On the Way Home

So I'm sitting here using my free hour of wireless at Charles de Gaulle, trying to beat the battery on my computer before it dies. It's been a long night/morning, and will continue to be pretty long for a little bit. Sigh.

Lebanon was definitely an experience. There were some very strange things about being there, some things tending towards the negative, but for the most part I really just ate up being back there. It is....indescribably unique.

At this point, sitting in the airport of a Western country, I'm switching back into my American-raised Western mode...the part where I stop worrying whether the soles of my feet are facing anyone, and when I can start to actually meditate on my varied study abroad experience - mostly in Egypt, but I certainly learned a lot from my stints in Jordan and Lebanon. I can't wait to meditate from my bed, before or after rereading Harry Potter (or the new Terry Brooks novel...well not new, but I've been abroad...). But for now, airport bench suffices.

Holiday wishes to everyone else out there, and hope your enjoying time with family. My family don't really know I'm coming home early, and that my sister is picking me up at the airport to bring me to our house in Western Mass. That should be a pleasant homecoming - assuming I'm conscious (this really has been a traumatic few days for sleep). But I'm feeling happy now. A sort of deep kind of happiness, which is more than I can say about while I was in Egypt. I'm just glad I can get somewhere where I can just relax and not be anything in particular. Thank God.

Jordan: A Different Country Completely

Hello there, anyone who's still bothering to glance at this.

So I'm in Jordan at the moment. It was a bit of a rough start getting here from Sinai, because the ferry was late by about seven hours, and then didn't leave/arrive for another long period - so I wound up in a strange city at 1 AM in holiday season (it's Eid al-Adha here), having to bargain down raised hotel prices and very tired. Eventually we stumbled into a room, went to sleep, and woke up well-rested (or at least I did). Matt (Groh) had gotten sick overnight, so I went out looking for medicine and stuff, exploring the city in the daylight. It was such a lovely change from Egypt. I sat in a park, where there were green things, and benches, and picnic tables, and a playground for kids. Said kids were all running around, playing, laughing. Everyone was well-dressed, clean, quiet. The facilities were the right size for the amount of people using them, which is never the case in Egypt. There was no trash, and the weather was gorgeous. So I wonder how I'm going to feel when I get back to the US. Seriously.

So later that day we took a bus to Petra, where we relaxed for a whole day before visiting the ruins. It was really nice to take a load off, having had a sort of gogogogo mentality since Sinai, and just relax in a warm room, meet backpackers and hear interesting stories. As I've mentioned, I was reading a really geeky romance fantasy book to pass the time. I didn't finish, so I kind of want to go find it at a library in the US and do so.

Petra was phenomenal. It's really hard to understand what buildings carved out of the mountain are like until you see them. Especially the Monastery part of the complex, which is all the way at the top of one of the mountains. But there are other things, like the amphitheatre and some lesser facades. Also, the hiking area was just gorgeous. Pictures to come in the (relatively near!) future.

Yesterday morning we got up at 5:45 to catch a 6:30 bus to Amman, the capital and largest city. It's similar here too: almost no trash, clean shops and people, the food is great. We met up with Anne Wilborn who was in Alex with us, and had dinner at this great artsy restaurant. We did all of the important sights in about two hours because, seriously, the city isn't really that old. It was actually built on the site of older things to make it feel older, I think. But it's amusing for me to think that the biggest problem with Amman is the possibility of boredom after living here for a while. Which is a lot more than I can say about Cairo or even Alex. Because Alex is boring, but also dirty and a lot of other things.

Tomorrow I'm going to sleep in, snag a relaxing lunch with Anne and then head to the airport early and curl up with a book, waiting for my flight. I'm pretty excited to be almost on the return home, but I'm enjoying this part of my abroad experience enough to be patient. But Lebanon should be wonderful, if Jordan is this 'good'.

I hope everything's going well for all of you in other countries (read: Europe), and for those still at Midd celebrating the end of finals/Christmas. Also: Hannah (W), are you going to be around for J-term at all? Cause I should. It'd be cool to see you at Xenia sometime.

I'll try and post something when I get to Beirut. Toodles.

So.

Obviously this is the first in a while from this blog. In not too long I won't be in Egypt (most Egyptians sort of chuckle when you talk about Sinai) - and I'm fine with that.

On the whole it's been a good experience - at the end. But Egypt is wearing for a lot of reasons: ignorant people, lack of services, lack of respect for history (even Islamic, sometimes), and lack of decent food. There are very, very few choices for anything here, which means conformity is the only real option. I was uncomfortable with what I knew about Egyptian culture when I got here, and having been forced to cope with it for three months has strengthened my...awareness that I am not going to miss it.

That said, there are good things in Egypt: the people are incredibly nice (for the most part), very hospitable (almost to a fault) and you almost never have to worry about crime in Egypt. My first impressions were mostly those of someone who barely spoke the language, didn't know what is normal, and really just wanted something to work right (which doesn't happen in Egypt). Granted, my first day in Cairo was certainly far from ideal, but now that I speak well enough to get by I know that there is almost no time you should feel unsafe (at least, as a male) in Egypt's cities. Maybe uncomfortable with the gestures and occasional stares (you're a foreigner), but still safe.

Irregardless of all that, I'm glad to be getting out. Jordan and Lebanon will be a great change, and I promise to take lots of pictures. The return home may be direct or may include a brief stay in Istanbul, Turkey (depending on how eager I feel to just go home). There are options. For now, I'm just glad to be finishing up and getting ready for what I've been actually looking forward to.

Spring Schedule

So, to completely gloss over my recent trip to Upper Egypt, I have an incomplete but for the moment passable Spring schedule, which is as follows:

GIS - TR 8-9:15 AM, W 1:30-4:15 (I have no idea how I'm going to motivate myself for that one)

Intro to the Philosophical Tradition - MW 11:15-12:05, F 10:10-11:00

Identity in French Literature - MWF 9:05-9:55 AM (though I'm going to sit in on FREN 221 and see if I don't die. the subject matter looks more interesting and it'd be nice to skip ahead a bit, if I can force my French to improve quickly).


The fourth class remains to be figured out. I'm interested in the Romance Linguistics course, but the Wednesday class falls on the GIS lab period I have, so I have to try and switch with someone in the Tuesday lab if I really want the class. If not, there are a few other options I'm interested in: Western Musical History Part II, 19th Century European Painting and Sculpture, maybe an intro Econ course. Maybe something very different. Who knows.

I also may try taking a poetry workshop as a fifth class. I have the approval from Parini already, so I'm going to try and go ahead with it. Awesome.

That's it for now, I'll summarize the Luxor-Aswan trip a little later.

Updates

So I've officially gotten over my sickness. I ate Egyptian street-food and felt fine afterwards, which means that my stomach has regained its hardiness. Hurray for lack of digestive problems!

Tomorrow evening we leave for Upper Egypt (the Saeed). The train ride should take about 17 hours from Alex, which....I'm not too thrilled about. But it gives me time to space out I guess, which is alright enough. We get to run around a fair bit on our own once we get down there though, and I'm excited (and a little wary) to float down the Nile in a felucca. Because it's flowing water we should be alright in terms of mosquitoes and such, but still. It's just nice to get out of the Alexandria area, which is kind of dull after a while. Pretty, but dull.

I may or may not spend time on the last few free days of the vacation in Cairo, seeing the Museum and a few other must-sees. Pictures to be taken and posted at such a time as Facebook allows me.

Still trying to hammer out travel details. Which means I have to actually be decisive. Gar. But thankfully I have the option now of being indecisive, thanks to a long chain of frustrated emails exchanged with financial aid.

Again, I hope everyone is enjoying/feeling better in their respective situations abroad and at home. I hope to wake up and find a better four years in store (i.e. Obama has won the election), for all of us.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Struck By a Fish

After neglecting this blog for a period of time (again), I feel this event pertinent to my experience here in Egypt. The other night a lot of us went to the Fish Market, which is probably the best (or most expensive, as I've heard) restaurant in the city. It was certainly some of the best food I've tasted in ages - most Egyptian food is really simple, and consists of bread, beans, meat, potatoes....lots of carbs and protein, essentially. Anyway, there were real-dead vegetables at this place, which is a sign of how fancy it was. Not having eaten fish in a while (and having enjoyed the last time I did greatly) I ordered some here. It was quite good. After dinner we left to go get some ice cream by the sea, which was also nice.

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling as if an alien were trying to burst out of my stomach, and spent a considerable amount of time in the bathroom between 3-5 AM (more or less, I didn't exactly check). So these past few days have been spent feeling extremely weak and incapable of eating anything that isn't a piece of bread. But I'm better right now, or so it seems. It's a more than a little frustrating that I missed the trip to the White+Black deserts, because I was really looking forward to that. Maybe we can round up a bunch of folk in the future.

The past bit of time has been relatively uneventful. More of my feeling generally apathetic to doing anything. Part of that is the setting, part of that is because I don't really have anyone to do anything with. Traveling by oneself is alright, but kind of lame at the same time. Also, by myself I have to be a lot more watchful of my stuff, etc. Egypt isn't that bad, but still. It isn't home in that regard.

Speaking of which, the email addressing J-term class sign-ups has brought up the issue of when I'll be returning. As financial aid has deemed fit to more or less forget part of my package, I may have to return earlier, and with fewer places under my belt. Sigh. I have arguing yet to do, but honestly.

I'll reiterate that, despite my (I assume) negative-seeming comments about being here, Egypt isn't bad. It just isn't....anything in particular. For me, at least. There are some folks in the program who I can tell are enjoying it, but I'm having difficulty. Also, because we're so stupid in terms of language we can't really learn anything of substance (or that we haven't already read about in classes) from the Egyptians. Kind of silly. The whole thing feels as though it is without nuance. At least this is a good experience for language use and acquisition.

Finally, if anyone is at all interested in a visit to Egypt, complete with complementary/caustic tour-guide, I would advise them to say so soon, as I have to work out my return to the US, in whatever simple/complex form that takes.

I hope everyone is enjoying themselves, regardless of locale/climate.

Huh

I'm currently grappling with the notion that I have become relatively indifferent to learning much more about Arab culture. Not against, just indifferent. Unfortunate that I reach this conclusion while in an Arab country.

The Turkish Town

This weekend went by quickly, though somewhat boring. As I did not yet have a cell phone (I repurchased one finally), I wasn’t really in contact with anyone, and so I didn’t have much ability to get in touch with anyone else and run around the country. So I hung around my apartment, relaxing and doing homework. I bought a nice book about the history of Alexandria, and went exploring and photographing in Anfoushi, which is a pretty unique neighborhood. When the island of Pharos was built, there used to be a dike/bridge that connected it to the mainland, but when the city started to decline it silted up, so now there is this giant peninsula separating (what is now) the East from the West Harbor – and everything was built on the peninsula was the old Arab/Turkish town, Anfoushi. It used to be a fishing village, so now it’s home of a large fish market, lots of fish-grills and probably the coolest thing, the shipyards. It’s kind of sketchy (no, it’s plain sketchy) in some parts, because the neighborhood is so poor, but it’s definitely a change from the rest of Alex, which is either 19th century European or 20th century developments. Then I wandered over to the Citadel, which was surprisingly not very crowded for such a lovely weekend afternoon, and sat on the water. A pretty tranquil experience, I must say.

Next on my plans in Alexandria is to visit the Orthodox cemetery, and the old Greek Necropolis. Also, I missed Kom ash-Shoqafa (which is apparently a Medieval Wonder of the World) when the program went because I was still tripping off of drugs, so that needs to be done as well. Speaking of tripping on drugs, I saw a kid on my street passed out on the sidewalk (or sort of the sidewalk, anyway) clutching a cough-syrup bottle in his hand. Kind of a weird sight.

Shopping needs to be done soon…or we will simply starve in the morning. We have no gas for the stove or shower at the moment, because of an issue with the new bellboy (in Egypt the two are connected, seriously) not being present. Hopefully soon, because I miss my daily regiment of tea in the morning.

Finally, you may notice some new photos on my blog. Most are from Alex (various parts), though the more obviously desert pictures are from Siwa, and the pictures of actually gorgeous beaches are from outside of Marsa Matrouh. Then there are a few of ancient/important things from Cairo. Just to give you all a vague summary.

Grinding Along

So I am in fact back from Siwa, as of quite a bit ago. Siwa was pretty cool, though I'm not entirely sure it was really worth the negatives (the uncomfortable bus, the nine hour drive, the awful toilets, the mosquitoes). There were definitely positives (the desert, the beaches around Matrouh, etc) but it was hard to really enjoy them given the other difficulties. All the same, it was an alright change from the ordinary.

Unfortunately, I left my cellphone in the hotel, so I have to buy a new one. Luckily it wasn't an expensive phone (relatively speaking). I have that to do, then finally get internet soon (which is grating on my nerves). Some housekeeping things to busy myself with at a (hopefully) later date, but for the most part all is kind of calm.

In other news there are plans to go to the White Desert the last weekend in October - which means we'll be camping in the middle of the exceedingly creepy desert for Halloween. I'm pretty excited. This weekend the program may be going to a beach not too far from here, which may also be nice. It'll be interesting to see because the beach is by a town built for employees of the oil-refineries that line the Northern coast, so it's quite different from anything else you'd see in Egypt.

I'll try to have something more interesting to say next time, but for now the whole experience is sort of wearing. I like Egypt, but I feel like when I leave I'd be perfectly fine with not coming back. Nothing particular, just that the interest isn't there. Which is sort of sad, given that the point of study abroad is sort of the opposite...oh well. I'll see where things go.

A Strange Situation

I am currently sitting in one of the more upscale cafe deals in Alexandria, Délices, which has free wireless and air conditioning (though at this point the AC is unnecessary. I'm sitting here, watching Europeans walk in and out, speaking a million languages. Apparently it was famous about a century ago, when the city was 60% European, so the tourists just keep streaming in.

So once again the internet in our apartment cut off, but this time for a good reason: we have to pay for the next month. The interesting thing is that we're all going on vacation (the whole program, that is) to Siwa Oasis in Western Egypt (quite far away), so we don't really see the point in paying at the moment.

That sort of goes for other things, like food. We (by which I mean I, because Phil doesn't really do anything) have been lazy about procuring food for the same reason, so these past few days have been a lot of scrounging/cleaning out the refrigerator. When we get back we'll have a lot of shopping to do.

Fortunately and unfortunately, today is Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim equivalent to Christmas. It's hopefully going to be pretty cool, as we have this day off from school before our real vacation. Unfortunately, so does the rest of the city, which means I can't do a great deal of things (deal with out of country mail, set up a bank account, exchange a torn $100 the exchangers won't except, etc...). It's more than a little frustrating.

At the very least classes are going more or less well, other than absolute insanity with Arabic numbers (writing the numbers, like 'four cats' is ridiculously complicated). I'm currently reading Harry Potter, which is inspiring a sort of guilty confidence in my reading ability. I know the story so well from reading the first book many, many times, so it's not difficult to guess the meaning of new words. At the same time, that's very helpful because I'm gradually picking up useful literary words and expressions that I haven't learned in FusHa class. Also Harry Potter makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Ahem. In English I'm reading The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie, and so far it's been sort of meh. He may well redeem himself, but there isn't much time left for it.

Alex is amazingly enough starting to cool off (praise be to God!), to the point where I left the apartment in a hoodie. The plan for tonight is hopefully to eat a lot and go to bed early so I don't miss our rendezvous at the college for our trip to Siwa (8:30 AM - criminal). Hope everyone else is well, and will get in touch when I'm back in a week or so.

A Month

Today is the one month mark. What has happened since then (and my last entry, additionally)?

I arrived in Egypt knowing very, very little spoken Egyptian dialect. Not only did I sound like an idiot, but I couldn’t get some of the more important pieces of information across (oh, like this isn’t the right hotel, for one…). It became a production trying to get almost anything (because odds are that the Egyptian word is nowhere near the Standard) and trying to give taxi drivers directions to my apartment was almost impossible.

At this point I can deal with the more important situations without too much trouble. I’ve successfully been able to navigate the food system, the transportation system (for the most part) and just generally staying alive. I can communicate what I need pretty effectively, though there are still certain vocabulary gaps that the Egyptian Dialect class is helping to fill over time.

I went to Cairo by myself this past weekend, learned how to get about the city, saw the Pyramids and the Old (Coptic) City. I explored a bit, but it’s Cairo – it will take a lot of weekends to explore the place, and I’m not sure I really want to. Being in Cairo for a few days definitely increased my appreciation of Alexandria. I’ll be sure to post pictures somehow, probably via facebook, but there are quite a lot.

Right now, as three weeks ago, I am sick. Though I seem to be worse, as my cough sometimes forces me to the ground and I also have a cold. I can’t really seem to sleep, either, which is helping neither my physical nor mental health. Something needs to change.

In a City On the Sea

Today passed quite quickly, I must say. I was actually up at a decent hour (9:30, shh….) to get ready for classes today, of which I had five hours. I really wish classes started earlier than 11, because then I’d be done earlier and have a much more regular sleeping schedule. Gar. All the same, after classes a bunch of us (Matt Lowes, Anne Wilborn, etc) went to Mahattat Ramal to relax before walking/taking a cab to Bahry. We went to a seafood restaurant that was absolutely amazing. Expensive (in Egyptian terms) but amazing. Too bad the area is inconvenient to get to from my neighborhood.

After that we walked in the direction of our homes for a bit, then decided we wanted ice cream, so we stopped for Roz b-Leban mixed with ice cream. Also quite wonderful, if very different. After more walking we found our way to a relatively empty beach ‘café’ (which means it was a bunch of plastic chairs and tables spaced evenly on a stretch of sand) and sat. It was a lovely view/atmosphere. Very little beats sitting on the beach sipping a beverage without the gross sand-related issues. Until the café owner asks 10 pounds for a soda ($2). We argued about the ridiculous prices, but because we don’t speak Arabic well yet and are foreigners who wanted to get home we let it slide this time. Next time I’m saying the price is ridiculous, handing him money and leaving.

I’m a little stressed because tomorrow I’m going to Cairo for the weekend. Whether for one day or two I’m not sure, but I’d like to do all the logistical garbage myself so I feel comfortable in the future. Obnoxiously enough, when I tried to call several hostels to make reservations all the numbers from Lonely Planet seemed to be wrong. I’ll just have to figure it out when I get there, and hopefully it won’t be as bad as my last time. I’m always stressed out in big cities, but big foreign creepy cities are worse. Wish me luck.

Looking Ahead

Today went pleasantly enough. Class in the afternoon, then returning to the apartment to set up for the Iftar party we were putting on. I wasn’t aware we were putting one on until the day before, but I wasn’t going to complain about lots of food suddenly appearing in my house for dinner – including very tasty desert pastries. I’m feeling better, though still a bit sick. It’s certainly not enough anymore to keep me stuck in bed reading (because God knows I abhor downtime), so I’ve been out and about, and am even thinking about a one-night trip to Ar-Rashid (Rosetta – yes, the Rosetta) for my empty Tuesday. It’s pretty close, and cheap to boot. Apparently there is a fair amount of Ottoman-era architecture remaining, so I’m interested in doing the explore-photograph combo in a different setting.
The few days before have been a bit of slowly recuperating. I had an amusing experience with a very exuberant Coptic cab driver. He seemed intent on converting me on the spot, though that’s probably because I told him I’m half Muslim half Christian. A new experience every day.
I’ve been feeling kind of restless since I’ve been feeling better and everyone got back from Cairo. While I’m not in too much of a hurry to see Cairo, I realized that relatively speaking I only have so much time here in Egypt. So maybe the coming weekend I may head over to Cairo to see the Pyramids and hopefully the Egyptian Museum, though that in itself may take two days. We’ll see. At the very least it’s easy and cheap to get/stay in/to Cairo from Alex.
I also started thinking about how I’m going to end my time in Egypt. The program ends December 4th, and there’s a break until sometime in January (I think). I’m considering sticking around for another week and a bit, to tidy up loose ends and relax before more traveling begins. Then the plan looks like it will entail a day or so spent in Cairo, then maybe a week or so in Sinai (seeing St. Katherine, Dahab, maybe Suez), finally heading over to Nuweiba for the ferry to Aqaba in Jordan.
From Aqaba I’ll take a bus to Petra, see the city ruins, then head for Amman, the capital. I’m not sure, but it may well be worth it to spend a few days in a hostel touring the city, because I may as well while I’m there. At the very least, hostels are cheap. Hopefully I can find someone with a connection that could help me out while I’m in the country, but I won’t mind having to figure it out on my own. From Amman a bus, either directly to Beirut or to Damascus first. I want to spend some time by myself in Damascus as well, so it’d be easier to get it done earlier. Then from Damascus to Beirut, which is about an hour/hour and a half away. The getting back to the states bit has yet to be pinpointed, but I’m just glad to have an idea of what I want to do when I’m leaving here. I feel a little better with a semi-agenda, and hopefully my budget will allow for all the stopping (it appears that it would).
I’m going to try and get some sleep again, though I’m skeptical that it will work well. I may or may not be in Alex when I go to sleep tomorrow. We’ll see.

Finally

I'd like to point out that I've caught up with myself. Anything I post now is actually news.

Early Entry - Tuesday, September 09, 2008

I would like to begin by pointing out that there is absolutely nothing romantic in hearing the azaan. Nothing. Maybe I’m just being over-analytical, as both an Arab-American and a liberal-arts student, but whenever one sees a movie/newsreel/radio broadcast/anything audio-visual pertaining to the Middle East, you inevitably hear the azaan. It’s either meant to sound alien and creepy, or lofty and beautiful, depending on the purpose.

Frankly, it is neither.

It’s rather annoying after not having slept two nights in a row. I don’t mean that I slept poorly. I mean that I did not sleep at all. And hearing a badly recorded recitation of the azaan broadcast on poor speaker equipment doesn’t help. It also doesn’t help that each mosque does this, at different times and in different recordings, so that when it is prayer time, you hear a cacophony of bad sound from everywhere. If there were just one, and it actually sounded nice, I wouldn’t mind. But it’s even worse when whoever made the recording liked his voice so much he would record for long periods of time, mostly blank save for an intermittent ‘allah!’. Argh. Maybe it’s because I’m a heathen now, or something.

The past few days have been uneventful, because I’m still sick (and by default still frustrated). If I’m not better tomorrow I’m going to a doctor, because I’m tired of having so little energy while in a foreign city that I have yet to explore. Hopefully my body will take the hint.

Classes aren’t that hard, though a little because I’m so sick. I tested a half a level too high in FusHa, so I have to catch up on a fair number of things. Luckily we only meet once a week in the class, giving me some space in which I can study the interceding lessons by myself/with other people, hopefully. The grammar isn’t really that important, it’s more a question of vocabulary.

We finally have stable internet. I was so happy to wake up this afternoon (no classes today) and find a strong internet connection still present. I decided to spend my downtime photographing the apartment and out its windows. I hope to begin photographing the streets some more, because while there is little beauty in Alex that isn’t marred by garbage of some sort (real or metaphorically), it’s still worth delving into. Luckily enough, there’s a Coptic church just down the street – a rather large one – that I intend to go investigate later.

I’m feeling a little irked with my situation here at the moment, so perhaps that’s why I sound kind of bitter. In truth, I am bitter that I have none of the advantages the other Americans have: people have been less able to recognize me as a foreigner (or at least, non-Arab) and help me out when I’m obviously confused. I had a shopgirl get angry with me because I was apparently saying ‘eggs’ wrong, though I noticed no difference in what she said. Also, I just miss the Northeast: the cold wind that should be hitting it right around now (but not too cold), the leaves, the church bells, and knowing how to move through the culture.

That’s it for now. I’ll hopefully write again when I’m less sick and more cheerful. It isn’t that bad here. I think. I’m hoping it’s just the adjustment period.

Early Entry - Wednesday, September 03, 2008

There has been more settling-in going on, including a few forays into the actual neighborhood I live in. I’m just amused that I probably know Midan Ramal better than my own neighborhood, but then again my neighborhood is kind of working class, so less cool. I did discover a very useful little store a street away with most food necessities, of which I promptly took advantage. This also included buying my lunch for the next few days which, because almost all cafes/restaurant type deals are closed/not in service during the day, I have to provide for myself. I’ve grown accustomed (useful verb that I now know in Egyptian Arabic) to the food more or less. Lunch will be light, and consist of cheese, olives and assorted pickled vegetables with bread – and if I’m feeling ambitious, add a fresh fig or two.
Pleasant enough, though I’ve found on the whole the Egyptian food kind of boring. It isn’t that it’s bad. It just isn’t very interesting if you’ve ever had Middle Eastern food before. Especially if you’ve had Lebanese (ahem), in which case Egyptian just doesn’t compete. Speaking of which, I had some of the best ice cream ever at a Lebanese ice cream place on the way to Montazah the other day. Also on the way to Montazah was a Lebanese restaurant. I am definitely rounding up a posse to check it out, because it will probably beat most Egyptian food without trying. I’ll stop being Lebanese-centric, but if you know anything about Middle Eastern food then you’d agree.
What’s rather frustrating is the state of my internet. It’s not as though I want to spend my time in Egypt sitting behind a computer on facebook. Far from it. I just want it available when I need/want to use it – to communicate with people from home and abroad, to keep up with world events, and maybe occasionally to zone out. But the company’s sales department keeps shutting it off for some reason, and I keep calling and they keep turning it back on, the result being that we have internet in the evening but almost never in the daytime. So Phil and I were convinced that the internet is observing Ramadaan. We tested our theory today, but it did not (alas) hold true, for the silly internet was still not functioning after IfTar.
Tomorrow is the IfTar party at Anne and Alex’s apartment in Sporting. Should be fun, though I have to find some drinks to bring. A nice way for the students to unwind after the first week of classes. Speaking of which, translation is a real pain. Mostly just Arabic-English. But everyone attains their peak level of nit-pickiness (myself included, which isn’t very hard when language is concerned) – even people who don’t really know what they’re talking about, unfortunately. But it was a good example of how essentially one phrase could start the whole class arguing for fifteen minutes.
On the whole, it looks like classes are going to be fun and quite helpful. I need to create a system so I can retain all of the vocabulary I’m randomly absorbing, but the content seems quite useful. Maybe a semester of being here will be helpful after all. I still have to decide whether I want to be here for the semester or whole year, but I have about a month or so to choose, so no hurry. I do have to get started photographing/being photographed before the weather turns bad for winter. It would be a real shame to leave without documenting the city well.

Early Entry - Monday, September 1, 2008

So today was amusing, if by amusing I mean I had a very difficult time going without food or water in a strange country while the sun was up. In case you didn’t guess, today was the first day of Ramadaan, which proved to be quite an amusing change in the city’s character.
The day started with me being indecisive on whether or not I should fast. I opted to try for a day and see how I ‘liked’ it, so I got very grumpy very quickly. We started classes today, which for me meant one two hour length class for FusHa (the literary Arabic), which may prove to be a half a level or so over my head. I may stay in the class, but if I drop down the level will be too low, so we’ll see. I want to maximize my Arabic learning in the program, so I may just try to figure something out to reconcile the issues at hand. At any rate I was excited to find that I landed myself in the highest FusHa level with the placement test – and a bit scared, because the most-learned people in the program are a good deal ahead of me. We’ll see how a few weeks treats me.
So I was basically dead tired, dehydrated, hungry and quite grumpy once we finished class. I schlepped to the boys dorms to hang out with the other guys (and to fall asleep on Matt Lowes’ bed), before we all went out to a café along the corniche (everything relatively nice is on the corniche – it just sounds nice to begin with). Before that I broke the fast (IfTar, it’s called) with Adrian, a British Muslim in the program, and Joe, who was just fasting for kicks and giggles. It tasted so, so good. And dessert was watermelon.
The café was alright. I have to find somewhere decent near the water that isn’t too expensive. It’s not as if it translates into much in American money, but I’d like to economize and keep my future options open. It hasn’t been too bad since I’ve started to get a general idea of the city layout. I know sort of when to take a taxi and when not. Tomorrow for sure I will explore my neighborhood on foot, so I know where local shops, cafes, etc are. Also for tomorrow is a visit to Medan Ramal (the center of the city), hopefully by the tram – so I can get used to that. It’s ridiculously cheap: 25 piastres, or 5 American cents, to ride on it. Awesome.
I feel like my speaking is getting a little better, but my comprehension is improving at a much more rapid pace. Hopefully the spoken Arabic class will be helpful.

Early Entry - Saturday, August 30, 2008

Yesterday went well (most of these are being written after midnight of the day they happened, so for the most part the date should be shifted up a number), though kind of long and drawn out. First was shopping at Carrefour with some folks to get a few final essentials, then we took cabs to the soccer match between some Egyptian students and the boys in our program. The ride was amusing, because our first cab brought us to the city’s stadium instead of the university’s, so we had to take another one. Also I had a million things with me that I had purchased for the apartment, some of which were quite large (i.e. a fan and a new pillow). So after some awkward hand-offs, we get to the soccer (I now want to say ‘football’) match, at which we were absolutely trounced. I had wanted to play, but forgot to bring the right shorts and hadn’t packed cleats, so when I did I jammed my (shoeless) foot into someone else’s very well cleated foot, which hurt a rather lot. So I stopped, sadly.
After the game, Phil and I had tea with some of the students from the match. The dorms overlook the fields, so it was a short walk up some stairs to their rooms. The gesture took about 4 hours, and I was getting kind of impatient towards the end because I needed to buy internet (the store closed at 9), but Phil was dilly-dallying despite my having told him and his having agreed. I don’t mind Phil that much, but I get the feeling our living together is going to be a bit uncomfortable.
After that we came home and used the materials from shopping to finally organize our living spaces. I went all-out in neurotic mode and arranged everything possible, including the bed. I’m going to ask if the storage room in the apartment has a desk I can use, because the table I’ve been using is wobbly and not very helpful.
Matt and Byron called me (rather than Phil, probably because they lack his number) to come visit our apartment. I can see how they would feel we have a good setup, but there are advantages to living in the dorms. Jeremy, one of the dorm-livers, wants to get out of them so he can have privacy and work on a research paper he’s writing, so if I wanted to I could switch into the dorms, which have meals and AC included, plus the convenience of group logistical efforts. All the same, I think I’ll just stay here. I may not have an Egyptian right across the hall to talk to, but I may well learn more about independence living essentially by myself in an apartment far-ish from everything. If I go off on enough excursions by myself, maybe it will even out.
The plan for today is to actually get internet, then walk around Muharram Bey (my neighborhood) so I know where shops are close by, local landmarks, etc. I may drop by the mosque next to my building (Awlaad ash-Sheikh) and (sort of) explain my religious situation, so someone could maybe teach me how to pray. Maybe I could try going to Jum’a prayers on Fridays regularly. Adrian, the British Muslim guy in the program, is probably fasting, so I wonder if we should do it together. I don’t plan to really do it when I go home, but while I’m in Egypt I think I should have the experience behind me.

Early Entry - Friday, August 29, 2008

Today went well enough, given that it was our first day on the pledge. We started with the placement exams at 10, for which I was on time and, amazingly enough, well rested. I think I did well on them, though the translation bit from Arabic-English was kind of difficult. But almost as soon as everyone was finished with the tests we had to sign the pledge, almost without time to think. I guess it’s better that way, but whatever. At any rate, the transition into Arabic has merely slowed/complicated our abilities to converse, because most of us know enough to actually communicate what we need in Arabic in some way. Basically, every interaction from my mouth (or anyone else’s, for that matter) into the ear of an Egyptian is fine, but it’s the other way around that tends to get confusing. Basically when they hear us say one thing well they expect us to be fluent, and therefore babble to us accordingly. However, I’ve been finding it quite comfortable to be among the other Americans when we walk around the city, because I blend in less with the Egyptian locals and therefore don’t get looked at like a moron when I speak poorly.
After exams, we were done for the day, so I led a bunch of people to the place along the Corniche that Mona and her sister brought Phil and me. It is absolutely gorgeous, whether by day or night. We relaxed there for an hour or so, then returned to the dorms. I didn’t feel like making the haul to Muharram Bey (my neighborhood, which I’m realizing is kind of off the beaten path of most taxis), so I followed a few folks to the dorms and wound up eating with them, though their supervisor was adamant that it be my first and only time doing so, on the count of needing to prepare the correct amount of food. Regardless, I hung out there, and we sung some Red Hot Chili Peppers songs – first in English of course (it doesn’t really violate the pledge…), then we with much silliness tried translated ‘under the bridge’ into ‘tahta al-kubri’, etc, which was really quite a spectacle.
After that was our arranged gathering at this club in the area of Muhattat Rammel, which is sort of the Time’s Square of Alex. It was this sort of American-esque wanna-be bar type deal, but the alcohol-drinkers seemed to enjoy it, though I was quite satisfied with a coke made with real cane sugar. Mmm. Getting to the club by taxi was kind of an ordeal, as the driver (I think) took us a really roundabout way on purpose, in order to make it seem further than it really is so we’d pay him more. We had an idea of how far it was though, but because there was a lot of traffic we gave him a little more for his trouble than what we had planned. Taxi culture here is kind of stressful sometimes, but the one I took tonight was alright enough. He offered to help me learn Arabic on the side, but to err on the side of safety I said ‘no’ and that I don’t have a telephone, though I thanked him a lot for the offer.
After ‘clubbing’ we went wandering the streets of the downtown area, looking for a purse for some of the girls and an English-Arabic+Arabic-English dictionary that didn’t suck, which proved sort of difficult. We wound up finding neither, so kept walking until we were within reasonable distance of a taxi area, bought some Kunafa (a pastry type deal) and sat on the Corniche to watch the sea together, just to relax. These Egyptian students from the university who were near us started talking to us (because as foreigners we stood out like sore thumbs), mostly to Adrian (a British guy in the program, from Dartmouth) and me. One of them was actually a Geography major at the university, and he had to take GIS as well at some point which was cool to find out. It was nice talking to them , and already the language pledge has been paying off; my 3ammia (the colloquial) is improving a lot, after just a week here. Hopefully by the end of four months I’ll be comfortable, though I still have to figure out if I want to stay for the whole year. It may well be very worth it to be here for the entire year.
At any rate, I’m quite tired from a long day of walking, and for some reason the internet that we were stealing stopped working tonight, so at some point this weekend we have to buy DSL and hook it up to the wireless router we have in the flat, so we aren’t uncivilized. Lucky for the people in the dorms that they have AC AND free wireless. I’m a little jealous. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to communicate with the rest of the world, and with the other students here so we can coordinate stuff. Over and out.

Early Entry - Sunday, August 25, 2008

In stark contrast with yesterday, today went smoothly. After a good night’s sleep, breakfast and several other items dealt with, I not only felt less stressed but things just seemed to fall into place of their own accord (probably because I wasn’t solely in charge of everything).
Still shaken from yesterday, I woke up this morning to clean myself and change. Breakfast was included with the hotel, so one less thing to worry about – an omelet, toast and jam, and tea. After breakfast I checked out, then the bellman found my a taxi for Ramses Station. This was at noon, while we didn’t have to meet up until quarter after five. Regardless, I didn’t want any debacles like yesterday, so I sat in the station drinking coffee and reading for the time in between. At about four I spotted a goofy looking white guy with a Jansport backpack and realized I should go talk to him. So after absolutely no one to talk to for a day he turned out to be with the Middlebury program, which instantly killed three quarters of my stress knowing that there was another American in my program around. More people filtered in til we were a pretty big group. By half past five we were all there, boarded the train (with massive amounts of American luggage), and left at six.
The train ride was a great time to blow off steam and chat in English with people, most of whom I knew from Midd. By the time we reached Alex I was no longer stressed, just tired from travel. Phil and my host ‘family’ – one of the program’s professors and her sister – met us at the station and drove us to the apartment to drop off our stuff before heading off to get some essentials. We drove to a very modern mall called ‘City Center’ on the outskirts of the city to buy some food and drinks, as well as a few toiletries and in Phil’s case a cell phone. Tomorrow or later I’ll have to get one, but for now I’m ok. I actually need to change my money into Egyptian pounds so I can not worry about my money situation anymore. I’ll have to talk with Nehad, the director.
After shopping we went to walk around major parts of the city, grabbing a small supper and eventually reaching a café along the coast with an absolutely gorgeous view – all in spite of its cheap price. Mona (the host) and her sister are constantly amused at my Lebanese colloquial. I guess being part Arab has its merits.
At the moment I’m having difficulty sleeping. It’s 3:30 here in Cairo, and I figure spitting everything that happened today onto the computer would be a good way to clear my mind. I hope so, because I have to be awake for a meeting at 11 AM tomorrow.

Early Entry - Saturday, August 23, 2008

Today I stepped off my study abroad experience with almost every possible malfunction. First, because ‘there was too much air traffic’ at JFK, my plane had to sit on the runway for about 2 hours, causing me to miss my connecting flight to Cairo. Because I missed the connector, I had to wait some 2-3 hours in various lines to get rebooking figured out – which meant figuring out what was happening with my baggage. Apparently the figuring out we worked out at the counter didn’t quite cut it, because when I finally arrived in Cairo some ten hours after intended, the bag wasn’t there. It took about another hour and a half of phone calls to figure out that yes, it was in the airport somewhere. Also, the customs people had a weird reaction to my being Arab-American. I wasn’t quite sure if it was anger or happiness or a strange mixture, but I was taken out of the line and sent to some serious-looking Egyptian officer type people before I was cleared. Phew. At least the visa itself wasn’t an issue like I thought it would be.

So eventually I get my bag and conveniently enough, some car service people throw themselves at me. I was fine with that because it meant I didn’t have to think. The only problem was that, though the car was quite lovely, it drove me to the wrong hotel – one that was booked, in fact – so I went wandering the streets of Cairo at night with large amounts of cumbersome luggage, searching for one. I accidentally wound up in some city water services office, but the guy in there actually had someone stand in for him and walked me around the entire neighborhood, looking (unsuccessfully) for an open room. After about an hour or so of this, he snagged a cab and asked it to find me a specific hotel.

This is when it got very creepy. It was fine at first, until we started having a legitimate conversation. He started asking me details about my sexual life and my thoughts on sexual culture in America. I thought he was a conservative Muslim trying to get my liberal American views out in the open, but I was apparently quite wrong. He was in fact telling me that he was a closet gay and had watched one hundred million gay sex tapes – because they’re sweet. This was weird enough, until it eerily dawned on me that I was sitting in a dark car with a strange man (he had pulled over to ask me a few specific questions) in a strange city and with my destiny completely at his disposal. And he was implying that maybe I wasn’t sexually active enough AND informing me that he finds men-men sex beautiful. So I casually changed the conversation and ‘realized how tired I was’ so he would find a hotel quick as hell.

It turned out alright – he actually seemed like a legitimately helpful man, and he gave me his contact info in case I ever needed anything again (*cough cough*). This was the second time a strange man went completely out of his way to help a lost foreign kid. He didn’t even charge me (he was a cab driver) for the ride. I just realized that the situation could have been really bad or really good, and I happened to get really lucky. I do not intend to rely on luck next time.

Already I miss very subtle things from home, and some less subtle ones. There is a smell (spices and garbage mixed together, I believe) that pervades the streets, reminding me of when I was in Lebanon. The heat, the scent of car engines and outside markets is all quite a rush of new sensations (or relived ones, anyway). I miss well-kept bathrooms though, and knowing where I’ll be sleeping when I wake up. That will be solved (provided I can get to Ramses station tomorrow) easily enough once I’m with the group. It’d be nice to see familiar faces after such a hellish day and a half. I need routine, and the past bit of time has most decidedly not been so. We’ll see how it works out later. At this point, I’m waiting to take advantage of internet so I can contact people in the US so they know I yet live – but all this after I take a very well deserved rest on these very, very soft mattresses.