back in Cairo Everyone has been asking me if things feel or look any different here in Cairo after the revolution. When I left, there were tanks in my neighborhood, a curfew, lots of gunfire, there was no internet, and Mubarak was still president. Now, Mubarak is gone, the police are back on the streets, the tanks have rolled out,...
from ancient to medieval in Cairo On Tuesday we started our day with a cab ride to Tahrir to see the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities.
We spent a few hours enjoying the Tutahnkamun exhibit, Akhenaten collection, and other ancient art and artifacts of Egypt.
We then took a taxi to the Citadel.
The views of the city were stunning.
We...
weddles in luxor This past week has been a whirlwind! After seeing some sights around Cairo with Ryan, my parents arrived and we left for Luxor. We arrived in Luxor around midday and decided to check out Luxor Temple in the afternoon sunlight. It was incredible. The city of Luxor creeps right up to the edges of these ancient sites,...
Mount Sinai Last weekend we went on a faculty trip to Mount Sinai. After a 9 hour bus ride through barren, empty, desert, along the eastern coast of Egypt and across the Sinai Peninsula, we made it to Dahab where the best thing about our hotel was the coral reef meters from our room. Another 2 hour bus ride through a forbidding...
Unfinished Obelisk Once we got to Aswan and after a crazy taxi experience that entailed some serious driver rivalry, keys stolen from the ignition, a chase involving a tire iron, and a group of tourists, ahem, us, quietly unloading our luggage and finding another cab... (yeah, I know, OH EGYPT!)
Anyhow once we got to Aswan, we decided...
I hope everyone has a great Halloween! We didn’t feel like dealing with the mess of pumpkin-like-squash carving, so we picked up an extra yellow bell pepper and a white miniature eggplant. Meredith’s lil’ eggplant (yes, I said “lil'”) wins the cuteness award!
Stay tuned for pictures from the most beautiful day at Giza…
Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt
this is what it usually looks like…
and this is what we have had the last few days. just beautiful!
Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. It has been a busy last few weeks. Meredith got here on Saturday, and while we have done NOTHING really Egypty, we have been having a grand old time, and frankly, the pyramids can wait. Haha. Actually, we are going on Friday, so get ready for some camel pictures! Oh get ready!
Anyhow, it is wonderful having her here. While Brandon and I have been at school, Mer’s been recovering from jetlag at home with Marti and Alie. But today, we all took the bus and came to campus. And now I am sitting with Meredith in the shade of the beautiful buildings, recovering from the whirlwind of confusion that surrounds just about everything that involves something out of the ordinary and a tremendously lacking Arabic vocabulary.
I didn’t have a camera on me today, but this photo captures my confusion pretty adequately. Completely different situation; totally identical confusion. I think of this photo often when I have trouble finding the right words to describe how I feel.
In other news, remember that Arabic امتحان (exam) I had? Well I completely slept through my alarm that day, oh by about two hours or so. It was beautiful. I threw some clothes on and ran out the door to catch the bus. Not A bus, THE last bus that would have the ability to get me all the way out to New Cairo in time, Inshallah! Long story short, or rather short boring story short, I made it to class just in time. And since I am sure you are all wondering, I got an A… whew!
السلام عليكم, or “Alsalam aaaleykoum,” or Hello! Today was our first day back to school after our two week “break.” I am the nerd who is glad school is back in session, but being jobless and not having all that much to do in the way of housewifery, I am thrilled to get back into a routine. Tomorrow we have our first test in Arabic 101. It is such an exciting language to learn, but it isn’t exactly easy. So far, all I can say is “what is it?” “what does he do?” “what does she do?” and the ever popular “where is it?” Thrilling, huh? I also know a handful of vocabulary and a variety of greetings and farewells. Now to get the spellings down…
! مع السلامة or “maa salama!” or goodbye!
On Wednesday night, we went to an Egyptian wedding. We were honored to have been invited! Before the wedding, I started asking around to see what we should expect, what we should wear, and what we should bring. As with many things in Egypt, if you try googling “Egyptian” anything, you have to sift through all of the articles about ancient Egyptian anythings to find the relevant ones. It’s challenging, but what can you expect for a place with 5,000 years of history.
Anyhow, I decided I needed a long skirt, which I finally found at City Stars. It was surprisingly not an easy feat. I think shopping for a tube top and a mini skirt would be easier at City Stars with its western stores like Bebe and yet NO Banana Republic. But I digress.
At 8:00pm we headed to the wedding with Youssef. The wedding was held in an intersection of alleys lined with apartment buildings. It was incredible! There were bright bright lights, and colorful lightbulbs strung from building to building in the alleyways. There was a big stage in center with a full band and stacks of speakers. The music was really good. There were several vocalists, a keyboardist, a guy on the drums, and someone manning all of the electronic equipment. I really enjoyed it! I’ll see if I can post a clip of the band for everyone to hear. Everyone had their cell phones out taking video. It was really neat!
