Relaxing in Cairo

---

Since the last one was written awhile ago and never posted, I figured I would get on this one before I left for spring break. As promised, this post will include a Park Tudor appearance, the end of the parental units’ visit, some more of Islamic Cairo Mexican food in Cairo, and a bit on where I’ll be for spring break!

After my parents left Cairo for Abu Simbel, Aswan, Luxor, and Middle Egypt, I went off to Dahab and Mt Sinai for the weekend (see previous post for details). I returned exhausted, slept 15 hours, which meant I passed out before 5PM and woke up a little after 7AM for my 8AM Arabic class. After Facebooking and emailing around, I was able to get the hotel information of the group of juniors and seniors that were traveling to Egypt with Ms. McAlear and Mrs. K. Trying to explain to the front desk that I needed the room of the teacher of the group of students in Arabic was easy, but since I didn't know they got delayed and arrived a day late, the front desk clerk and I had some issues and had to switch into a butchered English-Arabic dialogue. Nonetheless, everything worked out and I was connected to Ms. McAlear and Mrs. K's room and arranged to see them the following morning at the Egyptian Museum (a 5 minute walk from my first class). Dodging the massive tour groups at the entrance proved harder than finding the group as my favorite student in the bunch, Josh Bremner, stood out above the heads of the other tourists. I spent the next 2.5ish hours freaking out, talking with and receiving glares for my not-as-modest-as-long-sleeves-and-pants attire from the students, and answering questions. I was very happy to see a group of Americans, especially ones around my age and with whom I have some history. Plus, the opportunity to see Ms. McAlear in Egypt solidified the fact that my dream and everything I have been working for since Non-West History has come true in terms of what I wanted to do while in college. It was so nice to see everyone and I especially loved the fact that within the confines on the Egyptian Museum, one of the least Egyptian areas in Egypt, I was able to sneak a few hugs out of Josh since such displays of affection or even such physical interaction between sexes is viewed as haram, or immoral/sinful according to the Quran.

That weekend was spent in Cairo doing absolutely nothing but relaxing, sleeping, and having some fun before things got crazy before spring break. I went back to this pub with a glorified dance floor in Mohandiseen called Deals that I had experienced with one of my groups of friends and loved. This time I brought a crew of mainly DC people and we had a blast! It was so much fun getting to dance and sing along and drink what I thought would be cheap liquor. Unfortunately, despite saying "local rum," which like all local liquor is said to make you go blind if you have too much of it, and pointing to it in the menu, the waiter charged me for X number of import rums costing nearly double the local. As the client and P. Bo's daughter, I let this guy have it and told him I only ordered local until he told me they had run out of it on my last shot when I confirmed that I would only want one shot of the import rum and nothing more for the night. He would not give in and I was stuck paying for a higher than expected bill.

On Friday night, Leah, a GW girl, Megan, a BC girl, and I went to City Stars, which is the huge mall out near the airport. It was an experience! Since it was a weekend night the mall was packed with Egyptians shopping, people watching, being seen and going to movies. We went to see Eastern Promises, which was a lesson in cultural differences. We were given assigned seats that were next to a young mom and her 3ish year old boy. Throughout the film, cell phones with music ringers went off and were answered. Since Egypt is still a conservative country by comparison to the US, the film was censored, but since that meant not having to witness a very gross fight scene, we didn't complain too much. We roamed around a little bit afterwards and were able to check out a few shops before they closed. In the cab home, we all determined we had to go back and shop soon especially since some of my favorite European shops are there!

On Saturday, I started my day with a failed trip to Khan al-Khalili despite the assistance of Leah and her wonderful negotiation skills. That afternoon my parental units returned to Cairo from Upper and Middle Egypt and we spent the afternoon taking it easy while I showed them around the island of Zamalek where I live. That night, one of the couples in their group hosted cocktails prior to passing out the trip's awards. I am proud to say that parents won the award for spreading Greek culture and having the toughest stomachs since they never got sick in Egypt. However, they did catch colds on their flight home and are still suffering.

This past weekend was a lazy one with me staying a most of the time. Tim and Alison, two friends from GW, and I did a tour of the highlights of Islamic Cairo, such as Al Azhar, Ibn Tulun, a failed attempt at the Islamic art and architecture museum, and a chance to roam the streets of Cairo and see what Egyptian life is really like. I loved being able to spend most of my time looking up and taking in all the gorgeous architecture. Thankfully, there is restoration work going on to save some of these beautiful buildings that are falling into ruins. My favorite part of the afternoon was watching the children play during prayer at Al Azhar. They were doing karate, fight, sliding/scooting across the marble floor, and just being kids. My favorite set of kids was this adorable bald little girl who seemed to have won the heart of fellow toddler. His family would get distracted and look down to realize that he had quickly waddled over to his new friend and was going in for the hug. Her mother did not seem to mind and seem to find it cute, while his mom, aunts, siblings, and/or cousins found it humorous, but at the same time wrong and would quickly rush over to grab him and bring him back to their little circle.

On Saturday, the four GW girls who made a feast last month were back at it with Mexican night. We went back to City Stars to raid the massive grocery store there and then spent the next few hours preparing our feast. We overestimated the number of guests, but that allowed us to send some food home with our feasters and have enough for leftovers the next night. We had enchiladas, hard and soft tacos, guacamole, salsa, chips, wannabe cheese dip, refried beans (that were mixed with foul, a traditional Egyptian mashed up bean dish so it would be cheaper), Mexican rice, fried bananas, and Mexican wedding cookies. Like I said, it was a feast!! We had a blast despite all the drama of trying to cook Mexican!

On Thursday night, myself, Angela, Allison, and Mike are hopping on a bus and heading for the Red Sea where we will catch a ferry to Aqaba, Jordan. We will explore the Wadi Rum that evening and camp there overnight. In the morning, we will head to Petra for the day. The next day, we are heading to the Dead Sea, maybe a stop in Bethany where Jesus was baptized, before heading to Madaba for the afternoon and evening. Hopefully, my friend Andrew from GW will meet us since he is studying in Amman this semester. That night we will head back to Amman only to wake up early and head to Jerash to see the Roman ruins there before spending the rest of the day in Amman. We will wake up freakishly early the next day so we can get to the Syrian border and start the process of getting visas for/entry into Syria and if we get in, inshallah, we will spend two days in Damascus and one in Aleppo where we hope to visit with Mike's family who lives there. Our last freakishly early morning is devoted to getting into Israel. If and when we get in, we will spend the next two-plus days exploring Jerusalem. For midnight Easter services, Mike and I are dragging the others to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for the liturgy with the Patriarch. We will head back to Cairo on the 28th. Since all my classes are cancelled on the 29th and 30th, my friend Hannah and I are thinking about doing some exploring of our own. We have yet to decide what we want to do. It could be adventurous or it could be relaxing beach time. Who knows!

That's enough for now! There will be plenty to write about after spring break!

---