Mom and Laura's Visit part I

It's been a crazy past two weeks! My Mom came to visit and in between class and my new internship I've been showing her around Alexandria, the North Coast and al-Alamen, and Cairo. My Mom arrived late on a Sunday night and I tried to slowly get her adjusted to Egypt in the next couple of days. We went grocery shopping and took the tram around a little bit, which is always and experience. I cooked for her and took her to some nearby restaurants. On Wednesday March 17, we celebrated St. Patrick's day at a party at a local restaurant sponsored by the American Center. There was actually Sam Adams and Budweiser! Needless to say, after being in Egypt for 10 months and only having the option of drinking Stella, Sakkara, or Heiniken, American beer was a welcome taste of home! Then the first weekend, we rented a car and my Mom, Robert, and I drove up to the North Coast and spent the night in a hotel on the beach. Getting out of Alexandria was interesting, the main highways to the North Coast was closed for repairs in the direction we were going, so when we stopped to ask the traffic police guarding the roadblock for directions, they ended up having us follow a generous Egyptian citizen who agreed to lead these crazy foreigners in the right direction. Eventually after driving through the western most part of the city by the port and through Agamy, we met back up with the highway and were on our way! The North Coast along the Mediterranean in Egypt is beautiful! You would hardly believe from the pictures that we were still in Egypt! With the gorgeous sandy beach and the blue water, it looks like we were somewhere down in Mexico or the Carribean. The weather was a little windy and cold and it is still the low season up there, so we mostly had the hotel to ourselves. The water was a little chilly, but we went swimming anyway.

After spending the afternoon on the beach, on our way back to Alexandria we stopped at the monuments at al-Alamen, the site of a large WWII battle were the allies stopped German and Italian forces from advancing in North Africa and taking control of the Suez canal. Looking at a guest book at the Italian monument, we were surprised at how many visitors had made it to this remote location in the past month. There is also apparently a big problem of unexploded land mines in the area and locals are often injured when walking around (including children out playing) the desert in the surrounding area. We also stopped and took pictures of some camels being herded around near the highway. We arrived back in Alexandria safely thanks to Robert's expert driving.

The next day my Mom accompanied me on a class trip to two monestaries in Wadi Natrun. We walked around the monestaries and listened to a monk giving us a tour. Because it was a program event, everything was in Arabic, so I tried to translate for my Mom. It was the first time I had tried my hand at simultaneous translating, which was really difficult. A few of the other students ended up helping me because I was unable, to listen, translate, and speak all at the same time. The monestaries were gorgeous. It is hard to believe they have been around for so long. Both of the monestaries had beautiful gardens.

My Mom relaxed for the rest of the week while I was in class and we were busy in the evening. We met with my language partner from last semester, Rina and also had a birthday party of Nour, one of the girls in our program. On Wednesday my Mom accompanied my class in a trip to a local mosque as we had a discussion with the Imam there. It was her first time inside a mosque and her first time wearing a head scarf. We ended up taking a microbus to and from the mosque, which is also an interesting experience. They are small vans that you flag down and pack people in. The drivers are a little eratic and ours was driving, collecting fares, and passing change out of his window to a fellow microbus all at the same time!

On Thursday, March 25, My Mom and I spent the day seeing the sights of Alexandria. We started off at the Citadel and moved to the Roman ruins by the train station at the center of town before stopping for dessert at a sweets shop. We order Um Ali and Kunafa, two traditional Egyptian desserts. Then we visited the Alexandria library and stopped in Ebrihimiya for some scarf shopping. After that there was a brief visit to the train station to buy our tickets to Cairo the next morning. The last stop of the day was Stanley bridge for a couple of nice sunset pictures by the sea.

Later that night, my friend Laura arrived at the Alexandria airport and I picked her up and the next day we all departed for a whirlwind tour of Cairo. That story is to be continued in the next post.

al-akhbar al-jadeed Trip to Rasheed, etc.

al-akbar al-jadeed. The new news. Of course, as always, I'm a little behind on my blog updates. I apologize, but I swear- it's been a busy last few weeks!! The homework has really been piling up- it seems our teachers mean business this semester. I actually recently wrote a research paper for my Modern Standard Arabic class that was 13 pages long! 2492 words in Arabic. Complete with academic citations and a chart. I feel like this means I've reached a whole new level in my Arabic ability.

We also took a class trip to Rasheed, a small town in the Egyptian country side where one of the forks of the nile meets the Mediterranean Sea. Better known as the place where the Rosetta stone was discovered which helped Egyptologists finally unlock the secrets to translating ancient Egyptian Heiroglyphics. Famous also for its resistance of the French occupation. Apparently the people of Rasheed, lacking any real way to defend themselves, poured boiling water on French soldiers when they tried to enter their houses. The tactic worked and the French vacated the town. Lesson: Don't mess with angry Egyptians with hot water. Not a good idea.

We visited the Citadel and the spot where the nile and the sea meet. We had a lovely lunch of fish at a local restaurant. Rasheed, like Alexandria, is famous for its fish. Then we visited the local museum and an old bath house where brides and grooms used to go to prepare for their wedding. We finished the day on a nice hill with a scenic view. Apparently we were supposed to go for a boat ride, but the tourist police weren't aware of this and because they couldn't make the proper preparations, we weren't allowed to go. Being escorted around by tourist police is always interesting. It's convient for us- they tend to stop traffic and generally interrupt the lives of all of the Egyptians so that we can get through. Inconvient for the Egyptians though.

It's been a little bit of a stressful past couple of weeks. One of my roommates who recently moved in at the end of January has been having some medical problems that resulted in her having to go back to the states. It makes me very greatful that by in large I have remained healthy here.

I'm very excited now because my Mom will be arriving in the next few days. I look forward to showing her around and getting her to experience my life here and the Egyptian culture. I will definitely be taking her to Cairo and also on a trip to several monestaries out in the desert through a trip through my program. Time on the beach on the north coast is also in order. Hopefully she will enjoy her trip very much!

As March quickly passes, I look forward to April when we are on spring break. I plan on going on a camping trip in the White Desert and then to Dahab to get my SCUBA certification. Good times will surely abound. Then after spring break, it's under two months until I head home. I decided that on the way home I would stop for a two or three day lay over in Paris. I figured it would be nice to drink some good wine, eat some fancy cheese, and see the Eiffel tower, as well as expand my French vocabularly, which right about now consists of about 5 words, two of them being baguette and croissant.