Sunday Through Wednesday

Sunday 5-24:

Wake up to a phone call of Cynthia telling me and Sean we needed to meet with the website team at 11:30. This was annoying because we had already met and were already all working on our stuff…o well. So I wake up, eat breakfast and head over to cinnabon and work on the website for about 3 hours. After that, got lunch and then went back to the room to do fluids homework…did that for the rest of the day and night…about 8.5 hours straight…awesome…a boring day but at least I got it done.

Monday 5-25:

Wake up…class…and we get another homework assignment due the next day…awesome. After class come back to the room, blog, edit photos, start the homework. Tonight we have our second and final dialogue with the Egyptian students. So at about 6 we head out for that. Get there, meet up and hang out for a bit before the sit down discussion starts. Talk with mohammed before the sit down. Then the dialogues begin. We talked about more cultural differences such as the reasons for dressing certain ways. We also talked about the book we read The Yacoubian Building and how it relates to Egyptian culture. We talked about the censorship of movies and the reasons for that. after the discussion they have dinner for us on the roof. So we all head up to the roof and eat a massive feast. After dinner, a bunch of people decide that going on a Felucca would be a good idea. I thought for a second that I should go back to the hotel because of the homework, and then I thought about what I was thinking and realized that that was a terrible idea. So after 20 minutes of figuring out whose riding with who and how many seats the Egyptians had in their cars we head off to the felucca. We get there and there are about 30 of us total, Americans and Egyptians. Takes us about another 45 minutes of standing around to get everyone together and get on the boats. The boat ride was awesome. The Egyptian guys brought a drum with them and we were singing and some were dancing for the whole time…way better than sitting in the hotel doing the homework…The Nile was once again beautifully illuminated from the lights of Cairo. An awesome night…after the boat ride, which cost everyone 5 pounds (1 american dollar), hop in a cab and back to the hotel. Stay up till god knows when to finish the homework and pass out.

Tuesday:

Wake up…class…and yet again we get a homework assignment. I have never had to move so fast through a course…My second midterm is this Thursday, and my final is next Friday…we are flying through this stuff, but I am actually understanding it so I'm not too worried. Get back from class and grab lunch. Start the homework and work on it all day and night. Pass out…I have done work for the last 3 days straight with not much sleep…definitely need a nap tomorrow.

Wednesday:

Wake up, class…no homework tonight but I do get the pleasure of studying for the midterm tomorrow…get back to the hotel after class and pass out for an hour…felt great and started to hit the books. Tonight the rest of the group is going to the whirling dervish, which I really want to go see but I decide that I can go next week and should study…hit the books all night and grab some dinner at Dido’s…after dinner, watch the juggernaut video…so funny, back to studying…1AM, pass out…game time tomorrow…

Peace

-Al

Islamic Cairo, and awesome burgers

Saturday: 5-24

After about 4 hours of sleep from a late night, we wake up just in time to catch the bus for a tour of Islamic Cairo. Grabbed a little bit of breakfast and then loaded up the vans for a tour of 3 different style mosques. The first mosque was the mosque of Ibn Tulun, and it was a mud brick mosque with very bland and basic design. Very peaceful and quiet. We walked up the minaret and had a beautiful view of all of Cairo. Our tour guide was very proficient but she was fairly annoying. She kept treating us like we were really dumb, and kept asking annoying rhetorical questions…but I just tried to tune her out and enjoy the peace and quiet of the beautiful places we visited…the next stop was the Mosque and School of Sultan Hassan. This was more modern than the first. There were more decorations along the walls, just generally more aesthetically interesting. The best part of the tour here was this room that was acoustically engineered perfectly for singing the prayer. One of the Sheikh’s took us into the room and he showed us around. Then, out of nowhere, he began to sing the prayer…this was unbelievable. I have never had the hair stick up on my neck like this before. Listening and watching him sing, with the sound echoing so perfectly throughout the whole mosque was a total sensory experience…unreal…we exit this mosque and load up the busses and head to the last stop of the day, the Citadel of Salah al-Din and the mosque of Muhammad Ali. This mosque was much more modern than the previous 2. It had a marble open area as you first walk in, and then the inner part of the mosque was absolutely beautiful. It had monster high ceilings with stain glass windows. Lights were hanging from the ceilings on these old rickety chains…very cool. When we exited the main room, we had the most amazing view of Cairo. The Citadel is up on a hill just outside the city, so the panorama view was awesome. The sandy hazy smog covering the shamble towns in the foreground with the highrise building of downtown in the distance. And if you looked REALLY hard you could see the outline of the Pyramids way off in the distance…super awesome.

Back to the hotel and head to lunch at pizza hut…back to the hotel, did some blogging, and then decided to go bowling…I was very excited. We take a cab to the lanes which was difficult because no one knew where it was. Get to the lanes and they look decent. Start bowling, and there is no wax on the lanes, so my curve ball wasn’t moving like it does back home at Ravena Lanes…o well, it was still a lot of fun. Back to the hotel, and we head to Vivant to hang out and meet up with Omar, another student I met at the dialogue. He gets there and say to Sean and I “You guys aren’t really going to eat here are you? I'm gonna take you to the best burger place in Cairo”…how could we object…so we head out and hop in his car…yea it’s a BMX 3 series…SO sick! He starts driving, and says I don’t usually drive this car crazy, I leave that for my Mitsubishi. So we start cruising and he starts driving about half as crazy as Mohammed did the previous day. But the fact that we were in a BMW, just made it so much better. So about 30 minutes of cruising, flying down the highway, we arrive in Maadi and get to the burger joint. He shows us the size of the burgers and our eyes almost fall out. They are about 6x6 inch square patties...absolutely massive. So we order them up and eat like gods. The meat wasn’t like an American hamburger but it was close enough…back in the car, and another cruise back to the hotel and pass out…

Peace

-Al

Best Day Yet

Friday:

sleep in real late, miss breakfast which kinda sucked…went to the Lebanese place for brunchish meal…it was awesome...again, I am still in love with manakoush…chilled out at the hotel for the rest of the day doing some photo editing and a little bit of homework...I don’t remember if I had said this earlier but I am playing soccer today with Mohammed my friend from the dialogue, and he is picking me up at 8…so I hung out at the hotel till then. Unfortunately it is Pete’s birthday and I will be missing his birthday dinner, but I'm hoping to be back in time to party with everyone. So 8 o’clock rolls around and Ted and I head down to the lobby to meet Mohammed. He gets there right when we get down the stairs…perfect timing…now the best day of the trip begins…we get in Mohammed’s car, its an old school Sahin, which is a Turkish car, common here in Cairo and he takes off…I instantly realize that Mohammed is a college student just like myself, and he would do what any college student would love to do in a city with virtually no traffic laws…throw caution to the wind and drive like an absolute mad man…He TAKES off and is flying through the streets of Cairo, in the on coming traffic lane, dodging and swerving like something out of fast in the furious, and no dad I did not have my seat belt on because there were no seat belts in the back seat…apparently shotgun in Cairo is more than just bragging rights, it’s a matter life and death…me and Ted are looking at each other like “what did we get our selves into”. So for about the first 5 minutes of the rally race I was clenching the handle of the door hoping to not die, and being extremely nervous. But then I had an epiphany. I remembered that this trip is all about new experiences and embracing differences. So I began to start laughing and having a great time…It was like a roller coaster ride, constantly accelerating and weaving in and out of cars like it was nothing. He explained to us the reason why everyone honks the way they do. Apparently there is a honking language. Different honks mean different things. Short honks mean I am coming get out of my way…he used that a lot…long honks are mean ones. And there is a honk combo for friendly honking as well, so crazy…Mohammed was having a great time showing off for us, mind you the whole time he was smoking a cigarette and talking on the phone…absolutely ridiculous…so he drives us past his house, and shows us his university, and then we meet up with one of his buddies who is going to play with us, and we race to the field…again flying in and out of lanes, no blinkers, and endless honking…oh yea I almost forgot, Mohammed loves metal (heavy metal is a loud fast music for those who don’t understand the lingo), so he had that blaring as well…so lets recap: Metal Blaring, Smoking a cigarette, on the phone, flying, dodging, weaving, and honking ubsurdly…probably some of the most fun I have had in a long time…we get to the club where the field is. Change, and wait around for the rest of the players to get there. The field is an outdoor basketball court with soccer nets on it, kind of like a super sized futsal court (futsal is like mini soccer)…so everyone gets there and we begin to play…I havnt had this much fun in the longest time…it was street ball soccer for 3 hours straight, so much fun. The game was filled with no looker lazer passes, everyone was pulling moves the whole time, it was so awesome. I unleashed a few rips, and raised a few brows…apparently they aren’t used to hard shots haha, they don’t need them here because they are good enough without them…it was cool to learn a new style and still be able to hang with them. I didn’t want to stop playing. The other thing that was so cool was that only mohammed and his friend new English, everyone else was speaking Arabic. But it didn’t matter, because soccer is Futbol is football, is Calcio and I that’s the only language I needed to know…3 hours of soccer in Egypt with Egyptians, and I didn’t want to leave. I had a smile on my face the whole time, and for the first time this trip I didn’t want to come home at all…so awesome. So after playing we grabbed a few waters, and headed back to Zamalek…flying through the streets and on overpasses, just as crazy as before. Got to the hotel, and get up to my room, and everyone is in there hanging out for petes birthday…perfect timing again…this day couldn’t have been any better. I took a quick shower and then hung out with everyone. Introduced everyone to Mohammed and his friend adam. And then we decided to go out. So we all head out and are planning on going to a club that Adam knew about. So a bunch of pile into Mohammeds car and in less than 3 seconds, this master rally car driver backs right into a car pulling out of his parking spot…and as I have talked about, there are policemen on every corner. So instantly they were at the scene and they told him to wait here. So we ended up having to just go back to the hotel, while he and adam talked with the police and waited for the owner of the car to come back. I wanted to stay with them to make sure everything would be OK, but they kept reassuring me that everything would be fine. They gave ted a call about an hour later letting us know that everything was fine…apparently they are from fairly well off families, and in Egypt that’s all that matters…so they didn’t have to pay anything…imagine if it were like that in the states?? Ridiculous! So, head back to the hotel, hang out till late, and then crash…best day of the trip by far…so many stories, so much fun…

Peace

-Al

A regular day, A visit to the Arab League, and some reflection

Wednesday:

Wake up, breakfast, head to class…get my test…didn’t do as well as Id hoped but I'm not too worried about it…after class we had 2 hours to kill before our whole group met up to watch the Yacoubian Building movie. The Yacoubian Building is the book that we all had to read for our IAF class. We grabbed lunch at the caf…still kind of sketchy eating there, but I still havnt got sick from it so I'm feeling good about it…then we walked around downtown Cairo for a bit to kill time. Came back to AUC campus and played cards…we have since found out that it is illegal to play cards in public in Egypt…the last time we played cards, security guards came to us and tried to confiscate our cards…it was very weird. So we tried to play again this time, and noone hassled us luckily. But after talking with our professor, we will most likely not be playing cards in public anymore, I'm not trying to go to an Egyptian prison…torture is legal in this country…anyways, we met the group and watched the movie. It was in Arabic, with subtitles and the acting was terrible. I passed out for the first half, and watched the second half. It was alright, it pretty much followed the book exactly, which made it fairly boring…afterwards we came back to the hotel and grabbed some dinner at the Lebanese place again...so delicious…I am going to get a recipe for the bread they use and try to make it, its unreal…came back to the hotel, and hung out for a bit…then headed to Versaille Palace to watch the champions league final…amazing game, go Man U…I ran into Omar when I was leaving, which was pretty random…headed back to the hotel, crashed.

Thursday:

Wake up, and dress up nice because after class today we are going to visit the U.S. embassy and the Arab League. Head to class, after class we grabbed lunch and still had an hour to kill before we left for the embassy…I havnt talked much about the heat here, but I will today. The worst part about the heat in Egypt is that you cannot wear pants. It is not culturally acceptable, so you have to battle the heat in pants…and today was even worse, it was about 96 degrees all day and I had to walk around with a suit jacket. I was sweating my you know what’s off. So we walked around some before heading to the embassy. Met up with the group and started walking to the embassy…in a suit…in 96 degree heat…not fun. But when we got to the Embassy I had never been so excited to see the American Flag in my life. It was flapping in the wind, and it just made me feel great to stare at it. After living in Cairo for almost a month now, I have really seen just how fortunate I am to come from America. After seeing some of the things I have seen in the outskirt towns, and witnessing the general infrastructure of the country every day, it’s really a depressing place to see at some times. But then you go to the major sightseeing places and you can’t believe your eyes…it’s a crazy place. We get into the Embassy and we have a sit down and Q+A with some of the workers there. A lot of international affairs business that the engineers didn’t really care about. But I thought it was interesting to get a taste of foreign politics…an hour or so later we were out of there.

We now had another 2 hours or so to kill before we go to the Arab League. So most of the group went to the Nile Hilton to hang out. Ben sean and I walked around lookin for a place to grab some food. Finally went into a bar in the hotel and I ordered a double cheeseburger…probably the best decision I made since I landed in Cairo. The burger came and it wasn’t 2 patties, it was just 1 patty that was about an inch thick. Apparently a double cheeseburger at the Nile Hilton means double meat in 1 patty…awesome. It tasted like a summer day at home. And made me think about how badly I want to get home and grill every type of meat possible…especially when every time I talk to Bill or Andy they are grilling massive amounts of food at the new apartment…only a few more weeks haha…but anyways I eat the delicious burger and afterwards I am feeling great…time to head out and go to the Arab League. I didn’t know much about what it was but from the questions I had asked, it seems as though it is like a micro version of the UN just for Arab nations. We enter the building and it was beautiful inside. We enter a massive conference room, and waited for a delegate from the Arab League to come and talk with us about the Arab League…He came in and introduces himself, he is the second highest official in the whole Arab League. He was extremely well spoken, and I felt honored just to be in the same room with him. He talked about the Arab Leagues position in the Arab Israeli conflict, and other problems in the Arab world such as the new crises in Lebanon. He then opened it up for questions. Excellent questions were asked and he matched them with great answers…after about an hour of this he gave us a tour of the chamber room…this was so cool to see. It was a massive circle room with a chair for every country in the league. We got to explore around and take pictures sitting in the seats…very cool…after a few oohs and aahs, we headed back to the hotel. We didn’t have enough room in the vans, so Matt, Sean, Ted and I volunteered to take a cab. We didn’t think about what we had just done until we got in the cab. Sean, Ted and I are all over 6 feet tall…and the can was comparable to a mini cooper…needless to say, we had quite a tight squeeze of a ride home hahaha…hung out for a bit, and then went out and had a few beers…back to the hotel and crashed…

So I have now been in Egypt for 3 weeks, and I just wanted to recap about what I have been going through. When I first got here, I would say I had initial culture shock, which was drowned by the sightseeing right off of the bat. I got a little taste of the real Egypt driving through the towns, but really not much at all at first. When we toured Aswan and Luxor it was like a dream, and it didn’t feel like I was in such a terrible place. Everything was beautiful, with no worries. When we arrived back in Cairo it was like reality set in again…and I would say I could have reacted better. I was not ready for it. And the first service learning trip out to Establ Antar didn’t help. At this point I was in full culture shock. I couldn’t stop thinking about how low the standards of living were here. And the weird part about it is that the people here are content with it. They have their religion, and that seems to be enough for them…which is amazing to witness. But after returning there I was able to take it for what it is and realize that this is how it is, and its not going to change for a long long time…I have been feeling more and more comfortable here in Cairo after 2 weeks of straight classes. But I think in 2 weeks when it is time to leave, I will be ready to go. With the daily craziness of psychotic driving, honking, stray cats everywhere, and the dirtiness and dilapidated buildings, it’s just a grind… I am definitely glad that I chose to come because it has totally changed my views on this part of the world. I wasn’t expecting to be treated with such hospitality. Restaurant owners and shop owners love to talk with you and everyone here always says “I love Americans, but I hate the American government”, and we always agree. I would say in a word this trip has been eye-opening. I wish I could explain better what I have been feeling, but I don’t think that it is possible…I guess this is it for now…keep checking in.

Peace

-Al

Free Day, Establ Antar, Test day...

Sunday:

Wake up…breakfast…head to class…felt weird having a class on a Sunday…after class, came back to the hotel, should have studied for my test on Tuesday, but instead I passed out and took a nap…woke up and edited my photos for the rest of the day…looked at some fluids stuff but then realized that I was in Egypt and shouldn’t be studying so I went out for dinner…came back, passed out…probably one of the most boring days yet…but it felt nice to be bored for a change…either way, more for tomorrow…

Monday:

Wake up, breakfast and headed out for a day of service learning, no class today…We head back to Establ Antar to interview people from the glass blowing workshop for information to put on the website we will be building…My job, you guessed it, was to photograph the products for the website…so Jamula and I organized a system for photographing each product as well as documenting them. We set up a backdrop for the products and went to town for about 2 hours. By the end I thought my knee was going to implode because I had to crouch down for each photo...I also photographed the workers doing some glass blowing, which is so cool to watch. And after 3 hours there, we left…the worst part about it was that apparently the towns people complained to the NGO about us playing soccer with the kids last time. So we were not allowed to play with them again this time. This really upset me because that was the whole reason I wanted to go. But I guess we have to respect the cultural differences. I figured that having fun with the kids would do more for them than building a website, but o well. As Professor Sullivan always says “This is Egypt, so whatever you think will happen, expect the opposite.” This was one of those times…so we came back to the hotel…still didn’t have time to study which annoyed me. This is because we had our first dialogue with Egyptian students. It actually turned out to be really really cool. We went as a whole group to the Fulbright center to have group discussions with Egyptian students. We talked about everything from politics, to the noise level in Cairo, to movies, to the end of the world, to drug use, etc etc etc…I met 2 guys from here in Cairo…Mohamed, who was wearing chuck tailors and an Iron Maiden T-Shirt…Bill you would have been psyched on him haha…we are actually going to play soccer on Friday with his buddies, so I am looking forward to that…Sean and I also met Omar, he is wicked cool as well. We talked with him and decided to get lunch together on Tuesday…He is pretty cool, he drives a Bimmer, and he wants to take us clubbing, and show us around this weekend…so hopefully this weekend will be action packed…after the dialogue, we headed back to the Hotel and studied till about 1:30….

Tuesday:

Test day…breakfast…vans…into the classroom and start the test…it goes alright, and talking with people afterwards it seemed like I did alright…hopefully it goes alright…after the test, we went to lunch and met Omar there. We exchanged emails and talked about what to do this weekend. We might go cruising, or head up to Marina with him at some point....we head back to the hotel. I edit some photos and start my homework due for the next day…Also start working on the website for the glassblowing. Then we headed to dinner to try out this new lebanese place. we get there and everything on the menu is wicked cheap, under 15 pounds which is about 3 dollars american which was awesome. We get our food, and start eating it and it is amazing...I think lebanese is my new favorite food. The bread they used to make this Manakeesh stuff is so good, its like a super soft pita bread...so good definitely going back tomorrow...head back to the hotel, finish up my homework and watch some entourage…pass out...more to come for the rest of the week.

Peace

-Al

First Free Weekend

Thursday, Friday, Saturday:

Thursday: wake up, breakfast, class, Weekend…sweet. Head back to the hotel, and chill out for a while…blog, and send my final paper to Dr. Denis. I know I didn’t do a stellar job on it, but I'm not too worried, I'm sure it’ll all work out…went to the metro and bought laundry detergent. I started my first load of laundry in the tub, and it seems to be alright so far. Thursday night was pretty chill. We went to dinner at vivant again…I ordered lasagna, and they it took them 35 minutes to tell me that there was something wrong with my meal so I had to reorder. So I got my meal just in time for everyone else to be done. I ate fast and left no tip. Went to the metro, and picked up a cigar, back to the room and watched some entourage...hung my clothes out to dry… Then we went and chilled out at Versailles Palace. Some people smoked hookah, Sean and I smoked cigars. Then we got bored and went to chill out at Longchamps hotel balcony. Headed back to Flamenco. Got stuck in the elevator but I figured a way to jury rig the safety mechanism to work and I rescued us from a night in the elevator…I was pretty psyched on that. back to the flamenco, passed out

Friday:

Breakfast, and then dried off a set of clothes cause everything is still wet… went straight to cinnabon for some internet. Stayed there for about 6 or 7 hours doing a combination of fluids HW, photo editing, and surfing the internet…430 rolled around and I was starving. Back to the hotel and tried to get a crew together for some food. We decide were gona go downtown to meet some people and grab some food. 630 rolls around and were just leaving, and my stomach is screaming at me…luckily I still have some peanut butter left that I am rationing for snacks…gota go grocery shopping soon…hit the downtown area, its actually really nice. Apparently it is modeled after the champs Elysees in france…went into a few shops and then finally got some dinner…chicken sandwich…eh not so good…walked around with some of the girls for a little while longer and then took a cab back to the hotel…the cabs here are insane…rickety pieces of crap that feel like they are gona fall apart at any moment…but its awesome to ride in them, you just kind of have to develop a trust for it and your all set…kind of a theme here in Egypt…back to our room, put in a movie and I was out like a light…

Saturday:

I forgot to tell you about the plans that molly made for a few of us on our free day today…we planned a day trip to Ismailya on the Suez Canal. 10 of us rented out one of the vans and we headed out early…I slept most of the way there, but from what I could tell on the drive, it was desert the whole way, and not much else. Pretty insane to see a desert as I'm sure I have already said, but even still, its insane…I actually saw a mirage, never thought that it was a real thing…we arrive at Ismailya around 10 oclock and we went to see the canal first…there was a huge sign across the canal that said welcome to Egypt, thought that was pretty cool…then we went into Ismailya to walk around…we get out of the van and the first thing I notice was the noise level…it was so quiet and peaceful and there wasn’t a lot of people around…no tourists, except for us…a different feel from anything we have had so far…we walk down the main drag and we get to the open air market…I thought the souk was intense, and now after today, that was absolutely nothing…what I experienced at this market was so intense that explaining it in a blog, or photographing it will never capture what I went through…I think that in one phrase, I will call it sensory overload...so here is my trip through the market….

First, I see some meat hanging from hooks in the stores before the market, standard Egyptian style. Then I look a little further in this one shop, and there are FULL cow carcasses hanging, and the smell was horrendous…absolutely disgusting…we cross the street and there are 3 more stores with full cow carcasses hanging, and chickens in cages…we get to the market and the scent changes from foul smelling meat to the sweet smell of fresh fruit…it was the biggest 180 my nasal passageways have ever experienced, it felt like I fell into a fruit smoothie or something…that doesn’t make sense but I don’t really care haha…anyways, we walk a little further through the delicious smelling fruits and we get to more meat…another nasal 180…then walking further through yelling Egyptians, and fruit and meat carts we get to a vegetable section, and it smells so fresh and good that my brain is having trouble processing all of this…there are flies everywhere, and trash everywhere and my nose is freaking out from the mix of aromas, It was so intense…walk further through the umbrellas and veggie stands and there is a new disgusting smell and I finally see where its coming from, we were in the fish section…and I thought I had seen most every fish, but these things I swear were from another planet…this guy had a tub full of these half cat fish half eel looking things…they were oozing this green gunk and it smelled like death…I couldn’t believe what my nose was going through, everything either smelled SO good or SOOOOOO bad….keep walking and we get to the garbage dump from the market…and we all look at each other and say…”what just happened??” haha it was ridiculous.

We leave the market and walk around the town for a little. We came upon this Coptic catholic church and this little old lady took us in and introduced us to the priest. He spoke English, and told us some jokes and let us walk around and take pictures…we took pictures with him and then he gave us his email to send them to him…then it was time to get back to the van and go to the beach…we get to the beach club and chill out there for a few hours, I didn’t go swimming, Ted did, but noone else was brave enough…or dumb enough…to go swimming in the suez…yes the suez has beaches…all of the Egyptian guys on the beach loved us and they came and took pictures with us…I bought a soccer jersey of the team Ahly, from Cairo, so when I wear it people go nuts! They love that I wear it and they all yell Barakat! When I walk by, because that’s the guy who’s jersey it is…so the guys at the beach thought I was him and they took pictures with me...left the beach, and back to Cairo for another dinner at Abduh’s…the trip back was insane…I'm not sure if I had told you about security for Americans in Egypt… If the authorities find out that there is a group of American tourists, they like to do police escorts for them…well they found out that we were there, and they hooked it up big time…and when I say escort, its more like a parade…We had 3 cop trucks surrounding us, each truck had 6 guys in the back each with an AK, and 2 guys up front wearing Hawaiian shirts and packing glocks…so that’s……18 automatic weapons and 6 pistols…I was feeling pretty good about my chances of not getting fucked with…so as were flying down the highway, sirens blaring from the cop trucks, and people getting out of our way the whole way, we end up hitting a checkpoint of some sort…the policeman working there knew that we were arriving so he stopped us to let the traffic in front of us get ahead of us, and then after about 2 minutes, he let us go and HELD the traffic behind us for about 4 or 5 minutes. So now we are FLYING down the highway with cop cars surrounding us with noone else on the road…it was pretty cool. We get to Abduh’s and have a delicious dinner with the whole group. Another group pow wow to talk about the service learning…blah blah blah. Back to the hotel…finish up my HW and watch a movie…wrote up this blog and now I'm gona crash…class tomorrow…on a Sunday? Weird…more coming soon.

Peace

-Al

Stabl Antar

Wednesday 5-14-08:

Wake up, breakfast, vans, class…meet up with the group again to make another trip out to an even worse neighborhood to check out the glass blowing shop that the NGO has help start up.

I thought yesterday was bad, and then we went out to a little town called Stabl Antar, another outskirt town of Cairo. We are driving through the town, and I can’t believe that the van actually made it down the roads we were on. They were dirt roads filled with trash, and god knows what else…30 minutes of driving past donkeys with carts, kids playing football (soccer) in the street, poverty everywhere, and bread lines…the food shortage is a serious problem in Egypt right now. We arrive at the glass blowing shop with a football field out front and there is a group of kids playing. I instantly wanted to go play because that was one of the things I wanted to do when I came here…we get a tour of the glass blowing shop. It was actually very nice, and the stuff they made was beautiful. It was nice to see that in such a terrible part of town there are some good things happening. We watched the glass blower make a perfume bottle for Dr. Sullivans daughter, Grace, who is on the trip with us. He wrote grace in both English and Arabic on the bottle for her, it was very cool.

After the tour, we were waiting for everyone to use the bathroom, which was upstairs, and they would only allow one person at a time to go upstairs due to their religious views. So I had some time to kill, and the kids were still playing soccer…with Abduh, and all the van drivers…It took me a while to get up the courage to go and play with the whole group standing around, but I did and it was awesome. These kids were probably about 10-12 years old, and they were NASTY! They were popping rainbows, and step overs, and heel passes etc etc etc. It was a dirt field, so I was slipping everywhere in my nike running shoes, but I had a blast. I cant wait till the next time we go up there so I can play again…We left Stabl Antar, and came back to Zamalek. Tried out a new place for dinner, finished up my paper before I went to sleep, and then crashed.

More for tomorrow…although I might just start doing a post every other day or so, not as much to report since we stopped speed tourism…but stay tuned.

Peace

-Al

A little culture shock...ok a lot of culture shock

Tuesday 5-13-08:

Wake up, breakfast, load up the vans and head to class at AUC. Another 4 hours of fluids. Professor Taslim is one of the best professors I have had yet. He doesn’t miss a thing, and he is very helpful with questions. I was worried about having 4 hours of 1 class 4 times a week, but I think that it is going to work. Were learning a lot, but I'm enjoying it. After class, we head up to the knitting and carpet factory that I talked about yesterday…the trip out there is scary to say the least. We drive to an outskirt town of Cairo, through dirt roads with people living meagerly everywhere along the way. There were whole communities of dilapidated houses everywhere. I was feeling terrible for these people and I couldn’t believe that they were living like this. I started freaking out a bit…culture shock…it just seemed like there was an infinite amount of people living this way, with no way of getting out…this was the first time that I had the though “I want to go home”…

We get to the knitting factory, and it is actually a lot nicer than I was expecting. It seemed like the women working there really enjoyed it. The products that they make are very nice, and very authentic. We stayed for about a half hour asking questions using a translator, just to get a feel for what we could do to help them out…we left and headed to the carpet factory…we drove through more of the same shack like neighborhoods and arrive at the factory. Right when we walked in there was a rug in the front room made especially for the president of Fulham F.C. in England…We are greeted by a lady decked out in designer clothing who gave us the schpeal on the place.. She told us about how they are a family business, and how they are linked with a school in the area and that they provide young kids with an artistic trade that they can use to provide money for their families…blah blah blah I didn’t believe a word she was saying. She then says that they are the oldest and one of the most prestigious carpet factories in all of Egypt…Then she gives us the tour, which made me want to puke. There were whole families working on massive looms, including the little kids in the families. The carpet’s they made were beautiful, I have to admit, but to watch these little kids make carpets like they were robots was just really hard to watch. There was one girl who had nicked her hand with the knife that they use, and was bleeding…I couldn’t believe what I was looking at…it was like a small sweat shop for families…I couldn’t believe that this lady who ran the place was wearing all of this designer clothing, and that she was employing little kids to make the carpets…it was ridiculous…I mean I guess that if the kids probably don’t have another option in life, that it is a good alternative, but at least give them a chance with school before just sticking them in a carpet factory to make quilts. And this wasn’t even the part that made me the most upset. I couldn’t stop thinking “if this is such a prestigious carpet factory…why do they need our help?”…and I found out why when the tour ended…Cruella Deville (designer clothing lady) had no idea that we wanted to help her out. She thought we were there to buy carpets. She starts bringing out every type of carpet that they produce and giving us a background on all of them. The whole group is just staring around, just like at the meeting the day before, with the “what the F#@$” look on. Someone asks her about the help that we thought we were going to give her, and she looked confused. Then someone explained to her what we were doing there, and she kind of realized what was going on…There has been a serious misunderstanding with the NGO we are working with…and everyone in the group seems extremely frustrated about it. After a few more minutes of standing around and feeling super awkward about what we were doing there we head back to the vans and head home. Driving through the slums again made me really miss home a lot. I couldn’t stop thinking about how there can be people living like this…It’s overwhelming because I wish there was something that I could do, but there seems to be nothing. And with our partnership with the NGO falling apart it makes it even worse…all I wanted to do was leave Egypt for a while…but when I got back to Zamalek (the island the hotel is on) I was back to my comfort zone and I began to feel a little better. I can’t believe that Zamalek is now my comfort zone, because when I got off of the plane and arrived at Zamalek, I remember being totally overwhelmed with the chaos. Now I walk around Zamalek like its totally fine, which it is. But it’s just crazy how going to the slums in the outskirts of Cairo REALLY put things into perspective for me…back at the hotel I finished my fluids HW and then went out to eat…edited some photos and blogged. Passed out. More for tomorrow.

Peace

-Al

Classes, and a frightening civil service meeting

Monday 5-12-08:

Wake up at the Flamenco, breakfast, delicious. Load up the vans and head to AUC for the first day of classes. Arrive at AUC, it’s in a fairly nice neighborhood of Cairo, and we get to our classroom. Our room isn’t really a classroom; it is more like an executive meeting room. It’s beautiful with very comfortable old style chairs. 4 hours of fluids later and its lunch time. So far the class seems very interesting, a lot of the same mechanics as previous classes, just with different applications of fluids involved with it. We get lunch, and then meet up with the rest of the group for our first meeting about our civil service project. Everyone in the group was under the impression that we were going to be painting a bridge in a small impoverished community outside of Cairo. But when the meeting starts, the people working for the NGO tell us that that has actually fallen through and that there are new projects that we can work on. They tell us about there other projects that they have going on. The slide show they are running is pretty terrible, and Yousef, the guy running the meeting seemed like he had no idea what was going on. The other lady working with him seemed the same was as well. They have 3 main options for us to choose from: Help a small knitting factory by setting up a website and other things. Also, they would like us to help a small carpet factory build a website as well as other stuff. There is also a glass blowing factory that needs help. These 3 factories are being helped by the NGO apparently, and they help Egyptians with jobs and learning a trade. The last project they had for us was what they called “sanitation” of this community near the factories. They want us to pick up the trash in this neighborhood that is full of trash because the government denies there existence and refuses to help them out…so here are my initial thoughts:

I instantly thought that the factories were probably sweat shops, and that we aren’t going to be able to help them at all. All the questions we asked like “what are we going to do to help these factories” were answered completely vaguely, or by them saying “how would you like to help these people”. This made me realize just how unorganized this whole operation was.

and when I heard about the trash picking, I thought it was a joke…firstly there is no way in hell I am going to pick up trash in a community like that for obvious health reasons…secondly if I pick up the trash, its not like there is a system to keep the trash out of there, it will just pile up again…many people from the group asked questions about this and they were answered the same way as before...vaguely. I started looking around and everyone had the same look on their face as i did, it was a “WHAT THE F&^% IS GOING ON??” look...

Then the 2 people from the NGO that were running the excuse for a meeting say…OK! Now organize yourselves into groups of what project you would like to work on...we are all like…WHAT?! How the hell are we supposed to know which project we want to work on yet? We havn't even seen these places yet…they realize our mindset and they agree that we should see the places first thanks to Dr. Sullivan. By now I was so furious with what was going on I really just wanted to get out of there…

When I signed up for this, I was under the impression that there was a potential for some engineering community service stuff. But then that fell through before we came over and I was fine with it. I was cool with painting a bridge, which was the other plan, that seemed like something substantial to help people. But when that fell through, and they were asking me what I wanted to be doing because they had no idea what THEY were doing, man that fired me up…It was like they had no idea what they were doing and they wanted us to figure it out in 1 month…

After the meeting I thought I was mad and then I talked to everyone else and they were just as furious with the whole thing. So I guess I still havn’t seen the places, maybe it wont be as bad as I thought…after the meeting, we load up the vans, and head back to the hotel. Do a little of my first homework assignment and work a little more on the paper. Head out to dinner at a sweet little pasta place…full plate of pasta for 2 dollars American…ridiculous…back to the hotel, work a little bit more on my paper and then crash…

Being back in Cairo has definitely increased my stress level. I am no longer a tourist, and I am wearing thin. Class is almost relaxing because it gets me out of the city for 4 hours a day. But I feel like whenever I am with the whole group I go insane because nothing is planned very well anymore…when we were touring Upper Egypt, it was excellent, and everything ran smoothly. Now that I'm in class and the civil service portion is FUBAR, I'm getting pretty annoyed. 4 weeks ill be done and I'm looking forward to it…

More for tomorrow

Peace

-Al

Back To Cairo...unfortunately

Sunday 5-11-08:

Wake up on the train in Cairo…slept terribly, the guy on the train kept knocking on our door asking if we wanted breakfast etc etc…so annoying…also everything else bounces around on the train and there is always knocking…whatever…so we get in at about 7am…back to the hotel at 8am…and we get the great news that we cant check in until noon at the earliest…GREAT! So I sit on the curb for a little bit and try to get some internet…half hour of that and I was fed up…lugged my shit over to cilantro and ordered a hot chocolate, thinking I would get a hot chocolate…instead I got a cup of pretty much heated up chocolate syrup…I wanted to throw it on the floor I was so fed up with cilantros…I havnt been this stressed in a while, and Cairo doesn’t help. Also the fact that vacation is now over, and I have to start classes tomorrow is really not helping out my mood…everything is loud, people smoke inside and its friggin hot out, I didn’t sleep and I got crappy hot chocolate…So I do what always helps me relieve my stress, and edit photos for a few hours. Finally calmed down, and before I knew it it was noon and I was checking into the room…Sean and I are now roommates and we ended up with the corner room which is a lot bigger than most other rooms…so now I’m feeling a little better. I layed on my bed for about 2 hours just chilling out and watching entourage to try to relieve some stress…After that I decide to work on my paper, and I get a decent amount done. Chill for a little bit more and before I knew it it was dinner time…head out with a big group to a place that Doughty knew about. Get there, the menu kinda sucked but the place was pretty ritzy…a little pricy, but whatever, classes start tomorrow so I’m celebrating…have good convo and enjoy a great dinner…head back to the hotel, pick up some drinks for tomorrow at the grocery store…the juices here are AWESOME. Back to the room, edit some more pictures, and work on my paper a little bit more and then pass out, with class in the morning? Weirdddd…more for tomorrow.

Peace

-Al

Last Day in Luxor

Saturday 5-10-08:

Wake up at the hotel, breakfast, better than the day before but still not so great…load up the busses and head to the Karnak Temple. I was excited for this because this was the only temple that I ever remembered reading about. About a 15 minute bus ride and we get there. After a week and a half of speed tourism, we were all pretty wiped out. It was great to be seeing these historic and ancient ruins, but it was another temple and I was just about at my max. The temple was massive, at least 4 times the size of any of the other temples we had seen. We walked around with our tour guide for about 30 minutes, and then we had a half hour to ourselves. We walked around and took a bunch of photos. The temple was amazing, there were massive stone pillars everywhere with hieroglyphics everywhere. The entrance was very cool too, there was a walkway lined on both sides with small sphinx’s…It was a beautiful day, and after about 20 minutes of walking around we just sat down and relaxed. The group met up, we loaded up the bus and headed back to the hotel. We got back around 11am, and had to move our stuff into a new room noon. Again because we had to check out of our old room due to the fact that we were catching the midnight train again at night. So everyone moved all their stuff into 4 rooms...I read my book for an hour, and then moved into the new room. Then I went and chilled by the pool and finished the book…finally. Took a dip for a bit and then dried off and went out to lunch in Luxor. Back to the hotel, blogged, photo edited for a few hours and even started my paper. Then we went to the Luxor museum. Got a tour from Dr. Sullivan’s friend Melinda. She is a professor from Georgia state with a dig here in Egypt…I got her card for Nate and Rachael…She knows pretty much everything about ancient Egypt and it was really cool to have her telling us everything about all the artifacts. I wish we had her for our tour guide the whole time, I probably would have been more interested in everything…our other tour guides had thick accents and it was tough to concentrate on what they were saying when the sights were so awesomely distracting…back to the hotel and get my bags together to head to the train. Arrive at the station, get on the train and head back to Cairo…watch the Italian job, fall asleep before the ending…more for tomorrow when im back to Cairo.

Peace

-Al

Sightseeing in Luxor

Friday 5-9-08:

Wake up at 5:30…shitty. Breakfast at the new hotel…shitty. On the bus and off for a day of sightseeing. First stop, Valley of the Kings. We were allowed to pick 3 tombs to see with the pass we had, and there was also the optional pass to see King Tut’s tomb, which I bought. We arrive at the Valley of the Kings, and get a ride on a golf cart up to the tombs from the main building. Sean, Matt and I decide to go off by ourselves after being sick of sightseeing with a massive group for the last week. We go to our first tomb, Rhamsees III, and it was pretty cool. We walk in this small door and instantly there are hieroglyphics everywhere. There are hallways, and rooms everywhere all filled with ancient hieroglyphics and surprisingly there was still a lot of color left on the carvings. Next stop we went to was Tethmus III. This one was crazy. We had to walk up a huge flight of stairs just to get to the entrance, and then we had to walk down a steep entrance ramp just to get to the start of the tomb. It was hotter than hell inside. And I couldn’t stop thinking about how in the world people found these things…Unbelievable…the inside was similar to the previous tomb, hieroglyphics everywhere…next stop, King Tut’s tomb…so many times I have read about this in Nat Geo, and I have always wanted to see it, and I finally did…very moving. The entrance to the tomb was nothing special, and the tomb itself wasn’t that far underground. Apparently he died at a young age, so they had to use a makeshift tomb for him because they hadn’t finished his actual tomb. But anyways, we get inside the tomb, and the only thing I see initially is his sarcophagus. So I spend about 5 minutes just staring at this beautiful sarcophagus. It was just like you always saw in National Geographic, the gold and blue pharaoh with his hands crossed. Then all of a sudden I turn around and see a glass case…inside the case is the preserved body of King Tut…I couldn’t believe my eyes…I feel like every day there is something else that I see that I cant believe…anyways they have the preserved body of the king just hanging out in the tomb, so cool to see it. Then I went into Rhamsees IV. Another tomb very similar to the others, hieroglyphics everywhere and the fact that the color was preserved all this time was amazing. Then all of a sudden one of the Arab workers yells at me accusing me of taking pictures, and I get really pissed off. He tried to grab my camera, and I was like HELL NO, GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME! He told me to leave to leave the tomb, and that he was going to confiscate my camera, I told him to F off and that he wasn’t going anywhere near my camera. Luckily after a few minutes of bantering, Mo Taslim, my fluids professor, talked to the guy and everything was settled…so that was an exciting…I noticed that my ticket still had one more hole punch to go, so one of the guys who was clipping tickets must have messed mine up…so I luckily got to go into another tomb. Rhamsees the VII…I went in and the carvings and hieroglyphics in this tomb I think were my favorite. There was a carving of the solar boat that was so vivid, and the tour guide gave a great description of its significance. Stayed for a while just looking and then it was time to leave. Back on the bus and off to Hatshepsuts tomb. Her tomb is about a 5 minute drive just around the mountain from the Valley of the Kings. She was not allowed to be buried with the kings so instead she decided to make a MASSIVE tomb for herself just on the other side of the same mountain…A great photo op here…the place was massive, with huge sculptures everywhere. We walked around for 30 minutes or so and then it was time to leave…Next stop on the docket was the Ramesseum Temple. This temple was very similar again to all the previous temples we have seen although the location was very cool. It was set right at the bottom of a mountain, with ruins behind it, which made for great pictures. Unfortunately, my battery died after about 10 minutes at the temple so I was SOL for taking pictures…I didn’t mind at all though, I was so burned out from taking pictures. So I just walked around and enjoyed it…back on the bus and one more stop to go before the day was done. Just down the road a few hundred yards were the Colossi of Memnon, two huge statues that were used to guard the entrance to the Ramasseum Temple in ancient times. We get out, stare in awe for 5 minutes at these massive beautiful statues, get haggled by some merchants as usual…Back on the bus, back to the hotel and I took a quick nap. Then I read the book until my head wanted to explode, and went out with some of the group to the Luxor Temple, which is right down the road from our hotel. The Luxor temple was again, very similar to all the other Temples, but still very very cool. We went at dusk and the lighting was awesome, I took some great shots…then we decided we should all go out to eat in a massive group, 23 of us total. We get to the restaurant and they welcome us in, quickly set up a massive table and we ate like kings for dirt cheap. 3 beers, a plate of pasta, and some great conversation, and I was ready to crash. Walk back to the hotel, hang out in the room for a bit, edit some photos and pass out…Temple Karnak coming up tomorrow…

Peace

-Al

Off To Luxor...

So I have been in Egypt for a week now and I just have to say, this is the craziest place I have ever been. I was ready for some culture shock but I don't think it was possible to prepare for just how different it is over here. Crappy food, loud people, honking cars, and poverty everywhere. The other thing that is weird to deal with is how the terrible condition of the country is balanced with the amazing sightseeing. There are some of the most famous ancient sights in the world and they are nestled in with some of the worst slums i have ever seen...either way, i just wanted to recap my feelings on the first week. here is week 2...enjoy.

WEEK 2:

Thursday:

Wake up in Aswan at 6am…boo!, breakfast, pack up, get on the bus and head out for Luxor with a few stops along the way. The road we are traveling on is very dangerous so we have a police escort the whole way. Also, this escort only allows for us to have a certain amount of time at each place we stop at, which makes it annoying because we end up doing what I like to call "speed tourism"…We arrive at our first stop along the way after traveling through the impoverished farmlands of the Nile river valley. It is called the Kom-Ombo Temple. An ancient Temple very similar to the Philae Temple from yesterday. Huge pillars everywhere, with walls full of beautiful carvings and hieroglyphics. It was unbelievable to see all of this, so unbelievable that it was almost too much. It felt weird to be looking at these ancient ruins, of which I didn’t really understand the history behind…But, we get a nice history lesson from our tour guide which helped…We are then allowed about 10 minutes to check it out ourselves...kind of annoying because I would have liked to walk around a little more and really take it in…oh well. Back on the bus and another hour or so later we get to our next stop, The Edfu Temple…And again, it is very similar to the previous Temples we have seen. You first see the huge buildings from far away, and then you get to the court yard where there are massive hieroglyphics. Enter the Temple, massive pillars everywhere, and hieroglyphics still everywhere. Very stunning, although I didn’t understand the significance really, it was still breathtaking. Another history lesson and we allowed another 5-10 minutes. A bunch of us stayed a little longer than they allowed and when we got back to the bus, Dr. Sullivan wasn’t too happy…oh well. Another hour or so and we get to Luxor. Great hotel, with another pool…super pumped. We go walk around town and try to find food, Sean and I have a semi panic attack because we couldn’t find anything and then all of a sudden we found a pizza place, and went in and got some grub…not great, but cheap and I was starving…back to the hotel, hit the pool, which is on a floating barge on the Nile, very nice view yet again. Got out and read for an hour or so, the book is actually getting a little better. Quick dip before I head out, end up smacking my forehead on the bottom of the pool while trying to do a flip-turn…idiot…up to the room, read a little more, and then out to dinner with a big group of us. We found a ridiculously cheap place; I got a beer (500ml beers here) and a cheeseburger for 21 pounds which is about 4 dollars American. We had a good time at dinner, talking about funny hometown stories, etc etc. We asked the waiter if he could put on the wooh wooh song, and he ended up finding it and he played it for us. The girls then started dancing, and some of the little kids of the restaurant owner started dancing with them…the guys stayed at the table and hung out…classic. After dinner, we bought some water for the following days excursions. Back to the hotel, watched Dodgeball for a little and then passed out with a 5:30AM wake up call coming up fast…lots of sight seeing tomorrow…

Peace

-Al

Sightseeing in Aswan

Wednesday:

Wake up, breakfast at the new hotel…almost as nice as the Flamenco, but still very good. Pack up the backpack and load up the bus. No wooh wooh wooh song, but we arrive at the first destination of the day: The Unfinished Obelisk…after a quick history lesson we walk up the path through an ancient quarry and arrive at the unfinished obelisk. Very cool to see. It is a massive obelisk that was never completed, but was lying on its side. Walk along the path a little more, snap a few scenic shots and a few cool rock structure shots and were back in the bus heading to the Philae Temple. 30 minute bus ride and we arrive at a lake on which we have to take a boat out to the Temple…A beautiful lake with landscape that took your breath away…Boats everywhere and the whole ride out you are looking at the Temple. We arrive at the Temple and our guide gives us a history lesson of the place, I had trouble paying attention because I was so distracted by the massive carvings everywhere. When you walk in…through a metal detector with a guard packing an MP-5 which is becoming more and more standard at these places…the first thing you see is an outdoor forum of pillars filled with carvings. Most having a main carving on them symbolizing an ancient story, and the rest of each pillar is filled with hieroglyphics. Every pillar was probably 20-30 feet high and there were at least 50 of them. We then walk into the temple. With walls 50 or 60 feet high I am guessing. The walls are LOADED with carvings, again with a main carving showing the story and the rest of the wall loaded with smaller hieroglyphics…it was crazy to think that someone +2000 years ago had carved all of this. More history lessons and we were allowed to roam around for a half hour or so. I just walked around and tried to not take a lot of pictures, and just soak it all in…the whole complex was amazing, it was an ancient paradise in the middle of a beautiful lake, and I couldn’t believe what my eyes were looking at…I hope I can load up some pictures from today ASAP…back on the boat across the lake, back on the bus and off to the Aswan Dam…On the trip to the Dam we got the history lesson both from Dr. Denis who gave us the U.S. Politics behind the dam, as well as our guide who gave us more of the specifics behind the construction of the Dam. All of the engineers were psyched to be able to check it out. Many a corny engineering joke were had. Off the bus on the top of the dam, and the view was again, amazing…on one side was Aswan, and the desert behind it with the Nile rolling through it, and on the other side of the Dam was lake Nasser. This lake was a monster, it was a great shot for a panorama on both sides, so I am going to try to use my cool stitch tool, well see what happens…group shots, solo shots, back on the bus and back to the Hotel…bathing suit on, sunscreen on, pool, relax, play it safe for lunch with some pasta, read a little, book still sucks, back in the pool, dry off and head back to the Bazaar with a bunch of people. Walk around for an hour or so, didn’t buy anything but talked with people and took some more great shots. Decided we were hungry so we found out about this great restaurant that you take a ferry across the Nile to get to…boat ride was very relaxing, get to the restaurant, menu looks delicious. I order another safe bet meal of grilled chicken, and i'm still feeling OK…another day, and i'm not sick…tick tock tick tock…Leave the restaurant and take the boat all the way back to the hotel, thanks to the ferry driver…rode on the top of the boat, and took some more great night shots of Aswan from the Nile. Back to the hotel, head to the pool area to play some cards on the deck…after cards, bought some water at the bazaar and came back to the room to write this entry and edit some photos…heading to Luxor tomorrow, so stay tuned…

Peace

-Al

Arrive in Aswan...Beautiful!

Tuesday:

Wake at 6am thanks to Matt’s alarm. Find out that the train is delayed 5 hours? How is that possible? And then I remembered I was in Egypt and nothing is ever on time…ever. So I go back to sleep. And wake up to Matt’s alarm an hour later cause he messed it up. Fall asleep again and wake up AGAIN TO MATTS ALARM CAUSE HE STILL DIDN’T SHUT IT OFF! Go back to sleep and wake up AGAIN! 30 minutes later cause the nice train guy brought us breakfast, I was nice and said thanks although all I wanted to do was get some god damn sleep. 11am, arrive in Aswan. It looked exactly the same when we exit the train station, brown buildings with satellite dishes on top, shitty cars, and poverty everywhere. Oh yea and it was even hotter than Cairo. Get on a bus, 5 minute ride to the hotel…I thought that I it was weird that it was such a short bus ride but then I thought about me hiking all my stuff in 100 degree heat for a mile or 2, enough said…hotel is SICK! Me and Pete actually get our own beds this time, don’t remember if I had said that at the Hotel Flamenco in Cairo they messed up and a bunch of people were sharing beds…anyways, this place is right on the Nile with a ridiculous view, and there is a pool. Instantly change into a bathing suit and chill at the pool for the next 5 hours…tried to read a little, got bored again, reaffirmed my thoughts on reading…it sucks

Lunch, poolside, Cheeseburger, PUMPED! My idea of eating as much American food as possible is the greatest plan ever. Sean and I were psyched to finally get a little red white and blue in our bellies…many a joke later about how America is awesome and were taking another dip. Dry off, get changes, off to the Aswan Bazaar with Joyce, Sean and Pete…I needed a watch and some sandals and I also wanted to scope out cheap soccer jerseys. We get to the Bazaar and instantly people are hovering over us yelling “come look I give you good price” etc etc. I’m pumped cause I love bartering and that’s what the Bazaar is all about. We walk into a shop and I see a sweet camo Australian outback type hat. Total piece of crap but it looked cool. The guy at the store comes up and says 120 pounds, I laugh at him and walk away (a little tactic I wanted to try). He follows me yelling “hey what did you want to pay” I say im not paying more than 40 pounds for that hat and continue to walk away. He runs after me yelling 60 pounds, I say NO, he yells 40 pounds and I say, “I don’t even want the hat” I didn’t really want It I just wanted to warm up my haggling skills. He tugs my arm, I turn and give him the eye, and say I DON’T WANT THE HAT! He offers 20 pounds, I leave, he offers 10 and then 5 pounds. So I just brought this guy from 24 bucks to 1 dollar for a hat and I still just walked away. I was pumped…continue walking looking for a sandal guy…. I find a sandal dealer and start checking out his stuff. Find a pair I like and I say 10 pounds. He laughs, and says 40. I say no, 10. He says 30. I say 20 and he says NO! 30. I repeat, he repeats at least 10 times and finally I back down and pay the 30, this guy was good…it’s only 6 bucks, but my ego is shot from the mental loss and I need some revenge…so now im looking for watches…Sean and I find this little nook of a place with clocks and watches. Super Sketchy but we figure what the hell, only here once. Head in the shop, and try to communicate with the guy. He busts out some fake Omega's and fake Rolex’s. not really what I was looking for, but itll do the job. In my mind I’m thinking 50-60lb would be good (about 10-12 american). He rigs them up with new bands, and pops in batteries and says 300 for both…Sean and I laugh and say no way man, were not paying more than 100 for the both of them. He drops to 200 for both. And we stick to our guns…not happening buddy. He looks at us, awkward silence, and I say I’ll give you 60 for mine, and 60 for his, that’s 120 total. The guy says no 150 for both, and I say look, 120, 150 it’s all the same. He finally gives in and we pay up. Leave the store super pumped…wish I could barter back in the malls back home…got everything I needed, back to the Hotel just in time for another Fallukah ride. Hop on the boat, float around the Nile for a while, sang a traditional song with the captain and took a ton of pictures. Everyone had a good time. A little cramped, because we only took one boat this time for all 40 of us, but still fun overall. Back to the dock, back to the hotel room and off to the Bazaar again. More people wanted to go, so I felt like going again and explore more of it. The thing is friggin massive. Probably equivalent to 4 or 5 square blocks in Boston, with a bunch of tiny side streets with vendors. Walked around, Sonja and Ruthie wanted scarves, Rod and Matt and I wanted soccer jerseys. Matt haggled for a watch as well, and Chris bought a sweet Ali Baba after haggling like a champ to 15 pounds. Found a soccer jersey place and ended up talking politics with the owner for about 45 minutes. He has an archeology degree and is looking for sponsorship. He was very pissed off at the American government and even more pissed off at the Egyptian government. After all he’s got a degree in Archeology and he is hustling in the streets at a bazaar. But he actually gave us his CV, and his contact info and we are going to try to get him in contact with Dr. Denis and see what we can do because he seems like a very bright guy…haggled a few jerseys from him after a heated discussion of politics. Realized we spent 2 hours in the bazaar, and we were all wicked hungry. Found a relaxing cheap place to eat right on the Nile. Literally on a dock, on the Nile, it was awesome. I ordered up another delicious American hamburger, but according to the menu at this place its “Hamporger” hahahaha. When the waiter came to get our order I actually said "hamporger" and everyone at the table started chuckling, I bit my tongue real hard and it was a good time all around. The waiter left and we all cracked up…finished dinner, back to hotel, finished my blog from the previous day and then busted out this little guy as well…passin out…more for tomorrow.

Peace

-Al

Back to Cairo = Internet...finally...here is the trip to Aswan and Luxor:

Monday:

Wake up…breakfast…back to the room to pack up my stuff and move to another room for the day. We are going on a week long trip to Aswan and Luxor so we have to check out of our rooms. But before we leave for the trip we still have more sightseeing to do near Cairo. So, what does Dr. Denis have for us today? Why not travel to Saqqara tocheck out the Step Pyramid and the head to Dahshur, to see the oldest Pyramid ever. Load up the vans, rock out to the wooh wooh wooh song, drive through the slums of Cairo, out to the farm lands of the Nile River Valley, poverty everywhere, donkey pulling carts, palm trees, unfinished houses, through a little makeshift town and we end up at the Step Pyramid….

side note: My roommate Pete is sick, and I am just waiting for it to happen to me…people are dropping like flies, and just like Sean and I had said when we started “it’s every man for himself out here”…still have a minor stomach ache, but I’m drinking MAD water to keep myself hydrated. I popped 2 pepto pills before we left after a shaky session on the john in the morning…fingers crossed, visualizing good things…….back to the Step Pyramid.

Arrive at the Step Pyramid, a massive pyramid with…you guessed it…giant steps all the way up. This structure is very ancient, can’t remember the exact dates but something like 5000 years old, constructed around 2700 b.c. History lesson from our guide, monster photo sess, group shots, solo shots, friend shots and were outa there. Load up the vans, rock out to the wooh wooh wooh song, drive through more farmland, through more slums, more donkeys pulling carts…Matt and I saw 2 dead Donkeys in the canal we were driving along, super gnarly…through another makeshift town with little kids smiling and waving and we arrive at Dahshur. Drive through the gate and there is the Pyramid. In the background you can see what they call the “Bent Pyramid”, which was an interesting topic for some engineering discussion. The ancient Egyptians while building the bent pyramid were not planning on making it bent, but they realized that with the initial angle that they started with, that the structure would not support itself, so they had to change the angle half way up (54 degrees to 44 degrees according to the guide)…back to the Dahshur Pyramid, we arrive, there are clouds right above it which made for an excellent picture with the blue sky and my circular polarizing filter…super psyched at this point. Then to make it even better, Dr. Denis says “who’s going in?”...Wait, in? ...Yes, I went inside the oldest pyramid ever…it was awesome. We climb up the stairs to the passageway inside the pyramid. The descent was not for the weak of mind or body. 3x3 foot passageway at a fairly steep angle. Luckily there were little ridges for steps and a decent hand railing. What seemed like 15 minutes of cramping my body and somehow descending into a tomb Indiana Jones style I arrive in the hottest, dustiest place I had ever been. But it was amazing. A room where the Pharoahs were kept mummified for thousands of years…so sick!!...walked a little further and up another staircase to another empty room where im sure there was other cool stuff at one point, but after a while I had to get out of there. It was incredibly hot with dust so thick it was hard to breathe. And now the fun part…remember that ridiculous descent I just did, yea I had to go back up…not fun. Another 15 minutes later and I was out of the pyramid, and into the nice cool relaxing outdoors right?...WRONG! cause If you didn’t remember i am in the friggin Sahara and it is hot as hell...down the stairs from the entrance, load up the vans, rock out to the wooh wooh wooh song, drive through all the slums, donkeys, towns, farms palm trees back to Cairo and back to the Hotel.

Back at the hotel we had to get everything ready for the week trip. So I get rid of everything I don’t need and leave it in Pete's extra bag. Pack up everything else, and head to Pizza Hut…yes I went to pizza hut, I’m sick of trying to find authentic Egyptian food, and this is because I have come to the realization that THERE IS NONE! Egyptian food sucks, so I am not trying to find any good Egyptian food anymore…“its every man for himself”, and with people getting sick left and right, I am not taking any chances. Plus I’m from America, I like American food. Just like Egyptians like Egyptian food…enough ranting…head to Cinnabon for the internet. 3 hours of blogging, websiting and photo editing later we load up the vans and head to the overnight train for the week long trip.

Get to the train station; wait around while the loud speaker screams at us in Arabic. I throw out my juice because it got way too warm and I didn’t wanna get sick. 3 minutes later I see a man walk to the trash and pick it up and walk away with it…pretty intense. A train comes and Sean Ben Matt and I look at each other and go…HELL NO! The thing looked like it was straight out of soviet Russia. Luckily it wasn’t our train. It was packed full of Egyptians and I was not about to get any where near it. Our train comes, its nice looking, Matt and I bunk together with Ben and Sean in the car next to us with a mutual door. Hang out for a bit, I start the Yacoubian Building book and get bored of it in about 4 seconds, typical Alex Orsi fashion... Dinner comes, FUC#$NG disgusting, no one touched it. I tried the lasagna looking thing and then realized that I was almost sick earlier in the day so I stopped. Sonja and Ruthie came over, we watched Superbad until the computer died. Then we played cards and hung out till about 2 AM till the girls left…I passed out…more for tomorrow.

Peace

-Al

Abdu's House

Sunday:

Woke up at 10:30, had a stomach ache…UH OH! Is this me getting sick? I told myself no and went back to sleep. Woke up at 1:30 with a stomach ache still, but decided to keep it cool and wait a little while. Went on the computer, finished my previous blog entry, and edited a few photographs…damn I took some good shots the day before. And then I realized something, I hadn’t gone to the bathroom in a while. Did my business and little did I know, the stomach ache was gone. Hope that isn’t TMI, but I don’t care cause I was PUMPED! Still haven’t gotten sick (knock on wood). 3 o’clock rolls around and we meet in the lobby. Load up the vans, head to Abdu’s house. Abdu is Dr. Sullivan’s good friend. Abdu’s and his wife have planned a massive dinner for the group. We drive through some more slums of Cairo and arrive at Abdu’s. Outside the neighborhood looked very sketchy, but when we got inside his house, it was beautiful. We get settled and all of a sudden they uncover the food…WOW!! 2 gigantic cooked turkeys, a giant platter of potatoes, a plate full of rice wrapped in grape leaves. A feast like none other. It was like thanksgiving back home. We all eat, and afterwards we have a little group pow wow. Professor Sullivan just wanted to know how everyone was feeling and whether or not anything else needed to be taken care of for people. The pow wow ends and Abdu decides he wants to teach us some “manly Egyptian games”. He asks for a volunteer and for some reason the group decides that I am the best candidate. So I stand up, and he says “put your palms together, and touch your fingertips to mine”...He then precedes to slap the outside of my hand…I quickly learned the game…He says dodge my hand and try to hit my hands as well. So for about 5 minutes I tried to smack his hands as he destroyed mine. I held my own, but I was no match for an Egyptian ex-mil. I had fun while the whole group was laughing hysterically…he taught us some more funny games and after about an hour, we headed back to the hotel…chilled for 10 minutes or so, then went to the café to post this blog entry…back to the hotel, watched some entourage in Jamulas room, started packing for the trip to Aswan and Luxor…passed out…more for tomorrow.

Peace

-Al

Coptic Cairo Tours

Saturday:

Wake up…Breakfast at the Hotel, excellent as usual. Head over to Cinnabon for a “crash course” in Arabic. We learned how to say our names, introduce ourselves and ask for where the bathroom is. A good hour session, and then we were ready to get out of there…We load up the vans and head off for our tour of Coptic Cairo, an ancient religious area of Cairo. We arrive to a beautiful area of town with palm trees along the roads, and shops along the sidewalks. Although I soon notice that the area we are about to enter, in order to see the churches, temples and synagogues, is guarded by about 5 guards with automatic weapons and a metal detector…one area about the size of 5 square blocks, contains a Mosques, Christian churches, and a Synagogues… So I began to think…hmmmmm…well at least there isn’t too much history of religious conflict in the middle east…oh wait?…So I was just hoping that the metal detector was working today, and that the armed guards knew how to shoot…I now remember Dr. Denis telling us about how Egyptians do not like Jews, and how there were probably only 50 practicing Jews in all of Cairo out of over 1 million people, which made me feel even better about seeing these holy places…(sarcastic if you couldn’t tell)

Any ways, we walk through and begin the tour. First we enter the Hanging Church, a beautiful Christian orthodox church. A history lesson from our guide, and some picture taking and we head off to the nunnery of St. George. We arrive at the church and it was very moving. We had a quick history lesson and then were allowed to enter the shrine where there were people praying. Some were putting on the chains that supposedly St. George wore back when he was chained for converting his faith…very powerful to watch…after this, we then went to the supposed Crypt of the Holy Family. It was in the back of another church in the same area as the Church of St. George. The story goes as that the holy family, Jesus Mary and Joseph stayed in this crypt for a few weeks around the time of his birth. All we could see was a flight of concrete stairs heading down the basement of the church, but it was incredible to think that Christ may have been right below me at one time. I am not the most religious person, but I definitely felt something when I was there, and it was amazing…Next up we move off to the Jewish Synagogue, also known as the Syrian Temple. Which was the first Synagogue in all of Africa (yes I am in Africa right now, and no I can’t believe it either)…A history lesson, no cameras allowed, and we were off to the oldest mosque in Cairo. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when we arrived and entered, I suddenly felt very relaxed. Inside the mosque it was so quiet and peaceful. The middle of the mosque was open air, and the outer area was covered. Under the covered area there were Muslim people lying down, praying, and reading, very peaceful. The “gazebo” like structure in the middle was stunning as well. Draped with these purple tapestries, and the sunlight right overhead it looked like a painting…A history lesson while sitting on the floor of the mosque was very enlightening as well. Afterwards we had about 15 minutes to just take it in, take some pictures etc etc. I took a few pictures, but then I just sat down quietly with Matt and Joyce and enjoyed the peacefulness. I thought how nice it would be to have an open air place back home where I could just go to just to relax and think about things. Maybe I will go to a mosque somewhere when I get home…

Back to the vans, back to the Hotel. Quick bite and off for the sunset Falukah sailboat ride on the Nile. Mom and Dad you would have loved this…A perfect night, 75 degrees with the city lights of Cairo during sunset, I couldn’t have asked for much more. Afterwards we decided to walk all the way back to the Hotel, which was about 2 miles I would guess. Almost as nice as the sailboat ride. The whole way we had an escort (from the Egyptian secret service I presume) packing an automatic weapon who walked with us the whole way…Pretty cool to know that Egypt cares a lot about its tourists, but pretty weird to walk 2 miles in a group of 30 plus people with an armed escort…Back to the hotel, freshen up, out for some dinner…finally some good food and a few beers at Pub 28. Definitely going back there, good American style food, for dirt cheap, and I know I wont get sick from it because its already the next morning, and I’m writing this blog without exploding. After dinner we met up with a bunch of other people at the Versailles Palace. There was Hookah, I tried it, didn’t enjoy it…I’d rather have a cigar…Hung out for a bit, back to the Hotel, cards in Matt and Rod’s room, back to my room to pass out…more tomorrow.

Peace

-Al

Pyramids....WHATTTTT!?!?!?

Friday:

Wake up Friday morning, breakfast at the hotel, great food, no bacon but the ham was close enough for me. Load up the buses, and head to Giza...Driving through Cairo again reaffirmed my how filthy and slummy the city really is. People are everywhere with not much at all. Some ride donkeys, or carts pulled by donkeys. Some ride mopeds or bikes. Most of the cars are total POS's, but theres the occasional Benz or Bimmer. The greatest part of driving in Cairo is that EVERYONE IS HONKING ALL THE TIME! I now know that my brother Bill was right when he told me that Cairo is the loudest city. I am getting used to the noise, but it is still not something that anyone from anywhere else is used to. Driving further we come around a bend in the highway and there they are, 3 gigantic pyramids. It seemed like a joke how huge they were and we were still a good 3 to 4 miles away at that point. The air was very sandy, but you could see them clearly and it was amazing. Pull off the highway, and drive through the back alleys of Giza. Dirt roads, shops with Hookah and Shisha outside, with donkeys horses and yes…camels everywhere. We finally reach the destination which is an open square in a back alley with our camels lying everywhere. We get out of the vans and the camel boys start helping us pick out our camels. I wish I had a sound recorder for the noise that the camels made; it was like Chewbacca from Starwars mixed with a diesel engine…Hillarious. I look around and I find a camel that looks like it can do the job, and my camel boy Rober says “hop on and lean back”…hop on the camel, follow his advice and the camel rears up once to get to its knees and then again to its feet, a very cool feeling. Also the first time I have ever ridden an animal…The group heads out, with everyone taking pictures and laughing about how crazy it is that we are riding camels, through the desert to the Pyramids. Through some more back alleys on the camels and then we turn the corner, and the Sahara is right there with the Pyramids in sight. Another 25 minutes of “oohs and aahs” from the Pyramids and the desert and we arrive at the Pyramids. Many a group shot, and many a glazed look. These things were HUGE! Each Pyramid has over 1 million bricks, the biggest one with over 2 million. We walk up to the step Pyramid for some more group shots and better photo ops for the other Pyramids as well, and after another 30 minutes we head back to the camels and ride to the Sphinx. This was an interesting little camel ride. Each camel boy tried to take their rider a little out of the group to try to swindle some “baksheesh” from us. But thanks to Professor Sullivan, we knew how to handle it. Just say “bah neen” (later) or “Dr. Dennis” and they understood.

Side Note: Dr. Sullivan is like a celebrity here, we will be walking down the street and random people will know him and give him a huge hug. His good friend Abdu usually helps us out with our group trips as well, Abdu is a wheeler dealer kind of guy who seems to know everyone as well. He helps with the Police, and can pretty much talk his way out of anything…very fun to watch Dr. Sullivan and Abdu together.

So back to the days events…off the camels, and off to the Sphinx. A ridiculously awesome view. The Sphinx with the great Pyramids behind it was unbelievable. So many times I’ve seen it in a text book, but until you see it for real, it’s crazy. With a bright blue sky, and the sun right above, it was perfect…more group photos and photo ops and we are outa there. Back to the vans and off to the papyrus museum. The group listened to a lecture about how the ancient Egyptians made papyrus, and than everyone looked around the shop and many of us purchased some papyrus paintings…Then off to lunch in a paradise under the palm trees. The trip to the lunch took us by the Nile valley. We saw farmers working the fields, which was intense...No sanitation, completely primitive…but when we arrived at lunch it was a whole other story. We get out of the vans and there is a traditional Egyptian musical group playing for us, and Professor Sullivan started dancing. We watch for a while, but then our stomachs told us to get moving. We walk in to the place and there are platters of food laid out for us. We all dig in and relax under the shade of palm trees, a great finish to a great day…back to the vans, and we drive through Cairo back to the Hotel. After the Hotel we settle in, try to email my parents, but the internet is so terrible that I could barely do it…walk around Cairo a little more, grab dinner at Cilantros and pass out…more to come tomorrow.

Peace

-Al

A Day of Traveling

Arriving at Logan...Joyce and I got there last, classic Dickerson Orsi fashion...Get through security and grab a slice from Sbarro, a great Italian Eatery...30 minutes later and we board the plane. 7 hours of card playing, movie watching and some interesting discussions (thanks to Ben's "Book of Questions") brings me 1 layover and 1 more flight closer to Cairo. The layover was quick and painless, and before I knew it I was on another plane heading for Cairo. Flying over the desert as we landed in Cairo was a trip in itself. From the plane The Sahara is a beautiful monster of neverending sand, and Cairo just pops right out of it...

We land, and the fun begins...Sean and I exit the plane together, the first thing we see is armed guards each holding either an MP5 or an AK47. We Then walk by the practically empty duty free store that looked it had just been bombed. The walkway to the luggage looked like it had just survived World War II, dirt was everywhere, and the walls were wicked sketchy. It felt like at any moment we were going to get robbed, swindled or held up. Sean and I look around, and then at each other and he said "head on a swivel", and I reply with "eyes up". We chuckled, and then continued taking our own advice...

In order to get to our baggage, we had to give up our passports to security...an awkward feeling watching your passport being taken into a back room not knowing when you're getting it back...The whole group gets their baggage and thankfully after some discussion between professor Sullivan and the authorities, we get our passports.

Last leg of the trip...the bus ride to the hotel. We leave the airport, and are driving through the desert...I guess I hadn't really thought much about the fact that Cairo is in the middle of the desert...from the plane, the desert looks beautiful, but when you are looking at a desert from ground level, it is an experience...Endless sand as far as the eye can see. A little further on the bus and were driving through the slums of Cairo. Endless highrise apartments with millions of satellite dishes on rooftops. Every building looked vacant, although each building showed a little bit of life, a clothesline here, and an open living room window there.

we arrive at our hotel and finally get to chill out for about an hour. Then profesor Sullivan took us on a walking tour. We grabbed dinner at a pizza place. I did my usual "this pizza's gona suck, it's gona be nothing like back home", but as usual, pizza is pizza and it was delicious. Back to the hotel, 1 episode of entourage later I passed out with dreams of riding a camel to the pyramids the following day...

peace

-Al