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
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