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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

The Cairo Amazing Race!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Walk Like An Egyptian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Film Log Day 2: I Hope the Fog Lifts When We Start Shooting

Day 2 of filming was a lot less hectic than day 1. I guess because I knew what to expect...also because we didn't have 7 boys running around on the field that I had to keep track of. We only had the two main actors, Lenka and Vojtek, plus the crew...which was very minimal to say the least, but they did one hell of a great job. I don't know what we would have done without them.

We began the morning similar to yesterday, with Kris, Josh and myself catching the tram only this time at 6:55am, not 6:15am. We made it right on time for crew call, however I was a little worried about the fog.

By 9am we had all of the actors keeping warm in the apartment that we were using nearby, but there was no sign of the fog lifting, so we went ahead and had to shoot anyway. Everything should work out when we go through and color correct things that need it. The fog did eventually go away, but it took a while and had we waited, I don't think we would have finished before it got dark.

Shooting today went rather fast. By lunch time we only had approximately two shots left to do and approximately 4 minutes of stock footage left to do it in. We managed to shoot everything we needed plus more to finish out the second roll of film.

Everything went incredibly smoothly. I couldn't believe it. I truly think that this has to do with the amazing amount of planning that Kris and I put into this shoot before we actually got there. The shot list saved our asses and allowed us freedom to tell the story as we had displayed it on the storyboard, but it also allowed us to work with the actors and use them to tell the story.

So, next on the agenda is heading to Barrandov Studios on Wednesday to watch the telecine transfer and have the film be digitized. Lets see what happens! Cheers to being finished!

Film Log Day 1: Attack of the Dog

I don't think I slept much last night at all. I was afraid of missing the alarm or something, but the point was that I didn't get the required amount of sleep necessary. I was still very awake nonetheless...which was good considering that today was the day we filmed with our soccer team. So, there was seven little boys ranging in ages from 12 to 14 on the field as well as a 16 year old girl (she is playing a 12 year old).

Now that we have finished our first day of filming, I feel much more relaxed and confident about finishing the last bit tomorrow. However, prior to this I was very nervous. Even with all the planning we have been doing, I was afraid that it wouldn't be enough and we would still end up having so many problems that it would be a mess. Luckily, everything thus far-knock on wood- has been going along the plan. Well, almost...Thursday night we had a little bit of a hiccup when our lead actors mother called me to tell me that she had to take him to the hospital for the infection on his leg and he wouldn't be able to be in the film. I panicked slightly, but Filip (one of our production managers...there are two and they are both named Filip), assured us that he would take care of it and everything would be set for this morning. Sure enough, Friday night he confirmed that.

So, this morning Kris, her boyfriend, Josh, and myself headed out to Letna Park at 6:15am to meet the Filips for crew call at 7am. The cast arrived at 7:30am and Kris and I proceeded to pick our main boy actor out of the seven boys who would create the rest of the soccer team. And then we proceeded to get them dressed in costume and ready for the day ahead.

Things seemed that they were going great (with the minor problem of a missing clapboard...production managers forgot that...no big deal...), when all of a sudden a dog ran onto the field and stole the ball that the boys were playing with. The owner tried really hard to get him to drop the ball, but the dog just wouldn't let go. I had a small panic attack, as we didn't have another ball to play with, but looking back on it...it was rather funny. Filip found us two more soccer balls and we continued shooting. I should have realized that Filip has the solutions to everything and so I shouldn't worry all that much.

Luckily, everything we planned to do today revolved around soccer and no other big complicated shots. So, everything still went according to plan. We actually finished earlier than we thought we would and were wrapped and heading home by 2:30pm.

It was a very long day on the soccer field with the boys and girl, but we got a lot done. I couldn't have done it though without the help of Shayna and Steph. They worked as the catering team for Kris and I, which made it possible for us to consistently be on the field with the boys while they took care of feed the cast and crew. Kris' boyfriend, Josh, was also an amazing help as he did anything we asked him to do...and that ranged from watching the film equipment to be the water carrier.

Thus far, things are going smoothly. Hopefully, they will continue.

Here are some of the pictures that I took while on the field today.



They are the storyboard Kris and I worked on a weeks ago, Kris and Josh with the camera before the cast took the field, the boys chasing the dog with the ball, and the team and Filip waiting around for direction.

Also, for those who are interested. Here is the story of our movie as I have yet to actually disclose this information to the blogging community.

The story starts off with a boy playing soccer with his friends, when a girl he thinks is pretty wanders over to the field. She smiles at him and he messes up his playing and comes over to talk to her. He offers to buy her ice cream and she accepts, but when he returns he can't find her. He is relieved when he sees that she is on the soccer field, so he sits down to wait for her. Once he realizes that she is too interested in the game, he turns to leave. She sees him leaving and gets upset and kicks the soccer ball in his direction. He stops, turns around and she kisses him on the cheek, eats the ice cream and then returns to play with him following behind.

It's a very simple story and much different from things that I normally work on. I believe they call that stepping outside the comfort zone. But, it's a lot of fun.

Stay tuned for an update tomorrow! Ahoj!