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.