Ponderings.

So I don't really have too much to say this time, but i'll give you a quick update on my life and really I just wanted to jot down some things I simply do not, and probably never will understand about Egypt.

First off, life is good. I love the crew of ladies I hang out with on a regular basis, my classes are fairly easy, the food is wonderful, and when we get around to sightseeing that's fabulous too. Here's my average weekly schedule:

Sunday---Class, Dinner, Homework
Monday---Class, Dinner, Homework (maybe)
Tuesday--NO SCHOOL! Cairo adventures and then home to finish all the work we didn't do the night before.
Wednesday--Class, Dinner, Homework
Thursday---Class, Dinner, Homework and then going out of some sort. Asually a bar or Shisha and Tea
Friday---ADVENTURING (aka sightseeing of some sort)
Saturday---ADVENTURING

Generally pretty chill evenings where we just hang out and chat. Monday, Thursday and Friday nights tend to be late with chatting and laughing going on for hours, while school nights we're usually asleep by midnight. By body probably hates me for all the back and forth, but what're ya gonna do right?

Somewhat typical night out with the roomss.

                                    

Superbowl!

                                    

Yesterday three friends and I went to the Citadel together. It was BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately it was rather smoggy so we weren't able to see as far as we would've liked to, but the Citadel and Mosque themselves were beautiful. It was really cool to get a chance to do something a little more touristy too since we've been acting like locals for a while now.=]

There is no God but God

So here are some last minute thoughts I need to get out before I go crazy. The students here are SO. RUDE. Maybe i'm just more aware of this because I grew up with teachers and am all too aware of what effect students have on those who attempt to teach them, but I CANNOT deal with it. AUC bows down to these children's wishes. And yes, they are CHILDREN. The readings and class work are NOTHING compared to what we get in the US and yet the students complain and try to get less work. Many of them don't even attend  the first 1-2 weeks of classes. They argue with professors relentlessly. To the point that you can barely remember what we're lecturing about at all. Honestly, when a professor is going over a syllabus, is it necessary to stop him every other word? Or if we're going over something that you CLEARLY understand just as well as the rest of us, is it necessary to keep clarifying the point? NO. SO BE QUIET. Granted, to understand why this happens one must look at the realities of the situation.

1. These are the richest kids in Egypt. They're in school because either they have nothing else to do or they simply want to hang out with the opposite sex without their parents being around.
2. AUC is expensive. No one else can afford to come here. If these kids go to Europe/US to study, AUC loses all funding and collapses entirely.
3. Daddy works for the government. If these kids DO get upset about something, their parents are in extremely high standing in this country, and getting that problem fixed would be extremely simple. Plus, it could begin to make the US look bad, so let's avoid offending the children.

Solution: Bend to the will of the students. As pathetic as those desires may be.

So, while I would love MORE Egyptian students to study in "western" countries to get a feel of how ridiculously pampered they are, I do understand why AUC needs them. Still, it's frustrating to sit in class knowing that you may be one of 3 students there who actually cares about and works for the grades and eventual diploma you'll get. Welcome to my life.

So, on that note. Rant is over.
Other random things I've learned while being here:
1. Everyone is organized. There's simply an insane amount of miscommunication (or just a lack thereof).
2. Everything seems to go bad ridiculously quickly.
3. Try ALL desserts.
4. Make sure you decide on a price BEFORE getting in the taxi.
5. Walk away from any haggling and you'll eventually get the price you want.
6. Joke with people. Even if they don't fully understand, they appreciate your recognition that they're human.
7. Do NOT give your phone number to waiters (or let others do so for you), the calls/texts don't stop.
                                  

Also, God has been ridiculously good. I can't even begin to tell you here how wonderful I feel my time has been in bringing me closer to God. We have a 45 minute bus ride to and from class each day, so I have plenty of time to sit, read the Word and just pray fro life, people, you all. And God's been taking that opportunity and running with it. I'm more interested, curious, and analytical when I'm reading. Things come up in my life that pertain to what God's been teaching me. It's been incredible and I love every minute of it. I might have to do a quick "things i've been mulling over with God" blog sometime in the near future. But until then I pray that this continues! AMEN.

Cairo Craziness

So, first a little general news. Classes started on Sunday, and for the most part they've been pretty good. I'm taking Intro to Islam, Arabic, The Historical Jesus and Cultures and Peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. We only have class 4 days a week, so no complaints there, and the classes, in general are not too difficult. Arabic, of course, is quite a bit of work due to attempting to remember everything I've forgotten by this point and also adding on new information. But, the teacher is wonderful and sweet, and my classmates are great (there are only 4 of us). Life is good.

Unfortunately, I got food poisoning Sunday night, so I ended up leaving school early on Monday and then using our free day (Tuesday), to sleep and try to recover. Definitely NOT a fun experience. Luckily, i'm blessed to have two wonderful roommates who went out and got crackers for me, made sure to ask how i was feeling and just generally check in on me whenever they could. While i'm not FULLY over it yet and only just today ate my first somewhat full meal, I do feel MUCH better than before. So thank you for your prayers!

On a more positive food note, in general the food here is WONDERFUL. There is shawerma, koshari, falafel, and kebabs. Along with of course, general Americanized foods. EVERYTHING is delicious. I'm angry I can't stomach them quite yet. I miss it already!

Falafel

Koshari

Shawerma

Finally, on a more serious note, I want to let you all know what's been happening news-wise. Yesterday, when we got back to the dorms, per usual there was a soccer match on. It happened to be the match between Cairo club al-Ahly and club al-Masry. Everyone was cheering and yelling until the game ended and suddenly madness erupted. The winning team's fans (al-Masry) rushed the field towards the al-Ahly team and fans. People were getting attacked with knives, fireworks, hand to hand fighting, it was terrible. Two students from AUC died in the tragedy. At least one of the bodies is missing....i'm unsure about the other. There were protests on campus today as angry students demanded answers for what had happened. As of right now people, in general are assuming that this was at least in part some sort of governmental conspiracy. Whatever the case may be, our prayers are with the families of everyone who didn't make it out of that game.


If you haven't heard of this or simply want more info here are some good resources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16854554

http://news.yahoo.com/40-killed-clashes-egypt-soccer-match-191558932--soccer.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16848473

It's All About the Journey...

DAY 1

So many things to tell… Alright, well let me start off with the disclaimer that while I will ATTEMPT to explain how absolutely ridiculous some of the things that have happened in the past few days are, I cannot guarantee I will succeed. One must understand that in each of these it was the insanity of the JOURNEY that was the real clincher, and not where we were going.

 So, on the 26th, my friend Johnny and I decided to go check out Coptic Cairo. Neither of us had done much touristy stuff so far, and everyone else had already been there, so we figured we'd try and catch up. While there we saw The Hanging Church. It's called this because it was built above the southern gate of an older Roman fortress.

You can see the gap between the floor of the church and the roman fortress below.

After The Hanging Church, we walked over to the Church of St. George which is a Greek Orthodox Church built in the 10th Century. Apparently it's the only round church in Egypt. Sure, why not?

 

                       

St. George defeating the dragon (evil)

Finally, we headed off to Ben Ezra Synagogue. On the way there we stopped by a shop to get some earrings I liked. I got to enjoy my first attempt at bartering in Cairo...150LE?? I think not. Try 65. Haggling success. Afterwards we finally got to the synagogue. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures but Ben Ezra is the oldest Jewish Synagogue in Cairo.

Since we finished up Coptic Cairo fairly quickly, Johnny decided he wanted to go to the pyramids. I was planning on going another day but who's going to complain about seeing the pyramids twice?? So, off we went. And that, my dear friends is when the TRUE adventure began.

First, it took 3 metro rides to get there. Now, in Cairo there are women's cars on the metro, but considering I hadn't yet ridden on the Metro I was hesitant to leave Johnny and get lost somewhere. So, I ended up riding in the regular cars. Not a big deal on the first and last rides, unfortunately however, on the second one one man got a little too excited about having me around. NOT FUN. I have never given someone such an evil look in my entire life. I was freaking pissed. But Johnny felt bad enough about having to take me on the metro, so i decided to wait and inform him about this later. Anyways, so we get off the metro finally and were PLANNING on getting a taxi when a man convinced us to take his microbus. Microbuses are exactly what they sound like; tiny buses. Let me stop here a moment to inform you that previously in the day we had been informed by the Head of the International Study Abroad people to avoid these buses at all costs as they are the most ridiculous of ALL drivers in Cairo. Ah well...we got in anyways.

                                        
    Originally I was sitting in the back right behind the passenger seat, but Johnny convinced me to move. So he sat next to the driver and then I sat next to him in the front seat. Before we even hit the main road we got a taste of the insanity they'd warned me about. As we passed by a small stand selling bread items the driver grabbed some money, hopped out got some bagels and hopped back in. Not too big of a deal, except that the van wasn't in park so we just kept on trucking while he got his bagels. Johnny and I were dying laughing. All I could think was THIS IS NOT REAL LIFE. On the bright side, he gave Johnny and I one of the bagels to split between us. SUCCESS! And off to Giza we went! Oh and remember how I said Johnny had me switch seats? Well, let me tell you...it was a good thing I did. Because we drove the entire 20ish minutes to Giza down the roaring Cairo highway with the side door completely open. hahhahaha

   So the man driving the microbus was ridiculously nice and asked Johnny (he's fluent in Arabic) if we wanted to go horseback riding around the pyramids, because he apparently knew a guy. Well, if you know me, you know i love horses and I mean...i'm in CAIRO. When in Cairo, right? So he dropped us off, hooked us up and we snuck into the pyramids right after it closed with our horses and guide. Now, we assume that he gave me the slightly more ridiculous horse because I'd told them I had ridden before, because Johnny's was definitely not up to par with mine, speed or insanity wise. But, I'm SO glad. I used to ride a lot when I was younger but, I never learned to gallop. I had stopped at cantering (for those of you who don't know canter is the "medium speed" for horses and gallop is the fastest). But this guide reassured us the best and easiest way to get a chance to see everything was to go fast....so gallop we did. 

    GUYS, you're about to get a glimpse into my inner thoughts. You see, when I stress out about things...my immediate desire is to GO. running is fine but what I want  to be doing is RIDING. The feeling of wind rushing past and the landscape flying by is one of the most freeing and exhilarating things you'll ever experience. I have  always wanted to just gallop through a wide open area. No fences, no cares, just open freedom. Well, I came to Egypt and got that chance. Right around the pyramids. Welcome to my dream come true. My history nerd was satisfied, my internal desire for freedom was satisfied....it was absolutely, without a doubt, the best moment of my life.

Anyways, back to the story. I galloped around the pyramids, that was sweet. Our guide was hysterical. He obviously was used to tourists because he came up with the funniest poses to put us in with the pyramids and Sphinx. Also, he told us that the horses we were riding?? Oh yeah, they're the same ones that marched on Tahrir Square the year before. Oh you know, these ones: HORSES IN تحرير

x

Yup. Casual. Then, at one point, while we were galloping through a particularly hilly area my horse's front leg buckled under the sand oddly and I fell off. Johnny and the guide were so worried. I fell onto sand, I literally didn't even feel it. But my poor horse (Pepsi) sure did. I could tell his leg was a little off the rest of the ride. Poor baby. Anyways, overall? It was an AMAZING afternoon. Afterwards they took us to this little tiny museum where a guys howed us how to make papyrus and tell whether or not it's fake or real. Really interesting, actually. He showed and explained to us a few stories that had been drawn onto papyrus. And it was all free! ممتاز!!

Pyramids behind Giza

So, after our adventure at the pyramids, we starrted to walk around Giza. Now understand, that's ALL this was supposed to be. Just a nice little jaunt around Giza and then get a taxi back. Well, 3.5 hours and 9.57 miles later we ended up at Zamalek. Yup. I walked from Giza to Zamalek. That happened. On the way we stopped by the Nile to check out some "boat clubs" and got some great pictures. We were chased for an hour by a child begging for money, and saw a sweet, ridiculously old playground right on the edge of the Nile.

The Nile at night!

RECAP:

bus, metro, microbus, horse, walk---insanity. It's all about the journey right? Stories, to tell. That's what I wanted, that's what I got.

DAY 2 

Tiramisu and Oreo cupcakes....

 So the 27th, a few things happened. First, one of my roommates, Anjana and I found this GREAT cupcake place called Nola. Got some super delicious cupcakes.

    Then, me and a few friends went to the International Book Fair in Cairo. I've been to them in DC but to go to one where everything in Arabic was SO surreal. It was amazing. And I picked up some cool stuff including a cheesy poster of Fruits in both Arabic and English, and an ADORABLE "My First Bible" in Arabic, and the parable of the prodigal son in both Arabic and English. Super excited about it. 

                                      

     That night, the original plan was to go to this belly dancing place near Tahrir. It was supposed to be like a club thing where you go and watch them dance and grab drinks and snacks and enjoy. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that it was closed for construction. So instead, we headed into this really low-key bar next door. and suddenly things went crazy. We're sitting around having drinks and smoking sheesha when one of the guys decides to get up and dance to the music. This, in turn leads to about1.5 hours of the entire place, (about 4 out of the 9 of us) and the locals all dancing. Both to American and Middle Eastern music. We later found out that the 3 women my friend and I were dancing with happened to be prostitutes. It was an extremely entertaining and unexpected night.

                                          

DAY 3

Today, I went with this kid Graham and 2 other girls to this preschool for Sudanese Refugee children. The kids were unbearably cute. It's a Montessori preschool so we got to do lots of activities with them, run around outside and then teach them some English. It was WONDERFUL. Since i've worked with lots of second language kids, through helping my mom out, I felt really at home working with them. Gah, they were SO happy and full of life.

Anyways, sorry about the absurdly long post. I've been too exhausted to write each day. But that's been my life so far! Classes start tomorrow, so i'll be sure to let ya know how that goes. God Bless!

OH. If you want videos for any of these...be sure to check back! I'll have links posted soon! Love ya!