As Seen By Becky

Ending a Chapter: The End of the Adventure

2010-06-02T09:42:00.002-04:00

A sigh of relief. A breath of fresh air. It's been about six days since I stepped off of the plane in New York City...and it's been good to be home. Things have been much easier to coordinate from Baltimore than they were from Cairo. And since my life just doesn't stop for a moment, I'm glad I came home when I did. There is a lot to do. Graduations, weddings, film festivals, jobs, etc., etc.

Leaving Cairo was both an easy and challenging step to take. As I waited for my cab Friday morning, sleep deprived and yet somehow alert, I was sad. I didn't want to leave everyone I had met or some of the experiences I had had. Explaining to my bowabs that I needed to return to America was probably one of the hardest things I had to do before I left. They didn't want to believe that I needed to come home.

The more I think about it, my time in Egypt felt like a dream. There was no way that it could have been real. But, it was and I was sad to see it go. And yet, there are still things that make me realize why I needed to come home when I think back on my time in Egypt. The people were beginning to get to me, and the heat was getting bad. But, the memories I made in Egypt were fun and an experience that I needed to have.

As I left for the airport last Friday, I sat back and watched Cairo pass by. It looked wonderful in the morning sun. I wasn't in the best of moods as the taxi driver was late which made me worry about not making my plane on time. When I got to the airport, I made my way inside and moved quickly through the initial security clearance, and then quickly through the ticket counter. While waiting to board the plane I talked to a really nice lady from Texas who had been in Egypt on vacation. She really loved her trip and also recommended seeing Petra in Jordan to me. I may do that one day.

We began the boarding process a bit late, but got through in reasonable time. Although they did pull me aside to look through my bag...they couldn't figure out what my external hard drive was, but I expected that. Finally, I was able to get on the plane. I was sitting next to a really nice guy who had just finished up his time in the Peace Corp. He was stationed in Hungary, but then traveled through the Middle East before coming home. We chatted for a bit, and then made an agreement to wake each other up when the food came through. This was particularly helpful as he was sleeping for the first time and I was sleeping for the second.

The flight itself was fine. I don't remember much of it because I was sleeping for a lot of it. But, that was probably a good thing. Getting through customs in the States though proved to be great fun. As I went through the line, the officer asked me where I was coming from and I told him "Egypt". He asked how long I'd been there and I said, "five months". He then asked, "Why would anyone want to be in Egypt for five months?" I told him for study. He asked what I studied in Egypt and I told him Egyptology...and he didn't believe me. He had to google it to make sure it was a real subject. And he also googled my program to make sure it existed. Wow...longest interrogation at customs ever. Baggage claim was also horrible, but that was just because it took forever to get my luggage. It was wonderful to see Geoff and my parents at the airport though.

Traffic was horrible on the way home, but nothing compared to Cairo. We made it to the Poncabird, my favorite pub, without stopping home first. I got a burger and a beer and it was good. Everyone...or just about everyone...was there to see me and it was like a makeshift 21st birthday party. Wonderful.

So, the last few days have been me lounging around the house, eating the foods I've missed and visiting with everyone that I haven't seen since either January or September. Mom took me to the grocery store the other day and needless to say, I was overwhelmed. It may take a little bit to get used to such a big place to buy food. Last night was the Plenary for Rudes and we planned out the season and today I get to see some more people and start a job. Everything is in place for this summer to be phenomenal. I'm excited.

And that's it! My adventure is over...for now. I'm in the States with at least one more year of college to go and no plans to really travel outside of the States for a bit. So, sadly this blog must now come to an end. I'm sad to see it go and I will definitely miss writing down all of my adventures in foreign lands in it.

As for my experiences, they will forever be a part of who I am, shaping me in everything I see and do. I don't think I'll talk about anything else for a while. My program managers, Kim and Matthew, were both amazing people to work with and they supported us with everything. I couldn't have asked for better people to help shape my experience. I'm not going to reflect much on things I did, or places I traveled to because...well, that's what I've been doing all semester.

I have to thank everyone who has come along on this journey with me. Mom, Dad, Gram, Geoff, Manya, Emma, Steph L, Shayna, Grandpa, the class from Mississippi (that I was told was reading my blog), and anyone I've forgotten or who is reading my blog and I just don't know it. You've all been great and I hope you've enjoyed the adventure as much as I did.

I don't think this is really the end of me traveling. It's just the end of this blog. Perhaps I'll reopen it one day, but at this point I'm unsure. If you want to keep in touch, you can follow my blog/portfolio. And there it is. I'm out of things to say, except thank you and so long for now.

Best wishes, Becky

2010-05-28T19:53:00.001-04:00

Traffic has been aweful. I'm still not even home yet. There is a burger calling my name.

2010-05-28T16:47:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm back in the states. On the way back home finally. Customs took forever... More about that later though.

A Sigh of Sadness and a Breath of Excitement

2010-05-27T15:15:00.091-04:00

"Save tonight, fight the break of dawn.

Come tomorrow, tomorrow I'll be gone."

Well, here it is. The last substantial post I will make from Egypt. I'm currently sitting in the "Man Cave" next to Sean who is watching a show on Haley's computer, while Ann checks her e-mail on the other couch. The others staying in the "Man Cave" are out on the balcony smoking and talking. It's rather odd to be here instead of in my own apartment.

It's also really odd as the group is continuing to break apart and shatter. Rebecca's gone, Will's gone, Ryan's gone, Lindley's gone and Ann will be on her way to the airport in two hours. I'm torn about leaving Egypt right now. It's going to be a bittersweet goodbye in the morning. I just know it. This post is going to be an overall reflection post, so more apologies from me for being ridiculously long. Here goes nothing.

Egypt for me has been a road of ups and downs. There were so many good times and bad times as well. I think the good times outweigh the bad, but Egypt was still a much different experience that I ever would have imagined it to be.

I came to Egypt expecting it to be the Egypt of 20 years ago. "Paris on the Nile." I'm not exactly sure why I expected this, but that's what I wanted. A society in the desert that was sophisticated and yet somehow adventurous. Egypt wasn't what I expected at all. I landed in Cairo in what looked to be LAX or somewhere in California. Palm trees lined the road of a modern looking city.

As we entered into the main part of the city, I found what looked like parts of the Middle East you see in pictures. Unfinished buildings made of brick, covered in sand with palm trees lining the road. The more I got to know Cairo, the more I realized that it was in fact a rollercoaster, as they told me in orientation. Some experiences were great, like the trip to Luxor and Aswan and the trip to the Children's Museum and being able to communicate entirely in Arabic at Khan Al-Khalili. While others were horrible, like the days I had to write papers, and sometimes the walk to and from school. Egypt was in fact everything. Good, bad, amazing, and disastrous. I truly do believe that I will always have a love-hate relationship with Cairo and Egypt in general.

This semester was completely different from the last one I spent in Prague. From the city to the group of people on the program. I felt I had a certain connection with the kids in my Prague program. We were the FAMU kids. We were a family. Here was not the same dynamic. I felt that I didn't get to know everyone as well here. Though I did make some great friends. Shruti was absolutely awesome and so much fun. Mustafa helped me survive this semester. I found I have more in common with him than I thought I originally would. Will proved to be a rather delightful person to be around. Surprisingly, Sean became a rather close friend, which I wouldn't have pictured at the beginning of this whole adventure. And Tyler became someone I could talk to about random things. Sadly I didn't get to know the other girls as well as I knew the guys and Shruti. But, then again I felt that there was a slight cliche between them all and I was once again the outsider. Around the end of the semester this seemed to disappear, but the fact still remained that I didn't really know them. But, they were a lot of fun when we did hang out.

Ok, so with all the good of a semester, there comes the bad. And before I get so engrossed in the awesomeness that was this semester, I'm going to first talk about my problems this semester. There actually aren't that many, but they are enough to warrant a bit of a rant.

So, here it goes. Egypt itself would be a much better place if the people, particularly the men, in the society would understand the concept of being a woman. Being a woman does not mean you have the right to call me names, hiss at me as I pass, and just overall harass me. If there is one thing I will not miss about Egypt it's the fact that I can blend in and not have to feel angry when I walk down the street all the time.

Egypt would also be a much better place if they could understand the concept of the environment. Let's be honest. The place is absolutely filthy. I had the worst time trying to adjust to the fact that I had to walk around trash to get to school and that trashcans were incredibly hard to find. Also, the fact that everyone seems to own a car. Why on earth would you need to own a car in this city? There are taxis everywhere! I'll never understand.

And while I'm on the subject of taxis, just because I'm walking down the street does not mean I need a taxi to get wherever it is I am going. I do like to walk.

As for the program itself, I have very few gripes about the program. I would have liked a little more structure within some of the classes and sometimes I wished my professors were a bit more interactive. But, then again I don't know a way to teach Egyptology other than lecturing with pauses to answer questions. I also think that the workload was a bit much near the end of the semester. But, I've written all of this on my evaluation forms, so hopefully these things will be taken into consideration for programs in the future.

Overall, I think program and my experience in Egypt was one I'll never forget. I've made some amazing friends, seen some incredible places and done some unforgettable things. You can't leave Egypt saying that you didn't take something away. I definitely did. I learned a lot about myself and I definitely saw a way of living that I would never have seen otherwise.

To finish this post up I've moved outside on the balcony where it's much cooler. As the wind blows and the smell of some of the empty alcohol bottle blows along with the wind, I can't help but already miss everyone. We may not have been a close family like the FAMU kids were, but we were definitely something. A group of friends embarking on an adventure of a lifetime.

I'm dreading the end of this post because it means the end of an adventure. The end of a chapter in my life that I had been planning since I was a freshman in college. When I end this post, I will leave Egypt and return to the States as a Senior at American University. The words are rather terrifying. They symbolize another big moment of my life coming to an end, but I'm not going to think about that just yet.

As with my last post from Prague, I'm going to give some advice to those who wish to study abroad. My words of wisdom are this, go into an experience with no expectations. You never know where you may end up and what memories you will make. Let your feet do all the traveling. Live your life with little reservations.

I can't say that I won't miss Egypt. I know I will, something at home will remind me of Egypt and call me to remember the dirty city of Cairo. Even with all the times I wanted to leave and felt uncomfortable, I know that Cairo has a special place in my heart.

I need to thank Matthew, our program manager, for being extremely awesome and so easy to talk to. I'm extremely excited to keep in touch with him about the thesis project I'm going to take on next year. Thank you to Tamer, our awesome housing specialist, who took care of any problem we ever had. And for giving me my Arabic name, Bakinam. Nadia, our former academic adviser, for all her courage and support with girl's nights. And Dr. Riham, our current academic adviser, for listening to us gripe about all of our classes and workload and for truly understanding what we were going through. Without you all, this semester would have been a mess. I know it just would have been. To everyone on the program, Ann, Ryan, Shruti, Garrett, Tyler, Will, Moose, Sean, Lindley, and Haley, you've made this experience one to never forget. Know that you've been great inspiration for some of my characters in scripts.

So, here it comes. The end of the adventure in Egypt. It seems like it just started and at the same time as if I've been in Cairo for years. And with a deep breath, I'm bringing this post to an end. I'm just about out of things to say. No one is stepping out from behind the curtain this semester, I'm all alone on this one. But, it's been a blast.

So long Cairo, I will miss you. Perhaps we shall meet again. I hope we do.

The End is Near

2010-05-27T04:17:00.001-04:00

The end is very near. At this point I've packed all of my things away into a suitcase, a backpack and a carry-on and I'm sitting in my living room waiting until 12pm. I will then relocate to the "Mancave" or Moose and Tyler's apartment until my flight tomorrow morning. Approximately 24 hours from the time of this post, I will be on my back to the States. It feels a little surreal.

As I packed my things up yesterday evening I thought about it. The journey that I've been planning since my freshman year of college is finally coming to an end. It's another chapter of my life closing and tomorrow will begin a new one.

Ok, I'm going to stop being sappy for the moment. That will definitely come later. Yesterday night was my last final, so I was completely relieved to be entirely done with the semester. It was a long and hard road to get to this point, but I learned a lot and had fun along the way. We also had our final dinner last night. We went to LaBodega and I got some shrimp curry, black lentil soup, and crème brulée. I also split an appetizer of duck with Moose. It was overall a pretty good night. But, as with all programs, our small group began to shatter and splinter. Rebecca left for Australia before the final dinner and not long after dinner finished, Ryan left to go and prepare for his flight home.

After dinner we went to the bookstore that was down the street for a little bit of time, and once we had finished shopping, we split up into two groups and I came back to my apartment to try and pack up my things, which I had been dreading since I took my final. How does one pack up five months of a life into only two suitcase and a carry-on? I managed it somehow, but it was very sad to pack everything up.

Prior to dinner though, we all met at Matthew's apartment for presentations. Matthew gave out the Qishta awards, which were pretty amusing. There was an award for all of us. I got "Future director of Will's History Channel Program" as I'm sure you guessed Will got "Future Professor and Host on the History Channel". It was pretty nifty and he gave us Ancient Egyptian statues to commemorate the awards. Then Lindley made a slideshow that was set to the song "Save Tonight", which made me tear up a good bit. I realized that it was true once again. The group of friends I had made in this country was fragmenting apart.

Backtracking now. Sadly Tuesday was not as spectacular as it was supposed to be. I spent the morning pretty much just hanging around the apartment working on things that needed to be finished. I did have dinner in the evening with Virgina, the girl I worked with at Past Preservers, at Felfela. It was pretty good and it was great catching up with her. She seems to be doing fine and she told me to look her up if I was ever in the UK.

After dinner I went back to the apartment and then out on a felucca with everyone as our last gathering as a giant complete group. It was wonderful and lots of fun. I then went with Shruit, Ryan and Ann to Koshary Al-Tahrir to get some food (I only got water as I wasn't hungry). We had a nice conversation and then we headed home where I slept really well for the first time in a while.

And well, that's about it. Things are wrapping up. I'm probably going to go and get the last minute things that I need for back home after I've moved my stuff to the Mancave and then I'm going to stop over to see Matthew to ask about my Senior Thesis next year. Wow....I don't believe it, I'm officially a Senior in college. Time is just flying.

So, stay tuned. We not done just yet. One more post from Egypt to come!

Countdown: 1 day left in Cairo.

The Final Countdown

2010-05-24T16:44:00.002-04:00

This is it really. The last time that I'll be counting down whether to leave the United States or return to it. At least for a while that is.

This last week has made it really real. I've only got these last few days in Egypt and then I'll be on my way home. I had two of my finals today, which I think went really well and then I wandered with Rebecca, Lindley, Ann and Tyler to Khan Al-Khalili where I got some more last minute gifts for friends and family back home.

Yesterday was Rebecca's birthday and we celebrated it by heading out to City Stars (the mall), doing some shopping and then having dinner at a really nice Thai restaurant in Zamalek. We also surprised her with a cake, which was rather nice. It was a good get together for everyone and I enjoyed seeing us all as a big group. Also, while we were at the mall, we had lunch at this little Mexican restaurant called "El Chico". It was the most delicious Mexican food I've ever had. This is also probably because I've been deprived of Mexican food since I got to Cairo. So, it was a well welcomed change.

Also, Saturday night was a day spent pretty much doing nothing. In the evening we went to a house party, but I didn't stay long. Rebecca and I caught a cab home after about an hour as neither of us was really feeling the party. I did get some delicious tomato soup and an Oreo shake from this little cafe near the party though.

Everything is really ending and in a way I'm having trouble believing it. I've been here for five months. Five months! It feels like I've been here a lifetime. I have a certain route that I walk on my way to school, certain people that I talk to on my way out the door in the morning, a scarf guy in Khan Al-Khalili, and an in with the little restaurant across from where I go to school. How has it only been five months? I'm not entirely sure, but it has been and it's finally coming to a close.

So, here's to the next few days in Egypt. May they be filled with adventure, as I know they will. The summer's calling my name and I'm almost at the point where I can respond.

Countdown: 5 days left in Cairo

Coming Full Circle

2010-05-21T06:57:00.001-04:00

Everything about my journey in coming back around full circle from where my journey began. It feels almost like a déjà vu. I've seen it all before, I've done it all before, but in some way there is a variation, a difference, that makes me remember what I had done in the past and I can see how I've grown.

My journey began at the end of January and it of course began on a dinner cruise down the Nile with my soon to be Arabic teacher, the AMIDEAST staff and my program mates, who I had only just met. That first weekend I was here, I explored Khan Al-Khalili with Shruti and Ann. It was an overwhelming experience and I can remember thinking, 'how am I possibly going to be able to survive within this country?' Within that first month of being here, I also went to a French Party at the French Cultural Center. It was a lot of fun. We went with our newly met Egyptian friends and we met more Egyptian friends while we were there that would accompany all of us on our journey in Egypt for the next four months.

And now, here I sit, with one week left in this country. Both sad and excited to leave. I have come full circle. Yesterday morning, I got up and decided that souvenir shopping needed to be done and thus hopped a taxi all by myself and headed down to Khan Al-Khalili. The conversation with the driver was a little awkward and leaded to me telling him I was married, so that I wouldn't get another marriage proposal (this is something rather common in Egypt actually).

Anyway, I got down there and I ended up looking around through some of the shops, when one of the shop keepers stopped me to ask if I spoke English. He spoke English rather decently himself, but as he explained, he could speak but he couldn't write it and he wanted to send an e-mail to a friend of his in South Africa that had proper spelling and grammar. So, seeing that I was in a good mood, I sat down and worded the e-mail out for him. Turns out, he had just had a baby, (normally, I wouldn't have believe him, but his mother was sitting close by and I spoke with was overjoyed for a grandchild, so I assumed it to be true), and he wanted to let his really close friend know that she had just been born. Her name was Nadia.

To thank me for writing the letter, he offered me some very good Egyptian tea. I sat and talked with him for a bit and I did end up buying something from him, a beautiful box that was actually really well made. He wanted 400 Egyptian Pounds for it, but that was way more than I had, and I ended up getting it for 100. I still probably overpaid for it, but it is something that I've been looking for and I got the experience of sitting with this man and talking. So, in the long run it's worth it.

I shopped until about 2pm at the market and I did quite a bit of bargaining while I was there. And I almost finished all of my souvenir shopping. Almost. I still have some more to, but I'll do it later today.

I returned home for a bit of downtime before heading out with everyone to our end of the year Yacht Party. AMIDEAST was nice enough to rent out a Yacht for all of us and everyone we've ever met during our time in Egypt. We went on a two hour tour of the Nile, which was pretty awesome. There was pizza and soda and good company. I enjoyed it so much. It made me both love Egypt and at the same time long to be back home on the Chesapeake in a little crabbing boat with my camera. Oh, yeah. That's the other thing. Guess what I forgot to bring...my camera. So, no pictures of mine sadly.

We returned from the Yacht Party and said our goodbyes to everyone. Sadly, this was probably the last time I saw Emy before she comes to the States in October (hopefully). I wished her well and then Shruit, Sean and myself went on an adventure downtown. We pretty much just went and looked at every possible store we could have. The streets were packed with people and the night itself wasn't as hot as others had been.

After a quick beer at a bar downtown, we then traveled to Max's place where we gathered everyone and left for the French Party. It was a good bit of fun. I ended up dancing with an Egyptian dude, who was a little creepy, mainly because I felt bad for him. A friend of his, who was even creepier than he was, tried to cut in and I pretty much scowled evilly at him until he left me alone. Eventually, Moose came over looking for beer...and I told him I'd buy him one, so he grabbed me away from the creepy dude and as promised, I bought him a beer as well as a drink and a crepe for myself. Best. Crepe. Ever! Mmmmmmm Chocolate.....It reminded me of Europe, which just made me miss Prague. Sad.

The French Party ended and we wandered over to an after party at a nearby apartment. I didn't stay long however, as it was rather lame. It wasn't really what I wanted to do for the evening after the French Party. So, Sean and myself caught a taxi home. I pretty much played online for a bit after that, talked to Geoff and then crashed.

I got to sleep in this morning, which was just wonderful and I'll probably do a bit of shopping later today.

So, you see, I've come full circle. I started my trip to Egypt with a Nile Cruise, a trip to Khan Al-Khalili and a French Party and I'll finish my trip with the same. The experiences both times though, have been quite different. I can see my growth when I look back on them. My most recent trip to Khan Al-Khalili did not have me panicking and unsure, but confident and bargaining in a language that I was certain I could never remember. The Nile Cruise went from an introduction to Egypt to commemorating my time in Egypt with everyone I've met. And the French Party served as my connector from Prague to Egypt and Egypt to Prague...a connection to my memories of last semester and new ones that I made this semester.

The semester isn't over yet, but as its drawing to a close I'm realizing just how much I've grown and accomplished here in Egypt. And I'm amazed. Who knew that I could survive this? I definitely didn't think I could and here I am. Life has a funny way of working these things out.

Well, I have to run now. More shopping needs to be done before I leave. But, I'm not done blogging yet. Keep an eye for more updates in the next week. Who knows what may happen.

Countdown: 8 days left in Cairo

P.S.- I found out yesterday that my language skills jumped two levels. I started at Novice High in terms of proficiency and now I'm at Intermediate Medium. That's super impressive. Yesterday was a good day!

Watch out, it's coming!

2010-05-18T12:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I managed to survive and I guess that's a good thing. Probably more than good, it's rather great. All of my papers have been turned in, all of my presentations have been presented, classes have been completed and now I only have three finals to take until I'm home free and able to completely focus on the things that I really want to focus on.

In a way, I'm seeing this semester end and it's a bit bitter-sweet. I have made some good friends, but there have also been some downfalls to the system as well. But, there is no time to get into this stuff now. I'll do it later, when the semester is closer to being over. Right now, I've still got a week and a half to enjoy my time in Egypt. And I'm going to do my best to do so.

As of recently, I haven't done a whole lot of exploring. Friday and Saturday were pretty much spent working on papers and presentations. I did take a trip out on Friday night with Will, Max and Moose to a bar downtown, which was an experience. When we first walked in, surprisingly enough, Moose got more stares for his beard than I did for being the only white girl with blonde hair in the entire bar. It was quite refreshing. This worked well until an older gentleman came into the bar, sat down next to me and started creeping on me. Well, that's a story for another time. It pretty much ended with the boys saving me and me making up a fake history.

Anyway, so the semester is winding down and things are moving fast. Soon, I'll be a senior in college, which will be weird. I never thought it would go this fast. Wow.

Ok, well, I'm going to run now. Gonna make some food and get into some artistic things. Stayed tuned for more stories! They are sure to come.

Countdown: 11 days left in Cairo.

One Down, Two to Go

2010-05-14T10:34:00.000-04:00

Well, one paper down, one presentation and paper to go. That and of course finals. That's all that's really left for me this semester and in a way I can't wait to be done with it all. I'm very torn about my feelings on Cairo at the moment, and daily they fluctuate between reasonable and unbearable. I'm just keeping my eye on the prize...home.

These last few weeks have been extremely hard on me, there is no doubt about it. I don't think I've really left my apartment much since this last weekend beyond going to school.

Last Tuesday was my last day of work,which was quite nice. And then last Wednesday the big event was going to the Children's Museum at the Egyptian Museum with Dr. Nicole. There were Egyptian monuments made of Legos! And it was wonderfully exciting! I think I enjoyed that so much more than the actual museum itself. Although, we did go into the main hall so that Will could give his Tut presentation.

Last Thursday I went to the American Research Center in Cairo to do some research on my Egyptology paper. The people there weren't very nice and it made me not really want to work there...except that I had to as there really isn't a place to do research in Egypt like there is in the US. When I got there the people answered the door and gave me a look like I was some kind of invader. They asked where I was from and when I explained, they told me I could there for the day, but next time I needed a note. But, if I'm not mistaken...I'm an American citizen and this is an American funded center...I was told I wouldn't need a note. Oh well, I don't have to go back there ever again.

Friday I pretty much locked myself in my room and wrote a good 1,000 words on my paper, and I attempted to do the same on Saturday, only to fail. I did get a lot done, like my Anubis project(seen below), but did not finish my paper like I had planned on. I also never made it out to City Stars to get my camera fixed.

The Anubis Chest from Becky Mezzanotte on Vimeo.

Sunday was a field trip with Dr. Magda down to the Egyptian Museum. Will and I did the math and we figured out that we have been to the museum seven times each. That's more than I go to the Smithsonian's in DC and I've lived there for two years. We were pretty much explaining to Dr. Magda what things were and how we knew what they were and such. It was a very different kind of tour. After the tour she took us out for ful and tamiya at a really deceiving looking restaurant. At first glance it looked like a normal side street shop, but once you got inside it was like a full restaurant. And the food was excellent as well. Sunday also marked out last outside lecture of the semester, which consisted of Egyptian politics, something that is becoming extremely popular at the moment.

Monday was another awesome day. Following all of my classes, which were pretty standard, my IR class met down at the League of Arab States. A building we often see passing through downtown, but have never been inside. I have to say, it was gorgeous inside and I learned so much from the Ambassador who spoke to us. Normally, we talk to people who know their stuff, but have their own agenda in what they want to tell us. Not this guy. He started off by telling us that we didn't really know what we were talking about as we didn't really know what the Arab League did and had not seen the recent news concerning the league. After this little wake-up call, he proceeded to tell us what the Arab League does and his position in the league.

So, the Arab League sort of functions like a mini-UN within the Arab world. It consists of 22 countries all of which speak Arabic and are considered "Arab" (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, Comoros, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Palestine, Mauritania, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Djibouti, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, and Lebanon are the 22 members). The main purpose it to "put out the fires" that are started everyday in the Middle East and once that is taken care of to focus on networking projects to try and develop the Middle East into something along the lines of the European Union. The Ambassador's job at the Arab League is to basically deal with the "fires" started.

After explaining all of this to us in detail, he then took our questions. Which he answered in a really straight forward, no jokes manner. It was really refreshing and he knew exactly what he was talking about. So, that was a lot of fun. Also, we got to take a tour of the building, which was really impressive and looked almost like a mini-UN. AND there was a garden! I ran my feet through the grass and life was good.

Tuesday brought about a day of work for me. I left the house maybe once to go to pizza hut for some food and that was about it. I did manage, however, to finish my Egyptology paper, which relieved some stress from me. It made me feel a bit better about everything.

Wednesday brought classes and the end to a week, leaving only three days left. I turned in my paper and spent that evening watching DeathNote with Moose and Salah. It was so enjoyable. I also had a meeting with our program manager during the day and I pretty much broke down due to all the stress. I need to go home. Oh yeah! And I helped plan some budget stuff for Rudes. Good times.

Yesterday was a trip to Coptic Cairo in the morning. There were some pretty cool churches, but it was so hot that I could have done without the trip. Especially as I have so much work that needs to be finished by Monday. That just means that this weekend is going to be a very crazy, but oh well. It was enjoyable and I got to see some of the old walls of Babylon, and the church where the Holy Family supposedly hid...however, logically and historically it doesn't make any sense, so I'm unsure if I believe it.

Later in the evening we went to see Carmen at the Cairo Opera House. It was good, but not the best. I did get to get all dressed up to see it though. I don't want to really get into it as it just makes me mad. So, I'm just gonna not say anything. If you want to know, just ask.

And that leads to today. Well, I've been finishing up my proposal for Rudes next semester and then doing my powerpoint and hieroglyphs homework so that tomorrow can be solely focused on my IR paper. It's going to be another long weekend. I promise I'll update once things calm down and they won't be so packed with things. More to come!

Countdown: 14 days left in Cairo

The Walls Are Closing In

2010-05-08T17:35:00.000-04:00

Or so it feels that way. Even with my incredible sense of planning, I'm having some minor panic attacks as the end of the semester approaches. This weekend itself was a mixture of both good and bad.

The good: Well, I was able to get a start on my 4800 word paper for Egyptology. I got approximately 1200 words down and the outline of it. The rest should hopefully come pretty easily. I also managed to finish my video for Arts and Hieroglyphs and do some research on the festivals of Ancient Egypt...which Will and I managed to screw up last week. Long story short, we ended up with one wrong festival each. Thus, more work for me this weekend. Also, almost done with the editing project I need to send to Nigel.

The bad: Today was unproductive...at least the afternoon was. I did get to hang out with Moose, Max and Maria, so I guess that's a plus and I had high tea with my IR professor at his apartment, another plus. The downfall of all of this, however, was that my productivity plummeted and I haven't really gotten anything else done. And I need to keep going as my Egyptology paper is due on Wednesday and my IR paper is due May 17. But, after that...I'm free! Well, except for finals...but I'm not worried about them at the moment.

Also, another thing worrying me is the fact that no one seems to want to give me grades. I've asked and I keep getting, "well, I'm still grading". I NEED TO KNOW HOW I'M DOING!!! It's driving me nuts. I know my grade for Hieroglyphs and Arabic (they aren't too bad B and A-, respectively). But, what about my others?? Huh?

Ok, end of my short rant. I need to get back to working on things before I get really anxious again and start having a minor panic attack or something. More to come. Hopefully after I've relaxed a little bit.

From Luxor to Aswan: We're Definitely Not in Cairo Anymore

2010-05-06T13:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but I needed to borrow my flatmates camera so I could upload the pictures, as Egypt seems to have claimed another one. Luckily I have a warranty on this one and its only good in Egypt, so I'll be taking care of that tomorrow. Also, I've just been really busy this week since we got back. But, things will start slowing down soon. Anyway, enjoy!

This blog is going to sound extremely different from the other ones I write about my trips. There really isn’t any other reason beyond, I brought Kitt, my laptop, with me on this journey because of all the school work that I need to get finished, which means I’ll have written everyday about what we did. This is a combination of good and bad. Good as I will not be struggling for the words of my story, but bad as I’m sure it will much longer than any of the previous trips. Oh well. !مش مشكلة, Mish mushkeela! (Translation: No problem.) On that note, let’s get this adventure started.

Day One: Wednesday, April 28- To Luxor We Will Go!

The semester is coming to a close, I have several giant papers and presentations to work on and where am I, on a Nile cruise in Luxor. Not that I’m complaining of course. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a while. The temples, the statues and most importantly...wait for it...wait for it...The Valley of the Kings! What I was not so thrilled with about this trip was the time of departure. 3:30am. What? That’s about the time I’ve been going to bed lately, what do you mean I have to leave at that time?

Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep before I had to leave for the airport. I had planned on sleeping from about 11:00pm to 2:30am, but as per usual my plans never work out. I ended up having an argument with AU’s Financial Aid Office, which led to me calling my mother, which mean that I didn’t get to sleep until way later than intended...1:30am...I don’t even think I got the whole hour of sleep. But, that didn’t stop me from gathering all of my things and heading off Cairo International Airport to depart for Luxor.

Flying domestically was one of the most interesting experiences I’ve ever had. We got to the gate, and I put my luggage through the x-ray machine and they didn’t even stop my bag for the amount of liquids I was carrying in it. They didn’t even ask for my passport! But, the guard who put my bag through did ask for money. I was way to tired to be functional and dealing with them, so instead I just grabbed my bag and proceeded through to ticketing.

After we got our tickets, we proceeded to the gate, but not before stopping for a bit of breakfast at 4am. I had a very delicious chocolate croissant and a white hot chocolate, which was actually a little disappointing. Oh well.

On the way to the gate, we had one more security checkpoint to pass through and just from this experience I’ve determined that Egyptian security is nothing like American security. I didn’t remove my liquids from my bag, I didn’t have to remove my shoes and belt, I didn’t have to pull out Kitt, they once again didn’t check my passport and they arbitrarily stopped some of us carrying bottles of water...but even this was at random as they let some of us wander through carrying cups of coffee. Whatever, I enjoyed not having to deal with the hassle.

The flight itself was very short. We literally got on the plane, they took off and we were up in the air for maybe 40 minutes. Enough time for the cabin staff to run around and quickly hand out juice boxes and for me to sort of fall into a light sleep, only to be woken up by Korean tourists running toward the front of the plane to get off.

We waited for the tourists to exit and then got off ourselves. I’ve never gotten off an airplane in the middle of the runway and been shuttle back to the main airport. It was really an interesting experience for me. But, then again flying in general for me is still a new concept as I started flying places about 3 years ago when I visited Jackie in Boston...but that’s an entirely different story.

Sadly, I did not take any pictures of this as I was still very tired from not sleeping. Hopefully, I can take some pictures of the scene before we leave to head back to Cairo.

Once safely in the airport, we waited for our bus to come and pick us up to take us to Karnak Temple.

Now, as for Karnak Temple, it was beautiful! Everything I had hoped to see. Dr. Magda gave us a bit of the background and took Will and myself off on our own to discuss some of the important scenes carved on the temple walls.

The first pylon of Karnak Temple. A line of Sphinxes on each side lead up to the entrance.

My favorite area had to be the Odalisque of Hatshepsut. There is only one remaining upright, but there is an interesting story behind the odalisque itself. When Tuthmosis III finally came to power, he did not like Hatshepsut, the Queen who had ruled as King before him and also his mother, so to show his dislike of her, he encased the bases of her odalisque in a building, and only left the top showing as reverence to the god Amun. But, to quote William, “What a dick move.” I laughed a bit when I heard this story, it just seems so typical of these Ancient Egyptians.

The fallen odalisque of Hatshepsut.

We probably could have stayed for hours in Karnak, but the crowds of tourists and heat became rather unbearable. Thus, we retreated back to the bus and a small cafe called, “Snack Time” for some food and air conditioning.

The food, at least for William and myself, came after seeing Luxor Temple. Now, Luxor Temple was at one point connected to Karnak Temple through the avenue of Sphinxes, which are currently undergoing excavation in hope of reconnecting the two temples. Luxor Temple was much different than Karnak is a lot of ways. For one thing, it was located in the city, so traffic ran around it on both sides. The other thing that separates Luxor Temple from Karnak is the very distinctive Christian inscriptions. It becomes very obvious that once the Christians came to power in the area, they decided that the Egyptian gods and goddesses were Pagan and plastered over them in the temples. The temples themselves were just converted to churches and more recently, a mosque has been built inside of it. In a way, its kind of sad. All of the old history, while still there, is being destroyed because of different beliefs.

The first pylon to Luxor Temple.

The line of Sphinxes leading up to Luxor Temple.

After Luxor Temple, Will, Dr. Magda and myself met the others at “Snack Time”, where I got a delicious vanilla milkshake and more mediocre Chicken Cesar Salad. We then headed off to check into the boat that we will be spending our next four days living on.

The restaurant of relaxation. Milkshake was delicious. The salad had something to be desired.

The boat itself, the MS Commodore, is rather nice. It is considered to be a 5 star hotel on the water...this if of course Egyptian 5 stars, which differs considerably from American 5 stars...more like American 3 stars or so. Anyway, we checked in and once again I am rooming with my travel companion Shruti. Once I got into my room, I layed down (finally!) and took a well needed two hour nap. It was wonderful.

I woke up just in time for lunch, which was decent. Buffet style with the usual sorts of Egyptian foods you might expect, rice, carrots, broccoli, meat. After lunch, I played Tarneeb with Will, Sean and Matthew (our program director). This is the same game I played in Siwa, but I apparently was taught the Syrian version (which I’m pretty good at), this was the Egyptian version and has slightly different betting rules and more of a team feel...which means, I wasn’t as good at it the first time around. Oh well. I’m learning. After Tarneeb, we played a game of Rummy(the game I keep forgetting how to play)...and still I lost. Cards were just not my thing today.

Sean and Will playing ping pong. An event that was very common throughout this trip.

We killed about 3 hours or so playing card, but that still meant two hours until dinner. So, I thought I’d be productive and get to work on some research. As expected though, this did not happen. Instead I began writing this blog post and then transitioned into talking to Sean and Yasmina in Arabic for about 2 hours. I guess it was a well spent 2 hours as I didn’t speak English at all and confused a gentleman looking for a lighter as to what language I spoke. Compliment? I think so.

Dinner itself was only ok. Fried chicken with lemon, some potatoes and veggies. I think it could have been a bit better honestly. For desert, to celebrate Sean’s birthday, we had birthday cake and of course, the regular desert. Also, to celebrate Sean’s birthday they brought him in front of everyone and made us all sing. It was rather funny.

After dinner, I sat around with everyone outside enjoying the night air and company of those in my program. It’s nice to feel that I’m apart of the program especially because I often feel that I’m not on the same playing field as everyone else. We talked and chatted until about 11pm, when we all decided that sleep was probably a good thing as we had an early morning. I got back to the room, read about two pages of my book and promptly passed out. I was exhausted.

Day Two: Thursday, April 29- Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut

The morning was a bit chaotic to start with. I think that’s an adequate way to describe it. The wake-up call came at 6am, but no one specified to us when our actual tour was supposed to be and that’s where the confusion started.

I got up when the wake-up call came in, took my shower and then went to breakfast, where I was alone until about 6:50am. Enter Matthew and the instructions that we are to be at the tour in 10 minutes...followed by the comment, “Not going to happen.”

We eventually got on the road by about 7:30-7:45am. Oops. But, this didn’t really matter in the long run. Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings, a sight Will and I have learned a lot about. Sadly, you cannot take any pictures inside and our tour guide said that they government would fine you 50 Egyptian pounds for one photograph and 3000 Egyptian pounds if it was taken on a camera phone. With rates like that, for a moment I did consider it, but ultimately decided against it as my money is becoming more limited the closer I get to the end of the semester.

The Valley itself was incredible, though our tour guide didn’t know exactly what he was talking about and Will and I knew it. How did we know? Well, he asked a question and when Will answered it, he told Will that he was wrong and kept going. Will got rather mad at this and Dr. Magda told us that he was right and our tour guide was wrong. We heard a bit about the history of the Valley before heading off on our own to take a look at some of the tombs.

Our first tomb was Tuthmosis III, the Napoleon of Ancient Egypt. His tomb was a heck of a climb, but compared to when I climbed the Red Pyramid, this was cake. We reached the top and then descended into his tomb which was about 150 meters underground. Needless to say it was very hot! The tomb itself seemed unfinished to Will and myself as most of it was not fully painted and some areas had been gridded for writing but not filled in. Nonetheless, it was pretty awesome to be inside. Another cool thing about being inside this tomb was that Dr. Magda was able to talk to us a little bit about the scenes depicted on the wall. I guess because not that many people venture up the hill and stairs to see the tomb. On the walls of this tomb is the 12 hour night that the dead must take to get into the underworld. Each hour, which are not in order, portray a task, or obstacle that occurs throughout the journey and how it is overcome.

The next two tombs that we visited were Ramses III and Ramses IX. They weren’t as impressive as I thought they would be, especially since Ramses III was pretty important. He did after all protect Egypt from being invaded by the Sea Peoples. We also weren’t really allowed to talk about what was in the tomb, so that kind of sucked. Dr. Magda tried talking to us in one of the tombs, and one of the guards yelled at her, to which she responded, “I am a doctor and their professor.” and promptly continued walking into the tomb.

When we finished with the Valley of the Kings, we returned to the bus and avoided being taken to an alabaster factory simply for the fact that no one wanted to go. It kind of made me happy as I didn’t have to worry about feeling forced to buy things that I didn’t want/need. Our next stop was the Temple of Deir-el Behari (Hatshepsut’s temple). Hatshepsut is a very interesting figure as she was a Queen who became King. Had she been a man, she would have been King as she was of royal birth. However, because she as female, she was not. Instead she was married to her half brother, Tuthmosis II, and made the royal wife. She failed to produce any children however, and the only son of Tuthmosis II was from one of the secondary wives, so when Tuthmosis II died, Hatshepsut became the regent of the young king, Tuthmosis III. Eventually, during her time as regent, she decided that she did not want to just be the child’s regent and thus creates the story of divine birth for herself, which claims she is a child of the gods and thus can rule over Egypt as king, which she then does. She rules over Egypt as King, dresses in the ceremonial male garb, and is even referred to as “he” instead of “she”. She really is a fascinating person in Ancient Egyptian history.

Deir al-Bahri. The tomb and temple of Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh of Egypt.

After we left Deir-el Behari, we made one last stop at Collosi of Memnon. Here we only stopped briefly to look and take pictures with the giant statues.

The statues. Not the best picture, but it shows both of them.

We returned to the boat with about an hour and a half to kill before lunch, where I proceeded to write the first half of this entry and then play Rummy with Will and Sean. I lost rather badly, but you know, I enjoy playing cards with them.

We then had lunch which consisted of some delicious fish, chicken, rice and fried squash vegetable. The desert was also rather enjoyable...and I had jello, which is something I normally don’t eat, but it was rather delicious.

After lunch we had a little bit of free time, where I managed to work on some research for my presentation on Monday, had tea time at about 2:30pm and then at 5 o’clock we had Arabic class on the boat. It was a pretty interesting class. We learned a lot of new words relating to Luxor and the sights we had seen.

After class I went out to the deck area where I played ping pong for a little bit before the cocktail party. I also got to see the ship pass through the loch. To do this, the brought the ship to a complete stop, flooded the area and then allowed the ship to float out into more open water. It was pretty cool! Even though I’m pretty sure that this technology dates back to the 1800s. It was still really cool to see.

The cocktail party itself was pretty cool. It introduced the heads of staff on the boat to us and then we had free cocktails. I felt a little bit underdressed as several people actually wore fancy clothing to the cocktail hour. After this I played some more cards before heading down to dinner.

Dinner itself was rather fancy, which once again made me feel underdressed...oh well...Dinner itself was pretty good. I rather enjoyed the meal. We had chicken and vegetables and some delicious crepes with brandy for desert. I absolutely loved desert!

After dinner, it was BINGO night! We danced on the dance floor for a while prior to the game, which was probably pretty good entertainment for everyone else on the boat. Then, Lindley, Matthew, Garrett, Rebecca and myself played Bingo in a more Egyptian style than I was used to. The object was at first to get one complete line, then two complete lines and then the entire card. I was one away from winning for the entire card, but sadly the number 55 was not called and thus I did not win. After Bingo, we played one more game, which was called “the biggest loser”. The way you played was pretty simple. If they called a number and you had it on any card, you threw that card away. Once all of your cards were gone, you had to sit down. The winner got a bottle of beer. But, none of us won sadly.

Once Bingo was finished, I returned to the room where I proceeded to set my clock forward one hour for daylight savings time. Apparently they have that in Egypt. I thought it was just a North American thing, but obviously it is not. I did manage to read some more of The Yacoubian Building, which I am almost finished, before passing out. It was a very long day.

Day Three: Friday, April 30-The Temple of Edfu and Kom Ombo Temple

Another day of adventure! I have been on this boat for the last three days and honestly, I think I could stay for another month. It has been a lot of fun!

Today started as the other mornings have. A wake-up call at 7am, breakfast around 7:30am, followed by a tour at 8am. Our first stop this morning was the Temple of Edfu. This temple is one of the only temples left almost entirely intact and it is because it was buried by the sand and then rediscovered later. It is dedicated to the goddess Hathor and the god Horus and their marriage to one another. There is also another smaller temple where the sun god, Ra, is said to have been born. Wandering around through there was pretty awesome. I’ve never seen such an intact temple before. The reliefs were gorgeous and some of the colors were still in tact. The only real problem with the temple was that because it was built during the Ptolemaic period (Greek Period), the hieroglyphs differ, thus Will and I were unable to read them. We also two slight mishaps with the tour guide at the temple. One had to do with when Will and I went to watch the short movie at the visitors center. Apparently the film had already started and when Will and I tried to enter, our tour guide wouldn’t let us in and then locked the door until after the movie was over. This pushed Will’s buttons and mine a bit, but not as much. Not like the movie was that important, but it was the point of the matter. The other mishap came from within the temple. While he was explaining one of the wall scenes, he said that the man wearing the leopard skin was the high priest, which is technically correct. However, the man was also wearing the blue crown of the king, which means he was the king acting as the high priest. But, when we tried to explain this to him, he sort of ignored us and told us we were wrong. Strike two against the accuracy of our tour guide.

The Temple of Edfu from behind an enclosure wall. Off to the left is a temple dedicated to Hathor.

On our way out of the temple, we had to pass through a market (as you do in just about every sight in Luxor and Aswan). I managed though to buy a galabiya for galabiya night on the boat. It’s a light blue color with silver circles all over it. It looks rather tacky, but is wonderful at the same time.

We soon re-boarded the buses and headed back to the ship. Once back on board, I worked on some more of my IR research before being distracted by some wonderful folks from the UK who wanted to know how a bunch of college students came to be on the boat. We chatted clear up until they rang the lunch bell. Lunch was once again a pretty decent buffet style of food which I enjoyed with the company of people.

After lunch I decided to relax a little bit and so I put on my bathing suit and grabbed The Yacoubian Building and sat by the pool reading. It got a bit on the hot side at one point, so I proceeded to jump in the pool, which was quite refreshing. It was so hot out though that it literally took my hair and suit maybe 5 minutes to dry once I emerged from splashing around. I read a little bit more and then went with Sean, Shruti and Matthew to play a game of tarneeb. We played up until we were pretty much into port. I then got changed, came back up to the sundeck where I played another round of tarneed with Ryan, Shruti and Sean. Ryan and myself lost, which sucked. I have concluded that I am a rather horrible partner for this game...that or I need more practice.

We departed the boat and made our way to Kom Ombo Temple (Kom Ombo meaning pile of gold). It was a rather awesome as this temple contains one of the first calendars of the Pharonic years. There is also a list of medical tools. Kom Ombo is also interesting because there are two smaller temples dedicated to Horus and Sobek, who were enemies during this period, which normally wouldn’t have happened because you wouldn’t have acknowledged the evil god, only the good one. Another cool aspect was the Nileometer, which looked like a giant well. The way it worked was that the Nile waters would rise to a certain point and then the high priest would determine the tax based on the height of the water. The higher the water, the more tax collected because it would be a good year for agriculture and other trades.

The Nileometer. You can see the water at the bottom of it.

A hieroglyph meaning praise. Yay! I can read!

The Temple of Kom Ombo. On the right is the temple for Sobek and the left is the temple for Horus.

The cartouche of Cleopatra VII, the famous Cleopatra, found on one of the columns in Kom Ombo Temple.

After we finished at the temple, we boarded the boat again and got ready for Galibiya night. We went to dinner dressed up and had Egyptian food...which consisted of things I buy rather cheaply on the street everyday as opposed to good Egyptian food. It was rather sad that the food was only mediocre, but I ate it anyway. Soon after dinner we went up to the sundeck for the party and for a quick round of ping pong in my galibya with Sean. I soon gave up after it became increasingly difficult to move in my galibiya to play ping pong and I went inside and ordered myself a drink. Once the party actually started it became a lot of fun. We, as in our group, dominated the games played. First was the number of friends game. You danced around and when they stopped the music and called a number, you had to gather that many people. Rebecca won this game and she won a free cocktail. Sean was entered into the next game, which was pretty embarrassing for him, so I won’t describe it. He won and was declared King of the cruise, which meant he won a beer. It was followed by a search for the Queens, where Ann and myself did some traditional Egyptian dancing. We won...along with the other ladies and got some free cocktails. The last game of the night was the bottle passing game, which was like hot potato. I was in the game pretty long, but eventually lost. But, it was ok as Rebecca and Lindley won. Their prizes were two bottles of water...not as exciting as the other prizes.

Will, Sean and Yasmina during Galibiya nigt. Sean is intentionally wearing a woman's galibiya.

Rebecca, Shruti and Matthew on Galibiya night. Everyone looked wonderful!

After the games, the floor was open for some dancing, which was a lot of fun. I danced the macarena, which I haven’t heard since 5^th grade and then the YMCA. I decided to turn in around 11:30pm. I returned to the cabin, did some blogging and talked with Shruti before crashing. It was a good night.

Day Four: Saturday, May 1- Aswan at Last

The morning came much quicker than I intended. The wake-up call was at 7:30am, which was later than most days, but I had been up since 7am showering and packing up my stuff in the room. I wandered to breakfast around 8am and pretty had the same things we’d had all of the other days.

I left breakfast and returned to my room where I finished packing my things and then proceeded out to the lobby to meet our tour guide for the last tours of the trip.

We loaded the bus and drove up to the see the Aswan High Dam. It was amazing, but to as Garrett pointed out, it was very unnatural and it was definitely messing with nature. But, there was still a thrill in looking at the dam and a sense of awe that came over me.

The Aswan High Dam. It's really, really impressive.

We were at the dam for a while and it was pretty hot. I have to say, summer has definitely hit Egypt. Anyway, point of this is that while we were at the dam, one of the kids in my program, Ryan, fainted due to the heat and not having enough water. He came to pretty quick, but we didn’t let him go to see any of the other sites as he needed to rest. It was kind of terrifying.

The rest of us continued on our journey, however. Our next stop was the Temple of Philae which was a temple made to worship the goddess Isis. It’s another Greek Temple to the goddess, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. It no longer stands in its original place though as when the Egyptians built the High Dam, they flooded the original area of the temple. UNESCO paid for the resurrection and movement of the temple to a small island. This meant that when we went to visit, to get there we had to board a small motor boat, which was a lot of fun. It reminded me of the summer and how I’m really looking forward to living on water that I’m not terrified to go in. Anyway, we did the usual tour thing with the tour guide and then Will and I wandered off with Dr. Magda to discuss some of the interesting features of the temple walls. Will and I also looked for the name of an explorer, George Stevens. He is really of no significance except that Will read his travels through Egypt and he pretty much went everywhere that we went in Egypt.

The Temple of Philae as we approached it by water.

Historical graffiti. It's considered historical if its over 200 years old or something like that.

We left the Temple of Philae and headed back to the ship to finish packing as this was the end of our guided tours and our last day on the boat. We were able to leave our things in our room, which was wonderful of the crew on the ship and travel through Aswan on our own.

Our first stop was lunch at a little cafe called Emy’s. It was recommended in Lonely Planet and thus we thought it would be good, but sadly it was not as good as we thought. I got some spaghetti bolognese, which was a bit over cooked as was everyone’s food and it took forever for it all to come out. Sad.

After lunch, we tried to find the public ferry across the river, but failed and ended up taking a private boat to Kitchner’s Island to the see the Botanical Gardens. They were gorgeous. I’ve never seen that much green in all of Egypt! It was nice and cool too, which was a welcome change from the heat we were experiencing in Aswan and Luxor.

We spent a little over three hours there just wandering and relaxing. We even went on a “can you name this tree by what the leaves smell like?” game. It was a good deal of fun and yes, the leaves of a certain type of tree do smell like the fruit they produce.

The Botanical Gardens on Kitchner's Island. So pretty!

The next stop on our adventure was to Elephantine Island where our group split into two. Will, Dr. Magda and myself went to the Elephantine Museum,where the curator insisted upon giving us a tour as he had graduated from the same faculty as Dr. Magda. The problem with this was mainly due to the fact that he spoke very little English and thus the whole tour was in Arabic. I understood some things, but Dr. Magda had to translate a lot as well. I was proud of what I could understand though. I guess I am learning something this semester after all. The other cool thing about the tour is you had to cross over an actual archaeological site to get into the extended part of the museum. This was pretty awesome as you often forget that the temples you are looking at are restored and not the way they were originally found.

The Elephantine Island Museum.

The excavation site at the Elephantine Island Museum.

We thanked the nice man and moved on to see the rest of the Nubian village which is where the others had gone. We didn’t go to far in as most of them were at an area relatively close to the museum, which was once the house of a British archaeologist in case I didn’t mention it before. While we waited for some of the others to return, I looked around the shop ,which had some nice things. But they were a bit pricey so I didn’t buy anything. Once everyone was back together, most of the girls decided to get henna tattoos. I did get one done, so my was decorated. It didn’t take me long to realize though why I don’t get henna done or paint my fingernails. The colors and patterns on my hands distract me too much.

The Nubian Village on Elephantine Island.

The henna tattoo I got done on my hand/arm.

After henna, we left Elephantine Island and ferried to another island for some Nubian food. I had some tomato soup, which isn’t very Nubian, along with some chicken Tagen, which was delicious, rice and stewed vegetables. They were absolutely delicious.

We ate rather quickly so that we could get back to the ship in enough time to catch our plane. We finished up in pretty good time, paid the bill and then ferried back to our boat, which was fun as we didn’t quite remember which ship was ours. Oops. We eventually figured it out though.

Once back on the ship, I made sure that I had everything that I had brought with me as well as everything I had bought packed away. I then headed out to the lobby with The Yacoubian Building in hand determined to finish the last ten pages. Sadly, I was distracted by people talking to me and only managed to read approximately 5 of them.

At 9:15pm, we hopped on our bus which took us to Aswan International Airport. I have to say, I have never seen an international airport as small as Luxor and Aswan’s airports. I guess I’m just used to giant ones. Anyway, we checked in and I once again managed to get through security without showing one piece of identification. We sat down in the Sabarro’s cafe in the airport and I bought a Twix bar and a soda to end the trip on a wonderful note.

We boarded the plane at around 11:00pm. It was a very tiny plane, which I once again forgot to take pictures of as we were shuttling to it via bus. I was just really sleepy at this point. We boarded the ‘express’ plane, which was really tiny and were soon off to Cairo. The flight was a little bit longer than the flight to Luxor as we were more South. And while we were on the plane, the actually served us juice in a cup, not a juice box. I also took a small nap on the plane ride back. Arrival back to Cairo International Airport was at 12:35am and I was dead exhausted.

We bused back to Cinema Tahrir and walked back to the apartment where I proceeded to crash and sleep almost immediately. This was of course after checking my e-mail to find 168 unread e-mails. Obviously, I’m popular.

Overall, I think this trip was one of the best. It was fun and educational. Plus, I got to dress up in a funny galibiya and lay by the pool. So worth it. I just wish it didn’t fall around the time of all my projects and papers being due. But, oh well. What are you going to do?

I once again apologize for the length of this post. A lot happened and I wanted to get it all in! I promise my posts won’t be this long in the future. Keep watching for another update coming soon! Yay!

The Storm Before the Calm

2010-04-27T19:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I know that I should be sleeping right now. Especially since I need to catch a plane to Luxor in about 2.5 hours. But, I've had other problems to worry with at the moment. (Thank you Financial Aid. I love you all too. Maybe if you used those reading skills you gained in first grade, or at least used a dictionary when reading my e-mails I could be sleeping right now.)

As I was saying before. I'm off for one last trip of the semester. A Nile cruise to Luxor and Aswan. Should be pretty cool as I'll finally get to see the sites we keep talking about in class. An update will come as soon as I return from the adventure.

And now. I'm going to try and get a bit of sleep. Until I return!

Surviving Egypt

2010-04-25T16:52:00.001-04:00

Well, I managed to make it through the week with the parents. I guess that's a plus. I now just need to survive the next two weeks and my life will be absolutely grand.

It never seems to fail. No matter where I am, the last few weeks of the semester always gang up on me and I find myself stressing, not sleeping and as always sick. Egypt has once again blessed me with a wonderful cold due to the pollution and odd mix of being hot and cold. And of course, my mind won't let me sleep due to all the work I have to do and I can't seem to be at any state of relaxed until after next week. And this week isn't going to help either. I don't have any time to do anything! I had off today (Sunday, thank goodness!), followed by two days of classes which isn't bad, followed by a four day trip to Luxor. This should sound so amazing and awesome, but at the moment, I'm just dreading all of the work that has to be done in the next two weeks.

As for the week that just went by, it was rather enjoyable. Mom, Gram and Ms. Gail were here for the week which was both chaotic and enjoyable. My schedule, as per usual, got all messed up and we had to be extremely flexible. But, I did get to do a lot with them.

On Sunday, I met them for dinner on the Nile at a boat restaurant called "The Place". It was rather delicious and wonderful. Then on Monday, my night class was moved to Thursday, which meant that we were able to go out with Nigel and the rest of the Past Preservers Team for drinks and dinner.

Tuesday was a lot of fun as I was able to take Mom, Gram and Ms. Gail to the Egyptian Museum where I was able to give them a "tour", followed by lunch of Koshary from my favorite Koshary place in all of Cairo. I then had to bolt to get to AMIDEAST for a discussion about American culture with a bunch of Egyptian students studying English. I also had a movie night around 6pm, where I got to talk with the director about her film. It was an interesting film about marriage in the Middle East. The unusual thing about this film is the focus is not a Muslim family, but a Christian one. Yet the language they use to talk about marriage was the same, which leads me to believe that the idea and traditions of marriage may not exactly be religious, but cultural.

After my movie, Gram, Ms. Gail and myself went to Al-Azhar park for dinner, while sadly Mom stayed home as she was sick. Dinner was rather good and peaceful.

Wednesday was back to classes for me, while I sent the parents to Saqqara, Dashur and Memphis for the day. I met them for dinner, where we went to Radwan and then made a trip to Khan Al-Khalili. My bargaining skills really came out here where I managed to get them several souvenirs at pretty good prices.

Thursday was one of the longest days I have ever had. I got up and met Mom, Gram and Ms. Gail at the Citadel for a tour with my classmates. It was one of the most interesting tours that we had been on thus far. I didn't really realize how big the citadel complex actually was. It comprised much more that just the Mosque of Mohamed Ali. There are two other mosques there as well,which we saw. The Mosque of al-Nassir Muhammad and the Mosque of Suleyman Pasha, the original Turkish style mosque to be built in the area. I really loved the architecture of the complex as it reminded me a lot of the old castle complexes of Medieval Europe. It makes a lot of sense though with the fact that there were once Mamluk palaces in the complex area. Sadly, though they have been destroyed.

The Mosque of Mohammed Ali.

Inside the Mosque of Mohammed Ali.

Mom at the Mosque of al-Nassir Muhammed.

After our visit at the Citadel, Mom, Gram, Ms. Gail and myself went to the Giza Pyramids. We didn't get there as early as we would have liked to which meant that the trip was cut a little on the short side...their driver really wasn't of any help at this point. He sort of didn't like the fact that I didn't want to do things his way and thus didn't help us any when we were there. We walked around the Great Pyramid and over to the second Pyramid. They were just in awe with them. We then walked up to the Panorama view by way of the sand between the second and third pyramids. Once we got to the top, they saw the view and then we took a camel ride all they down to the Sphinx. While we didn't get to see the Sphinx up close, we did get to see some amazing views and we got to ride all the way down to the Sphinx. So, hey there was that. They seemed to enjoy it a lot and that's really what matters.

Mom and Gram on the camels as we started out ride!

Ms. Gail on the camel a little further along in the ride.

The four of us in front of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid at the end of the ride!

After our adventure at the pyramids, I headed off to class (which had been rescheduled from Monday) and then off with my friends to a costume party with some British kids. It was an 'S' party which meant you needed to dress up as something that begins with 'S'. So, I went as Sookie Stackhouse (an easy costume as I had my Merlotte's shirt with me), Shruti was Sweeney Todd, Moose was Sparkly, Rebecca was a Sorority girl, Haley was a Secretary, Garrett was a Sailor, Ann was Sunshine, Will was a Soccer player, Lindley was a Soccer fan, Sean was a Sponge, Max was a Suspected Terrorist, and Maria was a Saudi women. I think we did a pretty good job on our costumes considering that we didn't get the memo until just about the day of the party. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I went. Also, of all the people at the party, only one British kid actually knew who I was and he was a pretty cool kid.

I left the party at around 2:30am with Sean and once again found myself locked out of the apartment building. For some reason, I always end up locked out if I stay out later than midnight. I got to bed around 3am and found myself up and ready to go around 9am, though I was moving slower than normal.

Friday found me with breakfast at Lucille's with the parents. Oh pancakes! I absolutely love them and this is really the only place in the city you can find them. So enjoyable.

Following breakfast we wandered around Maadi for a bit looking at the shops before heading off to my apartment to gather a few of my belongings. We left my apartment and then headed over to the Nile for a boat experience down the Nile.We took a sail boat out. It was quite nice and peaceful. A wonderful way to end a trip to Egypt.

Once we had finished on the boat, we headed back to the apartment where they were staying. We ordered food online from Chili's and relaxed for a bit, before everyone began packing their things for the flight home.

Gram cruising down the Nile on the sailboat.

The sailboat moving along through the Nile waters.

Yesterday morning, I got up and rode with them to the airport. I held back tears as I watched my mother, grandmother and friend depart back to the land of the United States knowing that soon I will be heading back, but not soon enough.

The Parents Have Arrived

2010-04-19T06:37:00.001-04:00

Before I jump into what this post is really about, I want to first write about my current obsession, Such Tweet Sorrow. I know it makes me sound like a complete nerd and theater geek, but whatever. Such Tweet Sorrow is an interactive version of Romeo and Juliet performed by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. It's happening in real time via Twitter. You can follow the characters as they go about their days and come into contact with one another. It's a rather new approach to theater, but I rather like it. Also, for those who are wondering and don't particularly like Shakespeare because of the language, well you don't have to worry about that. The actors tweet and post everything in modern English, the only thing that's similar to Romeo and Juliet is the storyline and characters. As someone who really likes Shakespeare, I highly recommend taking a look at this.

Moving on. So, my mom, gram and Ms. Gail arrived yesterday here in Cairo. I was at work when they arrived and so I didn't meet them at the airport. I left that task for their driver, however, I did get a text message saying how crazy the traffic was.

I met them for dinner around 6:30pm after my class and I had brought Emy along with me. We went and had dinner on a boat restaurant. It's not the original one that I wanted to take them on, but the food was awesome. I promise I'll take them actually down the Nile later this week, it just didn't happen that night.

After a wonderful dinner of catching up and hanging out, we parted ways and I went back to my flat in dokki and they went back to Naser city. I don't really know what they are up to at the moment, but I know I'll be meeting them for dinner later tonight and planning out what the rest of the week holds. We shall see.

So, that's about it for the moment. I don't have any pictures as I forgot to pull out my camera and take some...although I'm pretty sure Mom has taken enough for the both of us. I'll get them and post them later. Ta ta for now!

The Last Two Days

2010-04-17T16:51:00.003-04:00

I love coming back from the gym. I always feel so wonderful. The only problem is that when I come back, I always sit and get to work and/or watch the televison...which is what I'm doing now. Working on papers and watching The Time Machine. I guess there are worse things I could be doing though. I am at least being productive.

This last week was one of excitement and adventure. The beginning of the week was rather the same as all of the others. I went to work, I went to class, I worked on homework, etc., etc., etc. However, Thursday began a day of adventure. AMIDEAST had planned for us to visit an Egyptian Village, which of course I thought meant the Pharaohnic Village here in Egypt. I was very wrong. What they actually meant was a trip to an actual Egyptian village.

It was a lot of fun. We arrived around 1:30pm after we had our meeting with Dr. Riham about how our classes have progressed. The village itself was a little intimidating at first as it looked nothing like Cairo, but nothing like I imagined. I pictured something similar to an American farm. With fields of corn and wheat lining the road and little farm houses tucked away. But, that's not what this village was like at all.

Unfinished brick buildings stand amongst farmland.

Our group and children of the village look at the chickens in the pen.

Unfinished brick buildings clumped together to form small dirt roads and all of these buildings were congregated in the center of the village. On one side was a river where many people were washing clothes and dishes. We wandered up one of the side streets, following the lead of our Arabic professors and arrived at a brightly painted house. Inside were a group of women sitting around a small fire style oven making fateer, a tradition dish that is eaten with molasses (or honey and sugar) and some spicy cheese. It can also be eaten with savory foods like meat and vegetables inside.

The Egyptian women making the fateer. Photo thanks to Shruti as I had my hands dirty.

Well, we all gathered around to watch and somehow or another, I really can't say how, I ended up washing my hands and helping to make the fateer. It was a lot of fun to make. It has an interesting texture and putting your hands in soft butter is also rather interesting.

After we had made the fateer, we took a quick look outside before being brought upstairs to the main part of the house. It was an interesting look into the home life of the average Egyptian. I'm pretty sure that living in this apartment were the Arabic teacher who hosted us, his wife and three kids, plus his brother, his brother's wife and their children AND his mother and father. I don't know how they do it. I can not fathom living with my sister and parents for that long. Let alone raise children with them and live in a house that tiny. But, that's the difference between Egyptian culture and American culture.

We played with the children for a bit and then it was time for lunch. We ate lunch at a table that was low to the floor and we ate with our hands. (See right for picture of cooked fateer and lunch set-up.) It was quite an experience if I do say so myself. Another cultural thing that we found was that Egyptians like to feed you, it doesn't matter how full you are, they want you to keep eating.

Once lunch was finished, we had some strawberry juice and then went for a walking tour of the town. We wandered through the fields and eventually ended up in a strawberry patch where we were given freshly picked strawberries to eat. They were the best strawberries I have ever had! Oh my goodness! I really wish I hadn't been so full from lunch because I would have had more of them.

After our strawberry adventure, we hopped back on the bus and headed home. It was an exhausting day. I've learned that Egypt is just one of those places where you can do practically nothing and still be exhausted from it. When I got back to the apartment, I filled out some more internship applications and then pretty much crashed for the night.

Everyone wandering out of the strawberry fields.

Friday morning came about a reasonable hour for once. I got up and hit the gym because that always means the start to a good day and then I went out in search of a red shirt for the football game. Sadly, I did not find a red shirt, but I did buy my 'evil eye' pendant that I've been meaning to buy since my birthday. So, instead of a red shirt, I wore my black shirt with a red scarf that I bought for a friend (sorry, needed something red). I looked pretty decked out. We all did.

We all met for dinner at Redwan around 4pm, where I had some delicious Egyptian style spaghetti. We then hit the bus where we were greeted by some very enthusiastic Egyptians who work with AMIDEAST. They brought with them a drum, which they beat the entire way to the stadium (see left). They also led us in cheers the entire way. It was quite an experience.

We got through the first round of gates rather quickly, but getting to our seats was another story. First, a gentleman in the area saw us and we all had our faces painted. It then took us nearly an hour to get into one of the gates where we did eventually ended up sitting. I'm unsure as to the exact circumstances as to why it took so long, but the reason we ended up being able to stay there was because we were foreigners and it we were the only foreigners at the game.

Haley gets her face painted by a guy at the gate.

The game itself was only ok. It ended up a tie. But, what was really exciting was the energy of the crowd at the game. I couldn't believe it. It was absolutely wonderful. The stadium was packed with half wearing red (like me) to support Ahly and half wearing white for Zamalek. I've never experienced energy like that. Not even at home. I can't even begin to describe it.

The entire Ahly side of the stadium was on its feet throughout most of the game!

Garrett, Rebecca and Haley at the game and all decked out!

Me all decked out in my gear for the game!

Sadly, we left the game about five minutes early to beat the traffic, which was a good thing as we made it home in about twenty minutes, which is probably the fastest I've ever gotten back from Heliopolis.

I did go out with Haley, Moose, Rebecca, Lindley, Lindley's mom and Haley's parents for dinner at the King Hotel where I had some delicious ravioli. I then wandered back to the apartment where I passed out from exhaustion.

And that brings us to today. Well...I haven't exactly done much. I went to the gym, watched The Time Machine started reading an article for one of my papers, filled out my applications for Rudes, ordered dinner, labeled some photos in my portfolio and have been working on finishing episode one of a mini-series with the Awkward Trio.

It's been a boring day, but this upcoming week is going to be exciting as tomorrow around noon my mom, gram and neighbor land at Cairo International Airport. This means that this next week will be filled with excitement as I show them around my home in Egypt. So, keep an out for all of my post during the week. There are sure to be a lot.

And on that note. I'm going to go back to trying to do homework.

!سلام (salam. Translation: Peace!)

Past the Halfway Point

2010-04-12T12:57:00.001-04:00

It's official. The end of Spring Break was this last week and classes have started back up again. It's a little sad to see the break go as I definitely wanted it to be longer, but oh well. It's time to move on.

It was a good break by the way. I didn't go to Jordan as my flatmates did, and I didn't go to Rome as some of the kids in my program did and as I had originally intended to, and I didn't backpack the Sinai, but I did have a very relaxing break here in Cairo. It wasn't anything too fancy. Just some time spent sitting by the pool, wandering some shops, working on internship applications and the upcoming papers that I have due. I probably could have done some traveling if I had really wanted to, but honestly, this was probably a better situation for me to put myself into.

You see, I feel as if the world is moving really fast. How is it already the middle of April? What do you mean I'm only in this country for another month and a half? What do you mean my mom, grandmother and a neighbor are coming next week? Oh, yeah...in case I haven't mentioned it yet, they are coming next Sunday. It should be an exciting week.

The end of a semester always stresses me out and even though I've only been back at school for two days now, I'm already starting to feel the stress. Two twenty page papers, a presentation on Ancient Egyptian museum objects, hieroglyphs homework, a presentation on Ancient Egyptian festivals, an article review, a presentation on Ancient Egyptian clothing and of course finals. Wow, that's a lot to do in seven weeks, which is all that I have left here in Egypt. How am I going to get it all done? It will probably take many days of not sleeping, but it will get done. There's no question there. Everything always gets done...I just may be extremely tired for a few days. What else is new.

I don't have much else to say at the moment. We've been pretty busy at work prepping for the Media Training Masterclass that Past Preservers is holding in May in the UK and sadly the Access program has ended, after only three sessions due to the students being on break until June.

Oh, and today my International Relations class took a visit to the Egyptian Council of Foreign Affairs, which is an NGO that works on developing relations between nations. We listened to several different speakers talk about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as the Iranian problem in the region. The more I listen to people talk about it, the more I begin to understand what is actually going on and the more I form my own opinion on it. But, that is a chat for another day.

And on that note, I'm going to stop procrastinating on the hieroglyphs homework that I need to do. Another post is coming soon, so keep reading! Cheers!

Adventuring in Alexandria

2010-04-09T09:38:00.002-04:00

I lied. I'm a day late on updating the blog, but at least its only a day and not seven. So, without further ado, here's the Alex Adventure. (Also, please note that I took 230 photos while in Alex and have chosen to only place ones of the actual locations in this post. Thanks!)

Spring Break began with a trip to Alexandria, Alex for short. It was the place that I had been waiting to see since I arrived in Egypt. The thrill of the new library standing where the old one once stood, the legend of Alexander the Great and Cleopatra and everything that has become so popularized in Ancient Egyptian history was to be found in this Mediterranean city.

We left on Thursday at 12:30pm and began the trip to Alex. It was a short 3 hour bus ride compared to the trip to Siwa. I was awake for most of it, except for the very end when I started to dose.

Arriving into the city was one of the beautiful things I've seen since I've been in Egypt. The sea line is a brilliant blue and the city resembles that of an old European city, as opposed to Cairo. It was also so much cleaner than Cairo, I wasn't sure if I would be able to make myself leave.

We checked into our hotel, the Windsor Palace, an old fashioned hotel from the 1920s or so it seemed. It was almost like an episode of the twilight zone, but it was perfect for me to sit in and think about the current movie projects that I'm trying to write.

I once again roomed with Shruti, which is always fun. Our room this time was extremely big and open and the beds were the comfiest beds I have slept in since I started traveling. We spent a little bit of time in our room where I wrote some plot outline for one of the movies I've picked back up and I read some more of the "Yacoubian Building" until 8pm when it was dinner time.

Dinner was pretty much a food stipend that allowed us to eat wherever we wanted. So, I went with Garrett, Moose, Haley, Ann, Shruti, Will and Lindley to the China House for some pretty awesome Chinese food. I got some wanton soup, honey chicken with fried rice and I finally got the spring rolls that I've been craving. Sadly, my honey chicken took a really long time to come out, which makes me feel like they forgot it, but I did eventually get it and it was delicious when I did.

After dinner Will, Lindley, Moose and myself stopped for some tea and to get some sheesha. The tea was awesome, but a little more expensive than in a cafe you get in Cairo, and I did try the sheesha, though I'm not sure if I would try it again. But, sitting on the street outside of the cafe was just wonderful. You could really feel the energy of Alex and see the people move about. It was almost like being in a movie. Everything working together to create a moment; nothing going wrong, and nothing out of place.

We finished up at the cafe and then wandered back to the hotel, where I went back to reading and writing until about 12:30am when Moose called and asked if we wanted to come out. Well, because I was already still awake, I said sure and met everyone to go. We didn't leave until about 1:00am and by that time I was already pretty tired. So, when we found the bar we were going to go to, I was almost entirely exhausted though still ready to have some fun.

The bar, however, did not feel the same way. It was crowded, with standing room only and I was not particularly happy with that. Neither were the other girls, so I followed them to try and find something else to do. We ended up finding Tyler and Will who had stopped at a desert cart and were talking to the gentlemen running the cart. We chatted for a bit, got some desert from the cart which was absolutely amazing (it was basically a fried dough ball coated in melted chocolate) and then headed back to the hotel. I believe I got to sleep around 2:30am or so, which gave me a decent amount of sleep having to be up bright and early the next morning.

Friday morning started with a wake up call at 7am. I showered and got to blow my hair dry with a hair dryer...I've never been so happy and then I wandered to get breakfast...which was not in the lobby area as I thought it would have been, but on the roof of the hotel where the view was amazing.

The breakfast was good and relaxing. It was definitely a great way to start out sightseeing day.

Our first stop was the Roman Amphitheater (see left) where they also have some artifacts that have been found underwater. It was pretty neat to sit where the ancient Egyptians would have stood. I tried to imagine when I was there what it must have felt like and I concluded that it probably would have felt just like it does now when I sit in large lecture halls listening to a professor...a bit boring...oh well.

We left the amphitheater and moved on to see Pompey's Pillar (see right), the only remaining structure of a once great temple. The remains around it are statues and areas of underground tunnels. I wandered down into some with Dr. Nicole (my hieroglyphs and arts professor). I love wandering through tunnels and old places and these corridors weren't any different.

After we left the site, we went to our final site before lunch...the Catacombs. These were some tombs from the Greco-Roman period in Ancient Egyptian history and they were pretty cool. Climbing down into them reminded me of climbing down into the mines in Kutna Hora. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures, but seeing the tombs was pretty interesting, especially because I was able to talk a little about the tombs and see some similarities to the older periods of history. The only complaint I had about being down in the catacombs was the amount of Korean tourists that were in there with us. They were rude and loud.

Lunch soon followed at Anthineos, where I got some kind of grilled fish dish with rice. It was ok, but it wasn't the best thing I've ever had.

After lunch we resumed our sight seeing with Fort Qait Bey (see left), now a mosque. This was a rather interesting adventure as there were boy scout-type people dancing and singing. Some of the kids on the trip with us danced with them and I caught it on video. There were also a lot of people taking pictures of us as we toured the fort. For some reason, Egyptians think it's ok to take pictures of us without asking, but if we take pictures of them, they get angry. It's kind of annoying actually. I did get some really pretty pictures of Alexandria from the fort though.

Our last stop for the day was the Library. The one thing that I had been hoping to see since I arrived in Cairo 2.5 months ago. It was gorgeous. I looked around in the antiquities museum first and that was much more enjoyable than the Egyptian Museum as everything at least had a small label of some kind. I then went and into the library and stared in awe at the books. It was beautiful. The tour we took was quite enjoyable as well.

The library from the inside down on the floor with some of the books.

Inside again, but from above. Taken during the tour.

A part of the library from the outside. This place is huge

We left the Library of Alexandria and headed back to the hotel exhausted. We only had about an hour and a half to kind of just chill, so I took a quick nap, but ended up cutting it short as the hotel was working on painting a room and the paint fumes had started to make me sick. So, I left and went downstairs to wait until dinner time, which was only 15 minutes away anyway.

Dinner was at the Greek Club and I got some pretty delicious Shrimp Alfredo. I don't really know what to say about dinner, it was a pretty average meal. I talked with people and we joked around. And for once I felt very comfortable and like I fit in again.

But, as usual the cliches resumes after dinner and I don't know where the other half of the group wandered to. I got ice cream with Ann, Shruti, Haley and Professor Sherinne (one of the professors on the trip with us) and spent the rest of the night hanging out with Shruti, Ann and Lindley watching Once Upon a Time in Mexico before crashing for the night.

Breakfast the next morning made me extremely happy. I got an omelet made for me with roast beef bits and cheese, plus a pastry. So delicious! I once again enjoyed the view so very much, but I could have done without the wind that had started to blow a little bit.

We left the hotel around 9:30am or so and headed to go and see the old walls of the ancient city(see right), which were pretty cool to look at. Sadly, though they have been kept in disarray and not really kept like a historical site. There is not much to indicate what they are except a small sign with bad English. We wanted to see the cisterns of the city too, but sadly they have been closed to the public.

We then headed to see the palace. I'm not talking about an ancient Egyptian palace, but a more modern one built by King Fuad in 1932. It is known as Al-Haramlik Palace (see left)and is a Presidential residence. We were not allowed to go inside, but looking at it was beautiful. And for those who know me well, you know that I judge a country based on their castles/palaces and this one just bumped Egypt a little higher on my list.

After seeing the palace and taking pictures of us in front of it as we normally do when playing tourist, we headed down the road a little to the beach.

This was my favorite part of the trip. I sat on the beach and watched the waves roll in and I even went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea with Garrett, Will and Tyler (no one else would get in). The water was cold at first, but the more you stayed in, the more comfortable it became. We swam for about half and hour or so before getting out to lounge on the beach with the others.

The beach along the Mediterranean Sea. It was so blue!

Ann plays with Mohamed in the sand.

A little bit later, Dr. Riham (our new academic adviser here), Professor Sherinne, Mohammed (Dr. Riham's little boy) and myself rented a paddle boat and went out on the sea for a little bit of time. None of them really knew how to steer the paddle boat, especially when some of the other boats in the area started creating more waves than necessary (boating rules obviously don't apply here either). Luckily, my years of paddle boating experience took over and I prevented us from falling over board and such.

We returned to the shore and then shortly after left for lunch at Chili's (ahhh...chicken strips and delicious American food) before heading back to Cairo.

The ride home was pretty standard. Lots of sleeping, lots of people planning out where they were heading once we got home, and lots more sleeping. We did make a stop on the way home for a quick bathroom break and the place we stopped had a playground. Naturally, we all became 5-year-olds again and had to play before being called back to the bus by Dr. Nicole.

Everyone playing on the playground like we're 5.

We made it back to Cairo around 7:30pm. It was dark and the city was abuzz as if we had never left. And that was the start of Spring Break Egypt.

Greetings from Spring Break Egypt

2010-04-07T11:49:00.000-04:00

I feel like I haven't written anything in this blog in a long time, but it's not been that long at all. My last official entry was on the 28 of March and it's only the 7th of April. That's really not that long of a time to break between posts, but I guess when I haven't really written about the current stuff going on, it makes a difference.

So, I need to back track then...a lot. Let's return to when Will and I made our way to the Egyptian Museum to find out artifacts for class. That's approximately two weeks ago. The following Wednesday held nothing really important except the lecture to the access program about American football, which I believe I already mentioned. I do like working with the access program, I just wish I had known the topic a little better. And Thursday was nothing too spectacular, except going to work of course. I really feel like I'm getting a lot out of working with Past Preservers. I get to write press releases and put all of the skills that I learned in my silly Writing for Mass Communication class. Glad to know that they are actually applicable in internships that I get.

This brings us to Friday, March 26. I woke up and figured it was going to be a lounge weekend while I worked on my presentation for Customs and Habits, but I was very mistaken. Instead, I ended up going with Garrett, Ann, Haley and their friend Kareem to his villa on the outskirts of Cairo where we proceeded to have a cookout and swim by the pool. His house was gorgeous and I'm pretty sure that this not the way normal Egyptians live...actually, I know that for a fact as I'm living the way a normal Egyptian would live...in an apartment, not a secluded villa away from the noise of the city.

The swimming pool at the Villa.

Garrett being thrown into the pool still in her clothing.

Well, even though I didn't go swimming, I did sit and enjoy myself. We grilled steaks and vegetables, which were absolutely delicious. Sadly, we had to leave the party a little earlier than intended as I had a Skype interview with a possible internship over the summer (I'm still waiting to here back as to whether or not I got the job), but I thought it went rather well.

Haley grilling the steak and vegetables. Yum, eggplant!!!!!

The following week was close to an absolute nightmare. Midterms week normally is, but it is always made worse when you feel like you want to be out exploring the city as opposed to inside writing papers and preparing presentations. And then it becomes even worse when your program manager goes on vacation and one of the kids in your program has friends come to stay for the week.

But, I survived. I presented my presentation on Sunday for Customs and Habits about magic in Ancient Egypt versus magic in the United States and then on Monday my International Relations class took a field trip to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where we met with the Deputy Ambassador and she discussed the current issues of the Middle East with us. It was really nice to be able to hear someone actually explain what I've been reading about for the last nine weeks. I understand why it is such a threat that Iran is working on a nuclear plan, beyond the Cold War mentality of things and I understand in greater detail Egypt's position on the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. But, I won't bore you all by explaining it. Just know that this field was incredibly useful and if you want to know more, just send me an e-mail and I'm more than happy to go through all the notes I took during the meeting.

Ryan, Rebecca and Moose sit at the table waiting for our professor and speaker to arrive.

Sitting around in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The room was super fancy!

Tuesday was pretty normal, and then came Wednesday. The day before the big Spring Break and I had an Arabic mid-term and a museum catalog project due. Luckily, I was able to relax after I turned everything in. And I learned a lot about some of the lesser known queen of Ancient Egypt as my catalog contained two objects were from these queens, a statue and a canopic jar.

After class, I taught the access program again. Sean and I decided to do it as a team and Will helped us out as Ryan went to meet some his friends who were in for Spring Break. This week we talked about movies, but sadly the conversation was not all that great. I still can't get them to talk. They just want me to do all the talking and I don't know what to talk about. Some of them are also really annoying as they have side conversations and continuously snap pictures of you while you're trying to teach. I just don't understand, this is a volunteer program and if they don't want to be there, they shouldn't come.

After teaching, we met with our Egyptian friends and had a dialogue session about religion which was moderated by Dr. Riham. It was interesting, but a very uncomfortable topic to talk about because religion is involved with every aspect of life here.

As Wednesday approached a close, Spring Break began. I met up with some of the other kids in my program, Garrett, Shruti, Will, Tyler, Moose and some of our other friends. We were originally going to go salsa dancing, which made me super excited,but sadly we did not the chance to go. I'll get to go sometime, hopefully. Instead, we hung out at the "man-cave" for a bit and then tried to go to this dance club, but sadly it was too expensive. So, instead we went to a small bar and then headed home.

Thursday began the weekend trip to Alexandria, which officially kicked off Spring Break. But, in order to not overwhelm this post with pictures and stories, I'll write a post tomorrow. I promise. So, keep reading and feel free to comment. I love comments!

"The Last Entry"

2010-04-01T04:43:00.000-04:00

So, I figure now is as good a time as any to tell everyone that from this point forward, I will be no longer blogging about my study abroad journey.

Just kidding. Happy April Fool's Day Everyone!

Now, seriously, I will be leaving in about an hour to begin my spring break in Alexandria. I've been looking forward to this trip ever since I got here and it's here! So EXCITED! I promise there will be an actual post upon my return. No joke.

A Sight I'll Never Forget

2010-03-28T19:05:00.006-04:00

A little over a week ago, I was recovering from a weekend that will be etched into my memory for as long as I am able to remember my stories. I spent the weekend of March 18-20, 2010 in the Black and White Desert out in the Bahariya Oasis.

We left on Thursday after the others finished classes around 12:30pm. The bus was much smaller than the normal bus that we took, but it allowed for us to be relatively comfy.

I spent much of the ride to the Oasis watching REPO!the Genetic Opera on my iPod and once I finished watching, I quickly pulled out my book, put on some music and continued to occupy myself. This has nothing to do with the fact that I was trying to be anti-social. It does, however, have everything to do with the fact that Sean, Moose and Will had decided to read Dune aloud to everyone on the bus. This wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that they started half way through the book and were just very annoying about it.

We made two major stops along the way. One to the On the Run convenience store and once for a bathroom break at a little cafe in the middle of the desert. I once again got to have the experience of using a squat toilet. I do have to say though, after you get the hang of the first time, it becomes much easier.

After 5-6 hours on a bus, we finally arrived at the hotel. The hotel itself was fine, though I would have liked to have taken a shower while I was there, but sadly I did not. Mainly because when I turned the water on in the shower, it came out orange and I was automatically put off by that. I once again shared a room with Shruti, who I really enjoy talking to about random stuff.

We weren't at the hotel long before we were taken off to dinner in 4X4 jeeps...one of which was named "Nightmare". Dinner was at a little place called "Rashed". It was decent food, but nothing too special. Salad, "bird tongue soup", rice, meat and potatoes in a tomato sauce, and bread. Pretty standard Bedouin food.

After dinner, we were invited to go to a get together that the Bedouin's were holding. So, we went. There was music and dancing and tea. Oh, tea. It's always delicious and a big stable here in Egyptian culture. Also, the Bedouin men who were dancing around thought it would be a good idea to pull up some of the girls to dance with them. I caught this on video and eventually I got pulled myself...at which point, Shruti caught it on video.

Shruti pours us some tea for the evening.

The Bedouin man dances to the music.

We left the get together and went back to the hotel where I hung out with Shruti, Will, Tyler, Samir and Sean for a bit. There was also a swing, and so the five year old in me came out and I had to swing on the swing. I'd say it was a pretty good end to a really long day.

Breakfast was sometime around 8 or 9am and consisted of falafel, fuul, bread and an absolutely delicious fried egg.

We left for the desert at 10am. We made a quick stop in town for a bathroom break and some snacks before heading out into the desert. The ride was pretty awesome. It was a combination of driving on the road and driving through the sand dunes like we did in Siwa. I can't really explain the feeling of traveling in the SUV with everyone. It was comfortable and family-like. It was an absolute wonderful feeling.

Our expedition team. Two SUVs ready for an adventure.

Our first stop was in the Black Desert, where we climbed up one of the dune mountains and saw what they call "the British House". It gave us a wonderful overlook of the desert. We then reloaded the cars and drove further into the desert.

The formations in the the Black Desert.

After seeing the Black Desert, we stopped at a little area so that our guides could have prayer on Friday. Once they finished with prayer, we were back on the road again, traveling deeper into the Black Desert.

The Black Desert. Not exactly what I was expecting,but pretty cool nonetheles

We eventually stopped for lunch at a little cafe where we had lunch under a Bedouin tent. It was a much needed break from traveling and everything. After lunch, we made our way to the Crystal mountain...which was actually made out of quartz crystal surprisingly. I climbed to the top and it felt like a huge accomplishment.

With a few other stops along the way, we finally made it to our final destination in the White Desert. The Valley of the Mushrooms. We watched the sunset behind the mushroom and chicken rock before setting up camp nearby.

The sunset behind the mushroom and chicken formations.

The White Desert. Beautiful.

The nice things about traveling with guides is that they do just about everything for you. They set-up camp, with a little bit of help from Sean, they built the fire we sat around to keep warm and then they made us the most delicious food I have ever had. Chicken grilled on the open fire, rice and a potato curry dish. It was spectacular.

Sean helps one of our guides unload the SUV.

After dinner we all sat around the fire for a little bit before deciding it was too cold and that sleep was coming fast. We all grabbed sleeping bags and laid down...even though it was only 10:30pm.

Oh, yeah. But, before I forget to mention it. The stars we saw once all the light was gone was amazing. I've never seen so many stars. We tried to point out constellations and kept getting lost in the cosmic sea of stars.

Morning came earlier than I wanted. 6:30am to be exact. I saw the sun rise over the White Desert and then I couldn't fall back to sleep, so I retrieved my book from the SUV and read for a little bit. About 2 hours later, our guides finally awoke and gave us breakfast before repacking camp and beginning our journey back to town.

Early morning in camp. Some people have woken, others still lay about in their sleeping bags.

We had a slight mishap on the way back where one of our SUVs had a flat tire, which required us to stop and change it. We also made various other stops to sight see in the desert some more. Our last stop before hitting town was to a mountain in the black desert. We were originally supposed to climb said mountain, but after taking a vote, the majority decided to not climb it.

The mountain we were supposed to climb, but didn't.

We arrived back in town and quickly switched our gear from the SUVs back into the bus and had lunch at "Rashed" once again. Sadly, it was the same meal we had had for dinner Thursday night. We ate and then began our journey home.

Me in the early morning desert. Scarves are wonderful to prevent sand from getting in your ears and hair. Sunglasses prevent it from getting in your eyes. Hence, my appearance.

It was a tiring weekend, but one I will never be able to forget. I slept outside, under the stars in the desert and survived. Writing this experience can't describe the rush and thrill of the adventure. It was something you just have to experience. It actually felt like real adventure.

While we were on the trip, Will was reading an old travel log of an explorer from the 1800s or sometime around then, who was traveling through the desert in Egypt. The explorer made mention of how he believed the art of adventure would soon be lost as the train was a new invention and he feared it would cut through the desert and ruin the adventure. I have to say that he was only half right. While we no longer travel across the desert on camels, we still hold onto the thrill of the adventure of traveling in the desert.

One more interesting thing to note about this trip has to be the fact that at every checkpoint when the driver was stopped and asked about the passengers in the car, he would say,">مصريين اثنين واربعة استراليين" (Misryeen it-nain wa arba australeen), which literally translates to "two Egyptians and four Australians". I later asked why that was and found out that we were Australian because it saves a lot of paperwork and trouble. You see the American government likes to take care of its citizens abroad, which is fine, but it also means that had we been traveling as Americans we would have had to have a guard with us at all times...and that would have been a pain. So, instead we were Australian. Hey, whatever mate.

And that my dear readers, is the sight I'll never forget. I'm glad I made the decision to go as it was one of the adventures I'd been looking for.

Chills Ran Down My Spine

2010-03-22T08:35:00.038-04:00

I closed my eyes for a moment and reopened them slowly, staring out over the balcony at the performance going on in front of me. As I watched, my body slowly rocking along to the beat, the lead singer looked up and our eyes made contact for a moment. It was less than a second, but in that second I felt like she could see through me, that she knew everything about me. But, as soon as her eyes moved away, the feeling vanished.

The main women stands center and belts her voice.

Last night, I saw an East African music concert based on the traditional concept of Zār. Going to see this performance, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, as we had been given very little information about the performance until we actually got there.

The set up for the performance space was rather interesting. There were chairs set-up up to a point and then there were cushions on the floor for people to sit on. And then there was the balcony,where chairs were set-up to overlook the performance space. I sat in a chair on the ground floor for the first half of the performance and then moved to the balcony for the second half due to the annoying woman sitting next to me.

One of the band members sitting center plays the 6-string lyre known in Zar.

The performance itself was spectacular. Watching the group, Mazaher, perform brought to mind the image of the South in the States from a while back. The tribal like chanting and drum beating remind me of the images I've seen of VooDoo. And well, that makes complete sense as Zār is a healing ritual which is often mistaken for an exorcism ritual. The women also play a huge role in Zār, which is very rare to see here in Egyptian culture...at least in public its rare to see. Most women here are seen to be quiet and submissive to their male counterparts, even if they may be the dominant figure when in the house, they still maintain a different appearance outside of the house. But, here they certainly do not.

The main woman belted her voice and it echoed throughout the entire theater. At some point it gave me chills and I understood why this was a healing ritual. It was beautiful. I'm so glad I went.

It's Thursday here already. 7:16pm to be exact, and nearly one week ago exactly I left for an adventure to the Black and White Desert. And while I'm excited to tell about that adventure, I want to give everyone the full experience. So, sadly, you will all have to wait until I get a firewire over the weekend. But, this week was not devoid of fun, as seen by the concert above.

Sunday was Haley's birthday and after I got home from class, we went out for sushi. Sushi here is still a new concept for many Egyptians, as seen by the fact that the restaurant was almost entirely empty. I got the all you can eat sushi deal, which was a pretty good idea as I'm pretty sure I saved myself some money and everyone helped out in eating what I couldn't.

After sushi, we rented a felucca and took a cruise down the Nile until midnight. We danced, sang, talked and the captain even let Tyler and Haley drive the felucca. It was a great time and I think she had a wonderful birthday.

Garrett and Ann dance around on the felucca.

Tyler, Rebecca and Ann talk about something or other while on the felucca.

On Tuesday we had our AMIDEAST movie night, where we watched an American movie to show the Egyptians something about American culture. The movie was Freedom Writers, and the basic story was that of a high school in California suffering the effects of a new integration law and trouble between gangs, and a teacher who wants to fix it all. In my opinion, it was a good movie overall, but it definitely went to reinforce the stereotypes that were already in place in their minds about the American culture. We spent a lot of the time after the movie ensuring them that the United States was not like this everywhere, even though the movie was based on a true story.

I also taught my class yesterday for the Access Program. The topic...sports. Which I know next to nothing about. So, thanks to the wonders of the internet,I was able to find the rules to American football and baseball and explain them to the best of my ability. While I do like teaching these kids, it drives me a little nuts that none of them want to speak. My job is to get them to use their English skills and learn the culture. But, none of them want to speak. I don't understand. I guess it has to do with the different learning style where the teacher just teaches and students just listen. Which is not really how I was taught growing up at all. I guess I just need to figure out a better way to make them talk.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Tuesday, Will and I made a quick trip to the Egyptian Museum to pick out our objects for project we have to do. But, the two of us are extremely impressed with ourselves as we can actually really read the hieroglyphs on the coffins and statues. I'm learning so much in that class. I love it!

Well, that's all for now. My adventure on the Black and White Desert will be coming shortly. I promise. Probably sometime this weekend as there isn't anything planned at the moment, which is quite odd. Well, I'm sure I'll figure out something to do.

"Remember What the Dormouse Said..."

2010-03-17T18:30:00.001-04:00

Ah today! It's been a really good day. Too bad that today I've decided to be a bad American and get lunch from the Hardee's. I usually try to stay away from American chains when I'm abroad, but today I really wanted a milkshake. Oh, well. Guess, I'll just be a touristy American today.

Anyway, it's been an interesting couple of days here in Cairo if I do say so myself. Not that classes and my internship are anything out of the ordinary, but the field trips and other stuff I have been up to are what make these last few days rather interesting.

But, before I get ahead of myself. Here are some of the pictures I promised to post before. Sadly, the ones taken on Sylvia will not be posted until I can get a firewire...which will hopefully be soon. But, in the meantime, Benjamin did a great job on his first time out.

Yasmina and Lindley work on making the Besboosa for desert during cooking.

The dinner table all set and ready for people to eat.

So, let's begin with Monday I guess, as Sunday wasn't anything unusual at all. Monday, however, felt like one of the longest days ever. It started with my colloquial Arabic class, where out of the seven of us that normally attend, only four actually showed up. I don't know where the others were, but they weren't there and it kind of made class somewhat nice because we were able speak without too much confusion. We were also a small enough class that Engie was able to take us out of the classroom to practice our Arabic on the street.

We walked around and described the people that we saw, mainly what they were wearing as that was the new vocabulary we had just learned. We were also going to go to the supermarket to discuss the names of different foods, however, once again we had gotten such a late start on the field trip that I never actually made it to the supermarket. I had class and thus had to turn around shortly after we started making the trek.

After my Introduction to Ancient Egypt class, where we have finally made it to Dynasty 12 and are starting the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, we packed our things and headed on our field trip to Cairo University. We had been invited by the administration to come and see the campus. So, we did just that. We piled into three taxis and headed on over.

The sight of the university surprised me when we first got there. It's not that I hadn't seen Cairo University before because I have in passing and it looks pretty similar to an American university anyway. No, what surprised me was the riot police that had circled themselves around a group of students who were chanting, holding signs, singing and very obviously protesting something. We later found out that they were protesting for Palestinian freedom, a big issue in the Middle East.

Cairo University looked like any other American style university that I've seen. And being on the tour with the administration brought me back to my days of college searching. You take a lot of pictures and observe the student body in their most natural habitats.

We started the tour with a look at the main theater where President Obama gave his speech when he came to the Middle East. You'd be very surprised by the positive attention I receive when I say that I'm American due to President Obama. They just love him here. It's surprising especially because I really thought I'd receive a lot more negative attention as an American than I have.

So, after we left the theater, which was absolutely gorgeous. We went out and saw the international cultural festival that was happening. It was interesting to see. The only "western" country to be represented was Germany. All of the other countries were from the Middle East, or Asia and some from Africa. But, nothing representing the Americas or Europe. We (AMIDEAST, that is) hopes to fix this next year by having them represent the United States.

After leaving the festival, we went into the library to take a look at the really nice museum of Cairo University and then up to the culturama, which was nine projectors hooked together and projecting simultaneously. It was rather awesome. One of the kids in my program, Will, decided that he needed to know how the mouse/controller worked and so that librarian let him play with it during the presentation...I took pictures of this as it was hysterical.

The "famous" dome at Cairo University.

The cultural festival taking place at Cairo University.

Will playing with the culturama at the Cairo University library.

And that was pretty much the end of the field trip. We returned to AMIDEAST, where Will and I were a tad bit late for class. Oh well, it turned out to be a double session anyway.

Luckily, Dr. Nicole let us out a little early and I was able to grab some food with Moose and Tyler at Le Tabasco, a little restaurant we found down the street, before my last class at 6.

IR was interesting to say the least. I mean, Monday's lecture discussed the nuclear race going on in Iran and Israel as well as Weapons of Mass Destruction in general. This is a topic I didn't know a whole lot about, but basically the idea of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) is just one that makes everyone pretty uncomfortable and is extremely, so I won't bore you all with getting into the politics behind it all.

When I got home from class, I pretty much just crashed. I worked on applying for some summer internships for when I get back to DC and I talked with Manya online for a bit.

Tuesday rolled around and I went to my internship in the morning and then I headed to class in the evening. After class, Dr. Magda had decided last week that she was taking Will and myself out for tea and cake. So, after class we hopped into her car and we were off to a really fancy cake shop that she wanted to take us to. When we arrived, she insisted that we get anything we wanted and that we weren't allowed to pay for any of it. She's so nice! I ended up getting a piece of black forest cake with white hot chocolate. I was on such a sugar overload. It was amazing though.

After the cake, we walked along the avenue and looked at the shop windows as we were in Mohandessin, which is an area I'd never been to before. It's a really nice area and I definitely think I will be going back there at some point.

She took us home after a while and on my way home I stopped for some koshary, so that I could actually eat something that wasn't sugar and pure chocolate. But, I didn't even get a chance to eat it before Moose called me and asked if I wanted to see Alice in Wonderland. Of course I couldn't refuse this, so I packed my koshary up in a bag and went out to City Stars with Claudine, Sean, Moose and on our Egyptian friends (I can't remember his name though. I think it's Islam...but, I could be wrong...).

The movie experience was just that an experience. Similar to the Czech movie experience, they assign you a seat when you buy your ticket, which just makes getting into the theater that much easier later. The snacks are also relatively inexpensive, as opposed to those in the American movie theater. The one really weird part of the experience was that as the movie made a turn into Act II, they randomly shut the movie off for a five minute intermission. It wasn't even a planned interval, just a random moment.

Overall, I think the movie Alice in Wonderland was really good. It wasn't earth shattering, but it was good and I am satisfied that the adaptation didn't royally screw up one of my all time favorite stories. I recommend going to see it, though it isn't one that I'd be telling you to drop everything to go see.

I came back from the movie and pretty much crashed until this morning. Today was rather interesting. Classes were normal, but I had my first opportunity to "teach" my Egyptian students today. You see, while I'm here in Egypt in addition to my classes and the internship that I'm working at, I'm also volunteering an hour a week to the Access Program sponsored by AMIDEAST, where I am working to teach Egyptian students, who hope to one day study abroad in the United States, about American culture. They are such a great group and I actually really enjoy teaching them. Which is odd as I usually don't enjoy teaching, but I guess that's because most students I have taught never really wanted to learn.

After my teaching class, we had a dialogue session with the Egyptian students where we discussed politics in the Middle East and the US foreign policy toward the Middle East. I'm honestly not a fan of this conversation topic as I don't really like bringing politics up. I did realize though, when one of the girls in my dialogue group began discussing her views on women's rights that I may in-fact be a "feminist". I really hate that term, but after hearing what she had to say, I was rather angry at some of the things she was saying. It was frustrating. But, this is a story for another day.

And that, my readers, is this week. Today was my last day of classes for the week and tomorrow afternoon, I will be packing myself into a bus and will be off to the Black and White desert for some camping. We were originally going to Fayouim, but the cultural festival was canceled and so instead we are off to the desert. It should be lots of fun! So, keep watching for the fun there.

فين الأتوبيس؟

2010-03-13T17:27:00.000-05:00

[Translation: Where's the bus?]

At the moment I am sitting here in my nice cool apartment, sipping on my mango colada juice, and realizing that I am completely exhausted from today and everything else this week. I'm also realizing just how many times I've tried to write this post and have failed. Oh well.

I know I explained a little on Monday about the week, so I'll just do a quick recap and then I'll move onto the more recent stuff. But, it's been an exhausting week.

Alrighty, so let's take this post back a little bit. Let's go back to the "Egyptian Wedding", which I found out wasn't actually a wedding, but the party for the groom's side of the family. It was still a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot.

The following Thursday night consisted of me staying in and sleeping, something my body was telling me that I desperately needed...especially as I was falling asleep on the couch.

Friday morning I woke up and received a phone call from a friend of my professor's, who she had been trying to put me in touch with for a while. We set up a time to meet and soon I was on my way to Shubra with the other kids in my program who didn't go to Alexandria for the weekend. We were going to visit some of the churches there as well as some other fun things, like the summer palace of Mohamed Ali Pasha. Well, when we got out to Shubra, we did visit the summer palace, but the churches were a no-go. Instead, we took a ferry across the river to a small island to look for a coffee shop.

On the island, we found a lot of goats, a lack of cars, some odd looks from the locals and a rather sketchy looking "coffee shop". Needless to say, we ventured about halfway onto the island before promptly turning around and catching the next ferry back to the main land. I guess if nothing else, it was adventurous of us to even wander onto the island.

Once safely back on land, we caught a taxi and headed into Zamalek for lunch before heading back home. Later in the evening, we (Lindley, Shruti, Will, Sean, Claudine and a few Egyptian friends) met up and then a went to rooftop party with Tamer, which was at an artsy type gallery. It was quite fun and I enjoyed it a lot.

Saturday rolled around a lot faster than I expected and I met with my professor's friend, Nigel, downtown. He was extremely nice and after hearing what his business did, I was super excited to hopefully have an internship with him. (Let's face it, I was super excited before I met him. The idea of working in docs [documentaries] or anything film/tv related even in the least makes me excited.) The "interview", I guess it could be called that, went really well and I was offered an internship that began the next morning.

I returned to my apartment to work on my Customs and Habits paper and then hang out with Emy. We were supposed to go and see Avatar, but sadly the theater was sold out so instead we wandered around Khan Al-Khalili for a while. She taught me some new Arabic phrases, but I found it extremely difficult to learn them. Especially, when walking down the crowded streets of Cairo. I still feel very inadequate when it comes to trying to speaking the language. But, this too shall pass.

I had to cut our time together short so that I could finish my Customs and Habits paper, and get to bed at a reasonable hour so I could be up for my internship in the morning.

Alrighty, now for a quick interlude about my internship. I'm extremely excited. I'm working in Public Relations, which is something that has a major appeal to me because it deals with social media and promoting stuff. I'm super excited about having the hands on experience that this internship is allowing me to have and I've only been there a week. I also really enjoy my time in the office, which is always a good thing. Ok...interlude over.

So, Sunday consisted of internship in the morning, Customs and Habits in the afternoon, then the dance performance, which I already covered in my last post, and of course the Oscars. As I have already discussed these items, I will omit them from this post and move on.

After IR, everyone thought it would be a great idea to gather for a "family dinner" night, which was awesome...at the time anyway. We had burrito night with homemade guacamole and it was just absolutely delicious. I crashed so hard after coming home from this, but the next morning was crappy. I don't know what it was, but something decided that it was not going to agree with me and I was majorly sick.

I got up not feeling well, went to work feeling better and had a day of ups and downs. I pretty much decided after work that I was headed home to bed and not going to class. I let the proper channels know and headed home and crashed for a good eight hours. Sadly, I missed movie night at AMIDEAST, but I don't think I could have made it through.

Wednesday was a much better day. I was able to sit through class and not be sick. After classes we had a lecture on Islamic Feminism by Dr. Riham Bahi who is going to be the new academic coordinator at AMIDEAST. It was a really good lecture and I enjoyed hearing about the issue, even though I'm unsure how I feel on the matter. Afterward, Matthew invited us to his apartment to have pizza and watch a documentary called Why Democracy?, and I highly recommend watching it. It takes on one of the issues that I actually advocate for...freedom of speech. And this looks at freedom of speech in Egypt. I don't want to talk about it too much as I don't want to give away what the doc is about. All I'm going to say is google it, I'm sure you'll find it and definitely watch it.

Thursday came around rather fast this week and I found myself on another tour of Islamic Cairo, this time specifically Khan Al-Khalili. This day proved to be more eventful than ever intended. We visited on of the most famous mosques in the area, the Al-Hakim Mosque, and were even allowed to climb up and walk on the walls, which normally you aren't allowed to do. I got some pretty awesome pictures, but unfortunately, you will all have to wait to see them as they were taken on Sylvia and I left the firewire cable home. Oops. It reminded me a lot of the castles that I saw in Europe. The design was similar and another interesting aspect was the fact that some Pharaonic stones were used in the construction of the mosque. So, you could find stones with hieroglyphs in them randomly on the walls. We visited another mosque, which had a school attached to it, and it reminded me a lot of one we had seen in our previous tour. I think this one was the Aqmar Mosque, but I don't quite remember.

Anyway, here the part of the story where things get rather odd. After the tour was ending, we started to head back to the bus. Sort of. Something had happened, and I was left out of the loop. It wasn't a problem that I was left out of the loop, but it was a problem that no one had bothered to tell our Arabic teachers, the two who were left to take us back to the bus, where the bus could be found. "فين الأتوبيس؟ ", "Feen el-autobees?" (translation: Where's the bus?) became one of the most common phrases we uttered to one another while trying to figure out what was going on and trying to find the bus. The one good thing that came out of this had to be the sugar cane juice that I got while we tried to figure everything out.

Even now, I'm still unsure of what actually happened, but according to everyone I've talked to everything got sorted out. We did find the bus and headed back home.

Later that evening a very large group of us headed out to Muqattam Hill to hang out. There were a few wedding parties on the Hill and the city was all lit up. It looked beautiful. I stayed until about 1:30am when my stomach started to act up and I decided that going home was a good thing.

I promise, I'm almost done summing up everything and then you can all go back to your regularly scheduled lives. On Friday morning, Sean and I myself made the trip out to Heliopolis to go on a tour with Tamer. There were supposed to be others, but we were the only two who came. The morning started with getting some of the best ice cream I ever had! I got creme brulee and Swiss vanilla cake roll ice cream covered in caramel sauce in a waffle cone. Oh man, it was amazing!

We saw a Coptic Christian church and sat through about fifteen minutes of the church service before deciding that we should move on. We tried to visit another church, but found that it was only a night church and so we had to forgo the visit until a further trip. After this we made a stop at Cilantro, one of the local coffee shops around here, and we had juice and smoothies. Oh how I love the mango juice in this country!

Once we finished relaxing a bit, we traveled to Baron Palace which was a palace built by the guy who originally built Heliopolis for him to live in. It looks kind of out of place within the rest of Heliopolis, but is very pretty to look at as it consists of European style architecture with Indian decoration. I would have loved to have gone inside, but sadly the guards would not let us. They said it was subject to renovation at the moment.

With this as pretty much the last stop on the tour, we hopped in a taxi and Tamer, Sean and I headed over to City Stars, the giant mall in Heliopolis. Sean was looking for some pants, which sadly we could not find any that he liked. While, I did find the set of earrings that I was looking for as well as a new camera, which I have so lovingly named Benjamin VII. It's nothing against Sylvia, but it is rather hard to take still photos with her and with Camille waiting on repair, Benjamin VII was rather necessary. So, soon I will be able to post more pictures! Yay!

We had a lovely time shopping around the mall, and then we returned home before once again heading out. Some friends of Tamer's were having a party on the house boat that they lived on and he invited us along. It was a good time. I dance and met a lot of new interesting people.

And that pretty much brings us to today. Saturday. The last day of my weekend here in Cairo. And I definitely made the most of it as a weekend, seeing as how I slept until noon today. When I finally did wake up, I got myself ready for another day of Egyptian cooking lessons. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the food we make, but it's always so chaotic to make. I don't even remember what we actually made today, but I do know that it was delicious and as soon as I get Benjamin connected to the computer, I will post those pictures. Overall, today was a good day.

...Wow. That's it. As of this moment, everything in my life is pretty much caught up. I apologize for the length of this post and the lack of pictures, but things have been out of sorts this week as you can tell. I'm going to try and update more frequently...but, I'm pretty sure I've said this before and I have yet to follow up on that. Well, I'm going to try and do it this time.

Also, this week coming up should be rather interesting. I don't have a whole lot of stuff going on, but I am heading to Faiyum this weekend as an excursion with my program and for the cultural festival. It should be loads of fun. Stay tuned, who knows what adventures this week will hold. After all, this is Egypt!

Why the Hell Am I Still Awake?

2010-03-08T17:52:00.000-05:00

As I sit here typing this, I can't seem to comprehend how I'm awake or how I possibly made it through the day either. I know that as soon as my head hits the pillows, I will in fact be out cold for the next six or seven hours. But, the sleep deprivation I suffered today was so worth it!

I had been planning it for weeks now. I did all of my research and finally the day came. The day of the Academy Awards! I knew exactly what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to come home from class, have some dinner and pretty much go straight to bed...only to wake up at 3am to watch the Oscars live from the States. Once they had concluded I would go back to sleep until I needed to leave for class.

But, as with all things you plan out, nothing ever goes as planned. I woke up Sunday morning super early so that I could finish writing my paper for my Customs and Habits class (I now have to pick a topic to do a presentation on, good times), and then I went off to my first day of my new internship. (More on that later.) I then headed to class where I turned in my paper and then after class headed home.

When I arrived home I was greeted with quite a surprise, the cleaning lady. She was all over the place in our living room, so I quietly tip-toed up to my room to have a quick skype call with Geoff...that was until I was shooed out of my room by the cleaning lady so she could clean it. Anyway, in the meantime one of my Egyptian friends, Mahmoud, was having a dance performance and really wanted us to come. From what I had heard only a few planned on going, and so I went because a) I was interested and b)I know how it feels to have no one show up for a performance.

Turns out that there was more than just me going. We weren't a large group, but it was decent in size. And I'm glad I decided to go. It was a really awesome show entitled "And It Isn't Even Tuesday". My only complaint was that the spoken parts were in Arabic and they spoke so fast I couldn't pick up on anything. But, I was able to figure out what was going on rather well by the body language between the characters.

After the performances, we all went out to dinner and then had some tea. I left to come back home around 11:30pm and I managed to get to bed at 12:30am. I guess it was better than nothing.

So, then my alarm went off at 3am and I was up and ready to watch the Oscars until 7am. This simply means that after they were over I only got another hour of sleep...thus not a lot of sleep...and today was a long day consisting of Colloquial Arabic, a meeting with the head of AMIDEAST director of study abroad affairs, then a tour of the Egyptian Museum and then IR class until 9pm.

It was a super long day, but it was so worth it to get up and see the Oscars as they were being broadcast throughout the States. There were a lot of surprises with the winning movies, and I was excited to see a woman win for Best Director! It made me so happy!

Well, I want to elaborate on somethings in this post. But, I wait as I keep dosing off everytime I stop writing. So, that's all for now. Keep it real!

Egyptian "Wedding Crashing"

2010-03-04T06:01:00.000-05:00

Another post! So soon? I know it's hard to believe that I'm updating again after just updating yesterday about Siwa. Well, that's what happens when stuff goes on and you happen to be there.

So, here's the newest event in my life. After a week of catching up on life in general, last night's dialogue discussion with the Egyptians was "Family, Friends and Dating". Well, this turned into some very interesting discussion about how things work in America and how things work in Egypt and whether we thought one was better than the other. You get the idea. Matthew was quite amused with the conversation my group was having as the ideas floating around ranged from "My parents were __ age when they met...and here's that story..." to "So, who is the one person in the world you could marry if ever given the chance?" and sometimes even more outrageous.

Well, after the dialogue discussion we all (and by all I mean a few of the kids from my program and some of the Egyptian friends we have made, and the Egyptian handball team (as we seem to have made friends with them too? I don't know...) ) gathered at the boys apartment called the Man Cave, go figure right?, and sat around for a little bit. It turns out though, that one of our friends, Mahmoud, had a friend who was getting married and Mahmoud wanted to bring us along to the celebration.

We himmed and hauled a bit on the subject, but eventually decided to go. And I'm kind of glad we did. I've never experienced culture like that before.

Mahmoud took us to an area that was relatively close to where we lived, but it had a completely different feel than the area that we live in. We arrived and were greeted by everyone, who seemed remarkably happy to see us as I'm pretty sure we were not formally invited. But, everyone was so nice.

We started off dancing in the street with everyone and soon we were moved upstairs to an apartment. The boys danced while the girls sat for a bit, but soon the boys were taken back downstairs to the streets and the girls were taken by the other women of the family to dance.

I think Shruti put it pretty well when we got back to the boys apartment later. She said something akin to the idea that you never really expect to see a smile underneath all the veils that the women here wear, but why shouldn't you expect it? And she definitely hit the nail on the head. I see these women and I think, they must be so unhappy, but they really aren't. They are the same as me and we definitely found this out at the wedding.

As soon as the boys left, a lot of the younger girls took off their veils and were dancing on the couches. While the older women didn't remove their veils, they did dance and they tried to teach us to belly dance. I danced with the mother of the groom, and the sister of the groom and a lot of other wonderful people. They were so very nice and so excited to dance with us. We took a lot of pictures with them. And the children who came into the room were also so excited to see us. They asked us all sorts of questions which I was completely able to understand because they spoke slowly and simply. We also have a lot of pictures with them. The sister of the groom was also really funny because she kept taking my sunglasses and wearing them. I wasn't sure I was going to actually have them when I left.

I also wasn't sure if were actually going to be able to leave the party. Every time we would try, they would grab us again for more dancing or more pictures. Mahmoud eventually had to come up and get us in order to leave.

I'm glad I went, even though I wasn't sure about it at first. It was a lot of fun and a once in a lifetime experience that I'll never forget. And I do hope there are many more. Pictures will come soon as Shruti posts them and I am able to take some.

Smile!

Lessons from the Desert

2010-03-03T08:34:00.002-05:00

Finally, a break to sit and write. I keep trying to sit down and write this post, but I always find a more pressing matter that must be dealt with right away, or I fall asleep, as was the case last night when trying to write. The last five/six days have been non-stop. Also, most of them have been without internet, computer, or many of the technological conveniences that I normally carry around with me in my everyday life that keep me connected to the world. In a way it was wonderful to just be out in the middle of nowhere, with very little connection to the outside world. On the other, I kept dreading the amount of e-mails and facebook messages and tweets I was going to come back to and have to catch up on when I returned...which were a lot.

Overall, I have to say that the trip to Siwa was extremely relaxing, enjoyable, full of some adventure, and a trip I will never forget. If I have ever sounded like coming to Egypt was a mistake, which come on now...it's Egypt, how can it be a mistake to live here for 5 months?, this trip made up for the hard times I've had and has paved the way for more good times to occur. At least I hope...

I guess I should start at the beginning. Since that's the most logical place to begin a story and unless I feel like trying to put it in order later, this is just safer. I'm going to say I'm sorry now as the post may get a bit lengthy...and by may I mean will...You can't write a short post on a weekend where you ventured into the desert and took nearly 300 photos. It just can't happen. So, here goes nothing.

The trip to Siwa began bright and early on Thursday morning. Classes had been canceled and we were to meet at the normal meeting place, Cinema El-Tahrir, at 8:00am for the bus to depart. Unfortunately, we didn't depart on time as rain had hit the city of Cairo, a rare and mysterious concept for those who live in a very dry climate...it's kind of like when DC and Baltimore get hit with snow...no one knows what to do...so, the traffic was absolutely horrible and we ended up having to pick up one of our adventurers from the side of the road where his taxi left him. But, we did eventually begin the trip around 8:30am...which is still pretty good considering we are all college kids who normally don't move until after 10am on a good day.

I don't remember much of the beginning of the trip as I had put on my iPod and pretty much passed out until we hit the first rest stop. We had been informed to use the facilities everytime we came to a rest stop as they are far and few on the highways in Cairo. So, I did just that. And then I bought myself a tea at the coffee/tea shop at the rest stop just so that I became somewhat functional. It was a good choice. I was then able to be awake for some of the trip and read some of The Lottery and other short stories. I made a good dent into it and of course, I skipped around and read The Lottery so that I could discuss it with the others on the bus who had read it.

I have to say, the bus ride there was super long. 12 hours to be exact and we definitely got lost a few times along the way. From the few times I woke up (I slept a lot on the way there), I can remember the bus driver asking for directions and stopping at a lot of places only to find we had missed a turn or something like that and had to turn around. Good times.

We did, however, stop at El Alamein on the way to Siwa. For those who don't know it's a huge graveyard where many soldiers from WWII are buried. It was peaceful and I could have spent a lot more time there than we did. We then went into the museum and saw the exhibit on the battle, but due to our tight schedule I didn't see as much as I wanted. Also, the English translation was definitely not good...more like a direct translation from Arabic with no changes at all when put into English.

The entrance gate into the cemetery.

The El Alamein War Cemetery.

One of my favorite pictures that I took while at the cemetery.

After our stop, we boarded the bus again and had lunch, which was packed by Tyler, Moose, and Matthew and was quite delicious. I really do enjoy the fact that whenever AMIDEAST takes us someplace, they come prepared with sandwiches, chips, fruit and drinks. It's kind of like being back in elementary school, but it's awesome.

With some more road stops and a few more turn arounds, we finally made it to Siwa...at 8:30pm. We quickly checked into our rooms and headed for dinner in the restaurant of the hotel, which was pretty good and consisted of rice, chicken, there was some pasta, desert, tomato soup, and other things that were delicious. After dinner, a good bit of us sat outside, chatted, and had some tea before heading to bed. I crashed pretty early this night and I'm not quite sure why as I slept a lot on the bus. Oh well. The real adventure started on Friday morning.

Friday morning came at around 7:30am for me. Breakfast was at 8am and so, I wanted to make sure I was somewhat functional before I left. I also made sure that I had everything I was going to need for the day before I left the room. Here's the part where I thank Geoff a lot for buying me the backpack he insisted I have before going to Prague last semester. The detachable part made caring everything in one succinct area so much easier...so thanks Geoff!

The city of Siwa. A mix of old and new.

Once everyone had finished breakfast, we loaded the bus and began on the historical aspect of our trip. Our first stop was an area in Siwa used for tribal rituals though for the life of me I can't remember what it was called. After that we headed to see the Old City of Shali, which were in ruins but very awesome to look at and climb through, we saw the old mosque briefly and then went to the House of Siwa, which was opened specifically for us. The House of Siwa was a museum that pretty much documented the culture of Siwians that is slowly dying out. It houses a lot of the old jewelry and clothes and the museum itself is actually built like a house is built.

The ruins of the Old Shali city.

After the lunch, we departed for Geb el-Mawta, which were Pharaohnic tombs if I'm not mistaken and I believe the Roman tombs. Either way, we saw some tombs and William and myself once again found ourselves trying to read the hieroglyphs on the walls, and on any other piece of rock we found. I really think I'm going to just start bringing my hieroglyphs book with me on trips so we can translate things.

The Pharaohnic tombs were buried inside the "mountain". We climbed all the way to the top!

We then stopped for lunch at a small restaurant in town where I had some delicious chicken curry and mango juice. Couldn't have asked for anything else.

Then we finally got to the real reason Siwa is "famous". We got to see the Temple of the Oracle. This is the same temple that Alexander traveled to and received his great news. We got to see the sanctuary where the oracle would have been and it was very cool. We also stopped by the Temple of Amun, which was pretty destroyed due to a gentleman taking it apart for use in his house...but, nonetheless, Will and I proceeded to try and read the hieroglyphs. We also stopped by Cleopatra's bath briefly and considered coming back to swim, but unfortunately did not.

The Temple of the Oracle ruins.

Me standing outside where the oracle would have been kept.

Rebecca "saving" Will from one of the last walls of the Temple of Amun...he's trying to read the hieroglyphs.

Instead of swimming at Cleopatra's bath, we settled for the hot spring-like pool that was at the resort. Although, I must say it was rather gross feeling on the bottom. My guess is that because it's not tourist season yet, they didn't clean the pools and such just yet. But, it was rather nice and enjoyable to float around in.

Once we finished swimming, I quickly returned to my room for a shower and then met everyone at the bus for a trip to see the sunset on Siwa lake.

The sunset over the lake was the most relaxing thing I've ever seen. I sat and talked with people and just lounged in chair. I took a lot of pictures of when the sun went down and enjoyed it.

Saw this sign on the way to watch the sunset. I thought it was pretty funny...it's about swimming in one of the springs nearby.

The sunset over the Oasis. So pretty!

We then returned to the hotel for dinner, and then hanging out under the Bedouin tent playing cards and games. I learned quite a bit of card games and I sort of learned to play tawla aka backgammon...sort of anyway before I returned to my room for the evening.

Saturday morning came around at about the same time as Friday, though it didn't have to. I got up for breakfast and then caught the bus with a few others and went into town to do some shopping. I started off with everyone, but soon drifted off on my own to do my own thing. I bought some gifts for the people back home, plus a few things for me, which is rare as I never buy things for me.

We returned to the hotel at 11:30am, had lunch at the hotel and then met out front of the resort where we boarded three SUVs and began on the "desert excursion". I didn't realize how close our resort was to the Sahara desert. We literally drove two minutes and then we were in the desert where we began jumping dunes and driving. It was so much fun. I want to do it again!

SUVs in the desert. Taken from the window of the SUV I was in.

We drove for a little bit and then stopped once it seemed we were nowhere near civilization. There was a huge dune which we all proceeded to climb up. It was here, unfortunately that Camille, my camera, became a victim of the sand gods. (I'm currently looking for a place to fix the lens problem as that's all that's wrong with the camera.) It kind of killed my mood for a bit of the trip...which meant the stop at the warm spring wasn't exactly fun as I really wanted pictures, but couldn't take them. Oh well. By the time we hit the huge dune for "sandboarding" I was fine again. I didn't get to "sandboard" per say, but I did get to "sandsled". Unfortunately, I only got about halfway down the dune before my board began to cover in sand. I quickly got up and started back up the hill and realized how hard it was to climb in sand when you can't see. I decided not to try again as the hill was so difficult to climb.

The boys heading for the top of the dune.

Everyone falling in the sand. You can can sort of see how windy it was.

Once everyone had had their fun with the sandboards, we packed the SUVs again and drove down the massive dune and made a rest at the lake. Some of us went swimming, I opted to only dip my feet in the water as it was really cold. The drivers also brought some tea and cake with them, so we sat under a canopy in the desert and sipped on tea and ate cakes. These are things that you really only get to do once.

After a nice long rest, we loaded the SUVs again and drove to the Great Sand Sea, where we were shown fossils of fish and sand dollars. I'd say I'm now pretty convinced there was once a sea where the sand now sits. It was pretty cool, I have to say.

We returned back to the SUVs, did some more awesome riding around in the desert and then headed back for the resort where I watched the sunset over the desert from the wall of the resort that bordered the desert. Luckily, Sylvia, my video camera, was there to take some pretty pictures of the sunset.

Dinner was again at 8pm, and it was soon followed by more hanging out under the Bedouin tent with people. This time I actually played a few card games instead of just watching and learning. I really enjoyed playing with the guys and Yasmina. It was fun and I stayed up much later than I have in the past just hanging out and such. It was a great day...the only problem had to be getting the sand out of my hair and off of me once we returned from the desert.

Sunday morning marked the end of our expedition to the desert. I packed my things the night before and proceeded to put them on the bus around 7:45am or so. I then had breakfast and everyone met on the bus at 8:30am. We were trying to make the trip shorter on the way home, so we planned on cutting out a stop at a restaurant for lunch and instead just stopping at a fast food place...too bad this didn't work out.

We had been on the road for approximately three hours or so, when all of a sudden the bus began to slow down. We had run out of gas...in the middle of the desert. I'm sure you can see how this would be a very bad thing. I think our driver was worried about this so, he had asked the police to follow us in case it did...and well, it did. Luckily for us that about three minutes later, a tankard carrying petroleum came cruising down the road. We flagged the tankard down and were able to secure some more gas rather quickly and soon we were on the road to Mersa Matruh, the port town we weren't supposed to go to. We stopped there for lunch at a very nice restaurant and then took a quick stop over to see the Mediterranean Sea, which was beautiful, blue and cold. I did dip my toes in.

The rest of the bus ride home was pretty uneventful. I did all of my International Relations reading, sat and talked about things with Dr. Randa, my Egyptology professor, and read some more. I was awake for most of the ride home.

We arrived back in Cairo at approximately 9:00pm, which left us all pretty exhausted and unexcited to have classes the next morning. So, we offloaded our things from the bus, and headed back for the apartment where I then proceeded to crash.

The trip itself was wonderful. A bit tiring and full of adventure. So, by this point I'm sure you are all wondering about the title of the entry. Well, while in the desert I learned a lot of new things. So, without further ado, here's the list of lessons I learned in the desert.

1. The proper use of a scarf is to tie it around your head, so that sand doesn't get in your hair and it can also be used to cover your face. Sunglasses also help you see when the wind picks up. (I will post a picture of this as soon as I can find one of me...)
2. Cameras do not appreciate when you fall in the sand.
3. The desert was at one point a sea.
4. Burial tombs are fun places to try and read ancient writing on the wall.
5. Running out of gas in the middle of the desert is not necessarily a bad thing.
6. Using squat toilets are quite interesting and let you know that there are muscles you've never used before.
7. Being on a bus for 12 hours is quite exhausting.
8. Before tourist season, swimming pools are rather gross.

And that's about it. I'm pretty sure there are more than that, but I don't remember much more. It was awesome. End of story.

So, keep looking for more adventures like this one. They are sure to be appearing more frequently now that the semester is definitely kicked into full gear. I can't believe I've been here over a month already. Time is flying, and the posts are too. Keep watching!

Over the River and Through the Desert, to Siwa Oasis We Go!

2010-02-24T17:35:00.000-05:00

In 8 hours almost exactly from this moment in time, I will be on a bus heading to Siwa. I'm both excited and terrified, as this trip is full of both historical sites and desert excursions and 10 hour bus rides. I think that's what I'm dreading the most...the 10 hours I get to spend on the bus with the other students on my program. This could either be a good thing or a bad thing...we shall see tomorrow.

In the meantime though, I'm almost packed and ready to tackle the weekend ahead. The itinerary looks amazing and I definitely think the thing I'm looking forward to the most is "sandboarding" during our day of desert excursions.

I will update more about the happenings of this weekend when I return as I'm still unsure at this point if I want to bring my laptop with me. And then even if I do bring the laptop, whether or not I will have internet is still in question. So, you know. Just one of those things.

In other news, this week has been pretty relaxed I've been hanging out with more of the kids in my program and some of the Egyptians that I've met. They seem to like me a lot. The concept of friendship here is also a much different one than friendship in America, but I'll elaborate at some other point. I've also went to classes and I decided what I'm going to write my first "Customs and Habits" (this is the name of a class I'm taking, just as a reference) paper on. I find it to be a pretty stereotypical "becky"-esque paper topic. I'm going to compare the burial rites and rituals of the Ancient Egyptian society to that of the current modern day American culture. If nothing else, I get to write about cemeteries and funerals. Cool, right?

This week wasn't as exhausting as past weeks, which was surprising as I definitely did more. Sunday consisted of class and then hanging out, and Monday was 12 hours of class with a few breaks sprinkled here and there. Tuesday was cleaning around the apartment, followed by watching Sweeney Todd with Mustafa and Mahmoud, followed by class, then a scheduled AMIDEAST movie night and then some Death Note with Salah and Mustafa and chili with everyone else. Tonight was pretty relaxing to as I had class and then a guest lecture on human rights and then packing.

The movie night we had on Monday was rather interesting. It was called Desert in the Coffeehouse and pretty much the filmmaker just went around to coffeehouses in Minnesota and asked what people thought about the Middle East. You got a variety of ranges which just goes to show how much and how little the American people know about the Middle East. The discussion we had after the movie with the Egyptians was pretty interesting, but I don't think that I want to really talk politics with any of them...it just makes me angry. That's probably why I decided on International Communication as my specialization in IR and not anything else. Media I can do, other stuff makes me mad or apathetic.

The lecture we had today was also pretty interesting, but I do wish the gentleman would have explained more on the human rights breaches here in Egypt, instead of focusing on the upcoming election and controversy surrounding that.

Ok, I feel like I'm rambling now. I think that means time to make sure everything is fully packed, and then time for bed. The adventure is unfolding before your very eyes. Don't go anywhere!

A Week/weekend To Be Remembered: "Walking in Memphis" and More

2010-02-21T13:00:00.002-05:00

I can't believe this is post number 50 already. I feel like it wasn't that long ago that I started this blog and decided to track my travels through Central Europe and the Middle East. And now, I've made it to post 50! I'm impressed with me.

So, I should probably get started on what this post is about. Friday I got to go to Memphis. Just not Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis, Egypt is a city just outside of Cairo (about one and a half hours or so). It's an archaeological park with a lot of statues from the Ancient Egyptian era can be seen. And Friday just happened to be the day that we went out to see it. We also went to see Saqqara and Dahshur, which were more pyramid complexes. I enjoyed them very much, but I guess to start this post I should at the beginning of the day and then work from there.

This morning started rather early...around 7am, which I know is not really considered early to some, but it definitely is when you didn't go to bed until around 2am. (I promise I'll explain all of this too, just bear with me for the moment). Anyway, we boarded the bus around 8am and began our trip. Saqqara was the first stop of the day. Saqqara is basically a necropolis, or city of the dead. There are alot of tombs there from the early pharaohs, though it is still being debated if the pharaohs were actually buried in Saqqara or in Abydos. Anyway, this is where we saw the "step pyramid". It is literally a pyramid that looks like steps. It's from dynasty 3 and it belongs to King Djoser. It is importance comes from the fact that it pretty much is the first pyramid, before the Egyptians figured out how to make the pyramids look like the Great Pyramid.

While we in Saqqara we also had the opportunity to go inside a tomb of a nobleman and look at some of the writings on the wall. I was impressed with myself as I was actually able to decipher some of the hieroglyphs, yay!

The Step Pyramid of King Djoser.

I also got to go inside the pyramid of King Teti. His pyramid is unfortunately falling into disarray due to the construction of it. You see, they built up piles of rubble and then just made a casing for it...well, that didn't last too long over time. But, the inside of the tomb definitely survived and it was beautiful. I also, don't have any pictures to show you of the tomb as I wasn't allowed to take any...sad.

After leaving Saqqara, we headed to Dahshur where we got to go inside the Red Pyramid. It was absolutely amazing. It took a good five minutes to climb down inside and you were hunched over most of the way. I don't recommend going down for anyone with bad knees, backs, legs, etc. as it was very strenuous and my legs still ache from it. But, it was so worth it! Once we came out of the Red Pyramid, we took a look over at the Bent Pyramid...which pretty much proves that the Egyptians actually built the pyramids. Not aliens or any other theory like that. It has a pretty big human mistake in it and it thus "bent".

The Red Pyramid. I really love this photo!

The Bent Pyramid.

Me standing inside the Red Pyramid. This was such a workout to climb down into and then out of again.

Once finished with the pyramids at Dahshur, we went to the Memphis archaeological park. The sad thing to hear about Memphis was that there are probably ruins and cities under the current city, but because people live there, they can't get to them. While we were at the park, we saw one of the giant statues of Ramses II, which was pretty awesome.

Giant statue of Ramses II.

And that pretty much ended the trip to Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis. When I got back to my apartment, I was pretty tired and so I crashed. My body was so relieved, especially since I didn't sleep a whole lot the night before.

So, I guess I should probably explain the story there. So, on Thursday I decided that I needed to get some homework done. I went to AMIDEAST and sat in the library where I proceeded to do my hieroglyphs homework, go on a small walking adventure with Tyler and then wander back to my apartment.

Around 8:30pm, I met up with...well...everyone in the program and a few of our Egyptian friends and we headed out to "french club"...which is apparently the french culture center where they hold a dance night once a month. I had a lot of fun! I danced with one of our Egyptian friends pretty much all night as he seemed to enjoy the fact that I actually knew how to partner dance. We were there for about three hours before we retreated back to the "man-cave" aka Tyler and Moose's apartment for an "after party" of fun. I pretty much stayed until 1:30am, when I then decided that if I was getting up and not being grumpy for the trip on Friday that I should go home and sleep. Definitely a good choice.

Also, I learned just how small the world actually is. One of the girls I met and talked to during the night's name is Maria, and she is the girlfriend to a guy who was in our program last semester and is still in Cairo now. Well, guess what! I was telling her about how I went to Prague last semester and she said that sounded really familiar and she had a friend who went last semester. So, I asked who...turns out she's really good friends with Tarek, one of my flatmates from last semester. Such a tiny, tiny world. You wouldn't believe it.

Alright, so now that I've covered Thursday and Friday...that pretty much brings us to Saturday. Ah, Saturday. My normal day of homeworking and studying...except this one. I got up rather late as I was exhausted from the trip on Friday and instead of working on homework, Garrett and I wandered over to sit by the pool, where I proceeded to read my book...just not an academic book. I did meet some awesome people though and hopefully, I'll be able to hang out with them more as they are involved with AMIDEAST.

Once we finished at the pool, we went over the other girl's apartment for our Arabic cooking lesson, which definitely wasn't as organized as I thought. I guess, I was expecting a normal cooking lesson...but, instead we were all pretty much put to work with a task to contribute to dinner. I did learn some new vocabulary words as most of the directions given by our Arabic instructors/cooking teachers was given to us in Arabic.

A scene from the kitchen. Lindley, Ann, Ingie and Yasmina work to prepare tomatoes, I think.

The night ran a little bit long, but the food was awesome. I'm just sad that I had to cancel my movie date to see Avatar with Emy. I need to make it up to her. Dinner ran until about 7:30pm or so and then we all just sat around the girl's apartment and hung out. Some of our Egyptian friends came over and they taught us an Egyptian game...which is pretty much "Old Maid", but with a different name, which was a lot of fun. After the game, I wandered back to my apartment as it was midnight and I still hadn't called my parents and I had somethings to talk to them about.

Oh yeah! Before I completely forget to write about this. I should backtrack to Wednesday where my Introduction to Ancient Egypt class was being held at the Egyptian Museum. We ended up talking Dr. Randa into allowing class to be at the museum as we, Ryan, Will and I, wanted to go to the press conference to hear the big news being revealed about King Tut. I didn't get to hear a whole lot as half of the conference was in Arabic, but from what I did gather, King Tut walked with a limp because he had a problem with his left foot. I never would have known. I also was able to catch a glimpse of Dr. Zahi Hawass and Ryan got to shake his hand. Also, being in the press conference area allowed me to see what it's like to work in journalism. After the conference ended, reporters and cameramen swarmed the scene. It was both chaotic and amazing. Our class tour was also pretty awesome. Dr. Randa knows so much and I can't wait to go to see more.

And that pretty much brings us to today...where I went to class, had a meeting with Matthew and then came home to try and work on some more homework that I can't motivate myself to do because I know on Thursday we are leaving for Siwa!

I should really update this blog more often than this...this way everyone won't be getting bombarded with really long posts from me. We'll see how that goes, but I doubt I'm going to change the way I've been doing this. Sorry about the length.

Keep reading! More things are bound to emerge. Especially, as the social situation for me seems to be improving and I seem to be making more friends within my program and outside of my program as well.

A Day of Particular Interest

2010-02-16T12:55:00.000-05:00

Today was just one of those days that just makes me smile. I didn't think it would be, but it definitely did. It started just like any other Tuesday morning. I wrestled with myself about getting out of bed, went to the gym, and then planned on meeting Emam, my language buddy around 12:30pm for our first exchange of languages. Then it would be off to Customs and Manners class, followed by a quick trip to the AUC bookstore and then finally home to work on the Colloquial homework and Intro to Egyptology reading I have to do for classes tomorrow.

Well, this was the plan at least. And I got about as far as go to the gym. Not long after I returned, Emam sent me a text message saying that today was "flagday" at Elorwan Secondary School and she asked if I wanted to go with her instead of meeting at the AMIDEAST building. So, I said "sure!", I jumped in the shower quickly and met her at the Dokki metro station at noon, where we then walked to the school.

When we arrived, there were students everywhere doing what looked to me like American team building exercises. They were blindfolding people and having them walk through a rope maze while someone else gave them directions. And then the did something like the three-legged race...only there were five of them tied together...so I guess it's more like the six-legged race. Anyway, the team that won hopped the entire way and it was pretty amusing. I'm so sad I didn't take any pictures.

I got to meet some of her friends who were helping out with the event, although I can't seem to remember any of their names (I'm so bad about that...) and I watched part of Kung Fu Panda with them, while of course eating the snacks that they kept handing me and telling me to eat...Yum, Egyptian snacks...

Sadly, I didn't get to finish watching the movie as I had to leave for class, but Emam did walk me back to AMIDEAST and we had a really nice talk on the way. She's so very nice and interesting and I'm very glad that she is my language buddy. We may be in two very different areas of study, but she is so curious about American culture and me that I think everything will work out. We've also decided to try and see Avatar on Saturday after cooking class. So, in'shallah we will.

The work and fun stuff to do seems to just be beginning. Yesterday, we took a trip to the US embassy and it was kind of nice just to see the flag and hear about what the embassy can do for us. And tomorrow, in place of Intro to Egyptology, we, as in Will, possibly Ryan and I, are going to hear the Dr. Zahi Hawass press conference about the King Tut DNA. It should be very exciting. We also have a dialogue discussion with the Egyptian students. But, the thing I'm waiting for the most is Friday. We have a trip to Saqqara and Memphis. I finally get to see all the tombs we keep discussing in class. And it will be really neat as Dr. Randa, Dr. Nicole and Dr. Magda are going to be giving lectures on everything, so I will then know exactly what things are.

I can't wait for the upcoming weeks. There is so much to do and things to see and I'm really enjoying my Egyptology classes. I think I made a good choice in coming to Egypt. It's just taken a while for that to sink in.

More coming soon! Don't touch that mouse!

Seeking Something New

2010-02-13T07:34:00.001-05:00

Before things slip away to quickly in my mind and I'm occupied by something else, I first want to point out that today was actually a really good day. I got up in the morning and went to the gym, which really calmed me and then I went to AMIDEAST to pick up my passport with my new Egyptian visa. It was here that I found that I actually had a field trip...I guess I should update my iPod's calendar.

So, before I knew it I was on my way to Islamic Cairo to see the architecture and learn about the culture a little bit more. The bus ride made me feel connected to everyone as I talked to them and enjoyed myself.

When we got to Islamic Cairo, we were taken to a very old mosque, the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Ţūlūn, that had an awesome story attached to it. The goes something like this. Long after the mosque had fell into disarray, a sultan who had been removed from his throne came to Cairo and hid out in the deserted mosque for three years. During this time, Sultan Lajīn, prayed that he one day be restored to power and once restored to power, he would renovate and restore the mosque to former glory. Well, he did get his power back and it is said that he restored the mosque. Unfortunately, today it is still not used very often and is starting to fall into disrepair.

These pictures are the inside of the mosque, the center courtyard with fountain taken from above, and the minaret that we got to climb for a view of just about all of Islamic Cairo.

It was at this point, however, as we entered the mosque that I realized I had forgotten to bring a scarf to cover my head, as that is the tradition for women, but, the guards didn't seem to mind as long as we all took our shoes off before going inside.

After we finished with this mosque, we boarded the bus again and headed off for a different mosque, the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hasan, which was built during the Mamluk Dynasty in Egypt. Now, for those who don't know the Mamluk Dynasty, here's a quick history lesson. It's basically a "slave dynasty". You couldn't become sultan unless you were once a "slave boy". It starts with Queen Shagrat al-Durr. (I know odd right, a women in power? Huh...) Her husband, the sultan before her, had just died and the French army had just landed in Egypt and were marching their way to Egypt. Instead of revealing to the people that the sultan has died, she gives the orders to the troops as if the sultan were still living. After the defeat of the French, she announces the death and hands over control to her step-son, who the Mamluks are not very fond of. The mamluks quietly take the son out of power and restore the Queen to the throne, where she then takes a husband from the slave boys, seeing as she was a slave girl herself. Not really how you would picture a dynasty forming, now is it? Also, something interesting to note is that the children she had with her new sultan could not actually be the ones to rule as they weren't considered "slaves".

This is the main courtyard and fountain in the Mosque of Sultan Hasan.

Ok, back on track. So, we visited this mosque which was a school that taught the four schools of Islam as well. It was beautiful inside and once again, the guards didn't seem to be too worried about us not having head coverings.

After we finished at this mosque, we met up with the Islam and Politics teacher, who showed us around the Al-Azhar Mosque, which is not really considered a tourist mosque. It was here that I was given a scarf to cover my hair. The inside of the mosque was very pretty, but you could definitely tell that this was still a mosque in use and not one that many tourists came to visit. The lecture that the professor gave us was also interesting, but it was mostly about the rituals of the mosque and what things were used for. Unfortunately, they had been told to us at the first mosque we visited and so, I found it kind of boring.

These pictures are from the center courtyard of the mosque and inside. We weren't allowed to wear any shoes on the carpets as they are used for prayer.

Once we left the mosque, we stopped at Al-Azhar Park and those of us who wanted to stop, stopped and those who didn't took the bus back home. This has to be one of my favorite places in Cairo, even though you have to pay to get in. It's a park with lots of green space away from all of the noise that is Cairo. There are lots of Egyptians there just hanging out and that's pretty much what we did. We got lunch/dinner at one of the cafes, and it was absolutely delicious. I splurged a little and got myself a pina colada, some chicken curry and a piece of cheesecake...so glad I had went to the gym that morning. We ate and then just walked around the park and admired the scenery and did some people watching. I definitely think I will go back there at some point.

These pictures are of the cafe we ate at, and the fountain at the entrance of the park.

After we left the park, we headed home and around 9pm we got ready to go out. We were originally going to start the night hanging at Tyler and Moose's apartment and then move to Swiss club for their Valentine's themed club night. Well, we did about half of that. Or I did anyways. I went to Tyler and Moose's apartment, but I never made it out to Swiss club. Some of the other girls sort of went, but didn't go inside as it looked "sketchy" (This is Egypt. Everything looks sketchy.). So, instead I talked to some of Moose's friends from AUC and then came back home, not before stopping at Shruti's apartment with Moose to get some food. It was 3am after all and I had been drinking...made total sense. Definitely a good night.

Friday morning came around and I got up around 11am and then made my way to the gym. I'm really trying to stay in shape this semester, I think it will make a huge difference in the long run...plus, I need to be able to fit into my Amber costumes and Marni gown when I return. I then decided that I wanted to go somewhere, so I sent out a text and Sean and myself headed over to City Stars, which is the gigantic mall in Heliopolis. It took about an hour to get there, but it was worth it. It was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Cairo. More American-like. I know, I seem lame as I went somewhere American, but after living in the center of Cairo, occasionally you need that escape. I know I'll be back there sometime soon, as that is where the movie theater is and I know I'm going to want to see one really soon!

When I got back home last night, I pretty much sat on the couch, read some Dexter and watched the end of Forrest Gump and then Memoirs of a Geisha. It was really relaxing and a good way to end the night.

And this of course brings us to this morning/afternoon where I will be attempting to do homework to make up for the fact that I haven't done any for the last two days. Oh well, at least I enjoyed myself, right?

So, yeah. Apologies for this post being so long. I'm going to get on that homework now. Stay tuned for more adventures! It seems the next few weeks are going to get busier and busier!

P.S.- I completely forgot to elaborate on "Girl's Night". So, it started out really shaky for me as I was waiting for the cleaning lady to show up before I went over and she was nearly an hour late. But, I had a bit of fun. I talked with Shruti and Nadia (our academic coordinator) and some of the girls. But, it still felt odd and almost as if I was left out. Oh well. I'll figure it out soon enough. -REM

A Mix of Life

2010-02-09T15:50:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-06T14:06:00.004-05:00

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

2010-02-04T17:18:00.000-05:00

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"

2010-02-04T09:18:00.001-05:00

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

2010-01-31T16:09:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-01-28T11:15:00.001-05:00

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

2010-01-25T16:33:00.003-05:00

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!

A New World

2010-01-23T11:32:00.002-05:00

A new world shattering the silence
There's a new world I'm afraid to see
A new world louder every moment
Come to me, come to me!

~Jason Robert Brown, Songs for a New World

I don't think I could have said it any better myself. This is what I feel like at this moment in time. I'm in a completely different world than the one that I'm used to and it's exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

So, as I'm sure you all guessed, I made it safely to New York, made it successfully onto my plane and through passport control in Cairo...which is where I'm at right now. Cairo,Egypt.

The flight over wasn't all that bad. Egyptair is pretty helpful and they didn't lose my luggage, which is always a plus. The food was fine, I mean, it was airplane food...it was hot...and edible (I really loved the desert, it was a type of cheesecake with jam on top! YUM!). I watched most of (500) Days of Summer, which was an okay movie. I'm not quite sure why it was nominated for a Golden Globe, but whatever...I wasn't in-charge of that. I fell asleep right as we hit some turbulence. I know it's odd, but the bouncing of the plane was really wonderful to go to sleep to. When I woke up, they were playing Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,and I really wasn't all that interested, but I sort of paid attention before I put on my iPod and dozed back off to sleep.

Getting through passport control was no where near as bad as I thought it would be, however, the baggage claim took forever! I guess that's what happens when you are on a really big flight. Blah! So, after I finally retrieved my luggage, I found the gentleman who was to take me to my apartment...where a slight mix-up occurred, but it was only minor and is all straightened out now.

Anyway...this semester is going to be very different from the semester that came before this one. I can just feel it. Let alone the fact that I'm going to be working on actual academic assignments and not film related stuff, which I don't even really consider class.

But, just for the sake of everyone reading this post and for those who possibly just found my blog, I'm going to recap.

My name is Becky and I'm a student at American University. Last semester, I spent my time in Prague, Czech Republic studying film at FAMU. I had a whole lot of fun and I made a whole lot of friends with whom I'm still keeping in contact. While I was in the Czech Republic I worked on 4 short films and 1 independent feature. It was a lot of fun and I was excited to see my talents being to put to such good use. I'll never forget the adventures I had and the trips I took, they will be with me forever, shaping who I am and how I react to people and situations.

This semester, I have opted to study abroad once again. This time in a country that is drastically much different from the States. I'm pretty optimistic at this moment that my trip here will be just as fun, exciting and rewarding as my semester in Prague. But, as with everything in life, there is no way to be sure.

I am apart of 1 of 2 different programs going on here in Cairo...and I really don't know anyone here...so, I will be making lots of friends I'm sure. My program here is very small (2 people! The other kid, I sort of know, but not enough to call him my friend.) and is relatively new, which means I'm pretty much a guinea pig for this program...this will be fun! It also means a lot of one-on-one time with professors which could be very useful.

There will definitely be somethings that take some getting used to however. For instance, the fact that the work week starts on Sunday and ends on Thursday. This means, that tomorrow I start orientation for the program...wow! (This also means that I will be calling it an early night, not that I wasn't to begin with, but you know...)

Since I arrived, I haven't done a whole lot. I've managed to put all of my belongings away in my room (which is a single room...meaning no roommate. Also, I have a private bathroom...that's kind of cool!), and I managed to wander downstairs to buy some soup and a soda for dinner. I haven't felt the need to wander yet as many people are still arriving and I want to make sure I can find my way back to the apartment ok.

So, that's about it for the moment. More things will arise, I know it. It's a new city and a new world! I just need to explore and figure it all out.

2010-01-22T17:03:00.001-05:00

It's very odd being at the airport by myself. The last time I flew, Kris was with me, but now I'm all alone. I just left my parents and Geoff not long ago and soon will be in Cairo where I will make an actual post. Stay tuned!

2010-01-22T12:13:00.001-05:00

Well, we are in Delaware. On the way to New York to fly to Egypt.

The Countdown Begins Again

2010-01-20T16:35:00.001-05:00

It feels like time is rapidly moving, but I know that it's going at the same speed that it always has. For some reason, when I was younger, it felt like it took forever for things to come around...and now it takes them no time at all.

When I returned home on December 18th, I had mixed emotions. I wasn't ready to leave Prague, but I wanted to see everyone. I needed to see everyone: Brad, Manya, Emma, Geoff, my parents, etc., etc....the list goes on and on. It was a wonderful feeling to travel away and return with stories of far off places.

But, now I'm at that point of mixed emotions again. On Friday, I will leave once again to study abroad. This time, however, I will not be in Prague, Czech Republic...but, Cairo, Egypt. It's a big difference from the last time I prepared to leave. I was ready for Prague...I'm not ready for Cairo. I want more time at home with everyone. There are still things that I need to do...but, I know I won't get the chance to do them until I get back in May.

I still need to go sky diving with Brad! And I need to do more shadowcasts with The Evening Slice! I still have to finish plotting out the summer series we are working on with Manya and Brad. And I still need to see Glee! I need to sit in the movie theaters and see the nominated films for the Oscars.There is just so much to do and the time to do it is running out! I guess, I'll just have to wait until I get back in May to everything that I need to do...but, then it just might be too late.

It's not that I haven't done a lot since I got home. I had Christmas Eve with the Mezzanotte side of the family and then Christmas Day with the other side. New Year's Eve was a lot of fun and I got to spend it with a lot of friends that I hadn't seen for a while. I finished the book I was reading, The Haunting at Hill House, and I started another one, Seeing Redd, which I'm almost finished. I've been ice skating with Brad and shadowcasting with Manya, Emma and our sister cast, The Midnight Surgeons. I've played Inspectres with many of my friends from college, worked on make-up for a photo shoot for the Rudes, and seen just about everyone I needed to see before I leave, including Steph and Shayna...who I saw yesterday in DC. And I've eaten all the different foods that I missed while I was in Prague.

I'm tying up loose ends. Still procrastinating on the whole packing thing, but preparing myself for what is going to be a completely different semester.

I don't know what else to say. I'm back to blogging about my adventures and you are all here for the ride once again. So, here's to another semester of curiosity, of joy, of challenge, and of seeing the world.

Back in the States

2009-12-21T12:10:00.004-05:00

It's official now. I've been back home in the States for approximately three days...and it's been an interesting three days to say the least.

Once Kris and I headed to the airport on Friday morning, everything about the entire semester in Prague sort of felt like a dream. I was waiting for someone to shake me and wake me up and then tell me that we needed to leave to head to the airport so that I could leave for Prague. It was extremely surreal. But, after checking in and having a hot chocolate and cinnamon bun from Starbucks, things started to feel like reality. I was leaving and the first half of my adventure was over.

Getting through customs was a load of fun...let me just say. Our visas expired the day before our flight and so the people didn't really want to let us leave. Guess I can cross be an illegal immigrant off my list of things to do. But, with some cooperation, we were able to leave just fine. Also, the people in security also loved us as we had the film canister and I had all of my electronics. I'm not sure what they thought about the two of us, but they didn't seem to like all of this.

But, beyond all of this chaos of getting to the gate, the flight home was rather enjoyable. I don't remember take-off as I slept through it and when I finally did wake up I was over Dublin. I read my book for a little bit and watched some of the movies on my iPod before having a three hour conversation with the gentleman sitting next to me about screenplays. (I promise he asked me to talk about it, I didn't just go off on a tangent.)

Once we landed, customs wasn't too bad. The only thing that bothered me was the line, but then again I just hate lines. I pretty much breezed through and met my uncle and Geoff at the gate, which was a wonderful sight to see. We then hopped in the car and headed back to Baltimore, but not before getting lost a little bit in Brooklyn.

So, the way home was pretty normal...and things here have been pretty normal, except you know the two feet of snow we got. I think all of us coming back from Prague brought the snow with us as it was snowing pretty heavily when we left...

Since I've been home, I haven't done a whole lot. Geoff and I attempted to go to DC in the snow the other day, which resulted in us turning around and coming back. I've watched a lot stuff on my computer and I've been overly excited to eat American food. So far I've had Chinese food, a burger and cheese steak sub. I'm well on my way to eating everything that I missed while I was in Prague.

And there you have it! Part of my adventure is over. I had an amazing time in Prague and I wouldn't want it any other way. I'm not going to go into reflections on my time in this entry as I did that a few times in the entries before this one and I don't want to make myself sad that I had to leave. All I can say is thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog, thank you to all the friends I made and everyone who made this experience one worth telling.

...Now, I'm going to finish wrapping all of the presents that I brought home from Prague, I'll begin to unpack my things and begin to settle into a new routine here in the States. I'm still trying to figure out where things are in the house and I haven't quite adjusted to the time schedule here yet, but I'm sure it will come.

But, don't think that just because I'm back from Prague means that there aren't more adventures to come. For those who don't know, I'm only back in the States until January 22, 2010. It is at this point that I will board a plane for Egypt and will not return to the States until May 27,2010. That's a really long time, but it means that there will be some awesome adventures to come! So make sure to keep looking for updates!

As of right now, I'm putting As Seen By Becky on a slight hiatus. The Christmas season isn't going to yield a whole lot of interesting stories...just the usual interactions with the family...which are odd to say the least. But, do keep a look out for an actual update around mid-January. That's when I'll resume writing about the adventures...and I'll catch you up to speed on how the holidays went.

So, without further ado, this is me wishing you a safe and happy holiday! I'll be back in January and I hope to see you all here along for the adventure as well. Čau!

2009-12-18T13:48:00.001-05:00

I have arrived safely in New York, now to just get back to Baltimore...

Some Pieces of Advice

2009-12-17T17:08:00.015-05:00

It's 11:08pm on Thursday, December 17, 2009. This is last day I will spend in Prague...that is until I venture back at some other point in my life, which will happen at some point, but I'm unsure when.

I have turned in all of my finals, just about packed up all of my clothes and souvenirs and tomorrow morning, Kris and I will board a flight that leaves for the John F. Kennedy airport in New York. I'm having mixed emotions about leaving. I'm unsure if I really want to leave behind Prague, but I'm also very excited to see everyone back home. It's a conundrum.

The purpose of this post is to reflect on this past semester abroad. My apologies in advance as this blog is going to be more on the lengthy side. I'm going to try and be as honest as I can. I can't guarantee that it'll be all full of happy things, but I can say that it is honest.

The semester started with the eight of us all meeting at dinner. I'd say we were all pretty much in the same boat. We didn't really know each other and we didn't know how the semester was going to work.

I personally wasn't a fan of certain people due to impressions that I had gathered over the course of the first few days, but over time those feelings subsided and changed. I think everyone here has their ups and downs, their good qualities and bad and I've learned to accept them, just as we all did.

Flash forward a month and we were all traveling to Budapest. We became a tight knit group really fast. This was a bit troubling as no one knew how long we could keep this up before there were problems between us.

Well, there were problems between us, but they weren't anything major...you know the normal arguments people get into when they've been living with each other for so long. Problems with roommates for not cleaning like they were supposed to and problems with people saying things that hurt feelings. All problems that were part of human nature.

But, this didn't keep us apart. We still went out places together and worked together. And in the end, it turned out to be a great experience. I have wonderful memories and new friends too!

Now, before I go back to the good memories, I'm going to air some of my grievances with this semester.

One of my biggest peeves from this semester would have to be the lack of scheduling. We would be sitting at home, making lunch when you would get a phone call from Pavel Marek saying that you had class in 5 minutes. Ummm...I'm sorry, this wasn't on the schedule. How am I supposed to make it to class on time if I didn't know I had class?!?! There was also this problem with scheduling Pavel Jech's class. I understand that he is the Dean of FAMU and is absolutely amazing, but the fact that we kept changing the days of his class really made it hard to establish a schedule.

Another one of my peeves from this semester was the railroading that happened with our film. While yes, I did in fact make the film, I don't feel that it is totally mine. And this is not only because I collaborated with someone else on the project. I feel like Pavel Marek moved our projects forward with what he thought would make a good story and we didn't get much say in the matter. I also feel like I should have learned more in Pavel Marek's class. All we ever did was pitch our stories, but I never learned how to execute the directing of my story...which could have solved some problems when I later shot my film.

And while I'm on the subject of classes. I couldn't help but always feel so lost in my Camera Works class. I didn't really understand how a camera worked and Gahut assumed that we all did, and it wasn't until I did some research on my own that I sort of understood what he was talking about. I wish he had started at the basics,but you can't change what's already happened.

These were pretty much the only major problems I had with the semester. There were minor instances where I found myself pissed at one person or another, but they aren't anything worth really worrying about. Everything ended up fine. The good definitely outweighed the bad this semester and I wouldn't want it any other way. I took trips and made friends and learned so much more than I ever really dreamed of. It's going to be extremely sad to leave all of this behind. But, I know it has to be done. We are all sad and dreading those parting words...and some of us have even already left.

I feel that this blog has become a narrative of the lives of the FAMU kids. So, to commemorate the amazing semester we all had and to break up all of my storytelling, I asked everyone to share their favorite memory and give a piece of advice to those studying abroad in the future. Without further ado, here's what they had to say.

Steph~Favorite Memory: "The picnic in Vienna. Jacob and Dave had an intense search for food and the parcour(ers) in the park."
Piece of Advice: "Love the people you're with because you have a short time together and you can share this wonderful experience together for the rest of your lives."

Shayna~Favorite Memory: "Sitting on the dock on the island with everyone drinking beer and eating sausage by the river after class."
Piece of Advice: "Take advantage of every opportunity, even if it might not sound that cool at the time."

Dave~Favorite Memory: " Jacob sneaking onto the runway on fashion night at Club Mecca and struttin his tweed jacket. Also, chicken races and Drew balancing an apple around the courtyard in Budapest."
Piece of Advice: "When you know you got it, bust it out!"

Liza~Favorite Memory: "@Roxy - Drew has beef with manager, Drew and Jacob chill on that couch all night, David going to dance/throw up, water all over Tarek's face, boys yell charge! Dave fucks up his ankle, we stay up til 7 or 8 talking and laughing and see sunrise. Also, Kris' birthday at Friends."
Piece of Advice: "It's incredibly close, just take one more step in the right direction."

Drew~Favorite Memory: "Finding David passed out by the river at 5 in the morning."
Piece of Advice: "Always look forward, because there may be something gaining on you."

Kris~Favorite Memory: "My birthday! Dave figuring out how to say the types of alcohol on the shot glass in Czech so that I could have the 21 shot. Having girl singing sessions on stage. And everyone getting a visit from the "drunk fairy" because we were all extremely toasted and somehow miraculously had no ill effects. Plus, the stumbling home with Becky. Where I am sure I divulged numerous amounts of information that should never have been shared but were probably very entertaining to hear."
Piece of Advice: "Step outside your comfort zone and immerse yourself in a new culture. And try to speak as much Czech [or whatever language your host country speaks] as possible. "

Tarek~Favorite Memory: "Getting stuck in elevator with Pavel Marek. Cesky Krumlov debauchery. Navigation in Budapest. Michael Gahut during lighting exercise. FAMU PARTY! Dubbing Jorge's movie. Shooting "Love Machine". CHAPEAU ROUGE!"

Me~Favorite Memory: "Seeing most people show up in costume for the Halloween party."
Piece of Advice: "Don't be afraid to "jump in with both feet." Leave behind any fear you may have and just enjoy everything that comes your way."

I'm finding it difficult to end this post. Probably because I know that once I do, it will be the last one of substance written here in Prague and I don't think I want to face that reality just yet. I don't think I want to face that reality at all...and I probably won't until I'm on the plane at 9:30am heading into the clouds.

But, I know that this really isn't goodbye. You never actually say "goodbye" to friends, you say "see you later". I don't know how I would have made it through the semester without all of these amazing people. Steph, Shayna, Kris, Liza, Drew, Dave and Tarek, you have all been amazing people to get to know and have made blogging so very easy as you have provided so many wonderful stories. Kim, you've been amazing with taking care of all of us. Thank you all so much.

And I guess, that is that. I'm out of things to say...except "see you later."

A Snow Covered Prague!

2009-12-17T03:37:00.009-05:00

It's my last full day in Prague...it seems so weird to say it. I mean I've been planning this trip since February of last spring and now it's over.

Our small little group of eight is breaking apart. Slowly, but surely. Drew left this morning to catch his plane home and tomorrow Shayna, Kris and I will leave as well. And not long after all of us have touched down in the States, everyone else will have left our little place in Prague. We'll leave with memories of all the good times we've shared and all the growing that we've done as people. It's been a wonderful experience and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

So...there will probably be a few entries today. I'm going to try and not be sappy right now and just recount the last few days for you. The more emotion stuff will come later, after I finish up my Script Analysis final that's due at midnight tomorrow.

Well, the second screening on Tuesday went very well. We had a big turnout of people to come and see our films, which was rather surprising, but a lot fun. Kris and I got the reaction we wanted from the crowd, so that's good at least.

Later that evening, I took my Acting Theory final. I did very well. Only missed one question and I finished it in 15 minutes, which meant that I still made it on time to the final dinner party we were having.

The final dinner was a lot of fun. All of our professors were there and there was lots and I mean lots of food and drinks had by all. I never thought I would be this comfortable with the people in my program to go out with all of them and our professors and just have fun. Prague is definitely a totally different world, but I love it.

Before the final dinner was through, the professor got up and gave a little presentation. We received diplomas for completing the program and a DVD with all of our movies on them as well as our lighting exercise. That was pretty cool.

Here are some of the pictures from dinner!

They are Kris and Shayna being themselves, Dave with the huge Hunter's plate he and Drew ordered, Marek and Petra enjoying themselves, Pavel Marek, Pavel Jech and Michal Gahut giving a presentation, and everyone minus our editing teacher, Bara, who worked with us throughout the entire semester.

After dinner, all of us went out Friends. I don't just mean all of the FAMU kids, I mean all of the CET kids. Everyone, including Jarka and Jiri, showed up for the final karaoke night at Friends. We packed the club! Everyone was singing and dancing and socializing. It was a good end to the longest day ever had.

And of course, here are the pictures from Friends! We are also probably pretty famous on their website as they took so many pictures of us...though I haven't looked myself just yet.

They are Petra, Dave, Liza and Lisa at the club, some of the other CET people hanging out, and CET kids doing karaoke. I wish I knew more names, but then again, I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them.

Wednesday, I woke up and took my Czech final (finally!) which was pretty easy. I really loved learning this language and I think out of all of the one's I've learned this one is my favorite.

After the final, I pretty much just did some cleaning around the apartment, worked on my Script Analysis final and packed some things up. Later on, I went to the girl's apartment and we made mulled wine (which was delicious) and french fries. We hung around the apartment and then made our last trip out to dinner as a group. It was sad, but fun all at the same time. And as we left the restaurant, it had snowed and the snow had set on the ground. The perfect ending to a great trip. We (well not me, but everyone else) had a small snowball fight which I took pictures of before we separated and lost Drew to the States.

Here are the pictures!

They are Drew and Dave coloring with Kris supervising, everyone hanging around the table, the snow fall after we left the restaurant and Drew and Liza after the snowball fight.

I'm looking out my window right now and I can't believe that a) it's snowing and b) tomorrow will be the last time I look out my window and see Vyšehrad. But, as Kris said last night, "This is the icing on the cake, we get to see snow covered Prague just before we leave."

The last few days have been a blast and I wouldn't want them any other way. But, as I said earlier in this post, I'm not going to be sappy here. I'll do that later today, when it's closer to me leaving. Right now, I have to finish a final, return some things to CET and get the pin I want from Prague. Still doing things, even as I'm preparing to leave.

Countdown: 1 day left in Prague. :-(