Alive and Kickin'

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Hey y'all. I do realize that is has a been a while since my last post, hence the title giving everyone my current status. And of course, a fair bit has happened since I last spoke. First and perhaps most importantly, I shaved off my beard, as well as most of the hair on my head. That happened on the 30th of March. I had it cut at the barber on campus. That turned out to be a learning experience. I learned, for instance, that a #2 on electric clippers in Israel is very different than a #2 in the US. I came out damn near bald. But I had fun with that. For instance, I got my haircut right after my Arabic class, and upon returning to the dorms, I saw one of the girls form my class. So I walked up to her and her friends, said hello, and got that look that everyone here has either gotten or given before. That look like you just don't know who the hell is talking to you. Then of course came the, "Hiii, how are you?," that confused, but polite response. This did not go on for long, as I explained in not too many words, that I had been in class with her earlier. The shock almost knocked her over. And there were other fun moments, some who didn't recognize me for a few days, others in my class who were wondering about the new kid, more confused looks, and so on.
Next, I shall discuss my classes, which I have been in for a while now. I recently had midterms in all my classes, which I think went reasonably well. Arabic still pleasant and relaxing, the teacher is funny and helpful. We have 9 people in that class. With my Selected Readings in the Qur'an and Hadith, a very interesting and engrossing classes, we have only six students total. Hebrew, of course, is quite challenging, we have twenty students, and we recently watched an Israeli movie about Pesach. Finally, Arab-Israeli Conflict is another very good lecture class, with about 70 students. All in all, I believe I made very good choices in terms of classes.
What next? Ah yes, Egypt. The day after my birthday, on March 20th, Carolyn, Carly, and I took a plane from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv to Cairo International Airport. I had another interesting experience with airport security leaving Israel. First, my checked baggage had to be checked twice, then I was briefly questioned about my trip. Since we were leaving on Purim (a sort of Israeli Halloween) most of the female security had little bits of face painting on, and I think the guy who checked my bag was hung over, so I really couldn't get too mad about any of that. The real fun began when they checked my carry-on bag. First, when asked about any electronics, I forgot to mention my phone, which they weren't very happy about. Then after searching my bag, they found my Arabic phrasebook and Buddhist prayer beads. Then the man looked at my passport (a high school picture complete with glasses and braces), then at me, noticed my shaggy hair and gigantic beard. Obviously, I'm a terrorist. So, he calmly asked me to have a seat and wait for a moment (after all, what am I going to do without my beads?), After about 10 minutes, with my roommates exchanging not-too-confused looks at me (they had seen this before) and a few suspicious looks from the security guard, a sharply dressed woman approached me and asked what classes I was taking, why I was studying Arabic, and what I planned to do in Egypt. After that I was free to go. Strange that I was waiting ten minutes to answer the same questions asked earlier. No matter. The flight was pleasant and short, only about an hour and 20 minutes. Upon entering Egypt, we bought our visas, exchanged our money, and went to have our passports processed. This was another interesting experience, as the woman helping me had trouble believing I was the boy in my passport picture. I was then escorted to another group of security men, who gave a little chuckle and approved me to enter. I returned to the woman, and we both had a good laugh.
We then took a taxi from the airport to our hotel. This was one of the most interesting parts, as we saw a number of beautiful structures, as well as many insights into Egyptian culture. First, we past one of the most mosques I had ever seen, the An-Noor (the Light) Mosque. It can be seen on the back of the one Egyptian Pound note. Next, we saw the October 1973 monument, commemoration of the October/Yom Kippur War. This is a very important time in contemporary Egyptian history, seen as a great victory against Israel. Many areas, including streets and bridges, are given the name October 6 (the outbreak of the war), and I believe I saw one street named October 8 (perhaps a mistake on my part, though it was the date of Egyptian forces devastating an Israeli counterattack). The monument had sculptures of fighter planes and artillery lined up, quite a sight at night with lights shining upon them. Another part of the Egyptian way of life we noticed, as it was impossible to miss, was the driving. From an outside perspective, the closest English can come to describing it is "complete and utter madness." In a three-lane highway, there are 5 cars side by side. If there are lanes marked off (and there frequently aren't), they are not heeded. The horn is used liberally, weaving is one of the few strategies for getting ahead, and there are no speed limits that I noticed. Pedestrians cross when they get an opportunity, and an opportunity in Egypt is very different from one in the US. I try to think of other places, like New York City or Jerusalem, to describe it, but it really has to be seen to be believed. Another thing I noticed here, and at other times, was that whether the taxi drivers is actually familiar with your destination, he will take you there. This means either asking you for directions, or getting out of the taxi and asking someone of the streets or in a nearby store.
After all of this, we arrived at our hotel (Windsor Hotel, 3-stars), walked through a metal detector with a guard sitting nearby, beeped, and were waved on with a smile. We checked in, set up our first tour, then took an old-style elevator up to our room. The hotel turned out to be a very good choice. For under 60 USD a night, the three of us got a room with 3 beds, a shower and a sink. It was no-frills (no air-conditioning, the bathroom was outside our room, and the beds, shower, and sink were all in the same room), but it was affordable and a good deal.
The next day, we awoke early, got dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast, before entering a van to our first bit of touristy fun. First, we went to the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun, the largest mosque in Cairo. We walked around there for awhile, and it was stunning. At the top of the of the main minaret we had a great view of the the City of a 1000 Minarets, and could even see the Saladin Citadel of Cairo, a famous fort from around the times of the Crusades. After this, we went to the Papyrus Museum of Egypt, where the caretakers showed us the process of making papyrus as in ancient times. Finally we made our way to the main event, the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. We made our way there on horses and camels, amid a great many people trying to sell their wares to you, at times putting something into your hands, then demanding the money later, or demanding it back when you don't pay. An interesting strategy. We got to ride up to a small cliff a short ways off from the Pyramids, to take them all in at once. Really something I recommend highly, as getting close makes it difficult to appreciate the extent of this project, and because the people trying to take advantage of the tourists hang out nearby the Pyramids. After this, we made our way to the Sphinx, also a great sight, though there were far more vendors, and we did not get the opportunity to get very close. After we finished, and paid the guide and his young (12-ish) helpers (who are quite persistent little guys), we were all exhausted, and welcomed the food our tour guide bought us at a street vendor. This food, it turns out, was the Egyptian national dish, called Koshary. It is absolutely delicious, probably the best vegetarian dish I have ever had. It is It is rice, pasta, and lentils with a tomato sauce, chickpeas, and fried onions. Something I would really like to learn how to cook. Which reminds me, I want to make a list of things I want to learn how to cook. After the tour, we returned to our hotel and took a nap, to prepare for our nighttime activities.
That night, we took a "cruise" on the Nile. A say "cruise" because the boat couldn't go under the bridges, and so simply went around in circles. We had a taxi arranged from the hotel, with a friendly driver, who referred to me as a Sheikh because of my impressive beard, and insisted I ride up front with him. Nice guy. On the boat, we took some pictures of the Nile at night, before heading down for dinner, a delicious buffet. We were then entertained, after dessert, by a belly dancer, who seduced a number of older men in the crowd, and I think gave me a light slap over the eyes for staring. After the belly dancer, a midget whirling dervish came on, and very talented he was. Then came on the main whirling dervish, who ordered the other off the stage (don't worry, they had good chemistry together). This was a very impressive sight indeed, and Carolyn took pictures of my eyes gleaming in amazement. At the end of the boat ride, we disembarked, and went up to a bar at the top of one of the upscale hotels, to sip Mojitos, smoke a Shisha (Hookah, Nargileh, whatever you want to call it) and watch the activity on the Nile.
The next day, we went to the Giza Zoo. We were escorted in by the guard, whereupon we were asked if we wanted a picture with a lion. We then bribed the guards, who let us into a small area and brought out a very drugged, very unhappy-looking cub, and the girls got a picture with him. The guard then led us around the zoo to the Reptile house, where we asked to be left alone to wander at our leisure. The guard then hassled us about reimbursing him for getting us into the Reptile House and Drugged Lion Holding Cell. I him the equivalent of 4 USD and left him. Word of advice, buy the zoo entry tickets at front at the window next to the entrance, decline the escort, and the picture with the lion is not very special, especially given the very sad look he has on his face. The zoo had a pretty good selection of animals, and it was nice to see them all. However, it was getting very warm out, and our next destination was a decided relief.
And that destination was none other than the Egypt Museum. There was a huge selection of artifacts from Ancient Egypt many of which I got pictures of, before I was informed that photography was not allowed. It was all truly breathtaking stuff, including the wide array of things removed from the tomb of King Tutankhamen. However, I only saw a few things from the time of the Romans, though by then we were running short of time. After leaving, we had a meal at a nice little restaurant, where I ordered a hamburger with egg, a yummy dish that I have had more than once since my return.
Our last day in Egypt was actually Easter Sunday. Carolyn and I went to a service in Italian in a beautiful church with under 20 attendees. Afterwards, we went to the Khan al-Khalili bazaar and perused the various items, and got a glimpse, from the outside, of the famous al-Azhar Mosque, one of the oldest universities in the world. This day did not turn out to be too active, as it hit a record high, around 104 degrees Fahrenheit. So we spent most of the day inside, sipping on coffee or tea, and passing the time before our flight. Truly, an amazing trip, and a learning experience as well.
From the time of my haircut to Pesach (Passover) break I think we can skip ahead, as not too much happened that y'all want to hear about. Vacation began with going on the four day Sea to Sea Hike, from the Mediterranean Sea (Yam HaTichon) to the Sea of Galilee (HaKineret). After a two hour drive to a point north of Haifa, we disembarked to have a look at the Mediterranean before beginning our hike, and also to go over some guidelines. Our first day was in a large circle, up a large hill to have a look at Montefort, an old Crusader fort, before driving back to a hotel, where we stayed the night for Shabbat (Sabbath). We had a delicious dinner, then returned to our room to watch Arabic soap operas, shower, and get some rest for the next day.
The second day was the tough day, about 18km (11 miles), mostly up a mountain. It began right after we left the hotel, with a 20 or so minute uphill hike. That day we climbed Har Meron, about 1200m high, then descended a bit to our camp site. After the ascent, some of us had rather sore feet, and so moved on ahead to get to the site and take off our shoes. We got ahead of the group, and our tour guide, as we were basically jogging down the mountain. We passed an old mausoleum with a single man sitting there, possibly meditating, this man turned out to be a shaman. As we passed him, we heard a rhythmic chanting/yelling farther down. When we reached the point, we saw a man in white flowing robes chanting, and decided the other direction was probably the right way to the camp. As we were walking, we saw a number of what could only be described as hippies, on the trail, as well as a few hugging, praying to, or hanging beads on, trees. Having never seen anything like this, and with me carrying a branch of sage I had broken off earlier (I didn't think they were too keen on destruction of nature) we decided to get to the camp sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, a fork in the road stopped us, and we had to wait surrounded by the hippies, in an indefensible position, for the rest of our group to arrive (you know how hippies can get, I was looking around for a heavy stick). When our guide arrived, he informed us that the "hippies" were members of the Big Spirit, a shamanistic, Native American-esque religion. They were Israelis, and somehow connected to Judaism, apparently. That night, we set up camp, had a dinner of Shnitzel, and I had a cushy 11:30 P.M.-12:00 A.M. watch duty.
The third day, we hiked the rest of the way down, the mountain, around 9km (6 miles), an easy day, before being driven to our camp site. That night we had pasta and onion soup, followed by a Chocolate Seder, where the foods of the seder are replaced with different types of chocolate (dark chocolate instead of bitter herbs, chocolate paste instead of lamb ) and discussed different aspects of the Israelites captivity in Egypt. That night I somehow got lucky, and had no guard duty, and had a good night's sleep.
Our final day of hiking was only about 9km (6 miles) but it turned out to be one of the hardest, and absolutely exhausting. It was very hot and sunny, mostly through a valley, and there was little shade. One of my friend's suffered from heat exhaustion, and many of us, at our first long break, took naps on beds of rock. Among the reliefs along this trip were springs on the trails, mostly ice-cold, but a great relief from the midday sun. When we finally arrived at our bus, the end of the trail, we were offered the chance to complete the hike all the way to the Sea of Galilee, about a 10-20 minute walk. This time turned out to be a treacherous lie. Half of the walk was up a highway road, with the glaring early afternoon sun, and no shade. Then the bus passed us, and our attempt at waving it down looked more like a wave. The group walking ahead of us successfully waved down the bus, and I ran there, while the other behind me walked. The bus drove us to a spa in Tiberias, where we had burgers, hot dogs, salad, cold water, and pleasant swims in their pools and hot spring. We were there about an hour and a half, perhaps 2 hours. We filled our bellies, cooled off, looked out at the Sea of Galilee, prepared for our drive back home to Jerusalem.
An brings us pretty much up to date. Carolyn's parents were in the city earlier, though I did not see them. Alyssa's parents left yesterday, and I met them a few times, including for dinner near the German Colony in Jerusalem. Carly recently returned from Italy with her family, whom she is currently spending time with. And Sivan may still be in Instanbul, as I have not seen or heard from her. Tomorrow morning Alyssa and I are leaving for Eilat, to cross of into Jordan, where we will stay for the better part of a week. Until then, I wish you all well.

-Bob Burian

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