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
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
1 comment:
Ben, your blog is awesome. I feel like I have been to Egypt hearing all of you adventures. You are such a good writer and your observations are insightful. This would make a great travelogue.
I hope we can talk more about Egypt sometime this summer. In the meantime I will tune in and keep up with your journey. Keep having fun. Love Mary Magic.
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