weekend away...

sorry for the brevity of recent posts... apparently your body takes about a month to adjust to egypt. you can't drink the water, you get sick a lot, you should avoid some foods, you should rinse your toothbrush with bottled water, etc. what i'm trying to say is that i have stomach cramps that make me feel like i'm about to birth a small porpoise. but, i'm sure this will pass...

and to help me get my mind off my discomfort, for our off-campus orientation, all of the auc students are going to be staying at a five star hotel on the red sea in el gouna! we leave at 2am this morning and don't come back until sunday night. i should meet lots of other study abroad students, and it will be incredibly nice to get away from cairo for a weekend. it is a fantastic city, but it's also lound, crowded, and, well, filthy. so hopefully a lovely weekend away courtesy of auc is just what the doctor ordered...

classes...

well, i got my class schedule:

i'm taking colloquial egyptian, modern standard arabic, international security (a graduate class, but it should be REALLY interesting), modern arabic literature in translation, and the state and society of the middle east.

smoking 'sheesha,' a water pipe filled with flavored tobacco. EVERYONE smokes here... i'm not a big fan, but it was something i had to try. when in egypt...

i have no idea who took this picture, but the group was definitely getting bigger.

sophia and friends... they really are fantastic kids.

the digital camera

there is a group of about five children who live on our streetcorner. they are grungy, mischevious, and absolutely adorable. everytime i walk by, we kick a soccerball around (i'm by far the worst player, which they really get a kick out of) and they practice their english while i practice my arabic. i think we're about on par as far as language skills go: about a fifth grade level. anyway, they are my new cairene friends...

as i was walking by yesterday, sophia (the ringleader of sorts) asked me "kamera?" and, much to their delight, i took out my digital camera. i thought that they might want me to pay them to take pictures of them, a pretty common request, but i realized that they had never seen a digital camera before. they spent about 40 minutes looking at each other through the viewfinder and laughing saying 'i can see you!!' in arabic. they asked me to take pictures of them and then went through the pictures, in awe of the fact that they could click back and forth and see themselves. it was really really cute. however, the group in the street kept getting bigger and bigger... and the people asking me to take pictures of them, or with them, were getting a little older. we started getting 20 something guys who said they wanted to take a picture with you but really just wanted to put their arm around you... a little sketchy. on top of that, i don't these guys bathed this year, so the camera session ended pretty abruptly.

i guess i didn't really realize what i take for granted here. the poverty is SO intense, and so heartbreaking. i mean, it was stupid of me not to realize that they hadn't seen a digital camera before. but it definitely made me reevaluate what i have the right to complain about here. next time we don't have hot water, i'm going to take it with a serious grain of salt.

Argh.

a three hour placement test followed by a four hour arabic class.

shoot. me.

i made jello. i think that was the high point of this day.

fishawi's coffee house in khan al-khalili

the view from the minaret...

me on the roof right before climbing the minaret

Down and Up...

mollie and merrit and i had quite the adventure yesterday in islamic cairo. we started our day near khan al-khalili, one of the largest bazaars in cairo. we spent a lot of the day out of the touristy section, which meant we were mostly in the locals' way (we got hissed at occassionally... oops). in part of the bazaar was ancient well, or cistern of sorts, from the time of muhammed ali. there was an old caretaker there, who asked us for 5 egyptian pounds (the equivalent of 1 dollar) each to go down a rickety staircase that went down into the earth where they used to store water. we were feeling pretty adventurous so we climbed down, and he chuckled to himself and didn't come with us. i mean, we basically paid 5 pounds to go in a big, old hole, but at least it was cooler down there.

we then went to the "gates of cairo"... which is this ancient gate-like structure with two large minarets at the top. minarets are the towers you see on mosques where the call to prayer is made from five times a day. we gave the caretaker some baksheesh and he said "you young legs climb up! haha!" and we did. the staircase was REALLY small, my shoulders almost touched the walls, and incredibly dark. but by the time you started to think that it wasn't such a good idea, you couldn't head back down since there was someone behind you. anyway, the views of the city were beautiful... and going back down made me feel like i was going to die. but it was definitely something i'm glad i did. and will never do again.

we then wandered around the bazaar. got pinched (what are you going to do? sigh), and told i had "magic eyes," and "small store small price." we had some more turkish coffee in a really amazing coffee house that has apparently existed for 200 years... everyone there was smoking sheesha, a water pipe, but i haven't done that yet.

and then i had my first of five survival arabic classes. they are four hours long, and SUPER intense. i fell into bed as soon as we got home...

coptic cairo and an extremely friendly shopkeeper...

today, my roommate mollie and i went into a part of cairo known as 'coptic cairo.' this is the historically coptic christian area of cairo; it's walled in and has an almost underground feeling to it. there are high walls and narrow alleyways, which makes walking around a lot less hot. thank goodness. coptic cairo also houses 'ben ezra synagogue,' the oldest synagogue in egypt. we arrived in the midafternoon and were expecting the same kind of chaotic, noisy tourist scene that surrounds most areas of cairo, but we found that the area around these churches was serene, filled mostly with families attending church who couldn't be less interested in the fact that these two white girls were poking around (except for the girl who took pictures of us with her fully veiled mother... she'd never met americans before).

these churches were absolutely amazing; they dated back into the 3rd and 4th centuries... they were so unlike any of the cathedrals or churches you find in the states or europe. mostly because this part of the church broke off from the westernized branch quite early and is descended more from the apostle mark. one of the churches was founded right next to the spring where moses was believed to have been found in the rushes. holy family church, another church we visited, was founded because the holy family was believed to have stopped there while they were fleeing from king herrod. i mean, i was in awe of the woodwork and the delicate goldleaf on these ancient icons which were all over the walls, but there was no pomp and circumstance from the egyptians... it was just where they went to church. there was a sunday (or i guess friday) school going on while we were there and the little kids sang us some songs in arabic. SO adorable.

now onto the, um, stanger part of our day. on our way out of coptic cairo we passed a shopkeeper who asked us to write something in english for him. now, my roommate and i have very different mentalities about interacting with people in cairo. i will basically talk to anyone and assume that everyone just wants to be my friend... which may be slightly stupid, and she assumes that everyone wants to punch her in the face. but, the combination works. so, of course i say that i will write something in english for him. he then launches into this long story about how his first child was born this morning and she is half russian since his wife is russian and he promised his wife that she could name the girl children and he could name the boy children and she is three kilos and her name is olga and "i so sorry i speak so fast i break your heads! HAHAHA!" and that is how i would up dictating a letter to his friend in south africa about his baby girl named olga. he then offered us turkish coffee and hibiscus tea (both of which are very hot beverages and it's around 4,000,000 degrees outside), but we couldn't really refuse him since he said that it would be good luck for his baby if we accepted his hospitality. so we choked down some extremely thick turkish coffee... if you don't know what turkish coffee is, it's served in small glasses about the size of a shotglass and is made without a filter. so, as they pour it into the glass it has the consistency of mud. and, if i liked coffe, i'm sure it would've been great, but hot strong coffee in the middle of the day kind of makes me want to throw up a little. after all this, he brings us into his store and tries to sell us stuff. how predictable.

anyway, i was feeling really good about helping out this guy and mollie's telling me that she didn't buy it for a second. and, low and behold, the next three people on the street asked us to 'write a letter for them' as well. sigh.

me in dirty clothing at auc...

our bedroom...

auc's main campus...

my roommate in our fantasically ghetto elevator...

this is our living room...

this is our dining room...

Christmas in August...

i got my bags! it took five hours dialing a busy phone number, about three people, and a lot of uncharacteristic patience, but i finally got them around 2 this afternoon. there is a completely different pace to life here in egypt. when people say, for example, that your bags will be delivered around 6am, they really mean within the next few days. but while things like that are a huge pain, other aspects of this calmed-down atmosphere are really nice. if you don't get your form in on time, that's ok. if you forget to show up for an appointment, no sweat... the person you were supposed to meet was two hours late anyway. everyone is SO relaxed, in a kind of 'why not take the long way to the supermarket that takes us all over cairo' way, that i don't know what to do with myself half the time. but all that i really care about right now is that i have my luggage. i've never been so relieved.

the only not so relaxing thing about egypt is crossing the street. as far as i or any of my roommates can tell, all traffic signals are almost always ignored or viewed as "suggestions." in fact, i think that drivers do the absolute opposite. this makes crossing the streets, let alone getting into a cab, more exciting than ever before. it's sort of like the computer game 'frogger' where you have to avoid getting hit by speeding cars as you hop across the street. i've developed a technique that involves following the most sane-looking person i can find and positioning myself so that if a car comes speeding by, it will hit them first. i'm not dead, so it's working for me.

i also took my first taxi today on the way back from the market. holy. cow. craziest driving i have ever seen. i thought that roma was terrifying but the driving here is just silly it's so bad. and it's not even the fact that no one seems to drive in any particular lane, it's that there are lots of weird things in the street. people are running across highways, there was an old man standing in the middle of the road mopping it, and sometimes the occasional donkey. but the adventure that is an egyptian taxi begins even before you get in the car. you have to barter how much the ride will cost before you even get in. there are meters in the cabs, but they don't turn them on. it seems silly to barter when everything is so cheap by american standards anyway, but i guess it's the principle. and it's also really exciting. but i had a very scary looking cab driver, so i let him have his way when it came to the fee...

we went out to dinner tonight at a really great restaurant called "felfelas." it was SO good; we had babaganoush, hummus, falafel, kababs, and something unidentifiable that was described as 'sausage cakes' (those weren't so good). although i did die a little inside when one of the girls with us asked for ketchup to put on her kabab. could we be any more cliche?

anyway, we're all unpacked and we've stocked the kitchen with more than chocolate, crackers, and bottled water (breakfast this morning), so it's starting to feel like we actually live here. which is really really cool... i keep looking around me at the women with their gorgeous head scarves and the men in traditional egyptian galabiyas and turbans thinking that i can't actually live here.

rough start

on monday evening, my initial flight into london was delayed by about an hour and twenty minutes, leaving me with 20 minutes to catch my connecting flight to cairo in another terminal. i asked the flight attendent if i would be able to make it and he said absolutely not. the lady behind him shrugged her shoulders and said 'run.' and RUN i did. i sprinted through two terminals, onto a bus, hit the fast-track lane for security (and as some sort of cosmic joke all of the moving sidewalks were out of commission), and made the flight just as they were closing the cabin doors.

my luggage, however, was not as fortunate. that is why i have been wearing the same pants since monday.

on a better note, my flat in egypt is huge-- there are 2 bathrooms, 2 showers, 2 pretty spacious bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, fully stocked kitchen, and a lovely view of an empty lot.

my roommates also seem really nice. i mean, i'm wearing their clothes right now, so they have to be.

and i'm feeling pretty good about the auc campus. it's really green and unusual and beautiful. i think i'll be spending a lot of time there instead of the flat. while the flat is big, it is also a little on the ghetto side (there is no door to the elevator, so you watch the brick walls go by). but it's air-conditioned, so i'm not really complaining. it also has the best security guard. i was trying to explain to him that our phone was broken in terrible arabic, and he responded in even worse english (or very fast arabic, which was even harder to understand), and we both tried to act out a phone being broken with lots of body language and beeping noises. we both wound up laughing for about 20 minutes. my phone is still broken though.

but the BEST part about this apartment is the kitchen. in one drawer, there are four forks spaced out and nothing else. in the next drawer, four spoons. and, mind you, these are fairly large drawers. in the next drawer, there is one plate.

anyway, i've gotten lost twice, spoken to TONS of really friendly people, and i think i'm going to be ok. i kind of have to keep telling myself that i can do this. and i am really pissed about my bags. but, you know, it's going to work itself out. i hope.

Almost on my way...

i leave for egypt tomorrow morning, and i have a huge pile of stuff on my floor that needs to magically make it into my suitcases. i'm flying british airways with a lay-over in london... i'll basically be on a plane until wednesday. and i thought that i was arriving at 5:30 pm in egypt, but i'm actually arriving at midnight. so, that screws up my pick-up from the airport. argh.

but i'm excited and nervous and all that junk.

i will be living in garden city, a small suburb of cairo, in a flat with four girls: mollie, merritt, mera, and meryl or something. anyway, all of the girls' names start with an 'm' which i have decided to take as a good luck sign.

i take my placement test only 8 hours after arriving in cairo, so i'm sure to do realllllly well. arabic 101 here i come.

boooogaaa boooogaaaa

shaaboo

just setting it uppppp