always offering seats to older women, and buying treats for each others' children from the vendors that come on the metro.

I have noticed, though, that I get harsher looks dressed as a westerner (I cover up plenty, but I still have Western style and no veil) from the women than from the men. On campus, with all of the wealthy Egyptians, it is different, but walking around Cairo I feel like I am being judged by the women that I pass. It's also far easier to befriend Egyptian men than women. More to come on this I'm sure, I'm still figuring it out.

I went to the pryamids! and now i can't move

Sorry for the lack of posting. Apparently there are only 3 cables into the middle east bringing internet and 2 of them got cut. but now internet is semi-ok so I am playing catch-up on my blog.

Thursday afternoon we went horseback riding at the pyramids in Giza. My horse (above) was crazy. he/she (couldn't tell which) decided to gallop across the desert at top speed (i've never been so afraid for my life) and the soreness is only today wearing off. They pyramids were cool - it was kind of surreal being there after hearing about them basically my whole life. This trip we didn't really get up close though, we just rode up to a hill overlooking them and took a few pictures before it got dark. Unfortunately the sunset was on the other side of the sky so my pictures didn't come out great and the sand got in the way. but still, PYRAMIDS!

this country has technical difficulties

so, the reason I haven't posted anything in a bit is because the internet stopped working in Egypt. for real. apparently, there is only one cable into egypt, and it got cut. woops! At first we thought it was just the wireless in the dorm but when we called the man at reception said, "No, all of AUC, all of Cairo, all of Egypt!"

so, welcome to egypt.

in other exciting news: the woman yelled "man ON the floor!" today instead of the usual "man the floor!" I am very impressed but I think I liked it better the other way.

went to a party at the American embassy last night thrown by the marines. surprisingly really fun. Visited Maadi today which is a posh upper class neighborhood a couple metro stops from downtown. will post pictures and more details about that soon.

did you know....Cairo outpollutes LA every day

today there was a lot of fog. but really it was a cloud of dirt. this is the view driving across the bridge:


They have facebook!

The cabs are little and the streets are dirty:


We took a trip to the "Apple Store" (and yes, that is a pile of rubble under the logo):



I hope I never have to take a public bus in Cairo:


There are some really cool government buildings we walked past in Mohandaseen today but there are armed guards outside them who will take your camera and delete all the pictures if you try to photograph the buildings. Oh well, use your imaginations.

Fruits and Vegetables don't mean what you might think

So, I've been realizing that in Egyptian dialect, the words for fruits and vegetables tend to have alternate meanings. which has the potential to be hilarious, insulting, or just plain confusing. some examples:

bananas = hot girl
melon = coke-head/druggie
day of honey = a good day
day of onions = a bad day
she's a cabbage = she's fat
she's a strawberry = she's sweet
she's grapes = she's thin

Living in Egypt = A lesson in patience

The bureaucracy here is about the most ridiculous thing in the world. At the American University in Cairo, we must get a university ID, a library ID, a gym ID, a dorm ID and a bus ID. each of these has a separate process involving going to several different university locations and waiting on many lines to get a stamp or your pulse taken, etc. And you are invariably sent to the wrong place a few times a long the way. I tried to set up an AUC email account, and I was given a number to take to an office at the university before it could be activated. Apparently no one has had the brilliant idea to have one universal card for students. oh well.

Also, I don't know how anyone makes a living around here. it seems to me that wherever i go there are groups of guys, just hanging out. but hey, if they're having a good time then more power to them.

Things I love About Cairo (so far)

1. the exchange rate! around 5.5 egyptian pounds = $1. It's fantastic. And on top of that, everything is very cheap. I have falafel sandwiches for a half a pound (aka ten cents) and they're yummy.

2. cabs. They'll take you anywhere, and you negotiate the price before-hand. I missed the bus to school this morning and hopped in a cab for 5 pounds. the traffic is ridiculous, you have to run for your life to cross streets, but I'm getting the hang of it.

3. people who can transport crazy amounts of things on their heads. they walk, they ride bikes, they have excellent balance.

4. women's eye makeup. because the majority of women here wear hijabs - that is headscarves - they always have the most beautiful eye makeup. and the scarves themselves are often colorful and embroidered.

5. when i try to speak arabic, everyone is very helpful and encouraging.

6. you can get ANYTHING delivered. and i mean anything. i heard of a guy who needed a phone card. they delivered it to his room.

7. egyptians love giving directions. even if they don't know where the thing is that you're asking for - they'll give you directions.

8. the city never sleeps (kinda like me, and New York). people eat dinner around 10 or 11. which is why, when about 10 georgetown friends and I had dinner on a fancy river boat restaurant on the Nile last night around 7:30, we had the whole boat to ourselves. and it was cheap and yummy Lebanese food.

More to come - I've only been here 4 days!

Journey and Jet Lag

After a long 2 flights and a 6-hour layover in London (where I had cider with my long lost friend Sarah Merette) we arrived at the Cairo airport. The airport is an experience in itself. It's dirty, smoky, and packed. Thank god there was a toothless man with an "AUC" sign shepherding us around. We were packed onto a bus with all of our luggage and sent off on a 45 min ride to the dorms.

We're living in a dorm building on an island in the middle of the Nile. The northern half of the island is called Zamalek, which is where we are staying. It's nicer than downtown Cairo, and there are a lot of embassies and hotels here. Still pretty dirty and crowded though. The rooms are nice and big in the dorm, and there's a beautiful courtyard with a fountain and palm trees. The boys and girls wings are separated and guarded so we're not allowed on each other's side of the building. the best is that when men have to come on the girls side to fix things or drop off luggage a woman comes with them that shouts "Man the floor! Man!" down the hallway.

But the food is cheap and wonderful and we wondered around downtown all day yesterday. More to come soon!