I haven't been posting very often because I want to describe everything in vivid detail, and that takes time, which I am finding to be in short supply in between taking advantage of opportunities to go and do things and making a valiant effort to be a diligent student. I'll try to at least keep a log of what is going on from now on, even if I have to leave out some of the color and anecdotes...I'm also going to be going back and posting about things that ocurred in the past, so those posts will have old dates and you'll have to scroll back through past postings to find them, so keep an eye out for that.
This past weekend we were invited by Krissy, a friend from the dorm who is dating an Egyptian (and has been for 4 years) to go with them and some of her boyfriend's friends to stay in a villa in Ain Sukhna, a resort town on the Red Sea. It is just beginning to get warm enough for that here (it was in the 80s for the first time this week) and we were eager to get tan...we are all winter-pale, particularly compared to most of the Egyptians walking around, who are naturally a lovely olive shade. We were there Thursday and all day Friday, and we spent Friday evening singing and playing the guitar on the beach...it's funny the songs that the Egyptians knew--they knew all the words to "Hotel California," but no one had ever heard of "Brown-Eyed Girl."
Nothing in particular happened today...I went to class all morning, then sat in the school courtyard and had some tea and talked to some of my friends, including some who came over to AUC to visit although they are currently enrolled at ILI, another language school in Mohandiseen. There is a fair amount of crossover between the schools as ILI is offered on month-long terms and is cheaper, which is more amenable to many students for various personal reasons. After that break, I met Tanisha at the dorm and we went to Beano's (which is kind of like Starbucks) and ate dinner and did homework for 5 hours.
Some girls from my class are having a potluck dinner at their apartment on Friday. Class is relaxed, but most of the chatting that we do is in Arabic about topics pertinent to our current vocabulary as part of practice exercises, so it's not too terribly conducive to getting to know people beyond a superficial level. We do a fair amount of mingling in the courtyard, but the girls in my class were already friends with each other because they had class together last semester, and I had my own friends whom I met in the dorm in the week or so before class started and who were new students like me, so me and my classmates haven't really had a reason to do too much bonding (except to commiserate over the volume of new vocaublary that we are assigned). They seem like very fun, normal girls, and I'm looking forward to spending some time with them outside of class.
I am now about to do my final worksheet for the evening, read a chapter of The Other Boleyn Girl, and call it a night.
And that's an average day.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Morning traffic in Nuweiba, a small town on the Red Sea
They let the goats out every morning to clean the city by eating the trash, and then a real-live goatherd calls them back to where they belong with a horn!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Lawrence Wright, Author of The Looming Tower
Today after our Listening class (I take five Arabic classes: Grammar, Writing, Media, Speaking, and Listening) a friend and I were lamenting the 5 minute presentations we are supposed to give tomorrow. I seriously doubt my ability to deliver a 5-minute monologue entirely in Arabic (or at least one that is mildly coherent), but I suppose this is how one learns. They say the intermediate stage is the hardest stage in learning any language, right?
Anywho, she mentioned that Lawrence Wright was coming to speak on campus later that afternoon, so instead of heading home to start figuring out wtf I could say for 5 whole minutes, we decided to head to a cafe in an alley about two blocks from school to meet some friends and have shisha and mango juice.
A few games of backgammon later, we ended up in Oriental Hall, the largest (or at least the nicest) lecture hall on AUC's main campus. The place filled quickly, and Wright (who taught ESL at AUC for two years to fulfill his "conscientious objector" service during the Vietnam War) proceeded to lecture about what I understood to be roughly the same content as his New York Times bestselling book.
Perhaps trying to condense a book into a lecture was his problem. The narrative history that Wright wove together was definitely interesting. Unfortunately, the Q&A section at the end concluded before I was able to ask him about his assertion that "The War on Terror had ended prior to the beginning of the war in Iraq." Wright proceeded to explain Al-Qaeda's reorganization from a vertical business model to a horizontal cell model, which he then credited as the reason for its ability to continue to grow and operate despite initial US/coalition successes in Afghanistan. The Iraq connection was never established or mentioned again. I wondered how the present need for US troops in Afghanistan and the apparently insurmountable lawlessness that continues to allow the northern tribal areas of Pakistan to be a safe haven and training ground for terrorists jived with his theory that the War on Terror was over prior to Iraq. I don't think the situation in Iraq has done much to prevent terrorism, but how Al-Qaeda owes its continued existence to the Iraq War remained unclear.
Additionally, I had serious doubts about some of his facts, such as that Al-Qaeda, at 20 years old, is the second-oldest terrorist organization remaining in existence--the other being the IRA. What about Hezbollah and FARC? Moreover, I found his claim that "There are more Muslims than Catholics in northern Europe and more Muslims than Protestants in southern Europe" equally objectionable. Those things may be true, but stated as facts to show how overrun European nations are becoming with foreigners (so much so that they are losing their sense of national identity) they are misleading. Southern Europe is predominantly Catholic and northern Europe is predominantly Protestant--not the other way around-- so it isn't all that shocking that Muslims aren't the smallest religious minority in those places, which is really all that those statements mean.
To his credit, Wright handled himself well under pretty heated questions after the lecture, and maintained his position that most terrorists are motivated by a variety of sociological and political causes that are not really the fault of the USA even in front of his Egyptian audience. His presentation was captivating, but could have been stronger if he had omitted the things that cast doubt on his credibility. However, if nothing else, it was a thought-provoking way to spend the afternoon.
Anywho, she mentioned that Lawrence Wright was coming to speak on campus later that afternoon, so instead of heading home to start figuring out wtf I could say for 5 whole minutes, we decided to head to a cafe in an alley about two blocks from school to meet some friends and have shisha and mango juice.
A few games of backgammon later, we ended up in Oriental Hall, the largest (or at least the nicest) lecture hall on AUC's main campus. The place filled quickly, and Wright (who taught ESL at AUC for two years to fulfill his "conscientious objector" service during the Vietnam War) proceeded to lecture about what I understood to be roughly the same content as his New York Times bestselling book.
Perhaps trying to condense a book into a lecture was his problem. The narrative history that Wright wove together was definitely interesting. Unfortunately, the Q&A section at the end concluded before I was able to ask him about his assertion that "The War on Terror had ended prior to the beginning of the war in Iraq." Wright proceeded to explain Al-Qaeda's reorganization from a vertical business model to a horizontal cell model, which he then credited as the reason for its ability to continue to grow and operate despite initial US/coalition successes in Afghanistan. The Iraq connection was never established or mentioned again. I wondered how the present need for US troops in Afghanistan and the apparently insurmountable lawlessness that continues to allow the northern tribal areas of Pakistan to be a safe haven and training ground for terrorists jived with his theory that the War on Terror was over prior to Iraq. I don't think the situation in Iraq has done much to prevent terrorism, but how Al-Qaeda owes its continued existence to the Iraq War remained unclear.
Additionally, I had serious doubts about some of his facts, such as that Al-Qaeda, at 20 years old, is the second-oldest terrorist organization remaining in existence--the other being the IRA. What about Hezbollah and FARC? Moreover, I found his claim that "There are more Muslims than Catholics in northern Europe and more Muslims than Protestants in southern Europe" equally objectionable. Those things may be true, but stated as facts to show how overrun European nations are becoming with foreigners (so much so that they are losing their sense of national identity) they are misleading. Southern Europe is predominantly Catholic and northern Europe is predominantly Protestant--not the other way around-- so it isn't all that shocking that Muslims aren't the smallest religious minority in those places, which is really all that those statements mean.
To his credit, Wright handled himself well under pretty heated questions after the lecture, and maintained his position that most terrorists are motivated by a variety of sociological and political causes that are not really the fault of the USA even in front of his Egyptian audience. His presentation was captivating, but could have been stronger if he had omitted the things that cast doubt on his credibility. However, if nothing else, it was a thought-provoking way to spend the afternoon.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Masr! Masr! Masr!
While walking from a party to a friend's apartment last weekend, we happened upon a huge gathering of people dancing in the streets and shouting. Cars everywhere were honking in the pattern: beep (pause) beep (pause) beep beep beep. I started to get nervous when people began setting things on fire, and thought for sure we were about to witness a riot, but it turns out that everyone was just celebrating Egypt's unexpected victory in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations. Check it out:
For whatever reason, the United States hasn't gotten on board the global soccer obsession. Someone told me that it is because soccer is played in two continuous halves without ever stopping the clock, so it hasn't caught on with the big networks because they can't have as many commercial breaks. Nevertheless, for most of the rest of the world, soccer is a BIG DEAL. Two examples: (1) during the World Cup last summer, Cote D'Ivoire temporarily suspended their civil war so people could watch the games, and (2) according to a recent article in the New York Times, universal support for the Iraqi national team has made headway in bridging sectarian enmity in the country.
While I can't tell you the name of a single player on the USA national team, I couldn't help but get caught up in the enthusiasm that absolutely permeates every corner of Cairo for Team Egypt. People tape Egyptian flags to everything, wear them around, and cover their cars with black, white and read banners--all to demonstrate their support for the team.
Having seen the ruckus the victory on the quarterfinals caused (see video above), you can bet we--me, Jillian (my roommate), Rafaela, and Tanisha--decided to do it up big time for the finals. We bought flags the night before the game (after bargaining down the price since we wanted to get four at once) and as we walked home with them people yelled "Egypt!" and "Misr!" (which is the Egyptian word for Egypt) at us from stores and car windows, while cars greeted us with the celebratory pattern of honks.
One of our dorm mates is a really fun Egyptian girl named Dina, and she offered to take us to watch the game at a place where locals go to watch games (as opposed to a hotel bar or somewhere similarly upscale, which is where most expats hang out but would be too pricey for the average Egyptian.) We eagerly accepted and joined her downtown, where many local coffee shops and small shisha bars had moved all of their furniture outdoors into the alley. The place was packed with people--we had to sit on tables or stand--and we watched the game from the crowded alley on an outdoor projection screen. For this the store owner charged us 3 Egyptian pounds--the equivalent of about 75 cents--well worth being able to chant "Masr" with a rowdy Egyptian mob. Two of our upper-class Egyptian friends, Omar and Ahmed, met us downtown and marveled that we were showing them around Egypt - having spent all of their time with the upper crust, they had never before seen how the average Egyptian watched a game.
For a long time the game was zero to zero. Halfway through the chicken shwarma sandwich that I purchased from the stand around the corner at half time, Egypt scored. The bedlam that ensued gave a whole new meaning to the concept of a crowd "erupting." Not only did a roar and the sound of drums reverberate through the alley, but people were shooting fireworks and lighting hairspray (and other things of unknown identity) on fire everywhere.
When the game ended and Egypt won, the energy went through the roof. It really felt like the population of the city had been on hold watching the game and then turned out into the streets simultaneously. People were blasting plumes of hairspray ignited with cigarette lighters into the air, beating drums, and chanting "misr!" It was completely amazing. Tanisha noted that the only time we had ever seen anything like it are when American news plays clips of crowds cheering, shouting, and dancing after something like the American Embassy is bombed--but that's misleading, because it appears that this happens all the time!
After the game the 4 of us went with Omar and Ahmed to an underpass in Heliopolis (their neighborhood in Cairo) where crowds often gather on occasions such as this. We watched the pulsating throng from the slightly less crowded street above until Omar and Ahmed got nervous about the number of guys who had stopped chanting cheers and gathered around to take our picture instead. I am sure that four obviously American girls with Egyptian flags was an unusual sight; however, due to the prevalence of verbal harassment and unwanted touching on the Egyptian streets, staying any longer wouldn't have been prudent. We gave our flags a final wave and headed to a nearby cafe for some fresh mango juice. It was a thoroughly memorable night.
For whatever reason, the United States hasn't gotten on board the global soccer obsession. Someone told me that it is because soccer is played in two continuous halves without ever stopping the clock, so it hasn't caught on with the big networks because they can't have as many commercial breaks. Nevertheless, for most of the rest of the world, soccer is a BIG DEAL. Two examples: (1) during the World Cup last summer, Cote D'Ivoire temporarily suspended their civil war so people could watch the games, and (2) according to a recent article in the New York Times, universal support for the Iraqi national team has made headway in bridging sectarian enmity in the country.
While I can't tell you the name of a single player on the USA national team, I couldn't help but get caught up in the enthusiasm that absolutely permeates every corner of Cairo for Team Egypt. People tape Egyptian flags to everything, wear them around, and cover their cars with black, white and read banners--all to demonstrate their support for the team.
Having seen the ruckus the victory on the quarterfinals caused (see video above), you can bet we--me, Jillian (my roommate), Rafaela, and Tanisha--decided to do it up big time for the finals. We bought flags the night before the game (after bargaining down the price since we wanted to get four at once) and as we walked home with them people yelled "Egypt!" and "Misr!" (which is the Egyptian word for Egypt) at us from stores and car windows, while cars greeted us with the celebratory pattern of honks.
One of our dorm mates is a really fun Egyptian girl named Dina, and she offered to take us to watch the game at a place where locals go to watch games (as opposed to a hotel bar or somewhere similarly upscale, which is where most expats hang out but would be too pricey for the average Egyptian.) We eagerly accepted and joined her downtown, where many local coffee shops and small shisha bars had moved all of their furniture outdoors into the alley. The place was packed with people--we had to sit on tables or stand--and we watched the game from the crowded alley on an outdoor projection screen. For this the store owner charged us 3 Egyptian pounds--the equivalent of about 75 cents--well worth being able to chant "Masr" with a rowdy Egyptian mob. Two of our upper-class Egyptian friends, Omar and Ahmed, met us downtown and marveled that we were showing them around Egypt - having spent all of their time with the upper crust, they had never before seen how the average Egyptian watched a game.
For a long time the game was zero to zero. Halfway through the chicken shwarma sandwich that I purchased from the stand around the corner at half time, Egypt scored. The bedlam that ensued gave a whole new meaning to the concept of a crowd "erupting." Not only did a roar and the sound of drums reverberate through the alley, but people were shooting fireworks and lighting hairspray (and other things of unknown identity) on fire everywhere.
When the game ended and Egypt won, the energy went through the roof. It really felt like the population of the city had been on hold watching the game and then turned out into the streets simultaneously. People were blasting plumes of hairspray ignited with cigarette lighters into the air, beating drums, and chanting "misr!" It was completely amazing. Tanisha noted that the only time we had ever seen anything like it are when American news plays clips of crowds cheering, shouting, and dancing after something like the American Embassy is bombed--but that's misleading, because it appears that this happens all the time!
After the game the 4 of us went with Omar and Ahmed to an underpass in Heliopolis (their neighborhood in Cairo) where crowds often gather on occasions such as this. We watched the pulsating throng from the slightly less crowded street above until Omar and Ahmed got nervous about the number of guys who had stopped chanting cheers and gathered around to take our picture instead. I am sure that four obviously American girls with Egyptian flags was an unusual sight; however, due to the prevalence of verbal harassment and unwanted touching on the Egyptian streets, staying any longer wouldn't have been prudent. We gave our flags a final wave and headed to a nearby cafe for some fresh mango juice. It was a thoroughly memorable night.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Settled In
My first two weeks in Egypt have been so full of things to do that I've hardly had a chance to look around and be fully cognizant of the fact that I am in Egypt, the land of King Tut and mummies and oases and hieroglyphics.
My flight landed at 3:00 in the morning, and even at that odd hour the airport was crammed full of people. I had to walk through a gauntlet of them in order to make it past baggage claim, and I imagined as I walked through the rows of jostling, curious faces craning their necks for a glimpse of the disembarking passengers that this must be something like what it would be like to be a celebrity on the red carpet.
School registration happened, slowly and inefficiently (in true Egyptian fashion), over the course of several days. In order to obtain my student visa, for example, I had to:
(1) go to registration and obtain instruction sheet
(2) go to the Business Support office to see if the forms that I sent in to the New York office had actually been passed along to the office here in Cairo
(3) I then had to leave my passport for a few days
(4 )then come pick it up
(5) take additional form to the Visa Services office to have someone sign and verify that I am registered for class
(6) take said form to a third office for verification that I have paid
(7) return all red tape to Business Support Office
(8) wait for visa ~ 2 weeks
(9) go pick it up.
Step 9 is yet to be completed. But I must say it seemed like it would have been simpler for everyone if the necessary people had come to the registration fair and sat at the tables the students had to circle around anyway rather then requiring several hundred students to run the Indy 500 around the campus!
Nonetheless, like the rest of this wonderfully Eastern and Western city, bursting at the seams with activity and relentlessly developing even amidst rubble and general decay, the system somehow manages to function in spite of itself.
My flight landed at 3:00 in the morning, and even at that odd hour the airport was crammed full of people. I had to walk through a gauntlet of them in order to make it past baggage claim, and I imagined as I walked through the rows of jostling, curious faces craning their necks for a glimpse of the disembarking passengers that this must be something like what it would be like to be a celebrity on the red carpet.
School registration happened, slowly and inefficiently (in true Egyptian fashion), over the course of several days. In order to obtain my student visa, for example, I had to:
(1) go to registration and obtain instruction sheet
(2) go to the Business Support office to see if the forms that I sent in to the New York office had actually been passed along to the office here in Cairo
(3) I then had to leave my passport for a few days
(4 )then come pick it up
(5) take additional form to the Visa Services office to have someone sign and verify that I am registered for class
(6) take said form to a third office for verification that I have paid
(7) return all red tape to Business Support Office
(8) wait for visa ~ 2 weeks
(9) go pick it up.
Step 9 is yet to be completed. But I must say it seemed like it would have been simpler for everyone if the necessary people had come to the registration fair and sat at the tables the students had to circle around anyway rather then requiring several hundred students to run the Indy 500 around the campus!
Nonetheless, like the rest of this wonderfully Eastern and Western city, bursting at the seams with activity and relentlessly developing even amidst rubble and general decay, the system somehow manages to function in spite of itself.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Alive and well
I know you were all on pins and needles to hear that. I made it without any trouble (if you don't count the fact that the drivers are insane. When I reached for the seatbelt and realized there was no clasp, the driver said "no problem"--the first of many times I will hear that phrase, I am sure, since "no problem" and "okay" are the two English phrases everyone knows and uses abundantly, whether or not they apply). As we ran yet another red light while simultaneously crossing several lanes of traffic, I sort of felt like it was a problem, but I guess my opinion didn't count.
Going to bed to the sound of the morning call to prayer from the ubiquitous minarets...
Going to bed to the sound of the morning call to prayer from the ubiquitous minarets...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Ahsfar ila Misr!
I depart tomorrow, and after a short stay in Amsterdam (9 hours in the airport, to be exact) will arrive in Cairo in the wee hours of the morning on January 25th. American University in Cairo (AUC) has helpfully arranged for a representative and car to meet me there so that all goes smoothly, inshallah.
Along with saying goodbye, changing my cell
phone plan, and concluding my job at CenturyTel (see photo), my preparations for leaving have included brushing up on a little Arabic. When I said my farewell words to the Monroe Rotary Club, I mentioned that the origin of the word "Algebra" is the Arabic word for Mathematics, al-jabr. Another common English word originates in Arabic. The title of this post means "I travel to Egypt!" The root of the word for travel, safara, is s-f-r, which is where we get the word "safari." So now you know two loan words from Arabic: algebra and safari.
I can't believe I am actually, finally going--I will be sure to post upon arrival as soon as I am able!
Along with saying goodbye, changing my cell
phone plan, and concluding my job at CenturyTel (see photo), my preparations for leaving have included brushing up on a little Arabic. When I said my farewell words to the Monroe Rotary Club, I mentioned that the origin of the word "Algebra" is the Arabic word for Mathematics, al-jabr. Another common English word originates in Arabic. The title of this post means "I travel to Egypt!" The root of the word for travel, safara, is s-f-r, which is where we get the word "safari." So now you know two loan words from Arabic: algebra and safari.I can't believe I am actually, finally going--I will be sure to post upon arrival as soon as I am able!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Housing details coming together...
I received an e-mail from AUC today confirming their receipt of my housing deposit. I was hoping to be placed in the largest co-ed residence near campus (Zamalek), partly because I get the sense that it is the "main" residence, and partly because it has a gym. However, I have been placed in the Kanzy Residence instead.
I suppose Kanzy might have some perks--it used to be a hotel, so an in-room refrigerator is included. It's also in a different neighborhood--Dokki--which sounds a little more happening than Zamalek. However, that might end up being a con, as I have heard that retreating into Zamalek's quiet, embassy-laden bubble can be a pleasant reprieve from the total sensory overload that is Cairo. I guess we'll see; I'm hesitant to make any changes without checking things out for myself. I'm also afraid to mess with fate! I ended up in a spacious apartment with great roommates by just letting the dice fall when I went to Morocco.
A girl who spent the fall doing exactly what I'll be doing (intensive Arabic study at the Arabic Language Institute) and living at the Kanzy residence describes its '70s decor here.
Orange shag carpet, here I come!
I suppose Kanzy might have some perks--it used to be a hotel, so an in-room refrigerator is included. It's also in a different neighborhood--Dokki--which sounds a little more happening than Zamalek. However, that might end up being a con, as I have heard that retreating into Zamalek's quiet, embassy-laden bubble can be a pleasant reprieve from the total sensory overload that is Cairo. I guess we'll see; I'm hesitant to make any changes without checking things out for myself. I'm also afraid to mess with fate! I ended up in a spacious apartment with great roommates by just letting the dice fall when I went to Morocco.
A girl who spent the fall doing exactly what I'll be doing (intensive Arabic study at the Arabic Language Institute) and living at the Kanzy residence describes its '70s decor here.
Orange shag carpet, here I come!
Friday, August 3, 2007
Monroe Rotary Meeting
On August 18, I will be joining Monroe's Rotarians for their weekly meeting so that we can get to know each other a little better and talk about my upcoming trip to Egypt. I'm excited to meet the people who are making it possible for me to go!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
A photo!!
This is a test. This is a photo of me and some friends during the first week of our senior year at Princeton University.
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