can you hear the distance calling? - canyouhearthedistancecalling

Normally I don’t take so long to write a post about a new country, and for this delay there is no excuse. Hopefully most of you have had a chance to explore my pictures by now, so now I’ll give the delightful story behind them.

First I had no interest in traveling to Hungary. Tim and I had been planning on going to Portugal, but then some of Tim’s friends from the Camino offered to let us stay with them and flights got significantly cheaper, so the conditions naturally led us to a country I knew very little about. I was excited; nobody in my family has ever been to Hungary (which is rare in my family). I was working on my thesis until the morning that we left (which I’ve now abandoned and switched to comprehensive exams) so I wasn’t able to do too much research on where we would go and what we would do. This was also exciting - Tim was essentially planning the whole trip. Yay!

We made it to Budapest (though one bag didn’t get there til the next day) and made our way to Tim’s friend Zita’s house on the Buda side of the river. She was still working so we went out for pancakes and then met her at a bar near her house. This was where we had our first taste of palinka, a fruit infused Hungarian spirit. It goes down very smooth and depending on the company you are with you drink it before every meal or before every course. We each had two shots but we were so tired after a long day of travel that we didn’t stay out too late afterwards. 

The next day we stopped at Starbucks (yay!) and found a great little market that sold meat, wine, cheese, and fruit. We got some ham and bacon, bread, cheese, and fruit for a picnic later in the day. We made our way down to the river and walked along the banks of the Danube until we made it to the Chain Bridge and took the funicular up to the top of Castle Hill. We had great views of Buda and Pest and ate our picnic. Then we went to the former Palace which is now a Hungarian art museum. It was the first time that I’ve really seen a museum that is art from all genres but the artists are all from one country. It covered everything from nearly the 1200s through contemporary art, and frankly I was kind of surprised that there was so much color in the modern art from the Soviet era. It was a surprisingly interesting museum. 

That afternoon we looked all around for the Castle wine cellars, but settled for a wine house that offered a six sample tasting. This was where we had our first taste of the famous Bull’s Blood wine that is produced in Hungary. It was tasty and delicious and has a history, perfect! After our wine tasting we hustled across the river for a surprise dinner cruise that Tim had booked for us. We cruised up and down the Danube, past the seriously well lit monuments on either side of the river (Parliament, the Palace, everything is lit up to see at night). There was a tasty buffet and two guys singing with a keyboard, doing songs in English, Hungarian, and Italian. There were a few Italian ladies at the table next to us who had quite a bit to drink and wound up singing with the guys for a few songs. It was thoroughly enjoyable, though I think they probably shouldn’t have ended with the song from Titanic. We didn’t sink though, and were super proud of ourselves for making our way back to Zita’s place using the tram system. 

Sunday we stayed with Zita all day. We went out for a big Hungarian lunch, where I ate sweetbreads and lots of pork. We had a few glasses of palinka and a few hours later we eventually meandered our way over to Heroes’ Square and the city park. It was a nice relaxing day and we were both happy to spend some time with Zita. 

Monday we started being tourists again. The first thing we did was walk in the completely wrong direction, as tourists do. We weren’t completely wrong, but we did try to walk directly down a street to the Parliament building, forgetting of course that there was a river between us and the Parliament, and that the bridges were not exactly close to where we wound up. By the time we made it to Parliament, they were closed for tours for the day, so we wandered. Tim had downloaded the Lonely Planet iPhone app, and it was super helpful. It can recognize where you are and tells you sites to see in your area. It was super easy to not have to carry a guide book, but it had most of the important information right there in the palm of your hand. We followed it to Liberty Square, where the US embassy is located and also the site of the only remaining Soviet era statue in the city (the rest were moved out to Memento Park, more on that later). Then we made our way to the a site called Shoes on the Danube, which has bronze shoes on the site where Jews were forced to line up and were shot and fell into the river. It was very moving. After so much walking we decided to get lunch and have a few liters of beer (as you do). A few hours later, we decided to head up to the Terror House (closed on Mondays, naturally) and, failing that, made our way to the synagogue (which closed at the exact time that we got there). We had a few more beers outside of St Steven’s Basilica and then made our way back to Zita’s. It was a good day, but we had done so much walking and seen so little that we just wanted to get started on the next day.

Tuesday we went to Eger, the town that makes the famous Bull’s Blood wine. The story is that the Turks were fighting in the town and thought that the soldiers there were drinking bull’s blood to fortify themselves. Turns out it was just local red wine, which now has a story all to itself. We took the train out there (on the way realizing that we could have taken a train in the other direction for the same amount of time and wound up in Vienna, but I digress). It was a little town, not a whole lot to see. We played around in the castle and meandered along the tiny little city streets. We had planned on buying a bottle or two of the Bull’s Blood wine, but after we found a store selling bottles for about three dollars, we were stuck carrying around most of a case of wine for the rest of the day. We had a huge plate of meat for dinner and then took the train back to town. A low key day, warmer than what we had had in Budapest, but a lot of fun.

Wednesday we had to start focusing on really seeing the touristy sites. We started on Castle Hill again, this time to see the Military History Museum. Tim is really into military history and I was interested to see what was in the museum, and it was better than either of us could have imagined. I was unimpressed by the old suits of armor and flags from the Middle Ages, and equally bored (sorry, but it was true) with some of the displays. However, once we entered the first room that showed the twentieth century, my attitude changed. On a table in the middle of the room were four guns, attached by weighted cables to the table, that you could pick up. I can tell you there was a pistol and a submachine gun that was featured when “The Hungarian Freedom Fighter” was on the cover of Time and two other guns. I can also say Mosin Nagant, but I don’t know what that means.  So according to Tim, we played around with a Tokarev pistol, Mosin Nagant rifle, PPSH submachine gun, and another light machine gun that even Tim wasn’t able to identify (hah!) for a few minutes, and my attitude about the museum completely changed. It was really quite well done, with lots of legit memorabilia and a lot of fighting to cover (especially in the twentieth century). I knew that I didn’t know a lot about Hungary before, but the sheer volume of military action in that country was insane. Another room let us play with more guns, and in the courtyard we played in a bunker and I hid on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. All in all, it was a good morning. We took the funicular down and got lost on the tram trying to cross over into Pest. We made it into the synagogue, which is the second largest in the world after one in New York City. It was very pretty and to the side was a small holocaust museum and the courtyard which had twenty something planters inside. Reading the plaques on the wall, I figured out that this is the area that actually was the Jewish Ghetto during World War II and that the 24 planters were in memory of the mass graves that they had there. It was pretty sobering. On the outside of the courtyard they have a beautiful silver tree with the names of those who died engraved on the leaves. Very sobering, very beautiful. 

We still had one more thing to do though. So after a quick pork picnic in Theodore Herzl (father of Zionism) square (in front of the synagogue), we headed across town to the Terror House. This museum is amazing and terrifying. It is the actual former headquarters of the Hungarian Nazi (Arrow Cross) party and then the secret police headquarters under Soviet Occupation. On the outside are small cameos of the people who died inside the building. The first room that you walk into has a tank and black and white photographs lining the wall with the same faces from outside. You go up an elevator and walk into a room with blaring metal music and neon red lights, the room of double occupation, with information on the Nazi and Soviet occupations. The rest of the museum takes you through the secret police offices, torture rooms, and rooms set up to demonstrate the changes that occurred in everything from dress to religion. At the end, we went down a silent elevator watching a video interview with a man who worked on the executions talking about his experience. We stepped out of the elevator and saw rows of cells where prisoners were held and the rooms that housed the gallows where so many people were killed. By the end of the museum, we were emotionally exhausted. It was also interesting because everything was in Hungarian (there were papers with English information available in every room, but quotes on the walls, radio recordings, and video clips were all in Hungarian); this is a museum for Hungarians about their own history. As such, it has been used as a political tool, and Zita told us on our second day that old politicians had used the museum as a symbol of their rival parties and such. It’s strange to think of a museum as taking on such a political role; in my opinion at least.

That night we moved our things to Eva’s place, further out in Pest. Frankly it looked like what I expected a former Soviet capital suburb to look like. Block houses and it was very gloomy since we got there late at night. Even in the grey morning it didn’t look much more welcoming. We got on the tram and made our way into Parliament. Thursday was our last chance to get inside. We made it! The building is modeled on the British Parliament building and is one of the largest in continental Europe. It really is gorgeous, with various forms of architecture and lots of detail inside. We saw two interesting things inside - a matchstick model of Parliament, and cigar holders outside the Chambers since smoking isn’t allowed during sessions. I thought both of those things were pretty neat.

Next we went to St. Steven’s Basilica and made our way inside. St. Steven was the king who brought Christianity to Hungary back in 1100. In a small chapel inside the Basilica they have his withered hand in a shrine, so we went and saw that too, but it’s so small and behind glass so thick that it was hard to tell what we were looking at. We didn’t have much time but the building was quite beautiful. However, we were in a rush to get to a bus to get out to Memento Park. This is where the people moved all of the old Soviet statues after the fall of Communism. There are huge monuments to Lenin and Stalin and the Common Man that are now out in the middle of nowhere. I like the idea of not destroying these, but it’s still very strange to see them on their own. There are little plaques next to each one with its old address in the city, which is very strange to picture. It was particularly cold and gloomy this day, and the dead grass of early November gave the perfect feel for this experience. A lot of our pictures looked black and white while being full color. Perfect. 

We made our way back in to the city and to Eva’s place. She was out with her dog - a beagle and dachshund mix named Pretzel (the Hungarian equivalent escapes me) so TIm and I headed down to the thermal baths on our own. It was quite romantic (Tim is very sweet) but also really cold. Budapest sits on a lot of hot springs, so the thermal baths were a common feature in the city for a long time. The water was warm and they were able to make some fun whirlpool areas, but they were outside and getting from the warm water to the locker room was quite a chilly situation. We made our way back to Eva’s place, played with Pretzel and talked for a while, and then went to bed. 

Friday morning was packing up all of the wine and palinka to get it back to Egypt, followed by meeting Zita for coffee and chocolate on the way to the airport, getting a fine for not having the right transit ticket, getting cash out at the airport to pay said fine, and rushing to our flight. It started out very relaxing, but got very stressful, and was an unfortunate end to the wonderful experience the city had been. All things considered though, I’d go back. And make sure to always have the right ticket on the buses, trains, and trams.

Wow. It's already November. I can't believe I didn't post at all in October. Work has been crazy busy with exams every month. I got my thesis committee put together and wrote my abstract - the committee is awesome - definitely some of the highest caliber professors that AUC has. I have Dr Hanan Kholoussy as my advisor, she works in history and writes on gender and has her PhD from NYU. Dr Amy Motlagh is in the literature department and was my gender professor last year; she went to Princeton and just published another book this spring. Dr Pascale Ghazaleh is an expert on Ottoman history and pre-Nasser Egyptian history and got her PhD in Paris (Ecole des Hautes Etudes des Sciences Sociales - EHESS). Everybody else in my department is jealous of my committee, which I must admit makes me smile a little bit. But with high quality comes high expectations, and they are all going to kick my butt to make sure this thesis is awesome. Right now I am working on my proposal to submit after the Eid break, so I need to get going and get a first draft done before the break.

I realized today that I haven’t done a post on Egyptian traffic in a while, so I might as well comment on it. I realized it while I was sitting in the front of the bus going about 70 miles per hour weaving in and out of traffic and occasionally slamming on the brakes (but not often). There are a few things I have noticed sitting next to the driver, and some of them are pretty funny (in addition to the pictures of other cars and road happenings that I am able to take). First of all, since brakes are so common, it’s almost like they don’t mean slow down. If there is traffic up ahead and you aren’t just touching the brakes to narrowly avoid hitting another car, you flip on the hazard lights. That’s how you tell people to slow down. Also, if you want to pass a car or you see one drifting into your lane, you flash your lights at them several times - this is true day or night. Honking is reserved for, well, just about everything else. Cairo traffic is just as hectic as ever and earlier this week I spent about an hour in gridlock traffic moving MAYBE two miles. This was of course the last two miles before I get off the bus, so it may have been a little less than an hour, but it certainly felt like forever. And that was when I took the bus at 2:40, not even the 3:30. There is no rhyme or reason to Cairo traffic, so I’m at least taking the opportunity to learn some new things.

Work is going very well. We start testing next week and I am definitely feeling the pressure. I find myself dreaming about school sometimes - nervous about kids not doing well or fantasizing about punishing some of my kids more, those sorts of things. They have a test in phonics, spelling (this time it is just sounds, but next month it is more spelling words), math, mental math (which is just addition problems, whereas in the math exam they have pictures; ie: 4+3 = instead of pictures of 4 circles and 3 triangles and asking how many there are total), language, comprehension, and Arabic. This is a lot for my five and six year olds! I think most of my kids will do really well, but some are just hopeless. I gave a page of 20 math problems (mental math) this week and two of my kids got 4 right. Four out of twenty. One even said 10+0 = 1. It’s hard. Other kids are writing sentences like “This is a this.” to answer the question “What is this?” with a picture of a dog next to it, or writing “black yellow ducks” when they are supposed to write a number and color (“seven yellow ducks”). But most kids are getting things pretty quickly. One kid even said I hadn’t taught him anything (he’s kind of a brat, but really smart, so maybe I haven’t yet).

The title of this post is what I hear all the time in my class. I am supposed to be Miss Dana, but the kids just say Miss for any of the teachers or assistants or bus helpers. Plus Dana (pronounced dan-a, not day-na) is an Arabic name, so if I did insist they call me Miss Dana I would hear my name said wrong 87 times a day, so I don’t mind. On the playground kids come up to me yelling “Miss, Miss, ya Miss!” (‘ya’ being a word used in Arabic to signify that you are talking to a specific person. It is kind of like ‘hey’ but not as rude or informal) and I hear it all the time on the bus home (though they are talking to the bus helper, not me thankfully).

Also thankfully - payday is midnight tonight, so I should be able to get money out of the ATM tomorrow morning. And next week is my first three day weekend. Tim and I are thinking of going to the Black and White Deserts, but why make plans so far in advance?

Hanshoof (we’ll see).

I can’t believe it’s been another two weeks already. Time is going so fast. I love teaching my kids (even though I have to yell at them so much that I got laryngitis and constantly have a sore throat) and I think I’m really good at it. I still have a couple kids who are just so perfect and enthusiastic that they make up for the two little hellions I have who will never sit down and be quiet. My boss likes me, I like my co-workers (though I do have to raise an issue with another teacher - she’s going way faster than the pacing schedule we are supposed to keep, but she has 25 years of teaching experience and I have two weeks, so I’m not exactly sure how to bring it up), and my kids like me. I structure their day so that we are doing something fun at the end so that they always leave on a good note. I have had quite a few kids crying - some because I won’t let them sit next to their friends, some because they can’t do simple math. I went to work with my laryngitis throat and lost my voice and had to yell and slammed a door and broke my window. Then a few days later I had a kid throw up in my class (some of it got on me - even though I washed it off, I still smelled sour milk all day). Teaching is definitely an experience, but I like it.

When I come home, Tim and I generally relax and watch tv. I cook most nights and sometimes we have a glass or two of wine. Tim is really sweet and gives me a foot massage almost every day. I’m totally ok being homebodies because I am still waiting for my first paycheck and living with very little cash makes it hard to go out and do things, especially considering we live in the most expensive neighborhood in the city. Next week I get paid though, so we should be good to go out more then. Though things are simple and calm, our life is not boring and we frequently marvel at how awesome our lives are. Last night Tim got really excited about us living ‘in the Orient’ and how few people get this experience. It’s true - these things are awesome. I see the pyramids nearly every day, I have to follow international news in the region because it can so quickly affect my life (this vote on Palestine as a state in the UN is huge news over here, and I get emails all the time from the US embassy warning about demonstrations - but my personal safety has never been threatened), and every day I use a little more Arabic with a few more people, which is fun. I’m teaching and Tim is studying, but we are living in Egypt and that is pretty awesome.

Not much else has been going on, except that yesterday I had a NEW EXPERIENCE YAY! Sort of. I went and got a ‘sweet wax’ at a local salon - full legs, bikini, and armpits because I am way too lazy to shave (plus it’s so cheap here - all of that was less than 20 dollars total). A sweet wax is essentially caramel used like wax, but the girl doesn’t use an applicator - she uses her hands, and I’m not exactly sure what the rest of the differences are, but I can tell you this - it was easily the most painful experience of my life. I have a fair amount of experience with waxing, but using caramel to rip out the hair on my ankles left my skin tingly all day. I was surprised I made it through the whole ordeal and I don’t know if or when I’ll be going back to it. They say beauty is pain and perhaps I could get used to it (I could definitely get used to the price!) but whoooooeeeyyyyyyyyy that was rough. It was very Egyptian though, and I talked in Arabic the whole time with the lady working on me. Then I came home and cooked all day and then made Tim put lotion on my legs because I was still in pain. So we will see if that happens again.

Anyway, Tim and I might go to church today, or we might just still stay in. Because I like staying in now apparently. Despite all the excitement at work the past few weeks, life has remained fairly low key. Maybe we will do something more exciting to post about in the next week. I’ll try not to skip a week again!

Ok, maybe it wasn’t the best, but this week really couldn’t have gone any better. Teaching went well, we hosted friends, church was great, and I got to hold a baby on the train today! Despite the fact that I sort of lost my voice and got a little sick last night just from being worn down after a week of teaching, I am super duper happy right now.

First, the teaching. Everybody in my family is a teacher, so it’s definitely in my blood. I was a little nervous going into it, but those jitters went away the first day. I think the kids are kind of like wild animals - they can smell fear. I had to let them know immediately that I was in charge and most of the kids responded well. My second day I got a new kid transferred into my class and he’s a bit of a troublemaker. He runs around all the time and definitely has undiagnosed ADD, but he is very bright and gets his work done, so at least it’s not like I have to keep him under control AND give him extra attention to make sure he does his work. Some of the other kids are complete little angels and love me - at least three of the girls come up to me every day and tell me how much they love me. Plus I have one little sweetheart named Aly whose parents have written to me not once but twice to let me know how much he loves me and that now he loves school too. I think those are the words that any teacher would love to hear and I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have heard them on my first day teaching EVER. Another little angel is Malika who is probably the best listener a first grader can be. Her mom also wrote me a note letting me know how much she liked me as a teacher and how she wouldn’t stop talking about school until it was time to go to bed. And yesterday Omar’s mom told me how much he liked the ‘Alice the Camel’ song that I taught them on Tuesday and how he hadn’t stopped singing it all week. These are rave reviews and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. I had to yell a few times to keep everybody under control, but I also gave out a lot of stickers and let me tell you - these kids will do anything for stickers. I’m surprised, but pleasantly so, that I’m doing so well with these little kids. By Thursday night, though, my voice was gone and I was so run down that I was almost sick and in bed by 9pm. The wild life of first grade teachers….

Tim and I were also hosting guests this week - Sarah and Nadia were staying with us while looking for their own flat. They found one and moved in on Wednesday; they’re right down the street on the 20th floor with a spectacular view of all of Cairo. Today they came back and brought flowers and cupcakes as thank you presents for our hospitality, only to find out that we had already filled the room they were staying in! Last night, Will’s friend Madeline came in from New York after a nearly twelve hour delay thanks to the storms on the East Coast. I was sleeping off my sickness, but Tim woke up at 3am to let in Madeline and help her with her bags. She found a flat today and should be moving out by Sunday, which is when our roommate Jeff comes back from the States and there is a bit of a shuffle in our rooms. Tina is staying in Jeff’s room now, so she will move to Will’s room until he comes back from Kenya in October, and Jeff will move back to his room. Also on Sunday, a woman named Kate is flying into Cairo and I have offered to help her with her trip to Egypt. She met my sister’s friend Kari when Kari was flying up to Seattle to help Trina with her move and was nice enough to drive Kari to Trina’s house. When Kari found out that Kate was coming to Cairo this month, she decided to repay her by putting her in touch with me. I’m more than happy to help. Tim and I were talking about it this week, and we really like being hosts and being hospitable - I’m glad that he shares that with me, because I definitely know that I like hosting events and people and I’m glad that we both want to have that be a part of our life together.

I’ve also been cooking a lot lately. This past week I’ve made pasta salad, stuffed peppers, chicken soup, and mashed potatoes. I take the leftovers to work for lunch, but when I cook I make enough for leftovers for two or three days worth of lunch - and then some. I’ve also had McDonald’s three times this week, but I blame that on PMS and the stress of week one. Plus their hash browns are divine. Nom nom nom.

Tim and I went to church today. We didn’t go last week, but I really like that we’re trying to make church a priority. We’ve been doing daily devotionals in a couples’ Bible and talking about the things we want to do with the church here. There’s a meeting in a few weeks on how to become a member (apparently you have to do more than just show up each week) that we’re going to go to and then tomorrow Tim starts his theology class. He’s auditing the course but paid an extra hundred pounds for tuition that goes toward a scholarship for another student. (I’m still so proud of him for doing that!) Tomorrow I’m going to go help stuff food bags while Tim is in class and then we’ll find a way to kill a couple of hours until 6pm when the church is having a picnic at the British club across the street from where we attend services.

Other than that, life in Egypt is going swimmingly. On the way to church today we went through Tahrir square and it was the first time that I’ve been there on a Friday since the revolution started. Our cab couldn’t make it all the way into the square because protestors had set up their own security barriers. They were checking bags and everything and they were very helpful in letting me know that the metro was still open. Tim and I both got our hands painted - I got a heart with the colors of the flag and Tim got the flag drawn with ‘I (heart)’ up above it. Then on the metro, an older woman let me hold her tiny little baby for almost half of the ride. The kid was so cute, clapping her hands and sucking on her pacifier and poking my nose and cheeks. It’s these little moments that make it special that I’m here in Cairo.

Like I said...best week ever.

Today was my first day of school. The two weeks during Ramadan were all orientation and prepping the room and yesterday we met the parents and FINALLY got our class lists. This morning I got to meet all my little ones and then got to try my hand and managing a classroom full of twenty four antsy, excited Egyptian kids. It wasn’t easy, and I’m exhausted, but it looks like it will be a good experience.

The bus came to get us at 6:40, so I was up a little after six getting ready - packing my lunch (I made pasta salad last night for Tim and I to take today), checking to make sure I had my passport (still need to get that whole visa thing, hopefully the school will get it done quickly), and forgetting my deodorant (I definitely smelled like an Egyptian man when I got home).

We got to school fast enough - around 7:15 - and I ran to my room to drop my things off. I thought that I would see the other teachers in the hall and then I could just follow them to the line up. Of course, they weren’t there, they were already at the line up. So I ran around a little like a chicken with my head cut off for a few minutes until I saw all of the infants teachers standing in one section. There were tons of kids and parents and it was all more than a little hectic. Frankly I was surprised that attendance was so high - we had been expecting several kids not to return from Eid vacation until next week. Eventually the bell rang and we heard an announcement over the loudspeaker from Mr Kleynhans (the director of the school) welcoming grade 1 back to school and then they played the national anthem and then we walked to class. It took a long time to get the kids to put their lunch in the cubbies and their bags in the back of the classroom and then sitting down. I had one kid who cried so hard that it took about an extra half an hour to get him into the room (he wouldn’t let go of his mom and parents aren’t allowed in the classroom, so he cried in the hallway). The kids are smart, they wanted to do phonics while I was still introducing myself. I went through a few math lessons and a few phonics lessons, which was only hindered by the fact that the kids’ names weren’t written on their books, so we had to do that before handing them out. They had two Arabic lessons today, which was good for me since they are essentially a break (later in the year I might have to help with testing some of the grade 2-4 kids on their reading or something, but nothing like that yet). I accidentally took the kids down too early for recess, so they got a little extra exercise walking up and down the stairs an extra time, but overall the day went very smoothly. Tomorrow I get a problem child from a different class (the teacher involved and my AQC and my assistant all assure me that the kid just had a rough time at his past school and the other troublemakers in the other class are encouraging him, but that my class has better students so he shouldn’t act out, but I’m still a little nervous).

The day flew by! We had a little lull after lunch, when all the kids put their lunch boxes in their bookbags and therefore thought that we were packing up to leave. The last two lessons will be a challenge, I can tell, but the kids are done at 2:40 and then we take some to the buses and some stay to get picked up by their parents. I’ll be staying to take over the late room (which goes until 3:30 because many of the students have siblings in the older schools, which all end at 3:30) on Thursdays. Remember - Thursday is the start to our weekend. I’ll admit that I was trying a little bit to be ‘teacher’s pet’ to Miss Sandra, but I also wanted to show that I’m willing to be a team player. Most importantly though, is that Tim has class until 6:30 on Thursdays this semester, so it’s not like we would be going away for weekends or anything. Plus, by volunteering to take over the late room on Thursdays for the first term, it means that I probably won’t have to do it during second or third term. Today all the teachers stayed until 3:30 since none of us really know the others’ kids and then after we dropped the late late kids off at reception (parents have to pick them up at reception if they don’t make it to the late room, since the late room is really reserved for kids with older siblings, it is NOT day care) I ran to get my bus, only to find that one of my late room students and his older brother are on the same bus! So that will be interesting.

My commute isn’t bad. Or maybe I just have really low expectations. I’ve had some really long commutes and I think that an hour is average (that’s what I had when working at the UN and also what I had to and from AUC once I moved into Cairo proper). In the morning it takes us a little over half an hour to get to the campus, which really isn’t bad for about 20 miles in Cairo. In the afternoon, leaving a little before 4, it took me a little less than half an hour to get to Zamalek. Now, Zamalek is an island and I was on the bus with students. The bus driver is to drop the kids off in front of their homes, not at a bus stop. So instead of driving all around the island seeing where kids live, I hopped off the bus as it pulled over to the side of the road on the bridge into the island. People hopping on and off buses (mine stops, but not all of them do really) is totally common in Cairo, and it is not uncommon at all to see groups of men in suits and galabeyas standing on the side of a four lane highway making hand signals at the buses that run and then jumping on one that doesn’t actually stop where they are. So I hopped off the bus (safely, don’t worry!) and walked under a bridge and up the street to my apartment. I came home, dropped my bag in the entryway, kicked off my shoes, and curled up on the bed. It was nearly 5 and I had been on my feet most of that time (in cute but totally not supportive at all flats). Tim was sweet enough to give me a foot massage while we watched some TV and I decompressed, then our friends Sarah and Nadia (who are staying with us until they move into their new apartment tomorrow) came home and I cooked dinner for everybody (stuffed peppers).

Now I’m writing this, having a well deserved rum and coke (just one is enough to almost put me to bed after such a long day), uploading some pictures of my room and commute, and getting ready for bed. Eventually, I’ll have to learn where writing my thesis fits into this schedule. And reading my Bible. But those things will come. Hopefully with some Dr Scholl’s inserts….

This didn't post for some reason, but I wrote it a week ago I promise!

I’ve been back in Egypt for two and a half weeks now, started work two weeks ago, and now the country is about to go on vacation. I arrived during Ramadan for the third time, which as usual was pretty miserable. I hate Ramadan - everything has iftar hours, meaning places close around three and open up again after seven. It’s kind of like a really obnoxious siesta, only everybody fasted all day beforehand. Iftar (the meal that breaks the fast) can be a pretty cool experience. On the way home from work I drive by these huge tents that are being set up for the meal. After church, Tim and I walk down the street to a square in Maadi that is full of families sitting on the grass breaking their fast together. The thing is, then people stay out all night. So many events start after the meal - meaning eight or nine at night. People stay up all night and those who do try to get some shut eye are awoken at around three am by guys walking down the street banging drums and playing music. People need to wake up early in order to eat suhoor, the pre dawn meal so that they can fast all day. Jetlag kept me up late enough to hear these men walking down the street a few times, and it is pretty remarkable that so many people here are able to fast from sunrise to sunset. No water, food, cigarettes, anything for about twelve hours. In Egypt. In August. It isn’t easy, and it is impressive. That all being said, I’m very much looking forward to the Eid holiday this week. The vacation for the feast starts Monday, and the feast itself is probably going to begin on Tuesday or Wednesday. Since the holiday is based on the lunar calendar, religious leaders and experts and local people have to actually wait and make sure that it will be a true new moon before the month can be called over and the feast can begin. It’s a little nitpicky, but it will all be over soon.

Tim and I are probably not going anywhere for this vacation. I have to come up with my lesson plans and am still recovering from a pretty bad stomach bug that knocked me out last week. I want to get everything in order before school starts on Labor Day (American Labor Day, not Egyptian). Plus our friend Sarah is coming on Wednesday and staying with us. We’re looking forward to seeing her again and she’s bringing us some stuff from the States and staying with us until she finds a flat in Cairo. It should be a low key stay-cation and I think that sounds wonderful. I’m sure there will be plenty to do in Cairo during this break, but I’m also totally ok with staying in and working and watching TV. We will also probably work on plans for the next Eid break, in November, where we both get a whole week off. We were thinking about Portugal, but now Hungary is also a contender. We’ll look into it. Should be fun.

A short update, but not a whole lot is going on right about now. Cairo life - exotic, eh?

I am so incredibly satisfied with my first week of orientation. The school’s structure is designed to be rigorous, focus on memorization, teach the points, no independent or critical thought. It’s hard to look at and appreciate coming from an American education system that focuses so much more on independence and critical thought, but frankly, as a new teacher, this structure is amazing. Plus, I’ll be teaching the little ones. The ones who won’t have the attitude that learning isn’t cool, because frankly it’s more uncool to not know how to spell or which color is which. I thought that the infants division (two years of kindergarten and grade 1) would be hard, but after what I’ve heard and seen from the orientation for older grades, I am so happy to be in my department.

The infants division is self contained. We have one AQC (academic quality controller) who is responsible for all of our tests and meeting with all of our parents (yay for a buffer zone!) and that woman is also the head of all of our academics and administration. Her name is Sandra and it’s her first year as AQC but she’s been with the school for a while and even sent her son here. She’s very much like a mother hen and with her little British accent, I am always very comfortable with her. She seems very competent and confident and since my biggest fear is HOW to teach the little ones, she’s really good at putting me at ease. The rest of the new teachers are not so lucky. One girl told me that each time Sandra takes us out of the general orientation so that we can do something specific for infants, everybody is jealous because at least we are doing something. The other departments have an AQC based on grade level (2-4, 5-8, and 9-12) and they also have a Subject Coordinator and/or a Head of Department. Starting in grade 2, the teachers teach only their subject and rotate in and out of the classroom. That is - students stay in the same class all day with the same students (I believe this is true for all grades 2-12) and the English teacher comes one period and then the Math or History or Science. I suppose in higher grades where the students pick different subjects they might move around the classrooms, but it seems to me like it’s mostly teachers roaming the halls between periods. Considering I had wanted the grade 11 English position over the grade 1 position I got, I’m pretty happy that that isn’t what I wound up with. The person hired to teach grade 11 English is actually teaching English across five levels since there simply aren’t enough students to fill more than a few classes. Chouiefat has about 1200 students, but over one third of them are in the infants division. The graduating classes are normally less than 30 students, and large class sizes are the goal of the school, so the grade 12 English teacher is teaching all of the grade 12 students in just one period. Of course he has to teach other levels or subjects if they’re paying him a full time salary!

The other thing I’ve been thankful for and didn’t even realize could be an issue actually has to do with salary. Well, more benefits really. I was hired as an ex-pat, even though I was hired in Egypt. Some others in my position are in the same category, but other Americans living in Cairo for some time have been hired as foreign locals. Now some of these are women married to Egyptian men and as such, they are expected to be on their husband’s insurance and salary and don’t need a work visa specifically. But some Americans came here as students, wanted to stay, and just somehow got put into that category. They don’t get the same insurance coverage that I do, they don’t get the school to arrange their work visa, and they don’t get the same pay. It’s unfortunate for them, and it makes me grateful for my contract. Since it isn’t my situation, however, I’m not super upset over it, and combined with my great AQC and actually doing a lot of solid prep work (putting up construction paper in my classroom - this is first grade after all) I am very satisfied with my job at Chouiefat in 6 October City.

The people I’m meeting (despite some of their grievances with the system or school) are also amazing. In the infants division I have my old roommate Kacie, Jordana (Welsh), Joanna (English but from Cardiff in Wales), Dalia (Egyptian - Canadian), and Lindsey and Camille (both Americans married to Egyptian men). These are all the first year teachers in the infants group, and the returning teachers will come back for a second week of orientation next week. All in all we have 17 teachers in the infants division, a very large percentage of the school.

I’ve also become good friends with a guy that I sort of recognized from school named Ahmed (he’s one of those Americans hired as a foreign local) and he is amazing. I call him ‘Wosta’ which means ‘connections’ because he knows EVERYBODY. His Arabic is fluent, he looks Egyptian, and he has a lot of family in the Army, who is currently in power. I foresee quite a few little weekend trips to the beach or VIP access around Cairo with him as a friend. He’s also super interesting because he is getting his Masters from AUC in English and writing about identity and gender theory. He came over one night and we talked for about two hours about all of the things he’s interested in and his personal story of a dual identity (looking so Egyptian but feeling so American). He’s an intense individual, but I’m glad to know him and I hope he sticks around for a while because he is certainly a lot of fun.

I also have a pretty good relationship so far with Charles. He’s in the French department and he’s from Paris and he got jealous that I was calling Tim ‘mon petit chouchou’ so I said he could be ‘chouchou two’ and now I just call him ‘super chouchou.’ We have conversations in English with a few French words or phrases thrown in there, and he has studied international affairs and Middle East studies as well. He lives on campus but is hoping to get a car, so hopefully he and I will be able to hang out quite a bit outside of school as well.

All in all, I think the infants division will be a pretty tight family, but I hope that we can still have good relationships and friendships with those in the upper grades. I also think that the Student Life Office, which is meant for extra curricular activities for grades 2-12, will do a good job including the teachers from the younger levels, even if it doesn’t focus on the students.

Next week, we will be finishing our boards and setting up our lessons and learning things from all of the returning teachers. I’m nervous but more excited. I’m happy with how things worked out considering how well the infants division is run, especially compared to how underprepared the upper divisions seemed to be this week. I know the administration is still working out kinks (still hiring teachers and setting schedules) and even thoughout the school year, it will be much harder to work with an AQC for admin AND a subject coordinator or department head for academics than it will be to work with just Sandra. I’m quite content so far.

Tonight (Friday) Tim and I went to Maadi and said goodbye to my friend Kevin who is moving back to the States and then we headed off to church. We’re hoping to get really involved in the MCC (Maadi Community Church) and Tim is considering taking some classes at the small Bible school they have there. The sermon was good and the music was fun and there was a small meet and greet afterwards where we got to talk to some of the Pastors. It will become part of our routine and now we’re home and making our way through a Couple’s Bible that I picked up from his house and brought back. Last night we had a long talk about how intimidating I find it to talk to him about religion and doctrine simply because he is so much more educated on the subject than I am. I think that by going to church with him and listening to sermons to supplement what I’m learning in church will be good. He wants to go to seminary, this is something I better get used to. He’s going to know more than I do, but I think the intimidation will wear off a little bit. Having the big talks helps. It helps me in faith and it strengthens our relationship, and I’m really looking forward to having church and these discussions be a big part of our life over here. That being said, I know that I like to throw myself into new things and even though I want to be super involved, I need to finish my thesis first. So I’ll take it slow and see how things go after a year, but it might be hard to do that with things like this meet and great and people introducing us to people we can have weekly meetings with where we live, and the classes Tim will take are so incredibly cheap and interesting that it will be hard not to participate. Looks like I’ll be learning a serious lesson in time management this year, as well as classroom management.

All in all an excellent first week I would say. Next week will probably be more of the same and then Eid and the return of many friends at AUC for the semester or coming back to work here. Then once September hits, it’s 30 little names to learn and minds to teach. I’ll post as often as I can, and pictures will come soon too (especially once I get all of my display boards done).

Love and peace,

~dana

It has been a while since I have written anything, dear readers, and I apologize for that. Since my last posts regarding Ethiopia, Tim and I traveled to Alexandria and then I had to leave Egypt (which would have been for good if Tim weren’t here to bring me back for a third time) and enjoyed traveling though Denmark, Iceland, Boston, Alabama, and finally spending the summer in California. For this being a travel blog, I have been totally slacking and now in the interest of catching up, I am forced to give you the highlight reel of the past four months instead of some of the more detailed and nuanced experiences I prefer to convey. Bear with me, again, as I find myself in this position, again, and hope as I do that I can only do better this year.

After my mother and I went to Ethiopia, we had a few days back in Cairo before taking her to the airport. I took her to my school and then out to the Khan where Kacie could tell her all about Islamic architecture in some of the oldest parts of Cairo. She left early in the morning on Saturday and since it was a long weekend for me (remember my weekends are normally Friday-Satuday, and this one included Sunday off) Tim and I hopped a train later that day to Alexandria. The city is a refreshing break from the hustle and bustle and pollution of Cairo, a busy but manageable corniche filled with taxis going back and forth from the fort to the library and beyond. Tim arranged the whole thing, paid for our train tickets and knew which hotel we would stay at - the Semiramis, not connected to the Semiramis in Cairo, but a quiet almost run down little place whose most appealing feature is absolutely the view. Our room overlooked the Mediterranean and our small balcony let me look out over the port at sunset not long after we arrived. We went out for a seafood dinner, stuffed ourselves, drank some wine, and went back to the hotel since it was later than either of us had realized. The next morning we went to the fort - my third trip there, but Tim’s first successful attempt at visiting it. We walked around and accidentally stumbled upon many cozy corners with couples curled up in them. Knowing how conservative this country is, I was simultaneously surprised at this behavior and proud of these couples for their creative problem solving trying to get a moment or two of quiet solitude. We went out for lunch with Tim’s friend, smoked some shisha, and headed back to the train station only to find that all the trains were sold out. After a brief scuffle between some taxi drivers over who could give us the best fare for a three hour door to door ride, a police officer pointed us in the direction of a very helpful train employee who had us on a train not seven minutes later heading back to the capitol. A short weekend, but enough to show me how romantic Tim is.

The next few weeks in Cairo were fast. I got a job lined up teaching first grade (and getting PAID), wrote some final papers, packed up all of my stuff, and cried for about four days leading up to my flight. Leaving Tim again, this time for two and a half months, was one of the hardest things I had to do. I called my parents from an eight hour layover in Istanbul, intended to go out and see the city, especially since I had some friends there, sobbing and probably succeeding in making them feel as badly as I did. After an hour or so of talking I had calmed down and eventually I made my way to my flight to Copenhagen. My father loves Copenhagen and I hadn’t been since I was 15 and I didn’t want to ruin my experience by crying the whole time. I don’t think I cried at all once I got there though (texting Tim helped).

Jens met me at the airport and drove me out to his and Bente’s ‘new’ house in Solrød Strand on the eastern coast of the country. I say new because they had moved since I had been there nine years earlier, but they had been in this house for about seven or eight years. They are very lucky because all three of their daughters live within easy driving/biking/walking distance and they were all there for dinner that night. Trine, the oldest, is a school teacher and she was in the process of exams. Lotte, the middle daughter who I had met long before when she and her now ex husband had backpacked through the Americas and stayed at our house, lives just down the road and I got the opportunity to stay with her for the weekend and then to meet her two children the few days before I left. Lise, the youngest, lives in Lotte’s old apartment and hosted Bente and I for dinner one night and took us on a lovely walk around the parks and gardens near her place. Jens is a tour guide, so he took me on a walking tour of Copenhagen one day and almost succeeded in getting me into one of the old palaces that is now the royal receiving rooms for free, but the girl behind the counter that day didn’t know him well enough. As a tour guide, he gets free entry into all of the museums and whatnot around the city, which I must say is a pretty nice perk. We made it out of the city as well, heading a little south to a little town whose name escapes me but which houses the cathedral where all of the former kinds and queens are buried and then Jens was able to talk us into the Viking boat museum for free later that afternoon to see where they still make boats in the traditional style and have even sailed them out to and around England. The weather was great that week and being so far north sunlight filled the sky from about 4am to nearly 10pm. We were able to eat outside for dinner once and breakfast a few times. I will admit I was quite lazy there in the city. I slept almost all day once and I didn’t even have the excuse of jetlag. I hope next year that I am able to go back and take Tim and meet my Dad and whoever else can come from America for Bonfire Night on June 23. I was a month early this time, but the celebration is an old Viking tradition that came from burning the signal fires usually used to warn of an invasion. Annually they would burn them down and rebuild them in the middle of summer (why it isn’t on the solstice I don’t know, that would seem to make sense). My father and godfather have gone before, and it would be great to get to experience that sometime soon.

After a full week in Copenhagen, Jens drove me back to the airport bright and early for a quick jaunt to Iceland. My flight there, on minimal sleep, was horrendous and so when I arrived in (rainy) Iceland and made my (expensive) way to the Blue Lagoon, I rewarded myself with an hour long massage in the lagoon. Now, I like massages as much as the next person (assuming that person loves massages) and this was a truly unique experience. The lagoon itself is a massive natural hot spring; it has a milky blue color and you can’t see beneath the surface to save your life. It reflects the sky and is steaming and people wading in it (it wouldn’t go above the neck of an average person, and many of the tall Icelanders or tall visitors were about rib deep in the smooth water) look like visions out of some Nordic fairy tale. Over in one ‘corner’ of the lagoon, a little harbor under a bridge, is the massage ‘parlor’ where you can get your massage lying on a little mat and under a wet blanket. It sounds strange, but it feels amazing. The water is about 100 degrees and steaming around you as it meets the cool air and the masseuse pushes down on the blanket and mat to submerge your body occasionally to keep the blanket warm. They massaged my legs and arms, neck and head, and I stayed face up the entire time. I didn’t know it at the time, but this is prime sunburn position, and my face had a rosy glow for quite a few days afterward. I was supremely relaxed and though it wasn’t cheap, I would recommend such a unique experience to anybody who ever has the fortune of going there. My layover was only a few hours, so after my massage I ate a quick hot dog and then headed back to the airport. My flight to Boston was less eventful than the flight to Reykjavik, but still managed to wear off some of the serenity I had in those few hours. I won’t complain though, the experience was incredible and the few minutes that I got to see Iceland’s amazing landscapes were totally worth it.

Rich met me at the airport and took me back to his and Sean and Ted’s apartment (where I stayed when I was in Boston a few months before). This trip was originally intended to be setting up job interviews, but if there’s one thing I learned this year it’s that I can’t plan anything too far in advance, and that four months is apparently too far. With my life in Cairo lined up for the fall, the days that I had in Boston were filled with meeting up with old friends and realizing that the city no longer has the same pull that it had when I was living there in and right after college. There is a time and place for everything in life, and Boston served its purpose in my life. I’ll go back to visit because so many important people are still there for me (and Tim has never been, and I really want to take him to worship at Boston’s biggest church - Fenway Pahk). I was able to go down and see my cousin Theresa one day. She had just moved to a different apartment in Providence and I had the glamorous job of helping her unpack. It was good to see her and Corey since I hadn’t seen them since the previous summer out in San Francisco. The trip was quick, but worth it, and definitely time well spent in a great city. It makes me a little sad to not know when I’m going back, but I guess this is growing up.

My next stop was another first for me, but this time it was domestic. I had never been to Alabama, and frankly, I was ok thinking I would never go to Alabama. But one miss Danielle that I met my first day in Cairo has now changed that for me. She had transferred to AUC from the University of Alabama (roll tide!) and actually got me to watch college football after her team won the national championship in 2009. She transferred back to Alabama after a year and a half to be with her fiance, so even though I miss her, I understand that she wouldn’t want to spend a two year engagemetn on another continent (I could barely spend a summer apart from Tim!). I am also now the proud owner of an Alabama covered Snuggie - no joke, not even the ‘proud owner’ part is sarcasm. After a terrible airline mix up (I won’t share the story, but the moral is NEVER FLY SPIRIT AIR) I made my way to Atlanta in the middle of the night and found Danielle’s sunny face waiting for me and then we had a three hour drive to Tuscaloosa. We got there in the middle of the night, but it still looked like the setting of a horror movie, and not just because it’s the deepest south I’ve ever been. I could see the shadows of uprooted trees and I could tell that the long empty stretches on the side of the road had not been empty for long. The next day, Danielle drove me around town and I could see all of the tornado damage. The tornado had hit about five weeks before I got there, and honestly, you could have told me it had happened the day before and I would have believed you. So many houses were still just piles of rubble and debris, so many trees were still on their sides, so many people were still working around the clock to clear as much of the damage as they could, and so much sadness was still in the air. To cheer us up, Dani drove us to Bryant-Denny stadium since miraculously the University was almost entirely untouched. It’s a pretty spectacular facility, from the outside at least, and the campus is beautiful. The frat houses are a little (ok, obscenely) oversized but I guess that’s just what you get with a big southern school and big football scene and a big Greek presence. I certainly wasn’t in Boston anymore (what with Northeastern’s football stadium somewhere off campus that I never went to, oh and Northeastern’s football program being cut a few years ago).

After a day or two in Tuscaloosa, where I finally got to meet Danielle’s fiance Sam in person, we drove up to Huntsville for the engagement party. This was the whole reason I had come here and it was a reunion of sorts for a group of us who had become very close in Cairo the year before. I hadn’t seen these girls in over a year, but they road tripped in from New Jersey and Texas to support Danielle. I got to meet all of her family and some of Sam’s family, and since I am the reverend for their wedding (on her brother’s goat farm in Tennessee next October) I got to bless the food. In the name of God and Bear Bryant, of course. The young people had a good time and a good party, and the next day Megan and Becky drove me back to Atlanta on their way back up north. My flight to California was uneventful (thank God) and nearly three weeks after leaving Cairo, I could finally say that I was home again.

This summer at home was great. There are two new men in my life that I think I got to know quite well. The first is Jesus, not in a super preachy way but Tim is very Christian and got me listening to sermons on my iPod (I have about 450 that I’m working my way through) and I’m happy with that. It’s going to be a long journey, but I’m looking forward to finding my way back to a faith that I had given up on back in high school. I probably won’t write a lot about it here, but I am now the owner of two new bibles (one was a gift from Tim’s friend Eric and it has my name embossed on the cover, very fancy like, and the other is a small copy of the New Testament that my grandmother gave me. It is from her mother and has ‘Miss Arbie Johnson, Little Falls, Minn, April 4, 1926 hand written in the back as well as the date that my grandmother got it and the date she gave it to me. I will treasure it always.) and I’m going to work my way through those with the help of Tim, a local church here in Cairo, and the sermons that I’ve been listening to.

The other man I’m much more willing to talk about, and his name is...Richard Simmons. Yes, THAT Richard Simmons. Mikhela and I one day decided to see if we could get Sweatin’ to the Oldies on Instant Netflix, which led to buying the box set on Amazon.com and an entire summer of Sweatin’. Halfway through our working out adventure, we were informed that he still teaches classes in Beverly Hills. Being the little Richard Simmonites that we are, we immediately made a pilgrimage and we got hooked. It was his birthday party, and the tiny little man came in dressed as his own birthday present. Before class we talked about our favorite birthday cake memories and then the work out started. It’s called sweatin’ for a reason, people. That man will make you burn calories and he will make you love yourself and hate fried chicken. He was hilarious and flamboyant, sometimes licking the sweat off his own arms and bringing gay men into the circle that we were all dancing in and taking their shirts off. We were laughing so hard that I’m sure that alone burned an extra hundred calories. He would yell things at us, some disturbing - ‘do it for daddy!’ and ‘if you don’t do this right I will lock the doors and go Anne Frank on you all’ being the worst, ‘if you eat that fried chicken you will get flabby and whoever loves you now will leave you’ being one of the funnier ones - and some sweet - ‘I love each and every one of you. I don’t know why, but I do’ and ‘give yourself a hug’ (of course). It was amazing. Mikhela got a membership and I would have too if I were staying in the country. It was such a fun work out that I went five times in a month! Mikhela went even more! I bought a box set of Sweatin’ dvds, plus Richard gave us a free copy of Sweatin’ 5 since were such obvious groupies, and those have come back with me to Cairo. I didn’t lose any weight this summer, but working out has definitely toned me up and slimmed me down and I hope that I can fall into a comfortable routine including working out here in Cairo. (Tim and I already did one dvd, and I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t worked out for a few days or the oppressive heat of this city, but I was definitely sweatin.)

I saw Trina and the little ones twice this summer. Once I went up to Seattle and stayed with her for a week, bonding with Kiernan and McKenzie and especially little sister Everly (seriously the happiest, mellowest baby you will ever meet) and giving Trina a break by doing dishes and making meals whenever I could. I wanted to cook more this summer, but I didn’t. However, I did make some pretty tasty (if overly salty) pizza monkey bread up there. Mmmmmm. Trina came down to California a month later for Everly’s baptism at the church where she and Eric got married and where the twins were baptized nearly three years earlier. We had a big family party for the occasion, which also celebrated Theresa and Eric’s (and my pending) graduations. It was great to get to see everybody one last time before the summer wound down.

I made it out to Whittier a few times and got to see Tiffany once and Trevor and Valerie once, Gramma a few times and Aunt Patti and Aunt Sue and Uncle Phil. I went and spent a few nights in Hemet with Grama Cat and the dogs and the birds and meeting up with Cary Lee. Overall it was very relaxing and I know that it’s hard on everybody with me being so far away, so I’m glad I got some quality time in.

The final trip of the summer was to meet some new family - Tim’s family. He was in Cairo, but that didn’t stop me from going up and staying with them for three days. It was great! Tim and I are very serious and though I was incredibly nervous, especially in the final hour on our way to their house, it was a great relaxing experience and I think that his parents will be happy to have me as a daughter and his brother is now like a little brother to me as well. I met his pastor and his best friend (Eric, the one who gave me the Bible) and had breakfast with the grandparents (and dinner and a movie later that same day). I met some extended family at Tim’s dad’s cousin’s husband’s retirement party (my badge that said ‘Tim’s girlfriend’ did little to help identify me to people who didn’t know who Tim was, and his absence was a little odd given my presence there). But who doesn’t do all that the first time meeting their probable future in laws with the significant other 8000 miles away? Lots of people? Psh. Not me! It was great and the drives, while long (very, very long on the way back) weren’t too bad and Northern California was beautiful.

I got back a few days before the flight for Cairo was set to depart and managed to squeeze in some time with Valerie who had just come back from a summer in France and Spain, one last trip to Whittier, one last trip to Beverly Hills, packing, shopping, and all that fun stuff before I had to go to the airport Wednesday morning. 24 hours later, and now Thursday night thanks to the time change, I arrived in Cairo. My bags, however, were still in Frankfurt. I got them at 4 am on Sunday, not bad all things considered - those things being Ramadan, Egypt, and the fact that my lost bags last year took nearly a month to get to me.

Today, Sunday, I started my first day of orientation. I will be teaching at the International School of Chouiefat (shway-fet), a Lebanese based program that is in 8 countries (I believe, could be more) that just celebrated 125 years. I’ll be in the infants division, teaching first grade, and I’m really excited. And scared. I’m trying to have no expectations and the school is very clear that they take care of their teachers very well - no interaction with parents! Their philosophy is that you can’t teach a kid well if their parents (overbearing very demanding Egyptians who pay a lot of money for their kid to go to a school like this) have just yelled at you for one reason or another. I like this plan and I like that the school is so protective and defensive of its staff. I met the other infants division new teachers today, including my old roommate Kacie, and I think it’ll be a good year. We have people from Wales, England, South Africa, France, Germany, and quite a few Egyptians as well. That’s going to be a majority of my focus here, so be prepared to hear about little baby Egyptians and how I am coping with teaching them. It’s sure to be an adventure.

The summer was great. I’m happy to be back with Tim. I’m, as always, a little overwhelmed by Cairo traffic and weather, but it’ll be ok. I hope, for your sake, dear readers, as well as mine, that I can update this blog with more frequency and more pictures this year. It’s sure to be unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

Well this has been quite the spiritual year for me. In August I went to the Vatican, in December I spent Christmas Eve in Bethlehem and Christmas Day on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, I spent New Year’s Eve on Mount Sinai and now I just spent most of Semana Santa at the holiest sites of Ethiopian Orthodoxy, including visiting the church that supposedly houses the Ark of the Covenant and the town of Lalibela which has rock hewn churches and is designed like Jerusalem for those who wouldn’t be able to make the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Oh, and my boyfriend wants to go to Seminary and has me reading the Bible and he’s walking the Camino de Santiago for the second time this summer. Quite a year indeed.

Ethiopia isn’t on many people’s radar. Maybe for refugees (it’s between Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea) or poverty (not necessarily true) but it is so surprisingly full of culture and history and religion that people should really take the time to go there - and go while you’re young, it’s not going to get any easier to walk around 800 year old rock hewn churches once your knees start to give out. The point is, you should go there. You’re going to find out something new, you’re going to meet wonderful people, and you’re going to really enjoy yourself and have an experience unlike anything else in Africa (especially if you’re at all interested in the history of Christianity).

The first couple days of our trip were in the cultural south and we were the only white people as far as the eye could see. We had a private tour so that was sort of to be expected, but seriously, not a whole lot of tourism down there. I naively expected the same when we went to the historic north, but it turns out a lot of people are a lot more interested in Ethiopia than I was and feel that the north is the thing to see when you go there. I can’t blame them, it’s a fascinating landscape - physically, historically, and culturally. We saw a lot more tour groups up north, found ourselves on the plane between cities with a lot of the same people and at the same hotels as them. There were a lot more families (and a lot more senior citizens) and still not a lot of Americans (Americans don’t even make it into the top 5 of annual visitors to Ethiopia). It was also Holy Week so a lot of people were doing a tourist pilgrimage if you will, visiting holy sites at holy times. It was a sight to see, that’s for sure. Lalibela on Good Friday was packed, and as someone who frankly gets somewhat nauseous at really religious sites (Jerusalem was one long stomachache) the church that supposedly houses the Ark of the Covenant was a happily endured discomfort on Maundy Thursday (I know my stomach wasn’t the only one hurting, we watched a church service attended by people who had been fasting for twelve hours).

While we had driven around the south, we literally flew around the north. In one week we flew from Arba Minch to Addis to Axum to Lalibela to Gondar and then from Bahir Dar back to Addis and then off to Cairo 24 hours later. The (tiny!) planes all seem to be on one continuous loop (saving Ethiopian Airlines, which started out running chat around the country, lots of money) so flights are once a day between cities and you often wind up stopping over in one city on the way to another.

We started our trip in Axum, which is known as the capital of the old Axumite kingdom, housing the Ark of the Covenant (yes I know that’s probably not true, but nobody else is claiming it so I’m happy to let them have it) and for the huge granite stele that are thousands of years old (supposedly erected with the help of the Ark). Oh and the palace of the Queen of Sheba. And one of Ethiopia’s three styles of crosses. And it’s right near Adwa, which is where the Ethiopians beat the Italians (and where my mom’s Ethiopian friend was from and where he built a school before he died). So it’s kind of a big deal. Our guide works with the archaeological teams when they are in town, but it was off season so he was more than willing to help us understand the important history of Axum and explain some really cool features of the stele and the Ge’ez alphabet and the role that Axum played in the ancient world, as well as how these things have been excavated and what that means for Axum and its legitimacy. It was overall a very different experience than what we had in the south and really showed us that things are not the same across this vast country. I want to say it showed us that we weren’t in Kansas anymore, but we knew that already.

After a quick visit around the sites in Axum, and reading more about the Queen of Sheba than I ever had before, we found our way to Lalibela. This is what most tourists know of Ethiopia - the rock hewn churches, carved out over 800 years ago and filled with symbolism of Ethiopian Orthodoxy as well as the Crusades and Judaism. The top of these churches are at ground level and they were fully ‘freed from the rock’ not simply built in a pit that was dug. It’s pretty impressive when you think about it, more so when you actually see it. The churches as a unit form the shape of the cross and tell the stories of the Bible - some of the names are Church of St Mary, Golgotha, Adam’s Tomb, etc - and the rest of the region is inspired and renamed after parts of the Holy Land. For example, there is no river in Lalibela, but there is a valley called the River Jordan, with a statue representing John the Baptist, and baptisms are performed there during Timkat. King Lalibela, who went to Jerusalem and probably brought back some Templar Knights to help him build the churches, wanted to make it a place of pilgrimage for those who couldn’t make it to the Holy Land.  We visited the churches on Good Friday (packed! And raining!) and again on Saturday (less packed! Gorgeous weather!) but we didn’t go to Easter vigil. I think we had seen enough of people wrapped in white, praying, making their celebratory preparations and I was more than a little tired. We had spent all day visiting the churches and going to market (more goats and sheep than people. And it smelled like it too).

Sunday was Easter and we flew to Gondar. Instead of churches we visited castles (a photographer’s playground). Most of the churches had been burned, but we did get to see what basically amounts to the Ethiopian Sistine Chapel - with the most unique piece of art I’ve ever seen in a church - a painting of Mohammed on a camel being led into hell by the devil. Yeah, seriously. Ironically this church was the only one not destroyed by Muslims in the 17th century (42 others were not spared). We learned more about the layers of Ethiopian religious symbolism, the history of the Solomonic dynasty, and the role of Ethiopia in greater Christian contexts. The country is very proud of their role in being Christian but not converts, as well as never being colonized (though I wanted to fight this every time I heard it - the Italians were there for five years!). They are pretty unique for those things in Africa.

The next morning we didn’t have a flight (for the first time in five days!) and instead we drove for three hours to Bahir Dar, on the shores of the third biggest lake in Africa. We had lunch and then took a half hour boat ride out past some island monasteries to a peninsula that has a church where the Ark was housed for some time before being moved to Axum. We saw more paintings, more crosses, more symbolism. It was also my first time going to a site that hopes to become UNESCO protected. They were trying to build up some infrastructure around the church to show how they’re trying to protect it, which was surprising because I thought that UNESCO would have provided that, but I guess we all need to make ourselves more appealing, no matter what we’re looking for. After a few hours out on the peninsula we went back and had drinks on the terrace overlooking the water and got to see a beautiful African sunset. We then went in for dinner just in time for the power to get cut. For the whole town. For about seven hours. We had dinner and reading by candlelight (and alien looking glasses light in my mom’s case) and an early night. I woke up the next morning with a massive head cold (still lingering) and we went to visit Blue Nile Falls. It was Tuesday now, and I was going to be in Alex on Saturday - basically traversing the whole length of the Nile in less than a week! The falls are the second biggest in Africa (volume wise I think) after Victoria Falls which we had visited three years ago so that was a neat thing to have done with my mom (not that the whole trip wasn’t a neat thing to have done with my mom! It was!) After a quick visit to the falls (I got soaked) we headed back to Bahir Dar, I made friends with a Kiwi family who lives in Cairo, and then we all headed to the airport to head back to Addis.

This was now our third time in Addis, and it was time to go out! We hadn’t eaten Ethiopian food or seen Ethiopian dancing, two reasons my mom flew halfway around the world, and our driver was nice enough to take us to Habesha restaurant where we could experience both. Frankly I like Ethiopian food better in DC, but the dancing was redonkulous. It was quite, um, aerobic and you could definitely see where pop-and-lock hip hop dancers get their inspiration. It was a lot of fun and we had an excellent night, even though I was sick and the spicy food did little to help that. The next day we went around Addis, visiting the national museum (with Lucy, the oldest human skeleton) and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at the University of Addis Ababa, which is actually Haile Selassie’s old palace, and the university library is named after JFK. We finished our trip with a nice dinner overlooking all of Addis, and one more power outage for a few minutes, and then drove to the airport for last minute shopping. Our whirlwind tour of Ethiopia, past and present, religious and cultural, frustrating and beautiful, was done. Tim met us at the airport and took us home (noticing a trend here?) at 2 in the morning, so my mom got to see what curfew Egypt is like. We were back in my real world.

This post isn’t going to make me many friends in the traveling community, but I feel that it is important to write honestly about my experiences in Ethiopia. I have written before about how I cannot separate myself as a traveler, student, and ex-pat and how my identity as each of those overlaps and affects the experience I have as an entire human being. Before I get started I must say that I absolutely loved my time in Ethiopia and my mother did an excellent job getting us a last minute, private, customized tour that went to each of the cultural and historical places that she wanted to see. That being said, I was grateful that the itinerary took us to the ‘cultural south’ before the ‘historic north’ because I was not always comfortable during the four days that we were there.

It’s never easy to enter communities that are so much less fortunate than my own. My first visit to Egypt in 2001 was my first real experience with poverty and it traumatized me, leading me to swear that I would never come back to this region. And look now I live here. Living and traveling are two very different experiences, and my status as a white woman leads to very specific encounters in my daily life over here. I don’t want to get into sexual harassment, because that wasn’t something I experienced in Ethiopia, but one very glaring similarity is the notion that as a white woman, I have a wallet that locals should have access to. In Egypt this comes out as Egyptian pricing versus foreigner pricing and in Ethiopia it came out as ‘give me money’ which I constantly heard while we were visiting poorer, rural tribes. The government has done an excellent job encouraging people not to give handouts to those who ask because it makes the lifestyle of begging seem like a viable option. I read a chapter in my mom’s Bradt travel guide that discussed this ‘farangi hysteria’ - the flocking to white people and subsequent touching, begging, and general awe and following. It had a simple approach to these issues - giving things to begging children is selfish. Seems a bit contradictory, right? Wrong. It only makes you feel better about having more than that child, but doesn’t do anything to help the situation that led to a child begging in the first place. The more you give and encourage such behavior, the more a child is likely to want to stay in the village and beg for things from tourists instead of going to school, getting an education, and making a better life for the community as a whole. It wasn’t hard for me to say no to beggars; I deal with a form of ‘farangi hysteria’ every day in Cairo, but the Bradt guide did discuss the fact that after a while, it gets exhausting, and you find yourself longing for the comforts of home - not necessarily 24 hour electricity or hot water, but the ability to walk down the street without being noticed. In the west we take such an activity for granted, but life in Egypt has taught me that it’s anything but. That being said, the constant feeling that I was nothing more than a dollar sign (or stationary shop when people asked for pens or secondhand clothing store when people asked for my T shirt) is exhausting and not an enjoyable part of travel for me. However, my mom wanted to see the tribes and when you go to those parts of a country, you have to accept that you have more than they do and it’s normal for people to want more than what they have. This isn’t because they are tribal or because they are Ethiopian or because you are white, but because we are all people. Nice thoughts in theory, but hard to continue to accept day after day of feeling dehumanized. Fortunately I was only in this position for four days and it was much less prevalent in the north (though not invisible) and I still deal with it in Cairo. However, this city has come to feel like home and though I definitely get noticed walking down the street, I know how to handle it. I honestly found myself getting more frustrated with my mother and her lack of desire to just say no to people (children in particular) than with the people themselves. Call me jaded if you want to, we all have our coping mechanisms and our breaking points.

And I don’t want to sound like I’m whining about white privilege. The title of this post includes the word ‘mutual’ and it definitely is. Part of the reason that we went to the south was to see the Mursi people and their famous (infamous?) lip plates. They are considered a more aggressive tribe, known for drinking early in the day (we had to get there at 9 am to make sure they were still sober) and being adamant about charging four birr (about 25¢) for their pictures. Some other tribes charged for photos as well, showing that capitalism is alive and thriving around the world. They know people want to see them, so they milk it, competing for the attention of those with money. Our pictures and tourism turn them into products that we can bring home and put into photo albums or on our walls as art, but we pay for it. I don’t have a long complicated socially just answer to the problems that I see with this; I don’t even have a cohesive way of saying that I have a problem with this. But the point is we all wind up feeling a little less human when we’re reduced to our ‘market value’.

All of that being said, it still is frankly quite neat to see tribal customs that are so vastly different than what I grew up with. These people have rich cultural histories that deserve to be recognized and promoted, not ignored simply because technological advancements haven’t reached them yet or overlooked in favor of what a governmental regime tries to promote as national history. By visiting them, and giving money to schools or other supported programs, my visit helps maintain their cultural autonomy, compromised as it may be for (and by) my viewing pleasure. And frankly, these cultural legacies are dying out. It’s all part of modernity and unless people actively try to maintain their culture in the face of hegemonic technology (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing all the time) their children or children’s children will likely not act or live the same way they do today. These cultures aren’t timeless, they’re part of the global community, and I shouldn’t be made to feel guilty for wanting to see them while they exist, as long as my visit doesn’t infringe upon their cultural sovereignty.

This may be controversial, but it’s how I feel responsible tourism needs to be in order to let societies choose how to maintain themselves. It’s not my place as a white Western woman to say that modernity is bad because it will change these traditional cultures if change is what they want for themselves. If I go back to Ethiopia in thirty years the villages I saw might not exist and certainly won’t exist in the same way, but neither will the town that I grew up in or the city I live in now. Why would I deny such evolution to one way of life but not another?

Visit Ethiopia. See the Ari and Benna and Tsemay and Mursi and Dorzay and other people. Spend some time with them and see how different and unique each culture is. They might not last long and your dollars or euros or birr can help them choose how to move forward however they see fit. Don’t be condescending or pity them, don’t give candy to children who beg for it. Be a responsible tourist and respect the people that you are visiting; you wouldn’t want them thinking less of you when they visit your home.

Pun intended.*

About a month and a half ago I took my first big trip since the semester started (I don’t count London since the start of the semester was delayed due to something or other going on in Egypt). Things had mostly settled down and classes were back to normal and that means that I was back in full Arab League swing. The first weekend of April was the NMAL conference in DC and I had decided back in January that I was going to spend a few days before and after in Boston visiting friends. I can’t believe I had been away from the Hub since 2009! Naturally since I now I have Tim, those extra days were bittersweet as it turned what could have been a four day trip into ten days away from him, but it all worked out.

I flew through London, which confiscated my duty free shopping and charged me for internet and cancelled my flight, leaving a less than pleasant taste in my mouth (quickly replaced by Cadbury chocolate) and then eventually made it to Boston. Sean and Rich were there to pick me up and take me home, stopping by Liquor Land (oh the glory of liquor stores without Egyptian alcohol; I was overwhelmed and we didn’t even buy anything other than a few six packs of beer and cider). I got to catch up with them and Ted before jetlag finally took over and I fell asleep on the inflatable mattress in the middle of their living room (thanks boys!). They also had wireless (naturally) and thus began a week straight of talking to Tim over skype and Facebook nearly all the time despite the seven hour time difference (cut me some slack, we had only been together a month and a half and it was hard to be away from him!). The next day I went shopping and out to lunch with Rich and then met up with Kate, Jack, and Marisa for drinks and dinner at Lolita. Afterward I met up with some MUN kids and my friend Sarah (who used to be my neighbor in Cairo and goes to NU and knows Tim) at the campus bar and then finally made it back to Sean’s place. It was late and I didn’t want him to have to drive me to the bus, so I got a taxi and after a mere 30 hours or so in Boston, I was headed down to DC.

Greyhound is excellent - they have wireless and chargers and comfier seats than airplanes and it’s cheap. I enjoyed my bus ride through NYC to DC and met up with ten Egyptians later that night. Jetlag had really kicked in and I had been up all night on the bus (talking to Tim) and slept all day in the hotel. This meant that the next day when I woke up at like 4 and we had to go to the Sudanese embassy at 11, I was hyper aware of the phenomenon of ‘Egyptian time.’ We left the hotel a little after 11, got to the embassy a little late, and I was more than a little frustrated. Did I mention I was responsible for all of these kids? And kids are what they are - some were barely 18 and we were traveling with me as the oldest (and therefore the responsible adult). I told them I wouldn’t be a babysitter but gave them all my number and let them go their own ways to explore the city. (Side note - we had finalized the team merely days before traveling. The American embassy wasn’t open to issue visas so we had to keep changing our team around in order to find people who had either American visas or foreign passports as well as military exemptions for the guys, so not a lot of prep work had been done. In hindsight I guess I should have made them study that day before the conference, but hey, they wanted to see the capital!) 

The conference went off quite smoothly. Faisal showed up on Friday after playing a mean April Fool’s joke by saying that he had missed his flight (he had to come late because his graduation was Mar 31) and then proceeded to make things all about him for the next few days. I wound up going out with a new friend Natalia for dinner and shopping one night, I was able to see Lauren for a quick lunch, and I had quick rendez vous with Sam and Paul from Middlebury (Sam goes to Georgetown, Paul had just flown in from Yemen). Some of our kids got awards at the conference and one girl will be a chair next year, which is exciting. I did not get an award for various reasons, none of which are upsetting and all of which are totally understandable - my partner Mahmoud was blind and hadn’t been able to do research, I was leaving the room all the time to check in on other students, and it was my first time in one of the permanent committees. All in all it was a good experience and after seven years I think I’m finally able to walk away from Model Arab League. It took me across the world and gave me some of my best friends, but  all things must run their course and I think I’m finally done with it.

My bus back to Boston was not nearly as enjoyable as my ride to DC. It was late and I wound up missing the connection in NYC so I got to DC like five hours later than expected. Sean met me at the bus station and took me home. He took the day off work the next day so we could hang out, but it was so rainy that we stayed home and watched tv and ordered pizza. It was fun and I enjoyed sleeping in and just relaxing for a while before coming back to Cairo. That night Rich and Sean and I went out with Brie and her boyfriend for beer and wings and I wound up spending the night at Brie’s place. Tuesday I had lunch with Kate, Marisa, Danielle, and Adrienne - all my lovely ladies from Beantown - and later in the evening Sean dropped me off at the airport to head back to Cairo. It was a whirlwind tour of the East Coast, I got to see a lot of friends and family, and I had a great time. Two flights and a layover later, Tim met me at the airport and took me home. America’s a great place; I can’t wait to move back there. But in the meantime, my life is here and that makes me happy.

*Triple threat pun for the win! Old Glory as in the American flag, saying goodbye to something I was really good at, and being really behind in posting this. Thanks for indulging me :)

Yes I know I have much to post about Boston and DC and being back in Cairo, but the more important thing right now is that Tim and I are heading out to the airport to pick up my mom (yay!). Tomorrow it's a quick trip to the pyramids and then back to the airport to head to Ethiopia. Spring break!

Cairo is quiet in the morning. The air is cool and the curfew has just lifted. I wish I had checked my flight status earlier as I got up far too early given the fact that there is never any traffic and the flight is a half hour later than I thought. It took about a minute to find a taxi and now forty minutes later I’m through security and immigration and sitting outside a cafe that is yet to open because it still isn’t even 7am. I could have stayed in bed a little longer, let my computer charge a little more, given another hug to Tim. But here I am. Music is playing in staticky speakers and the pub in the waiting area looks more out of place than ever. The ride to the airport was nice. The breeze coming in through my window as my driver blared recitations of the Qur’an and we sped through the sleepy city. Down the corniche and past the opera, over the bridge with the slightest tap on the brakes in front of the burned out NDP building. Looking out at the minarets and cell phone towers dotting the skyline as we speed by on the overpasses that rise above what should surely be chaos on the streets below but isn’t. The curfew was just lifted, the gangs on the streets are back in their beds and yawning police and army officers sit idly by. Tanks look empty on the side of the road, with a few distinctly alert faces scanning the streets outside military facilities. Revolution? What revolution? Never in my life did I think I would be living somewhere where seeing tanks would be part of my normal routine, not even broken in an early morning trip out of the country. The Old Egypt was exhausting; the New Egypt is exhausting.

I take a breath. I’m about to leave a country that falls more on the hate side of the love/hate relationship more often than not. I’m about to go back to Boston for the first time in a year and a half. I’m about to leave my new, exciting, and healthy relationship for a whole ten days. I no longer feel that the worst part of leaving Egypt is coming back to Egypt. I miss Tim and I will miss him while I’m gone, but I haven’t cried. I know he’ll be there when I get back and I know that I’m going to be spending more time apart from him than this - Ethiopia next month and then we’ll be transatlantic over the summer.

This semester has been hard. The events since January 25 haven’t been easy to follow or understand. The curfew is annoying, the rise of petty crime and harassment is alarming, the heightened army presence does nothing for security. If we were in Latin America (or Thailand) I’m sure people would be calling it a junta (Wikipedia agrees with me) because the military was in power and the military still is in power. There was a referendum last week and this week they announced that it was useless. The Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) turned voting on constitutional amendments into an argument about the Islamicity of the state (voting ‘NO’ was un-Islamic according to them). Syria is falling and a kid who was at Middlebury this summer is missing, most likely being held by the Syrian government. Yemen is falling and my friend Paul who was supposed to be there for a year is back in the states (after boasting that he was safer in Yemen than in Cairo), and the UN Security Council approved the actions in Libya which are finally being taken over by NATO and which I find myself arguing for in a much stronger way than anticipated. Each day going to class means that I need to put all of these thoughts aside and study Islamic jurisprudence, or gender and allegory, or try to define the state when I don’t really know what it looks like in the country I’m living in. I wake up early to take the bus with Tim, I stay late because my classes are at night, and in the meantime I find myself so utterly exhausted that all I want to do is watch TV and not read the news. It’s not that it’s so horrifying that I can’t handle it; it’s that reading the news has become like homework. It’s something that even living through what I’ve lived through in the past few months I still struggle to even comprehend when I read the words on the screen. More missiles were launched today, the internet was shut down, Qaddafi talked for eighteen hours straight dressed like a circus performer, mercenaries have been hired, planes are bombing their own people, planes are defecting from the military, voting is happening, voting is useless. It’s exhausting. The news can change every day or even every hour. I am not a political scientist. I am not excited about being the first group of people to have new quantitative data on free elections in Egypt for the first time in decades. I am overwhelmed. My interdisciplinary academic background was great for looking at things holistically and looking at trends or history or whatever, but I don’t have the poli sci or anthropological or sociological skills to analyze anything that’s going on around me. I’m good at compiling all of that information and spitting it back out as a paper. It’s not exciting to be here now; at least not because of the revolutions/revolts/uprisings/events/whatever you want to call them.

I am not overwhelmed. I am not underwhelmed. I am whelmed? I have decided to delay finishing my thesis until the fall (technically this summer with a defense in September). I am going to Ethiopia in three weeks with my mother on what will certainly be a most excellent adventure. I am spending nearly every spare moment with Tim and couldn’t be happier. My life is pretty awesome right now, all things considered. It’s time to fly to London now; and my computer’s about to die. So that’s what’s new in my life. What’s new in yours?

BT asked me to write about evacuating for his blog. He posted it a few days ago and added a few pictures and comments. I really like his trend of having guest bloggers and I'm thinking I might try it out eventually. In the meantime, since I'm not going to be posting much in the near future, I will link you to his blog and my post there. Enjoy!

(e)vac(u)ation - guest blog for BT

A lot has happened this year and a lot continues to happen. I wish that I could send daily updates with my thoughts on Egypt, Tim, school, Libya, gender, travel, and everything else that crosses my mind, but I can't. I am so swamped with work on my thesis and for classes and prepping for Model Arab League and getting ready to leave the country (the US next week and Ethiopia in three and a half) that whenever I find myself in front of the computer I can't justify sending an update since I have so much else to do. As such, I will try to post pictures as things happen so you can get a glimpse of what life in the New Egypt is like (it's a lot like the old Egypt, but I can't get into all that right now) and so that you can all see that I'm ok. I might try to post something from Boston when I'm there but other than that you might not hear from me until the end of April. I know that I've been bad keeping up with this before, but I don't want anybody to think that they got deleted from the mailing list or that anything horrible has happened to me during this upcoming absence. I love you all and I'll give you lots of good stories in May. Insha'allah.

Dear Reader,

My sincere apologies for waiting nearly a month between posts during what has been one of the most exciting times in my life. I last wrote to you after visiting famous tourist sites in England after evacuating Cairo and I now find myself on the bus to campus at 8:30 in the morning because that’s when my boyfriend has to go to class and I’m more productive out in the middle of nowhere than on my couch. So, things have changed. There is still no excuse for going so long without a post, especially when loyal readers (and those who want me to guest blog for them) are constantly asking me what is going on or telling me that people are worried about me because they haven’t heard anything from me since I got back to Egypt. I constantly find myself dreading to even open up my blog page since the guilt is overwhelming that I have gone so long without updating my friends and family while I am having such a good time. I know that last year I wound up writing many of my posts as a way to procrastinate but frankly you all deserve better than that; especially in a time where so much is going on and there is legitimate reason to think you may have to worry about me (you don’t though!) and here I am having an excellent time and ignoring the easiest way to communicate with all of you.

So that’s that; that’s my apology and I hope you can forgive me and that I can find the time to bring you updates as the semester progresses. I find myself incredibly busy as my thesis is due in six weeks, the National Model Arab League is in four weeks (and my trip to Boston a few days before), my two graduate courses require me to read nearly 400 pages of articles each week, and much of whatever free time I may find is happily spent holding hands with Tim or watching Glee with Kacie. I am making a solid effort to hang out with as many of my friends as possible as so many of us/them are leaving at the end of the semester to scatter to the corners of the globe again after an all too brief year or two here in the Mother of the World. Many of my friends discuss their return to America, especially those who have jobs lined up already; while others consider Istanbul or South East Asia. I find myself strongly considering a return to Cairo for another year; a chance to explore the city with a boy by my side to mitigate the harassment, an opportunity to spend weekends on the Sinai peninsula or go out to cultural events in the evening because I won’t have class until 10pm or homework to do,  and general life as not a student, which I enjoyed greatly in Boston and would really like to experience overseas. I have lived here for two years in the bubble of academia and while I love it and will always feel like it is my comfort zone, I don’t want to stay in it forever and I know that it will be a completely different experience finding a job and working (and trying to collect my paycheck) in Cairo. So that’s that.

London seems like so long ago now. The time I spent with BT and Ros all jumbled together in a series of late nights, sunny days, and constant news updates from Egypt. I went to Harrod’s and the Egyptian Embassy, the Original Hard Rock Cafe and got lost trying to find the Victoria and Albert Museum. I took the train out to New Malden to meet up with Ros who had a training there and drove out to Oxford with her. My friends cooked pork in every meal (bacon sandwiches, bacon polenta, sausage pasta, ham, and pretty much everything but pork chops) and I had lots of wine that didn’t include hangover as an ingredient like they do in Egypt. Belton and I hung out with his friend Leanne quite a bit and Ros and I hung out at the pub. Eventually Sarah and Ollie came down from wherever they live in the North and Andrew and Allie came out and we met up at a casino for dinner (it was a Valentine’s Day special) and then went out to a few clubs and slowly but surely people trickled home until the end of the night. It was an excellent ‘Drunk Monash’ reunion since we had all met in Australia four years ago. Time flies.

That Friday, the 11th, I went to Saint Paul’s Cathedral. I went inside and was awestruck by how beautiful it is. I climbed to the whispering gallery and found myself saddened that I was alone and could not test out the acoustics that give the gallery its name. I then climbed further up to the outside of the rotunda and looked out over London, seeing the Thames and the bridges and museums and Houses of Parliament and the gloomy skies that all contribute to the character of the city. It was wet so I couldn’t climb to the tippy top of the spire, but I was content to sit outside for a moment and reflect on where I was and what I was doing with my life. Sometimes you need those quiet moments. On top of a church.

Afterwards I had an hour to kill and two choices for what to do - go to the Tate Modern museum, or the pub. The latter won since you really need more than an hour for a museum and I hadn’t had fish and chips yet and was returning to Cairo in two days. I was anxious about my return, not knowing what was going on politically and frankly wanting to see the boy that I had spent hours talking to while on Belton’s couch. So I go into the pub, order my fish and chips and a cider, and look up at the screen. Imagine my surprise when I see that at the time that I was sitting outside Saint Paul’s, it has been announced that Mubarak has stepped down. I didn’t know what to make of this. I didn’t believe it and had to call Tim to confirm, especially since everybody had thought that he was going to step down the day before (a podcast I listen to characterized the speech on the 10th as ‘rambling for twenty minutes and effectively blue balling half a million people in Tahrir square only to hop on a plane to the beach in disgrace a few days later’). I cried. I cried for the people in the streets who had ousted their President, I cried for the fact that there was (and still is) no effective plan for what comes next, I cried because I was in a freaking pub in London while my second home (third? fourth? I don’t know) was celebrating in ways never before seen, at least certainly not in my lifetime. I texted Kacie and she met up with me after I collected Sarah from the train station. We had some wine to celebrate and tried to watch Obama’s speech on the matter, but he decided to take a play from the Egyptian book and continued to delay the time to the point that it was time for us to go out and Kacie to go back to where she was staying. I couldn’t believe it. My time in London was bittersweet and the return to Cairo exciting and marred only by the fact that my landlady hadn’t realized I had left and decided to change the locks while I was gone. The return to Egypt, to the new Egypt, was certainly an experience.

Cairo is dirty. But after nearly three weeks that resulted in a tent city being built in the middle of the main square and barricades and check points up all around town, it was simultaneously more and less so. Facebook was used to organize ‘clean up days’ and civilians were taking to the streets with trash bags and red, black, and white paint, waving flags and painting faces and trees and generally promoting the feeling that this is their Egypt. However, many of my friends who went to Tahrir later in the revolution have told me of the problems faced in terms of finding appropriate ‘facilities’ for those who were camping in the square for three weeks. Port-a-potties were not available. These are the things I’m glad I missed. But the essential repainting of the city is exciting to see. Civic pride is important, and I hope that it is not superficial. I hope that the dissolution of sectarian tensions is not merely a false intimacy among Egyptians and that the class lines do not break the revolutionary spirit that has permeated Cairo for five weeks now. There are continued demonstrations against the Emergency Law and other various aspects of the regime and no clear leader has yet emerged to next rule over Egypt. It will be an experiment with democracy and the Presidential elections set for September will prove to be an exciting time, one that I have wavered over wanting to be here for. Time will tell.

The revolutionary spirit that Egypt caught from Tunisia has proven highly contagious. The past month has seen demonstrations in Yemen, which my friend Paul has written about on his blog (when life hands you Yemens, make Yemenade) and Bahrain, where the monarchy agreed to meet with the opposition after video of a massacre in Pearl Square spread across youtube, and Libya, where Colonel Muammar Qaddafi (probably the only spelling of his name that isn’t highlighted by my spell check) has demonstrated his utter craziness in both speech and action, blaming the revolutionary spirit on drug spiked Nescafe and hiring African mercenaries to kill his own people. I never was really concerned for my safety in Egypt; I would be if I was in Libya, but I’m not. My experience here, even at the time when I was leaving, was always a safe one, even lying in bed listening to machine gun fire around town or looking out the window from a friend’s apartment and seeing buildings on fire. I never thought those things would be normal, and I still don’t, but I wasn’t ever scared per se. My heart goes out to all those who have lost their lives in their fight for freedom from oppression and I constantly find myself wishing I could do more. However I find myself nervous about donating blood and I know that I stayed inside during the revolution, only going out to be a protest tourist occasionally while some of my friends have large collections of shotgun shells, rubber bullets, and tear gas canisters to go along with their scars and bruises and bloodshot eyes. The other day some of my friends held a revolutionary party that was also a chance to donate money and food to be sent to Libya, so that is a small act of service that I can do. I am here to study and as this semester started late and I must cram two years of work into six weeks, it is quite likely the best I can do right now. If I come back I will be more involved, especially as Egypt will still be in a time of great change and I am able to be part of living history.

I know that my desire to return to Egypt comes as a shock to many. For the past two years my attitude has ranged from ‘the worst part about leaving Egypt is coming back to Egypt’ to ‘I can’t deal with this anymore’ to ‘it’s only a few more months, I can handle that.’ I’d be lying if I said it has nothing to do with Tim, because if he weren’t going to still be here I wouldn’t be considering a return. But he will be, and I am. I don’t think it will be difficult to find a job, probably teaching (at 24 I will be the oldest in my family to start on this path), and I think that the experience of working and living in a city is vastly different from being a student. I have made many friends over the past two years who are working here instead of studying and I honestly don’t think that another year would kill me. Against my better judgment I’ve fallen in love with this city. It’s exhausting to go outside, to deal with harassment, to inhale more pollution than I’ve ever had before, to live further from the ocean than I ever have before, and to sit in traffic that defies any sense of logic, but it’s a city with a heartbeat that never stops, even in the midst of a revolution. I wouldn’t be upset to leave, but I also wouldn’t be upset to come back. Plus, honestly, this boy is really good for me and at this point I want to do whatever I can to make sure things work out. For those of you who are curious and not able to do some Facebook stalking, here’s a little info:

His name is Tim
He’s from northern California
He got me roses for Valentine's Day
He’s an undergraduate history student at AUC, a transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College
He’s 21
He’s 6’3” and has red hair and a beard and freckles
He has gorgeous blue eyes and thick glasses
He’s Presbyterian
I called him a hipster the first time I met him, which was wrong, but he still wanted to hang out
He doesn’t mind the mohawk; in fact it was his old roommate Will (who introduced us) who gave it to me
He likes kids and I've shown him videos of Kiernan and McKenzie and Everly and he thinks they're adorable
He doesn’t think I should get a tattoo on my back (my mother appreciates this)
He reads. A lot. This makes me jealous because the only things I get to read are hundreds of pages of articles on Islamic law and other things I don’t really care about, or books for my thesis which I do care about, but he gets to read awesome historical books (not for class) and I think it’s awesome that he always has a book in his bag.
He’s really easy to talk to and he’s very patient with me
I like to hold his hand or sit with him on the bus and sneak kisses, which is cute and exciting since public displays of affection are looked down upon (or could lead to disciplinary action on campus) here
He speaks Spanish and has walked the Camino de Santiago; and he’s doing it again this summer with his little brother
He makes me really happy

So that’s what’s going on in my life. I’ll try to carve out some time to post more frequently but bear with me as I’m currently at the point of basically reading a book a day and I need to be writing twenty pages a week, so sitting in front of the computer to update the blog is not high on the list of things to do at this point. Also, I seem to have lost my memory card reader and therefore can’t upload the rest of my pictures from London, but as soon as I have them I’ll share them with you (Mom can you buy me a new card reader and bring it when you come out? Please and thank you!)

Comments and questions are always appreciated. Maybe more dialogue will encourage me to keep you updated more frequently? You never know; try it out :)

love
~dana

Leaving Cairo was easy enough. I got a bus from the dorms to the airport at 7am and there was no traffic so I was there by 8. It was too early to check in for my flight at 1130 so I hung around the airport waiting. Once I got through security my parents called and I told them that everything was fine and about an hour later I was on the plane heading to Athens. I hadn’t slept much the night before so I passed out before take off and woke up after we landed. Athens was rainy and damp and I had a few hours for a layover. The Athens airport was pretty cool and it gives everyone a free hour of wifi. I used it to check the news in the country I had just left and to check in and also contacted my parents to let them know I had made it out safe. A little while later I was on the plane to London and it really hit me that I had evacuated Egypt. I hadn’t had any trouble, but I was now totally dependent on the news to know what was going on. I couldn’t hear the cheers or the gunshots, I wasn’t making dinner for friends who had gone out to the protests all day, I was gone. I watched The Social Network on the plane and found it ironic that that would be my main way of communicating with friends still on the ground in Cairo (I’ve used Facebook messaging to get in touch with everyone there and am yet to use email or any other way to contact them) and cried off and on. It’s hard to leave, especially when you don’t know if or when you’re coming back. I used to say the worst thing about leaving Egypt was coming back to Egypt; that’s not true. The worst thing is leaving a place and not knowing if you’re coming back when you want to.

But then I got to London. I eventually made contact with BT and told him my flight was late but he waited for me at the train station anyway. We dropped my stuff off at his flat and then went out to meet up with some of his work friends for a birthday party where we sang karaoke. We got there late and stayed until closing, which was only a short time away. That was good though, because I was tired and we were all getting up early the next morning to go do touristy things around England. My evacuation was perfectly timed for their British adventures. BT and I both went to bed around 1am and woke up at 7:30 to head to Starbucks and then get on the bus. A group of 9 of us piled on with forty other people and a hilarious tour guide for 12 hours of driving and site-seeing up to Windsor, out to Stonehenge, and back to Bath before returning to London. I had been to two of those places before - Stonehenge on my first trip to Europe (13 years ago!) and Windsor on both of my subsequent visits. At Stonehenge I tried to get in on the popular trend of ‘jumping pictures’ (where you just jump and it’s funny and looks neat) but I failed miserably and settled for a forced perspective shot where it looks like I’m stomping on the ancient ruins. Combined with my new mohawk I looked like Godzilla trudging through the English countryside. BT also took a few forced perspective shots (holding Stonehenge, stomping on it) and some better jumping ones than I did. We had gone to Windsor first but I had seen it before and it was still lovely. The last stop of the day was the Roman Baths in Bath. It was surprising to see ancient Roman ruins in England, though historically it does make sense, but frankly I have seen quite a few ancient and Roman ruins lately, been to my share of Roman bathhouses, and was pretty much exhausted after non stop adventure for the past twenty four hours. I slept on the bus ride home and told BT that I wouldn’t be going out that night and he agreed.

So we went home and made a few drinks and BT made a tasty salmon dinner. A few hours later he said our friend Andrew had invited us out and then told me he had been putting Red Bull in our drinks once I commented on how I wasn’t nearly as tired as I expected to be. I guess I appreciate the sneaky maneuver because it led to a hilarious night out at Andrew’s friend’s birthday party and a lot of fun with BT. We got home around 3 and I read up on what was going on in Egypt and finally fell asleep around 6. Today has been a glorious day of SLEEEEEEEEEEEEP all day and now we’re heading out to watch the Super Bowl at a club. First we’re meeting up with BT’s work friends for wings (gotta be all-American today) and then the game starts at 11. Tomorrow BT goes back to work and I get to figure out what I want to do around London.

Things have calmed down in Cairo. Friends report that banks are working again and school is still set to start on February 13th. I’m glad I got out, but I am looking forward to things returning to normal and getting to return to finish my Masters soon.

Cheerio!

This whole thing is so surreal. I used to go to Tahrir Square every day. Now I watch the news and it has turned into a war zone. People are digging the bricks out of the sidewalk to throw at one another, the army is doing nothing, the police have disappeared again, and I’m booking tickets for what we are calling Evacuation Break 2011. Meanwhile, I sit in my apartment and watch the news the same way I would if I were living in the States. I supplement the information from CNN with the accounts that my friends bring back from Tahrir and try to figure out what’s going on. I’m always a step behind and barely know what’s happening day to day, much less what tomorrow will ever bring.

I have cabin fever. Since the internet went out on Saturday, I was able to fix my television and watch the news. Al Jazeera constantly gets shut off, but CNN is focusing on the events in Egypt and BBC has good coverage as well. The thing is, if I couldn’t hear the shouts and cries from Tahrir or if I wasn’t under curfew with groups of vigilantes visible from my window, I might as well be watching the news from Tunisia instead of down the street. I went out to look at the protests twice. The first time I didn’t find anything. It was Wednesday and the police had cracked down on protesters from Tuesday and I was out in the mid afternoon. Apparently this was not prime protest time and things continued as soon as I got back to my apartment. The second time was a trip to Tahrir on Saturday night with Rose, Tim and Jake. People were calm, some were praying (we overheard a debate over which direction Mecca was), many had signs and wanted Jake and Tim to take their picture. The general attitude was to tell those back home what the government is doing and that the protest is legitimate. I didn’t feel any fear for being an American even when people admitted being frustrated with Obama’s weak response. Tanks came rolling in at one point and people climbed on top of them despite the officers pleading them not to do so. Then there was an announcement that the police wanted to take back the square so we left. At that point, the military was seen as on the side of the protesters (or at least more so than the police) and it was the police who had been using rubber bullets, water cannons, and tear gas (made in the USA) so we decided to leave before they got there if they were coming. I was a protest tourist, not interested in getting gassed or injured even though I support the cause. Since then I have stayed in Zamalek, my isolated island neighborhood that has seen very little violence and no looting to my knowledge, thanks in part to the road blocks set up on the bridges and vigilantes questioning every person and car who passes by. It was almost annoying on our walk back Saturday night as I just wanted to get home and rest my weary knees and instead we got engaged in discussions and photo ops with nearly every group we encountered.

Staying inside most of the time (and in my neighborhood the rest) has driven me slightly mad. My male (and some female) friends go out to the protests, many of the female students have left, and there was no internet. I could have gone out but having been groped during the celebrations after Egypt’s victory over Algeria in the African Cup last year I had little interest in returning to the scene of the crime with thousands more Egyptian men in the same square. The difference in experience here is exacerbated by gender and I know more girls who have gotten comments or touches that they didn’t appreciate after going downtown than girls who haven’t. Many of my friends have been interviewed on TV or radio back at home and I applaud them and am jealous of the opportunity. However, I am happy with my decision to stay home and keep my promise to my grandmother that I won’t do anything to make her worry about me while I’m here. It has been long and boring at times. The news is repetitive and updates come at any moment, without any set timeline. I have watched some movies, had a few drinks, given myself a mohawk, and done a tiny bit of thesis reading. I will look back on this situation and romanticize it - I was in Egypt during what may have lead to a revolution and the ouster of a dictator who has been in power for nearly 30 years. But in reality I am bored and somewhat lonely, frustrated with the fact that I don’t even know what I will do tomorrow. So I’m getting out, not out of concern for my safety but out of concern for my sanity. I am going to London, where I will meet up with my friend BT from study abroad in Australia and my friend Ros from the trip to Africa after graduation. I will go see Stonehenge and Windsor Castle, I will watch the Super Bowl, I will go to the British Archives and do some thesis research. I will probably go to a protest at the Egyptian Embassy, comforted in the fact that protest in that country is often non-violent and, frankly, legal. I will use the internet, go out at night, probably freeze my used-to-Egyptian-’winter’-butt off in London, and eat something other than ramen and drink something other than water. Evacuation Break 2011 (faint echoes of Swine Flu Break 2009; I guess this is what you get for living in Egypt) is underway!

And now, some of the politics and developments over the past week.

Friday saw huge mobilization of people in Cairo and Alex and other places all over Egypt. Around 50000 people were in the streets and the military came out and the police disappeared. By Saturday, people were still in the streets and ready to stay until Mubarak left. Mubarak had made his cabinet resign Saturday, but it wasn’t enough. It still isn’t and that’s why people are still in the streets after nine days of protest. Business did not go back to usual on Sunday, nor Monday. In an effort to appease the people, Mubarak took to the television on Monday night announcing that he will not be running in the scheduled Presidential elections for the fall but that he wants to stay in power and oversee a transition to more democracy. He will also make reforms to the constitution, such as putting in term limits and changing the election system. For many people, this is too little too late. CNN was originally reporting the shouts that erupted from Tahrir at the announcement as cries of celebration, but it was anger. People will stay in the streets until Mubarak leaves Egypt and as we saw today, they are willing to put their lives on the line to achieve this goal. Today, Wednesday, the previously peaceful protests turned into violent riots. There had been some violence and chaos before, with looters in many neighborhoods and some idiots breaking into the Egyptian Museum and destroying mummies and other artifacts, but nothing like today. Groups of pro-Mubarak ‘supporters’  began gathering last night around the square and today more of them took to the square, bypassing checkpoints that had been set up on Tuesday to keep weapons out of Tahrir, and engaging in violent clashes with anti-Mubarak protesters. Sticks and stones were thrown, people rode HORSES and CAMELS through the square (yeah that’s right, camels, in case you forgot the riots were in Egypt), and people began digging up the bricks from the sidewalk to use as weapons against one another. The pro-Mubarak protesters come from the police force and random citizens who were paid 20 to 50 Egyptian pounds (3-8 US dollars) to carry signs and be on the side of the government. There are some people who support Mubarak and many more who support peace and stability and understand that the complete ouster of the President will leave a power vacuum and nobody knows who will come to power next. There are understandable grievances on both sides, but the protesters have the momentum and the government has hypocrisy and 30 years of screwing over the people. The rival protesters talked at first, and then the violence began. Hundreds of people were injured in the rock throwing and as daylight dwindled, Molotov cocktails were thrown by the pro-Mubarak factions into buildings around Tahrir. This day didn’t turn out how anybody expected it.

This morning, when I woke up at noon, the internet was back on and we were all excited. However, as the day went on and the protests on the street turned violent I began to see what the government was doing. The past week has seen fairly peaceful protests (the violence in Suez last week seems like lifetimes ago) but today violence broke out at the same time that social media has been restored to the population. What people are posting shows the danger, violence, chaos that one would usually associate with protest against a dictator. This is what Mubarak wants people to see. This is what can be used to justify emergency law (which has been used unjustifiably in the country for the past 30 years) and this is what will make the world fear the instability that will result if Mubarak is kicked out. This is manipulated but it is hard to say whether it is wholly inaccurate. Like I said earlier, nobody knows what will happen tomorrow.

Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

This is a post I wrote on Friday. I have not written anything since and I spent today booking a flight to London for Friday. I will post more about what has happened recently once I settle down and have some more time to write about everything that is still going on.

14:30, Friday 29 January. To be posted as soon as internet is restored.

This has already gone on much longer than I anticipated. Protesters across the country are calling for regime change, and they have had some success. People are celebrating, there is a newfound confidence and people feel the momentum is with them and that the government has no control. Mubarak had his cabinet resign, but he is trying to hold onto the power that he has. The situation is chaos; I have no internet and cell phone service is spotty at best; petty criminals have been released from prisons and people on the streets have formed their own lines to stop looters in front of the Egyptian Museum. I am safe. I have no interest in going out to see the protests or watch them turn into riots. There is a curfew in place that has now been extended to 4pm to 8am. Right now the protests are peaceful, almost celebratory, with protesters climbing on top of tanks and cheering and dancing. Last night, police in Tahrir took cover in the downtown campus of AUC, and began firing tear gas from the university which naturally invited return fire with protesters throwing rocks at the police. My friend Dax works in the bookstore and told us that the bookstore, which is on the ground floor, is undamaged but the press offices above on the second and third floor suffered some serious damage. The new campus is far from downtown, so it’s fine, but with no internet we have no way to communicate with the university to find out if classes are to take place tomorrow or how long they will be delayed.

What remains to be seen is what happens at 4pm. Will the military (the police are gone, some of the police stations have been burned to the ground in Alexandria but I don’t think that’s happened in Cairo) fire on Egyptians with rubber bullets or even live rounds at 4pm when the curfew is in place? It’s not like the protests are being run by the Muslim Brotherhood or any one opposition group; the people on the street are 50,000 normal Egyptians. There are educated and uneducated, young and old, rich and poor calling for the government to step down. They want Mubarak out. Despite his firing of his entire cabinet, he is the state and he is what needs to change if Egypt will see any change. If he leaves, I fear a power vacuum. Nobody knows what the transitionary government that is being called for will look like - will the Muslim Brotherhood take over? Mohamed El Baradei is a major opposition leader who is currently under house arrest; what will his role be? The major protest is set to happen in half an hour and the curfew in 90 minutes. With over 50,000 people I don’t know how much more major a protest can be and there is no way that the curfew will be adhered to. Over 100 people have been killed all over Egypt, over 50 in Cairo (don’t worry I’m safe and staying in my apartment) which means that everything going on in Egypt is becoming bigger than what happened in Tunisia. In four days, Egypt has reached what Tunisia did in four weeks. I don’t fear for my personal safety, but I have no idea what the future holds for this city or country.

I was able to pick up Kacie yesterday by the grace of God. She arrived at 6:30 pm and I had called Mostafa on Thursday to ask him to come get me around 5 to go get her. He showed up a little before and told me that the 6 October Bridge that we would have taken was being overrun by protesters and we had to go the opposite direction which consisted of road blocks on every detour we tried to take. Most of the blockades were riot police standing in lines stopping cars from going through but some roads were blocked by police vehicles and at one point we even drove through a line of burning tires set up by civilians. After two and a half hours and driving over 100 kilometers (the airport is 40 kilometers from my apartment I think) we finally made it to the airport half an hour after Kacie was due to arrive. We then missed our turn to go into the parking lot and drove along the arrivals hall where hundreds of people were gathered outside. There were no taxis. The airport basically closed a few hours later. Those who did not have somebody picking them up were to spend the night at the airport essentially. Fortunately Kacie has blond curly hair and I screamed out the window at her as we drove by. She was joined by a kid, Adam, who went to AUC as well and had no way to get to his apartment in Maadi so we brought him home with us. Our TV wasn’t working and the streets were quiet. Because of the curfew stores were closed, but a waffle shop in our building was still open and had the TV on so we went inside for food and news. Mubarak was supposed to come on TV and give a speech but it was already three hours after the set time for that speech and during the hour we were there we didn’t see anything. Everybody went upstairs and went to bed; we were awoken this morning by Kacie’s phone going off and the realization that the phones were no longer cut off so everybody called home to let people know we are ok. With no communication with the outside world, our biggest worry was letting people know that we are ok and we aren’t afraid for our safety or anything. Today, we got Adam to meet up with his roommate in Zamalek and they are going to head back to Maadi together and we also went and stocked up on food and water for the next three days. There is no bread left, but I have lots of ramen.

This post isn’t eloquent. And those outside Cairo have more information than those of us in it (Kacie called her boyfriend in America before our TV was working, so we were getting news from America about what was going on down the street!). I’m not concerned for my safety and that’s the most important thing I want to convey in this post. I am not a political analyst and I don’t presuppose to know what is going to happen here, so I won’t open my mouth any further to put my foot in it like I did in previous posts by saying what happened in Tunis could not be exported. There has been an unprecedented psychological shift that people see that protest can bring change and that’s the motivating force behind the protests today. This is the first time that people have taken to the streets after a crackdown like what we saw on Tuesday night (approximately twenty minutes after I posted my last post) and the excitement and tension is palpable. I encourage everybody to keep watching on the news; you’ll find out more from there than you will from me. I’ll post as soon as I can; until then just know that I’m safe and secure.

I stayed home today. Watched a lot of The Amazing Race (eventually convinced my old roommate Kate to apply with me when I get back to Boston), booked my return ticket to California (via Istanbul, Copenhagen, Reykjavik, Boston, Atlanta, and Alabama - YAY!),read a lot of news, and generally procrastinated on my thesis work. Normally this isn’t news; it’s a pretty normal day in the life of a grad student on vacation. But today wasn’t a normal day. Today was January 25, 2011 (yeah that’s right 2011, can you believe it?).

Today tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Egypt. It was a holiday celebrating the police force, but it was used as a foundation for pro-democracy protests never before seen in the Arab world. The protests were all over the country - Cairo, Alexandria, Mansoura, Suez, and more. Tens of thousands of people peacefully demonstrated, chanting ‘Freedom’ and ‘Down with Mubarak’ and taking over the bridges and streets trying to emulate what happened in Tunisia. I’ve expressed my feelings that this will fail before, but here’s an article from CNN that lays out some of the same concerns. My friend Tim called me this morning and said that he and Will and Rebecca were heading out and did I want to join them? ‘We’re grabbing our passports and our cameras and going to Tahrir’ he said. I declined. I told him I had to work on my thesis, and that truly was my intention until I remembered the internet exists. I could hear from my apartment some of the noise from demonstrations going on on either side of the Nile and I checked Facebook, Twitter, Al Jazeera, CNN, and several other news sites, both Egyptian and America every other minute to see what was going on. There were reports of tear gas, water cannons, even rubber bullets. One of my friends couldn’t leave her building because of the police presence on her street that was overflowing into her building. Other friends of mine reported tear gas being so thick in the air that they were feeling the effects of it in their apartments. If I were still living in my old apartment, I would have been one of them.

There were of course some clashes. There have two reported deaths so far; one killed by tear gas, another from the rocks thrown by protesters. I don’t have numbers on the number arrested, but considering tens of thousands of people showed up and the Interior Ministry had threatened to arrest all those in attendance without the proper permits (of course, none of the groups organizing the protests had the proper permits), I’m sure it was high. The spirit hasn’t been broken yet though. It’s after midnight and thousands of people are camping out in Midan Tahrir continuing the protests overnight.

Tomorrow some of my friends are going back. Rebecca left a career in journalism to come to Cairo, and she has switched back to interview mode. She took a video of some of the tear gas earlier today and wants to go back to see more tomorrow. Tim and Will will probably return as well, and Valentina might be going too. So today I stayed home. But tomorrow, as they say in Egypt, hanshoof (we’ll see).

Let me get this out there - I don’t really like Egyptian food. I don’t think it’s very good most of the time; foul is really basic, falafel here isn’t really falafel - it’s taamaya, made from something other than chickpeas, molokhia is some sort of green goop that reminds me of snot, and koshari, while full of lots of different textures, always manages to leave me with more left on my plate than in my stomach. I don’t eat a lot of pastries to begin with, and the desserts here are soaked in honey so I tend to avoid them as well. Most of the time here I order delivery, or eat grilled cheese in my apartment, or go out for Yemeni food. My trip to Lebanon was a four day quest for the best hummus I’ve ever had (with each place being better than the last) and falafel and shwarma in Israel and Palestine made me sad to leave the country. Morocco was full of tasty home cooking like couscous Friday and homemade mint tea, with specific expeditions for lamb and tajine resulting in delicious success day after day. Middle Eastern food is delicious and diverse, but most of the food I’ve had in my adopted home has fallen flat.

I’m happy to say that that has changed. Mostafa (Bobby’s friend Suzy’s boyfriend) likes to eat and he likes to eat a lot. The first day we met him he took us out for pigeon stuffed with rice (tasty tasty and useless to try to eat with utensils). He ate everything on his plate - including the pigeon bones! Before the pigeon he had ordered about a dozen appetizers, including zabadi (yogurt and cucumbers, my favorite), vine leaves, tahine, spicy oriental sausages, kofta (kind of like an Egyptian meatball) and kobeba (a bulgur wheat dough wrapped around ground meat and pine nuts, then fried). I also had Circassian chicken, poached chicken in walnut sauce, which is from Turkey. Mostafa tried to take us out for sugarcane juice afterwards, but we were too full to indulge him.

After our return from Luxor, Bobby and I had two more meals with Mostafa and Suzy. Rather, we had two more eating expeditions with them. The first took us to Imbaba - a fairly sketchy neighborhood in northern Giza - to a well known street restaurant called The Prince. The menu was entirely in Arabic and Bobby and I were the only white people in the place, but I know a lot of my non-Egyptian friends have either been there or at least heard of it. We let Mostafa order and pretty soon pot after pot of food was being delivered to our table. We had a few tajines (named after the pot they’re cooked in) with meat and rice or potatoes, a thing of molokhia (Jew’s mallow), rice with liver and kidney, another plate of liver, and of course the hummus and babaganough for appetizers. The food is eaten family style and you self serve using bread as your main utensil. I tried a little bit of everything (except molokhia - I know I don’t like that; it’s way too slimy and Bobby enjoyed describing it as ‘gelatinous’ which is not an adjective I want for my food) and then Mostafa’s favorite course came out. He had been talking about it since we met him and he ate the pigeon bones, and now we got to see him with a plate of cow knees. My best guess (since the internet is yielding little information on eating cow knees) is that it was the cartilage from the knee joint, but that’s just a guess. Bobby and I each took a piece and I was hesitant to eat mine until Mostafa said that it was like jellyfish (I had jellyfish at my cousin’s wedding and LOVED it) and it wasn’t until I was chewing on the piece of food (I don’t know if you can call cartilage meat) that Mostafa revealed he had never eaten jellyfish and had just made that up. I had been duped, but it worked. While Mostafa pretty much inhaled the rest of the plate, Bobby and I were good with our one piece each and managed to swallow the entire thing. Bobby said it was the texture of chicken skin, so I guess you can use that to imagine it (sorry Trina, I know this must be grossing you out) and I didn’t think it was that bad. I can now add it to the list of strange foods I’ve eaten (caterpillars anyone?).

After the meal, which was so big that even after stuffing ourselves we had to take half of it home (by we I mean Mostafa, Lord knows I wasn’t about to eat all the leftovers) and Mostafa insisted that we have dessert. We drove from Imbaba out to Heliopolis to go to Mandarin Koueider, a famous pastry shop (there is a branch in Zamalek, where I live, but apparently the Heliopolis one is better) where Mostafa got us a tray full of basboosa (semolina cake soaked in syrup), konafeh (vermicelli-thin shredded pastry with sweetened cream cheese then doused in syrup), and konafah with crushed nuts and powdered sugar. And some other little cookie things that were tasty and not drenched in honey or syrup. We ate a few bites, but couldn’t finish because we were still so full from dinner. I still have the tray in my kitchen and it’ll take me a few days to finish all the desserts on it. Like I said, not usually a pastry person. We thought that refusing half of the plate of pastries would be enough for Mostafa to give up and take us home, but he is one persistent little Japanese Egyptian man and next thing we knew he was driving us to Nasser City for Om Ali. Om Ali is an Egyptian bread pudding with phyllo dough drenched in milk and butter and baked with some nuts. We had it delivered to our car hot from the oven with fresh ‘eshtah (like whipped cream) on top. It was delicious and the hot Om Ali with cold ‘eshtah was a great combination. However there literally was no room left in anyone’s stomach and we had to again give the remainder to Mostafa to finish before we could leave. The ride home, in a cow knee-rice-meat-hummus-pastry-sugar coma, was pretty quiet and I felt that I wouldn’t need to eat again for days.

That was not to be the case though, as Bobby’s last night was the next night. We met up with Suzy and Mostafa in Dokki and I thought I would be leading us to a Yemeni restaurant, but having Mostafa’s car restricted us to one way roads that I apparently always walk the other way on as I couldn’t for the life of me direct us to either of the restaurants I knew. Fortunately Suzy knew one and we went out for another family style meal with steamed meat, delicious chicken, and a couple tajine style dishes. I always go into a food coma after Yemeni food; it’s just so good that I eat long after I should have stopped, and last night was no exception. After dinner (which Bobby and I FINALLY got to pay for - Mostafa had sneakliy found a way to pay for every food based encounter we had had with him so far) Mostafa decided Bobby needed to have sugarcane juice before he left in a few short hours. We drove to two different places before finally finding it (the first one closer to my apartment, the second back by the restaurant) and I have to say I wasn’t that impressed. Sugarcane juice tastes like what you would imagine chewing on sugarcane would taste like. Sweet, but also with a pretty strong plant flavor. Neither Bobby nor I could finish our glasses, but Mostafa was just pleased to have had us taste it while Bobby was still in town. He drove us home and Bobby headed out to the airport a little while later. Hopefully this means my foodie days will be few and far between now, as I’m pretty happy with my ramen and grilled cheese. But I am glad that Cairo finally showed me some good stuff. It’s been here all along, I just hadn’t gotten around to tasting it and needed the excuse of tour guide/tourist to show me what I was missing. I do hope to have most of the things I’ve had again before I leave, but I’m not too upset about not having them for the past year. I’d rather have good hummus.

Cairo, Luxor, and the news - 13-18 Jan.

I didn’t know how to start this entry. Bobby is here so I’m back in tourist mode; I’m feeling rather homesick; and, as you can see from my previous post, the political situation is playing a prominent role in my thoughts. I could have made this three separate entries, but which to star with? How can I separate my thoughts on one from the other as in my mind (though perhaps not in my writing) they braid together like Egyptian traffic. There are no stoplights at intersections in my brain. I am at once a host and a tourist and a student and an expat. I read and watch and listen at the same time that I teach and write and live. This blog runs the gamut from day to day life to political commentary, travel writing to thesis writing. I do not live or experience any of these things in a vacuum, so if the following paragraphs (pages as I’m writing this by hand first) seem a little all over the place, please indulge me. I do not keep a diary, a journal of my innermost thoughts, so this is the only thing I have to convey what my life is like right now. Some of it I write for myself and some for my readers, so I do practice the time-honed art of self censorship that anyone writing a diary that they know would be read would do. I try not to write about things that will make anyone worry for my safety and try to respect the thoughts and feelings of those that I know do read this. That being said, this post will cover people lighting themselves on fire (sorry Mom), Luxor and Cairo with Bobby, and my intense desire (which will remain unfulfilled) to return to the US immediately.

Sometimes it’s exciting when you learn a new word. Sometimes it isn’t. I was happy to make it 24 years without knowing a fancy word for ‘to light yourself on fire’ but the news and Twitter have changed that for me this week. Following the collapse of the presidency in Tunis, Egyptians have begun to light themselves on fire in hopes to incite the same change. Sadly, Egypt doesn’t have the same kindling for this to spark a full fledged revolution and the three (six? I get conflicting reports) men who have done this to themselves frankly don’t hold a candle to the young university graduate in Tunisia who later died from his injuries after self-immolating when the police took his vegetable cart away (the only job he could find because the economy was so bad). The men in Egypt committing the same act don’t carry the same symbolic weight and they aren’t being heard by as strongly a repressed society. Egypt does repress its people, don’t get me wrong. When Bobby asked where the sketchiest place I had been was in all my travels, I was compelled to say Cairo. I don’t think that Arab or Islamic culture is anything scary, but I find myself nervous and watchful when I get the feeling that the people feel they have nothing to lose. When the government is corrupt and the police are there to scare rather than to serve; when a university degree will probably get you a low paying job in some back office if you’re lucky, turning you into a cog in the wheel that turns the corruption machine’ when pre-marital relations are tricky at best, but marriage is simply too expensive so the prospects  of a family life mean that your children will never go to school so why even bother? The nothing to lose mentality (no, reality) is what creates martyrs. It is rarely those with educations, homes, jobs, and families that are willing to kill themselves to bring about political change. This is as true for would be self-immolators in Tunis and Cairo as it is for suicide bombers in Palestine and Pakistan. It’s the lack of faith that the system (domestic or international) has the potential of working in your favor that drives the events I’ve seen on the news lately. But the same events that inspired hope in Tunisia provide little of the same comfort in Egypt. Egypt allows protests on some issues. It allows people to let off steam (by rioting over the Egypt-Algeria football match for example) so the pressure that led to Ben Ali’s departure in Tunis never reaches that boiling point in Cairo. Additionally, the religious tension in Egypt serves to draw peoples’ attention away from the government and instead focus it on the perpetuation or condemnation of sectarian violence. There are posters by the government and private companies all over Cairo touting ‘We are Egypt. We are against terrorism’ with the cross and the crescent colored like the Egyptian flag. The high coverage attacks, though not frequent, polarize the people or lead them to rally for unity and strength, but not to riot against the government. And a revolution would be bad for tourism; and for the US (I read an excellent commentary on how Egypt is so much more important to US interests than Tunisia; I wish I could find it now), prompting the government to further entrench itself and empower its security forces to maintain the status quo - a divided society with a pressure valve will wind up fighting itself instead of the system. Or at least that’s what the government hopes.

Bobby arrived late last week and it took a while for me to get back into tourist mode. I had quite enjoyed relaxing and watching tv for a week when all of a sudden I was to play hostess again. He relaxed the first day (he had just spent five days in Istanbul with his girlfriend) and I went out, then I relaxed the next day while we had a little bit of rain for the first time in 2011. Friday night, bobby came out and confessed feelings of homesickness after spending two days cooped up in my apartment doing absolutely nothing Cairo related (despite otlob delivery) so I promised him a uniquely Egyptian day on Saturday while starting to think about my own feelings of homesickness. I had realized int he previous week that one does not need to be in Cairo to sit ont he couch and watch tv all day and that I hadn’t been to Boston since moving here, both leading me to look at flights and try to figure out when I can get back there (March 28, insha’allah). I wrote a post a while back about not putting down roots in Cairo and that’s kind of a difficult thing to face when trying to host a guest. So the Egyptian Saturday would be good for both of us; and excuse and a reason to not be in Boston right now (other than the two feet of snow on the ground).

The next day, Bobby’s Egyptian friend Suzy from study abroad in Japan came over to the apartment and we waited for her boyfriend to come pick us up. He called to apologize for being late and spoke to both me and Bobby on the phone to make sure we understood just how sorry he was. His name is Mostafa and I must admit that when he arrived a little later I was more than a little surprised that he looked Japanese. He has an Egyptian father and therefore citizenship, but Bobby said that it made sense for Suzy to have a half-Egyptian, half-Japanese boyfriend - she was working within the letter of the rules (most Egyptians can only date or marry other Egyptians) but pushing the boundaries by him being half Japanese. They met over the internet while she was in Japan, and he came to meet her at the airport when she returned to Cairo after a eyar there and they’ve been together ever since. Cute, no? Though I will admit its always a little disarming when you see someone who looks one (exotic, sorry for the Orientalism) way speaking in another completely different (and equally as exotic) way. Anyway, the two of them are super sweet and took us to the pyramids. Predictably, Mostafa had to show his Egyptian ID card about a dozen times as I’m not the only one who was surprised to discover that he was an Egyptian national at a tourist site.

It was a grey, almost black sky, with scattered showers and almost no other tourists there. This was both good and bad as it meant that we were pretty alone and also easy prey for the camel ride guys and the baksheesh hunting guards. We walked around all three pyramids and the sphinx before heading back to the car, which Mostafa drove for about a minute before realizing it had a flat tire (you can see a picture of him fixing it in front the Great Pyramid in my album). Eventually we made it out and Mostafa drove us all around town  on the Ring Road (including past the exit for my school) to CityStars, the largest mall in Africa. Once inside, Mostafa led us through the maze that is the mall to Abou El-Sid for a delicious lunch of about eight appetizers and pigeon (I had Circassian chicken instead; I’ll savet he pigeon for when my mother visits). It was delicious and Bobby and I tried to pay but Mostafa stole the bill and paid despite our futile protests. He then drove us back to my place, where I invited them up and we all played Monopoly Deal (a card game that is the best parts of Monopoly and terribly addictive) ntil it was time to go tot he train station. Again Mostafa drove us (it was back to Giza, meaning he had basically driven from my old house in Yorba Linda out to Long Beach twice in the course of the day; maybe more considering he lives out by CityStars, on the other side of the city).

We got on the train (with cool, compact submarine style cabins) and Bobby and I played more monopoly deal (he finally won a game) and then tried to sleep. The connecting door from our cabin to the next rattled all night, so the sleep wasn’t the best but the trip was still surprisingly comfortable overall. We arrived a few hours late (as expected in Egypt) and made our way out to find a taxi to take us to the hotel. Bobby had found a great deal on a hotel on its own island in Luxor, and used his tripadvisor discount so we could splurge and enjoy our time. We checked in early and got a little sleep because the train hadn’t provided much, and then decided to spend the afternoon at Karnak.

Karnak is an ancient temple on the East Bank of the Nile. It’s basically a huge open air museum (which is how Luxor has started trying to market itself) and we got to walk around the entire thing. We looked at the papyrus inspired columns and commented on how the hieroglyphics, with their repetitions in perfect rows looked like one of those old toys for play-dough - the ones where there is a wheel with a design that you roll along for as much dough as you have. It was pretty cool and Bobby liked it more than the pyramids because it made us feel like Indiana Jones, crawling all over this ancient temple. It was a pretty good way to spend an afternoon I must say. We then had dinner at Kebabgy on the Nile; some traditional Egyptian food and shisha, along with Bobby’s first Egyptian beer - a Saqqara, not a Luxor like I wanted. It was a good dinner and then we headed out to Murphy’s Irish Pub hoping to get something not Egyptian to drink, but they also only had Egyptian beer (this time I did get a Luxor, mmmm) and none of the Guinness or Murphy’s Irish that they had signs for everywhere. There were a ton of British people there and a football match on, so we enjoyed the people watching. After a few beers (Bobby finally had a Stella and confirmed that its the worst beer in the world; he had previously told me that Egyptian beer just tasted like beer from countries that don’t know what good beer tastes like, but Stella is a whole new level of bad) we headed back to the hotel, intending to go to the Valley of the Kings the next day.

But that isn’t what happened. Because our train tickets for Tuesday were for ten PM, we decided to do the Valley of the Kings on Tuesday and just relax on Monday. I guess this is what normal people do on vacation - relax. Being used to EF Tours, I expect to spend my vacation days traveling around from 6 AM to 2 AM and then traveling somewhere else immediately. This day, I was able to sit inside and watch Al-Jazeera and Fox Movies (Good Night and Good Luck is such a good movie!) and order room service and just chill out for a while. It was great. The hotel was like a resort, with a cool infinity pool and tons of old British tourists (it was an expensive hotel so everyone else there was pretty wealthy; thanks again Bobby’s discount!) and we each enjoyed a little alone time since we had been in pretty close quarters for the past five days. I don’t think I’ve ever spent an entire day at a hotel, but it was nice to do for once. We decided to skip the camel market and just do Valley of the Kings, giving us some more time to keep stuffing ourselves silly at the included buffet breakfast the next morning.

Tuesday was a busy day - we checked out of the hotel and got a private car and guide for the Valley of the Kings. We got a little tripadvisor discount, but it was still expensive as we booked through Thomas Cook. It was worth it though, to have the guide and driver getting us to all the cool things we wanted to see. It was about forty minutes from our hotel across the only bridge in Luxor over to the West Bank and the Valley of the Kings. I was bummed, there were no cameras allowed inside so I can’t show you the amazing things we saw, but it was really cool. I know I had been there ten years ago and things don’t change that quickly in Egypt, but I was excited to go back into some of the tombs, especially having just been to the Museum with Valerie and seeing everything that they could get out of the tombs, except what had been stolen over the past couple thousand years.

Our guide was really good. He took us to three of the tombs, included in the price that we had paid for the private tour. The first was the hardest to get into, hiking up a set of stairs and then down the shaft to the burial chamber of Merenptah. The tunnel was pretty big, meaning that the king had ruled for a long time - the tomb started being built on coronation day and they had until 70 days after the Pharaoh died (which is how long the mummification process takes). At the bottom of the tomb we could see the top of the sarcophagus, which has been perfectly preserved and you can still see so much detail - pretty impressive for how old it is. The next tomb we saw was the one of Ramses IX, which has amazing color preservation and a really cool ceiling painting that is still around. We were moving pretty slow as it’s essentially one path that you follow and there were quite a few tourists there. The third tomb provided me with the coolest thing that I’ve ever seen in Egypt - it was the tomb of Ramses IV and it had been used as a Coptic safehouse during Roman times. This means that there is a ton of Coptic graffiti including a cross between the legs of one of the carvings of the Pharaoh - SO EGYPTIAN! I was excited. After the three tombs, we took the little train back down to the gate and headed out to Hatchepsut’s funerary temple. On the way, we stopped at an alabaster factory (predictable) where we learned a little bit about alabaster and then got ‘good prices’ on ‘handmade’ alabaster goods. We looked around the shop a bit before I found a pretty sweet set of canopic jars - the jars that were used to hold mummified internal organs and then buried with the body. The jars were clearly handmade - there’s still plenty of alabaster dust inside them and the writing isn’t perfect - two signs that it probably wasn’t mass produced by a machine. I was pretty excited to get them, and hopefully Kiernan and McKenzie and Everly will be able to take them to school when they study ancient Egypt. I am the coolest aunt ever, right?

After the alabaster factory, we finally made it to the funerary temple. It’s the only one built by a queen, but Hatchepsut saw herself as a king - her tomb is in the Valley of the Kings, not Queens, and she decorated the temple with designs of her in the full on Pharaoh garb reserved only for men. She had been a regent queen, meant to only rule while her son was too little to run the country, but then she held out way longer than originally intended and caused her son to vandalize the temple pretty significantly when she finally died. I took a ton of pictures there, just to make up for the fact that I hadn’t been able to in the previous couple hours. It wasn’t very clear, but looking out from the top of the temple we could see Karnak on the same latitude, a pretty big deal for Hatchepsut to get her temple on the same axis as the main temple at Karnak. Our guide was not nearly as extensive as the one that we had ten years ago who was writing his own encyclopedia, but we still learned quite a bit - like that having a small heart was a compliment and a big heart not, and that the goddess of love, beauty, and music had the body of a cow. So basically being a big fat cow with a small heart was quite a flattering thing to say. Oh how things have changed!

The last stop was the Colossi of Memnon, two ancient statues that the Greeks thought were the appearance of Memnon and as such they have retained that name. I don’t even remember which Egyptian Pharaoh built them, but I did get a pretty cool picture of a small boy sitting in his galabaya in front of them. It was neat, but I was kind of tired already and ready to head back to the hotel. When we got there, we used the internet for a little bit and then headed into town looking for a restaurant on tripadvisor called Puddleduck, but it wound up being closed. We went to a different one instead, where I had a delicious steak and blue cheese and mustard sandwich, with a Stella, and Bobby had curry. We went back to the hotel to get our bags and then took the bus to the middle of town again, where we stopped at McDonald’s to get some McArabias to eat before the train, since the food on the train is not edible, and then headed out to the station. The ride this time was much choppier, but our door didn’t rattle and we wound up getting delayed so the trip was about 12 hours in total instead of the anticipated seven. I had convinced Mostafa NOT to come pick us up, and with our delay I was very glad I had done that. We made our way back to the apartment, rested again since the choppiness of the train ride had made sleeping soundly for more than a half hour pretty difficult, and then went to Hussein (Khan el Khalili) to do some souvenir and shisha shopping. It was a successful trip, and we finished the night by coming back and watching the episodes of The Amazing Race that included Cairo and Luxor. I was excited to watch since I had never seen the show, but Curtis had mentioned it several times during our trip to Kuwait and Dubai last year. It’s so good. SO GOOD! I’ve been watching it non-stop since, and it’s just kicked my adventurous soul into overdrive.

That kick is exactly what I needed, as I’ve been feeling pretty homesick lately. Living abroad, especially in Cairo, is exhausting. I’m looking forward to going home, and playing tourist with a visitor just reminds me that I’m staying here for a long time after they go home. I am a tourist and a traveller, but also a resident in this crazy world and it’s the day to day things that make me want to go back to the States. However, watching the show makes me want to head out somewhere I’ve never been. Fortunately, my mother just booked her tickets to Cairo and we have started planning our trip to Jordan and Syria in April. Should be good!

There’s something happening here, in the middle east. There’s been something happening here long before I ever got here, but I’m so much more aware of what’s going on this part of the world at a time when so much is going down. Some of it good, some of it bad, some of it remains to be seen.

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There’s been a lot of violence in Egypt lately. New Year’s Day saw a bombing of a church in Alexandria that the government has attributed to Al-Qaeda and was a deliberate attack on Christians, enflaming sectarian tensions that are already high. Last year there was a massacre outside a church in Upper Egypt on Coptic Christmas and pigs had been slaughtered during the Swine Flu scare (deliberately targeting Christians as they are the only population to use pigs) but things had been fairly calm in the past year. Since the bombing, a Muslim police officer opened fire in a train car in Upper Egypt, presumably targeting the Christians inside (as it was in a predominately Christian city that the train originated) and killing six people before fleeing. These things happen, and they happen around me. But they are issues to be dealt with by Egyptians and as a foreigner I am not in any real danger; despite all of the violence, tourism is still the major economic pillar in the country and tourists are not being targeted in any of this. It’s strange being surrounded by all of this but not really a part of it, but that fits with most of the rest of my Egyptian experience.

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

I’m really glad that I changed my thesis topic from Lebanon as there is no way that I would want to go back there right now. Hezbollah recently pulled out of the unity government amid the possibility that the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon is going to be announcing who they might attribute responsibility to with regards to the assassination of Rafiq Hariri in 2005. I have friends there right now but I haven’t been in touch with any of them to see how things are playing out. Tomorrow is when the STL is set to make their announcement and Hezbollah has said that they will ‘cut off the hand’ of anyone who tries to arrest any of their members in regards to this. Lebanon is used to a state of chaos, and some of the residents don’t see any problem with Hezbollah pulling out of the government (one of my friends’ reaction when I mentioned it to him was ‘again?!?!’). I don’t have any idea what the future holds, but tomorrow will bring more news and all I can say is that I am thankful that I do not have any plans to return to the country in the near future.

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

However, my friend Sean is not as lucky with his thesis plans. He was set to go to Tunisia next week to do research and now I don’t know if that’s going to happen. There have been protests in Tunisia since around Christmas over the economy and against the government, and on Friday the President fled first to Paris and then to Riyadh. The Prime Minister has been sworn in as President and is calling for a new coalition government to take the place of the old one that had rapidly declined in the past few weeks - before leaving the old President had fired a few Ministers and governors and eventually eased restrictions on protests (Tunisia has been essentially a police state under the former President - who had been in power for 23 years). The country has basically been flipped on its head, but it has been received well throughout the Arab world and it could possibly be an example for other revolutions to take place. I think that Egypt might be next, but I selfishly hope that none of it goes down while I’m living here (just being honest). Tunisia has become an inspiration, one that has been followed closely on social media, and shows (combined with what happened with Iran’s elections a few years ago) what youth and technology can do to a government.

Tunisia isn’t the only country facing radical overhaul right now. South Sudan just had a week-long referendum to see if it will become the world’s newest country. The votes are being counted now and I’m sure that the outcome will be disputed; but eventually the South will be its own country, leading to economic conflict between two countries instead of just the long standing internal conflict that has plagued the country for years.

So like I said, there’s something happening here. Quite a bit to be honest, and I’m excited to see where all of this is going.

I told you we listened to a lot of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

So Valerie and I made it to Cairo and into my apartment, where we met up with Rasheed who had been staying in my place while I was gone. He had even gotten a Christmas tree and decorations for a holiday party that he had thrown in my absence. It was adorable and we pretty much crashed while Rasheed slept on the couch. He got up the next morning early to go to class while Valerie and I slept in until noon. After lunch we went to the Egyptian Museum (where I gave Valerie one of my old student IDs to get the half off student price) and looked at some really old artifacts all afternoon; we even paid extra to get into the mummy room. They were so creepy and lifelike; most still had hair and there were some with glass over their eyes. Just thinking about it gives me shivers right now. Ick. We spent a few hours there, which means we just saw a fraction of the things since apparently if you spent one minute looking at every exhibit it would take you over nine months to see everything that’s there.

We walked out of the museum and by my old apartment, then by some of my favorite spots downtown for snacks - mashed potato sandwich and Felfela, banana milkshake in Bab El-Louk, and then picked up some fruit and walked back to Tahrir square to pick up a cab to go home. We then watched the rest of Dexter and eventually I introduced Valerie to the wonder that is otlob.com and we ordered Chili’s and she got to see how my apartment has this amazing ability to suck you in. The next day we slept in again and my friend Sarah from Middlebury came by to stay for a few days before she was heading back to the States. We intended to go to Coptic Cairo but my apartment just wouldn’t let us leave - more Dexter and Chili’s ensued but I think Valerie got a little bit of studying done, which is good.

Tuesday morning we hopped on a train to Alexandria, which we had decided to do as a day trip from Cairo instead of on our way back from Dahab. We bought our tickets on the train after having two different guys put us in seats that we later found out belonged to other people (still had to pay baksheesh though, which Valerie was not pleased with), but finally we were able to find some seats and buy our tickets on board. On the way there I overheard some of the people traveling in front of us talking about OAT, so I chimed in that I used to work for GCT and later their tour guide came back and talked to me a little bit while Valerie was reading. Two and a half hours later we pulled into Alexandria and got off the train in a great old fashioned French style station.

The first thing that we did was check out the Roman ruins that are right next to the train station. There are still quite a few excavations going on at the theater, which is really well preserved and still has the remains of Roman era baths. The amphitheater has a stone circle in the center where, if you stand on it and speak, you can hear yourself in surround sound because the acoustics are perfect. Off to one side is a mini museum with artifacts lifted from the sea up by Qaitbay (the fort on the coast in Alex) and you can see how they have stood the test of time and survived both the elements and man’s interference (some of the sphinxes were repurposed as stones for other buildings, so they have been chopped up, for example). It was pretty neat but we decided we had seen enough really old stuff and skipped the catacombs in favor of going to the library.

The Library of Alexandria was once the largest library in the world (probably more like a university) founded in the 3rd century BC. The original has long since been destroyed, but in 2003 the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was inaugurated near the site of where the old library was thought to be. We had to leave our bags at the front, but they encouraged Valerie to take her computer inside. Once inside, Valerie decided to study for a while and I wandered, trying (and failing) to find out how to get into the manuscript collection (no harm done, it would have cost extra anyway) and eventually finding the planetarium and a random art gallery. After making my way back to where Valerie was, we took a taxi along the corniche over to the Fort of Qaitbay, which was about to close. We quickly ran up to see the best views of the city overlooking the bay and then on the other side out over the entire sea (second country for the Mediterranean of the trip). After a quick jaunt inside the fort, we took a taxi back to the train station and headed back to Cairo for the night.

The next morning, we met up with my friend Andrew and his friend Jon (visiting from his home in Michigan and the two of them are about to head out to Thailand for a month of travel) to go to the pyramids. Andrew and I had decided that since we both had friends coming we would take them to the pyramids together so we didn’t have to do it on our own. Jon was super excited and talked about the energy coming off the rocks, while Valerie had been looking forward to the pyramids for the entire trip. We were too late for the morning visiting hours inside the pyramids and too early to stay until the afternoon hours, so we climbed on part of the big pyramid and then on some rocks in front of the middle pyramid, constantly rejecting offers for camel rides or anything else, particularly ignoring any commands from police officers telling us to stop climbing on things (for the record we only went where we were supposed to on the actual pyramids, we ignored them when we were climbing up for a photo op in front of the middle pyramid). Jon was super excited to go see the boat museum and we had tried to talk him out of it (for whatever reason, I’m not exactly sure) to no avail. We went into the museum and put on cloth shoe coverings to avoid dragging dirt in and when we got into the museum we saw THE OLDEST BOAT IN THE WORLD. It was actually pretty cool. The boat had been buried next to the pyramid of Cheops in order to help him on his journey through the afterlife, and it still looked seaworthy 4500 years later. It was really well sanded of course, but I was just in awe of the fact that it hadn’t been stolen and was found in its entirety just fifty years ago. It was pretty cool. Thanks for making us do that Jon.

Later we walked down by the Sphinx (it really does look a lot smaller in person) and then to the KFC/Pizza Hut across from the pyramids for the quintessential consumerism photo and Valerie and I headed home. We had meant to go to the Citadel, but Valerie decided she had too much work to do, and hopefully this means she’ll just have to come back to Egypt some other time. Unfortunately she wound up leaving her phone in the cab on the way back, so Egypt got ready to say goodbye to her the same way it had said hello (remember that card eating ATM from the border?) and we spent the afternoon studying, watching Dexter, saying goodbye to Sarah, and chopping off all of my hair. A typical day in Egypt. I stayed up until 230 and woke Valerie up to get her in a cab to the airport and then stayed up until 5 hoping to not hear from her (which I didn’t) because that was when her flight left. I went to sleep in an empty apartment for the first time (second technically, since the trip had been delayed a day at the beginning, which was the day after Kacie went home) and now I’ve just been hanging out at home (damn this apartment) and doing work and watching Friends and hanging out with some friends and just enjoying vacation life in Cairo. Bobby comes in two days and we’re going down to Luxor, so I’ll have more pictures and posts up soon, but this past week should have kept my loyal readers pretty busy.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - belated, but I think you’ll understand. I’ve been a little busy lately, ok?

I'll write more about Valerie's trip to Egypt later, but in the meantime, I want to post this really well written article on harassment in Egypt. It's by a guy and it is totally honest about the struggle with what to do over sexual harassment and why it's easier to just put up with it sometimes. I really appreciated reading it and think that it should be required reading for anybody coming to the Middle East. I don't think my comments on it can do it justice, so I encourage everybody to read it on their own. So, click here for an article entitled Ethical Dilemma: When does 'Cultural Difference' become Sexual Harassment.

More from me later. :)

Dec 29 - 31. Jerusalem, Eilat, Dahab.

After nearly a week in Jerusalem, Valerie and I packed our bags, ate our breakfast, and hopped in a cab to the central bus station (any other buses we had taken were from the two Arab bus stations in East Jerusalem right next to our hostel; the central bus station is over in the new city). We got there at about 1130, which was probably just after a bus had left for Eilat, so we bought our tickets and headed to our gate to wait for two and a half hours. The wait was fine and it was tough to believe that we were getting ready to head back to Egypt. We made our final decision to not go skydiving (an excellent choice as the weather had turned grey and rainy instead of the gorgeous sunshine that we had had all week) and then got on our bus. Our seats were in the back so we had to keep a window open to make sure we didn’t get carsick (something a fellow passenger did not succeed in doing) and even though it was sometimes raining and we got quite a few complaints, five hours later we eventually made it through the Negev down to the Red Sea city of Eilat. We found our hostel - right next to the bus station - and headed out to get tattoos - equally as adventurous as skydiving, right? We found the place and I got mine - it says ‘ancora imparo’ which means ‘I am still learning’ and was the motto at Monash, where I did my study abroad - but Valerie decided that just me getting one would be enough adventure for the two of us and about fifteen minutes later we walked out. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped for tasty baked potatoes and then did some work and reading before going to bed. We got up somewhat early to hop on the bus to the border and leave Israel.

Getting out of the country wasn’t hard. We paid our exit taxes and I managed to keep my passport free of any sign that I had ever been to the country and then we were in no man’s land along the Red Sea. I was much more comfortable this time than I had been walking through that same space ten days earlier, and still just slightly concerned about Valerie’s visa situation for Egypt. We got to the Egyptian side and were confronted by a man claiming to be a tour guide telling us that in order to get a visa to Cairo we would have to pay him $50. We didn’t believe him, walked over to the bank and got her visa, got money out of the ATM (which then promptly ate Valerie’s card), and walked to go get into the country. The man at the desk, however, told us that in order to get to Cairo we would have to come with a tour agent and we begrudgingly went back to the man who had approached us upon our arrival. We paid him the money (welcome in Egypt!) since the only other option was to go back to Eilat and get a visa from the consulate, but that would cost even more since we would have to pay the exit taxes again. We got across the border, politely said ‘no thank you’ when our ‘tour guide’ offered to arrange a taxi to Dahab, and climbed in a mini bus after haggling them down to a price that they eventually told us not to tell the other passengers in the car. And then we waited, and waited, and waited. The drivers don’t want to leave until the minibus is full so that they can get the most money possible, and we didn’t want to pay over twice as much for a private taxi, nor did we want to wait the three more hours it would be to take a bigger bus from the station down the street. Eventually, through broken Arabic and a lot of frustrated hand gestures and a lot of saying ‘yes problem’ when the driver would raise the price ‘no problem!’ we got them to leave and drove to Dahab. We drove on a windy road along the Red Sea, looking across to Jordan for a moment and then all Saudi Arabia. Valerie and I listened to (and tried not to sing out loud to) Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and I was instantly more comfortable just by being back in Egypt. I had never been to the Sinai peninsula before, but that wasn’t important. I felt like I had come home.

At one point in our journey, our microbus turned into a duck tour as the rain in Israel had occurred in Egypt as well and apparently caused some pipe to overflow or burst or something in order to flood the road (remember, Egypt doesn’t do rain well) and we had to inch our way across about twenty feet of water that was several inches deep. But we made it to Dahab and went to a place that my friend Hunter recommended to check in and get a room. It was full; Valerie was not pleased. I had told her I would take care of it and it was very clear that she would have booked something if she had known that I didn’t have this taken care of. It worked out for the best though since the guy recommended a place next door that was ‘very cheap and very clean.’ Well it wasn’t ‘very cheap’ by Dahab standards (my friends were staying in a place that was about eight dollars a night) but for $30 a person per night, we were treated to a gorgeous clean room with super comfortable comforters and cable tv and a shower that wasn’t on top of the toilet and had a VIEW OF THE SEA FROM OUR BEDS. We went and met up with Hunter and a couple of his friends, ran into my friend Molly from Middlebury and her girlfriend, and hung out for a while on the beach eating a little and smoking some shisha and I finally figured out why so many of my friends go to Dahab so often.

That night was relaxing and we did more lounging in front of the beach the next day. I read and Valerie worked and cats curled up around us. Eventually we went for a walk looking for some water so Valerie could put her feet in the Red Sea (Med, Dead, and Red all in two weeks) and then went back to get ready for our trip up Mt Sinai that night. Valerie decided to take a nap in preparation, while I met up with Hunter and Han for a few drinks since it was New Year’s Eve after all. Hunter tried to convince me not to do it and to go out into the desert to ring in the new year, but I didn’t listen. When I wouldn’t give in he made me promise to at least get a camel for the trek up. I made it back to Valerie and we went to buy flashlights for our trip up the mountain and then got on a bus heading out to Mt Sinai at 11pm.

We spent midnight on the bus and a few hours later made it to the bottom of the mountain. It was freezing out and we weren’t even climbing yet. We met up with our bedouin guide and he named our group Dahab One so that when we were hiking he could just shout out our group name and we could find him. We hiked for about forty five minutes in total darkness, just a trail of flashlights the only thing that we could see. Clouds were overhead so we couldn’t see any stars and the only other lights were from the occasional coffeeshop that acted as rest stops along the journey. At the first one, our guide announced to Dahab One that we were a quarter of the way up and Valerie and I decided to get on camels. Additionally, my stomach was starting to feel a little funny and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it all the way up by just walking. I think the bubbles from the beer weren’t sitting well in my stomach and the cold combined with the altitude as we were hiking were giving me cramps just an hour into what would be a six hour journey. We rode our camels up the mountain and sang songs from Joseph as our camels nearly ran people over. We made it to the highest point where the camels could go and got out for some tea and then began the hike up the 750 steps to the top of the mountain. Every hundred or so we would stop (I don’t hike to begin with, and freezing stomach cramps do not help) and eventually we made it to the top and huddled in one of the coffee shops for about an hour until it was nearly time for sunrise (I overheard some people talking about Moses and leading the people out of Egypt and they were marvelling at how that could be so when we were in Egypt, but I was in too much pain/don’t know the Bible well enough to correct them and explain that Sinai hasn’t always been part of Egypt). Eventually, I rented a mattress and a blanket and we climbed the last set of steps to get our places to watch the sun come up. The stars were gorgeous since we were up above the clouds and I curled up in the fetal position waiting for the sky to pink up. I gave Valerie the camera and had her take pictures while I napped for a little bit. Valerie woke me up a little while later and we watched the sun rise over the clouds for our first sunrise of 2011. I held it together enough for some good pictures on top of the mountain and then we began our descent. In the light of day, we couldn’t believe how steep and slippery the steps were that we had climbed up at night. My stomach still hurt so bad that I convinced Valerie to take camels back down the mountain and about an hour later when we got to the bottom I felt so much better - the sun and the lack of altitude did wonders, but the camel ride itself was one long ab exercise as I had to be leaning back during the descent, not so good when your stomach already hurts. It was nice to just be able to enjoy the view on the way down though and not worry about slipping and falling (it probably would have taken us ages considering how cautious we were being since Jerusalem and then Masada). Eventually we made it to the bottom and went into Saint Catherine’s Monastery, which houses the burning bush (complete with fire extinguisher!) and decided that it probably took Moses 40 days just to get up to the top of the mountain, and way less to hang out there and get the commandments, but that’s about the extent of my biblical knowledge, and frankly the Bible part of my brain had been pretty much worn out in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We got back on our minibus and made it back to Dahab in time to get right on another bus back to Cairo. Nine hours later we were in my apartment and my trip to the Holy Land had come to a close.

Dec 28. Ramallah, Palestine.

Ramallah is the de facto capital of Palestine, and since we couldn’t make it to Hebron, our only real chance to see what modern Palestine is like under occupation (yes Bethlehem counts, but I was too focused on the place where Jesus was born to have a real focus on politics for the day). Many countries have their representation for Palestine in Ramallah and a building boom in the past decade has made the city the leading center of economic and political activity in the territories under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Businesses have moved from East Jerusalem, and some Palestinians see Ramallah’s prosperity as part of an Israeli conspiracy to make Ramallah the capital of a future Palestinian state instead of Jerusalem, which is currently the contested capital of both. So, is it the capital?

Once we arrived in the city, we headed to the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. Its the official West Bank Office of Mahmoud Abbas and the final resting place of Yasser Arafat, former head of the PLO. It was a very short visit as we just saw the tombstone in the mausoleum, so then we began walking. We walked and we walked and we walked about four kilometers into Al-Bireh where we got some lunch from a bakery and then asked directions to a local Turkish bath. Eventually we found the place and got a New Year’s special - 60 shekels (less than $20) for the steam room, a scrub, and a half hour full body massage. We spent the afternoon there (it wasn’t nearly as tough a scrub as we had been expecting; I did way worse to myself in Morocco) and then got a cab back to downtown where we immediately hopped on a bus back to Jerusalem.

On the way back we were stuck in traffic along the wall and I got to see what I had been looking at pictures of for the past five years - a wall that was about 20 feet high but up to 30 in some places that separates Israel from Palestine. It’s not meant to be a border according to Israel as it’s in Palestinian territory, but merely a security fence to keep Israelis safe. The Palestinian side is covered in art and graffiti, similar to the Berlin Wall but also different. When we crossed through the checkpoint, our driver allowed us to stay on the bus because we were American, while the Palestinians had to get out and go through a metal detector and show their papers. It’s hard to believe that something like this is still going on today, and makes both more and less sense after seeing and being in these holy sites. I do understand both sides, but I still think that most of israel’s policies toward Palestine as a country (not to be confused with Israeli Arabs living inside the country - that’s a whole other story) are wrong.

It was our last night in town so we got some falafel and packed up our stuff (a lot can accumulate when you’re in the same place for nearly a week) and got ready to head to Eilat the next day.

Alternate title: Of Blind Crabs and Mass Suicide

Dec 27. Masada and the Dead Sea.

We woke up in the morning and packed our bags for Masada and the Dead Sea. Dave and Nico picked us up at 7 and we started driving. Not too far out of the city our ears started popping and we were descending from the nearly 740m above sea level where Jerusalem sits down to the 411m below sea level where the Dead Sea is - now I can check off the lowest place on Earth from my travel list. We drove past Jericho and along the Dead Sea until we were at Masada a few hours later. The drive along the water’s edge allowed us to look across at Jordan and we were very strongly considering driving across the border into another country, but we resisted.

A little while later we made it to Masada and Dave and Nico decided to hike up while Valerie and I took the cable car up to the top (we figured that would be a good way to ease into me convincing her to do things that scared her since we were supposed to go skydiving later in the trip). In the center at the base of Masada we read about the history of the site and up on top we were able to see where everything took place. After the first Jewish-Roman war (year 72 AD), a siege of the fortress that King Herod had built on top of the plateau led to the mass suicide of the Zealots, or Jewish rebels.

The rebels had been there after the destruction of the second temple and used it as a base for harassing the Romans. The Romans eventually used Jewish slaves to build a ramp up to the top of the plateau and when the Zealots realized that they were isolated on a plateau about to be killed or made to become slaves the men drew lots to determine which ten of them would kill everybody else, and then which of those ten would kill the rest and then himself. When the Romans arrived, they found nearly a thousand people dead and only five women and children who had hidden during what is now considered a mass suicide. It was strange knowing the history of this place, knowing that everywhere we went had been the site of a mass suicide. It is a symbol of the ‘They’ll never take us alive’ attitude that you can say is part of the Israeli psyche, but to me it was just creepy. I also had a political reaction to it, comparing the siege to the actions of the pre-Israeli state against the Arabs. Despite being frustrated and creeped out, the site was serene and the ruins are so well preserved - you can still see the mosaics in the bathhouse and the entire fortress, some of it rebuilt but with lines showing you what was originally found there. You can look out and see the Dead Sea, which is drying up so some parts are land that were clearly water even a hundred years ago, and across into Jordan. We met up with Dave and Nico and we all hiked down together; Valerie and I making sure not to slip on the trek down.

We had some lunch and then drove back along the same road until we stopped at Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi is a nature reserve for those who like that sort of thing, but we were mainly interested in its free (and very rocky) beach access to the Dead Sea. We thought about just driving off the road and to the Sea ourselves, but due to the massive amount of surface area and volume lost in the past 30 years (nearly a third of the surface area has disappeared) there are massive sinkholes between the road and the sea. We read about them in LP and then started seeing signs in English, Arabic, and Hebrew warning about the dangers of the sinkholes, which was enough to scare us into going to one of the beaches that we read about in LP. When we got there, we all awkwardly changed into swimsuits just outside of the car and then headed over to the water.

The water in the Dead Sea is salty; everybody knows that. It’s saltier than you think. It’s like liquid salt, or solid water (ok that’s ice, but imagine ice made out of salt); either way the Dead Sea is nearly ⅓ solid material and that’s how you can float so well in it. Valerie and I got right in, stumbling slightly on the rocks and treading very lightly until we got all the way in to a place where we could float. Dave and Nico took their time; Nico had some issues with water so the two of them treaded very lightly and in their hiking sandals. The water was a little choppy so we floated out and then had some trouble getting back in; Valerie wound up getting salt water in her eye and I have no idea how she made it back to her towel to get the salt out of her eye. Dave and I floated around for a bit and then he went to go help Nico try to get back in and Valerie came back in so we could take some pictures. On the way back to shore, I managed to get some salt water in my eye and it was torture. You can’t see! And you can’t wipe it away on the back of your hand because your entire body has a layer of salt on it. There is no release until you find fresh water. We had to crawl out of the water on the rocks and Valerie made a comment about us looking like crabs and all I could say was ‘I’m a blind crab!’ I’m sure we were a sight to see, but I couldn’t see anything. I made it back to my bag and poured about half of my water bottle on my face before I could open my eyes again. It felt so good. Dave and I decided to dry off and see what the salt looked like on our skin, while Nico and Valerie showered immediately. You couldn’t see much salt on me (probably because I’m so pale) but it showed up flaking off of Dave pretty easily; it also started to crystalize in his beard and eyebrows, which was entertaining. Eventually we both rinsed off as well and we got back in the car to head across the street to the nature reserve where all we wound up doing was buying mud (me) and ice cream (me and Nico) before heading back to Jerusalem.

It was a long day in the sun but I only had a little sunburn from being on top of Masada and was only totally exhausted when we got back at like 4pm. We napped for a bit and then went to get juice and beer just inside the Damascus Gate and then stopped for falafel and chicken sandwiches right next to the hostel. Our day in the sun was done and the next day it was off to Palestine.

Dec 25 and 26. Jerusalem.

Christmas Eve was hard to top, but fortunately we were in pretty much the holiest city in the world, so it was a memorable Christmas yet. We started the morning trying to go to Temple Mount, which was closed either due to midday prayer or Sabbath (the guards at the Western Wall said it was closed for Sabbath, but it was Saturday so I really have no idea; best guess is it was closed for midday prayer, but we didn’t want to wait around until after, especially if it really was closed all day). Afterwards we stood in front of the Western Wall for a minute before deciding to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. On the way there, we realized that we were in the middle of the Via Dolorosa and decided to start from the beginning and follow in the footsteps of Jesus in the Stations of the Cross.

We were standing in front of stations three and four when we decided to find the beginning. It was up the street by the Lion’s Gate, which is the end of the Ramparts Walk and the edge of Temple Mount. We saw a plaque for station one outside of a school so we went into the courtyard and began to speculate as to what the stations were. We were trying to guess where he got the crown of thorns and where he picked up the cross when we eventually gave up and walked down the street. (For the record, the first and second stations commemorate Jesus’ encounter with Pontius Pilate - the scourging and the Ecce Homo speech, or his condemnation and where he is given his cross. There are quite a few interpretations as we found out later.) We didn’t see a plaque for station two, but we did go into the Church of Ecce Homo which apparently where that station is. We found our way back to the main street where stations three and four are - where Jesus first fell and then where he saw his mother. A little further down we had lunch next to station five - where Simon of Cyrene takes Jesus’ cross and carries it for him. Up the street is the sixth station, site of the supposed encounter between Jesus and Veronica - where Veronica wiped the sweat from Jesus’ face with a cloth that became supernaturally imprinted with Jesus’ image. The seventh station is the location of Jesus’ second fall, and also where I found the Via Dolorosa walking tour map in LP (they put it 40 pages behind the rest of things to do in Jerusalem! Why wouldn’t they just put it next to the information on the Church of the Holy Sepulcher?). The eight station, tucked away off of the main road, is where Jesus encounters pious women on his journey and was able to stop and give a sermon. The ninth station is where Jesus fell a third time. It’s located at the entrance to the Ethiopian Orthodox Monastery and Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Anthony, which form the roof of a chapel in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. An engraved cross on a fallen column marks the station, which is the final station before those in the Church itself.

After the nine stations on the Via Dolorosa, we found ourselves at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is Golgotha, the Hill of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. Control of the building is shared between several Christian churches (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholicism, and other Christian sects). The arrangements over who controls which parts of the church and you can still see a ladder at the entry that hasn’t been moved since at least 1852, when the status quo was set that defined the doors and window ledges as common ground. No changes can be made to any common part of the church without approval from all groups. None of the groups control the main entrance; instead that responsibility goes to two Muslim families. The Nusseibeh family has been the custodians of the church since 637 and the Joudeh family were entrusted with the keys by Saladin in 1192. This arrangement continues today, where twice daily a Joudeh family member brings the key to the door, which is then locked or unlocked by a Nusseibeh.

Inside the Church are the final five Stations of the Cross. The Franciscan Chapel (very plain) houses the tenth station, where Jesus was stripped of his clothes and also the eleventh station, where he was nailed to the cross. This chapel is also called the Chapel of the Nailing of the Cross. Immediately adjacent to it is the Orthodox Chapel, which has the twelfth station of the cross, where Jesus died. The stone is still there and has a crack in it, supposedly from the earthquake when Jesus died. You can kneel under the Altar of the Crucifixion and kiss the stone around a hole where the cross was raised. Between the two chapels is the thirteenth station, where Jesus’ body was taken down. Downstairs from the chapels is the Stone of Unction, where his body was cleaned, and around a corner is the Holy Sepulcher, the fourteenth station where Jesus was laid in the tomb and covered in incense. It was Christmas day so there were many pilgrims in the Church and it was very crowded. We took our time looking at the stations and then stood in line to see the Sepulcher. While we were waiting, and getting pushed forward by the crowd, an Orthodox ceremony took place and shut down the Sepulcher for about ten minutes. Eventually we made it inside and saw the stone that Jesus was buried on and which he resurrected from. Afterwards, we explored some of the other chapels - the Chapel of Adam, underneath the Rock of Calvary, where Adam’s skull is said to be buried; the Chapel of St Helena, where St Helena is said to have found three crosses, with the True Cross being determined by its ability to heal a sick man who touched it; and the Stone of Unction or the Stone of Anointing, where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial and which pilgrims come and rub oil on and wipe off with a cloth to take away as blessed.

After the Church we walked around a bit taken aback by all the spirituality and stopped for a juice and a coffee while exploring the Christian Quarter. However, we then found ourselves back at a bakery in the Jewish Quarter and then walked by the Burnt House (from when Roman Legions destroyed the second temple and burned the city’ this house survived and the stone furnishings show us how a wealthy family lived in the city 2000 years ago) and thought we might be heading toward the Armenian Quarter. However, all roads lead back to the Western Wall and we found ourselves on steps that we recognized as having seen from the plaza and made our fifth or so trip to the Wall. On the steps, Valerie and I both had our eye on an elderly lady slowly descending when all of a sudden Valerie dropped out of my sight; she had slipped while we were watching to make sure the old lady didn’t slip. Fortunately it was the end of the events we had planned for the day and we were able to get her home quickly with no major damage. This wouldn’t even be necessary to mention except for the fact that for the rest of the trip we were ultra-cautious whenever we were going up or down stairs, or any incline really - and you’d be surprised how often that is, especially when you still have Masada and Mt Sinai left on your trip!

We got home and watched some Dexter (Merry Christmas) and eventually I got to meet up with Sam! I met her at Middlebury this summer and she had been studying in Jordan all semester. We thought we might have been able to meet up sometime earlier in the year, but it was never meant to be and I didn’t know when I was going to see her again until one day in Tel Aviv her Facebook said that she was in Israel. We met up in Jerusalem, went to the Western Wall (again, but this time I had a token Jew with me) and then had some shisha and talked before heading back to our respective hotels. It was a great and unexpected end to Christmas.

The next morning we decided to get up early and finally go see Temple Mount. The gold dome had been eluding us since our arrival, so after breakfast we went to the Western Wall Plaza (again) and got in line for the Holiest of Holies. Jews regard the Temple Mount as the place where the world expanded into its present form and where God gathered the dust used to create Adam; where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac; and the site of the two Jewish Temples. In Islam, the site is the third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. It’s the location of Muhammad’s journey to Jerusalem and ascent into heaven. It’s where the al-Aqsa (meaning the furthest) mosque was built to commemorate Muhammad’s trip and where the Dome of the Rock was completed in 692, making it the oldest existing Islamic structure in the world after the Kaabah in Mecca. The Dome of the Rock is in the middle of Temple Mount, where the Bible mandates the Holy Temple be rebuilt, making it one of the most contested religious sites in the world. Valerie and I tried to get into either of the mosques, but the Israeli government enforces a ban on prayer by non-Muslims, which was explained to us as a political, not religious, ban; which led to another conversation about the conflation between religious and political actions in the area.

After visiting the site, we headed out through one of the gates (non-Muslims are only allowed to enter through one of the eleven gates, but apparently we could exit through any of them) and decided to head back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to bless some of the items that we got in Bethlehem. I blessed my rosaries and baby Jesus from my Nativity set as well as a bracelet for my roommate, and I think Valerie blessed her rosaries and also maybe some jewelry, but I wasn’t really sure. The Church was nearly empty since it wasn’t Christmas, but there was still a line for the Sepulcher. We explored a little more without the crowds and then headed out to check out the Ramparts Walk.

The walk goes along the walls of the Old City, but on the way we decided to check out the Citadel/Tower of David. It’s a good thing we did, as it had some great views of the city and included a free tour in which we learned pretty much the entire history of Jerusalem, including archeological ruins from 2700 years ago and 4000 years of Jerusalem’s history. It was the first time that we realized that Jerusalem was not the City of David. The tour was fascinating and the Citadel is located near the Jaffa Gate. It was originally constructed in the second century BC and then was destroyed and rebuilt by the Christian, Muslim, Mamluk and Ottoman conquerers of the city. The ‘Tower of David’ is only accurate in title historically, as King David’s original tower and fortifications were destroyed several hundred years ago. The ‘Tower’ today is the minaret of the mosque built by the Muslim conquerers and began being called the ‘Tower of David’ by pilgrims coming to visit the Holy Land in the 19th century.

After the tour, we had lunch at a great little place right inside the Jaffa Gate. It had HAM SANDWICHES and Taybeh beer (a Palestinian beer) and I wish I could have eaten there every day for the rest of the trip. Mmmm, ham sandwiches and tasty beer (tasted kind of like Sam Adams). It was great.

We then went on the North Side of the Ramparts Walk and walked around the Muslim Quarter until we reached the Lions Gate at the edge of Temple Mount. We walked back along the walls during sunset and then spent the evening watching Dexter and eating falafel. We had a big day the next day. We had run into Dave and Nico on the Ramparts Walk (they were staying at the hostel with us) and they had planned a trip to Masada and the Dead Sea the next day by car and invited us along with them. We had originally been planning on going on a trip with the hostel, but decided it would be better to go with Dave and Nico and go on our own schedule. They were going to pick us up at 7 the next morning, so it was an early evening.

Dec 24. Before the service.

This morning was way easier than I expected it to be. Valerie got me breakfast so that the guy wouldn’t take it away before I got there - cucumbers, tomatoes, pita, haloumi, hummus and hard boiled eggs - delicious and included in the price of our room. After breakfast we walked around the corner to the bus station and walked right onto an empty bus left about ten minutes later totally full with people even standing in the aisle. Less than an hour later we got off the bus and kept telling taxis that no, we didn’t want them to take us up the hill to Bethlehem. We got to the top and whipped out LP for the map.

We followed the crowd to Manger Square and then into the Church of the Nativity to find out if we could get tickets for the midnight mass (about an hour later we would figure out the answer was a resounding no) and once inside we started to look around and take pictures. A guide approached us, saying that he thought Valerie was Arab until he noticed us reading a guidebook. For $30 he took us down into the grotto and we saw the place where Jesus was born and where the manger was. It was in a grotto or a cave underneath the stable even. We took pictures and eventually the crowd forced us out. I took a few more pictures and got stuck behind a Spanish tourist while Valerie was waiting with our guide. When I got up the stairs into the nave of the church again, some Armenian priests were praying and our guide explained that three groups have the right to hold services in the church - Armenians, Catholics, and Greek Orthodox. St. Catherine’s is an adjacent church built later, but the Catholics still have access tot he main church. Additionally, the guards to the grotto have to be Muslim as they are seen to be impartial in terms of access - not favoring one Christian sect over another. We walked through doors donated by Pope John Paul II and our tour ended by passing by a statue of Saint George slaying a dragon. Saint George is the patron saint of Palestine.

We walked right into the Christmas Eve parade in Manger Square with many Orthodox scout troups and far more bagpipes than I ever expected to see in a little town in Palestine where Christ was born. We walked along the parade route and stopped at Stars and Bucks Cafe (not Starbucks, Stars and Bucks) and then got some shwarma for lunch. Afterwards it was shopping time and I bought a beautiful olive wood nativity set for my parents that I hope I’ll get to put in my house some day. I also bought rosaries with earth from Jerusalem in them lots of Christmas ornaments for people.  At that point we thought about going to find Shepherd's Field for carols but instead decided to look at what was next on our list. After I had another falafel sandwich - the best deal I’ve found in this country at only three shekels - we decided to sit in the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church for 5pm service. As it began to fill up, we got to listen to the band and choir practice before the host announced that his wife would be playing the organ for fifteen minutes, including Christmas songs from ‘around the world, ok Europe - you won’t remember if I list them but here - Germany, Austria, etc, etc, and Palestine (obviously the etc, etc are my own as I do not in fact remember where they are all from; it’s not like the priest said yadda yadda yadda or anything). The service will be in English, Arabic and German and I am incredibly excited.

Back at the hostel.

That was easily the best service I have ever been to. I’m sure that being in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve had something to do with it, but the music was good, the environment was better, and the sermon was outstanding. The service was in Arabic, English, and German and carols such as ‘Oh come all ye faithful’ and ‘Hark the herald angels sing’ and the Lord’s Prayer were done simultaneously in all three languages. The church was Lutheran and normally conducts services in Arabic, so the rotunda had Arabic painted on the ceiling while the original stained glass had German underneath the pictures depicting Christ’s birth, life, and death. Between readings, there was a guy who would sing in Arabic (that I could tell was Egyptian!) and then we had the sermon. It was so good. The theme was ‘Fear not’ which were the first words of Christmas. He talked about the Chilean miners and related them to his message before moving onto the bulk of his speech - the emigration of Arab Christians, especially after the recent attacks in Iraq and last year’s attack in Egypt (since then, there have been more attacks on Christians in Iraq and the New Year’s Eve bombing at a church in Alexandria). It was current and political and argued for Christians to stay in the Holy Land. It was was moving and afterwards I wanted to applaud. The bishop is the head of the Lutheran Church for Palestine and Jordan and later that night I found him quoted in an Al Jazeera article that echoed his sentiments from earlier in the evening. At one point when we were all saying the Lord’s Prayer, each in his own language, I got a tear in my eye and the magnitude of where I was really dawned on me. Sorry everyone, but I’ve never had a better Christmas - being surrounded by pilgrims at the site of Jesus’ birth is pretty hard to beat. After the service (which ended with a candlelit procession to the center next door) Valerie and I walked again to Manger Square and promptly turned around - it was like Times Square on New Year’s Eve! So crowded and crazy! We got on a bus that dropped us off right in front of our hostel and, after a long, emotional day with no naps (which we had become accustomed to) we curled up and went to bed. We did try to watch Dexter (nothing says Merry Christmas like serial killers, right?) but gave up and went to sleep instead.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Dec 23. From Jerusalem.

Valerie arrived after I had engaged in a lively debate on Israel and Palestine, during which an old man, on finding out I was not Jewish, said ‘all you people see and do is say “bad, bad Jew” and you just want us dead’ (if I need to clarify that this is not at all what I was saying, I don’t think you know me very well). I walked out with my fellow debater (not the old man, but instead a Jewish man from South Africa who insisted that he had nowhere else to go but Israel as his country didn’t see him as African even though his family had lived there for hundreds of years and also kept saying that it was wrong to say that the pre-Israeli state actions had forced Palestinians out because ‘if we wanted to force them out or kill them we would have.’ Not exactly the most comforting argument) and Valerie was there checking in! Yay! I hadn’t even heard her come in. We finished checking her in, dropped off her stuff, and set out walking. We went to the Carmel Market and found some massive pomegranates and then walked all the way to Jaffa looking for a place Jake had recommended but that I hadn’t copied down all of the information about (such as ‘the sign isn’t in English so learn to read Hebrew’ or the street number). Eventually we found it and stuffed ourselves silly. I swear I had a food baby the size of Everly and I had a little trouble on the walk back to Tel Aviv, especially since we decided to stop for dessert. I had a taste of sahleb, but knew that I couldn’t eat it because it was so sweet so I got pomegranate-lemon-mint instead. We walked back along the corniche and played on a swingset overlooking the Med. A few meters up the walk we saw people who looked like they were on those gazelle things from infomercials and went over to check it out - it was a gym on the coast, overlooking the sea and filled with equipment that used your own body weight to train. We worked out for like a half hour - cross country ski machines, stairmasters, and arm presses that involve you lifting yourself up. Afterwards we walked back to the hostel and went to bed - too full, sore, and tired to go out at all.

The next morning we had a full day planned. We didn’t even do half of it, but that’s ok. We went to Independence Hall where we looked at the Declaration of Independence and maps of the partition plan and newspapers announcing some countries’ recognition and some countries’ attacks on the new state. It was also where I started filling Valerie in on some of the things that I’ve learned on the topic since being in Cairo. Coming from most of the same classes at Valencia, I knew what we hadn’t learned and supplemented the narrative that we grew up with with the one I understand better now. We walked back to the market and I got stuff to make guacamole while Valerie got apples, turkey, and peppers. I wound up making an avocado/tomato/onion/cilantro sandwich (with pita that had been forced on me by a very pushy lady in the market) and when we went upstairs to put stuff away, we immediately decided that a nap was the best use of time. An alarm was set (later to be discovered as on mute) and naps were had. When I woke up at 3pm, the Diaspora Museum was out of the question. I woke Valerie up at 430 and we walked along the beach just after sunset. The beaches are really short so after a few of them we stopped at a cafe to have some shisha and dinner. Afterward we walked back to the hotel, stopping at a corner market to buy some Ben + Jerry’s ice cream bars (the first Ben + Jerry’s I had seen outside the US, I had a Chunky Monkey cone). I fell asleep pretty easily when we got home, but Valerie was up most of the night and we were both less than pleased with the girl who kept answering her phone and having a very loud conversation with her mother who would not be meeting her in Istanbul because the flight through Frankfurt was cancelled.

I woke up in the morning with that feeling that you get when you overslept for something important - we had to get to the embassy to get Valerie her visa for Egypt! I had heard that you could get it at the border, but also that that was only good for Sinai. We dressed, ate lots of bread for breakfast and checked out. After walking a solid half hour we found ourselves at a travel office for trips to Egypt. The lady there told us the embassy was closed and we couldn’t get a visa on our own, but if we took her bus… thanks but no thanks. We went to the embassy; the 18 year old IDF kid standing outside was way more concerned with his phone than telling us any more than ‘the embassy is closed until Sunday at 9am’ and after several questions finally told me to go to the ‘zimzam buzz buzz’ and pointed to the door of the embassy. I went to the buzzer, rang several times, and asked the man who answered if a visa from the border would be good to get to Cairo. When he asked what passport we were traveling on, I knew he at least knew what he was talking about. He said it would be fine, and if its not I’m sure we can bribe whoever we need to. We walked back and by Rabin Square we saw a yogurt shop like pinkberry so we went in. The guy behind the counter spoke no English, so through a lot of pointing, Valerie got yogurt with fruit and date honey (which we spent the next several days looking for again, fruitlessly) and I got at least double my money’s worth compared to her with a big smoothie. We got back to the hostel, picked up our bags and hopped in a cab to the bus station. A few minutes later we were scrambling through security and then pretty much walked onto a bus to Jerusalem.

After checking in to our hostel just outside the Damascus gate and then a nap, we decided to wander around and get food. It was nighttime so everything was closed, but we did manage to stumble across a security barrier that led to… the Western Wall! We went through the metal detector (there is a sign announcing that going through the metal detector doest not violate the rules of Shabbat according to a local or high council, I don’t remember exactly which) and found ourselves standing in front of the holiest place in Judaism. It was bigger than I expected, taller. It used to be an outer support wall for the Temple so its height was surprising to me. It towered over the people praying and rocking back and forth in front of it. The floodlights seemed harsh and combined with the cold air, the whole thing looked sort of like a Hollywood movie set. We saw, as we had since arriving in the city, many young boys with the curls on the side of their face but not so much as peach fuzz above their lips, following their fathers to pray at the wall. I hesitated for a minute before asking Valerie if we were going to go pray and as we walked closer I expected to feel a lot more than I did. I watched people praying, rocking back and forth, touching and kissing the wall, and some even walking backwards away from it so as to not turn their back on it (I presume) but it didn’t all become real until I looked up at the wall and saw a pigeon looking back at me. I had to stop from laughing but all of a sudden I realized just how important the wall is, even as a symbol, and decided to write a prayer to put in it. Valerie did too and afterward we were both a little quiet and hugged and questioned how brush can grow out of the wall.

More wandering ensued and we found pizza and a bakery and a lot more aimless wandering out to the Jaffa gate and back to Damascus gate (Jerusalem has eight gates to the old city) and then back to our hostel. This journal entry took me two hours before even typing it. Bethlehem tomorrow

There's this song that I listened to too many times on the icy cold bus ride from Cairo to Taba. 

This video was made by some kids at Northeastern. It's a parody of Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and it is spot on for life in Boston.

Here are the lyrics.

I crossed over the green line, just missed getting killed,
but it’s not nearly as scary as my last E-bill.
Workin’ on my biceps over at Marino
Kill it at Qdoba with a bean burrito.
Another at Boloco, TKO at Chicken Lou’s.
As soon as it’s November, don’t forget your snow shoes.
Pajamas in Dodge Hall, sleep in the comfy chairs and
change into a three-piece to go to the career fair.
8am class, your professor can’t speak English.
Get three pieces of sushi, eat it on a square dish.
Wait in line for hockey to hear the fans cheer,
but what about the football team? They cut them last year.
Need another credit, so you can start your masters?
Just take jazz or natural disasters.
Buildings might collapse, so proceed with caution,
but we’ve got the only Taco Bell in Boston!

Northeastern
Don’t go through the fens on a night jog, you’ll be in the crime log.
Here at Northeastern,
you’ll wake up to ambulance sirens, wait for proctors to sign in.
Here at Northeastern, eastern, eastern!

Just snuck on the T, ‘cause I’ve got no cash.
Feeling like a badass ‘til the driver gives me whiplash.
Another lame party, busted up by the cops.
Now it’s 3am again and I’m at BHOP.
Tons of free T-shirts, even more flatscreens.
I guess that’s why we just moved up in the rankings.
No, I don’t have a minute for the environment.
I just wasted all day waiting for the quick print.
Wicked’s not a real word, you start to say it anyway,
and you block traffic on Huntington everyday.
Walking down the street everyone’s got a North Face,
heating unit just broke down in my place.
We’ve got homeless guys, girls in five-inch heels and bar fights,
but I bet you’d never guess it’s just a Wednesday night.
I’m a co-op, no I’m not an intern.
Aren’t you a junior? No I’m just a middler!

At Northeastern,
missed the dining hall ‘cause you’re too late?
Get hot wings at Outtakes!
Here at Northeastern, we have spring break in the winter.
What the hell is a middler?
Here at Northeastern, eastern, eastern.

Like I just said, I’m what they call a middler here.
It’s really just another excuse to stay a fifth year.
I go to Northeastern. Isn’t that Chicago?
No, that’s Northwestern. I know you think they’re smarter though.
Go get hustled by the one arm pushup guy.
Head to Stetson West, wait an hour for my stir fry.
Check out AfterHours for a mediocre concert,
get caught drinking and apologize to OSCCR.
Chalk on the sidewalks to get your attention.
Watch out for the packs of incoming freshmen.
After spring semester, get a free sofa.
Find the creepy baby heads over at the Mofa.
At the student center, everyone’s got a Macbook.
Argue with the bookstore when they deny your textbooks.
What happened to the Burger King? No one really knows.
Now I’m stuck living on Rice Krispies and Cheerios.

Northeastern.
Make sure you don’t get lost in the tunnels
or late night in Ruggles.
Here at Northeastern, you’ll live and die on the Green line
and never be on time.
Here at Northeastern, eastern, eastern.

The library’s freaking humongous.
Country’s safest campus but don’t go past Columbus.
I want catch the Symphony orchestra next door.
I want to talk to that girl, but we’re on the damn third floor. Third floor.

At Northeastern,
we eat at Cappy’s for dinner,
get our laundry delievered.
Here at Northeastern,
we have a ballfield at Speare Hall,
we gave up on football.
Here at Northeastern, eastern, eastern! (Third floor)

Twenty eight. I have been to twenty eight countries. I have new passport pages in a passport that's just over two years old. I like collecting stamps (compare this to what I'll write about Israel in a few weeks) and I like experiencing the cultures and seeing new places and people and governments. I like counting the countries I've been to. I blame my mother for this, but it's ok. I like going to lots of countries; I'm happy that I've been to twenty eight countries, and I can't wait to go to more.

Number twenty eight was Lebanon. Kacie and I went to visit Mandy in Beirut and stayed for four days. Not a lot of time, but enough to enjoy the vacation and visit. It wasn't what I expected and it was everything I wanted and needed.

Mandy is a friend I met in Egypt last spring. She's getting her Masters at GW and took a year off last year to study Arabic in Egypt and now she's doing an internship at the Carnegie Institute in Beirut. I like her. She's bouncing around and learning and living the hard exciting life of a future academic. I think that she and I are going to run into each other all over the world. It's cool.

Kacie and I got in on Monday afternoon and met Mandy at work. She took us to her apartment in Achrafiyeh, a Christian neighborhood near downtown, and we dropped off our stuff. We went back downtown and Mandy went back to work and Kacie and I started our first adventure. We tried to go the Hariri mosque, but it was prayer time and we weren't allowed in. So we went next door to the Hariri memorial, a tent that houses his body and the bodies of a dozen other men who were killed in the same attack that killed him a few years ago. Rafiq Hariri was the prime minister of Lebanon in the early 2000s and he was assassinated as his motorcade drove around Beirut in 2005. His death led to massive political change in Lebanon, including the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. The UN is still investigating his death, which was originally thought to be the fault of the Syrian government but now is thought to be one of the factions in Lebanon itself. He oversaw the rebuilding of the mosque downtown and the rebuilding of most of Beirut after the civil war. After visiting his memorial, we went across the street to Martyr's Square.

Martyr's Square commemorates Lebanese nationalists who were hanged during World War I by the Ottomans. It became riddled with bullets during the Civil War and is now a symbol of everything that was destroyed at that time. It's a common location for protests and demonstrations. It was strange standing there under the statue, looking up at it and seeing the sky through the holes. I took a lot of pictures of the area, pictures that seemed to kind of sum up Beirut. The statue in the foreground with the mosque behind and cranes all around. Martyrs and bullet holes with a shiny new mosque rebuilt under the supervision of a man who was assassinated and cranes for the construction that's going on as the society rebuilds itself. Rarely have I felt that one image can capture a city so well. It was strange, it was awesome.

Then Kacie and I walked. We walked and walked and walked. We walked along the Mediterranean (my eighth country on the Med!) and around the new shopping district (Beirut Souks) and then made our way to the Pigeon Rocks for the first time. The rocks are similar to the Twelve Apostles in Australia, except there's only two of them and they're much smaller. I was a little underwhelmed to be honest, but it was cool to see nonetheless. Afterwards we met up with Mandy for dinner (hummus) in Gemayze. We walked home and had a few beers (a good beer for once). It was a good introduction to the city.

Tuesday we walked again. There was a lot of walking and a lot of eating. It was glorious. We started with breakfast of manouche - cheese and thyme wrapped up in pita bread essentially. But it was so much better than that, so good. And it was served with tomatoes and cucumbers and olives like everything is in Lebanon. We sat in the restaurant, which was out in the walkway of the Beirut Souks, long enough for the waiter to bring us jellab, which is a drink with grape molasses and rose water and smoked with incense and served with pine nuts and raisins. It was tasty and sweet and free and the perfect way to end the meal. Then we walked around for a bit. We wound up in one of the oldest mosques in the country and then went to a Capuchin church. We had heard church bells all day, strange when we remembered where we were. But Beirut is full of churches and mosques and even a major synagogue; Christians make up over a third of the population. It was unlike any other city I've ever been in; it was really cool. We looked for the UN for a while, but then gave up and took a cab over to far west side of town - Hamra - for more walking and eating. We had shwarma, which I promptly spilled on myself, and walked to AUB.

AUB is beautiful. It's right on the water and it is so green and it has signs that are effective and point to where things are. These things don't exist at AUC. There is a track and field across the corniche from a private beach on the Mediterranean. And there are cats and even cat feeding stations. And there are attractive young gentlemen EVERYWHERE (true of all Beirut, not true of Cairo). It took approximately two seconds for Kacie and I to figure out that we may have made a poor choice in choosing Cairo over Beirut (more on that later). Afterwards we went to the PIgeon Rocks again to see them in the daylight, but it was actually sunset. We saw the most amazing sunset over the mediterranean on our walk down to the rocks and then took a cab back to AUB so we wouldn't have to climb the hills again. I stopped and had a Krispy Kreme donut (my second in the Middle East) and then gelato before walking back to the main road in Hamra. Then we sat and smoked shisha and drank lemonade slushies with mint and strawberry in a cafe on the street. And it was quiet, and it was easy, and it wasn't a hassle and people didn't stare at us or come up to us and it was so much more relaxing than Cairo where people do stare and say things and it's frustrating. After a while there we went and met Mandy for more hummus. And that was day two.

Wednesday we got out of Beirut. We went to Byblos (Ajbal in French and Arabic) and saw the Roman ruins. We hopped on a bus out of Beirut and since it was the holiday we   made it there in about a half hour instead of the normal hour and a half it takes in traffic. It was so much closer than expected; and there was this consistent urban-ness that I wasn't expecting either. I thought it would be a while before we got to Byblos, not a half hour through suburbs and then BAM Roman ruins. But that's how it was, Lebanon is tiny. And we found one of the oldest cities on the planet and we hung out in an old Roman citadel and looked out over the sea. Then we had hummus and manoucheh and  I had this kiwi drink that was so sour I had to laugh every time I took a sip. It was like drinking warheads, that sour candy from elementary school. We bought some souvenirs and then hopped on a microbus to Jeita.

Jeita has grottos. The grottos are up a mountain so we took a cab and definitely overpaid, especially since the traffic was so bad at the top that we had to get out and walk. One tiny road is not enough for the massive amounts of tourists to get in and out and since it was a holiday the place was super busy. We got out and walked about a kilometer before we made it but it was definitely worth it. We got in a cable car and floated up to the upper grotto, which Jake had told us to make sure to go in first for fear of being disappointed if we saw it after the lower one. It was stunning. The grottos are up for consideration as one of the seven natural wonders of the world and it's not hard to see why. The world's largest stalagmite is there and the caverns are huge and awe inspiring and I can't even begin to explain how beautiful they are. The first one has this walkway that takes you all the way across. You can see up a couple hundred feet and down even more. In some places you can even see through to the water that goes through the lower grotto. We went to the lower grotto afterwards where you take a flat bottom boat ride along the water and you can see up through the entire grotto and it's beautiful and stunning and you can't believe that you're inside a mountain with all of this beauty. Basically you should go. When we finished the trip we tried to get a cab back but we couldn't find one, so we started talking to two other tourists (one male one female that I actually wound up running into last night in Cairo at a friend's apartment) who were also looking for one and eventually some random dude drove the four of us down to the main road so that we could get a microbus back to the city. Quite an adventure.

We got home that night and Mandy made tabouleh (parsley and tomato salad essentially) and we had some beer and went to bed. It was a long day with a lot of awesomeness and we were tired. It was good.

The next morning Mandy took off work and the three of us went to the national museum. I'm not going to lie, I was kind of surprised to see so much Egyptian stuff in it. But the Phoenicians (early inhabitants of Lebanon) were traders between all the other empires so it makes sense that they would be influenced by the Greeks and Romans and Egyptians and that's what all of their art represents. So that was cool.

Then we went back to Hamra to continue our quest for the best hummus in Beirut but the place was closed so we wound up getting manoucheh again instead, but with meat this time. Then we walked to some hostel that is for artists and our friend Ernesto (who had met us in Hamra to take us to the hummus place) gave us chocolates and it was lovely. Then we walked down to the corniche and stopped at Hard Rock so that I could get a pin and then met up with Andrew, my friend from Cairo and Danielle's old roommate, for shisha...and hummus. After a few hours there we went back to Mandy's place and then Kacie and I packed and got ready to go out that night.

There had been a severe lack of appreciation for Beirut's famed nightlife and we were flying out the next morning. Kacie had a friend that she met in undergrad who is from Lebanon and was home for the holiday from his job in Saudi Arabia and he had agreed to take us out. He picked us up at 1130 at night and we went to a cafe so that we wouldn't arrive at the club too early. He brought his brother and a couple friends and we got to the club a little before 1am and they had ordered bottle service. Now, I have never had bottle service before as I am cheap, but I wasn't paying for anything tonight so it was fun to go out and have a table to ourselves and dance to bad Europop and house music and then there was a live performance of Oriental music mixed with trance. Kacie and I drank and danced and flirted with the boys because that's what you do when you go out like that. At about 4 am they decided that we should go to another place and got the cars from the valet (nobody was driving drunk, don't worry) and then we decided not to go to the second place and just had the boys take us home. We got home a little after 5 and I took a power nap with Mandy while Kacie took a shower and then we hopped in a cab to the airport. Whirlwind last night and I greatly enjoyed sleeping on the plane. I think I was asleep in my snuggie before takeoff.

Beirut was a great place to visit but I don't know if I would want to live there. While it was great to be able to sit outside and have sea breezes and the boys are much more attractive, it was strange. I don't know how to explain it, but I felt like a lot of people built up Beirut to be this amazing wonderful place that everyone wants to go to all the time and while I can see that, it wasn't the case for me. I want to go back, I can't wait to go back, but I don't necessarily wish that I had gone to school in Beirut. It was expensive! I know that I complain about Cairo a lot and a lot of those concerns weren't there in Lebanon, but there's just something there that made it feel like a place to visit, not to live.

But all in all, a pretty good experience for country number twenty eight.

Model Arab League wouldn't be complete without drama. Tensions are running high and we've all put so much effort into this that we want to see it go down smoothly and it doesn't. It never does.

I'm still not used to Egyptian time. Especially not at a conference. I admit that I got super stressed when we started sessions hours late. I'm also not used to chairing as part of a team and I like having things done my way. These things led to more tension on Friday. In my haste to get one topic done with (because we had started two hours late) I used NMAL rules instead of CIMAL rules and that upset my rapporteur. There was drama, there was a five minute break (more like thirty), there were tears and people storming out of rooms and conversations that other people weren't allowed to be a part of. Because that's what happens when you spend nine months on a project and it doesn't go smoothly. Somehow all of your energy to make it run more smoothly manages to make it an even bumpier ride.

The next day was significantly better. I had written letters to Aya and Manar, which I had intended to do the entire time, but was particularly important given the previous days events. Both of these girls are going to be on Secretariat for CIMUN in the spring and probably do CIMAL again as well. This is their life and I totally get it. They're going to be awesome and there's going to be hiccups and I know that both of them are so passionate that they're going to love every frustrating minute of it. I know that because I feel the same way, I was the same way and it's why I joined CIMAL here. So I wrote them letters thanking them for everything and put them under their hotel room door and went to check out.

And that's where things went horribly wrong. Check out was at 10am. The conference was supposed to start at 10am. We didn't have enough money because we were supposed to be putting three people in rooms for two people but the hotel found out. I put in my money and then got a ride with another secretariat member to the conference. My girls came about two hours later trying to pull the 'cute card' so that I wouldn't be upset. I wasn't. I let the room watch youtube videos, we finished writing a report on the second topic, and when my girls showed up I let them run the show so that I could work on some papers I had to write.

Then we finished the conference, went to the outing, handed out awards, ate some good food, and I finally got to come home at about 2 am and do some work for class on Sunday. And CIMAL was done. At least I hope it is. It was frustrating to the last minute and there are a few loose ends that I need to tie up still. But it was worth it and it was fun and I made some great friends and learned a lot.

And that's why I do this. I can't wait until Nationals in April.

I went home for break. I came back home. Home is a relative term and I have many homes. I think I always will.

Egypt is home now. It will be for the next six months. But California will always be home as well. I even use it to describe Seattle, where I have never lived but where my family has met for holidays over the past several years because my sister lives there. New York was home for a while. So was Australia. Home.

Some of my friends have talked about how they feel split between two places, two cultures, two homes. Danielle blogged about it, and I think I've talked about it with almost every one of my friends here. Craving the comforts of America, where things seemingly make sense, where our families are, where we grew up, and where we don't feel so frustrated just by stepping outside the apartment. But when we're back there, with no call to prayer and with traffic lights that work, something feels out of place.

I didn't feel that way in Seattle. I didn't miss Egypt, I didn't miss Cairo. I knew that I was home and with family, and I knew that I wanted more, but I knew that it wasn't Cairo that I wanted. I have great people here; people that I love and who are so supportive and who make it home, and that's what I need in order to be ok having this be home for the next six months.

The day that I got back to Egypt I wanted to leave. I wanted to fly back to Boston. I had been feeling that while I was in Seattle. Boston was home for five years. I would go to California for holidays or summer vacation, I did my study abroad in Australia and Switzerland, I lived in New York, but Boston was home. And now that I know that I'm going to uproot myself from Egypt in half a year I want to figure out where to go next. I think I want it to be Boston.

I'm not tying myself to Boston. I'll look for work and school in DC and New York, but Boston has a special pull. I haven't gone this long without being in Boston since I moved there over six years ago and I want to go back. I want to go back to my friends, to my therapist, to streets that I know, familiar pub trivia nights and a frustrating yet effective public transportation system. To the Freedom Trail and Haymarket and Shakespeare on the Common. To the Red Sox and the statue of Cy Young in the middle of Northeastern. To Marathon Monday and Newbury Street and Downtown Crossing and the Frog Pond. To Harvard Square and my tattoo parlor, to Southie and an inordinate amount of Dunkin Donuts.

I am an East Coast girl raised on the West Coast. I love seasons, I love history, I love annoying accents where people drop their 'r's. As long as my parents live in California, going there will be going home, but leaving there to go home will happen as well. I don't feel split between two, three, four places. I feel like I'm trying to make a home here and I'm doing a well enough job, but to really feel like home you have to know that you're laying down roots. I know that I'm not.

I've been able to move everything I have in two suitcases for the past six years. Keeping it within the weight limit for airlines, with the occasional back of the car. Eventually, I want to have a moving truck. I want furniture that isn't collapsible, I want hangers that I don't leave wherever I am because they don't fit in luggage, I want to settle down.

I came to Egypt thinking that I wanted to bounce around every few years. I'll leave Egypt hoping that I don't.

PS - I'll post about Arab League, Lebanon, Seattle, and life back in Cairo later. It's finals week, so it may be a while, but I promise I'll keep you all posted.

And I do my little turn on the catwalk.

My catwalk, however, is a desk in the middle of a conference room, covered in a green cloth, with a little wooden placard in front of me that says 'Cairo International Model Arab League. President'. To my left is Manar, my director, furiously sending notes to delegates and looking up their foreign policies, letting them know what to say since we didn't have delegation meetings and we are paying for it now, mostly through her work. To my right is Aya, my rapporteur, always ready to step in and chair whenever I need her to so that I can work on my thesis proposal or a midterm that is almost two weeks late. Across from us, in an awkward semi circle are anywhere between six and thirty delegates, depending on the time of day, debating about emergency law and police brutality and torture. Tomorrow they will start talking about minority representation.

This is my model. Model Arab League. An organization that I have been involved with since I started at Northeastern. Six years now. I've been a delegate, a chair, a rapporteur, a vice-chair, and now I am president of the Conference on Arab Human Rights at the 21st Annual Cairo International Model Arab League. I've put countless hours into this organization, participated in nearly a dozen conferences, written newspaper articles and an academic paper, visited three embassies, taken four road trips, one last minute flight and one international one, a couple train rides, and made some of my closest friends. This organization has played a huge role in my life, bringing me to Cairo and taking me to Washington DC and then Atlanta. This is my model.

I've gone to Nationals in Washington DC four times and I will go again in April of this year. I've chaired at the Northeast Regional Model Arab League twice (once when we made T-shirts that said 'Oman I can't Kuwait to get Djibouti') and the Boston High School MAL once. I've prepared teams for Southeast Regional MAL, but never had the chance to make it to South Carolina to compete there (I don't think I'm too upset about this). And now I'm on the secretariat of CIMAL, which has been one of the most frustrating and rewarding experiences of my life. I'm the first non-Arab secretariat member in the history of the organization; fitting because the Secretary General, Faisal, is the first non-Egyptian Sec Gen as well. Meetings have not once started on time, and yesterday our session started nearly two hours late after our room got switched four times. Coffee breaks get pushed back, then so does lunch, but we are somehow always ready to leave on time. But tonight, Aya and Manar were working with some of the delegations to write a report on our first topic and now we are still here almost two hours later with a full report written. It makes me so happy.

Despite all the frustrations and all the times I wanted to quit, this makes it all worth it. This is the conference, the model itself, and it is my comfort zone. I go on autopilot when I am chairing, I can tell people what to argue despite not knowing their exact policy, I am learning how to write a report instead of a resolution, and I'm excited. There are two days left and plenty more to post, but the internet at the hotel is expensive and I want to get this up now before I leave campus.

And I do my little turn on the catwalk.

As our taxi zoomed through the streets of Giza on our way to the pyramids, slowing down quickly to allow another car to cross the road in front of us, Danielle turned to her mother and said "See Mama, we get by just fine without stoplights at intersections."

We get by just fine here. Without stoplights or stop signs, without unlimited texting or picture messages, without real winters, and with friends and families and familiar routines thousands of miles away. We get by just fine.

I have a new niece, Everly Ruth, born on Halloween. The first time I became an aunt I was three thousand miles away and had to wait eight days before I could see my niece and nephew. This time I'm nine thousand miles away and have to wait three weeks. Fortunately I decided to spend Thanksgiving in Seattle just for this very reason. It's hard to not be getting picture message updates but we get by just fine with skype and emails and websites updates. We get by just fine.

I lost my phone this week. During probably the busiest week of the semester and I haven't had an opportunity to get a new one just yet. But Kacie and Danielle have managed to keep tabs on me while I'm using facebook to keep in touch with everybody else here. Messages and chats work for the time being. We get by just fine.

Danielle is leaving. She had an incident of sexual harassment a few weeks ago and decided to leave now to go home and be with her fiance and her family. She has a new nephew that she hasn't seen in person because she's been here and he was in the hospital around the same time that she got attacked. It just became no longer worth it for her to be here; too much stress and missing too much at home. So her mom changed the flights that were supposed to be for December and arrived last week to help move her home. Sometimes things aren't fine, so we adjust our plans. And we get by. And it will be fine, eventually.

But right now it sucks. And I'm stressed and I'm losing my third friend from here this semester. Anne moved back home after getting engaged and to be closer to her family while she worked on some things, Dooler went back and worked on getting her girlfriend into the States (success! She is the first Egyptian I know who got a five year visa AND a work visa and is heading to the East Coast later this week), and now Danielle is going back earlier than expected. None of these are trivial reasons, and I don't want to make any of their stories about me, but our lives are all interconnected and we all have an impact on each other. These girls were part of my Cairo family, a family that I know will ebb and flow and make their way around the world, but it still hurts to lose three of them so quickly. But Kacie and Rebecca have been great, and I'll get by.

Cairo is trying. It is hard and rough and dirty and it's trying. Throw convoluted relationships, incredibly close friendships, distance, and culture shock into the mix and it's just downright miserable sometimes. Not necessarily any more so than being a twentysomething in Boston or in Orange County because sometimes we find ourselves facing the same problems no matter where we are. So at times, when we find ourselves alone on the opposite side of the world from everything that used to be so normal, we have days where we just get by. We get by just fine. And it's enough. But if we're lucky, we get to see the Pyramids later that day too.

I saw the movie Cairo Time this past Wednesday. It was part of the 'New Arab Cinema' series on campus since the director is Syrian-Canadian. I was looking forward to it because not many movies out in the States show much of Cairo or Egypt other than the Pyramids whereas this one focuses on Cairo the entire time. I knew that they were going to show harassment because my father had already apologized to me on behalf of men everywhere if what happens in the movie is true, so I was interested to see what and how they showed it. I was also hoping that they showed some of the culture of repression that is the overarching framework which fosters this harassment but also protest, poverty, and corruption.

This second point was highlighted by what happened right before I went to see the film. I was on campus in the Fellows' Office, had been all day for a meeting that was supposed to take place at 10:30 and was rescheduled twelve hours later for Tuesday, when I began to hear shouts and cheers from the courtyard at about 3:30. I figured it would die down but after about thirty minutes of continuous noise I headed down to see what was going on. There were so many students that I couldn't see what exactly was going on, so I asked one of my friends and found out that the workers (mostly janitors) were striking because of their wages. Apparently they had been previously hired from an outside agency and there were disputes about nepotism and wages at that point, so AUC decided to hire them directly and apparently promised them a monthly wage of about 1100 LE (200 USD). However, now they have been getting paychecks of 650 LE and had up to 250 LE taken out for some sort of medical insurance program. This means that some of the workers are only getting paid 400 LE (less than 80 USD) a month and some of them are the only wage earners in families of four or five. So they decided to strike and the students began to strike with them. They sat in front of the administration building until some of the head honchos came out and agreed to talk about these issues. That's when I left to go see the movie, but it's not where it ended. The next day the strike was still going on, students were skipping class to join the sit in and trash was piling up (Cairo isn't known for being clean to begin with, so when the janitors go on strike it gets pretty dirty pretty fast). Some of the workers were able to go in and meet with administration but it looks like the strike is still going to go on and student protests are going to continue on Saturday.

This is the most expensive school in Egypt and we're paying our workers less than a hundred dollars a month? These are the people who clean up after us, make the university run smoothly and cleanly, and somehow my fellowship stipend is supposed to be more than what the primary wage earner in most families make in a month. It's absurd and I don't expect people to stand for it. I hope that the workers can get their demands met, and it's sad that their demands are so low. It's frustrating to see the inefficiency of their protest and it's disgusting that this university won't pay people 200 dollars a month. I haven't joined the sit in; I don't think that it's very effective, but I do respect those who are trying to take a stand. The university isn't being held accountable for its behavior, which is a reflection of the country that I'm living in right now. There are protests all the time, most of them don't accomplish much except for getting people into the street and giving the government an excuse to crack down on them. Mubarak is running for president again, at something like age 82, because he can and because he will probably win. Change doesn't come easy in Egypt, and this is what I was carrying with me when I went to go see the movie.

There were two major objections that I had to the film, well, three if you count the fact that it was really, really, reeeeeeaaaaalllllllllyyyy slow. The first is this return to Orientalism that romanticized the city in a way that was frustrating to me as a woman living in it every day. The second was what I fear is going to be a trend in Hollywood of western women having mid life crises in the Middle East, which I guess is just an extension of the first, but I have more of an objection to because I might relate to it; it made me question whether I was having my 'quarter life crisis' in Egypt, but I'll get to that later.

The movie had the opportunity to show what life is like in Cairo for a western woman alone. It touched on two things that I think we experience on a daily basis, and then promptly romanticized and then dropped them. The first is harassment. Like I said before, I was expecting something revolting and perpetual based on my father's apology to me after he saw it, but what I saw in the film barely scratched the surface. One day, when she is wearing a deep V neck sundress, she is constantly getting stared at and then followed by several young Egyptian men. One of them whispers in her ear 'fuck me' and she runs into the closest store, where the shop owner shoos the crowd away. Ok, that's fair, but not (in my experience) accurate. Most of the men here will stare but not follow, and I've never had a group of random men suddenly start following together. Most of the time they will say things like 'Oh you are so beautiful' 'American woman, I love America' or even 'Shakira!' and sometimes resort to some vulgar shouts but rarely approaching their target. That's not to say it doesn't happen, and my good friend was recently physically accosted by a group of teenagers. What really bothered me about the scene though was what followed in the next scene. The main character is telling her Egyptian guide about the incident and then comments on how she hasn't been 'looked at like that by a young man in years' as if it was supposed to be some sort of compliment or flattery. I will admit that the first few times it can be kind of exciting, but then it becomes frustrating, perpetual, and you realize that it has nothing to do with your beauty and everything to do with the fact that you live in a sexually and civilly repressed society where men are simply trying to exert some sort of authority. This combined with the attitude that western women are easy makes us targets. And it isn't like the harassment would have stopped just because most of the rest of the movie she was with an Egyptian man - that doesn't stop the men in the street from saying 'I am what you have been waiting for' or 'Leave him and come home with me' or worse. I almost did my thesis on British female sex tourism in the 1850s, when women could leave stuffy Victorian England and come to the newly discovered Orient where they could indulge in the local men. It happened, and it was part of Orientalism that these people were sexually available while proper English society didn't address that aspect of their lives (ironic now that sexuality is one of the areas where the Middle East is seen as backward). Being flattered by and romanticizing harassment feeds into this view in my opinion. And living here, dealing with it every day, I don't want anybody to think that it's romantic or flattering. It's disgusting, disempowering, and exhausting.

The second overly romanticized problem is traffic. Cairo has the worst traffic that I have ever seen - granted I have never been to southeast Asia where I hear it is worse - yet somehow every time she's in the car it's a totally smooth ride. She doesn't have a problem crossing the street, bridges that I have spent hours sitting in a taxi on are suddenly empty, and there is one time that she is almost hit by a boy on a delivery motorbike but is whisked out of the way at the last second by her Egyptian guide turned romantic interest. The traffic is a part of Cairo, it's a major part of living here and it's one of the hardest parts of culture shock for me to get over because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it and even after living here for a year I don't know my way around well enough to be able to tell a taxi driver a better way to go. People die in traffic accidents every day. On my first day of class last year my bus driver hit and killed a kid running across the road. An AUC student just died in a car accident with a huge truck last week and a few days later another AUC student got run off the road and killed thirteen people waiting on the side of the road for a minibus. I notice it when I am able to go for a taxi ride and we don't slam on the brakes every other minute because it's so novel. In order to live in this city you have to know how it breathes, and it does that through its traffic. You can't fall in love with Cairo without it. The horns and pollution and everything that goes along with however many millions of cars are in this city is the life of it. Not showing that was a major downfall of the movie, and also contributed to this return to Orientalism by making it an almost timeless tale. Obviously we know the movie is modern, but empty bridges make a better backdrop than crowded boulevards.

The last thing that bothered me was the Middle East as a setting for a mid life crisis. The main character has just had her son elope and her daughter graduate from college while her husband is working in Gaza. She has the luxury of a diplomat's experience in Cairo, staying in a nice hotel and being escorted around by her husband's former security guard and meeting other internationals who don't have things to do all day. She's free to explore at her leisure and eventually finds herself falling for the Egyptian(?) man who doesn't harass her. (I put a question mark after Egyptian because the actor is Syrian and the character mentions time in Syria and never says that he IS Egyptian but still represents Egypt's culture, including owning a coffee house and wearing a gallabeya - yet another little Orientalist overtone that everybody in the Middle East is the same.) Sex and the City 2 was much worse in its Orientalist overtures, but still shows these women having some life changing event just by being in the Middle East; they wind up questioning their loves and trying to figure out who they are without husbands or children in this society where women are treated so differently. And then they go home, in both movies without much being changed from the beginning of the storyline. They have adventures in the desert and  then return to life as normal. It's hard for me to write this because I do relate to it. There are so many times when I find myself saying 'This isn't the real world' and 'When I get back to America' that I wonder if this frustration is really just frustration with myself. I don't think it is though. I think I was the same person in college that I was in high school, and it wasn't until after college that I was finally able to work through some things and figure out what exactly I want. It was after I figured out what I didn't want that I was able to come here, once I knew that I couldn't get it at that time by staying in Boston. And since I've been here I've decided that it's ok to not know what I want, to not know what the next step is, to miss the deadline for the Foreign Service Exam because there's always next year. I find myself talking to my friend Ross who is here on co-op from Northeastern and grew up in Egypt and he talks about how after graduation he wants to do Peace Corps so that he can show a record of service in order to get a good job in the government. I remember being like that, I know that that's part of the reason I came here, but being here wasn't so much a crisis as it was an opportunity to change my perspective. I might not be making a clear enough distinction between the two, but I don't find myself looking for who I am while I wander the alleys of Khan el Khalili, or trying to find some way that the ancient pyramids relate to my life. Putting myself in an environment that was so different from what I've known has allowed me to step back and figure out what I want to carry with my as I move forward, what I can control, what I want to control, and mainly showed me that I don't need to know exactly what these two years are going to show or prove just yet. I might just chalk it up to a two year adventure in the desert and go back to an office job on the East Coast like I left to come here, which is my criticism of what I see in the movies. But maybe I'm being too hard on them and too hard on myself. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Everyone needs an adventure in the desert now and then. I feel lucky that mine isn't just a week or a vacation and that I get to really experience and interact with this society and culture, despite my frustrations with it. I know that I'm growing and learning and I hope that I can start to see some of that change in the country that I'm in. It probably won't happen while I'm here, but that's ok. I guess I'll start with keeping tabs on the workers' protest. Then I can work on tackling Hollywood.

I have been ridiculously stressed lately. I've had enough Model Arab League drama to last a lifetime and I've learned that I don't like working in groups, especially not with people who expect me to babysit them. I have ridiculously high expectations of myself and the people I surround myself with and I'm deeply disappointed when things don't go to plan. The stress has dissipated slightly through a few meetings and a few tears but it looks like I'm staying with it for the time being - I haven't quit anything since I was 15 and quit swim team, so why break that streak now?

I also procrastinate. A lot. I know I add to my own stress level by putting off starting a ten page paper until eight hours before it's due, but I get it done. And today I had to present that paper in class. The pressure I put on myself, which is exacerbated by the procrastination, clearly came through as most of my presentation was in confusing hand gestures. But the professor was able to assuage some of my fears and even said there are only a few tweaks that need to be made before it can be considered a final draft.

And now I'm on the bus home from campus. My big headphones and my ipod keeping me company on a crowded ride through the suburbs of Cairo and I have this calm confidence that this is where I'm supposed to be. I've always been convinced that shuffle on the ipod allows the universe to put a soundtrack to the chaos that is my life, and today did not disappoint. A little Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" (Take some time, little girl, you're in the middle of the ride) puts things in perspective. And Queen's "I Want to Break Free" (which, honestly, makes me want to dance more than is appropriate for how close I'm sitting to the person next to me) while looking out the window at two guys pushing their broken down car along the highway just makes me laugh. The Raconteurs' "Steady As She Goes" (Settle for a world, neither up nor down, Sell it to the crowd that has gathered 'round) is a fitting finale.

These are the moments when I know I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. High stress and high pressure are frustrating and sometimes I don't know what to do, but it all works out exactly as it's supposed to. These are the moments that we will look back and probably not remember, the stories that we don't tell, but they are the feelings and the memories that make it all worth it. And I mean really, how can you not laugh at those two guys pushing their broken down car along the side of the road yet managed to not cause lots of traffic? It's how I know that Egypt is home, at least for now.

Today I went to a new area of Cairo, Mansoureya. It's out west, past the furthest suburbs of Cairo. It's north of Giza, so on the way there I had a perfect view of the pyramids. It was sort of like Fayyoum, very agricultural and lots of olive groves everywhere. My friend Toon, who drives me to MAL (Model Arab League) every Saturday, drove me out there for a MAL barbecue that we were having at Faisal's house. Now, Faisal lives in the Four Seasons in Giza and this is a secondary residence….and it. was. awesome. We spent all afternoon in the backyard, which has a huge pool (though nobody swam) and there was a shisha guy and Filipino servants (Faisal is Saudi) bringing us chips and sodas. There was a hired Egyptian cook who made tons of food and we sat at huge formal dining tables with fancily folded cloth napkins and place settings that included like seven pieces of flatware. For me it was like being at a resort with a dozen of my closest Egyptian friends; for them it all seemed so normal. After lunch we went to a different part of the backyard where there was a permanent tent with air conditioning and flat screen tvs and chatted some more. I slept on a couch in there for a while, and Toon and some of the other guys played an epic game of Risk which, almost near the end, Noha went over and wiped all of the pieces off the board (seriously they had been playing for like four hours). It was a great afternoon. I felt like I was in MTV Cribs, Egypt edition. I added some pictures of the yard and my friends. And it really is a different world being with the elite of the elite.

So I wrote a really long blog post yesterday and as usual when I do that I accidentally hit something on my computer that deletes it. In this case, I had highlighted a link and when I hit backspace to delete it, it decided to go to the previous webpage that I had been on. So this is being written in a word processing program so that no matter what happens to the internet I'll have it here for you, safe and sound. The frustrating thing about this is that the second post is never as good as the first one was. It's not as funny or raw, it's just not as organic. I'm rapidly trying to write down everything I can remember from the previous post but I know I'm always forgetting something. But I probably shouldn't have told you any of that, because after all, I'm the only one who knows what I forgot to say.

Anyway, here goes.

Egypt is the mother of the world. That's what Oum al Dunya means (literally: Mother of the World) and we still have physical evidence of civilizations that were here 5000 years ago. Cairo isn't that old, it wasn't a pharaonic city. But it's just across the river from Giza and the pyramids and you can't deny that that hasn't had a serious impact on people's identity here. I don't know what Egyptians thought of themselves or their history before Europeans came traipsing around and excavating and being all touristy and interested in those big dusty triangles in the distance, but they have certainly embraced it since. Keychains of King Tut, lighters with the pyramids, scarab beetles (sometimes offered as charms, sometimes just as knick-knacks) are on sale at every kushk (kiosk) and the khan (a major souk in one of the oldest parts of Cairo). Egyptians have embraced their ancient roots and use it as justification for their uniqueness in the Arab world. Egyptian history is older than Islam, older than Arabic, and because of that Egyptians are something special and different in their own eyes. This ancient heritage is reinforced by all of the trinkets and tourism that are sold to foreigners, but clearly Egyptians are buying it too.

That's not to say that Cairo is an old city. Like I said, it isn't pharaonic. In Cairo we have wide medans (squares) and huge boulevards reminiscent of Paris in the 1800s, imposing Soviet era government buildings, an apparently growing green sector of public parks (though whenever I read those articles, I have to chuckle. I highly doubt Cairo can afford to invest much more in its green spaces anytime soon). The city has a rich history and heritage all its own that isn't that much older than anything else in the modern middle east. You can't throw a rock in this region without hitting something biblical, heck, the rock you're throwing is probably in there somewhere, but there are parts of the tourism industry that still would have you think that Cairo is still the land of King Tut. We were talking about this eternal Arab in class the other day; granted its my 19th century history seminar and back then there was a trend in Orientalism that the Arabs weren't much different in 1850 than they were four thousand years before. People went to the Middle East because it was what they read about in the Bible, they wanted to see what Jesus saw. (On an unrelated note, I found out today that my roommate, upon climbing Mount Sinai, was expecting the burning bush to in fact be on fire. I attribute this to her being blond, not Orientalist expectations.) The Arab world, the middle east, was supposed to be seen as anachronistic but at the same time Cairo was becoming a thriving metropolis and Beirut would probably still be considered the Paris of the Middle East if it wasn't constantly getting bombed (though if we look back 100 years, France wasn't necessarily doing too great on the front lines either). Now we look at Egypt as a third world country; it has fallen from world's mother to the world's feet. The times have a-changed and now I'm living 9,000 miles away from home on an island in the middle of the Nile with pyramids in the distance and 21 million people in this city. I don't know what to say about Cairo. It's not caught between past and present, its past is part of its present and always will be for as long as there are people willing to buy gallabayas with Nefertiti's head on them (that would be you Mom, and I think Aunt Sue). But Cairo isn't caught up in all that old stuff. There's a thriving night life, humongous expat communities, the biggest mall in Africa. Yes, over half of the population lives under the poverty line, yes there are serious political issues, yes there are significant refugee populations but those problems aren't unique to Cairo. What is unique to Cairo is the juxtaposition of old and new, quite literally. Feluccas can be lined up along the corniche and you can choose whether you want the traditional one with the sail or the motorized one with neon lights. When looking out of a high rise in Giza you can see the edge of the city at the foot of the pyramids. Past and present, rich and poor, masri (Egyptian) and agnabi (foreigner), Cairo is full of dichotomies and contradictions, but the best part about it is that you can see every part of it all over the city.

There was more, but like I said the second draft is never as good as the first and now I have to do homework. I'll leave you with what inspired this post though, and I hope everybody takes a minute to check out this video. It's a really good portrayal of the things I see and hear every day, and quite a modern take on it, which makes me happy. Cairo Life.

There are about a dozen posts that I've wanted to write in the past few weeks. I think about them on the bus or in taxi rides. Posts about cats in the street, or how I'm ok with the traffic because Cairo has this natural rhythm that I'm finally used to, or how Cairo is full of things that we are programmed to be scared of simply because America is over-sanitized, or how quickly you can see economic changes based on the price of cigarettes and a cash-based culture. Those are just a few examples. But then I come home and watch TV online, or do my reading, or go to a Model Arab League meeting, or work on a presentation, or go to a party at the US embassy, or go play a card game based on Monopoly at Danielle's place, or just sleep. And I know that I need to write more, but basically it all comes down to this and this post is just to let everybody know that I'm doing ok.

We had a time change (we're on winter time now, so I'm 9 hours ahead of the west coast) and a sandstorm, both yesterday. So fall is here, and September did not go out quietly, and tomorrow I have Arab League and a lecture and a felluca ride and the Alabama/Florida game. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to take a minute to post here again.

You may have heard about the Israel-Palestinian peace talks that have been taking place this month, first in DC and then in Egypt. You may have even seen this picture of the five heads of state who were in attendance (Mubarak of Egypt, Netanyahu of Israel, Obama, Abbas of Palestine, and King Abdullah II of Jordan).

What you probably didn't see, unless you're a fan of political blogs, but I don't think many of my readers are, is this picture. Something looks a little off, right? That's the beauty of photoshop, and that's exactly what the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram (the pyramids) used when they made this little gem and printed it here in Egypt. When they were called out on it they said they weren't trying to mislead the Egyptian public (lies) but that they wanted to show the leading role that Mubarak was playing in the process. Right.

So that's what state run media in the Middle East will get you folks - humiliated. Some bloggers first noticed the error and called out the government, who used that line about Mubarak playing a leading role. But really they didn't even do a good job in the photoshopping!

Looks like it's time for me to start picking up that newspaper again. I wonder what other gems it might be holding.

Happy Holiday!

Eid al-fitr was this weekend. It was the end of ramadan and we had a four day break. I decided not to go to the cool beach town because I kept hearing of more and more groups that were going and I don't want to go relax with everybody else, I want to go relax on my own. So I stayed here and took advantage of my last real vacation before everything starts up. I watched a lot of TV (Californication, Big Bang Theory, Boondocks) online and read my book and got some work done.

Now everything goes back to normal tomorrow (our time went back to 'normal' on Friday - ramadan is in winter time, but summer time doesn't end until Sept 30 so I had my second 'spring forward' in September) with school and Arab League and all that good stuff. Insha'allah things go more smoothly now that offices are actually open during the day.

I'll leave you with more ramadan pictures from the same site I linked to previously. The new ones were sent in by people from all over the world.

While most of you will be starting school today, the Tuesday after Labor Day, I'm already done with my first week of classes. I'm in three classes this semester. Only nine credits for the first time since I entered grad school - most grad students take nine credits each semester. I'm done with Arabic, I just need to arrange for my proficiency exam to get it out of the way. Anyway, my three classes are:

Seminar on 19th Century Middle East: I'm excited about this class because I don't know that much about this topic. It's going to be a lot about the Ottomans and I'm looking forward to it. I told the professor that I'm interested in languages and nationalism and she got really excited and I think that I'll be able to work with her on honing my thesis, which is fantastic. I don't know where the professor is from; her name is Pascale Ghazaleh, she could be Syrian maybe? She's married so it could be a taken name, but honestly I can't tell at all. She's an expert on Egypt and trade, but also interested in the Ottomans and nationalism. We have a ton of readings before our next class (which is two weeks later because of the Eid holiday) so that we can have a general framework to fit our class discussions into. It's the first history class I've taken at AUC, so I'm intrigued to see just how heavy it is. I'll keep you posted.

State and Society: This class will definitely be interesting. It's the first non Arabic class that I've taken that includes undergraduates. It's also the first class I've taken in the Political Science department. The professor is Egyptian and I'm kind of worried that the class will focus on Egypt more than anything else, because I'm hoping to cover the whole Middle East. We spent most of the first class defining the state and I talked a lot. I think if I can keep involved then I'll enjoy the class just fine. We have a paper and two take home exams, so at least there isn't any group work which is good. It's on Sunday right after my other one, so that's going to be a busy day, but it should be fine.

Research Methodologies: This is my thesis course. I'm really looking forward to it and though it will be demanding, tough, and time consuming, most of the work is our own with the only outside readings being examples of abstracts, proposals, and research grant proposals. I want to write my thesis on Arab Nationalism as a language based nationalism. This will include linguistic identity, colonial legacy, and the relationship between formal and colloquial Arabic, so I need to focus things a little more but that's what this class is for. Our deadlines are in line with the deadlines for these things for the department, so it's a really useful class.
Additionally, I will be able to use this time to possibly apply for conferences and research grants - I'm hoping to travel quite a bit this year and will be applying for things in London, Italy, and maybe even India. (If I then go visit my friend in Singapore I'll make him take me to Bali so that I can do the whole Eat, Pray, Love thing Dana-style.)

I only have class two days a week, so I'll have to be really good about time management and not just be lazy on my days off, but I think I'll have so much work that that shouldn't be a problem.

Things are good here. Happy School Year to everybody here and at home.

It means Holy Ramadan and it's the standard greeting for everything from taxis to lovers during the holy month, which is designed for self purification through prayer, fasting, and charity. Muslims abstain from food, water, smoking and sex from sun up to sun down, and break their fast with iftar at the sound of the muezzin calling out the maghreb (in this case meaning sunset, but also meaning western or Morocco) prayer. I haven't gone out for iftar here in Cairo this year yet, but I might during this coming week. It is my last Ramadan in a Muslim country for a while, so we will see. During one of my taxi rides, my driver pulled over at the sound of maghreb prayer and got himself a Pepsi and had a cigarette - traditionally people break their fast with dates, but that's clearly not always the case. Another meal is sohour, which as far as I can tell is supposed to be eaten between dusk and dawn - sunset and dusk are not considered the same thing, neither are sunrise and dawn, so iftar is to be between sunset and dusk and sohour between dusk and dawn, with morning prayers and fast starting at dawn (technically the prayers are supposed to be fifteen minutes before sunrise, and fasting starts after that). Sohour can either be at the beginning of nightfall, which we encountered today when we tried to go grocery shopping during that time and the store was closed for dusk prayers and sohour, or it can be just before the morning prayers (known as fajr).

Ramadan is an interesting time in Cairo. It's probably the best time to come if you're prone to jetlag because everybody else is pretty much on West Coast time too. I've definitely been staying up until 8 am and sleeping in until 3 or 4 in the afternoon - and I'm one of the ones who goes to bed early. Granted sleeping all day may seem like an cop out since you're then only awake to fast for a few hours before sundown, but it's also a time for celebration and many people sleep only a few hours any time of day. There are special Ramadan television series for after iftar, there are special Ramadan drinks and treats, and nobody seems to judge anybody else for how much or little they fast as long as they fast during the required times. There are strings of lights and flags in many of the alleys, reminding me of Christmas except that the whole month is holy, not just one day preceded by a month of commercialization. People get excited for Ramadan, but they don't start decorating before the holy month starts.

Also, Ramadan is based on the lunar calendar, so even while in it you're not exactly sure when it might end. It's new moon to new moon, which is scheduled to end on Sept 9 this year, with a holiday called Eid Al-Fitr (break fast holiday) during which I will go to the Sinai peninsula to a little beach town called Dahab along with most of the rest of Cairo from what it sounds like. Last year I went to Hurghada, and this year frankly I'm hoping to go back to school after it ends instead of having another week of vacation (though I wouldn't turn it down, I just don't want to deal with swine flu troubles again). I'm also thankful for the sake of American Muslims and my sake being an American in Cairo that the month ends before September 11. There has been enough negativity toward the Islamic community in America that we don't need one of the only two holidays mentioned in the Qu'ran to land on the anniversary of such a tragic day in our own history. The holiday break is four days here, so it will be interesting to see if and how Americans commemorate Sept 11 during the celebration, but I will have to post on that next week.

Classes start tomorrow. In addition to it being Sunday, it's the day before Labor Day in the States. We really aren't in Kansas anymore.

I'm going to try to get to bed early tonight, but in the meantime, enjoy some of these pictures of Ramadan around the world. Kul sana wa intum bekheer (alternatively - kul ramadan wa intum bekheer)! It means 'every year/ramadan and you all are well. It's also a birthday greeting, but I wish it upon all of you as well :)

This title is misleading, but I enjoy it none the less. This was probably the coldest summer of my life (thanks Mark Twain - 'The coldest winter of my life was summer in San Francisco'). It was also the most surreal summer.

Let's start with the biggie - I studied Arabic for nine weeks this summer at Middlebury at Mills in Oakland. Bearing in mind that I spent the previous nine months in Egypt, coming so close to home and being in a more intense Arabic situation was kind of mind boggling. I tested into level 3 of 4 and by the end of the summer had improved fifty percent according to test scores. I read a novel in Arabic, lived in Arabic speaking dorms, learned Arabic grammar in Arabic, wrote a 1500 word paper in Arabic, and got really really sick of Arabic. I also didn't eat bacon (except for when I went to visit my friend Leif, who is from Northeastern but lives in California for the time being, and was kind enough to make me bacon the three times that I made him come rescue me) and had very little dairy since milk was only available at breakfast (which I generally slept through) and I still don't know the word for butter. The experience was intense, and by the end of it my Arabic was no doubt better, but my mind and body were exhausted. Fortunately I had been to San Francisco before, so I didn't feel the need to go out all the time. I did go into the city a few times, once for Pride. once to visit Theresa and Corey during their trip across America, and once to meet up with my favorite sex educator from Boston who was doing a West Coast tour. I also managed to visit my middle school crush who is now studying for his PhD at Berkeley, and managed to squeeze in a couple visits with my parents on their way to and from Seattle.

On top of this, I was supposed to be doing work for Model Arab League in Cairo, and trying to keep in touch with the new director of Middle East Studies to see what was needed of me for the department.

After nine weeks of Arabic boot camp, which has proven to be quite useful now that I'm back in Cairo, but sometimes felt like torture at the time, I headed home just in time to see Kat back in town from St Louis. I also got to hang out with Miresa and Mikhela and Valerie and even Josh came in for the weekend - to get engaged and introduce his fiancee to his middle school harem. Kat and I went up to Santa Monica to hang out at the pier and visit Valerie's new place, Miresa and Michelle came over to Casa Larsen so the whole gang (minus Amy, sadly) was back together to meet Josh's fiancee just about an hour after they got engaged, and Mikhela and I went to cheer on her boyfriend during a three hour set at a coffee shop that had an audience of us, three old men, and a random family. Trina brought the babies down for my last weekend, and we all went out to Hemet to visit Grama and the dogs. We had fun at Chuck E Cheese where Auntie Dana was the lucky one who got to climb in the jungle gym (Chuck E's Treehouse) and chase the kids around - tip: those things are not made for adults. At all. We also went to a park one day where Auntie Dana was again the lucky one who got to chase Kiernan through the water fun area; Auntie Dana was also the only one in the water fun area not in a swimsuit, so Kiernan thought it would be fun to squirt her directly with a jet of water from one of the toys. Yep. I also went out for dinner with my dad's mom and was even able to fit in a little shopping at the mall. All in all a busy busy 10 days at home. But the next stop wasn't Egypt, I wound up in Atlanta for about a week before leaving the country.

I had started talking to my friend Matt from Model Arab League (in the States, not Cairo) early in the summer. Yes it was in English, yes it violated my Language Pledge, yes I flew down to Vegas last minute to visit him when he was out there because his friend was playing in the World Series of Poker and managed to meet up with Trina and Eric in the airport on their way to Turks and Caicos - hmmm, looks like this 'never a dull moment' thing started long before coming back to Egypt. After Vegas I decided to stop in Atlanta on the way back to Cairo to stay with Matt and his family. I had met his brother in Vegas and had been talking to Matt for a while, so I was very comfortable heading there. I was less comfortable actually being there, but that was just because of the humidity. I've lived in deserts all my life - I'm not used to random thunderstorms and 90 percent humidity! But that's August in Georgia. I'm also not used to secession being a standard topic of conversation or seeing the Stars and Bars out and about, but hey, I'd also never been to the South before. We went hiking a couple times, went to Stone Mountain (a Confederate Mt Rushmore essentially), and every time we went out to eat we got some sort of discount because Matt has worked in the food industry for about ten years now and knows everybody. It was a relaxing week, his family was great, and now I'm looking at things in Atlanta for next summer, when I would be able to move in with my friend Danielle and see more of the South. It was strange to be leaving the States from Atlanta and having spent my last week in America 3000 miles away from my family, but I guess this is growing up.

So that was my summer. Oakland, Vegas, Home, and Atlanta. Then I stopped in Rome on my way to Cairo, one of my bags is still there I guess. I spent seven hours there and bought a metro ticket so I could head to Trevi Fountain, the Vatican, and the Spanish Steps. I ate gelato and did a lot of people watching, stopped at Hard Rock and took the train back to the airport. I hadn't been to Rome since I was in seventh grade so it was great to see St Peter's Basilica without a bunch of scaffolding. I might be back, it's only a three hour flight from Cairo.

And now I'm back.

That's part of the instructions for lighting my oven -
1. Turn on the oven
2. Take a piece of spaghetti, light it on fire
3. Shove the spaghetti into the hole in the front of the bottom of the oven to reach the gas that you turned on in step 1
4. Good luck baking anything, you have no idea what degree the oven is.

Remember, this is the Manhattan of Cairo. Like Upper East Side Manhattan, not Alphabet City Manhattan. Never a dull moment.

Last year I always said the worst part about leaving Cairo is coming back to Cairo. It's not that Cairo is so bad that you don't want to come back, but it's tough each and every time. Last week, as I ran to board my flight in New York (I was the last on the plane because my flight from Atlanta was delayed) I felt the tears start to well up behind my eyes. I spent the first couple hours of the flight crying while a little Italian boy peered around his father to stare at me. I was excited for school to start, but like I said, it's tough each and every time I return to Cairo.

But now I'm back, and Cairo feels more like home than ever. Leaving America is what's hard, especially on a one way ticket, but coming back to Cairo was easy. I know how to get whatever I want or need in this city, I'm learning my way around new neighborhoods, and when I worked orientation last week I had the answers to most of the students' questions - or at least knew how to tell them not to worry about not having the answer. AUC is frustrating me already and classes haven't even started, so it's comforting to know that there are newbies in a worse off position than I am. The director, Reem Saad, and the new secretary, Radwa, are also brand new so I'm one of the oldest people in the department. Reem and Radwa were happy to have me there to answer the questions they didn't know the answers to as well, or at least to tell them not to worry about not having the answer. My fellowship is less this year because the university lost about 20 million dollars last year, so I'm trying to see what money I can get from them. AUC is frustrating, that's a common trend; I'll deal with it.

I live in a new area of Cairo now; a neighborhood called Zamalek on an island in the middle of the Nile. That's definitely a reason why the move back was easier this time. Wandering the streets of Zamalek without being harassed, sweating buckets, picking up Mirinda (orange soda) and Mars bars from the local kushk (kiosk), and avoiding the puddles caused by Cairo rain (the water that leaks off of the air conditioning units running full blast). I know this place, I enjoy this place. My roommate Kacie and I found it on Saturday, moved in on Wednesday, and tonight I'm all moved in to a huge room with floor to ceiling, wall to wall windows on the eighth floor overlooking more trees than I saw all of last year. When classes start it's only a five or ten minute walk to the bus stop and the neighborhood is great - first off I'm not surrounded by three mosques to wake me up at all hours of the night, instead I'm next to the Australian embassy and the Spanish ambassador's residence. The neighborhood is full of expats, which means harassment is really low (especially compared to downtown) and it's full of restaurants and clubs. I'm in the Manhattan of Cairo and I couldn't be happier. I even cleaned my room today! The only downside is the dust and dirt that comes with Cairo life - so cleaning included balancing on the banister outside my window to wipe off the dirt that has accumulated over what I expect is at least the past year, but I did it. I'll put pictures up soon.

I stayed with Danielle in Dokki since I've been here. It's got me saying 'never a dull moment' every other minute practically. First of all, Danielle just got engaged and asked me to officiate her wedding - so now I've gotten ordained through the power of the internet. I don't know how legitimate it is, but I'll check with the county in Alabama where the wedding will be to see what else I need to do. Our friend Andrew got in the same night I did and also planned on crashing with Danielle, but now he's decided to move in. They have an odd couple type thing going on, with Andrew cleaning just about everything as often as he can, while Danielle and I share the attitude that clean is the opposite of dirty and messy is the opposite of neat, so being messy doesn't mean you're dirty. One night we wound up at the pharmacy at 4 am because Andrew accidentally stabbed himself in the hand trying to poke holes in a can to make a cover for shisha, the next night we wound up in Zamalek across from the supermarket buying a beautiful grey cat for 220LE (about $40) now named Optimus Prime (Prime for short), and the next night Andrew and I sat with the guys who sell foul (pronounced fool, a fava bean paste kind of like watery refried beans that is served in pita bread for about 30 cents) and spoke in Arabic for about an hour at three in the morning, eventually getting invited to Fayyoum with them for them to cook for us after ramadan. Never a dull moment indeed.

So it's good to be back, and I'm glad that I learned all that Arabic this summer. Classes start on Sunday and then Thursday is vacation for Eid al Fitr since its the end of ramadan. Later I'll post more about this summer, but now Kacie and I are off to Dokki - maybe some more foul and definitely playing with Prime. Never a dull moment!

I've been getting angrier and angrier at the men here in Egypt. And not just the Egyptian men on the streets but the discussions that we've been having in my SOC class about feminism and gender have made me upset at most of the guys I interact with on a daily basis. My friends and I have been having a lot of conversations about sex and identity and gender and the women among us have been complaining about the treatment we get from men here. One of my friends chased down a ten year old boy because he grabbed her butt. I got followed by a guy yelling out his car window at me trying to get me to get in so he could give me a ride home. Dooler had a guy touch her inappropriately in the metro and it caused a car wide riot when her male friend pushed the guy away. It's frustrating to be so completely objectified. But the men honestly don't know how to interact with women. When Dooler broke up with her boyfriend he continued to contact her for months. He wouldn't take no for an answer, he wouldn't listen to what a woman had to say if it didn't fit with what he wanted. That's what the men are like here, but not just here. In class the other day one of the guys asked if I got the tattoo on my foot to attract Egyptian men. When I said no, and I have French and Danish tattooed on me as well, he said 'to attract sexy Danish and French men?' NO! I don't do anything thinking about what men will think of when they see it. I wasn't explaining this to an Egyptian man like I did after a drinking game gone bad the other night (I slapped a guy when he said 'I objectify you because I think you're sexy') but I was explaining this to a married American guy who is a graduate student in Political Science.
Dooler has heard me bitch about a lot of this, so has Hugo and Jake. It's nice to have people that I can share these things with. Especially when I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want or expect from myself and my surroundings. I didn't think that I would miss therapy as much as I do, but a lot of these things, especially about sex or gender or female/male interaction are things that I would talk about with Mitch. Being bombarded with harassment and objectification and even the guys who aren't crude about it (a waiter who recognized me in a cafe and tried to say how sweet I was by saying 'you are so honey') is taking a larger toll on me than I expected. I'm looking forward to a break in the States but I hope that next semester I have something similar to the support I have now dealing with all of this. Dooler and Hugo are leaving, I don't know if Jake is staying. I'll still have Anne and Kacie and my friends in Model Arab League (who are suprisingly attentive when I complain about life in Egypt, but then write off my frustrations as just not understanding the culture most of the time).
I don't necessarily understand what the point of this post was, but there is a lot of frustration running through me right now. Some of it came out in a paper I wrote on gender studies (attached) but mostly writing that paper increased the frustration that I have in my daily life.  I remember being 14 when I first came to Egypt, and people asked me to marry them and I cried on a daily basis. I've gotten older, I've gotten better at handling such advances, but after almost a year in this place it's just starting to wear on me.
So I guess for the first time I'm going to describe myself as an angry feminist. I'm just waiting for somebody to say the wrong thing, I'm silently daring them to touch me so I can lash out in the way that I want.
Somebody once told my mom Cairo is the worst city in the world for women. I don't know if that's true, but I certainly can't disagree just yet.

Attachments:

Today is May 9. It's mid-spring. It is not summer. I believe it may actually be raining in Boston and since it's only 6am on the West Coast as I write this it's nice and cool in the hours just before dawn.

I, however, am in Egypt. I am in Cairo. In the desert. Where the sun beats down mercilessly and sand blows everywhere. Yesterday was quite humid, today not so much, but the pollution hangs in the air so that every breath feels like sucking on the exhaust pipe of an 18-wheeler in Nevada. I think it broke triple digits yesterday, which wasn't that big of a deal, but today is effing ridiculous. It is 109 degrees and the weather is listed as 'blowing sand.' I don't know if that's an upgrade or not from the earlier weather report of 'dust' but it is certainly miserable. Also everybody thinks I'm crazy because I'm wearing my Solumbra jacket which has sunscreen built in and mesh panels in the sides for ventilation, but is still black. I'm also wearing a long skirt, also black. So I look crazy and it's hot and there's no air conditioning in my apartment, just a squeaky fan.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to coming home. Actually, I'm just looking forward to tomorrow when it cools off to a mere 92 (insha'Allah). Meanwhile, to my friends staying in Cairo over the summer, y'all are CRAZY.

I'm off to find somewhere air conditioned now. Yelch.

I have a meeting today scheduled for 1pm with the girls that are in my committee for Model Arab League. It is important that we have this meeting because we need to come up with a session plan for our first session which is Tuesday. At 3pm all the MAL secretariats are meeting to do delegate selection; we have been doing interviews for the past month and today we will determine who will be in which council. My council, the Conference on Arab Human Rights, has broken a record with applications so we have to meet at 2:30 in order to start filtering out our applicants so that those we don't select can be chosen for their second or third choice councils. It is an important meeting, and I've been stressing its importance to my girls, particularly in that we have to have a solid session plan for Tuesday so that we impress those who have been selected to join us.

At 11am today I got a call from one of my girls. 'Dana. I'm not going to be able to make it, can we have the meeting tomorrow? My driver just called and he sprained his ankle so he won't be able to take me to campus at one' To me, nothing about this excuse makes sense. If you have an obligation, you find a way to get there. However, that's not how things work in Egypt. If the driver can't make it then the person doesn't get where they need to be. I would have suggested the metro or a taxi, but it is highly likely that this girl's parents wouldn't allow her to use either of these other methods of transportation. Even if they did, she probably wouldn't want to.

Faisal is a Saudi prince. He lives in the Four Seasons in Giza and can see the Nile and the Pyramids from his bedroom window. When we went to Hussein (Khan el Khalili) last week, somebody suggested that everybody leave their cars downtown and share taxis to Hussein. Faisal said 'I don't understand what you're saying' because the implication was that he was to be in a taxi. Earlier this year Faisal offered me his driver when I had to leave a meeting later than the buses were leaving. I was impressed and excited to have a private driver take me to my apartment from campus. I thought that it was something special and unique; I now realize that it simply the way things are, especially for those who go to AUC.

AUC is a school for the elite, and now that it is out on the new campus in the middle of nowhere, it is for the elite of the elite. It's cheaper than private schools in the States, but far more expensive than what most of the Egyptian population can afford. Many prominent businessmen and diplomats are graduates of AUC. There was even an article in the New York Times this week about AUC and its role for Egyptians (click here). It talks about AUC as an institute for 'unlearning' as in making students think instead of rote memorization that is taught in high schools. It also talks about 'Gucci Corner' and plagiarism but it doesn't mention that even though the administration might be trying to make AUC out as an institution where students really learn to think and question their surroundings, at the end of the day many students are lazy and turn in a paper that they probably didn't write and it perpetuates the cycle of what I mentioned in a previous post - AUC is a degree mill in the desert. But an elite one.

I wasn't expecting to be surrounding myself with the Upper East Side of Cairo. Many times I feel like the people I hang out with here have more in common with the cast of Gossip Girl than with me - unlimited resources, private drivers, house parties, drugs, and maintaining appearances for the sake of family values and respect. They are also stunted in that they can't manage to take a cab for themselves. I know that I am privileged and my parents gave me their credit card when I went off to college and are paying off my student loans, but they didn't buy my subway ticket for me or hold my hand when I had to cross the street. Everything here feels so schizophrenic. AUC needs a basic life skills course - how to hail a taxi, how to buy a metro ticket, how to read a map - as part of its curriculum. Maybe this is just because I don't have all of the opportunities that these kids have, maybe I'm jealous, maybe I'm an outsider and an orientalist. Regardless, I didn't expect to be going to school in this country with people who enjoy a higher standard of living than I could ever have expected growing up. It's an interesting realization, to find yourself all of a sudden recognizing class. I don't quite get it, but I guess I'm elite by association...

I have summer plans!

I got accepted to the Middlebury Language Institute Arabic program for the summer (link to the program to the right under 'daily life'). It's nine weeks of all Arabic. All. The. Time. In addition to taking five hours a day of Fusha (formal Arabic), there are additional courses available in dialects and clubs to teach cooking, calligraphy, dance, and Bible or Qur'an reading. You literally eat, drink, speak, and live Arabic 24/7. There's an intense language pledge and you can get kicked out for speaking anything other than Arabic, not just English. You can't bring non language speakers to the dorms or the cafeteria and you can't call your family within earshot of other students. It's pretty intense but it will be worth it.

It's ironic though, that I'll be so much closer to everybody but I'll be less able to communicate than I am here in Egypt. Oh well....by the end of the summer I'll be pretty close to fluent in Fusha and probably not too shabby in Egyptian Ammaya (the dialect), which will be quite beneficial when I come back here for my second year of grad school.

Relationships are tricky. Very tricky in Egypt. I've wanted to write about relationships here for a while, but now I have a paper due and obviously need to procrastinate.

When I first came here I was with John. I really appreciated the fact that I didn't have to worry about getting involved with anybody during my time here and I'd be able to focus on my studies. It worked out really well for the first semester, but some things aren't meant to last. Now I'm single again and get to experience the joy of balancing a social life that now includes potential suitors with grad school (I have a couple of really hot dates set up with a guy named Final Papers in the next couple weeks - wunderbar!). Last semester was definitely easier in that regard...

Anyway. A bit about relationships here in Egypt. A bunch of my friends are in various forms of relationships, as they are everywhere, but a few things are unique about romance in this country. Among foreigners, things are a bit easier, but those of us living here want to remain culturally sensitive. Last semester some of my friends were dating people who lived on campus. In order to spend a night together they had to go off campus and rent a hotel room for the night. This is ok as long as both parties are foreigners, but anybody dating an Egyptian had to find a way around this. In Hurghada, I know people who have paid bribes to hotel owners to allow mixed gender rooms, especially among Egyptian/American couples. Those who have apartments generally fare better, but Egyptian/foreigner relations are still looked down upon. Even though Dooler, Hugo, and I live in a mixed gender apartment, Dooler still had trouble bringing Sherif up to our apartment. The baowab (doorman) would yell at him, harass him, and was very clear in letting us know that Sherif was not welcome.

Dooler broke up with Sherif in February. It was a pretty interesting experience and affected way more than just the two of them. Sherif's reaction made it very clear that Egyptian men are not used to being dumped. He called her repeatedly, he came into Cairo and followed us to our apartment (one time she was on the phone with him and he commented on how he could see me in the window - creepy), and of course he left a cat on our doorstep 'because he knew how much Dooler liked cats and wanted to make her happy' with a cat. on the doorstep. He also called several of our female friends to talk about it since he couldn't talk to any of his Egyptian friends about being dumped by an American (I was very happy to be living with Dooler at this point as it made him not call me). Any break up is difficult, but his behavior was very possessive and reflected how he had thought the relationship was going to go - exactly as he wanted. Finally things calmed down but it was weird for a bit, seeing the cross cultural demise of a relationship.

Most of my friends are pretty happy in their relationships now. Dating isn't easy in Cairo. You can't hold hands in the street, men and women walking alone together can generate some odd looks, there's certainly no PDAs (except in clubs, where all sorts of transgressions take place). Relationships with Egyptians can be difficult because even if your partner is open minded, not a lot of other people are. Most of the couples I know are foreigner/foreigner at this point. One couple is wearing rings on their left ring finger to be able to hold hands in public without being judged (married couples are respected, while unmarried couples mean the woman is a dirty sharmoota - slut). Some people hang out in areas that have more foreigners living there so things aren't necessarily so awkward. Some people sneak around and steal kisses in the library when nobody's looking. I'm sure some of you have heard about couples getting arrested in Dubai or Abu Dhabi for kissing in public (one couple was drunk and having sex on the beach, they're in jail now). I don't know if the public decency laws in Egypt are that strict that kissing in public will wind you up on jail, but I don't know anyone who's tested the limits (except in clubs; clubs always seem to have their own set of rules and its not uncommon to see people making out in dark corners, seemingly away from prying eyes).

Dating is weird in this generation. A lot of people jump full on into a physical relationship without exploring an emotional one, the lines between friendship and more are blurred, parties or group outings seem to take the place of dinner and a movie. In Egypt it's just as strange, only you can't kiss somebody goodbye at the door without going inside. Group outings allow people to couple up without it being obvious that they're a couple to the outside world. There's no hand holding!

Mix this all in with the leering stares of Egyptian men at all times and a good percentage of women in hijab or niqab whenever you're out in public, and the perceptions of romance, especially for a western female, can't not be challenged living in Egypt.

Today was Earth Day, so Danielle, Megan, and I took a tour around campus with one of the architects to see some of the features that AUC has to make it environmentally sustainable. It was actually really interesting and makes me a little less upset that the building I'm in is designed for a game of capture the flag (earlier today I walked in a complete circle looking for the history department, but eventually found it). Basically everything was designed to keep the campus cool. They angled it so that there would be minimal direct sunlight into rooms, and those buildings facing north or south can have full glass sides (like the library) for maximum natural light without glare, reducing the need for artificial light. Only the library and labs have complete internal air conditioning (due to books and equipment) while other areas have are cooled off by this high low air pressure combination that is built into the design of the buildings themselves (courtyards create wind tunnels, bridges are open so they dont need to be air conditioned, air flows through buildings even if there isn't any wind). He talked about ground cover plants as compared to the grass areas that we have on campus. The grass uses a ton of water so they're working on ground cover plants to keep dust from flying everywhere (hey it is the desert). The most interesting thing was the water features though. I've been pretty upset that there's so many fountains on campus - there's a water crisis in Egypt people! But apparently they're everywhere so as to keep relative humidity levels where they should be. I guess it would be a lot hotter without the water features, and that means that the mechanical systems would have to work a lot harder to keep the buildings cool.

Pretty interesting. Happy Earth Day!

That's the most important thing to keep in mind while reading this post. I am completely safe and I don't feel that anything I am doing is putting my personal security in any sort of jeopardy. I don't want to have to write 'but I'm fine, but I'm safe' after every sentence, so go ahead and assume that it's there as you're reading.

That being said.

My mom commented on my 'rabble rousing' a couple posts ago, and it's only gotten worse. Not mine in particular, but MAL is apparently quite the politically controversial organization. Cairo University has created dossiers on the three heads of CIMAL and has let them know that if the brochure winds up on their campus, that those three will be arrested. Ain Shams, another university in Egypt, has had police officers (not just security guards) harass MAL students trying to interview potential delegates on that campus. I truly appreciate AUC's support for the program and can't imagine if there were police coming into our meetings to make sure we're not saying anything against the government. And we're not, technically. The theme is 'Their Thrones, Our Nation' and the brochure has a skeleton on a throne while the poster has a fallen king behind a standing pawn on a chess board. Very gripping images, especially in such a politically repressive country as Egypt. I mentioned that we had trouble printing the brochure because people refused to be associated with the political content; apparently that runs deeper than I ever imagined.

Two days ago, a member of the NDP (National Democratic Party, Mubarak's party) called for an increase in violence against protesters. He did not mix his words at all - he said 'do not use water hoses on these protesters, shoot them'. At least he recognizes the water crisis in the country. But really, can you imagine anything like that in the States? It's ridiculous. Protesters stood outside parliament yesterday with signs that said 'Shoot us' in response. This is a police state, many people were arrested, including potentially the trainer we were supposed to have for MAL last night. This is a state with emergency law in effect continuously for the past 29 years, where any gathering of more than 7 people is a violation of the law. Freedom of assembly? yeah right. The government clamps down and arrests people, but that just creates more angry people who then go protest. This one MP's solution to just shoot them is terrifying in its feasibility. The expected response was so big that I got an email from the US embassy to avoid downtown - you know, WHERE I LIVE. Nothing major happened; I've seen more police many times, but still...

The government here is weak. The government here is scared. The MP who called for bullets instead of water said that protesters are a threat to national security - it's the government who is a threat to national security. They will go to ANY length to protect their own power. Parliamentary elections are coming up this summer. You know what the government did? They EXTENDED THE SCHOOL YEAR so that students won't be in the street protesting. They'll be in class, taking exams, at public Egyptian universities. I have friends who go to some of these schools, MAL delegates are being recruited there. What if they had made summer plans? What if they want to protest? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I can't help but compare to what would happen in the states. Can you IMAGINE if in April, your district/state/FEDERAL GOVERNMENT told you that classes would go through July instead of June? Just to keep students off the streets. If you're afraid of protests, why don't you start doing things to appease the people....

It's different here. And most of these things wouldn't affect me if I weren't in MAL. I wouldn't deal with many Egyptians, I wouldn't hear about their problems. I wouldn't be researching the topics of police states and minority discrimination (the topics of my council - Human Rights) in an environment that is so rife with examples of both. I'm actually kind of intimidated by that. My research on and in the Middle East has been so theoretical that walking into a room and teaching a bunch of Egyptians about what a police state is - when they have lived their ENTIRE lives in one - is kind of daunting.

But the point is, I'm safe.

Allow me to be perfectly honest - I applied to AUC because I was sure that I could get in. Well that and they didn't require a GRE score, thus saving me time and money not taking a standardized test that I will eventually have to take anyway if I want to keep going in school back in the States. But the main point is that I didn't think that highly of AUC's program. I mean I knew it would be interesting, but I figured that a school that makes most of its money off of study abroad students each semester probably has a low retention rate and therefore some sub par programs. But hey, at least I'd get to live in the Middle East and learn Arabic all while getting a degree, sounds good right?
Wrong. Now that I'm here, I can honestly say that I've never been so academically challenged in my life. I don't think Northeastern did a good job preparing me for grad school, but I also think that this program is one of the most rigorous in existence. I know that in some professions, a Masters is an easy way to a bigger salary, but this program is truly focused on academia itself. Getting a Masters isn't seen as a stepping stone for something else, but an intellectual journey in and of itself. I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised. I wasn't completely wrong about the low retention rate though. Since I arrived in August, the department secretary quit, causing the lower secretary to step up, and now she's leaving to move to Dubai with her husband. The Department Chair is so fed up with administrative bullshit that she's stepping down at the end of this year as well (the new Director of the program likes me though, so I'm still good with my fellowship). Next year there's going to be a big demand for the other fellows and myself to carry on the work of the department while it's sort of getting rebuilt (we only have three people in the office - two will be new, the third plays on facebook 87% of the time). It will be a very busy semester indeed.
In addition to the program being rigorous, it's also incredibly supportive. Today we had a thesis round table where professors from other departments gave us feedback on our research topics. No other department has that kind of program. Rouchdy thinks I'm a genius and always has really positive things to say to me. Whenever I (or anybody else in the department) have an issue with anything, somebody is always there to make sure we don't get too freaked out about it. Last semester on guy got sick and Rouchdy went to the hospital to make sure he was getting the proper care and to translate. When another fellow had family issues, they worked it out that he could take another semester to finish his work. It's also surprisingly competitive - way moreso than I originally thought. Apparently the year I applied saw record numbers of students applying, and they accepted 30 out of 200, and after one semester I became one of 3 first years on fellowship in the department. It's small enough that we're like a family though, so that makes me happy.
Now I'm frustrated that I held the opinions that I did a year ago about AUC  - easy to get into, poor programming, best feature is its location (its not by the way, were out in the middle of the desert, Cairo is crowded and dirty, and I'm not learning Arabic the way I want to). It's hard to get into, the program is amazing, and, ok the location still definitely plays a major role. But I know that people in the States still think what I did last year. This year none of the graduating Masters students got accepted into PhD programs. None. AUCs reputation among the academic community is very much as a second tier school - good enough for what it is. I hope that by this time next year, when I'm thinking about what to do next, AUC is seen as more than just a degree factory in the desert. I've never worked so hard, and I don't want it to go unrecognized.

That being said, now I'm off to read about Iraq in the 1920s. Standard....

CIMAL has provided its fair share of drama for me this semester. First of all it's way more work than I was anticipating, but I've managed to get my feet back under me and stay on top of all my work and act as President for my committee (Arab Human Rights). We've decided we're going to address themes of Police States and Rights of Minority Groups in the Arab World. We figured those are relevant enough to Egypt that we should get a good crowd (and we were right! Our committee has the highest number of people applying for it as their first choice). We came up with a background paper guide and a series of lesson plans, as well as interview criteria and questions, and we (I) designed our brochure page, even if it was slightly late. I've also written a paper on Aladdin and Orientalism for the MAL newspaper (attached here) and I'll be able to apply a paper I wrote on human rights for one of my classes to this project. So it's been a lot of work, but it's all paying off. First by notoriety - work with my name on it has officially been burned because of its political content! I am super excited about that. The theme for CIMAL this year is 'Their Thrones, Our Nation' and the main image is very dramatic - it's a skeleton on a throne. The first guy who printed the material wound up BURNING it when people went to pick it up. He declared the image political irresponsible because Mubarak is sick and it's almost election time. He refused to be associated with it or any of the political content we had written in the brochure, specifically my page. Aren't we supposed to be a student group, not an activist group? was his argument. It's incredibly ironic that the human rights page was singled out as one of the reasons we had trouble printing the brochure, but eventually we got it done (through the black market in Cairo, good stuff).

Never a dull moment here, never a dull moment :)

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Sorry for the lack of updates in March. It was a busy month that took me all the way back to CA. A lot happened - papers, midterms, Model UN, Model Arab League, St Patrick's Day, visits from friends, stomach bugs - the works.

Now that I'm back I'm back in the swing of things. I just wrote a long post and deleted it so I don't want to write it again, but I'll be back here more often in the coming months I promise. Off to do Arabic homework and research and reading. Ah the life of a grad student.

Love you all!

Ok so tonight wasn't a particularly exciting night but it was fairly typical of my nights out in Cairo. Hugo and I met up with Jake, Eric and Mandy at the King Hotel next to the Syrian Embassy across the Nile from our apartment. We went up to the top floor and had beers and shisha in an open air bar that unfortunately tonight had plastic sheeting over the windows, presumably left up after last week's rain. There were more people there than I had seen before - turns out it was a school trip for high school students from Quebec (Jake talked to some as he went to school at McGill) and many of the girls were dancing with the waiters. After about an hour we went to another hotel a few blocks away and had delicious Yemeni food at a restaurant called Yamani. Flaky bread, squishy bread, two plates of fajita chicken, ground beef with onions, and boiling beans with cheese and onions and tomatoes along with water and diet coke for about three dollars each. Afterward Jake went home but Eric, Mandy, Hugo and I went to Eric's friend Steven's house...boat. Yeah, his houseboat. He lives on the Nile (Eric and I immediately decided that we should start looking for a houseboat for next year, and Jake could probably be convinced). It was amazing. So calm and with a garden and a balcony that looks out over water, not into other windows or at other people's balconies. After staying there for a while we decided that we still were in a food coma and no more going out would be possible for the evening so it was time to head home. Mandy lives with a family so coming home late isn't an option so Hugo and I invited her to crash at our place. We decided to walk up to the bridge to cross to Zamalek (an island in the middle of the Nile) because the side of the road/river we were on would have gotten us a cab going away from our apartment. Once on the bridge, Hugo pointed out that the we could get a cab on the bridge which stays elevated above the road on the island instead of getting stuck in Zamalek traffic, but that meant we had to cross the street. We did it, walking like crazy Egyptians whenever there was a nanosecond break in traffic. After Mandy and I had to very unceremoniously climb over the barrier in the middle of the road (Hugo did too, but nobody looks when a guy does it) we had to cross traffic going the opposite direction. At one point Mandy and I were standing in the middle of the road with cars going by both in front of and behind us before somebody finally took pity and slowed down enough to let us run to the cab Hugo had waiting. The best part of all this - the cab driver didn't even stay on the bridge and we drove through Zamalek with no traffic whatsoever. Typical.

Sunday I had the opportunity to attend a speech by Queen Rania al Abdullah, wife of King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, also an AUC alum. Queen Rania is probably one of the more famous queens in the modern world because of her tremendous beauty and involvement in social media like twitter and youtube. She was speaking about the importance of civic engagement by youth in the Arab world and it was put on by the John D Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement. I was pretty excited to be able to go and see the Queen speak at her alma mater, certainly very different from any experience I could have had in the states.
Queen Rania began by talking about the AUC community and how she felt that AUC had never really left her even though she left AUC nearly twenty years ago. She commended the university on helping Egypt scale up civic engagement by exposing the community to students and students to the community; I disagree with this because the new campus is out in the middle of nowhere and AUC has become incredibly isolated. When the campus was downtown students would walk out of class and into protests in the street and so would their professors. Here if you walk off campus you'll be lucky to see another person in your first twenty minutes of walking. She then began to tell the story of a young girl who went to visit a village on a school trip. After talking to the cleaning lady and seeing where she lived, the young girl discussed what was important to a 12 year old with the cleaning lady's children. After listing all her material possessions, the girl was told to look up and saw that she was standing in a room with no roof. The story was to illustrate how people can take something as basic as a roof for granted, and indeed the young girl in the story started an organization that runs on AUC now and helps the community with development projects; additionally, the youtube queen told everybody to literally think outside the box, outside the four walls around you, and find new ways to engage in the community. I also interpreted 'taking a roof for granted' as the acceptance of limits; you can live without a roof, without a ceiling, without limits and restrictions. The speech was very motivational, but seemed fluffy at parts. Though she did call for change because social problems are our problems and we must accept responsibility for our communities, she seemed somewhat disconnected. She called out the crises in the region and the ability to point fingers and not get anything done, yet didn't acknowledge her role as a representative of the state in fixing any of the bureaucracy that plagues the region. That isn't to say that she doesn't do anything, she does plenty to walk the walk of the talk she talks. Her main goal is education, and to tailor that to this speech she urged universities and schools to encourage public service into the curriculum and give credit for it so students see it as equally as useful as classes, but she is also working on bringing Jordanian schools up to standards and she is part of a FIFA initiative called One Goal which is hoping to enroll 72 million children in schools worldwide and will use the World Cup and other football events to garner support for the cause.
The question and answer session was interesting and clearly she had the questions in advance. Though I'm sure she's as smart as she is beautiful, having the kinds of statistics that she pulled off the top her head is mighty impressive if you don't know the question in advance. She addressed Islam, unemployment, development, international policy, and teachers all in the Q and A, but sounded like she was still reading off of flashcards.
I hope that people were able to take away the main point though, that YOU can be the change in the region. When YOU see something that needs to be done, you don't have to wait for somebody else to change it, YOU have the resources, YOU have the information, YOU have the capability. Like I said, it was very motivational and I know I wasn't the only one in the audience who was a little starry eyed the whole way through.

Last fall we had a few days with a little bit of rain, but yesterday probably accounted for the annual rainfall in this country. I went out to dinner and before we ate we went to a bar on the top floor of a hotel that usually is open air but last night had plastic tarps over all of the windows which were almost blown away by the wind. We could see lightning and hear thunder incredibly close to the city and the roof of the restaurant showed its many leaks as puddles began to form on the floor. We went to dinner and afterward the rain had pretty much stopped. Cairo, however, is not a wet weather city and crossing each street was like trying to ford the Mississippi (the Masr-ssippi if you will - Masr being the Arabic name for Egypt). We were heading to a bar to meet up with some of Jake and Eric's friends but after hopping over puddles and avoiding being splashed by taxis, we found that the bar was closed. Turns out today is Mohammad's birthday, a sort of Muslim Christmas without a tree or presents, but still celebrated as an important religious holiday. The bar was closed so we headed to a hotel where we heard the friends were. Since it was a hotel, it was still serving alcohol and we were able to order Stellas; however, one of Jake and Eric's friends who is half German and half Tunisian was denied service because he was Muslim. It was a pretty surreal experience and I doubt that any Christian would be denied service at a bar on Christmas Day, but I guess that's one of the differences of life in Egypt. After the bar Jake, Eric and I came back to my apartment for Hugo's birthday party. The apartment was filled with French people and they stayed until about 3am. It was a pretty good day overall.
Friday prayer is always long, but having it be Mohammad's birthday and the day after heavy rains, there hasn't been a moment of silence all day. Rain is seen as a way of communicating with God, sort of like the Heavens are opening up and the lines of communication are open. he whole city is in this sort of incredibly spiritual weekend right now. I guess this is winter in Cairo.

I'm sitting in the Nadia Younes Conference Room on AUC's campus at a topic presentation meeting for CIMAL 2010 (Cairo International Model Arab League). I've been in this room before but I just figured the name was a reference to one of the several donors who have contributed to AUC. On Sunday however, I listened to a lecture by Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa as part of an annual lecture series commemorating Nadia Younes. I found out that day that she was the Chief of Staff under Sergio Vieira de Mello at the UN Mission in Iraq in 2003, and was one of 23 UN workers killed when a truck bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber in the hotel that was serving as the headquarters of the Mission. de Mello was the High Commissioner on Human Rights and was the specific target of the blast. This one in August, coupled with another attack on the same hotel in September, lead to the withdrawal of over 600 UN workers from Iraq at that critical time.
The speech by Amr Moussa addressed the tragic loss of Younes and other team members in Iraq and noted that she was one of the highest Arab workers at the UN at the time (she had over 30 years of experience working for the organization). He addressed current crises in Iraq and Palestine and called for Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions - this was in the context of calls for a nuclear free Middle East and he reprimanded Iran for trying to compete with Israel when nobody should be pursuing nuclear weapons anyway. I found that to be the most interesting thing that he said since most of what he was talking about was general rhetoric that I've heard before. I was excited to be in the same room as Amr Moussa, though, and I enjoyed the speech very much.
Model UN and Model Arab League were a huge part of my life at Northeastern, and I'm really happy to be involved in it here at AUC. Even though sometimes the debate is in Arabic and I'm completely lost, I still love it. I'm a delegate in Security Council in Model UN, I'm going to Washington DC for NMAL where I get to compete against Northeastern, and I'm President of the Council of Arab Human Rights for MAL in the fall. MAL is one of the reasons I came to AUC and I'm really happy that I'm able to participate to such an extent. The fact that all of our meetings are in a room dedicated to an Egyptian who lived and died for the principles of the UN adds and important and humbling quality to our sessions, and I appreciate AUC's commitment to these programs by giving us such an impressively named room, even if most of the students have no idea who it is named after.

Jon Stewart described Dubai as the lovechild between Las Vegas and Saudi Arabia. I disagree. Though it is located on the Arabian peninsula, while you're in Dubai you have no idea that you're in the Middle East except for the fact that signs are printed in Arabic and English. During my two day stay the only Emiratis that I met were the ones who stamped my passport, though many Emiratis (and other Arabs, I admit that I am terrible at discerning various nationalities, and full hijab and naqib make it difficult to identify women even if I could) are visible in areas such as the malls. Wealthy Emiratis can afford to live in the apartments that make up a significant portion of most of the hotels, but most Emiratis are not that wealthy and many are in fact banned from living in the city limits of Dubai. This makes for a very interesting dynamic within the city, as most jobs are held by foreigners (Curtis referred to Filipinos as the Mexicans of Asia, willing to do all the jobs that nobody else wants to) and a significant number of the people you see in the city are tourists. It's an incredibly cosmopolitan city in the truest sense of the word - it could be in any country and people from any country can feel equally at home (or equally foreign, depending on how comfortable the individual is with dealing with other cultures). The city is entirely constructed, both literally as they are making new land and building huge hotels and malls and complexes, and in terms of the identity that is tied to the rapid expansion. Those who live and work in Dubai can't feel the same connection to the city as those who live or work in Paris for example. Almost everybody is an expat living the the world's playground; the experience is so surreal that I can't even imagine experiencing it as anything other than a tourist.
That being said, being a tourist there is great (and expensive). Curtis and I arrived on Friday morning and bummed around the airport for a bit. The airport is amazing. There is a hotel inside, as in you don't even have to go through customs to get there, and a duty free center so large there are mall like directories pointing you to where gold, fashion, jewelry, food, and liquor are each sold. When we finally decided to head to the hotel, we drove past the two huge malls in Dubai (one is the largest in the world, the other has an indoor ski center) and into the construction riddled neighborhood that held our hotel. We had to wait for our room to be ready and after an hour, during which we made reservations at the Burj Al Arab, we decided to head to the mall and come back later. We took a taxi back to the Dubai Mall and strolled around for a few hours; both of us had to buy new clothes to wear to the Burj for drinks that night. After shopping, we went to the At the Top facility (ironically located on the Lower Ground floor) where Curtis had to try to get a refund on our tickets to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa tower. He had pre-purchased our tickets when the observation deck opened a few weeks ago, but due to power issues the deck had to be closed and won't reopen until March. Because we had to go inside to deal with the refund however, we were able to see the models of the Burj and the interactive displays that they have which show the tower in relation to other buildings that once held the title of tallest in the world, and also have a feature where you can place the Burj in the skyline of any major metropolis to see what it would look like (needless to say it TOWERS over the pyramids in Cairo). The Burj Khalifa is named after the current President of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi and experienced a last minute name change (from Burj Dubai) when Abu Dhabi bailed Dubai out of millions of dollars of debt. (Hmmmm...building a huge tower only to have potential disaster as a result...sounds to me like the higher ups should read some of the old texts...) The tower is the largest in the world by quite a margin at 2,717 feet up in the air. That's over half a mile skyward and over 1,000 feet taller than the previous tallest building, the Taipei 101. It has the world's highest mosque and highest swimming pool, the world's fastest elevators, the most floors of any building (160) and the highest observation deck (at 1,405 feet up). Sadly we didn't get to see it, but just being in its presence is humbling. It's almost too big in that it's hard to even comprehend how tall the building is. I appreciated the panoramic feature on my camera since there is no possible way to get the entire building into a single shot from close range.
After visiting that mall and the tower, we decided to head to the Mall of the Emirates a short distance away....to go skiing. Ski Dubai is an indoor ski resort with four or five runs depending on how you slice it (two at the top, a fork in one, an opportunity to start from the middle of one, and they all converge at the bottom). The total height is about 300 feet which means the runs can go pretty quickly (if you're good...or if you've skied anytime in the past 10 years, which I haven't). Insulation keeps the room at -1 degree Celsius and the area also has a snow park and some ramps and jumps for more adventurous skiers or snowboarders. Ski pants and a jacket are included in the price of admission, as are skis and boots, meaning that guests only have to provide their own (or buy) gloves and a hat. We stayed and skied for about an hour and a half. Again it was a surreal experience to know that we were basically in the middle of a desert on the Persian Gulf skiing inside. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.
After skiing we rushed back to the hotel because we had to get ready for our big night out at the Burj Al Arab. We found out that because of the delay in getting our room (for which we paid a hugely discounted rate) we had been upgraded to a one bedroom apartment in the hotel. The view was nothing spectacular, we saw construction going up around us on all sides, but the room was great and it even meant that I could sleep in the living room instead of on a twin bed in the same room as Curtis. We checked it out and then each took showers to get ready for the night. A taxi picked us up and drove us across town to the Burj Al Arab and we got to see our first glimpse of real Dubai. It's really a lot of construction, but impressive none the less. The Burj Al Arab hotel is on its own man made island and is one of the world's tallest hotels. It's also the first seven star hotel and security is so rigid that you can't even get onto the island without having a booking at one of the restaurants or in one of the rooms. We were fortunate enough to get a last minute table at the cheapest venue and we enjoyed a flight of three wines (two of which were Burj exclusives) in the lounge. Curtis's birthday was Monday so we told them we were celebrating and the hotel gave him a birthday card! He's very proud of his personalized card from the world's most luxurious hotel and I can't blame him, I think that's pretty cool. The staff was incredibly polite and when Curtis accidentally spilled his wine. They immediately refilled his glass (and mine too, as a consolation prize for not spilling mine I guess) and chatted with us for a few minutes. The hotel is shaped like a traditional sail from the dhows in Dubai and is a major feat in architecture and engineering. The interior wasn't as intense as I would have expected - though there were a few aquariums, I was expecting everything to be gold plated and covered in diamonds and pearls. Perhaps I'm jaded from going to Vegas so often as a kid, but a critic of the hotel also described it as '...fabulous, hideous, and the very pinnacle of tackiness - like Vegas after a serious, no-expense-spared, sheik-over.' That's not to say it's not impressive, and the view from the top (where we went for ridiculously expensive cocktails once we had been granted access to the building) is unparalleled looking out over the Persian Gulf, the man made islands and the Palm jutting out into the water, and the construction and cranes that make up the skyline of Dubai. The hotel is a prime example of the focus on Dubai of opulence and grandeur over any form of practicality, at any price.
Curtis and I stayed up late chatting on the balcony and decided to sleep in on Saturday. We did manage to make it out to the Atlantis resort at the top of the Palm for a quick lunch before heading back to the hotel to get picked up for an afternoon in the desert. We spent the rest of the day riding over sand dunes and visiting a camel farm and then getting to an oasis in the middle of the desert where we were able to go sandboarding (like snowboarding without snow) and ride camels and get henna and smoke shisha and eat good food and watch belly dancing. It was a great way to end the trip and after we got dropped back off at the hotel we headed directly to the airport. Our trip was over!
One little speedbump was at the end when I had to wait three hours in the airport food court because I couldn't check in for my flight when Curtis checked in for his. This meant I couldn't spend my time in the fabulous duty free mall, which is probably good since it meant I didn't spend as much money. I landed back in Cairo and now it's back to the daily grind. Arabic class, papers for my grad courses, Model UN and Model Arab League will fill my days for the next few months, but I really appreciated the break these past few days.
All in all - do go to Dubai. But make sure you take several credit cards and stay several days. And don't expect to talk to any locals unless you want to chat with them in the mall or on the slopes.

Chinese, Filipino, Thai, Indian, Pakistani, Sudanese, Egyptian, Singaporean, American, Brits, Somali - these are the nationalities I encountered in Dubai. I did interact with two Emeratis - the ones who have stamped my passport - but that's it. Dubai is an international city in the truest sense of the word. People come from all over to work and play and soak up the sun and spend a LOT of money. The city was great, but it's so surreal to actually be there.
Curtis and I got in on Friday morning and bummed around waiting for our room to be ready. I'll post more later because I'm tired now, but basically within the 36 hours after that, we went to the biggest mall in the world, skiing inside, the top of the world's first 7 star hotel (on its own man made island), Atlantis (at the top of the palm), sand dune riding, sandboarding, camel riding, and then back to the airport.
Oh, and we saw the tallest building in the world. Hence the title of this post....
It really has been a whirlwind trip and fatigue is starting to kick in even though my flight isn't for a few hours. Class tomorrow won't be easy to wake up for, but I'll post more soon while it's all still fresh. Pictures to come too of course.

~dk

And I mean WAY off the beaten path. Kuwait is an absolutely amazing tourist experience. Curtis and I got here last night at about midnight and checked in to our hotel which is really close to downtown. We got separate rooms because we are mixed gender and not married and sharing a room is frowned upon in Kuwait. Fortunately I got a heavily discounted room with some help from my friend Lindsey who works at the Marriott in Boston, and Curtis had points so he got to stay for free. I was finally able to take a real shower and a bath, my room overlooks more downtownish buildings and I can see the water from my windows. It's definitely a lot nicer than my apartment. We got our visas upon arrival (turns out my frantic rush around Cairo on Tuesday night for visa photos was all for naught) and I started owing Curtis quite a bit of cash since I hadn't gone to an ATM in Kuwait yet. Our visas were 3KD each - that's over US$10. This morning I wound up owing him more as he paid for taxis (pretty much minimum 2KD regardless of distance) until I finally went to the ATM this afternoon.
So now that that stuff is out of the way, let me tell you about Kuwait. It's amazing. The people have all been so friendly and helpful and the only time we got harassed to buy things was when we went to the souk. There are a lot of Asians here, but I'm sure it's nothing compared to Dubai. For those willing to trek off the beaten path, Kuwait is a great destination. I'm sure I could have filled several days here with museums about Arabic history and calligraphy and art, but with just one day we had to try to focus. Lonely Planet was helpful, but not nearly the companion that Dooler and I had in Morocco. It was outdated though the printing was recent; my guess is that Kuwait just doesn't get a lot of attention when new releases come out since not a whole lot changes here, especially compared to other countries in the region.
We decided to start our day with tour of the Grand Mosque. LP said that it was closed on Thursdays, but that's not true. We took an overpriced cab (2KD, about $7) the five minute drive to the mosque and almost immediately the guards set up a private English tour for Curtis and myself. I had wrapped my head in a scarf so as to be modest in the mosque, so imagine my surprise when we were ushered to a guest room and I was outfitted in an abbayah (the long loose garment that covers women from neck to toe) that had a hijab attached. Curtis put on a jacket so as not to have his arms exposed, but it wasn't necessary. If I didn't feel like much was different from Egypt, this point made it very clear that I was in a conservative country. We had an amazing guide who had a heavy Scottish accent - she didn't speak any Arabic but her husband is an Egyptian doctor so she has moved around the region quite a bit for his work. We had some great conversations about life in the Middle East (she has lived in Saudi so I told her about In the Land of Invisible Women), not speaking Arabic, the multiculturalism we see on a daily basis, and even political topics like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, though once Curtis and I started debating she got very uncomfortable so we stopped. We wound up spending two hours at the Grand Mosque, which is the world's seventh largest mosque and the largest to be supported on only four pillars and fully carpeted. Curtis made friends with some high school boys on a school trip while I discussed life in the Middle East with our guide. At the end, she wouldn't even accept a tip from us (another reminder that I'm not in Egypt anymore) and told us how to get the best value from a cab - have them take you several places and just wait for you outside each, that way you only spend 5KD to go three places instead of 6 or 8.
We took her advice and hired the next cab to take us out the Al Qurain martyr's museum. It's pretty far from downtown and we got a little lost, but when we got there it was a very sobering experience. 12 martyrs died in the building when Iraq parked a tank in the street and fired at point blank range for about ten or twelve hours. The building is currently reinforced in places with steel to keep it up and open to the public. The tank is still there in the parking lot, and the building next to this particular home (which also sustained damage) is a museum that has copies of the orders from Baghdad to basically search and destroy in a quest to eradicate those who resisted Iraqi occupation. This attack took place in February of 1991 and a top US official has a signed statement in the museum that he wishes the US had invaded four days earlier because then this massacre wouldn't have happened. Like I said, it was a very sobering experience and my first visit to a war zone that had seen fighting in my lifetime. I knew it would be troubling, but apparently my stomach decided it wanted to steal the show and I knew that I would have to go back to the hotel to rest.
On my way to tell this to Curtis however, I found him in conversation with four men, three of whom were Saudi. I spoke a little Arabic to them and they congratulated Curtis on his wife speaking Arabic. He tried to correct them but I just took the compliment and told him after that it would be easier for me if people think that we're married while we're in the Gulf. The men didn't seem to mind or notice that Curtis had tried to correct them and continued talking about the purpose of life. Eventually Curtis realized that they were trying to get him to convert to Islam (I had just been trying to figure out a way to get Curtis to stop talking to strangers so I could get back to the hotel) and we started the process of saying goodbyes and wishing peace upon each other. As we were heading to the cab, the Saudi men rolled down the window in their car and told us the three things that happen when you convert to Islam: first, your sins are washed away and it is like the day you were born, the second thing I don't remember, but the third is that if you were a good Christian and then you are a good Muslim, Allah gives you double points! We laughed at this and chatted the whole way back to the hotel about religion in terms of Super Mario brothers and gold coins. Definitely an interesting experience.
We stayed at the hotel for about three hours, where I tried to sleep and eventually felt well enough to eat some cereal. At about 430 we set out for the Kuwait Towers. The Towers are a symbol of Kuwait and were built in 1979 and sustained heavy damage during the 1990 invasion. The tallest one has a restaurant and observation deck in the top sphere and holds water in the lower sphere. The second tallest holds water as well and the shortest holds electrical equipment and lights the two larger ones. It was great to go up there but unfortunately the outside of the windows were really dirty so pictures make the city look super polluted though it isn't. The observation deck rotates and it was really cool. Then we drove to the souk to look around since Curtis didn't see any in Cairo and then we walked back along the corniche and stopped at a mall to enjoy a Krispy Kreme donut. Mmmmm. Afterward we had a taxi take us to a small museum that we read about in LP. He took us to two different museums first since he didn't know exactly what we were talking about and it was very frustrating. When we arrived at the museum (the exact name escapes me at the moment) we were even more disappointed to find out that they wouldn't let us in since it was fully booked (Liberation Day and National Day are next week, so many people are coming to the museum now and tonight they were doing an event as well). One of the employees felt bad for us however, so she told us that she could show us some of the main things people come to see - for free! This was exciting, but it became a once in a lifetime experience when one of the things she showed us was the statue of Saddam that Iraqis pulled down after the US ousted him in 2003. The bust of Saddam is positioned on the floor in a room that resembles the area where he was found hiding at that time. Apparently the statue was a gift from the US Army to Kuwait after Saddam's death. Curtis and I took turns hitting Saddam's head with our shoes and flipping him off and then our guide showed us some other rooms in the museum dedicated to the atrocities that Saddam had committed in Kuwait, Iran, and against his own people in Iraq. Again it was a very sobering moment, but there is clear joy in the fact that Saddam is gone now. Kuwaitis celebrated in the street at news of his capture and execution and clearly enjoy humiliating his statue now that he is gone. If you ever go to Kuwait, you must see this museum.
Our cabbie was waiting for us outside and then drove us to Hard Rock Cafe so I could get my pins. One of the ones I got is limited edition and just arrived yesterday (it is of a man in traditional Kuwaiti garb holding a shisha and with a guitar slung over his shoulder, I couldn't resist). We contemplated eating dinner there, but our cab driver told us that the other restaurant we were considering was very good middle eastern fare so we decided to go there. That was an amazing decision. I'm really glad that I wasn't feeling nauseous anymore because we enjoyed babaganoush with pomegranate and oil, hummus with lamb and pine nuts, lamb shawarma, chicken shish tawouk, and a complementary fruit platter - which was about six apples, four oranges, a banana, two kiwis, and two plums. I also got shisha for the first time in a while and I had fresh mango juice. It was a splurge but totally worth it and the restaurant is on the water so we could see the Kuwait skyline at night and eat overlooking the Persian Gulf. Pretty amazing.
After dinner we called the same cab driver and he drove us to a road sign pointing the way to Iraq and Saudi Arabia. We couldn't get out to take pictures because the sign is next to the Ministry of Defense and taking pictures of government buildings is a no-no (though that didn't stop me from taking a picture at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between the souk and Krispy Kreme) and then we came back to the hotel.
It was a long day, but a great one. I love Kuwait. If it wasn't a dry country with sweltering temperatures most of the year I would consider going to school here (there is an American University of Kuwait) but for now I'll just enjoy my tourism.
I have to wake up in about four hours for the flight back to Dubai. We spent a couple hours in the airport there on the way here, but most of it was in the Singapore Airlines office trying to get my phone and iPod back, which I had left in the seat back pocket in front of me in my excitement to get new passport stamps. We did manage to see the ridiculously large duty free mall and hotel inside the airport, but I'm looking forward to getting out in that bustling metropolis. Pictures and more to come soon. Love you all!

Literally! Nothing scandalous to report.

Life in a Cairo apartment is unlike anything I've experienced before on many levels, but one was completely unanticipated. My apartment, while it does thankfully have a washing machine in the kitchen, does not have a dryer. My balcony is equipped with about four clotheslines so today, for the first time ever in my life, I hung the clothes out to dry - clothespins and everything (my only previous experience with clothespins was making reindeer during arts and crafts time in elementary school).

I know it's not super exciting but it is an interesting aspect that I'll have to adjust to in the new apartment. I already dropped one sock (I didn't try to retrieve it, once it's been on the Cairene streets I don't really want it that much anymore) and threw away some dirty socks and underwear just because I didn't want people to see them. Had they been in the dryer, I totally would have kept them, but airing things over a busy intersection where literally thousands of people pass every day? No thank you. I know none of them know me and I doubt anybody really even looks up, but I still felt surprisingly exposed by having my clothes out there. I've learned that if I ever want to wash my underwear, I better put some shirts in the same load so I can hang the shirts in front of them. I think this boundary goes both ways as I've never noticed any underwear hanging on clotheslines throughout the city (socks are a different story, you'd swear everybody has eight feet by how many socks are on the lines).

So this is life in Cairo. I better adjust quick; I don't want to lose any more socks...

Before school started I devoured a book my mom gave me before I left - In the Land of Invisible Women by Dr Qanta Ahmed. It's about a non-Caucasian, Western raised and educated Muslim doctor who spends two years living and working in Saudi Arabia. There were many insightful comments about life in the Kingdom both as a woman and a westerner that I identified with my experience in Egypt. Though the two countries are vastly different, I really appreciated her story. I've recommended the book to most of my female friends here and hope that they read it and are able to relate it to their time here as well.

In Egypt women are very much not invisible. There is no law requiring that the head or body be covered like in Saudi Arabia and many Muslim Egyptian women and girls dress in modern Western fashions and have their hair uncovered. That being said I do still try to dress modestly and not flaunt any particular figure, which is more than many tourists do. I have seen many a European female dressed in crop tops and short skirts, which I find incredibly distasteful. Though there is no law regulating what women can wear in Egypt, it is still a very Muslim country and cultural norms should be respected. I also don't know why anyone would want to draw additional attention to themselves as a tourist. Walking down the street I get countless offers to 'visit my perfume shop' or have somebody 'make good deal for you for travel.' I've been welcomed to Egypt more times than I care to remember and in fact I want to shout at every person who welcomes me here that I live here now!

Being an American woman, I do not blend in here. My Arabic isn't yet good enough to refute people's comments to me on being a tourist or a woman and responses in English are seen as an invitation to continue unwanted conversation. During the riots after Egypt's victories in the Africa's Cup, Dooler and I were being filmed and having pictures taken of us on more cell phones and cameras that we could count. Egyptian men have no problem making comments about a woman walking by, however they wait until I'm walking by so any response means that I have to stop and engage in conversation. It's frustrating, and even more frustrating is the fact that this behavior is visible in even the youngest of little boys. Compared to what I experience on a daily basis, the land of invisible women seems calm (though there is a vignette about men throwing their phone numbers into the cars of women since the Muttawaeen can't patrol in the middle of the street which reminded me of Egyptian men). I do appreciate the freedoms I have here though; not having to cover my hair or body by law is what I am used to and grew up with. While I understand the 'liberation' that many women feel covered by hijabs or abayahs, I appreciate that in Egypt it is not required.

Sometimes though, I wouldn't mind being invisible. Probably the next time I'm welcomed to Egypt...

~dana

This first week back in Egypt has been great. I'm really glad that the whole Africa's Cup thing happened before classes so now I can focus on all the work I have to do this semester. I dropped one of my graduate courses in favor of taking another accelerated Arabic class, so the two remaining ones are taught by the head of the department and the woman directly responsible for my fellowship. I think it's going to be a good semester.

Sunday I had quite possibly the most productive day ever in the history of AUC. I got everything ready for my visa (though that did involve going to three different offices and printing out a form from the library), I signed my loan checks, I got my housing taken off of my bill since I'm not living on campus this semester, I got my bus pass (though now I have to get a refund on that because as a fellow I'm supposed to get it for free), and I had a meeting with a professor - all before noon! It was great. My Arabic class was going well but now I'm switching into accelerated in order to focus more on the language. This means I'm going to be completing the entire textbook I've had for the past two and a half years and moving onto the next in the series! I'm excited and terrified all at the same time. The two graduate courses I'm taking are 'Social Science Methodologies in Middle East Studies' and 'Middle East Societies and Cultures' both with Malak Rouchdy. SSM seems really interesting and the whole focus is to treat the Middle East just like anywhere else that a social scientist would study. Most of the analysis of the Middle East up until at least the late 1970's was based on Orientalism, which basically believes that the Middle East is so vastly different from Europe and the West that applying the same theories or methodologies wouldn't be beneficial. I'm excited to take this course because it's going to be really helpful with a thesis and I feel that it's something cutting edge in the field and I'm happy to be a part of it. I have my Societies and Cultures class today so we will see how that goes, but I know that Rouchdy is super excited about the first one and this one will probably be a little less intense but equally as informative.

Living in an apartment downtown has its up and downsides compared to being on campus. It's great to be right in the middle of all the action but it's frustrating to have a doorman (bawab) who doesn't speak any English. Yesterday Hugo broke the hot water so I had to try to explain what was going on to the bawab and the plumber in very very broken Arabic - something that would definitely not happen on campus. I think it's worth it though, despite the commute. I actually feel like I'm living in Egypt now instead of on a compound.

It's time to start heading to class now. Just a quick update on the first week. Hope all is going well back in the states; I hear Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow so I hope winter isn't too terrible for anybody since it's gonna keep going on. Weather here is perfect, not too hot at all but I can still wear my flip flops :)

Ma'a salaama!
~dana

Tonight's chants weren't as creative as the ones after Thursday's match. Everybody was simply shouting the name of the Egyptian player who scored to lone goal in the final minutes of a very defense heavy game against Ghana. It was the final of the African Cup of Nations with 6-time overall, twice defending champion Egypt playing against a Ghanaian team consisting mainly of players who had just won the U(nder)-20 World Cup (held in Cairo, Egypt was booted out early on in the tournament). The game was very defense heavy, with Ghanain players making amazing interceptions while Egypt tried to pass the ball around the field and Egypt's goalkeeper living up to the nickname I gave him - the Brick Wall. Gedo, a nickname for a player whose real name escapes me, was the top goal scorer in the entire Cup of Nations tournament, despite having never started in a match. In the final minutes of standard play, he finally saw an opportunity and shot the ball across the cage past the goalie's outstretched fingertips. The ball sank into the net and Cairo erupted. Everybody was elated, but held their breath during the three minutes of extra play while Ghana furiously tried to tie the game. Perhaps less than sportsmanlike, Egyptian players spent the time kicking the ball as hard as possible in the opposite direction, not trying to score a goal but instead ensuring that the ball spent as much time as possible out of the feet of the Ghanaian team. Once we were sure that the score was final and Egypt had won, it was time for the celebrations to truly begin.

I didn't think that anything would beat the 'riots' that occurred after Thursday's victory over Algeria - a game where Egypt symbolically won back the honor it lost when Algeria beat them in World Cup qualifying rounds. Rhetoric before that match had been nearly on the brink of war, yet almost nothing was said about the final match which would determine the African champion. Egypt made history two matches ago when it beat Cameroon to make its winning streak the longest in the tournament's history - 17 games without being beaten (some ended in ties, which do not count as a loss). The next two wins made history again when Egypt became the first country in the over fifty year long history of the Cup of Nations to win the tournament three times in a row. People. Went. Wild. The typical impromptu aerosol cans of hairspray plus lighter flame throwers were everywhere, people were singing and dancing in the streets - as traffic still tried to whiz by, Dooler and I were minor celebrities again for being white girls with Egyptian flags. The flags were all I could see in the masses of people - flags on hats, flags on faces, flags on masks, wigs, wrapped around shoulders, and of course waving in the air. Egypt has regained its national pride, which only makes it more frustrating that the team didn't make it to the World Cup. How can this three time continental champion, a team that has gone a record 19 games without a loss, not be competing on the world stage this summer? Those concerns, regrets, and lamentations will return closer to the summer, but nothing can spoil the mood right now. Dooler, Dejanera, Hugo, and I went to the middle of Tahrir Square (crossing about eight lanes of traffic to do so) and moved with the mob as waves of celebration rippled and crashed around and on us. People are ecstatic. Hours later now, I can still look out my window and see people marching toward Tahrir. Several paddy wagons sat empty in Talaat Harb (another square close to where I live, but nowhere near as large as Tahrir) as saw a huge crowd assembled in the middle of the street, seemingly where somebody had set up large speakers and was shouting Egyptian chants echoed by the crowd. Once we made it back to my apartment we could still hear the drums, car horns, fireworks, bells, and sound of thousands of feet celebrating below. At one point I looked down and saw four men waving flags while riding on one clearly overburdened camel - now this, this is Egypt. Extreme nationalism and pride in total synch with both loud music and animal husbandry. Egypt has truly welcomed me back and I accept, knowing that this semester will be vastly different from the last. I am no longer living on a compound, I am living in Cairo - surely the craziest, dirtiest, most disorganized, and - though obnoxious - probably safest metropolis I have ever lived in. I'm not worried about going to bed right now during these festivities, I'm sure the city will have something new for me in the morning on the off chance that anything dies down overnight.

That's what the random groups of men had us chanting (they were too excited for me to correct their grammar) after watching Egypt beat Algeria 4-0 in an amazing and aggressive football (soccer) match the day after I got back. Egypt was trying to prove that they should have been the ones to go to the World Cup; Algeria was apparently trying to kill them. Three Algerian players got thrown out of the game and the referee was terrible (of course Egyptians will overlook that because they won). It's the Africa's Cup of Nations and honestly, it's making FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) give South Africa a good hard look to see if they're really ready to host the World Cup. A few weeks ago there was an attack on the Togo team as they entered Angola (why Angola, a country that just recently ended a civil war and is actively participating in conflict in neighboring Congo, was ever allowed to host it I'll never know) and had to drop out of the competition. FIFA is concerned that South Africa will also have problems controlling violence - a pretty valid concern in my opinion.

Anyway, enough on that. I'm back in Egypt! My flights were fine - I had a two hour layover in Paris and made it to Cairo at about 7pm the day after I left. It took until today, Saturday, to get over the jetlag. My first two nights were spent watching movies on Dooler's computer until about 6am. The apartment is great. It's big and spacious and in a good location - two minute walk from the Egyptian Museum, surrounded by food places, 24 hour convenience kiosk for water and phone cards and chocolate right downstairs. Dooler had to deal with fixing up the water and the lights during January, but it works for me. The water in the building does shut down at night though so that was unfortunate when I was up until 6am and couldn't flush the toilet. Oh well. Our third roommate, Hugo, gets back today and I'm looking forward to seeing him. Another great thing about the apartment location is that when people were going crazy chanting in the streets after the big win on Thursday night, we were able to watch it from the window - something that never would have been possible living out on the new campus like last semester. All in all a good welcome back.

Now I'm getting thrown back in to the middle of things with school. I checked my account and found out that I got a partial fellowship - they basically covered fees for my graduate classes at the cost for Egyptian students (Egyptians pay less to go to school than internationals, and my Arabic class isn't graduate level so I'm still paying for that). I'm not gonna complain though, any money is good money. I don't know what I have to do for the department in terms of working in the office or as a teacher's assistant, but I'll find out this week. I'm pretty excited!

I started Model UN again today so I'm writing all this from the new campus food court (exciting news, there's a Subway here now so I won't always be stuck with McDonald's - yay!) MUN was great today. One of the kids said I was the best in the room (considering I got my Bachelor's in International Affairs I would hope I would be at the top, but it was nice to hear somebody else recognize it). I also got invited to interview for Model Arab League, which means I might be coming to Washington DC in March to compete in the National MAL competition against several American schools including Northeastern! I need to consider finances and travel plans since it's right at the beginning of my spring break, but because of my credentials and how I'm performing in MUN they pretty much want me to be as involved as possible with both programs. The Secretary General for next year's Model Arab League conference wants to set me up in some position to help out with that for next fall. So far things are going pretty well!

Classes start tomorrow. Later this week I'm going to the mall with Dooler to try to get my own wireless key to be able to use the internet at home. Here's hoping for a great semester! I like to Egypt!

After over a full 24 hours of travel I finally landed in LAX and got my luggage and went through security. I only had to wait about 15 minutes for my parents to show up and then I came home and played with the babies for a little bit and went out for Mexican food. After that, jet lag reared its ugly head and I passed out at about 8pm on the couch. Ah it's good to be home. Happy Holidays everybody! Hopefully I'll see you all soon!

 

~dana

That's all that stands between me and the end of my first semester of grad school! Well not all, I also have a group presentation and a final exam in Arabic, but it's the last paper I have to write of the semester. This final paper is for Palestinian Refugee Issues, the class where the professor wants to give us all A's and I've received A's on my previous work. Unfortunately I still haven't picked which question I want to answer out of the list of about thirty possibilities. Ugh. Oh well. I'll get that done. After all, this morning alone I wrote that much on my Middle East Studies paper on the Arab League. I thought that that one was going to be painfully long and there was no way I would come close to the 4500 word cap, but as I got to the end I actually felt like I could have written much more. That's a nice little confidence booster.

Anyway, attached to this post are my paper on the Arab League (fresh off the press) and the group project proposal regarding Israeli and Palestinian recognition of a connection to the land and right to self determination for each other (my portion is posted independently under the blog post Got it! of Dec 6). Time to get started on this last paper. One state solution vs two state solution? Jewish refugees as a relevant issue in resolving the conflict? Comparison to Cyprus or South Africa? So many potential topics! Ah!

Attachments:

Alhamdullah (Thank God)

I think I aced my final for Migration and Refugee Studies but even if I didn't I had fun writing it. Right now I'm working on my final paper for Middle East Studies. I got an extension of 24 hours which is good because I waited way too late to start it but I'm working on it now and, gosh darn it, I feel really smart. Yay grad school!

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm alive and doing well. I can't believe I'm almost 1/4 of the way through my program (1/3 of the way through classes even!). Time flies when you're having fun! or swine flu breaks every few weeks....

Plus I'll be back in the states in ONE WEEK. Ridiculous. Better get my Egypt fix for a while.

Today I picked up my mail for the first time since right before my birthday. Oh what a bounty! Theresa and Corey I got your birthday card, thank you so much! Momma I had about eight cards from you (including the yellow envelope, thank you very much) and the Christmas and Thanksgiving packages. I think I might take the Christmas gear to the apartment so it can be decorated for Christmas, mumkin.

I've also been working (not rocking) 'round the clock. Newest piece to add here is my position on self-determination in Palestine. It's my part of a group project on Palestine and Israel and their respective rights to self-determination (the right of a nation to determine how it will be governed) and it honestly made me want to be a lawyer. Except that I don't really, but at least I find it really interesting and hopefully will be able to use my understanding of legal arguments and precedent to further a career in international affairs.

Off to study for my Forced Migration and Refugee Studies final now. After tomorrow I will be DONE with that class! Woohoo!

Attachments:

More work to do!
More passport stamps!
More papers to post!

Right now I'm working on a group project proposal revolving around peace in Palestine/Israel and self determination of Palestinians and various other issues. I've heard that the teacher will grade very easily (he's already said he doesn't see any reason for anyone in the class to get less than an A) but I still want to do well and not let my group down, so I'm reading legal journals from the 1970s finding arguments for Israel to recognize a Palestinian state. I'll be doing this all night. woohoo! Next week I have this proposal due, a final exam, and another major paper that I'll work on this weekend. Talk about crunch time!

I just booked flights to Dubai and Kuwait to travel with my friend Curtis who is coming to visit me in February. I'm really excited. Originally he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia instead of Kuwait, but I wouldn't be able to get a travel visa unless I was traveling with my father or husband. Since that wasn't going to be the case, we weren't going to go there! Still, it is highly likely that I will have to pretend to be married to Curtis while we're abroad because explaining the concept of male-female friendships can be difficult. (Sorry John!)

I'm adding two more of my papers here. They aren't nearly as long as the first one I posted, and in fact I think the Said paper was a lot of fun to write (you'll also notice it's horribly non-academic, with no citations to speak of). Feel free to peruse at your leisure.

Attachments:

I don't even want to think of how many to go. Attached is my first final paper of grad school. The text is 4591 words, it's 17 pages without references, I used 27 referenced and 71 footnotes! Now I know that nobody wants to read it and you certainly don't have to, I just wanted to get it out there because I'm so happy that it's DONE!

Now time to get two weeks of reading done in one day. Woohoo!

Attachments:

Well Thanksgiving in Egypt isn't quite like Thanksgiving at home, but I think we did quite well. Dooler, Anne, Josiah and I went to the Maadi House, a property open only to Americans who work at the embassy and sometimes opened up to AUC staff and students, but still only with an American passport. Once we got in there was a delicious buffet with salad that I wasn't afraid to eat (with ranch dressing!), mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash, and several huge birds. MMM it was delicious. I got a glass of wine and a couple slices of pie (pecan and pumpkin, I wasn't impressed with either, though I think it's funny that the first time I ever had pumpkin pie was in Egypt) and we all relaxed and stuffed ourselves silly. A very happy Thanksgiving indeed. Later Dooler and I headed home and I talked to John for a while and got to wish him a happy turkey birthday (he's 20 now and I am no longer dating a teenager, for which I am very thankful). All in all, a good day.

The next day was the beginning of Eid al Adha, which commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son. It is celebrated by a ritual sacrificing of pretty much every animal that they eat here. In the street. Don't worry Trina, I didn't go and I didn't take any pictures, but the ones I have seen are very graphic. Walking downtown at night you could still see red rivers running through the streets. The animals are sacrificed in a traditional way (from behind so they don't see it coming, quickly, without allowing the blood to hit the ground before they're dead) and the meat is then distributed to the poor. You can see pictures of the celebration from all around the world (nothing too graphic, don't worry) at this site. It's a good tradition, I like it. I also like having a little time off. Classes are technically off until Nov 30. Not bad.

Classes are technically off until Nov 30, but we also have another swine flu break to contend with. Concerns about swine flu being brought back from pilgrims (Eid al Adha is also the end of the hajj to Mecca) means they've shut down classes. Classes specifically, not school. Everything on campus will still be running and my graduate school teachers are requiring us to meet anyway - one at a coffee shop in Maadi and another at a coffee shop near the opera in Zamalek. Still, not having to go to Arabic means I'll probably spend a few nights downtown at my apartment for next semester and get used to traveling around in the city.

In the meantime though, more homework. I'll try to post to let you all know I'm doing well, but pictures and such will probably have to wait until I'm back (if I even get out to take any, I'll be spending most of my time writing and researching over the next few weeks). Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed your time off and I can't wait to see everybody in a few weeks!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. I got two packages full of decorations and supplies from GramaCat and my mom. I went out for shisha with a group of friends but mainly the day was pretty uneventful - I had class and I have class today so lots of homework. I have a break this week for Eid Al Adha, so hopefully I'll be able to post more this weekend, especially once I decide on my Thanksgiving plans.

I miss you all and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! I can't believe I'll be home in just three weeks! Can't wait to see you!

Wow. I'll be home in 24 days. In that time I have a birthday, a four day holiday (Eid al Adha, which commemorates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and is celebrated after completion of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca), possibly another swine flu break, one reaction paper, three 15-20 page papers, two finals, and a group presentation. Wow that's a lot. I love grad school though so it's totally worth it.

In other news, Egypt lost to Algeria 1-0 in their playoff in Sudan. Afterward there was some fighting in Sudan and now Egypt has recalled their ambassador from Algeria and one of the President's sons is basically calling for war. There were riots that I saw on Thursday night near the Algerian embassy that continued through the weekend. Flags were burned, cars and shops were damaged, and nobody could enter into the area. Surprisingly, the government isn't really breaking it up (and technically a gathering of more than seven people is illegal in this country) but is allowing the people to vent. There are conspiracy theories flying around and Egypt is threatening to not play Algeria again, which could cause problems because the Africa Cup is in a few months. It's crazy. They say there haven't been riots like this in over 30 years, when there was a huge riot over the price of bread in 1977.

Dooler and I celebrated our birthdays (hers is the 22nd) on Thursday night by going out to Horreyya (which has cheap beers) and then to Harry's Pub (which has karaoke) and a lot of our friends came out and danced and sang and drank and it was a good time. My friend Brett from NU came and he and I left to get food at the end of the night and ran into the riot. Eventually we gave up on food and I took a cab to the apartment I'll be living in next semester, which is right downtown, and there were people running across the bridges to join the riot! After two in the morning! It was pretty ridiculous, but fairly safe. I was never in danger, but I did get some good pictures! They're in the Egypt vs Algeria folder :)

The next day I went on a field trip with MEST to Fayyum Oasis 130km outside of Cairo. It was a gorgeous day, though a very early morning, and really a great experience. We saw the waterwheels that pump water into 11000km of irrigation and drainage canals. The water goes from and to a lake in the middle of the desert, but due to the high salinity of the water and the land the area is still in poverty since they can't produce very much per acre. After the lecture on the waterwheels, we went to the other side of the lake and saw how high the water used to be against some amazing rock formations (you could see the line where water used to hit on the rocks, now the lake is miles away). It was an amazing view and a pretty surreal landscape. It looked like Gaudi architecture, or a backdrop for Dali to hang some melting clocks. Next we went and hung out at our professor's friends home in a village called Tunis, where we had some snacks and drinks and got to relax before heading to lunch/dinner at a nearby restaurant with a view of the lake. I got the duck and it was probably the most delicious duck I have ever eaten. It was perfect and tender and the skin was crispy and it was easily the best meal I've had in Egypt, and it was only $10! I love this country.

Time to get back to homework now. I have a lot to get done in the next few weeks but I'll try to update as much as possible.

As I mentioned before, grad school has reared its ugly head but I have accepted the challenge.

Arabic is going very well and even though its the only class that I'm confident I have an A+ in, it doesn't count toward my degree and as such is a pass fail course. Regardless, I love it and I love learning the language and my professor loves me! She told me after class that she'd be more than happy to write any letters of recommendation for me if I ever need them because I'm such a good student. :)

I just got my first real paper back. I got an A- which isn't bad considering I had absolutely no idea how this professor was going to grade. He told me what to work on for the next paper and I'm really confident that I'll get a good grade in that class. (Migration and Refugee Studies)

I'm doing a ton of reading for my Palestinian Refugee Issues course and it's a really interesting course. I just sent in my first reaction paper and I have decided what my final paper topic will be so I'm really looking forward to working on it. I'm going to address the Right of Return for Palestine Refugees and compare it to how the Right of Return was implemented after the war in the Former Yugoslavia in 1995. I think it'll be really interesting. We also have a group project where we are essentially addressing how much the Palestinians and the Israelis need to acknowledge that the other has a connection to the land and a right to self determination. Big issues, but I'm looking forward to it.

Middle East Studies is a very odd course. It isn't what I expected, but this week turned more toward what my initial expectations were. We spent a lot of time studying Middle East Studies, that is we spent about two months looking at how the Middle East was studied. Interesting, but not what I expected. This week we finally started looking at some events in the Middle East, such as the rise of nationalism and the role of the Middle East in international relations. I love the reading for the class despite the fact that it keeps me up until all hours of the night. I also spend a lot of time working with the professor and going on outings with the Middle East Studies Center. This weekend I'm going to Fayyoum Oasis. I'll post more about that event later this weekend.

I'm not the only one who has to keep on truckin' though. Last Saturday, Egypt's prayers were answered when the soccer (football) team scored the two goals they needed to not lose to Algeria. Egypt had to win by two goals in order to tie Algeria in wins and in goals scored over the past four matches. Egypt scored in the first two minutes and then again in the final minute of extra time at the end of the match. The country. went. CRAZY. Everybody had national pride and there were riots in the streets. People made torches out of cans of hairspray or spray deodorant. People were riding on the top of cars. Flags were everywhere. People were banging on drums (boom boom boom boom MISR boom boom boom boom MISR - Misr means Egypt) and it was generally crazy and fantastic. I was originally sort of scared as to what a riot in Egypt would look like, but then I realized that everybody was sober and just happy (as opposed to when the Lakers got their three-peat or Boston finally won the World Series and people were happy and drunk and stupid). There was no danger, just massive crowds of extremely patriotic people.

Egypt has to play Algeria again tonight in a winner take all match in Sudan. The winner goes to the World Cup in South Africa this summer. The last time Egypt went was 1990 (after beating Algeria to qualify), and Algeria hasn't gone since 1986. Both teams have a lot to gain by winning tonight's match but I think Egypt can do it. There's a national campaign sponsored by the phone company Vodafone that has ads all over the country asking people to pray for the team. I really am living in a completely different world.

Time to do more reading! I have class and then I'm going to watch the game on campus tonight. Probably no riots if/when we win. I feel like the excessive amount of useless security guards might actually earn their pay tonight.

Ma'a salaama!

PS It's my birthday next week! however, I don't trust the mail system here so don't send anything after this weekend. I got a card from Fran and Nancy (thanks guys!) and realized that other people might send stuff but I don't want it to get here after I'm back in the states (Dec 16). Keep that in mind!

Nov 9 was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall as I'm sure you all know, and it was fairly largely overlooked here in Egypt. Most coverage of the event could be found from foreign websites. I find this ironic because there is a wall being built that is three times as high as the Berlin Wall and significantly more illegal that is currently being built by Israel in the West Bank. There are comparisons drawn between the two walls all the time, but there was little recognition of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I don't know why this is, but the wall being built by Israel is deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice and based on international law and there is a constant call in the Arab world for it to be torn down.

Nov 11. Happy Veteran's Day! Again, totally overlooked here in Egypt. I saw that Angela Merkel went to France to celebrate Armistice Day, the first German Chancellor to do so. Does this mean more Franco-German cooperation in the future? A lot of people say yes, but I'm still pretty skeptical. (On a side note, apparently the Euro Zone is officially out of a recession)

Nov 13. Happy Friday the 13th! I don't know if this is lucky or not, but I got to come downtown today for a make up class for Migration Refugee Studies and later I have to do two weeks worth of reading for both Middle East Studies and Palestinian Refugee Issues. Lovely! At least the weather was gorgeous today and I was able to walk along the Nile from Zamalek (an island in the middle of the river where AUC dorms are downtown) to Tahrir (where the downtown campus is) with two of my friends. All in all a good day so far.

Nov 14. Tomorrow is the World Cup Qualifying Match between Algeria and Egypt hosted here in Cairo. It's going to be crazy and I already received an email from the embassy encouraging all Americans to stay away from the area where the stadium is. I'll post more about the match afterward, but you can bet that I'll be clapping and chanting 'Misr!' (Egypt) along with the other 18 million people in this city. Yup.

Lots of homework! And I'm moving downtown next semester, I'll be living with Dooler and a guy named Hugo who is here for a year on study abroad from Sciences Po in Paris. This means that when my Arabic fails me, I'll be able to communicate with him in French! A win on all sides! Classes are probably going to get shut down again because of Swine Flu. Not a win :(. Either way most of my classes will still be meeting regardless of whether or not school is closed and I still have readings and papers due in the next couple weeks. Grad school has reared its ugly head but I accept the challenge! Fun times!

The Gunpowder Treason and plot,
I know of no reason the Gunpowder Treason
should ever be forgot.

No that's not right. Though November 5th IS Guy Fawkes Day (thank you V for Vendetta) more importantly it is my mother's birthday. Happy birthday Momma! And now I will sing to you in Arabic -

sana 7iilwa ya gameela
sana 7iilwa ya gameela
sana 7iilwa ya habibatee
sana 7iilwa ya gameela

I may have just made that up, but it works in my head (7 is pronounced like a voiceless H). I sent you a present and it shipped yesterday so insha'allah you will have it this weekend. Let me know when you get it! I love you!

Tonight I'm going out downtown for a friend's birthday - sushi and karaoke, should be an adventure!

~dk

NOTE: my mom just got her birthday gift - I made an album with my pictures from Morocco and did the journaling in French. I'm putting it up in my albums page so you can see what I did with the pictures, even if you can't necessarily understand the writing. It follows my journal entries pretty closely. Enjoy!

My arabic is coming along quite nicely. On paper. I can speak well enough with what I have learned, and I even recorded myself so you can hear me. I'm going to make a youtube page, where I will try to post videos of myself speaking in Arabic and sometimes I'll even subtitle it for you ;). When it's ready I'll post it here. I am the top of my class of four which is nice, but also sometimes frustrating when we are going over the same concepts for weeks at a time - this is the accelerated class and swine flu already set us back by not having class for two weeks. Despite that, we will be learning in one semester what would take me at least a year if I were to study it at Northeastern. My one semester that was covered while I worked at the UN was covered in my first three weeks here. I am picking up the grammar pretty quickly and can write sentences, paragraphs even, without having to consult the textbook. I'm pretty proud of myself and I know that I am incredibly lucky to know how to learn a language. Many in my class constantly ask how a word translates into English when the word just doesn't. Arabic is a beautiful language, full of poetry and multiple ways to say the same thing. My teacher is fantastic and she has taught at Middlebury in Vermont, a program where you sign a language pledge saying that you won't speak anything other than the language you are learning for the whole time you are there - six or nine weeks speaking, reading, writing, watching movies, surfing the internet, living, EVERYTHING only in Arabic. She has also been invited to teach at Notre Dame and schools in CA and FL. I am very lucky to have her and she's always willing to help me when it's clear that I'm a little ahead of where the rest of the class is. She constantly asks me if I'm happy in the class and the truth is that I am. I have three other courses so even though I would like to move more quickly, I don't have the time to dedicate myself to any more than the twelve hours a week (plus homework) that I'm already working on Arabic.
One issue that I have come across is the fact that I am learning Modern Standard Arabic. MSA is what is used for the news, religious debates, and printing but it is not the dialect used for speaking in many Arab countries. Here in Egypt, people speak 'Amayya' and in Morocco people spoke 'Darija' and basically if you go out in the street speaking MSA people look at you funny. They can generally understand what you're saying, but it isn't the language they speak. We were discussing this in my Middle East Studies class the other day - basically Arabic is the language of the Qur'an and as such it cannot be changed. It's kind of like Europe before things began being printed in the vernacular. Except that we're not in the middle ages. And without a written text it is incredibly hard to learn a foreign language. All these factors mean that even though I can read, write, and speak Arabic, it is difficult for me to communicate with native speakers around me. Hopefully I will be able to learn more 'amayya' if and when I move off campus and spend more time speaking with locals. Last night I was very proud of myself for being able to give directions downtown to a cab driver all in Arabic. We even chatted a little bit about living in Egypt! So I'm certainly not learning in a vacuum like I felt I was earlier. Momtaz (great)!

That is a reference to this link (you only need to watch the first few seconds to know what I'm talking about). It's catchy and gets stuck in my head whenever I see a cat in this country. Well maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I definitely think of it at least once a day. My point, however, is that there are SO MANY CATS HERE. No wonder ancient Egyptians thought of them as gods - there were probably more of them than people back then! Whenever I go downtown, I easily see several dozen cats. On the old campus, where I have one of my classes, there are about twenty that I am able to recognize, usually fighting with each other out by the cafe. Cats run across the street just like people and hang out around cafes and restaurants, presumably where they are able to find scraps of food. Their numbers have increased since the pigs were killed due to swine flu, because more trash has piled up around the city and therefore they have more to sustain their numbers with. Pigs used to keep the trash under control, and now that there are no pigs, they have been replaced by cats. I haven't seen as many tiny ones as I did in the medinas of Morocco, but the ones I do see are constantly hissing and fighting and scrounging for food. Those with cat allergies, consider yourself warned, this is not the country for you.

The US sends a lot of money around the world for development projects and I never really thought about it much more than that. I figured these projects would be left to individual design by the governments and would be used to help large portions of the population. My eyes have been opened to the fact that this is not the case. I don't know why I thought the US was so philanthropic in its development aid, but I am now very interested to see how this money is spent in the country. I feel like most of AUC's funding comes directly from this development money. I don't know the exact statistics, but I do know that there is a plaque in the middle of the school thanking USAID and that I can't go into any classroom without seeing a huge USAID sticker plastered on a desk or computer or table. The library is practically an homage to USAID. I appreciate all the money the US is pumping into my school and I know that my school is the best in the region, but I still feel like as a private institution it shouldn't be such a large recipient of what I previously assumed were government and public funds. AUC is a small school, and only the elite of Egypt can afford to come here (and elite they are - kids walk around with Gucci bags and Chanel sunglasses and Armani Exchange shirts. I can only compare it to what we call 'Eurotrash' in the fact that they act and appear so entitled, and comfortable in their entitlement) so it certainly isn't catering to the public as a whole. Egyptian farmers are still suffering from water shortages while AUC has excessive amounts of decorative fountains in the middle of campus. The country has been in a 'state of emergency' since the current 'democratically elected' president, Hosni Mubarak, took over in 1981 when Anwar Sadat was assassinated and yet it is still our biggest ally in the Arab world and receives massive amounts of development aid. Yes a school is deserving of funding under the umbrella of development, but how many more elementary schools could have been built out in villages with the money that AUC receives? I feel incredibly privileged and I know I would be complaining if my school didn't have computers in all the classrooms or air conditioning in the dorms, but I can't help but feel a little guilty knowing that the money could have been spent better elsewhere. This is something I will look into as best I can; I don't know how much information on the breakdown of funds is available to the general public. Until then, I will continue to study in this great university knowing that I am a direct recipient of development aid from my country. It's certainly an interesting position to be in.

and as such I have a lot of things to write about. I'm going to put them in different posts since they address such different issues, but this first one is going to be about the weather. Again.

This campus is not designed for wet weather, and that's what we've had for the past week or so. Since I last posted it rained on four different days, causing many of my friends to wipe out in the puddles that form on our campus. One of the great things about our campus is it's beautiful (if inefficient) architecture and the fact that they were able to use so much marble for tables and tiling on the ground. However, marble floors are not conducive to walking well when they are wet. I remember being close to wiping out many times on the marble steps at Northeastern's library when it was wet out, but I didn't think that would be an issue here in the middle of the desert. I was wrong. I have been lucky enough to not fall down yet, but I have witnessed some of my friends fall on their heinies into puddles, especially on some of the absurdly large steps we have (large as in long, not high, they didn't fall up or down stairs - at least not any more than usual, some of my friends are quite clumsy). Deserts don't have a lot of rain, and it definitely shows in the architecture of buildings out here. There is no proper drainage and no place for runoff to go. And so, as it rains, we must deal with the puddles.

That's right folks. On your left you'll see some pigs with freshly sprouted wings. On your right you'll see the new ice skating rink opening up in Hell. And out in the middle of the Egypt desert, you'll see rain clouds with water falling from them. Yep. That right there belongs in a traveling side show act.

Seriously though. It's not a lot of rain, but any rain is welcome here. This definitely means the heat wave we had last week is broken and serves as a nice reminder that it's fall in this part of the world as well. I have to get back to homework, but had to post this!

In other 'you-must-be-joking' news, the 7/11 style convenience store on campus now sells Kettle Chips, and I'm going to weekly ballet and yoga classes. Like I said, to your left you can see all the piggies flying now!

~dk

A few things I forgot to mention in my last post about driving here in Egypt....

1. Cars 'share' the road with mopeds, bicycles, some three wheeled contraption that I need to get a picture of that generally is driven by an old man in a gallabayah (traditional robe) and sometimes has an oven on the back because he is cooking bread or something else to try to sell to you, carts pulled along by donkeys, and pedestrians. This is just as true in the middle of downtown as it is out in the middle of nowhere (where I live).

2. Driving on the right side of the road, though common practice, is merely a suggestion. As is driving forward. It is not uncommon to see cars driving on the wrong side of the road or in reverse  - I've seen a lot of cars in reverse on the highway, particularly when they pass their exit.

3. The speed limit is also a suggestion, generally used as a suggested minimum when lack of traffic will allow.

4. Speed bumps here are ridiculous. They range from big ones that are about a foot high and four feet across (from front to back) to a series of ridges and sometimes they only take up half the road, not the whole lane, so the driver just zig zags to avoid them and continue driving at high speeds.

Needless to say, I will not be looking to drive in this country anytime soon. Hope you have a better picture of what I'm dealing with out here!

~dk

As in the frustration that I feel while driving around Cairo. See, I live in 'the rapidly expanding suburb' of New Cairo. Never before has 'rapidly expanding' been such a relative term. We are essentially the only completed structure for miles around. I can't tell if the half standing buildings around us are in the process of being built or in the final stages of deterioration. The metro MIGHT extend out here in about ten years. There is literally nothing to do in New Cairo and every time we want to go out, we have to take a school bus or taxi to one of the actual suburbs of Cairo, or all the way downtown. Coming back generally requires a taxi, and here's where the real frustration starts. I know that the campus is new and the suburb is new, but more often than not, my taxi rides wind up showing me a different side of the desert or a new university or mosque or apartment building under construction out in the middle of nowhere before stopping three or four times to ask where the American University is. It's incredibly frustrating and I don't know the way well enough to direct, even if I did speak enough Arabic to be able to. I think that I'll have a much better opinion of Cairo when I move off campus and don't have to make this trip every time I want to go somewhere other than class.

The driving itself is also quite the adventure. A three lane road usually has five or six lanes of traffic, street lights are basically non existent, traffic cops and their whistles try to control the chaos of downtown traffic and they're surprisingly successful. Drivers leave NO space between themselves and other cars and merging is an art form. Crossing the street is getting easier, I'm pretty good at spotting the breaks in traffic or standing in the middle of the road waiting for the chance to finish playing a live version of Frogger . Momma, you wouldn't like it here - there isn't a crossing signal as far as the eye can see and crosswalks aren't even guidelines for when or where to walk. Somehow I don't think this is what The Bangles had in mind when they sang Walk Like An Egyptian...

I'm quite looking forward to being back in the states where there are traffic lights instead of traffic cops, three lanes on the street means three cars abreast on the road, jaywalking isn't the main mode of pedestrian travel, and horn honking might actually mean something. (I forgot to mention that earlier, but basically honking your horn here is about as frequent as breathing, and I still don't know if it's effective or not.) I just bought my ticket home for Dec 16 - Jan 26; that's almost a full six weeks in the states before it's back here to the sandlot for my next semester.

Walking oh so slowly
Don't know anybody
Feels like I'm in Cairo
Talking oh so quickly
Please explain what they mean
Feels like I'm in Cairo
- from 'In Cairo' by Hot Hot Heat

Anyway, besides the fact that I like to title my posts with song lyrics or other commonly used phrases, this one refers to both the weather and the pressure building up from grad school.

I know my friends in Boston won't want to listen to me complain about the triple digit temperatures we've had for the past few days (considering Twitter tells me that it's snowing and fall is apparently over on the East Coast) but it has been HOTTTTTT here. Saturday when I was out with my Middle East Studies Department it was five hours in the desert sun with temperatures over 100 degrees. It's been that way for about five days now. It's even mid nineties at ten o clock at night! I know I'm living in the desert, but really? It's over halfway through October! At least come down to the eighties or something, please Cairo? Ok thanks.

As for school, there is SO MUCH WORK, and I love every minute of it. Well almost every minute of it. I'm yet to understand the point of my Forced Migration and Refugee Studies class (and frankly I struggle to understand the professor 90% of the time) but the readings are mostly interesting and I have a Literature Review due next week so that's fun. Palestinian Refugee Issues is an amazing course with a fantastic professor (American, with a background in International Refugee Law who has been living in Egypt/Israel for the past ten years or so while practicing law and teaching) and it makes me want to spend all of my time focusing on Palestinian issues, but I'm honestly still a little timid to go there. Not because I'm afraid of the dangers or what I'll see while I'm in Gaza or West Bank, but because you have to go through Israel to get there and I still want to travel to Lebanon and maybe Syria, two places I definitely cannot go with an Israeli stamp (or a stamp saying I left Egypt at the land border, because obviously that border is Israel). I have mixed feelings about this, but I honestly think I'll wind up on the side of travel over the side of visiting Palestine (at least for the time being). Since it will be a while before I go to Palestine (assuming I do) I don't want to focus academically on it because I feel like if I wrote a thesis without visiting the area it would be less legitimate than I want it to be. Again, mixed feelings on this, because the issue is really interesting. But if i haven't been to Palestine and I haven't worked with the refugees, I don't fancy myself an expert on the issue, no matter how much reading I do. Middle East Studies is fantastic. I love the readings, though we tend to go off on a lot of tangents in class and sometimes I'm really lost as to why my professor is writing the names of ancient sociologists on the board when we were talking about a book written in 1978 just five minutes before. I have to choose my paper topic for that class today and write my abstract for class tomorrow. I've been thinking a lot about it because I hope that this paper can be expanded upon for my thesis (assuming that I write one) next year. I want that thesis to be on the definition of 'Arab' socially, politically, and historically. That's a huge topic and I don't know if I have all of the resources to pursue it fully (language, sociological methodological background, etc) but the paper for this class only has to be about 15 pages. I think I'm going to write about the history of the Arab League, focusing on its membership criteria - essentially the political side of what makes a country Arab. Now I just need to see if there are any resources that I can use since I haven't yet been able to make it to the Arab League building in Cairo.

Add two to three hours of Arabic class and homework every day to all of that plus the desire to actually go out and explore Cairo and see friends and, as my previous post said, I'm really busy.

This post may have been a little convoluted. If that's the case, I'm sorry, but I'll play it off as trying to convey the AUC experience. I can't send you all over the campus to find the information you want, so I can at least put a lot of words in there and change direction every other sentence. Enjoy!

Off to Arabic class now. It's a long day. After this class I have to watch a video for Middle East Studies - Edward Said: The Final Interview (Edward Said being the author of Orientalism, which completely restructured the way the Middle East is viewed and studied), and then I have my Palestinian Refugee Issues class, followed by ballet (taught by one of the RA's here). I'm exhausted already just thinking about it.

I hope you're all enjoying fall or whatever season it is where you are. I'll be enjoying summer for you for a while longer.

Also, the new pictures I put up are in the Cairo album, not a new one. So make sure to check those out. I also put up the family tree I created for my Arabic class, that one is in the AUC campus and reslife album.

Now, I'm off to class.

~dk

translation: I'm REALLY busy.

I know it's been a while since my last post, but that's because things finally got rolling here in Cairo! I finally had a five day school week (though I missed one class because I was sick) and I've been doing homework and other events so I'm always busy! We went through two chapters in my Arabic class (and are finally onto some new material for me, woohoo!) and my graduate courses are starting to pick up as well. Sort of. Papers are coming due and discussions are getting really intense. I spent 14 hours yesterday reading for my Middle East Studies and Palestinian Refugee Issues classes - eek!

Last weekend I went out with Dooler and we met up with Sherif and Ahmed and Ahmed's little brother, Hisham. Sherif and Hisham and Dooler and I went to a club where we were four of about ten people there. We danced like crazy and had a good time, but apparently the place doesn't get hopping til about 1 am, and we had decided to catch a bus at midnight. The night before Dooler and I had gone out to a shisha cafe and then met up with the rest of the gang at a bar that had 10 LE Stellas (Egyptian beer - 500 mL for 2 bucks isn't bad, but the beer kind of is). That was followed by another shisha cafe, naturally, but this one was awesomely cheap and right in Tahrir square downtown, so I will definitely be going there again. Saturday I took the Foreign Service Exam in Maadi at the USAID building. I think I did fine but I won't know for a few weeks and honestly I'm not too concerned. I know I have another chance to take it before I finish grad school. After the exam I took the metro (for the first time!) into downtown and arrived just as the match between Egypt and Zambia ended (1-0 Egypt). Now Egypt has to beat Algeria here on Nov 14 by at least 3 goals to advance to the World Cup - that will be a very intense match. We hung out (I met some of Sherif's friends) and had dinner and then I caught the bus back to campus. It was a close call though, Sherif's friends drove me to where the bus was and we literally had to block him in because he was pulling away as we got there. I got on the bus though, and made it home in time to do lots of Arabic homework.

Then I had this week. My stomach has been angry since I got back from Morocco and I really didn't feel up to taking the hour long bus ride into town for my Migration class so I didn't make that, but went to the doctor instead. They gave me more Cipro and told me to come back in a week to make sure I'm doing better. Fun times! Other than that it was a week of homework and reading. I gave a presentation in my Middle East Studies class, but since I went last and the teacher always goes off on tangents I only had about three minutes to present my chapter. I did it though, and it was the best presentation so far because it was concise and the professor couldn't ramble for a half hour afterward. I even got a round of applause (as everybody was packing up....).

This weekend has been intense. Thursday afternoon Dooler and I took the bus into Tahrir and met up with my friend Brett. I know him from Northeastern - he went to Switzerland with me in 2007 - and now he's here delaying the real world by studying Arabic for three months in Cairo. It was great to see him and I really like having him around for a lot of reasons, not least of which is he's of Moroccan descent and frankly it's comforting to have a male friend who can pass as Egyptian accompany me while I'm walking on the street. I'm hoping that I'll get to see him quite a bit, especially on weekends and Mondays when I have class downtown. We met up with him at the cheap shisha cafe in Tahrir and waited for Sherif to arrive from his new job out by Suez - a three hour bus ride away. He showed up and we went and got food and beer and then I decided to head home and Sherif sent Dooler with me because he was too exhausted to entertain her. Friday I spent ALL DAY READING. Seriously. 14 hours. About 200 pages with a short skype break and some dinner thrown in. Today I woke up before my alarm and did more reading. Why so much reading in one day you ask? Because today I had a field trip with the Middle East Studies Center (I'm reeeeeally trying to suck up to my MEST professor - she's the head of the department and I want a fellowship!).

I took my friend Frankie and her friends Peter and Travis and we met the group in Tahrir. There were only about eight of us there and we took the bus to Al Azhar park. Al Azhar is a huge public green space in historic Cairo. It is listed among the world's 60 greatest public spaces and opened in 2005. It cost 5 LE to get in (about a dollar) and is self sufficient with no profit - all income beyond cost of maintenance goes to various fund associated with the surrounding areas. It is right next to the Old Cairo wall and we actually went into Darb Al Ahmar (the Red Area, no it is not a Red Light District) to see some of the projects being restored around the park. This area is ANCIENT and many of the residents have been there for centuries, so the Aga Khan foundation is working on restoring many buildings, particularly mosques and public squares. We got to go into a few of their restoration projects, including the Blue Mosque (no relation to the one in Istanbul) which is covered with gorgeous blue and white tiles on the inside. It was really interesting and great to get off the campus into real Cairo for a while.

Hopefully I'll get to uploading some pictures tonight so you can see the park and Darb Al Ahmar. It was gorgeous, despite the heat today - 36 C in the shade, over 100 F at high noon in the city. Lots of sunscreen for me! Now I have to work on Arabic homework  - I'm making a family tree, and I can write about all of you in Arabic! I did a whole page without even looking at the book, I might type it up and post it here for you to translate on the internet (don't worry, I'll post the link to do that too...)

So anyway, like the title of this post - I'm really busy!

Love you all. Hope all is going well back home.

dk

School started again two days ago, just in time to have a national holiday and no classes today. The 6th of October is technically Armed Forces Day here in Egypt and it commemorates the 1973 Yom Kippur War where Egypt tried to reclaim the Sinai Peninsula from Israel. It was essentially the only Arab 'victory' against Israel in the twentieth century.

And now, a small history lesson:

Egypt crossed into the Sinai the morning of October 6th while Israel was celebrating Yom Kippur - this meant most of the military was not at their posts and instead home with family or at temple. Fortunately Israel is about the size of New Jersey and nobody is on the roads on Yom Kippur, so once the invasion started Israel was able to respond pretty quickly. Israel had ignored repeated warnings as well as rhetoric from Egypt that built up for about a year before the invasion, but they did realize about six hours before it began that it was about to start. However, since the US was the only person supplying Israel with any aid, they couldn't strike first without putting that aid in jeopardy. This was a good call - Kissinger said later that if Israel struck first, they wouldn't even have received a nail from the States.

Anyway, after about three weeks of fighting, a ceasefire was put in effect and Egypt had regained the Sinai. The war worked out much better for Egypt than Syria, who tried to regain the Golan Heights but wound up losing more territory to Israel. As far as internal politics, the success did wonders. Egypt had lost the Sinai during the Six Day War in 1967 and ever since Sadat came to power in 1970 there were calls to reclaim it. Egypt only made small territorial advances, but this was enough to placate the masses in Egypt and heal the collective psychological trauma that the country had suffered after 1967's loss.

Sadat eventually signed the Camp David Accords, recognizing Israel and getting the entire Sinai Peninsula returned to Egypt. He got Egypt temporarily kicked out of the Arab League, was the first Arab leader to visit Israel, and was assassinated by radical Islamist army members frustrated with his negotiations - on October 6th 1981 at a parade commemorating the invasion 8 years earlier.

The surprise attack on Israel did lead to limited Arab victory, but did not attain its goals of getting the Sinai returned to Egypt and in fact lost the Golan Heights forever for Syria. It essentially crushed all hope of an Arab military victory against Israel and forced countries and individuals to look toward more diplomatic and peaceful options. The most obvious of these are the Camp David Accords, but as we have seen, peace still remains elusive between Israel and its neighbors.

A very interesting day to celebrate....

Morocco was an amazing adventure and I'm super excited that I had the opportunity to have the experience that I did.

Traveling with Dooler was great - we were able to talk about everything from Orientalism and history to gender and sex and politics and homework. Having her host family in Rabat was a unique opportunity to see how families really live in Morocco - watching lots of National Geographic, having to flush the toilet (thank goodness it was Western and not Turkish) with a bucket of water, 'Kouli, kouli, kouli' three times a day with delicious food, and sleeping in various rooms on various couches as the sleeping arrangements seemed to change almost every day.

I was very comfortable traveling around by train and it was really cheap - the $50 ticket for a bed in an air conditioned cabin from Marrakesh to Tangier was almost half of what we spent on the total tickets around the country. We went second class all the way and it was fine, sometimes we even had entire cabins to ourselves. Easy, reliable, and a lot of fun.

Lonely Planet (LP) was a godsend. Dooler's host sister Fedwa gave it to us as we were looking at train schedules online. We used it for the maps and recommendations on where to eat or sleep. The mechoui in Marrakesh and the hotel in Chefchaouen, as well as the American Legation Museum in Tangier and La Sqala in Casablanca were all at the guidance of LP. It included history and sometimes had some really funny writing ('the meat is more tender than your last love affair' for example). I highly recommend it to any independent traveler around the country.

I got to use a lot of French in Morocco, which was great. I hadn't really spoken much since high school so I was a little rusty, but with Dooler's Arabic and my French we were able to move around the country really easily. We met a few people and were able to have some nice conversations in English, but as far as getting anything done we were able to use both of our second languages. The Arabic in Morocco is really hard to understand, but they could understand Dooler easily enough. Similarly, the French is sometimes pretty garbled, but it works. There was more Spanish up by Tangier, which makes sense, but other than that it was great for us. I wish that Moroccan Arabic was more useful, because I would love to be able to study there for a while; however, almost NOBODY outside of Morocco, Algeria, or Tunisia can understand Darija (the local dialect) so I would still have to learn Modern Standard Arabic. I guess I'll stay in Egypt for the time being.

All in all, an amazing trip and a great way to spend Swine Flu 09. I've now been to the three 'corners' of Africa and seen all the water that surrounds it - Atlantic, Mediterranean, Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean (thanks Cape of Good Hope). I just need to get to Suez and I'll have seen where all of these waters meet each other (the Cape, the Straight, and the Canal). I joke about collecting countries (for which Dooler called me a mini colonialist) but I'm pretty excited to be able to say these things. Back to the real world now - school, homework, and pizza instead of homecooked feasts.

So if you want to have a great time in Morocco, here's looking at your packing list, kid:
- access to a host family
- an Arabic speaker
- a French speaker
- lots of toilet paper and wet wipes
- pepto/immodium/cipro
- appetite for adventure and adventurous food
- thick skin
- sunscreen, and maybe an umbrella
and last but certainly not least...
- your sense of direction, lest you wind up paying small children to lead you out of medinas.

Hope you enjoyed my adventure! More to come, insha'allah.

So I went to the Hammam with Dooler and Bahia (a family friend, she used to work in Dooler's host family's house cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids) and Aya, Dooler's tiny eight or so year old little host sister (though she's way smaller than the six year old boy). We walked through the old medina and Bahia stopped to buy some soap and then we made it to the hammam. We got down to our underwear, rented a few stools and buckets, and headed into the bathing rooms. Dooler and I got quite a few stares - in addition to me being the whitest person in the room, Dooler and I both have tattoos on our ribs so immediately upon taking our shirts off Aya stared at us, mouth agape, and this reaction was the same for pretty much all the women in the hammam. Slightly awkward, but it was fine.

Guide books will tell you that the hammam is a nice place to relax, especially if you want to avoid the harassment of men on the street which you will inevitably encounter all over the country. I suppose this is probably true, especially if you go to a higher end hammam such as one of the ones attached to hotels in big cities, or maybe if you go during the day and not evening; however, it was not my experience. We went to the hammam in the old medina at about 8pm - prime time for all the women in homes that presumably don't have running water (a valid concern in many of the old medinas) to come and bathe themselves and their screaming children. Also the hammam is not the place for anybody who is squeamish about dead skin or clumps of hair - you'll see a lot of it, both being sloughed off of your own body and from everybody else. This is what the stools are for - so that you don't have to sit in all the runoff water. A 'relaxing' experience, not for the faint of heart.

The hammam really is just a public bathhouse. You soap up with the brown (sometimes black) paste and then rinse. Then you scrub (and scrub and scrub) with a pumice glove (about as sensuous as it sounds) and layer upon layer of filth and dirt and skin and sunscreen come flaking off. The person next to you will scrub your back for you and while you're waiting for your friends to finish, you can just keep scrubbing. I apparently scrubbed a little too hard and my chest and jaw are a little raw because of it, but I have definitely exfoliated more than I ever have in my life. After removing your entire epidermis, you soap up again and rinse again, taking time to wash your hair if you want. Aya had fun brushing my and Dooler's short hair. After rinsing and washing and waiting in the relatively cold 'warm' room (compared to the hot room) we toweled off and headed home. I forgot a hat or scarf to cover my head on the way out since only 'women of ill repute' go out with wet hair, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't any confusion as I carried Aya most of the way home. Our adventure was over two hours and I certainly was able to say 'Ana jadida' (I'm new!) to the whole family upon our return.

If you're ever in Morocco I do recommend going to a hammam, preferably one without a lot of small children if you really are looking to relax. The screaming child in your bathtub at home echos a lot louder in the tiled high ceiling-ed 'bathtub' at the hammam. And the pumice glove is a loofah on steroids - you really are rubbing yourself with straight up lava rock. If the woman scrubbing your back is about as gentle as a jackhammer, you can try to say 'shweeya' (a little) provided there are no screaming children (or that she would listen to you anyway). All I'm saying is you have been warned, now go enjoy yourselves.

I went to Casablanca yesterday. It was my first adventure by myself in Morocco, which was surprising considering it was on the last day and I had expected most of my adventures to be just LP and I. I took the train from Rabat and went straight to the Hassan II Mosque. I had to wait a few hours for the tour, so I sat in the shadow of the highest minaret in the world and read Orientalism - a little ironic, or too fitting, either way I got a lot of homework done. After midday prayers, my tour took us through the MASSIVE mosque. It cost an estimated 3/4 of a billion US dollars, but it's likely that it was up to three or four times that much in reality. Somehow nobody knows how much it really cost - the king put up a third of the cost with his own money and the rest came from non voluntary donations from everybody in Morocco. Some people are proud of the mosque but most are upset about the conditions under which it was built and the cost to the people of Morocco. Those things aside though, it is an amazing architechtural feat. The roof is made of cedar and hand carved and painted, it also slides open in three minutes to air out the mosque when it is nice weather or the mosque is full. The columns are made of granite and the heated floor is made of marble - all the materials are from Morocco except for the fifty seven Venetian glass chandeliers and two Italian marble columns that surround the niche that points toward Mecca. It took six years to build with a team of thousands working in shifts 24/7 and covers 9 hectares - 2 inside the mosque that can house 25,000 worshippers and 7 more hectares that can accomodate another 55,000 faithful. Pretty impressive. We also got to see the ablution rooms where Muslims perform the ritual washing before prayer - hands to the wrist three times, eyes mouth and face three times, hands to the elbow three times, right foot three times, left foot three times - before every prayer. It's mainly symbolic though, it doesn't take people more than two minutes to perform the ritual. After the ablution room we were taken to the hammam, which was basically an underground pool that still isn't open, but insha'allah it will be open to Muslims and non-Muslims alike soon - however, after seeing how Moroccan time works I have no idea how soon soon actually is.

I decided afterward to try to head to Rick's Bar for lunch, but it was closed. I wasn't too upset since apparently the real inspiration was in Tangier and we had already gone there. I kept walking and found this place called La Sqala which used to be an old bunker on the edge of the medina and had lunch there. I definitely splurged and got some fruit juices that wound up being like smoothies, a tajine that was delicious and amazing, and finished off with fondue that was clearly meant for two people. The beef tajine that was recommended to me since they didn't have the goat one that LP recommended was quite possibly the best thing I've ever eaten. It was a delicous cut of meat falling off the bone - complete with delicious bone marrow, which I had never eaten and was not expecting, but enjoyed thoroughly none the less - with onions and prunes and almonds. I wish I could have licked the plate but I had to settle for scooping up all the drippings with lots and lots of fresh bread. Morocco is a foodie paradise - just don't forget the Pepto, you don't want any regrets for enjoying such delicous meals.

I walked around downtown a little bit after I let all of my food settle. Casablanca is the 'White City' and true to it's name all its buildings used to be white, now they're pretty dirty. The French influence is very visible and most of the architecture is from the 1930s giving the city an art deco feel that isn't found anywhere else in the country. Once the sun started to set I headed back to the train station to finish up my stay in Rabat. This afternoon Dooler and I are taking the train back through Casablanca to the airport (yes I know I was just there, there has been A LOT of backtracking on this trip) and returning to Cairo. Swine Flu Break 09 is coming to a close and tomorrow involves a lot of homework. Morocco was definitely worth it though. A fabulous adventure. I'll post about the hamman I went to the other night a little later (maybe once my skin has recovered from being mostly scrubbed off?)

Salaama Maghreb!

That means crazy times two and that's exactly what Dooler and I are. Since I last posted, we went back to Tangier, took a train to Fes in the middle of the night (and had an adventure finding a hotel there), spent the afternoon in Meknes, and were still able to have dinner in Rabat. We figured that we probably traveled around 1000km in four and a half days, seeing five cities all over Morocco.

Chefchaouen was great. Even though it was rainy, we still got to see the mountains and we wound up spending the evening talking to some guys who worked at the restaurant where we had eaten lunch. They gave us dinner for free and we spent a lot of time talking about the US and the Middle East and Orientalism and Edward Said and Noam Chomsky and colonialism and foreign languages - very surprising but greatly appreciated. The next morning we woke up early to take the bus back to Tangier and it was gorgeous - blue skies, green mountains, goats and sheep everywhere, cactus (the landscapes in Morocco are very weird), and we couldn't stop commenting on how pretty it was and how happy we were to be doing this adventure together. We were also pretty happy with the 1Dh pain au chocolats that we had found for breakfast - I have eaten way more pain au chocolats in this country than I ever have before. The French influence is alive and well, particularly in pastry form.

Tangier was a lot of fun. We had paella since we were so close to Spain, then walked around the old medina looking for the lookout to Spain. It was a little blurry, but we could definitely see another continent. We made our way down to the American Legation Museum, stopping to get free tangerines along the way. The American Legation Museum is the only US historical monument that isn't on US soil and exists because Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States back in 1777. It used to be the US Consulate in Tangier and now is just a museum and is a cute little piece of history in what used to be the Interzone. I didn't realize that Tangier was an international city (like Berlin after WWII) from about 1912 until shortly after Moroccan independence. There was a lot of Beat culture and history there but the city is only recently being rebuilt as a major tourist destination. After the Museum, we went to the Al Minzah hotel and Caid's Bar, which is the inspiration for Rick's Bar in Casablanca. I had a gin martini and Dooler had a Gin Fizz ('Of all the gin joints in all the world...) and then we headed back to the train station to head to Fes.

We got into Fes in the middle of the night and didn't think it would be a problem to find a hotel - we were wrong. Fortunately our taxi driver was ok driving to four hotels before one had a room for us. We got into the hotel at about three and were very happy that it was our last night away from Rabat. We woke up around nine and walked around the old medina in Fes. We avoided the faux guides and were very wary of pickpockets, as well as anybody trying to take us to a tannery. We wandered up and down lots of different streets, including the camel butchers' alley where we got to see a guy carving out camel brains, or something involving a knife and a camel head (sorry, no pictures of that...). We ate cactus fruit off a cart and it was delicious and cheap and then headed back to the hotel to get our stuff and head to Meknes. We were exhausted so Meknes was mainly a stop for some food and shisha. We had to carry our bag so we decided to skip the old medina (after all, we had seen four of them in the previous three days already) and enjoyed being in the Nouvelle Ville part of the city for once. Most cities in Morocco have these two distinct parts - the old medina, a windy maze of streets and vendors and souqs, and the Nouvelle Ville, which basically look like any city in France with some more palm trees and a different flag. After a few hours in Meknes, we hopped the train back to Rabat and got to hang out with the family after four and a half days away.

Today is a day of relaxation and 'Kooli, kooli' with mom's cooking and later I'll visit some of the sites in Rabat. Tomorrow morning I leave and visit the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca (one of only two mosques in the country that non-Muslims are allowed into, and the third largest mosque in the world). It's been an intense week here in Morocco, but I definitely think I've made the most of Swine Flu '09.

m'salaama
~dk

That means 'Morocco is very pretty' in the local language - darija.

I got here on Wednesday and Dooler and I went immediately to Rabat from the airport - about two hours on the train. We wandered around the old medina until we found her host family's house. I will post pictures of this fabulous place later, but it is on the first story and half of the house is open with no roof. Very cool. Dooler's host mom fed us soooo much and kept saying 'Kooli, kooli - eat, eat' if it looked like we might be slowing down. We stayed there for two nights and then took the train to Marrakesh.

In Marrakesh we found a hotel just off the Djemma el Fna and wandered around the souk for a while. A man showed us a tannery 'that his father owned' and we got ripped off for 100 dirham - about 15 bucks - but hey, it's not Marrakesh if you don't get ripped off. At night we went to a bar to try the local beer - so much better than Egypt's Stella, but more expensive too. The next morning we woke up early and walked to the Saadian Tombs and Bahia palace then back to the hotel for a nap. Lonely Planet - LP, our constant travel companion - recommended mechoui, roasted lamb, in the souk so we had a great lunch of that. A lot of walking followed as we wandered through Cyberpark - a wireless equipped public garden - and the Jardin Majorelle which has neon terra cotta pots and a ton of bamboo and Yves Sainte Laurent's ashes - something I did not expect to see in Morocco. That night we took a night train to Tangier all the way on the north coast of the country - definitely zig zagging all over the place.

This morning when we arrived in Tangier it was RAINING and we headed straight for the bus station. A two hour wait and four hour bus ride later I'm writing this from Chefchaouen in the Rif mountains - a tiny blue village that took us about a half hour to walk all the way across.

Tonight is a night of relaxation as tomorrow it is up early to go back to Tangier, the day there, an evening train to Meknes and a couple hours sleep there; Tuesday is Meknes and Fes and then back to Rabat late at night; hamka bizaf - very crazy - I know. A day's rest in Rabat and then I will head to Casa, where Dooler will meet me on Friday to fly back to Cairo.

Swine Flu 09 is definitely an adventure, but I'm really actually looking forward to getting into a normal routine once classes start up again next week insha'allah.

M'salaama
dana

The first thing I need to say is I did not know it was possible to have so much fun in a city I had never heard of before. Hurghada is a tourist highlight about seven hours outside of Cairo on the Red Sea. It's right across from the tip of the Sinai peninsula but (apparently) significantly cheaper than Sharm el Sheikh with similar access to the Red Sea and desert adventures. And oh what adventures we had...

We left campus at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning and took a too small taxi into downtown Cairo. We then took a bus at about 2 AM to Hurghada which lasted just over seven hours. I couldn't sleep so I was doing some homework and wound up watching the sunrise and attempting to watch the really bad really loud Egyptian movie that was playing. Eventually I fell asleep and woke up in Hurghada, yay! We checked in at our hotel - Sea View and yes it was aptly named, our little balcony did in fact look over the Red Sea - and everybody napped for a little bit. Then we went to a late lunch and spent the rest of the day on the beach. When we got back to the hotel, we stopped at the bar and made friends with the owner named Lotfy. He took quite a liking to our friend Katie so we wound up getting free shisha at the bar for the rest of the weekend (great success!) We decided to go out to dinner and I got Hamaam - PIGEON! I was really excited and then so disappointed when it came. There was very little meat, though it tasted just like dark meat on chicken, and most of it was rice. Oh well, now I can say that I have eaten pigeon (mmmm flying rat) but I'll probably try it again sometime hoping that it's better. After that it was bedtime because we had a big day lined up for Saturday.

Saturday was our desert day. This was not any desert day, it was a day full of surprises and adventures and just plain awesome. We got picked up around 11 after breakfast at the hotel and had the back of a jeep (converted with benches along the two sides) all to ourselves. The ride on the road was not very long and soon enough we were being asked whether we wanted the bumpy or flat ride - bumpy, naturally. We all bounced around the back of the truck for the next two hours, stopping occasionally to take pictures of the mountains that literally grew in front of our eyes (our driver said they were a mirage, I was tempted to believe him since I never knew there was such a range as the Red Sea mountains) or climb rocky sand dunes (flip flops were poor choice, the sand was quite hot). Eventually we made it to a Bedouin camp in the middle of nowhere but definitely a tourist hot spot. There were several 'rooms' set up, made out of sticks and full of cushions and perfect to relax in after our Indiana Jones-esque adventure to get there. They gave us food (some sort of cheese that I originally thought was hummus, pita, beans, and the standard tomato/cucumber salad that goes with everything here) and water and let us sleep for a while since we were all still very tired from hanging out with Lotfy the night before. Eventually they woke us all up to go ride camels. I was a little apprehensive as I have already done that twice but this place was PERFECT. The camel ride was about eight minutes and the camels had no flies and it was really just a fancy photo op. Then we got to go see some baby camels and feed them and also look at how the Bedouin people live out here. The women were making the bread that we had eaten, there was a small shop with jewelry, there was a home made out of the same sticks that our shelters were made from and it had a bedroom and a kitchen/living room/food storage room. Very interesting to see. The tribes out in the desert can't get to be more than 35 people because there isn't enough water to support anything larger. These nomads came from the Arabian peninsula and are similar to the ones on the Sinai but very different from the nomads up by the oases in the north. It was really interesting to see this, especially since none of us had expected our day to be like that. After walking around for a bit, they took us to the ATVs. Like I said before, this place was perfect - the camel ride was less than ten minutes but the ATV ride was over an hour. Amazing! I did almost fall off and my hands were super cramped from holding the accelerator down, but it was totally worth it. Afterward we got to ride in some small dune buggies and then had our choice to ride a horse or a donkey around in a circle - I chose donkey. For those of you keeping score, that means I had ridden a camel, ATV, dune buggy, and donkey so far. Next was the miniature zoo area where they had ostriches (nobody got to ride those), a sort of antelope, some peacocks, and two desert foxes with huge ears - Antoine de Saint Exupery was not exaggerating when he drew his fox in The Little Prince. After that we went in to the reptile room and got to play with snakes and lizards and a chameleon (who really did change colors very quickly; also those things have the weirdest hands I have ever seen on an animal, they look like they're greeting Spock) and we got to take pictures with a massive desert tortoise. By take pictures with I mean we got to sit on him; by my turn he seemed to be getting tired of this so he was walking around but I was still encouraged to sit on him. I count this as riding a tortoise (bringing my count up to five for the day). The day was not yet done though. We climbed one of the rocky dune mountains to watch sunset over the mountains in the desert - AMAZING and totally unexpected for Egypt - and then were taken to an arena of sorts for dinner and a show. The show was first - a belly dancer, an amazing sword swallower act who also had a car drive over him and broke concrete blocks on his head, a whirling dervish with light up skirts, and lots of shisha. Then dinner. I really wish I knew more of what I was eating over here, so far all I know is that it's good. We had to fight the Europeans (because EVERY OTHER TOURIST WAS EUROPEAN) for food so I didn't really have time to ask questions. After dinner we went to where they had some telescopes set up looking at Jupiter and four of its moons and then we spent some time just lying looking at the sky. It was so dark and so beautiful and so full of stars; you could see the Milky Way and every constellation and shooting stars. We then drove back to the hotel and intended to go out for the first night of Eid, but everybody was so exhausted we basically just hung out with Lotfy in shifts while the others napped. It was a very, very good day.

Sunday was our day of rest and relaxation. We got up at the crack of afternoon, went to the beach, and I curled up in the shade with lots of homework. Mmmmm ideal. It was actually a lot of fun and that night we went to Hard Rock Cafe (yeah, there's a Hard Rock in a city that I bet you've never heard of, that's how much of a European tourist spot this place is) for the most expensive meal ever heard of in Egypt. It was totally worth it though since we pretended it was our friend Sherif's birthday (Sherif that I met that first night that I went out; he arranged this whole trip for us) and we were all dancing and having a grand old time. Most importantly I got a new pin for my collection, WIN.

Monday we had to wake up bright and early (very unlike Sunday) for our bus at 8 AM to the boat for our day at sea. We got snorkels and masks and spent all day out on the boat with several dozen Russians and a few very loud Egyptian women. They took us to two spots to snorkel; the first I was mildly displeased because I didn't realize that my mask leaked until I was very far away from the boat. I had it pretty good though - Sherif lost his snorkel, Dooler's mask hurt her face, Katie's snorkel allowed her to inhale salt water, and Will lost his mask and snorkel upon jumping into the water. We were also a little disappointed that it wasn't Scuba, but considering we only paid thirty dollars for the day, I don't know how comfortable I would have been being stuck under the water, especially with how faulty the snorkeling equipment was. The second stop was much better. First off, we all jumped off the second story of the boat, not just off the back like everybody else. Everything's better when you start with a cannonball. Plus, Dooler gave me her mask and waterproof camera so I was having much more fun exploring the reef. It was really cool and a ton of bright fish - one with a snout, one with a blue tail and neon yellow face, several hundreds in schools that just froze underneath us. Very enjoyable and very salty. More good food was served afterward and then we went to an island (Giftun Island National Park actually) to play in the clear turquoise water and powdery white sand. We found a couple hermit crabs and coral reefs in the shallows and I was in awe at how beautiful the place could be despite the hundreds of tourists that visit every day. We spent an hour and a half there, I spent most of the time talking to Sherif and playing in the sand, and then it was back to the boat to head home. We were on the boat for sunset at about 530 and then back to the dock. Dinner was more seafood (I have had a lot of calamari here) and then back to the hotel for packing, sleep, and shisha with Lotfy.

Our bus back to Cairo was this morning leaving at 3 am and got us in just before nine. We thought the adventure was over and said goodbye to Sherif as the rest of us piled into a taxi for the long ride back to AUC. Boy were we wrong. All we wanted to do was eat and sleep, but no, our taxi had to get a flat tire. We stopped in front of some military building and the taxi driver went to get a new tire - the spare in the trunk was also flat of course. After a while of us sitting there some of the guards came out and told us 'No Cameras' even though none of us had cameras. We finally figured out that they thought we were spies and used a lot of sign language to try to explain that the car wasn't going anywhere. When they offered to get us gas we used more sign language to explain the popped tire. They finally understood and laughed and went back inside only to come out with another friend who pointed and laughed at us a lot. When the cabbie came back with a tire, we all got out so he could fix it and the guards came over to talk to us and offer us water and tea and shisha. They had just given us some water when some head honcho came out and basically told them to stop playing with the Americans and they all went back inside. These guys were very resourceful though and stuck their heads out from windows to ask us our names again and apparently four of them popped their heads out from behind a door all in a row to look at us. We couldn't stop laughing and were pretty excited that the adventure continued. As we rode back to AUC we kept giving the driver directions (straight ahead = ala tool, which I said a lot) and he kept singing to us (yalla yalla yalla, yalla bina yalla = let's go and habibi, habibi = my love my love). We finally made it home and told the driver that yes we do live at the university, we are not going to any hotel and after four and half glorious days our adventure was over.

Eid Mubarak. That whole adventure was planned before Swine Flu '09 (which we're treating like Spring Break) but tomorrow a new adventure begins. Dooler and I are off to Morocco. Don't ask me what I'm doing there, I don't know yet, but it will be amazing and I will get to speak a lot of French. I'll try to post from there just because there will be so much to say, but if I can't, then look forward to a fully detailed description of my newest passport stamp when I get back.

مع السلامة (ma'a salaama)

~dk

So I was very excited today to figure out that I have NO final exams since my Arabic exam will be in class. This means (or meant, we shall see how things change) that I would be able to come home any time after classes end on December 16. I was very excited to have this flexibility.

Then I came home and read my email. Classes are suspended at AUC starting tomorrow (Sept 17) through October 3 because of fear of swine flu. AUC had to quarantine one of its dorms in Zamalek (downtown) this summer for eight days because of a few cases. There aren't any cases on campus yet, but this decision was much bigger than AUC. ALL OF EGYPT has suspended or canceled classes until after October 3. I guess there is a minor pilgrimage during Ramadan to Mecca (not the Hajj, that will be in November) and there have been a few dozen deaths from Swine Flu in Saudi Arabia, so they are concerned about pilgrims bringing the disease back into the country. Also, they may instigate class size cuts to reduce the number of people who could get infected. My first day here they gave us a lecture on Swine Flu and cleared out Unit 9 since its the furthest unit on campus and told us that it was for quarantine, just in case.

I know that Swine Flu has been an issue for back to school this year around the world, but this just seems ridiculous. It's also more frustrating for us here at AUC since we have already started - most schools in Egypt don't start until after Eid this weekend, so this is just a two week delay. I'm upset because I will be missing two weeks of intensive Arabic (and at ten hours a week, that's a lot of time to try to make up) and because my seminar classes are REALLY INTERESTING. This delay means that I will essentially only have two months of each of my classes and I have no idea if we are going to be expected to do the readings and assignments for the next two weeks or not. Basically I'm a huge nerd and I am really sad that I have to miss another week of these classes (Eid was going to make me miss most of them anyway). I'm just really frustrated with this school and things were starting to look up now that classes had started and that just got ripped away. Happy fun times!

In more positive news, this does mean that I will get to travel for a few weeks when I originally thought I only had like five days. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to Hurghada on the Red Sea this weekend, but that still leaves a week and a half to go somewhere else! I'm thinking Jordan or Morocco and currently looking into flights and tours for both. If nothing comes up, I could always jaunt up to Europe for a while, but I think right now I'd really like to go somewhere new. I'm also looking at flights down to Nairobi. Basically whatever is cheapest will win, and you will get to read some pretty good travel stories insha'allah (lit: God willing).

Bringing it back to the dates I said at the beginning of the post - what I'm mainly concerned about is whether or not the University or my professors will try to make up any of these lost days. I guess it's a good thing that I don't have my flight back to the States yet, but I am still planning on making it home for Christmas.

Anyway, class is not canceled tonight so I'm off to do some homework for the next six or so hours. Yay grad school! (no that is not sarcasm)

~dk

A longer post will come, but I just spent an hour typing it up and accidentally deleted it.

I got back from Alexandria last night. It was a great city and we saw a lot of great history and art. We went to the Bibliotecha Alexandrina, built on the site of the Ancient Library of Alexandria; the Qaitbay Citadel, built on the site of the site of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; I swam in the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean early in the morning; we went to the Catacombs of Kom el Sharoqa, one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World though they were from the 4th century AD; and the Roman Theatre, still used today as a backdrop for the opera of Alexandria.

I will post more when I need another excuse to procrastinate, but sadly I cannot afford to spend another doing that hour right now. Very sad. Enjoy the pictures though!

My third class (Introduction to Middle East Studies - MEST) is also amazing. The course is going to cover themes from Orientalism through Islamism and involve watching some movies (Persepolis is currently on the list). I will have to write a few small papers and have questions prepared for reading each week and I will have a term paper due at the end of the semester. That means that none of my graduate courses will have final exams, only Arabic, which I finally got approval for but have not yet been able to enroll in (have I mentioned that this school is VERY frustrating). The professor my MEST class is the head of the department and I volunteered to be the class coordinator, meaning that I will be sending messages and updates from the professor to the class. Ideally, acting in such an obvious teacher's pet role will transfer into some sort of work study or fellowship next semester (this semester isn't an option sadly).

I am definitely back in my happy place. Off to do my readings on Intro to Forced Migration.

Tomorrow I'm off to Alexandria. I will post stories and pictures when I get back. Hope everybody else's first week of school is going well!

~dk

Well so far I've had two classes and I'm really excited about both of them. Introduction to Forced Migration is taught by a professor from Bangladesh who has studied a lot about migration theory. He was a little hard to understand, but he is very relaxed and allowed us to pick how many papers we want to write (one, two, or four depending on the length - that's still up to the individual student throughout the semester) and whether we want to do a final exam or presentation (exam). Every couple weeks I will have to pick up a course pack with new readings, but they seem really interesting - covering forced migration all over the world and the legal, social, and political ramifications of the migrant populations. I think I'm going to write my final paper on Nationalism in the Palestinian Diaspora, which is basically maintaining a national identity in a refugee population. It will be a nice way to incorporate material from my other classes as well. Tonight I had Palestinian Refugee Issues with an American professor who has practiced International Refugee Law in the Middle East for over ten years. He realized after five years that he hadn't encountered any Palestinians in his work in Egypt so he began to research the Refugee issues and even studied the issue at Tel Aviv University. The first class was an overview of the Israeli War for Independence and the creation of the first refugees in the area. It's a really interesting class and should make for good discussion. We're even going to have a group project where we have to come up with some concrete resolutions to specific refugee issues. Tomorrow I have Intro to Middle East Studies and hopefully I'll be able to register for Intensive Arabic by the end of the week. Back to school!

Thursday is the start of the weekend here in Egypt, and oh what a night it was. Our friends Ahmed and Sherif took us out and kept us out all night long. First we had to take the 8pm bus from campus into Zamalek (an island in Cairo where the old campus dorms are) and Ahmed met us there with a van that he had rented - LE 300 (less than $60) for the group for the whole night! The van drove us to Giza on the west side of the Nile where we went into a cool outdoor lounge/club called La Roka Cafe that had cushions all over the sand and palm trees and a stage and was just a really awesome atmosphere. We took the huge area right in front of the stage for our group of about 15. Everybody sat down and ordered some shisha and Ahmed said that they would make a special dinner for us a few hours later. It was already about 9 but we all knew that we were going to be out for a long while. The music was loud and the shisha was good and the conversation was awesome when all of a sudden we saw some guys come in with a lion cub! Everybody jumped up and we all got our pictures taken holding the cub (which we nicknamed Simba, naturally). Those guys came back a few hours later and let us play with him some more - he was crawling all over us and the table and he was so cute and cuddly! It reminded me of the Lion Encounter in Zimbabwe only much more laid back since it was in the middle of a club. I also didn't have to worry about him trying to eat me or anything. And he was so cute! The night was off to very good start.

After a little bit we wound up going up on stage and dancing around like fools to the Macarena and Barbie Girl and techno versions of hip hop songs. We treated it like any other club and everybody was having a good time. When dinner came it was a lot of hummus (everything is better with hummus), babaganouj, some cucumber and tomato dish (that I won't call salad since #6 on my parents' To Don't List is 'Don't eat a salad at a restaurant by the pyramids') followed by rice and steak and chicken and some sort of sausage. It was a huge meal and I don't think I had eaten that much meat since I've been here. Very filling. Very good. After the food was done around midnight, we saw some singers and dancers and they kept pulling up all of the 'American Girls!' (and guys too) to dance with them. We did a lot of attempted belly dancing, a lot of Egyptian group line dancing, a lot of generally making fools of ourselves, and a whole lot of sweating. After the dancers left we thought we were in the clear to just hang out for the next couple hours but oh were we wrong. After a short break, a huge oriental band came on stage and there was more singing and dancing and ridiculousness. Oriental means traditional Egyptian, which I guess I should have known but I was still really confused when everybody kept saying oriental because I know I'm not THAT far east. Anyway, the oriental band was REALLY GOOD and the dancers were hilarious and obviously they made us get up and dance with them too. At one point there were dancers in traditional costume with sticks and we got to dance around with those and Dooler and I made a limbo contest and a bunch of Egyptians joined in. It was a lot of fun until the giant puppets came out around 230 AM. We had been up and dancing so long that everybody thought we were hallucinating but we were not. We sat down just in time for the whirling dervishes to come out and spin and spin and spin. One guy came over and was spinning one of his circles over his head and walked right over us. It was pretty cool to watch. All of that wound up packing up around 3 AM and we were starting to get a little tired. Ahmed wouldn't let us sleep though and we were all sitting and half dancing to techno music for another hour until they finally turned it off at about 4. The next adventure of the evening was about to begin.

We all filed out of the club and put our stuff (including pictures with Simba) in the van and then waited for the camels and horses to arrive. Most everybody was on a horse, but five of us (myself included) braved the awkwardness that is riding on a desert camel. They're so tall! And their joints are all weird and when they stand up you have to lean way back otherwise you'll go flying forward. My friend Will accidentally hit his camel in the head when it was standing up - needless to say it wasn't a very pleasant ride for him the rest of the day. We all managed to stay on our camels riding up and down sand dunes in the wee morning hours. I hadn't realized just how close to the pyramids we were - it was only about twenty minutes before we were at the lookout point. The sun was rising over Cairo (over Cairo's pollution to be more accurate) and the pyramids were there and we were on camels and it was quite surreal. Everybody took pictures in front of the pyramids and we built a human pyramid in front of the real ones. Stone is stronger than bone though and we crumbled rather quickly. On the way back to the van (about 6 AM by this point) our camel guide decided that we should try to run. That is not an experience I ever need to repeat - trotting on a camel is incredibly awkward and you seriously have to hold on for dear life otherwise you will go tumbling backwards off of an eight foot high saddle.

We made it home at about 8 AM and all of the work I had been doing to combat jetlag was completely wasted as I slept all day. Fortunately I got to bed relatively early last night (about 3 AM, pretty good for waking up at 5 PM) and am working on getting the days and nights in the right order again before class tomorrow morning. I am currently enrolled in an 830 AM class Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday but I'm hoping to be able to change that tomorrow. I feel like a freshman again getting stuck with an 830 class - no way jose!

Today I am mostly studying Arabic but I think I'm going to just change my enrollment to intensive elementary Arabic instead of the class I'm currently in. It does mean I'll be learning the alphabet yet again, but I'd rather set myself up for success than try to play catch up by about four chapters. We will see how this works out.

This was a nice break from studying. I swear all of my Thursday nights won't be as adventurous. I can't spend every weekend trying to recover!

Miss you all

dk

On paper at least. Apparently there was an international student data form that I was supposed to fill out and submit to the Ministry of Education about two months ago. I first heard of this form yesterday when I went to go apply for my student visa and was told 'La' which means 'No'. It won't be an issue though; I can survive for about five more weeks on my initial visa and then I can apply for the 3-6 month tourist visa while waiting for my data form to clear and then I can apply for my student visa. It doesn't affect my classes or my ability to be in this country, it's just incredibly frustrating. Upon hearing this news yesterday I promptly came home and took a nap as I felt that would be just as productive as heading to any of the other offices I had to visit. It wound up working out well as I applied for a position with the University Technical office hoping to help students and faculty out with Blackboard - an online application that teachers and students can use to submit projects or email the entire class that I happen to be quite familiar with from both sides since I used it at NU and acted as a teacher's aide through Model UN. Today I heard back that it's a paid position and I can go talk to the office tomorrow. I know it would be a lot to tack on working on top of everything else I want to do, but income is nice and I'm thinking about dropping my second major anyway.

That's another new development. I've been looking a lot at the Migration and Refugee Studies program and what I want to do in the future and the two really aren't lining up. The program really focuses on career work with various organizations that deal with refugees. When I finish my degree I want to work for the State Department, which is definitely not one of those organizations. While I am interested in working in refugee camps during my stay here, completing the required internships for the MRS degree has to be done in addition to working in any camps over the winter or summer breaks, which was my original plan. I don't want to make any decisions too hastily though and I have a separate orientation and iftar for the MRS program tomorrow. I guess I will reevaluate at the end of the semester.

Speaking of this semester I have registered for three classes so far and I will be taking my Arabic placement exam tomorrow to figure out which level and what time that class will be. The classes I have registered for so far are MRS 507 - Introduction to Forced Migration and Refugee Studies, MEST 569 - Critical Introduction to Middle East Studies, and MRS/MEST 580 - Selected Topics in Middle East Studies: Palestinian Refugee Issues. Each of those classes meets once a week (Mon, Wed, and Tues respectively) from 4:30-7 or 4-6:30. Well that's the times they will meet once Ramadan is over, until then they are from 8-10 in the evening so I'm happy that will only last for two weeks, especially since MRS 507 is on the downtown campus and I then have to take a bus for an hour back to my dorm. The Ramadan schedule doesn't have classes from the middle of the afternoon through early evening so that students and faculty can break their fast in the typical meal known as iftar. It is done at dusk and after iftar people go out and go shopping or hanging out with friends and family doing all those things (eating, drinking, smoking) that they haven't done all day. This means that there is quite a nightlife all around Egypt during Ramadan - quite surprising I must say.

I have been studying most of the day for my Arabic exam and will continue to do so until 9am tomorrow when I take it. I know that it's back to school for many of my loyal readers so best of luck to you all as well!

مع السلامة (ma'a salaama - goodbye, literally go with safety)

dk

Try, try again. And again. And maybe again the next day. And don't get too discouraged when you have to come back the next day after visiting a few other offices. I finally got my ID today. It took two hours and I waited for my number to be called but finally realized that they weren't calling numbers for some reason. And when they printed my ID it said I was an undergraduate, which is not correct so I had to have them do it again. Then I went to get my card activated and I was one of the lucky ones who went back an hour later to get it picked up and actually had it handed to me. My friends were not so lucky. Some of them still don't have their IDs back after eight hours. I also went to go register for my email address today (they needed a mobile number and my ID before I could do that) and it should be activated in 24 hours. I'll have to wait a day to see how that goes. When I walked my friend Danielle to the office to sign her loan checks, she was told they closed at one (everything else on campus closed around three) and that she had to register for classes first anyway. So then she and I went down to the other end of campus to see if I could open up a bank account. However, it was closed at 1:30 due to special Ramadan hours. So I will try that again tomorrow and then withdraw money to get a bus pass to put that sticker on my ID. Woohoo! Anyway, now my definition of success is getting just ONE thing on my to-do list accomplished per day. Today I got three of them done - ID, activated, email address sort of - WIN!

Even though the days on campus are frustrating, the nights out with new friends are awesome. My suitemate Dooler is really cool and we went with a group of other kids to Stars City in a part of Cairo called Heliopolis, near the airport, last night to get phones. Stars City is a mall that seriously makes the Mall of America look small (minus the theme park). It has six or seven stories and about a hundred stores on each floor. There's a movie theater and bowling alley and a grocery store and a bunch of restaurants and everything you could possibly think of ever needing. I got a Nokia phone that is unlocked so I can use it in any country with any SIM card - even back in the states :) I'm very happy to be connected again. Afterwards we decided we wanted to go to a shisha bar and we walked outside to look around. The mall was pretty much the only thing we could see, so one of the guys in our group walked up to some Egyptian guys and asked them where one was. In typical Egyptian fashion we were escorted on a half hour walk and made great friends with Ahmed and Asharif who took us to a great hookah bar that cost less than five dollars per person including drinks and desserts and shisha! Yay! Egypt totally redeemed itself with that one experience. Also, it turns out our new friend Ahmed is the Arab Youth Chess Grand Master, the African Youth Chess Grand Master, and is heading to Croatia in a few weeks to compete in some other tournament. How cool is that? He offered to take us to Khan El Khalili, an old market downtown, tonight but our buses aren't running from campus so we will try to run into him tomorrow. We did have to 'walk like an Egyptian' and run across a few streets that had NO STOPLIGHTS to get to and from the shisha bar. It worked out ok, once you're in the street you just keep walking. Don't hesitate, be confident but not stupid. No stoplights, no crosswalks, no flashing red hand. I might come home with a few more grey hairs....

Tonight the four of us in our suite are going to another mall that has better prices than Stars City to get some things for our kitchen and to do laundry and some more things to decorate my room. We figured we can go in together to get some pots and pans and other things that the school didn't provide in our kitchenette. I wasn't too excited to be living with a bunch of Americans but it's nice to only have a few people in my immediate environment and I do like that a lot of our expectations and experiences are pretty similar. It also means that I can walk from the bathroom the two feet to my room in just a towel and without shoes. Technically that's not allowed in the dorms, but the other Americans don't mind. It's the little things like that.

Anyway, after that little pro American speech it's off to a Cultural Sensitivity Lecture put on by ResLife. Then off to the mall. Then back here to study because I have an Arabic placement exam sometime this week. Then bed.

Egypt is good!

love
~dk

Nothing works right the first time in Egypt. I've complained to many of you about the bureaucracy and ridiculous regulations that are commonplace but what I experienced in the states is nothing compared to what I've experienced here so far. I'm about to head out to the mall so that I can get a cell phone. Why did it take me so long? Because I could have taken a bus during the day yesterday or today, but there wouldn't have been a bus to bring me back to campus. So I have to wait until the ResLife buses which only run at night. Last night I was too tired to head out, so that explains that. And it's not like I just need a phone to communicate with many of the new friends I'm making. I need a mobile number in order to get my student ID card. I need my ID card in order to get my email address, bus pass, key to my room, lab and library access, and confirm my registration for courses (not to mention getting a student visa eventually too). Today when I went to International Student Orientation they couldn't believe I didn't have a phone and tried to shuffle me through many different offices when finally somebody realized that I hadn't yet paid for anything so I got to go back to the start and attempt to figure out my loans. When I signed the checks over to AUC they then asked me if I wanted a refund. When I asked how much I owed or would be getting refunded they asked me how much my classes were. This isn't information that I realized I needed to have on hand and frankly now I'm not sure if they know how much I owe. I guess we shall see how this plays out in the next two weeks. Once I signed my loan checks somebody ushered me over to the bus pass line where a very nice young man went over all of the different bus routes that are currently not in service but should be starting soon (i.e. last week). When he asked me for my ID and mobile information I told him I didn't have either and he looked confused and sent me back to check in. This was now my third time at the same starting point and I ran into one of my suitemates (named Dooler, she's pretty cool and we might look into getting an apartment off of the compound, I mean campus, for the spring) who was having just as much luck as I was during the day so we decided to try to go get our IDs. Another girl overheard us and told us not to bother since the office was now closed. Frustrated, Dooler and I went to McDonalds and then back to the dorms to wait until 5pm for our ResLife meeting and iftar (meal provided by ResLife at dusk to break the fast of Ramadan). Essentially I woke up this morning intending to get my loans figured out (checks signed but no idea how much I actually owe), ID card (nope), bus pass (no way, jose), email address (ha!), and cell phone. If all goes well in the next hour or so, I should have accomplished the final item on my list by midnight. I'm also hoping to pick up some kitchen supplies (since we have a kitchenette but nothing to cook with) and laundry supplies (free laundry facilities but no detergent) as well as hangers and other stuff to put in my room. It should be an interesting day and I'm looking forward to getting off the compound since I haven't left it since Friday night. Hopefully tomorrow is productive and gets a few more things accomplished. I guess this is why they give us a week for orientation. Yay!

I made it! And what an adventure it's been since I landed. I went through immigration thinking that that was where I would buy my visa, but that's not the case. I had to go back and find a bank and give them my $15 for the visa. Then I went back to immigration and had to wait for everything to clear. Between immigration and getting my bags I had to show the visa about four times. I walked right by the huge group of people waiting for their bags since I figured that I was the only one getting picked up by AUC today - boy was I wrong. There were about 50 Americans who came over today. I met two kids who are here from Northeastern (yay!) 17 of us piled in (quite literally piled in) to a van to head to the new campus. The rest of the group is staying at the dorms downtown which I might move to during my stay here depending on how often I wind up there. Anyway, I mean we literally piled into this van. People were practically sitting on other people's laps and two of us were holding onto suitcases to keep them from flying into our driver. Most of the kids are here on study abroad but a few others are here for graduate programs so that's pretty cool. Our driver took us on the U-turn scenic tour. It took us about forty minutes (and three U-turns) to get out of the airport then we figured out that you often run into a street where you want to turn left but can only turn right - this resulted in about six more U-turns on the ride to campus. The campus is HUGE. It looks like a massive compound out in the middle of the desert but it isn't isolated. It is, however, the only group of completed buildings for miles. There is a lot of construction in this area, including a lot of construction still taking place on campus. When we finally made it through to the dorms, we had to scan our luggage again and walk through a metal detector before being taken in golf carts to our dorms. I'm in a single (which is pretty massive) in a corner with three other singles and two WCs. I'm pretty excited that I only have to share a bathroom with one other person. Then we have a living room area and a small kitchen area with a fridge, sink, and microwave. The place looks really cute and now it's time for me to unpack. And figure out how to get online so I can actually post these....

All is well so far!

(I wrote this earlier but just got on the internet to post it now...)

Well here I am on the plane to Cairo. There really is no turning back now. I'm very anxious and I can't believe that this is actually happening but it is. I had to bring my second bag onto the plane as a carry on so I'm pretty sore from lugging about 30 kg around this airport but it meant that I didn't have to pay excess baggage fees and I am a fan of saving money. The passengers are very international and I've heard that some people are connecting on to Nairobi and other points in Africa. I didn't think about Europeans doing that but I guess it makes sense. I'm flying on BMI which is a partner in the Star Alliance so I think I'll be flying a lot of United and Lufthansa in the next few years to earn all my miles on the same account - and I will be flying a lot in the next two years. I was talking to Ros last night and she reminded me about the World Cup in South Africa next summer and I think I will probably try to head down to that and maybe work in Zambia along the way. I also can't forget the plans in Beirut and I'm sure that my mom wants to come meet me in Morocco or Jordan or Dubai. And John wants to fly out and meet me in Europe over spring break. Lots of flights coming up. It's exciting. But right now I need to buckle down and figure out what's going on with school. I'm supposed to be getting picked up at the airport in Cairo (after I go through customs/immigration and get my tourist visa) and then I guess I will try to find a cell phone today. Tomorrow morning is orientation. It's really happening! I can't post this til I get to Cairo but I'll add a second post letting everybody know I landed safely. Love you all! Thanks for your support on this big adventure.

love
dk

So I made it in yesterday afternoon and Ollie picked me up at the airport. We took a cab back to his flat in East Finchley and then Sarah came in on the train. Ollie made fajitas and our other friend Andrew came over and the four of us caught up on what has been going on since we all last met up in New York City last March. Ollie lived in Jordan for eight months working for a Human Rights Agency and now works in London fundraising for a charity. Sarah is working right now and thinking about getting a Masters in Finance to make more money. Andrew is Canadian and he's been over here working for Morgan Stanley. We were all very surprised that he managed to keep his job through the economic downturn but he has and it was great to see him and everybody else. Andrew left after dinner and Ollie and Sarah and I went out in London to several gay bars. I will admit that there is not a lot going on in London on a Wednesday night but it was a lot of fun. Ollie and Sarah are planning on meeting up with me in Beirut at the end of my spring semester. I like having travel buddies.
I wound up sleeping quite a bit today until Ros came to collect me. She drove me out to her place at Oxford and then we walked around the city center. It was lovely and calm and then we went to a couple pubs and out to dinner with her two flatmates. Now we're playing a karaoke game on playstation and we just rocked out to Africa by Toto. I quite like England and I can't believe I haven't been here since 2002.
Tomorrow morning I have to get up bright and early to take the bus into Heathrow and then fly to Cairo. I will let you all know when I land safely. The adventure begins!

Well I'm at the airport getting ready to leave California for a while. It was a good last couple days and the party that my mom threw was AMAZING. So many people came that I didn't realize were in town or knew that I was heading out. It was great to see everybody and I think they all really enjoyed the props my dad went and got and the food that my mom prepared. It was my 'Exodus to Egypt' after all, so we had a (wooden) camel and cat statues and a sarcophagus and a treasure chest covered in hieroglyphics. We had chicken kebabs and lamb kebabs as well as a bunch of various rice dishes and couscous and hummus and babaganouj and falafel and pita - lots of pita. I also got to see all of my friends who are still in California (which isn't that many anymore) one last time which was fun.

Now it's time for the next big adventure - with a brief stopover in foggy Londontown. I'll post again from there and by the end of this week I will be in Egypt. See you soon!

I've spent the last several days up in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado visiting my friend John. The drive from the airport to his house took me from plains all the way up to mountains that remind me of camp. We've gone down into Boulder pretty much every day and also to some of the surrounding towns. I know I've been to Colorado before, but I don't think we ever made it here. I must say I like it better than Golden, which I do remember going to, because Golden reeked of the brewery and here just smells like a mountain fresh dryer sheet. Tonight I fly back to California for my last hurrah before flying off to Cairo via London next week.

So I'm in Seattle now and it's been, well, wet. There's been a little bit of sunshine each day though so that's nice. Apparently there was a drought for like two months before I got here, but I'm pretty sure I bring the rain to wherever I go. It's been a fun week despite the weather. Trina picked me up on Monday and I've spent most of my days with her and Chris and the babies while Eric is at work. We went to baby gymnastics and the Kids' Museum. The kids are adorable and can run around and climb on things and pick things up and bring them to you and try to talk and all those things that cute little almost 20 month old babies do.
Yesterday I got to see some friends from Boston - my old roommates Beth and Michelle and Michelle's boyfriend Luke. Beth lives out here and Michelle and Luke were out visiting so the timing was perfect. Trina drove me into Seattle and dropped me off. My friends and I walked from Pike's Place up to the Olympic Sculpture Garden and then down along the waterfront to Pioneer Square where we ate lunch down by the stadiums. Then we walked back up and took a bus to Beth's house before she drove me back to Bellevue, which was awesome since Trina didn't have to go back into the city. Yay.
Today is Trina and Eric's fifth anniversary and it's great that Chris and I can be up here to celebrate with them and the babies. A lot has changed since five years ago! Congratulations you guys :)

Well now I've been to Chicago! It's an awesome city, way bigger than I expected. I've been spoiled with Boston I guess. We got a City Pass and went to several museums. We also had to bounce around to different hotels throughout the weekend so I definitely got to see a lot of the city - Millennium Park, Grant Park, Soldier Field, Museum Campus, Wrigley Field, the Loop, Navy Pier, Magnificent Mile, etc. We experienced a lot of different weather - they don't call it the Windy City for nothing! I came out here with my roommates Kelly and Lindsey, we met up with Kelly's friend Christian who's out here for school, and I got to see Ross, BT, Brandon, and Kylie from my Great Ocean Road Trip (GORT) in Australia. FANTASTIC. All in all the trip was a hit and I definitely want to come back.

Boston has been pretty good this past week. I've been seeing a lot of friends that I probably won't see again for a long time. It's been fun but I'm realizing that five years in Boston was probably enough. I'm excited to move on to the next part of my adventure. Later this week my roommates and I head off to Chicago and I'll get to see some people from Australia - AWESOME. I'll keep you posted.

We're here! We're in Jamaica and it hasn't really sunk in yet that we're going to be here for a week but I'm sure I'll be begging to stay by the time we have to leave. Friday we got all packed up and drove to Whittier at about 930 so that Aunt Sue and Aunt Patti could drive us to the airport and then Aunt Sue will keep our van for the week so that neighbors don't complain about it sitting there and not moving. We got to the airport right on time but the lines were long so we kind of maybe sort of cut in front of a lot of people and went to the self service counter even though we needed somebody to check our passports (that is to say, we were definitely not self service). I was ok with this though, because then we all had to stand in an even longer line to get through security. There was some sort of scare and they weren't allowing anybody through to the terminal, not even pilots. Obviously they eventually declared all clear, but I think security was just being extra diligent because of the bombings in Jakarta earlier that morning. When the line did finally start moving, it was probably the fastest line I've ever been in at LAX. They must have added a ton of TSA agents to move the line along because we were still at the gate a half hour before boarding. As we were walking on board, my mother was talking about how sometimes the row in front of the exit row doesn't recline and how great it was that we were in the exit row. Enter irony: the first exit row seats don't recline if there is a second exit row behind it. Naturally that was the case on both of our flights, but it's ok because really we just appreciated the extra leg room. Even without our seats reclining I was passed out before takeoff on both flights I think. That's right, there were two flights. We stopped in Houston where we picked up Trina and Eric and the babies. The kids are ADORABLE and I haven't seen them in so long! Kiernan couldn't walk last time I saw him and now he can walk backwards and in circles and with his hands behind his back. McKenzie I saw about two months ago and she always seems to forget that I'm family, but once we arrived at our resort I gave her a Kiss Me Elmo and hopefully that will win me some points. We landed in Jamaica and it was H.O.T. The temperature probably isn't that bad, but oh the humidity. It's like walking into an exhaust pipe only it doesn't smell that bad and probably isn't as bad for your lungs (though I'm sure some experts would disagree). We had a simple enough time getting through customs (yay new stamp in the passport!) and there was a nice little Sandals/Beaches area in the airport that we could wait in. Then we had a two hour drive from Montego Bay to Boscobel and the driver, though a little difficult to understand, was very informative. We even passed the school that Usain Bolt attended (the World's Fastest Woman did too, but I don't remember her name). It was beautiful and we were greeted very nicely when we arrived at our destination. So now the week of all inclusive food, drink, swimming, snorkeling, and other various ocean sports begins! Should be awesome. I will also take advantage of this internet to update lots and lots of pictures for you! Look for another update toward the end of this trip and many more as I bounce around North America like a crazy new pinball machine.

peace
~dk

Well I've been back in CA since June 24 and it has been non stop the whole time. Katlyn's bridal shower, VHS 75th anniversary and school rededication, seeing old friends, being Katlyn's Maid of Awesome (so dubbed when I found much needed wire cutters in the hotel for the hair/make up lady to cut bobby pins) and all the wedding events, Arabic class four nights a week, visiting Grama and the dogs in Hemet, hanging out with Dan's family after the wedding before they all went back to their various homes around the country, and staying out late with my friends most nights. I've been going to the movies quite a bit, bowling quite a bit, studying quite a bit, and getting home really late so it looks like I'm sleeping a lot but really I'm not. Today I see Kat and Dan one last time before they go on their honeymoon to Europe. Tonight my Dad and I are going to see Spamalot! Tomorrow one of my friends from Boston should be getting into town. And next week is Jamaica! That starts the major whirlwind farewell tour - seven states and four countries in the next seven weeks.

 

So as you can see I've been super busy and not updating this too frequently. Can I blame it on the fact that my parents are always on the computer and my mom is making a new shutterfly album from our trip to Australia/New Zealand so that I will let her visit me in Egypt? Not really. Sorry loyal readers, I will make it up to you. I just don't know how yet....

I have never played soccer. I have never watched a live game. I sure I've seen live games, I mean I can recognize the sport and I know that it is super popular amongst suburban youngsters. Soccer mom wouldn't be a part of our national vocabulary otherwise. Yet every time I see soccer on TV I have to watch. International matches are my favorite but I'll watch pretty much any professional soccer match I come across - even in Spanish. I'm drawn to it. I don't understand all the rules. Sometimes I do get bored. Overall though, I have fallen in love with soccer. As far as I can tell, here are some of the reasons why: skills, stamina, set up. It's alliterative and I don't do that to be obnoxious but I don't mind if it will help you remember this post better.

Skills: I feel as though it is disrespectful to soccer to use phrases like 'mad skillz' but thats exactly what I want to say about the abilities that these players have. They have mad skillz, yo, mad effing skillz. I cannot run, they run for ninety minutes. I can barely throw a ball, they can kick, bump, and headbutt the ball with ridiculous amounts of control. Fancy footwork, defensive footwork, controlling the ball sometimes with just their toes. I'm impressed. It's like art. It's certainly a lot more exciting to watch than ballet, but it's just as delicate of a balance. You need to work with your team over a massive pitch and the ball being just a few degrees off of its intended trajectory could mean missing the goal. But another skill they have is a lighting fast reaction time. The game can and does change at any second and you better be running in the right direction to be wherever you need to be. Soccer looks choreographed, but it's not. It's just straight up amazing. I mean have you seen a bicycle kick? I could not do that. Ever. What other sport frequently has their players jump upside down and then get back to running? None that i can think of.
I have a special respect for the goalkeepers as well. They don't run as much but they certainly make up for it with the importance of their position. The only way the other team wins is if they score goals. The goal is huge. Goalkeepers have to dive and run and block and hope that their team is there to help, but man up if they aren't. I think back to my time as goalie in water polo and the scale of the goals that I had to defend, and I am still truly shocked by the abilities of professional gk's in soccer. I wish I knew more about the specific rules for goalkeepers but at the end of the day, their mission is the same - stop the ball by any means necessary. It can be spectacular.

Stamina: Did I mention they play for ninety minutes? That;s ninety minutes of regulation play, split into only two halves. Forty five minutes of running, but the half isn't over then. There's stoppage time. They don't reset after every play or switch after a certain number of plays on either side. They run and even if they aren't running then the clock is. every second counts and thats how the good players play. The fact that the clock doesn't stop makes soccer one of the purest sports I can think of. If you are on the field then you are playing the game. You're not waiting for anyone or anything. The additional minutes of stoppage time exist to make sure that you have the full ninety minutes of play - ridiculous! By the end of the match these guys have run miles zig zagging across the pitch, colliding with each other, shooting, blocking, passing, you get the idea. This isn't just sprints up and down a field (that is bigger than a football field by the way). This is a massive arena that gives you maximum opportunity to make plays. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, there are a lot of people who can be in the way of your shot or pass, so in addition to running you need to be an incredibly quick thinker. You cannot help but respect the athleticism necessary to do well in this sport.

Set up: I also just really like the set up of the game. The large pitch and the nonstop clock are two of the factors making soccer unique and, as I said before, pure. Each side has eleven players, that's twenty two people on the field. You need to be able to coordinate plays and watch a lot of people. Anybody can get in your way at any moment and you have to react. People will run into you and if it's legitimately out of line then you get a free kick (with the clock running) as opposed to something like basketball where free throws compose so many of the points every game (with the clock stopped). In soccer you don't get to buy time or get any points unless the game is being played. I like that. The size of the pitch is necessary for the number of the people playing and I like that it keeps the ball in play longer. A smaller pitch would crowd the players and probably make the throw ins and corner kicks and other things that I don't always understand or recognize even more frequent, leading to more stoppage time, and generally making play sloppier I would imagine.
I also like the off sides rule, though I maintain that it is one of the oddest names I've ever heard for a rule - especially one used as often as this one is. I like that you can't kick the ball to someone who is ahead of the defender (or whatever the rule is). The point is it prevents breakaways. You can't just leave someone down at the other end of the pitch and get the ball to them on a fast break. Fast breaks have to have some sort of defense that the person is dealing with. It keeps it fair. It can be frustrating but it really honors the spirit of competition - nothing in this sport is free. Every decision costs you time and time is really all you have.
I'm not fully clear on the rules with yellow cards and red cards, but as far as I can tell in international competition you are out of the game and the next game (or a certain number of days) with a red card. That ought to encourage you to play fair. Even if the other team is doing something to provoke you to act inappropriately, retaliation affects not only that match but at least another one as well. There is a lot at stake on each and every play.

So there you have it. I admit I don't fully understand soccer, I've never seen it live, and I am absolutely in love with it. Soccer is a perfect combination of athleticism and passion and I didn't even get into how much watching soccer is like watching negotiation in politics - whole teams trying to achieve the same thing and block the same thing, bouncing ideas off of each other trying to come to an acceptable conclusion for everybody, but never succeeding in that. At least in soccer a draw is an acceptable result (again with the purity! two teams can be able to be evenly matched! what a novel idea!)

Soccer is the best. The rest of the world has figured this out, why hasn't America caught on yet? Our boys just beat the number on team in the world. I guarantee you Spain is mourning way more than America is celebrating. We are going to the finals for the first time ever against Brazil or home team South Africa. Spain, a team that has not been beaten in thirty five games since 2006 and has won its last fifteen games, will play for third. That is spectacular. That is why I like soccer.

I'm ready to go.

Three bags filled to the brim. That's everything I'm taking from Boston. My shelves are bare, my drawers are empty, my walls are white again. It's so weird. The only things I've left here are a stack of The Economist, my bed and furniture, and some coats - all of which I will probably try to sell on Craigslist. Odd.

My roommates are looking for somebody to take my room, maybe with furniture, maybe without. Also an odd experience. We just painted and they know that they're going to be here for another year and need a new third roommate. They've been really good about not talking about it while I've been packing up. I appreciate that. I don't think that the conversation would upset me, but I have absolutely nothing to contribute to it. All I care about is getting somebody in the room as soon as possible to help out with the last two months of rent. I've had subletters before, but this is really weird knowing that my roommates are still going to be in this apartment next year. Oh well.

Today has been a really good last day. Last night I went out with my best girls from the past five years - Kate, Danielle, Marisa, Adrienne, Kelly, Lindsey, and Brie. We had dinner and drinks and Lindsey and I didn't stop laughing until about two in the morning. Today I finished up packing and cleaning and watched the Real Housewives of New Jersey Reunion (Part 1) and watched the US beat Spain the Confederations Cup. The match was AMAZING and the US won 2-0, a TOTAL upset. Spain has not lost a match since November of 2006 - their record was 32-0-3, which is phenomenal. It got me all excited and I'm in a super good mood. I love how passionate people around the world are about soccer and I wish that the US felt that way too. I've watched a couple matches of the Confederations Cup - Iraq tied South Africa, USA beat Egypt, Italy beat USA, and now USA beat Spain. There's a book that relates international politics to football and watching this tournament really makes me understand how people can make such comparisons. It's really interesting that this sport makes so many people so happy, and makes issues like politics part of daily conversations. Like I said before, I wish the US cared more about soccer.

Now I'm just waiting for Lindsey to get home and she's going to take me to the airport.

I'm ready to go!

love,
dk

Ok so I have been SUPER DUPER busy for the past few weeks but really that's no excuse and I know I should have been writing. It's been almost a month! Anyway, life is going really well here and I'm getting ready to pack everything up and move out of Boston!

My last day of work was June 19. I am now officially unemployed. I had been working really really hard at Grand Circle and really enjoyed being on the Quality Management team - a few notable things I did as part of that team were: read Ministry of Health reports in Spanish from the Panamanian government to determine when they required the Yellow Fever vaccine, research eight people's different issues with the same merchant in Jordan, and call one woman back four separate times to discuss GCT providing her flights from Delhi to Kathmandu on her upcoming trip to Nepal (eventually I wound up sending suggestions to our marketing department, convincing our air department to provide the flights, and giving the woman a good will certificate to cut some of the costs). I really enjoyed all of the research I got to do and I had so much positive feedback from the entire team. On Friday I had my exit interview with GCT and one of the questions was 'Is there anything GCT could have done to keep you at the company?' and I had to honestly answer that they tried as hard as they could but unless they could send me to Egypt for two years, probably not. And now I have the all of the contact info for the GCT office in Cairo and the Worldwide Business Office (WWBO) knows that my name might begin poppping up on some lists in case I want to work over there. I'm sad to leave the company, but not sad enough to stay. It feels good to be leaving on such positive terms. Everybody from HR to my supervisors to people that I only met via email are all being super supportive. Several of my friends from work are going to be visiting me over the next few years. One supervisor won a free trip to Egypt this November so I will definitely be seeing her. My trainer for quality is going to work on arranging some really good travel deals with all the connections he has at the company and he and I are going to go off on an adventure at some point. My friend Lourdes, whom I helped with the Foreign Service Exam, is going to bring one of her friends from Geneva and the three of us plan to go to Dubai eventually. I'm very excited that everybody wants me to travel with them when they are able to come overseas. And GCT wants me back, they've made that very clear. Honestly it's a company I wouldn't mind coming back to. My main goal is obviously Foreign Service, but if I ever need to kill a year or two GCT wouldn't be too bad (as long as they give me a raise, I'm pretty sure I'll have some massive student loans to start paying back by then).

Speaking of student loans, I'm finalizing all of my paperwork for Financial Aid in Cairo. The application asks me the value in Egyptian Pounds of my farm land. Definitely moving to a very different culture. Hopefully I can get a lot from AUC and then I can apply for Federal or Sallie Mae for the remainder. We shall see. Nothing I can do but show them that I'm unemployed and that their school is expensive. Even without expensive travel costs to get there!

But it is really expensive to get there. I still don't have my flight figured out yet, but my friend Ros is trying to get me to stop in London for a few days on the way to Cairo. It all depends on the price my dear, it all depends on the price.

The past few weeks have been super busy but super fun. Last weekend my roommates and I did the Boston Beer Marathon (pictures will be posted soon). Basically it's the middle of the day starting around Fenway park and everybody has a matching shirt and a Viking helmet and there are 26 bars that the THOUSANDS of people participating get to go to. That's pretty much all I need to say about that.

I've been trying to follow the Iranian election - it reminds me of our 2000 election only with protests and killings and masks required to stand up for yourself. It's getting crazy over there and it's so sad but exciting to think that it's the beginnings of a revolution. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 made the country extremely conservative, but almost half of the population is under 30 so they've only ever been exposed to this regime and it's time to fight back. I don't really watch the news as much as I should, so a lot of my info has come from twitter and facebook - I have a friend from Iran who's profile picture is 'Where is my vote?' on a green background and twitter bashed CNN so much on their limited coverage that CNN changed their whole approach to the election results coverage (here is a link on Twitter/CNN over Iran in the Economist). Now of course, Iran is not allowing any video or photo coverage - reporters are allowed to observe but cannot write their articles until they return to their hotels. I am pretty disappointed that the US is not showing more support for the revolutionaries. Moussavi, the challenger, is now apparently stating that he's ready for martyrdom and petitioners abroad are trying to get Western embassies to open up and help Iranians injured during the protests. It's amazing. It's exciting. It's sad. It's moving. I cannot wait to see how democracy, theocracy, and Islam come together over the next few weeks during these protests. Obviously I want the fighting to end, but I want for the regime to change even more, and Iran knows that that is necessary. The US doesn't want to put up with another five years of Ahmadinejad. Iran doesn't want another five years of him either. We have to do something. I just wish I knew what.

Back so something a little bit lighter - I'm coming home soon! Right now I feel like the ball in a pinball machine. The next few days are like that annoying kid who takes way too long to pull release back and send the ball flying, but when I do get shot into the game oh I will be bouncing like nobody's business. I get back on Wednesday night, I start my Arabic class at Fullerton College Thursday night, Katlyn's Bridal Shower is in LA on Friday, VHS rededication on Saturday. Then I have the Arabic class every night M-Th the whole time I'm home. All the wedding details need to get finalized (rehearsal Thursday afternoon, dinner Friday night, MARRIED ON A BOAT Saturday day). Fourth of July, Fireworks. Somehow finding time to spend with my Grandmas and my Aunts and my parents while squeezing in last minute visits or five year in the waiting rendez-vous with friends. One friend wants me to head up near San Francisco to visit. Another will be coming out from Boston to San Diego. I've been calling the next few months my farewell tour - I'm not kidding. I feel the need to see everyone and everything that I might not for the next couple of years.

After CA is a nice relaxing week in Jamaica mon with my parents and Trina and Eric and the babies and Sesame Street character breakfasts. Then back to Boston which will be just as crazy as my time in CA only I won't have a car. Boston is a little less than two weeks and will consist of everything I can think of in the next month that I never did while I was here, stopping in at work to visit people, saying goodbye to all of my friends that I didn't get to say goodbye to this time, going down to Providence to visit Theresa, maybe going to NYC to visit friends, making sure all of my furniture is sold, and getting ready to go to Chicago with my roommates. The first weekend in August we take F'n Gold on the road and go visit Christian in Chi-Town since none of us have ever been. Totally touristy goodness and lots of good food since Christian is at culinary school and we're all addicted to Top Chef. From Chicago I'm off to Seattle to see Trina, Eric, Kiernan, and McKenzie one more time before I go. I'll spend about a week there while Trina is training for a triathlon and get to play with my little niece and nephew because next time I see them they will be HUGE I'm sure.

Then back to CA. Final goodbyes. Final packing. Final countdown (cue music). Maybe London, maybe not, but definitely Cairo.

Do my summer plans make your head spin? Mine does. Travel like woah, learn another langauge, figure out money, have a best friend get married, move to the other side of the country, then the other side of the world.

So, can you hear the distance calling?

I'll be better with this on all of my travels I promise. I got used to typing at work and then Quality actually required me to work at work so I fell out of the habit. I'm back now. Love you all!

peace,
dk

but it's on my list!

 

Work is reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally slow today so I have the opportunity to catch up on some of our informative materials for trips all over the world (so that we can give our passengers the best possible service and accurate expectations). So far I've gone through Argentina, Chile, Iceland, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Mongolia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, South Africa, Panama, Morocco, and Tunisia. I want to go to there...

Friday I gave my notice at work that I'm leaving in four weeks. I could have waited and only given two weeks, but I was told that my name was very high up on a very short list for a new position in Quality and I would have felt very bad if I let them give me that training and position and then left anyway. It's nice to know that I'm doing well at work, but there isn't any way that I would give up Cairo to stay here. I don't even feel the need to explain or justify that - it's just the truth.

Last night I helped my friend prepare for the Foreign Service Exam. I'm trying to figure out when I should take the exam next (as you can only take it once every 12 month period) but helping her study for it makes me all excited about taking it in the future and made me realize how competitive my experience in Cairo is going to make me. In addition to gaining fluency in Arabic (definitely Egyptian colloquial, hopefully some other dialects as well), my degrees will demonstrate political knowledge (MA Middle East Studies) and current events and policy knowledge (MA Migration and Refugee Studies). I'm trying to figure out what additional activities I will want to do to enhance my experience abroad and my resume - Model Arab League? Model United Nations? Graduate Student Association representative? I'm probably going to overload at least one of my semesters in order to take Arabic every semester and I don't know what additional activities my courses are going to require. Fortunately my classes are only once a week (with the exception of Arabic which can be two to four times a week depending on which section I take) and I expect to have lots of time to study and hopefully have a fair amount of time on the weekends to travel around the region.

I am very, very excited about what life is going to be like for the next few years.

 

In other news - Happy Memorial Day! I hope everybody is enjoying their long weekend (or getting paid handsomely if you do have to work). I have a few friends over in Iraq right now and one of them recently had a friend killed in action. Memorial Day has taken on a different tone knowing just how directly my friends's lives and how my lives are being impacted.

 

Other news round two! I just finished my session studying South Africa and we had to name the Big Five. It was a multiple choice question and one of the possible answers was the 'Little Five' - the Buffalo Weaver, Elephant Shrew, Leopard Tortoise, Ant Lion, and Rhino Beetle. How did we not hear about those over in Africa?

 

Love you all!

~dk

This weekend was fabulous! Virgin America is lovely and I got into LAX around 11 on Friday night. Saturday morning I woke up early for Jazzercise with Momma and Trina, then mani/pedis before the bridal shower. Thank you so much Momma for getting everything together. Thank you Padre for keeping the house clean :). Amy was the first to show up and we put all the food together - chips and guacamole, chips and dip, veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, cheese and chile quiche, and crab puffs! So much food! Miresa was the next to show up with an entire aisle of two liter sodas and we did a mad dash to get the punch with sherbert all ready and to make the wine glasses (yay party city!) so people could drink up when they arrived. Valerie arrived at the same time that Kat did and had brought a lovely cake - Congratulations Kat! 49 days to go! was written in red on a white chocolate covered red velvet cake from Rockwells. We didn't even know that that was where Kat and Dan were getting their cake from but Valerie must have a six sense because red velvet was the second choice for Kat and Dan and they really wished that they could have used it in the wedding cake - guess the bridal shower will have to do! Kat's mom, two aunts, dad's mom, Dan's mom, the bridesmaids, and my mom and Valerie's mom (both of whom are going to the wedding) made it a small group but we had a great time and really got excited about the wedding. Cake decorating was the major highlight, but we also got some funny stories about Kat and Dan (ahem, spaceballs, ahem).

 

After the shower, Amy, Miresa, Kat and I all watched House Bunny while Valerie caught up with my family. Then Miresa, Kat, Valerie, and I went out to the hookah lounge and hung out. It was a very good day.

 

Sunday I got to sleep in a little bit. Trina, Kenzie, and I all piled into the backseat of the PT Cruiser and the five of us drove to Claremont for Nancy's graduation. Gorgeous campus, gorgeous California weather (which meant I was scrambling to find shade for about two hours since it was outside), and gorgeous light green caps and gowns (not black!) and now my little Nancy is all grown up and has a BA in Philosophy (so smart!). We then had lunch at a local restaurant with lots of my family and a couple of Nancy's friends. Good times had by all. Nancy I'm so proud of you!

 

That afternoon my dad drove Trina and Kenzie to Long Beach airport while my mom and I watched TV. After a lovely dinner of halibut, massive artichokes, and asparagus Daddy drove me to LAX. About 30 minutes before my flight there was an earthquake that shook the whole airport (I heard later that it was around 4.8 and was about 10 miles from LAX) and security started running around making sure everybody was ok. You could clearly tell the people who weren't from California sicne they had no idea what was going on and thought that a plane had crashed into the terminal. All was well though and my flight left soon after. I slept a little on the plane (not nearly as exciting as my flight out) and got in early this morning. As soon as I got home I took a nap and then came to work and now I'm off to the gym. Just another reminder that time off is not necessarily a vacation - I was super busy!

 

So good to see so many of you! I'll be back soon enough.

 

Love

~dk

Me? I'm sitting in a lovely leather chair waiting to be served an absinthe cocktail, watching America's Best Dance Crew (Jabbawockeez season) and surfing the internet...ON A PLANE. Yup, I could get used to Virgin America's service. Got to the airport about fifty minutes before the flight (a combination of forgetting when said flight actually departed and Friday night traffic in Boston) and went straight to check in (approximately two minutes since there was no line) and then waited to go through security (separate security line for the two gates that Virgin uses, so approximately four minutes there) and I was in. The only downside so far is that since Virgin has a separate security entrance, there aren't any food shops or bookstores in the terminal. It's kind of isolating. But so far I'm liking the service (a little slow but I can distract myself with the internet in the meantime) and I would definitely fly them again - especially if I was a business person or something, having this internet access is AMAZING and I'm hoping it will be status quo very soon in the future.

I just printed my boarding pass and this time tomorrow I'll be on a plane out to LAX. I haven't been back to CA since before Christmas so I'm super excited to see the girls at Kat's bridal shower and the fam at Nancy's graduation. Work has been going well this week - we got new shifts for Jun and I got my first choice which is 12-8 M-F. I'm going to have weekends again! Things are going well with friends and my social life - I've been seeing a lot of friends from school that I haven't done a great job of keeping in touch with, but lately we've been meeting up for dinner or out at events that each of us randomly finds. It's good stuff, I like it. My roommates and I have had lots of TV dates - we watch LOST, Survivor, and Real Housewives of New York (and now New Jersey - more like Real Housewives of the Mafia). I'm kind of bummed that I'm not going to be in the country for the next season of LOST and I was really disappointed with the finale last night. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a bootleg copy in Egypt or something.

Last but not least I'm super proud of myself because I paid off my credit card. I had to use some of my savings but I'd rather have that take a little hit than be in debt. Now that I've had the card for a year I have a much better idea of my spending and want to use it much much less. Plus I don't know how often I'm going to be redeeming frequent flyer miles on Alaska when I'm in Cairo.

All's well here! Coming in early tomorrow for overtime and then leaving early to head to the airport.

love

~dk

I don't know what to do with myself today. I don't have to be at work until 3pm because I picked up the late late shift. It's a full day and then hopefully a slow night and then tomorrow is my real day off. It's like the weekend in the middle of the week!

Happy Mother's Day to all my readers who are moms! I love you so much and you are all such fabulous, strong women. Thank you so much for everything you have done to support me and help me grow into the young woman I am today. I hope that I can pass on the lessons you have taught me to my own children someday.
To Aunt Sue and Aunt Patti, thank you for giving me a great role model in how involved and fantastic I can be for Kiernan and McKenzie.
To GramaCat and Gramma Eileen, I love you both so much and have loved being spoiled rotten by both of you.
Momma, I love you and want everyone to know (which is why I put the album up on this site) - travel and Girl Scouts and 48 hour cross country weekends, thank you so much for your love and support and everything over the years.
Trina, the newest mother, you're doing great so far and Kiernan and Kenzie are so lucky to have you. It's great that you get to spend so much time with them and they are the smartest, cutest, most adorable children I have ever seen. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be G'dauntie Dana.
To any other moms that read this, I hope that your day was fantastic and that you got all the love and flowers and champagne brunch receptions that every mom deserves today :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFAMtCWFZdg&feature=channel_page

love!

~dk

An update on the Rescue. After six days, 500 people from all over the country were still camped out in Chicago waiting to be rescued. Early Friday morning they marched to Harpo studios pleading for Oprah to rescue them. If you search Oprah the Rescue on youtube you can see the dozens of videos that people posted begging for Oprah's attention. They even sang 'In the name of love' with a few minor changes, which you can see here. It got her attention and she came out and rescued the faithful abductees who had made it through rain, snow, hail, tornadoes, and tons of other weather issues all over the country this past week. She even changed the program of her show on Friday since she does those live on Friday mornings and included a segment on The Rescue, which is only available in very bad quality on youtube but still great to see here. Chicago was the last city to be rescued, but it was worth the wait to get national coverage on a show like Oprah (she endorsed Obama and that worked, hopefully Invisible Children can have similar luck!)

 

All of the cities that participated in the Rescue have now been rescued. Each city has received support from some sort of media mogul, political figure, written hundreds of letters to congress, and raised thousands of dollars. The only city that had to cancel was Mexico City (fair enough, we don't want the rescue to be tied to swine flu at all) but everywhere else had great success with the event. I even saw a segment on E! News with the event in Santa Monica (Kristen Bell talks about the Rescue Riders trying to get Oprah's attention here). I'm still on a high a week later knowing that this was such a success around the world. Can't wait to see how it affects Africa!

 

Oh and here's a bad joke that I heard last night. I'm sure most of you have heard it already but if not here goes: 'People said there wouldn't be a black president until pigs fly; 100 days after inaguration - swine flu.' *cymbal crash*

 

Hope you're all doing well.

 

Love,

~dk

UPDATE AGAIN! I just heard that at a United Nations Security Council meeting this week on Children and Armed Conflict, the US representative to the UN mentioned the LRA (Joseph Kony's rebel group responsible for abducting so many children) and called the world to action to protect children from the terrors of war. This is the first time that ANY US Administration has mentioned the LRA EVER (pretty impressive/sad considering the war has been going on for 23 years). Who knows if this has anything to do with the efforts of Invisible Children and the Rescue, but it's pretty nice timing nonetheless.
this is the site to read about what was discussed.
and this is CNN's coverage of the Rescue.

AMAZING!

 

Super excited! I just got a new task at work. It's not a technical promotion (read: no pay raise) but it does require more thought and understanding of the product and service we offer. I'll be working with our quality department calling back customers on behalf of one of our owners. There's a new initiative that we're doing called Harriet's Corner and it's to reach out to female travelers (since they make up a majority of our passengers, and definitely make a majority of the travel decisions). You can check it out here.

In the meantime, a history lesson on GCT:

1958: Ethel Andrus (founder of AARP) establishes GCT to help retired Americans travel

1958-1985: AARP member frolick around the world in lovely large groups and give GCT all of their pension plans. That's not in the official history of course, but I had to fill something in before the 80's.

1985: Alan and Harriet Lewis buy GCT. They are now in the business of 'changing people's lives' through travel. ('Changing people's lives' is supposed to be our answer when people ask what kind of business we're in - not 'travel' or 'tourism' or 'direct marketing via brochures and email' though those would all be acceptable business school answers.)

1992: The Lewises establish the Grand Circle Foundation which gives ten dollars from every trip and donates it to charitable funds in countries that Grand Circle visits.

1993: The Lewises buy Overseas Adventure Travel in order to broaden the range of trips that they can offer to Americans over 50. Later in 1993, Sir Edmund Hillary (yes THE Sir Edmund Hillary who was the first man to climb Mount Everest and is an honorary citizen of Nepal) joins the Honorary Board of Directors of the Grand Circle Foundation.

2001: 9/11 hits the travel industry hard. Grand Circle had to lay off associates in October (240 were rehired in January of 2002) but 9000 people still went to Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey with Grand Circle and OAT between 9/11 and the end of 2001.

2002: Grand Circle's most profitable year due to strategies put in place after 9/11 and tested during the build up to Iraq and with SARS.

2003: GCT partners with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in the Partner in Conservation program.

2004: GCT decides to focus on small ships instead of land travel and in six months acquires Continental Barges (for European River Cruises), two river ships in Russia, a river ship in Egypt, and 'the best small ship in the world' the 320 passenger M/S Paul Gaugin in French Polynesia.

2005: The Grand Circle Foundation launches the World Classroom initiative, investing $10M over 5 years in more than 70 schools and communities in countries that GCT and OAT visit.

2006: OAT is given a "Humanitarian Award" by the Tanzanian Tourist Board for the work OAT does with schools. Harriet Lewis also visits a ceremony in Ghana and commits $200K to keep working there.

2008: Dana Kightlinger receives a phone call on the way to her sister's house in Seattle. Trina provides airline miles and Dana flies across the country to interview at Grand Circle. After interviewing with five other potential employees (interview included the 'bowl of questions' and dropping an egg while standing on a chair and hoping that the 'passenger' survives his 'adventure') Dana is offered a position at Grand Circle as a Traveler Support Representative in the call center. The crowd goes wild - well maybe not the crowd, but the weather sure did. I spent the night in the airport in order to make it back to Seattle, just barely getting in before SeaTac shut down. Merry Christmas everybody!

 

Ok so obviously that last entry hasn't really made it into the corporate history books (yet) but I got a little distracted by the history section of the websites. Anyway, my new role means that I get to read emails that people send in to Harriet Lewis and since they go directly to the vice chairman of the company (Office of the Chair) they need to be responded to in less than 48 hours. I had so many positive comments about how nice and understanding and empathetic I was that the supervisor in charge of this new initiative personally asked me to help out in calling these passengers back addressing their concerns on behalf of Harriet. All of my calls will say 'Harriet got your letter and she asked me to call you back to discuss your concerns' or something to that effect. I'm pretty excited. Not only is it more responsibility, but I actually get to use my judgment and sometimes am even going to be able to offer people compensation if it's the right thing to do. It's a lot of responsibility but I'm not worried, just super pumped. Hopefully I'll actually get to meet Harriet sometime soon (If I do then I'd be just one degree away from Sir Edmund Hillary, how cool is that?)

Anyway now I've put in some extra training after hours and still have to head to the gym. All in all a very good day!

 

love,

~dk

I have a whole new respect for the trials and tribulations of the travel industry after the past few days at Grand Circle. Since January, I've handled questions and concerns about war in Israel, drug violence on the Mexican border, protests in Bangkok, and concerns over the elections in South Africa. My coworkers sometimes still talk about Bangkok's airport getting shut down last year and the bombings in Mumbai that soon followed. Most passengers will still travel to areas affected by violence - it's so random and unlikely to actually affect your trip. Swine flu is a different animal completely.

People are panicking. Last I read there are about 160 deaths that they think are caused by swine flu, but only 20 confirmed so far (the only two testing facilities are in Atlanta and Winnipeg, so it takes time to confirm cases). There's about 1600 suspected cases in and around Mexico City and the CDC has issued a warning against all non essential travel to Mexico. Russia, China, and Hong Kong have all taken measures to quarantine people with flu like symptoms upon arrival. Japan is no longer issuing visas to Mexican citizens on site (they can still obtain them in advance - it's not like Japan has shut out Mexicans). The threat level has gone from a 3 to a 4, which means there is evidence of sustained human to human transmission, which does increase the threat of a pandemic but doesn't make a pandemic inevitable.

Grand Circle is still going to Mexico. We have a trip that stays up north by the Copper Canyon. A lot of our travelers like it because it's essentially domestic (part of the trip is in Tucson) and super cheap. Tons of people called in yesterday - are you still going to Mexico? What about the warnings against non essential travel to Mexico? Don't you think you're putting our health at risk by still going? My favorite question was a couple that's going to China tomorrow - We're not concerned about getting swine flu, we just want to make sure that we're going to be able to get into China since we heard they're quarantining people. This is global and has potential for massive ramifications. Hong Kong is making plans to shut down their airport in necessary - a huge hub in Asia that could mean complications for anyone looking to fly around the continent.

Right now we can just hope that the World Health Organization and Mexican authorities can keep this under control. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, but that it will get better. I don't think it's going to be as bad as SARS and bird flu, Mexico is crowded but doesn't approach the populations of Asia. In the meantime I hope that the calls I'm going to take today don't give me as bad of a headache as I got last night.

Hope everyone at home is doing ok. I know there are a few cases being reported in California so make sure you're all taking care of yourselves!

Love
dk

I'm still on a high from the event that I participated in yesterday. Obviously the icing on the cake is that I got to meet Red Sox pitcher Justin Masterson. I was at his elbow for a good half hour and then got a picture with him, got him to autograph my Sox hat, chatted with his wife and got her permission to give him a hug (he's a very good hugger!). It was an awesome end to a great day, but to fully appreciate it I need to go into story telling mode.

 

There is a war going on in northern Uganda that has now spread to southern Sudan, Central African Republic, and the D.R. Congo. Two million people have been displaced due to this war, and thousands of children have been abducted from their homes in the middle of the night and forced to become soldiers fighting with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). It has been estimated that 90% of the LRA's force is composed of these child soldiers. A few years ago, some guys from UCSD were on their way to Darfur to bring attention to the war there when they heard about the 'Night Commuters' in Uganda. These were the children in villages in northern Uganda who walk up to seven miles to the closest towns to spend the night in bus stations since they were so unsafe in their own homes. The boys from UCSD started an organization called Invisible Children (I've added a link if you want more information on it) to draw attention to these Night Commuters. In  2006 there was the Global Night Commute and in 2007 an event called Displace Me, where a total of over 150,000 individuals around the world simulated the conditions that these children endure.The  event that I participated in yesterday is called The Rescue.

 

In 100 cities in 10 countries around the world on April 25th, 2009, hundreds of people abducted themselves and marched to a simulated LRA camp. In Boston, they walked along the Freedom Trail and came to the 'camp' that we had set up in the Boston Common. Some of the hardcore supporters showed up with their hands bound and tied to their fellow commuters. Almost everybody had on shirts that said 'I Heart the LRA' (showing support for the children that are forced to participate in this group) or that had a print of an AK 47 on the front and a teddy bear on the back. Both shirts attempt to highlight just how many children are involved in this struggle. Once the 'abducted' arrived at the LRA camp, they donated pictures of themselves with friends and family to use in an art project that strongly reminded me of the thousands of missing person posters around New York City after 9/11. In the 'camp' everybody wrote letters to senators trying to draw attention to this cause. There were a few speakers - a kid named Zach who was heading the event praised the hundreds of high school students who had showed up as part of a Schools for Schools initiative where they are in communication with students in Africa and also announced the Rescue Riders program - about two dozen supporters left Boston at the end of the night to drive to Harrisburg, PA in order to help them get rescued. Zach also introduced a former child soldier named Charles to tell his story. I won't go into too much detail since it was completely heartbreaking, but Charles is only 19, had been abducted when he was ten on the walk home from school, forced to kill some of his best friends, and only escaped by faking his own death after he was shot for trying to escape. While he was speaking, people walking around the Boston Common stopped what they were doing and came over to hear his story. Another speaker that we had was a representative from John Kerry's office who read a letter addressed to all of the volunteers thanking us for our efforts and promising to work to end this war as soon as possible. The letter was also signed by Senator Kennedy and Representative McGovern - it counted as the political recognition that each city needs to get in order to be rescued. Just before the Rescue Riders were heading out to Harrisburg, we got another component of our rescue - Justin Masterson is a pitcher for the Red Sox and he showed up to support us after a very long game at Fenway (16-11 win over the Yankees!). There were a few group shots taken and a ton of people wanted individual pictures with Justin and then the Rescue Riders drove off to PA and the event wrapped up. We were rescued! Hundreds of people turned out in the largest peaceful protest that Boston Common Park Rangers and police had ever seen in the park. It was amazing and I was so excited to be a part of it that I could barely sleep last night! (not so good considering I had been up since 8 to go to work and had to be back at work today).

 

My role in the event was initially just to be a body. I had signed up to volunteer on Wednesday and on Thursday they sent me an email asking me to be on the Security team. Technically my job was to throw out anybody who was being destructive, violent, or intoxicated but since the group was mainly high school students and volunteers who are passionate about peace, that wasn't really necessary. I wound up taking on the glorious position of guarding the microphone all day. I just had to make sure that nobody tripped on the wires and at the peak of excitement I had to tell some kids that they could not have the microphone to start a chant. I had a great view of the crowd as they were all writing letters to senators and celebrities and enjoyed watching groups of kids start singing Kumbayah and play games that reminded me of passing the time at Girl Scout Olympics. I felt so much older than everybody I was keeping an eye on, but it was nice to see that kids still do the same things to entertain themselves. Taking care of the tech equipment meant that I was front row to all of the speakers - Zach, the representative from Senator Kerry's office, Charles, and Justin. I even got to hand Justin the microphone and shake his hand! When he was done speaking I worked with two other security volunteers and we made sure the mob scene was somewhat under control. I got to joke with Justin and gave him a marker to sign autographs. At the end of it I got my picture and an autograph and then went to speak to his wife. She was awesome and I'm going to go visit her at work this week! We talked about being on the road and working and when I mentioned that I was moving to Egypt she lit up because her brother is over there teaching English! I'm hoping that I'll be able to hang out with her again (without seeming like a stalker of course) especially since she's relatively new to Boston and her husband is out on the road so often. Plus she's just a year older than I am! I'd really like to keep in touch with her and hopefully get to talk to her brother about his time in Cairo. All in all it was a fantastic afternoon.

 

Now back to work. Lots of overtime this week and then next month they are requiring four hours of mandatory overtime each week. I'm looking forward to my day off on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be nice and relaxing and good weather - Boston is approaching 80 today (with a decent chance of thunderstorms in the evening, this is New England of course).

 

love

~dk

I swear it must have been a full moon this week. Callers at work were in rare form! We were super busy and I have so much more respect for customer service after what I have been through. The things that people come up with to call in about! And then they get on the phone and complain for ten minutes about long hold times - maybe if you didn't do that then the hold time wouldn't be so long? I don't want to make this a whole post complaining about work, but I will just say that I must say "The discount is for new bookings only and does not apply to this reservation" at least ten times a day. Today also ended with me calling Delta airlines to confirm that a visa is not required in order to board a flight to Czech Republic (it isn't and I don't know why the associate thought that it was).

Then I went to go see the movie State of Play. I thought it was incredible. One of my friends did an internship at the Washington Post last year and all I could think of was that these are the kinds of stories he's going to break in the future. The movie is very well done (as long as you are into political journalism drama) and mildly terrifying if accurately based on real events.

Speaking of terrifying and real events, I'm reading Legacy of Ashes - The History of the CIA. When I first started reading the book it was almost comical - when the Agency was first starting it had no credibility and had to ask for personal loans around $10,000. Now I'm in the mid 1960s and there are operations all over the world running at billions of dollars with no oversight (even when it is there, it's often ignored). I can only hope that things get better as it progresses up to the present, but there have already been references to Iraq so I don't think that's the case. There have been times where the CIA is working blatantly against the President's wishes or American foreign policy and intelligence is just a messy, messy business. It's a good book for me to read before looking at the Foreign Service because it's definitely teaching me the importance of discretion and trust. Most of the time, I wish it were a work of fiction. Sadly, it is not. There have been some amazing results of the intelligence work, but most of  the good work goes unrecognized - we are really only concerned when something is going wrong. That's a lesson I learned working at the United Nations - you don't hear about it as much when things are going right, only when they're going wrong.

In other news, I am applying to be a correspondent for www.glimpse.org to see if I can get paid to be a blogger when I am abroad in Cairo (the link to Colors of Cairo is a current correspondent for the site). It would be nice to get some extra money and be published. Glimpse is an offshoot of National Geographic aimed at Americans under 30 overseas. Sounds perfect. I hope I get it. Even if I don't I'm still looking forward to blogging and posting pictures for everyone to see.

That's about it this week. Red Sox had an amazing comeback against the Orioles earlier this week (down 0-7 and won 10-8!) and they're up tonight so far.

Looking forward to coming back to CA in a few weeks!

love
~dk

Happy Easter everybody! I know this is a little delayed but I was super busy yesterday - sleeping. I apparently was very tired and took lots of naps throughout the day. My roommate was afraid she had mono and we both quarantined ourselves in our rooms to make sure it didn't spread - she's feeling much better today, but I didn't mind being nice and cozy in my bed most of the day. At least I was well rested for work! I did eat some of the Easter eggs that my mom and sister and I colored last week and finished off the rest of the candy that the Easter bunny left me.

 

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter. I have to get back to work now but I promise I'll post more soon. Check out the new pics I added last week from my mom and Trina's visit - we had some gorgeous weather and fun adventures.

 

love

~dk

It's opening day! Well technically yesterday was opening day, but New England weather is unpredictable so it got rained out and today the Sox are playing their home opener against Tampa Bay - tied up right now in the bottom of the third, if you were wondering.

My mom and sister have been out here since Saturday. On Sunday we rented a car and drove down to Newport, Rhode Island to see some of the 'cottages' that the Vanderbilts and other relatively poor people lived in. The houses are spectacular and we had gorgeous weather and even went on the Cliff Walk. I vaguely remember going there about fifteen years ago and we chose not to go to the only mansion I remembered - Rosecliff, where they filmed a scene from True Lies all those years ago.

Monday night I had an International Affairs alumni event. I was super excited because I thought I was going to be able to network with alums from the past ten years (IAF has been a major at NU since 1999) but the only alums were actually all from my class! It wasn't a total bust though, the founder of our major is a man named Denis Sullivan and he has been involved with AUC since he was a student there in 1984. He's on sabbatical now in Cairo so I didn't think that I would get to talk to him (he's managed to forget my name every time I've met him during the past five years) but he was at the event! I cornered him and told him that I'm going to do my double Master's and he's going to keep in touch with me and give me his opinions on professors that I'm looking into working with and other advice about the University. His fiance (they're getting married on Saturday) is an Arabic professor at AUC so I will probably be seeing quite a bit of her. The event could not have worked out better! Plus I was very happy to show off my plans considering most of the other alums are not heading as directly into International Affairs as I am. My professors were very proud of my experience with the Foreign Service Exam last year and grad school this year. It was a fabulous evening.

I took off Tuesday (today) from work and went on a nice walk around Southie with Trina and my Mom. I took them down to Castle Island and Fort Independence and it was a little windy (by a little, I mean a lot - I was ok but Trina was a little frozen and Momma's hair was sticking straight up). We walked around for a little over an hour and then did grocery shopping and then got mani/pedis. This was our first real girls' weekend! Now we're home and after a lovely lunch of quesadillas and Easter candy, I'm writing this to you all while they sleep. Apparently jet lag is working in mysterious ways and mid afternoon naps are necessary.

Tonight is Roots 'n' Riddims - a Jazzercise type class that my friend will be driving us to - and then making Easter baskets. Tomorrow it's back to work and when I come home, Trina and my mom will already be at the airport. It's been a fun time having them here - I can't believe how quickly it went!

Hope all is going well around the country for everybody else!

~dk

So now that I know I am going to Cairo I have to figure out how to pay for it. I am still waiting to hear from AUC about scholarships I applied for through them, but I am looking at other sources of funding in the meantime. I had a meeting this morning with the Honor's Program adviser about the Fulbright program and unfortunately I am not eligible for it - I would be applying for 2010 which means I would already be in Egypt (strike 1) and pursuing a second year of study (strike 2) so it doesn't look too good on that front. The adviser gave me some options (maybe looking for a third year in a different country, language study) and told me to contact the Fulbright people in New York. Good advice but I think I learned a lot just from my meeting with her (I went in with no strikes and came out with two). I am also going to look into a Boren Fellowship - similar to what I applied for in Syria last year. Basically I want the government to pay for me to go learn things that will make them want to hire me and pay me more! Yay! If all else fails I know that I am eligible for Federal Student PLUS Loans - had to make sure they will cover me overseas...and they do!

Now off to a busy Wednesday. Watch out for April Fool's Day tricks!

~dk

First of all I want to thank everybody for checking out this site. I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures (and the albums that my mom has made!) and I look forward to adding more.

 

To the Porters: thanks for being the first to comment! I hope all is going well with you guys!

To my mother: you MUST get the Australia and New Zealand albums done before I will let you come visit me in Cairo. Also, ahlan wa sahlan means hello/welcome.

To Theresa: I can't believe we're going to miss each other! Best of luck wherever you choose to go.

 

And now some more travel plans. This summer I am going with my family to Jamaica and I'm also looking into some travel around the country with my roommates - Chicago, Seattle, maybe even Vegas. I'll post more on that when it is finalized.

 

All has been going well here. Tuesday night I helped out with Model Arab League (Northeastern's team is currently at the National Conference in DC representing Iraq) and got to thank the MAL advisor since he wrote one of my letters of recommendation for AUC. Good luck guys!

 

Trina and my mom are coming out next week (so many visitors!) and we're going to enjoy springtime in Boston. Can't wait!

 

I've added a Q+A section. I'm not sure how well this is going to work but feel free to leave questions there so I can respond directly. Otherwise I'll continue to answer questions through the blog here.

 

~dk

I'm copying Trina and doing a web page so I can keep in touch with everyone all over the country (soon to be world!). I'll be putting pictures up and updates so you can all find out where I am and what I'm doing!

You'll notice there's a travel theme to this webpage and with good reason - I'm moving again! I've been accepted to not one, but two Master's programs at the American University in Cairo. The first program is Middle East Studies including fluency in Arabic. The second program is Migration and Refugee Studies. It will be two years and I'm very excited about this.

I was thinking about deferring my admission for a year because I am working in Boston right now and I've become a fan of this thing called making money. However, I spoke to a contact at the Foreign Service Institute (Maryann's friend Ruth) and she encouraged me to take any opportunity I come across to go to AUC. The programs sound really interesting and Ruth said that I would be incredibly competitive in the Foreign Service so I decided to go this year! I'm not sure yet exactly when I will be heading over but I'm very excited.

I will also be back in California at least twice before I go. The first time is a quick jaunt across the country for Nancy's graduation the weekend of May 15 but then I'm back at work on Monday. Then I'll be back out for at least a few days at the beginning of July. Katlyn is getting married July 4 and I am Maid of Honor (third time!) so I'll be back getting things ready for that. I don't know right now how long I will be staying that time but I'll keep this updated.

In other news, Katlyn and Miresa were out here all week. Miresa headed back to CA today - her boyfriend Marc drove across the country and picked her up and now they're driving back, quite the vacation! Katlyn is leaving tomorrow. They came out for a good Boston St Patrick's Day and the city definitely delivered. They've been out exploring while I'm stuck at work but at least they brought some CA sun with them! It was almost 60 degrees! Granted today it's raining but that's New England.

 

Hope everybody had a happy and safe St Patricks Day

 

~dk

1/9/2011 2:24:03 AM - 001060704657
Started browsing some of your favorite travel blogs- absolutely addicting. I could spend hours here, but I must stop myself- last thing I read was Johnny Vagabond's "Camels are Evil"- detracts a wee bit from their glamour but they still have a mysterious hold on me.

1/9/2011 2:02:26 AM - 001060704657
Your Photo Collage - Just noticed some details in the photo of you and me in South Africa with all the directional signs to cities around the world- Now you've been to Jerusalem and you've been to all the others in the past few years except New Delhi (probably in your not so distant future) and Rio- definitely in my not so distant future. Mother/Daughter Travelers!

3/28/2009 11:57:03 PM - 001060704657
The article about eating pigeons (AKA "flying rats" brought back memories of eating guinea pigs in Peru and maponi worms "grubs" in Namibia. Is this what I have to look forward to when I visit?

3/24/2009 7:44:57 PM - 001060704657
ahlan wa sahlan - translation, please - my command of the Arabic language is zero.

3/22/2009 8:54:24 AM - 002061556685
Congratulations, Dana! That is exciting news about you and your graduate school studies. Egypt is a fascinating country. Blessings. Elsa and I play Yatzee a lot and we have had Girl Scout cookies for the past several sessions. We ration them so that we always have some while we shake the dice. Keep up the good work and the web site looks wonderful. Jerry and Elsa Porter