How things SHOULD be.

Warning: this blog entry is going to seem very biased. It's just something I've been thinking about for a while, and I do think that other study abroad AUC students will agree with me on some points.

After a few conversations with various people, I have discovered things I wish the study abroad programs in Egypt in particular should have. I've gotten many questions about what it's like over here, particularly the surprise that comes about when I mention that I'm in classes with primarily Egyptian students. In that case, because I am technically enrolled in a University, not a program, it's a good thing about immersion in another culture. I give props to AUC on that part - I'm one of four foreigners in my anthropology class of 18, and further one of three Americans out of those four foreigners. In another class, I often am grouped with Egyptian students for group discussions and when they speak amongst each other in Arabic, I know what it feels like to be the minority. When everyone is out in the common hang-out spaces on campus and I have to walk through a throng of people, I know what it feels like to be the minority. When I can understand basic colloquial conversation, but I can't read a single word in Arabic (except for some - I know some letters, not all, and can read words like Radio Shack, Coca Cola, and Pepsi...) I know what it feels like to be illiterate.

But aside from that, here is just... so Western sometimes that it hurts. I get into the same routine over and over again of going to the same classes, going to campus, losing yet another water bottle on the bus (I really hate buses now), and feeling like I'm working way past the expectation level (this is a good thing, and at the same time, makes me really wonder) in some classes. The difficulty is not at all what I expected it would be, in terms of academics. And it makes me wish that AUC could coordinate with something like an SIT or CIEE program.

Because quite frankly, being amongst Egypt's "elite" day after day doesn't make me feel like I'm getting the true Egypt. I don't know how it feels like to be one of the common every day Egyptians in southern Egypt, in areas like Luxor, Edfu, Aswan, or somewhere in Nubia. I don't live in a village, I don't know how the Bedouins live out in the desert. I wish I had a home stay for a little while, as uncomfortable as I know that'd make me, I feel like I need that push. I feel like, quite frankly, I am attending just another normal college, with normal classes, and with Egyptians as the majority, and then being a tourist the rest of my time here.

I feel like it'd be a much, much better program if we could maybe have half of the semester at AUC, living the University life, taking AUC classes and what not and then once the half way point hits (typically the point of time where I personally get sick and tired of all the Westernization of everything...) maybe take those students enrolled as Study Abroad and put them in home stays somewhere else - like in a village like an SIT program, or maybe even have a change of scenery and spend the rest of the semester in Alexandria!

Quite personally, I don't feel like I'm in another country most days. I just feel like I'm on the other side of a very very big country, where Pennsylvania is still on the same continent, just six hours away and on another side for some odd reason. I have to remind myself, looking out the window on those long bus rides through New Cairo from Campus at the end of the day or by going exploring, that I am in another country, and I am with another culture.

Also, Egypt claims to be an easy location for travelling, but to be quite honest - compared to those students doing programs in Europe, going around to different cities seems like...pennies compared to twenty dollar bills. Okay, don't get me wrong, I do love the traveling within the country - to amazing places like Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, Edfu, Ain Sokhna, etc. and it's totally feasible to travel within the country (for the most part) - but travelling outside? A little more difficult and pricey. People have spent weeks doing relatively cheap trips with their programs to all sorts of places all over Europe. Perhaps the trip to Greece for a few days for Eid will make up for that longing to just travel and explore and not be herded like sheep every time we go out of Cairo.

But yeah. Those are just my two cents. I do like it here, I do love Egypt. But there's issues with every program, I feel, and those are just what I've been thinking of. I just feel like the program can be so so so much more improved! More amazing than it is in the majority of respects! And maybe it's just me, but that's how I feel. :) That being said, I should write my paper now and wait for a movie to load!

Adventures of both Western and Ancient varities

Last time I wrote, I wrote a rather short blog of things that I had missed because it had been two months since my adventure in Cairo had begun! That weekend, I did have other adventures other than lusting over home and the States (who would have thought that I would miss the States after all this longing to live abroad?). Friday, Amelia, Ashley and I ventured out of Zamalek to the big world of - this - right here off to the ride side of the screen. That, my friends, is City Stars Mall near the Cairo airport. Built with over 800 million USD, it's over six floors high, and I'm pretty sure has over 600 stores and stalls. Everything from H&M and the Gap to Virgin Megastore (apparently popular in Europe) to DQ, Auntie Anne's, Ruby Tuesday's and a movie theater. Amelia wanted to get Disney movies in Arabic (harder than you think they are to find!) and I primarily wanted new sunglasses, as mine broke. R.I.P. sunglasses - I think you lasted me over a year, which is rather surprising. We spent a lot of time getting lost on the floor that we entered in the first place, and then once we found Virgin Megastore to look for Disney DVD's, it was closed, so we decided to be brave and go up a couple of floors. We found the movie theater (which was playing Lion King in 3D! YES!) and we vowed to come back, eat at Ruby Tuesdays for a little bite of home, and go see Lion King.

We found about seventy bazillion coffee places, from Costa's to Starbucks and everything in between. Smoothie places, cakes, deserts, ice cream, full out restaurants and cafes. You name it, it was there. I settled for some cinnamon sugar pretzel sticks at Auntie Anne's as a little taste of the good ol' York Galleria, and swiftly noticed shopping differences between here, and the States. In the States, you always have those people to greet you at the door, and follow you until they have a chance to ask you if you need any help when all you really want to do is be left alone.

Here, there is none of that. In H&M there was a guy standing at the door primarily for security, but no one bothered you. You were free to roam, but the moment you needed help - you could find someone and they would help you! It was very nice. Also something I noticed... despite the fact that people here take their time doing things (it took the guy at Auntie Anne's five minutes to find a lid for my cup...) some certainly do not have a concept of personal space, or spatial reasoning. The same guy, in three different spots, ran into me three different times. And it wasn't just a brush on the shoulder with an apology. Full on shoulder bumping and then just walk away.

Hmm.

Regardless - I wish we could've spent more time wandering around - I never get tired of wandering (for the most part, inside a building anyway) and there was so much to see. Things were more American priced... Except for the books :)

To the left of this paragraph is a picture of Harry Potter books. In Arabic. Yes. I did buy some of them despite the fact I already bought the fifth one in hardcover Arabic.

So what!?

I came back Friday and spent the rest of the attempting to do work. Then Saturday, I got up early to go on an Egyptology department field trip to see tombs and pyramids in Dashur and Saqqara, and then Giza once more! Time for some picture spam and then I will explain.

               

These first three pictures are of Dashur and Saqqara. Dashur is where King Sneferu chose to try and build his part of the necropolis in the fourth Dynasty. He was actually the first King in the dynasty and decided he didn't want a simple Mastaba anymore, so he tried to build a pyramid. But he kind of failed. He started building his base too big, so he capped it off early to prevent it from crumbling in on itself - thus, we have the bent pyramid (top row left side). Then, he tried again, not too far away from his Bent Pyramid. We have the Red Pyramid, which is the first true Pyramid in ancient Egypt. I will show pictures of the inside of the Red Pyramid a little later. The second picture on the top row is a picture of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty's Step Pyramid, the first "pyramid proto-type" in Ancient Egypt. Designed by Imhotep, which you may know thanks to Brendan Fraiser and The Mummy. 

Imhotep really was a genius architect, though. Saqqara, where the Step Pyramid is located, is a huge complex. The lower picture is the entrance of the complex, and I'll try not to bore you with my geeky architecture knowledge too much, but basically the premise was that the outside was fitted to look like the facade of a palace, to establish that Djoser thought of himself as a God, not as just a human King, and that he was resting in his home, not his tomb. The enclosure wall is fitted with 14 "dummy doors" (doors that are not really doors and do not open) for the fourteen Kas, or spirits, which establish that he is like the god Ra, who also had fourteen kas. 

There are stone swinging doors inside the facade which do not close and open (duh, they are stone) because only the spirit of the King, in the form of sunlight (yay, Ra!) could open and close them. There are SO many cool things about the architecture in this complex, I can't even explain how cool it was to see in person what I was learning about in class!

But back to the Red Pyramid. The first "true" pyramid in Ancient Egypt, home of King Sneferu. We went inside. Yeah, be jealous. I actually was allowed to take my camera in too! So now, you guys can see what the inside of a pyramid is like (thankfully for you, you don't have to smell the pyramid. It smells like bat poop, and thousands and thousands of years of people's sweat). The picture off to the right side of this paragraph is the outside of the Red Pyramid, and our group of people walking up to go inside. The scaffolding in the center of the pyramid is the entrance). Climbing up those stairs was NOTHING compared to climbing further up inside...

So in short, really, climbing pyramids is a bigger workout than anything I've ever done, including running suicides in softball practice (this is coming from someone who isn't really fond of working out or running - so softball practice is my immediate connection in terms of anything physical!). But yes. My legs... three days later, still hurt!

These are the stairs up to the burial chamber AFTER you go up inside the little hole and climb down and down and down in a primarily dark and tiny space. This chamber houses the scaffolding stairs up to the burial chamber, which smelled like bat poop and ammonia. Guano, is the proper term.

Anyway, below are some more pictures of the inside of the burial chamber and the ceiling of the chambers themselves.

Ceiling of the chambers

Burial chamber - messier than the Great Pyramid chamber

From Saqqara we headed to the Giza complex once again. Giza this time was not as exciting, though I did get to see the stone quarries behind the Pyramid of Khafra and I didn't get hassled as much, and I actually got to go closer to the Sphinx! Anyway, I will leave you with my favorite picture of the pyramids of Giza that I've ever taken. The way the sun was in the sky, positioned perfectly over the Pyramid of Khafra ... it was just amazing!

The sphinx, and finally....

Until next time!

• Ten days until my Eid vacation to Athens, Greece!
• And climbing Mount Sinai for Thanksgiving!

In honor of two months...

Things I miss and can't wait to have when I get back to the states. Coupled with a slightly more optimistic things I do like about here.

1. My personal bubble space. Ranks pretty high up there. Some people violate it on purpose, and others on accident. Either way, there's a limit that just gets pushed here that I'd like set back in stone!
2. My friends from both Gettysburg and home. I miss you guys. You understand me and the way I am and I couldn't ask for anything more at this point right now.
3. My bed. This one here gives me back problems. I do love it at the end of the day though, regardless!
4. My puppy! (Hi, Dodger!)
5. Cinnamon toast and hot chocolate (shout out to Mom, heads up on what to stock up on when I come home ;] )
6. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Real. Grilled cheeses (Memaw, I'm looking at you.). The ones here are just a piece of untoasted bread and half melted cheese. Not. Satisfying.
7. Gettysburg College. How little and tiny and quaint and home you are!
8. Cheesecake.
9. Servo cookies.
10. Muss. floor four! (Shout out to Michael, Greg, Julie, Emily, Smitty, Alex, Rose, Laura, and Madison). 
11. My own mailbox. Seriously. The mail system is poo here.
12. My books! :D
13. Driving.
14. Martin's potato chips!
15. Brownies. 
16. Ice cream.
17. Northeastern, surprisingly. I do miss some of the staff/teachers that helped me through those four years (some periods of which were really rough)! 
18. Cold that is not caused by air conditioning.
19. Coats.
20. Fireplaces.
21. RAIN.

Things I like about my two months here:

1. Not being bothered when I shop in City Stars.
2. When it gets cold out in New Cairo and I can wear a coat.
3. Classes I would've never gotten to take anywhere but in Cairo.
4. Travelling.
5. Meeting people from all over the world and the states.
6. The currency exchange rate!
7. Nola and Crumbs cupcakes. Done.
8. Monginis.
9. Zamalek island - totally isolated, but still Cairo!
10. New Cairo's semi-lack of smog.
11. A completely different sense of independence.
12. Forgetting I live here in a different country and then in random moments remembering - "Hey, this is EGYPT."
13. Stray cats. SO. MANY.
14. Something is always going on!
15. The pyramids and the Ancient Egyptian culture.
16. My four hiding spots in the AUC Library. Yes, four, as sometimes three of my spots are occupied and I have to find another. I'm sure I'll have about six spots by the end of the year, if not more.
17. Jared's bagels. At least I get cream cheese here and bagels!

Happy two months!

62 days left to go.

So much stuff inside that I don't even know what to title this.

And for lots of reasons! Don't worry. I'm still alive. Chugging along at a rather slow pace, but still alive! My brain is having issues comprehending the fact that it's almost two months since I've been here. My first half is down, now just gotta get through the second half! Okay. So back tracking. Basically, I was going to update over the weekend, but things got kinda crazy, so I'll recap starting from Thursday (as I can't really remember anything of importance before then).

Thursday night, as you all know by now, is the beginning of the Egyptian weekend! We waited until everyone got back to Zamalek from classes, and the Gettysburgians + Miriam (she's an honorary Bullet now, we decided!) went out, caught two cabs and headed towards Khan el Khalili. Khan el Khalili is a giant market and bazaar. There are two sides to this market/bazaar. The side which we got dropped off on was the "real" Khan, or the Egyptian Khan, where things are different prices because not many tourists wander over there, and it's horribly dirty and smelled like horse crap.  Tommy, Ross and I got out of our cab and as Tommy went over to get a soda, a man came up to Ross and I and started talking. Ross and Nick had been to Khan el Khalili the previous week, so we at least had two people in our group knowing where they were going (relatively speaking). The man, in sandles, windbreaker pants, and a sports t-shirt came up to us and started rattling off.

The first thing out of his mouth had me looking down at the road and waiting for our other cab full of friends to show up (our driver decided he was in Grand Theft Auto. Not the stealing cars part, but the driving around like a super-maniac part).

(In the following transcription from my memory, the italics will be my thoughts.)

"Brother! Sister! I am not creepy dude!" Oh, really? That's comforting. I don't want to talk to you. "You are from America?" "Aiwa. (Yes)" "Do not be afraid, I love America, we love tourists, I love Obama," -snort- You'd love any current president, I betchya. Also, I live here. "I want to be your B-F-F. I am not creepy dude." Because you spelled out BFF, I still don't want to talk to you! Please leave! 


Have no fear, readers (particularly Mom), as it turns out, he was a quasi-decent guy (if not really assertive and persistent) who owned two or three shops in the Egyptian side of Khan-el-Khalili. Ross and Nick, as it had turned out, got caught by someone else in their shops the previous week and had already been taken to where they were. We tried to tell him that, we really really did. Ross said, "I went to your shop last week, I know where it is. We're just going to wander first after our friends come."

Even after our friends arrived, to no avail, we had to give in. He took us back into his papyrus shop, he asked for tea, made fun of Ashley for being short, and then after a good half an hour of only one person buying one thing or so, we left. As it turned out, Cat, Ashley, Miriam and Nick when they got out of their cab had a guy who talked to them as well. He said he graduated from AUC and "not to run off and follow people like that they will try to sell you things!" Yeah, yeah. So will you! 


Anyway, I have discovered through massive wandering around Khan-el-Khalili that I am still pretty bargaining-shy. With help and some confidence, I got a lot of stuff to take back home. Two t-shirts (Revolution t-shirts YAY!), a couple of scarves, some wooden camels, and other various presents for people.  We eventually wandered, once all the shops started to close (we were there between 9:30 and 12:00) to Old Cairo where the giant Mosque is!

At last, we caught a cab ride back to Zamalek (much more at ease this time) and walked around the island to get back to the dorm. I was pooped, so I headed to back to my room while everyone else went to Goal (one day I'll join them going back!). Friday came around and Nick and I, around mid-afternoon, went to go see a Miss Rose Kane! Rose came to Cairo for a week excursion with her Amman, Jordan program. Nick and I caught a cab, hesitantly, not sure how far away her hotel was. Prepared with a print out map with Arabic street names from GoogleMaps, we caught the cab at Zamalek, went over the bridge and voila we were there 3.75 £.E. later! I stood outside and called her, went inside, and then all of the sudden, Rose comes bounding down the stairs (eight flights) and wraps both of us in a hug.

It was so great to see someone from Gettysburg again that I love and miss so much (shout out to Rose!) and isn't here in Cairo every day. We showed her around Zamalek, talked about the differences between Egypt and Jordan, and all around had a good time catching up with one another. It was great to spend time with her and show her all the amazing things in Zamalek that actually make me proud to be here (is it strange that the majority of that is Nola's Bakery and Mongini's desserts?... Nah.). We took her for koshery (a very popular, inexpensive Egyptian food [the smell personally makes my stomach go 'noooooo don't do that!' but it is really popular] - link HERE.) at Alex Top (3 £.E. for a Koshery!), Mongini's for traditional Egyptian desserts, and then back to the hotel. Nick and I got back to Zamalek at around 12:30 and then once again I hit the sack, thankful that I got to see Rose! Who would've thought this time last year that we'd be hanging out not only at Gettysburg, but in CAIRO. Ugh. So cool. Anyway.

Saturday was filled with homework, blah blah blah. Boring stuff. Mom gave me the idea to put candy corn into one of the glass Coca Cola bottles I kept from the Luxor/Aswan cruise (teehee...) with the exact number of how many days are left, and every time a day passes, I get to eat one until the bottle is empty! Clever! Skyped home... talked to friends.

Sunday was another boring day of classes. Art & Architecture of Ancient Egypt and Zionism and Modern Judaism. Monday also with Hieroglyphs and Anthropology. Hieroglyphics is not as fun anymore as I thought it'd be. The way she teaches really bothers a lot of us in the class (which is primarily study abroad students!). Anthropology, the professor bothers me for some unknown reason. I'm trying to give him a chance, but some of the things he says really throws me off from an anthropological point of view.

Tuesday. Crank-down time. I had a midterm today, so all day Tuesday I studied my little butt off. Anyone who knows me (which I assume you do if you're reading this, if not cool - hi...) knows I get super anxious whenever a test, particularly a midterm or a final, comes around. I stayed up until 12:30 studying, then went to bed and woke up super dooper anxious.  On the plus side, I fell asleep listening to rain for the first time in weeks! Rainymood.com is my saviour. It just plays constant sounds of thunderstorms and rain... ahhhh, rain....

I blame Alex McComas.

But so yeah. Today. I sat up here in the library, not too far from where I sit now, studying some more and finally left for my second class of the day to take my midterm in Zionism and Modern Judaism. And as I walked to class, as well as took the midterm, I noticed things. I've already mentioned how big AUC is in comparison to Gettysburg College. GC is 2600-2700 on a good day, and AUC... 6000+. Everyone is outside hanging out all the time. Sometimes I doubt whether or not most of the population here even has classes at all or if they just choose to sit out side in masses of hundreds and play music. Seriously. Here. It's like. Sober Springfest at Gettysburg. It looks like EVERYONE is out all the time. And that brought me to thinking about how some of the students seem so... lax... about their education. Like it's not a priority for them. I don't know that may be just me and I'm not trying to generalize, as I do like it here, and I have met some really wonderful people. But at Gettysburg? You'd never see this many people out on campus unless it was a weekend. Even so, it's a stretch. 

Also the test taking is different. This was my first test in three years that I haven't needed to write the Honor Code on. Also the professor stayed in the room. What?! What is this? And then she got up to write the time remaining on the board. I felt like I was in high school again. The whole thing about the Honor Code is trust. And obviously that might be an issue in the AUC community - there are no cheating posters up everywhere... I wonder if they've ever thought about implementing an Honor Code like Gettysburg does. It just felt... I dunno.. wrong... not to write the Honor Code on my test before handing it in. 

Maybe that's strange, but certainly not to me.

Coming up: A trip on Saturday to Dashur and Saqqara pyramids (and back to Giza if there's time!) for an Egyptology department field trip! Yay!

Debunking Myths and Calming Concerns

So I've decided that it's about time I do a "Did you know?" and "Things you should know" post about Egypt and my stay here so far. Let's see if I can compile these in a way that won't be too confusing for my mind to handle.

First off, more importantly, the "calming concerns" part of my post. Yes, there have been more protests in Egypt.  No, the revolution is not entirely over. Ever since January 25th and the end of Mubarak's reign over Egypt, the youth of Egypt in particular have been carrying on the new found freedom of speech, opinion, and protest. Actually, they're really fond of protests. But to calm your concerns, I'll give you a map of where I am in relation to where Tahrir Square is and downtown Cairo as it shows up on GoogleMaps.

Click for larger view

A is where my dorm is, on the island of Zamalek. The red circle at the bottom of the page is Tahrir Square and the circle towards the right of the page is the geographic center of downtown Cairo (so Google tells me). It takes about 30 minutes on an average traffic day at the end of the day to get from downtown to Zamalek. Because it's an island, I honestly have no idea what's going on Tahrir until someone tells me something's happening. There are peaceful protests every Friday, and the whole issue with the Coptic Christians and Muslims that have been going on the past few days is bad, yes, but rest assuredly, that people have gone out to Tahrir to speak with protesters and military guards and have come back having gained a lot of insight, and most certainly in the same condition of health as when they left! All is well on little ol' Zamalek! Don't worry! (That goes directly to you Mom & Memaw)

Next bit is the debunking myths and "Did you know?" I've gotten a lot of questions that I can take some time, sit back, and answer.

1. Cairo is a very, very dirty city. It's not on Forbes' new top 25 dirtiest cities list, but I at least think it's number 30-something. There's no form of organized, governmental trash removal like in the states. It's rather unofficial so trash just sits on the street for a while. 
2. Also, the Nile is GROSS in Cairo. You'd only want to swim in it in Upper Egypt, really. Where it's nice and clean.
3. Regarding that Upper Egypt is actually Southern Egypt because of the way the river flows! Lower Egypt = northern Egypt.
4. The Nile is the only river in the world to flow from South to North instead of North to South.
5. Yes, there is sand and desert. But Cairo is actually really westernized. City of the satellite dishes, anyone?
6. New Cairo is literally the middle of the desert. New Cairo is a 45 minute bus ride in the morning, and an 1 1/2 hour bus ride in the evening away from downtown/Zamalek. 
7. Traffic is awful. 
8. Yes, there are trees here.
9. There are tons of stray cats here also. And flies.
10. No one drives within the lines. Wait... lines? What lines?
11. No, I don't have to wear a veil or head covering.
12. It's really awkward when you're walking past someone praying (this happens in the girl's stairwell in Zamalek quite frequently ... bad timing), so try to be as quiet as possible!
13. Ramadan is the worst time ever to be in Egypt and the best time ever to be in Egypt; to find something to eat in the middle of the day is nearly impossible, but the parties at the end of the day are awesome.
14. The Egyptian pound currency exchange rate to the U.S. dollar is approximately 6 to 1. 
15. Hieroglyphs are a legit language and ridiculously difficult to memorize.
16. The revolution is still happening.
17. Nothing is free in Egypt.
18. Do not make eye contact or try to hold conversations with vendors if you don't know Arabic in the touristy places (specifically Giza). Just a "lat shukran" can get you out of sticky situations, but most of the time they will hunt you down and force you to buy things.
19. Alexandria is a lot cleaner than Cairo.
20. La shukran are the magic words (No, thank you). 
21. Imshi is a close second (go away).
22. No, I don't ride a camel to school. You realize how inconvenient that'd be?
23. I'm sure I'll come up with more of these at some point!

Alexandria and Anafora

So, Thursday was October 6th, which in Egypt is a holiday! October 6th in Egypt is Armed Forces day, which is the day in 1973 that the Egyptians celebrate the crossing of the Suez Canal during the October War, also known as the Yom Kippur War. So as a result we have off classes, and I'm sure Cairo was crazy. But I wasn't there! October 6th, in all it's crazyness, ISA scheduled a trip to Alexandria and Anafora that lasted until early Friday evening. Despite the fact that many of us were tired beyond relief and couldn't wait to go to the hotel and sleep and have food, it was well worth waking up at 5:45 am for!

That being said, I woke up at 5:45 and we left Zamalek at around 6:30 in the morning, the bus departed at 7:00 (thank you, Egyptian time...). We were in for a very, very long bus ride up to the Delta on a strip of road called the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, because for most of the ride, both sides of the freeway is just... desert. Nothing but it. The closer you get to the delta of the Nile and Alexandria, however, the greener and cleaner it gets!

Outside of the library

Main reading room, which is six floors

The first place we went to, of course, is the Bibliotheca Alexandrina! Of course, the Bibliotheca isn't the original Library of Alexandria (curse you, old Library!), but it is constructed near the original site of the library which was built during the reign of Ptolyms, which now is underwater (most people are told it's constructed on the original site, but it's not!). The reading room is huge, and the library itself has tons of online fun things (online books that are out of copyright, timelines, etc.) and also four museums and tons of art exhibitions (Hey, Alex!). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the entire outside of the building, but I do have pictures of the walls outside! The walls outside have letters and numbers from hundreds of languages, both dead and current. They don't mean anything, they're just a large symbol of how wisdom and knowledge are internationally connected.

Part of an art exhibit in the reading room.

The library's planetarium (for Laura!)

We spent a good two hours in the library, primarily because we had an extra tour after our tour guide called us "naughty". What?! Excuse us, lady, but I personally paid attention to you the entire time and thought you were nice and informative. Honestly, I could pinpoint who was disrespectful. Some of the IPL's (International Peer Leaders) who had made the bus ride extremely uncomfortable (singing at 7 AM on a three hour bus ride, and squishing me in the back row behind a chair that was broken and not giving me even a foot of leg room) had been talking during her tour, thinking that it was okay. Also some of us wandered off, but that was because there were interesting things she was talking about around us! ISA went over to the tour group leaders place and told them, and they opened up a nine screen interactive Culturama that is only open on certain days for us because of the inconvenience. It wasn't nice of the tour guide, and it wasn't nice of the IPL's, honestly.

Qaitbay Citadel

From the Alexandria library we headed to lunch, and from lunch we headed to Qaitbay's Citadel. The Qaitbay Citadel was built in 1480 by Sultan Qaitbay on the previous site of the oldest lighthouse - the Pharos Lighthouse, which had been used to protect the city of Alexandria from crusaders attacking from the sea. Qaitbay Citadel was huge, and we were able to go and climb up inside of it. There was also an awesome view of the sea! There's going to be a huge string of photos for those of you who don't feel like sifting through all of the photos on facebook next. But in the mean time, more about Qaitbay. We sort of wandered up to the top - see those two big windows in the picture that are right below the flag pole? On the other side, we managed to find them and climb up a large, large, large step to see out to the great Mediterranean. It was fantastic!

From there we headed to the hotel for check in and then we went to El Montaza Palace where we just drove by it because it's not open to the public anymore. We drove through the gardens and then stopped at a waterfront walkway sort of place to watch the sunset. It was my first real time ever watching the sunset; I had never seen a real one before and it was amazing! Especially over the Mediterranean!

After a good while watching the sunset and just walking around, we finally headed back towards the hotel after a LONG bus ride of dropping people off where they wanted to go to dinner and what not. I had not been feeling too well - I had a headache and my contacts were bothering me, so I went to me and Cat's hotel room (which was really spiffy!) showered and then tried to read for a while but ended up just conking out and going to bed around nine.

We woke up at 7:30 for the wake up call and to get breakfast on the sixth floor of the hotel (via the really old elevators that have the wooden doors and weights and pulleys!) where you could see the sea from your table. First time I had cereal with milk in almost two months! I was so happy! And the crepes and croissants were good too! Stocked up for breakfast and then it was off to Kom El Shokafa, which I had no idea what it was until our tour guide explained on the bus.

We were going to the Catacombs! I had thought, since I didn't see "Catacombs" written on the itinerary, that we weren't going. But turns out that's what Kom El Shokafa was! We walked down into the main burial tomb, which was really cool and made me wish I hadn't forgotten my fedora at home in Zamalek! I kind of wandered off and explored a bit in the catacombs, finding soda cans inside sarcophagi (which made me really, really sad about the state of cleanliness at Egyptian tourist sites), and a display case of horse bones! We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was really neat to see how the Ancient Greeks blended their culture and language with the Ancient Egyptians, as evident in the Catacombs. Here is a link about the Catacombs!

Then we hit up the Roman theatre! The Roman theater is called Kom El-Dikka and was built around the second century. It's an ampitheater with 13 semicircular tiers made of white and grey marble, and seating for 800! There's also some pretty nifty mosaic flooring (which is roped off). There's also one particular spot if you stand on it, and say something decently loud, you can hear a strange echo in your head of your voice, but if you step off that spot and off to the side, you can't hear the echo anymore! Weird!

Me in front of the ampitheater

Looking sad because I can't enter the excavation site.

From Kom El-Dikka we drove an hour and headed to a Coptic retreat center called Anafora, where we had a nice chat with Bishop Thomas who created the entire retreat center and all of the programs! His lecture he gave us was more of a Q&A session, but he told us about how they have seminars for women empowerment, which is a big issue in the Egyptian society because as Bishop Thomas explained, it's a hierarchy oriented, male oriented society, where women do not get treated the way they should be - especially in poorer villages and living situations. He also told us a story about how he had kept a girl for a week in the guest house connecting to the church, and kept her away from her family because she had come to Bishop Thomas after hearing her mother and grandmother talking about when they were going to circumcise her. Of course, without her consent... She sought Anafora as a refuge, and that's exactly what it is. It's a place to be lifted up, disconnected for a while to find yourself, and then go back into society as a better person. And it's beautiful. There's really not much electricity, just the bare essentials run by a generator. They also have a church shop where everything inside is made at Anafora organically. They stressed organic stuff a lot.

The church itself is absolutely beautiful. Everything has meaning, and it's not a typical church. There's no electricity, just candlelight. The colorful carpet you'll see on the pictures below represents everyone from all different corners of the world and all the colors of the world coming together to make the white cross in the center. They take communion off a tree stump, which symbolizes the tree of life. The first thing you see when you walk in is a huge window in the shape of an eye, which is supposed to be God's eye. You bow a little before you enter, showing that you are humble before God, which is something that they stressed a lot. You don't sit on chairs (unless you are physically unable to do anything but), but kneel on colorful pillows, and place a little stool between your calves and butt. It's actually really comfortable, and with the breeze blowing, I felt like I could've stayed there forever. There is an egg hanging in front of God's eye, symbolizing life.

After the visit to the church, we had dinner, and then booked it back to Zamalek and Cairo by 6:30. Overall, the trip was fantastic. It had a bit of a down moment or two (second down moment was losing my water bottle on the bus. D: I officially hate buses now!) but it was a nice get away from Cairo. Plus, you could actually tell the sky was blue in Alexandria and Anafora! There wasn't any smog!

Until next time, Insha'allah (God willing) I will have something interesting to write about!

Procrastination produces blog posts (and alliterations!)

So Monday was pretty much an easy day. I got up as per usual on Mondays and Thursdays at 7:30 and caught the 8:30 bus to campus, arriving at around 9:30-9:45. I bought an iced tea, something I had been craving since I've gotten here and hung out underneath an umbrella outside the Humanities building, and then we went to Hieroglyphs I at 11:30. Now, this class I took as one of my "for fun" classes, but the more we get into the grammatical structures and what not, I begin to realize her teaching style is very difficult and preparation for quizzes that she gives is next to none. Memorizing 80 biliteral symbols (signs that have two letters/sounds attached to them - like the chisel sign has the value of mr pronounced as mer) is next to impossible! A week after the quiz and I'm still not feeling comfortable with all of them!

But Monday in class we got to experiment with creating genetival phrases (The Lord's house, the eye of the King, etc.) and write them in the glyphs themselves as well as the transcription and the English translation. We came up with some pretty silly stuff, as well as poetic things, and I found this method of doing things better than just sitting in a lecture trying to decipher what she's telling me about noun/gender agreement and what not. It's much more helpful to write things out and then see where you're wrong or what things need changed.

Then we had lunch, as per usual, at 12:45. (I apologize for this being boring. It's my way of procrastinating from doing homework). From there, Ross and I went to Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa. We were supposed to have a quiz on our reading, but for the second time, he decided not to have a reading quiz. Fine by me... That class is... not my favorite. It is a little dull and boring, but at least today we were talking about something I already knew about because of my Zionism and Modern Judaism class: The Ben Ezra Synagogue here in Cairo.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue has a fantastic thing called a Geniza, which was the home of the largest deposit of medieval manuscripts in the whole world, and also the largest repository of Jewish history. Now, the Ben Ezra Synagogue is basically a tourist attraction now, but in the past it was the repository of any and all literature that wasn't going to be used anymore, but text could not be thrown out! So thus any bit or scrap of paper or literature or book that wasn't going to be used was placed in the repository and years later in the 1800's when they took down the Synagogue, they found all of the documents.

The Synagogue was rebuilt in 1890 and that is now the Synagogue people go to today in Coptic Cairo.

Today, so far, I have picked up my care package from home (Thanks!) which had lots of goodies in it (including Ice Tea packets! HUZZAH!), looked at pictures from the Picture People Facebook, which mildly makes me miss working there (in the studio though, not as mobile lead), gotten distracted from doing homework, and took a picture of my desk (this was kind of staged...).

I think at some point, when I have the time and am not procrastinating on something, I am going to write a blog about the differences between here and the United States. Until then, however, I expect the next update will be after I get back from my overnight stay in Alexandria and Anafora this Thursday and Friday! Also, my trip to Greece has been booked! Hello, Athens!

Archaeology!

So this week ended a lot better than the past few weeks have ended. To start off on Wednesday, I received an email that made me borderline happy and wanting to kick anyone that came within a five mile radius of me. It was an email from the AUC Lost & Found saying that they had my wallet. After three weeks... They had my wallet. Furious, I left the library after my work for my next class was complete and marched across campus, out the gate, and up to the lost and found to find no one in the booth. I was fuming as I turned around, prepared to walk to Zionism & Modern Judaism, and then ran into Amal and Nancy from ISA, who had been helping me through the entire painstaking process of getting my debit cards back in order. They were happy and chipper, as there was a lecture ISA was putting on for something or other and they kept trying to rope me into it; I declined and told them what had just happened.

"Latlatlatlatlatlatlat!" was Amal's response. (Lat means "no" in Egyptian Arabic)

"Yeah!" I responded and then relayed the story of how no one was at the booth and I planned on going back later and demanding to know how long it had been there. And I did, I tried. They wouldn't tell me, but I tried. Angry and fuming, I bought myself an ice cream from the McDonald's on campus (I figured I deserved it, as is my excuse for most things now) and vowed to never let my wallet go out of my sight ever, ever again.

Thursday came and went with more stress in the morning because my new debit card should've arrived Monday, and it did not. After many failed attempts at communicating properly with the New York Office, we finally reached an understanding (with the help of home being able to call), and ISA was instructed to look for my envelope if it came in the previous Friday's pouch like it was supposed to. Low and behold, after an agonizing morning of thinking it was lost and gone and I'd have to deal with a lost card situation all over again, ISA had my card.

All was well.

Friday, I spent my day sitting inside doing homework. I woke up a little later than I intended to (11 am, that's 5 am for you East-coasters) and packed my back to sit downstairs and do all the work I could. We're reading an ethnography about Cairo in Peoples & Cultures of the Middle East/North Africa. It is, so far, far better than the last one we read, which was called Tournaments of Value which was essentially about the social life and hierarchy in a small Yemeni town called Zabid where people got really, really, angry with you if you didn't come to visit them, or return the favor by hosting them in your own home. Basically in Zabid, status and hierarchy relied on how you were social with your neighbors and connected families (the large, important families belonged to a bayt which is basically their version of the large, manor type homes), as well as how you presented yourself and controlled your anger with other families and your husband, etc. The author repeated herself a lot, and though her book's concept of reciprocal giving is based off of heavy anthropological theory, she didn't weave that in at all. I suppose some people may like that, but since I knew the theory behind what she was getting at, I would've liked to see her weave more in (thank you History of Anthropological Theory... Marcell Mauss!).

Regardless, I got started reading In An Antique Land and once finished my section of reading for that, read some for Zionism and Modern Judaism. I'm proud to say I also finished that, and then spent some time talking and attempting to start some of my coursework for archaeology on Wednesday. We are reading about archaeobotany now, and using plant remains to tell us things about diet, agriculture, and landscape. We covered this briefly in 106 back at Gettysburg, and we're actually using the same textbook, but all the same, it's different from a grad class point of view.

Kom al-Fakhry before excavation - cleaning out the dirt.
Taken from the website.

Which segways perfectly into my story about the second half of my weekend! I had to wake up super-dooper early this morning, for which I was not happy about, but hey - getting up at six am on a Saturday to go to Memphis (Egypt, not Tennessee) to visit an Archaeological field school run by Dr. Mark Lehner (Click HERE to read about him! I got to meet him!) who also helped excavate Giza. Now, due to some complicated ethics going on with archaeology sites in Egypt and looters, we were unable to take any pictures, but I will say that the entire floor of the site, Kom al-Fakhry, was littered in pottery sherds. We were allowed to go down into the excavation while everyone was having their breakfast (at 9:00 after about two or so hours of work), and learn about different aspects of the site. I literally had to look down everywhere I walked, for fear of stepping on something that may break under my boots. At one point, as we were being talked to about the stratigraphy of the site and how it was really interesting (I'll save you all from having me explain all that), I spotted almost an entire pot still in the side of the excavation. Just sitting there, covered with dirt, begging to be taken out, pieced together, and cleaned again.  (Also do want to let you know that all of the photographs and information to back up what we learned can be found HERE [click me!])

Such as how the modern day settlers of what is now Mit Rahina were planning to build a road, and as they started to bulldoze for the road (literally this area is covered in trash) they hit limestone and stopped. Turns out they sort of bulldozed right into the settlement. What is interesting is the fact that settlement archaeology has just recently started to boom in Egypt. Typically, the archaeology you hear about in Egypt is monumental archaeology: things like Temples, Pyramids and tombs. Settlement archaeology's goals are to create an understanding of those who actually made the pyramids and made the temples and were just your average every day Ancient Egyptian.

I discovered I'm much more interested in several parts of an excavation. Physical excavation of the site,  osteoarchaeology (human remains, so burial archaeology), or even pottery/ceramics and artifacts. Though, with that in mind, I'm still trying to figure out where I want to specialize in - historical archaeology (18th century America or historical archaeology in Britain) or medieval archaeology in France/Germany (think Merovingian Gaul!). Such good areas... all so fascinating!

Anyway, I loved the site, and another interesting thing was that most of the students are in training or have completed training to be inspectors for Egypt and are Egyptian, but they've never had the field experience before! Even some have Ph.D.'s... Dr. Lehner was saying about how some of the students, on the other hand, had more field experience than he had ever had because he had been more trained in academic archaeology - theory and classroom practicum. Nearly all of the workers at Kom al-Fakhry are Egyptian.

So, even if I don't get an internship or a field school (I'm not saying I don't want to anymore! That is a priority and I will continue to worry about it, Mom. c:) there might be a little bit of hope for me? Alas, I've started looking for this summer already. Archaeological assistant in Anchorage, Alaska, maybe (the position is there!)?

Colossus of Ramses II (my picture).

After the field school trip, we made a pit stop at Memphis Statuary Garden and saw a HUGE statue of Ramses II. From what I understand, this is the colossus of Ramses, and more info can be found HERE. The statuary garden was pretty cool. Decent, I guess. I did get in for free, which was awesome (thank you, AUC Egyptology department!). I did get to see a mummification table from New Kingdom (I believe), so that was pretty nifty.

Next week's adventures - a shortened week! Thursday I have off for armed forces day, which means I am spending Thursday/Friday in Alexandria, city of Alexander the Great! Yay for the Meditteranean Sea!