Faye in Egypt

I love you Cairo, but it was time to leave you

2011-08-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

July 27, 2011 I left Cairo. Nearly three years after arriving in August 2008. Why did I leave?

Long answer. When I started the advertising job in August 2010 I said I would stay there for a year and then go home. I left the job before that but sort of always planned on leaving in August anyways. This plan was kept inside my head or whispered to close confidants. Who wants to live somewhere as if they are leaving? Better those around you think of you as being there for a while. To continue, Ramadan is a great time to be a non-Muslim in a non-Muslim country and three years is a good amount of time to be away from home. Three years is also a "shit or get off the pot" point. As in, I needed to commit to Cairo for real, learn Arabic, get my own apartment and start thinking of it as a permanent home and not just "where I was" or leave.

Other contributing factors include, but are not limited to... increasing national instability, most of my friends having left or planning to leave (bye Chrissie, Mike, Yusef and others), increased desire for pork products, increased desire for mountains, increased need for family hugs, decreased desire for noise and air pollution, my parents for the first time in three years saying "we would like it if you were home," increase desire for sister time, increased feelings of disconnection from friends stateside, and a nagging sensation (to use a cliche phrase) to start creating a permanent life somewhere (well not really permanent).

I think it is a little weird I feel like I have to justify leaving a country, but I do. Why? Well, I really loved Cairo. Still do actually. I had a job I liked, a pretty rad business (Cairo Cocktails), good friends, a handle on the scene and more of all of the goodness to come. But, the daily difficulties were beginning to outweigh the epic weekends and crystal blue seas. Post-revolution life for foreigners is dramatically different in many good, expected and annoying ways. After three years I was starting to get to reactive and losing all patience with random people on the streets. In the weeks before I left I threw half a kilo of apricots a man in BMW when he pulled up next to me and told me I had a nice ass. True statement, but unwanted and tacky to put it nicely. After I felt only regret at not having rotten fruit to throw. Also, I hit a man with a book in the metro when he whispered something nasty to me as I walked in front of him. Also, I screamed at the government customs agents who stormed my work office. Who yells at government agents? The negatives of Cairo were beginning to overtake the many positives. Time to leave with happy thoughts in my head.

So after a particularly rough week in June I decided why wait till August? Why not just leave before then? Bought a ticket and started feeling really good about the decision. Who knows, after a few months of a depressed American economy, my faded tan, Tea Party idiots on the news, missing Cairo friends, Seattle rain and job searching I might be crying for Cairo. I will keep you posted.

For now though I looking forward to hiking, road trips, weddings, greenery, mid-west visits, friends a phone call away, election season and getting reacquainted with the USA.

Amazing to have been in Cairo.

Good to be home.

For mothers

2011-06-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

For the mothers still with us and those that have passed. Because we never had to ask you to take care of us. You just did. Thank you.

Virginity Tests: A Revolutionarily Disgusting Idea

2011-05-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

Every man and woman should remember every single woman they see walking down the street is someone's mother, sister, auntie, grandma, niece or cousin etc. There is no "other" type of women, as the Major Amr Imam of the Egyptian Army claims when talking about the protesters who were arrested and forced to undergo "virginity tests. He told CNN that

“The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine. These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs). We didn’t want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren’t virgins in the first place. None of them were (virgins).”

Articles are here and here

The women who were a part of the Jan25 Revolution were exactly the same as your mother, your sister, your aunt etc. They were then and are now women, like all women. Their bodies are their own. Their virginity is their concern and not a tool to be used by police to show the jailer's innocence upon release. Though varied in size, shape and color, women's bodies are fundamentally the same. The rights all women should have to protect and keep our bodies safe should be as similar.

"Othering" a segment of the population is popular in every country. "They" are on welfare, only "they" do drugs, I won't get AIDS because I am not one of "them". Well in a city were 98% of women report getting sexually harassed on a daily basis there really is no "other" type of woman. If you are a guy and you still think only a "certain" type of girl gets harassed you are blind, ignorant and scared.

Egypt is changing, slowly, but change is happening. Some women I know report less harassment and some report more. Certainly all reports from Tahrir during the height of the Revolution were of men and women side by side in the most respectful and equal manner. Keep the faith Egypt; get vocal and get upset about this behavior. Sexual abuse by the police or army is not set aside for women only. Men are victims of this as well and will be as long as it is tolerated in any form. No country will ever be a great country until all its citizens are equal and feel equally safe.

I don't know of a country where women feel totally safe. But I had never heard of a country that peacefully deposed an autocratic ruler in less than 30 days either and Egypt you did just that. The world expects the worst from you, keep showing them the best. Be upset about this, be vocal in your opposition and keep demanding better from your countrymen and women.

Monday Song

2011-05-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

This is what really matters

2011-05-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

We all know the importance of hair. Historically (Samson and Delilah), biblically (washing feet with it), economically (you can sell it for wigs at a good price), sexually (otherwise why would some suggest women hide it?), children's books (Rapunzel) and socially (oh girl, you got that good hair). So while the fires of revolutions rage throughout the Middle East (a region particularly adverse to hair), Europe gets bailed out and America attempts to get rid of all forms of social welfare programs I say we focus on what really matters: the hair of important people or people we see on TV a lot. There are a few standout men and women in the public eye who would clearly be less important without their hair. Here are my nominations for best hair on the heads of a semi-polical figures.

Best Braids: Omar Bin Laden, son of Osama.

Hot dam his hair is sexy.

How can Obama ignore his request for more information about the death of his father when faced with such sexy braids? He can't. Expect a press release soon and those photos people won't stop whining about.

Best Dye Job: Mubarek

His 30 year rule played second fiddle to his hair's eternal darkness. Like the Pharaohs before him, beauty mattered. Check my last post on his personalized pin-stripes. Unlike the Pharaohs Mubarek did not prepare for his after life with the same vigor and we must be assumed his hair has faded, his riches will be looted and his tomb will go undecorated.

Hair as Stupid as its Owner Sounds: Donald Trump

I am not a fan of "The Donald" and his hair does not help the cause. I do find it amazing that the stupidity of his hair style has been trumped (pun intended) by the stupidity of his "presidential campaign". The biggest crime Donald commits is giving red heads everywhere a bad name as most of us have wonderful hair. He should be kicked out of the tribe and forced to go brunette. I bet Mubarek's colorist is unemployed and could help him out with that transition.

Best Follicle Reason to Put a Ring On It: Kate Middleton

Apparently Kate's hair is her best asset. I doubt that, but it did become the most asked for hairstyle in New York salons almost overnight.

Cairo 1950s

2011-03-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

"Who's goals are different and destinies intersected, the struggle between life and people gets more intense. Life is as vibrant as this timeless river and people live it heading for the unknown."

That suit!

2011-03-08T03:09:00.000-08:00

There is no reason for this post other than the photo below. You know you were a gangster when you had a pin-stripped suit with your name as the stripes. WOW. Do you think Qaddafi has one? Would he know how to spell his name in English? Qaddafi Gaddafi, Kadaffi, Q'addafi and the list goes on. Even Hosny is potentially misspelled. Could by Hosni. Hope his tailor did not get in trouble for that. What do you think it is like to the tailor to someone like Mubarek?

This photo is second possibly only to the creatively hilarious website that is...

Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things. You will not be disappointed.

Or is the winner the Will Ferrel as Harry Carry vs Qaddafi mashup?

Not sure who wins.

Maybe this amazing story I heard from a friend about Libyan state TV before Qaddaffi started killing everyone. The brother in law of my friend, let's call him Jim, was in Libya for work. Noting the extreme lack of night life Jim went back to his hotel room after dinner to watch some TV. A few minutes into his program the broadcast cuts and Qaddaffi appears on screen for a service announcement. In this announcement he immediately begins to yell at the TV audience, screaming "You are wasting your lives watching TV. You are useless, lazy and good for nothings. Get up and do something." The PSA abruptly ends and regular programming continues. Um, what? Can you imagine watching a CSI rerun and all of the sudden Qaddaffi is on the screen screaming about how lazy you are for watching state TV? Amazing.

But, I don't want the epic stories of craziness to over shadow the cruel, murderous and senseless actions of Qaddaffi. Crazy or not he is one horrible SOB who is joined by far to many dictators we tend to pass off as "crazy," "delusional," or "eccentric". When really they are just murders.

Cairo-2011

2011-02-21T05:54:00.000-08:00

If I wondered, and I did, if I would be here for the “big one” my dreams/fears you came true. Egypt, from Aswan to Alexandria and Cairo to the Sinai blew up. Millions of people came out and displayed civic and democratic sensibilities which most of the world did not think existed in Egypt. Mubarek sort of stepped down after many people were killed and many voices were threatened with violence. You have all watched the news I assume and unless you were watching FOX Not-So-News then you should have a good idea of what happened.

I arrived back to Cairo on Wednesday. Went to work on Thursday. Went to the peaceful demonstration on Friday, “The day of Remembering the Martyrs,” where the crowd resembled that of a country fair without the rides or livestock. If you have been to a country fair you know they are a real cross section of people. In America the cross section tends to be horribly unattractive, mainly interested in fried Twinkies and spattered with the young kids completely enthusiastic about rides, 4H and the freedom you have when you run through muddy grass fields to wait inline to win a silly carnival game.

In Cairo much was the same, but different and with less grass. There were bystanders stopping to watch a speakers in corners, kids crying and begging mom for a shoulder ride, loud speakers, vendors shouting and then you had a few “main stage” acts vying for visitors. Tahrir was crowded, not hostile, you had the sense most were “tourists” not the OG Tahrir protesters and all seemed happy. Various “marches” went around the square, up to the edges, ventured in and then left again. There was the march for tourism in Egypt, the large flags busting through crowds like Chinese New Year Dragons, the faces of the dead help up on signs, flags for sale, ribbon for sale, stickers for sale and even some water for sale. All in all, a lot like a country fair. I was happy I went and got over the small amount fear I had about coming back to Cairo. I also know I missed the real thing, but don’t have to many regrets about not being in the thick of it. I think there is another demonstration next Friday. I expect there to be one for many Fridays form now until things actually change.

After the protests on Friday the Cairo Jazz Club opened, from 3-11pm, for curfew style bar hours. The place was packed and the song below was blasted no less than three, maybe four or five, times and everyone sang along each time. “Sout Al Horreya,” written and performed by a local rock band and is a truly beautiful song. The video is all footage from "real day" in Midan Tahrir and gives a really good idea of just how many different people were there. For now people are cautiously optimistic I would think. They are dealing with a new sense of freedom and a newfound ability to voice an opinion.

There are many who are committed to making sure real change in the civic society and government happens. There are many who want a secular Egypt. There are many who want those responsible for the crimes of the past three weeks held accountable. There are many who for the first time feel proud to be Egyptian.

Up next I think we have continued action in Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia is still going, maybe Iran and the rest of North Africa. Get ready and while you do listen to my new favorite song about Africa.

Turns out it is a revolution

2011-02-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

I have a heavy heart because I left Cairo. Currently I am in the UK, safe, happy, loved, damp from rain and baking cookies. That sounds trite. I don’t really know how to talk about this whole experience in any other way. I feel as if I was dating someone and then their family started to hate our relationship so we tried to be secretive about it for a while and then I started to feel horrible about causing family troubles and left. I walked out of the door with a lot of love, respect, two heavy suitcases and sadness in my heart. Does that make sense?

I feel like cheating for leaving. I feel like a weenie, I also feel like there was no place for me there. I was under the feet of the people I lived with. I was not working. As much as foreign support for the protests matters, it was not my fight to be in the middle of on the ground. I could not really leave the house. Effectively I turned into a housewife.

Here is a little breakdown of what I was doing during the days I was in Egypt for the much needed revolution. I stayed inside, I watched TV, I cleaned up a bit, I organized a closet, I did my nails, when there was no phone or internet I did not use either, I checked in with the embassy and got conflicting reports about evacuations every day, I helped Ayman make the house safe, I got into the car twice to take two exploratory trips, I let my nerves and fear get control for periods of time and then calmed down, I stared at screens when thugs on camels whipped people, I was scared when I heard gunshots outside, I worried the people I knew and loved were getting hurt, I made food, I cried when I thought about leaving, I did dishes and when there was phone and internet I checked in with friends and family. My birthday happened on the most deadly day of the protests. I was unhinged because the life I had built (and was really happy with) was being torn away so unexpectedly, but at the exact same time beyond happy it was happening at all.

When I first moved to Cairo I wondered if at some point “shit would hit the fan” in the Middle East/North Africa. Maybe it would be Israel or Sudan. Both those guesses are, for the moment, wrong and for better or worse I was in Egypt. I have many foreign and Egyptian friends who are still there, a few who have left for good and a few doing exactly what I am doing.

I left with the intent of letting things calm down and then hopefully return. Nothing has really calmed down and nor should it. Nothing can calm down until the very simply stated and clear demands of the Egyptian people are met. Egypt is a beautiful country and it deserves a real government, one that does not torture and oppress the people it represents.

Ultimately I am in awe of the absolute people power exhibited almost out of nowhere. Before this revolution I had not heard one single Egyptian say, with a straight face, they were proud to be Egyptian. Now you have millions screaming it at the top of their lungs. With that sentiment and hte bravery shown by so many I remain in awe and I hope I can go back to a new and more beautiful Cairo. I actually really like my job, I have great friends I would like to see and I want to make fancy cocktails for Cairo Cocktails. All that seems trivial and I feel like a turd for thinking such thoughts, but at the same time people are revolting for a real democratic and stable life. Aren’t things like silly parties and work part of stable life?

Revolution?

2011-01-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

As you may all know Egypt is experience a moment of revolution. Since the 25th of January men and women, old, young, long haired, veiled, educated and uneducated have been taking to the streets to protest 30 years of Mubarek's rule, impoverished living conditions, a police state and a general lack of true freedoms. The first day of protests I was out of town. Yesterday the protesters were met with immediate police force. Beebee gun bullets and tear gas were used to separate the protesters, who were then chased through Cairo's streets and separated. Today the streets are unnaturally quiet for a Thursday night and it can be assumed that people are either afraid to leave or resting for tomorrow's events.

Tomorrow after noon prayers a large demonstration is expected. "They" have blocked facebook, blackberry networks are down and twitter has been blocked for the past few days. Proxy servers seem to be working. But, considering how few people have actual access to internet (especially compared to numbers in Tunisia) the gatherings have been large.

I have registered with the embassy, two years later, and no warnings have been sent out. I am safe and will not be taking part in the protests. While I support the idea and motivation of the protests, this is not my fight and is not something a foreigner should be involved in on the ground. The best coverage I have seen is the Guardian UK, they have pretty good updates. If you search on twitter #jan25th or #egypt a good thread should show up. If I am not on facebook this is why.

Email works. I have no clear idea of how far this will go and expect that the strength of tomorrow's demonstrations will set the tone for the rest of what could become a revolution.

Thanksgiving in Cairo- the pilgrims would never want to be here but I do.

2010-11-25T03:47:00.000-08:00

After the whirlwind trip to the USA I returned back to Cairo to keep working at Square Cube Communications and keep living in Heliopolis. Well, those two things are over! I have moved down to Maadi and in with Ayman. Life simplified a great deal with one cross-town move. I am now closer to most of my friends, closer to Ayman, across the street from one of the best restaurants in Cairo (Cellar Door Bistro), two blocks away from the metro and living in an incredibly pleasant home.

Then at the beginning of October Anastasia came to visit. Luckily I had a vacation and we went out to the Sinai. Of all the people I have wanted to show the Sinia to Anastasia was number one. We stayed at the Good Life, got a little tan and chilled out. Then we went back to Cairo and I went back to work. Ana did some epic tourist activities with the help of Chrissie and a few solo. We went out together at night. Not everyone I wanted her to meet was around and I was stuck at work during the day, but she caught a glimpse of my life here. One of the best things about sister visits is that Anastasia takes amazing pictures, all the photos below were taken by her.

Red wall at the Good Life :)

Daily Nescafe

Side street downtown on the way to check out the Townhouse Gallery

A gaggle of ladies alongside the Nile

How many dirty kitties can you see?

Anastasia walking through Khan El Khalili alley ways

While Anastasia was here I interviewed and was hired for a new job. Yes, another new job. Why you may ask? Despite the correct job title and initial interest in the work my daily activity had slowed to a standstill. The account I was hired for was drying up and there was little English work to be done. In short I was being wasted and was so board I wanted to cry everyday.

I now work at Rania’s Corner, a concept boutique. We sell high-end furniture, clothing knick-knacks, jewelry and other fun things. I manage the shop and assist Rania with what ever comes up. So far I love it. We had a fun event this week, a jewelry showcase. Plus, the customers are amazing people, the environment is fun, I get to wear better clothes and I am actually being used. Even if all that was not true my new commute would make the change worthwhile.

Compare:

Old work: 30 plus pounds in cab rides daily, wait at a gross gas station, drive through around two hours of nasty traffic both ways, and arrive at workplace in a not so developed new development.

New work: Two pounds daily-plus coffee, nice walk to nearby metro station, about an hour and half both ways, metro allows for ipod listening and reading, exercise in the form of walking to and from stations, pleasant scenery and necessities nearby. WINNER!!!!

Winning at life-Anastasia and Faye.

In other news Chrissie and I launched a business. Cairo Cocktails, please become our friend on facebook. After being here for a while the two of us noticed a real gap in the service and quality of bartending at events and parties. Either you pay a ton to import fancy shmancy folks from Europe or you are stuck with cheap local bartenders who do not drink and make martinis with Martini and Rossi over ice. We are somewhere inbetween. We have great experience in customer service, bartending, are professional and passionate about bringing real cocktails to Cairo. We work with a host to prepare a specialized cocktail menu, make our own syrup infusions and have gotten a few gigs so far.

Plus, Chrissie is a networking queen and has found a few other excellent Americans with bartending experience to help us out. Hopefully we can really get things going and have more fun. People in general are enthusiastic about the idea and really supportive. We got a great write up in Quintessentially, a concierge service found in almost every major city around the world.

Jimmy and Ramez at their camp.

So life in Cairo goes well and I am fairly happy. We just had a big long vacation. I went back to the Sinai with Cairo friends and Fran (from UW-Madison), who was teaching in Tanzania and now traveling with her friend Jeffrey. They will be eating Thanksgiving Day dinner with us tonight. Yeah, life sounds pretty good right?

Far far away in the Middle East/North Africa there is a girl…

Faye, who has very many things, people and places to be thankful for. She is thankful for a family who makes her feel loved enough to do crazy stuff and takes their time and money to come visit (all of them now!), thankful for friends in Cairo who make this crazy city feel like home, thankful for business partners/best friends who put up with her, thankful for a new roommate who made his house her home and thankful for this big crazy beautiful, strange and loving world.

Re-entry

2010-10-03T05:59:00.000-07:00

I feel as if I start many posts with "Yes, I am still here," but I am still in Cairo. I wake up many days and have no idea how two years (more really) went past. The fact that I have been here for two years was made more apparent and also less obvious when I went home.

Home, Seattle, was an occasion filled event.

Occasion number one, Burning Man. There are many things to be said, I don't think there are any pictures of me so I can't post them and this experience has no doubt changed my life for the better. Absolute inspiration and creativity does not even begin to give justice to what people (horribly normal people and amazingly freaky people) create for this extravaganza. I am still in awe. Ayman and Chrissie could not have been better first time Burn Buddies and if I did not love them for any other reason (which of course I love them for many reasons) those days in the desert would be reason enough to love them forever. Yes, Burning man inspires that sort of love. It is worth it, everyone needs another reason to love something, someplace or something.

I "borrowed" the pictures below from a facebook album Ayman made of various people's photos. I can take no credit.

The actual layout of the Playa.

I don't know her name, but she was a few stories tall, lit up at night and made me happy to be human.

Occasion number two, Maya's wedding. The first of my best buddies from high school and life in general to get married and she did it right. The ceremony and wedding were filled with tradition, friends, family and crazy Jewish folk dancing. Maya altered her grandmother's wedding dress into something timeless and perfectly Maya (somehow delicate, unique and yet strikingly traditional). I met the groom, Ben, for the first time and was impressed in many ways. All of the ladies showed up, traveling from Paris, SF and Portland.

Quill, me, Becca and Caitlin.

Nan, Becca, Besty, me, Caitlin, Sarah and Emily waiting for the ceremony to start outside the newly remodeled Husky boat house.

Occasion number three, Ana was in town. Sister time is always a good time. Family times are also good times.

Occasions four and five, September family birthdays. I was not around for the actual date of my dad's b-day but close as I could get. For mom's actual date I was there and she hosted a wonderful ladies only brunch with lots new friends from the new neighborhood (finally got to put some faces to the names) and old friends from all around town. A delicious way to spend what turned out to be a sunny day. Also, later at a Georgetown bar I figured out spicy chai tea tastes amazing when steamed with a little bit of soy milk and enhanced with a generous shot of dark rum. If it was ever winter in Cairo it would be my drink of choice.

The trip home was also incredibly stressful. Lots of travel time in planes and airports, I got sick and I realized just how absent I have been from America. Expired driver's license, not able to get a doctors appointment, dentist check ins, forgotten street names and lots of new buildings. I have also grown used to how hard simple things are to get done (for me) in Cairo and this attitude transferred to America. Where, things can be hard to get done but ultimately I know how to do them in my native country and I should have calmed down and relaxed. Lesson learned.

The return to Cairo was rough. I got a bad head cold and had I hoped my time in Seattle would shed light on where I really want to be at this moment, it did not shed much light at all. I did find out Seattle can still be a new city for me. My friends there have managed to discover unknown aspects of the city and get involved in different things. Their actions have assuaged my fear about going back to Seattle and finding it to be the same as it was for the first 22 years of my life or not as exciting.

A couple weeks after landing life is smoothing out and Cairo, as ever, is proving to be an amazing host. Just when you think the whole country is silly a tiny phone call proves you wrong, you meet someone who blows all expectations out of the water or a good conversation reminds you are really just having a bad day and your mood has very little to do with Egypt.

The best news is that Anastasia is coming to visit. More words of excitement to come about this later, Boom! Wham! Whoo Hoo! Awesome! Those are all I got for now.

Onward towards the promised land

2010-08-24T03:41:00.000-07:00

As I pack and get ready to leave for my oh-so-exciting vacation to the West Coast I have to admit that the America I see in the headlines is horribly pathetic.

Let's take a sampling of the headlines from right now...

-Idiots protesting the "Three Blocks Away From Ground Zero and Within Walking Distance of Strip Club Mosque" are making the entire USA look like bigots and hate filled Islamaphobic uneducated twits. What a surprise the whole debate and is actually fueling Jihadist rhetoric and during Ramadan when everyone with a minaret has a particularly captive audience.

-An even bigger idiot in Florida is attempting to turn 9/11 into "International Burn A Koran Day," wow Nazi!

-Politicians from New Hampshire are denying Global Climate Change. Really, in New Hampshire?

-Sarah Palin is still getting press, if you ignore her she will go away!

-Idiot Republicans are actually trying to get rid of the 14th Amendment, Anchor Babies? Democrats-you are horrible at thinking up witty phrases, get a new copy writer!

-People actually believe Obama is a Muslim. Really? Didn't he write a book about his faith? Can these people read?

Not so good. This depresses me. Two years later people still hate George Bush Jr, they still like Clinton (ha!), and they are beginning to see Obama as a fraud and no better than the rest. When you live abroad you get a lot of crap still for being an American and I have to respond. I used to be able to say things were changing, the mood of the country seemed to be happier and more intelligent. Now, I am scared I was dead wrong. I am scared that we are ignoring everything that is really important and focusing on stupid anchor baby inspired debates on the Right and on the Left the every present battle of who is the most liberal without actually supporting liberal policies because somehow they allowed the Right to call everything Socialist. On the other hand my Canada jokes now have a twinge of sadness behind them because not so secretly I am jealous of my old Northern neighbor and I think the sadness adds another layer to the humor.

On this trip back I know I will see friends, attend a wedding of a best friend, and stare at mountains. I hope I find something else, something that will make me want to be in America.

Ramadan! Let's Go!

2010-08-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

This is my third Ramadan in Cairo, only my second in a real workplace. Although, in the spirit of the season and honesty let's not call the school a real workplace, so this is really my first in a real workplace. What does Ramadan mean for me? People get sleepy and slow. My working hours shift from 10-6pm to 10-4pm. Daylight life hours are few and far between. Anyone who can swing shifts their work to night and sleeps all day. Anyone who is not into fasting, hates the vibe and can afford it leaves the country. Tons and tons of dates are consumed. Families have large meals and spend time together. The local networks compete for ratings with hours of movies. Finally, Ramadan like most religious festivals does not resonate deeply with me, but it does affect my daily life and if I had family close by it would be the perfect reason to sit around and do nothing with them.

The most exciting thing about this Ramadan? I am leaving for part of it! That's right, headed back to Seattle and the glorious West Coast for the first time in two years. Who knows how much I miss it. I have no idea so you have no idea. I leave Cairo on the 25th and stick around Seattle until September 15th. During that time I will attend the wedding of Maya Newman, the first one of my Seattle Ladies to get married, celebrate mom's b-day and celebrate dad's b-day (if a few days early). Otherwise I plan on walking up and down hills, maybe riding my bike around, drinking coffee, eating Paseo, staring at mountains, taking note of how many buildings have been torn down and replaced with condos, losing my tan, chilling in the rain, renewing my driver's license, hugging people I have not seen for two years, if I am lucky eating some Pacific Salmon and watching sun sets over the Olympics.

At this very moment the thought of packing and spending a horrendous amount of time on a plane makes me feel queasy, but in a few days I will be very excited. Cell phone is the same and if you are around Seattle let's hang out.

May through June = CRAZY

2010-07-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

My oh my the fun times I have had recently. Sorry for no posts since forever, but this is how life goes.

First we should start with Suzie's crazy, whirlwind, non-stop three day visit to Cairo. She is crazy and I love her for it. What an honor to have someone come all the way here for only three days! She was picked up from the airport in the most amazing fashion ever with new friends and old. From then on it was non-stop. Highlights include a one day trip to Alexandria, delicious quail dinner/lunch at Andrea's (new to me), riding a camel for the first time by the Pyramids, plenty of girl chat, dominating Khan el Khalili and Suzie being her fantastic sunny self!

Our camels

After Suzie's departure I had about a week to prepare for my first trip back to America in nearly two years. The entire Ehrich family gathered in New York for the wedding of Nate and Vicky on Saturday June 12th in Bryant Park. They hosted a truly beautiful, thoughtfully planned, and delicious weekend. Outings included the most outrageous burger I have ever eaten, jazz, William's graduation luncheon, a trip up the Empire State Building, a very tasteful rehearsal dinner with drinks after and plenty of walking around. The wedding was gorgeous, bride and groom were impeccable, my champagne glass was never empty, the steak was perfectly pink, everyone danced all night, and they had a Polaroid photo booth. Please everyone who is getting married copy the photo booth idea.

Stepping foot on American soil was not quite the shock I thought it would be. Still, chilling in Brooklyn with Ana and mom, plus friends was a good break. I also got some much needed daddy daughter time, mommy daughter time, sister time, a haircut, and over all family time.The weather was rainy (nice break really), I could wear shorts in the streets, caught a football match with Dad, had the option of an alcoholic drink at every meal, quality window shopping, phone to calls to the girls around the country (it has been years since I have talked on the phone with some of these ladies) and pork products!

Can't complain about the trip at all. Then back to Cairo where I was immediately taken to the beach for an amazing weekend. Then back to work and the beach every weekend since. Think I am sticking around Cairo this weekend, but who really knows. In the meantime I am planning a trip back in the fall to Seattle and life will move forward from there. What the past almost two months have taught me is that just when you really think you can't stand a place someone or something will flip it on its head and make you love it all over again if you are open to this action. Being open and receptive to new opportunities and people is the biggest lesson I learned while away from America. I have finely tuned my douche bag radar, which aids in knowing who and what to be open with. So, while I could see happily going back to the states anytime, I can't really see leaving Cairo just yet. Conundrum I know. Cairo has a momentum I like right now, I feel like jumping and and saying hello to all of it.

We went to the Empire State Building, such a touristy activity, but actually pretty cool.

Note the shorts in a very public place, so awesome.

Here are some facts about Cairo and Egypt

2010-05-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

Egypt has 81,527,172 people as of 2008.

Cairo has over 20,000,000 residents, I would say it is safe to add on another 2-5 million to that number.

Donkey carts have been outlawed in downtown Cairo in an effort to improve traffic.

The new "Ring Road" is 100 kilometers (62 miles) and as the name implies goes around the Cairo/Giza metropolis.

Cairo is considered a "Mega City," joining the likes of Mumbai, Mexico City, New York, Tokyo, and others.

One half of all hospital beds are found in Cairo

One half of all university desks are found in Cairo

If Cairo were a sovereign nation it would be the 5th largest Arab country

Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt, in only 30 percent the size of Cairo.

Cairo is home to Al Azhar University, the world's oldest surviving degree granting university.

There are over 2,000,000 cars in the streets of Cairo, 60 percent of which are over ten years old.

The Great Pyramids of Giza, sort of Cairo, are the only remaining monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

An estimated 9,351 under-age marriages take place in Egypt, with the vast majority of them taking place in Cairo.

A Greek papyrus from 163 B.C. mentions girls in Egypt undergoing female circumcision and the practice is widely accepted to have originated in Egypt and the Nile valley at the time of the Pharaohs. Although both Al Azhar religious officials and Coptic Pope state it has no basis in religious scripture, practice, or law and it should be not practiced.

The average Egyptian spends 110 Egyptian pounds on cigarettes, that's about 20 dollars, a month.

Mohsen Reda, an Egyptian Member of Parliament, was asked about the prevalence of sexual harassment against women in Egypt and was quoted as as saying that women should be dressed more modestly as “a lot of our youth can’t afford marriage so it is only normal for some harassment to take place.”

The minimum monthly salary of an Egyptian government employee is just LE 289 (53 US dollars).

Other people's blogs, which may or may not be about Egypt.

2010-04-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

One of the most useful and annoying tools I have found in Cairo is a list serve called Cairo Scholars. With over 2,000 members who can email the entire group at any time you can imagine the absolute stupidity and absolute usefulness of the group.

I asked for a collection of blogs because when I was traveling here I found it very hard to find up to date information about living in modern Cairo. The guide books are for tourists and most Google searches turn up information about all the old stone stuff.

Here are the blogs if you are interested in what some other ex-pat type people living in Cairo get up to. I don't know these people and the blogs were not vetted. Many of them are more political, have way better photos, and not nearly as snarky as mine.

www.omraneya.net

Aggregation of blogs on Egypt/by Egyptians in English and Arabic.

http://equivocus.livejournal.com

Written in Armenian or Russian.

Have you ever seen Armenian written? It looks so cool. There are also English posts.

www.ericincairo.blogspot.com

Chronicles adventures both in and outside of Egypt.

http://transhumancity.wordpress.com/

http://whazzupegypt.blogspot.com

www.theshepherdsguild.blogspot.com

www.adewegypt.wordpress.com

http://bloggingegypt.blogspot.com

http://www.IncendiaryImage.com

PS. I'm starting a new blog, in the near future. Stay tuned.

PPS This article is funny, click here.

Apartment peek

2010-04-22T02:35:00.000-07:00

This is my balcony.

If you keep walking forward the balcony wraps around the side of the building.

One of the best things about the building is none of our neighbors are more than one story taller than us. One of the worst things about the building is the horribly loud mosque directly behind our balcony and the other mosque somewhere close. They cannot get their call to prayer times together, seriously it is supposed to all happen at one time and not 30 minutes apart.

Looking out from the living room.
We are not responsible for the curtains or furniture. If either Jasmin or I were planning on being here more than 1-2 years we might change something, but this is not the case.

The Egyptian version of The Onion

2010-04-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Let is be said that the vast majority of Egyptians have truly wonderful sense of humor. The proof, if you doubt, can be found in the website El Koshary.

The actual dish Koshary is the delicious carbohydrate filled street food made out two types of pasta, brown lentils, rice, chickpeas, fried onions, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, and a really hot sauce. Koshary is incredibly cheap and comes in massive servings.

I once got in a friendly argument about the root of the name Koshary. My friend held that it was derived from the Jewish/Hebrew tradition/word "Kosher." I claimed it was derived from the Arabic word meaning "random" or something similar to "grab bag." Like most people do these days we Googled it and my claim had the greater number of Google hits. If we had been betting money I would have walked away richer. We were not betting money and no one in Egypt I have met can give me a 100 percent translation. The recipe is said to have been created by ancient followers of the Coptic faith (Egyptian Orthodox Christians) to eat during their fasts, when they do not eat dairy, meat, or animal products.I don't think Koshary is Kosher. Not many Rabbi's on the street corners selling food in Cairo.

The actual food is not the point, but knowing Koshary means roughly "a jumble" and that it is dirt cheap street food gives the website's title a little more depth. Read and laugh.

Crossing the street

2010-04-08T04:13:00.000-07:00

This video is really accurate, thanks CNN. Although I never find it that dangerous. If you are curious this is also what many of the veiled women in Cairo look like, the anchor speaks really bad Arabic, and the streets are filled with crappy cars.

To watch the CNN video on Cairo Street Crossing click here please.

Jesus was reborn and the Jews fled Egypt so I....

2010-04-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

...went to the Sinai.

Which, if you think about it, is a pretty holy stomping ground. Moses hung out here, found the commandments on a "mountain" top (I use quotes because I walked up it and it is barely a mountain), he also parted the Red Sea (I am guessing near the Taba Hilton, its the thinnest part), and various other holy figures spent who knows how much time here.

But, what really matters is that I chilled on the beach for a nice long weekend. Our small group went to Kumkum 3 aka Bakraj 3 aka Three Tea pots in Hebrew and Arabic. The days were hot and sunny, the nights were breezy and filled with random guitars and songs, and the sea was calm and cool. There are more adjectives to use and better ways to describe it, but ass usual I am at a loss. I was lazy about photos too because...
a) I tried really hard to use film
b) I have been to Kumkum 3 before, pictorial evidence here

The whole Sinai was full. Every camp was booked with Israelis, Egyptians, and a random spattering of Western and European foreigners. America was horribly underrepresented! Come on USA get it together and get to the Sinai. Its like Mexico only slightly more awesome (this is my personal and uninformed opinion I have only been to Mexico once and speak no Spanish). I was trying to celebrate the re-birthday of Jesus, wrong crowd for that humor I guess. Not my fault few people have a religious sense of humor.

The completely ironic thing is that I spent the weekend chilling, serious chilling, deep deep sea chilling, with all kinds of people. Then I wake up to go to work on Tuesday, flip on BBC news (mistake maybe?) and see that Israeli is blowing up Gaza, Palestine is thinking about declaring a state, more floods are happening, Egypt is cracking down on hash (everyone in the city is a little on edge-seriously), and generally the world is falling apart.

Ahh, I whine, I complain, I say the same stuff over and over. But man, the same problems keep happening and no solutions. Maybe the time is ripe for new chat about it all. Specifically, I am looking for people who want to chat about investing in a submarine You think I am joking. I am not. Dead serious. I believe in all 2012 hype. I can't tell you why or the logic behind it all. I like to think that I don't seem like a wacko up in the mountains who is scared of cell phones and sees green men, but to much stuff is happening and not far enough apart for something to not be going on.

Call if you want to build a submarine.

Oprah inspiration

2010-03-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

Never thought I would ever say this, but I have been inspired by Oprah. Yes, I blame this on Egypt and the lack of readily available intelligent cultural material in English. I feel like I live in a small town and Oprah is actually "opening my eyes to the world around me and introducing me to so many different people and thoughts." I have never watched a full episode of Oprah except once on a treadmill and that was because the woman next to me there really wanted to watch it, she won.

On this episode, which I caught ten minutes of, Oprah had a guest who reunites long lost family members. The reuniting man said something which struck a cord and encapsulated why I feel so comfortable here 90 percent of the time. This absolutely, epic, heart wrenching, inspiration, intelligent line is......

"Your family is who loves you when you need to be loved."

BAMMMM are you crying yet? I think the line was in reference to a foster mother who had a foster daughter who was adopted and then they did not get to see each other for 20 something years. You crying now?

No? Well I did not cry either, but I was still inspired. I think Oprah cried, or at least teared up. I completely agree with the idea that blood is not thicker than water. Nothing will ever even come close to how I feel about my family, but when I really think about it, my family includes many people who are not at all genetically related to me.

Living in a foreign country has made me cheesy, but really when you are gone for a long time you realize how much you love some people and how much they love you. Absence makes the heart grow, blah blah blah. Plus, when you are in weird country for so long you realize how valuable being able to love people and have any sort of affection returned is. I got a lot of love to give and I get more than I could really ask for.

Thanks for inspiration Oprah.

She takes a good shot

2010-03-02T06:16:00.000-08:00

Katie Hollamby is my friend, she traveled with the crew to Israel, and works in Taba Heights. She also takes gorgeous photos of Egypt and the places she travels.

I do enjoy her work and if anyone is interested in checking out the photos please click here.

Connections

2010-02-25T02:57:00.000-08:00

Minimum fives times a day I wonder why I came to Egypt and why I am still here. Then small connections show themselves. An old neighbor and good friend, who grew up across the street moves to Egypt. You run into a girl who went to your high school when your dad taught there, lived a few blocks away from you, was on the GHS volleyball team your dad coached, and who's brother gave you rides to school in the morning. You meet people from Seattle, a lot of people at friend's parties and random nights out. One of them comes to check out the room you have for rent in your apartment.

So, why I am here? Why are all these people here too, what was it that made us think "I know I'll move to Egypt!" To many King Tut books as a child? Could be. I know I read a few of them and was mildly obsessed, in fact the obsession was only matched by my interest in the Titanic and whales. Politics of the time? The thought that the only person hiring in America is the Foreign Service Office so we all better learn Arabic fast? Was it the water in the Fremont area? All of the above? Who knows, I suppose Egypt has always been a multicultural crossroads and only recently has that slowed down.

These days I have been dealing with a new job, some serious apartment drama, and generally growing up and feeling like my life should be on a track when it is not. Then throw in the whole "I live in Cairo and can't really give anyone a clear reason why," dilemma and I have started to feel a little anxious. Part of my anxiety has been calmed by finally signing a six month lease at a great apartment in Heliopolis with a roommate who seems really relaxed, committed to living in Cairo for a while, and kind. Importantly, again friends here have stepped up far and above what they need to do and really helped me handle all the apartment drama. The rest of the anxiety will go away when I feel like I have a handle on the job and some security.

Here is what I tell people when they ask why I am here. Initially Egypt was a good excuse to travel and a golden opportunity that fell in my lap. Then some travels in Europe and the chance to live in a castle kept me around. Now I feel like I have a job, for the meantime, that would be about ten times harder to find in the states. International work experience can't be bad and I swear I am going to seriously start studying Arabic. Add in the Sinai beaches, amazing friends, an odd ease in getting some things done, and no chance of snow ever unless the world really is ending and some 2012 crap starts happening and you have the canned answer. The snow thing is serious though, I am over cold weather. But, still working on the candid answer. Maybe the canned and the candid are the same and I have just repeated the story so many times it feels likes fiction and not a reality.

Stay tuned for apartment pictures, we need to decorate, and maybe one day I'll figure out a candid answer as to why I am in Cairo.

Bethlehem with Dad and Ted

2010-02-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

This is how you walk into Bethlehem, unless you take a tour bus.

We are not the tourist bus types so we walked in. Talk about another world, night and day behind the wall and in front of it. You can instantly tell there must be no economy because we were hassled by cabbies to the tenth degree. I consider myself someone who has been hassled by cabbies, but this was outrageous. Then you can walk, long walk, or take a cab into the area with all the churches and Jesus sites. We walked some of the way and took photos of the crazy amounts of graffiti on the Palestinian side. There is no graffiti on the Israeli side.

You may recognize this woman from an earlier post.

Raaarrrrrrrrrr.

Corner piece.

Best ever.

Lots of the artwork was done by visitors and peace groups.

Well I am making that assumption because the names were not Arab at all.

Many of the pieces were huge.

The wall does not cut straight, it curves and, sometimes even seeming to cut into a house or building.

Very weird, what's wrong with straight lines?

I realized my photos from Bethlehem and Israel seem as if I could care less about the historical and religious importance of the area. The truth is I don't really attach much importance to a church/mosque/synagogue where someone, supposedly walked, left a foot print, carried something, or ascended to heaven. Call me a heathen.

Although I don't subscribe to a church or single religion a heartfelt display of faith, in a loving and peaceful manner does cast a shimmering ray of hope into your soul. Dad pointed out a group of visitors walking the stations of the cross route and as he did they began to sing a hymnal. Gorgeous. The groups of young soldiers, families, and students singing as they passed us walking home for the Sabbath dinner. Beautiful. The glow in dark crucifixes, endless Koran verses on metal plating, and the Stars of Davids seemed paltry and pathetic in comparison to the real life expressions of faith and love.

Israel with Dad and Ted

2010-02-18T06:38:00.000-08:00

I cannot say anything that has not been said about Israel, so I won't try. It is a trip though, the call to prayer goes off, at the same time church bells ring, and an Orthodox Jew walks past with the big furry hat on. Religion overload really. But the old city is beautiful and the new part reminded me of a futuristic kids book I had titled something like Dinosaur Utopia, weird right?

The best part about Israel was that I was not supposed to go. I was supposed to be working, but work stopped working out, the heavens above favored me with perfect timing, and I joined the itinerary of Dad and Ted, bringing Katie along for the ride. We wandered around the old city most days gawking at the hoards, trying to remember religious history, struggling to find beer on the Sabbath, and everyone but me took a lot of photos. Katie is a photographer and was on a mission, Dad and Ted were fresh tourists ready to capture it all, and I was tired of the "get camera out and put away" routine pictures require.

In my mind the weirdest part of Israel is how drastically different country is from the neighbors. Crossing from the Sinai into Israel is like stepping from a donkey cart to a Mercedes. That analogy sounds favorable and I do love the first world, but it was also unnerving. I have been told the Jerusalem is its own world and the rest of Israel is far different, I will go back and see more, inshallah.

What follows are the few pictures I took. Also if anyone knows the names of all the clothes that Orthodox Jews wear I am really interested and I could look it up on the internet, but this way could be more fun. Do the women have to wear skirts, or is the skirt/boot combo just all the rage in Jerusalem?

Old wall, in the Jewish quarter in the old city.

Tiny kid, love the look, seriously all the kids were super cute.

From the building that once played host to Jesus' last supper, I bring you rock and roll.

Obligatory wailing wall shot, I will admit a very bad shot.

This was a tranquil place to sit and relax and on Friday all roads led there.

I felt like a salmon swimming upstream sometimes.

Dome of the Rock, where everyone flew to the heavens for a quick minute.

Dome of the Rock, Israel's hottest property.

View of the brand new wall around the West Bank.

Small kiddies in a park where Jesus supposedly walked.

Jordon with Dad and Ted

2010-02-17T07:58:00.000-08:00

This is Jordon and I loved it.

After a successful tour of the Sinai the awesome trio went to Jordon. The most annoying part of Jordon was getting there. The ferries from Taba and Nuweiba don't seem worth the hassle and when you go overland from Israel you still have to pay to leave Israel even though you are only there for about 45 minutes. Lame.

Ignore that though and let's move to the positives. Jordon is home to Petra which is far and away the coolest ancient site I have ever see. I will go on record saying it kicks the pyramid's ass and is a close tie with the hundreds of ancient things found near Luxor and Aswan. I barely even cared about the hoards of tourists (which I will admit I am only adding to most of my time out here) and the hassle of Bedouins wanting you to buy things.

The mind blowing gigantic buildings carved into mountain sides, ancient Roman roads still guiding you through the site, and even the hour long climb up a staircase mountain to the sacrificial rock are worth the crowds, dust in your face, and almost getting hit by one to many horse carriages. Checking out the sites is exhausting, the guide books are right on this. We stayed in a decent hostel (by decent please read really cheap) and typical hostel fashion ran into other travelers. Hostels have not really been a serious part of any traveling I have done so I still think they are fun. There are good bars and restaurants in the small city of Petra and tourists shops too.

The first view of the Treasury, after you walk down a path that feels like one km long.

The beginning of our one hour stair climb.

Good for the butt and spirits.

Side note: there were lots of Bedouin women selling wares on the way up who were willing to makes deals so that they did not miss you when you went down the other side. Also, Dad was a pro at drinking tea, making small talk, and deals.

The whole place looks like this. You think you are done then you look up or around a corner and there are more amazing structures carved into red stone.

Still wishing I remembered anything from Rocks for Jocks.

After one night and two days in Petra we went up North to the Dead Sea. For budget travelers getting around Jordon is not cheap and I had a really hard time finding public bus routes or anything, but the upside of private car is that they stop at view points like the shots below.

I am Northwest girl at heart and really miss my mountains, so being up high with clean air and epic views is good for my soul. The views sort of remind me of Bryce Canyon, only I think you could see the Red Sea on a really clear day.

Me and Dad.

Our final stop in Jordon was the Dead Sea. When at the Dead Sea one covers one's body in mud and chills until it dries. I think we were supposed to let it dry, hmmm. Instead we posed and inspired the Japanese tourists wearing socks with their sandals to loosen up a little and enjoy the place. We even did some serious not-so-synchronized swimming and Japanese bro nearby joined in, good times.

Speaking of good times I will say that the lasting feelings from the whole trip are "good times," and there is much more to say. If anyone ever gets the chance to travel like this with your parents take it, I am so glad I did.

Sinai with Dad and Ted

2010-02-17T07:24:00.000-08:00

Dad, Faye, and Ted adventured over the Suez Canal, out of Africa and into the little bit of Asia that is Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. We left Cairo after doing all the standard tourist activities and staying the gorgeous Marriott in Zamalek (I swear it has to be the nicest hotel in Cairo with the best location for tourist stuff) on December 23rd and stayed until the 27th, when we left for Jordon. I'll be honest I stopped taking photos of Cairo and let Dad and Ted take them, so we skipping Cairo photos for this vacation.

I can't tell you how excited I was to bring family to the Sinai and show them in person the places I have vacationed often and worked for a short while. We did an excellent desert trip, chilled at the hotel for Christmas Eve day, spent a relaxing day on the beach on Christmas day, and ate like kings at the Castle Zaman with a great group for Christmas dinner.

Our awesome four wheel machine and our guide Sayeed expertly letting some air out of the tires for sand driving.

There are rocks and formations like this all throughout Egypt, so easy to see how it was once an ocean. The Bedouin woman on the left provided Ted with a rad belt.

Screw shoes! I don't need shoes, I am a Bedouin!

Dad and Ted followed the Sayeed's lead and got rid the shoes, I did not.

Entrance to the closed canyon.

Massive rock walls.

If I had paid more attention in my Rocks for Jocks geology class in university I would know more about the photos I took, but the room was warm and the class was right after lunch so you can guess no one who took the class remembers much.

Still, wished I knew more about rocks.

Most of the paths were sizist, you had to be able to fit through the cracks or buff enough to climb over.

Barefoot and loving it, sort of.

Sayeed, seriously awesome guide.

I have a card somewhere if anyone is going to the Sinai.

Can't say anything but good things about this guy.

The final climb on the last of the three canyons we went to. This ladder was not to reliable, but who cares?

An oasis we stopped at, along with the other cars of tourists doing similar treks.

Another shot of the oasis.

Christmas dinner.

Katie and a friend came from Taba Heights, Toby and Ken from Dahab, and their friend Chris who was visiting from Sweden. Randomly there were a few members of the Egyptian orchestra there who treated us with a post dinner show. The food was delicious and the scenery was divine.

Ted and Katie.
Big food, good times. Go Christmas!

I have decided that spending Christmas in a non-Christian country is the way to go. We were able to really focus on the people we were with, the meal, the good times, and not on the hype. I do love Christmas at home and while nothing can replace a warm fire, classic treats, and family love this was a nice change.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Hend and Adham on their engagement. Hend has been the most amazing friend to me since I came to Egypt and I could not be happier for both of them. They both have beautiful and loving families, caring friends, and good hearts. Its a safe bet they will have a happy future!

That is all for the v-day cheese. Mabrook Hend and Adham!!!!

Rain

2010-02-11T03:33:00.000-08:00

Around January 19th there were massive floods in the Sinai, near Hughadha and in the south of Egypt. Unfortunately people lost homes and were hurt. They are still working on roads and I sure there was a loss of crops which will hurt people later on in the year. I was already gone from the area, but was planning on a mini- vacation back to Taba and Dahab when all the roads got washed out. So the vacation was cancelled. My friend Katie sent me a link to a blog with lots of good photos of the flooding. Take a look.

http://shippeyphotography.blogspot.com/

From what I hear most of life is back to normal and the roads are pretty much repaired.

Mega-Cities

2010-02-10T01:07:00.000-08:00

Apparently I live in a mega-city.

Sounds scary right? Cairo is crowded but, I do not have agoraphobia so its cool.

Quick synopsis of the article linked above: as huge cities get more and more crowded they become a breading ground for dangerous politics and social unrest. At the same time nations are forced to give undue attention to their own mega-cities and ignore the outlying areas, which causes resentment towards the national government. The lack of public services present in these cities is filled by religious and political organizations who provide schools and social services-this is what groups like Hamas and Hezbollah do on the ground and why people are attracted to them. Consider the local chapter of Hamas a little like the local YMCA, only they recruit for suicide missions and not just the summer baseball league.

Cairo is crazy, there is a noticeable lack of public services, and I have no idea how everything functions. Except that it does, vaguely, in a beautiful sort of chaos. I am sure I am not privy to the greatest tragedies in the city, but articles like this are always very negative about situations on the ground. Come visit and see for yourself, I will let you know if Cairo disrupts into absolute social chaos anytime soon.

Link to the article here and above.

Interesting

2010-02-10T00:42:00.000-08:00

I know I said I would hold out on judging Israel, but then the Israeli Keffiyeh popped into my inbox.

For background's sake...
I subscribe to an email list serve, Cairo Scholars. It is very handy for apartment hunting, weird questions, and entertaining arguments. Someone sent out a link to a website advertising an Israeli Keffiyeh with the original subject line "they stole history and culture, and kill the Palestinian people." Needless to say a debate ensued about whether the email was appropriate for the list, does it have anything to do with Cairo, are we offending any Jewish students that might be in Cairo, blah blah blah. The highly unorganized email debate brought up a few relevant questions-are you anti-Semitic if you slightly criticize anything Israeli and how serious of an offence is it to co-opt a nation's symbol of resistance.

Let's examine the facts I learned from wikipedia...

The Keffiyeh can be found all over the Arab world. Various tribes and groups wear different colors and patterns, and they can be tied around the head in different styles. You could relate them to a Scottish tartan as the weave, color, and how you wear it are indicative of your family's origins. They are generally worn by men and veiled women do not typically use them. The scarf became a symbol of Palestinian resistance in the Arab revolt of the 1930s, Yasser Arafat used the keffiyeh as a national and personal symbol, Lawrence of Arabia wore one, the British army apparently wears them, and Leila Khaled, a female member of the armed PLO, was seen wearing the Keffiyeh as a hajab (headscarf) after the TWA Flight 840 high jackings. With her it was seen as a statment of her equal footing with militant men of the time.

Here is some current knowledge gleamed from my own observations (and wikipedia love)...

The keffeyeh is still seen as symbol of resistance around these parts and when the Israeli strikes on Gaza happened last year you could buy one on any street corner in Cairo. They are also a semi-outdated hipster trend. Maybe this trend was started by socially conscious hipsters or Jewish Americans and non-Jewish Americans who were trying to display their anti-Zionist feelings. Apparently “keffiyeh kinderlach” are "young left-wing Jews." Young Americans can purchase them at the local Urban Outfitters or maybe Claire's (I have been out of the country for a while) in all colors. Even in the Middle East it is hard to find one not made in China, most things are made in China. But, you can pay a little more to get handmade scarves and it is worth the extra money. Either way they are sort of a sold out trend, but still relevent enough that when I bought some in Jordon and wore them around Israel I felt weird in parts of the city (OK I felt weird when I wore it by the Wailing Wall on Friday, but that was a coincidence and not a statement).

But, finally the point. Apparently there a Jewish rapper/label owner/producer based out of Brooklyn who is hawking the Israeli Keffiyeh on his blog and somehow I got an email about it from a list serve here in Cairo. God damn I love globalization!

Now an Israeli wearing a keffiyeh, to be blunt, a lot like a white person wearing FUBU. Apparently the scarf says "Am Israel Chai" in Hebrew, meaning "Jewish People Live." Symbols get co-opted all the time and as an American I can't really claim I am not a huge part of it. As I see it the difference lies in the intention of co-option. When a some random guy wears a Che Guevara shirt he does not want to change what the handsome Latin rebel in the green hat stands for, he wants the coolness of Che to rub off on him. However, taking the basic design and reworking it with different colors and adding Hebrew changes what the keffiyeh stands for and could potentially obliterate the original meaning. You can't call a keffiyeh a keffiyeh when it is a totally new design under the same name.

Innocently then the above scarf is just an Israeli hipster/national pride scarf and similar to football scarves, or an American flag speedo. Not so innocently the above scarf is another attempt on the part of Zionist Jews to obliterate the Palestinian culture, language and pride. At this point after hipsters, urban outfitters, men in the markets selling hot pink keffiyehs, and semi-political white chicks like me have muddled the symbolism does it matter if an Jewish rapper/label owner/producer does the same? The debate is still going on the email list, although the moderator is trying to stop it. Ahh petty expat student politics, you could just stay wrapped up in them forever, no? I have no answer for the debate, but my gut reaction tells me that this is not right and a little to nationalistic for my tastes. I am sure there are Israeli scarves that could create their own symbolism, no need to take someone else's. Or maybe this is just another example of how similar Palestinians and Israelis really are.

New year, still in Egypt

2010-02-08T01:56:00.000-08:00

This update is long overdue. I left the Sinai and the castle, ultimately we were not a match made in desert hipppy castle heaven. Luckily the timing was perfect and I was able join cousin Ted and dad David on a fairly epic, historical, round about trip through Cairo, out to the Sinai, through the waters of the Red Sea to pay homage to Indiana Jones at Petra, a little further North to float in the Dead Sea, then across a bridge to Israel and all the old religious stuff that Israel entails.

Let me just say that could not have imagined a better trip. Kudos for Ted for just being awesome to travel with, really into fun stuff, easy going, and enthusiastic when we needed enthusiasm! As for dad I don't think there are many other people I would have rather visited the Holiest of Holy lands with and the much needed daddy-daughter time was much appreciated and loved. My friend Katie joined us for the Israel adventure and was an amazing trip buddy, cheerful, fun, picture taking snap happy silly bus! All in all a lot of love went into the trip and I enjoyed every minute of it. Causalities were low; besides a few annoying modes of transportation and delayed flights most things went smoothly. I have not yet organized my thoughts about Israel and am really waiting to pass judgement until I visit another part of the country. I hate it when people judge America based on New York or Florida, so I am reserving judgement until I am more traveled. I will say this though the Crowne Plaza Jerusalem has the worst customer service of any hotel I have ever stayed in. Never go there, ever.

After the trip I returned to Cairo and began a new job search. Why am I staying in Cairo? Who really knows. I have found a job, but will reserve judgment on it until a few weeks or months have passed. Am I staying in Cairo for the job? Maybe, the pickings seem pretty slim in America at the moment. Am I staying in Cairo for the fun? Maybe, there are beaches, craziness at every turn, and good friends around. But, ultimately I don't have an exact reason why I am here other than I feel like I should be for the moment. The other day someone asked my why I was here, I have no real answer for them. So, maybe I will search around for a few months and come up with a reason to stay or leave.

Until then I am apartment hunting! Frustrating in any country, it is even more so here. The first step is having friends who will help you, thanks be to the universe I have these. The second, third, fourth, and so on step involves wandering around neighborhoods you want to live in and asking doormen if there is anything open in the area. Then phone calls are made, hands are shaken, streets are walked, names are called across the streets, and maybe you find an apartment to look at. So far I have only looked at a few and did not like them, but I do have plenty of promises of showings tomorrow, inshallah. My budget is not very high and one bedrooms are really hard to find, people get lonely here quick or something. I may have a roommate, but who knows. Life is fickle, minds change, and you never know what an Egyptian day will bring you (thanks Rebecca W for that quote).

Honestly my head is full right now. Between leaving a job, traveling, being a semi-permanent house guest at a few houses, starting a new job, looking for an apartment, and being a little homesick I cannot evaluate my life right now. I realized that I have not unpacked all of my bags, has everything in one room or lived in the same bedroom for more than seven weeks since I packed my bags to travel in June 2009. I can handle change, I can adapt, I can fluctuate, but really this is getting old. I want all my shoes in the same house and pictures on the wall. The urge to nest is strong. Hopefully things will calm down and I will find a place. Then, life will be put on blast and I can figure it out, inshallah.

Inshallah. What a great word.

Dreamy Egypt

2010-01-07T00:32:00.000-08:00

Overlooking Islamic Cairo.

The Citadel in the background of Al Azhar Park.

Near Luxor, the Colossus.

Paul, Katie, Chrissie, and Faye.

Of course the Pyramids and the Sphinx!

I took these photos with a Diane 120 format camera. I have no real skills and am just getting used to the camera so they are all double exposed and not top notch. Fun though and that counts for a lot.

In other news I have left the castle and am no longer working there. The timing was perfect because instead of rushing back to work for New Years I was able to join my dad and cousin on their trip to Israel after showing them around Cairo and the Sinai. So, after three weeks of epic travel around with cousin Ted and my dad I am back in Cairo and starting the job search again. This time I approaching the job search with less of a need to just stay here for the hell of it and am instead I am committed to only staying if I find the right job. If I find nothing I will become a snow bird and spend my winter on the beach, returning to America in spring. Well, that is the plan and who knows what will really happen.

wonky posts

2009-11-10T05:23:00.000-08:00

I do not know why the fonts are so messed up in the post below and if I was an html whizz kid I would fix the problem. Instead I did not show up to the final session of my North Seattle Community College "continuing adult education" html class. Far from a whizz kid am I and even further from an adult.

Al Tarfa Eco Lodge

2009-11-10T05:05:00.000-08:00

I have been away from home for a long time now and when you are away from home for so long you start to think about why you strayed from home in the first place and why you stay away. This morning, the start of my off day, as I was eating cookies, drinking coffee and preparing to lounge by the pool I realized why I was still away. The larger reason of why I left is complicated, but one simple reason to travel sticks in my mind: stereotype fulfillment. Crude and rude I know, not politically correct or really a sexy reason to get on a plane.

Not so deep down inside we go to places for stereotypical reasons. We go to Paris to fall in love. We go to South America to get a taste of communist rebels. We go to Africa to see the “real” while living in the comfort of former French and British colonialism. This past weekend I was able three reasons to travel to Egypt right on the head-ancient ruins, desert, and former colonial glitz at quite possible the most luxurious hotels I will ever stay in-Al Tarfa Eco Lodge in the Dakhla Oasis.

My most gracious boss was invited to the one-year anniversary of Al Tarfa, which was built and is owned by his good friend Weal and his lovely wife Mona. With a bit of prodding I convinced Hany that we should go, despite the long travel hours (five hour drive to Cairo, one hour flight to the western desert and then a four hour drive to the resort), and enjoy the weekend.

We got in a taxi, then a plane, then a car and then arrived at the resort nestled in the outskirts of a green palm oasis. Our greeting upon arrival, by staff with warm towels to wipe the travel dust off of our faces, set the tone for the rest of the stay. Which went a little like this: watch the sun set over various desert scenes, eat a three course meal served on fine china and silver, listen to the French soprano and her conductor husband serenade the guests, have a few drinks, chat, fall fast sleep in large white four poster beds, wake up to sun and coffee by the pool, go see some interesting desert site, chill at the spa or pool, eat ,and you can imagine the rest. Wash, rinse, relax, and repeat.

I was very homesick the week or so before this trip. I try, but I do not deal well with sadness. I get sad about one thing and it just cascades from there. Somehow just moving West made me feel better. I was 14 hours closer to home, and the green landscape and momentarily gray skies of the oasis did my heart some good. This post is already long so I will let the pictures show tell you the rest, 1,000 words and all that jazz. Side note, I finally found my camera battery charge which means more photos soon!

Al Tarfa Eco Lodge Photos

2009-11-10T04:46:00.000-08:00

The walk up to the pool and main lodge

Restaurant

My bed is on the left

Sunset

Red sky at night, sailor's delight has relevancy in the desert too.

Silver moon behind the clouds

Poolside at all hours

Ancient Roman/Egyptian city

This minaret is 800 years old and constructed with a sand clay formula that is no longer known.

Tiny alley ways, twisted sand filled stairways, and impossibly standing mud structures filled our day excursion to this ancient city near the resort.

Our host Wael and Hany.

Ancient or current graffiti? Glass half full or empty? You decide.

The only really environmental use for car parts.

Dune wandering, sneaky Hany took this photo. I must also give Hany photo credit for all of the above. At this point I still had no camera battery :(

One Month

2009-10-14T03:57:00.000-07:00

I have now been at the Castle Zaman for a little over one month, woot woot! As always settling into a work place is tricky. There are new personalities, routines, expectations, egos, and norms to deal with. I tend to think finding a happy medium between the norms of a place and my own personal standards and behavior is the hardest part of any job. I also tend to think places such as this hire you in some way because of your personality so you should not lose it. Maybe they will still like me after month two!

Here is daily routine....
Wake up around 8-9 am, by 9:50 am be outside to double check the cleaning guys have swept and cleaned up properly. Go down to the house and eat some breakfast. An old chef just came back and reinstated the daily tradition of fresh baked pita bread, yummy cheese spread, cucumbers, tomatoes, soft boiled eggs, and olives for breakfast. I love it. By 10:45 or 11 am start opening the bar. When there were three of us Rebecca and I would open the bar while Laura did the accounts. Now Rebecca has left (although she is coming back when Laura takes a vacation to Canada land) and either I do the accounts and Laura opens or the other way around.

This is the bar as you walk into the castle.

The doors open at noon and the first meal can be served as early as 2 pm. Then the day is pretty simple; serve drinks, set tables, show people around, chat with nice tourists, try to understand large groups of Russians who want fresh juice, open and shut the treasure room door, navigate various cultures, try to communicate with front door man in my super limited Arabic, and tell people my personal Egypt story over and over and over. We close as late as midnight or as early as 9:30 pm depending on how many guest we have/when they leave.

The castle. Under the thatched awning is the bar and main outdoor seating area. We have a sauna and a fresh water pool. I am spoiled.

Here some problems I run into...
Apparently I need to dumb down the English on the phone, people aren't getting me. Also no one likes my music or it is to "American," so I listen to stuff they have here. All in all small problems, I can deal.

I have come to conclusion that America still has a lot of work to do abroad to repair our horrible reputation. The whole Obama winning theNobel Peace Prize did not seem to hurt, also did not seem to help. Little ironic I think that he won a "peace prize" when he is the elected leader of the country that just BOMBED THE MOON! How not peaceful is bombing the moon, even if it was in the name of science?

New Environment

2009-09-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

Eid is officially over. My first week was really slow and then Eid happened, wham I had to learn how to work behind the bar. Luckily cafes and bars around the world are much the same and customer service is customer service. Tell people to wait with a smile, let them see you working hard, and don't mess up to many drinks then people will be happy. Now Eid is over and that means no more 14 hour plus work days or hordes of young guests downing bottles of tequila in about 10 minutes! Ha, that makes the castle sound like Vegas and we are not Vegas. The guests are calm, incredibly nice, they want to get to know you, and most will come back a few times so you can get to know them too.

I am dealing with a pretty new environment physically and mentally. Environmentally I live in the desert and Saudi Arabia is across the sea. Sometimes I feel like I am overlooking Ballard and global warming has really happened. Nothing is green, the mountains have no snow, and the sun is hot and always shining. I crave grey and rain, I really want to wander around in the spitting Seattle rain and sleep in cold cold nights. Oh well, it will get cold here and I will most likely want the hot sun back. Cool things are happening though. I notice when the sun sets earlier, I can sort of guess the time by the light of day, little geckos make noises in the bathroom and my room, the South wind makes me sneeze because it brings more dust, and I am learning how to sleep through sunrise and pigeons cooing (so annoying) in my window.

Mentally the risk of being lonely and isolated is pretty high. I spend a lot of time at the castle with the same four wonderful people, but who can spend all their time with the same four people? Not me, so a resolution has been forming in my head to leave whenever I can for my sanity's sake. I had half a day off yesterday and headed down to the Good Life (a beach camp two friends run). There I read a little, chilled a little, and ate a good meal. Perfect change. Good resolution.

I cannot find my camera charger, but the pictures of the castle on the website are accurate. They are not glossy versions of the truth, that is where I live. Check them out.

On a conversational note is America falling apart? I have no idea except what I see in the headlines. Why do people give Glenn Beck the time of day, why do I know who he is, can we not get health care down and settled, can someone act like a leader and do something about global climate change now and not in the year 2020? I am pretty removed and I would really like to know if all the "Yes, we can" people still feel like they can or if Obama is doing and not just talking. You hear a lot about his pretty words over here and in the foreign press. Maybe action is happening at home? Let me know.

Visuals of my two new jobs

2009-09-04T04:49:00.000-07:00

Quick pics of my new jobs. For more information check out the web sites.

www.tibesti.com

ww.castlezaman.com

Two jobs are better than one

2009-09-04T04:16:00.000-07:00

I also have another job, well internship. I am working with Tibesti as a marketing intern. The position is remote, obviously, as I am in Egypt and they are in America.

More information about Tibesti and the position. Tibesti functions similarly to Amazon, it is web site that hosts vendors. But, unlike Amazon Tibesti gives you part of the comission they make on products sold. Members can put up to 100 products on their profiles (for free) and anyone can then shop from your profile. For example, if you want to buy a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans, you go to Tibesti, search for the product, find it on my profile, click buy, and then we both get a comission. You get 25 percent and so do I. If I were to buy a product from my own profile I would get 50 percent commission. Pretty cool, and perfect for things you have to buy really hate to spend money on.

I wish I had this in college, I would have bought all my texts books and school supplies from Tibesti, but also that was in early 2000 and such technology was not around. Thank the heavens we are nearing 2010 and technology is finally getting up to speed.

Full disclosure. I work for Tibesti, but I would not have taken a position like this if I thought it was a scam. I shop online, you all shop online, why not make money? Plus, it is also a great way to create a product lists that other people can shop from. Hint hint, if you are getting married or having a baby you can direct friends to your wish lists and they can buy you presents from there. Hmmm, might be cooler than Macy's. Just might be.

I will be posting awesome items and more information about Tibesti. Check it out, join up, make some purchases, and get money back. Add me as a friend, Faye1985 and if you are on twitter add me there too faye1985. Pretty east screen names huh?

www.tibesti.com

Still in Egypt, just not Cairo

2009-09-04T04:06:00.000-07:00

Many or a few of you know I have been looking for job in Cairo since I came back at the beginning of August. Well, after over a month of imposing myself upon friends, hours of internet searches, way to many cover letters, and smiling in interviews I did not want to go to I found a job!

www.castlezaman.com

If you read the url yes I will be working and living in a castle. Yes, it overlooks the Red Sea from the top of a hill. Yes, it was built using revived Roman architecture. Yes, all the materials are recylcled or found in the Siani. Yes, the food is cooked slow and completely gourmet. Yes, it is in the Sinai minutes away from the beauty of the sea and the mountains right behind me.

My official title is bar person, glamorous I know. There are only three other employees who deal with guests so I imagine I will get to put my grubby hands in all kinds of things. I am a little scared because working on a beach is a drastic lifestyle change for me. The Siani is pretty isolated, but when I stayed over for a night to check it out and woke up to the sunrise turning the sea red, when I could see the outline of miles of corals reefs on the coast and when I walked out to sun filled silence I felt a little better about my decision.

I will keep you posted on my thoughts as they form, right now I am still a little shocked I am staying and moving to the beach. In the meantime check out the website.

Back to Cairo

2009-08-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

I arrived back to Cairo after five weeks of epic and reviving travels with Ana and a host of other friends.

Briefly here is what I did while I was gone…

I met Sarah BJ in Paris, did a little apartment hunting and exploring with her. Ana met us after two days. Then Ana and I trained down to St Jean De Luz to stay at Ana’s co-workers gorgeous beach side home. Stayed for about a week. Next stop Monaco to catch the presentation of the Tour De France teams and ferry the next day to Calvi, Corsica. Calvi was three nights and days of a sweet music festival and daytime adventures. Followed by three more days of adventure, one ferry ride back to Nice, and a train ride to Turin, Italy.

We spent three amazing days/nights in Italy wandering around, eating food, getting stuff for free, and falling in love with Italy. Then took a train to Lamanon in Provance for a long awaited father daughter reunion and plenty of pool time along side Aunt Anne, cousins Nate and Vicky, cousins Karen and Chuck, Furlow, Jen, and Dad. Finally a train back to Paris where we were hosted by Karen and Chuck. We met up with Ana’s friend Joel, wandered, took an arduous bike ride to Versailles, visited one museum, and waited out one torrential downpour then Ana had to head back to New York and I took the Eurostar to London to meet up with Mikey/Michael.

Michael is known as Mikey in London and a visit to see him, meet his girlfriend, his friends there, and his life was the perfect ending to the trip. While in the UK there was biking around town, an overnight trip to Haslemere, a pretty rad one day music festival, drinks old friend Bob, Emma, and Patrick, rain, and ENGLISH being spoken everywhere!

Now I am back in Cairo and job searching here and abroad. I have pretty mixed emotions about being here. I do want to stay, but having been in other countries for five weeks I got used to being able to easily walk out a door, hop on a bus, and get around. I forgot how difficult and immobile life here feels for me. I feel landlocked somehow. I am also feeling a strong pull to be near friends, family, and weather with rain. So, I am typing away fixing resumes and cover letters, doing numerous searches, and making phone calls. If you know of anything let me know, I am up for a move anywhere!

Pictures will be up once I find a packed away cable.

Goodbye

2009-06-21T04:12:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I fly to Paris where I will meet up with Sarah for a day or so and wait for Ana to get off the plane. Then we are off to the SW of France, maybe a stop in Spain, then to Corsica, maybe Italy, back to France (this time Provence), then up to Paris again, and I am 99 percent sure I am heading over to London for a few days. WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO

I don't know if I could be more excited. This trip is meshing together family, friends I have not see for years, food, wine, the ability to wear short dresses and not get called a hooker, and hopefully trash free streets.

I am really trying not to be negative in this post, but I am beyond happy to be done and done with Kenana. I am pretty upset about the way they handled leaving the apartment, my final paycheck, and the end of the year in general. Lucky roommates who left before me and did not have to deal with any of it.

But, happier times are ahead! I return to Cairo in August to look for a new job somewhere in the world.

Leaving

2009-06-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

I am done with school. About damn time too.

I leave Cairo on the 22nd. About damn time too.

I need a change.

Obama

2009-06-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

If young Egyptians did not like America they might after Obama's recent speech got just about every school shut down for the day. Three day weekend! I stayed home from school and watched the speech in real time at a friend's house.

I won't say to much about the speech, read it, but people here in general were really happy about him and are happier about America now. When your pharmacists interrupts your facewash purchase to let you know you have a pretty great president things could be worse.
I also heard comments during the English news broadcast about how Clinton was dressed far better than Condi. Now we have Clinton was walking around Hussein Mosque nicely veiled and actually looking really intersted. Bravo!

For those of you who have not been to Cairo the shots you might have seen of green traffic free streets and calm city life are so far from reality it makes me laugh. Mubarek put the whole city on lockdown and Obama and Clinton were able to drive from one end of the city and back, seeing ever site you could imagine in about a third of the time it usually takes to get downtown.

The use of Arabic and quotes from the Koran were genius and went a long way to delete the stupidity of the last eight years. As for the rest of it I get the sense the tone and messages were well recieved. I thought it sounded stern, yet understanding. I am sure people wanted to hear more about Israel/Palestine and I hope they will.

In closing never underestimate how much the rest of the world hated and still hates Bush. They do here, but are ready to maybe start American presidents again thanks to Obama.

I want to be here...

2009-05-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

with this beer.
This photo is by Adham too. Stella is the official beer of Egypt. Not to crappy and I don't really like beer that much.

102 in May

2009-05-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

It was apparently 102 degrees Fahrenheit in Cairo, Egypt. Thank Allah, God, Ganesh, Gaia, and whoever that my classroom's ac was working.

The bus ride home was miserable and I have no ac in my room. I want to be drinking beer, white wine, rose or a gin and tonic by a pool. Instead I have to teach. ugggggggghhhhhhhh

ps. The photo is courtesy of my friend (I met him through Hend) Adham who takes awesome shots. I am going to more of them up soon!

roomies blog

2009-05-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

Katie and Paul have a shared blog. Check it out for stories about other places in Egypt and their life here, we do a ton together too.

www.triumphantcity.blogspot.com

May 8th, 2009

2009-05-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

May 8, 2009 happens to be a Friday and Fridays in Cairo are the best day. The vast majority of people are off work and spend their mornings sleeping only to wake up and go to services. The streets are quite, you can cross them almost without looking and life always seems calm, a rarity. Like every Friday at one in the afternoon the call to prayer is going off, a sound I resent and find fascinating at the same time. On Fridays the services are broadcast out loud, forcing you to listen to the Muslim version of a Sunday service. As a complete nonbeliever it is hard not to want to shut the windows and block out the babble, but you can’t really. I catch the few words I understand, “why,” “God,” “thanks be to God,” “easy,” and “what is this?” The whole thing is forced upon everyone within earshot, making the service and devotion feel contrived in my mind. But, I am wrong. People here have genuine faith and use religion as a real guide for social and spiritual order.

So, I am sitting on our balcony, trying to block out services with Bob Marley and am struck by a strong desire for the most familiar things. I want my friends here with magazines and coffee, I want the smell of Seattle spring time, I want rain and clouds interspersed with sun, I want the sounds of birds instead of services, I want books instead of bad movies on TV, I want to be able to walk around in a tank top and short skirt, and I want to be able to find mountains peeking out between rows of houses. My wants are especially conflicted as our school year comes to a close, my roommates are all getting ready to leave by the end of the month, and my lack planning for life past July becomes more obvious. Yet, at the exact same time I could not be more happy and excited about still being in this very unfamiliar place and getting to know it more. I am still happy figuring out how to adapt to the lack of short skirts and walking paths, the lack of used bookstores and small boutiques with carefully selected spring fashions on the racks, and best friends and family within a ten minutes drive.

I guess the point of going to another place is to figure out how to bring the essentials of your familiar life to a non-familiar place, how to adjust to the conflicted feelings. Maybe Nescafe on the balcony instead of Americanos in the kitchen, and Bob Marley rivaling prayers instead of KEXP’s Positive Vibrations rivaling NPR next door is my way of bringing my familiars to this totally unfamiliar place.

The coffee is different, the music is not as varied, there are no other women within site, and the screeching of this priest is driving me nuts, but the idea of a Saturday morning is present and that makes me happy. It is good to be happy in such a strange place. It is good to be happy in any place.

Trip to Alexandria with the pros

2009-05-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Katie and Paul's friend Nate came to visit this past month and we all used him as an excuse to visit Alexandria one more time. Katie and Paul are Alex pros, having gone by themselves and with Katie's parents. We did not even need a guide book. The four of us found a pretty nice hotel room, tall ceilings and pink walls, at a very decent price. We also found the Mermaid bar with cheap Stellas. The Mermaid gave us a blackout for a little less than an hour and we got to drink our beers by candle light overlooking the Med Sea while Nate played a guitar that our waiter brought out for no reason. Mainly we walked around and just gazed at the sea and the general craziness of a different Egyptian town. We were there for a weekend and had a wonderful time, yeah Alex.

Big girls need love too, so do Panda Big Girls

If I ever have kids they will never be allowed to go to this amusement part because they will die. Either from the goats everywhere or from the crapptastic rides. Or maybe they will get shot by other kids playing shooting games. I do love Egypt though, do love it.

What Disney princesses are really like

The bay

Alexandria is home to a legitimate wooden ship yard, a very lost art. These small boats are everywhere in the bay and used for fishing, but they also make huge yacht. I did not think people made yacht likes the one below out of wood, figured they were all fiberglass. Who needs modern technology though when you have epic craftsmanship.

Just a small part of the fish market we walked past. Fish basket market really.

The bay again

We of course had to check out the library. These are some shots from the inside, I should have outside shots in an older post from my first trip to Alexandria.

Fabulous books being sold outside of the library. These two were right next to several translations of Mein Kampf, by Hitler. Ironic?

HAHAHAHAHA

Nuweiba

2009-04-21T12:34:00.000-07:00

Nuweiba, Kum Kum (pronounced koom koom), and Sinai are all words that should arouse various images of paradise and feelings of contentment in the reader.

In the Sinai there is a small town called Nuweiba, about 10 minutes north of this town is a small beach camp named Kum Kum 3. I think this translates into roughly three pots of tea, something Hebrew in origin I am told. Either way the tea is delicious, the food was fresh, the huts have sea views, the sun was bright and I did not get burned, and I read two books.

The camp at dawn when we arrived

The Boys

Shahira, outside of my hut.

Camel eating trash out of the dumpster in the actual town of Nuweiba.

The main eating/seating area.

The Kum Kum at sunset

Shahira, Nigel, Rames and I arrived early, like 4am early, on Thursday. I stayed until Monday night, getting back to Cairo technically Tuesday morning.

I wish there were lots of stories to tell, but the beauty of the vacation really is the lack of crazy stories. I laid out in the sun, read the fourth Twilight book (awesome!), started reading “In the Name of the Rose,” and the Hemingway novel about bullfights in Spain, chatted with other visitors, ate salad and rice, drank sweet tea, got in the water, got out of the water, showered, slept under a mosquito net (after I got eaten alive the first night), went on a short jaunt to town where Ibought some mad comfy pants which I wore all weekend, said goodbye to other visitors, said hello to new ones, and napped.

Perfect.

Now I am back in Cairo. It really is spring and getting hot. The seniors have senioritis, it a global affliction, and I have six more weeks of class, one week of revision, and then exams. Looking forward to a short trip to Siwai and maybe some weekend beaches. Otherwise I have spent my vacation budget for April, maybe my food budget too. You know, if I can’t afford to eat I will at least look better in a swimsuit, hahaha.

Dear Maya

2009-04-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Maya

Why is it that this year, of all years, you and your family no longer live in Israel? I was hanging out at the beach this past week, Nuweiba, and everyone there was from Tel Aviv. Not only does Hebrew sound a lot like Arabic, but all the Israelis there were mad chill and made Tel Aviv sound like paradise. Maybe there is some truth to these rumors about Israel being the Promised Land? Ha!

So my point is that now I really want to go to Israel and go hang out at an Ashram, grow dreadlocks, learn about various religious mysticisms, and chill. Well, ok, I don’t really want to grow dreads and my desire to seriously get into religion is still pretty much non-existent. That pretty much rules out the Ashram, unless I want to get into yoga. I can see myself getting into yoga, mildly athletic and somewhat spiritual in a non-defined malleable sort of way.

Do you still know anyone who wants to hang out with me in Israel? Does anyone know anyone who would want to hang out with me in Israel?

Love,
Faye

See how close Israel is to Nuweiba, see??? The map is not really to scale, but it is less than two hours from Taba to Nuweiba. See???

Cairo Spring

2009-04-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

It is spring in Cairo. The weather alternates between dry sandy wind, cool and sunny, and oppressively hot. The heat does not quite lock you up and throw away the key, it is more oppressive in the way a time out is to a five year old. Time outs are also just hints at summer's future plans for total lock down.

Smells around the city tag along with the weather. Dry sandy days make your skin crawl with dust you will never get off and never stop smelling. The cool days are fresh and make the beige seem green. As it gets hotter the trash smells worse and the city’s stench is only paused when you walk past a fruit stand and over ripe guavas fill the air. I love the way they smell and hate the way they taste.

School had become a larger joke than any of us expected. Chrissie and Paul are basically done teaching their reading program because the entire national school is cramming for exams. They get out an hour early and have nothing to do at school except sub. Katie is almost done teaching the ABCs to the little ones and will also have nothing to do starting in May. Anna is leaving early; most likely around May 1st. Tom and I have classes to teach until about the second week of June, then revision, and exams. For being a pretty valuable resource, native English speakers, the school has squandered us, especially in the national school. Chrissie and Paul have been passed around from classroom to classroom, given no clear guidelines as to what or to whom they are teaching, and then expected to perform at peak. Silly, in the words of my Grandma Ehrich, just silly.

I have had the same job the whole year, but still no training. All of us are fed up and pretty sick of teaching, the school, and dealing with all the unmotivated and uniformed bossing around we get. Oh well. Almost done!

2009-04-14T00:55:00.000-07:00

We actually had semi-cloudy weather in Dahab and one day it rained three drops in the morning. That might sound like a bad thing, but it never rains there so I thought it was pretty cool to see some moisture in the air. Our last day in town was perfect and sunny, we even did some non-burning sunbathing.

The Blue Hole is that large dark spot near the shore.

Underwater madness, I love these little orange guys.

Octopus. Pretty rare during the day.

Same octopus, different colors.

Underwater dork shot.

I went down this canyon for my first official deep dive. You just go straight down to 30 meters and poke around a little canyon. On the way back up you swim through everyone's bubbles, which are also popping out of every tiny crack in the nearby sand and rocks. A little bubble field.

More giant clams of a different pattern.

fishy fishy

School of fishy fishy

Scuba buddies on the go

Everyone loves a clown fish, thank Nemo and Disney.

Underwater fun!

2009-04-13T04:55:00.000-07:00

Spring break has arrived! Praise the high heavens, whoever is up there knows I was sick of teaching. The best thing about Egypt is the Red Sea, where there are hundreds of glorious dive sites for underwater friends to play in. I headed up to Dahab again and this time got in the water long enough to get my advanced diver certification. Woot woot, now I can go deep!

Dancing with my instructor Mahsen at the end of my last dive in the Blue Hole.

I believe this is Els Bells, the three sided tunnel. You descend 26 meters in order get to the around 250 meter coral wall, which stays on your right side until it leads you to the Blue Hole's entrance at 7 meters. The Blue Holes goes down over 100 meters and the only sea entrances are at 7 meters and I think 80 meters. Dangerous dive because people go down to far to the bottom entrance, where you have to travel through a 20 meter tunnel to get out to sea. Many things can go wrong on the tunnel. Nothing went wrong when I was there and it is pretty awesome to look down and see nothing but an aptly named blue hole. There were even people practicing free diving while we were there, that is some crazy stuff.

Paul, Kaite and Sarah. Epic snorkelers at the Blue Hole, Dahab.

My favorite giant clams, they remind me of the Little Mermaid. Underwater really does look just like Little Mermaid illustrations.

Underwater awesomeness.

First dive of the advanced course, out of five required.

Sharm el Sheikh

2009-04-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

I had a three day weekend and decided to take advantage of the fact that Hend had a free place to stay in the under-expensive vacation spot Sharm el-Sheikh. What followed was an amazing weekend, to much whiskey, to much sun, and a refreshing dose of tourists and feeling comfortable walking around in shorts.

Large scale map of the Sinai. Funny tourist stuff.

Flower photo for mom. There were also Plumeria everywhere mom, smelled yummy!

Hotel in Sharm, Kanabesh. Also, the pool we never went in except to wash off my sandy feet.

Faye and Hend, epic faces.

Mix tape in Cairo

2009-04-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

Caitlin Lomen, number one homie to the max, posted something about mix tapes on her blog. I decided to join the bandwagon. So here is a mix of stuff I have been listening to while in Cairo, some is new and some is not. You can download it here. Enjoy!

Ps. Not all the songs are totally clean and sober, some bad words may have survived.

Random photos

2009-04-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

Amr's new puppy and Shahira's hands. As of this posting the puppy does not have a name. I am voting for puppy because I am hella original.

Please take a moment to read the titles of the books from a random stack I found at the Nasr City book fair about a month ago. There are some good ones.

Comfort

2009-04-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

My main interest these days is comfort. Not because I am uncomfortable, but just because I am into being comfortable. This means I come home, relax, relax, maybe clean, go to the gym, shower, eat, and relax. Luckily there are friends that want to stop by and I enjoy the company of my roommates. I think I am into comfort because life is about to change and I am clinging onto some sort of stability.

That sounds really drastic and the situation is not dire, but we are almost done with school and I have no life plans after June. Ana and I are planning to travel during July, so I guess I have no life plans after July. Either way I am used to life plans and have been debating my next move in my head for the past few months. Part of me really wants to stay in Egypt, actually learn Arabic, and keep hanging out with all the good people here. Another part of me wants to move to a new city, find a job, settle down, and start a “career.” Hahaha, career, yeah right. Another part of me wants to move to a hippy commune in New Zealand, grow something organic, and get a lot of freckles while wearing wool sweaters. Those are my immediate options, please let me know what you all think is best. I am into feedback.

Job searching in Cairo is a bit of a mystery for me. There is no Craig’s List with any viable jobs, mainly the Craig’s List here functions as advertising space for foreigners to get rid of old furniture. I trudge along blindly hoping that some fabulous friend will help me, so far so good. I will keep everyone posted on any interesting changes.

Getting back to comfort I have become addicted to the beach and try as hard as I can to get next to the sea every weekend. Ain Sukhnah is less than two hours from Cairo and sits on the Red Sea coast, gorgeous. We have met quite a few people with small vacation homes in various compounds and some have been nice enough to bring myself and the roomies along for the day.

We have one more week of school then spring break. I need a spring break, As of now the plans are to head back to Dahab and get my advanced scuba certification. Katie, Paul, Katie’s sister and Hesham will most likely join me. Then after a couple of days in Dahab I think I will try to explore the rest of Sinai, hit up a few beach camps and get super tan. Diving and tanning, my only goals.

Screw the gym, let's go to the roof!

2009-03-14T04:56:00.000-07:00

Cairo can be a stressful place. Cairo can be a place that offers very few, obvious, ways to release your stress. Before I left I ran into a friend at a wedding who had been here for a few months, he cautioned me that one day I would need to lock myself up in a room and get pissed drunk. He was right, but luckily you can find places to go out and get piss drunk because getting completely wasted behind closed doors is to close to alcoholism for me, a wee bit sad.

Alas, there are other ways to relive stress. I suddenly started reading like I used in middle school. Once again I am finishing a book in a day, stealing them from friends with decent taste, and even buying some from Virgin Megastore. Buying from such a sick store is a little depressing, but then again I do drink Starbucks coffee now. Next stop Abercrombie & Fitch to completely round off my middle school rehashing.

Katie and I also discovered the rooftop is the next best thing to a gym. In our best effort to emulate a circuit workout we ran up some stairs and proceeded to rock out on the roof, working on our fitness. Paul was there to document the event on digi film.

Ipods. Sync'd

Figuring out double jump roping.

If you would like to try for yourself, I do suggest you do, you will need one ipod per person, one jump rope, headbands, spandex, and one rooftop. Sync ipods and start the same song at the same time. Now alternate between jump roping, alone or together, and running around in circles on the roof. Running’s benefits are increased with occasional fist pump in the air in time to your sweet tunes. For added enjoyment give your workout buddy an encouraging high-five when you pass each other running. Continue for 20-30 minutes. Add some lunges, a few push-ups, and don’t forget to stretch. Wash, rinse, repeat- presto fitness!

One day we might be brave enough to conduct an aerobics class in the street, but I think I might have to be piss drunk to attempt this. In all my years of athletic performance I have not worked out drunk, something tells me Egypt is not the best place to start.

Akon in Cairo

2009-03-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

Akon had a concert in Cairo, Hend got us tickets, three stages collapsed, and fun was had my all!

One Thursday night Denise, Hend went to go see Akon, Senegals finest rapper, at the Cairo opera house. After hustling our way into the VIP raised seating area we watched as hundreds of tween worried about weather or not their crush was standing nearby, if their shoes really did match their belts, how cool they looked smoking their cigarettes, and if the girl nearby noticed that they were standing on a chair dancing. After about one hour of this, we got there way to early, a loud crash, crash, plop, planky, crash, crash was heard at the front of the VIP section rapidly moving towards the back. Hend, Denise, and I moved quickly, not running because you should not run in mob situations, off the stage. As soon as we were off and had a clear view underneath the platform, shotily constructed of two-by-fours and rusty nails, we realized the whole front right corner had caved in. Couches, rugs and probably a few people went with it. Looking around it did not seem anyone was hurt; there were a few tween tears, but no ambulance sirens and the music did not stop. The three of us walked across the main floor to the second VIP section on the other side.

Once there we looked to our right, away from stage, and realized the exact same thing had happened in the third VIP section. Glad to be in the second we decided to get up front and waited for Akon. Turns out Akon got stuck in traffic and was super late, but while we were waiting the second stage collapsed right after Denise, Hend and I decided it was time to move to the floor and mingle with the commoners. Lucky we moved when did, Akon arrived, lip-synched an energetic concert, and fun was had by all.

What you must take from the concert is that it exemplified everything there is to love and hate about Cairo.

HATE-Three stages collapsed, people were hurt, there was almost no disaster response.
LOVE-No one was visibly shouting at innocent ushers, the music did not stop, the concert was not shut down, and anger was not a present emotion.

HATE-Akon was nearly three hours late because he was stuck in traffic, logically everyone knows there is horrible traffic on a Thursday night so logically you would have the star of the conert leave early, right? Wrong!!!!! That is definitely something to hate, no logic.
LOVE-None of the hip-hop loving tweens threw stuff at the craptastic opening act, no one left, no one demanded money back and people were still excited when he arrived on stage ultra late.

In summation when crap goes wrong people accept it and find away to deal. This is good because people have patients and understanding. Still, most of what goes wrong in this country could be stopped with the application of a little logic and thought out planning. Most importantly I truly believe that people do not change things unless they can no longer accept them. If you live in a country where people can accept crap like three stages collapsing in an area where people paid over 1000 pounds to sit then you are accepting to much. Egyptians accepts too much from their government, from the USA, and from their own people.

Mom in Egypt-Coptic Cairo

2009-03-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

Cairo has a fairly large Coptic minority. I know less about this religion than I do Islam, and that ain't a lot. But, it is a similar branch to other Orthodox Christianities like Greek, Russian Etc. Mom and I thought we would check it out. We took a cab to a metro and got off right in front of one of the larger churches. The whole area was a breath of quite and fresh air. There were a few tour buses, but nothing compared to Luxor. All in all we had a glorious time wandering around the neighborhood and I got a sweet vintage Chinese cigarette case with a lighter on top. Awesome.

View South on the Nile. In between Rhoda Island, on the left, and Coptic Cairo.

Mom on a bridge gazing at the Nile.

Yeah Jews in Cairo!!

Graveyard, huge tombs!

The graveyard behind one of the larger churches.

Hands down the creepiest depiction of Christ ever. I think it is a real tree, oh man!

Jesus' path and travels around Egypt.

Inside one of the Coptic Churches.

Mosaics inside the church and they are all made from tiny colored tiles. Just like the name mosaic implies.

Mom in Egypt-The Sphinx

2009-03-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

The Sphinx is about nine billions times cooler than the pyramids and I have already posted pictures of those too. Hence the two pictures of the Sphinx. Enjoy.

Mom in Egypt-Luxor III

2009-03-07T05:29:00.000-08:00

The Egyptian version of a single speed. Sort of.

A duck in the stone, this one is for Nan Krafft who loves ducks.

Mom in Egypt-Luxor II

2009-03-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

The street our hotel was on. Luckily for mom, Paul, and Katie the hotel's roof top had the cheapest beers in town. I cannot drink Stella, it is worse that Natty Ice. For those of you that have ever been to a high school or college keg you know and hate the taste of Natty Ice. I really cannot even believe I am capitalizing its name. Ugh.

The matching one is in Paris. Of course the one there is painted and I think capped in gold.
Of course.

View of Luxor Temple from outside the gates.

Karnak.

Karnak.

Tourists at Karnak.

My favorite tourist at Karnak. Genius.

The main entrance to Karnak Temple, two square kilometers (see how ex-patty I am? Kilometers, God damn metric system) of ancient carved religious themed rocks.

A line of sphinxes that used to border the ancient road to the temple. Now, the sphinxes line a rather squalid looking neighborhood that Mother Dear was fascinated by.

I am still wondering if this art is about the various ways the pious travel to Mecca or a thinly veiled homage to 9-11. I am guessing the earlier choice is correct and I feel less like a paranoid American when I assume that it is not a reference to 9-11.

The street along the Nile, lined with five-star Nile cruise boats, tourist cafes, feluccas, and various hagglers offering mom and I camels to see each other off into some sort of arranged marriage. We were there on Valentine's Day, love was in the air. albeit puritanical Muslim love involving camels and a gross fascination with women's hair because they are deprived.

Luxor Temple at night. Me and the Moms did not go in, we walked around it a few times and figured that was enough. You can really only see so much old stuff in three days.

The fertile Nile River Delta. I cannot even tell you how refreshing all the green was.

Mom in Egypt-Luxor 1

2009-02-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

I wish I had writing skills enough to let the few people who read this blog know how happy I was/am that my mom came to visit. There is nothing to compare to the unconditional love of a parent and I needed some of that sweet love here in Cairo. Mom, Miss Myles, Little Mom, Mimsy, Gale, came to Egypt and fully impressed all my friends, was a perfect guest (would you have guessed otherwise) and made her oldest daughter very happy. We did a whole bunch of crazy tourist fun stuff, including a trip down South to Luxor. The following pictures are only a glimpse of all the ancient rocks, tombs, things made out of rock and rock with stuff drawn on it that we saw.

To get to Luxor one must either fly (very expensive), drive (no car), or take a ten hour train ride. I forced my mother onto a train less than three hours after her flight into Cairo and we both passed out. Taking a train in Cairo is pretty easy if you have any clue what platform to go to (there are no logical signs) and are able to get tickets. Getting tickets is tricky because all the tourist agencies buy up the first class seats (you do no want to take anything else) so that tourists are forced to buy through them as this is the high season for Luxor/Aswan. Katie and Paul helped me figure this out after their multiple failed trips to the train station to buy tickets. I learned from their efforts and called a friend. Always the thing to do in this country.

We arrived to Luxor after passing out and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. The hotel manager met us at the station, we assumed we would get in a car, but instead we walked to the hotel! No, we did not stay at a classy hotel, it actually cost 60 LE a night (a little more than ten dollars) for the room, but he walked us to the hotel anyways. There we met katie and Paul who were also vacationing and immediately signed up for a guided tour to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut Temple and the rest of the West bank of the Nile. Normally I would not do a packaged tour but there is a lot to see and dealing with the hassles of multiple cabs and their desire to rip us off would have ruined all the old stuff viewing. And see old stuff we did!!!!!! Woot woot old stuff.

Hatshepsut's Temple.

People digging up actual artifacts in the Valley of the Kings, doesn't sort of look like an Indian Jones movie scene?

Mom, being an epic tourist at Hatshepsut's

Pretty stuff on old rock combined with mildly artistic lighting.

Entrance to the temple.

Old face, there were three of these outside of the temple doors.

Next stop these two really big statues, called Colossus, our final stop in a very long and fun filled day.

I turned 24 and someone figured out where a Nazi died!

2009-02-05T03:58:00.000-08:00

Shocking news on the front page of the NY Times, they found a particularly horrid Nazi death doctor and he was living in Egypt! Well, they did not find him but, it was figured out that he had been living in Cairo and died here of rectal cancer. Which seems like a fitting disease for a Nazi to die from. Here we all thought all the Nazis were hiding in South America, turns out they were in the Middle East. I suppose if you stopped and thought for a minute hiding in the Middle East would really make more sense.

Odd thing is that this guy converted to Islam, I thought fascists hated religion. Only thing they have in common in Communists right?

In other news I had a great birthday. People actually showed up to hang out with me! Shocking! I feel sort of old, but not really. I do think 24 is the first age after college where is does not really sound like you could still be in college. I have identified myself as a students since the age of 6 it is a little hard to speak about myself in another way. I suppose I will have to find a new way to hyphenate my name. Faye - ?

Any ideas?

A lesson in dependence

2009-02-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

One would assume traveling to a foreign country, without friends, with no teaching experience and no Arabic would be an excellent lesson in independence. Being independent is part of the reason we travel right? Plus I am an American woman and we are a rather independent breed. Oddly enough coming to Cairo is turning out to be a lesson in dependence.

My birthday is a prime example. Normally I am all over plans, I know exactly what I want to do, who with, and I probably have an outfit picked out. A little over zealous? Yes. But, planning has always been part of the fun for me. I think for the last three years I have made reservations, mapped out a bar route, double checked the invite list, and made sure people were on board with my plans. Tomorrow I turn 24 and I just invited people today, I had to call a new friend to help me make reservations at a club, I will have to ask someone to help tell the cabby how to get there, and I will even have to ask a friend to help me get bottle service.
Side note: I am not really a baller with bottle services, but in Cairo you can bring your own liquor into clubs for a fee. It ends up being a better deal, especially when you have non-craptastic Egyptian alcohol.
I have little to no idea where to go on a Monday night in Cairo, I have no "must do activity," all but one of my roommates will be on vacation, and the old guard of friends are far far away. Things are a bit different this year.

People who know me at home know I have a hard time relinquishing control. I like to cook the whole meal or not cook. I like to plan whole trips. I like to know what is going on. This part of me is shrinking here in Cairo and I can't say it is all bad. My inner Martha Stewart is dying. I am learning how to, hopefully with some grace, be happily dependent upon other people for plans and how to go with someone else's flow.

Tomorrow I turn 24. Not a huge milestone, although it does sound like an age when you are no longer in college and that seems old.

Tomorrow I will celebrate a birthday with a party that I barely planned, did not check the invite list 12 times, did not pick out an outfit yet, and will ultimately have no control over. I am not worried though because a few good people will be there, others might come, there will be dancing, and there will be laughs.

Tomorrow planning will not be part of the fun, being there will be all the fun.

Tomorrow I will get older and less independent, luckily in the right kind of way.

Tomorrow my lesson in dependence continues.

Something to smile about

2009-01-26T10:24:00.000-08:00

I realized that the majority of my posts make Cairo sound like a horrible city with way to many problems. Despite my posts Egypt is great and not just when I go on beach vacations. Here are some reasons why...

1) You can get anything delivered
Anything and everything can be brought to your doorstep, how amazing. The lists includes pharmacies, fast food, grocery stores, laundry, water, fresh fruit and vegetables, liquor, coffee, sushi, real food, all your bills, butcher meat, cigarettes, and a million more things if I spoke Arabic. Also your doorman, if you can call down to him and ask for stuff in Arabic, will get you anything from any of the neighborhood places.

2) There is always a cab

bad news bears for the cabbies who then have to deal with lowered prices and hard to find fares, but it is also the only way Egyptians with no cars can get around. You walk down just about any street at anytime of night or day and there is a cab. The only time I had a real problem was during Ramadan, right before people broke their fasts.

3) The weather
I complain because it is cold and by cold I mean 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Not really a problem.

4) The smog blocks the sun
I was worried about being constantly sunburned, but lucky for me there is so much pollution that the sun is pretty much blocked all the time. This might be a Pollyanna post, but I am trying here. I am willing to bet that any anti-cancer benefits I am reaping are directly opposed by the pro-cancer particles in the air all the time. Still no sunburns yet!

5) My roommates
What are the chances of liking three people you are forced to live with? Not high, especially when you are me and neurotic about eating noises, weird cleaning issues, shelf space, and open windows (I like them). Maybe my roommates hate me, but I like them! They are fun, up for almost anything, like to branch out, like to travel around, and all in all considerate people. Plus Katie makes the all time best drunk faces.

6) Fresh fruit, vegetables and bread
Chances are there is a fruit stand on your corner, a vegetable stand nearby and a bakery within walking distance. If I had the energy or ate a ton of bread I could walk three blocks and stumble upon a delicious bakery, mad fruit and vegetables. I like having food in the fridge, makes me happy to see full shelves, so I just go every week or so.

Good article

2009-01-23T11:34:00.000-08:00

Facebook, my dad is on it, started out as a way to stay in touch with other friends at American universities and has become a global social networking site crucial to all kinds of things. This New York Times article does a really good job of summing up the importance of sites like Facebook to a less than free country like Egypt and gives good background to lesser known political movements.

The article should be in the Times Magazine too, if you are cool enough to get that.

I wish I was.

There are no gansters in Cairo

2009-01-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

Last night the roomies and I went out to a club (so hip) where towards the end of the night they started playing some mid 90s hip hop hits- "This is How we Do It," "Return of the Mac," etc. I cannot describe to you how hard I was laughing at the dancing, the waving of West Coast hand signs, and general non-gangsterness.

I love imported American culture and what is more imported than hip hop?

Nothing.

In other news I walked out of my apartment door today to find liquid streaming down the steps. At first I thought "Rad I have a haunted apartment!" Then I looked closer and realized the liquid was not blood and therefore my apartment was most likely not haunted. After getting over the disappointment I remembered that is how they clean the steps.

I walked down the stairs before the flooding got to me!

I am recovering well and will most likely head back to school on Sunday. I doubt that my students have learned a thing while I am gone and we have quarter exams in a week, hmmm. So much for the times tables. I am going to suffer through two weeks of class and then Mom comes to visit!!!!

For Grandma and everyone else

2009-01-19T08:24:00.000-08:00

Why I love and miss Seattle

2009-01-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

The Stranger and glorious sarcastic journalism. Also decent coffee and constant green.

Personal Note

2009-01-19T05:11:00.000-08:00

I need a haircut real bad.

I am really sick of not being able to stand upright, this is how cave men must have felt. Hunching over constantly was definitely the ultimate motivating factor in evolution.

I love the Internet. Right now I am sitting at a Starbucks (no love for this place), reading about three news site, facebooking it up, checking bank statements, emailing homies, ordering books, and downloading a movie. How did people survive before this? I mean I know how they survived, but life was lacking and we did not even know how lacking. Thanks CIA and US military and Al Gore for inventing the Internet!

Tunnels

2009-01-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

I knew the tunnels would be a problem and since people want to know how Egypt is being affected by the recent Gaza strife they do matter!

Egypt does not want international forces in the Sinai, yet the US and Israel want Egypt to be bound by their own agreement to stop tunnel smuggling using US detection technologies and US help with training troops in Gaza border countries. Both Mubarek and the foreign minister have spoken out against this agreement, but who knows if that was posturing for the domestic audience and how much US aid Egypt will actually accept. Currently they accept quite a bit.

For more information read this article...
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=19165

Appendix

2009-01-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

Saturday, after Alex and Liefke left, I woke up with what I assumed was a vacation hangover; tired, achy, and really cold. I rallied and went out to dinner to say goodbye to friends. Rallied on Sunday and went to school only to be besieged by cramps all day and night. I woke up Saturday with more cramps, which were really more like what I assume contractions to feel like.

I went to the school doctor, she gave me an anti-cramping pill. It did not work.

I went back, she gave me two more and asked me to stay, mentioning that I could have an acute appendicitis.

She poked my stomach, let me rest and then the bell rang.

She was convinced I was better and appendicitis free, while I was not.

We get back from school and I go to a pharmacist who says I need blood work and should go today. I call my friend Hesham and he makes as appointment for me at a good hospital. I go in around 5:30 pm, get some tests, sit in a room, don a dashing hospital gown, never really get the results of my tests, get poked by my doctor, friends come and interpret Arabic for me, get a needle shoved in my hand by a nurse not wearing gloves, and around 11pm get wheeled down to surgery. Get put under morphine without any warning, hear a "wa wa wa wa wa" noise, go under, wake up shaking, get wheeled back to the room, and spend the two nights and days in the hospital trying to figure out the least uncomfortable way to sit up, walk, and get out of bed.

All in all a mildly traumatic experience. What was not traumatic was the amazing support I had from friends. Hesham who organized the doctor, roommates who brought me clothes and visited, Hend who stayed two nights in the hospital with me, Mosaad (spelled your name right huh?), Raf, and Amr who all visited and help with so much. Thank you!

Now I am on home rest for the next week or so. Out of school, Hobbling around the house. Although, Katie and I did make it out of the house today, walking half a block to catch a cab was more than enough for me.

Nurse with no gloves. She was actually pretty good and as soon as we said something they all started wearing gloves. Nursing is lacking in Egypt, doctors are good, nurses are not that amazing.

The room where I got cut open, or at least the entry to the room where I got cut open.

Post-surgery. I think I had stopped shaking at this point.

First walk after surgery, Hend was there. I touched the wall all the way down that hall!

Hesham, Gundy and Me. Surgery day plus one.

The most amazing get well card ever created. From Katie.

My insides as seen through ultra sound.

The offending organ. I was told it is huge for an appendix and mine was in the wrong place. I have no idea how your appendix can be in the wrong place.

Back to school and some more politics

2009-01-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Today marked the end of my almost three week vacation and my return to school. :( Upon arrival (15 minutes late because of the bus) I learned that school would be let out an hour or so early because our national school counter part is getting out early due to exams. This will last until the end of the month. I have two weeks of real class, in which I have to teach multiplication, one week of review, and then one week of exams.

Does that sound like third grade to you? Sounds like college to me, only I did not even get a "reading week" like a lot of colleges do. Wisconsin got a "reading day" aka half a day. Good thing I am done with college.

In other Egypt news the situation between Israel and Gaza worsens every day. Egypt seems to be taking a lot of heat in the Arab world for it's alleged lack of action. I do not see Egyptians troops becoming involved and there are some valid reasons for keeping the border closed; not wanting foreign troops on their side of the border, not wanting massive amounts of refugees, wanting international assistance in opening the borders, and trying to remain above the constant calls of jihad and martyrdom.

Recently, as of today, it seems Israel had started bombing the tunnels between Rafah and Egypt, damaging property and border crossing stations on the Egyptian side. The tunnels are a major point of contention because Israel believes (and they are probably right ) that Hamas smuggles in a large amount of weapons through the tunnels. But, there are two types of tunnels really. Hamas' tunnels for weapons. Civilian tunnels for every day goods, because when most of the borders in and out of your country are closed things like TVs, baby formula, and electronics can be hard to come by. Egypt wants an international forces present on the Gaza side to help regulate border smuggling, even though they have the military strength and technique to deal with it.

Side note: Unless you are the only son, have no father or have connections most Egyptian men have to serve 13 months in the military after university.

The death toll has reached close to 900 and 3,600 wounded. Israeli troops are on the ground. Still, if the point of this newest war is to stop rockets from launching into Israel that goal is not going to be accomplished by pummeling civilian or Hamas hideouts. Israeli attitudes remains "Hamas will never be the same." While Hamas' attitude remains "as long as there is occupation there will be resistance." Sounds like both sides are still the same.

Egypt is currently brokering peace talks aimed at first establishing a ceasefire. Israel would like to see a US backed guarantee that arms smuggling through the Rafah border will stop. Israel will not stop its attacks until the tunnels are secured. I am interested to see what Obama does with this his first days in office, but hopefully it will be over by the 20th because to many people have died for something that truly cannot be solved with violence.

Again for a good Egyptian news source check out...
www.dailystaregypt.com
They claim to be independent and seem to be.

Other blogs

2009-01-11T10:15:00.000-08:00

Officially my new favorite blog.

http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/

How big of a nerd am I if I am blogging about other blogs? Or am I just being rad and giving sweet blogs a blog shout out? Who knows?

Who cares?

Also if you are bored at work, like many of you are check these out for rad stuff and silly humor. By silly I mean ditzy and childish.

http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

www.dlisted.com

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

Liefke and Alex visit... Dahab

2009-01-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

In an effort to show Liefke and Alex a non-polluted side of Egypt my two favorites joined diving buddy Hesham, Christina and I for a three night jaunt to Dahab. Located on the Eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula Dahab is a diving and hippy haven. The beach town also offers easy access to Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery and other Sinai desert activities.

No diving took place but Liefke did snorkel for the first time! I was a total weenie and did not even get in the water because I was cold. I am always cold in Egypt, how weird is that? Mainly we woke up late, strolled along the boardwalk and ate at the most amazing rotisserie chicken place ever, King Chicken!

The largest activity was a midnight hike up Mt. Sinai to watch the sunrise. We left the hotel at 11pm, drove about two hours to the mountain. Started hiking in the pitch black, walked for about three hours, stopped about every fifteen minutes at a tea/coffee/cookie shack, did not eat or drink any tea/coffee/cookies, avoided lines of camels coming down the mountain, avoided people who really wanted to rent you camels, got to the top around 4am, froze until the sun started to rise around 6:30am and finally watched an epic sunrise wrapped in a mountain smelling blanket at a very special outcropping a 10 year-old Bedouin boy showed us. If you had to ask I feel more spiritual in the morning, even when I am that cold.

Hesham, at a road side stop on the way to Dahab.

Normally the cats in Cairo are flea ridden, covered in poo and I am convinced they carry herpes. All the little kitties in Dahab were relatively clean, liked people and there was only one kitten covered in poo, not this one.

Sarah Liefke soaking up the beach rays.

Part of the sitting area at the Funny Mummy, the restaurant attached to our hotel. Yes the water you see there is the Red Sea and yes Saudia Arabia is just across the pond.

Christina, another AIESEC intern and fellow traveler. You may remember her from such adventures as "Faye Goes to Alexandria for the First Time" and "Faye Caravans in the White Dessert." Now she is back in Long Island, so sad.

Alex, who only took really serious photos the whole time. He is a rather serious person.

The Dahab boardwalk/coastline. Pretty much the whole town is stretched out along the water. Tourist shops, cafes and small beaches line either side of a boardwalk. From where this picture was taken there is excellent diving and snorkeling.

Same view, different time.

I decided to tell the servers that it was Liefke's birthday. They made her dance and eat weird chocolate bread, good times.

The hike up to Mt Sinai was dark so my only pictures are from the way down. This is a small house/shed we passed after walking down 3,000 stone stairs. My calves killed me for about three days.

View from the top of Mt. Sinai. So good to see some mountains.

Going down 3,000 stone stairs.

More stone stairs.

Apparently when there was a real life clergy at St. Catherine's Monastery (home of the ever so famous burning bush) they grew all their food in this terrace.

The super rad hikers who braved cold weather, late nights, early mornings, vicious camels and even more vicious camel dealers who really wanted you to rent a camel.

Vicious camels.

Egyptian news

2009-01-09T09:53:00.001-08:00

I have a hard time getting news on a daily basis because we do not have the internet and I live in a neighborhood where English newspapers are not distributed. So, while I would love to keep everyone super up-to-date with all my thoughts about current events in Egypt I cannot because I cannot keep up-to-date on current events. Sad face :(

Luckily I found a web site for one of the English print newspapers.

http://www.dailystaregypt.com/

There is limited freedom of the press in Egypt and bloggers and journalists seem to get arrested all the time. I just heard about a few that got arrested at protests against the current actions in Gaza. I think they were let go almost right away though.

Also if you are interested in background to Egyptian politics and some on Hamas check out the wikipedia entry on the Muslim Brotherhood, the father of Hamas. From what I remember from classes it is pretty right on and not to biased either way. I love wikipedia. Love.

Liefke and Alex visit... Al Azhar Park

2009-01-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

Al Azhar park is a tiny piece of heaven within smoggy, crowded and gritty Cairo. You may recognize the name as the same as the university and mosque and all three are in the same general area of Cairo. The park was inaugurated in May 2005. I would not compare it to Central Park, as it is more of a botanical garden without the greenhouses and focus on various plant life.

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to actually walk around this park during the day. From now it will be a habit and I am waiting for warmer weather to pack up a picnic, get stared at by other families and enjoy the sun.

Liefke, Kaite, Alex and I visited the park near noon on a Friday. Arriving close to noon we were greeted by dozens of mosques' calls to prayer, somehow harmonizing. Other tourists, families having picnics, and couples strolled through the idyllic park paths. We stopped for a late breakfast at one of the two cafes inside. Our crepes and coffees were compliment by the views of old Cairo and the Citadel. Most amazing though was the absence of traffic noise and the abundance of green.

Man I miss the color green.

View of Old Cairo

Looking down from the top of the park at the lakeside cafe.

The entrance from the top of the park.

The restaurant where we ate crepes and drank coffee. We actually sat in the sort of tower on the left at the middle window, to be exact.

The "lake" at the Lakeside Cafe.

Liefke and Alex visit... The Citadel

2009-01-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

One of the most fabled tourist spots in Cairo is the Saladin Citadel. History tells us that the citadel used t be famous for fresh breezes, those don't exist anymore anywhere in Cairo. But. history also tells us Salah Al-Din fortified the building to defend against crusaders in the 12 century and that the citadel was the seat of Egyptian governance until the 1860s. There are three mosques inside and a few museums.

Inside of one of the mosques in the Citadel walls. Pretty sure this is the Mosque of al-Nasir Muhammed.

Inside the same mosque.

Waiting outside a mosque, pretty sure this is the Mosque of Muhammed Ali. So many tourists!

Inside the mosque.

Imagine if these lanterns were gas or candle instead of electric. That would be amazing, might even get me to go to services.

Window lattice shot.

You can see the Pyramids!

View of Cairo from the Citadel's heights.

View from outside of the mosque.

Inside of the Citadel you can visit the Egyptian Military Museum. We did because it was free! After viewing large military craft and weapons outside of the museum you walk inside to find miniature tanks, panoramas of various wars dating back to the pharaohs and tons of military stuff. Pretty cool.

These are my seven favorite things about the Egyptian military, in no particular order...

1) Many tanks. Katie's dad apparently knows all about tanks and we took photos so that he could later tell us all about them. Education, always good.

2) All the phases of Egyptian warfare.

3) This large statue. He was just taking a nap after celebrating V-Day. I could tell he was celebrating V-Day and not just statue of a hippy even though he was giving a peace sign because his uniform was to crisp to be a hippy.

4) Liefke with her favorite bust of King Ramses the II.

5) Very special dude, keep reading to find out why!

You read it here! The bronze statue, unnamed and unknown to me, is officially the "Best Soldier on Earth."

6) Three pillars of warfare. I like the "or" option. Good to have options really.

Vicious warriors, in life size displays.

7) Wish I had these boots.

Randoms in and around Alexandria

2008-12-29T07:24:00.000-08:00

Alexandria is pretty easy to get to and makes a decent day or weekend trip. Below are some random photos from two trips to the area.Chrissie and I went up with a friend for the day and dropped Chrissie off at the airport on her way to Dubai for Christmas. Alex was sort of chilly and always pretty at night. Way to much seafood was eaten, as often happens when you go to restaurant where you buy it by the kilo. No one really needs to eat or even share a kilo of calamari, but you might need a kilo of shrimp. Just a thought.

On the way to Alexandria there is a weird African Safari Zoo which I visited and posted pictures of. Well, it turns out there is a different one of the way back from Alexandria!

Visitors to the African Motel and Safari sit in their cars and drive through each exhibit, sort of like Jurassic Park. I got to feed a hippo, a monkeys climbed on the car and wiped their monkey butts on the window, a hyena attacked (briefly and without conviction), and a Zebra nibbled apples of the windshield. Only in Egypt.

Christmas Eve

2008-12-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas Eve with dinner at our house and then drinks at the British Club. Pretty relaxed and good fun. Katie, Paul and I were joined by Hend, her friend (and our new one) Dikra, Hany and Magdi. Good times and relatively cheap drinks!

Fun Day II

2008-12-29T06:53:00.000-08:00

While Fun Day II was a total waste of time and not fun at all, there were some good photo ops. Fun Day's at school can sort of be compared to those fundraiser carnivals that most American elementary school students have experienced. I cannot remember the date of Fun Day, but it was a while ago. The pictures are just late :)

Me and Katie with random kids and creepy super skinny Whinnie the Poo.

Obviously kids should be able to buy toy guns at school sponsored events.

Obviously they should be able to play with their guns on bouncy toys advertising Mexican beers. Katie and Paul agree!

Marina, a teacher at the National School, and I check out the goods for sale.

No party is complete without a mustache. Even school parties need them.

3 days of bombing

2008-12-29T04:46:00.000-08:00

With the recent violence between Israel and Palestine playing out in the news and me feeling completely cut off from TV, print and radio news I am at the stupid mall reading articles online. Thank god for the internet!!

www.huffingtonpost.com, one of my favorite political blogs has a good collection of articles on the subject. I am on vacation from school and have not seen much action or talk in the streets, but rest assured whatever anti-Israeli views the average Egyptian held they are more extreme now. I am spending the afternoon reading up on the subject so many of the thoughts and ideas presented are recently gleamed from international news articles.

“Israeli leaders said they would press ahead with the Gaza campaign, despite enraged protests across the Arab world and Syria's decision to break off indirect peace talks with the Jewish state. Israel's foreign minister said the goal was to halt Gaza rocket fire on Israel for good, but not to reoccupy the territory.”
IBRAHIM BARZAK and KARIN LAUB | December 28, 2008 10:07 PM EST |
AP Article

The idea that bombing a country into oblivion will halt anything forever is just silly. When in history has this ever worked, ever changed minds, ever put an end to violence and not only created more violence? When?

Map taken from the New York Times website, I always forget the geography of this region.

After reading a few articles it seems that Egypt is more involved than I knew. They have been brokering a peace/cease-fire between Israel and Palestine and agreed to close their border with Gaza to show their condemnation of Hamas. From what I know one of the biggest problems in Gaza is the lack of imports into the region, this means little economic activity, hospital or basic infrastructure supplies. One of the reasons Hamas was elected and is strongly supported is because they have been successful in smuggling/importing goods into the country so that people can live. Israel just bombed the system of tunnels between the Rafah, Gaza and Egyptian border. From what I am reading most hospitals are without basic medications and not functioning and homes are without gas.

Violence between Israel and Palestine inevitably stirs up talk of a united “Arab” front against “America and Zionists.” But who are the Arabs? I think it is sort of like referring to black people in America, as if you can lump all black people together and say they feel the same way about an issue. You cannot with either group.

From my first days in Egypt what has struck me is how Egyptians are Egyptians. Not Arabs. Arabs, in the eyes of many I have had conversations with, are Iranians, Saudis, Iraqi’s etc. Egyptians speak a different Arabic, live in Africa, and are mainly Sunni. From this point of view it makes sense then that Egyptian politics would not mirror “Arab politics,” this is also supported historically with many past Egyptians PMs. However, Egyptians do not like Mubarek, Zionists, America’s unabashed support of Israel, or Israel. So, it is safe to say that many Egyptians politics do not mirror those of their government. I am anxious to see what happens and hear what my friends here have to say about Egypt’s closed border with Gaza and the government’s action.

Israel stands to lose face or gain back fear they had before the 2006 Lebanon bombings/war. I just learned that the Defense Minister and chairman of the Labor Party Ehud Barak, who is also running a distant third in polls for Israel’s February elections, is the mastermind behind the air strikes and the public face. Win a war; win an election! Lose a war; well maybe you were not going to win anyways. Meanwhile Hams is launching rockets further than even into Israel and Israel is preparing ground troops.

Also I guess oil prices just went up, what a scam. If Obama cannot get us off of foreign oil and oil all together and figure out a way to be a little less-biased about Israel 2009 will not be that much better than 2000-2008.

The politics between Israel/Palestine are almost beyond my comprehension. I just don’t understand bombing prisons and refugee camps. WTF?

5 months in, still disconnected

2008-12-29T03:58:00.000-08:00

The largest force keeping Cairo and I apart is language. The universal language of love, which I sometimes feel for Cairo, does not keep me from getting lost in a cab, or over charged for snacks. Love keeps me happy while I silently wander the streets or sip a cup of coffee, but those are just shorts dates and a long-term relationship requires much more communication. So, I am making an effort to communicate with Cairo in its native tongue. My efforts are quite possible the slowest relationship of my life and we are not even up to bat yet. Oh well, good things come to those who wait?

This language disconnect between Cairo and I is increased when I realize how different I look from most of the people on the street. I did not realize how diverse America was until I moved to a city where almost everyone looks alike and wears just about the same things. Looking alike is one thing, but the men and women dress in about three styles and everything reeks of the mid 1990s. Of course this is a generalization, but men wear suits, galabeyias and jeans with t-shirts. Veiled women tend to come in two types. Women who wear the veil along with standard American teenage trends like skinny jeans, heels, tight shirts, tunic tops and bright colors. Most of these women are younger. Then there are women who wear the veil with either a female galabeyia or with looser tops and long loose skirts. Most of these women are older, look married, and probably have kids. Either way if you wear a veil you also cover your arms, neck, and legs. Some women let a little hair peak out. Showing a little hair in Cairo is not quite the revolutionary stance it is in Iran or a more conservative country. Unveiled women have more variety, but bright colors, over curled hair and clashing patterns rule the roost.

I try not to be bothered by veiled women but sometimes I just want to see some skin. I am also bothered by my own reaction, why is it that I automatically associate liberation with skin and clothing? I try to get over the Western idea that a dominating male force makes all the women wear the veil because I know the opposite is true. Many older and younger women choose when and why they want to wear a veil. I have yet to come into contact with someone whose parents forced them to wear the veil. Even if they did how different is that than my parents not letting me wear certain tops out of the house or skirts to a dance. I suppose the difference is once you put on the veil you do not stop, such a final choice.

When viewed religiously I can handle the veil as a sign of modesty and devotion. Mormons dress conservatively, many Jewish men and women wear conservative clothes, and I am guessing that most devout Christians would not wear half the things going down the average New York runway. I think what really bothers me is without a religious lens having to cover up your hair, arms, legs, and on some cases hands and face is oppressive. Your non-religious reality as a veiled woman is different and less open than the reality of men and unveiled women. Temperatures are warmer, movement is restricted, styles have closed parameters, beaches are pointless, and part of you is hidden from almost everyone you see on a daily basis. Saving tan lines and lingerie for a lover is one thing, but are family and spouse really the only people who deserve to see all of you? If I was a guy I would be offended by the assumption I would turn into a sex-crazed maniac with just the sight of arms or hair. God forbid I see legs!

I feel oppressed because I get the feeling that I am somehow breaking rules I do not even know about and never agreed to follow. In someways I agreed to the rules the minute I bought a plane ticket to Egypt. I wonder if travelers in America feel the same way or if because it is such a diverse country you can ignore rules on style, dress, etiquette, and behavior.

Mine is an outsider’s point of view and not totally informed about the customs and rules laid out in the Koran. But, all countries are viewed through the eyes of outsiders and what you do reflects your country, this I am learning too.

Eid Al-Adha, the festival of slaughtering animals in the street

2008-12-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

I awoke on the first day of Eid-Al Adha and decided to take a walk in the streets to see if there really were dead animals everywhere, there were! Luckily I missed the early morning slaughtering. A few odd facts about my walk.

A) I was the only white person in the neighborhood, probably.
B) I was the only woman in the streets between the ages of 18 and 30.
C) There were actually animals getting killed, but I only saw one.

To help define this glorious holiday I have copied the wikipedia entry for you, stare at the pictures of bloody pools in the streets first though. I stupidly wore flip flops on this walk, stupid, stupid, and stupid.

"Festival of Sacrifice" is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God. However, God provided a ram in place once Ibrahim demonstrated his willingness to follow God's commands.

Eid al-Adha is the latter of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims, whose basis comes from the Quran. Like Eid-al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha begins with a short prayer followed by a sermon.

Thank you Wikipedia.com

Mainly the streets were empty and I felt very alone. The streets are never empty and you never feel alone in Cairo, so that was cool. I could even cross the streets without having to dodge mini-buses, cars and donkey carts. Amazing. My whole neighborhood smelled like ground beef and there were bits of sheep and cow in the gutters. I witnessed one animal getting its throat slit, but from across the street. People were killing animals in front of their apartments! I hear in Turkey you have to kill them off the street, but Egypt is hardcore.

For the rest of my week off I went on a blood-free dive trip, where the only dead animals I saw were food. All the fish were alive. Nour, Mousaad and I traveled to Hurghada and left aboard the Storm II with about 10 of Nour's friends. We sailed down to Safaga, diving along the way. All of the passengers are are amazing divers and cheerful friendly types. I was able to do a night dive, so cool, a wreck dive and one day of three dives. Doing three dives in one day is exhausting, but worth it for sure. The water was much colder and I did not get a killer tan, so sad.

Faye and Mousaad at a beach watching the volleyball tournament.

The Storm II, captained by some of Hurghada's best divers.

Mahmeya Island, our last stop.

The islands is about 20 minutes away from Hurghada. We spent three nights on the boat, waking up early to dive, eating, napping and I went to bed really early every night. Teaching is wearing me out and I was ready to nap all day and sleep all night. The aquatic highlights of the trip were the over three meter Moray Eel I saw while it was swimming, normally you just see the head poking out of the coral. Also a sea turtle, going 30 meters, a night dive, and a wreck dive. The wreck, Saalam Express, crashed on its way back from Mecca in 1996, most of the passengers died in the crash. Very sad, it was full of people on their way back from Haaj and it happened at night so the rescue response was very slow. There were still suitcases and one very old-school boom box underwater. Super weird.

Not to bad for one week.

T-day

2008-12-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

Ice Cream cake because there is no canned pumpkin pie filling in Africa.

What is in the pots?

Oh my! Carrots, gravy, lentils and mashed potatoes!

Turkey was really expensive so I opted to stuff five chickens and cook them up. Very delicious and sort of cramped.

The meal.

Our Thanksgiving took place on Saturday the 29th because we had school on Thursday and then forced "Fun Day II" on Friday. Despite the timing we pulled off a pretty good dinner even though we only have three forks and the oven has no temperature gauge. Dinner guest included the roommates and Paul, the other male interns Tom and Saleh, fellow teacher Marina and her boyfriend who brought over a bottle of champagne and made my night, and several friends.

The largest obstacle of the night was running out of propane for the oven and stove about one hour into cooking the chickens. I opened the oven door to find it oddly cold and then realized the stove burners no longer turned on. The problem was solved with an awkward half Arabic, half sign-language conversation with the door man. Then the propane man came up and after finishing wanted to take a picture of me with his young son. Very odd, I asked him to leave.

We were left with enough food for a few meals and tons of dishes!

Mid-November

2008-11-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

November has cemented my thoughts that I don’t like teaching. I do like my kids, they are pretty cute and when they shut their mouths and try to work hard they are almost perfect. That rarely happens though. The truth is the kids would be easy to handle if I had any clue what I was doing. Since I received zero training and I have almost no idea of what I am doing, I blunder along daily and figure out as I go how to explain things like 3 digit addition and subtraction, conjunctions, proper nouns and ecosystems. I still feel like I yell all the time and because (believe it or not) I do not like to yell all the time I am making an effort to talk in a very soft but stern librarian voice. Let you know how that one goes.

One recent addition to life is being an usher. A friend of a friend finds people to work at fancy events, showing people to their seats and passing stuff out etc at a pretty decent wage for a night's work. Chrissie and I did one wedding, which was the gaudiest display of wealth I have ever seen in my life. Their wedding planner was probably thinking “What are the most expensive things you can put in one room?” To which the answer was orchids, lilies, candles, sushi (no one ate), open bar, 20 piece band, concert pianist, well-known DJ, outdoor and indoor venue, heating lamps, full table settings for the sit-down dinner that was not served, laser type lights on the walls, a venue in a private community, fur on everyone, tiki torches, camera men, video camera men, and my favorite the video crane. All this and it was only an engagement party. Apparently there were lots of famous people there, but because I have no Egyptian celebrity facial recognition I am sure they walked right past me and I am smiled at them like I smiled at the rest of the chumps.

Really my favorite three things about the event were…
1) The enormous amounts of blue eye-shadow the makeup artist put on me. Yes, that’s right we got our makeup done and all we did was stand there and smile by a door.

2) My poodle like early 90s prom up-do. I made the lady tuck a few strands in here and there and not let all the curls hang to the right side of my head. Centered is usually better with these things.

3) The four Asian nannies who must have been forced to wear matching Chinese embroidered dresses. You know these classic Chinese dresses, I think they are called Mandarin dresses and they have the buttons on the shoulders with no sleeves. Who would do that to their nanny? The bride-to-be must have wanted them to match the sushi and orchids.

Pictures of the event from across the pool/pond/lake in the compound.

Looking good Faye, yeah right! This picture is for you Amber :)

Joining the gym has not happened yet. I did however manage to go once alone and promptly loose my iPod. I am trying not to think about this past event because it makes me want to cry for hours about all the music that can no longer flood my ears. If you happen to have an extra one kicking around send it my way!

On the self-improvement front I have started trading Arabic for English lessons. After two lessons I can sort of pronounce 10 out of the 28 letters and know a few more words. I cannot recognize the letters or even come close to reading squiggly, don’t get your hopes up for me to read you the Koran at bed time when I get back. I thought I would be able to stomach not having a clue what people were saying around me, but curiosity is forcing me to learn something. Damn. Another top priority is learning how to cook Egyptian foods and desserts, so much honey yummy! I bought a cookbook and will be stumbling through the kitchen for the rest of my time here.

Speaking of food my favorite holiday is only days away! Yeah for Thanksgiving! In Cairo we are working on Thursday and it is parent’s day at that. Pray for me, I think the parents are going to eat me alive. Then on Friday we have “Fun Day II” at school. Hopefully there will be some fun unlike Fun Day I. All the teachers are being forced to attend and I am not happy. This means turkey day feasting is put off till Saturday. Oh well. We are hoping to host a big group even though we only have three forks on the kitchen. More news following the event.

On a side note everyone in the whole wide non-American world is beyond happy that America voted for Obama. Well-done America!!! We got congratulated when we came to school and it comes up at least once in all group settings. I am happy that I will be able to come back home if I choose. I would rather have self-enforced exile than McCain enforced exile.

In general I am happy here. Sometimes extremely exhausted with the pace of life (slow and slow and then super fast) and being in a huge city, but good people seem to be filling in the cracks with sunshine. On that cheesy note bye!