Back to Giza

Today we got up to go horseback riding, after Diana and I had a sleepover with Asha the night before. Omar took us to his friend Karim's house and we were able to ride horses through the desert at the low low price of five american dollars! Although, at the start I had a horse that had a hurt leg so he kept tripping when we walked. I tried to explain this to the guides but they seemed to think it was perfectly fine. I was so nervous to gallop with him once we got onto the sand. But he ran pretty well, and I got to talk to Diana on the phone while galloping! Haha! Before that Ruthie slid off her horse because her girth wasn't one tight enough, and Andrew and Sonja's horses simultaneously sat down to roll on the ground. It was pretty amusing!

Once we reached the plateau, we were able to see the once again amazing view of the pyramids. We all took some pictures, had some refreshments and hung out only to hop back onto the horses. I made sure to get a different horse this time and we had a great ride back, even though he was a little stubborn.

Once back from the desert, Omar's friend Karim took us to his family bazaar where he gave everyone really great deals. I wasn't really feeling any of the stuff, but we all ended up getting free gifts, so that was cool!

Of course, what happened next.. Omar was hungry! Go figure! So we headed over to this restaurant that had a beautiful view of the pyramids and we had a feast of seafood, veggies, and pita. And of course, my fav, watermelon!

The drive back was nice and sweaty, so as soon as we got back to Zamalek we showered a bit and napped before heading over to Versailles with people.

Alexandria

Our morning started early at 7:30 AM, of course Diana and I slept way through our alarm. But we were able to make it and took the long van ride to Alexandria. First stop on our list was the Qaitbay Citadel. We spent a lot of time walking around the citadel with Karim, Abduh's son, as our guide. The view was absolutely amazing and the weather was perfect, a little hot but bearable. If only I could have gotten into the Mediterranean right then, that would have been glorious. Everyone got a little nuts and we took some pretty sweet pictures, I know I was on some sort of sleep deprivation high, who knows!


After exploring the citadel we headed over to the catacombs where we weren't allowed to bring cameras. We saw secret tombs where Kings and Queens and whoever else was buried, and some art work to fake out intruders. Then once we emerged from underground our van was met with police men who wouldn't let us leave without the second part of our group. Our van then had to wait until the other group went in and out of the catacombs. But we hung out and had a good ol' time in the van waiting for the other group.Once we were all ready to head out of there and go to the fish market for lunch, we realized that there wasn't enough time to drive, eat, and get to the Alexandria Library in time for our tour.
Joyce to the rescue, got everything in order and we were able to get into the Library for free after a minor waiting period. We were shown the reading room which had green and blue lights on the ceiling to ease the eyes. There were huge windows everywhere that were used to allow natural light into the Library. The magnitude of this library was ridiculous, 11 floors of resources with hundreds of computers, desks, and over six hundred thousand books even though the capacity was close to 8 million. We found out that the library contained an "Espresso Book Machine" which could create a book from any previous copy. They are still working out the logistics of it but it seemed like a great idea. Then on to two exhibits where we were able to relax and enjoy the Alexandrian history. The rare books room following the exhibits was amazing, with all types of old manuscripts, bibles, qurans, papyrus, everything. Then onto the panorama view of Culturama, a nine screen interactive display of Egypt basically. We got a look inside temples and tombs we had visited right from our seats!

When the tour finished and I was ready to keel over, we headed over to the fish market for dinner. We were too big of a group to go to the fish market, so we ended up in the neighboring grill where I had some yummy calamari and french fries and salad bar. I made sure to get nice and filled up for the long drive back to Cairo.

I took a nice nap on the way home, so I was up and ready for all of us to hang out that night. A bunch of us squeezed into me and Diana's room to watch Aladdin and of course SINGALONG!
Then as what normally tends to happen, Omar got hungry. So we headed to his favorite burger place, Route 66 in Maadi with seven of us squished in the car. Alyssa and I in the front, April, Asha, Diana, Andrew, and Drew. These burgers were HUGE but I can't say they were very delicious. Then back to the Hotel Flamenco by around 3:30 AM. Off to bed!

Whirling Dervishes

Tonight we went to a show in downtown Cairo to see the Whirling Dervishes, which is a form of Muslim Sufi mysticism. "The Whirling Dervishes trace their origin to the 13th century Ottoman Empire. The Dervishes, also known as the Mevlevi Order, are Sufis, a spiritual offshoot of Islam."We had learned all about them in our World Religions class fall semester so I know April, Grace, and I were pretty excited. It was absolutely amazing to watch and I was so impressed. I don't even think pictures do it justice.
After the show, Diana, Ruthie, Sonja, Alyssa, Cynthia, and I headed over to Goals for some late night food before Cynthia left us for the weekend. We enjoyed some food and juice and shisha and met up with Ziko and Omar. After saying goodbye to Cynthia, of course Ziko and Omar didn't want to stay in one place for very long so we went to this beautiful look out point in Muquttam. There you could see all of the city and the lights, it was so pretty. But apparently women don't go there very often so the boys were very protective of us. We managed to take some fun pictures, eat some corn and take in the view nonetheless. Great night!

Second Dialogue and Felucca

I found our second dialogue at the fulbright building to go a lot smoother than the first. Everyone was a lot more comfortable with each other, especially since some of us had hung out with people like we had with Lyna, Ziko, and Omar. My group couldn't really get organized enough to discuss one topic, everyone kind of formed groups to talk about things and the moderator didn't stop us but I think it still went well. The dinner on the roof was good and we spent most of the time up there deciding what we were going to do after. We all settled on going on a felucca ride! YAY! I seriously love felucca rides, they are perfection when it comes to experiencing and reflecting on Cairo. So we squished into a couple cars and headed over to the side of the Nile to catch a ride. There was music and dancing and it seemed like everyone had a really great time. Tons of pictures taken, then after we went to Maadi for food and ended up at flamenco sometime in the early morning hours.

Islamic Cairo

Today we had our tour of Islamic Cairo with Iman who was an amazingly intelligent tour guide. As soon as we got off the vans at the first mosque I saw Grace's family and got really excited, so I ran over and gave everyone hugs and kisses. But anyway, the first of the three mosques was Ibn Tulun, a very simple but incredibly beautiful site. The next two were the mosques of Hassan and Mohammad Ali. The Hassan Mosque was extremely intricate and when used it had places for dorms for students of the various sects of the religion. The mosque of Mohammad Ali was extremely decorated and I found it completely distracting from the whole idea of prayer.

Overall I find mosques to be so tranquil and soothing. Despite the fact that I was already extremely tired from the crazy night before, I found that I could have just sat in the mosque for hours, meditating and calming my nerves. It's a beautiful feeling.
The day before April, Drew, Andrew, and I got to spend some quality time with Lyna who took us to a great pizza place -- Papa John's! I wasn't expecting her to take us there when we told her to take us for good pizza, but it ended up being such a nice place. Real fine dining, which is weird compared to the ones in the states. But I enjoyed being able to hang out with Lyna one on one and learn about her life in Egypt, she's definitely a great girl.





Sunday morning I slept in real late until Diana woke me up to go to lunch with Ted and Oscar at Cafe Vivant. We spent a good amount of time there just talking and hanging out until Diana had to go to the clinic because, guess what, she had TONSILITIS! yummmmm
But they got her some antibiotics and despite some people's warnings, she went out with us to El Fishawy in Khan el Khalili with Omar, Ziko, Ruthie, Sonja, Drew, Andrew, Cynthia, etc... We had some shisha, amazing cinnamon drinks, and a nice round of spin the bottle which turned out to actually be truth or dare. Then we headed over to Heliopolis for some ice cream and then back to Zamalek for an early day of classes.

April's Birthday Celebration!

April's Birthday began on the evening of After the Arab League we decided to go out and have some fun. We weren't sure what we were going to do but eventually we ended up with some friends at the Cairo Jazz Club. April, Me, Alyssa, Grace, Asha, and Diana enjoyed the Jazz Club's rock and roll night where we got to hear Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, The Rolling Stones, etc. It was a perfect start to April's birthday and we made sure to celebrate at midnight, knowing full well that the celebration would continue until the time that her birthday ended in the states, because of the time difference.

Friday morning we woke up early to go to Giza to ride horses!!!! I was so pumped, it had been awhile since I've gone horseback riding so I was ready to go! I went with a small group of people so it turned out to be really nice. My horse was BEAUTIFUL! Some people opted for camels and we headed out into the desert. It was so amazing just to ride the horse though the desert, wind in my hair, I know it sounds cheesy but it was perfect.



On the way back to Zamalek we made sure to sing Happy Birthday to April again!! She seemed sooo happy. After getting back Diana and I took a very long, amazing nap. It was sooo refreshing. Then we met up with April and Alyssa for dinner at Cafe Vivant, of course we made April where the tiara around so everyone was calling her princess or Queen Elizabeth!

On our walk back we met up with Ted and Oscar and went over to Goals with them, and Oscar was very gracious and treated us to shisha and juice. Then going home for what we think is the second and last time, we talk to Ted who tells us to go into his room where we find about 15 people who turn us around and tell us we're going out! Nobody knew where we were going but we followed anyway and ended up 8 people squished in Muhammed's car to go to the club. But while Muhammed was backing out we backed into another car and was spotted by some of the cops that stay along the street. None of us knew what to do and just ended up staying in the car. Funny thing was, no one even cared that there were 8 people jammed into this little car but there were some other issues and eventually we all got out of the car and left. That ended our night as we walked back down the street to the Flamenco hotel.

Good birthday April? I'd say so!

US Embassy and Arab League

Today we got nice and dressed up for class because we were going on tours of the US Embassy and Arab League after class. But before we could do that, Syonara gave us our first quiz. (10/10) I was pretty pumped. Because we were all dressed up we decided to take some pictures once class was over, Joyce was all about that plus I caught her taking some sneaky pictures of us during class, while I was playing snake on my cell phone instead of paying attention haha! Oops!

Before walking over the Embassy, the girls and I stopped at Fel Fel Beih where we got our awesome sandawitsh Ta9miyya (Falafel Sandwich) for only two pounds! So gooood!! They even had things on the sandwich that almost resembled pickles! So I was content.

Once we made the sweaty walk over to the embassy from the AUC, we had to pass through some pretty tight security. We could only walk in in groups of 3 and most of my electronics were confiscated, well all of them actually. A guy named Assem (pronounced Awesome!) led us through the building into the library where we sat through a presentation given by three Americans where served as Foreign Service Personnel in Egypt. Honestly, to be perfectly blunt it was a load of BS! Listening to them ramble about the sense of pride they feel when on stage with the American flag behind them, yada yada yada, it was all too well rehearsed and completely fake. Then, we had to listen to some guy discuss the AMAZING resources we have available to find dissertations and theses - tell me how that is relevant?! Whatever.

On to the Arab League, but first there was about a two hour gap before our tour so we hung out around the Nile Hilton Hotel and laughed at the overpriced food and gifts. After eating a way too expensive croissant to get me through the meeting, we went to the Arab League and were greeted by Hisham Youssef the Chief de Cabinet for Amr Moussa, the Sec. General of the Arab League. He gave us a brief introduction and then left the floor open for anyone to ask questions, leaving most subjects untouched. We discussed Israel and Palestine and U.S. involvement, Darfur, women in the Arab world and Hisham Youssef was very eager to answer all questions pertaining to these subjects.

Next we were led into the main hall of the Arab League where we proceeded to take soooo many pictures. It was a lot of fun in there and we were able to talk to Hisham Youssef and take pictures on a friendlier level.
The visit ended up being a lot better than I would have expected and definitely became an upper to the downer US embassy.

Life in Zamalek

The days have been passing by much quicker than I ever would have expected. Right now we are already in our second week of classes. So let's talk about what's been going on in Zamalek up until now.

I have to say, I'm so happy living in Zamalek. The way we were prepared, I expected so much worse from Egypt and I'm glad to be underwhelmed. The area is a perfect place to experience culture, while still being extremely safe. So starting off in Zamalek, I was assigned my new roommate, Diana! Crazy girl, I must say. As you can see from the picture I put up from her one woman photo shoot with my camera. Haha. She's a great person to explore Egypt with because she's pretty much up for anything. Our first day of classes turned out to be a lot of fun. I am in love with my arabic teacher Syonara. She's such a great person and I'm glad to be able to spend so much time with her. After classes ended on the first day, we went to our orientation for the service learning part of the trip. We learned that our mission was to lend our help to a community called Establ Antar, and illegal community in Cairo that has limited resources and a very low standard of living. Our jobs would be to help in the workshops that our NGO has set up for Establ Antar, including knitting centers and a carpet training company. There is also an option to help a man's glassblowing company located in Establ Antar.
On Tuesday, May 13 we were all able to visit the knitting workshop in Muqattam and the carpet company. Muqattam seemed like a great place for women - widowed and married - to work on making things that could be turned into profit. The workshop had an array of kitchen knit wear as well as some clothes. I thought that it would be a really great place to help out. We also went to the carpet factory which ended up being extremely awkward for most of us. We were shown around
the factory where children and adults alike work on creating these beautiful carpets. Once the tour was over, most of us were wondering what we would be able to contribute to this company which seemed to be well established. The woman that showed us around simply answered that she was looking for "new markets and clientele". That didn't sound like service learning to me! So we were all a little taken aback by this.

After the visits and the response that most of us gave, Cynthia and Prof. Sullivan had to take some time to re-evaluate the projects and decide if all of them would be worthwhile and worthy of some sort of grade. By the end of the week we found out that there would be three groups, one working in the knitting workshop, and one in the glassblowing home where we could help take pictures of products and put them on a designed website so that these places could begin to market their inventory. We weren't sure what the people at the carpet place would be doing, but that group just played it by year.

In the mean time, I was having a really big problem - lack of clothing! I know that the simple solution to this problem would be to do laundry, but HA!, that turned out to be a lot harder than it sounds. Of course there's no real place for us to do our own laundry, and looking at the hotel list, doing laundry with them would be very expense with the amount that I had piled up. So what did Diana and I decide to do, being the smart and innovative college kids that we are.. oh just look:

Oh yes, that's right.. laundry in the bathtub! It seemed like an AMAZING idea at the time, until we were left with a huge pile of soaking laundry and no place to put it! So you can imagine what our bathroom has looked like with all sorts of clothes hanging from everywhere, the cleaning people probably think we are NUTS! But things are starting to dry, so we should be all set very soon! Haha

The next couple days we had more classes with Syonara, and I was soooo excited that I can actually read and write arabic script now! It's definitely a good feeling. I wanted to call my mom right up in the middle of class and tell her how proud I was of myself! Haha

After the entire week of 4 hour classes per day, we got some time on the weekend to relax and lay low. A lot of my time was spent lounging and catching up on sleep since getting up at 7:45 AM is something I haven't done in quite some time, probably around first semester. We did go to the City Stars Mall, which is the largest mall in the Middle East. It was so americanized, I mean it was no King of Prussia, but all of seven floors of it was pretty nice. We got to meet Diana's friend Maureen who lives here in Egypt and has been for the last 6 or 7 years. Just walking around the mall and exploring turned out to be a lot of fun. And Saturday we got to relax even more and have a great dinner at Abduh and Hayaam's house were Hayaam made us koshari, southern fried chicken, french fries, pita, etc, etc.. all of which was SOOO good! I couldn't stop eating, especially since one of my absolute favorite foods is chicken cutlets and that's basically what Hayaam had made! After that meal, I was ready to take on more classes on Sunday! That's so weird to say, classes on Sunday, Sunday in Egypt no longer = weekend. :-(

After finishing classes and everything Sunday, we started our first service learning on Monday. I decided to help the knitting workshop in Muquttam. Our plan was to split our group in two, so that half focused on the products and descriptions that we needed to incorporate onto the website and the other group was focused on interviewing and gathering information about the workshop in order to describe it on the website for the viewers. I was pretty much in charge of taking all of the pictures, so we had to set up each product to be photographed as well as all the different swatches of fabrics that the product could come in. All of the things they make there are absolutely beautiful, and I can't wait to go back when I have money and buy everything up. We made a great friend there, Fadwa, who helped us with all the products and was an overall great person to be around. A very big help! :-)



Fadwa wanted to take all sorts of pictures with us, and we were more than happy to get into some photos!

On our way out we also talked with a group of young boys that were hanging around the workshop, they were also there to greet us when we first got there. Two of them were wearing New York Yankees' hats so Alyssa and April, the New Yorker's, were super excited. Even though I don't think the boys even knew what they were really wearing. But nonetheless they were absolutely adorable and fun.
Overall, the first days in Zamalek have turned out to be a blast! Between visiting the people at longchamps, going out to local places, meeting egyptians, and exploring the city, things have been going pretty great.

Last night we attended a "Dialogue" at the Fulbright Commission where we were able to talk with Egyptian students about an array of topics. The conversation started out a little slow in the groups, especially because a big topic was Foreign Policy, which I didn't have much to contribute to. But things started to pick up, and by the end of it we were all exchanging phone numbers and facebook names. We're supposed to go out with our new friend Lyna on Wednesday, so that should be awesome!

Things are shaping up pretty good in Zamalek! :]

Big Update!

Okay let's get up to speed with everything that has been going on since the last post.

At night after exploring the three religions of Cairo, we went on our first felucca ride down the Nile. The view was absolutely amazing, and everyone had been feeling a little drained so the relaxing ride really hit the spot. I think that floating down the Nile on the felucca was a completely perfect way to experience Cairo. It was the first time since I've been here that I felt like I could relax entirely, I didn't have to think about anything - where we have to go, what we have to do - nothing, it was so nice.

But the peaceful night took a little turn for the worst as we were escorted back to the hotel by one of our cops/escorts/guys with big guns. We were supposed to just take a walk over the bridge and then catch a taxi back to the Flamenco, but instead we walked for what seemed like forever trying to get back. We shimmied down the side of bridge, stopped traffic, and got honked at more times than I could count. Thankfully, we ended up back in the hotel and then we had a great time at the restaurant Versailles for a couple hours, then back to the hotel where I slept for a very, very long time.

May 4
Happy birthday President Mubarak! haha
Sunday was a lazy day because of the call for protests on the president's birthday.
We spent most of our time hanging around the hotel, until we hopped in the buses and went to Abduh's house for dinner. Hayaam made an amazing array of food for all of us to eat, and it was great to just sit back, eat, and enjoy everyone's company. I hadn't been feeling well before we left, but Hayaam's food definitely hit the spot. After dinner we enjoyed a nice drive with the "wawawa" song playing about 400 times. Then off to bed early for Sakkara in the morning!

May 5

Today was our visit to Sakkara, the first and oldest pyramid in Egypt. I was a little underwhelmed, just because we had visited the Giza pyramids prior, but of course I have a complete appreciation for the beauty and mastery of the pyramid. Then after Sakkara we went to Dahshur, a pyramid that we got to climb inside.

The climb up to the middle of the pyramid, then down to the center was a whole lot of exercise. Inside there wasn't really anything but rocks, but how many people can say they have climbed inside a pyramid?! Well the 30 people that are on the trip can, but other than them! We also saw the “Bent” Pyramid. After getting the feeling back in my legs and bringing my body temperature down to a normal level we headed to the train station for our overnight train to Aswan. The food was AWFUL! (See pictures) But luckily we brought snacks. We watched Aladdin, which seemed extremely appropriate.

May 6
I didn't get much sleep and we got to Aswan about 3 or 4 hours late, but luckily we had the day to lounge by the beautiful pool next to the Nile. Of course I lathered up on sunscreen, since the Aswan sun was a lot hotter than the one in Cairo. After the pool, we took another felucca ride down a different part of the Nile. The view was absolutely beautiful, the sand, the gardens, everything. I especially liked the McDonald's on the Nile.. oh globalization, how do you do it?!

Then we spent the night having a great seafood dinner at Chef Khalil. Although I didn't really enjoy walking through the market, since it was impossible not to hear "Spicy Girl", "How many camels?".. or some variation of those cat calls.

May 7
After the relaxing day, we got up nice and early to visit the Unfinished obelisk, Philae Temple, and Aswan high dam. At first none of us could see the obelisk and were really confused, but once we got up high enough it looked pretty cool. The Philae temple was beautiful, and seemed like an amazing engineering masterpiece, as well as the Dam.

After the long day of site visits, we headed out on a boat ride to a Nubian home. The boat ride was perfect, so relaxing and beautiful. There were beautiful children everywhere at the Nubian village and the cutest little boy in a Neil Young shirt.. haha. I liked spending time there, the people were inviting and the atmosphere was great. We all road back from the village on top of the boat and while most of the group went to a Nubian restaurant, April, Alyssa, Ted, and I went back to the hotel and then to the market. A man offered Ted his grandmother and wanted to marry April. I didn't appreciate some of the cat calls, but a lot of it was in good humor. We really wanted to go swimming but by the time we got back the pool was closed so we sat on the deck and ordered food, then to bed.

May 8
It was an early morning for us since we had to join the caravan of buses to Luxor.

During the ride we made a couple stops at the Kom Ombo and Edfu temples. Then we arrived at the beautiful, five star Luxor hotel where we lounged by the pool that was actually on the Nile! Lunch by the pool, and a lazy night where me and Grace spent most of it in bed.

May 9

Today turned out to be an even early morning - 5:30 AM wake up call. Yuck! We headed out for the Valley of the Kings before the afternoon heat could get to us. First was a walk through the tomb of Ramses VI, with the color of the craftsmanship well preserved and completely gorgeous. Then to King Tut's tomb, where we could see his mummified body and his famous sarcophagus. Then the hike up to and down into the tomb of Tuthmoses III which had multiple rooms and stairs. Then two more tombs, with out Ramses in them.. equally as beautiful. Then to the Queen Hatshepsut's temple, the one and only female king. Temple was carved into the side of a mountain, directly opposite to the Valley of the Kings. This was followed by our visit to Medina Habu Temple, and then finally to the Colossi of Memnon where Asha and I were offered a fertility statue.. with male parts and all.. for a low, low price of one million dollars! Then a break to explore Luxor, where we took the carriage ride from hell, but ended up at the really nice Oasis Cafe. We toured the Luxor Temple at night and then a huge group of 23 of us went to dinner, then back to the hotel.

When we were on our way to dinner, we had some children approach us, asking for money which wasn't too out of the ordinary. I gave a girl a sugar packet that I had, she seemed to enjoy it a lot. But it got me to thinking about how I was raised, and how it's so different over here. Cardinal rule of childhood in America - don't talk to strangers, and yet the kids here try to sell to tourists, complete strangers, most of the day. They also come up to perfect strangers and ask for things. I would never have been able to walk to the streets near the Luxor Temple alone at night when I was that age. It just was definitely a culture difference that struck me weird when it happened on the way to dinner.
It's just different.

May 10
Another early, but not as early, morning so that we could beat the heat and explore the Karnak Temple. Now honestly, at this point I was completely sick of temples! But the Karnak was enormous in scale, and completely beautiful. After Michael's explanations, we got to relax in the maze of columns in one of the courtyards. We talked about how much we would miss our tour guide Michael, curly chest hair and all! haha! Then the day was free, and we lounged, we ate, but mostly lounged.. preparing ourselves mentally and physically for the second overnight train. It was a hard task killing the 8 hours we had in between, but we did it and headed to the Aswan train station around 8:00 PM.

Today
As of right now, I'm sitting at Cinnabon enjoying the free internet and catching up on this blog, massive amounts of e-mails, and picture uploads. The overnight train went a lot smoother last night than last time. Probably because of the dramamine I took that pretty much knocked me out. It's pretty annoying that we can't check into our hotel because we were too early, so we're just kind of floating around places close by until we get in.

Classes start tomorrow!