Blog like an Egyptian

En fin

2007-03-18T13:42:00.001-07:00

This was my blog from August to December, 2006, during which time I was a study abroad student at The American University in Cairo in Egypt.

Since my program ended YouTube has become popular and I can now embed a video of me in a taxi cab driving through the streets of Cairo. Check it out!

En fin

2007-03-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

This was my blog from August to December, 2006, during which time I was a study abroad student at The American University in Cairo in Egypt.

Since my program ended YouTube has since become popular and I can now embed a video of me in a taxi cab driving through the streets of Cairo. Check it out!

23 Sharia Sherif

2005-12-22T00:08:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed a while back that there was an aborted mission to Sharia Sherif that resulted in Helen music heaven. Well, that saga did not end, and so begins one of my favorite purchases ever.

During our Eritrean cooking lessons we had asked the head woman, Fatima, where we could find this special Eritrean red pepper (shatta). At first she was rather vague, mentioning downtown, and then Sharia Sherif, and finally, acting as one who had begrudgingly been forced to reveal what she secretly wanted to reveal the whole time, she lowered her voice and said quickly, "23 Sharia Sherif." In conjunction with another downtown shopping trip Jayanthi and I made our way to Sharia Sherif and found ourselves finally in front of 23 Sharia Sherif. A stationary store. I walk in and ask, thinking that maybe they have an Eritrean working there informally, but the woman at the desk looks at me like I'm crazy when I ask for Eritrean shatta instead of a 24 pack of envelopes. Even I'm feeling a little bit shady, thinking that "Eritrean shatta" sounds like the best codeword for drugs I've ever heard, but when we ask a man on the corner selling doo dads and sweaters on a table, he immediately points us down an alley, tells us to turn left and to go to the first floor. Of course I don't expect anything bad to happen to me, but I am glad to have Jayanthi with me so that I don't think that I'm crazy. We enter the apartment building, go to the first floor, and walk to the end, wondering if we are meant to just knock on a certain door. At the end of the hall we can see to our left an open door revealing a room with a few men sitting, and luckily one of them notices our bewieldered expression and comes to our assistance. We ask him about the shatta, and he simply nods and leads us into the kitchen, asking us to sit down. He reaches into the cupboard and brings out a plastic bag with a KILO (2.2 pounds : ) ) of shatta. We ask if he has anything smaller, he says no, we say how much, he says 35 pounds, we pay, we leave, and the exchange has just been completed. No small talk, no questions about how we knew he was here, no questions about Eritrea, just a transaction.

So I now have a 1/2 kilo of Eritrean shatta and a story. You can't really ask for anything more, can you?

Jayanthi left last night and now it is just me and this, my last day in Cairo. Of course I woke up sick, having all of the extreme and rapid temperature changes finally catch up to me, but lots of tea, a hot shower, my American drugs, and the exhilaration of today will surely do the trick.

Well, he did just move to Bahrain

2005-12-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

Masr lil Masreen! Egypt for the Egyptians!

2005-12-21T08:03:00.000-08:00

Lots of happenings in the world of Helen! The past two blogs have been from Lise and Jayanthi, the former having left two nights ago and Jayanthi to leave tonight, and I tomorrow night/Friday early morning.

I was worried that Lise and Jayanthi leaving would leave me twiddling my thumbs and wishing the going away process was finished, but I've been using up every single minute! I think a quick run down of my day is in order, even if only for me to remember everything!

Today I went to the "Cities of the Dead" in the morning with my friend Brian. There is an area of Cairo where little buildings and tombs have been built for the dead for years and years, but housing crunches and poverty have led nearly 300,000 people to make the cemetaries their home, often without sewage, running water, or electricity, although many of the areas have been built up. It was eerie to walk through these quiet areas with only a few people out and about, surrounded by mostly empty small buildings. I have no pictures because that seemed really inappropriate, but there are probably some on the internet. Afterwards we went to Al-Azhar park, which was absolutely gorgeous and an equally strange Cairene experience because everything was green and flowery and super clean. Apparently a European NGO had a hand in developing the park a few years ago, making sure that all-local labor was and would be hired, and that the proceeds from the entry charge would go into development projects in the neighboring areas. We could see the new housing projects begun by the park's money, and it was an exciting thing to see a development project that was equally enjoyable in and of itself and for the things that it is doing. After hanging out at the park I headed back into the center of the city to meet up with a friend for lunch and to check on a library fine. Lunch was really nice, though I hate having to have days and days of goodbyes, and afterwards I went with Brian again to Sout El Cahira (Sound of Cairo) to buy more music. I am a bad girl.

This seems really late in the game, but I think I never explained this. Egyptians neither call themselves Egyptians, nor their country Egypt, nor their city Cairo.

Egypt = Masr/Misr
Egyptians= Masrieen
Cairo= El Qahira/Cahira (it's a q/c sound in the back of your throat)

Going back and forth between the cemetaries and the park (because we kept getting wrong directions) we had to cross a 10 lane divided highway, but our success proved just how accostumed we have become to Cairo. It might not need to be said that Cairenes do not believe in lanes (although with this many cars, if they did it would be a nightmare) and there are no 'crosswalks' and certainly no fines for jaywalking. People just cross the street gradually, yet quickly, darting in between the coming cars, buses, bicycles, etc. You could never do this in the US because the drivers wouldn't know how to respond, thinking that they are about to run over you, but in Cairo you could never make it to the other side if you didn't do as the Egyptians do. Considering myself a former "hand-holding" crosser of the street I thought Egyptian streets = quick and ugly death, but I'm proud of my ability to cross the streets.

I think I must also exude a little bit more confidence in taxis, because I have not been accosted over the price nearly as much lately. (Knock on wood!) Taxis are quite an experience in Cairo. I didn't realize how wonderful I had it in Morocco, when the price was nicely displayed on the meter and then it was customary to add a dirham for tip. Here, like with many other things, you just have to "know." How you are supposed to "know" is another question. Some of the taxi rules I've picked up:

1) Girls- don't sit in the front unless all the seats in the back are taken. As part of the really (in my opinion) messed up logic regarding women in general, I've been told that some taxi drivers will take this as an indication that you 'want' to be, erm, touched. I've never gotten the impression from any of my cab drivers that they would take such liberties, but I guess it never hurts to just sit in the back.
2) Don't pay until you are out of the taxi
3) Don't ask how much, and if anyone asks you how much when you get into the cab, chances are you'll be asking to get out a few minutes later because the requested price is so ridiculous.
4) There will be plenty of ridiculous taxi cab experiences, such as:
* Taxi drivers driving off in protest of the amount you've offered, without even bargaining first, and leaving you confused on the side of the road, money in hand.
* Lots of fights- taxi drivers never ask for more money, they yell for it. Don't be surprised if policeman or other bystanders are brought in to negotiate between you and the cab driver.
* (A personal favorite story) I really enjoyed the voice of the reader of the Quran that my driver was listening to, and I asked for his name after I had gotten out of the car. In a beautiful gesture he lit up, took out the tape, and insisted that I take it.
5) The insides of taxis are also lots of fun. Seats covered in pink and black leopard prints, little Ramadan lamps, God's eyes, Qurans, Mickey mouses, stuffed animals, air refresheners, etc. hanging from the rearview mirror and attached to other parts of the car. The dashboard is also often covered in fabric or fake fur. Some taxis have their doors wired to play "It's a Small World After All" when opening, others have this wired to their breaks.
6) Taxi music is fantastic. A lot of drivers listen to the melodic Quranic recitation, others have old music playing, or the latest tape from Amr Diab. We've also heard Bob Marley and Cher. CDs have not really hit Cairo- everyone listens to tapes, which are certainly cheaper, but not as easily converted. Also, noone really buys originals of anything- it is all copies. Copyrights aren't too important in Cairo- you can take entire books to any copy shop and have them copied with no problem. This is particularly great considering books are so expensive, especially textbooks or other English books.

So how did I get from cemetaries to taxis to the 'copy culture' in Cairo? All in a day's work my friends. Time to return to attempting to cram all my stuff in my suitcases. This has not been a fruitful endeavor, let me tell you. Too much stuff! (Too many packets from my refugee class! )

A last Welcome

2005-12-19T09:41:00.000-08:00

I will miss “Welcome, welcome to Egypt!” and “Where are you from?”
I will miss movie nights with my girls
I will miss feluccas on the Nile
I will miss melted marshmallows with melted chocolate in honey cookies
I will miss sitting in Al-Azhar-Mosque and enjoying being in that quiet place, where people go to pray or just to relax
I will miss Helen dancing around wearing 15 layers and still moving her hips so very sexy
I will miss our baoab talking to me although I can’t understand him
I will miss PEANUTBUTTER, in tons as we had in our cupboard
I will miss the Gilmore Girls
I will miss telling people that I am from Estland or Liechtenstein
I will miss our tea sessions, the morning- and the evening cup, mint tea, green tea with mint, shai, hibiscus and then again, morning- or evening-cup, choice between mint tea or green tea and as final the amazing hibiscus tea and if you really want to go over the top, just have another shai at 12 o’clock in the night!
I will miss our belling stag on the wall
I will miss Jayanthi bargaining for hours at Khan al Khalili, shop owners there got poor now
I will miss men singing to me on the street, I won’t miss when they said bad things to me
I will miss good food, as there are chick peas, lentil soup, green beans, koshari and lemon juice but as well pumpkin ice cream and tons of popcorn
I will miss the relaxing and constantly sound of toilet’s water running out
I will miss the muezzin’s calls for prayers but I won’t miss the aggressive Friday prayers from our mosque
I will miss ripping off the handles of washing machines

I won’t miss the smog
Maybe I will miss a little bit the pyramids – but not very much, just because they are so photogenic.

Habibis, I will definitely miss you a lot! But wherever the flowers might have gone to...”when you leave I will follow anywhere that you tell me to, if you need, you need me to be with you, I will follow anywhere!!”

Yours Lise/a

Where have all the flowers gone?
by Marlene Dietrich

Where have all the flowers gone?Long time passingWhere have all the flowers gone?Long time agoWhere have all the flowers gone?Young girls have picked them, every oneOh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn?Where have all the young girls gone?Long time passingWhere have all the young girls gone?Long time agoWhere have all the young girls gone?Gone for husbands, every oneOh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn?Where have all the husbands gone?Long time passingWhere have all the husbands gone?Long time agoWhere have all the husbands gone?Gone for soldiers, every oneOh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn?Where have all the soldiers gone?Long time passingWhere have all the soldiers gone?Long time agoWhere have all the soldiers gone?Gone to graveyards, every oneOh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn?Where have all the graveyards gone?Long time passingWhere have all the graveyards gone?Long time agoWhere have all the graveyards gone?Gone to flowers, every oneOh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn?Where have all the flowers gone?Long time passingWhere have all the flowers gone?Long time agoWhere have all the flowers gone?Young girls have picked them, every oneOh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn?

Under the (Red) Sea

2005-12-17T13:58:00.001-08:00

(Guest posted by Jayanthi)

Getting scuba certified while I was in Egypt was one of the things I definitely wanted to do - it was probably number one on my list of things I HAD to do while I was here. However, the road to certification has been bumpy....I didn't have time all semester to get certified so by the time I got started it was past Thanksgiving. The first few days were all bookwork and the guys at the center were great - did their best to accomodate my schedule. However my pool practice session had to be cut short because my ears would not equalize to the change inpressure under the water(even though it was just a few feet down). I thought it was just a slight cold that would go away in a few days, but it turned into a nasty persistent ear infection that had to be treated with antibiotics.

My instructor suggested I go ahead and give the pool practice another try once I finished my antibiotics and if it didn't work that was that. However, it did work!! After taking heavy duty decongestant, nasal spray, and two other kinds of medicine I was able to spend an hour 12 feet underwater practicing skill like taking my mask off and replacing it or what to do if I lost my regulator (the device that supplies air to my mouth).

Even though the scuba center hadn't planned a trip that weekend, they decided they'd take me by myself since it was my last weekend in Egypt and thus my last weekend to finish my open water certification. We went to Hurghada which is on the Red Sea about 4 hours south of Cairo and spent Friday and Saturday diving.

Breathing underwater is really hard to get used to - there's a constant awareness that you aren't really free to inhale and exhale naturally. After awhile I stopped thinking about it, but it was always in the back of my head. But really there were so many other things to do and see underwater.

We did 4 dives, all of them around really amazing reef formations with TONS of marine life. Aside from tons of fish that I can't possible begin to identify I know I did spot a moray eel, lionfish, clownfish (Nemo!), angelfish, a spotted stingray, and an octopus. We actually played a bit of tug-of-war with the octopus with this diving rattle stick my instructor had. I pulled superhard, but the octopus and massive suction cup-covered tentacles definitely won.

When we weren't in the water, we were lying on deck napping under the sun. The winter weather was a bit cool when we first got out of the water, but the sun was strong and we warmed up quickly (with the help of some good Arabic tea of course). The Red Sea is the most amazing gorgeous shade of turquoise that I have ever seen, with the water changing to a deep azure depending on the depth and presence of coral.

Though I would have loved to spend my last weekend in Cairo with Helen and Lisa, I did have an amazing wonderful relaxing time. And though I was able to check getting scuba certified off my list, exploring the Red Sea really was an incredible first time diving experience that I'll definitely always remember.

Said the Gramophone : Helen, I love you!

2005-12-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

The pictures aren't too hot because I was racing against terrible batteries that I bought (and lasted me 30 minutes, no joke) HOWEVER. Do you know what you are looking at???????

THERE ARE RECORDS IN CAIRO. THERE ARE GRAMOPHONES IN CAIRO. These are some of the things in Cairo that have made me think in capital letters and exclamation points for the past hour and a half. Lise periodically hits her face as if to wake up and says "Lise! Das Ist Kairo!" - "Lise, this is Cairo!" and right now I feel like doing the same thing.

Today's mission:

* Pick up Lise's film at the Kodak in Zamalek
* While there try to go to 23 Sharia Shereef and see if there really is more special Eritrean shatta for sale.

What actually happened:

Today is Friday, so most everything was closed, including the film place, and apparently Sharia Shereef isn't anywhere near Zamalek, so our mission was completely unfulfilled. We decided to instead just wander around the wide and quiet streets of Zamalek, heavily populated by expatriates and subsequently not as crazy as the rest of Cairo and home to lots of more upscale retail, art galleries, embassies, supermarkets, etc. We passed by an art gallery and looked at the art of Hend Adnan, which was really neat, then we bought batteries and tape, and went into a Moroccan home furnishings store (!) It smelled like Morocco... it had all of the beautiful, beautiful things that I got so used to and bought very little of. Look Lise! I have a bowl with almost this exact design! These are the doors I want in my house! Oh, look at that lamp! Sigh. It was a fantastic trip down nostalgia lane and a reminder that I like the designs and pretty things in Morocco much better than here. We kept walking and went into the supermarket where we bought 20 boxes of Morning Cup tea, the best tea I've ever had and which I subsequently don't want to be without when I come back. While in Metro Lise remembered that one of the German rap groups that had come to Cairo to do things with the Goethe Institute had told her about a place with music upstairs from Metro. I didn't realize exactly what she was saying, and thought it was just a regular music store, but no! We went upstairs and found about three small rooms crammed with gramophones and old records and lamps and pictures and who knows what else. We went into the room with the records and were so overwhelmed. After finding that he charged 10 pounds ($1.80) for 45s and 20 pounds for full-length records we counted up our money and asked for 17 45s. For the next 45 minutes we just sat in chairs as record after record was placed onto the record player and our ears and hearts rejoiced. All of his music is from Cairo, so no Upper Egypt or Nubian music, but wow!!!! I stumbled upon one of the most amazing things in Cairo, yet. I think the trip to the Moroccan store is what did it, because in Morocco it always seemed like 'coincidence' after 'coincidence' was just falling on my head and we called them little "Al Hamdu Lilahs" (Thanks be to God) and today's trip was just a gigantic series of unplanned events that lead into a huge Al Hamdu Lilah. If it weren't for Lise needing to pick up pictures, me feeling too sick this morning to go to Church, her time spent with the German group, our decision not to find Sharia Shereef and to instead wander around, passing by the supermarket... etc. etc. etc.

I can't stop smiling. I told him I would definitely be back. Next semester's radio show just got a thousand times better. Weeeee!

George Bush! Number One!

2005-12-16T00:15:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures from the Khan El-Khalili. Jayanthi took more; I mostly concentrated on taking videos. Of course, in my attempts to be subtle about the videotaking on my camera I ended up with really jumpy and fast moving, dizzying footage. A bit like the Khan itself! Yesterday I was always greeted with "Hola." Well, I was also asked if I was from "Spain? Poland? Canada?" Yesterday also saw a rise in questions asking "How can I take your money?" This is a new development in my history at the Khan, and I would say one of the funnier ones. I also got "If you come into my store I will marry you," which was also a major incentive to stay away. I also got some fresh 1/2 Strawberry, 1/2 Orange juice that was delicious, and also resulted in some fun conversation in Arabic with the juiceman. He lit up when I said I was from America and said George Bush! milla milla! 100 % He's not the first person to tell me how great George Bush is, and I get America! Number One! all the time, and not mocking me, either. Of course I don't know how these men really feel, but I've never had anybody say anything negative to me about America, unless we were in a conversation.

A week from now I'll be on my way to Germany, or in Germany, or leaving Germany. Something related to Germany : )

Disillusioned but done!

2005-12-15T01:56:00.000-08:00

I just left my last class at the American University in Cairo. Other than an easy exam left on Saturday I have finished all of my work. 20 page paper on how UNHCR doesn't meet basic human needs according to A Theory of Human Need, 7 pages on why International and Regional 'support' has only hindered the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts from being resolved, presentation on Iraqi novelist Alia Mamdouth's novel Naphtalene, a summary of Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, (both, especially Mahfouz, HIGHLY recommended) and an Arabic final were just part of my work for this week.

I'm not posting this to say "look at what I did" because I know others around me had much more taxing finals, but I just think that it is a good insight into the kinds of things that I've been thinking about all semester. Last night my Forced Migration teacher asked us if we had become completely disillusioned with the world of humanitarianism and refugee issues in general and the answer was a resounding YES. Congratulations to Barbara, Ray, James, and the most reading I've ever done for a class, for making me question my future and my beliefs in a way noone else has. They say you have to break down before you can build back up again, right? : ) The class ended in a really interesting discussion of Christian fundamentalism ( in part because of a lecture given by Karen Armstrong, scholar of religion that I missed out on because of class) . I'm starting to know that I'm about to go home... soon my work won't resemble at all what I've just done here, and instead lectures on "Islamic fundamentalism" will seem more foreign.

In celebration last night for having my brain completely destroyed by finals and my Refugee class in particular, I decided to try out some more of my Eritrean and Sudanese recipes. While the end result did not taste like what I had had at my cooking lesson, and didn't look the same either, it was still fantastic. I had to make some meat-substitutions which changed things around a little bit, but I thought were successful. It didn't hurt that on the last day of my English class one of my favorite women gave me two different kinds of special Eritrean shatta (red pepper) . Wow. So wonderful. I hope this week is full of more cooking experiments, now that I finally have an Egyptian cookbook. Too bad everything has meat in it!

P.S. Good luck to everyone at UGA finishing up exams and getting ready for graduation!

Santa is an Arab!

2005-12-10T02:13:00.000-08:00

Why Lise is awesome. Last week we had a visit from "Papa Noel"

More dancing

2005-12-10T02:07:00.000-08:00

This is a link to a fellow-blogger's post about oriental dance/belly-dancing. Really neat.

http://juliacha.blogspot.com/2005/09/thoughts-on-social-perception-of-raqs.html

You are lonely! You are lonely!

2005-12-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

It's 2:30 am and I don't feel like sleeping. I'm listening to random Christmas music and Norwegian violin Beatles covers and old country music and quiet winter music. As much as I love all of this Arabic music sometimes you need a retreat into the cozy world. I was thinking a lot about Arabic music today, though, sharing memories with Jayanthi of our first introductions to it. I really only have two little memories, but I like them.

1) Fayruz: "Habaitik bi Saif, Habaitik be Shitii" First semester Arabic with my Syrian professor and we're working through "Al-Kitaab" (The Book) and there is a section with the words of this song and a section of it on our cds. Fayruz is probably the most famous Lebanese singers ever and this song is one of her most famous. The way she says "Habibi" (My love.... and also ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED in every Arabic song ever) makes you know why it word exists. Oh man. I wish I had a recording of my class being forced to sing along... a group of embarrassed college kids singing about how "I love you in the summer and I love you in the winter."

2) The radio station that I talk about all the time (wuog.org) has maybe 4 or 5 cds in the Middle Eastern music section and they are all Turkish, I think, except for the Putumayo Groove Arabic disc (until someone stole the cd! jerks!). On said Putumayo Groove disc there is a song called "Intil Waheeda." My friend Jeremy and I played it on air and listened to it in the car on the way to teaching English several times and I was so, so, so excited because I thought I knew what it meant. I thought he was saying "You are lonely.... You are lonely" and so of course the rest had to be about how "Obviously habibi you need to be with me." Unfortunately "wahda" means "lonely" and "waheeda" means "the only one." I was foiled this time, but at least I have a great idea for the next big Arabic pop hit.

You are lonely! You are lonely!
Oh my habibiti
I see you from far away
and I know you want to be with me
So I can be your habibi
Oh my habibiti
You are lonely! You are lonely!
Do you want to be my habibiti?
Because, habibiti, I am your habibi

If you think this is bad you should read translated pop lyrics. My love for Arabic music is in no way related to the content of the songs : ) I just like to dance!

I think I'll go back to soul now....

"Baby don't you worry about your [woah]man... I'll be coming home as soon as I can"

Pharonic Photofun

2005-12-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

A little bit of Pharonic Egypt from our trip to Luxor (Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, and a group picture of me, Helen, Brian, and Waseem)
- guest posted by Jayanthi (who isn't about to let Helen have all the photofun)

Pretty things

2005-12-09T04:38:00.000-08:00

A colorful mosque, spices for sale, a horse running loose through the streets, and hibiscus for sale in Luxor.

And you thought I might give you recipes for Egyptian foods...

2005-12-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

I've been to four different cooking classes set up by the Student Action for Refugee (STAR) club that I'm a part of, and on Tuesday night was the last one. I wrote down the recipes from all of the weeks, but there are some cultural barriers that make it a little difficult. I love how answers to questions on amounts make the African men and women struggle to describe things that they just "know", and how answers to how long it takes for a certain bread to rise will elicit answers that reference the climate and the season. I love it.

All of that to say that I finally got a recipe that I can write down for you that should be easy enough to follow!

This is a Burundian bread called Chapati Zamaji - don't quote me on those spellings.

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo wheat flour
3 eggs
tsp salt
Vegetable oil

Mix the flour with the eggs and enough water for it to gain a Pancake-like consistency. Make sure there are no clumps.

Have a hot skillet ready and ladle the batter on (just like a pancake or crepe), smoothing out the excess batter and sprinking a little bit of oil on, also smoothing it out. Bumps will begin to form. Flip over when you think it is ready and put a little bit of oil on the just-cooked side, too. It is done when everything is cooked through- on some of the pieces of bread the bumps had begun browning so I guess that is a good sign too.

Repeat until done with the batter!

Yummy. I have a text document with more recipes that you are welcome to if you want- just drop me an email and forgive the often vague directions.

Also, last call for postcards. Send me your address and I would love to send you something with a cute little Egyptian stamp on it. I really do love to write postcards and letters; I just don't have too many addresses, particularly for people who are in new places. Even if I don't know you I would still love to add to your stamp collection, so bring those addresses on!

Shnoo Breighti? Aiz eeh? Matha Tureed? and they all mean What Do You Want?

2005-12-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting at home listening to a mix cd my friend Max sent me!!! I was so afraid that the Egyptian post had eaten it, but I'm listening to lovely fall music as we speak.

There is something about the idea of starting a new language that is both exciting and extraordinarily depressing. Linguists are not the only ones who can recognize that language is one of the most amazing faculties we have, and one that changes in subtle ways depending on where we live, who we are talking to, and what we're trying to communicate. In Spanish class there was always the understanding that people in Spain said things with a bit of a lisp, and that there really was a Mexican way to speak Spanish that one could identify. The complexities are certainly far greater than that, and in Arabic I continually find more reasons to both love this language and dispair at even the promise of my ability.

Arabic is spoken from Morocco to Iraq, from Lebanon to Yemen, and in places far more flung than even these, like the US and French suburbs, to use a timely example. Yet if an average Moroccan (or Tunisian or Algerian for that matter) were to speak to an average Iraqi, they wouldn't understand each other if they were using their common day to day language.

Before I go more into this, I think I should back up a little bit. Arabic is a really unique language in part because it has such strong religious association. Though there are few Christians with the ability to read the Bible in Hebrew and Greek, Muslims can, with study, read and understand the Koran in its original form. The Arabic of the Koran is considered the highest form of Arabic, (called Classical or Fus-ha) and it is used as the standardbearer of grammar and usage. Clearly, however, languages evolve considerably over time, as has been the case with Arabic, with the unique position that the importance of the Koran has kept the grammar, vocabulary, and structure alive in a way that many other languages haven't.

There are many forces at work on Arabic, not least of them are competing ideas of Pan-Arabism and nationalism that were historically (and still) at work before, during, and after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and rise of nation-states and Nasser's and others' call for the Arab world to be united. This idea, along with the importance of the Koran and the media, has allowed for fusha to continue and provide a means through which ideally all Arabs can understand each other. The Arabic of the media is very close to the classical Arabic, but is called Modern Standard Arabic and has lost some of the rigidity of fusha and has developed new structures and terminology. The influence of former-occupier languages, like French and English, had a big impact in the evolution of colloquial languages, particularly in Morroco/Algeria/Tunisia and in Lebanon. In these countries a large percent of the population is fluent in both languages and has created a hybrid, often mixing them in within the same sentence. Linguists and scholars debate over the impact of these different influences, wondering if one day the different colloquials will be considered different languages, like Latin spawning French and Italian and Spanish, for example. Is it important for Arabs to understand each other across nation boundaries, and how does one do that? Should all schools teach their students in fusha or simplify the complicated grammar of the classical to make it easier to learn? Can one/ should one do anything? I find it really interesting. From an Arabic-student perspective I would clearly love it if everyone spoke the Arabic that I am learning, but even I wouldn't want the Moroccans to lose their "La Bas?" greeting, the Lebanese "Kifak?" the Egyptians "Izayyik?" etc.

It is difficult to learn this language, though, because there are so many different colloquials and so many levels within one country or city. My teacher says they have identified essentially 5 different levels of Arabic in Cairo alone, ranging from governmental almost-fusha to poorly-educated colloquial. I never thought that I would have to learn a completely new vocabulary and grammar in order to get around the city or any country that was different from what I was studying (but that is from my own ignorance). I do have to remember that even though the English situation is a lot easier (English-English, Australian-English, American English, etc. are all pretty much the same in terms of grammar/vocab and mutually intelligible) there are still lots of different dialects, accents and slang for every region and background.

I am really lucky, though, that despite the differences, I can go from Morocco to Oman and be basically understood. How amazing is that? Of the hundreds of languages (thousands? ) in the world, I can only think of a handful that can do the same thing.

2005-12-07T01:44:00.000-08:00

Things are heating up.... lots of papers and exams and presentations next week. The Cairo International Film Festival has been distracting me a lot because I want to see everything. So far I'm seen an Estonian film (I came in late so I don't know the name) a Syrian film called "Under the Ceiling" and a French film called "Lila Says." I now want to travel in Estonia, eat in Damascus, and work with Arab immigrants to France. After reading articles for my refugee class last night I also decided to go to Tanzania to work on refugee-governmental relations and then an article later to head over to Latin America. Oh, Helen.

One thing is sure, though, that I am excited about. I applied at WUOG (UGA radio station) to create a specialty show on Middle-Eastern music and got accepted! I don't know what time yet or what day, but it will be streaming on the internet so if you are interested you'll be able to listen. I've been trying to come up with a good title for it; I don't want anything that sounds Orientalist- no references to women in harems, etc.- Jayanthi's proposal of Aladdin-themed "A Whole New World" does make me laugh a lot, though. The best I can come up with is A Thousand and One Nights. Suggestions are always welcome. The Arabic translation of the book is "Alf Layla wa Layla" and I love how that sounds, but I don't think an Arabic title would be good.

Hot Skillet Mama

2005-12-04T04:07:00.000-08:00

Never too many "hot-stuff mom" shots. These are from Lebanon- on ruins, in the midst of Hezbollah, and under Cedars.

Punkins and Elections

2005-12-04T00:21:00.000-08:00

Last night Jayanthi and I had some friends over to eat copious amounts of food and exchange the Arabic music we've accumulated so far. I had an excuse to wear the new skirt I had made here (fabric market plus neighborhood tailor = very cool) and we both had excuses to break out a lot of the American food our mommies brought us.

The menu:

"Burritos" with Egyptian flat bread, gouda cheese, lettuce, fool (the smashed fava beans flavored with cumin and other things), and my salsa mix (cilantro, lemon, tomatoes, red pepper, corn, and black beans with a splash of olive oil)

Stew with lots of veggies and way too much red pepper and cumin. When I was making the soup I had the snifflies and didn't realize how much of the pepper I was putting in.

Ginger Snaps with a Pumpkin Ice Cream filling. (Amazing Jayanthi idea) Do try at home.

I think I definitely have Southern "hosting" genes and I have learned a lot from Moroccan and Egyptian hospitality- they really have this thing down. The secret is basically familiar to Southerners- lots of food and don't let them stop eating.

Between dancing to Arabic music and discussing how the Boab (doorman) probably thought the guys who came over were in a 'relationship' with Jayanthi and I, we talked a lot about the impending return home. One of the girls, Amale, was concerned about people expecting her to sugar-coat her experience, especially the Arab-Americans she knows. Brian, from North Texas, anticipates that the people he knows already have a firm idea of Egypt and the Middle East and will not really be receptive to his experiences. Waseem, a Palestinian-Egyptian-American, didn't really say too much about going back, only that he would probably be even angrier with President Bush. News of the US paying Iraqi newspapers to include stories, secret torture centers (some allegedly in Cairo) and routes taking suspected terrorists through Europe, and all of the other Iraq business is enough to make the night really depressing. Part of being in a place where people can be arrested for nothing, tortured for anything, and don't have fair legal ways to protect against such wrongdoing makes me believe even more that the U.S. must have higher standards and must live up to its opportunities. Of course I can't validate the above news, but I expect more from the United States, perhaps more than I ever have before.
I don't really know what to anticipate when I come back, though a friend told me to expect a lot of "Did you feel safe?" and "Are the women opressed?"- related questions. Who knows. I do know that unlike my friends' fears, I am blessed to have relatives and friends who are already open and don't expect (I don't think! : ) ) sugar-coating or reinforcement of stereotypes or easy answers. Right now it is all so overwhelming I only feel capable of answering questions like "What was your favorite tea discovery in Cairo?" or "How often did you wear a seat belt?" or "What was your favorite Mubarak poster... Do you prefer the ones with him in aviators or the ones with hearts around his head?

As a related note to earlier- I would feel remiss if I didn't mention the continuation of the elections.
The three of Parliamentary elections in Egypt have been pretty violent;I'm not sure if you've read about this in the news, but I've seen it on NYTimes and BBC. The Muslim Brotherhood has benefited the most from the slightly less-stringent requirements to run for Parliament this time around, and though they are banned as a party, their members run as independents. They have gotten close to 1/3 of the seats in the Parliament, which is a landslide victory for them and unexpected to all. Unfortunately, the government and the army has done a lot to try to stop this, preventing people from voting, changing vote counts, arresting and trying to slander some of the candidates, and overall intimidation. I haven't seen any of the election violence because it is mostly in the outskirts of town or in other areas in Egypt, but it has gotten international coverage.
Here is a short article because everyone loves the short.
http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2005/11/26/egypt051126.html

P.S. Congrats to Gregory! 3rd in Southern Region and World Qualifier in Irish Dancing?!??!!?!? Wow!!!!!

2005-12-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

Tea-milk and other newfangled mashrubat

2005-12-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

Because of finals and papers and other sorts of end of the semester nastiness, Helen, Lise and I decided to make this weekend one last quiet weekend in Cairo. Those papers (more precisely avoiding writing them) is also the reason I'm guestblogging for the first time. But of course bringing myself to talk about something in depth would be akin to doing work - thus the subject of the day is something quite mundane - beverages (mashrubat in Arabic). I'm a fan of liquids in general so I figured it would be a good place to start my internet-literary career.

When I first came to Cairo this summer, I was taking classes at a small Arabic school called Al-Diwan Center in Nasr City, one of the outer areas of Cairo. The school had two buildings on parallel streets and in each building was a man named Mohammed who did odd jobs and made tea. The Mohammed in the first center was skinny, young, quiet, and kind - and he made a mean Nescafe. I had class in the 2nd center and our Mohammed was grinning, joking, bald so it looked like he was always shining because his teeth and head would reflect the institutional florescent lights. He wasn't a champ at beverage brewing, but he was ours.

The first week I was religious about only drinking bottled water to spare my poor delicate American stomach from the horrors of African parasites. Summer in Cairo means either tons of water or dehydration. Sometimes I veered towards the latter, but I tried to make myself drink one big 1.5 liter bottle of water every day. At Diwan I was shy the first few days about asking for something to drink, but one cotton-tongued day, I asked for water and drank a 1.5 liter bottle in about 20 minutes.

(Now don't complain, I warned that this entry would be a bit.... *yawn*)

About a week after drinking a liter bottle of water every day at school I realized that it wasn't really bottled water, it was just water in a bottle - Cairo tapwater in a bottle. I should have realized earlier because tapwater here is disgusting. It's perfectly safe, as I then realized, but it tastes absolutely awful - worse than even Florida water.

Because the water is so gross, it's usually much better when you put things in it, which Caireans have down. Tea (Shaay in Arabic) here is a way of life, a social nicety, something to occupy your hands. Loose tea dust and lots of sugar are poured into the bottom of the glass and covered with hot water. You have to be careful with the last few sips so you don't end chewing your tea instead of drinking it. Walking down some of the busiest streets downtown near AUC you'll see men leaning up against the glass windows of their shoe store or clothing shops, nursing tea and watching people pass. Their tea glasses are small enough to envelop in one hand - handles are for wimps.

On every single street in Cairo you'll find little hole-in-the-wall 'ahwas where middle aged men sit drinking tea and coffee ('ahwa in Egyptian Arabic), smoking sheesha, playing backgammon, and just watching the world go by. Arabic coffee is thick, ususally sweet, and sometimes flavored with cardamom. As with the tea, the sediment settles on the bottom so impatient people (i.e. me) end up eating their coffee as well as drinking it. 'Ahwas are institutions really and are found everywhere from across AUC to our quiet neighborhood next to the grain and spice store two doors down from the apartment. They are male-only which is more understood than enforced really. If I sat down in an 'ahwa I might be served (especially since I'm foreign) but more likely would just get weird looks and maybe a comment or two.

Even though Cairo is a huge city, 'ahwas are just an example of how life is a bit slower, taken a bit easier here. Patience is definitely a virtue, whether it's running to twenty different offices to get one visa application filed or whether it's just waiting for your tea to settle before taking your first sip.

The tea-milk of the title was a great comment Helen made one tea-drinking day about the possibilities of the tea leaf and/or bag. We talked about tea infused desserts, peppermint tea-flavored hot chocolate, but the best suggestion was definitely tea-milk (Wouldn't it be really cool if we flavored milk with different kinds of tea!.....Oh, yeah that would just be making tea- with milk) :)

My tea is probably cool enough to drink by now, so I'll leave this as Part I and finish the other drinkables at a later date.

Evaluation time!

2005-11-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

Today I went to a evaluation session organized to get feedback on how to recruit to Universities that don't/haven't sent many people and about study abroad in general. It elicited some reflection on AUC and my study abroad experience, so I thought I should do some of my initial evaluation, particularly if anyone is reading or will read this blog for more information on AUC.

I'm not sure what order to go in and I know I won't cover everything, but the highlights are as follows! : )

1) Choosing to study abroad in the Middle East: A wonderful decision, and as the President of AUC mentioned in his opening address, something like only 2,000 students from the US study in the Middle East every year, about 1400 of them in Israel. There don't appear to be many year long or semester long options- someone (maybe Middle Eastern Studies Association) needs to do a better job at having these compiled and evaluated. The American University in Beirut and in Cairo are the most known and most popular, but the travel warning on Lebanon is probably a hindrance (though we felt completely safe). It is a fantastic, yet greatly misunderstood region, and I highly support studying here.

2) AUC in particular: As far as my Cairo experience goes, I have nothing but extreme praise. AUC, on the other hand, like any University, has its ups and downs. As a teacher friend puts it American students studying abroad from the US are coming from 1st rate universities, but they find a 2nd or 3rd rate university. The AUC does have many first rate programs and teachers and research opportunities, but it also has a student body that, with exceptions, of course, seems more concerned with style than substance. The environment here is often more akin to high school than college, which appears to be one of the results of the Egyptian educational system and, to be honest, it is often the first time boys and girls are educated together. It is also hard to make friends with people on campus, but if you are active in pursuing them it can definitely happen. From informal discussions with my friends the Arabic program is always praised, Political Science almost universally considered weak (outside of seminars and grad classes), and any class at the 200 level also dismissed. If you want to come to learn Arabic, either do it through another school in Cairo or through the Arabic Language Institute. The other classes just take too much time to completely focus on Arabic. Getting involved with clubs and volunteering can be difficult, but not impossible. Things like teaching English are facilitated easily and I've also had friends do service with orphans. Many of the clubs are focused on fundraising or active primarily in the Ramadan season.

3) Housing

It depends on what you are looking for. The dorm offers a very safe and easy option; students in the dorm become close friends and are more connected to International Student Life. The ISSO office also doesn't actively help you find alternate housing, but there are always signs up at the University and at some of the other expat cultural places in town like the British Council or the Goethe Institute. Living in an apartment is far, far cheaper than the dorms and integrates you more into Egyptian life, but can be troublesome to find in the beginning, especially if you don't speak Arabic. Most students who stay at AUC for a year spend half of the time in the dorm and the other half in an apartment. All apartments are furnished, though, so aside from buying additional cooking and cleaning supplies, you don't have to worry about finding furniture.

4) Economics

Cairo is an extremely cheap place to live if you are in a modest apartment and don't eat out at expensive restaurants all of the time. The AUC estimate of semester costs center around $15,000, which I think is very inflated. Tuition at AUC is almost $7,000, which meant that it was more expensive than an entire semester, all expenses included, at UGA, not an easy amount to swallow. However, after tuition and airfare, you can get by on $ 2,000 - $ 2,500 for the semester easily. I can get about 6 lbs of vegetables for less than a dollar fifty, falafel sandwiches for 15 cents, and my apartment, shared with two other girls, is about $ 125 a month for me. Most apartments per person run from this to about $ 300. Of course there are other expenses that are greater, but things are generally very cheap.

I've only really brushed the surface, and so many things are up to personal preference and different encounters, but this is how I see it! When AUC moves out to the middle of nowhere in two years it could turn into quite another experience, especially because being in the middle of downtown is perfect, but I think there will still be quite a lot going on.

I've been trying to upload pictures of mommy for days and days but the internet keeps being mean. In Sha Allah it will happen soon!

For sale

2005-11-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

This has bothered me for some time, but yesterday it was taken to a new level, or at least, a Helen-begins-to-rant level.

Adidas. Vodafone. Mobinil. Sony Ericsson. Mango. Panasonic. Espirit. United Colors of Benetton. Several other computer/phone oriented corporations. Nestle.

What do all of these have in common? They have assaulted my school with gigantic banners, booths set up in the middle of walkways, people walking around giving out things, and fliers. I come from public school America, so I'm used to the corporate advertising in stadiums, the plethora of Coke machines, the tables selling the Atlanta Journal Constitution or trying to get me to sign up for Visa. But never have I encountered quite the spectacle of marketing that is AUC. Of course the advertisers are genius- the AUC is home to the richest and most western students in all of Egypt. But does AUC really have to put up with this? This is an institution for education, not commercialism. When there are more vendors than student groups, more banners for Adidas than the school play, there is a huge problem.

rrrg. End of righteous indignation.

I wanna know...

2005-11-21T03:23:00.000-08:00

After a late night of studying Arabic, I woke up early to take a shower, and nearly immediately screwed up my face in disgust when bringing in my towel from the line. We don't know why, but about once a week something is sprayed or released or who knows what in our neighborhood in the early hours of the morning and a thick fog of disgusting-smelling something fills the air and attacks our noses and clothes, which are just politely minding their business and drying themselves, but become brutally assaulted by the smell. Add that one to the list of things I doubt I'll ever understand.

After this disappointing beginning to the day, we walked out and after customary morning greetings to the boab, felt a few drops of moisture, but chalking it off to either the fog of doom or dripping air conditioners (the only time "rain" falls on your head in Cairo...) we kept walking to get a taxi. A few steps later, though, and we realized that we were experiencing quite another phenomenon. Real rain! The word on the street is that it rains a few days every year in Cairo, causing many otherwise clean clothes, people, and buildings to experience the joy of acid deposition/rain, and creating hazardous mud situations once the water dares to challenge the desert. I didn't get more than a few drops today, but I am proud to say that I have almost slipped several times, and that I can now attest that it does (albeit rarely) rain in Cairo.

I was thinking about writing more about the wonders of the Arabic language, especially because we read an article in our Arabic class about the differences between the colloquials and fusha, and what should be done about the increasingly diverging colloquials, etc. In Sha Allah, I'll talk about that later. For now, I'm just going to make a mental list of all of the songs about rain.

May I present.... THE CEDARS OF LEBANON

2005-11-20T06:25:00.000-08:00

I love trees. Even remembering the too-brief 30 minutes among the Cedars while it was alternating between rain/sleet/hail and snow brings some giggles up to the surface. We went north to Becharee in Lebanon on our last day, traveling on a minibus to Tripoli and then catching an additional bus to Becharee. We were all initially very disheartened because this was the day of the north! the mountains! the cedars! and all we saw when looking out the window was rain and fog. Though a change in weather was appreciated from the dryness of Cairo, we wanted to see the north in all of its glory. After the bus dropped us off it was pouring down rain, I desperately needed to find a bathroom, and I remember exclaiming that I could already tell I loved this town and wanted time to point out all of its small, mountain town glory, but could only concentrate on another need. We found a patisserie and burst in, hurriedly asking if I could use the restroom, and while I did the moms and Jayanthi sat down in the quiet shop and ordered coffee. There were icons and crosses everywhere, both in the Patisserie and all over Becharee, quite a different view from what I have become used to, in addition to looking remarkably different from Southern Lebanon. So these were the Maronites! Though about 20 % of the population, they have traditionally held the most power, notably reflected in Lebanon's confessional system of government, ensuring that a Maronite is president.

Though cold and wet, we had gathered enough strength by the space heater in the Patisserie to voyage onward, intent on going to Gibran Khalil Gibran's museum and final resting place. He is the Lebanese author of The Prophet, who spent most of his life in America and Europe, but was born and buried in Becharee. We had a fascinating introduction to the north and to Gibran from one of the museum employees, who was very intent on explaining that the Maronites do not come from Arab descent and therefore don't see themselves as Arabs, despite sharing the Arabic language. He also spoke of the relationship of Syria and Lebanon and how Lebanon was a country of 4 million people bearing a debt to Syria of 40 (million? I believe). Regardless of the actual statistics, it just goes to show one of the many complicated factors in the relationship between these two countries. The museum itself was very nice, I particularly enjoyed his paintings and how he used them to wrestle with the spiritual and the humane, combining an often classical approach with modern interpretation.

A peek out of the window in the museum led us to speed through the rest because miraculously the wind had blown out all of the rain and fog from the mountains and had given us the opportunity to see the absolutely beautiful and striking mountains and valley below. The red-roofed steeples and clusters of houses made the old adage of Lebanon being the "Switzerland of the Middle East" all the more true. We could even see the snow-peaked mountains framed by a clear blue sky and wispy clouds. The clarity was short-lived, by the time we exited the cedars it had become rainy and foggy once more, but we felt as if Gibran himself had thrown out his hand and cleared it just for us.

Do you want an Egyptian husband?

2005-11-19T01:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after church, Jayanthi and I went to the Cairo University metro stop to meet up with our Egyptian friend Kholood. I'm not sure if I ever explained our connection to the Egyptian girls we know, so I'll briefly summarize it now. Thanks to our German roommate, Lise, we met a girl named Aie (A-ya) in the beginning of the year who was hoping to do an Arabic-German exchange with Lise, but because Lise was too busy Jayanthi and I agreed to meet Aie about once or twice a week to practice Arabic and English. Aie studies German and in the Schoolfor Tourism and Hotels, so all of our new Egyptian friends either speak German or study tourism (mostly both : ) ). Though I am surrounded by Egyptians at AUC, it is pretty hard to get to know them and I have been too shy to speak Arabic with them. Kholood is extremely smart and funny; she wants to travel all around the world but complains that her family won't let her (pretty common with all of these girls) and is always very interested in what we are doing. She even had her older brother, Kareem, call me once when she found out I had a test about refugees because he is in law school and she thought he might be able to help me!

We met her and her younger brother Mohammed at the metro stop and then traveled to their house in Giza (yes, where the pyramids are) which is one of the most recent suburbs to develop and be absorbed into Cairo. Wearrived around 2:00 and didn't leave until about 9:00! What I experienced several times in Moroccoand here in Cairo is the long-winded but very nice socializing patterns that often differ so much.We sat downin their small but very nice sitting room with couches and chairs and talked to Kholood's family forabout an hour before we had lunch. Kholood's father is a lawyer and speaks very clear and wonderfulArabic, her mother I think is/was a lawyer,too, and is extremely kind. We really loved their entirefamily, from the oldest Kareem, to Kholood, Mohammed, and the youngest Ahmed, who is in 4th grade, and was so much fun. Jayanthi and I were excited to practice our Arabic, getting made fun of and encouraged at just the right frequencies.

Lunch was tons of mahshi (stuffed peppers/cabbage/eggplant), a veggie stew, another rice dish, cut up veggies, and coke. As always Jayanthi and I were forced to eat until bursting for threat of "You don't like the mahshi?" and as a result of dad continuously putting more food
before us. I was pleased to use a new vocabulary word that means "big belly "to describe what would happen to me if I ate like this everyday : )

For the rest of the afternoon we sat and talked and watched TV; there is no pressure to constantly entertain guests, they just become part of life. A woman and her children stopped in and sat to talk, and it was natural when the youngest fell asleep and was put on a bed in another room. Some of my friends back in Athens were debating an article in which bratty and loud children were annoying patrons in coffee shops and what kinds of measures should be taken. Though the Moroccan/Egyptian/Middle Eastern cafe is off-limits to kids (and women) , children go everywhere else without any problems. I've rarely seen mis-behaving kids, and I really enjoy how they just go along with the flow.

With these last guests Jayanthi and I struggled to answer questions like "What is Hinduism," "Do you want an Egyptian or American husband," "How much does your apartment cost per month," "What kind of shampoo do you use," "What kind of character do you think I have (the woman asking me)" and "Why don't you eat meat?" It was a workout : ) As I've read in the Culture Shock: Egypt book, there are plenty of questions I can't ask, but not too many limits on questions people will ask me : )

I still don't know the name of my favorite shape

2005-11-13T02:51:00.000-08:00

I should have known that the words "Helen" and "Party" when even approaching the same sentence would bring comments from my dad. I believe references to "Fraternity/Animal House party" and "What does Lars think of all your comments about dancing Egyptian men" were not-so-discreetly inserted into last night's conversation, but I'm getting him back now : ) As if I could even dignify those charges with a particularized response! : )

I keep trying to post pictures from Lebanon and my mom's visit, but the best ones are on Jayanthi's camera and the internet has been pretty shady. So instead, I'll start off with a mini-ode to variations of my favorite shape in the world. Morocco was much better for favorite-shape sightings, but Egypt does o.k. Yesterday Lise, Judith and I went to a museum that was a British man's house that he restored to it's old, old glory and left behind with his own extensive art and relic collection inside. Afterwards we headed next door to the Ibn Touloud mosque, which I believe is the oldest in Cairo, and is my favorite so far. We were nearly the only ones there in this huge expanse of yellowed stone. I fell to singing and Lise to dancing, Judith to pondering how much she looks like a Russian grandmother wearing the hijab. There is something so special and indescribable about being in a mosque, wearing the hijab, and feeling so cut off from the rest of the world and led to silence, praying, singing, or dancing. The only 'mountains' to be found in Cairo.

Rama lama ding dong

2005-11-11T03:58:00.000-08:00

It´s two in the afternooon on Friday. I have just woken up. Lise is in the kitchen washing dishes, having been up for longer, but she attests to her need to go back to sleep, for she too was up with me until 4:30, laughing and talking about our wonderful evening, which had only ended a short while ago. I apologize for the next part of this post, which will probably only make sense to a few Athens people, but it´s the only way I can really share the whole night.

Lise had two friends who were having a party in their flat that she had met through some Goethe Institute design thing between Germans and Egyptians (I think) and was told the more the merrier, so she invited a few others from the Goethe Institute and Jayanthi and I. I was almost left behind because I was late returning from a "practice English" date with an English student. I walk in and they are all about to run out the door, but they thoughtfully wait long enough to fix me some eggs and allow me to put on Lise´s clothes to feel cuter : ). We all go downtown, find the flat, walk in....

Le Tigre is playing. There is a (Norwegian!!) girl wandering around wearing converse shoes, a cut up loose t-shirt, a slightly flouncy skirt that hits her teeny, tiny knees, and has a toussled "indie-rock haircut". There are other such characters sprawled around the apartment, which is nice and spacious, and has blown-up Victorian cutouts of little faces with wings and girls in dresses scattered along the walls. There is also an old Soviet/Egyptian poster on the right wall and the hallway has a row of Coptic icons spread down its side. There aren´t too many people there yet, and we certainly don´t know anyone, so we sit and chat and I try to wrap my head around the fact that they are playing The Rapture, The Hives, Interpol, Stone Roses, The Cure(which prompts me to begin dancing through the rooms, alone, in front of really chill people) and all sorts of music that though I don´t particularly always enjoy, was very familiar to me. I would like to say I helped kick the evening off when Annie "Chewing Gum" came on and I made Lise start dancing with me and another Converse-wearing, indie-styled Egyptian guy started along.

How had I ended up in this place that was, in a sort, the most ´familiar´place in Cairo that I had been? Jayanthi and the Goethe Institute kids were pretty tired and left after maybe an hour, when the novelty of familiar music had slightly worn out and we were now just sitting around, still without knowing anyone, even though I had had a brief conversation with a guy named Alaa (Alaa Eddeen sound familiar to anyone? Aladin! The name means raising up religion. I think that´s cool) about the current music ´scene´in Cairo. I think I horrified him because he asked me what music I liked in Cairo and I said "pop music." But it´s true! I quickly scared or bored Alaa, and then Jayanthi and co. left, but Lise still wanted to stay and I decided to stay with her, curious about what would happen in this magical place warp.

To make a long and wonderful story shorter, after "Chewing gum" got some people dancing the music selection started to change. There were now a lot more people at the party, and it was a multicultural mix, a few Italians and Germans and many Egyptians, and quite a few other Africans and, because I had answered "South" confusedly when asked about America, there was now a sortof Latin American in the house. All of these Egyptian and other "alternative" folks had grooved along to the sounds of dirty, gritty New York, but when the oriental music came on, there was no question about what everyone wanted. We all started dancing, mostly men, but a few of us non-Egyptian ladies thrown in, and I started to practice the moves I´m learning in my bellydancing class. Though I contest this, Lise claims that they "adored me" and were surprised and laughing and eager to dance with me, trying to help smoothen some of my "moves" out : ) It was so much fun to be dancing to the oriental music in a group, and later to Latin salsa music, and get to watch these men who, as I have posted about before, are consumate dancers. I briefly freaked out when a girl came out wearing practically nothing and proved herself to be a real bellydancer, but then she left the scene and I felt more ok about my pretty weak skills. Slowly but surely, even though we hadn´t known anyone there, Lise and I became part of that strange and amorphous party atmosphere, where you are accepted as a part of it and feel welcome. It was interesting that though I had walked into a very familiar atmosphere, I was much more comfortable when the oriental music started coming on and everyone was getting into it. Around 2:30 they played a huge hit by the hugely popular Nancy Agram, after which I grabbed Lise and told her it wouldn´t get any better than that and so we had to leave. I was both radiant and a little sad, knowing I won´t find hordes of well-dancing Egyptian men back in the U.S. and that the music which often projects "cool" far more than "fun" will once again become my soundtrack at parties, but getting to experience that great mix here was quite wonderful. Lise was even a little watery-eyed, reminded of her multi-cultural study abroad in Spain as part of the European ERASMUS program, which allows European students from all over to participate in study abroad (made famous in the movie L´auberge espagnole).

Such a wonderful night. I never expected to write about parties in my blog, or even that there would be any like this to go to in Egypt, but I just had to share.

Needle through the camel's eye

2005-11-09T01:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty busy week as everyone tries to get back into the swing of things. Ramadan ended with a bang- Eid of Fitr is the three-day celebration at the end of Ramadan where people exchange gifts, make up for all the lost eating time, and do lots of celebrating in general. The second to last night the moms and the daughters were looking for a felucca (boat) to ride on the Nile in what seemed to us like a great idea for relaxing and seeing the city from a different (and quieter) perspective. We of course forgot that eid meant tons and tons of people milling around, including a disproportionate amount of young and brazen males who stepped up their cheeky comments and provided many frustrating and eye-rolling moments. Teenage boys everywhere are obnoxious, but I think Egyptian teenage boys during Eid may have been the height of obnoxiousness.
I was worried after that because the next, and final, day we had planned to go to the Pyramids and I didn't want their trip to have more hasseling. My last experience with the Pyramids was fairly disapointing, as it seems to be the case that the most hyped-up experiences and most touristic experiences can bring out the worst in everyone and make what should be great just semi-great. I was lucky to go with Egyptian girls and walk around in the late afternoon when noone was around and the breeze was perfect, but the hassle of getting there and the experience of a crazy wanna-be guide opening our taxi drivers' door and standing on the side as our driver drove up to the ticket-entrance made the approach to the Pyramids much less exciting. This time we took what may have seemed like a more touristy approach, but it felt a lot more real. Pictures will be posted that will demonstrate this fact. You will note that all four ladies are on two camels and are riding up through the desert to view the pyramids and the Sphinx, surrounded by groups of Egyptian boys and men racing their horses. There is no documentation of the aches and pains and inability to cross ones legs that followed the camel ride, nor of the frequent yells made my yours truly when thrown into the post that I was holding on to (Gentlemen, always ride one to a camel, or sit in the back). My mom's suggestion that the camel ride might reveal an "inner Arab" in me was almost immediately disproven, though I did note that the natural rhythm of riding on a camel was very similar to the moves I'm learning in my bellydancing class. There is a sociological study waiting to happen on that one...

My friend Brian was just telling me about his time in Israel over the break. I don't know when I'll be able to go, particularly because if you have been to Israel, Egypt and Jordan are the only two Middle Eastern countries that will let you in, but his experiences sounded fascinating- tales of walls and checkpoints and separate settler highways and religious life. Jayanthi and I spent about 45 minutes yesterday at the Travel Guide section in the AUC library. So many places we want to go and spend time. Traveling is such a disease!!!

2005-11-06T22:56:00.000-08:00

My mom has left, my mid-term is due in a few hours, it is Jayanthi´s 21st birthday, and Annie, what is happening in Paris?!?! A few days away and things get crazy.

Culture Shock and then Culture Shock

2005-11-06T00:04:00.000-08:00

I echo Helen's impressions of Lebanon....had just gotten become more familiar with the ways of Cairo only to be hurled into a different country. Yesterday's return was another culture shock and the worst day for being jerked around....first at the airport, then by the boat drivers on the Nile (we walked away from that one without the boat ride) and then a taxi driver who wouldn't take no for an answer when he asked for twice as much as the ride should have been....I think we all wished we were back in Lebanon.

We did have a great time and covered a lot of ground. We had a couple of glitches but survived the bed bugs the first night and moved to a different hotel. Also survived the ride in the unauthorized taxi ride that had me wondering when I should jump out of the car. The buses there have a driver and a person who yells out where the bus is going and rounds up folks to take the bus. One of those with a particularly outgoing ´"hawker" proposed to Helen...Jayanthi thought it was a lame green card attempt, but I am sure he could see Helen's great qualities and was serious.

A 10 or 11year old boy said to me..."Egyptian men....kissy kissy." Last night one said something worse...they learn early.

Off to pyramids....maybe more later.....

From Beirut to Cairo (Thomas Friedman thinks I´m lame)

2005-11-05T23:50:00.000-08:00

This week has been such a whirlwind that I probably won´t be able to post about it until after mom has left and midterms are all handed in, but just wanted to let those who were worried that we are back from Lebanon all in one piece. I don´t think even my ambitious history-explaining personality can properly handle the Lebanese civil war and brevity in the same context : ) but it was incredible how the country has developed since then. It is one of the most beautiful countries I have been in and one of the first that I really felt like I have to go back for longer. Wow. From the real! live! Cedars of Lebanon in the north and Jesus and Mary things in every store to the Hezbollah shirts for sale and huge posters of matyrs in the south to the glitzy, ritzy downtown area of Beirut, Lebanon is a fascinating and diverse and complex place. We felt completely safe the entire time, marveling at what I believe to be the most attractive army in the world, and feeling much more relaxed than the intensity of Cairo. 1.5 million (Beirut) seems so manegeable and wonderful compared to estimates between 12 and 22 million in Cairo. Especially after we were used as part of a police/corruption dealie at the airport on the way back. : ) Cairo is still home, and I prefer it´s street vendors and broken sidewalks and familiarity to Beirut, but I was attracted alot by Beirut´s ease and freedom, and certainly by the countryside. Of course I knew I missed fall, but I had no idea how much I needed fall until I got deciduous trees and rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and cool weather and mountains. It was such a blessing. More later, and hopefully my mom will concede to writing a bit more before she leaves early, early Monday morning. I´m skipping more class tomorrow and we are heading out to the pyramids and last-minute shopping- the time with her has absolutely flown by but it has all been great. I like her getting to see how I live here (though several times today I was yelling and being mean at policemen and taxi drivers... maybe not the best "look mom!" moments.) I was proud of myself though because the Lebanese arabic is, again, very different, and many times I couldn´t be understood... but I promise you I was understood today, especially when I used my final, parting line of " This is Egypt... money!" A mental Bam! note was taken, though the officer just smiled that look of "kid, you have no idea."And it´s true.

A Mom celebrates her daughter’s adventuresome nature and is happy to be on the trip of a lifetime!

2005-10-31T11:55:00.000-08:00

Each day I feel more comfortable, but if Helen and her roommate Jayanthi had not been here to hold my hand, I fear I would have run straight back to the airport. By now I feel more confident that I will reach my destination when I ride in a taxi . It is true that in Cairo there are no traffic lanes; no signals. Drivers do not turn their lights on at night and they use their horns to signal their intentions. The best experience was at night in a crowded area when the driver got a phone call on his cell and answered it. Then not only did he hold the phone with one hand, he used the other to gesture ...all while weaving in and out of traffic that includes pedestrians who walk in the road instead of on the sidewalks. Better than a ride at Disney!

Outside the apartment there is a restaurant and it is a gathering place every night for men to smoke their water pipes and drink tea. As soon as the sun sets they break the fast (as it is still Ramadan). Then there is noise until 4 in the morning. I am assured that they get back up in the morning for work. I do not think they ever sleep. Helen and her roommates have gotten used to the noise and sleep through it and the calls to prayer. Jayanthi’s Mom, Rama, and I haven’t!

We have been on the run and have visited many sites so far. We went to Alexandria via train and had a lovely day there on the coast. We visited a mosque yesterday, entering the woman’s prayer room with our hijabs covering our hair. Then we went to another mosque and climbed the tower.....a steep and dark vertical climb.....where for 8 steps you could not see a thing. We held onto the wall with both hands and made it safely up and down. At the top was a wonderful view of the city, but we stood on a narrow ledge with only an old weathered wooden railing between us and the hard surfaces below. I was reminded of climbing on the outside of the Leaning Tower of Pisa when that was still allowed.

We also visited two markets and encountered exactly what you expect those to be. All sorts of merchandise and forms of transportation and people. Today we spent time in the Egyptian Museum while Jayanthi and Helen were in class. We made our way across the street to the American University and met them there. Then we visited two Coptic Christian churches and a beautiful graveyard. Tonight we were quite a site at dinner with friends from here...we were a group from Egypt, Germany & USA.

Tomorrow we go to Beruit. I am sure it too will be an adventure!

Night light installation

2005-10-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Pictures from a collaboration of German and Egyptian artists in a poor neighborhood. I had a grand time befriending lots of kids and using my Arabic and having an awkward conversastion with the journalist and going on top of the roof of this really old and crumbling apartment building. Unfortunately the idea was better than its execution and I don't think the local community (outside of the kids) was too enthused about it, but it was a neat night. Lise works for the Goethe Institute so she had a hand in everything and invited me to come and hang out. Hands down one of my favorite nights in Cairo (though this happened about two weeks ago ; ) )
Jayanthi's mom is coming tomorrow! My mom is coming the next day! 15 pg midterm about to be handed in!

Prayer on the Metro

2005-10-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

So much religious fervor! Right now the mosque across the street is very loud. Someone is chanting things through the loudspeaker and a loud chorus of men is chanting back. I understood something about Allahu Akbar (God is Great) but I don´t understand anything else. Is this a Ramadan thing or a spontaneous thing? I don´t know, but I get uncomfortable hearing it.

Today on the Metro this woman started calling out parts of a prayer and pretty soon most of the women on the bus were responding to her in the same sort of call-response thing. Jayanthi says that it happens a lot of the time that she is on the Metro in the women´s car. (Did I ever tell you about the women´s car? It is the first one and is great because no men allowed. It too often smells like sweaty polyester, but it´s worth it.) In one guide book I read (to paraphrase a bit) that the "Metro is unlike anything else in Cairo... clean, no-smoking, and it runs on time."

Today I went on a felucca ride, which means I rode on a boat on the Nile with some friends, for two hours in celebration of a friend´s girlfriend´s birthday. In more small-world news, it turns out that I saw her, Nora, play violin last year at a concert in Atlanta (Mirah, for those of you who know). How crazy!

Now the men are singing, which I find to be much more enjoyable. Time to go back and keep writing my mid-term.

Happy Feet

2005-10-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

I love the way Middle Eastern men dance. It's true. I went to a pop concert last night - Mohammed Mounir- and I have to say that what I enjoyed the most was watching people dance. Seeing guys from age 16 or so on up to dads singing the lyrics passionately to each other and to the stage with their arms held out and hands snapping or moving from side to side and their hips popping and swaying to the part-tropical, part-Middle Eastern sounding music was amazing. There were men sitting on the shoulders of other men. There was one guy in front of me who would grab the back of his friend and the two of them would sing to each other with all the emotion that they would sing to the girl of their dreams. Everyone, moms, dads, kids, knew the lyrics to every song and greeted each new selection as a teenybopper would greet Britney Spears singing her latest single. I was also really happy because I was wearing four layers of clothes because of the cold! It was amazing! I took turns at feeling emboldened and dancing how I wanted to and then becoming shy and worried about guys looking on at me, but for the most part I was happy to note they were far too involved with Mohammed Mounir to care about the girl next to them who definately couldn't dance the way their Egyptian ladies could.

I can't believe that I'm coming home in two months! It's very hard to believe. Last week I found something that made me excited about being back, though. I like to frequent blogs that post mp3s of soul music that never achieved popular success but are worthy of praise, and last week I found a new blog dedicated to Georgia Soul! This is pretty exciting. Unfortunately the files are in Real Player format, which I don't prefer, but if you have real player you can listen and learn more about what was happening in Georgia 40- 50 years ago. Maybe my Georgia family has heard of some of them. That would be pretty neat. Being the dork that I am, I have already invited him to come and DJ in the spring when I become (in sha allah) the host of WUOG's Who Put the Bomp? dedicated to the best in unknown or lesser-known pop, rock, be-bop and soul of the 50s and 60s. I've been waiting for it, and, if nothing else, if I can provide videos of an 8 ish year old Helen pretending to sing Aretha Franklin I should at least be a candidate : )

His link is http://georgiasoul.blogspot.com
Mommy countdown: A week!

Contributing Writer! My does that sound nice.

2005-10-21T00:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I was waiting to post until I could give you a shiny and pretty link to our published article, which I am now able to do. However, we were all disappointed to note that somehow the final copy we sent them that we had all looked over, was published with several lines from an earlier draft mixed in. We're not sure whose fault this is, because we re-looked at the document we sent them and it didn't have those statements, but things always happen. So if you read it, just skip over the few lines about numbers and sexual abuse that state the same thing over again in a different way. boo! Oh well, regardless about the published state of the article, without the mistakes it is the most detailed article about the sit-in that is out there, and I learned so much from the project. I got to get an inside view of the world of a close-to- 70 year old woman who is 'retired' yet continues to teach and consult and write all hours of the day. Her apartment constantly has people coming in seeking advice or using her materials or working with her on a project. She's pretty amazing. The only downside about being at her house was her chain-smoking habit. I think a large part of this weekend's cold and stuffy head is a result of spending so much time at her house : )

Here is our article- in the way you would expect from a newspaper focused on social justice they gave it a dramatic headline from a quote that I took from the protest and the section I wrote. The opening paragraph wasn't written by us; our section starts with "Sudanese refugees..."
http://www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=29957 Enjoy!

"We are a Map of Sudan"

2005-10-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Photos from the sit-in. We counted about 800-1000 men, women, and children and the numbers fluctuate from day to day and from morning to night. Signs around the camp are in English and Arabic, asking "Where is the International Media" and "Who killed him/her?" and proclaiming "We are victims of miss-management." The second picture shows a gathering while they listen to the morale builder/motivational speaker that keeps everyone going a few times a day.

Teaser

2005-10-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from our article, which will be published on Thursday and I'll provide a link when it comes out.
This excerpt is pretty juicy, and gives you a great example of the absurdities possible in Cairo.

"Refugees have seen Sudanese Embassy cars nearly every day circling the sit-in, but at 3 in the morning of 15 October, four men in an Sudan Embassy car stopped and two of them began distributing alcohol among some refugees. The leaders managed to capture the four men and hand them over to the police and they unscrewed the rear license plate which they have hidden as evidence. At the meeting that afternoon, a speaker asked the group whether he should comply with police demands and hand over the license plate. The crowd shouted ‘No’. A police standing at the perimeters listening shouted back, ‘We have the men in jail. We have sequestered the car. We need the license for evidence.’ This angry exchange with the forces that are protecting them may be the beginning of the end of the sit-in."

Jayanthi and I just made a really bad soup. Soups are soooo hard.

2005-10-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

I think it's about time I posted something good or at least marginally uplifting, don't you think? After all, it might appear that I don't believe in democracy or in good in general, although don't think that for one second. As many problems as democracy has, I want everyone to have those problems, instead of the ones that come from authoritarian/totalitarian/misc. regimes!

Yesterday, after my sobering day before, I decided that of all Fridays this was a Friday to definately get myself to church. I had been to Maadi Community Church three weekends before, but had been unable to return because of sickness or being out of town. I had been a little bit apprehensive because my friend had described it as "exactly like an American church," implying the contemporary/praise/evangelical type church, which has never been my preferred way to worship, but I immediately knew this was the wrong way to go in thinking, after all, when you're in a predominately Muslim country, and there is a church, any church, that speaks English, well, no complaints!

Upon arrival my first impression was of the amazing diversity. I can't think of more than a handful of Sundays in which my church crowd hasn't been as white as white can get, so a crowd that was overwhelmingly half African and had many Asians and others was really exciting. The pastor had those who were new stand up and introduce themselves and their country; the answers given were Germany, Brazil, Rwanda, Liberia, South Korea, and America. How exciting! As a former member of MPPC's Visitors and New Members Committee, I was dorkily aware of how they welcomed new people. As people stood up, members were assigned to zip down the aisle and pass over a new member booklet that had information about the church, and I found myself well-received by everyone around me. One of my favorite aspects of that morning was seeing several of the study abroad students that I didn't know went to church and getting to excitedly greet them.

Yesterday I decided to go to their month-old "Africa Live" service. The title makes it sound silly, but it was really great. I arrived half an hour late because my first trip alone meant that I kept walking the wrong way, and I was given the wrong directions in English no less, before given the advice to "just take a taxi, you are very far now." I was one of a handful of non-Africans, and I didn't know any of the tunes to the songs, but there was so much energy and beauty. The prayer was fantastic and very emotional, and though I sometimes felt that awkward feeling that surely most of us have felt in a African-American church- namely, why can't I move the same way? I really liked being a part of it. It was particularly emotional thinking about how many of these Africans were refugees or migrants who had left a place that they could no longer live, and how much they could identify with the sermon about God's faithfulness to Moses and his people who had left Egypt. As I left I asked some people at the entrance how I could get back to the metro, and they told me to just hop in their cab and they would drop me off. The man told me they were from Liberia, and thinking that I hadn't understood him or didn't know where Liberia was he said it again and then made a joke about how small it was. I suddenly felt very quiet inside, only knowing Liberia from their horrible former President Charles Taylor who is awaiting trial, and stories of terrible poverty and persecution. It was like being introduced at the sit-in to a woman from Darfur and thinking, wow, I now have a face to put with all of these things I've heard.

Speaking of the sit-in, yesterday my group worked for 6 hours on the article and we will return to my Professor's apartment on Monday to finish it up. Dinner was really nice; we sat around sharing stories and hearing from a visiting Ugandan lawyer about some of his cases and listening to anecdotes about crazy Ugandan leaders as told by him and my professor.

Alright, time to return to reading Human Cargo by Caroline Moorehead, an excellent book full of stories that combined give a good picture of the world's refugees. I would definately recommend it.

I'm not going to take it anymore!

2005-10-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

"We can wait for the police to kill us because we have no place to go." Ruba Michael

I didn't know that coming to Egypt would also mean the start of my investigative journalism career, but so it has. After hearing rumors from some Sudanese in my English classes and some questions over my refugee class listserv, last night's class was devoted to discussing and clarifying the information about a Sudanese protest that has been going on now for two weeks in front of the offices of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). There are many startling aspects about this, as my teacher, who is somewhat of a celebrity in the world of refugee issues, related to us. She cannot think of any other protest by refugees of this magnitude that has not been immediately been broken up by police anywhere in the world. There could be, but we just don't know about them. The fact that numbers ranging from 500- 1200 have been sitting and sleeping in the public park in front of the building for two weeks without mass arrests or conflicts with police is unheard of. Last year the refugees tried to hold a similar protest but were broken up immediately by police with force, and according to one of the refugees I talked with today, with smoke and boiling water. The anti-Mubarak protests last May also featured police brutality, but probably because of the negative international press the protests on Election Day were peaceful. The orders for the police not to do anything may have something to do with that press, the parliamentary elections coming up, or Egyptian anger at the UNHCR, too. When I went there we had some troubles with the police about entering the garden, but they were soon appeased. I was really worried about possible confiscation of my recording equipment, but everything turned out to be fine and the head of police there even asked us not to portray them as beggars.

Ok. Wait, Helen, you went? Police? Calm down, I'm backing up : ) My teacher has had an African newspaper request that an article be written about it, so she commissioned people in our class to do the research, talk to her, and then write it. Last night I made plans with about 8 other people to come today and check things out and interview people, and have just gotten back from being there. I'm pretty mentally and emotionally exhausted right now so I'm just going to provide a link to two articles that talk about their demands (before our infinitely better and incredible article is written.... )
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=12016
http://www.cairomagazine.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=1438&format=html

At the end I ran into one of my students who called out "Teacher" and started talking to me and my friend Alex about how America is wonderful and perfect and if Bush said "Look at the Sudanese" then all the problems would be solved, and that Alex or I could be President if we wanted and that we can do anything we want because we're American. It sounds crazy and like cotton candy, but I can imagine it being true compared to these smart and extremely capable men and women who are sitting around telling me about their husbands killed in the war and the men who have wounded or tortured them, and their inability to get jobs, and their frustration that their kids can't go to school or walk around freely.

My teacher was clearly against the protest, saying that it wasn't going to do them any good, and that the stalemate between UNHCR (who have closed offices this entire week) and the refugees isn't going anywhere, which certainly doesn't make things feel any better.

They'll keep waiting.

Wondering what year the government put up the "Egypt is the Leader of Peace" sign

2005-10-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

Photos from the weekend in Alexandria. A mosque with "Remember God" written in Arabic, two pictures of the Mediterranean and a picture inside the ruins that offer the only reminder of the glory of the one who left his name to the city. Courtesy of Miss. Jayanthi

I smell Cilantro from the kitchen!

2005-10-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

Here is an article about increasing commercialism during Ramadan from today's New York Times. Sorry I don't know the html to make the ugly link hidden. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/international/asia/12ramadan.html?hp&ex=1129176000&en=9f76940d247c8c43&ei=5094&partner=homepage

My Comparative Politics of the Middle East class was surprisingly interesting today. My teacher decided to have a class period dedicated to the discussion of Democracy in the Middle East and its viability. We began talking about Bush's commitment to democracy in the ME and though we quickly moved into the structures of the ME and whether or not democracy could work, I thought it was really interesting thinking about what America's support for true democracy in the region would probably mean. The authoritarian/patrimonial governments of the Middle East have been really good at being "good" patrimonial/authoritarian leaders (i.e. laws are flexible to maintain power, "divide and rule," military prowess, etc.) . They've been extremely successful at preventing any kind of opposition from developing, jailing and blackening the reputations of any who try, and outlawing Islamist political parties or organizations, not to mention any other moderate group. As we discussed in class, authoritarian governments don't do anything unless it is to further cement their own power. Things like the elections in Egypt or establishment of a Human Rights Commission often look like change, but in effect they are changes to ensure that things can stay the same. The middle classes of any society are typically the ones who demand changes to the system, but with an extremely small middle class, and one that is markedly different from the lower classes, there seems to be no chance for a moderate/democratically inclined party or leader to really galvanize support. I think that if someone waved a wand and suddenly all the countries in the Middle East had democracy, or at least Egypt did, then the Islamist groups would be the only ones that could possibly galvanize support from the majority of citizens, particularly because the opposition groups that have formed are weak and not well-developed.

I was hoping to spend more time talking about what the United States' goals were, probably because I'm learning that training in Political Science is often about, "But what do they really want?" Unfortunately the answer is rarely "World Peace!" or one that can be figured out in the present time. The administration must know that if there were real democracies in the Middle East they would probably be led by people unfriendly to the U.S.. Someone brought up the point in class the theory that democracies are nicer and more peaceful and don't engage in conflict, but without going into too much theory, most people are thinking about Western Europe and the U.S. and Japan and Australia when they say this, not the multitudes of newly-formed democracies in Eastern Europe, South America, and other parts of the world that often undergo far more instability and conflict than their authoritarian neighbors. From my classes at UGA I think the basic opinion is that the verdict is still out on whether or not democracies are more peaceful or not, and if you can even isolate that variable from other factors. I guess it could benefit the U.S. just as much to celebrate the cosmetic changes in Egypt or elsewhere while maintaining an ally that is likely to stay in power and can be persuaded with aid.

Oh goodness, it's been a rough month for me and political systems. : ) Even my staunch belief in proportional representation and the democracies of Western Europe took a hit with Germany's crisis earlier this month. Don't worry, for even though Political Science seems determined to drain every ounce of idealism out of its students, I'm not giving in, just hopefully getting smarter. After all, as I recently remembered, you can't keep a girl down who used to sign letters "Peace, love, and sunshine" and wrote a "What I would do as President" manifesto in 2nd grade.

I say all this when my class that really makes me want to lose faith in the world is a few hours away. You're lucky I'm writing this post now and not later : ) Last week after watching a depressing movie called "The Hunger Business" about relief operations I began trying to write out all my thoughts and observations about how large parts of humanitarian organizations function just like the military. You'll have to ask me about that one in person... I haven't figured out how to begin evaluating what I've been learning and what it means for my interests yet.

If commercialism, dubious democracy and failures of humanitarianism threaten to bring you down, just imagine getting out of a cab and seeing a man walk by with a cart of small and large, pointy, shiny hats with streamers for the kids to wear. If only I had had some money with me! They were awesome. You can also imagine listening to The Beatles, because that is what I'm doing right now and it makes me happy.

Peace, love and sunshine,

Helen "George is my favorite" S.

My time at Giza

2005-10-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

Did you know there is a Barbie with "Muslim values"? Maybe there should be a Ken doll with "Family Values"

2005-10-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

I just saw that J.Crew online has a shirt that has "jellaba" as part of the title. The jellaba, or gellabia as it is pronounced in Egyptian colloquial, is the long dress-looking garb of men and women that is loose fitting and has long sleeves. Not exactly a cute and hip see-through shirt with a plunging neckline, but this is fashion for you!

Only 4 days into Ramadan I decided to give up fasting. It was complicated, but my stomach threw the other, more philosophical, reasons over the edge. Being hungry was ok, but I have a notoriously sensitive stomach and I think being overseas causes enough stress for it without anything additional. I will still fast once in a while, but not with the same strictness. That aside, what is Ramadan like in Egypt, you ask?

Egyptians, or Cairenes, rather, are often looked down upon among the other Muslims for partying a little too hard during Ramadan. : ) People joke that because of all the sweets eaten after iftar, the breaking of the fast, right now around 5:30 at night, people actually gain weight. Eating, drinking, sexual activity, smoking, etc. are all forbidden during the hours between Suhoor (in the morning around 4:15 am when most Muslims wake up and eat a small breakfast) and Iftar, which leaves the technical questions about what is acceptable post-iftar. For many Muslims, it doesn't make sense to not smoke during the day and then smoke constantly during the evening, but for others this is what happens. Iftar is usually a big family event, with prayers followed by breaking the fast with a date (after the tradition of Mohammed) and then big dinners with lots of special Ramadan sweets. Ramadan is also paradoxically the biggest season of giving and the biggest season of buying; I saw a note in the paper about recording artists timing album releases for this time. Not so different from the Christmas season is it?

When coming to Egypt all the expats tell you that Ramadan is exciting for the first week and then it really stinks because there is nowhere to get food without feeling guilty and being culturally insensitive, cab drivers are especially irritable and it is harder to get taxis during the early evening and late evening, and that everything in general just feels off. All of this is true, but despite all of the shortcomings and obvious contradictions in belief and practice, I'm glad that I can be here to see what it is like. The "Ramadan season" if you will, still has not reached the commercial extremes of Christmas in the U.S. and I hope it never does.

My friend Padmini sent me a note about the Ramadan lamps pictured in my last post, and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it with you. Giving and hanging up lamps for Ramadan is, at least in Egypt, a longstanding tradition. Padmini shared an anecdote of Thomas Friedman in his latest book The World is Flat that the lamps used to be intricate and hand made and very beautiful, but due to safety concerns and economics the lamps are now much cheaper-looking and made in China.

Time to work on my 600 pages of this week's reading for my refugee class !!! I'm going to post a picture sometime of all of my readings stacked up. It's all extremely thought-provoking and great, although I usually have to have some hot chocolate or popcorn post-reading to convince myself that the world has some nice things in it.

I spent the past weekend in Alexandria enjoying the smaller city (still 5 million : ) ) life and clean air and first glimpses of the Mediterranean sea. It was much cooler and helped curb my jealousy of everyone getting the beginnings of fall. Two weekends ago after reports that my Grammy's art show in Gainesville had been great and that she had won 2nd place (go Grammy!) I wanted to be back in the US pretty badly to get to do all the fun fall things, but cooler weather here helps curb that urge.

Ramadan lamps

2005-10-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

My glass is all the way full

2005-10-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

Today begins Ramadan. Before I launch into a brief explanation that involves phrases like "lunar year" and "not eating," I have to say I am so awed when I think about the fact that there are now houses and cities and countries full of people who are all committed to giving up eating, drinking, smoking, sexual activity, and bad thoughts every day for a month. I can't really comprehend that or stop thinking about the magnitude of Ramadan. Being here causes it to both gain and lose some of that mysteriousness that accompanied my vague idea of "The Five Pillars of Islam" and what Ramadan was, but my optimism has not subsided in my belief of this month and the possibilities it offers for renewal, self-reflection, and servanthood.

I've been lost in thought now for so long that I just realized class is two minutes away from beginning! Oh how quickly I fall into the practical realities of not eating or drinking.... sigh. Explanations will follow, but if you know any Muslims, greet them with "Ramadan Kareem!"

Halas!

2005-10-02T01:41:00.000-07:00

I just sent one of my first "You haven't treated me right and I'm going to bring this to your attention" emails. The International Affairs department has not fulfilled any of their advising promises to me, even after multiple emails, and because registration starts in a day or two, I decided to take action. This might not seem like much, but I think this can be directly related to my growing skill at arguing with taxi drivers. This morning we had a particularly rough one, who sped up after we got out and swerved into the road that Jayanthi was crossing into, almost knocking her back. (Here, Helen shakes her pointer finger, gives a stern look and says "Mish Munasiba" not appropriate!) Up until this point I was just thinking I didn't get enough sleep, but the taxi driver swung me into day mode. Jayanthi had begun arguing with our usual, "Every day it is 3 pounds from Agouza to Tahrir. In the day and in the night. I live here, I know." (I promise we think this sounds a little better in heated Arabic : ) ) I walked over there with my mom face on and I shook that little pointer finger and used a new line "Today is not different from any other day. Halas! (Finished! Over! Done!)" Everything was done in full colloquial with determined looks from Jayanthi and I and we won over passerbys and policeman who told the driver to move on. I must inform you that I felt extremely triumphant and radiant on my way to class.

Oh Cairo, you make me feisty.

I can't wait to tell you about my weekend, which involved eating with an Egyptian family and drinking 5 different beverages from dinner on, keeping me up incredibly late. : ) As for now, I must tame myself and learn about 19th century Arabic poetry.

they never go in the order I tell them to!

2005-10-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

Little Blue Riding Hood

2005-10-01T03:45:00.000-07:00

Pictures of Cairo's rooftops from a tower. Helen and Lisa after a steep climb has loosened their hijabs. (You have to cover your hair in the mosques- we don't walk around like this, although sometimes it would be really nice to.) As always, photos courtesy of Jayanthi's better camera and good eye. I haven't loaded my pictures on the computer yet.

Al-Azhar

2005-10-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

Pictures inside Al-Azhar Mosque, built in 900 AD, and considered either the oldest or second-oldest University in the world.

Everyone loves Mubarak and Helen pretending it is fall

2005-09-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

The Days of Salem and Al-Jazeera

2005-09-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-28T04:03:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-28T03:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

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 ?.

2005-09-22T03:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-20T00:34:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-19T01:21:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

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"

2005-09-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Don't be shy about commenting! It doesn't have to relate to the blog. (Obligatory Helen is a wee bit lonely note to guilt you into flooding my inbox : ) )

Address will be up soon.

My Allah and My Country: Iraqi Scout Leaders Unite!

2005-08-31T04:22:00.000-07:00

In the span of two days I have been to two of Cairo's most famous institutions. The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities and the Khan el Khalili Bazaar. You are probably familiar with the former as the home of many ancient Egyptian artifacts that Britain didn't keep, as well as the site of King Tut! (I was convinced he was on tour, but I was thankfully mistaken) The latter is also now unfortunately familiar to those of you who have been keeping track of the bombings. Before you join my mom and ask me why on earth I went to a site where a bomb exploded, you must know it is impossible to be in Egypt and not go to one of the greatest cultural and economic centers in the city. I promise I felt completely safe in all areas, and that I saw many, many policemen, including one who made Jayanthi and I pay more for our taxi.
The Museum was quite wonderful as well; my cousin Ashley's comments about the layout were certainly noticed. My friend Annie could tell us more about the different understandings of the word 'museum' in other places, everything from what should go into a museum to how the narratives should reflect upon history, etc. As Ashley warned me, there was a haphazard approach to displaying the artifacts and how they were maintained. Statues would be very nicely laid out with little cards bearing information, and then right behind them you could find crates and chairs and large pieces of stone with hieroglyphics lying on their side. One mummy case had a visible humidy gauge, yet most parts of the museum had windows open or varying temperatures, to say the least. I did find one "don't touch" sign, but found plenty more people touching to their hearts content. It worries me that statues or artefacts from King Tut's tomb could last for centuries, only to fall apart in an institution meant to preserve them. (King Tut and his gold and jewelry seem to be very carefully watched) It really was quite a spectacular museum, and these observations were clearly secondary to the immensity and magnitude of this great civilization. Very stunning and a humbling reminder that our own civilization isn't so secure. Wandering in the Khan and seeing multitudes of cheap plastic things or ugly and of poor quality clothes made me question how much the generations of the future will be interested in our junk.
One of my favorite things that I saw at the museum had nothing to do with artifacts, but everything to do with a large group of people with Iraqi Council badges on and cards indicating they were from the Council/League of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Jayanthi and I were really excited and really wanted to talk to them, but were too nervous and then had second thoughts. I don't like lying about where I am from, but looking at these normal, almost Egyptian looking men and women... and thinking about one of the reasons we were so excited to see something like Iraqi Boy and Girl Scouts... I just don't think it would be very easy for me to tell them that I'm American. Uh, and moving on from that note...
I registered for classes yesterday, which was initially an extremely upsetting and difficult process, but looking back on it, I hope that things worked out like they should. The Arabic level into which I placed is right between the levels that are available to take at an intensive speed, so my carefully drawn out plans to take an Intensive Arabic course were thwarted. However, now I will be taking an Egyptian colloquial class in addition to my regular Arabic class, which may result in the far better result of me being able to speak with people. Al hamdu lillah. Tonight I will be looking for an apartment (please please please let this one work out!) and getting a cell phone, in sha Allah. My other courses are Middle Eastern Comparative Politics, Intro to Development, and Modern Arab Literature in Translation. I'll let you know how I like them when I start next Monday at 8 am. Starting tomorrow I'll be in study abroad orientation on campus and then at the Red Sea from Friday until Sunday.

Faux- guesting and bootie shorts

2005-08-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

From time to time I think it will be nice to have some 'guest' bloggers, or at least share some thoughts I have gathered from other students or Egyptians. My colloquial teacher has included a lot of cultural advice in all of her lectures ( most times responding to our limitless questions about proper behavior), and I thought it was very interesting. Though she does not wear a hijaab (the head scarf - but no veil in front of the face) she is a 54- year old Professor who describes herself as religious and old-fashioned. I still don't know quite how to read that; I haven't talked with enough Egyptians to make any kind of judgements on to what extent her opinions are widely shared (though I expect many are).

Some of her quotes in class:

" I don't lift my eyes to my husband's friend in the street unless he addresses me first... and you want to address women with your blond hair and blue eyes? Never."

Her response to a fellow classmate's questions on whether or not it was appropriate for him to say hello or ask women questions in the street.

" AUC? The people you see on the way out are not Egyptian. I'm speaking for the 99 percent of Egyptians."

I can't really comment on this one- though University education in Egypt is free, so students who come to AUC tend to be wealthy.

"Egyptians have the highest phone bills in the world."

(In response to the question "Do women vote?" ) "Yes, but they remember to cook breakfast first. The husband is more important than any election."

In response to international pressure (i.e. the US) and probably other factors, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt announced earlier this year that an election will be held for his office on September 7th, 2005. I don't think anyone has doubts about him commencing his 22nd year in office, but there are opposition candidates, though I have seen no evidence of them.

"Islam is all about treatment: how you treat other people. What you see all over the news is not Islam."

We also talked at length about many other cultural norms that will no doubt come up in future posts. Two days ago I taxed her because in a discussion about marriage and qualifications for women ( among other things virginity is essential- in Shari'a ,Islamic Law, it is legal for a man to kill his wife if he finds she is not a virgin after marriage) I was asking about expectations for male virginity (there are none), and many other students were chiming in as well about the discrepancies. Perhaps as payback, or, more seriously, a reminder of how so many American standards seem as horrifying to Egyptians, we discussed homes for the elderly. In Egypt, though she reports the waiting lists for these kinds of institutions are becoming longer, it is still considered shameful for the elderly to be apart from their children. She explained that it made the children look like they were ungrateful for being cared for when they were children and had no patience or generosity to return the favor for their parents.

That is all for now. I went to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities today, which will merit another post, but I cannot resist posting that I saw two women wearing shorts that were clearly designed to reveal what most shorts are designed to conceal. I felt awkard. I was pleased to note that most of the museum's visitors were conservatively attired.

P.S. I heard a rumor that Shakira is coming to Cairo! ( I.e. "Extremely beautiful Colombian singer with an incredible body and moves like you have never seen might be igniting the hearts of Egyptian men, and lets face it, women too, in Cairo soon." )
P.P.S. I had my first falafel!!!!! A sandwich was essentially 25 cents. I think Egypt has America beat now for cheap, unhealthy food.

Sincerely,

Girl waiting for her stomach to realize it is now in Egypt.

The restaurant moved back to Lebanon

2005-08-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

Oh. There is so much to say! Once I have a bed and computer access I will share more, but my friend Jayanthi and I are taking a short visit to the internet cafe to relieve the exhaustion of trying to find somewhere to eat. My Rough Guide to Egypt, which in general is pretty great, gave us the name of a Lebanese restaurant in the area of Heliopolis, which is "close" to where I am staying, in Nasser City. After I came home from my colloquial class, I had told Jayanthi that I really wanted to go eat in a restaurant, since I hadn't yet and I was restless to eat something other than peanut butter and banana sandwiches and take out koshri. Hence, we hop in a cab and give general directions to the cab driver. 45 minutes later we are continually stopping and asking people for help= unfortunately all Egyptians tell you where to go even if they have no idea- not a good thing for lost people or restaurants : ) 2 more taxi cabs and 2 hours later, we are back. Hmm. Something was definately just lost in translation. That paragraph did nothing to communicate the frustrations of arguing for a fair taxi rate in Arabic, the small victories of making a joke about the restaurant going back in Lebanon, the bumper to bumper traffic and exhaust coming in through the window, and the beautiful fruit stands and people milling about. As Jayanthi just told me as she walked up - "I'm definately going to need Gilmore Girls tonight."

Me too. : )

Such is Egypt!

Blog like an Egyptian?

2005-08-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

I'm here! Though the beautiful sights of Munchen from my airplane made me want to stay in Germany, I have officially arrived in the heart of the Middle East. The view from the airplane surprised me in its overwhelming smoginess and juxtaposition of tall apartment buildings and then huge sand pits. No question Cairo is in the desert. I know that probably sounds dumb, but even if you know not to expect topsoil and trees, it still comes as a shock.
A few hours into my stay in Cairo I have already stared at a map looking for appropriate apartment-search zones with a friend of Jayanthi's in the apartment in which we will stay for one or two nights until we have our own place. (Jayanthi is a fellow UGA student who was here over the summer and is my wonderful tour guide). Like my first time in NYC, the neighborhood names are strange but quick to come- I already know that Zamalek is full of ipods and ambassadors, that Maadi is way too expensive for us, and Mohandesseen is on the western side of the Nile, whereas Garden City and Heliopolis are on the eastern side. And that is just the beginning! I wonder how long it will take me to develop that confidence that only comes from foreigners or outsiders that in reality still have no idea what is going on, but can at least pretend they do to newcomers.
Of course I have no idea what is in store for tomorrow, outside of plans to look for an apartment in an area known as Dokki across the Nile from the American University in Cairo. I'll elaborate on that process after I have actually gone through it- but I think it's kind of a door to door type bargaining thing.

I'm off to go to sleep- comments suggesting a good name would be much appreciated. The suggested names are Long Sleeves, Blog Like an Egyptian, and e-Papyrus.

Sincerely,

Uncreative titler.