As a tourist, you want a “real” taste of Cairo. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t make a difference if you covered your hair or spoke a fluent Arabic. You are not Egyptian and the Egyptians know it. I wanted to write that the smells of trash mixed with the scent of fried food and flavored sheesha define Cairo or that sounds of horns honking, men hissing and the call to prayer can sum up the city. I would be wrong in writing that. Cairo’s personality isn’t one thing. It is the filth, the bad food, the noise, the cab drivers, the security guards, the Nile, homeless, the elite, the expats, the mosques, the smiles, the winks, the occasional friendly, “welcome,” the occasional unfriendly, “welcome,” the modern buildings, the ruins, (and the fact that as we speak, my power keeps going on and off).that give Cairo character. Khan al-Khalili holds all of these traits in one huge bazaar.
Last Thursday, I was taken to Khan al-Khalili with a local and Emily. There is a whole section of the market whose existence I was completely unaware of as an American. It is off to the side and is where locals shop. Above it are all the workshops where the jewelry, the backgammon boards, the leather bags and the glass lamps are physically made. I bought a beautiful backgammon board (which will live in my parents house until I have my own very nice house) made of wood with camel bone, buffalo horns and mother of pearl outlining and design. Walking around, I bought a sweet potato from a man walking around selling them on a cart where they were being made. It was delicious (last week’s vocab word: latdhidh) to say the least.
The following morning, I was off by five after 7 on my first field trip for my Egyptology class. Though most of it was spent on the bus, it was a worthwhile trip. We get taken to sites I would never be able to go to on my own. The first stop we made was at a ruin of an ancient city called Butra. It is on the way from Cairo to Alexandria. To get there, it is necessary to (min illaazim an) drive through a small town. Though the ruin was fascinating and built on a turtleback (basically a big heap of land with a great view), I may have been more intrigued by the city. The streets were crowded with people; women carrying baskets on their heads, men walking with purpose or just sitting smoking sheesha and carts selling and trading vegetables. I felt like I was in a different century. I believe I may have seen more animals than cars being used as a mode of transportation and block after block, there were piles of trash no pavement. It was a place where people work to survive. After Butra, we were off to Rashid (formerly Rosetta). As you can guess, Rosetta is the city where the Rosetta stone was found. It is right on the Nile and though today is a small town, it still holds the fort where the Rosetta stone was found. While not the most exciting place I’ve ever been, I can say I’ve been to the place they found the Rosetta stone. We then headed off to the place where the Nile meets the Mediterranean. Again, I’ve seen cooler things, but I can say I’ve been there. We did a quick drive though and lunch break in Alexandria and made one stop on the way out of the city at a temple and lighthouse. Ptolemy, when ruling Egypt, ordered a series of lighthouses to be built so the city could be seen. The great lighthouse of Alexandria that was destroyed by an earthquake was only one of many lighthouses. The remains of one still exist just outside of modern-day Alexandria. On the home, the bus broke down. My professor could not have said it better when he pointed out that such a thing is to be expected in Egypt.
Saturday we made a trip out to Saqqara and Dahshur. Being there, I became very puzzled as to why the pyramids of Giza have become known as the “Great Pyramids.” These seemed just as cool to me. Saqqara is the remains of a city. It is clear where the city center once stood and the pyramid there is the oldest step-pyramid still standing. Dahshur has three pyramids. The first one is the third largest pyramid (aside from two in Giza). We went inside of it…I almost felt like I was in a spy movie. It is a very long, very cramped, very smelly tunnel to the bottom where it then opens up into a big space. You can then climb up another set of stairs (made much more recently) to where the tomb is. There is nothing there anymore but a pile of rock. My legs were sore for two days afterwards, it made me slightly claustrophobic, the smell was awful, but it was worth it. The second pyramid there is I guess you could say, bent. They started building it and upon realizing that it was at a bad angle, the changed the angle. The third is called the black pyramid (I think) and wasn’t worth it for us to see. It’s kind of falling apart.
Sunday was the Citadel with Jordan. The Citadel costs twenty pounds to get in, has three mosques, a whole mess of museums and some gardens. Lonely Planet (our guide and savior, literally) says, “Though this is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Cairo (particularly for Egyptians), it is relatively unimpressive and decidedly overpriced.” I wouldn’t say it is a place you must go when coming to Cairo, but if you have time, it is worth it. The mosque of Muhammad Ali is there. It is a beautiful mosque and can be seen from anywhere in Islamic Cairo and even other parts of the city. Walking out onto a porch area, you can see as far as the pyramids on a clear day, which we were lucky enough to witness. The most boring, but also funniest part of the Citadel was the military museum. Why funny you ask? One would think that in a museum as such, things would be proofread before being carved into stone. Things were labeled as, “broduced in…”, “in tered service…”, “cuptured tanks…”, etc.
Monday it was back to class and has been a fairly normal week since then (I suppose depending on how one would define normal). The sink in our apartment doesn’t drain well and it leaks, our shower still doesn’t and in fact never did work (aka there is practically no water that comes out of it when you try making it hot), I still have to hold the washing machine shut with my foot, our toilet that was supposedly fixed is in fact not fixed (don’t worry, we have two) and I am sure a plethora more of broken items that are not currently at the top of my head.
Oh, and surprise! I’m going to Israel tonight with Jordan. We have a number of names for Israel here. Among them: the North, the forbidden land, Disneyworld…I am in desperate need of meat, Ariella (one of my closest friends from home) is going to meet us there, I need a break from Cairo and it’s Purim. Seemed to make sense to me. And, I’m off…
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Cairo 6
One of our favorite games to play in Cairo is, "remember in America when..." The truth is, for all that I complain about Cairo and Egypt and the different standards of living here, I really do like it. I don't know if I can pin-point exactly what it is that I like, but this country is growing on me.
I've started walking home from school. It is a straight shot across the Nile, past a park and the Opera House. The weather here has been beautiful making my walk all the more pleasant. I'm starting to get the hang of school. There are a few simple rules to follow: don't forget your AUC ID (they actually won't let you into the library without it), don't be intimidated by the incredibly attractive and well dressed Egyptians (they'll cause no harm and you are probably smarter than they are), don't take the wrong staircase (you can't get there from here) and be in class when class is supposed to start (they will start on time). Everywhere aside from AUC classes, being somewhere at 7:00 means being somewhere at 7:20. (Example, my Arabic tutor, whom I’ve really enjoyed working with, showed up at 10:45 when we were scheduled to meet at 10…zachma awi fi wust ilbalad.)
I won’t go through my whole week, as it was not particularly exciting. Rather, I’ll highlight the exciting points. Tuesday I went with some friends to a church called St. Andrews where Sudanese refugee children go to school. The point was to tutor them, but when I walked into the classroom (a nice name for a one room trailer with a white-board, no books and a few long tables), the teacher (who had zero control over the class) handed me the marker and told me to teach a group of maybe 25 five or six year olds to read English. A little bit shocked (last week’s Arabic vocab word – sadma), I had to think quickly. I couldn’t teach a class without first knowing my students’ names. So I came up with a solution. Each kid would stand up, tell me his or her name and give me the first letter of the name. I would write each letter they gave me on the board, and when everyone had given me their name, the challenge was to come up with a word beginning with that particular letter, then spell the word. It was then time for math. Fortunately, though my math skills are very poor, I am able to add say, 4 + 5 and even draw pictures to go along with the numbers. After a two-hour class, two little girls in the front row started asking me questions in Arabic. When they realized I didn’t understand, they turned to each other and said, “hi’a mish fahma…she doesn’t understand.” I’m not sure whether it was cute or sad, but I was glad that the girls were at least trying to communicate with me. I have every intention of going back but it will have to be at a different time than last week seeing as I now have Arabic tutoring at that time.
Last weekend was spent in a town on the Red Sea called Hurgada. It is about a six-hour bus ride from Cairo, but worth it. There isn’t a whole lot to do in the town, but the beach resorts are, by American standards, unbelievably cheap. Before leaving for Cairo, I got very jealous of my brother’s turtle. The turtle has a basking lamp. He sits on a rock and basks. No one seemed interested in getting me a basking lamp. Thankfully, I found the sun in Hurgada in place of the lamp. Six of us went in total (me, Naamah, Emily, Micah, Jordan and Elias who is visiting Egypt right now). Saturday night, half the crew went back to Cairo while half us stayed on an extra night. Saturday night, we (Jordan, Elias and I) walked around the town and found a great café with sheesha and backgammon. I cannot imagine any Americans ever going to a cafe just to play a board game. I don’t really see why not, though. It is a good way to spend time with friends while still being able to socialize, but not sitting around doing nothing. The following day, we went out on a glass-bottom boat and went snorkeling. I wouldn’t say there were great things to see, but it was a lot of fun and definitely cool.
Coming back to Cairo, I never thought I’d say I felt like I was coming home. But it was nice to be back in a city that I at least semi-understand and that I at least semi-recognize. I was taken to a great dinner by a fellow Seed of Peace at a Lebanese restaurant last night. It may have been the first time since arriving in this city that I can truly say I was really happy with the food I was eating (it may have just been the garlic, but whatever it was, it was great). I have pictures from Hurgada (OK, Jordan has pictures from Hurgada that I have every intention of stealing and then posting on my website) that I will put up as soon as I get them onto my computer.
The aspect of religion is more of an issue than I would have thought. To find Mein Kamf and the Protocols, all you have to do is walk down the street downtown. Hearing people’s ideas of Hitler and the Holocaust and even Egyptian politics is, for lack of a better word, interesting. People will generally tell you that Hitler was a war hero but they don’t really support him (though no one is ever sure why they don’t support him). If you ask, cab drivers will tell you whether they do or don’t like Mubarak or any other leader, but have a hard time explaining why. (And in case you’re wondering, I don’t ask them myself; I just enjoy listening while other people muster up the guts to do the talking.) People will ask, “what are you?” I am an American. “No, but what ARE you? Where are your parents from? What is your asl…your origin?” I am American. They give up on me after a while of not giving a satisfying answer.
I have been here a month and survived it pretty well (I think at least). I have three and a half months left of class. I am dying for meat and home cooked food (especially my mom’s) and I miss my friends from home and my family a lot. But I am adjusting, and meeting people and getting into the swing of things. I’m not sure if my Arabic speaking is any better, but my understanding and confidence in Arabic are rising. By the time I leave, I will at least be able to formulate a sentence…I promise.
I've started walking home from school. It is a straight shot across the Nile, past a park and the Opera House. The weather here has been beautiful making my walk all the more pleasant. I'm starting to get the hang of school. There are a few simple rules to follow: don't forget your AUC ID (they actually won't let you into the library without it), don't be intimidated by the incredibly attractive and well dressed Egyptians (they'll cause no harm and you are probably smarter than they are), don't take the wrong staircase (you can't get there from here) and be in class when class is supposed to start (they will start on time). Everywhere aside from AUC classes, being somewhere at 7:00 means being somewhere at 7:20. (Example, my Arabic tutor, whom I’ve really enjoyed working with, showed up at 10:45 when we were scheduled to meet at 10…zachma awi fi wust ilbalad.)
I won’t go through my whole week, as it was not particularly exciting. Rather, I’ll highlight the exciting points. Tuesday I went with some friends to a church called St. Andrews where Sudanese refugee children go to school. The point was to tutor them, but when I walked into the classroom (a nice name for a one room trailer with a white-board, no books and a few long tables), the teacher (who had zero control over the class) handed me the marker and told me to teach a group of maybe 25 five or six year olds to read English. A little bit shocked (last week’s Arabic vocab word – sadma), I had to think quickly. I couldn’t teach a class without first knowing my students’ names. So I came up with a solution. Each kid would stand up, tell me his or her name and give me the first letter of the name. I would write each letter they gave me on the board, and when everyone had given me their name, the challenge was to come up with a word beginning with that particular letter, then spell the word. It was then time for math. Fortunately, though my math skills are very poor, I am able to add say, 4 + 5 and even draw pictures to go along with the numbers. After a two-hour class, two little girls in the front row started asking me questions in Arabic. When they realized I didn’t understand, they turned to each other and said, “hi’a mish fahma…she doesn’t understand.” I’m not sure whether it was cute or sad, but I was glad that the girls were at least trying to communicate with me. I have every intention of going back but it will have to be at a different time than last week seeing as I now have Arabic tutoring at that time.
Last weekend was spent in a town on the Red Sea called Hurgada. It is about a six-hour bus ride from Cairo, but worth it. There isn’t a whole lot to do in the town, but the beach resorts are, by American standards, unbelievably cheap. Before leaving for Cairo, I got very jealous of my brother’s turtle. The turtle has a basking lamp. He sits on a rock and basks. No one seemed interested in getting me a basking lamp. Thankfully, I found the sun in Hurgada in place of the lamp. Six of us went in total (me, Naamah, Emily, Micah, Jordan and Elias who is visiting Egypt right now). Saturday night, half the crew went back to Cairo while half us stayed on an extra night. Saturday night, we (Jordan, Elias and I) walked around the town and found a great café with sheesha and backgammon. I cannot imagine any Americans ever going to a cafe just to play a board game. I don’t really see why not, though. It is a good way to spend time with friends while still being able to socialize, but not sitting around doing nothing. The following day, we went out on a glass-bottom boat and went snorkeling. I wouldn’t say there were great things to see, but it was a lot of fun and definitely cool.
Coming back to Cairo, I never thought I’d say I felt like I was coming home. But it was nice to be back in a city that I at least semi-understand and that I at least semi-recognize. I was taken to a great dinner by a fellow Seed of Peace at a Lebanese restaurant last night. It may have been the first time since arriving in this city that I can truly say I was really happy with the food I was eating (it may have just been the garlic, but whatever it was, it was great). I have pictures from Hurgada (OK, Jordan has pictures from Hurgada that I have every intention of stealing and then posting on my website) that I will put up as soon as I get them onto my computer.
The aspect of religion is more of an issue than I would have thought. To find Mein Kamf and the Protocols, all you have to do is walk down the street downtown. Hearing people’s ideas of Hitler and the Holocaust and even Egyptian politics is, for lack of a better word, interesting. People will generally tell you that Hitler was a war hero but they don’t really support him (though no one is ever sure why they don’t support him). If you ask, cab drivers will tell you whether they do or don’t like Mubarak or any other leader, but have a hard time explaining why. (And in case you’re wondering, I don’t ask them myself; I just enjoy listening while other people muster up the guts to do the talking.) People will ask, “what are you?” I am an American. “No, but what ARE you? Where are your parents from? What is your asl…your origin?” I am American. They give up on me after a while of not giving a satisfying answer.
I have been here a month and survived it pretty well (I think at least). I have three and a half months left of class. I am dying for meat and home cooked food (especially my mom’s) and I miss my friends from home and my family a lot. But I am adjusting, and meeting people and getting into the swing of things. I’m not sure if my Arabic speaking is any better, but my understanding and confidence in Arabic are rising. By the time I leave, I will at least be able to formulate a sentence…I promise.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Cairo 5
One thing I've learned never to do in Cairo is laugh while drinking water at a koshary restaurant. The result: spitting water all over the place and having a room full of Egyptians stare at you, jaws dropped in shock/horror while the only thing you can do is giggle (laugh hysterically may be a better way to describe it). Other things I wouldn't suggest doing while in Egypt include doing laundry and getting stuck in an elevator. Like most things in our apartment, our washing machine is broken. As long as the door is completely shut, it works fine. The problem is that the door doesn't always stay completely shut so I had to sit holding it shut with my foot for an hour and a half. It wasn't a complete waste of time...I was able to do some Arabic homework and read a bit. In our attempts to buy groceries the following day, we made the mistake of taking the elevator in the store. Considering our luck, it broke and we got stuck. We had to get 7 men to pry the door open. In the States, the normal response would be to give us a discount or coupon or something for free. In Egypt, they get us out and call it a day. To us, that is weird. To them, it would be strange the way they would be treated in the US. In the same way, we get a kick out of the fact that juice stands serve juice out of a glass that someone else just drank from or koshary restaurants don’t wash the glasses before the next customer uses them. They see this as a waste of time. If people aren’t dropping dead from germs, why waste the time and energy?
Classes started on Monday. My schedule works so that I have a three-day weekend (weekends here are Friday and Saturday; I also have Sunday off), and am done with class at 10AM on Thursdays. I have 10 hours of Arabic class per week (and two additional meetings with a tutor), a history class and an Egyptology class. My professor for Egyptology is phenomenal and somehow makes everything (including weather patterns over the Nile) interesting.
There is so much to see and do in Cairo that my tourist activity here is far from over. Last Sunday was spent at the Egyptian Museum. The museum was once described to me as being similar to a sock drawer but with a lot of really old, really expensive and really fancy socks. Despite being a pretty bad analogy, I would have to agree with it. The museum was in no way organized; it wasn’t like the items were poorly labeled --- most were not labeled at all --- and the museum did not seem to be set up by rooms. Rather, you walked through hallway after hallway of really old, really awesome stuff. (A good representation of Egypt if you ask me.) Surprisingly, I loved the museum. It is incredible to me not only that most of the items in the museum were so old, but that they were so old, so massive and in such good condition. In my Egyptology class, I learned that one of the main differences between ancient Egyptian civilization and almost any other ancient civilization was their outlook on the afterlife. The Greeks and Romans for example thought of the afterlife as a horrible, empty, bottomless pit. The Egyptians saw the potential for good. They were buried with gold and jewelry and paintings and sculptures of such massive scale and (especially compared to me), talent.
Wednesday night, we did the obvious thing to do in Cairo: Salsa Dancing. A bunch of people gathered in someone’s apartment with a teacher and we learned how to dance. Nothing too fancy, but a few a spins were thrown in here and there. Some people went to a club afterwards and I skipped out on that but have every intention of going next time. Thursday was another obvious Cairo activity: bowling. I learned that to actually knock pins down and not get the ball in the gutter every time, your wrist has to be straight. I did well a few times, but in general, I am a very bad bowler…this is nothing new.
Naamah and I decided we wanted to do Shabbat dinner at our apartment Friday night. We went out on Friday morning, bought some groceries and made a delicious dinner of stir-fry, homemade hummus, wine, guava juice and chickpea and cucumber salad. We had four friends over for dinner and had a great time. We felt a bit like the Marranos but instead of being in Spain, we were in Egypt and instead of lighting candles in the closet, we lit them on the table. I can’t speak for everyone there, but I had a lot of fun. Between grocery shopping and dinner, we went to a concert of a whole bunch of local Egyptian bands. Apparently this concert happens about four times a year but with different bands. The music wasn’t great but I’m really glad I went. We went with some Egyptian kids, which was a lot of fun. It’s good to be able to meet Egyptians and hang out where locals hang out. It was at a place called the Chinese Gardens, which I suppose is a bit out of place in Cairo but, it was pretty nonetheless.
Classes started on Monday. My schedule works so that I have a three-day weekend (weekends here are Friday and Saturday; I also have Sunday off), and am done with class at 10AM on Thursdays. I have 10 hours of Arabic class per week (and two additional meetings with a tutor), a history class and an Egyptology class. My professor for Egyptology is phenomenal and somehow makes everything (including weather patterns over the Nile) interesting.
There is so much to see and do in Cairo that my tourist activity here is far from over. Last Sunday was spent at the Egyptian Museum. The museum was once described to me as being similar to a sock drawer but with a lot of really old, really expensive and really fancy socks. Despite being a pretty bad analogy, I would have to agree with it. The museum was in no way organized; it wasn’t like the items were poorly labeled --- most were not labeled at all --- and the museum did not seem to be set up by rooms. Rather, you walked through hallway after hallway of really old, really awesome stuff. (A good representation of Egypt if you ask me.) Surprisingly, I loved the museum. It is incredible to me not only that most of the items in the museum were so old, but that they were so old, so massive and in such good condition. In my Egyptology class, I learned that one of the main differences between ancient Egyptian civilization and almost any other ancient civilization was their outlook on the afterlife. The Greeks and Romans for example thought of the afterlife as a horrible, empty, bottomless pit. The Egyptians saw the potential for good. They were buried with gold and jewelry and paintings and sculptures of such massive scale and (especially compared to me), talent.
Wednesday night, we did the obvious thing to do in Cairo: Salsa Dancing. A bunch of people gathered in someone’s apartment with a teacher and we learned how to dance. Nothing too fancy, but a few a spins were thrown in here and there. Some people went to a club afterwards and I skipped out on that but have every intention of going next time. Thursday was another obvious Cairo activity: bowling. I learned that to actually knock pins down and not get the ball in the gutter every time, your wrist has to be straight. I did well a few times, but in general, I am a very bad bowler…this is nothing new.
Naamah and I decided we wanted to do Shabbat dinner at our apartment Friday night. We went out on Friday morning, bought some groceries and made a delicious dinner of stir-fry, homemade hummus, wine, guava juice and chickpea and cucumber salad. We had four friends over for dinner and had a great time. We felt a bit like the Marranos but instead of being in Spain, we were in Egypt and instead of lighting candles in the closet, we lit them on the table. I can’t speak for everyone there, but I had a lot of fun. Between grocery shopping and dinner, we went to a concert of a whole bunch of local Egyptian bands. Apparently this concert happens about four times a year but with different bands. The music wasn’t great but I’m really glad I went. We went with some Egyptian kids, which was a lot of fun. It’s good to be able to meet Egyptians and hang out where locals hang out. It was at a place called the Chinese Gardens, which I suppose is a bit out of place in Cairo but, it was pretty nonetheless.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Cairo 4/Alexandria
Cairo, in contrast to Alexandria, is probably best described by its sounds. Despite being a city of almost 5 million, relative to Cairo, it seems both small and quiet. Going to school there would not be nearly as exciting. There is far less to do and far less to see despite its clean air, lack of honking and beautiful views.
Before leaving for Alexandria, we made a stop in Islamic Cairo. One thing I notice daily in Cairo is that every area (downtown, Doqqi, Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, etc.) has its own personality. Islamic Cairo seems no less religious than the rest of Cairo. Rather, it is filled block after block with massive mosques built centuries ago. The mosques, for the most part have an open ceiling in the prayer room so you can see the sky. Climbing to the top of a minaret, you can see far, but Cairo is so large and so polluted, it seems like you can hardly see anything. Islamic Cairo seems to be slightly quieter and less bustling.
We left for Alexandria at about 8 in the morning on Tuesday. It is about a three-hour bus ride. There is not too much to see on the ride between Cairo and Alex but some sand and lots of billboards. We stayed at a 5-star hotel with a view from our windows of the Mediterranean. We were able to eat vegetables and fruits without fear of getting sick. It was a bit too cold to swim, but not too cold by any means to sit outside by the water with a book and sunglasses. Walking around Alexandria, we stopped in at a few churches (including the main Coptic church and an Armenian church) as well as outside of the Alexandria synagogue. The guards would not let us in and while standing looking at the building, we started to draw a crowd so we left. It is a huge building with large gates in front of it. Between the gates and the building is a large courtyard. The building seems to be very well maintained for what it is.
The following day, we went with school to the catacombs, an amphitheater, the Alexandria library and a large fort. The catacombs are carved underground and can hold I think something like 300 mummies. It is a huge space and amazing that all of that could have been carved out. From the top of the fort, you get a beautiful view not only of the city but of the Mediterranean as well. The library seems to be more of a tourist attraction than an actual library. It has very few books, though there seemed to be people there doing some studying.
My program has 227 kids on it. Most are American, although we do have a number of Norwegians and I believe some Brits, Australian and probably Canadians. For the most part, kids seem to be nothing but nice. It is a chance to meet people I would never have met before. I am meeting people from completely different backgrounds, different schools and different interests from myself.
Coming back to Cairo, we went out for a standard meal of kohsary. The more koshary is discussed, the more it defines Cairo. A mish mash of every leftover with a few spices. Like the loud noises, the food here seems to describe the city. Not only koshary, but things like the thick juices that can be bought at every street corner. Sugarcane juice is a perfect example of this. Despite its sweetness (which I obviously love), it is too thick to get down a whole glass. A few sips are enough.
Every year, Cairo has a huge book fair. Although most books are in Arabic, we were able to find enough used books in English at prices as low as 2 pounds (it is 5.7 American dollars to the Egyptian pound). There were a good number of anti-Jewish books at the book fair that we saw.
Any other city, living across from the police station would make me feel safe. Here, walking to my apartment at night, I am terrified walking past the station. The guards are no different (if not worse) from any other male on the street. That, on top of knowing that they have huge guns and are much bigger and more powerful than myself is very disheartening. That's not to say that our block doesn't have its perks. It is fairly quiet, we are not too far from school and it is nice to be able to be in a different part of the city, even if it is only for the night.
Cairo may not have a magic to it like other cities, but it has something indefinable making it like no other place. I love that five times daily, the call to prayer is heard and people take five minutes to pray. It is a time to take for yourself. In the States, no one takes those five minutes of self-reflection. One thing I learned about prayer in Islam is that when bowing down, your entire forehead and nose should be on the floor. In that position, any bad thought you are having is coming from you and you only. There is no way to blame it on anyone or anything else. There is magic in the contrast between old and new in this city. My favorite part of the street our building is on is seeing a donkey taking a food break from pulling its cart. We, as Americans, are more out of the ordinary on our street than the donkey. The irony in being able to see Pizza Hut from the sphinx can have no other reaction but laughter, like almost everything in this city. I have learned that rather than take things seriously and be frustrated over not being able to understand why things happen the way they do, it is better to laugh and take it for what it is. After all, as I said, this city is like no other place I have ever been (although I suppose I haven't been too many places).
Before leaving for Alexandria, we made a stop in Islamic Cairo. One thing I notice daily in Cairo is that every area (downtown, Doqqi, Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, etc.) has its own personality. Islamic Cairo seems no less religious than the rest of Cairo. Rather, it is filled block after block with massive mosques built centuries ago. The mosques, for the most part have an open ceiling in the prayer room so you can see the sky. Climbing to the top of a minaret, you can see far, but Cairo is so large and so polluted, it seems like you can hardly see anything. Islamic Cairo seems to be slightly quieter and less bustling.
We left for Alexandria at about 8 in the morning on Tuesday. It is about a three-hour bus ride. There is not too much to see on the ride between Cairo and Alex but some sand and lots of billboards. We stayed at a 5-star hotel with a view from our windows of the Mediterranean. We were able to eat vegetables and fruits without fear of getting sick. It was a bit too cold to swim, but not too cold by any means to sit outside by the water with a book and sunglasses. Walking around Alexandria, we stopped in at a few churches (including the main Coptic church and an Armenian church) as well as outside of the Alexandria synagogue. The guards would not let us in and while standing looking at the building, we started to draw a crowd so we left. It is a huge building with large gates in front of it. Between the gates and the building is a large courtyard. The building seems to be very well maintained for what it is.
The following day, we went with school to the catacombs, an amphitheater, the Alexandria library and a large fort. The catacombs are carved underground and can hold I think something like 300 mummies. It is a huge space and amazing that all of that could have been carved out. From the top of the fort, you get a beautiful view not only of the city but of the Mediterranean as well. The library seems to be more of a tourist attraction than an actual library. It has very few books, though there seemed to be people there doing some studying.
My program has 227 kids on it. Most are American, although we do have a number of Norwegians and I believe some Brits, Australian and probably Canadians. For the most part, kids seem to be nothing but nice. It is a chance to meet people I would never have met before. I am meeting people from completely different backgrounds, different schools and different interests from myself.
Coming back to Cairo, we went out for a standard meal of kohsary. The more koshary is discussed, the more it defines Cairo. A mish mash of every leftover with a few spices. Like the loud noises, the food here seems to describe the city. Not only koshary, but things like the thick juices that can be bought at every street corner. Sugarcane juice is a perfect example of this. Despite its sweetness (which I obviously love), it is too thick to get down a whole glass. A few sips are enough.
Every year, Cairo has a huge book fair. Although most books are in Arabic, we were able to find enough used books in English at prices as low as 2 pounds (it is 5.7 American dollars to the Egyptian pound). There were a good number of anti-Jewish books at the book fair that we saw.
Any other city, living across from the police station would make me feel safe. Here, walking to my apartment at night, I am terrified walking past the station. The guards are no different (if not worse) from any other male on the street. That, on top of knowing that they have huge guns and are much bigger and more powerful than myself is very disheartening. That's not to say that our block doesn't have its perks. It is fairly quiet, we are not too far from school and it is nice to be able to be in a different part of the city, even if it is only for the night.
Cairo may not have a magic to it like other cities, but it has something indefinable making it like no other place. I love that five times daily, the call to prayer is heard and people take five minutes to pray. It is a time to take for yourself. In the States, no one takes those five minutes of self-reflection. One thing I learned about prayer in Islam is that when bowing down, your entire forehead and nose should be on the floor. In that position, any bad thought you are having is coming from you and you only. There is no way to blame it on anyone or anything else. There is magic in the contrast between old and new in this city. My favorite part of the street our building is on is seeing a donkey taking a food break from pulling its cart. We, as Americans, are more out of the ordinary on our street than the donkey. The irony in being able to see Pizza Hut from the sphinx can have no other reaction but laughter, like almost everything in this city. I have learned that rather than take things seriously and be frustrated over not being able to understand why things happen the way they do, it is better to laugh and take it for what it is. After all, as I said, this city is like no other place I have ever been (although I suppose I haven't been too many places).
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Cairo 3
Consensus about Cairo seems to be a love-hate relationship. So far, there is nothing about Cairo that I love. I do however hate being hassled on the street by cab drivers and little kids who want food or money. I hate the pollution, getting ripped off, the stares I get mostly for being an American, the trash on the streets, not being able to go most places without a male, the unfortunately small size of the Sphinx, not being able to show my skin and not being able to drink the water.
I reached my ultimate low point Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday night I got sick from whatever I ate or drank (or just a combination of the water and my body not being used to eating what I’m eating, etc.). Wednesday I had to leave my Survival Arabic class early because I felt so sick. When I got in the cab, I had the sudden realization that I could not communicate with anyone here, I didn’t understand why things work the way they do, I don’t look like everyone else, I don’t walk like everyone else, I don’t feel any connection to the call to prayer that I can hear from my apartment numerous times a day. I came back to my apartment and just cried. After taking some medicine, I felt better, enough to meet up with some people, but by the time I got back, I was sick again and got only worse the next day because of side affects from medications including stomach ache, heaviness in my entire body and, my favorite, nose bleed. I slept it off and feel much better now. That doesn’t mean I can communicate any better or understand why anything works the way it does in this country.
To distract ourselves from the craziness of this city, we decided that touristy activity was probably our best bet. We walked around a bit of Coptic Cairo, saw some nice Churches and took a felucca ride. Feluccas are little boats that go up and down the Nile and are pretty nice assuming you don’t completely overpay the driver, which we did. Today we did the pyramids. Some friends have told me that they are disappointing, but I would have to disagree. The pyramids themselves are massive and it is unbelievable not only that they had the technology to build them however many thousands of years ago, but that they are still standing. The sphinx is a huge disappointment. According to Lonely Planet, it has cancer. For an unknown reason, it is being I guess eaten from the inside and is slowly deteriorating. It is also very small, relatively speaking. Men who wanted you to pay them to ride their camels or horses or buy whatever they were selling would follow and harass you even when you kept walking and continued to ignore them. This more than anything else drove me crazy. From what I’ve heard, the best way to do the pyramids is on horse. I plan to go back, ride a horse, go in a pyramid and even stay for sunset.
Restaurant behavior is something I have either taken a liking to or have begun to hate. More than anything, I think I just find it funny. Fast Food restaurants are high class. McDonalds and Pizza Hut seat you, take your order and are big hot spots for birthdays. No matter where you are, restaurant owners or workers insist that you sit down and the check never comes quickly. The only reasoning I can see behind this is a cultural one. For example, when going into an Arab home, it would be rude not to sit and enjoy yourself. People don’t rush with food or drink here like they do in America. There is no reason it would or should be any different in restaurants.
Drinking is legal but no less expensive than in the states. In fact, drinking is so legal that they even deliver it to your house and bars are pretty common. I was very surprised by this considering it is a Muslim country. In so many other ways, religion is so apparent. Drugs on the other hand, as we have also read in Lonely Planet, are very illegal. Penalty can be execution by hanging and we are not exempt. This is something that has been in practice for the last fifteen years. If you’re looking for some great pot, I’d say Cairo’s not the best place to come, though I’m sure it does exist in large quantities.
Things in this country still don’t make any sense to me and probably never will. I think I have to accept the fact that they don’t need to. I will never understand the logic of walking in the street when there are perfectly fine and completely clear sidewalks nor will I ever understand the logic of having traffic lights or lanes if you’re not going to use them. There’s also no use in trying to get me to buy things from you or take your cab or go into your restaurant because when you chase after me, I just want to go less. So just stop asking and get the idea when I ignore you and walk away from you. It’s really quite simple. And not only that, if you had set prices for cabs, no one would have to worry about the money. I still have a very long time to ponder all of this.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Cairo 2
We have two guides here in Cairo --- one for everything practical and one for hang out spots, shall we say. The practical works like this: we needed an apartment so we got in a cab and went to the other side of the Nile to an area called Doqqi where we wanted to live. Rather than getting a landlord (although they do have the equivalent here called a simsar), you ask someone in the street if there is anyone (probably a bawaab, or doorman) who can help you find an apartment. The bawaab will then take you to a few apartments that he knows of and if you choose to take one that he shows you, he makes a profit, if not, ma'a salaama. Problem with this scenario, if you don't speak Arabic, you're screwed. If you don't know how this works, best of luck finding an apartment. Luckily, we have someone who is not only an amazing person, but speaks great Arabic and knows how the city works. We found a very cute apartment in Doqqi. It is on the 8th floor of building with a Nile view from both the sitting area and my bedroom. It's a bit noisy because it is right off the main street, but for its location, it is fairly quiet. It is about two blocks from a grocery store and only a few mintues walk to the metro which we will be taking to school.
Overall, from what I've experienced, Cairo is a hard city. No one is in a rush to get anything done. Things are very slow and people are not fast paced. Sometimes I love that attitude and sometimes it can be unbelievably frustrating. They walk slowly (and through moving traffic --- something I'm getting better at by the day), the machine to make student ID cards at AUC broke and they aren't getting a new one until April, we were told to show up at one place and were then walked to two different buildings and probably four rooms before finding the actual room, etc. People work until they have enough money. It's not like the US where people work and just want more money. Men walk arm and arm (a fad Naamah and I want to bring back to the states). Because there are so many cars and people here, cars a lot of times double-park on the streets, and people leave their cars in neutral so that the person they double-parked in can push the car and get out. There is less of what we would consider structure, but things seem to work out and get done. Everything is relative.
As Naamah said, being here as Americans (especially at the American University) is colonialism at its best. AUC is in the middle of downtown but has huge cement walls surrounding every building and inside of the cement walls are very green, grassy areas, benches and chairs as well as all the classrooms you need to be at to get to class. Guards are constantly surrounding the building and check you every time you go in, but it's a little bit of a joke. We are pretty convinced that the metal detectors don't actually work and they didn't even unzip my bag once when checking it. Embassies are scattered all around the city and look like huge mansions surrounded by pretty crappy looking apartments. It's the remains of colonialists laughing in the face of Egyptians.
About 80% of the women are veiled which is a little weird to me. Sometimes I think if I wore something on my head I would stick out less, but I don't think that's true at all. I think I tell myself that to make myself feel better. You hear the calls to prayer which I really enjoy. Religion is not as apparent in some ways as I would have thought though. You can buy alcohol almost everywhere and everyone smokes. At the same time, I won't walk by myself and I pretty much cover up completely when I go outside. And then there's other small things...like when I learned, don't go outside with wet hair. Showering is mandatory and ritual in Islam after a specific act...so for a woman to go outside with wet hair, well, you know...A lot of men (every so often you see a woman) walk around with this spot of dirt on their forehead. It took me until today to ask what it is and even then, I only asked an American who didn't know. But someone did give me a very interesting guess today, that being, it is from bowing down and putting your head down during prayer. Something I never would have thought of.
The hang-out spots are like this: Egyptian food, downtown and markets. One of the main Egyptian foods is called koshri. It is basically a mixture of pasta, little noodles (I haven't quite figured out what they are yet), lentils, rice, hot sauce and maybe some burnt onions. The key drink is mango juice. Both of these are delicious. In Egyptian restaraunts, they take your order, you pay them and then they bring you your food. I discovered downtown for the first time today. I had this low point last night of me sitting on the couch, not wanting to make friends, falling asleep with a book open on my lap and waiting an hour and a half for bad, overpriced Indian food to be delivered while hating Cairo. Then I saw downtown and realized there so much more to the city than I'd thought and so much more to find. We also went for the first time to a market. It is in some ways like nothing I have ever experienced. My favorite lines from being there are "I'm already married, all I want is your money," and "For you I kill my wife." Sitting down, one of my favorite things included the woman who came by, dropped peanuts on the table, walked away, came back realizing we weren't going to eat them and therefore not give her money, so she took them back.
The weather here relative to, oh, let's just say Michigan, is beautiful. I have been taking a "survival Egyptian Arabic" class which thus far has been helpful but also extremely overwhelming and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to learn all those words and remember the ones from Modern Standard. I have not yet done the Pyramids or any other very touristy things but I do plan on doing them before Monday. I do believe that I got my first illness from Egyptian food today although it is not nearly as bad as it could be. I hope to soon begin to adjust to everything and feel more at home. During my better hours, I do believe that it will eventually come.
Overall, from what I've experienced, Cairo is a hard city. No one is in a rush to get anything done. Things are very slow and people are not fast paced. Sometimes I love that attitude and sometimes it can be unbelievably frustrating. They walk slowly (and through moving traffic --- something I'm getting better at by the day), the machine to make student ID cards at AUC broke and they aren't getting a new one until April, we were told to show up at one place and were then walked to two different buildings and probably four rooms before finding the actual room, etc. People work until they have enough money. It's not like the US where people work and just want more money. Men walk arm and arm (a fad Naamah and I want to bring back to the states). Because there are so many cars and people here, cars a lot of times double-park on the streets, and people leave their cars in neutral so that the person they double-parked in can push the car and get out. There is less of what we would consider structure, but things seem to work out and get done. Everything is relative.
As Naamah said, being here as Americans (especially at the American University) is colonialism at its best. AUC is in the middle of downtown but has huge cement walls surrounding every building and inside of the cement walls are very green, grassy areas, benches and chairs as well as all the classrooms you need to be at to get to class. Guards are constantly surrounding the building and check you every time you go in, but it's a little bit of a joke. We are pretty convinced that the metal detectors don't actually work and they didn't even unzip my bag once when checking it. Embassies are scattered all around the city and look like huge mansions surrounded by pretty crappy looking apartments. It's the remains of colonialists laughing in the face of Egyptians.
About 80% of the women are veiled which is a little weird to me. Sometimes I think if I wore something on my head I would stick out less, but I don't think that's true at all. I think I tell myself that to make myself feel better. You hear the calls to prayer which I really enjoy. Religion is not as apparent in some ways as I would have thought though. You can buy alcohol almost everywhere and everyone smokes. At the same time, I won't walk by myself and I pretty much cover up completely when I go outside. And then there's other small things...like when I learned, don't go outside with wet hair. Showering is mandatory and ritual in Islam after a specific act...so for a woman to go outside with wet hair, well, you know...A lot of men (every so often you see a woman) walk around with this spot of dirt on their forehead. It took me until today to ask what it is and even then, I only asked an American who didn't know. But someone did give me a very interesting guess today, that being, it is from bowing down and putting your head down during prayer. Something I never would have thought of.
The hang-out spots are like this: Egyptian food, downtown and markets. One of the main Egyptian foods is called koshri. It is basically a mixture of pasta, little noodles (I haven't quite figured out what they are yet), lentils, rice, hot sauce and maybe some burnt onions. The key drink is mango juice. Both of these are delicious. In Egyptian restaraunts, they take your order, you pay them and then they bring you your food. I discovered downtown for the first time today. I had this low point last night of me sitting on the couch, not wanting to make friends, falling asleep with a book open on my lap and waiting an hour and a half for bad, overpriced Indian food to be delivered while hating Cairo. Then I saw downtown and realized there so much more to the city than I'd thought and so much more to find. We also went for the first time to a market. It is in some ways like nothing I have ever experienced. My favorite lines from being there are "I'm already married, all I want is your money," and "For you I kill my wife." Sitting down, one of my favorite things included the woman who came by, dropped peanuts on the table, walked away, came back realizing we weren't going to eat them and therefore not give her money, so she took them back.
The weather here relative to, oh, let's just say Michigan, is beautiful. I have been taking a "survival Egyptian Arabic" class which thus far has been helpful but also extremely overwhelming and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to learn all those words and remember the ones from Modern Standard. I have not yet done the Pyramids or any other very touristy things but I do plan on doing them before Monday. I do believe that I got my first illness from Egyptian food today although it is not nearly as bad as it could be. I hope to soon begin to adjust to everything and feel more at home. During my better hours, I do believe that it will eventually come.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Cairo 1
One thing I was told before I left for Cairo was that five cars will fit into three lanes. It wasn't a joke. There are lane lines drawn but cars do not drive in them. There are traffic lights but cars seem to not care. Police stand on major street corners and have to stop cars so people going the other direction can drive. Somehow though, cars seem to be organized in their own way and people get where they need to be. For Egyptians, crossing the street is like, you know, taking a stroll. For us, Americans, it is like trying to get through a war zone alive. At one point, a soldier had to cross the street to where we were standing and walk us to the other side. Or there was the man who walked across the street through moving traffic with no problem and turned around while we were still standing on the other side of the street and laughed at us. Or the time I literally had to have my hand held to get across the street. Every so often you will see a crosswalk at the intersections where the police are stopping the cars.
Looking across the Nile, dust and smog leave an unclear view of the high rises. When the wind blows, so does the dirt. You can not only see it blowing around but you can feel it in your eyes and mouth. Breathing seems to be quite difficult and when walking around streets crowded with cars, the air you breathe is even worse. Between the dirt under my finger nails and the way my hair feels, I pretty much constantly feel filthy. Something online said that being in Cairo is like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. This is not a joke.
To avoid harassment, the best advice I've been given (aside from dressing conservatively) is to avoid making eye contact. The only way I've found I can do this is by looking down when I'm walking. The problem I have with looking down is that I miss everything around me. From tomorrow on, I am going to try to wear my big Lindsay Lohan sunglasses for two purposes: to avoid getting excessive dust in my eyes and to be able to look around and avoid making eye contact at the same time. Harassment does happen although I have found that it is not as excessive as I would have thought. Thus far, the phrase of the trip has been (with a very Egyptian accent), "Ya, Arabic. You look Egyptian." More than anything though, it's just the looks and smiles you get from men. Other than that, if a man starts talking to you, keep walking. It's pretty much common sense.
I am staying in an apartment right now in an area of Cairo right now called Garden City. Garden City (also called "Garden City" in Arabic) was built by the British. Supposedly, the roads were built in a very winding manner as to confuse the "locals." Unfortunately for me and my horrible sense of direction, I can pretty much guarantee you that it confuses me more than the locals. The area is filled with all sorts of embassies...the most memorable being the American and British blocked off by cement walls, road blocks, etc. for safety purposes, especially since 9/11.
I suppose I have discovered one of the best restaraunts in Cairo having been taken there both last night and tonight for dinner by two different people. It is in fact, quite good Middle Eastern food but more upscale and more Westernized. I am thus far very scared of both the food and water because although it is pretty much unavoidable, I have no desire to get sick. Sadly, that means eating in local places, etc., is out of the question for now. Other than eating in the same restaurant twice, I have pretty much only apartment-shopped, gotten my cell phone situation completely worked out and walked around trying to discover a bit of the city. I think that eventually, if I can orient myself based on the location of the Nile, I will be able to find my way around the city (so long as it is not Garden City). Eventually, I also hope to be able to cross the street and speak great Arabic.
Looking across the Nile, dust and smog leave an unclear view of the high rises. When the wind blows, so does the dirt. You can not only see it blowing around but you can feel it in your eyes and mouth. Breathing seems to be quite difficult and when walking around streets crowded with cars, the air you breathe is even worse. Between the dirt under my finger nails and the way my hair feels, I pretty much constantly feel filthy. Something online said that being in Cairo is like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. This is not a joke.
To avoid harassment, the best advice I've been given (aside from dressing conservatively) is to avoid making eye contact. The only way I've found I can do this is by looking down when I'm walking. The problem I have with looking down is that I miss everything around me. From tomorrow on, I am going to try to wear my big Lindsay Lohan sunglasses for two purposes: to avoid getting excessive dust in my eyes and to be able to look around and avoid making eye contact at the same time. Harassment does happen although I have found that it is not as excessive as I would have thought. Thus far, the phrase of the trip has been (with a very Egyptian accent), "Ya, Arabic. You look Egyptian." More than anything though, it's just the looks and smiles you get from men. Other than that, if a man starts talking to you, keep walking. It's pretty much common sense.
I am staying in an apartment right now in an area of Cairo right now called Garden City. Garden City (also called "Garden City" in Arabic) was built by the British. Supposedly, the roads were built in a very winding manner as to confuse the "locals." Unfortunately for me and my horrible sense of direction, I can pretty much guarantee you that it confuses me more than the locals. The area is filled with all sorts of embassies...the most memorable being the American and British blocked off by cement walls, road blocks, etc. for safety purposes, especially since 9/11.
I suppose I have discovered one of the best restaraunts in Cairo having been taken there both last night and tonight for dinner by two different people. It is in fact, quite good Middle Eastern food but more upscale and more Westernized. I am thus far very scared of both the food and water because although it is pretty much unavoidable, I have no desire to get sick. Sadly, that means eating in local places, etc., is out of the question for now. Other than eating in the same restaurant twice, I have pretty much only apartment-shopped, gotten my cell phone situation completely worked out and walked around trying to discover a bit of the city. I think that eventually, if I can orient myself based on the location of the Nile, I will be able to find my way around the city (so long as it is not Garden City). Eventually, I also hope to be able to cross the street and speak great Arabic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)