The end of an era (well... okay not really).

My, how the past two weeks have flown by quicker that I could've ever possibly imagined. Between all of the exams, the paper writing, and the incessant feelings of "tomorrow is never going to come fast enough, is it?" and "I just woke up. Is today done yet?" I couldn't have imagined the past two weeks going any faster than the have. Tomorrow is my last sort of full day in the country I've (sometimes begrudgingly) called home for the past four months. There have been many, many downs, and many ups in these four months, and I think I've grown in a way that I didn't quite expect myself to. I was having really, really mixed feelings about leaving a few weeks ago, and I pretty much was really stressed out over how I felt overall about the experience (which I had deduced as at many points, far from fantastic) and I ranted the ears off several people many times.


After explaining how I felt, which was that I didn't feel like I belonged here, and that it was a waste because I am not going to come back saying I absolutely loved everything about it and I never wanted to leave (because let's be honest, I kept a count-down after there was 90 days left). And I realized that I felt bad for saying that I want to go home, there’s -- days left, and getting frowny faces on statuses from other study abroad kids who desperately wanted nothing more than to stay right here, when all I want to do is leave, and go home to where I know I belong.

I feel like I was mislead when I made my decision to come here. I love the country, it really is a beautiful country with powerful every-day people. But I didn’t get to experience real Egypt like I thought I would. I don’t know if I’ll come back, at least to Cairo, and I doubt I’ll ever come back to AUC again. I look at the kids from my home institution in other programs, like the DIS Program in Denmark, and people who were in Italy, Spain, all over Europe, and how they’ve traveled to seven other countries or how much I desperately wanted to stay in Athens, and realize that I’m jealous! I realized how there could be someone else in my place who would’ve appreciated and enjoyed the experiences a lot more than I have, and who would come home saying that that’s where they knew they belong.

So I ranted to Rose, whom I love to death and gets an honorary mention in this blog post. I have our conversation saved. Here is the bit that really matters:

“Hallas! Stop. Stop this RIDICULOUSNESS right this INSTANCE! You got a totally unique opportunity. You didn’t pick an easy country. You didn’t take the ‘guaranteed good time’ European route. You went for it all.”

“I did. The majority of it didn’t turn out well though.”

“You want to be an archaeologist. Seriously. Stop. You are coming out of this experience SOOO much stronger. You made this choice for YOU. Not for someone else. And you grew as a result. Honestly.”

“… Thank you. <3”

“The middle east is soooo different and soooo hard to really enjoy. (You’re welcome) and you’re going to be able to go back and say ‘Yeah, I lived in Egypt during their elections. I was there when there was rioting in Tahrir. I learned about a group of people I would have never understood if I hadn’t lived there. And wanting to be an archaeologist.’ Isn’t it better to find out now that living in Egypt isn’t something you want, rather than in a career, when you’d have to suffer through a contract that could last years. Or quit. Think about it.”

“That’s true.”

“SOOO EFFING GOOD! You have so much to come away from this experience with. And it’s not that ‘omg remember that time I spent hundreds of dollars to go to a country and drink away my memories kind of thing’, it’s a ‘I lived a CHALLENGE. A REAL one. I lived in Egypt during the revolutionary stage. I’m a fucking badass.”

Rose  made me realize just how much I’ve really changed. I’m sort of a pansy, but I did things here I never expected I’d do. I stuck up for myself. I struck bargains with people I hardly know on something I wanted. I learned about a people I had never really been interested in. And I got my foot in the door. I spent three weeks pulling my hair out, dealing with people in America, in banks, trying to sort out all of my lost-wallet issues, on my own (for the most part. All of the hard work, anyway). From a thousand miles away. And yeah, I cried. I got frustrated. I lost it. I was grumpy, irritable, and one would’ve thought I was suffering from mood-swings. But I did it.

I changed in four months more than I could’ve imagined. I met friends that I never would have had the chance of meeting, and absolutely loved my amazing roommate Amelia who also gets a name-drop in this post. I trusted my life to people that are simply amazing, and because of a few special courses (in an institution that overall was the whole reason for the damper on my experience) that held a bit of light had new opportunities presented to me (first grad class in Archaeology, as an undergraduate) and opened my eyes to what I had previously not understood at all.

Combined with being over here for what some Egyptians call "the second revolution", my course on Zionism and Modern Judaism, though I griped and complained about it (as I have the tendency to do with everything) helped me understand the situation between Israel and Palestine. I've become super sensitive to this issue now, in accordance with any issue concerning the Middle East. Not every Muslim is a bad person. Not everyone who practices Islam has intentions of hurting others. Not every Palestinian is brought up to hate. Not every Israeli has America's best intentions in mind. I don't see a veil when I look at someone anymore and think "Oh, they're different" (yes, I know, people do do this, I'm guilty of it myself sometimes) now I see someone who is just like me, but with far better color coordination and fashion skills than I could ever hope for (seriously - veils that match every. single. outfit). 

I've seen amazing people do amazing things, and I've seen stupid people do stupid things, and corrupted people hurt their fellow country-men. As I said my goodbyes to ISA on Sunday, Amal was begging me to come back, or at least call or email her, and Nancy said "you were a part of history". How right she is.

Throughout this semester, I've also noticed some peculiar things about friends I've previously had, and how much things have changed through the long run. To sink so low as to de-friend me, that's cool. It's so amusing, I really don't care. It just has made me realize how much I've changed versus how much others change, and which paths we take. And I'm completely okay with that. :)

So. Aside from all the philosophical mushynonsensicalness. Here's what I've been up to post-finals. Packing LOTS AND LOTS OF IT. And being all nervous for when I go through customs where, if I'll have enough time, what if I get delayed, what if I get snowed in, what if I miss a flight... You know. The usual. I absolutely love the flying part. Love love love love love love. I love planes. It's just.

The in between part.

That's the issue.

Aside from that we went exploring to a couple of churches in Coptic Cairo the other day! We visited the Hanging Church, Church of St. George, Church of the Virgin Mary, and a cemetery.

Miriam, Me, and Cat at the Hanging Church

The Hanging Church

On the way inside the Hanging Church

Church of St. George

Inside the Church of St. George

Flowers in the Greek Orthodox cemetery

At the Greek Orthodox Cemetery

So that was nice and fun. I wanted to find the Ben Ezra Synagogue, which was somewhere in the area and where the Cairo Geniza (the largest deposit of medieval manuscripts in one area, all Jewish) used to be before it was cleared out by the British and the Russians. Unfortunately, we didn't stray off the main road, so we didn't get to it. =( Then, we went to Khan el Khalili, twice. The first time was rather stressful for me. It was gaining towards the evening again, and the hassling is still difficult. But the second time we went earlier, and it was fantastic! Amelia is like, awesome at her Arabic, and because of her we got some amazing deals, and all of us finished our shopping lists full of gifts and all sorts of things. I pulled away with some awesome things, and can't wait to give them to people!

Tomorrow we're going to the Egyptian Museum one more time in the early morning (avoiding traffic and any chance at uproars in Tahrir) - all I'm really interested in seeing is the Mummy Room. I have to pull out my last set of money for the day (just to make sure I have enough to get in and then buy food and just in case sort of deal in case Ross and I need a cab if our shuttle doesn't show up). Then tomorrow night, we're headed to the airport at 10:00 pm and catching a 1:00 flight to Amsterdam.

I'm super nervous about the in between parts of flying. Everything that could possibly go wrong has been floating about in my head for about a week. I think I'm more worried to fly home than I was flying here! Flying here, I was excited, but I was sort of in a stupor and didn't even recognize that I was in another country until far, far after I had landed in my final destination.

Hopefully, insha'allah, things will go well on my flight home.

I'm afraid this will be the last post then! It sort of wraps everything up for good. Maybe I'll post one more time after I'm home with pictures from the museum and how the flight went, etc. But until then, see you on the flip side.

Here's to 23 hours of traveling ahead of me! And then home! Ilhamdoulilah! 

Single digits!

Yep. It's been about twelve days since I've last written. Apologies for that. In my defense, finals have actually provided me with legitimate work for a while. In those twelve days, not much happened. ISA had a Christmas lunch on Thursday which involved lots and lots of the foreigners on campus, listening to Christmas music, in the middle of sunny Cairene desert in New Cairo, eating gingerbread cookies, cupcakes, cheesecake, and all of the holiday essentials together. It was pretty awesome. I got to see/talk to Nancy and Amal again (two of the ISA workers who helped me retrieve my wallet just about three months ago) and of course Nancy pushed a cupcake upon me as I left to go to my anthropology class. "I'm stuffed."

"Take it for later! Put it in the fridge!" "I don't have a fridge!" "Take it for the road!" So I took one. "Now, eat the cupcake. Bye!"

Since twelve days ago, I've finished writing my paper on Jewish memory post-Holocaust in Europe and in Israel for my Zionism and Modern Judaism course, I've taken my exam for said class, and now what I have left is another paper on the role of women in Iran, my presentation for said paper, a Hieroglyphs exam, and an art and architecture exam. I'm not to worried about art and architecture, but glyphs is my issue. The way the course was taught to me was not entirely helpful for my learning style. It's really fun when we do group work in class and I can actually figure out what stuff means and read the glyphs themselves (who would've thought that I can actually read those previously ambiguous pictures! It doesn't really say 'left facing bird, circle, square, triangle, pyramid' but an actual word!) but when I have to do the exercises, which are a lot harder than what she puts on the tests and what not (except for last quiz, what the heck?!) I get sort of frustrated.

And I hate Egyptian verbs.

Anyway. Yesterday, Amelia and I went to get gelato for breakfast (not as good as Greece, and I'm sure still not as good as an Italian gelato would be, coughAlexcough) and I got one that was 'vanilla and chocolate' but was REALLY vanilla with Nutella. Yep. We had decided the night before to reward ourselves as such, and on the way to get gelato, we stopped at a shoe store for Amelia to look at shoes, and then we went into two bookstores and get this - I walked out without buying a single book. The only thing I got was a packet of 24 really cool stamps from all over Egypt for 8 LE!

I proceeded to get groceries, and then finished my paper by around seven thirty last night and then rewarded myself again by playing Sims 3. It seems so odd not to have legitimate homework or reading and just finals to study for and papers to write. And then when I look on Facebook and see friends who are also abroad this semester and their countdown to go home, I remember that I get to go home too, eventually, though later than everyone else.

First to arrive, last to leave, I suppose. A full four months.

There are a lot of mixed feelings that I'm feeling about being here and leaving, mostly concerning whether or not I've figured out if I truly felt like I belonged here this entire time (don't worry, not angsty anymore, thanks to Rose and her speech she gave me when I expressed my troubles) but I think I'll save that bit of my blog for either the day before I go home, or afterwards. Regardless, I have four days after my art and architecture final to explore, and some days in between Thursday and Sunday also to explore. We plan on hitting up some Mosques, Khan-el-Khalili (possibly several times?), Coptic Cairo (I really want to see the sight of the Ben Ezra Synagogue where the Geniza (massive depository of old Jewish documents) used to be but no longer is (sadface... primarily the fault of the Russians and British). And some other sights as well.

I'm sure these eight days will go fast. (Actually, I'm hoping the fifteen hours of flying, six hour layover in Amsterdam, and customs go faster!)

And that's kind of what I'm hoping for in a very large way! I will miss how everything here is so cheap. I'm going to get back home and freak out that soda costs one dollar. "SIX POUNDS?! ARE YOU CRAZY?! I PAY 2.75 LE FOR THAT!"

Yep. It's gonna be good.

Drawing to a close.

So it's been a long time since I last wrote, and a lot has happened. If you were keeping up with the things going on here in Egypt over the past week or two, you'll know that three AUC study abroad students were arrested in Tahrir Square and accused of throwing molotov cocktails or having materials to make them at the Ministry of Interior and Police (so the government run news says). I know two of them. You'll also have known that they were kept in detainment for a while, and that the three were eventually released without charges and deported home. Two have been on the Today show, and despite everyone's stories of what could have happened or what would have happened, I still don't know what to think anymore. For a while I was afraid that I was going to get sent home, along with every other student here under an American institution in the states. I've never felt more uneasy. Needless to say I have successfully experienced the Revolution at it's highest since January. I've been completely safe, though I've witnessed via television and heard stories of fantastic strength and unity displayed by those protesting for their rights in Tahrir Square every day. So I can check living under a suspicious government off my list of things I've never felt before along with illiteracy and being a minority.

You'll also have known that things calmed down for a few days, due to the fact that Egypt had it's first "free" democratic parliamentary elections on the 28th and 29th of November. There are lots of things floating around about the complexity of the elections themselves, and I'm not the best person to try and explain it, but all I know is that things DID kick up in Tahrir the day after the 29th. It kind of reverted back to the way it was in Tahrir for a while. Things are as quiet as they can be, currently.

Another thing - because of all this, my plan to see the sunrise at Mt. Sinai on the Sinai penninsula and see St. Catherine's monastery were foiled. I'm rather saddened by it.

However! Instead of going out to Sinai, we tried to take advantage of our abnormally long break over Thanksgiving (what with the chaos that was the three students in Tahrir and Tahrir getting really bad for a few days), by going to Giza one last time and riding the camels. Yes. I finally rode a camel. Now, family, you can all leave me alone! :)

Pictorial Evidence:

Ashley and I with Ginger (her real name was Daisy), Ross and Cat 

with Bob Marley, and Nick and Miriam with Moses.

However, while we were waiting for Nick, Ashley, and Cat (who had a really bad cab ride that took two hours when it should've taken fifteen minutes), Ross, Miriam and I wandered around. We found the fossilized sea cow (manatee) that I was shown last time I was at Giza for a field trip, and then wandered into the Slaves tombs and even found the builder's tomb. To the right is a picture of me exploring a little niche on our way to dodge the camel-selling guys and through the smaller mastabas and tombs. Seriously. The camel guys followed us everywhere and would not leave us alone! That's one thing I'm really not going to miss when I go home. The badgering, the incessant badgering. They kept telling us things that we already knew. We live here. We've been living here for three months (20 days left as I write this)! We've been here before. Just... just go away! Goodness! I swear I'm going to walk into stores at home and be amazed that no one bothers me (except for in department stores... I'll have to try really hard not to be snippity with them) and I'm probably going to freak out when no one follows me home asking for money. It's just what they do here...

But anyway, it was seriously two hours of them badgering. I was really grumpy and frustrated with them, and when we finally rode the camels, one of the owner's called me "angry-lady". Yep. That's me. I was very angry and short tempered with them. I think being here has caused me to grow some thick-skin (and perfecting my witch-with-a-b-please face). 

Then on Friday, my roommate Amelia, and some of our friends went to Cairo Tower on Zamalek where we live to view what would be called Martyr Friday from above. Oh. My. God. The smog. Mom, I may need an inhaler when I come home!

Cairo Tower

Tahrir Square from Cairo Tower

The swanky side of Zamalek and SMOOOOG.

Sunset in the Smog. Woo, lung cancer!

It really wasn't the best day to go out and spend 70 l.e. going up and seeing everything, but it was good for seeing Tahrir. Anything further than that was pointless (i.e. the pyramids were just faint little lines until the sunset, then they were slightly less faint lines). Sunday we had class, but then Monday was off in addition to Tuesday because of elections.

Then schoolwork finally kicked up. You know how hard it is to actually care about your work when you've basically done next to nothing all semester? Really. Really. Hard. I've never felt this way about school before, and I don't desire to feel this way about school. I was always that kid who was super excited for school! I love it. I hope when I come back to Gettysburg, my work ethic is restored!

Speaking of Gettysburg, I can't wait to come home. Yes, I have a bit of sadness in me for leaving here. It's a great country. I do like it here. I'm just not meant to live here like some are. I don't think I could handle it. But that's what study abroad is all about, yeah? Finding out about yourself. I've found a great masters program while I've been here online in England, close to the Scottish border. I'm absolutely in love with it. I think that's where I belong. Maybe someday I'll come back to Egypt and do all the things I won't get to do (i.e. Sinai, Black and White Desert, spend more time in Alexandria) right now because of time. There's twenty days left. I keep thinking about things I miss from home (mainly food, i.e. - grilled cheese, Swiss Miss hot chocolate, cheesecake, MILK!, garlic bread, lots and lots of nice cold fruit like grapes, bigger cartons of juice, cinnamon toast, iced tea, and of course Servo cookies!) and things other than food. Like my giant stack of books. My puppy. My bed. Oh and I guess my little brother ;). I did get an email, on a tangent, from Professor Hendon about a field school in Italy for three weeks in the summer. I still really really want to go one day to a field school, but this was just poor timing. I already have a job for the summer (I'm going to be an intern at Appomattox National Park in the middle of nowhere Virginia!) and it's so expensive!

Anyway, I'm expecting these next twenty days to go by really fast. At least, part of me really hopes they do. I've got a lot of work to get done before final exams (of which I have three, and then one presentation) and then a week to do nothing, get some shopping done, pack and go home!

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!

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!