The police corruption in Morocco is ridiculous. We got stopped 3 times by the police blatantly asking for very large bribes to not give us tickets and saw the same happen to plenty of other people. It was crazy. The first time my dad didn't really get what the guy wanted so he explained in perfectly plain terms. Either you can pay me 400 dirhams here or I'll take your license and you can pay 700 dirhams at the government office to pick it up. My dad managed to talk his way out of giving one of the guys anything and bargained with the other two to bribes of only 200 dirhams (~27 dollars). One of the times it wasn't actually the officer who stopped us who was getting the money. It was his supervisor sitting in the car on the side of the road; the officer sent my dad over to the supervisor for bargaining.
Other general observations about Morocco:
There are beggars in Morocco. Lots of them. It's hard to walk 10 feet without being approached by them and if you give them any acknowledgment at all they keep on you like a fly. I've been to plenty of other places with beggars but not like there. It's really rather sad. It kind of makes sense that there are more beggars there than Egypt considering that, in general, people appear to be in the same economic state there as here but things there are considerably more expensive.
Things in Morocco are way more expensive than you'd think. Food (even cheap Moroccan food) costs about what it would in the United States. Gas costs about the equivalent of six US dollars a gallon. Bread costs about 10 times what it does in Egypt. Basically the only cheap things are movies. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but pirated movies are everywhere. They are sold for the equivalent of about 65 cents, much cheaper than even renting a movie in the United States.
I think I said this before but I don't mind saying it again. It's really refreshing to see how women are treated here. They dress as they want and aren't really harassed on the streets. They do everything men do. I saw a female garbage cleaner, a female taxi driver, plenty of females on motorcycles, female passport control people...all sorts of jobs women can't really take in Egypt.
The cars (including the taxis) are remarkably not bumped and scratched here (also true of Jordan and Tunisia). It was just odd to see after being in Cairo for so long. When I got back to Cairo I was actually kind of shocked to see how banged up all the cars are.
Mobile phone minutes in Morocco as well as Tunisia are significantly more expensive than minutes in Egypt, a fact visibly noticeable in the streets. I saw very few people in both countries using their cell phones and by very few I mean two or three a day. It was truly amazing. As my mom pointed out, mobiles would be a good way for the Egyptian government to tax the rich. Nobody really needs a mobile but people here talk on them incessantly...it couldn't hurt to tax the minutes a little bit and using the taxes to help the less well-off portions of society.
Almost of the hotels we stayed at in Morocco had switches for the lights in the hallways. When you go out, you press the switch and after 10 or 15 minutes it turns off again. Many of the hotels had master switches in the rooms by the doors so that as you're leaving you can turn off all the electricity to your room. Many hotels in Egypt and Tunisia have it so that you have to insert your key card in a little slot by the door to make the electricity work in your room. All of those are great ideas to help save energy, none of which I have ever seen being used in the United States. I read on this trip the book Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert. Although Part I of the book is ridiculously boring, chock-full of scientific facts presented in a most un-appealing matter, Part II was marvelously eye-opening. Kolbert writes a lot about the real facts of global warming and what people can and desperately need to do to stop it. She also talks about the international efforts that have been made to try to avert climate change and I was truly astonished by how uncooperative the United States has been in the whole process. I recommend reading it (and skipping Part I).
Posted by ayah at 4:53 PM
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
NO, FEDERER, NOOO!!! (originally published July 8, 2008)
Roger Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in this year's Wimbledon final, the longest Wimbledon final in history. I couldn't even watch the match since none of the channels on the TV in our hotel in Fes were showing the match. When I saw the score online though I was actually upset. He was so close to a record-breaking 6 Wimbledon titles in a row. He's still my favorite though.
I also missed Williams day at Wimbledon. Serena and Venus Williams played each other again for the ladies' title. Although it happened before in '99 and '02 it was particularly remarkable this time since both of them have sunk considerably in the rankings in recent years and have just very recently started their climb back into the top 10 . Venus won and the two sisters returned later in the day to win the ladies' doubles title together. I, of course, saw none of it. :(
Posted by ayah at 5:31 PM
I also missed Williams day at Wimbledon. Serena and Venus Williams played each other again for the ladies' title. Although it happened before in '99 and '02 it was particularly remarkable this time since both of them have sunk considerably in the rankings in recent years and have just very recently started their climb back into the top 10 . Venus won and the two sisters returned later in the day to win the ladies' doubles title together. I, of course, saw none of it. :(
Posted by ayah at 5:31 PM
The White House and Marrakech (originally published July 3, 2008)
I don't know why but I've always thought of Morocco in kind of an exotic way. So far I've been surprised by how mundane it actually is. One thing though. In Egypt people refer to hooded galebeyyas as 'Moroccan galabeyyas' and I was surprised at how true that is. About half the women here wear these pointy hooded galabeyyas; I wonder why.
We spent our first night here in Casablanca. We arrived at around 4 pm and then found a hotel and slept until around 8 then went out. We walked around this pedestrian walkway they have there and ate delicious shawerma and ice cream and drank the best orange juice I've had in my life. It was fun. The square we sat in to eat was absolutely packed with people; a lot of them were just people there by themselves, sitting and watching other people. There were also a lot of little boys kicking around soccer balls, a lot of old people getting hit on the head with soccer balls and a LOT of beggars. We bought some really cheap pirated movies too. Most of the movies were in French though. They had the new Sex and the City movie but in French. Casablanca has a very frenchy feel to it. The streets are wide, dirty and cobble-stone just like the streets in Paris. The hotel we were staying in had a guest-use computer with internet in the lobby. I was going to use it to update yesterday but the keyboard is French and it took me way to long to type.
Yesterday morning we went to visit the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca. It's huge and really beautiful. It was finished in 1993 at a cost of half a billion dollars. It can hold 105,000 people for prayer (ahem...100,000 men and 5,000 women). It has the tallest minaret of any mosque in the world and their is a laser that shines from it at night 45km in the direction of Mecca. The mosque itself is the third largest in the world after the mosques in Mecca and Medina. It has tons of local artisan work on it. It's really a spectacular sight. After seeing the mosque we drove to Marrakech. We swam in the hotel pool and then headed out to 'jamaa el fnaa square' - the center of activity in Marrakech. There are snake charmers, story tellers, monkey trainers, man pretending to be women belly dancing, tons of food and drink stalls...The thing about it though is that it doesn't really seem like street performing. Most of the people didn't really have shows, they were just trying to get you to take a picture with/of them so they could ask for money. They didn't really do anything that deserved the money though. The strangest event of the night though: as we were walking by the mosque I saw one of my counselors from Spanish camp. I couldn't believe it. What are the chances that I'd see my Mexican counselor from Spanish camp in Morocco?? The hotel we're staying at here has free wireless although it rarely works. Oh! and here there are tons and tons of motorcycles and mopeds and the amazing thing is that women ride them too. All kinds of women I've seen lots of higab wearing, tank top wearing, niqab wearing women riding motorcyles, a sight I'd never see in Egypt.
I have to go to Rabat now...woohoo!
Posted by ayah at 4:29 AM 0 comments
We spent our first night here in Casablanca. We arrived at around 4 pm and then found a hotel and slept until around 8 then went out. We walked around this pedestrian walkway they have there and ate delicious shawerma and ice cream and drank the best orange juice I've had in my life. It was fun. The square we sat in to eat was absolutely packed with people; a lot of them were just people there by themselves, sitting and watching other people. There were also a lot of little boys kicking around soccer balls, a lot of old people getting hit on the head with soccer balls and a LOT of beggars. We bought some really cheap pirated movies too. Most of the movies were in French though. They had the new Sex and the City movie but in French. Casablanca has a very frenchy feel to it. The streets are wide, dirty and cobble-stone just like the streets in Paris. The hotel we were staying in had a guest-use computer with internet in the lobby. I was going to use it to update yesterday but the keyboard is French and it took me way to long to type.
Yesterday morning we went to visit the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca. It's huge and really beautiful. It was finished in 1993 at a cost of half a billion dollars. It can hold 105,000 people for prayer (ahem...100,000 men and 5,000 women). It has the tallest minaret of any mosque in the world and their is a laser that shines from it at night 45km in the direction of Mecca. The mosque itself is the third largest in the world after the mosques in Mecca and Medina. It has tons of local artisan work on it. It's really a spectacular sight. After seeing the mosque we drove to Marrakech. We swam in the hotel pool and then headed out to 'jamaa el fnaa square' - the center of activity in Marrakech. There are snake charmers, story tellers, monkey trainers, man pretending to be women belly dancing, tons of food and drink stalls...The thing about it though is that it doesn't really seem like street performing. Most of the people didn't really have shows, they were just trying to get you to take a picture with/of them so they could ask for money. They didn't really do anything that deserved the money though. The strangest event of the night though: as we were walking by the mosque I saw one of my counselors from Spanish camp. I couldn't believe it. What are the chances that I'd see my Mexican counselor from Spanish camp in Morocco?? The hotel we're staying at here has free wireless although it rarely works. Oh! and here there are tons and tons of motorcycles and mopeds and the amazing thing is that women ride them too. All kinds of women I've seen lots of higab wearing, tank top wearing, niqab wearing women riding motorcyles, a sight I'd never see in Egypt.
I have to go to Rabat now...woohoo!
Posted by ayah at 4:29 AM 0 comments
I don't quite get it (originally published June 2008)
Sarah Palin is a strong advocate of abstinence education and family values. Bristol Palin, 17 year-old unwed daughter of Sarah Palin, is five months pregnant. When it came time for Sarah Palin to marry husband Todd, she eloped, choosing not to include her family in her marriage.
A $100,000 investigation is currently in progress in order to determine whether Sarah Palin's decision to fire Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner was an abuse of power. Suspicions arose when it surfaced that the Commissioner was fired shortly after refusing to fire a state trooper who happened to have recently gone through a messy divorce with Sarah Palin's sister.
The extent of Sarah Palin's political experience is under two years as governor of, as John McCain put it, the largest state in our union. That largest state is, of course...Alaska. That's not to say she is experienced; As McCain will gladly tell you, she has plenty of experience with the PTA and with selling state planes on Ebay. How about foreign policy experience, you ask? She has been out of the country. Once.
Out of all of the millions of Republicans who live in this country, John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate for the 2008 presidential election.
I'd like to clarify two things. First, I have nothing against Sarah Palin or her daughter as people; I just don't quite understand how McCain would see Palin as an asset to his ticket. Second, I'm not angry with McCain's choice of a running mate; I never wanted him to win.
A $100,000 investigation is currently in progress in order to determine whether Sarah Palin's decision to fire Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner was an abuse of power. Suspicions arose when it surfaced that the Commissioner was fired shortly after refusing to fire a state trooper who happened to have recently gone through a messy divorce with Sarah Palin's sister.
The extent of Sarah Palin's political experience is under two years as governor of, as John McCain put it, the largest state in our union. That largest state is, of course...Alaska. That's not to say she is experienced; As McCain will gladly tell you, she has plenty of experience with the PTA and with selling state planes on Ebay. How about foreign policy experience, you ask? She has been out of the country. Once.
Out of all of the millions of Republicans who live in this country, John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate for the 2008 presidential election.
I'd like to clarify two things. First, I have nothing against Sarah Palin or her daughter as people; I just don't quite understand how McCain would see Palin as an asset to his ticket. Second, I'm not angry with McCain's choice of a running mate; I never wanted him to win.
Just Some Kimo-isms (originally published June 2008)
"No, Teta! Superman is NOT Muslim.""Girls don't know how to play baseball."After asking for the rest of my mom's can of soda, "Well. It's almost gone but a little goes a looong way."
Posted by ayah at 3:39 PM 0 comments
Posted by ayah at 3:39 PM 0 comments
Monday, September 7, 2009
We Went to Neeja (originally published June 30, 2008)
Last week in Marsa Matruh Kimo kept telling me that we were going to 'take a plane to Neeja'. Finally I decided to correct him. "Tu-nisia", I said. He replied, "yes i know..we're going to Neeja". It took a while but finally he understood that the name of the country actually has a to sound in it.
Tunisia is a cool country. There isn't really all that much to see touristically speaking but it has a nice vibe. Although it's 98% Muslim, it's a lot more liberal than the other Muslim countries I've been to. Not many women wear a higab and they seem to be allowed to have any job unlike places like Egypt. Despite the fact that women dress less conservatively here, there is virtually no harrassment in the streets (unlike Egypt). They're also really fashionable here. My mom and I starting noticing this in the airport. We could tell the Egyptians from the Tunisians by how they dressed and wore their makeup. Egyptians try to be fashionable too it's just that they often end up looking tacky. Tunisians are really fashionable. They apply their makeup nicely, cut their hair in cute ways, wear appropriately fitting, chic clothing. Which reminds me, Tunisians seem to be a lot less brand obsessed than Egyptians. In Egypt there are fake brand name products all over the place and walking down the street you see people wearing all sorts of 'Gucci' belts, 'Prada' shirts and 'Chanel' purses. Here that's not really the case. People are comfortable wearing fashionable clothing with no visible brand name.
My dad pointed out to me on our first day here that Tunisia seems a lot less Americanized than other places we've been to. After a while, I realized how right he is. During our stay here I did not see a single McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Chili's or any other American restaurant. This is the first country I've ever been to without seeing a McDonald's. Maybe it's because of the heavy French influence. It's crazy how French everything here is. There are sidewalk cafes everywhere serving crepes and paninis, baguettes are basically the only type of bread people eat, everyone mixes a lot of French into their Arabic while speaking, signs everywhere are written always in French, sometimes in Arabic...Oh..and speaking of Arabic. Their Arabic here is really hard to understand. It hardly even sounds like Arabic in some regions of the country. But back to French
We flew into Tunis and drove to Hammamet on our first day here. Hammamet is basically a resort city. Our hotel had a nice pool, tons of food (all-inclusive...) and clean rooms. Oh..rooms..they didn't have tvs in the rooms. If you wanted one you could get it for 5 dinars a night. I've never seen that in a hotel before. and the bathtub. The bathtub was really high off the ground which ended up being the case at all the hotels we stayed at in Tunisia. When I was getting out the first time I took a shower I was in a rush so I forgot how high it was and smashed my knee against the rim. still hurts. The first night here we just went to the beach for a couple of hours. The second day we swam in the pool in the morning and then drove back to Tunis and walked around the market here for a while. The market, like all the markets we went to in Tunisia, is inside the ancient Medina, a big area surrounded by high walls. After walking around for a while we went to Carthage, an ancient city that was built first by the Carthagians (something like that..) and then destroyed and rebuilt by the Romans and then (mostly) destroyed by vandals. We didn't actually go in but we saw it from outside; it looked pretty neat.
On our third day we drove to Gabes, stopping on the way at Sousse and Sfax. At both Sousse and Sfax we walked around the markets for a while before moving on. We bought some delicious peaches...I don't really remember much else. Our hotel in Gabes was funny. It had doors all over the place. There was the door we entered to get in the room. When you walk through that door you find a hallway. On the left hand side there are two more doors, both of which lead to the same room that contains three beds, two sinks, two closets and a tv. On the right there is a door that has a bathtub and a sink behind it and straight ahead there is a door that has a room with just a toilet in it. It was the oddest set-up ever. On our fourth day in Tunisia we first ate the hotel's breakfast (which consisted of bread and butter and jam...) and then started our day's trek. We went to Matmata which is this town that was built under the rock. It was really cool. We went inside someone's house and got to see how they live and stuff. It was a little strange; as you walk along the road all of the house owners try to wave you in to come look at their homes in the hopes of receiving tips from you. Matmata also served as Luke Skywalker's home planet in the Star Wars movies. I haven't seen them so that wasn't as exciting for me as it was for a lot of other tourists...After Matmata we continued onto Medenine where we saw one of the best preserved Ksars in Tunisia. A ksar is an ancient grain storage thingy with lots of little rooms. All of the rooms at the ksar in Medenine have been converted into souveneir shops and we were the only tourists there when we visited so all of the shop owners were just staring at us. It was cool...After Medenine we continued to Jerba, an island just off the coast. It's really pretty and it has a lot of religious importance. We got there pretty late though so we just ate and walked around for a while before driving back to Gabes to stay at our peculiar hotel for another night. We got there at about 1 am, absolutely exhausted.
On our fifth day (today) we drove back to Tunis, stopping at Kairouan on the way. Kairouan has the Great Mosque, the oldest mosque in North America, built only about 25 years after the start of Islam. My parents were pretty excited for it because apparently they learned a lot about it in history class in Egyptian schools but it was actually kind of disappointing. There was nobody there and all the streets around it were covered in garbage and stuff. It closes at 2 for foreigners (really just Western foreigners) and we were there at about 3. Maybe if we had been there earlier or at a time of prayer it would have been more lively. We also saw a really ancient well in Kairouan that is powered by a camel. Kimo loved that. As we were leaving that little attraction, located in the center of Kairouan's market, we stopped at a shop and bought this sweet shirt for me. When we got back to Tunis we went back to the market here to buy this other sweet shirt for me that we saw on the first day. The first shirt is turquoise and the other is white with turqoise fabric stuff on it. They don't anything alike though and, seeing as the color turqoise is everywhere in Tunisia, I thought I'd take the chance to add a little of the color to my wardrobe. Also, on the first day my mom bought me this bracelet with turquoise beads..now I'll have something to wear it with..ha! We had some time to spare and Tunisia is supposedly famous for henna so I decided to get a henna tattoo. The stuff the guy did the tattoo with wasn't really henna; I'm not sure what it was. Maybe it had some henna in it? Anyway, hopefully whatever he drew it in lasts for a while.
As you can probably tell from the very poor quality of writing in this post, I'm pretty tired from 5 days of hardcore traveling. Nevertheless, I had to take advantage of the free wireless in the hotel here. Tomorrow we wake up bright and early to fly to Casablanca...woohoo!
Posted by ayah at 5:23 PM 0 comments
Tunisia is a cool country. There isn't really all that much to see touristically speaking but it has a nice vibe. Although it's 98% Muslim, it's a lot more liberal than the other Muslim countries I've been to. Not many women wear a higab and they seem to be allowed to have any job unlike places like Egypt. Despite the fact that women dress less conservatively here, there is virtually no harrassment in the streets (unlike Egypt). They're also really fashionable here. My mom and I starting noticing this in the airport. We could tell the Egyptians from the Tunisians by how they dressed and wore their makeup. Egyptians try to be fashionable too it's just that they often end up looking tacky. Tunisians are really fashionable. They apply their makeup nicely, cut their hair in cute ways, wear appropriately fitting, chic clothing. Which reminds me, Tunisians seem to be a lot less brand obsessed than Egyptians. In Egypt there are fake brand name products all over the place and walking down the street you see people wearing all sorts of 'Gucci' belts, 'Prada' shirts and 'Chanel' purses. Here that's not really the case. People are comfortable wearing fashionable clothing with no visible brand name.
My dad pointed out to me on our first day here that Tunisia seems a lot less Americanized than other places we've been to. After a while, I realized how right he is. During our stay here I did not see a single McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Chili's or any other American restaurant. This is the first country I've ever been to without seeing a McDonald's. Maybe it's because of the heavy French influence. It's crazy how French everything here is. There are sidewalk cafes everywhere serving crepes and paninis, baguettes are basically the only type of bread people eat, everyone mixes a lot of French into their Arabic while speaking, signs everywhere are written always in French, sometimes in Arabic...Oh..and speaking of Arabic. Their Arabic here is really hard to understand. It hardly even sounds like Arabic in some regions of the country. But back to French
We flew into Tunis and drove to Hammamet on our first day here. Hammamet is basically a resort city. Our hotel had a nice pool, tons of food (all-inclusive...) and clean rooms. Oh..rooms..they didn't have tvs in the rooms. If you wanted one you could get it for 5 dinars a night. I've never seen that in a hotel before. and the bathtub. The bathtub was really high off the ground which ended up being the case at all the hotels we stayed at in Tunisia. When I was getting out the first time I took a shower I was in a rush so I forgot how high it was and smashed my knee against the rim. still hurts. The first night here we just went to the beach for a couple of hours. The second day we swam in the pool in the morning and then drove back to Tunis and walked around the market here for a while. The market, like all the markets we went to in Tunisia, is inside the ancient Medina, a big area surrounded by high walls. After walking around for a while we went to Carthage, an ancient city that was built first by the Carthagians (something like that..) and then destroyed and rebuilt by the Romans and then (mostly) destroyed by vandals. We didn't actually go in but we saw it from outside; it looked pretty neat.
On our third day we drove to Gabes, stopping on the way at Sousse and Sfax. At both Sousse and Sfax we walked around the markets for a while before moving on. We bought some delicious peaches...I don't really remember much else. Our hotel in Gabes was funny. It had doors all over the place. There was the door we entered to get in the room. When you walk through that door you find a hallway. On the left hand side there are two more doors, both of which lead to the same room that contains three beds, two sinks, two closets and a tv. On the right there is a door that has a bathtub and a sink behind it and straight ahead there is a door that has a room with just a toilet in it. It was the oddest set-up ever. On our fourth day in Tunisia we first ate the hotel's breakfast (which consisted of bread and butter and jam...) and then started our day's trek. We went to Matmata which is this town that was built under the rock. It was really cool. We went inside someone's house and got to see how they live and stuff. It was a little strange; as you walk along the road all of the house owners try to wave you in to come look at their homes in the hopes of receiving tips from you. Matmata also served as Luke Skywalker's home planet in the Star Wars movies. I haven't seen them so that wasn't as exciting for me as it was for a lot of other tourists...After Matmata we continued onto Medenine where we saw one of the best preserved Ksars in Tunisia. A ksar is an ancient grain storage thingy with lots of little rooms. All of the rooms at the ksar in Medenine have been converted into souveneir shops and we were the only tourists there when we visited so all of the shop owners were just staring at us. It was cool...After Medenine we continued to Jerba, an island just off the coast. It's really pretty and it has a lot of religious importance. We got there pretty late though so we just ate and walked around for a while before driving back to Gabes to stay at our peculiar hotel for another night. We got there at about 1 am, absolutely exhausted.
On our fifth day (today) we drove back to Tunis, stopping at Kairouan on the way. Kairouan has the Great Mosque, the oldest mosque in North America, built only about 25 years after the start of Islam. My parents were pretty excited for it because apparently they learned a lot about it in history class in Egyptian schools but it was actually kind of disappointing. There was nobody there and all the streets around it were covered in garbage and stuff. It closes at 2 for foreigners (really just Western foreigners) and we were there at about 3. Maybe if we had been there earlier or at a time of prayer it would have been more lively. We also saw a really ancient well in Kairouan that is powered by a camel. Kimo loved that. As we were leaving that little attraction, located in the center of Kairouan's market, we stopped at a shop and bought this sweet shirt for me. When we got back to Tunis we went back to the market here to buy this other sweet shirt for me that we saw on the first day. The first shirt is turquoise and the other is white with turqoise fabric stuff on it. They don't anything alike though and, seeing as the color turqoise is everywhere in Tunisia, I thought I'd take the chance to add a little of the color to my wardrobe. Also, on the first day my mom bought me this bracelet with turquoise beads..now I'll have something to wear it with..ha! We had some time to spare and Tunisia is supposedly famous for henna so I decided to get a henna tattoo. The stuff the guy did the tattoo with wasn't really henna; I'm not sure what it was. Maybe it had some henna in it? Anyway, hopefully whatever he drew it in lasts for a while.
As you can probably tell from the very poor quality of writing in this post, I'm pretty tired from 5 days of hardcore traveling. Nevertheless, I had to take advantage of the free wireless in the hotel here. Tomorrow we wake up bright and early to fly to Casablanca...woohoo!
Posted by ayah at 5:23 PM 0 comments
Home Sweet Cairo for a day (originally published June 25, 2008)
I was back in Cairo today. It was great. I met Basma early and we went to fill out some paperwork at AUC and ran into her philosophy professor again. I don't think I've mentioned him before but we run into him basically every time we go to AUC now. He always talks on and on about some random topic. Today it was his troubles with getting money to the sick mother of his son in Iran. He's really actually quite a friendly guy; it's just that any encounter with him is sure to last at least 2o minutes. After our little chat we went to get fiteer from the place by Greek campus on Falaky street. It's kind of our little ritual because we always used to go during the semester. Fiteer is fried dough that is served with honey or sugar usually, kind of like a crepe. It tasted so good when we first got it but now, especially because of the summer heat, it's kinda lost its magic. We still get it though because it's tradition. :D After fiteer we went to Costa to escape the heat for a while. After spending about a half hour trying to get their free wireless to work (we ultimately failed), I went over to the Greek campus to ask my mom something quickly and I ran into Laura! It was terrific. Basma left to get ready for her cousin's wedding and I hung out with Laura a bit. We had some fun times trying to figure out how to make her new cell phone function properly. It was good to catch up with her again; I can never get enough of Laura. :D
After I left Laura to tackle her mounds of ALI (Arabic Language Institute) homework, I headed over to Arkadia mall to meet Mona and Maha, my cousins. We walked around for a while. A lot of the stores have neon green and yellow shirts. My cousins pointed that out to me...it's crazy...yellow and green are everywhere. The sisters I met in Marsa told me they noticed that too...everyone is wearing yellow and green. Rahma decided that it must be part of a long-term plan to change the colors of the Egyptian flag...Mona says her aunt thinks that Egypt is just envying Brazil...who knows? At the 2.5 pound store I bought a wind up truck for Kimo. On the package it said "LORDLY FOR FRESHLY NOTION" in one of those big stars that usually says something like "New and Improved" or "Sleek new design" in it. If anyone has any clue what lordly for freshly notion is supposed to mean, please, by all means, share. After we were done walking around we sat in this cafe that overlooks the Nile. The view was nice, the drinks: not so much. I got lemon juice that tasted like water with maybe a couple of drops of lemon in it...It said on the menu that it was 8 pounds but the guy charged us 11, saying that the prices had changed since the menu was printed. Considering all of the prices on the entire menu were whited out and had different prices written, I doubt that, but...hey! What could I do? While we were sitting a couple came and sat at the table next to us. As soon as she sat down the woman pulled a small furry white dog out of her purse. Yes. That's right..out of her purse, Paris Hilton style. The guy then proceeded to take a very long series of pictures of 'Pooky'. It was hard not to laugh.
I needed to give the taxi driver on the way home 7 pounds but the smallest change I had was 20. He didn't have change so I went to the stores around to see if anyone could give me change for my 20. It took me about 6 or 7 minutes and 8 stores to finally find one that had change. It's crazy how hard it is for people to give you change here. It's really common for even big stores to not have change for you when you buy something. I had the same problem this morning. I bought a recharge card for my phone for 10 pounds and gave the woman a 50. She left the store and came back around 5 minutes later with my change. About the only people who have change on a regular basis are the microbus drivers after they've been working for a few hours and the metro station.
Now I'm home. It's almost midnight and I have to pack...again. We're going to Tunisia and Morocco for a few weeks, about a week and a half in each country. I'm really excited. If nothing else (which hopefully won't be the case), it's a chance to get the coins from two more countries to add to my coin collection.
Posted by ayah at 3:16 PM 0 comments
Higab Hypocrisy (originally published June 24, 2008)
The other day I was walking with Basma downtown and I saw a veiled girl wearing a shirt dress that went just about to her knee walking holding hands with a guy. Under the shirt dress she was wearing spandex capris that went about to the top of her calves which were bare. I pointed the girl out to Basma although at the time I couldn't explain to her why. I've obviously seen similar things before. Veiled girls wearing miniskirts with spandex pants, veiled girls wearing cleavage-bearing or short-sleeved shirts, veiled girls wearing skin tight clothing that shows their every curve...Everytime I see things like that I am slightly annoyed. I used to think that the source of my annoyance was the hypocrisy of the girls. They wear a higab to symbolize their modesty yet dress unmodestly.
I realized when I was trying to explain to Basma why I pointed the girl out to her that I was being hypocritical. I complain about how Egyptians have strict rules aobut how people should act and don't know how to handle anyone who deviates from those rules yet that is exactly what I am doing when I criticize veiled women/girls for showing skin. I have created two categories in my mind into which I place all of the Egyptian females I encounter. There are the veiled women who cover their arms, legs, hair, chests and usually their necks and there are the unveiled women for whom it is acceptable to wear a wide range fo clothing including low cut/short-sleeve t-shirts and capris. When someone deviates away from those two rigid categories, I criticize them. Why do I think that it is more modest/decent/proper/respectable/acceptable to cover your arms and not your hair than to cover your hair and not your arms. Why does a girl who wants to dress more modestly have to follow a certain pattern-legs, arms, then hair?
I guess then that the annoying part of this for me really isn't the fact that girls/women wear a higab while showing skin but rather society's perceptions of ladies who do so. No matter what I wear in Cairo I get stared at; that is just a fact of life for any female in Cairo. The 'harassment' by men in universal and virtually unavoidable. This is not true of the women. On the women's car in the metro, women always stare at me, give me piercing looks as if to shame me and occasionally they even say something to me aqbout veiling/being modest or mutter a "tsk, tsk" as I pass by. Veiled girls on the other hand wear whatever and they are left alone by other women. I have seen girls wearing very low cut shirsts, some that even show cleaqvage, with a higab tied Spanish style but they get no attention from the other women on the metro. I on the other hand, even if I'm wearing long, loose pants and a long-sleeved shirt whose neckline is literally up to my neck, am the object of disapproving glares. It is as if there is a some kind of code among women: if you wear a higab you are a good person and deserve respect, if not...
All of this was a long tirade toward my argument that, for many, the higab really isn't a sign of religion at all right now. There are certainly some for whom it is. For them, the higab is the final touch on their modest dress. Others wear the higab yet wear unmodest clothing for this culture. Nevertheless they appear more religious in the eyes of society than their modestly dressed, non-veiled counterparts. It is as if society is telling girls that the key to being a better person/better Muslim is their decision to wear a higab. To me it seems that, for many (but certainly not all) women in a society that puts (or at least claims to put) a very high value on religion, the higab is a tool to appear religious rather than to actually be religious.
Posted by ayah at 4:44 PM
I realized when I was trying to explain to Basma why I pointed the girl out to her that I was being hypocritical. I complain about how Egyptians have strict rules aobut how people should act and don't know how to handle anyone who deviates from those rules yet that is exactly what I am doing when I criticize veiled women/girls for showing skin. I have created two categories in my mind into which I place all of the Egyptian females I encounter. There are the veiled women who cover their arms, legs, hair, chests and usually their necks and there are the unveiled women for whom it is acceptable to wear a wide range fo clothing including low cut/short-sleeve t-shirts and capris. When someone deviates away from those two rigid categories, I criticize them. Why do I think that it is more modest/decent/proper/respectable/acceptable to cover your arms and not your hair than to cover your hair and not your arms. Why does a girl who wants to dress more modestly have to follow a certain pattern-legs, arms, then hair?
I guess then that the annoying part of this for me really isn't the fact that girls/women wear a higab while showing skin but rather society's perceptions of ladies who do so. No matter what I wear in Cairo I get stared at; that is just a fact of life for any female in Cairo. The 'harassment' by men in universal and virtually unavoidable. This is not true of the women. On the women's car in the metro, women always stare at me, give me piercing looks as if to shame me and occasionally they even say something to me aqbout veiling/being modest or mutter a "tsk, tsk" as I pass by. Veiled girls on the other hand wear whatever and they are left alone by other women. I have seen girls wearing very low cut shirsts, some that even show cleaqvage, with a higab tied Spanish style but they get no attention from the other women on the metro. I on the other hand, even if I'm wearing long, loose pants and a long-sleeved shirt whose neckline is literally up to my neck, am the object of disapproving glares. It is as if there is a some kind of code among women: if you wear a higab you are a good person and deserve respect, if not...
All of this was a long tirade toward my argument that, for many, the higab really isn't a sign of religion at all right now. There are certainly some for whom it is. For them, the higab is the final touch on their modest dress. Others wear the higab yet wear unmodest clothing for this culture. Nevertheless they appear more religious in the eyes of society than their modestly dressed, non-veiled counterparts. It is as if society is telling girls that the key to being a better person/better Muslim is their decision to wear a higab. To me it seems that, for many (but certainly not all) women in a society that puts (or at least claims to put) a very high value on religion, the higab is a tool to appear religious rather than to actually be religious.
Posted by ayah at 4:44 PM
What I should have started doing a while ago (originally posted June 18, 2008)
It would have made sense to start blogging before I came to Egypt for the semester and not after, but I've never been one for logic before the fact. So now, here I am writing about the past semester I've spent here in deep retrospect and all at once. First, some general observations.
The first thing I noticed at AUC was the number of smokers. Basically everyone at AUC smokes. It is the cool thing to do. Having lived my entire life in the United States, this was surprising to me. At home, smoking has long outgrown its coolness. The vast majority of social groups look at smoking as dumb rather than cool, something for the social rejects. Not at AUC. Here people sit on the 'plat' steps, the cool place to be, smoking their cigarettes and giving disapproving looks at everyone who passes. At first, I figured that it was just the people who sat in the places I could immediately see who smoked. I figured that I was just hanging around the smokers' spot. If I moved to other parts of campus, I'd find the groups among which smoking was uncool. That didn't happen. Day after day I was shocked at the kinds of people I'd see smoking. A highly studious guy from my Psychology class. A fully veiled, abeya wearing girl. A very nicely dressed girl with pearly white teeth and freshly done hair. It took me weeks before I realized that, at AUC, it doesn't matter your social class: smoking is just plain cool. I even noticed that a large number of American students there smoked. I was tempted to ask them if they started smoking while in Egypt but refrained because of the obvious rudeness of the question. There is a large percentage of people who smoke in Egypt but the percentage at AUC is much greater. My friend Yara, a recent transfer to AUC from fellow private, English language university MIU (Misr International), told me that she too was shocked when she came to AUC. At MIU, she said, smoking was popular among the guys but, although there were girls who smoked, there numbers were very few and they were looked down upon by the rest of student body. It's as though smoking is a method used by AUC's ridiculously rich student body to distinguish them class-wise. It was hard for me, the long time anti-smoking coalition member, to just settle down and watch but eventually I barely even noticed the cigarettes in my friends' hands.
The other main thing I noticed: the fashion. The AUC population is consumed by it. On my first day, still friendless, I sat in a chair in the main courtyard and watched the people go by. The guys were almost all in jeans and sweaters. 99% of the girls sported one of two fashions. There was the skinny jeans with flats look and the boots on top of jeans look. The overwhelming unanimity of those fashions made anyone wearing flared jeans stick out like a football player among ballerinas. On that particular day, I was wearing very wide-legged jeans and even me, usually pretty oblivious to fashion, felt out of place. By the end of the week, the fashion had broadened a little bit since people were no longer wearing their favorite outfits. Even so, I was never anywhere close to unconscious of my appearance and the appearance of my clothing while at AUC. People treated coming to college like the big social event in their life, and, because of the way Egyptian society is, for many of them it probably was. The Study Abroad students with their loose-fitting sweat pants, t-shirts and sloppily tied up pony-tails create a sharp contrast with the Egyptian students, with their meticulously applied make-up, beautifully done hair and clothes that I would probably choose for interviews. I appreciated it really. I liked that college was something you get ready for and not something you roll out of bed and stumble into. It made education feel more important. Oh..then there's the bag thing. I happened to bring a messenger bag with me to Egypt rather than a traditional back-pack and several of my Egyptian friends at AUC commented on that. I remember Yara saying that she thought it was peculiar how so many Study Abroad students wore backpacks. 'Don't they know they look silly?', she said. Mahinur one day told me, "the best thing about you is that you're not like other study abroad students. You don't carry a stupid backpack. I hate how they walk around carrying those backpacks as if we were in school or something." It was true. Find someone with a backpack and there's a 99% chance they're an international student. Where then, do they put their books, their notebooks, their pens? Well, for starters, very few full-time students at AUC buy the books. They photocopy the necessary pages. Those who do buy the books though are very unlikely to bring them to college. Why, after all, would they need them there? Few of the Egyptian students I met do their studying on campus. They come to socialize with their friends and go to class (if they feel like it) and go home to do their work. Notebooks and pens some girls carry in the ridiculously oversized purses that many girls at AUC carry. Others just ask for a piece of paper and pen from the person sitting next to them in every class and keep the assorted pieces of paper in their purses. The guys are a whole other story. Guys clearly don't carry purses and backpacks aren't cool so the solution? Just don't bring anything to school that doesn't fit in pockets. That's not entirely true. I did see some guys carrying around a notebook but many of the guys in my classes just didn't take notes unless the professor explicitly said they should and then they'd borrow a pen and paper.
Mmm..and attendance. All of my classes at AUC and, from what I hear from my friends, most of the classes at AUC have strict attendance policies. The 2% penalty for each class missed that my Anthropology and Media professors impose is apparently not rare. The strange thing is, people still frequently miss class. When I'd ask my friends why they missed classes they'd usually tell me they were tired, not in the mood, didn't do an assignment due that day or just wanted to hang out with their friends. Yes. I'm not kidding. On several occasions people told me that they skipped a class because they were having too much fun with their friends to let the loss of a couple of percentage points in a class take them away from their fun. This is in sharp contrast to what I found to be the main goal of many AUC students: to get good grades. Many of the questions people asked in classes went along the lines of 'professor, how will this information show up in the exam?'. In classes, not I suppose too different from anywhere else, students did only the things that would clearly contribute to a higher grade in the class. My Anthropology class, which had a percentage of the grade dependant on participation, was much more lively than my Psychology class which had none. Activity on my Anthropology class blog increased greatly after it was announced that there was a possibility of extra credit for those who were active on it. When my Media professor offered extra credit for attending an event he announced in class about half the class showed up as opposed to the one or two who showed up when no extra credit was offered. To be fair, this could have been just because all my classes were introductory courses that most people took only to fulfill core requirements and had no real interest in them. Many of my study abroad friends said that people were very involved and passinoate about their upper-level courses.
In Egypt, it rains. Sorry but that's for Laila; she was convinced that it never rains here, but a large part of February was rainy, so...
Being a girl in Egypt is hard. Guys have it so much easier. They walk around, do whatever they want and they're just left alone. As a girl you're constantly scrutinized, stared at, talked to. It's not hard to ignore. I just don't pay attention to the looks I get and what people say. It just bothers me that society has just accepted that things are that way. Girls are second-class citizens who deserve to be annoyed for the mere fact that they dare to walk outside. I rarely walk around with guys here, but when Ashraf was visiting I obviously took him around. I was surprised to notice that nobody said anything to me when I walked with him. It's like society is trying to make girls feel as though, without a man, they just don't belong. On a day-to-day basis I don't actually let what anybody says to me on the street bother me at all but on a matter of principle it is annoying. Why is society that way?
People here are, in almost every respect, all alike. They can spot someone who doesn't belong from a mile away. Here, someone who looks different doesn't pass by just like any other in a busy crowd. No. They are stared at. They are approached. They are asked questions. Some foreigners are annoyed by this. Many others take it as welcoming. The funy thing is that, from my appearance, people can't tell I'm different. My blood is Egyptian and so I look the part. When people hear me speak any more than a few sentences though they can tell I have an accent and imperfect grammar. Some people are blunt in their curiosity. 'why is your arabic broken?', 'is one of your parents foreign?'. Others just give me odd looks and try to size me up, trying to decide whether my broken speech is due to some disability or if I'm drunk. It's amusing. When people ask me where I'm from, I tell them Egypt. They normally continue to prod trying to figure out where my accent comes from but I only give in and tell them if I really like them. The best is when I'm with my friend Basma. She too is Egyptian-American. She was raised mostly in the US but now she lives here again. People always look so confused as to why we, two Egyptian looking girls, would be speaking English to each other. Once, we were in a taxi with her sister Abir, the driver kept asking us where we were from. We said Egypt over and over until finally he got frustrated and asked us why then we were speaking English. We asked him why not. He looked confused and then I told Basma to say we were practicing for our English test the next day. She did and the guy looked so confused. It was absolutely hilarious. It's just interesting to see how people handle difference here. Anyone who doesn't follow the strict 'foreigner' or 'egyptian' molds they have for people just baffles them.
I think that's a big part in why people have such a hard time placing me here. Some, like my friend Ann, are quick to say that I'm American. I've lived my whole life in America so how could I be anything other than American. Others, like my friend Mahinur, say without thinking that I'm Egyptian. My parents are fully-Egyptian; how could I be anything else? The funny thing is people seem to have a genuine need to place me in just one of those categories. Just as people expect me to give a straightforward answer when they ask me if I like Egypt or the United States better. Of course there are aspects to Egypt that I like better and aspects to the US I like better. People are never satisfied with that answer; they take it to be a polite way of saying I like the United States better which is really not at all true. In the same way, people can't seem to accept that I'm Egyptian-American. I am both. There are aspects of my personality that are very reflective of my upbringing by Egyptian parents and there are aspects that clearly evidence the years I've lived in the US. According to Basma, that is exactly what being American is all about. I'm not like other Americans but that's the whole point of America. People are different. Difference is what makes up the country. I suppose I agree with that to a certain extent. Having a mixture of cultures is what America's all about but, still, I feel as though there are people who identify completely with being 'American' and I just don't...for now Egyptian-American will do.
The first thing I noticed at AUC was the number of smokers. Basically everyone at AUC smokes. It is the cool thing to do. Having lived my entire life in the United States, this was surprising to me. At home, smoking has long outgrown its coolness. The vast majority of social groups look at smoking as dumb rather than cool, something for the social rejects. Not at AUC. Here people sit on the 'plat' steps, the cool place to be, smoking their cigarettes and giving disapproving looks at everyone who passes. At first, I figured that it was just the people who sat in the places I could immediately see who smoked. I figured that I was just hanging around the smokers' spot. If I moved to other parts of campus, I'd find the groups among which smoking was uncool. That didn't happen. Day after day I was shocked at the kinds of people I'd see smoking. A highly studious guy from my Psychology class. A fully veiled, abeya wearing girl. A very nicely dressed girl with pearly white teeth and freshly done hair. It took me weeks before I realized that, at AUC, it doesn't matter your social class: smoking is just plain cool. I even noticed that a large number of American students there smoked. I was tempted to ask them if they started smoking while in Egypt but refrained because of the obvious rudeness of the question. There is a large percentage of people who smoke in Egypt but the percentage at AUC is much greater. My friend Yara, a recent transfer to AUC from fellow private, English language university MIU (Misr International), told me that she too was shocked when she came to AUC. At MIU, she said, smoking was popular among the guys but, although there were girls who smoked, there numbers were very few and they were looked down upon by the rest of student body. It's as though smoking is a method used by AUC's ridiculously rich student body to distinguish them class-wise. It was hard for me, the long time anti-smoking coalition member, to just settle down and watch but eventually I barely even noticed the cigarettes in my friends' hands.
The other main thing I noticed: the fashion. The AUC population is consumed by it. On my first day, still friendless, I sat in a chair in the main courtyard and watched the people go by. The guys were almost all in jeans and sweaters. 99% of the girls sported one of two fashions. There was the skinny jeans with flats look and the boots on top of jeans look. The overwhelming unanimity of those fashions made anyone wearing flared jeans stick out like a football player among ballerinas. On that particular day, I was wearing very wide-legged jeans and even me, usually pretty oblivious to fashion, felt out of place. By the end of the week, the fashion had broadened a little bit since people were no longer wearing their favorite outfits. Even so, I was never anywhere close to unconscious of my appearance and the appearance of my clothing while at AUC. People treated coming to college like the big social event in their life, and, because of the way Egyptian society is, for many of them it probably was. The Study Abroad students with their loose-fitting sweat pants, t-shirts and sloppily tied up pony-tails create a sharp contrast with the Egyptian students, with their meticulously applied make-up, beautifully done hair and clothes that I would probably choose for interviews. I appreciated it really. I liked that college was something you get ready for and not something you roll out of bed and stumble into. It made education feel more important. Oh..then there's the bag thing. I happened to bring a messenger bag with me to Egypt rather than a traditional back-pack and several of my Egyptian friends at AUC commented on that. I remember Yara saying that she thought it was peculiar how so many Study Abroad students wore backpacks. 'Don't they know they look silly?', she said. Mahinur one day told me, "the best thing about you is that you're not like other study abroad students. You don't carry a stupid backpack. I hate how they walk around carrying those backpacks as if we were in school or something." It was true. Find someone with a backpack and there's a 99% chance they're an international student. Where then, do they put their books, their notebooks, their pens? Well, for starters, very few full-time students at AUC buy the books. They photocopy the necessary pages. Those who do buy the books though are very unlikely to bring them to college. Why, after all, would they need them there? Few of the Egyptian students I met do their studying on campus. They come to socialize with their friends and go to class (if they feel like it) and go home to do their work. Notebooks and pens some girls carry in the ridiculously oversized purses that many girls at AUC carry. Others just ask for a piece of paper and pen from the person sitting next to them in every class and keep the assorted pieces of paper in their purses. The guys are a whole other story. Guys clearly don't carry purses and backpacks aren't cool so the solution? Just don't bring anything to school that doesn't fit in pockets. That's not entirely true. I did see some guys carrying around a notebook but many of the guys in my classes just didn't take notes unless the professor explicitly said they should and then they'd borrow a pen and paper.
Mmm..and attendance. All of my classes at AUC and, from what I hear from my friends, most of the classes at AUC have strict attendance policies. The 2% penalty for each class missed that my Anthropology and Media professors impose is apparently not rare. The strange thing is, people still frequently miss class. When I'd ask my friends why they missed classes they'd usually tell me they were tired, not in the mood, didn't do an assignment due that day or just wanted to hang out with their friends. Yes. I'm not kidding. On several occasions people told me that they skipped a class because they were having too much fun with their friends to let the loss of a couple of percentage points in a class take them away from their fun. This is in sharp contrast to what I found to be the main goal of many AUC students: to get good grades. Many of the questions people asked in classes went along the lines of 'professor, how will this information show up in the exam?'. In classes, not I suppose too different from anywhere else, students did only the things that would clearly contribute to a higher grade in the class. My Anthropology class, which had a percentage of the grade dependant on participation, was much more lively than my Psychology class which had none. Activity on my Anthropology class blog increased greatly after it was announced that there was a possibility of extra credit for those who were active on it. When my Media professor offered extra credit for attending an event he announced in class about half the class showed up as opposed to the one or two who showed up when no extra credit was offered. To be fair, this could have been just because all my classes were introductory courses that most people took only to fulfill core requirements and had no real interest in them. Many of my study abroad friends said that people were very involved and passinoate about their upper-level courses.
In Egypt, it rains. Sorry but that's for Laila; she was convinced that it never rains here, but a large part of February was rainy, so...
Being a girl in Egypt is hard. Guys have it so much easier. They walk around, do whatever they want and they're just left alone. As a girl you're constantly scrutinized, stared at, talked to. It's not hard to ignore. I just don't pay attention to the looks I get and what people say. It just bothers me that society has just accepted that things are that way. Girls are second-class citizens who deserve to be annoyed for the mere fact that they dare to walk outside. I rarely walk around with guys here, but when Ashraf was visiting I obviously took him around. I was surprised to notice that nobody said anything to me when I walked with him. It's like society is trying to make girls feel as though, without a man, they just don't belong. On a day-to-day basis I don't actually let what anybody says to me on the street bother me at all but on a matter of principle it is annoying. Why is society that way?
People here are, in almost every respect, all alike. They can spot someone who doesn't belong from a mile away. Here, someone who looks different doesn't pass by just like any other in a busy crowd. No. They are stared at. They are approached. They are asked questions. Some foreigners are annoyed by this. Many others take it as welcoming. The funy thing is that, from my appearance, people can't tell I'm different. My blood is Egyptian and so I look the part. When people hear me speak any more than a few sentences though they can tell I have an accent and imperfect grammar. Some people are blunt in their curiosity. 'why is your arabic broken?', 'is one of your parents foreign?'. Others just give me odd looks and try to size me up, trying to decide whether my broken speech is due to some disability or if I'm drunk. It's amusing. When people ask me where I'm from, I tell them Egypt. They normally continue to prod trying to figure out where my accent comes from but I only give in and tell them if I really like them. The best is when I'm with my friend Basma. She too is Egyptian-American. She was raised mostly in the US but now she lives here again. People always look so confused as to why we, two Egyptian looking girls, would be speaking English to each other. Once, we were in a taxi with her sister Abir, the driver kept asking us where we were from. We said Egypt over and over until finally he got frustrated and asked us why then we were speaking English. We asked him why not. He looked confused and then I told Basma to say we were practicing for our English test the next day. She did and the guy looked so confused. It was absolutely hilarious. It's just interesting to see how people handle difference here. Anyone who doesn't follow the strict 'foreigner' or 'egyptian' molds they have for people just baffles them.
I think that's a big part in why people have such a hard time placing me here. Some, like my friend Ann, are quick to say that I'm American. I've lived my whole life in America so how could I be anything other than American. Others, like my friend Mahinur, say without thinking that I'm Egyptian. My parents are fully-Egyptian; how could I be anything else? The funny thing is people seem to have a genuine need to place me in just one of those categories. Just as people expect me to give a straightforward answer when they ask me if I like Egypt or the United States better. Of course there are aspects to Egypt that I like better and aspects to the US I like better. People are never satisfied with that answer; they take it to be a polite way of saying I like the United States better which is really not at all true. In the same way, people can't seem to accept that I'm Egyptian-American. I am both. There are aspects of my personality that are very reflective of my upbringing by Egyptian parents and there are aspects that clearly evidence the years I've lived in the US. According to Basma, that is exactly what being American is all about. I'm not like other Americans but that's the whole point of America. People are different. Difference is what makes up the country. I suppose I agree with that to a certain extent. Having a mixture of cultures is what America's all about but, still, I feel as though there are people who identify completely with being 'American' and I just don't...for now Egyptian-American will do.
Ah the memories (originally posted on June 18, 2008)
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
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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