Everyone loves Mubarak and Helen pretending it is fall

The Days of Salem and Al-Jazeera

A day of being sick means playing lots of Solitaire on the ipod and thinking about what I want to write about in the blog ; ) So many things! One of my biggest goals for the blog has always been the grand and idealistic hope that we can learn more about this region and re-examine some of the prevalent stereotypes of the Middle East and Middle Eastern Policy, or at least think more critically, for I find that even in things I have studied I'm at such a loss to explain them. Who knows if I will accomplish anything that I aim for, but I do hope to both share the things I love and feel are misrepresented as well as not be afraid to analyze and criticize some of the negative things that I see around me in Egypt. Don't worry- there is definately some silly "Helenness" in the first paragraph to look forward to, it isn't all heavy I promise!

Last night our Egyptian friend, Aie, (sounds like A-ya) with whom Jayanthi and I are exchanging Arabic-English time with, came over with her friend Shayma and Shayma's brother Mohammed, and we were talking about everything from what our favorite names were to the weekend's plans and so forth. I had fun explaining my recent obsession with the girl's name Providence, saying things like "My name is very old and was popular during the time of my great-grandmother, but Providence was popular in the time of her great-grandmother in the 1800s. It means something like "In Sha Allah (God Willing)." I think I read too much Anne of Green Gables and Puritan literature when I was a kid. Pretty soon I'll be wanting kids named Chastity and Prudence. : ) Maybe I'm a Biblical hippie? I mean, if you think about it, Tree and Sun and Rain are value-laden names just as much as Faith and Hope, etc. But enought about that! Towards the end of our name conversation Aie asked why the United States supported Israel, and what Americans thought about Egyptians and/or Middle Easterners. Talk about some tough questions! Jayanthi and I tried to explain the historical relationship between Britain and the United States and American uproar over neglect of the Jews during the beginning of the Holocaust, and how the government considered them an important ally in the region, along with other things we could say in simple English, but it came out sounding all wrong. Jayanthi and I were both a little puzzled as to how to explain something that we don't particularly agree with or understand completely, but that could at least be a start to helping Aie understand at least a little bit more about the complex relationship. It's certainly embarrasing that most Americans, certainly including myself, have so little understanding of the affects of our policies and even the reasoning behind them.

The question about Egyptians and Middle Easterners was pretty tricky as well because it involves admitting that most people associate Egypt with Pharonic culture and lump everyone in the Middle East together. It takes an entire class on Orientalism to begin to explain the average American outlook on the Middle East! A little bit of Aladdin with some terrorists and veiled women thrown in standing in front of the pyramid? I know I'm being cheeky and exaggerating a little, and everyone I know who is reading this is much too educated and wonderful to think such things, but it is out there.


Another question they brought up was talking about how much the mass media influences their understanding of America, and how does the mass media affect American understanding of the Middle East? We didn't get time to talk about this, but Jayanthi made a quip to me later about people thinking Al Jazeera and Al Qaeda were the same thing because we always hear about Al Jazeera showing the lastest beheading video or address by Osama. I have to say that as far as news coverage goes in the Middle East, Al Jazeera is pretty wonderful. It's international coverage could only be rivaled by the BBC, and it is the most-independent news source in the Middle East ( it does have connections with Qatar that I don't exactly understand) . They take pride in being hated by both conservative Arabs and the US, claiming they must be doing "something right." While it is certainly true that they are not always objective in covering US stories, I would have to say that any anti-US bias is at least equaled by anti-Middle Eastern bias on American channels. They have also changed a lot of their rhetoric that brought them under fire in the past few years, particularly from the US, for example, they used to refer to the US forces in Iraq as the "occupying force" but now call them the U.S. army. It hasn't completely changed, but I feel like it has lessened. It's a shame that I know far more about what is happening in the world, in U.S. policy in the states and in Iraq from watching Al-Jazeera than from watching CNN or Fox or hours of people yelling at each other pretending to 'debate.' Uh oh Helen, you're beginning to sound a little hostile! When it comes down to it, all news media, whether in the United States or abroad, is biased, more interested in ratings than getting both sides of the story out, and increasingly turning to quick segments over more in-depth analysis. That being said, I really look forward to the English Al-Jazeera that is being planned for 2006, because they do a lot of thought-provoking segments on issues around the world and don't hesitate to fire up people in the Middle East or in America, all the while providing some really good Middle Eastern and international coverage. Anything is better than news that shows nothing but interviews or appearances of Mubarak! I will admit that my ability to understand Arabic puts some obvious caveats to what I've said, particularly regarding the linguistic subtleties of bias, but I definately think Al-Jazeera's reputation in America is not an accurate reflection.

P.S. My mommy has tickets to come visit me!!! She will definately have to "guest blog." I've got to start making a list of things for her to bring... Hugs and Triscuits are at the top : ) Daylight Savings Time for me tonight- I don't understand the whole energy bill/DST changing in the US, but for awhile we'll be only 6 hours apart. (Insert your appreciation for me not saying anything else about the energy bill : ) I'm in a feisty mood tonight from being cooped up all day! : ) )

I love you all and thank you for putting up with my rambling and commentary that you certainly don't have to agree with. I think I'm going to go do a search for the popularity of Providence and let my mind wander to "The Crucible."

I still care more about leaves than Sadat

Last night I dreamt about waking up to ice on the ground outside (in Charlotte) with my family and Granny inside the house, and two nights ago I woke up suddenly thinking that I was hearing pouring rain outside. Three nights ago Jayanthi and I put on some of our few fall clothes and scarves while we lamented the absence of fall weather. I think I have a problem : )

If you have an excess of good fall weather, you've got my address!

Dorky Celebrity Sighting # 1

Earlier in the semester my Political Science teacher was going on and on about Patrimonialism in the Middle East and how people care more about their families and/or tribal affiliations than about class structure, etc. etc. One of the famous families of Egypt that she described at length in class was the Marei family, whose members have been heads of lots of different important ministries, etc. After the group projects began, Jayanthi confided in me that there was someone with the last name Marei in her group, and we were giggly about having someone 'with connections' in our class. Today, however, we learned that this guy has much more than we had expected, because it turns out he is actually the product of a marriage between the Marei family and another extremely prominent political family that many of you will be familiar with. After a debate on Nasser vs. Sadat today my teacher asked a question and then said something to the effect of "well, I guess you haven't known your grandad in a while... or at all..." going on to reveal that ...

ANWAR SADAT'S GRANDSON IS IN MY CLASS! This is bigger than having a Bush grandkid or a Clinton grandkid... this is Sadat's grandkid! Sadat was assasinated. Sadat signed the peace treaty with Israel. Sadat was... well, Sadat! Pretty incredible. This feels so strange. I think my excitement will probably be singularly held, but my old history teacher told me that Sadat was pretty famous internationally, often times loved more by Americans or other foreigners than Egyptians themselves.

Mubarak is old!

Adapted transcript from my meeting with Tiffany, my co-teacher for teaching English to Refugees, deciding how to structure our first class


Blah blah blah... What are we going to do..... I'm nervous.... blah blah .... getting sidetracked.... previous Arabic experience.... Morocco....

T: "Oh, you were in Morocco? ALIF?"
H: "Yeah! You did it too?"
T: "Yep. Did you stay with a family?"
H: "Yes, did you?"
R: "Yeah. Where did you live?"
H: "Batha"
T:" Ha, I lived in Batha, too. Which family?"
H: "Alami Hassan"
T: "6 kids, two crazy little girls?"
H: " No way! You stayed with my family!"
T: "No way, you stayed with my family! Omar, Si Mohammed, they were my favorites"
H: "My favorites, too!"

Ahh the world is so small. I hadn't known Tiffany in any capacity before, but somehow our fates aligned and I happened to mention Morocco (I try not to be too obnoxious about mentioning it and doing the whole Morocco vs. Egypt thing... but it does come up) and lo! and behold! I met someone who had stayed with the EXACT SAME FAMILY as I did. Pretty incredible. Some of the taxi cabs play annoying songs when their doors open, and the most common one is "It's a Small World After All." I guess the next time I hear it I'll just shake my head and smile. We live in a crazy world.


I'll write more later, especially about my crazy first night of teaching English. It isn't so exciting to relate as it was to live it, but it was a whirlwind. Oh, and I got a cellphone! Finally! Turns out I should have just kept my Moroccan phone instead of giving it away and then I could have just changed out the SIM card. Oh well, at least my cell phone isn't only in French and Arabic- I've got an English one! woo hoo. I did cringe when I read my "Welcome to Vodaphone, the largest communication corporation in the world" packet. I'm part of the largest communication corporation in the world!

How did I get back to the U.S.S.R ?.

In my Middle Eastern Comparative Politics class we were assigned to do a group project and presentation for 20% of our grade in small groups of 4-6. Apart from the teacher's inability to organize things or provide adequate information, I finally landed in a group that seemed perfect. We had been instructed that all groups must have Egyptian and American students in it, and I was lucky to get two wonderful, nice, and extremely motivated Egyptian girls, Nora and Soraya, and Ford, a 3rd year at Tufts from Charleston, SC (I swear I become more Southern every day- I was so excited about our shared "southerness" even though he's studying up north) .

The major issue facing every group was deciding on a topic. The broad categories were things like Gaza, Iraq, post-colonial Egypt, etc. Not very instructive for finding something that can properly be analyzed in 5 pages and a 15 minute presentation. My group was going to do something on the Egyptian elections and the teacher assistant suggested that we look at Tunisia, who had recently had their first multi-party election in Oct. 2004 and faced similar circumstances, like having the same leader since the 1980s, a mostly secular government, and so forth. When the four of us met today, we faced many more problems than I had expected. I was amused after the meeting because beforehand I was talking to Soraya, and learning about her years spent in London, time in the US, German high-school education, and thinking that we would probably work really well together on the project because our education seemed pretty compatible, apart from the fact that she had a much more European focus.

I should preface this next part by saying that I still feel good about our group and think we'll all work out our differences, but what I think I learned about all four of us in our meeting was much more about how we had been taught to research than about anything that separated us culturally, for these girls had had very westernized education and lived all over the place. Ford and I immediately latched on to the Tunisia-Egypt paper because we thought they had enough in common on a surface level that we could get really analytical with a particular aspect of the electoral process, such as political participation or opposition party access or transparency, etc. The girls hated the topic and were suggesting things like "Does Democracy work in the Middle East" or "Is there a possibility for a Middle Eastern Union" or "US inolvement in Egypt." All of which would be very fascinating, but we had some difficulties talking about the aspects of a five page paper that make this extremely difficult. They both said they knew all about Egypt and were fine with it, and one of the girls has a lot of knowledge about Iran, so she wanted to do that, but that Tunisia was a complete stranger to them.

I really don't mean to demean their suggestions or imply that Ford and I knew what we should do and they didn't, because their excitement and desire to do something really important and thoroughly was really obvious, while Ford and I were unfortunately clearly less passionate. Their knowledge of the Middle East will definately be essential for our paper and presentation and I know we'll be much better off because of it. (Their idealism when talking about the Egyptian elections and movement toward democracy was refreshing compared to the cynicism Ford and I shared about what it meant). I think what was really fundamentally different about our approaches was that both Ford and I were looking for what could be analyzed well in a 5 page paper, thinking more about the logistics than about interest, and they were focusing first on big ideas that excite them. I guess I'm about to contradict the point I thought I would originally make, because the more I think about this the more I think that I could have the exact same differences in groups in America ( group projects are in general frustrating) and think nothing of it, but now that I'm here I start to wonder about things like educational psychology and the methodology for how we were taught, and whether or not the other groups will face similar problems or if other differences will appear. Leave it to me to be more interested in the sociology behind the group projects than the actual project itself! I think I'm going to be asking people questions about this.

It was also interesting to note how both of the girls were really interested in studying the US's affect on the elections or other aspects, while I felt a little "ihh" on the subject. Oh we self-centered Americans- we just take for granted that we have tremendous affects on other countries without really being concerned about it. I remember talking to my friend Anna about her experience in Mexico this summer and her sharing that the Mexicans (at least the ones she was working with on the border) were so concerned with all of America's policies because they had such an enormous effect. As Egypt is at least the #2 (maybe now #1) recipient of U.S. foreign aid, they clearly also feel pretty immediately the strength of American policy. I guess we are one of the few countries of the world that can largely ignore how other nations exert influence over us and what that means about our sovereignty or future, etc. The Cold War and growing interest in China come the closest, I suppose, to us really noticing and evaluating what each move by the other will mean for us. Any thoughts? Anyone studying foreign educational methodology or globalization or national identity want to chime in? : ) I know I have lots of readers who were around during the Cold War, this baby didn't even know that the wall was falling when it fell. Maybe some of you could share about the thoughts and attitudes you had or observed regarding the influence of the Soviet Union.


Well, that was a sprawling entry, wasn't it? Feel free to comment- I really would like there to be more interaction and discussion- I often feel like I'm just as bad at sharing or explaining how Americans view the Middle East as how Middle Easterners view America because I haven't been around for so many of the events that have really shaped American attitudes.

Just because I've gotten all philosophical I have to ask one more question, just to put it out there. I would like to know, after having read The Autobiography of Malcom X (incredible book, by the way, particularly inspiring for the ability for the heart and mind to change ) how the movement known as Nation of Islam helped shape contemporary American opinion of global Islam. I should do some more research on this.

That was so long! Sorry!

The Death March!

Why is Cairo awesome you ask? I'll tell you.

Yesterday I was walking to get pictures taken for some IDs at the Mogamma building, where all sorts of mysterious judgements and courts and trickery take place in a huge building donated by the Soviets that is a fine example of neo-bomb shelter architecture. As I am approaching this massive and daunting building, I hear the sounds that are only too familiar to my ears: The Star Wars "Death March." ( you know the dum dum dum dum da dum dum da dum). I look around me and people are all hurrying over to where the sound is coming from, and I, like a good want-to-be-Cairene, join them. We're held back from the railing of the street by an officer, but we still have a pretty good view of the festivities. After a few minutes a military corp comes marching, stiff legs thrown out, and the death march gets louder and louder. I have to admit that there were slight variations to the theme, which did in fact render the band's song as something other than the famous Star Wars theme, but it sounded so similar. * (Footnote for VH1 followers) Following these erect soldiers are the army band members, and following them are three men carrying big flower arrangements with banners on them, the type you often see in Catholic processions (maybe just funeral processions in general). After these came a truck with a coffin on top draped in a white sheet with red official-looking emblems. At this moment all the men around me started blessing him, to me it was a chorus of "Allah...... Allah..... Allah....." Following the truck are tons of security men looking all snazzy in their sunglasses and suits and walkie talkies, and then it's over. A man looked at me, shrugged, and said "We can go now." I found out later it was some 83 year old ex-minister who had died, but for me it was more than an ex-minister's death; it was quite an experience.

* The differences in the song were much like the differences Vanilla Ice claimed for "Ice, Ice, Baby" in comparison to "Under Pressure" in his oft-shown bit on VH1.

The actual pictures

Ok. These pictures aren't the ones I thought were going up, and neither are they arranged how I want them to be, but this is a learning process. Picture out of our balcony of boys and a car, camels in El Gouna, and a Yes, Mubarak! poster in our neighborhood. (All photos taken by Jayanthi)

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of Coptic Churches, my apartment, uh, a Mubarak election sign taken by Jayanthi, and women on the steps of a Coptic Church.

Stalking Helen, Pt. One

Request line! Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by all of this and yet get used to it at the same time so I forget about obvious things that people might be interested in. If you have questions/concerns/querulous criticisms I would love to hear them! I'll start with my schedule, which isn't too exciting, but a request all the same : )

I have class Sunday through Thursday, which is still difficult to remember, and weekends on Friday (Muslim holy day) and Saturday.

SMTW: 8:00 Arabic for two or three hours. My class has 12 people and isn't moving very quickly, but I am already much better at some basic things, like verb conjugation. Arabic has different verbs for two females, two men, a group of females, a group of men, you two females, you two males, and you group of females and you group of men. Add that to your basic list of he/she/I conjugation and it gets complicated. Most of the dialects don't use this many, which is nice, but also makes it harder to learn them all.

STR: 11:00- 11:50 Modern Arabic Literature in Translation. Right now we are studying the historical periods of poetry and literature to prepare ourselves for modernity. My favorite lesson was the one in which I discovered that Arabs invented rap. It's true! (You can skip ahead if Umayyad poetry doesn't sound so exciting : ) )

The crash course:

The Umayyads were members of the Quresh clan (Mohammed was also one of them) and in the years after Mohmamed's death they thought the leader of the Moslems should be one of their clan. As my professor explains, they valued tribal values more than religious values and tried to use the ideas of tribalism to bring other Moslems to their side. The Umayyads had several different kinds of poetry- Political, Love Poetry, and Hija (Satire). They used satire to continue the competition among the tribes, and poets would criticize each other and each others' tribes using the same meter and rhyme in various competitions. Therefore, if you use a little bit of imagination, you can envision the "battles," if you will.


MW: 12:00- 1:20 Comparative Politics in the Middle East. It's ok. I'm so glad I took Middle Eastern History classes or else I wouldn't be able to follow the references to 1967, 1952, 1956, Nasser, etc. etc.

W: 4:30- 7:00 Introduction to Forced Migration ( Refugee stuff) I love this class so much. I'll need a whole entry to talk about it. I'm also trying to get Jayanthi to guest-blog on her time with some Sudanese refugees last night that she will be teaching English. Pretty incredible.


I'll comment on my activities (?) later- these are still developing.

I know what I'm making on Thanksgiving

Where to start!

Today Jayanthi and I went to go fabric shopping in one of the open air markets in Cairo because she had some really nice clothes made this summer and after taking a trip to CityStars, the largest mall in Egypt and soon to be the largest "mall complex" in the Middle East, I knew I had to give up on modern Egyptian fashion ever coming close to fulfilling my needs for a few more long sleeve shirts and a nice skirt. Polyester, fluorescent pink,orange,green and tacky embroidery and designs frighten me. Shopping in the open air markets is much more my style. I remember being in the Khan el-Khalili (the famous one) at the beginning of my trip and realizing that I felt comfortable and not at all overwhelmed, a shocking and pretty cool feeling, considering when you are in the markets you are surrounded by men and women and children of all ages pushing you this way and that, called to come into every store you walk by, trying to evade the puddles of waste and dirt, donkeys pulling carts of their wares, large stoves with cooking sweet potatoes or corn, and the immensity of items for sale towering over you. Every few feet you have options on where to turn, which makes you question your ability to get out, and you meet people selling scarves named Gergis (George) who tell you that they are upset with you when they see you an hour later after you have tried to bargain and didn't reach a deal. : )
Gergis was our first indication that we were in an area full of Copts. It was really neat to walk into several different shops and see huge tapestries of the Virgin Mary or various other icons or crucifixes. It seems to be a much different environment for Christians than in Morocco, where it was risky to acknowledge your religion, whereas the Copts are very open about their religion (at least from my experience). Most of them have small tattoes on their inner wrist or between their thumb and outer part of the wrist. I have to admit that they look really, really cool. On one of our fabric purchases our guy asked us if we were Christians and I was so taken aback that I could say "yes." I'm so used to answering "Are you a Muslim" from Morocco ( I think most Egyptians assume that I'm not). I asked him if there were any special things that Christians say to each other for 'hello' and he and his co-worker said not really, and that they said "Assalamu- alaikum" sometimes, too, after which the man said it to me and put his hand out. This small conversation was pretty monumental for me because it was the first one I've had since I've been in Egypt. That seems extreme, but I have found it much more difficult to have conversation with Egyptians than in Morocco. Socially it is even more restricted for women to speak with men, and women don't really strike up conversation with anyone they don't know. I had thought that Egypt would be more 'liberal' in this way than Morocco, but I haven't found this to be the case, though there are all kinds of niches that are, especially in the heavily foreign areas. As one kind of indicator, I rarely see any women who are not wearing the hijab ( the head scarf) and more traditional clothes (except of course at the University, where most are far more Westernized than I am). As a possible related note, I have to say that the warnings that I would be harrassed by the males much more in Cairo have so far proved unsupported. As long as I avoid looks and can't understand some of the Arabic muttered at me once in a while by guys walking by, I really haven't had anything to worry about. When crossing one of those big traffic circles I had a guy yelling at me "Don't do this to yourself. Please, please, be careful. Oh! Dear, please don't do this," which I had determined would be funny if he only said this while I was dodging cars and did not follow me afterwards. It is still funny.
After we came home from the market I made mashed potatoes with the yam-like root vegetable I got from one of the vegetable guys in our neighborhood. Have I told you how much I LOVE buying my veggies from the vegetable guy, my eggs from the egg guy, and my fruits from the fruit stand. How I wish I could take this and stick it in Athens or wherever else I live.
We've gotten dial-up to work at home now so I'll be able to update more often. I have to go call a friend about church tomorrow (!) and then do some Arabic homework.

A few quick notes:

1) I'll be teaching African refugees English on Tuesday nights from 8:30 -10 pm. This is organized through STAR, Student Action for Refugees, which is going to be awesome. My Introduction to Forced Migration class has been incredible so far- I can't wait to tell you more about it. It is part of why Jayanthi asked me if I was considering applying to the Masters in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies at the AUC and it was one of the first times that I felt there was a viable Masters program out there for me. Not that I expect this to be the only thing in the "What will Helen think about doing" bubble that bothers me fairly often, but it is nice to think there are things out there.
2) I went to the Opera House again last night to see Turkish Whirling Dervishes. I was really excited about it but found the opening Sufi music to be just ok and not nearly as good as other Sufi music I've heard, and Jayanthi and I fell asleep during the performance. I felt really bad, but I guess the week had tired us out more than we thought. Besides, there were only five whirlers wearing white. All the photos I've seen included at least twenty and wearing multiple colors. I guess I am a Whirling Dervish snob.

I know the long ones are not as fun as more frequent and shorter ones, so I'll try to be better about this.

Muah!

Aida!

Wow. I saw my first real, real Opera (bad high school trip to Romeo and Juliet and 3/4 of a rehearsal of Don Giovanni don't count) for approximately $1.50. Not only was this a financial feat (especially for 5th row, center seating) but it was a showing of Aida, which was written for Cairo. Though Verdi's Rigoletto had to open the Cairo Opera House because Aida had not been finished, Aida was specially commisioned. It was pretty wonderful. I expect to take advantage of the Cairo Opera House many times before the end of the semester. The experience also highlighted somewhat of a turning point since arriving in Cairo because I realized that I am beginning to like her. Despite the pollution and crazy traffic and cab driver arguments, my feelings of overwhelming inadequacy and varying frustrations, I have an opportunity to pretend like my future is far away and that I can do anything I want, including seeing operas on a regular basis. My mom really hit it home when she told me something to the effect that I am learning what I am meant to learn, not necessarily what I think I should be learning. I guess it just boils down to expectations and all of that. I can still have goals, and I certainly do, but I have to be ok with not doing everything at once.
I realize how silly this sounds, after all, the opportunity to be here is staggeringly amazing, continuously reinforced by the Hurricane, the anniversary of the Sept. 11th bombings, and reminders from mom that "missing us is a small price to pay for all of this." I guess I just mean that the 'culture shock' cycle that everyone tells you about is very,very real, and that I'm moving into a different point on it. : )
Briefly:

1) Everything seemed very calm on election day- I heard about one peaceful demonstration, but I didn't get to see it. I'll let you know the reports from my Comp Pol class tomorrow.
2) I have 350 channels of Satellite tv- which means bad Turkmenistani music videos, several channels of product sales in German, and Moroccan soap operas, which I can use to say to Jayanthi "see! You can't understand any of it can you! I told you they don't use vowels!" It literally took us an hour to flip through everything, plus the additional minutes of us sitting in awe at said bad Turkmenistani music videos. God TV was also pretty cringe-worthy.
3) We have a third roomate! Her name is Lisa, she is a 23 year old German, and she is working at the Goethe Institute around the corner. Jayanthi and I are very excited that it worked out so well and that we now have a bigger friend network. We went with Lisa and 3 other German girls to Coptic Cairo on Saturday.

I have to run to my Arab literature class, but I will post more later.

Oh Oh Oh Oh Mr. Postman

My name
c/o International Student Services Office
The American University in Cairo
113 Kasr el Aini Street
P.O. Box 2511
11511 Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt

Postcards and mail should take 5-14 days to arrive; all bulky letters or packages must be opened by ze inflated bureaucracy and can take a month or longer to arrive. There are also customs fees that I don't know about... but in response to the staffer advising that moms just wire you the money to buy chocolate chip cookies instead of sending a package of chocolate chip cookies... you must not be thousands of miles away from your mom! They recommend airmail and documenting everything as personal use or other such stuff. Please do not feel pressured to write, your thoughts and prayers are surrounding me all the time; I just wanted to provide the information.


It's a big week here in Cairo. Classes started yesterday (more enumeration after I get my schedule set) and the election is tomorrow. This is the first multi-party Presidential election that has ever taken place in Egypt, and even though Mubarak will more than likely return for his 25th year in office http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4216750.stm , there are still many important changes taking place. Up until this election there has been a yes-no vote for Mubarak every six years, but this year he will be joined by 10 other opposition candidates on the ballot. Kifaya (enough), which has been a well-publicised opposition group outside of Egypt, is not actually very large, but is expected to hold demonstrations outside of our campus tomorrow (the traditional spot for such demonstrations). I will try to take pictures and avoid police confiscation of my camera. Don't worry, I don't plan on getting involved! I hope there is no violence, but earlier in May there was police brutality as well as police inaction while others beat the demonstrators. Hopefully international attention will protect against this, but Egypt is a police state.

I'm a little shamed to admit that on a landmark day in Egypt's history I might be thinking more about a personal landmark... don't worry, I'm not about to get mushy, but I will be giggly and smiley tomorrow thinking about one year of Lars + Helen. So many blessings. Al Hamdu-lillah

Ok. That's enough! Kifaya! I'll report more tomorrow or Thursday on what I could see happening; I'm sure NYTimes and BBCNews and CNN and Fox and everyone else will at least mention it.

"Nice, quiet girl"

After writing a paragraph or two about myself and my family for some additional Arabic placement (Brothers- you are now both very interested in sports, especially soccer, and Emory likes to explore the world while Gregory is excellent at chess : )) I came to the computer lab to tell you a little bit about my apartment and the joys of waking up in a bed that will be mine for four more months.

The apartment-hunting process.

1) You have decided you do not wish to live in the AUC dorm. Maybe it is because you would like more freedom or a kitchen or space away from Americans.... or maybe it is because you aren't fond of things being clean all the time or having good high-speed internet or a garden with fresh air or a shuttle to campus every 15 or so minutes... Regardless, an apartment might be for you.

At most apartments there are several important people. You already know of the landlord and the owner, but the boab is also very important. The boab is essentially the doorman, though he is there at all hours of the day and night (well, this varies) and can be of great assistance providing security and helping with luggage and every matter under the sun and can also know more about your social life than you wish and create many problems. (We happen to have what looks to be an excellent and friendly boab, who I keep having basic communication problems with when I say goodbye before I say Good Morning or become flustered when trying to say Asalamu- alaikum)

When looking for an apartment you can go from place to place asking the boab if there are any spots open and try to get an appointment to see them, etc., or look for fliers announcing openings. Jayanthi tried going door-to-door for one day but found it was a painstaking and difficult process, so we employed a simsar, who is essentially a real-estate agent and takes you to apartments and helps you negotiate the contract in return for about 15 percent of the first month's rent. Our simsar was very nice and professional and had dealt with quite a few Americans (which gave us a particular problem I'll share in a minute) and showed us some ok apartments that were all a bit expensive for us and often very ugly ( I know, I know, this shouldn't matter! If I could only find the words to describe the particular over-the-top and extremely frou-frou style of some Egyptians I think you would understand. IKEA needs to come to Egypt. )

On the day we went to the apartment in which we are now living, we had requested to find a third roomate in order to bring the costs down. He agreed to find us a "nice, quiet girl, like you" to live with us and bring her to that meeting. So here Jayanthi and I are standing in front of "Omar Effendi," an upscale deparment store, waiting for our simsar and the "nice, quiet girl" to arrive when we notice a young foreign guy a few display windows down, and we joke about our simsar bringing us a guy to live with, because, in Egypt, this is an absolute no-no. Women and men do not live together outside of marriage, do not even "date" outside of engagement. (For the most part) There is no way that our simsar, who is Egyptian, would promote this. Our simsar arrives, and to our horror, a German student named Jakob, was brought for consideration to be our roomate. We quickly explain that we could never have expected this, that we find it extremely inappropriate to live with a male, especially in Egypt, particularly one we have never met, that our families would be horrified, that we are horrified, that we do not want Egyptians to automatically discount our respectibility and that we had expected a "nice, quiet girl." It seems that, though as an Egyptian we/he would not have expected it, dealing with scores of Americans and Europeans who are untroubled to live with members of the opposite sex, he acted upon an assumption that was certainly misguided. If that apartment had not been the apartment, I doubt his services would have been required again : )
It was such a bizarre experience, particularly because we are so used to Egyptians having a much different and much stricter idea of the code of conduct for ladies and their interactions with gentlemen. Worlds collide! Sigh. I'm exhausted just thinking about that process! We had difficulties in negotiating when we discovered there was no hot water in the kitchen, something we considered necessary for cleanliness and good hygiene, but something "no one else has asked for" before us and something that will only be included when we find a third roomate and our rent goes up. Trying to sort out the differences of opinion on landlord responsibility were a little overwhelming to me - I needed my Aunt Diane to help sort things out : )

After all of that, Jayanthi and I are just moved in to our 2 bedroom aparment on the bottom floor (i.e. loud floor : ) ) of an apartment building right around the corner from the British Council in Agouza. It is relatively simple, with only a few knickknacks strewn about, and is mostly clean and homey. We are excited to have a place to live, and if you know of a "nice, quiet girl, like us" in Cairo looking for an apartment, send her our way!

I'm soooooo gross

In a nutshell because we just got back and I have to be up for 8 o clocky class.

Thursday:

On-campus orientation
Threw up after lunch
Threw up in the streets of Cairo
Threw up while negotiating our apartment contract
Threw up while waiting for the bus
Threw up on the bus

Finished throwing up and woke up to realize I was in a fancy schmanzy resort with a key to an apartment! Yeah for a home! Yeah for bringing Gatorade- those 'electrolytes' really rehydrate! No more mangoes for awhile.

Friday and Saturday:

More later about the resort set in a privately owned town designed to create the imagined Mediterranean meets Oriental fantasy of the Western European/American tourist. There was bad tango dancing in a "street festival." There were also Scandinavian roomates!!!!!!!!! Hilda times two.

Sunday:

AM- Sorry this is a little bit gross- but I think it is an important symbol- noticed that my boogers had briefly returned to their normal, clear, color instead of Cairo grey/black.
10 pm just got off the bus and am ready for food and then a return to our apartment, where we shall sleep and prepare for our first day of school.

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