Al-Jazeera, Saqqara, B & W Desert

Hi all! I apologize for not blogging for the past few weeks. School has definitely started to pick up, and I have been preparing for my midterms this coming week. Then, it is off to Florence, Italy for Spring Break with my best friend Emma Trawick woohoo!!!! Here is what I have been up to since Alexandria :)

Amideast organized a dialogue with Al-Jazeera English correspondent Sherine Tadros, and we were able to engage in an intimate discussion with her about the media situation in the Middle East. I learned a lot about what it is like to be a reporter in Egypt, including the demands and dangers of the job. Sherine often reports in Tahrir Square, and she frequently has to lie to the people that she is a reporter for Al-Jazeera. People are extremely suspicious of the foreign media here, as it has been broadcasted on national news that foreign hands are responsible for many of the problems that triggered and occurred during the revolution. In retaliation, there has been a campaign launched by the people against the Egyptian media called "Kaaziboon" which means Liars. The graffiti below signifies this campaign: inside the TV says Kaaziboon and underneath it reads "Down with the Military Occupation. January 25th."

We also visited another pyramids site about 20 miles from Cairo called Saqqara, which was the necropolis for the ancient city of Memphis. Here is the whole group in front of the famous Step Pyramid. It is the oldest pyramid in the world, and also the most ancient stone structure. In Dashur, another ancient burial ground, we were able to travel INSIDE of the Red Pyramid. We climbed down a 200 meter shaft that led opened up into a fairly large chamber. Unfortunately, the lights went out while we were still inside the main chamber -- it felt like the beginning of a horror movie. The lights came back on about a minute later, but still, it was pretty terrifying haha

This past weekend, we embarked on our trip to the Black and White Desert. Our first stop was Baharya Oasis, which is one of the five oases in Egypt. It is a small, rural town that is rich in history and friendliness. We stayed at a quaint motel just outside of the town, and it was so relaxing to escape the noise and pollution of Cairo. One of my favorite parts of the trip was waking up in the morning before everyone else, and reading my book on the balcony in the peace and quite of Baharya. We spent two days in the Black and White desert, bouncing around in desert jeeps to stunning landscapes, volcanoes, and natural springs. We planned to spend the night outside in the desert, but threat of sandstorm ruined our camping intentions. It was still an amazing weekend.

 My dad likes to caption this photo, "Libster of Arabia." Photo cred: Ahmed.

We took a tour of Cairo University on Wednesday. This is the podium where Obama delivered his speech in 2008.

I feel completely settled into Cairo right now, completely immersed in its wily character, hospitality, and strong sense of culture. I am loving my time here :) It feels like time is flying by.

Adventures in Alex

We had our first out-of-Cairo excursion this past weekend, and I saw the Mediterranean Sea for the first time. Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city  (yet 1/5 of Cairo's population) is located directly on the north coast and was once one of the most prominent cities in the world. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, Alexandria was a Hellenistic hub and thus boasts a rich history crosscut by the Greeks and Romans. During our visit, we were able to get a glimpse into how these civilizations influenced Alexandria by touring some of the historical sites.

The view from our hotel -- the Corniche waterfront promenade

It took us about 5 hours with traffic to drive from Cairo to Alexandria, but I really liked getting the lay of the land beyond Cairo. It's pretty much desert, although we did pass by some huge irrigated fields. There are little stores and merchant shops set up along the highway, and people were constantly crossing. We slowed down a lot for toll roads and weigh stations as well.

Our first night was dinner on our own, so Kerrie, Mac, and I decided to walk towards downtown to find a good place. We ended up in some of the smaller, cobbled streets in a poorer area, and the harassment was definitely worse here than my experience in Cairo. People typically just shout the only things that they know in English -- "Hey! How are you?!" or they will mutter some Arabic slang that we can barely understand. The worst was when a man came like a foot from my ear and said, "Bonjour, Seniorita."Not correct or appealing, sir. Anyways, we decided to get out of there pretty quickly and stick to the main road along the waterfront called the Corniche. It is important to note that Alexandria has become more conservative than Cairo, and it is the seat for some of the Islamist movements in Egypt. I felt like I had to be more guarded here.


On Friday, we hit the historical sites. The first stop was an ancient monument called Pompey's pillar, which is a red granite column extending 30 m high on Alexandria's ancient acropolis . It was dedicated to the Roman Empire Diocletian from the people of Alexandria. Famine had struck the city so the people were rioting. Diocletian swore that we would kill every person in Alexandria until the blood rose to the knees of his horse if the riots did not cease. Upon this swearing, his horse tripped and fell to the ground. Diocletian took this as a divine sign and sent grain to Alexandria.  The pillar was erected to commemorate his generosity.

 Pompey's Pillar

Inside the temple -- this is what the inside of the catacombs looked like too

The next site was Catacombs of Kom el Shuqafa, which are tombs from the Roman period. There are three levels of burials, but the lowest level has been usurped by groundwater. We ventured to the second level, and it felt like being back in Mammoth Cave. We saw the three main tombs, decorated with Egyptian and Greek art, which belonged to the wealthy father, mother, and son. The rest of the hundred or so tombs belonged to the relatives.

In the afternoon, we went to the Roman Odeum, which was a small theatre established for plays. Then we toured the Fortress of Qait Bey, which was originally built in the 15th century. My favorite part of Qait Bey was sitting on the promenade watching the Mediterranean waves splash up against the man-made concrete barriers. One thing that I love about Egypt in general is that people are always outside -- and they were definitely out in Alexandria. Families, couples, gangs of boys were just hanging out along with coast with us, and I just relaxed and people-watched for a while. It was nice to just sit and take it in after touring the whole day.

 Fortress of Qait Bey

Ahmed and Mac chillin seaside

That night, we went to a restaurant in Qait Bey that is famous for its seafood. Alexandria in general is known for its delicious fish and shrimp, so naturally I was tempted to break my vegetarianism for this one night. I haven't eaten fish in two years, so I was pretty nervous but really excited to "experience the taste of Alexandria." Typical me, I wolfed down a plate of snapper and shrimp, and I was definitely satisfied. The next morning, disaster struck. BOOM! My body did not handle the fish well, and I got major food poisoning/body rejecting the fish. I was sick the entire day, and thus had to miss the most of the tour of Alexandria's Library and all the Montazah Palace and Gardens. I have been on the road to recovery for the past three days -- I got some antibiotics and have been resting since the fateful seafood incident.

My downfall

Getting sick was definitely a low point, but it felt good to know that my program and my friends here were quick to take care of me. I feel like I can handle a lot in Egypt if I can manage overcoming food poisoning in a foreign seaport. Also, the train to Alexandria is cheap and only takes 2 hours. I definitely plan on going back -- mainly just to see that Mediterranean coast again.

Port Said

For my Media Arabic class, KC and I interviewed the director of our program about the events in Port Said. He responded, "Soccer is like politics in Egypt." With 74 people dead from the incidents at the soccer match, it is clear that this event reflects so much more than just a game. The Ultras, a group of hardcore fans of Cairo's Al-Ahly team, are notoriously pro-revolution. They formed a group called UWK, which stands for Ultras White Knights, comprised entirely of young men. Many are blaming the military for instigating the riots and claiming that stadium security did absolutely nothing to quell the violence. 

In wake of this tragedy, all of Egypt is mourning for three days. On the anniversary of the revolution, many people were celebrating. Now, people are angry. The Ministry of the Interior protests became violent. On top of this, there are rumors that private American companies are supplying poisonous and expired tear gas to the military. In order to protect their faces from the tear gas, the protestors spray their eyes and cover their faces with a mixture of yeast and water. All of the protestors looked like they have been covered in a beige, liquidy paint.

We are staying the apartments tonight. KC just made chocolate strawberries and Kerrie made cookie dough. I am trying to stay positive :)

This is on a wall a street over from our apartment. I am going to be taking pictures of all the political graffiti in Cairo, so stay tuned for more.

Culture Week

Sabba7 El-Kheir! (Good morning!) This past week has been filled with site visits to some of the most prominent cultural places in Cairo.I have truly enjoyed being exposed to Cairo's rich cultural history and traditions, including its religion and art. I like these field trips because they get us out of our neighborhood bubble and into unexplored parts of the city. It also reminds me how OLD Egyptian civilization is. Egyptians were building mosques and creating art thousands of years before our country was even founded...pretty wild.

First stop was visiting the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, located in the heart of Islamic Cairo. It is the largest mosque in Cairo, and it is also the oldest mosque in terms of preserved, original architecture. My favorite part of this site visit was climbing to the top of the minaret, which is the tower where the Call to Prayer is made. The Call to Prayer occurs five times a day, and modern Cairo has a standardized sounding prayer and schedule. Its an awesome sound because you can hear multiple Calls to Prayer issued from different mosques at the same time. It sounds like an echo all over the city five times a day.

Next visit was to the Islamic Art Museum, which was also a neat place to visit. I spent most of my time learning art terminology in Arabic with my language partner. Her name is pronounced Hend, and she was really eager to teach me new Arabic phrases and words. I am looking forward to practicing my Egyptian Arabic with her. She is pretty tough on  me, but I need some constructive criticism in regards to my speaking skills :)

On Sunday night, we went to the famous Opera House complex (located just 10 minutes away from our apartment) and saw a show! It was a tragedy called Aida (first performed in 1871), and it told the story of a love triangle between Egyptian and Ethiopian royalty. It was kind of a mix between Helen of Troy and Romeo and Juliet. The opera was performed in Italian and the screens had Arabic subtitles, so it was definitely a challenge to understand exactly what was going on. I read the synopsis before though, so I just relied on the story line to understand the action. It was long....almost four hours. My first opera experience was in Egypt...who wuddu thunk it.

On a more social note, I have also been twice to Cairo's oldest bar called Horreya, which is the Arabic word for freedom. They only serve Stella beer and Cheepsy chips, both of which are only manufactured in Egypt. I love being a part of the local scene and spending my time looking for new places to check out in Cairo.

Nika, Hannah, and I at Horreya drinking some Stella

January 25th Anniversary House Arrest

I have to be really vague and apolitical in this blog post...government authorities are monitoring public forums for people speaking out, even going as far as to arrest people. I am going to stick to the facts and how I personally am feeling today.

I woke up this morning and something was noticeably different -- where was the noise??? No honking, no loud laughing, no sounds of the city. When I looked out the window, an apocalypse appeared to have wiped out the entire population of Dokki overnight. Today marks the anniversary of the first day of the Egypt's revolution last year, and all of Cairo is congregating in Tahrir Square right now. The Egyptians are using this day to celebrate the anniversary and also protest their government's lack of self-determination/ensure that power is turned over to civilians.

Nobody knows how this day is going to turn out, not even the Egyptians that are protesting. It all depends on how the military and police force decide to react to the protestors. It could be a peaceful day or a very violent and dangerous one. Previous crowd control tactics in Tahrir have been tear gas, fire hoses, physical assault, and BB guns. Additionally, rumors are circulating that the police are going to be spraying people with blue paint that will not wash off for months so that protestors can be identified and face consequences.

Protestors in Tahrir today are technically breaking Egyptian law. Egypt has been under a declared state of emergency for decades, starting when Sadat was assassinated. The civil liberties that are guaranteed in Egypt's current constitution (opinion, press, association, forming unions) are essentially null because of the Emergency Law in place. Under this law, people are not permitted to block traffic or prevent government functioning, which is exactly what will happen in Tahrir today. Thus, the government and military has the law on their side.

Due to the unpredictability of today's outcome, you all will be happy to hear that all of us on the program are on house arrest and are spending the day in the apartments. We are going to be thinking of our Egyptian friends that are in Tahrir and hoping that they will return back to us safely. This day is also important because it will most likely determine if we will be able to remain in Egypt. If things get out of control today, evacuation is definitely a possibility. I will be devastated if that is the case... I am in no way ready to say goodbye to Cairo.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures from our trip to the Giza Pyramids this past weekend :)

Cairo Amazing Race

Hi all! The first weekend in Cairo was definitely an eventful one. This past Friday, Matthew sent all of us on a Cairo version of the Amazing Race. We were broken up into teams of four with each group being sent on a different scavenger hunt throughout the city. We had to answer questions along the way about our sites, and we were required to use local transportation including taxis and the metro to get from one place to another. Up until this point, all of the students had pretty much remained within Dokki, so it was an adventure in itself to move beyond our neighborhood boundaries.

After completing our first stop at Cairo University, my group's next destination was the train station and post office. We were asked to find out the next train to Alexandria and the cost of the trip. Then we were to go to the post office and mail a letter back home to our families. It sounded simple enough. We arrived at the train station, which has a beautiful entrance before you enter the actual platforms. At the information desk, we asked where the post office was located and he told us the first platform. As we were walking along the platform, a man started yelling at my friend Nneka for having her iPhone out because he thought she was taking pictures. Photography of any sort of infrastructure, including train stations, is a sensitive issue due to the revolution, and thus we appeared suspicious as a group...a bunch of foreigners looking around and taking pictures of the train platform is cause for alarm. Thus, commence dealing with the undercover Egyptian police...

A man approached us and asked us "Where are you tickets?" Of course, we hadn't purchased any because we were just looking for the post office. When I responded that we didn't have any tickets, the man flashed me his identification as an undercover policeman. I explained to him, in Arabic, that we were mailing letters home and that we thought the post office was in this direction. He asked us to come with him, and we all assumed that he was taking us to the right location. He led us out of the platform and back to the entrance room, where we were joined by two other police officers. At this point, my adrenaline was pumping. A young American was just arrested last week for taking photographs inside the metro. These police officers barely spoke any English, and I was the person in my group that could speak the most Arabic. When they asked me, "What is my job?" I explained that we were American students just arrived and that we were here to learn Arabic. I showed them a copy of my passport, and they seem to be appeased. However, the first undercover cop accompanied us to the post office, waited for us to write our letters, and then proceeded to walk with us to the metro. I ended up speaking to the cop the whole time, and he and I were soon laughing and joking together. We even took a picture with him, as one of our scavenger hunt tasks was to take a picture with a new friend. It was pretty crazy.

Entrance room of Ramses train station

The undercover cop ( pronounced shorta) who we eventually became friends with

Not all of the scavenger hunt was that chaotic. We ventured to a book market and shopped around, purchasing Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets in Arabic. We visited the Opera House complex, which was surprisingly very green and peaceful. Upon leaving the opera house, we hopped in a taxi for our next destination. As we are entering a round-about, a man comes running into traffic and screaming at our cab. At this point, I am thinking....oh great, another undercover cop. As the man approaches our cab, I realize that he has my camera in his hand. It must have fallen out when we were getting into the cab. I wanted to cry. This act of kindness was exactly what I needed to counter our experience at the train station.

At the Souq AlKotob (Market of Books)

Another encouraging aspect of the Cairo Amazing Race is that many Egyptians complimented me on my Arabic. It felt really good to know that people could somewhat understand me and that we could have a normal conversation. I am looking forward to my Egyptian colloquial classes so that I can communicate even more with people that I meet out on the town.

I made it!

The beginning to one of the most incredible experiences of my life thus far, my first week in Cairo has been a whirlwind of new everything - a new city brings new faces, smells, sounds, and flavors. While I was initially pretty anxious about spending four months in a country that many warned me to steer clear from, I now am thrilled to be in a city that is so vibrant and full of life.

The depiction of Cairo in the American media today is solely focused on Tahrir Square - the area downtown where the protests and demonstrations are occurring. I wish that the media would occasionally show the other neighborhoods of Cairo, where life is going on in complete normalcy and peacefulness. My neighborhood, Dokki (pronounced Do-ee), is full of little shops, sheesha bars, a market area, restaurants, and Cairo University. It is thronged with people that are simply going about their day to day routine. I feel safe walking around and exploring my neighborhood - in fact, many people greet me with the staple phrase, "Welcome to Egypt!" Contrary to what you might think, foreigners are typically welcomed by Egyptians on the streets of Cairo. When Egyptians learn that we are American students here to learn Arabic, they beam smiles.

So far, the students on my program and I have been attending our week-long orientation so that we can better adjust to this unfamiliar environment. Our program director, Matthew, first introduced us to the concept of Intercultural Communication. His objective is to remove the American filters that we came here with and help us to perceive our surroundings through an Egyptian lens. We have created a framework to compare culture so that we can assimilate into the Egyptian way of life. Instead of learning to do's and don'ts here, we are learning why. It's pretty awesome, and I think it will definitely help me understand everything that I experience here.

I know that many of you are really concerned about my safety here. If there is one thing you should worry about, it is me crossing the streets of Cairo. Seriously, it is a game of Frogger everything I encounter an intersection. There are no lanes, there are no crosswalks, and there are no stoplights. Traffic flows and you must dodge, duck, dip, dive, and DODGE around the cars. Luckily, we learned the human shield technique -- pick an Egyptian who is also crossing the street, and shadow him/her as you both cross together. It is very effective, albeit slightly creepy haha

This first week has made me realize how truly excited I am to be here. I am so happy with my program, my apartment, and the new friends I have made on the trip. I will post pictures soon -- the internet is very slow here and pretty unreliable. I will try to write as much as I can :)

The view from our apartment -- all 10 girls are living in the penthouse! Notice the Pyramids to the left of the sun in the far distance.

On a boat on the Nile River...we live about four blocks away

Right as you come outside our apartment -- always busy with cars and people

The streets at nighttime 

KC, Bryan, and I drinking some Egyptian beer called Sakara

A poster showing people how to vote...they are all over the city