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.
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. 
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