1/17/11-1/20/11 Amena's last few days in Cairo!!! =(

On Monday the 17th, in Arabic class we learned the Arabic for "there is/there are" and "there is not/there are not." We also learned the adjectival phrases-- unlike in English, in Arabic, we mention the noun before the adjective, which, from what I remember from high school, is similar to the way adjectival phrases are written in Spanish. Later that day, the class went to Leslie's apartment again to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict. Dr. Denis began the lecture all the way from the beginning of the conflict. He explained this conflict began 114 years ago when a Viennese Jew named Theodore Hurtzel was convicted of treason against France and then sent to jail. Hurtzel was a lawyer and this case instilled in him the idea that there's anti-Semitism even in France and Vienna, so he formed the first Zionist organization in Switzerland, saying that the Jews needed their own Jewish state, and they thought the land occupied by Palestine was perfect for them because supposedly it was the original home they'd lived in and had been kicked out of in 70 AD. Then, he defined Zionism as a political manipulation of Judaism-- it's basically Jewish nationalism.

On Tuesday the 18th, our Arabic teachers came to us in Zamalek and we had class in Cafe Noir. First, everyone ordered food and drinks and then we began our lesson. We covered the numbers from 11 to 99 and nationalities. Later that day, we went to Tahrir Square and walked down Talaat Harb. We saw the old American University of Cairo campus and the Madbouly Book Store, which was a place that used to sell revolutionary books that were not permitted to be sold anywhere else. After that, we visited the Yacoubian Building, the setting of one of our required books for this study abroad called The Yacoubian Building. I didn't expect much from the building, as Dr. Denis had warned us that there was nothing special about the building, but I did expect to see architecture of some significance, but I didn't. Next, we went to a photography store called Lehnert and Landrock, where my classmates and I bought more souvenirs. At the end of the walk, most of my classmates broke off to eat, but a few of us decided to go shopping. I bought a bag and several pairs of shoes and was very satisfied with my purchases.

 Arabic lesson at Cafe Noir

Madbouly's Bookstore for revolutionary books

The building from The Yacoubian Building
 

On Wednesday the 19th, we met our Arabic teachers at Al-Azhar park. We took pictures at the top of a hill that had a great view of the city with its numerous minarets and expansive view. The park was truly beautiful with lush green grass, tall palm trees, antique-style gazebos, and a variety of flowers. After our photo session, we went to the park cafe, which was a charming and delightful two-story building with a nostalgic, homey feeling. We spent a good three hours eating, drinking, talking and truly enjoying the setting of the cafe.

 Fountains at the entrance of Al-Azhar Park

Al-Azhar Park again!

Beautiful, chic cafe at Al-Azhar Park

Picture with our Arabic teacher, Hasnaa

On Thursday the 20th, we went to Leslie's apartment again to hear one final lecture from Riham. First, we had a little reflection session on our perceptions of Egypt and what we learned from our stay in Egypt. Then, we had a question and answer session in which the topic of discussion revolved around the controversial topic of the face veil. Although we still have an Arabic final tomorrow and the program doesn't officially end until th 24th, at the end of the discussion, we wrapped up the program by filling out official End of Program Release Forms and evaluations. This makes it feel like the program is almost over, and I guess that's because it is =((( That night, Denis and Nevenka invited all the students at their apartment for a going away pizza party. It was fun, but I felt a bit of sadness in the room as everyone knew that the program really was coming to end. We all really loved the looks on the Sullivans' faces when we surprised them with our gift.

Gift for Denis and Nevenka

The gift =)

Thus, this will be my last blog. I have to say that Cairo was much more than I expected it to be. I came to Egypt thinking that it was all about the pyramids and hieroglyphics, but it's much more than that. It's also about the hospitable and welcoming people and the halal food that I was so happy to hear I could eat! As I think about going back home to New York, I am confident that this is an experience that I will remember nostalgically for the rest of my life. And so I have no doubt in my mind that I will come back to Egypt to not only experience new things, but to re-experience what I experienced on this trip. 
 

1/16/11

Today in Arabic class, we translated sentences with the demonstrative pronouns. I’m glad we had this extra practice because I now understand the demonstrative pronouns. After that, we learned about the interrogative words. At first it was a bit confusing that the interrogative word comes at the end of the sentence, but I eventually got used to it. We also have a test tomorrow on everything we learned so far, so tonight, I know I’m going to be up late studying for this exam.
   
After Arabic class, we had our final dardasha with Nevenka. We went over the interrogative words we learned today in class and also the numbers, which I’d been wanting to learn since the beginning, since it would’ve been helpful to know the costs of items when I went shopping.
   
Late in the afternoon, we attended a lecture by Dr. Denis Sullivan on Islamism. He defined Islamism as the political manipulation of Islam. He explained that Islamism doesn’t have to be disparaged. There are many well-intended people who use Islamism for the benefit of people, so Islamists are not always extremists. In order to explain Islamism, he talked about the Muslim Brotherhood. He mentioned that five years ago the Muslim Brothers had 88 seats (20%) in Parliament, but this past election, they were shut out of Parliament. So why did this happen? Why did no one vote for them? The Muslim Brothers are banned, but tolerated, so they weren’t recognized as an actual political group. The phenomenon is that the single most popular group is the Islamist group.
   
The way they began was that in the late 19th century, people would come across seas to spread their influence of Islamism through the guy who found the Muslim Brothers, Hasaan al Banna. In the 1920’s he got caught up in post-WWI nationalist endeavors, so he founded the Muslim Brotherhood to participate in the independence of Egypt to give people what the monarchy wasn’t providing. So many people joined him that the Muslim Brotherhood became a party. They wanted to use Islamic teachings to help the poor and create Islamism.
   
The rest of what we learned about the Muslim Brotherhood was a repeat of what we learned about them during the lecture on Egyptian politics. We’d learned that when someone attempted to shoot Nasser during a public speaking, he thought the Muslim Brotherhood was responsible for it and he threw them in jail. Nasser even tortured and hung them. When Sadat became President in 1970, he didn’t have the support of the Nasserists, so he released the Muslim Brothers that were in jail and encouraged Islamism, but had them promise they wouldn’t use violence. During Sadat’s 11 years in office, a new Constitution was created saying that sharee’a was the principle source.

1/15/11

Today, I had a free morning so I decided to sleep in. When I woke up, I started on my Yacoubian Building paper. I was about half way done when I got hungry so Noureen and I went to Hardee’s for lunch. After lunch, we headed to Islamic Cairo to conduct our tour for the next paper. We had some difficulty explaining to the cab driver exactly where we wanted to go because when we told him what specific street we wanted to be dropped off at in Bab Zuwayla, he said that he would not be able to take his taxi into that street. So we had to figure out another street nearby where we could get dropped off.
   
Once the cab driver dropped us off, we found our way to the beginning of the tour as mentioned in our guide book Historic Cairo. The first stop was Mosque of Atinbugha al- Maridani. We saw a mosque that we thought was the one we were looking for, but we couldn’t find out for sure because there was no sign indicating the name of the mosque. We went inside anyway and took pictures, but were very doubtful that this was the mosque from the book that we needed to visit. As we walked to a nearby mosque, we realized that that was actually the Mosque of Atinbugha al- Maridani because it had all the features mentioned in the book, even though this mosque had no sign either.
   
We were happy that we were on the right track in terms of the tour, but there were so many other things bothering us. For example, it had rained earlier in the day so the dusty roads were now extremely muddy and slippery. My sneakers and pants had so much mud on them when I got back to the hotel room. In addition, even though the streets were extremely narrow, there were still cars, trucks, and motorcycles swishing past us, constantly honking. I think we were all more bothered by the constant loud honking than the mud—sometimes the driver didn’t even need to honk, but honked anyway.
   
Although we were going in the right direction, we had a lot of trouble searching for the mosques in the guide book because most of them were not labeled and some of them were so dilapidated that we were not even allowed to stand around them. We were disappointed with the mosques we saw on this tour because after seeing the Mosque of Ibn Tulun or Barquq, these mosques seemed very unappealing and unpleasant. Most of them were either completely closed down and the ones that weren’t needed major upkeep.
   
We ended the tour at the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, which was the most beautiful of all the mosques we’d seen that day and it was one of the mosques we’d seen earlier with the class. However, at night time it was especially beautiful because it was illuminated with a green light, which gave it an alluring glow.

 Group picture in front of the beautifully lit Sultan Hassan Mosque at night

1/14/11

Today, we visited Old Cairo or, as it’s more commonly referred to, Coptic Cairo. Coptics are the Christians of Egypt and while 90% of the people of Egypt are Muslim, 10% are Coptic. When Dr. Denis gave a little introduction at the beginning of the tour, I was surprised to learn that when the Muslims came to Egypt, they did not persecute the Coptics. In fact, more churches were built after the Muslims took over than before. Before the Muslims came, the Roman Catholic and the Western Christians persecuted the Coptics.
   
First we saw the Fortress of Babylon. The first church we went into looked like a regular church with the pewter and the stained glass windows depicting the different biblical scenes. But an interesting thing I noticed was that there was a pulpit similar to the one in the mosques we saw in Islamic Cairo. I also noticed that some of the structural designs were similar to the mosques, such as the dome shape. I thought that the Coptics borrowed the style from the Muslims, but turns out the Muslims borrowed it from the Coptics. I also thought it was interesting that the church had been built on top of the Fortress of Babylon so that if there were Coptics praying inside and someone on the outside wanted to enter and persecute them, they could escape to the Fortress through a trap door.
   
We saw one more church where the Coptics claim the Holy Family fled to when the escaped persecution in Jerusalem. I haven’t heard the Quranic version of this story, so I guess this is going to be my next point of focus when I read about Jesus, or Prophet Isa as the Muslims call him. I also liked how the ceiling of the church was in the shape of Noah’s arc.
   
Next, we visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue where I learned that there are very few Jews left in Egypt, only about 55 in Cairo and the synagogue is actually no longer active. It was deteriorated, but about 20 years ago a Canadian woman collected 20 million to restore it. So what we can see of this synagogue today is not original, except for the ceiling.
   
The last site we visited was a mosque. When we got to the mosque, it was time for the third prayer of the day, Asr. But we also noticed some men carrying a coffin and I knew that there would be a janaaza after the Asr prayer. So I caught up with the jamaat  for Asr, and soon after, we prayed the janaaza. The mosque had a melancholy mood because of the janaaza, but even if an outsider didn’t see the coffin or know that there was a janaaza going on, I feel like he would know because of the tone of the Imam who was reciting the prayer in an obviously mournful way.

Church at Coptic (Old) Cairo

 Well next to Ben Ezra Synagogue where Prophet Moses was (supposedly) found

1/13/11

Today in Arabic, we went over our homework on the demonstrative pronouns. We also received our grades for the first exam and I was happy to learn that I got a 25 out of 25. But within a few minutes, Hasnaa informed us that we would be having another exam on Sunday and went back into my panic mode about what was going to be on the exam and how long I would have to spend studying for it. Hasnaa also assigned us nicknames based on what she thought about our personalities, which was not always an accurate analysis. For example, she nicknamed me “hadya,” which means “the quiet one.” I thought that this nickname did not suit me at all, but I guess in comparison to some of the other louder and more hyper classmates, I am quiet. But I am by no means a quiet person.
   
After a couple of hours, we had to leave for the Arab League, which is kind of like the Arab version of the United Nations. There, we met a representative who discussed a couple of issues involving the Arab nations. One of the main issues we talked about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Before I start talking about what he said, I just want to make it clear that I did not always clearly hear what he was saying. Even though he was speaking into his microphone, I had a hard time understanding what he was saying because I didn’t feel he was loud enough and also because his accent kind of threw me off. So I just want it to be known that I may have misheard what he said—I’m just going to talk about what I thought he said. In terms of negotiating over Gaza, he said that if Israel was really serious about the negotiating over eventually returning Gaza, they wouldn’t have already hired contractors to start building on it while negotiations are taking place because that means that they don’t negotiate on faith and don’t plan on returning the land. He also mentioned that while Palestinians are at the negotiating table, they Israelis divide up the land. Therefore, because Israelis have no faith in their negotiations, the Arabs don’t fear there will be any progress.
   
One of my classmates asked about Hamas and he answered that the situation with Hamaas is complicated because of something that happened with the 2006 election (again, I couldn’t hear everything he was saying). Some Islamic people are willing to accept Islam as Hamas does, but others are not as comfortable with this level of Islam. It seems that Hamas is arguing for resistance and negotiations in the war on Gaza, but they don’t know where to go because they see that resistance is not working and negotiating is not working. He mentioned that the main question of debate is, “Whose side is time on?” There are those who talk on the side of the demographic bomb and these are the ones who say that Israel should ask more people to come to Israel so that they can have greater demographic growth than Palestinians as the Israelis expel the Palestinians. Then, he mentioned the significance of the wall put up the Israelis. The wall tells the Israelis and the rest of the world, and I quote him, “This is the land that they want and the rest can go to hell.” This wall lets Israel keep as much land as they want, but what Israel doesn’t recognize is that Palestine will either want Israel to abide by their 1967 agreement or if they want all the land then they should take all the people, too.
   
I thought that this last point that he made was the most important one. If Israel really just wants all the land to put under their name for religious reasons, then they can have all the land in their name. All they have to do is accept the Palestinians, not even as Muslims, but just as human beings and treat them as such. I feel that if Israel wanted to take over all the land and their sole reason was because they believed the land is holy for them, then they should have no problem taking in the Palestinians and treating them as part of their country. But in my opinion, this is not what Israel wants, and so it will never do this. They simply want to slowly but surely wipe out the Palestinians in a very “legitimate” and systematic way, similarly to the way white Americans systematically wiped out the Native Americans.
   
From the viewpoint of his job, he also mentioned that if Israel established good relations with Palestine, it would be able to establish better diplomatic relations with 56 other countries. When one of my classmates asked why people perceive the Arab League to be so inefficient, he answered that the Arab League is only one tool that can help resolve issues, but it can’t do it all by itself and it shouldn’t be blamed for being ineffective because even though there are failures, there are also successes. I am very much in agreement with his last point. One organization cannot be expected to solve such a serious and long-lasting issue on its own—it takes much more effort.

At the Arab League

1/12/11

When we went to Arabic class this morning our teacher Hasnaa had a little surprise for us. She and another teacher showed us how to cut up small pieces of bamboo to create a paint brush-like utensil to use for calligraphy!! After we cut up the bamboos, we dipped them in ink and attempted to write words in Arabic, most of us just wrote our names. When Hasnaa and the other teacher showed us how to do the calligraphy, it looked so easy, but when I tried to do it, I realized that it wasn’t as easy as it looked because we were basically doing calligraphy with a piece of wood. It took patience, style, and a very specific curving of the hand to do calligraphy. In addition it made a really unpleasant sound when the bamboo scraped against the paper. No matter how many times I wrote my name, it didn’t look remotely as nice as when the other teacher did it. In the end, I just asked her to do the calligraphy for me for my name and she did it beautifully. I guess if I practice and just spend a bit more time on it, I’ll be able to write beautiful, intricate calligraphy as well.
   
After Arabic Dr. Denis treated us to sandwiches at a local restaurant called El Shabrawy close to the Arabic Institution. I got a large chicken pane sandwich and it was delicious. After lunch, we visited St. Andrews, which is an organization that works with refugees who are mostly from Sudan. They help the refugees find safety. From Stephanie, I learned that the refugee services have been around for 30 years. The organization started when there was a famine in Ethiopia, as the famine created an impetus for this type of organization. So a grant was written to fund adult education programs for these Ethiopian adult refugees. Then, the organization started children’s schools to teach them Arabic so that they can fit in socially and find educational opportunities. One and a half year ago, they adopted a Sudanese curriculum for children’s programs, which allows them to move on to higher educational levels.
   
Stephanie also mentioned that if everything goes well with the Sudanese referendum in March, the Sudanese students might be able to take exams and advance. She also stated that refugees leave their countries either temporarily until conflict ends or sometimes indefinitely. Unfortunately, in Egypt refugees are not allowed to work so its very hard for them to live in Egypt. Another difficulty is that access to school is limited—Iraqi refugees aren’t allowed to attend public schools, but Sudanese refugees are. This is because Iraqis are Shitte Muslims and most Egyptians are Sunni Muslims.
   
I really liked Stephanie’s presentation and her manner of presentation. I was very glad to learn that there were some students in the class who want to work with the organization for a few months. I really hope that they can help provide refugees with extended opportunities.
   
For dinner, I went to Pizza Hut (again!) and this time, I just got the fire wings. They were sooo spicy and sooo good, as always.

Doing calligraphy during Arabic class

1/11/11

Today, when I woke up for the Fajr prayer at dawn, I made sure I didn’t go back to sleep because I knew I had to study for the quiz. I studied the alphabet, greetings, numbers, personal pronouns, and possessive pronouns. I was able to study it all before the quiz. At first I was a bit nervous about the quiz because I thought it would be difficult, but I found it fair—long but fair. I felt proud that although Hasnaa allowed us to look at the alphabet chart, I didn’t need to because I remembered all the letters. So we spent most of the class taking the quiz. And after that, we began learning about the demonstrative pronouns. I had no trouble with them at first, but when Hasnaa started to talk about how whether the demonstrative pronoun comes before or after the noun depends on whether we’re talking about a sentence or a phrase, I got a bit confused. After a good 15-20 minutes, I finally understood where to place the demonstrative pronouns. At this point, my only confusion was how to make words plural.
   
For lunch, I just had a bag of chips and some chocolate that I grabbed from a kiosk on my way to Leslie’s apartment for Dr. Sullivan’s lecture on Egyptian politics. He began from the beginning when Nasser overthrew the monarchy of King Farooq on July 26th, 1952 (also the name of a street in Cairo). Nasser made all political parties illegal, except his own and said he would create policies for the common people, but didn’t know anything about economics. He unwisely applied Soviet policies to Egypt and got most of his revenue from the Suez Canal. But by 1967, even though education was boosted and he’d created policies to empower poor people, through the ‘60’s the economy came crashing down. In 1967 he resigned after a humiliating defeat from Israel. He died three years later in 1970 and Vice President Sadat became President.
   
Under Sadat, Egypt defeats Israel in a war but does not gain back the Sinai. Ultimately, Egyptians got back the Sinai in ’82. So basically, Sadat flipped politically in foreign policies from Nasser. He created the Open Door Policy, created a combination of capitalism and socialism in which he promised free education and a job for life, but this promise was not kept, so the Egyptians don’t believe in government anymore and turn to the private sector. Also, although Sadat still kept Nasser’s one-party system, he allowed left, center, and right planks of that party. However, Egyptians were upset with him because he signed the Camp David Accords, in which he declared peace with Israel. We don’t know for certain if this was the reason Sadat was assassinated in 1981 and Mubarak became President.
   
I’m really glad we had this lecture because this lecture combined with the presentation given by Dr. Dina at the office of Al-Ahram really helped shape an idea of Egyptian politics in my mind. I can truly understand the great changes Egyptian politics have gone through in just the past 50 years. Dr. Denis mentioned that Egypt has seen unbelieveable economic growth in the past five or six years and I hope this growth can continue well into the future because not to sound like a pessimist, but based on what I’ve noticed during my short stay here, the blue collar Egyptians deserve more rights and opportunities.

1/10/11

Today we woke up early, not to go to Arabic class, but to go on a walking tour of Islamic Cairo. The tour was given by Dr. Tarek Swelim who studied Islamic architecture at Harvard University. We began the tour at the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. When I first walked on the grounds of the mosque, the first thing I noticed was the border of the walls surrounding the mosque. They looked like stick figures holding their hands up high. I learned that the architecture of the mosque was inspired by mosques in Samara. In fact, 98% of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun was built in the Samaran style. The 2% of the mosque that’s in an Egyptian style are the knishes between the windows. The knishes are like a vertical rectangle box with seashells on top. Dr. Tarek also mentioned that the windows were made of stucco and that each window of the mosque had a different design.
   
Usually when one goes inside a mosque, he has to remove his shoes from his feet and leave them in a certain area, but here instead of removing our shoes, there were a couple of men who tied bags around our shoes so that our dirty shoes would not directly be touching the floor of the mosque, nor would we have to take off our shoes. Also, all the girls had to cover their heads with a scarf.
   
The mosque had many portacles, but in the middle of the mosque was a dome-shaped structure. First, Dr. Tarek mentioned that the minaret that was closest in our field of vision had a unique spiraling staircase that was on the outside of the minaret, leading to the top. He also mentioned that this was not the original minaret of the mosque—the original one had been destroyed during a natural disaster. Then, we walked inside the dome-shaped structure. When I stood in the middle of it and looked up, I saw a verse from the Quran engraved around the inside rim of the dome. It was a bit difficult to read, so when Dr. Tarek mentioned that it was about water, it made sense that there was a fountain built in the middle of the structure.
   
When we walked around some more, I saw a dark silver plaque that had some Quranic verse engraved in it, but it was written in a style different than what I’m used to, which was why I was not able to read it. But I did think it was very beautiful. One thing that surprised me was that there was a smaller dome within the mosque that incorporated stained glass windows. I wasn’t aware that they were also included in mosques because when I think of stained glass windows, I automatically think of a church, so it was surprising to me that some mosques also contain stained glass windows. The only difference, of course, is that the stained glass windows in mosques do not contain any images, whereas the ones in churches do.
   
After that, we climbed the stairs of the spiraled minaret and walked around the roof and/or the top of the minaret. Now, I can go on and on about the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, but we visited so many mosques today, that I’m just going to fast forward through the next few to get to my favorite one, the Barquq Mosque. So the next mosque we visited was Sultan Hassan Mosque. First, we listened to the Muslims’ call to prayer, then we observed as they prayed, and then finally we went to the area where there was a mausoleum. There Imam Sayed very eloquently recited a verse from the Quran for us and helped us to follow the words by pointing at them, as they had been written along the inner top rim of the wall. We also thought it was very interesting how Imam Sayed had played a role in the movie Cairo Time and that this mosque was called “Obama’s mosque.”
   
After that we drove to al-Muizz street (the same street we walked through when we visited Bab Zuwayla). At first, I excused myself to perform the afternoon prayer. And the thing I LOVE about Egypt is that you can find a mosque just about anywhere you go. In the U.S., there are very few mosques so there’s no convenience of being able to pray comfortably. But here, especially on this street, there is a mosque after every couple of store fronts.
   
Then, we walked through the market called Khan el Khalil where we saw dozens of sheesha shops. This was where we saw my favorite mosque, the Barquq mosque. I loved the mosque as a whole, but what really made me a fan was a specific ornate ceiling decorated with my favorite combination of colors, blue and gold. I don’t recall if the gold coloring was real gold or not, but I just remember being in awe as I stared up that the intricate and detailed design for a ceiling that seemed to me to have taken a very long time to create.
   
So after the tour, we went shopping in the Khan. There were many many stores, several of them selling the same items. I visited a number of stores and bought a total of 11 hijabs. I also bought a pretty silver compact mirror that had purple gems and a flowery design on the outside. After shopping, we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel in congested traffic. For dinner, I ate at Hardee’s at the request of my mom who’d eaten and loved Hardees’ jalapeno chicken burger in Pakistan. I must say, it was delicious. It was fresh and the chicken was crunchy. Mmmm. I’m definitely going back there.

Tour by Dr. Tarek at the Mosque of Ahmed Ibn Tulun

A beautiful and ornate ceiling of a mosque

1/8/11-1/9/11

On Saturday the 8th, we took a morning flight for Luxor to visit the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple. Once we arrived in Luxor and sat on the bus, as I looked outside one of the first things I noticed was that Luxor was a lot more developed and modernized than Zamalek. This made me think that the inhabitants of this area were more well off economically than the inhabitants of Zamalek. Then, I realized that there really were no native people walking around Luxor, just tourists. In fact, it seemed as if the city had been designed for tourists and not at all for the native peoples. Our tour guide Michael explained that 16 of the 800 mini statues of the Sphinx by Luxor temple had already been excavated and the rest would be excavated in the next few years. But one thing he mentioned that disturbed me was that in order to carry out this excavation, they would have to tear down houses that had been built above the statues. It bothered me that they were getting rid of houses that the Egyptian people could have used as their residence. I guess this is one of those complicated debates in which we have to weigh the costs and benefits of hurting the local inhabitants to preserve a historic site.

In terms of the exact structures and shapes of the temples, the Karnak and Luxor temples were obviously different. But in terms of the hieroglyphics on the structures, they may have been different, but they seemed similar to me, probably because I have an untrained eye for these things. I was impressed by the massive size of the structures as well as the detailed designs of the hieroglyphics, and I was by no means surprised that it took the Egyptian workers many many years to create these hieroglyphics, but I was shocked to learn that it took 1400 years to complete the Karnak Temple. I was in awe when I heard this and I just kept thinking about how it was possible that the Egyptians had enough patience and resources to continue this seemingly monotonous routine of carving designs on walls for over a thousand years. I mean, wasn’t there anything else going on an Egypt that the Egyptians needed to spend their time on?

I never fully got over the length of time it took to create these hieroglyphics, but once I finally accepted it, I began to appreciate more the work put into carving these hieroglyphics. I was even surprised that some of the hieroglyphics still had the original paint colors on them.

On Sunday the 9th, we visited another set of temples, but the one that stood out to me was the Valley of the Kings. Here they kept the tombs of several pharaohs and the tombs were not like the tombs of today. They were within mountains and we had to walk down a long narrow stair case type of tunnel to get to the end where the tomb was. For all of the tombs, we just saw the sarcophagus, not the actual mummified remains of the pharaohs. But on the way to the tombs, we saw more hieroglyphics on the walls of the narrow tunnel. Because our guide explained the stories behind several of the hieroglyphics, I felt that I was better able to understand what was going on in the depictions. Even in these temples there were some hieroglyphics that still had their original paint, and I’ve heard that the camera flashes can strip paint of its color, which was why were prohibited from taking any pictures inside the Valley of the Kings.

All in all, I really enjoyed my experience in Luxor. Although I wouldn’t really be able to tell the difference between the hieroglyphics in Luxor and the hieroglyphics in the Saqqara pyramids, I felt as if the mountains in the background of the structures in Luxor added a different feel for the hieroglyphiccs.

Arrival at the reception of our hotel in Luxor

 Karnak Temple

Luxor Temple

Trolley ride back from Temple of Hatshepsep

1/7/11

Today, I woke up early again because we had to leave for the Dahshur and Saccara pyramids. When we went to the Giza Pyramids, I loved that we rode on the camels in the desert and that we got to see the Sphinx, but I was really disappointed when we didn’t go inside of or even up close to any of the pyramids. So when I learned that we could go inside the Dahshur and Saqqara Pyramids, I was thrilled. I forget which one, but I heard one of them was the first pyramid of Egypt.

First of all, I really enjoyed the car ride to Dahshur because we passed by a more rural part of Cairo with donkeys and herds of cows. It was more of a village within a city, which I loved. I’d really wanted to see the countryside of Egypt and this was it. More than the city, I wanted to see the countryside.

When we got to Dahshur, we were actually right in front of the pyramid. We climbed the long steps to the a point where we had to enter a descending tunnel. At first, I was going to do it, but when I got a few steps down and saw how far the steps went and how small and cramped the area was, I lost my nerve and came back up. But then I realized that a couple of the other classmates had been able to do it, so I decided that I would go for it. As I went down, I definitely noticed a change in the smell of the air. Although there was ultimately nothing at the end of the cramped tunnel, I was proud of having gone all the way down. Coming up was a bit easier than going down. On the way up, I saw an elderly man walking down the steps and I was embarrassed to think that I almost didn’t go down.

After that we went to the Saqqara pyramids. There when we went inside the pyramids, we saw thousands upon thousands of markings on the wall—some small and some larger than the human body. I was amazed at the methodology of the ancient Egyptians when it came to life, like when slaughtering an animal for food, not mention the sheer artistry. It was astonished to see that even thousands of years later, the carvings were still in place—some of them even had the original color on them.

Another one of the pyramids was similar to the pyramid in Dahshur. We went down a cramped descending tunnel. But this one was no where near as long as the first one. At the end of it, there was a room with carvings on the wall and it also contained an empty sarcophagus. I almost didn’t get to see this because our mini group was holding up the rest of the group. But I’m really glad that I got to see everything I could.

Climbing up the Dahshur pyramids

Hieroglyphics at the Saqqara pyramids

1/6/11

Today, I woke up an hour earlier than usual because we had a quiz in Arabic class today. I went over all of the notes because the quiz was on everything we learned so far. So it covered the alphabet, connecting letters, greetings, personal pronouns and numbers. I felt that I had no problem reading the words, but when it came to writing down a word, it was sometimes hard to know exactly how the word should be formulated. For example, if there’s an “ee” sound at the end of the word, does that mean that there will be a “yeh” or that there will be a “kasrah” on the last letter?

When we began Arabic class, the students expressed their worries that they did not feel they were prepared for a quiz so our teacher, Hasnaa, turned the quiz into a practice review instead, which I think was a great idea. We took the quiz by ourselves first to assess how much we knew, and Hasnaa went around helping those who needed it. When we finished the quiz, we went over it and fixed our errors and asked further questions.

As for the day’s lesson, we learned the possessive pronouns for regular words and then for words that end in an “tehmerboota.” At first, the idea of the “tehmerboota” was very confusing for me, but eventually I understood that a tehmerboota is just used when there’s a feminine word, similarly to the feminine article “la” in Spanish. After we went over the personal pronouns, we went over to El Shabrawy for lunch. I ordered shawerma sandwich, which I’d been meaning to try since I got here. It was sort of like the gyros that are sold in New York, except that the shawerma was not in a pita, but in a hero sandwich form. It also didn’t have as many vegetables as a gyro nor as much sauce.

In the afternoon, we went over to Leslie’s apartment to listen to Dr. Riham Bahi’s lecture on Islamic Femininsm. First, several of us mentioned some common stereotypes about women in Islam, such as the idea that Islam oppresses women because of hijab. Riham mentioned that people pick, choose, and distort verses from the Quran. For example, a verse in the Quran says that the distinguishing feature between men and women is piety. This shows no preference between any gender, but people say this verse shows that men are a degree above. However, this verse is saying that relations is based on equal law.

Another stereotype is that Islam sanctions patriarchy. The Quran says sovereignty belongs to God only and that males and females are BOTH under God and EQUAL to each other. Some say men are a degree above women, but this is a form of Shirk because women are supposed to obey Allah only. The idea of the khilafa is that humans are the agents of God and men and women are mutually responsible for this agency. No one gender is in charge of the other.

I will mention one last stereotype that God preferred men when it came to divorce and inheritance. This verse is cited most often to support male superiority. The Quran said men are financial maintainers because they inherit more to support their family. So in this case, women actually have more rights because they can work and keep their money and if they give their earned money to their family, they will be rewarded as if they had given charity. Men can’t do that—they have to share their earnings with their family.

So many times, I have wanted to explain to my non-Muslim friends how the Quran is not saying that men and women are equal, nor is it saying that men are preferred over women. But I have not been able to explain this until now. Riham said it just perfectly—it’s not about gender equality, but about gender justice. That is the difference between Western feminism, which preaches gender equality, and Islamic feminism, which preaches gender justice.

Before this lecture, I was really interested in further learning about Islamic feminism and I’m really glad that a lot of my questions about women’s status in Islam were answered during this lecture. The most important idea I came away with during this lecture is that Islam is not saying that that there should be gender equality, but that there should be gender justice.

 Dr. Riham Bahi's lecture on Islamic feminism

1/5/11

Today, after the same breakfast, we headed for Arabic class. In class we learned the numbers from one to ten. We also learned about how to say the currency and how to communicate amounts of money, which I think is going to be pretty useful when I go shopping and I want to bargain with the seller. Another thing I learned that was interesting because it was very different from English was that words like “want” and “live” are nouns, not verbs, in Arabic. I also leaned about the temerboota (I love saying that by the way—“temerboota”) and it’s kind of confusing, but I do understand that’s just the added to any feminine word. So we learned how to take the nouns and conjugate them according to gender and number of people. Finally, we worked on the personal pronouns like, “I” and “you.”

Although I’m really glad that we’re covering a lot of ground in Arabic class and we’re learning really useful things for our stay here in Egypt, I do feel a bit overwhelmed just because we’re moving so fast. I guess this is just the way it has to be since we missed some classes because of the delays due to the snowstorm. I just hope I can catch up fast enough to fully take advantage of the Arabic language.

During the break I continued with The Yacoubian Building and asked Noureen to get me lunch. She came back with a Meat Tagen from koshery, even though I asked for a Shawerma Tagen. Because there wasn’t that much time during the break, I couldn’t eat my Meat Tagen right away so I first went to my group’s meeting with Nevenka and ate then.

I’m really glad we have these meetings with Nevenka. Even though they’re only for an hour, I feel like we are able to understand Arabic so much more because we can ask further, more detailed questions about the massive amount of information we learn in Arabic during class. During the meeting I was able to better understand some words that I wanted to know, but didn’t learn in class, like “Fi=in” and “fayn=where.” We also did the number song again, which was really useful.

Right after the meeting, we left for a meeting with an NGO. The NGO was called Nahdet El Mahrousa: The Incubator for Social Innovative Enterprises. This NGO is different from other NGO because the main goal of this NGO is to help other NGOs by providing them with funding. They defined an incubator as “an economic and/or social development process designed to advise potential start-up projects and, through a comprehensive capacity building and assistance program, help them to establish and accelerate their growth and success.”

One of the speakers mentioned that Nahdet El Mahrousa provides funding to other NGOs to encourage them to do research without worrying about costs. They want these individuals to get into the habit of doing research. Another speaker mentioned that one of the achievements of Nahdet El Mahrousa was that they developed a Career and Development office in Cairo University so that even before students get their degree, they will know what job to look out for when they graduate, instead of not knowing what their doing.

After the meeting, some of the girls went walking around to the stores. I wanted to shop, but I didn’t want to shop just anywhere. I wanted to shop somewhere I knew would have the things I want for a decent price. I feel like the store in Zamalek are overpriced because a lot of tourists come here so they feel that they can overcharge everyone. But Abduh’s going to take us to a marketplace that will sell items for a good price. Hopefully I find the things I need, like athar (scents) and gallabiyas for my dad and brother.

When I got back to the hotel room, I continued with the book and for dinner I ate leftover croissant from breakfast. But before I slept, I talked with Noureen’s friend Lisa who had been studying in Cairo for a whole semester. I asked her if she felt her curriculum was difficult and was surprised to learn that the curriculum in Egypt is a lot easier than the curriculum in America. She explained that because the students have difficult with English, the professors do not give challenging assignments. When Lisa left, I continued with some more of the book at this point. I felt like the book was too unrealistic in the sense that there was so much going on in one building. And it bothered me that there were so many sex related issues in the book. I felt like Alaa Aswany was forcing every sex related issue in the book just because these issues are not openly discussed.

Powerpoint presentation at Nahdet el Mahrousa

1/4/11

Today after I woke up, I had breakfast (yes the same breakfast I’ve been having since I got here). I just did not have the time to do the homework for Arabic class the day before so I did it after I ate breakfast. I do feel a bit overwhelmed because I feel that our days are filled with classes, lectures, and/or activities and there is very little free time. And because there is very little free time. I feel like I am not able to catch up on my schoolwork, which is making me a bit stressed. So anyway, today in Arabic class we finished the rest of the alphabet from the letter “thaal” to the end with “yeh.” I found that when it came to pronouncing words that had “seen” or “saud,” I could not differentiate between the two letters. I also had difficulty pronouncing the “ein” properly because when I was taught the Arabic alphabet, if you couldn’t pronounce the “ein” the proper way, then it was permissible to pronounce it as an “alef.” Hopefully I’ll be able to pronounce that and be able to tell the difference between when the “ein” and when the “alef” is being used in a word.

Throughout the lesson, we also practiced our greetings, which is my favorite part because I want to be able to converse with the people I meet on the street and in stores, so for me, the part where we have small conversations is most important. So far, we have just completed the greetings like, “Welcome,” “what is your name,” how are you,” etc. We’re also learning other words and phrases here and there that are useful like, “How much?” which will be a useful phrase to use when I go shopping in the marketplace and want to bargain for an item. During the break, I tried a different tea today called Anise tea. At first I thought that I’d never tasted anise before, but when I drank it, I realized that I’d eaten anise, but I just never knew that that’s what it was called—I just knew that in Urdu, we call it “somf.”

So after the Arabic lesson was over our vans dropped us back to the hotel. I planned on working on my journal and reading the book, but then my mom called me and asked me to change the date for my return flight back to New York. I had trouble finding Turkish Airlines’ number in Cairo so I asked the receptionist and he found it for me. However, when I tried calling Turkish airlines, they wouldn’t pick up the phone, and when I was finally frustrated, I stopped calling. I began to collect my dirty clothes for laundry when Erica dropped by our room and informed us that she was missing money from her bag. As I listened to her, I was shocked and sad that that happened to her, but at the same time I was also afraid that it might’ve happened to me. Fortunately, when I checked all of my stuff, everything was in it’s place, but the fear of having our stuff stolen was still there. Then, Noureen and I went to Canada Clean Laundromat and dropped off our dirty clothes. We felt the price was a bit high, especially considering that we’re in Cairo, but we were so desperate for clean clothes that we decided that we would just get this done right away. With the little time we had left, we went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered food. I was a bit annoyed when I had to ask for a spoon and then found out that the restaurant didn’t carry disposable spoons. I guess because it was a fancy restaurant, they don’t usually have people take food to go. After he was finally nice enough to let us borrow two silver spoons, we dashed for the vans, which were scheduled to leave for 2:30. We got there just in time and then headed to Cairo University.

When we got to Cairo University, I just thought that they had such a beautiful campus. But not only was their campus beautiful, but so was the inside of the building that we entered. One of my classmates made the comment, “This is nicer than the Marriott,” and I laughed because I agreed with her. It was so beautiful with a chandelier and marbled tiles and stairs and the stairs had such antique banisters. We also visited the massive auditorium where President Obama gave a speech. This auditorium was also ornate and just put any other auditorium I’d ever been to to shame.
Then, we had the most interesting dialogue with Egyptian students at the university where we had a Q & A session with them and they with us. We discussed the differences/similarities between Obama and Bush, Egypt’s state of emergency, the topic of sexual harassment, and the idea of permissible polygamous marriages. It seemed to me that many of the Egyptian students’ responses were based on the Quran. When it came to issues like homosexuality and polygamous marriages, they quoted the Quran to provide support for their opinions. I also noticed that the students varied in their level of conservatism. Just like the people we met on the streets of Cairo, some of them covered their heads and some of them did not, but when it came to national and foreign policies they had similar views.
When we finally got back to the hotel, I skyped with my family in the lounge and some of the other girls and I also discussed the days events with Nevenka.

Tour at Cairo University with Dr. Riham Bahi

Dialogue with Egyptian students at Cairo University

1/3/11

Today in Arabic class, we finished learning the rest of the alphabet, both pronunciation and writing. All along, we’ve been learning the rules of writing, such as the three long vowels and the six short vowels and the rules of connecting the letters. We also continued with more conversations of greetings. In terms of the class thus far, so far so good. I also like the fact that outside of what’s written in the curriculum, my teacher Hasnaa also tells us other useful words. I just hope I will soon learn enough Arabic to be able to carry out a full conversation with an Egyptian.

For lunch, we went to Abduh and Hayaam’s for lunch, and it was all so delicious. I was happy that we would finally get to eat a traditional Egyptian meal at an Egyptian home. All the food was new to me, but I liked it all. My favorites were the fried cauliflower, the eggplant, and the fries. Even more than the food, I liked the environment of their home. It was a very apartment in a decent neighborhood and I couldn’t help but wish that the people who live in some of the run-down flats in Zamalek could live in this kind of nice apartment.

So anyway, at Abduh’s house we were introduced to his beautiful family—his wife and two of his kids. We also played with his small white dog named Muffin who was very cute. After we were done eating, Dr. Denis gave a little talk. I just loved being at Abduh’s house and although I shouldn’t generalize, I loved the feeling of being in a true Egyptian home.

Lunch at Abdo's. Yummm!!

1/2/11

Today was our first day of Arabic class in Arabeya Institute. I have a really nice, understanding, and bubbly teacher named Hasnaa.We started by learning the first 13 letters of the alphabet. Because I was taught how to read the Quran, and therefore recognize the Arabic letters, I thought that I would be able to breeze through the alphabet, but unfortunately that was not the case. I realized that the way I’d been pronouncing some of the letters was different than the way I would need to pronounce them in Egyptian Arabic. I also realized that being able to read Arabic is not the same as writing Arabic. So when we wrote the letter today, I realized that when it comes to writing, I’m at the same pace as everyone else. We also started practicing the greetings, like “Sabah el kheir.”

Later, we went for lunch at a traditional Egyptian restaurant called El Omda Restaurant. The environment of the restaurant itself was very nice, but everyone was upset with how long it took for us to get our food. Not only did it take them a while to make the food, but there were even some who never even got their food. I’d ordered the chicken pane with fries and I would just give it a 3 out of 5.

The reason why everyone was so upset about the food taking forever to come (besides the fact that we were all starving,) was that we had to meet with Dr. Dina Shehata at the offices of the newspaper Al-Ahram. First, Dina provided thorough background information about the Egyptian political system from it’s establishment in 1952 up until today. One fact that I found very interesting and strange is that Egypt has been in a state of emergency since 1981 when President Sadat was assassinated. It just seemed odd that a country should remain in a state of emergency for 30 years when there’s nothing really going on right now. I mean, what state would Egypt declare if there was a new emergency? I also learned that Egypt is not an Islamic state—it actually combines elements of both secularism and religion (Islamic views).

Arabic class with our teacher, Hasnaa

Talk with Dr. Dina at Al-Ahram

1/1/11

Today, we visited Bab Zuwayla which is one of seven gates of Cairo. Bab Zuwayla was built by the Fatimids, now known as the Shitte sect of Islam. Although the Fatimids spent the least amount of time in Cairo out of all of the sects of Muslims, they are responsible for building these massive structures and minarets. Once I climbed up the stairs and looked out at the city, I realized why Cairo is called the City of a Thousand Minarets. There were many minarets and each one was different from the next in some way. They were also different shapes—some thinner than others, called pencil minarets.

Then, we went into a nearby mosque. We had to remove our shoes as shoes are dirty and not permitted in the mosque. Also, all the girls covered their hair with scarves to show respect to the beliefs of those who visit mosques—that women’s hair should be covered at all times in the mosque. We saw the tomb of the martyr Hussein. Dr. Denis explained that he had one tomb here in Cairo and one tomb in Iraq because when he was martyred, his body had been split into pieces, some of which are in Cairo.
In the mosque, I really liked the complex Quranic verses inscripted along the borders of the walls. Although I can read most Arabic, I had difficulty reading these scripts because they were written in a calligraphic style, which I’m not used to reading. Although I’ve been to several mosques in my life, both in New York and in Pakistan, in those mosques I’ve never seen the Imam’s pulpit, as I saw here.

Later that day, we went to City Mall to watch an Egyptian movie in the theater called “678.” It was about the topic of sexual harassment faced by women in Egypt, a topic considered to be taboo in many cultures. I basically loved this movie because it talks about a topic that not only the media, but also family members don’t want to talk about to each other. I think the more society sees that such topics are being discussed in public, the less afraid they will be to step up for their rights as humans. These types of movies are the forefront for a new attitude toward sexual harassment of women by men. They raise awareness and make women stronger.

The minarets of Bab Zuwayla

Inside the first mosque at Bab Zuwayla

 Pop-up poster of the movie "678" at the City Mall

12/31/10

Everyone was really excited today because today visited the sight that we define Egypt by—the pyramids! We went to the pyramids of Giza. First we were all situated on our camels as they tour guides took us through the desert and gave us some background about the pyramids. I loved the experience of sitting on the camel, but I was always afraid that something would spook the camel and it would just take off. Although I could not tell from afar, up close it was very obvious that the desert had been polluted. I felt as if this was the only part of the experience that was a bit unsettling.

Another part of this experience that really bothered me was that the guy who was controlling my camel kept asking me for a tip, even though I kept explaining to him that we had been instructed by our Professor not to tip them individually, that they would get tipped at the end. At one point, he was giving such dirty looks that I felt that if I did not tip him, he might influence the camel in some way so that it drop me or at the very least, scare me enough to think that the camel will drop me.

After got off the camels, we went to the area where the Sphinx was located. As I observed the Spinx, I realized that the nose had broken off and I recalled a scene from the movie “The Prince of Egypt,” in which Moses is goofing around with his brother Ramses and accidently knocks over the ladder of the slave who is carving the nose of the Sphinx, causing the nose to completely break off. I would say that I have never taken as many pictures anywhere else I did at the Sphinx. At the end of it all, we were bombarded by little kids selling inexpensive postcards. I bought a pack of postcards and a set of decoration pieces that resembled the three pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.

For lunch we headed to a restaurant (I forget the name), where we had delicious falafel, rice with cinnamon, and mixed grill, which consisted of chicken and beef. The food smelled very similar to the Pakistani food I’m used to eating, but when I ate it, I realized there was a very important difference—Egyptian food was not at all spicy like Pakistani food. What I really liked the most about the restaurant was the environment—we ate outside, there was a live band playing traditional Arab music, and there was also a man who used different colored sand to make shapes in small bottles.

In the evening those who were planning to attend the Naseer Shama event dressed up for the occasion. We met up together and walked down to the El Sawy Center. In the beginning, I was upset that I’d let some of my friends talk me into going to the show because I didn’t think it was going to be good at all. I thought that I would fall asleep as soon as the show started and I would then leave during the intermission. But much to my surprise, I loved the show!! I loved sound of instruments I’d never heard before. The music reminded me of classical Indian music, which my dad and I love. I especially enjoyed the parts where each player would perform a solo with his own instrument—it allowed me to really appreciate the importance and contribution of each instrument.

At the end of the show, I was really glad I went. I couldn’t believe that I almost missed out on such an amazing cultural event. It always amazes me when something turns out opposite to what I expect.

The three pyramids of Giza and our camels

At the Sphinx

Nasser Shama event at the El Sawy Cultural Center

12/30/10

Today, I had the same breakfast as yesterday (bologna sandwich, croissant, boiled egg, and tea). Since the majority of the students have arrived, even though we all arrived in small groups on different days, we had an orientation for the program today. We walked a few blocks down from our hotel room and visited Leslie’s apartment for the orientation. There Professor Sullivan explained the new updated schedule for the program that had changed because of the blizzard. We also raised some questions and issues we had. One of them was that we wanted to try a traditional Egyptian breakfast at the hotel. For lunch, I went to a Chinese restaurant called Peking, which was very close to the hotel. Chinese food is my favorite food and so when I heard Noureen didn’t like Chinese food, I dragged her along with me to try out this Chinese food. I got Hot and Sour soup, spring rolls, and chicken noodles. It was all delicious, but my favorite was the Hot and Sour Soup.

Later that night, we left the hotel in vans to go ride on the felucca and sail the Nile at night. The ride was fun although a bit chilly. We took many pictures, unfortunately because it was so dark, some of them were not showing what they were supposed to. The sir who was sailing our felucca told us about his family and sang a traditional Egyptian song for us. At first, we lost control of the felucca, but eventually was able to steer it.

After we tipped the felucca guy, we walked back to the hotel. Although the van ride from the hotel to the felucca place was only about seven to ten minutes, it took us 40 minutes to walk back to the hotel because we basically had to walk in a circle around the Nile to get back to the hotel, not to mention the crazy traffic we had to cross, which none of us were used to. Then, we walked through the Marriott, which so elegant and luxurious that none of us could imagine ever staying in such a hotel. After that, we went to the Culture Wheel to buy tickets to see Naseer Shamma, the worlds greatest oud player. He’ll be performing a show at the El Sawy Cultural Center tomorrow on New Years Eve.

Rosie and our felucca fellow on the Nile at night

12/29/10

When we got to Istanbul, we were told that because we’d missed our connecting flight, we’d have to wait for the next one. At first, the Turkish Airlines workers were unresponsive to our needs and were acting as if they couldn’t understand English, which everyone found hard to believe that workers at an international airport would not be able to speak English.

At first, they told us that we would leave in a couple of hours, but when a couple of hours passed and there was no update, the crowd started to get riled up again and accused the airline workers of lying to us. We demanded to speak to their chief, who said that we would know for sure whether or not there was a plane available for us in a half hour. In the mean time, he provided us with food from Burger King because everyone was hungry.

As we ate they informed us that they had done they’re part and the only thing left was for Egypt’s airport to give the okay for the small Turkish airlines plane to land at their airport. When we finally got the clearance from Cairo International Airport, they printed up new boarding passes and we left for the waiting area. After about two hours, we boarded a small plane to Egypt that only flew for two hours.

Once we landed in Egypt, we got our visas and then headed to baggage claim. When I got there, I was thankful that both of my suitcases were there. However, everyone else was upset to found out that their things had not arrived. Another classmate, Leandra, and I were the only ones to get our luggage. Everyone else had to file a baggage complaint. When we finally left the baggage claim, we met Abduh outside. Some of us went in his car and some of us took a taxi. The taxi driver asked for LE 140 for the drive from the airport to our hotel (Horus House Hotel) in Zamalek, but we were all thinking that he was trying to rip us off because Abduh never mentioned having to pay the driver. We called up Professor Sullivan and had him speak to the driver and learned that he was not supposed to ask us for money.

Once we had all that cleared up, we headed for the airport. As I sat in the taxi, I realized how much Egypt reminded me of my home country of Pakistan—the traffic, the billboards, the people on the street, the dilapidated flats. Although I was tired, I was happy that I at least had my luggage and that we were finally going to be able to go to our hotel.

When we got to the hotel, I met my roommate Noureen in the lobby. I first went to my room to drop off my stuff, and then met up with Noureen and a couple of other students who had arrived before me for breakfast. As we ate, we talked and introduced ourselves and shared our airline ordeals.

Professor Sullivan was going to give a tour at 11:00 and then at 2:00. I decided to go to the 2:00 so that I could shower first, since none of us stuck with Turkish airlines had showered in three days. When I saw my hotel room, I was happy that it was a decent room, and I was especially satisfied with the bathroom—my fear for living in a hotel mostly had to do with having a small dirty bathroom.

So after I took a shower, I met up with the 2:00 group as Professor Sullivan gave us a tour of the area and showed us where we could exchange our money, eat, buy groceries, and do our laundry. For lunch, I had koshery, which was a mix of rice, lentils, and pasta, and not only was it delicious, it was very affordable (only LE 3!!) After the tour, I just went to my room and collapsed on my bed, since I hadn’t slept properly for the past two days.

My roommate woke me up at around 6:45 to go out for dinner, even though I wasn’t hungry. We went with Professor Sullivan to a Western-style restaurant called Crave, where I got the chicken soup. At first it tasted good (maybe because I was just so hungry), but then it began to taste too salty. I paid for the overpriced soup and then left.

As I laid back down in my bed at the hotel room, I was just glad to finally be in Egypt and to get this show on the road!!

  Looking at Egyptian traffic for the first time

A Statue of the Great Egyptian Singer Om Kolsom at Om Kolsom Square

12/27/10

Most people were awake all night, while few got very little sleep. I awoke for the morning prayer and waited for the stores to open so that I could get some breakfast. Everyone had been so upset with Turkish airlines because on top of delaying our flight and keeping us in the airport overnight, they didn’t even give us food vouchers. Eventually, they gave us food vouchers for breakfast at a time when most people had finished their breakfast.

Although they’d promised that we would depart at 1:00 pm, they kept delaying the flight as they had done the day before. By the time it was 8:00, many people became impatient and one passenger with an infant daughter lashed out at the airline’s workers. She wanted to know why the airline kept lying to us. They explained that they needed to clean the ice off of the wings, but everyone wondered why they had not done this in the 36 hours that they’d kept all the passengers at the airport. After this encounter, passengers were allowed board. Once everyone did board, they were all so happy to just get out of the airport that the didn’t even realize that we sat in the plane for seven hours before it actually took off. Apparently, they still hadn’t de-iced the wings and were doing that when the passengers had already boarded. Once we took off, everyone was just glad that the plane left JFK and hoped for a safe arrival in Istanbul.

12/26/10

Today when I woke up, I saw the much talked about blizzard, but I desperately hoped it wouldn’t affect my flight. As I was getting some last minute packing done, I realized that I did not have any gum, which is just my thing. After my brother loaded by bags in the car and shoveled some snow away from the car, I rushed to the corner store to get my gum. As we left for the airport, I realized that I should have left earlier because the roads were so slippery that we had to drive at a really slow speed.

When we finally got to the airport, we found that we were so late that there was no line of passengers in front of the Turkish airlines desk. But thankfully, I was still able to get my boarding pass register my suitcases. As I got to the waiting area for Turkish airlines, I saw a couple of familiar faces from the orientation for this program. We sat and talked about ourselves, our backgrounds, and how excited and scared we were about going away to a foreign country by ourselves.

We’d learned that the 4:45 flight had been delayed to 5:30 and was then further delayed to 6:30. But when it was delayed to 7:30, everyone was convinced that it would no longer be delayed and that we would fly out tonight. Unfortunately, the flight was then delayed for 8:30. At this point, passengers started boarding the plane. I looked out the window of the plane and wondered how we could possibly fly out in this blizzard and prayed that everything would be okay. They airline kept us on the plane for an hour and a half before they informed us that the Port Authority was having a meeting about whether or not we would fly out that night. Later, we learned that they did not approve of the departure, and for the first time in my life, I had to exit a plane that never departed.

When everyone got off the plane, we all demanded and we be taken to a hotel. But due to the storm, all hotel rooms were booked and we had to spend the night at the airport. At this point, everyone was furious. We all wondered why the airline did not just cancel the flight before hand so that we wouldn’t have had to spend the night sleeping in uncomfortable chairs and a cold, hard floor. The blizzard was so severe that it even prevented our loved ones from picking us up.

So we spent the night at the airport, ate overpriced airport food, and tried to pass the time by playing games. Turkish airlines assured us that we would fly out at 1:00 the next day.

 Two of the ten students stuck at JFK Airport due to the blizzard

12/25/10

Today was the day before I leave for my study abroad program in Egypt. I just started packing, even though I told myself that I would not procrastinate, but I did. It’s just that after my last final, I only had four days to spend with my family and I was trying to take as much advantage of that time as I could. Thankfully, I’d already made a list of what I needed to pack so that I wouldn’t forget anything if I did pack last minute. I also made sure to go over the email Professor Sullivan sent out about what to bring and not bring on the trip. I read over that email a couple of times and made sure I had everything I needed. It seemed like it won’t be cold in Egypt, so I didn’t back any think sweaters, just many layers so that if it did get chilly once in a while, I would be able to layer on more clothing.

My mom kept asking me if there was anything I still needed to buy for my trip, but I was sure I had everything I needed. She got me my favorite Pakistani dish for dinner (Haleem) because it’s my last night with my family before I leave. After this, I won’t be able to have dinner with them until one month later. This last part is exactly what makes me nervous about this trip. I’ve never been to a new place by myself before. I hope everything works out great and that I’m safe while I’m in Egypt and that my family stays safe back home.

I went online to reserve my seat so that I would get a seat further from the back of the plane. This way, I don’t have to arrive at the airport three hours early to reserve my seat. I’d heard that several of the airlines have cancelled their flights for tomorrow, but my airline, Turkish Airlines, hasn’t. I hope they know what they’re doing—I would rather depart a day late than risk my life.