A Series of Firsts

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Sorry for the long delay in this post and its length. I have limited, actually no, wireless in my room so by the end of the day I have little to no motivation to go out to the lounge to add to this.

The theme of this post is firsts. We had our first week of classes, first trip, first "Oh my God I live here" moment, first new food.

To start with, I am taking 5 classes: Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic, which covers the non-native, formal Arabic that isn't spoken in the streets; an anthropology class about the peoples and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, which focuses on Israel and Palestine; an anth class titled Women, Islam and the State, which just screams "I am a Helene class!"; History of the Modern Middle East with a prof who calls me by my French name and lectures like a female Mr. Gilmore on the History Channel (this pop culture reference won't be understood by most adults); and lastly, art and architecture of Ancient Egypt with a prof who has the thickest accent I've heard here, talks super fast, and says anyways more times than I can count! I have a very interesting set of courses that will keep me busy and off the streets (which I almost feel is bad when you are abroad). I am kind of bummed that my Egyptian art prof isn't so great because I was really looking forward to that class. Oh well! My other classes make up for him thankfully.

As for AUC, the first week of classes is a joke! Most of them are cancelled because so many students change their classes around. Despite being a joke week, Arabic still met at 8AM everyday leaving me exhausted b/c I wasn't used to those early mornings and I seemed to still be suffering from jet lag. AUC is different from anything you'd expect out of a school in the Middle East. Everyone is well dressed, dressed to impress and dressed to judge. Girls are clad in skinny jeans tucked into their flat suede boots (also its the 60s here and they are that layered from the cold!), hair all done, tight shirts with a designer jacket over them, some bling and a big designer bag into which they put their lack of school supplies. All the pre-departure info tells us to bring loose clothes and stuff that’s easy to wash and won't get attention, but after a few hours at AUC, we are all trying to rush off to the mall for new clothes so we don't stand out as much. From looking at the main open areas, one would think that no one goes to class since there is the constant background noise of conversations coming from the platform (the plat). If they do come to class, they show up late with a coffee and without any books, notebooks, or pens. All of us study abroad students want to make friends with Egyptians, but it is very hard because they have their groups and they judge a bit and they aren't very open as a whole, but don't get me wrong. There are plenty of nice Egyptians and even other Middle Easterners, like my roommate who is Jordanian, who are very open and willing to make friends. Zaina, my roommate, is very nice and her friends always say hi to me and they all help me with my Arabic homework if I need it.

That week ended with our first trip, Alexandria. We were top leave at 9AM, but were late leaving the dorm, then late to leave AUC and ended up being about 2 hours behind by the time we left. In order to make up time, the bus never stopped for a bathroom break. We arrived in Alex only to find out that the travel agent changed our itinerary had changed mid trip and didn't share the changes with us. These delays and mess ups were just the start of a weekend that made us all hate traveling w/ 150 other students and with AUC. First, we went to the catacombs. They were really interesting b/c there was room where one could see the mixing of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art with the Egyptian god Horus (if I recall correctly) wearing a Roman army uniform. There were traces of Doric style pillars if one looked closely in the banquet hall. Because I picked up on all these things, I spent my entire time in Alex being picked on and asked the symbolism of the type of metal used for a railing or some other mocking art history question. Next, we had lunch in this big restaurant that served some mezze and then lots of meat! In fact, I had my first experience eating camel there. It was mixed with lamb to make the kofte and as a result I couldn't tell the difference. So I guess camel tastes like lamb. Afterwards, we went to the Library of Alexandria. This is not the one from Antiquity that was so famous. That has been destroyed and a new modern library was built. It is very sleek and clean and for the black, white, brown and tan interior, it felt warm. It was situated in a little open area with some modern sculpture right along the Med Sea giving us a nice view of sunset. Finally, we had free time after arriving at the hotel. My friends and I spent it walking along the water and then heading up a major shopping street before walking back along the water. We ended our night with a trip to a dive bar (yes, they exist in Egypt), but arrived there 20 minutes before it closed. They let us get in two rounds of beers before kicking us out. We then returned to the hotel and played around on the beach a bit. The next morning we went to see Pompeii Pillar, which was named after the city because it is believed that its ashes are on the top of the column. Then we went to the ancient theater before going to the highlight of the trip for most of us, Qaitbey Citadel. Situated right along the water, the sand colored citadel was the look out for the city and was a gorgeous building with great views of the Sea and Alex. Afterwards, we stopped at the "Fish Market" aka a fish restaurant for lunch before hitting the road. On our way out of town, one of the buses backed into or hit a street sign and cracked the window. The driver thought nothing of it and we left the city. Halfway home, that window broke and yet the bus didn't stop until we made a bathroom break and even then left it as it was. That right there is the finest example of welcome to Egypt and how things are just different here! What was a 3 hour drive at most turned into 5+ hours because of traffic coming back into Cairo. By the end of it, we were grumpy, hungry, and tired and still had homework to do. This plus the pyramids trip taught all of us never travel with AUC again unless it’s a small group!

This week wasn't too major. My girl friends and I decided to take a trip to Khan al-Khalili which is the main market in Cairo. There are two sides to it, the tourist side and the Egyptian side. We went to the tourist side and were bombarded by men trying to sell us anything and everything touristy for far more than it was actually worth. We did find a really nice scarf shop and ended up purchasing several. I found 2 pink/deep red/burgundy ones. He originally wanted 140LE for it, which is far too much!! I got him down to 70LE in the end and I still overpaid!

On Friday, we got up early for AUC's trip to the Pyramids and Saqqara. Shockingly, we left only 20 minutes late, and were greeted by our uber happy, perky and ready to go guide Marianne. It was surreal seeing the Pyramids. As you are driving to them you can spot them between the buildings and then you get there and you feel like they should almost be bigger but are at the same time huge. I still don't believe I was there and I probably won't until I take my first visitor there (likely Rosemary who will be adorably excited) and then it will hit me. Since it is AUC and Egypt, the Pyramids are a stressful and have us doing unnecessary bus loading and unloading. We had to get off the bus to get our tickets and go through the metal detectors that are never on in Egypt to have a chance to take a few pictures of the largest one before getting back on the bus to go to the parking lot between the large and medium ones where we got 30 minutes to roam, which meant 45-60 minutes before everyone was back on the bus and we were organized enough to move on to the panoramic view where we were given 20 minutes unless you were taking a camel ride which would end at the next bus/photo stop. We decided now would be a great time to ride a camel since AUC would handle the prices and we wouldn't get ripped off as American tourists. My first camel riding experience was frightening at the start b/c it has to get up and you are holding on for dear life hoping not to fall off while at a 45 degree angle until it gets its other set of legs unfolded and stands. There’s a lot of bouncing especially when it’s trying to run and at times you feel you could bounce off until you relax and just enjoy the ride, which was so cool!! I can't wait to go back and ride another one. Rosemary, get ready!! Then we went to the Sphinx roamed around the area where the funeral process was done apparently. We waited on the bus for about 45-60 minutes after our 30 minutes there because some kid decided to stay at the Sphinx for the classical music concert that was about to start and told one of the building in charge, but didn't make it clear that he wouldn't be joining us for the rest of the trip so we sat there waiting for him. As a result, we had to go straight to Saqqara because it closed at 4 before we got to eat lunch. This made everyone really grumpy, sleepy, and whiny. Saqqara was cool because you were able to see the Pyramids' prototype, the step pyramid. Also there was a colonnade hall and traces of the rest of the temple there under excavation or restoration. Saqqara has faced a beating apparently and may be closed. At 430, we finally got to lunch at a touristy place along the way. I got to experience more camel eating there! I just don't notice it anymore. I could've been eating it all along and totally overpaying for meals.

That night was a break from Egypt and all things Egyptian. Tim, a GW guy here, turned 21 at the start of the week. It is a tradition for him to have Indian food on his birthday so we went to a nice Indian restaurant in Mohandissen. Tim and two the Indian/Pakistani girls in our group picked out the meal and we enjoyed everything family style.

On Saturday, we went to the Citadel, the home of the Mamluk dynasty, which offered us great views of the city. We could even see the Pyramids all the way across Cairo. The view came with the opportunity to hear the chorus of Cairo taxis and all other vehicles honking their horns. (In Egypt, honking your horn says move, how dare you cut me off, go ahead, hello, you are pretty, goodbye, and/or want a taxi?) We also visited two mosques, one of which had corkscrew minarets and served as a stable at one point. The other one was built my Mohammad Ali and held his tomb in one corner. It was a beautiful mosque and I will upload some pictures soon or give you the link to my facebook albums. We then moved towards the heart of Islamic Cairo and went to al-Azhar mosque. The men who work at the mosque were very nice and gave us free pamphlets on Islam, one of which I already got at the Islamic Center in DC so its nice to see that they are consistent with their handouts all over the world. They even knew about Gary when they asked me where I was from! It’s sad that Gary is Indiana's reference over here. We attempted to find a shop that Blake and Taylor found the day before in the Egyptian side of Khan al-Khalili, but got lost and befriended a former AUC student who showed us around the market, found the shop we wanted, showed us how they make everything and then took us to his family's shops. It was really sweet and we hope to see him again in one of the AUC hotspots that he says he goes to. It was so cool seeing the Egyptian side of the market that was dirtier than you can image but also beautiful b/c it’s filled with mosques and old houses where people like Napoleon slept. I kind of want to go back but I don't know if I could find those spots again on my own.

This post is far too long now! More later!

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Comments

[Sherry]

So good to hear all your adventures and there have been many already. Camel meat..hmmm. Well protein is protein? Everything here fine. More snow tonight and tomorrow. I kept baby Zach yesterday so Miki could take Will for his 2 yr shots. Poor Will. I look forward to seeing your pictures and hearing all the stories you can't possibly have time to blog about. Take care ,Helene, and continue with the adventures squeezed in between your classes. MamaSherry