I Can Officially Stop Talking About Wanting to Go to Jordan

 Fun Fact #8:

More than 40% of Jordan's population was born in another country. Jordan has huge numbers of refugees and immigrants, from other Arab countries as well as from Eastern Europe and Western Asia. In particular, there are many Palestinians and Christian Iraqis now living in Jordan.

Last week I had a few days off from school for Eid al-Adha. It's basically a super important holiday and animals get slaughtered and it's pretty interesting. Clearly this is a huge simplification of Eid, in case you were wondering. I saw lots and lots of animals waiting for their deaths and apparently in some parts of Cairo blood literally flows down the streets. That alone made it pretty tempting for me to stick around, but I decided to use my free time to get out of Cairo.

I (finally) went to Jordan. It was AMAZING. I went by myself, I stayed in hostels and took buses and visited Amman, Petra, the Dead Sea, and a few other towns and mountains and all that. The Jordanian Dinar is worth almost 1.5 times the dollar, so I'm nearly broke at this point, but it was worth every cent! Amman is a really interesting, not super touristy city with lots of culture and delicious food and a bit of history too. And I think everyone should float in the Dead Sea (and watch women swim/float in full burqas and niqabs!) and see the beauty of Petra at some point in their life. Petra is unbelievable.

The Temple of Hercules and the city of Amman

As much as I like the people I know here in Cairo, I'm so glad that I went alone. Even though lots of people told me I was stupid (mostly American females living in Cairo), I had no problems and got some much needed time to remind myself of how capable and independent I am, and how much I enjoy my freedom. The social scene at AUC often reminds me of high school, and since I barely survived high school the first time there's really no reason to repeat the experience. Basically it was time for me to get out and do my own thing. 

 

I did experience much more verbal sexual harassment in Amman than I normally experience in Cairo and though it was certainly unpleasant, I still felt much safer walking alone than I do in some areas of Cairo. Part of this may be that Amman is a smaller, and very walkable city. I also found the children to be far more aggressive than they are in Cairo, as I had young boys (maybe ten or eleven years old) screaming at me to take their picture and following me until I told them off. A few girls pulled the hair tie out of my braid and tried, but failed, to pick my pockets. Unfortunately for them I'm far too intelligent to keep things in my back pockets. I've never had anyone touch me/my hair in Cairo, so I wasn't a big fan of the children in Amman. Even with these small issues, I found Jordan to be very safe and welcoming and I had no problems being on my own.

Amman, as seen from the Citadel

View of the Dead Sea from the Dead Sea Highway.

I wish I had seen more of the country, but unfortunately it's just not possible to properly see an entire country in five days. I was so glad I spent my time where I did, particularly in Petra. I had heard that you can see Petra in a few hours or one day, but this is just not true! There is so much walking and climbing to do in Petra in order to see much of the ancient city, and I would have missed so much of it had I not spent multiple days there! My legs were a bit sore afterwards, but climbing to the top of every hill or mountain is the only way to see all of the city's monuments and get out of the masses of tourists that gather in the main walkway but are too lazy to climb up. There are more than 800 steps to the Monastery and more than 600 steps, plus a bunch of boulders to climb, to get to the High Place of Sacrifice. Many of the other sites, like the theatre and some of the tombs, have more than a few steps as well. And it's a mile walk from the ticket gate to the Siq and another mile in the Siq until you reach the Treasury. So two days was a good call. In addition to my workout, I got a bit of a sunburn which was probably the worst part of the whole trip.

The Siq and the Treasury in Petra

A look back into Petra (that's the Monastery) from the View of the End of the World

View from the High Place of Sacrifice in Petra

The Street of Façades in Petra

Of course after nearly six days without internet, I was shocked to return to Cairo and discover that a storm hit the New York Metro Area! I hope that everyone there is safe and dry and that not too much damage has been done. Keep your chin up! I wish everyone a safe, happy, and electricity-filled Halloween, and hope that you all dream of drinking tea and smoking shisha with Bedouins in the mountains of Jordan.

Bedouins drinking tea and smoking shisha

Arts and Farts

Fun Fact #7:
Lower Egypt is actually the North and Upper Egypt is the South. These labels came about because the Nile flows North, making the Southern part of Egypt upstream. Though the labels are old, they are most definitely still used in contemporary Egypt.

Still hungry?

The two weeks since I last posted have been interesting. But I guess every day in Egypt is interesting. All the pictures here are from my class field trips, except the last one! 

School sucks. I hate that this is the case since I've generally always loved school, or at least college, but it is. I have to say that I am not a fan of AUC. As if that wasn't already apparent. The university as a whole does not have its act together. At first I thought my frustration was entirely a cultural thing, but the more I meet and interact with Egyptian students, the more I realize that it's not. Most of the Egyptian students I know have more negative things to say about AUC than I do. That's not really a good sign. 

Trash in an iwan (look it up!) at a former madrasa

I have one particularly frustrating class in which the professor teaches in Arabic much of the time and answers students' questions in Arabic. The class is supposed to be taught in English. It's an Egyptian film class, but all of the films have subtitles and all of the readings are translated. So the problem is really only with the professor. It's frustrating, to say the least. I had asked her on the first day of class if my lack of Arabic would be a problem and she assured me it wouldn't be. Clearly it is. 

Aside from that, classes are okay. I have a class on the architecture of Cairo, which means that I get to go on weekly field trips to sites in Cairo. The field trips are awesome and the professor is incredibly knowledgeable. At first I thought he wasn't the nicest person, but he's slowly grown on me. Solid class, solid professor.

Our field trips can get a bit adventurous.

My favorite class is called "Contemporary Issues in Arab Art." The class is interesting (at least it was during the whole two class sessions we've had since school started in August!) but the subject matter is even more interesting. And I've officially decided that I will become best friends with the professor before I leave in December. For those of you who know School Deborah, you know that this goal is the highest compliment that I could possibly give and is totally attainable. The professor is super young and is a really helpful and accessible professor. She also geeked out with me about Jonathan Bloom, knew all about the Center for Book Arts, and went to a small liberal arts school in the Midwest before heading to MIT for her PhD (she's still working on her dissertation on 20th century Syrian painting)! She also wasn't creeped out that I had Googled her, and that is clearly a sign. Plus her class is actually intellectually stimulating and engaging! 

Speaking of which, I've visited a few different art spaces lately. For class I was required to attend the opening of an exhibition of Basiony's art. He was an Egyptian artist and professor who was killed during the revolution. I wasn't all that into the art (primarily sound and video installations), but the space was very cool and seeing the viewers' reactions and involvement with this guy who people clearly loved, and who died for a cause that many people are reconsidering, was very interesting. The exhibition was held at Darb 1718, which is this cool art space that has workshops, shows art films, has indie bands, and holds art exhibitions. It's located in Old Cairo and is totally out of place and hard to find, but is very interesting. The most exciting part was that I took a taxi there all by myself at night and took the metro home all by myself at night! I'm (finally) like a real grown up! 

View from Bab al-Futuh

Once I got over my fear of going out on my own in Cairo (we were essentially told that we'll die if we go out on alone as white females), I've found that I really enjoy being out on my own. I like my friends, but I did miss the freedom of coming and going as I please and doing the stuff I want to do whether or not someone wants to join me. One night this week I went to Townhouse, which is basically THE gallery in Cairo. I briefly browsed the entire space, but mostly I went to utilize the library as I do research for my class! Townhouse is on a little side street in the downtown, but I found it fairly easily. I didn't find a another nearby but equally hidden gallery and class space whose library I wanted to use, but I did wander around downtown for nearly two hours looking! I was alone and it was dark and people were looking at me, and it was wonderful! 

A small gathering at Horriya.

So now I go out on my own. And it's awesome. Lately I've also been writing a column for Lawrence's school newspaper (skip it, my articles are poorly written and make Egypt seem horrible, and I'm bitter about being censored). I've finalized my plans to go to Jordan for Eid, confirmed that my parents will be here for Thanksgiving, and done a lot of school work. I've revisited Horriya, my favorite Leftist hangout, and made a few new friends. So things are going. In fact, they're even going pretty well. My foray into Yemeni food turned out to be the MOST DELICIOUS thing I could've ever done, so I'm pretty pleased. I also learned how to say the word "fart" in Arabic. It's an important word to know. I did avoid today's protests, though my field trip took a slight detour and I watched people throw rocks on the television.

I would like to apologize to all the people who I suck at keeping in touch with! I was reminded this week by a few people that I'm horrible at keeping touch, and I'm sorry! But I do miss everyone, and I know that as much as I like Egypt I will be so happy to be back at Lawrence in January! I miss you all (and not just Lawrentians!) and would love to hear from you and please take care! 

Fish and Flesh

(Less) Fun Fact # 6:

Over 4 million tons of rice straw are burned every fall in Egypt and burning straw is the primary cause of the black cloud which spreads across Cairo during the month of October. In Cairo, the presence of the black cloud corresponds to the highest rates of reported hospital visits and respiratory illnesses each year. 

Well the protests are over! And it's a good thing too, because if we had missed two more days of class AUC would've had to cancel the semester. I'm a little disappointed because I had just started to make plans to gallivant around the globe with my partial tuition refund, but I guess there's some value in a formal education as well. Tomorrow will be my first day of school in two weeks. Basically everything relating to the university is a complete mess right now, so we'll see how it goes.

Alexandria

Last week I took advantage of my time off and spent a few days in Alexandria. It's about a three hour train ride from Cairo, and I spent most of the ride taking a nap and watching people burn their fields. Alexandria is a beautiful city on the Mediterranean, and I can't believe it took me five weeks to get there. I spent a lot of time walking along the shore looking at the views. To me, Alexandria looks much more European than Cairo. It's still old and falling apart, but the buildings look different and the air is actually air. It was definitely nice to get away from the pollution in Cairo. 

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

While in Alex I visited all the main sights, starting with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It's a beautiful new library on the sight of the ancient Alexandria Library. It's huge and modern and contains three museums, as well as books in French, English, and Arabic. I was very excited to see an exhibition on printing in Alexandria, which contained a few different printing presses, a litho stone, as well as metal and wood Arabic type. Woo letterpress! 

Stealth photography skills right here.

Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

I also went to the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, where they searched our bags and made me check my camera. But after they found one camera they stopped looking, so I got to practice my stealth photography skills with my point and shoot. This is why people buy iPhones. The catacombs are basically a labyrinth of tunnels where a family was buried. It was built in the 2nd century CE, and I thought it was very cool. I do believe that the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. 

Citadel of Qaitbay

After the catacombs, I went to the Citadel of Qaitbay. It's basically a giant castle built at the mouth of the harbor. It used to be for defense, but now it's just an old building with a history and beautiful views. 

Just chilling in the middle of the city.

One of the more unfortunate parts of my visit to Alex was driving by a dead woman on the road. I was in a Taxi with my window down and we drove within two feet of her. Egypt has the third highest traffic-related death rate in the world, so I've certainly seen similar scenes in Cairo. But in Cairo it's usually bloodier, and there are usually two vehicles involved. I've also never been so close. In Alex the woman was a pedestrian and had clearly been mowed down by a car. It's unfortunately one of the realities of crossing streets here, both in Cairo and in Alex. Cross at your own risk. Still, it was very sad to see, and it was even more sad to me when I realized that I wasn't surprised by it.

Even so, I really loved Alexandria. I ate fish, I saw King Farouk's Palace (also called Montaza Palace, it was actually built by King Farouk's father, but whatever), I saw tons of livestock just hanging out in the roads, and I got to see much of the city by driving around in a taxi or walking. It was nice to see water that wasn't the Nile, and to smell the saltwater in the air. The whole trip cost me about $60, including getting there and back and staying overnight and eating. It was wonderful, and it was great to get out of Cairo. I fully endorse Alexandria and think that everyone should spend a few days there. As much as I love Cairo, I think that Alex is a much more livable, and less overwhelming. I'm so glad I'm studying in Cairo, but I can't imagine living there for years and years. But I could imagine moving to Alex.

A horse and the Citadel.

I guess that's all for now. I've been in Egypt for nearly six weeks already! It's crazy. I'm starting to feel like I belong here. When I was wandering around Cairo today, I had multiple people ask me for directions! And one of them was even Egyptian! That's a sign of belonging if there ever was one. Obviously there are still many challenges every day, but I'm generally feeling good about being here and doing my own thing and all that. It also rained for all of three minutes yesterday and I got to watch the Egyptians freak out and celebrate and be so excited about a drizzle. It made me so happy. Yay Egypt!