Parents and Protests

Fun Fact # 10
The ancient Egyptians prayed to Sobek, the crocodile god, because they were afraid of crocodiles. It is for this reason that  most of his temples are in places that used to have lots of crocodiles, particularly Fayoum and Kom Ombo. Now crocodiles only live upstream of the High Dam.

Crocodile!

So I realize that it's been a while since I've written a post with, uh, substance. So here it is! With LOTS of pictures too!

Hypostyle Hall at Karnak Temple

My parents were in Egypt last week and we spent a few days in Cairo before heading to Upper Egypt for some hardcore tourism. We saw all the major sites in Luxor and Aswan, and also went to Abydos and Dendera Temples. My favorite was Dendera because it's still in decent shape and has lots of colors. Plus it was in the first half of our trip, so I wasn't completely templed-out yet. By the end of our trip I was ready to avoid temples for a while, but I'm really glad I was able to see more of Egypt and some very cool ancient sites.

First Hypostyle Hall at Dendera Temple

Inside Abydos Temple

While my parents were in Cairo, we hit up PhotoCairo5 to see some contemporary art and I showed them around the downtown a bit. (Contemporary art sidenote: Everyone should look up Shirin Neshat because she's super interesting and some of her art films are cool. I saw her speak a week or two ago and I don't know that I would say that I like her, but I'm definitely interested in her.)  I ate quite well while my parents were here, so that was great! I was definitely reminded that Cairo can be quite overwhelming sometimes. Now I'm adjusted and used to living in this bustling and culturally challenging city, but it wasn't always that way. Helping my parents out was certainly a reminder of how much I've grown.

Egypt's youth forming itself out of stone

But Marc and Kay left Egypt just in time to miss all the excitement! Morsi announced that no one can challenge his presidential authority, and he's validated his new power by claiming it's so they can make a constitution (whoa simplification, but I'm not a newspaper so go look it up). People have started calling him a Pharoah. In addition to last week's protests remembering those who died  at the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes one year ago, there have been serious protests across the country since Morsi's announcement. The Muslim Brotherhood has rallied in support of Morsi and the necessity of this decree, but other more liberal and secular groups have come together to protest it.

People have camped out in Tahrir Square, and yesterday there was a very large protest in which groups marched together from all around Cairo. I went early in the day and left before it got dark, both because I was tired and because I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. It ended up being mostly peaceful, but you never know. But I did go to the protest earlier (sorry Mom!) and I'm so glad I went. It was quite interesting. The murals on Mohamed Mahmoud street are constantly changing, and watching people protest and listening to them discuss their political views is endlessly interesting. I did feel a bit weird, and of course attracted a lot of attention since I'm so clearly not Egyptian, but even so it was pretty easy for people to ignore me in favor of their cause and I was perfectly fine with that.

I did take a look at some of the damage from Friday and last week. There are a few buildings with clear fire damage, as well as numerous broken windows. Most surprising to me though was the massive number of bricks in the street. I of course assumed there would be some rubble and trash and all that, but there really are tons and tons of bricks in the streets.
 

I check on Nefertiti every time I'm downtown.

I stuck around long enough to watch as the crowd grew significantly and to watch as some kid threw rocks from a building's roof and created a stampede. But I was tucked safely away around a corner, so I had no problems. I shot the video below with my sucky point and shoot camera (definitely one of the best pre-Egypt purchases I made) so it's a bit shaky, but you can definitely get the point. The crowd actually goes back much farther than you can tell just from my perspective.

I'm definitely interested to see what happens next. It's a really fascinating time to be in Egypt, and I'm so glad I get to experience it. But don't worry, I'll make good choices!

Cats of Cairo

I have no fun facts today. Stray animals are too depressing.

I received a request for a post about the cats of Cairo. At first I was excited to have an excuse to share some of the numerous photos I've taken of cats, but the cats of cairo are really quite sad. Many are adorable, and I've seen lots of the cutest kittens ever, but it's still sad. All of these photos are of stray cats that I've seen on my walks, indoors, in trees, etc. 

So Cats. Cairo has them. Lots and lots of them. Cairo has dogs too, but the cats are more visible.

It's really depressing. I've read a bit about abandoned animals during the revolution. It makes sense of course that Egyptians were fighting for their country and animals weren't a priority, but it's also incredibly sad. The massive numbers of street animals across Cairo are generally ignored and forgotten, or worse. Occasionally I see kids chasing or throwing stones at dogs or cats. Most of the AUCians I know are afraid of dogs and cats, or just completely despise them. Cats get hissed at or kicked and people try to scare them away. But no one's taking care of them, and there are few steps taken to reduce the numbers of stray animals. They continue to reproduce so there are probably millions of stray cats eating garbage in Cairo.

 I don't know a ton about animal welfare in Cairo, but a friend of mine did a bit of research into shelters and animal protection laws. She said that there are in fact animal welfare laws, but the police in Cairo are so useless and the government has many higher priority issues, so animals are just forgotten. There's not nearly enough shelter space for all the stray animals, so they tend to live where they can feed themselves, which is usually in less affluent areas. There's less trash in wealthier areas, so the animals are less able to feed themselves. But even in the affluent neighborhood where I live there are numerous stray cats. They're on the AUC campus, in the courtyard of the dorm in Zamalek, on the streets and bridges and cemeteries. They're everywhere. They're even get inside buildings through open windows and doors. 

 Of course, animal welfare concerns aren't limited to just strays. Egypt has tons of working animals like camels, donkeys, mules, and horses. Many of these animals are poorly taken care of or left to starve. The significant decrease in tourism after the revolution has really harmed working animals in the tourism industry (like camels) because their owners can no longer afford to feed themselves, much less care for an animal. If you want to read more about the plight of Egyptian animals and the main group helping them here's a link to the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals. 

Mosques and Stuff

Fun Fact #9

Cairo is nicknamed "the City of a Thousand Minarets". (This is my blog so I can ignore punctuation rules if I want to.) I can't tell you how many minarets there actually are in Cairo, but there are tons. Minarets were originally built as a place from which the call to prayer was made, but that was before loudspeaker systems. 

The Mosque of Muhammad Ali.

Well, for me this week is about school. It's a bit annoying, that whole school thing, but at least some of it is interesting. I'm currently working on three research-based papers, two of which require me to go places that aren't the school library or the internet in order to do research. Those two are good and interesting, the other one sucks. I've been to a few art spaces and spent some time in their libraries and institutional records. And I wandered around Cairo with my Canadian friend and his Egyptian friend, looking for the mosque that we're writing a research paper on. The mosque was assigned to us, but it's small and rundown and very few people have heard of it. So it was a bit of an adventure (like pretty much everything in Cairo). We've also been in the rare books collection at AUC looking up the mosque and its history and old photos and all that. Of course I love smelling and feeling the old books, so I'm a fan of the rare books library.  Though it's more time consuming, researching is also way more interesting when you have to actually go places.

Unfinished details on the portal of Sultan Hassan with a Chinese lotus motif.

The mihrab in Sultan Hassan

I had a field trip to the Mosque and Madrassa of Sultan Hassan today. We had a bit of extra time, so we also went to the Al-Rifa'i Mosque, which is where King Farouk, Ismail Pasha (the grandson of Muhammad Ali), and the Shah of Iran are all buried. Al-Rifa'i is pretty impressive, though it's a neo-Mamluk style mosque built in the late 19th century, so it doesn't really compare to the older mosques I've seen. Sultan Hassan is a Mamluk mosque built in the 14th century. It's quite large and has the tallest minaret in Cairo. It's pretty cool.

Kurdish tourists on the path between the mosques of Sultan Hassan (R) an Al-Rifa'i (L).
I don't know anything about the mosque that's straight ahead.

Muqarnas in Al-Rifa'i

This weekend I'm just doing homework and and trying to have a bit of fun too. I do have to attend a few different artist or art-related talks in the coming weeks, so there will be lots of art. I've been asked to teach the environmental group on campus how to make recycled paper, and of course I'm super pumped about that. I'm also looking forward to the start of Photocairo 5 and starting to wonder about the fate of the 13th International Cairo Biennale, which is theoretically supposed to begin in December. And Marc and Kay arrive in only a week! Parents!

With that, here are some recent photos of Cairo. I only wish I could also convey the smells and the sounds.

Piping hot sweet potatoes

This 17th century mosque is an island in the road. They built the road around the mosque.

The interior of the mosque I'm researching. It's built in a distinctly Ottoman style, so resembles many mosques in Istanbul, but has very few references to Cairene mosque architecture. Note the sinking floor...

The mosque we're researching is a bit rundown...

There's something so perfect about the Pyramids through the smog of modern day Cairo.

The INTERNET!

I know I only posted a few days ago, but I have an immense amount of Arabic homework that I've been procrastinating lately, so I've had a lot of time to spend reading and watching all of the internet. Here are some interesting/cool/fun/serious internet things that I want to share with you. Some of these things are Egypt related, some are just things I like. Feel free to use this post to assist you in procrastinating.

This is from Hyperbole and a Half. You can read my FAVORITE post here.

So as I've mentioned before, sexual harassment in Egypt is kinda a thing. A big thing. Last night I walked around downtown Cairo and Garden City alone for like an hour and a half and then took the metro, and I had more than a few people direct comments my way (probably like a dozen separate men/groups). I was wearing long sleeves and long pants and was rather well covered up. I'm lucky because I've never had anyone try to touch me. I like to believe I've got pretty thick skin and I can deal with the verbal harassment, but I wouldn't say it's pleasant. So yeah, sexual harassment. It's been getting a lot of press lately, as have responses to street harassment. This coverage from NPR discusses a group of vigilantes who I'm a bit conflicted about, but I think the author of this article from Daily News Egypt has some good points. Here's an older article from BBC News that's about street harassment. I always think of this article, particularly because of the comment about women wearing tight niqabs being "up for it."

Since this is my blog and I can do what I want, I will now use this as a segue into policy in the USA. While the US has certainly made strides in many areas relating to women's rights, I wouldn't say that things are all good. I've been horrified with some of the things coming out of politicians' mouths in recent months, but I think that Nicholas Kristof has very good points about sound bites and policies relating to women and rape. This (possibly TRIGGERING) article from a former Amherst student has been widely publicized, but I was very disappointed that it was not surprising to me. I've heard from friends both at my own (beloved) school and at other universities that sexual assault is not taken seriously, and is not handled by people who are educated about sexual assault or who know what they're doing. Even in the general population, a victim's attire, sexual past, or alcohol consumption are often called in to question. It kills me that people haven't yet figured out that no man or woman's actions are "asking" for rape. So yes, we might be doing better than Egypt in terms of street harassment, but let's not pretend that things are great and dandy in the US.

Now that I'm done ranting about sexual harassment and assault, here are some lighter subjects that might be of interest.

Here's a link to a cool website with old Arabic pop music. You can listen and download. It's not all Egyptian, but Egypt was and is pretty important in terms of cultural stuff coming out of the Middle East. When I was in Jordan last week, the Egyptian guy I met at my hostel commented every time Egyptian pop music came on the radio. Apparently in Jordan like 90% of the pop music is Egyptian. Also, I definitely stole this link from a friend's blog. Hey, I've been reading your blog. Thanks for the link.

Bahia Shehab is an artist and art historian, as well as a professor at AUC. She's got a TED video about her stencils that she's been spray painting all over the city. It's not the greatest TED Talk I've ever seen, but it's interesting, it's only five minutes, and her point is very nice.

As for things that don't relate to Egypt, as many of you know, I'm obsessed with reading the New York Times. I do read the news and the op-eds, but I have a particular love of things I can't have/can't afford/don't really want but still want to dream about. This naturally includes tandoors (I legitimately want one) and of course homes in Sweden. In that vein, here's a short video that I've now watched like five times. It's a week or two old, but you should watch it. THERE ARE PAC-MAN DUMPLINGS.

This is my obligatory reminder that you should all go vote next week if you haven't already. I voted like a month ago, so now I have plenty of time to annoy you until you vote.

And finally, I'll leave you with a clip of the love of my life, Andreas Viestad.

 

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!