Flagship Family Thanksgiving

Since we were all getting a little homesick and were going to be in Egypt for Thanksgiving, we decided to have a family style dinner together where everyone cooked something. The boys managed to find a huge, 27 lb turkey that barely fit in our oven. What came wrapped up with the Turkey? Oh yea- the head. Apparently you get the head and all when you buy a turkey in Egypt. I made an apple crumble dish that was a cross between apple sauce and apple pie filling. We had the most ghetto pumpkin pie ever which my roommate Hannah made. We're not even sure we used a pumpkin, but it was some sort of gourd. We had to evaporate our own milk, build a steamer out of multiple pots and pans, make the crust, and then the only container we had to cook it in was a frying pan. It actually turned out super delicious!

We had salads, hummus, mashed potatoes, yams, veggies, pie, torte, potato salad, etc. Everything was super delicious.

During the cooking and dinner I was trying to watch the UM v. OSU game online, but because of the slow internet, I could only watch the ESPN gamecast. Of course I was super bummed when we lost. Sigh. Maybe next year.

Siwa round 2 (a little late)

Ahlan!
Ok, so it's been a while. I apologize. Things were a little crazy in the last few weeks leading up to Christmas break and I was waiting to grab a video, to be included in this post, from Rob. I was also waiting to get home for Christmas because the Internet is much faster and I can upload videos a lot quicker! I also grabbed a bunch of pictures from Rob since I didn't bring my camera to Siwa because it is not sand proof and as you can imagine, there is a lot of sand. So all of the pictures in this post are courtesy of Rob. Thanks!
Siwa was awesome the second time around!! We did lots of the same things, including the safari, sand boarding and sleeping in the desert. But I'll give you the comprehensive run down. This time, I went to Siwa with the people in my program plus Scott and Elizabeth, my awesome roommates from Western Michigan, plus a few Egyptian guys from the men's dorms that I don't know. So we arrived late as usual. It seems our tours can't actually get anywhere on time. We arrived and dropped our stuff of in the hotel and grabbed a quick dinner.Afterwards, a small group of us took a trip to a hot spring for a late night dip. The weather was a little chilly, and it was nice to climb into the warm spring. It was so warm in fact, that you could only stay in for a little while before you felt like you needed to get out and roll around in the cool sand! The stars and moon were out in full force and the view was breathtaking. After swimming for a while, we decided to head back. Unfortunately the truck we were in got stuck in the sand. We tried everything to get it out. We pushed. We dug. We frolicked. Actually, Jake frolicked and it wasn't all that helpful, but it was fun to watch. I wish there was a video of that. Finally, our Bedouin guide and driver called for backup and another truck came and pulled us out. We went back to the hotel, slept for a few hours, and were up bright and early thanks to a very vocal goose next to the hotel (seriously, it sounded like a donkey) and ready for our safari day.
On the safari, we rode around the desert in jeeps, cruising over the dunes like a roller coaster. We stopped and sandboarded again. I had one of the longest runs, thanks to my previous snowboarding experience. We ate lunch by a gorgeous salt lake and made our way to another hot spring. Unfortunately, the jeep I was in broke down on the way to the spring and we were stopped for a while while the Bedouins fixed it. We had a desert dance off with music playing from the jeep and Rob wandered off and came back with the bone of a camel thigh that had been bleached white by the sun. We finally got the jeep going again and made it to the hot spring in time to watch the sunset. Then we made our way over to camp for the night.
At camp, the Bedouins cooked an amazing dinner on the camp fire and we once again had a dance off. I think the Bedouins won though, there dancing was pretty awesome. We even got them to brake it down to some modern hip hop! The weather was pretty chilly, so we all bundled up. You wouldn't believe how cold it gets in the desert! I had on two pairs of pants and something like 5 shirts. We spent the rest of the evening sitting by the camp fire or wandering around a little. Again, I don't have words to describe the view. The moon was much fuller than when we were in Siwa over the summer, so the stars weren't as bright, but it was still beautiful!
So of us decided we should use the buddy system in case we wandered off. I was buddies with Tom and every time we did a buddy check, we used our secret sign- which was to Moo.

That way we would know where the other person was. It sounds strange, but let me tell you, if you are in the desert for long enough- the desert madness sets it. It's a fact. Once it sets it, you just start getting silly.
We finally all fell asleep, except I found it difficult to really get comfortable- you wouldn't believe how hard sand can be! I only slept a few hours. I got up in time to climb to the top of a large dune and watch the sun rise.
Once we were all awake, we packed up and headed back to the hotel. Those who hadn't been to Siwa took the donkey cart tour around town. Those of us that had gone in the summer stayed at the hotel and napped. We woke up in time to meet up with the touring group for lunch by the Cleopatra spring. After that we made our way back to the hotel, where there was a Bedouin music and dance show. We sat by the fire and talked and ate some dinner and watched the show. Later, we took a second trip to the hot spring for a late night dip.
We managed to have car trouble again on the way home from the hot spring, our truck running out of gas before we reached town. Luckily, our driver called someone else to come pick us up and take us back. The next morning, we got up early and ate breakfast and ran into town to buy some dates. I bought chocolate and almond dates which were delicious! I also found an awesome green scarf. We then piled back onto the bus and made our way back to Alexandria.
Siwa the second time around was very different, with a new, larger group of people and a few different activities, but still just as fun as the first time. It remains one of my favorite places in Egypt!

Happy Halloween!

So last week was the end of October and we've knocked off another month. It went by surprisingly fast. To celebrate the all important holiday of Halloween we had a scary movie night where we watched two films: Dead Snow and Nightmare on Elm Street. Dead Snow is a Norwegian comedy horror film. There is no English spoken and there are Arabic subtitles, but its easy to understand. The storyline: Nazi zombies attack a group of friends in a cabin in the woods. Good and terrible times ensue.

The next night we had a costume party at our apartment. Hannah and I were the underrepresented demographic of hot lumberjacks and Elizabeth was a cavewoman. We all made fun little decorations out of construction paper and plan on leaving them up until its time to decorate for Christmas. Other costumes included: two greeks/romans in togas, jonny depp from the 80s, Modanna, a guy and a girl dressed up as Egyptians, MIA, a South Asian frat boy, two tigers, a gypsy, an aviator, and a pirate.

My language partner, Rina, came dressed as the most awesome pirate! It was her first Halloween party because obviously, they don't celebrate Halloween here. Actually, the two people dressed as tigers came in costume and got some crazy looks as they tried to get a cab. However, the guys in the convients stores knew what was up and said happy Halloween to a few of our guests that wandered downstairs for more refreshments.

We all had to be super creative for our costumes since its not like we can just run to a costume store here. I was most impressed with Liz who made her cavewoman dress, which was very cute, from a fleece throw she found at the store. I was also impressed with Tom and Melissa, the tigers, because Melissa drew the stripes on their orange shirts. Sara was an awesome Modanna and managed to combine clothes she already had with a few new additions, and also cutting her hair. And Mona as MIA was great as well, her hair was blue.

You'll notice in the pictures that last week I decided to get my hair cut and colored! I now have short, very blonde hair! and I love it.

I'm looking forward to this week because we are going to Siwa this weekend, leaving on Wednesday on coming back on Saturday. We are spending one night in the desert and two nights in a hotel. I'm super excited to go back to Siwa and run around in the sand and swim in some springs!

Mysterious Smog

And the beat goes on. . .
So I’ve uploaded some videos. One is the audio recording I took at the café last week set to some pictures I’ve taken around Alexandria. The pictures are poor quality because I had to compress the video in order to be able to upload it, but enjoy anyway.
The second video is an audio recording I took standing on our balcony listening to the adhan, or call to prayer, in the evening. We have at least 3 or 4 different mosques in close proximity to our apartment, so we get a deep, rich chorus of voices at prayer time. My favorite time to hear the call to prayer in our area is the very first one of the day around 5am. The streets are so quite that it is the only noise around and it has a very strange, eerie echo. I will try to get a recording of that, but as you can guess, I’m usually asleep at that time. It woke me up the first couple of nights I slept in our apartment, but I sleep through it now.
Just a couple of updates from the week. First, the weather has been insanely hot and humid here this week. I mean, it blows your mind that one can actually sweat that much. There’s also a thick haze that settled around the city. It’s like a fog- you can see it down the streets when you look out our window. Normally when looking out onto the sea, you can see the coast of the city and the citadel in the distance. However, this week, you can see nothing but a white thick mist. We’ve heard several reasons from various Egyptians as to why this is. Reason A) it is pollution from Cairo that got carried in on some wind and will be blown out again before getting cold. B) It is sand blowing in from the desert. This usually occurs in the spring time, but rarely in the fall. Either way, it should clear out in a few days, we hope.
My roommates and I have switched from taking taxis in the morning to taking the tram. It actually turns out to take about the same amount of time because there is so much traffic on the roads that even the slow moving tram moves faster. It’s nice in the morning, but it’s rough taking the tram home. It moves a lot slower and it’s a ton more crowded. I was so packed in the tram today that I couldn’t lift or move my arms because I was pressed against other people. That’s why I always ride the women’s car- being that close to a bunch of men only invites trouble on the tram. But I was way more up close and personal with a bunch of Egyptian women that I ever really wanted to be today. Add the super hot humid weather we’ve been having- and you’ve got yourself one LONG tram ride.
Finally really starting to get into work at my internship. Mona and I are actually sitting down to write our article on the TAFL (Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language) Center as we speak. It will be our first official accomplishment. We also got to attend a conference over the weekend hosted by an NGO that discusses issues in Egypt today and also looking into Egypt’s future. It was a very high level of Arabic, so it was difficult to understand, but a very interesting experience. The panel I attended on Thursday night talked about the opportunities and obstacles in Egypt’s future. The speakers seemed very worked up about the Iran-Israel-U.S. love/hate triangle, and also kept mentioning Turkey, though I couldn’t exactly pick up the context on that. Also, they were very concerned about Egypt being able to protect its own borders, though they never did say from whom, and also referred to the Iraq war as “America’s failure in Iraq.” Overall, very interesting to listen to. I attended a panel on Saturday about education and scientific research and development, but I understood far less from that lecture.
American Councils had its official meeting this week in Alexandria with all of the heads of the Arabic department of the Universities in flagship. I was super excited to get to see Dr. Rammuny. We all had a group meeting where we discussed our first impression in Alexandria and our classes. Then Valeria and I sat with Dr. Rammuny for a little while on our own and got to talk to him. It was nice to see him and it makes me miss being in Ann Arbor. على فكرة ala fikra- be the way- The wolverines totally kicked butt this weekend and OSU lost. GO BLUE!

Cafe Jam sessions, shisha, and a self sufficient ahwa

So we've settled into a shedule more or less.
We've got class in the morning 5 days a week, alternating between Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian, and Media. One day a week we have a translation class in the afternoon and one day a week I go to a class at the University. This week was the first time attending this class. I chose to take a class on Media and development. I was really afraid the first day, but I actually understood a lot of the lecture. I'm still not exactly sure what all the class will encampus, but I look forward to finding out!
On top of classes, I'm also studing for the GRE which I'll be taking in mid November. So overall I'm keeping very busy. I've been trying to scope out good places to study, and one of my favorites is a western style coffee house called Clay Cafe. I was there the other day studying and two guys, one with a guitar and the other with a harp like instrument I couldn't quite identify, came in and had a 3 hour jam session in the cafe. I've been trying at attach a sound clip with no luck which I recoreded of them. Of course it has a lot of background chatter, but if you close your eyes, maybe it will be like you are actually in the cafe! I'll keep working on it and hopefully get it up later in the week.
On another note- our apartment is well on its way to becoming a self sufficient ahwa, or coffe house. We have built up quite the stash of tea, and just recently purchased some American coffee that we make in my roommate's french press, and also some turkish coffee and a little plot to make it in. We also have several kinds of hot chocolate and have actually taken to making our own hot chocolate with milk, cocoa powder, and melted chocolate. It's delicious!! We also made homemade brownies the other night!!
To add to the ahwa atmosphere, we purchased a small shisha, or hookah. We set it up on our balcony and it's a fun way to pass time by sitting on the balcony, drinking tea and smoking shisha with friends.
Though I'm still not exactly crazy about being back in Egypt, I feel like I'm more or less adjusted again. I'm enjoying living in the apartment and especially getting to cook my own food. I will hopefully have some more pictures to post soon!

Back In Alexandria!

I've included some pictures from Alexandria while Brent was here that I didn't get to post before and pictures of my apartment.

So after two weeks in America visiting family and friends and eating as much pork as I could get my hands on, I'm back in Alexandria!! I have to say, at first I wasn't very glad to be back. Being home reminded me of all the people and things that I missed, but slowly I'm remembering all the people and things that I love here too. Although unfortunately I was reminded of all the things that I dont like first. For example- when I arrived at the airport, there was a huge globe of mass confusion at the passport control. Lines are not really Egyptian's thing. If you're at a McDonald's waiting in line, people will totally just walk right up to the counter and cut in front of you. Lines- not so much. So getting through the mess of people pushing and shoving took over an hour. One woman was trying to shove me out of the way, but I held firm, and she started complaining to the man next to her about me and I turned around and responded in Arabic. The man just laughed.

Then of course the taxi driver I found was trying to marry me/ get my phone number. Even after I told him I was engaged to try to deter him. He then tried the approach, "Oh, I'm like your brother, I'm just worried about you being alone in a big city. You should call me when you arrive safely in Alexandria." Yeah. Right. He also kept getting to stop and have lunch with him. Luckily I had a good excuse that I had a train to catch.

I arrived at the train station just 15 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, so I rushed to the ticket counter and bought my ticket and rushed to find my car. I got on with what I thought would be 5 minutes to spare, and then the train left 45 minutes late. Of course.

Then the night I got back, one of my roommates, Hannah, and I went over to our friends' apartment because they were cooking us dinner. We arrived early while they were still grocery shopping, so we sat on the Corniche on the sea for a while and just talked about break. Ramadan is clearly over, because Egyptian men are back to their old selves- trying to talk to us as they walked by, sitting like 10 feet away in a group and talking about us, walking by us and then turning around 5 feet later to walk by again. Seriously guys? Then on our way home we were walking back to our apartment from the tram and a boy about the age of 13 ran up and groped Hannah all over, like a crazy, violating hug, and then ran away. We yelled and yelled after him, but he didn't seem bothered.

Welcome back to Egypt.

But there have been good things too. It's nice to see all of my classmates back and to start classes. I like being busy with classwork. We're all working our way back into speaking Arabic again. We've also gotten our apartment all set up (minus the toilet which is in the process of being fixed and we now have to use a hanger to flush). Hannah and I even have an awesome new roommate- Her name is Elizabeth and she is doing study abroad from Western Michigan. Since we finally have 3 people living in our two bedroom apartment, I've taken the living room area and converted it into a bed room. I set up a sheet as a kind of curtain room divider and i have an awesomely comfortable (way better than my bed in the dorm) couch to sleep on. I also have my own door to the balcony. Sweet. I've included pictures in this post of our apartment and the views from our balcony.






Tonight we are actually having a house warming party and while it was supposed to be for all of the students in our program, it's turning out to be a girl's night because most of the boys in our program live in the dorms and have been in quarantine the last few days. Apparently one of the guys in our program came back from vacation with the swine flu, so they were supposed to be in quarantine for seven days. From talking to them on the phone, it sounds ridiculous. Workers and teachers are allowed to come and go as they please. So, pleople are coming in and out of the building, thus defeating the purpose. Cigarettes were being used as a form of currency by the students. There were rumours of having to share thermataters for temperature taking.

Apparently last night some of the guys broke out and went and had a beer on the beach. I don't know the whole story, but the term "hole in the fence" was used. My question is, did they dig a tunnel and was Steve McQueen involved??

This morning we heard that they are being let out today. Hopefully that won't happen again!

Meanwhile, while we've started our language classes in our center, University classes have been delayed to give the University time to prepare the buildings for swine flu. I believe that means installing new airfilters or something. With all that is going on. I hope we don't have an actual outbreak of swine flu this year since the officials seem to a) overreact to all things swine flu related and b) not really know exactly how to conduct real health safety measures.

The Egyptian government is actually really regretting killing at the pigs earlier this year because now there is a severe trash build up in Cairo. The pigs used to eat all the organic waste, and apparently other animals, such as goats are being used to a small degree, but can't consume the amount that the pigs were consuming. Hopefully next time they'll make a more informed decision.

Videos from the Wedding Ceremony

!!!!الف مبروك Elf Mabruk! Congratulations!!

Brent and I have continued to enjoy our time in Alexandria.

We made a trip to the Citadel and then walked along the Corniche and saw all the boats in the harbor and took pictures in front of the Alexandria library. We've also been hitting up some great restaurants including Muhammad Ahmad in the center of the city, which is a great place to grab quick falafal and ful. We also tried one of the cafes at the very nice Four Seasons hotel, which was expensive by Egyptian standards, but not too bad overall. The food was delicious. We also ate at an "American Style" steakhouse. A lot of restaurants have a set Iftar (the meal in the evening breaking the fast) menu, so that is what we ate at the steakhouse. We had salad and hummus, some great cream of chicken soup, kamar ah-deen (a Ramadan drink made from apricots- really sweet), a nice steak, and for dessert- jello and rice pudding. It wasn't quite like home, but it was good.

We also had dinner at my Rina's (my language partner) house. Rina, her mother Mary, her sister Fiby, and Fiby's fiance, Mina, were all very happy to meet Brent and it was a nice break for me since they spoke mostly English. Fiby is trying to practice her English since her and Mina are moving to Qatar where he has a job with a German engineering firm, after they get married.

Brent and I attened Fiby and Mina's wedding last night. It was absolutely wonderful and very interesting!

We arrived at the church at 7:30 and the wedding was supposed to start at 8:00pm. When we arrived, there was already a ceremony going on, so we went into the church and it was definitely a different couple. Apparently there was a wedding right before Fiby and Mina's. So we stepped outside and waited. The wedding then finally started at about 9:00pm. Fiby arrived in a car and met Mina on the steps of the church and the bride and groom walked in together and all the guests followed.

The bride and groom stood at the front of the church with like 6 priests who were reciting and chanting in Arabic. It was a little hard to understand so I'm not sure exactly what was going on. But there was an exchanging of the rings and they each were crowned with gold crowns at one point and there was a gold cape drapped around the groom. At the end the bride and groom walked out and the guests followed, congratulating them on the chuch steps.

After the ceremony we hung around as guests began to clear out and two younger guys approached us and asked if we were German- either if we worked with Mina at his firm or were from the German school in the area. We replied that we were American and I was Rina's language partner and it turns out one of them was Rina's cousin, also from America. His Dad would come by later and remark that he managed to find the only other English speakers in the bunch. Since we didn't have a ride they offered to drive us to the reception.

The reception was awesome! Dance party/club/wedding reception. When we entered Fiby and Mina were sitting on a chair in the center of a stage at the front of the room and then they had their first dance- on a platform that rose up and was lit. Then it was time for all the couples to dance and Rina pulled Brent and I on to the dance floor. Afterwards things just got crazy. The DJ started playing some American techno music who's lyrics include "Sex, Sex, Sex on the beach!" (yeah, pretty sure no one understood the song) and all of the young people got up and started dancing. Of course all of the Arab men were kicking my butt at hip shaking. It's amazing how Arab men can dance, and they are not shy about it. Very unlike most American men. There was also dancing with sticks- a video of which I've included here. At one point one of the guys put one end of the stick against his stomach and the other against Brent's so it was being held up between them and then was showing him how to dance. Another time one of the other guys was showing Brent how to pop his hip. It was most entertaining.

The entire time, during the wedding ceremony and the reception there was an army of photographers and video cameras running around the bride and groom. It was like paparazzi. Brent and I can be proud that our terrible attempt at dancing was caught on camera.

After loads of dancing, at about 2am, it was time for dinner. The meal was amazing. TONS of delicious food, and we were all plenty hungry by then. After dinner there was the cutting of the wedding cake- with a sword of course!! Fiby and Mina actually appeared out of this rotating platform in the wall with a multilayered cake with sparkelers on it. Awesome. Something a little different- the guests don't eat the wedding cake. We're not actually sure what happens to it.

Finally, it was time to see the bride and groom off. Since we didn't have a ride home, Rina arranged for some family friends to take us home, so we were part of the 5 car convey escorting the car with the bride and groom back to their apartment. The entire time we were honking and yelling out the windows. When we finally arrived at the apartment, everyone got out of the cars and continued to honk and yell and do that crazy yell that Arab women do. All at 4am. People were peering out of their apartments and shops looking at us. But no one seemed mad- after all, this is an exteremly common occurance. I can't tell you how many wedding's we've heard drive by here. Finally, everyone went home after that.

Fiby's mom was talking to us when we were over for dinner about how weddings here are becoming more and more expensive because of traditions brought over from America. With all of the effort put in to the reception, I can see why things are so expensive. The bride's dress was also bought from America. It was interesting to see the infusion of American wedding culture.

In the ride home, Rina's friend asked me- is this how it is with the celebrities (in America)? So apparently that is the standard for weddings here. I now understand why talking about weddings is such a large part of Arab culture!

Ramadan Kareem!

(Is this where they keep the holy grale???- the famous treasury building at Petra)

I've got a few pictures from our adventures in Jordan to post!!

(the canyon leading to the city of Petra)

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has officially started this weekend. Most shops are closed during the day as people are fasting and then the city comes back to life at night!! There are lots of beautiful lights and laterns decorating the city. We are currently trying to figure out all the crazy hours stores keep for Ramadan. I think one of my roommates should be coming back from vacation soon too.(circle in the town- a view from our lunch table)

Brent and I have been just hanging out in Alexandria, exploring some good cafes and reading and just enjoying being on vacation. Next week is Rina's (my language partner) sister's (Febe) wedding on August 31. I am super excited to attend the wedding and am looking forward to it very much. I will hopefully have some great pictures from the city during Ramadan and the wedding next week!
(Indiana Jones Cafe- Oh yeah!!)

The Michigan Difference

So. . . we ended up cutting our backpacking trip a little short and are now back in Alexandria.
Why exactly??
Well. . .let me tell you!

So we took a bus from Petra to Amman- actually we took a taxi from Petra to Maan, and then a mini bus from Maan to Amman. This mini bus was old and in order for it to start, some of the passengers had to get out and push to get it rollling (kind of like in the movie "Little Miss Sunshine) before it would start. But we made it safe and sound. We spent a day in Amman and had some great food and sweets from the restaurant called Jerusalem restaurant. It was a good thing that we both read Arabic because the waiters definitely did not want to have to translate the menu for us. That being said, we were still kind of guessing at what we were ordering, not understanding the menu 100%. But it was delicious.
The next day we got and went to the Citadel on top of a high hill in the middle of the city. There were some great ruins there and we also got an awesome view of all around the city. Then we took a bus to Irbid, a city in Northern Jordan, so we could take a service taxi to Syria the next day.
Once in Irbid we were searching for a hotel in the guide book called the Omayyad hotel. Two separate taxi drivers dropped us off at the wrong hotel- the Omayya hotel. We ended up staying there because we couldn't find the hotel in the guide book. It ended up working out ok. We took a taxi to the area near the University because the book mentioned lots of good places to eat there. We ate a small sandwhich at a cafe and then wandered around. A little while later we decided we were still hungry and had happened upon the "American" part of town- Pizza hut, Burger King, KFC, and a few others. We decided that we were both missing home and were craving some good pizza- so we were "those people" and went to pizza hut for dinner. It didn't disappoint!
After dinner we took a quick trip to a convient store to load up on something for breakfast and snacks for our anticipated wait at the Syrian border. We walked around the store grabbing at goodies like chocolate mild, oreos, nestle cereal, peanut butter, and dried apricots. After our quick trip into the store we started walking outside again and passed a delicious looking sweet shop and stepped in.
We ordered some baklava and went upstairs to sit as we waited for the waitress to bring it up. While we were waiting we looked at a menu and decided we should order some icecream as well. We saw an absolutely delicious looking picture of a banana split so when the waitress came over, I pointed at it to oder.
"Cheesecake??" she asked.
I wasn't really sure if there was a word for banana split, so I just explained that we wanted what was in the picture- icecream and chocolate syrup on top of the bananas. She looked at me like I was crazy. After a few more minutes of conversation, we figured out that while it was pictured on the menu, they didn't actually have a banana split and settled for a dish of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry icecream instead. It was all delicious along with the baklava. We went back to the hotel and rested up for the next day. . . Syria.
We got up and took a taxi to the bus station and hopped on a mini bus which I thought was bound for a town on the Syria border. Turns out the bus was actually bound for another bus station from which we had to take a service taxi into Syria. Securing this service taxi was truly a challenge to my Arabic skills. I had to explain that while we were looking to go to Syria, we hadn't obtained a visa yet, and were going to have to wait at the border. The other two people in the taxi were protesting our getting in: apparently they were supposed to be in Lebanon by 3:30 (a time they weren't going to make whether we were in the car or not). The driver finally agreed that he would wait a little while at the border with us before leaving and continuing on. So we departed.
We stopped at the Jordanian border and paid our departure tax while our driver and the other two passengers hit the duty free store. Then we crossed out of Jordan and stopped at the duty free store on the other side. Our cab driver bought enough cigarettes to last months- well, maybe not at the rate most men seem to smoke here. We went in the passport controll building to get the visa process started. When we explained that we didn't have a visa and needed one- the border guard promptly told us to go to the building next door and photocopy our passport. So we went to the building next door- it was a rest room. Next building: tourism office= they sent us to the next building. This was another passport office- one more building over was where we needed to be. So, we proceeded to cross the border into Syria to have our passports copied, and then cross back to continue the visa process. We submitted our passports and were told the information would be faxed to Damascus and we'd have to wait.
So we sat down next to two guys who looked like they had been waiting a while, and who also looked American. Turns out they were two students from Ohio State who had been waiting since 10am (it was about 12:30pm at this time). They were both doing an Arabic language program in Jordan for the summer. We talked about being Arabic students, their views of Jordan, and joked with eachother about the upcoming football season. Then we all pulled out some books and began to pass the time. I took up reading the first Harry Potter book in Arabic.
Hours passed. Then more passed. Then some more. Before we knew it, it was 6 oclock and we hadn't heard a word on our visas. The conclusion: we'd have to spend the night.
Brent and I decided that we had had enough of being in transit places. We had spent more time trying to get anywhere than actually being anywhere. This was the final straw- we decided to head back into Jordan. Easier said than done we found out.
The Syrian border guards refused to give us back our passports until we produced a driver who was going to drive us back into Jordan. For the first time in my life in the Middle East- we couldn't find a cab when we needed one. Finally, one cab driver agreed that he had extra space for 2 in his car to the border and the driver asked another man to do the same. The man reluctantly agreed, stating that it was going to cost us each 500 lira a piece. We agreed- didn't really have much choice. So we showed the driver to the guards and got our passports back, and they gave us one piece of paper for all four of us to show the border guards in order to pass back into Jordan since they weren't stamping our passports.
We agreed that that OSU guys were going with the taxi driver and they took the paper with them. We followed the second man who we thought was another taxi driver to his car. It turns out he was not a taxi driver- just some random man coming back from Lebanon with his family. They moved an assortment of produce to the trunk of the S class mercedes to make room for us in the back. We hopped in and hoped for the best. We waited in the line of cars and made small talk with our driver and his cousin. They were pleasantly surprised to learn that we spoke Arabic. When we finally got to the border, the guards demanded the paper that the other car had and made us pull over for a few minutes until they straightened it out- the other car had already gone through and left the paper with the guards. We were relieved to be back on the Jordanian side and were sure that the man, who's name we would learn in Muhammad, was going to kick us out of his car. Instead, he followed us inside to make sure that we got our exit stamp canceled and could get back into Jordan ok. No problems there.
When I presented our passports to the guard and told him we had tried to get into Syria and we could not, so we wanted to return to Jordan, he gave me a big smile and said "ahlan wa sahlan." "Welcome to Jordan." I think this happens more often than we know.
When we were arriving at the passport building, we saw the two OSU guys across the way- apparently kicked out of their taxi, heading for the duty free shop.
After we got all of that straightened out, Muhammad directed us back to his car. I was a little confused, because I was pretty sure this is where we would need to get a taxi back to Irbid. But he gave us bananas and lemonade- so I wasn't arguing too much. Eventually Muhammad's cousin and his sister or another cousing got in the car and we continued. The woman in the car argued with Muhammad a bit about us being in there, asking how much he was charging us for the ride and when we was going to let us out. At this point I was hoping it wasn't any time soon since he had driven us through the border check and now we were essentially in the middle of nowhere. Muhammad instead waved off her protests and I heard him tell her he was taking us all the way back to Irbid. He then told her we understood Arabic.
She turned around and began to talk to us. I told her I was a student in Alexandria studying Arabic. She was pleased. She made a comment about us trying to learn Arabic while they were trying to learn English. Overall, as the conversation continued, she seemed to warm up to us.
Muhammad not only drove us all the way back to Irbid, but even dropped us off right at our hotel. When I tried to pay him for the ride, he refused- saying that we were friends now.
I simply couldn't believe the generousity from this man. It was amazing. How many people in the US do you know that would give complete strangers a lift to the nearest bus station, let along carry them across an international border and drop them off at a town some 30 minutes away from there. Amazing.

As we checked into the hotel, exhausted and truly glad to be back in Jordan we came to this conclusion:
Two Ohio State students pay 500 lira a piece to ride in a taxi literally a kilometer across an international border.
Two University of Michigan students managed to hitch a ride in a 100 thousand dollar mercedes to the nearest town, pay nothing and make friends. That's the Michigan Difference.

1. . .3. . .4. . . news from the road

greetings from Petra, Jordan!!

I've skipped out on blogging the last few weeks since they were super busy!! To summarize: I found and moved into an apartment for the year in Alexandira, finished summer classes, and said lots of heart wrenching goodbyes to those students not staying for the year!

Brent arrived safely in Cairo and it was quite the trip to pick him up. We ended up waiting an hour and a half for the driver from the hotel to pick us up and take us to the airport. the whole time we were talking to him and he was telling us really bad, but amusing jokes in english, but he was hard to understand. there was something about a rat with a golden tooth. don't ask - i really dont know!!! i picked up brent and we spent the next day wandering around cairo a little before taking a bus back to alexandria.
We were only in alex for one night before hopping on a bus with a few others from my program to go to Dahab, which is this great little spot on the red sea. It's popular for diving and snorkeling.
before i go in to describing Dahab- i have to tell you about the great race to reach dahab. Brent, Jake, Monica, and I all took the superjet bus from alex to sharm el-sheikh and then from sharm to dahab. Taking a total of 13 hours and costing 100 egyptian pounds. There was another group of Tom, Laura, and robert who were convinced they could get there for cheaper, so they left in the afternoon on saturday at 2pm (we left 10pm saturday night) and took a minibus to suez and then a mini bus to Nuweiba, and then apparently the back of a pick up truck to Dahab. the trip totaled 24 hours and cost 95 egyptian pounds. who won? you be the judge!
Anyway- dahab was awesome! it's super sunny and warm, but the water is fabulous. there was so much sea life! we saw urchins, and a blowfish, and even a lion fish!! there are also lots of good places to eat, though a little expensive. brent and I did some snorkeling and even took a 2 hour horseback ride into the surrounding mountains for an awesome view of dahab and saudi arabia across the sea. it was good execpt i asked our guide if i could take a picture of him and he suggested i jump in the picture with him. well, after that, every picture we took was one of brent and i and then one of the guide and i. everytime our guide would take a picture of us he would count in English: 1. . . 3. . . 4!!! Thus the title of this post.
brent said afterwards he thought the guide was going to push him off the cliff and carry me back to town! I have some really great pictures now with brent and with a random egyptian man. what could be better from a horseback tour??
in general we spent time lazing about in the sun and snorkeling. It was a great trip except that i had to say more goodbyes to friends who were only staying for the summer.
After Dahab brent and i split up from the group and took a bus to Nuweiba and then took the ferry to Aqaba. the ferry was one of the most frustrating experiences i have ever had. we arrived plenty early to make sure we had time to get through the customs proceedures. to buy tickets we gave our passports to a man through a little window and then waited until he called "americans' because he wasn't going to try to pronounce our names. then we had our passports checked again at the gate to the ferry terminal and encountered little trouble.
we sat down in the ferry terminal and a helpful man guided us to sit with an Arabic family, where we would be safer. they were amazed that i spoke arabic and i had a good conversation with them for about an hour. they took pictures with us and asked us to write in arabic so they could see our writing. they even filmed part of our conversation on their cell phone. it was really interesting and a little awkward.
then we settled down and waited. and waited. and waited. we started to worry that we had missed the departure of the fast ferry. But alas, the ferry was just running late. how late?? well, we finally borded and departed six hours later than we were supposed to. 6 hours. seriously. we were not happy but there really wasn't anything you could do. the ferry itself was clean and comfortable, a big change from the wood plank benches and wretched bathrooms at the terminal. there was even a movie- the first movie that started playing was depicting some American in egypt yelling at a store owner (in a british accent) and then some egyptian guy calling george w bush at the white house and then the group at the cafe viewing september 11th on tv. then it shut off and a new movie was put on instead. interesting.
we arrived in Aqaba and the customs proceedures in Jordan were much more efficient. Jordan in general seems much more efficient and ordered than Egypt.
We grabbed a room at a hotel, had some great kebab and hummus at a restaurant nearby and then went to sleep.
this morning we woke up and took a minibus to Petra in Jordan. along the way our driver ran various errands, and we stopped in several places, such as a hotel and a dentist's office to drop things off. we arrived in petra, got a hotel room, and then took a taxi down to the park.
Ok- Petra is the location of the city carved by the Nabateans into sandstone cliffs. You know that crazy temple at the end of Indiana Jones and the last crusade?? Yep- Petra. Or, for a more recent reference- the temple in Jordan were sam found that key of life thing in Transformers 2? Yup- petra. except, unlike in transformers 2, petra is not an hour away from the pyramids.
petra is absolutely beautiful. the sandstone cliffs and carved facades are gorgeous. i took lots of pictures which i will post later. we hiked around all afternoon visiting of course the famous treasury (the building pictured in the movies), the ampitheater, and the monestary (and lots in between!!). it was a really long, hot hike, but definitely worth it. petra is one of the most beatiful areas i've ever seen, especially once the sun started to set and the rocks became a rosey-pink color. it was absolutely fasinating.
tomorrow we are hoping on a mini bus to Amman where we will stay for the weekend before we try our luck crossing into Syria.
I really love Jordan so far. Like i said before, it seems more organized than Egypt. The police look a lot more serious here. in egypt, most policemen have a pistol and some may have a rifle. in jordan, we've seen police with automatic weapons. brent knows the type and was pointing them out to me. we've also had some really great food- better kabab than i've gotten in Egypt yet. i'm continuing to use my arabic, but i find it a little difficult to understand the Jordianian dialect. we're still making our way around ok though!!
More to follow as we continue our backing across the Middle East!!!!

Second trip to Cairo

(picture- the restaurant, Sequoia, on the nile)

So we took a second trip to Cairo this weekend, just staying one night, to celebrate some August birthdays and do some shopping.
Our adventure started with trying to catch our train. As usual, the system (well, lack there of) at the train station made things confusing. It's hard to be sure which platform you are supposed to be on. After asking around, we figured it was platform number three. We waited for a while on the platform, being a general spectacle as we usually are. People pointed and stared. Finally, a train came in. We walked hurriedly trying to find our car. The platform ended and we had to get on the train and walk between cars toward our car. We arrived in car number 9 and found people in our seats. We stopped to ask an employee and discovered we were in fact, on the wrong train and it was definitely starting to move. We quickly hurried everyone forward. We had to run through 2 cars to we could get back to the platform and then had to step off the moving train. One of our friends was seated in a different car and we frantically called her to tell her to get off the train. Luckily the train stopped again and she could get off. In the mean time one of the girls with us discovered she had lost her ticket and had to jump back on the train to find it. One of the train employees had it and she was able to retrieve it luckily.
(Picture- Zamalek, the area of AUC)
After that, we waited on the platform for our real train to come. It was running late. As we stood on the platform, a group of women began talking to us. They were pointing at one of our friends and saying, "She is beautiful, like honey!" They then began asking us if we were married. Another woman came over to them and started yelling, "Shame! Leave them alone!"
As we continued to wait another train that wasn't ours pulled in and a group of women sitting on the train started taking pictures of us through the window. One of the guys we were with noticed and smiled at them and they got all embarrassed and stopped. After that train left, a small group of young boys started to crowd near us on the platform. Finally, our train arrived.
Once again, the platform was too short for the train and we had to step off the platform and then climb up into the train. We found our seats with no problem. The train was less than appealing. It was extremely slow and stopped frequently and our car smelled like piss. We made it to Cairo at last- about two hours late.
(picture- Khan Khalili)
We dropped our belongings off at the hostel and changed and went to dinner at this beautiful restaurant on the Nile called Sequoia. It was a little on the expensive side, but worth it. I got a Greek salad that was literally bucket sized. It was the first salad I've had all summer and I savored every bite.
After dinner we went to a party at the Swiss Club. It was mostly foreigners and it was really strange. In Alexandria, when we go out, guys will not approach you. period. Here, there were a lot of forward guys and we were all a little creeped out. Although I did get to hear a good pick up line involving a beard. We danced and tried to ward off unwanted attention and after a while returned to the hostel for some sleep.
The next day, we slept late, ate breakfast at the hostel, and then split into two groups. One group went to check out Old Cairo, and the group I was in went to Zamalek, the area in which the American University in Cairo is located. We walked around, stopped in a silver shop and a book shop. I bought four books- one in English, three in Arabic. I have a feeling I'm going to have an entire library by the time I leave next year which will be tricky to transport home!!
(picture- spices at Khan Khalili)
Afterward, we all met up at Khan Khalili- the large open air market. It was a super intense experience! People are yelling at you left and right, trying to get you to come into their shop and buy things. We were called a variety of things, including- Beautiful, Sweetie, Yank, Obama, and some others. The first thing I bought was a small bracelette which I bargained for. I was offered it for free for my phone number. The guy also insisted that I should take an Egyptian husband, he being first in line of course. I finally managed to pay and escape.
We wandered around the market which seems like a magical place. There are so many colors and noises and smells. It was overwhelming. It was beautiful. We found another silver shop and stepped inside. Hannah, one of the girls we were with had been there before. The shop owner was extremely nice and we passed the time in conversation while we looked.
(Picture- scarves)
Each of us bought a necklace and Hannah bought some earrings. Finally we decided we were ready to leave.
Instead of taking the train home, we hopped on a mini-bus, which was faster and cheaper. We got lucky and the mini bus had airconditioning. We arrived home safe and sound and in time for a good night's sleep.
I was really surprised at some of the thoughts and feelings I had in Cairo. It's much less conservative than Alex. Especially when we were at the party. You don't realize how the conservative ideals we live in every day are affecting you until you are some place much less so. You just tend to feel much more awkward and that things are in some way out of place. I have a feeling I will probably experience some reverse culutre shock when I return to America after a year!