It's the Weekend Already?

So, it's been a while since my last post (again), so I'll be catching up on the last 5 or 6 days in these next couple posts.

Monday May 19th: Monday night we had a dialogue session with a number of Fulbright Scholarship students from Egypt. This was probably one of the best things we've done so far. We split up into groups and talked for a couple hours on whatever subject anyone was curious about. It was really interesting to talk with people our age about a number of topics and misconceptions between our two cultures. It was a good opportunity to learn more about their lifestyles and beliefs, and also to see what they thought of America. We both agreed that Bush sucks, which I think a lot of them were surprised about. We also talked about government, the media and how its corrupted, politics, government, women's rights, etc. I was surprised that, from what they were saying, women's rights is not really an issue at all here. I think the fact that many women here cover themselves with a veil or other piece of clothing is commonly viewed as female oppression, but in fact it is simply their choice according to their religious beliefs. There were three or four Egyptian women in the group, and every one of them said it was their choice whether or not to do this. They even made it seem like women had more rights here than men do. But I'm not sure how valid this is...I would like to hear the opinions of a larger and more diverse group before I believe this (most of these students were clearly upper class). We'll be doing this again, and I'm pretty excited to talk with them some more. If anyone has any questions they are wondering, let me know and I'll ask.

Arabic Phrase of the Day (forgot about this): "Masalaama"-- (Good Bye)


Tuesday May 20th: First of all, Happy Birthday Dad! Hope it was a good one. So we had our first Fluids exam on Tuesday. Wasn't terrible, could have been better, could have been worse. Then we had 3 hours of lecture after that, so it was a looongg class. Usually at home, we have an exam and then leave. But nothing is usual here in Egypt, so right we when were done with the test we continued with new material for almost three hours.

Arabic Phrase of the Day: "Ahlan"-- (Hello)


Wednesday May 21st: Class as usual in the morning. After class we walked around the parts of the city near the AUC. Most of the shops all sell the same, crappy stuff that I don't think anyone would really want to buy, but they must being making some money. We did find some cool stores selling cheap football (soccer) jerseys. They weren't the real thing, but were better than most others I've found.
After walking around we watched the movie of the Yacoubian Building. Compared to the book, it was actually decent...it didn't do too much to try to "outplay" the book a lot of movies do. There were definitely some corny parts (and very weird parts) but that was true with the book as well, so it was expected. Overall, it wasn't the greatest book or movie in the world, but is an interesting read. It is popular in Egyptian literature because it was one of the first to speak out against the many problems that exist in Egyptian culture. These problems seemingly do exist, but the book does not do anything to show the other sides of these problems, which indeed exist as well. But I think in order for the author to get his points across, he needed to be direct in the statements of his writing.
At night, we met up with Ahmed ( a kid from the Dialogue discussion) and a bunch of us went to the Versailles Palace cafe to watch the UEFA Champions League final. Man, I wish soccer was as popular in America as it was everyone else in the world. I'm sure ESPN barely even mentioned the game, so I'll have to explain it a little bit for all you at home. The match was between Manchester United and Chelsea, two clubs from the English Premier League, and was played in Moscow. This has nothing to do with Egypt, but you couldn't tell that. They compare this match to equal that of the World Cup final, and I'd believe it. The cafe was packed...we got there a little late and had to go to this small room with a tiny t.v. in the back. But it was the most fun I've ever had watching a soccer match. Everyone was screaming and yelling, and it went into overtime and then penalty kicks, and Man. U ended up winning. I can't even imagine what it was like in the pubs and bars in England!! CNN reported that the Manchester police decided it was too dangerous to hold a parade because there would be way too many people and too many riots. That kind of puts it into perspective. This really made me want to play soccer again too.

Arabic Phrase of the Day: "Ciphrah"--Zero


Thursday May 22nd: Happy Birthday Matt!! (there seem to be a lot of birthday's in May)
4 more hours of Fluids in the morning. The most boring class we've had yet. 4 hours of derivations, pretty much all calculus and no examples. Made for a long morning, especially since staying up till 1am to watch the match. After class we went over to the Pottery Cafe for lunch and hung out for a bit. We met up with the group to go to the U.S. Embassy. It sure was nice to see an American flag for once. Although it was nice to visit the embassy and talk to some Americans, I was pretty disappointed. There wasn't much to do there...we heard from a few people who worked there about what they do and what the role of the embassy is. There are two embassies in Cairo, and I think the other would have been more fun to visit. This was mainly a library used to educate Egyptians about America and the English language. They present the information from different points of view to avoid being biased, which was good to hear especially with the current administration's reputation. It is free to access as long as you have a photo I.D. Joyce brought up a good point though on the ride home...these photo I.D.'s are very hard to come by around here, and usually the only ones who have them are those who have money. This kind of defeats the purpose, since those who need to be educated the most are those who don't have money. Someone asked who usually visits the library and the answer was international students that are going to study in America. I'm sure if they can afford to do this than they already have access to something like this library. They meant well, but need to figure out a way to allow more people to use these resources.

After this, we hung out at the Hilton Nile hotel and grabbed some food and relaxed until we headed out to visit the Arab League headquarters. This was a once in a lifetime experience for sure. I figured we'd just be getting a tour, but we did much more. We had a two hour long discussion with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ambassador Hisham Youssef. He clearly an extremely intelligent man, and very gracious in welcoming us. He talked for a few minutes about the League and how it was established. After World War II when the United Nations was set up, a number of regional sub-groups were also established to handle the international relations between the countries in the region. The League of Arab States was one of these. It now has 22 member-states and deals with a number of issues amongst the Arab world. He quickly opened the discussion up to us and answered the many questions we had about a number of issues....the recent crisis in Lebanon, the Arab-Israeli conflict, women's rights in the Arab world, the economy, even the upcoming election in America. Someone asked "who do you want to win the election" and he answered to us something like, "It's not up to me, who do you all think will win?" I think he was surprised when the majority of the group raised their hand for Barack Obama. It was really a great discussion...and I felt lucky to be able to have such a discussion with someone of this importance. I think it also has intrigued me to educate myself more about current foreign affairs in the world. After the discussion, we got to go into the League chambers, where all the representatives gather to hold their meetings and hearings and whatnot. It was a magnificent room, similar to the US Congress chambers or the UN chamber. This will definitely be a part of the trip that sticks out in my mind once it is over.

Arabic Phrase of the Day: "Wahead"--One (the number)


Friday May 23rd: This was a great day...it was Pete's 21st birthday, so Sonja, Joyce, me and him went to the City Stars mall in downtown Cairo in the morning. This is apparently the biggest mall in the Middle East! 9 floors tall and endless hallways filled with shops that were mostly way out of my budget. I did get a nice soccer jersey in the Puma store for a pretty good price...it's for the local club "Al Ahli" that plays here in Cairo. And they had a Starbucks too...I don't go there too often but I got a great coffee there. After the mall we took a cab to the Khan al Khalili...a huge bazarre in downtown Cairo that was similar to the one's we went to in Luxor and Aswan, but wayyy bigger. At first it wasn't very busy, but once Friday prayer ended, the place was packed. Later that night we all went to the Hard Rock Cafe down by the Nile for dinner to celebrate with Pete. That place really knows how to throw a party! The food was terrific and they were dancing and singing all night (even though Pete was too shy to get up and dance with all the girls, haha) They had some sweet guitars and other stuff from tons of bands and artists, as they usually do in Hardrock Cafe's. And it wasn't so bad that it was happy hour either!

Arabic Phrase of the Day: "Itnane"--Two

Celtics Game 7

So it's 12:30am on Monday morning, and instead of sleeping I decided to come over to the internet cafe to listen to the Celtics game. I mean come on...it's game 7. Let's hope they at least win so I don't lose sleep for nothing.

It's been a few days since my last posting. Other than classes, it's been sort of a quiet week. On Saturday we all went to Abdu and Hayem's (his wife) house again for another tremendous dinner. Too bad we can't eat there every night! We had fried chicken, a local Egyptian dish of rice, pasta, and some spices and sauce, eggplant, and a ton of other stuff. They are really great people and it's nice to have a non hotel/restaurant/touristy place to go once in a while.

Earlier in the week, we visited another shop that we will be working with for our service learning project. We went to a village called Stabl Anter and visited a glass blowing factory. This was an amazing place to go...it is an "illegal" community (meaning that the government doesn't give support to the area, unfortunately from what I've heard a lot of the very poor communities around Cairo are like this). All dirt roads, run-down buildings, no sewer or plumbing systems. Pretty un-imaginable if you've never been to a third world country, and even then you might still have never seen anything like this. Once we got to to area where the glass blowing shop is, there was a dirt soccer field out front with 6 or 7 kids playing, and lots of other kids roaming around. It was amazing to see kids who have nothing and are in a place like this have so much fun...that is why soccer is such a popular sport around the world, since all you need is a ball. One of the kids was actually really good. Probably wasn't any older than 10, but was clearly the best one of the group, and sported a Kaka jersey to top it off. We're planning on kicking the ball around with them when we go back.
Anyways, we went in the shop to meet the guys who were running out and learn about what they do, so we can get things ready to start putting some information together for the website (that I explained in a previous post). The figures were absolutely incredible, amazing detail of tons of different types of figurines. We saw a guy painting some of the figures, and were told that was the first day of painting the pieces, a new thing they will be doing. We also got to see a guy who was actually blowing the glass. He was extremely talented at what he does...I'm sure he's been doing it for 20 or 30 years, but it was awesome to watch him create a couple designs. I've seen glass blowing done in the past, but this had a different feel to it, probably because of the atmosphere we were in. We're all splitting up into groups to get more work done on the sewing, glass blowing, and carpet places...but hopefully I'll be going back to the glass blowing shop.
Fluids class is certainly moving at full speed now. We already have our first exam on Tuesday...and have probably covered at least two weeks of material in four or five classes. It's a good glass though, Mo is doing a great job and the material is pretty interesting.

Only a few minutes left in the Celts' game...going to get back to listening. I'll have more to come soon...

The Many Sides of Egypt

Tuesday May 13th: More Fluids this morning from 9am-1pm. Still not so bad.

After class, we started some work for the service learning project by going to visit a local sewing shop called the Fathet Kheir Workshop. Didn't know what to expect coming in, but it was actually a very nice place. It was very clean and well kept (unlike the surrounding neighborhood) and the products they made were of great quality. I was even interested in founding out if we could purchase some. Most of the products were domestic type things, tablecloths, aprons, oven mitts, placemats, etc. We're hoping to get a web site set up to expand their business so they can open up a market for their product in America. It definitely has potential, we just need to figure out some of the logistics and details.

We then went to carpet factory, another place where we thought we would be able to do some work for them as well. This was a total disaster though. Someone really dropped the ball here and there was a huge misunderstanding of why we were coming there. The lady that showed us around was their business manager and obviously thought we were just coming for a tour and to purchase some rugs. This was no ordinary rug shop though. It's been open for 78 years and has clearly been a successful business for a long time. One of the carpets that had been finished was going to be sent to Mohamed Al Fayed, the owner of the Fulham Football Club in England! How are we supposed to help a company like that? Luckily we're not going to be doing that any more. It was one of the oddest situations to be in as well, as this lady wearing designer clothes and sunglasses is showing us around this shop where little kids and other adults are working their asses off making these carpets. I don't want to be misunderstood here, because it wasn't a sweatshop. These kids are given a good opportunity to learn some schooling as well as the skill of this trade (b.t.w, they were extremely skilled at what they were doing). It's likely they would not be doing anything at all if they weren't doing this, and it is giving them a hope for future employment. But it was just a very odd place to be.

In the evening, I was in the internet cafe doing some work as usual. It was pretty interesting though, because I was the only person in the room, and the guy who was managing the place asked me if I didn't mind if he prayed. Obviously I had no problem with this...I even thought that I was disturbing him by being there, but we each had no problem with it. It got me thinking though...I've had a lot of different experiences with locals throughout Egypt, some better than others. One thing I have clearly noticed though is how much the level of respect for Americans varies from place to place and person to person. This guy was about my age and spoke English very well, and was respectful of me. Granted, I'm paying him money to be here, but I don't think that had anything to do with it. This just shows how many people in both countries have completely false conceptions of those in the other country, be it Egypt or America, or any other Middle Eastern country for that matter. It's obvious that terrible events have happened in both areas (9/11, the Iraq Wars, etc.), but people shouldn't assume everyone from each country agrees with the political actions that take place. The terrorists involved with 9/11 were Islamic extremists to the furthest extent of the spectrum, and give a poor representation of Islam as a whole, which from my perspective seems to be a peaceful religion. Professors even say how we might hear "bad things" being said about America if we were to walk by a mosque. But in fact, Muslim extremists compose less than 1% of the 1 Billion + (I don't know the exact number) Muslims worldwide. And its obvious that a good chunk of Americans incorrectly judge people from middle eastern countries. Even just coming through Logan airport, I saw more than one Middle Easterner being searched by security, when I walked through without even being patted down. Either way, these problems aren't going to end as long as these assumptions are made...but that is a whole other discussion.

Back to the Real World...

Monday May 12th: No more time for travelling and adventures...time to actual start doing some work (I guess this is a "study abroad" isn't it?). We started Fluid Dynamics class today. Four hours of it. I was surprised though that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Yea, it's only the first day, but the four hours actually passed pretty fast. Mo (Prof. Taslim) is a great teacher, and that will definitely make things easier. I've never been in a class with 11 kids before either. It's much much better. To bad that won't happen when we get back to Boston.

We looked around the AUC (American University of Cairo) campus a bit, then had a meeting to prep for the community service learning projects that were planned for this trip with an NGO (Non Governmental Org.) from the AUC. This was a disaster. It looked like the presentation was put together in 20 minutes before we got there. There was pretty much zero organization, and the bridge painting project that we had planned to do isn't even going to happen any more. We'll see what happens, but it isn't looking too good so far.

And apparently it's illegal to play cards in Egypt. We were sitting in a courtyard on campus playing cards and two police officers tried to come over and confiscate the cards. We ended up just putting them away, but it was a bizarre situation. Maybe they thought we were betting or something, which I could see could be illegal, but how is that any different than playing backgammon or chess? I've never been in a situation like that before, where the civil liberties we have at home (that apparently are taken for granted) are taken away from you without question. But there are a lot of parts of culture in Egypt that are far different from what we are all accustomed to.

Back to Zamalek!

Sunday May 11th: After the longest (and maybe the best?) week I've had in a long time, I passed out on the train and slept for pretty much the whole time. It wasn't as long of a ride, maybe 10 hours this time. It's nice when the only thing you have to worry about for a week is what temple or monument you're going to see next.
I thought it was going to be great to get back to Zamalek, but at first it was far from that. Not a very smooth arrival. We got to the Hotel Flamenco about 7am, but apparently someone didn't realize we can't check into our rooms until noon. So we we're homeless for about 5 hours, which wasn't great but allowed me to get some stuff done (although we missed out on the complimentary breakfast!) I also haven't gone a week without the internet in about 8 years, so that was hard to get used to and nice to get back to the real world.
At night, some of us and Jeff (our engineering coordinator for the trip) went to a great restaraunt in Zamalek called La Bodega. Very fancy, but it was nice to splurge for a change (even though I only spent $14 U.S., I love this conversion rate!) I had duck, and probably would have been a 30 or 40 dollar meal back in the States. Kind of a "going away" meal for Jeff too, as he is going for a trip to the Red Sea to go diving before leaving to head home on Wednesday or Thursday.
Fluids started the next morning(Monday), so it wasn't a late night.

Aswan and Luxor: Part 3

Sorry for the delay, classes started Monday so it's been a busy couple of days. Anyways, getting back to last week's trip:

Saturday May 10th: For the last event of the trip, we all visited Karnak Temple not far from the hotel in Luxor. This was definitely the biggest temple we visited. An absolutely amazing complex (I feel like I've been saying that a lot!), the temple was started in 2000BC and dedicated during the 30th dynasty to the Egyptian god Amen Ra. The temple was developed for over 15 centuries, all the way until the time when the Greeks inhabited Egypt. Thus, this temple is thought to be one of the last gasps of the survival of ancient Egypt. Amazing architecture and and heirophyphs all throughout the temple. It is so large that a water supply exists in towards the back of the area that was used by those who spent most of the time in the temple.

One interesting piece of information we learned is the common confusion between Upper and Lower Egypt. Most people think that these refer to the northern and southern parts of the country, respectively, but it is actually the opposite. Upper Egypt actually refers to the southern half of Egypt, as this is at a higher altitude that Lower Egypt to the north. This is why the Nile flows from the south to the north and into the Mediterranean Sea.

Later that night, some of us went to the Luxor Museum, which was right down the street from our hotel. I wasn't sure if I was going to go or not, but I am really glad I did. Although small, it was very well put together, containing some of the greatest artifacts I have ever seen in a museum. Amazing statues in excellent condition, dozens of artifacts found in many tombs, including military weapons, fabrics, beds, even a chariot used by one of the kings. There were also two mummies there, one of a king and another of a military general, which were incredible to see. Both were very short people, probably not any taller than five feet. It's amazing how much we've evolved even in the relatively short time of two or three thousand years (compared to the age of the earth). Thanks to Melinda, the museum was even better. I would have paid to get the kind of explanations that we got, on practically every item in the museum. She even wasn't allowed in some of the rooms since she is an archaeologist in the area...I'm not sure why that was, probably because they didn't know whether or not she was providing accurate information. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures, but you'll all just have to visit it for yourselves sometime!

After dinner we took the train to return to Cairo. No more vacation! Time to unfortunately get back to class.

Aswan and Luxor: Part 2

Thursday May 8th: Early wake up at 5:45am. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel before boarding the bus and meeting up with the police convoy for our bus ride to Luxor (yes, a convey. apparently people have been hijacked on the road we were travelling on! welcome to Egypt!) Along the way, we stopped at a few sites.

First stop: Kom-Ombo Temple. This was a "dual" temple (two temples side by side) from about 150BC that was a Greco-Roman construction. Much of the temple had been destroyed (mostly due to the flooding of the Nile), but incredible Heiroglyphics spanned almost every piece of the complex. Micheal, our Egyptian tour guide throughout Aswan and Luxor, described how most of the texts described the Egyptians' practices in time keeping (they initially created a calender of 360 days, before realizing that was wrong and it was actually 365. amazing!), medicine, surgery, crownings of kings, and many others aspects of their culture. A crypt with two tombs also existed underground in the back of the tomb. As with many of the temples we visited, one or two open courts would be built in the front of the tomb for all to have access to, but the more sacred chambers and tombs were built in the rear, where only royalty and highly respected people could go. Before leaving, we saw two mummified crocidiles that were small, but very well preserved. Everything we see is like something out of a history book...this place is amazing and full of endless history.

Next stop: Later in our trek to Luxor, we stopped at the Edfu Temple. Built around 250BC, it was another Greco-Roman complex that was similar to the Philae Temple. A very large open court was just beyond the tall entrance with two large pylons or walls. As with many of the complexes we visited, the original colors or etchings on the walls could still be seen, after thousands of years. It is fascinating how the ancient Egyptians created materials that can last for this long, whether they knew they would or not. Their preservation and construction skills were also immaculate, especially considering the resources which they were limited to.

We then got to our hotel in Luxor. Probably the best hotel of the three we've been to so far. A high class place with a huge lobby, nice rooms, and a great patio (with a ping pong table!) in the back leading up to a floating pool that was on the Nile. We hung out there for the rest of the day and explored the local area.

Friday May 9th: We again woke up early and headed to the Valley of the Kings. This might have been my favorite site in the 5 day trip. An absolutely amazing area...a huge valley surrounded by enourmous mountains with probably over a dozen tombs of some of the greatest kings in ancient Egyptian history. The whole group and Micheal (our tour guide) went along with Dr. Melinda Hartwig, a professor from Georgia State University and friend of Doctor Sullivan's. Melinda has her own dig near Aswan, an was incredibly knowledgeable about pretty much everything from ancient Egyptian history. The first tomb we visted was that of Rameses VI. Probably the largest and most detailed of the fives tombs I saw. It was incredibly well preserved with endless amounts of heiroglyphs in their original color. Although all of these tombs had been raided of their goods, the burial chamber still contained the casket and sarcophagus of the King, which was very large. We then saw the tombs of Tutankhamen (Tut), Thutmose III, Rameses IV, and Rameses VII. The mummy of King Tut was in his tomb and was incredible to see. His tomb was surprisingly small, but understandably so as he died very young, maybe around 18 or 20 years old, so the tomb had to be constructed in a hurry. I learned a great deal about the beliefs and rituals of the ancient egyptians, thanks to Melinda. Many of the texts in the tombs described the books of the night and day, signifying life and death and the underworld and other aspects of the afterlife, a revered aspect of their culture. I was also intrigued to learn why the scarab beetle was so significant in their culture. The practices of the beetle were marvelled at the time, as it would roll its dung into large balls and push it around, signifying the God Rah lifting the sun from the horizon every morning.

After the Valley of the Kings, we visited Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple (the temple of Queen Hatchepsut), the Rameseum Temple, and two large statues that were the remains of the temple of Ahmenhotep III. In the evening we visited Luxor Temple, just a 10 minute walk from our hotel. This was constructed over three dynasties. One area of the temple contained two statues built by Rameses II...these were his greatest statues ever built and marked the point when he proclammed himself as a god, while still alive as King. There was also "graffitti" in the back of the temple giving evidence of Roman settlement in Egypt after the Pharaonic era. Much of the sites showed signs of settlements by other civilations, as those from monotheistic cultures would deface any markings portraying the existance of multiple gods, which the Egyptians believed in.

Aswan and Luxor: Part 1

It's 7am (Cairo time) on Sunday May 11th, and we've just returned from our 5 day trip to the southern cities of Aswan and Luxor. I've never done so much in one week, so there are plenty of stories to tell.

I could write an entire posting on the overnight train ride, but I'd rather get to the more important stuff. Imagine the worst food you have ever seen in a very small cabin with two pull out beds that was probably smaller than a jail cell, not to mention the trip was probably around 12-14 hours (luckily I slept most of the way).

Tuesday May 6th: Once we got to Aswan though, things were looking much better. A great "villa" style hotel right on the banks of the Nile with a nice pool and bar. After a long trip, we all hung out by the pool for most of the day (which was awesome since it was probably about 110 degrees out!). Later that night we took a great Fallucca ride from our hotel down the river a little ways. Some local Neubians were sailing the boat and entertained us with some singing and dancing on the boat. Absolutely amazing views of the banks of the Nile, we were there for sunset, and huge tombs across the river were lit up at night. (Pictures to come...I'm going to upload my pictures to another site, so see the link on the side of the page) After the sail, some of us went to a restaraunt near the hotel for dinner. Great place to eat, we were on a dock on the river and I had a great mixed grill with kufta (a local meat, like an un-cased sausage), chicken, beef, and rice, and a great fresh banana juice. The fruits here are amazing, but you have to take your chances with them cause you might end up regretting it (I've tried to stick with only fruits that can be peeled, since these don't need to be washed). After dinner, we went across the street to the "souk" (a sort of bazarre with many different shops). For a little while, it was me and five girls, which was quite an experience since all the locals always haggle the women, and so I ended up getting a lot of comments too. For those of you who don't know, the culture here is very male-dominant, and not much (if any) respect is given to women, especially those from America. There will be more to come about this and other parts of the culture in a later post. It was a lot of fun to walk through the bazarre, though. Everyone is trying to haggle you to buy things, but you can barter with them to get a good deal. Sean and I both bought soccer jerseys, and the store owner wanted around 140 pounds for 2 jerseys, and we ended up getting both for 70 pounds.

Wednesday May 7th: After breakfast, we went to the Unfinished Obelisk of Aswan. A huge 5000 year old quarry loaded with some of the best granite in the world, this was a place where ancient egyptians found their granite that was used to build a number of structures. This area was very important to learning about methods of the ancient Egyptians, as this is the location of an obelisk (a tall pointed structure, like the Washington Monument) that was never completed. We could see though how they moved objects of this size, and I continued to see the intelligence of these people.
Next, we took a motorboat to the Philae Temple. This was an amazing temple, located on an island surrounded by amazing views and high rocks that kept it somewhat hidden. We then learned that this temple was actually moved from one island to another, which made it even more amazing. This Greek-Roman temple dated back to about 3000 BC, during Alexander the Great's reign. The architecture was different than other sites, and clearly Greak-Roman, as every pillar was unique and the flower-like tops of the pillars are a staple of the Greek-Roman architecture.
We then drove to the High Dam. An incredible structure, this is the second largest damn in the world, and the largest made by rock (most others are made by concrete). Constructed during the 1960s, the dam was built for electricity production and to control the flooding of the Nile River, which is crucial to the production of crops thoughout Egypt. We learned an interesting story about how the United States was initially contracted to construct the dam, but political difficulties between the U.S. and Egypt forced the U.S. to withdraw their contract to build it, and it was then built by the Soviet Union. However, the U.S. recently replaced all the turbines once relations between the two nations were improved.
For the rest of the day, we went back to the hotel and hung out by the pool (it was extremely hot down there, so we did all our site seeing in the morning or evening to escape the heat).

Abdu's House and Saqqara

After a relaxing Sunday morning (most of the group was exhausted/sick from the first few days, luckily I was not), we went to Abdu's house for one of the best meal's I have ever had. His wife was very kind in cooking for all 30 of us, and it was soooo good. All kinds of local food, and she even managed to cook turkey and french fries for us. Their family was very welcoming, and it was nice to have a chance to relax and enjoy the afternoon after a long few days.

This morning, we drove into Saqqara, and got to see the pyramids located here. We first went to the oldest pyramid complex, the "step" pyramid, which was different from the normal pyramid design, more similar to a Aztec or Incan complex. We then visited a much larger pyramid only about then or fifteen minutes away in Darshure. It was extremely large, and we could actually see it from the first location.

We then got to climb the pyramid steps and go down into the tunnels. This was a little difficult for me considering it was only about a 3 X 3 foot hole, but I wasn't going to turn down this opportunity. It was very dark and musty inside, but was quite a sight when we got to the entryway and the main tomb. (I actually snapped a quick picture, I will make sure to upload it soon)

We're off tonight for an overnight train to head south to Aswain and Luxor. Very excited for this. I most likely won't be posting until we get back in about a week, but I'm sure to have plenty of great stories!

Coptic Cairo

Saturday May 03 (almost up to speed with my posts). Coptic Cairo:

Today has definitely given me a greater respect for religion. As some of you may know, I am not a very religious person by any means. I have never been opposed to it, just have not chose to participate for various reasons. Anyways, this morning we headed out after a very nice breakfast in the hotel to "Ancient" or Coptic Cairo. A very old part of the city and seemingly the focal point of civilization in the area many years ago. We first visited an old Roman fortress, the Supreme Council of Antiquities. We then visited a Christian Church, Jewish Synagogue, and Muslim Mosque all located within a few blocks of each other. I was interested to see this religious diversity in such a small area. We learned about how at one point taxes were enforced on those who wanted to practice Jewish or other non-Christian religions. This was interesting to me as well, as we very seldom witness mixing of church and state in America, but this is (or was) clearly very common in other parts of the world at those times.
Later that evening, we took a beautiful fallucca (sailboat) ride on the Nile River at sunset. I really enjoyed this, as the weather was perfect and despite the river being dirtier than the Charles (I know, hard to imagine), it was very relaxing and great to see downtown Cairo. We ended up walking all the way back to Zamalek, which took about an hour. It was cool to see different parts of the city and really get a taste for the lifestyle. We also had to make sure the girls didn't get harassed by the locals (which is very common to occur here), but our security guard took care of most of that. He is obviously a high ranking local official, as every police officer acknowledged him all the way back.
Last night, some of the guys and I went out to the Pub 28 in Zamalek. I had a great steak dinner and later, we stopped by the Versailles Palace (a local shisha (or hookah) bar) to meet up with other kids from the group.
Certainly a long day, but a great one. It's only been 3 days and it seems like we have been here for over a week!

The Great Pyramids

Friday May 2nd (still catching up on the posts):
This was a hell of a way to start the trip. After waking up late due to a malfunctioning clock, we all drove into Giza. Driving down the highway, we turned a corner and could see the magnificent pyramids in the distance. I always knew they were big, but seeing the size of them from this far away really made it sink in.
We drove into a small village and boarded camels to ride into the desert. They were easier to ride than I thought, and actually were pretty comfortable (if you could find the right place to sit, of course).
I can't really describe to you how amazing the next few hours were; it is something you cannot really get a good feel for unless you do it yourself.
Gazing into the vast expanses of the Sahara desert alone is an eye-opening sight, but then riding camels right up to one of the seven wonders of the world is something I will probably never have the opportunity to do again. Being an engineering student made me marvel even more at these incredible structures. The fact that they were built thousands of years ago without any machinery at all, and are still standing today truly shows the intelligence of the people who inhabited Egypt during these times. This was truly something I will remember for the rest of my life.
We then walked to the Sphinx, and although this was a much different experience, it was very cool to see. This was a very touristy spot, with many locals trying to sell things or collect "baksheesh" (spare change or money for the poor). The Sphinx itself was amazing in that it was made from only one piece (or so we were told). A great amount of detail was seen in all parts of the face (of a man), head (of a woman), and body (of a lion).
On the way home Abdu (a friend of Professor Sullivan's and our sort of liezon for the trip) and all of us visited a very nice Papyrus shop in Giza to learn how paper is made from the papyrus plant. This was fun to see, and we then looked around the shop at a lot of magnificent pieces of hand painted art made on papyrus.
I finally got to try the local food at a restaurant we went to for lunch. It was very good...a buffet of mostly vegetables (with a great deal of spices and flavorings), meat, and bread.

Arabic Phrase of the Day (A new thing I'll be doing):
Shukran--"Thank you" (obviously this is just how the word sounds, as the Arabic alphabet is different)

Arriving in Cairo

As I haven't had access to a computer until now, so these initial posts will be catching you up on the first couple days of my trip since leaving Boston on Wednesday afternoon. Overall, the transportation to Egypt went very smoothly. It was first time traveling abroad, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect before leaving. It went better than I thought. We flew Lufthansa airlines into Frankfurt, Germany for a layover. This flight was long, but went well. They served much more food than I expected, and was actually better than the "typical airline meals", and a couple movies and some reading helped to pass the time. We got a taste of international culture right off the bat as we were waiting in the Frankfurt airport. Quite an array of cultures and backgrounds flooded the terminal, and was really quite interesting to witness. While waiting, myself and two other kids on the trip ended up having an hour long conversation with a very friendly guy from Arkansas who was on his way back to the States. This was definitely the first experience of the trip, and was a good ice breaker to help with interaction with people you've never met, and probably will never see again. The second flight coming into Cairo wasn't as comfortable, but probably pretty average compared to the first flight.
I really got an idea of how big Cairo truly is as we were flying over the city to the airport. It may be hard to imagine, but I honestly could not see the end of the city, and that was from thousands of feet in the air! It was quite a sight to see, as the city is in the middle of the desert and focused around the Nile River. Once we landed, we got through baggage check and all the standard procedures at the airport pretty quickly, the boarded the buses for the Hotel Flamenco on the island of Zamalek. The ride was an interesting one. Right away, the obvious differences in culture and daily lifestyle here could be seen. Without going into too much detail, you can picture Cairo as a larger and less cleanly version of the busiest parts of New York City, but with technologies from about 30 years ago. The streets are filled with cars, bicycles, horse or goat carriages, and any other form of transportation you can think of. They all move in a quick pace, but not in the stress-filled, hurried pace that most Americans move at. Dozens of satellite dishes drape the rooftops of most buildings, but none of them appear to be in working condition.
Once we got our rooms situated, we walked around the local streets of Zamalek to get to know what will be our home for the majority of the next five weeks. At first I wasn't sure how comfortable I was with the area, mainly because of the dense smog and uncleanliness that engulfs the area. Yet, as the night went on, I began to enjoy it much more. Probably less than 100 paces from the banks of the Nile, the hotel is in a great location. Shops, cafes, and restaurants line the streets, and there is never a shortage of life on the streets. There is a constant buzz, mainly from the honking horns of taxi drivers and cars. Police officers attend almost every street corner bearing what appear to be AK-47s, so it is certainly a different atmosphere than home. After dinner and some relaxing in the hotel, it was certainly time for bed after a 24 hours.
Stay tuned. Next posting: The Great Pyramids of Giza!