I might as well write down some of the things I've done this semester before I forget. Most of this will probably be boring to you, my imaginary reader.
January
I don't think I really did much of anything in January. Just my AUC study abroad orientation. I guess the only notable things during that were I met two other Egyptian Americans spending the semester at AUC, Aya and Menna and that I met some cool people like Amy and Kara, who remained my friends for the rest of the semester, on the Felucca ride that was included as a part of orientation. That Felucca ride was freezing by the way. Oh yeah..one other thing. I spent my nights freezing cold in January and February. Temps would get to around 50 or so which is pretty hard to sleep in...
February
I went to a movie with Wafa and her friends Aya, Radwan and Nehal. Khaleeg Na3ma I think was the movie. It was horrible but at the same time great because we had that many more opportunities to laugh. It was supposed to be a drama, but..uh..
My birthday. I didn't really do much but it felt worth mentioning.
I went to City Stars (again...) with Mona and Maha and Sara. It was fun. We took Kimo and Sara to the Magic Planet (is that what it's called) play area. They had a blast.
I went to the Friday Market on my Anthropology field trip. It was an amazing experience. I'd never seen a market like it before. They sell a lot of random things: old English books, empty bottles, snakes, bicycles, shoes, toys, medical equipment. A lot of the things seemed like to junk to my classmates and I but it obviously isn't to some people since it does get sold. I think a lot of the people who shop there are in the business of buying things in order to try to resell them at a higher price. Most though are just looking for a good deal on things they need, whether that be a broken of piece of a cassette tape or a pair of new 'nike' tennis shoes. If you're actually interesting in hearing about the market, I'd be happy to tell you more.
STAR Orientation. STAR is this great program started by students at AUC. I think it stands for Student Action for Refugees..something like that. Well anyway, I was planning on volunteering as an English teacher but, because of a series of unfortunate events, didn't end up doing so..Something good did come out of it though. At the orientation for teachers, I met Basma and, although we weren't really friends at first, she later became a very good friend of mine.
I went to Wafa's house while my mom was at Carrefour. I spent hours talking, playing cards and laughing with her and her three sisters. They're all so adorable and sweet. It was great; I wish I had sisters!
March
uhhh...let me think...i didn't do much in march.I think we had a short break in March. Yeah..we did and I went to a little village place in Fayoum on a trip with my grandma's bank. It was cool; there wasn't much to do but the food was good.I think I went to el 3en el sokhna in March too. That was great! It was hot and the water was nice. We saw some dolphins. Good times.I also started working on my Anthropology final project in March. I did fieldwork on Study Abroad students in an effort to determine how AUC's move to New Cairo will affect them. It was great fun!
I saw all three male leads of the very popular Egyptian movies Aw2at Fara3' and Magic standing on the plat at AUC. I was with Basma at the time and, although she hadn't seen either of the movies, she pretended to be as excited as I was and then she walked up to them and asked them if they go to AUC. It turns out one of them does..
April..ahh april!
There was a big strike planned for April 6. A lot of mobilization happened for it via facebook. The facebook groups and events called for people to stay home from work/school and to not buy anything on that Sunday. The strike had originated among laborers in some of the factories on the fringes of Cairo. On the 6th the government sent in huge numbers of police forces to prevent the workers in the factories from striking and they also placed hundreds of officers in Tahrir square, the site of a planned sit-in, to prevent any visible political activity. As a result, many declared the day with its little visible results as a failure. I really don't think it was though, especially because of the international media coverage it got. If we say things like that are unsuccessful and shouldn't be repeated then that leaves the people nothing to do. Again, if you read this and are interested, let me know. I'd love to talk more about it.
I went to the Like Jelly concert. Like Jelly is a band made of mostly AUC students, one of whom is Yousef Atwan - one of the leaders of my pre-departure orientation for my AFS trip last year in D.C. I went with Laura as well as Ahmed Sadeeq. A friendly guy who about everyone at AUC knows. It was fun and I saw a lot of people from AFS Egypt there, most notably Alaa. I've missed her so much.
Spring break was in April. I went on a trip with the Cultural Development Club (CDC) at AUC to a little village about an hour from Cairo. Ann, my partner for my Anthropology project and by that time my very good friend, was the one who encouraged me to sign up for the trip but because of an odd mix up was not allowed to come on the trip. As a result, I knew none of the students on the trip. My Anthropology professor was chaperoning though so I ended up sitting with her and her husband and the other two professors chaperoning. It was a lot more fun than it sounds and that's when I started to really admire and respect my Anthro professor.
After that I went with my family (my brother, my grandma and my mom) to 'Agami (right outside of Alexandria) for 10 days. It was fun but actually pretty cold. It was hard to go in the water because of how chilly it was and the mosquitos were ridiculous. My arms are still entirely covered in scars from the bites I scratched over those 10 days...uh. Then I came back to go to class for two days and then..I had another break.I went out to eat and to the movie Fools' Gold with Ann and her sister Maureen for Eastern Easter. By this time, Ann and I were really good friends. I love her for her genuineness and sincerity and we had a great day.
I toured Coptic Cairo with Laura. We went on Easter though and many of the churches there were closed but we still had a good time walking around getting lost. Afterward we went to Maadi and walked around there for a while before eating at Lucille's.
May
I went on a trip with the International Student Services Office (ISSO) to Port Said. Port Said doesn't have much to do but I had fun with the other students on the trip. Laura G. was on the trip and I also met some other great people. Port Said is nice too. It's a quiet and pretty city.
I finally realized how great of a person Basma is and we started to become better friends. My last few weeks at school were by far the best because I got to hang out with her during all my gaps between classes.
I presented my Anthropology project in AUC's student research conference. If you know me at all you can probably guess that I was nervous as hell but my presentation went fine. I went to as many of the other presentations as I could too. Most of them were really interesting.
President Mobarek announced pay increases of 20% (I think) for government employees which amounted to very little for even the most highly paid in the government and then the next day announced a reduction in gas subsidies and an increase on cigarette tarriffs. Since then, prices have been steadily going up due to the increased gas price. As food and transportation prices are going up quickly, hunger has become a grave issue in Egypt.
June
Ashraf came which was pretty awesome. During his couple days in Cairo I tried to introduce him to as many people as possible.We went to el wa7at el ba7areya..the bahareya oasis. That was very cool. We saw all sorts of mountains and rock formations in the desert. Ashraf especially loved it. He had a great time showing our Bedouin hosts at the hotel his contact juggling tricks (he's gotten really good). Since summer is the off-season for the desert, we were the only guests at the hotel and the whole area was pretty quiet. On our second night the people at the hotel put on a show of singing/dancing for us which was pretty amazing.
I said bye to Menna which was really sad. I met her at the Study Abroad student orientation. She like me is an Egyptian American who came to AUC for the semester to live with her family and reconnect with Egypt. She was a great friend to me and we had a lot in common. Hopefully I'll get the chance to see her again some time.
I got to go out with Ann. We went to Arkadia mall and walked around for a while and then went to the movie Iron Man which I didn't like much. It kind of enforces stereotypes...and..the action was kind of overblown.
Basma and I wanted for a long time to go to the Amre Heiba art exhibit at the Townhouse Art Gallery. We met up with Laura and were really excited to go on the last day of the exhibit but when we got there it turned out they had already taken the exhibit down. Regardless, we had a fun time walking around and eating koshari.
I finally met Abir and Noha, Basma's infamous younger sisters. I like the three of them a lot and went over to their house a lot in June. One day when Ashraf was still here I saw them walking by AUC and so we all went to get Frescatos. Another day, Basma, Laura, Abir and I went to Chili's for dinner. A different day, earlier in the month, Basma and I spent the day wandering around in Maadi. We went to the movie Indiana Jones which was pretty bad. Basma spent the whole day convinced I was mad at her, which I wasn't. A different time, Basma, Abir and I were walking to their house. I was trying to convince Basma that Phoebe is everyone's favorite character on friends and so I told her, "I'd ask some random person on the street who their favorite character is but that'd be awkward.". Basma, who is much braver than I am, asked the next person she saw, but, as it turns out he hadn't heard of Friends. Neither had any of the people in the store he entered to ask about it. In the end though, the guy tried to lead us into the store saying, 'yes, Friends, this way..' although he still had no clue what this mysterious Friends was.I got to hang out with Mahinur and her friend Hedy, hopefully not for the last time. We went, along with Basma and Abir, to the movie Definitely Maybe which was extremely cute and not at all bad as far as Romantic Comedies go.
I went to Jordan. I absolutely loved it. All over Jordan there are pictures of the royal family...it's crazy! They're seriously everywhere. Amman is gorgeous. It is built on six mountains which make it appear absolutely magestic. It may even be my favorite city. We went also to Petra which is also amazing. It is an ancient Roman city carved into the rock that has survived two earthquakes. The buildings are amazing but the cultures of the rocks are even more spectacular. it was great despite the 4+ hours we spent walking in the heat. We floated in the Dead Sea which was a crazy experience. I tried to swim but you just can't..you move your arms and legs but don't go anywhere. I also got a little bit of the water in my eye...oww!! I couldn't open it for about 3 minutes. The private beach on the Dead Sea we went to also had a pool and I swam (like real swimming) for the first time in a couple of years. It was so much fun! We were scheduled to spend our last day in Wadi Rum, but upon arrival we found it to be a less magestic version of el Bahareya so we decided to spend the day on the beach in Aqaba instead. The beach seemed great but I, unfortunately, was unable to enjoy it since I fell asleep from the time we arrived around 4 to about 7:30. Oh well. It was a nice nap.
I got to spend a couple days with Laura M. before she left. We went and ate some tasty sandwiches and not some tasty Om Aly at Mo'men one day and then went to Isabel's apartment where she was staying to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I love that movie) and then we got takeout from Felfela with Laura G. and sat for hours talking at AUC. On Laura M's last night she, Basma, Abir, Isabel, Isabel's friend Mahmoud and I all went to Khan El Khalili. Laura got lots of shopping for gifts done and afterward we got some juice and Laura got sheesha at Feshawy, a (as Basma tells me) famous cafe in Khan el Khalili. After that we headed over to my grandma's apartment for a little while before it was time to say good-bye to Laura, not without a little excitement though. She forgot the galabeyya she'd just bought at my apartment and so she took a fun little round trip taxi ride to get it back...my personal theory: she just wanted one last chance to see me. :D
The last couple of days I've spent just sitting around the house, running after my brother, helping my grandma with the cooking and cleaning and reading. I highly recommend the books the Yacobian Building and Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany.
Today (the 19th) was a wonderful day. I spent the morning playing with and feeding Kimo and then I met Laura for lunch at Pizza hut. To be perfectly honest I didn't really like my Alfredo pasta but, as always, I enjoyed my time with Laura. After that I went to meet Candace, one of my friends from the SLI program last year. I sat with her in Koshari el Tahrir and had a great time catching up with her. Laura met up with us again which was nice. After Mina came and took Candace home I went over to Basma's house. She, Abir, Noha and I spent hours exchanging the most disgusting and morbid stories imaginable: murders, vomiting, pedophiles, car accidents, broken bones, bloody noses, peeing in pants. It was horrible yet so fascinating. I really had a great time with them. Again, I wish I had sisters! I feel really bad now though because I had been meaning to call Laura to see if she was free to join us but somehow forgot. :(Tomorrow morning (technically later today), I'm leaving bright and early to Marsa Matruh. It should be fun but I can't wait until I come back.
Posted by ayah at 4:44 PM
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