The creation of a revolution.

Currently sitting in my room in Zamalek Dorms, not terribly far away from downtown, but just far enough away that it has the facade of being completely distant and isolated - almost like a different city all together, I wouldn't even know what was going on in Tahrir Square if I didn't have Al Jazeera, Egyptian news service, streaming live in English on my computer. I'm not going to pretend I know everything, all the details, of what's going on around me because honestly, I don't. Before I go any further, family and friends back home in the States and in other countries abroad, I want to make it clear that I am completely safe and okay. I have no intention on going to Tahrir and taking that risk. Zamalek is nice and safe. Anyway, I haven't written in a while, mainly because work has been piling up. But as protests in Tahrir grow to be a bigger presence, and conflicts rise once again I have some sort of small inkling of what it was like to be here in January.

In my anthropology class just the other day, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, we got off topic only slightly and began talking about the Egyptian revolution. The date that many people associate with the beginning of the protests against Mubarak and the government is January 25th. Dates are important in Egyptian culture (I mean, we have October 6th Bridge, October 6th City, 26th of July Bridge/Street, and many others) but the 25th of January was something else before it was the day of the revolution.

The 25th of January, before 2011, was known as Police Day in Egypt. This day was meant to commemorate the 50 Egyptian policemen killed and wounded when they refused to give Ismaili Police Station up to the British forces in 1952. In 2009, Mubarak (still in charge) made it an official holiday. It took more than fifty years to recognize the strength of those police officers of the past who were fighting for Egypt. And then on that same day, two years after it was declared a holiday, the people protested against the police, and against the military.

Who would've thought? It's doubtful that the 25th of January will be known as Police Day again; the first thought in people's minds is the start of the Revolution. Many don't even know of Police Day. And it will probably stay that way.

Elections are supposedly coming up soon. Some of my classes have been moved to Saturdays instead of their respective Mondays and Wednesdays. The first election day is November 28th... hopefully. While I am very glad for Egypt to have a chance at proper democracy, I was a little annoyed that I have to go to class on a Saturday. Okay, more than a little annoyed. But there's nothing I can do. I will admit I'm a little fearful of what's going to happen with the elections themselves. Nothing's very predictable at this moment in time.

Today, I came home from the bus ride (aka mobile nap time) just like yesterday and saw the staff of the dorm in front of our big screen, watching the news. The news isn't really entirely helpful when it's all in Arabic, but from the look of things, we could tell what was going on. Today, we came home to see the police ripping down banners in an empty Tahrir Square, and kicking abandoned motorcycles that got left behind when rubber bullets and tear gas were released on protesters, and setting them on fire to make it harder for the protesters to come back. I went upstairs, arguing the logical thinking of the police in my mind (I know it's their orders, but why burn them? Why make it look like the protesters set it on fire when you're on TV?) and found a link to Al Jazeera English live stream.

The live stream is saying that the demands of the mass march and protest has dwindled down to one: end military rule, and the protesters feel as though the military council has "hijacked their revolution". Also, to roughly quote, "It seems as though there are alternate universes that are running parallel right now. The protesters fighting against military rule, and the parliamentary candidates who are solely focusing on how to win an election that is coming up very soon."

I can ensure my friends and family that I am completely safe, and won't make stupid decisions, ever. It's enthralling and slightly scary at the same time to be here during the creation of a revolution. It didn't just end with the ousting of Mubarak, but the Egyptians are making the revolution and experiencing the counter-effects each day they gather in public spaces - whether in Alexandria or Cairo. An opportunity of a lifetime, while also being sheltered and kept safe.

I can't pretend that I know entirely what's going on. But I can, for those who are interested - shoot you towards some good links for more information.

Al Jazeera English Live News Stream

Battle rages for control of Tahrir Square - Al Jazeera

Egyptian military police fight protesters in square - BBC News (Middle East)

Don't worry guys. I'm safe. AUC is safe. Zamalek is safe. No, Memaw. I can't hear the protesters from my room. It's too far away for me to hear. The most I hear is fireworks when there's a wedding at Marashly Church across the street. Map of where I am in relation to Tahrir and the geographic centre of Cairo. I am the red circle furthest left. Tahrir is the circle towards the bottom, and the one off to the right is the geographic centre.

Who put the "glad" in Gladiator? [picture heavy!]

Hercules!


Greetings from Athens!

Currently, I am staying in Athens, Greece for Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday in Egypt (that involves sheep slaughtering). It's actually my last full day here, but I have off school, and a lot of the Study Abroad kids use that break to travel! Egypt claims to be a central area where it is relatively easy and inexpensive to travel to other countries - but I've found that to be a lie. A trip to Greece is a little pricey, but it's so worth it! I've been here two days, and don't want to leave! I don't remember all exactly what happened last week, aside from some finals and papers. But Thursday night began break, and I frantically packed things and watched my new addiction from the BBC - Downton Abbey. Friday morning, I got up, did some last minute packing and caught a cab to the airport to begin the great adventure that would soon feel like I was running away from Cairo and I wasn't supposed to leave. We boarded the plane at 2:50 and said goodbye to Cairo for five whole days. I tried a sip of wine on the airplane, which was absolutely disgusting, and with a little bit of Cabin Pressure from BBC Radio playing (fitting for an airplane ride) and a nap, we had landed.

Friday, after the flight...

We got into Athens via the metro after the plane ride. First impressions: Wow. Is. This. Place. CLEAN. Athens, apparently, is rated as having the best metro system in Europe. It's super clean, and for the most part easy to navigate? The issue is, our stop we wanted was closed the first time around, so we got off, and figured out that people are very ready and willing to help and very friendly! In Egypt, I'm terrified of accepting someone's help because I know they have some sort of ulterior motive, but in Greece, everyone just wants to help because they know you are lost, and genuinely wants to help. The initial culture shock of getting to Greece was more, I think, than I experienced upon getting to Cairo! But the funny thing was, I had become so accustomed to living as a Cairene, that the culture shock was that it was different from Cairo - not from home!

After landing in Greece and speeding through customs (quite literally), we ventured outside to experience something else new. Cold weather. For the first time in months, it was cold outside, there were leaves on the ground that were turning different colors, not because they hadn't been watered, and there was a brisk breeze blowing as we stepped off at Evangilismos Station. Not realizing that we needed only to just cross the street, or go up a block and a half on the other side of the station, we wandered around, trying to navigate the cleaner streets.

A woman about 27 stopped on her walk and asked us if we wanted help or if we were lost. My stomach clenched. In Cairo, I would've declined any offer of help and found my own way; people who want to "help" you in Cairo normally want something else (money, or other favors - primarily money) in return. Skeptically, we accepted her offer, and she at least walked with us half way to the right street. The British Embassy was nearby, so I stored that in my head as a landmark (I'm getting better at that! At least here...) and she pointed us in the right direction. We learned a lot of things from her! She was a native Athenian - born and raised, went to school, and to put it in her words "I'll die here, too."

We finally got to Kelsey and Audra's apartment and then whisked ourselves off to go meet Ashley's friend she was staying with in front of an old Olympic stadium across the street from their school. How. Cool. Is. That. We parted ways and headed back to the apartment where Audra and Kelsey informed us of some Greek cultural norms and vocabulary. I can now confidently say "okay", "yes", "thank you", "please/excuse me/you're welcome" in modern Greek! With full tummy from a cooked dinner (omnom, garlic bread) I spent the rest of the night meeting some other apartment-mates and friends and then planned out the next day before bed.

Saturday

I'm going to try and recall Saturday as best as I possibly can. We got up, and headed out between 10:30 and 11 after a nice long sleep. We walked through Syntagma Square (where the Greeks have been having their itty bitty protests that are nothing compared to Cairo's) saw Parliament and headed up to the Acropolis. Another thing I noticed - people take much better care of their monuments and historical artifacts here than they do in Egypt. Things are protected, guarded, cleaned. Cared for. Egypt does some of these, but quite honestly - not catching a smuggler who stole antiquities from Aswan until they reach the Aswan dam is a little ridiculous when he/she should've been caught before they left the site! Anyway.

(The rest of this blog is being written back at my desk in Cairo from this point on. - Feels ... odd, in a good way?, to be back!)

But anyway, the Acropolis was amazing, and we saw so many things, I'm just going to post pictures.

Greek Parliament in Syntagma Square

Herodotus Odeon, a Roman theater

Theater of Dionysus

Temple of Nike

A view of Athens from the Parthenon

Me! And the Parthenon!

Parthenon

The Temple of Olympian Zeus off in the distance.

Temple of  Hephaestus

So yeah. We visited lots of the Ancient Greek sites, hit up the major ones, and then most of the sites closed at three. We meandered around and quite honestly, I can't remember what else happened Saturday night other than I am madly in love with tzatziki (a yogurt dip with cucumber and olive oil in it, typically served with bread or french fries. Omnom) and miss it so incredibly much. I had it once in D.C., I believe, but it's nothing like the real Greek thing! We met some of Kelsey and Audra's friends from the College Year in Athens program, and then after chilling out until around 1:00-2:00 in the morning, I headed to bed.

Sunday

Is when I think I discovered the joys of the Greek bakeries and their deliciously huge, for only 2 Euro, giant giant donuts. But, in short. We began the day by visiting the archaeological site of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, finished by Emperor Hadrian because he noticed there was an unfinished Temple and Athens and was DETERMINED to see it completed. Hadrian is my favorite, he's a pretty cool guy. We also visited his library, or what remains of his library. Parts of it have brilliant frescoes on the floors and an amazing little church on the inside - and the ruins are next to this cute little Mosque, adequately named "Petite Mosque". After we visited Hadrian's Library and the Roman Agora (to which Kelsey kept "boo"ing the Romans. She's not a fan...) we decided we were going to wander. Basically, we had no idea where we were going. But there's this area at the base of the Acropolis, up on the slopes a little bit, not too far away from the Agora and the Library, or from Monastiraki (a little district of Athens that has a lot of restaurants and shops), and we encountered the beauty of Greece at it's finest.

You know those movies, like Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, and any other movie that takes place in Europe that has those spindly little cobblestone alleys with brightly colored houses and knick-knacks outside, sweet little cafes, gardens and cats - and then you see the main character (typically a girl) zoom down these quiet little streets on a motorcycle or scooter with her beau and everything is beautiful and sweet and you're in complete awe? We found that.  Here... let me show you...

Alex, for some reason this one made me think of you.

Yeah. See what I mean? Gorgeous. After that, Kelsey and Audra needed to do homework, as they had class the next day, so Tommy and I decided to go to the Acropolis museum, which we didn't have time to do the previous day. The way the Acropolis Museum was built, was, quite literally, on top of an archaeological site. I don't have any pictures from the inside, as no photos are allowed of all the MAGNIFICENT things that they have managed to preserve from the Acropolis and Parthenon site, but here is their website! A lot of the things they didn't have, such as the reliefs and the sculptures on the sides (because the British Museum has most of them... sadness...) but what they did have was absolutely gorgeous. We spent a few hours there (and looking through the floors, because they built some of the floors clear so you can see straight down through every single floor to the archaeological site below) and then headed back for dinner and other shenanigans. More tzatziki (a yogurt, cucumber and olive oil dip)! Yum!

Monday

Monday morning, Tommy's plans to go to the War Museum were foiled - so while he wandered around town, Ashley and I climbed Lykabettus Hill!

On the way up

Athens from halfway up

At the very top

Church of St. George at the top

The climb was a little rough going up (not terrible though) because we decided to go off the path several times and got a little distracted. We literally had to scramble up the side of an incline at one point to get to the path. We also found a tortoise on the way up and named it Franklin! It was very fun, and very rewarding when I got to the top and could see the city for miles and miles, see the hills and the trees and everything right below. Also at the top, there is the Church of St. George. I don't know the entire story behind the church, but what I do know is that it's completely gorgeous. My Religious Studies minor part of me was very pleased.

The climb down was less eventful, and we managed to worm our way around the outskirts of the city and grabbed lunch (which of course involved pastries) before seeing if we could make it to the Byzantine Museum, which was closed on Mondays. Turns out, lots of things are closed Mondays in Athens. Pants. So, we decided to hop on the Metro at Syntagma Square and see if the National Archaeological Museum in Omonia was open.

Thank god, it was! We had something to do! And man oh man, was the NAM cool. Alex, I know you're going to read this at some point, and I'll just say that you would've loved it in there! Laura, you would've had to restrain me from trying to grabby-hands everything. Especially when we found the two skeletons...

Seeing something like this reminds you that the Acropolis and Parthenon and everything in Athens, and Ancient societies, were made by humans who internally look and function exactly like us. Some people are freaked out by seeing human bones and stuff, but in some sort of weird twisted way (the twisted way of an archaeologist) I think it's super fascinating. The professor for my grad class told us a story of how one of her maids was cleaning her daughters room one day; the daughter had to legally buy a skeleton (a real one) for her medical studies and mark it up so she could learn the different facets of the skeleton and what not, and the bones were sitting in a box in the closet. The maid hadn't a clue what they were, and my professor was downstairs when she heard the distinct sound of bones rolling across the floor.

She went upstairs, and the maid was Lysol-ing the bones. "Do you know what those are?" The maid shook her head. She had to get her husband to explain to her that those are bones. She didn't know what bones were. She didn't know that her body was held together and protected by the things she was cleaning. She just... didn't have a clue. 

Anyway. Back to the museum. These were easily my favorite part of the whole Archaeological Museum. There was an ancient Egypt exhibit too. (Oh, going back to Saturday, speaking of Egypt, we saw a Syrian protest in the morning in Syntagma. More proof that the Middle East will forever follow me everywhere). That was pretty cool.

Ashley and I went to Monastiraki for a little, I bought some worry beads and then we went out for dinner.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning is when I braved the city on my own. I got up and walked to the First Athens Cemetery in a different district of Athens, and then realized how incredibly beautiful it was, but how incredibly uncomfortable and out of place I felt from the moment I stepped foot inside. When Tommy went the previous night, there was a funeral taking place, so that was even more awkward then what I experienced, I gather. I wandered too far deep, and the melancholy feelings unsettled me, seeing some of the family tombs so neglected next to others that were lavishly given flowers and offerings of sorts (candles and plates and cups) so I tried to find the exit after half an hour.

It was a rough process. As I was trying to get out, I saw a little old Greek woman from the corner of my eye laying flowers down and cleaning off a family member's plot. I went down a few more little pathways to give her space so I wouldn't have to walk past her and then five minutes later, I hear sobbing. I turn and see she's walking towards the exit too, the same little old Greek woman, but she's sobbing. And alone.

Never have I ever been so relieved to get out of somewhere. It wasn't threatening. It wasn't... dangerous. It's listed as a place tourists can visit. But it's not a place where I was comfortable. So I got on the metro, and walked to Kerameikos, an archaeological site near the metro line, and basically an ancient cemetery of sorts. That was far more comfortable, peaceful, and quiet. Magically, I met up with Ashley, and then later Tommy, there even though we had all be out on our own.

View of a Greek Orthodox Church from Kerameikos

After Kerameikos, was lunch. And after lunch we had plans to go to the museum I was most looking forward to - the Byzantine Museum. Which was, of course, open when we got there, but was closing twenty minutes later. Not wanting to waste Euros on something I would've had to speed through and not appreciate, I headed back to the apartment, forgetting no one was there. So I sat outside, had a pastry, and read my book I bought from the Archaeological Museum the previous day. I checked again, no one was home, so then I went to a park and watched some stray dogs (one of which was really friendly and let me pet her before she scampered off to play with the other dog) and birds (very clever birds, actually). I checked again, still no one was home. It was 4:30, so I walked to Syntagma Square to waste time, and had the great idea that since it was getting legitimately chilly I was going to buy myself hot chocolate.

Best. Life. Decision. Ever.

I sat in Syntagma, drank my hot chocolate, and when I got back, someone was home to let me in. I defrosted, realized I was getting a bit of a cough/sore throat from being unadjusted to the cold weather for five days, and then took a nap before going out to one last dinner.

Arrival Back in Cairo

Wednesday morning we departed back to Cairo. I had mixed feelings. I really missed Greece already, it was so beautiful and Athens such an amazing city, but at the same time, it was oddly relieving to hear Arabic once I got off the plane. I could communicate a little better with the people around me, and knew what to expect and how to react. I felt, oddly, more at home, and more like I fit it. It seems like part of me is becoming Egyptian, but at the same time I can't wait to go home. I know I've realized a lot of things about myself on this trip so far, and from  here it's only counting down the days and having as many adventures as possible before I leave. And oh yeah, homework and finals...

Pshaw.

Coming up - Mount Sinai for Thanksgiving!