kul 7aga mumkin fi misr! Everything is possible in Egypt!

It's been quite the busy week! Just diving in to some new classes and getting everything organized for the new semester. I have a couple of fun events from the week to share. First, I went to this very interesting lecture at the American Center on Tuesday night. It was a professor speaking about who, in his opinion, were the nine most influential (good or bad) political leaders of the 20th century. The list included Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, FDR, Truman, Churchill, Ghandi, Mao Zedong, and Deng Xiaoping. The lecture itselft wasn't that interesting, but we got to listen to the simultaneous translation. The lecture was being given in English and we listened to the Arabic translation. Simultaneous translation is insanely difficult and I gave the translator credit. I also found myself wondering how I would translate the lecture. The question and answer portion afterwards was far more interesting. Several Egyptians were arguing with the professor about why he didn't include Nasser in his list of 9 people. The professor said that while he felt Nasser had made a major difference in the Middle East, he hadn't done so on a global level. Then Israel came into the conversation. The professor remarked that Israeli forces had beaten several Arab countries at once including in the 1948 war, the 1967 war and the 1973 war. At the mention of the last war, the room exploded because Egyptians consider the 1973 war an Egyptian victory, not an Israeli victory. The director at the American Center then wrapped up the question and answers and remarked that the American center invites all sorts of people with different opinions to speak there and that their views do not always reflect the views of the US government.
Afterwards, a man in a suit came up to me and grabbed my arm and said, "come, you do interview downstairs." I asked him what the interview was in Arabic and he looked very surprised. "You're American, no?" I replied that I was. I found out the interview was for a local channel. When the correspondant found out that I spoke Arabic, she insisted that I conduct the interview in Arabic with her. Needless to say, I was super nervous and freaking out! However, she asked me the basic questions: Where are you from? How long have you been here? Why are you studying Arabic? So I think I did well. The interview apparently was on TV the next morning at 11am, but I was in class and did not get to see it.
After the lecture ended, I went to a bar with two friends to sit and chat and split a bottle of wine. As we were sitting at the bar in this little Italian restaurant, we heard club like music and asked about it. It turns out there was a birthday party going on in the party hall of the restaurant and the waitors invited us in. The party was for an Egyptian girl, around the age of 20. We were standing on the sides dancing a little to the music, which was a mix of Arabic and American music and the waitors kept motioning for us to join the Egyptians and dance, but not wanting to intrude we refused. Finally, a group of Egyptian girls came over and pulled me on the dance floor. I danced for a song while they sort of stood awkwardly by and the fled the floor embarrassed. It was fun nonetheless.
Later this week we had a birthday party in the guy's apartment for Mona and Seba. It was a "classy affiar" and we all dressed up in our best for some dancing and socializing. We even had some of the people from the Middleberry program and some other Egyptian friends show up. The party was super fun and lasted late into the morning. It ended with a group effort at making hashed browns in the kitchen at about 3am. They were delicious!
The next evening, Mona's host family had a birthday party for her at the home of their grandfather, so some of us went. There was super delicious pizza and cake and Syrian sweets. We spoke a lot of Arabic and had a really good conversation with Mona's host mother about language. We also got to hear Mona's host mother and Tammam (one of the guys from our program) recite the Koran. It was absolutely beautiful. There were children present as well, including two babies (babyhat in Egyptian) and it was hilarious to hear us all speaking Arabic to the babies.
Sitting there, full on delicious food, speaking in Arabic in a comfortable Egyptian home, I see the obvious benefits that I've missed out on by choosing not to live with a host family. I know my language skills would be so much better and that I would be forming very special relationships that would last a lifetime. However, I also know about all the challenges from listening to the girls who do live in host families. Some host families are constantly gone, some don't have hot water, one is in the midst of extreme maritial problems which has put the student directly in the middle, one girl witnessed her host father slap her host sister. There are without doubt, huge challenges to living with host families, and I deeply admire the girls who have chosen to do so.
As for me, I'm happy with my living situation. I just have to work a little harder for the language practice and interaction with Egyptians, but more and more, I find myself willing to do so.

Cruising the Nile- Luxor and Aswan

akheeran! Finally! A new post! The past few weeks have been busy ones. We finished up the semester and the end was filled with exams and papers and reports. I was super busy in the week leading up to our trip to Luxor and Aswan, but we managed to have a group dinner party where we all cooked something different and invited the new students from Middleburry so we could get to know them. I also managed to make it to watch a rugby match between the Cairo and Alexandria teams (Cairo won-bummer) and to see the movie Avatar in 3D, which was super fun.
We watched Egypt play Algeria again in another round of the African Cup and this time, Egypt won 4-0!! Egyptians were exteremely happy and even though this victory meant the team was going to the finals, most said the didn't care. All that mattered was Egypt beat Algeria. We watched the final match between Egypt and Ghana in a cafe in the Cairo train station, waiting to board the sleeping train to Luxor. Egypt, alhamdillah, beat Ghana in the final minutes. It was great to watch people celebrating in the train station and I only regret we didn't have more time to walk around the city and see the celebrations. Right after the match was finished we boarded the train to Luxor.

The sleeping train wasn't bad. The rooms were small but the beds were comfortable and we were all in the same car, so we got to hang out. We had a mini dance party in a room for a few with an ipod and some mini speakers. Eventually we all went to bed, but not for long. We arrived in Luxor early in the morning, around 7am, so our wake up was around 5:30am. This would set the tone for most of the trip, as there wasn't a day that we got to sleep in much later that 6am.

We arrived in Luxor and boarded the cruise boat that we would be sailing on the rest of the week. The boat was beautiful and the rooms were nice and comfortable and the food was amazing! We ate every meal on the boat and weren't disappointed. The boat had a pool and ping pong table, a small work out room, a bar with the most tacky decor (lots of red and zebra print) and an upper deck with lots of lounging chairs and a pool. While we spent a lot of time lounging on deck in the sun, no one swam because the pool was freezing.

The first day in Luxor, before we boarded the boat, we visited the Valley of the Kings, Hapshetsut Temple, and the Colasses Statues. It wasn't quite as interesting as the first time I saw this stuff with my Dad over Thanksgiving break, but it was still fun. Afterwards we ate lunch on the boat and had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. I took a nice long nap and then went exploring with a few girls to buy some water (bottles of water on the boat were 12LE whereas you can buy them on land for 2LE, so we stocked up) and find a place with some shisha. We ended up smoking shisha (or Hookah as some of you may know it, the water pipe) at a restaurant in front of a hotel. Then we returned for dinner.

After dinner, a few of us made an excersion for some beer and wine and other spirits since, like everything else on the boat, alcohol was super expensive. We ended up walking around for over an hour until we found a place that sold alcohol. We chatted up the owner who was impressed that we spoke Arabic, and bargained down the price a little. Then we treked back to the boat. After that, we played poker, the first of several games over our trip, on the upper deck. I can say with happy confidence that I won the first game. After that, off to bed.

The next morning, bright and early, leaving the boat at 7am, we visited Karnak and Luxor temples. I had seen Luxor temple before, but not in the daylight. Karnak was amazing- absolutely enormous! After the temples, we boarded the boat and set sail, having the rest of the afternoon to nap and lay in the sun.

The next day, up and early again, leaving at 6:45 am for a visit to a temple at Edfu. Then we sailed on to visit another temple in the afternoon. I'm not certain of the name, but I will try to find my itinerary later and fill in the name. In between, more sunning and napping.

After the temple we sailed on and arrived in Aswan in the evening. A few of us went on shore that evening and walked to a local cafe for some tea, shisha, and to play the Egyptian version of backgammon. When we arrived, there was a menu on the table, with all of the prices listed in Arabic. After we sat down, the waitor handed us a tourist menu, with everything written in English and all of the prices raised. We spoke Arabic with him and got us to give him the Egyptian prices. It helped that we had an Egyptian student with us. Afterwards, bed for a few hours, then up to visit the high dam, the unfinished obelisk, and the temple of Khnum (I think that's what it was) which is located on an island and we rode a felucca (small boat) to visit. We returned to the boat for lunch and after lunch was a visit to the botannical gardens, but I wasn't feeling up to it, so I napped instead. That night, we had another round of poker and I ended up being the only girl at the "big kids table" (we had a "little kids table" where people could play without money) and of course, I took the guys for all they were worth. It was super fun, but I'm positive that whenever I play poker with them from now on, they'll all be out to get me.
The next day were were leaving at 3am to go to Abu Simbel, a 3 hour bus ride to the south, so I decided not to got to sleep until we boarded the bus in the morning. We had to leave so early because we had to have a security escort, so we were in a convoy with other tourist buses. I was super excited to see Abu Simbel because I had seen pictures of it in my guide book and it looked amazing. I wasn't disappointed. The temple is located on a vast lake created by the dam. The temple was originally in another location, but because of the flooding from the dam, the Egyptian government dismantled piece by piece and moved it to higher ground. The original temple was built as such that something like twice a year, the sun shines all the way into the back chamber. The new temple maintains this. We actually missed this pierod by about two weeks. There are still other ruins that the government did not move that are underwater now, but are actually more well preserved as such. The Great Temple of Ramses II would not have survived because it is made out of sandstone, thus why it was relocated. The statues on the temple are enormous and impressive and the drawings and engravings inside are pretty well presreved. Worth the drive out there for sure. After our trip to Abu Simbel we returned to Aswan and had an hour or two before we left to board the night train back to Cairo.

On the night train some of us met an Australian family traveling around Egypt and talked to them for a while. Because the Egyptian student was present and workers on the train kept passing by, we would ocassionally be switching from English to a speaking Arabic and the family commented on how interesting it was to hear us speak Arabic. The funny thing was, we hadn't even noticed we were doing it. It is comforting knowing that our level of language is actually improving. Once in Cairo we took a bus back to Alexandria and slept lots.

I absolutely loved taking a cruise along the nile and would recommend it to anyone who wants to visit Egypt. The nile valley is amazing with all of its lush beauty. Blue water with emerald coasts. Aswan is gorgeous with lots of sail boats moving up and down the nile. The weather in Aswan while we were there was actually on the chilly side, though I hear in the summer the heat is almost unbearable. Overall, it was a wonderful vacation.

Today we started the first day of class of the new semester which I look forward to very much. It's nice to have a change in the agenda. I'm also starting my new internship at an eye clinic and hoping to take a University direct enrollment course in the college of nursing for the semester. It's hard to believe we only have 4 months left. This thought brings both a feeling of relief and anxiety. A short time until I get to go home, but only a short time left to make the most out of Egypt.