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!