A Mix of Life

This week has been one of those weeks that I both love and hate at the same time.

It's been busy with working on homework and other outside activities such as the lecture on Modern Egyptian history that we had on Sunday, yesterday's movie night (which I will elaborate more on as you all know my love of movies) and the girl's night that will occur tomorrow night as the start to my wonderful weekend. Well...hopefully wonderful weekend. 

The nice thing about being busy with all of this stuff is that it allows me to forget about all the social skills that I lack that are now coming into view. I don't mean for this post to be a downer and I promise I'll end it on a good note, but for now I need to vent. 

-Begin ramblings of feelings.-  

It has occurred to me, in the three weeks I've been in Egypt, that I don't think I will find anyone who will be my "travel buddy". The someone that just goes with me when I want to go somewhere or the someone who calls me when they want to do something. I'm finding out that the girls here just don't understand me and I'm unsure as to what the boys think. I mean, we get along fine in classes and when we hang out in groups it seems fine, but outside of that, I feel like I'm pushing myself out there to make friends and its all for nothing. I have to really make it known if I want to go somewhere or do something or I have to be there when plans are decided or I'm left out in the cold. 


My one flatmate, Garrett, has Egyptian friends from college living here and so she's often running off with them. My other flatmate, Ann, gives me this vibe of not really liking me. Like I'm an obnoxious little flea that she just wishes she could get rid of. The other girls all live together and while I want to be their friend, Haley just sort of ignores me, Lindley is ok, Shruti doesn't understand what I'm saying half of the time and Rebecca is lumped in with Haley and Lindley.


I don't know why this is either. I've been as nice and friendly as I can and I'm still not getting anywhere with anyone. I'm hoping that this is just the first three weeks being awkward, but I'm unsure. And in a way, it's making me angry. I just want to do things on my weekends so that I don't feel like I'm wasting my time in Cairo. But, as of right now, I guess that means I have to go it alone. 


-End ramblings of feelings.-


So, now that you've actually seen some feeling coming from me...as most of you never see any kind of feeling come from me or from this blog anyway...now you have. I hope that this post changes in the next few days/weeks, but I don't know. 


In other news, the lecture on Sunday night wasn't too bad. But, we did try to cram a lot of history into a short period of time. Probably not the best idea, but it had to happen. We all needed to know how Egypt got to this point in time. It helps to understand where we are coming from when we do things like walk down the street everyday. 


On Monday, we held the first Arabic movie night. I was rather excited because you all know how I am with films. I get all giddy every single time I get the opportunity to watch one. So, we watched The Yacoubian Building, which is considered the biggest Arabic movie in terms of budget to ever be made. I had heard about it before, but I had never seen it. It was really good. It does things that some movies have a lot of problems doing. It weaves together the lives of several individuals (5 main characters) all of whom live in The Yacoubian Building. You watch on screen as the characters' lives intersect and collide in ways you never thought imaginable. As a filmmaker, this film was amazing. 


After the movie ended, we had the opportunity to talk about it with some of our Egyptian peers who had also come to see the movie. I got to meet my language buddy, Emam, here. (I hope maybe we can be good friends at least.) And it was while I talked to Emam's aunt I realized that she had a very different perspective on the same film that I had just watched. She said that she did not like the movie because it only showed the negative side of living in Cairo. That she likes movies that bring people together, not ones like this. 

It took me a little bit to understand where she was coming from. I mean, I view these characters as just that characters in a story. And in order to make a story interesting you impose problems and allow them to deal with them in the manner that would fit their character. She, however, saw this as a representation of her culture. That this movie made in Egypt, by Egyptians, tarnished the way others would view the Egyptian culture based on this one movie. I guess that makes sense, but for me I wouldn't think of it in such a way. But, maybe I should start adding that perspective to how I watch movies. Who knows...I might be onto something...like a term paper topic...


And that pretty much brings us up to the present. I'm tired and still have to work on my Egyptian Arabic homework before class tomorrow morning. I may just take the book upstairs and work on it in my nice comfy bed, in my layers of nice warm pajamas. That just sounds really appealing, especially as the car horns outside the window are getting really annoying. 


I'm kind of looking forward to girl's night. Hopefully, it will bring me closer with the girls, but who knows. I'll let you know as time goes on. But, for now. I really should get back to my homework. 


More updates coming soon....

Reflections of a Newly 21 Year Old

Yesterday was my 21st birthday as I mentioned before. And for once in my life, I felt the need to celebrate it...even if it was with people I had just met. Normally, I don't really feel the need to celebrate because I look at it as just another day out of the year. But, yesterday I became extremely homesick and needed to do something. It's probably due to the fact that I just turned 21 and I wasn't with any of my friends or family...especially because I'm fine now. 

So, I first decided to make a cake. I didn't want anyone else to make one for me, I wanted to make one myself. I would have a picture of it, but sadly I forgot to take a picture of it before it was devoured by my fellow study abroad kids. And that's the first thing I did on my birthday. I got up, and made a cake. I thought for a small moment that the cake wasn't going to happen as I couldn't figure out how to light the oven. But, with the help of one of my flatmates, Garrett, we managed to light the oven and I baked the cake. 

Everything went pretty well on the baking front, except that I didn't let it cool enough before I tried to remove it from the pan and so it fell apart. But, I fixed it with lots of chocolate icing...and it really didn't matter anyway as it was gone within literally 3 minutes. 

So, while I was letting the cake cool, I went with Ann, Haley, Lindley and Rebecca (yes, there is another one) to the AUC bookstore to try and find the correct Arabic book for class on Monday. Well, they had it when I was in there on Wednesday, but I didn't think it was the right book so I didn't buy it...anyway, turns out it was and when we got there they were out....guess we'll have to try again next time? 

After that uneventful endeavor, we attempted to find a stationary store to get some notebooks, which pretty much led to us being followed by a few 12 year old hooligans, who I had to restrain myself from punching them and us nearly being taken into another perfume shop. 

We returned home unsuccessful, but had decided (or I had anyway) that I wanted to go out for sushi at Safir Hotel. So, when we were all sitting down at dinner (I was only expecting it to be the girls, as I didn't invite the boys for dinner, only cake), Garrett and Haley come wandering in late with Tyler and Mustafa (Moose, for short) in toe carrying a basket of flowers for me. It made the night really special. After we had ordered, we received word that Will and Sean were also joining us, so everyone was pretty much there to celebrate.

The pictures above are the flowers I was given, and everyone at the table for dinner. 

I was going to treat myself to dinner, which consisted of an avocado roll, Thai green curry chicken and a Stella, which is an Egyptian brewed beer, and as I was going to pay my check it was taken from me and everyone pitched in for my meal as my birthday gift. It was so sweet.

This is Stella which was served in a glass. 

After dinner, we all retreated to my apartment for cake, which as I said above it didn't last more than a few minutes. We all then hung around the apartment for a while before heading over to Tyler and Moose's apartment to hang out. 

And that pretty much wraps up my birthday. It was great and while I didn't get super drunk, I did have a beer. And while I didn't get to spend it at home with my friends and family, I did get to spend it with some amazing people here in Cairo. 
There it is! My birthday. I'm excited to come home and party with everyone when I get back, but for now I'm ok.

Also, on a complete side note, today I went to the gym and then started on the intense amount of homework I have to do...which I should be getting back to. So, stay tuned for more updates!

My Birthday in Cairo, but Not at Home

Well, here in Cairo I have officially turned 21. I'll let you all know about the events that ensued once they actually happen, but until then. Happy Birthday to me and that's it really...
 

"Time Won't Let Me Go"

It feels like time here is moving so slowly. But, then again that's how it felt when I started my adventure in Prague too. I know it will pick up, but at the moment I feel as if I'm not doing a whole lot...which is only sort of true. I mean, this has been the first week in a brand new program with brand new classes. AMIDEAST has done a fantastic job of letting us adjust to taking classes with such a rigorous workload by not making us do much else this week and for that I am grateful, as I know the rest of this semester is going to be difficult. 

Right now, I'm in kind of a slump. It's the week of my birthday and I'm not home with anyone I know and to top it all off...I have a cold. I know that once this cold passes and I become better friends with those in my program, life will get better and go back to being what it normally is for me when I travel...a lot of fun. 

I'm just still in the awkward phase. I'm trying to figure out who I'm going to be friends with and just how much we have in common. It's the first week of college all over again. And I have to say, Prague was a little easier on me in this respect. I mean, I traveled over to the Czech Republic with Kris and then became fast friends with Steph, Shayna, Dave and everyone. It was easy to find friends, I guess because we all had the same interests...film, television, etc. Here it's just going to take more time...and those who know me know how I feel about things not happening instantaneously.

But, enough of my ramblings about things that haven't quite fallen into place. Since I started classes I've done quite a bit. I decided to drop MSA and replace it with International Relations of the Middle East, which is taught by a gentleman who is in the Egyptian parliament...it's going to be a very interesting class...I'll keep you posted as the semester continues. But, other than that, I'm taking the same classes I was before. 

Classes:
~Colloquial Arabic
~Introduction to Ancient Egypt
~Customs and Manners of Ancient Egypt
~Art and Hieroglyph*** I'm most excited about this one!
~International Relations

I managed to make it through the whole first week of classes, even though I contracted a cold at some point, and that includes not getting killed as I crossed the street on my way to school. Though I'm still working on the whole "I want to adventure" thing...still not comfortable going by myself just yet. 

Honestly, I haven't done a whole lot this week. I went down to the AUC bookstore three times to pick up some of my books for classes, which are costing me a small fortune (yuck!) and I had koshary (yum!) twice. Also, yesterday we were introduced to a cool place called, The Culture Wheel, which is a really awesome art place in Zamalek that holds film nights, and plays and all sorts of other things. We were there to see a dialogue about how Islam is viewed in the West. It was really interesting. You can tell a talk is good when you don't realize you've been sitting in the same place for two hours. I think I'm going to have to venture back there more often to satisfy my art craving. 


And so, there you have it folks! I'm going to now try and see what everyone is doing tonight. I was working on finding an internship and such, but I'm getting tired of looking and being on the computer. 


More to come! Just keep watching!

School, The Pyramids and Winning the Africa Cup...Also, Some Housekeeping Items

As I write this to now, Egypt has just won the Africa cup. And while I didn't go out and watch it with everyone else because I didn't want to sit on the floor in a very crowded place where I probably couldn't see the television, I can still hear all of the excitement from my living room as I watch the festivities on my own television. Not going out also gave Ann (one of my roommates) and I a chance to try the whole "order online and it will arrive" things. I have to say the swarma was delicious. 

But, enough about the Africa Cup and sports. As most of you know, I don't really pay that much attention to them at home anyway. I think the only reason I pay attention here is because it's part of the culture and if I truly want to experience the culture, you have to get involved with everything...including the sports. 

So, I started classes today which was very excited. I had MSA (Modern Standard Arabic), which I will most likely be dropping for another content course which should help me graduate on time and I had Introduction to Ancient Egypt with Dr. Randa, where she gave us a very big overview of Egyptian society starting with the Pharaohs and ending with the present. I was supposed to have my Customs and Manners class, but upon reading the syllabus we discovered that the class won't begin until Tuesday. But, it was fun thinking for a while that the professor forgot about the class. 

Tomorrow is going to be another fun day. I start with Egyptian Colloquial, followed by a break (which is where my Intro to Ancient Egypt class is normally held), followed by Arts and Hieroglyphs (that's what I'm most excited about) and then International Relations (which is most likely the class I will take in place of MSA). It's going to be a very long day, but I know it will be fine. For now anyway. 

I'm starting to realize that this semester is going to be one of the hardest semesters I have encountered. It's going to be a lot of work combined with a lot of trips and wants to see all that is Cairo. It's not going to be as simple as Prague was, where I just focused on my movie and the few papers that I had to write. This is an actual semester of study. I'm both excited and scared. 

Moving away from the terror that is the start of classes, yesterday we went to see the Giza Pyramids and on Saturday I went with Ann and Shruti to an open air market in Islamic Cairo. It was a lot of fun, but very stressful. The architecture was cool though. The pictures to the left are some that I took when we were there.

Now, to begin the pyramids segment of the blog, I have to start off by saying that I had no idea we were living that close to them. We literally boarded the bus and in about 45 minutes had found the pyramids. I thought they were somewhere off in the desert, but really they are just on the outskirts of the city. 

We started with seeing the Great Pyramid, which is the biggest of the three in the Giza complex and then with the help of Dr.Randa with learned about some of the other tombs in the area. She also read some of the hieroglyphs to us, which was cool. I'm excited to do that! I also had the opportunity to go inside a small pyramid belonging to Queen Hetepheres of the 4th Dynasty. It was pretty cool, but not very picturesque inside. We also took a tour of the boat house, which had a boat that they found in one of the boat pits in it. Wow, that was a big boat. 

Once we were done with the boat house, we went up to see a panoramic view of all three pyramids at the Giza plateau. It was here that I got to ride a camel through the desert sands behind the pyramids. I absolutely loved riding a camel and would have loved to be able to ride it all by myself like our program manager Matthew, who apparently used to ride them a lot when he lived in Yemen. I think this was the highlight of the day. After we rode the camels, we boarded the bus and went down to see the Sphinx which guards the entrance to the pyramids. The entire time we were heading down there, the only thing in my head was from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, when the brothers sing, "But, in Egypt there's food going spare. They've got corn, they've got meat. They've got fruit and drinks. And if we have the time, we can see the Sphinx." After all these years, I'm still a musical theater kid. And I must say, the Sphinx was rather impressive. I'm sad that it is missing a nose and headdress, but they are doing a great job of restoring it.

 

 

The pictures from above are the ones I took on the trip to the pyramids. They are me in front of the panoramic, the Sphinx, the camel I rode, all of my group on camels, and us actually riding the camels. There are pictures of me on a camel, I just didn't take them.

Well, that's about all of the adventures I've had so far. But, before I sign off, I'm going to take care of a few house keeping items. So, here are the pictures of my apartment. 

 

 

  
They are my personal bathroom, my room, the living room, the dining room with my roommate Ann, the stairs, and the kitchen.

And if you feel the need to send me mail, you can mail it to this address: 

Becky Mezzanotte 
27 Refea Street
2nd Floor Apt. 202
Dokki-Giza, Cairo 
Egypt

I can't guarantee that any kind of mail will make it to me as the mail system isn't very reliable here. Also, please do not send me packages because in order for me to receive them, I would have to pay a customs fee which I really don't want to do. Thanks. 

And I think that about wraps everything up here. More to come! Life is just starting to get interesting here.

The Cairo Amazing Race!

Today was the last day of orientation. Thank goodness. Tomorrow is Friday, which means the first day that we actually get to sit down and relax since I got to Egypt.

Right now, as I write this, I'm extremely exhausted and ready to just sleep straight until tomorrow morning. But, I know I can't do that just yet as the football game against Egypt's rival Algeria is tonight in the semi-finals and I kind of want to see that. Also, in case you are wondering the picture to the left, I took on the Nile cruise that we took.

But, anyway. Back to the last couple of days. Well, Tuesday was more orientation. The typical morning of survival Arabic, followed by lunch and then a lecture on the culture of Egypt. After, we met with some Egyptian students that study at Cairo University and chatted with them. I talked to two gentlemen named Ramin, and Mohammed (I think). Ramin studies English literature and art, while Mohammed studies Geo-physics. Both are Master's students, but they were a lot of fun to talk to. I wish I had talked to more students, but I'm sure I will be seeing them around AMIDEAST as they are always invited to come and socialize with us. They like helping us with our Arabic.

Wednesday came around and it was once again the usual orientation in the morning. We then met for a lecture on the culture shock that were going to experience and the street harassment that is common for women in Cairo. We have already experienced some of the street harassment, like men hissing at us when we walk, cat calling, etc. But, some of this stuff is the same stuff that American men do as well. I guess, it's a universal theme to harass women.

After the boys left, the girls stayed with Nadia, our academic manager, and our Arabic teachers arrived. What we thought was supposed to be an "anti-harassment march" throughout the neighborhood, was actually girls night out with our professors. It sucked that my one flatmate, Garrett, was sick and couldn't go. But,it was so much fun. Yasmina, our survival Arabic teacher, took us to a Yemeni restaurant where we had so much food we didn't know what to do with it. It was really fun and very funny, especially because our teachers didn't even know what was going on. After the food, we were taken to a drink place to get sugar cane juice. It was very sweet, but extremely delicious and I would never have tried it if it wasn't for my Arabic teachers. Before we all departed for home, Yasmina and the others insisted that they buy us a box of sweets to take home with us. As if they hadn't done enough for us already. They are so sweet, and I'm so glad that I decided to come to Egypt, even if I wasn't exactly excited to leave.

The pictures above are the sugar cane juice drink which was delicious, the Yemeni feast on the table and of course, Yasmina with the two bags of treats.

So, that brings us to today. This morning was our last day of survival Arabic and then we began The Cairo Amazing Race! If you haven't seen the show The Amazing Race, it's definitely worth watching. We were split up into teams of two or three and given a mission to complete. I was paired with one of the kids in our program named Sean, and our mission was entitled, "Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!", which meant that our first stop was the Giza Zoo. When we got there we had our picture taken at the front gate and then bought tickets to the zoo (which were 20 EPD...we later found out that they were only supposed to be 2 EDP and that we had been ripped off, which is rare at the zoo...but, it still happened.) Once inside, we proceeded to take our pictures with 10 animals and we learned the names of them in Arabic. Pictures will be up soon, once I get them from Sean.

After leaving the zoo, we continued to follow the instructions which led us to the opera house, downtown Cairo, the Ramses train station, and some other cool places where we had other tasks to accomplish. The only problem we encountered was on our way through our detour. We happened to stumble across a man who was very keen on helping us,which was fine as he did help us a lot, but he was also a perfume salesman and it was difficult to try and leave. I ended up buying a bit of perfume from him just so that we could keep moving, but that detracted us for at least half an hour or more. Once we escaped him, another one found us...luckily we were extremely rushed and told him no we could not stay and chat about the stuff. The other problem that we had was concerning The League of Arab States. No matter how hard we tried to ask them our questions, they either didn't understand us, or they refused to answer them. It was very difficult and actually it's what made me finish with the game.

We returned to AMIDEAST headquarter, also known as Babel Villa, and found out that we came in last. It was sad, but we had a lot of fun doing it. I feel like I've accomplished something by navigating myself around Cairo with no help. And I feel like I will be more willing to talk to people and ask questions. It was just a lot of fun!

And that brings us to now. Well, I'm waiting to hear on the plans for the football game as I want to watch Egypt vs. Algeria. Tomorrow is the first day that we have to relax and explore on our own, which I will probably talk someone into doing with me. It should be fun. And then, as if I haven't mentioned it enough, on Saturday I get to go see the pyramids in Giza and ride a camel! Cooool!

So, stay tuned, more's on the way!

Walk Like An Egyptian

Or don't. That's just as good. I mean, honestly walking like an Egyptian is certainly one way to get yourself killed.

If I thought Czech drivers were bad with swerving to avoid the trams, then I was very wrong. I don't think anything can be as bad as Egyptian drivers. With them, there really aren't any rules of the road. They seem to think it is better to just follow the flow of traffic and avoid all sorts of traffic signals. Yeah...about that...that's all fine and dandy, except for the fact that when it comes to crossing the street, it feels like you are in a game of Frogger. You kind of move out to the center of the street when there aren't any cars coming and then continue in the pattern until you reach the other side. I guess it's no surprise that their traffic fatalities rate is 44 times that in the US. I'm just going to be extremely careful when crossing the street.

In other news, I'm finally starting to adjust to life here in Cairo. It is a very different city than any place I've ever experienced. It's a bit dirtier than most cities and definitely much louder. Car horns and light flashing are becoming a part of my normal life here and my lifestyle is adapting as well...you know stuff like, showering at night, walking in the street instead of on the sidewalk, and going to class on Sunday.

Thus far, my time here has been pretty good. Sunday we started our first day of orientation. It was pretty basic. We went over the regulations and such.Then we went on a tour of our neighborhood and took the metro just to experience the metro. Later on that night, we took a dinner cruise down the Nile where we met most of our Arabic professors and chatted with them in Arabic. Oh man are my Arabic skills rusty...but not only are they rusty, but I also keep confusing them with Czech. Wonderful! After the dinner, I returned to talk to Geoff and my parents before crashing. I was wiped.

Today was only the second day of orientation, but it already feels like I've been here for a while. We went over our academic requirements and then we met the rest of our professors from the Arab Academy. And then, we took the dreaded Arabic Proficiency exam. I'm unsure as to how well I did, but just taking it made me want to cry. I only remember so much of what I was taught and I'm pretty sure that was shown through my performance. Luckily, there isn't a grade for this exam and it is just used as placement.

So, after my test I attempted to navigate myself back to my apartment with no help from anyone. I got lost a little bit, but eventually found my way back to Mesaha Square where I live. On the way back, I ran into Will, the other student with me in the Egyptology program, and Garrett, one of my flatmates, and they invited me to tag along with them and Tyler, the AMIDEAST intern, to see the Egypt v. Cameroon soccer game at the King Hotel because the Egyptians were in the Africa Cup and this was a big deal.

It was a lot of fun! African soccer is very different from any other kind of soccer I've seen. It's slow enough to have a conversation with someone and yet, interesting enough to watch when something is about to happen. We sat with these two very nice Egyptian men who talked with us a little in Arabic and helped us learn some new things. I also got to try an Egyptian beer called "Stella". (I thought that girls couldn't really drink, but apparently drinking is a class thing, not a gender thing.) I had a great time and EGYPT WON!!!! There were fireworks over Cairo and honking more than normal. They are headed to the semi-finals now and it should be fun!

After the game had ended, we wandered over to Tyler's apartment where we had some very delicious food. We then just chilled and talked about a number of different things. I feel that this semester is going to be a good one. We may not be as tight as the FAMU kids were, but I will certainly enjoy all of my time here. I just know it.

P.S.- Pictures and apartment house keeping is on the way. So, don't think that I've forgotten, I just haven't uploaded pictures and such just yet. It will be coming. Especially, after the trip to the pyramids on Saturday!