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.
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
1 comment:
Laura,You have your first novel written. How interesting to read about Egyptian culture from the viewpoint of an American student! I love reading your blogs so keep it up! Your folks are missing you like crazy but so proud of you!
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