Oh, Baby it's a Wild World

Izzayaku? How are you all? Sorry I haven’t written in a while, I’ve been pretty busy. Thanks for coming back for more news from the 3rd continent.

Things are pretty spectacular here. 8 AM class is still a thorn in my side, the weather here, pollution and all is still so much better than freezing in South Bend right now, and I’m enjoying life in general—friends, classes, food and crazy, crazy Cairo.

Good news on this front. Notre Dame has these travel grants for this year only, and I have been awarded $500 (in the form of reimbursement at a later date) to go to Istanbul for Spring Break. My current plan is to do 5 days in Israel-the West Bank (NOT GAZA, I PROMISE MOM AND DAD, DO NOT REVOKE MY PASSPORT) and 5 days in Istanbul, with whoever will go with me. Not sure in what order, since the second half of break falls on Eastern, or the Orthodox Easter celebration, which would be really sweet to be in Jerusalem for, but maybe a little too crazy. All this is in the works. Notre Dame did, however, decide not to fund me for the Israel leg of the trip, given travel warnings, which is kind of ironic. It’s a constant reminder that you can’t go to places looking for the past, or even to the most holy and sacred spaces of the world without the messy, chaotic present getting in the way.

Aaaaand because I feel like, a quote that seems to fit.
But if we’re to start living in the present isn’t it abundantly clear that we’ve first got to redeem our past and make a clan break with it? And we can only redeem it by suffering and getting down to some real work for a change --Anton Chekhov, the Cherry Orchard
We can’t keep living in the distant past of the Middle East, the place of Pyramids and the birthplace of Christianity, and we have to, as a world, and as people from the West, especially, acknowledge the injustice done by colonialism, and maybe redemption might be possible. Does that make any sense? It’s just a thought, with the constant hints of a colonized history by the British, a few years by the French, and then the current state of affairs where the US gives Egypt about 2 billion yearly in military aid, and I have to deal with all of this just to experience past wonders and try to understand what Egypt is today.

I don’t know where that came from, but anyway . . .
Friday was pretty low-key, getting a little bit of work done. On Saturday, we met up with some Notre Dame Alumni Prof. David Burrell, a former Theology and Philosophy professor from Notre Dame who used to run the Jerusalem Study Abroad program among other endeavors. The alumni were on a tour of the Nile they signed up for through the Alumni Association. We had a nice lunch at the Naguib Mahfouz Restaurant in Khan al-Khalili, the really cool souq, or market in Islamic Cairo. I’ve been there like twice, but have never really done enough exploring, bargaining or shopping for that matter. It’s on my list of things to do. I have bought a couple of scarves and my bargaining skills (haggling is the way of commerce in Egypt) are so-so, definitely in need of some practice.

After lunch, Dr. Burrell took the ND kids to the Azhar Mosque. Azhar University is one of the most noted schools of Islamic scholarship, training scholars and imams in the Sunni tradition. The mosque is simple and gorgeous, with open architecture, subtly-placed stained glass windows, and just a beautiful sense of tranquility mosques tend to give off. Then we went up in the Minaret, the tall tower. It was a awesomely terrifying climbing narrow stone stairs, sometimes in complete darkness, but the view was amazing and the overall experience made me feel a little of what the Muezzins (those who lead the call to prayer) must have felt, climbing towards heaven to call the faithful to worship. Of course, now muezzins use microphones and loudspeakers at the top of the minarets instead of climbing up there themselves, and some use recordings. And they say Islam can’t adjust to the modern world. . . That seems pretty well-adjusted to me.

Although I don’t hit the pubs and the clubs like my fellow students in Europe, I do go out sometimes, believe it or not. Cairo has its share of clubs, but I’m just not attracted to the idea of coming to Egypt to live purely like an expat. I can’t help living beyond the means and the imagination of most Egyptians, but hitting a club called “Latex” every weekend seems a little extreme, kind of sketchy and not very fun. Saturday we went to Cairo Jazz, a club on Saturday night and listened to “Modern Egyptian Folk,” ordered “Scheherazade” wine (named forthe storyteller from Arabian Nights), and spun our own tales. And we’re going back this weekend for more fun. I realize every day that have really cool friends, American and Egyptian, in Cairo and those currently all over the planet.

Week 2 Highlights

Well, I did this thing for a while where I tried to live on about 20 Egyptian pounds a day for 3 days. That's 4 dollars, and I did it, although there was free food one night which was pretty awesome and helped a lot, but more about that in a sec. It's very possible to do, but difficult to do indefinitely. For example, there's this one place we call "Magic Window" next to campus where you can get pita bread with veggies and Ta'miyya/falafel for, just wait, 50 PIASTERS which are like Egyptian cents. I can eat 2 or 3, but the sum of it is that I can get a decent lunch for about 30 US cents, altought bottled water is usually like a pound if I want to hydrate. It's possible but not easy

And I can eat better for about 10 pounds in the pretty tayyib (tasty) cafeterias on campus and in the dorm.

And it gets better. Somewhere in the Middle East has developed this delicious concoction known as Fateer, which is essentially a croissant in the shape of flatbread, and for 75 piasters (you do the math), I get it with sukkar (obvious) or asil (honey). DELICOUS AND ADDICTING, great for breakfast or dessert or lifting your spirits. I asked for sugar and honey once and they made fun of me, although some people apparently get away with it.

So living on the cheap is possible, but if I did it all the time, I would miss out on a lot of adventures, and to some extent, it's hard if not impoissible to break away from my normal standard of living altogether given that I eat most often with other Americans and after a while, if the comforts of home are at all affordable, we're going to gravitate towards them.

That free meal I mentioned earlier? Courtesy of the Zamalek dorms, we had this great party with delicious food, entertainment by a Sufi Dancer and a "horse." I got to try my hand at being a whirling dervish, and then there was a dance party. Best. Dorm. Dance. Ever. Most of you probably know how I feel about dances and clubs (skipped my prom, avoided getting dates for BP dances, just not a huge fan). But this one was awesome. No prior notice, no alcohol, no fancy dresses and no cliched power ballads from the 80s or obnoxious rap. Just trying my hips at Arabic dancing, mingling with Americans and Egyptian girls, desperately trying to keep a rhythm and having a great time. loved it. Loved it. And then we went upstairs and did homework.

I had my first major incident of sexual harassment, other than the whispers, catcalls and all of that we've mostly gotten used to and learned to laugh off. A boy, who couldn't have been more than 13 or 14 thought it would be a good idea to touch my, let's say, bum. I didn't realize what happened until it was too late to do anything, so I flung a "Haram alayk", or "shame on you" after him, but he was gone and the damage was done. I was irritated and annoyed, but you just have to have a thick skin and keep your sense of humor perpetually on hand.

The rest of the week was a blur of meetings (I'm doing 2 extracurriculars involving teaching and tutoring English to refugees and under-resourced Egyptian public university students, more when we actually get started). I stopped into see Professor Mason from Notre Dame and we had a nice chat, catching up on life in Cairo, etc.

now Friday. . . I finally got to see the pyramids an sphinx up close, touch them, take a couple hundred pictures of them, pose in front of them. We also went to a sweet step pyramid a few miles away at a place called Saqqara, where you can see how the practice of pyramid-tombs developed. And as much as I know that the rest of Cairo is that much cooler, they are pretty spectacularly amazing to finally see in person. It was a gorgeous day, and we had a lot of fun. When you finally come to Egypt, and you SHOULD come to Egypt, it's important to step back, stop taking pictures, try to stop being a tourist even though you really can't. You have to sit and take in what the pyramids are, their effort, their age and dignity, really appreciate them as wonders of the world. Also, you must people watch. Listen to the languages, mock the inappropriately dressed European and American tourists, watch the big tour buses, in all their modernity crossing between these ancient monumental tombs. Watch how people behave, and the mixing of them all. Watch guys in native dress and some on camels pose for pictures with unwitting tourists and then demand money, baksheesh. Watch the souvenir sellers, how they work, how their livelihood is dependent on selling miniature pyramids, dancing camels and the like, never mind that Islam, built up long after the pyramids, is the center of everything in Egypt and yet peripheral on one level. We found out the hard way that these guys know just enough of enough languages to sell their wares, so "No Hablo Ingles" failed dramatically as a deterrent to the sales people, when they respond to you in Spanish. It really is crazy. And of course, there's a Pizza Hut and a KFC across from the Sphinx. Welcome in Egypt.

Friday was not without mishap. We went with AUC on a the trip, and trying to wait for people, we were running late, and as a result didn't eat "lunch" till about 4 PM. It was exhausting and irritating but still worth it. And then, after showering and relaxing, I went with some people for a little bit of Sheesha and conversation.

There are some pretty cool pictures, some are here but the rest you can find on my picasa album. (once again, http://picasaweb.google.com/CrazyDaisyLady/CAIRO) I've been a little muta'akhira (late) about captions, but I'll get there eventually. Questions about the pics or anything else? Leave comments!

Mabruuk Yaa Masr wal Hafla Al Kabira: Congratulations Egypt and the Big Party

Well, you see, for all you athletically-isolated Americans out there, too distraught with the end of football for another few months and perhaps caught in the drama of college basketball, I have a bit of news for you. The rest of the world doesn’t care.
We adopted Misriyiin (Egyptians) have been a caught up instead, of the drama of the African Cup, a semiannual tournament of a sport we like to call كرة القدم, ball of the foot, football to the Brits and soccer to the Americans. Egypt was both host and champion 2 years ago in 2008, and I have been paying attention as this year’s Egyptian team worked its way up, quarterfinals, semifinal match against Cote D’ivoire (4-1, Egypt) and THEN, last night’s championship match versus Cameroon.

Since I stayed home from Alex (Egyptian English for Alexandria, but Iskanderia in Arabic if you’re curious), I was on top of my homework and when a couple people suggested we go downtown to Midan Tahrir, the center of downtown Cairo, where AUC is located. Our philosophy was, “we’ll only be in Egypt for this once” We checked out Hurriya (meaning freedom), a bar/Café, and crowded among Egyptians, students and foreigners to watch it from a medium-sized TV like 25-45 feet away. The view wasn’t spectacular but the atmosphere was fun, because everyone was so excited and enthusiastic. Ayesha stood on her chair for most of the game, and the rest of us were sitting, standing, talking, and most of all watching.
The score was 0-0 for the majority of the game, until late in the second half, EGYPT SCORED. After that, Cameroon tried frantically to score, but just couldn’t pull it off. Egypt rocked the game essentially.

Now, AFTER THE GAME,

We had been told to expect “a riot,” and were frankly curious, although as women we knew we had to be careful in such a testosterone-laden environment. Which we were. But what we saw and heard was insane, amazing, just so outside the culture in which I was raised, it was great to be along for the ride.

Pictures tell the stories better than words, but to sum some things up, people (mostly men in all these cases) everywhere singing “Ole, Ole, Ole” (Notre Dame kids, you know what this reminded me of), lifting people (Americans were a popular choice) on shoulders and carrying them through the streets, waving Egyptian flags, Jumping on top of cars/trucks, riding around and waving flags, shouting Masr, Masr, Masr over and over, lighting aerosol spray on fire so it created a huge jet of flame, dancing, singing, taking pictures of all us foreigners like we were the greatest novelty ever. The police herded people around but I never saw them get violent, and I didn’t see any property destroyed. It was a celebratory mob, not an angry one. Then we walked across the bridge to Zamalek, which was fun, and made it back home safe, sound and exhilarated.

Also, my alarm didn’t go off this morning, so I was 45 minutes late for Arabic. Oh well.
Everyone check out the pictures, and a video from when we won. Also, if you want to see any of my pictures better, click on the slide show at the top left, and that will go to my Picasa album, with these and more.

In football and falafel,
Laura

The Nile at night after the match

Coffee, Please: (قهوة امريية من فضلك) The first week of Classes

Yes, I’ve survived my first week. I might finally be getting used to the fact that the work/school week runs Sunday-Thursday here. We’ve sort of developed the logic that Thursday is the new Friday, Friday is the new Sunday b/c of its religious function, the day of Jum’a, or gathering in the mosque, and Saturday remains Saturday.
My classes are as follows:

Intensive Modern Standard Arabic: There is nothing like 2-3 hours of Arabic at 8 AM 4 days weekly to make me regret my life choices. The professor is really intense, in a good way since I’ve been needing a challenge to make me really work at learning the language. The lovely Jules and Megan Sweitzer join me in this endeavor.

Gender and Modern Arabic Lit in Translation: There will be a lot of intense intellectual discussion in this class, as we tackle 10 novels 1950s-present by Arab authors through the lens of gender. Small, seminar-style class. I’m excited, given my love of postcolonial lit (yes I’m serious, not trying to be stuck-up) and the fact that I haven’t had a good novel-based literature class in a while. We had 4 token men at last count.
This class also made me realize how strange it is to be taking a class composed of half Egyptian students, with an Egyptian professor, reading translated novels by Arab authors, in Egypt, but conducting classes in English. Arabic is surrounding us, but not spoken, and it’s just a bizarre sense.
[a picture from the library of what we call "Greek Campus"
Intro to Colloquial Arabic: Modern Standard Arabic, I’ve learned, isn’t exactly useful in Cairo, and the difference between what is spoken on the streets and what I’ve spent 2 years learning (and the 10 hours/week this semester) is approximately the difference between Spanish and French, but they’re both still Arabic. Reassuring, eh? Sooo, this conversation-based class with a very animated professor named Fatima is necessary and fun, except it isn’t till 3 PM, so I’m usually on campus between 8 AM and 4, Monday-Thursday, and exhausted by Wednesday night.

Some important vocabulary:
Mumkin: Is it possible, would you please?
Aywa= yes
Ya’nee= “like” or “it means”, a placeholder. My Literature professor will interject this into her lecturing, it’s quite funny. If I had a pound for every time she said ya’nee, I’d have about 3 bucks. You do the math.
Ayza=I want, if you’re a chick. Aayiz if you’re a guy.
Kuwayyis/kuwayyisa=good, great, etc.

Modern Movements in Islam: This class may kill me with the workload, but it’ll totally be worth it, dealing with political and intellectual movements that incorporate Islamic language and ideas in some way or another, including Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah, to name some of our more famous subjects. 2 ½ hours every Sunday, a delightfully small and intense class. More to come


Beyond that, we’ve been hanging out, having study parties, going out to dinner, spending way too many pounds on our textbooks and food. I’m getting into football, soccer to the rest of you Americans. Egypt is now in the finals of the African Cup, to play Cameroon on Sunday. When in Egypt, do as the Egyptians do. At the pro level, football is a lot of fun.
This weekend a lot of the international students went to Alexandria on a big trip, but I’ll go with my roommate some weekend, Insha’Allah. Instead, I bummed around and did homework today, caught up on sleep, and then went to the City Stars shopping mall in Nasr City (an up and coming region in Cairo_ with my friends Laura, Teresa, an Egyptian Girl named Dina. It’s like 10 stories, bigger than any mall I remember being in, pretty expensive, but full of staples like Claire’s, Virgin Records lots of European stores and the food court has everything from Fuddrucker’s to Papa John’s. It felt disconcertingly Western, but the shopping populace kept me keenly aware I was in Egypt. A great place to people watch, observe kids that could be American teenagers, European-dressed men with the scarves and loafers and then all the women in the niqab, just a big cross section. Also puzzling were the scandalous clothing for women that was advertised, low-cut halter tops and the like. If you look around at the shoppers, the majority are dressed really conservatively. You can argue that they are clubbing outfits, or that women can layer clothing to conservatize it, but still I observed a dramatic difference between what is advertised in storefronts and what women wear. An advertising strategy or an incomprehensible paradox, perhaps?
Also I bought a 15-pound scarf I’m rather fond of. More scarves will be purchased, have no fear, especially when I hit Khan al Khalili either tomorrow or Sunday after class.
Alright, sleep now, homework tomorrow and more Cairo fun for tomorrow!!
In Peace, Caffeine and capitalism,
Laura

Orientationalism (if you get that joke, you're a nerd, and I like you)

Marhaban everyone, sorry I’ve been gone so long. Between the internet outage, which is getting better and almost back to normal and the unfortunate fact that I came here to, you know, learn things, I’ve been busy with orientation sessions, then classes and homework.


A couple notes about cool parts of orientation. 1) we had this party in a palace from Muhammad Ali which was an awesome building. GORGEOUS. An interesting guy I intend to read more about, for more information check the following. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_of_Egypt
I went on a big mass trip to Old Cairo, which was a mistake b/c tours in big groups are rarely fun. But this time we did get to go to a mosque that’s on the site of the oldest Mosque in Cairo, except it’s been destroyed by an earthquake a couple times. It was serene, and very interesting. I luckily had a scarf on, but some of the girls had to put on these big green things reminiscent of one of Mrs. Grupe’s stories. Also, our tour guide explained Islam in a nutshell, but said mistakenly that the Shi’ites worship Ali as a prophet, and girls tried to argue with him, but how do you go about telling someone about his own religion he thinks he knows more than a bunch of white girls. Yes, we’ve started calling ourselves “white people” in self-effacing way. Face it, we just kind of stick out. This is Sunni country.
Also, I blew out my hairdryer when, frustrated with the Internet, I absentmindedly stuck it directly into my power adaptor instead of my converter. Teresa and I went hunting for one, and we found an 85 pound model that served our needs. Trust me, when you pay 17 bucks for a made-in-China hair dryer, you get what you pay for. Also, I successfully bargained them down to 160 total for the two of us. In Cairo, almost anything is negotiable.
Alright, more soon.



Hair dryer adventures!

Mumtazic (Mumtaaz=excellent/perfect + fantastic)

January 31st, 2008

I just had the EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME. I went galloping across a desert on a pretty awesomely fast horse with the Pyramids of Giza over my shoulder, then watched the sun set over the desert with tea cooking on a campfire, and looked up and saw stars, looked around and saw the sprawl of a very modern city juxtaposed with an ageless landscape. Alright, poetic, but that’s just how it made me feel. just exhilarating.

I got to do it as an orientation activity, for free no less, with some fabulous people that I’ve met over the last week. I could have ridden a camel, but PLEASE, me turn down a horse? I miss riding far too much, and as many Black Stallion books as I read as a kid, it’s time to live it.
Tonight’s experience brought together a lot of Egypt’s many threads (or to be more precise, my understanding, my interpretation of this country). I could simultaneously see the pyramids, the last remaining of the original 7 wonders of the world, but also the urban sprawl of an overdeveloped city struggling with modernity, judging by the light and air pollution blocking the stars. And too even get to the pyramids, we had to pass through some pretty poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of Cairo, a reminder that I am so lucky to be able to experience Egypt like this, as a student-tourist. Although we don’t have as much money as all the shopkeepers, taxi drivers and papyrus-sellers think we do, by comparison, we’re too wealthy for our own good.

As a part of orientation today we had a lecture about Egypt, trying to decipher “what is Egypt and who are the Egyptians?” This professor, Dr. Swanson pointed out that the remnants of Ancient Egypt draw tourists, whose money Egypt is dependent upon. But these tourists come to experience a world that no longer exists, hasn’t existed for a few millenia, if it ever existed at all, and for them, modern Egypt “gets in the way,” and they ignore the breathtaking, confusing and fascinating presence of 21st century Egypt. Those who come for the pyramids only ignore the beauty of the minarets, and those whose eyes are fixed on the minarets have come to take the pyramids fro granted It’s a tension, a paradox, it’s Egypt in a nutshell. Trying to be a thousand things at once to a thousand different forces. And it is a thousand different things. I tried to absorb all the sights, sounds and smells: the donkey that stuck its head in the bus to say hello, winding on horseback through narrow streets past people’s front doors, watching children playing in narrow, dirty alleyways, the call to prayer echoing down the streets of the town even as the pyramids come closer and closer, the little boys handling the horses and asking constantly for a little baksheesh, women in the Niqab (black full-face veil), power plants in the distance and the horse I rode home from the campfire, far too skinny to be healthy, enormous camels blocking the bus in as we tried to depart back to campus.

This is Egypt.

(to me, anyway)


Peace be Upon You All,

Laura

What NOT To do in Cairo, part 1

[my entries are a little delayed due to an internet outage in Egypt, see the following for details http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRQi2agl1ORyqre-b3ZTP83Zt_EwD8UH80D80]. Also, the pictures will have to wait.

Well, let’s start with a few simple lessons
1) Don’t drink the tap water. Natives don’t do it, and I don’t either. So I’ve taken to chugging 1.5 liter bottles and cutting out the middleman of the glass. PS: I pay 1.70 pounds for 1.5 liters of familiar brands. Americans: You’re getting RIPPED OFF.
2) If someone on the street is being unusually nice to you, they probably want you to buy something, so don’t trust too much.
3) Don’t get conned. JUST SAY NO. FIRMLY. And perhaps run away.

Well, you see, one day we went to campus to do registration stuff, more of the aforementioned logistics. Then I went out in pursuit of lunch with Jules, Courtney and their 2 roommates Emily and Tina and Ryan from William and Mary. Lately we’ve been wandering around into what I call “real Cairo,” not Zamalek, not the AUC compound, but parts of the city where there are no “McFood” places, almost no women and certainly no other foreigners in sight. Today a guy started talking to some members of the group, and then someone (cough cough, Megan) let slip we were looking for food. So he wants to take us to a “traditional food” restaurant, and we know better. It was everything they told us NOT to do in Orientation, was to follow a stranger, but hey, we’re in a group, there’s a guy with us, whatever. He said “why are you hesitating, I don’t want anything from you?” LIE. We get roped into following for a while to a restaurant, sat down, and he (Solomon) sat down with us. And ordered for us, and stayed the entire time. So we ate falafel, and it was good. And he kept staying. Tina, whose parents are Egyptian had heard him say something about a papyrus shop, and understood a little exactly where this was going: we end up buying a stranger lunch and then we go to his papyrus shop to buy things, and our buddy Solomon gets a kickback from the restaurant for taking us there. . So we keep repeating “we’re late, we’re late for class.” After lunch, which was cheap and delicious anyway, we finally try to break from his company, and when he realizes we’re not coming to the papyrus shop, he started getting mad, and said “bloody Egyptian” (referring to Tina) under his breath. But it at least ended OK. . Stupid Americans got conned. But it could have been much worse. Lessons learned.

4) Don’t drink out of the metal cups. They probably don’t wash them. Check all other cups. In general, we probably don’t want to know what we’re eating or how it’s prepared most of the time, but there again it hasn’t killed us, only made me stronger. All I know is I’m eating very unhealthily and need to find a way to have a balanced diet in this country ASAP.
5) Don’t let the men get to you. Especially when wandering through “Real Cairo,” the comments come frequently. Most of the time I can’t understand what they’re saying, but I can certainly see that the men of Misr probably need “Cairo-practors” (a shout-out to my little cousin Christina who suggested the joke) from the whiplash of staring at every woman, and especially white/foreign woman in sight. I’ll probably write more on this later, but I’ve learned thus far that you have to approach this irritating aspect of Egyptian culture with a sense of humor and an attitude of “that’s their problem,” and go about your day with caution and modesty. I know it’s not personal, it’s just that men are pigs J. One guy the other day shouted “I Love You,” which was rather sweet sexual harassment, all in all. Needless to say, we didn’t return the affection.
6) Don’t stop looking out for the next lesson of what not to do. Also, don’t ignore your better judgment.

Ta ta for now,
Luuraaa