Palatial Living

Last week in my amiya class, I gave a presentation on my life at Fonduq Kanzy. After describing my room with its small bathroom and ugly furnishings, located far from campus and in an area with few shops, restaurants or things in general, the floor was opened for questions. The girl sitting next to me raised her hand and asked, "Why don't you move?"

This week, we've been lucky enough to have our refrigerator, air conditioning and toilet fixed (all in two days), though I have still not managed to find the right tone of pleading/persuasion/sheer annoyance to convince the housekeeping staff that after three weeks, our room (especially the bathroom) desperately needs to be cleaned. The shuttles seem to be running on time this week - maybe the 4,000 complaints I logged in the last two weeks had some effect after all. Even with the forty year old furniture and carpet, the cramped quarters, and the quasi-functional washing machine (to say nothing of the elevators), it could be a lot worse.

For example, I could have been forced to live, as was originally planned, in Marwa Palace Residence.

This article appeared in AUC's student newspaper The Caravan on September 13. The Facebook group it references, for those of you who are on Facebook, can be found here.

The Dream Deferred

Last Friday, I got to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx up close, and it was everything I've been dreaming it would be since the sixth grade, when Mrs. Hufford's social studies class gave me my first taste of the worlds thousands of years and miles away from Naperville.

In a sense, this trip has been nearly a decade in the making. I think that my fascination with foreign cultures and civilizations can be best dated to that sixth grade class - all I remember about my elementary school social studies education is learning about the pioneers ad nauseum in third? fourth grade? - and while the rest of junior high social studies didn't exactly light a fire under me, my high school curriculum took me from the dawn of civilization to the Cold War. And so here I find myself, in Cairo and inching closer to graduating from Madison, and even though it hasn't been as easy or as straightforward as I'd have liked, I'm here nonetheless.

Our Giza tour was conducted by Dr. Karim, the same professor who gave the Cairo tour the previous weekend, and the woman is a veritable fountain of information about all things Egyptian, past and present. After we all ran off the bus and took our photos with the Pyramid of Cheops (you can see one of mine above), the group congregated at the northeast corner of the pyramid for a few brief tidbits of information before we set off for the smaller monuments in the complex.

The Pyramids of Giza are part of a greater set of ancient monuments known collectively as the Giza Necropolis, which includes the smaller pyramids and tombs near the Giza pyramids, the Sphinx, and the Cheops Boat Museum. During our trip, we were able to view the insides of tombs and pyramids, as well as tour the Boat Museum (you can see photos of that at my Flickr site; the link is in the left navigation bar).

Our first stop after Cheops' Pyramid was a nearby mastaba, the low underground tombs of the nobles. (The word "mastaba" comes from the Arabic for "bench" because that's what these tombs looked like to the Arab invaders.) Assisting with the tour was an Egyptology graduate student, Ahmed, who told us that the inscriptions on the inside of the mastaba, which were so well preserved you could count individual feathers on the birds, said that this particular tomb belonged to an important record-keeper. The inside of the queen's pyramid we viewed (that of Queen Hetepheres, mother of Cheops) was not terribly exciting, since, as Ahmed told us, traditional pyramids do not contain any type of decoration on the inside. (One archaeologist's famous last words were allegedly "Pyramids do not have carvings!" though I will have to reinquire whose.) However, climbing sideways-up out of the pyramid was the best leg workout I've had in quite a while.

Our next stop was the Cheops Boat Museum, which as its name might lead you to think, contains a boat belonging to Cheops - a funerary boat, to be precise. Each pharaoh buried at Giza had a full-sized boat among his possessions for the afterlife, the purpose of which was to carry his soul across the sky with the setting sun. Cheops' boat was found in thousands of pieces and reconstructed; it is believed that it may actually have been used during his lifetime, due to evidence of submersion in some of the pieces. The museum is built around the limestone pit where the boat was uncovered, and contains several displays on the reconstruction process, which were fairly interesting.

We walked up towards the Pyramid of Khafre, marveling at the remnants of its limestone cap, towards the bus for a quick water break. The bus took us to a plateau on the outskirts of the complex where we could photograph all three pyramids together, and then back into Giza for our final stop. We got to tour Khafre's Valley Temple, the only remaining pharaonic temple at Giza - originally, each pharaoh had two temples (a Funerary Temple and Valley Temple) - which was quite beautiful, and then the Sphinx. Dr. Karim told us that the Sphinx's nose was destroyed by the Mamaluk armies, who used it for target practice; I had heard that it was Napoleon's soldiers who were to blame, and Stephanie told me that she'd heard it was because tourists were trying to climb the face of the monument? I think that last one has got to be false - there is no way anyone would want to climb the face of that thing, but maybe I'm wrong. This is what I do know: the Sphinx is believed to be in the likeness of Khafre, and to have been constructed during his reign from a single block of limestone. And kissing the Sphinx is one of the most popular photos to take. Please see my Flickr site or current Facebook profile for my take on this.

When the day is through

When I get home, which these days is usually not until 4:30 PM or so, I like to go up to the roof to do my homework. Kanzy's roof is rapidly becoming my favorite place in the building; even in direct sunlight, the breeze seven stories up makes it much cooler than the streets below, and the late afternoon sun provides light enough for me to work, but also creates some nice shaded areas near the old pool.

It would be a stretch to describe the part of Doqqi where I live as beautiful; the apartment buildings surrounding Kanzy are prematurely old, weathered by sun and wind and the thick layer of dust that coats anything exposed to Cairene air. The roofs of the buildings are strewn with scraps of metal and wood, strata of dust and bird droppings, topped off with veritable forests of satellite dishes. Trees in the area are few and far between, and those that have managed to survive the close construction in the area look like any day now, they might lose their remaining will to live and finally succumb to the heat. The cars are parked two and three rows deep as far as the eye can see, and the sidewalks are cracked and uneven - where they exist at all. There is garbage everywhere, and even late at night, we can hear cars honking and zooming past the building, probably without headlights on. (Cairene drivers use headlights where American drivers use select hand gestures to express frustration.)

I am maybe not as much of a city girl as I'd like to think, but I do find a certain beauty in the view of Midan Tahrir from a third floor classroom when the pre-iftar rush begins, and a certain comfort in the Egyptian crowds that don't ever seem to sleep. For the last few days, I've been lucky enough to be on the roof during the maghrib call to prayer, which even in Doqqi is a pretty amazing experience. From my favorite chaise, I can track the sun as it ducks behind one of the nearby apartment buildings, orange and round and perfect. I don't know if it's the air pollution or some odd sentimental tendency of my own, but Cairo has a fairly awesome sunset. (I can't wait to experience it in the desert in a few weeks - we're currently planning a trip to the Black and White Desert.) Just after 6 PM, the call to prayer goes out; a few years back, somebody told me that there was a push to get all the districts synced up and have one call go out electronically to the entire city. I don't know what happened with that initiative, but I'm glad that's not how it is - it's much more beautiful to hear a chorus of Allahu Akbar ("Allah is the Greatest"), with each masjid starting up after a few seconds of lag.

I was trapped up on the roof with my friend Elyssa, a security guard, and the building manager (that in and of itself is another story for another day) on Tuesday afternoon, and the building manager kept saying Maghrib jamiil ("beautiful sunset"). I had to agree.

Ramadan karim!

Yesterday was the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. It is believed that during this month, the Holy Qu'ran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and consequently is a time that Muslims devote particular attention to the spiritual, rather than the secular, side of life through fasting, special prayer and other traditions. Being unable to attend one of my fusha classes on Tuesday, I instead went to the ALI Ramadan Orientation, which featured a brief presentation on some Egyptian and pan-Islamic Ramadan traditions, plus an iftar (fast-breaking meal) featuring more food than any of us could possibly consume in a single sitting. I was especially fond of the amir diin, a juice made of apricots, as well as the extremely sweet (and dense!) qatieef and kaniifa deserts, nuts (almonds and walnuts) and dates. My Muslim friends tell me that many people will officially break the fast at maghrib - sunset - with dates, to get their blood sugar up, so that they can pray and then have the full iftar meal.

Fasting is undoubtedly the aspect of Ramadan which with Americans are most familiar. With the encouragement of my roommate, Nafiza, I had planned to try the fast for at least a few days; while I realize that it cannot possibly be the same experience for me as for someone who participates for religious reasons, I think it's a good way to show respect for and attempt to further my understanding of this aspect of the Islamic faith. Unfortunately, as many of you know, both Nafiza and I have been sick as dogs for about four days, thanks to a combination of poor indoor and outdoor air quality and almost constant use of the air conditioner. Nafiza was unable to begin the fast on Thursday due to the antibiotics she's on, and I didn't think that anything good could come of depriving myself of food and water when I was recovering from being ill. The good news is that both of us are feeling much better today, and we plan to begin fasting on Sunday when Nafiza is done with her medications.

As if my class schedule wasn't crazy enough, everything at AUC gets shaken up during Ramadan. All of our classes run 10 minutes shorter in total, but some may start as much as 30 minutes earlier (I feel really bad for my friends with regular 8 AM classes, who have to begin at 7:30 AM now!), and classes that run through iftar (here it's around 6 PM, thanks to Egypt's early return to Standard Time) begin after 7 PM. The shuttle schedule is thrown off too, not that it was entirely reliable before, but shuttles are running between campus and Kanzy until midnight now, which may give us the chance to explore more of downtown in the evenings after dinner.

The atmosphere both on campus and in my neighborhood is much, much different now than it has been for the past three weeks. As far as I can tell, the coffee kiosk in the Fountain Area is shut down for the duration of Ramadan, and the cafeteria is much less crowded and significantly cleaner without all the student traffic. Where the Fountain Area and other patios on campus used to be brimming with students, they are now close to empty, with more people electing (presumably) to spend free afternoons at home or in their rooms. I can't say I wouldn't do the same, given the option; although the temperature is way down compared to when I arrived (it hasn't hit 90F in several days now), I think that the warm weather is going to make some of my long afternoon breaks quite trying.

Iftar gives us all a chance to eat dinner together and to socialize more afterwards; last night Nafiza and Helen (one of our friends who is Egyptian-American) introduced me to Arabic music with the new Amr Diab CD and a series of music videos from an Egyptian artist named Saad al-Sughayar. (Hatgawez - literally "I'm getting married" - was my favorite, but he also has a song/video entitled Bahabek ya Hmar, which means "I love you, donkey," and has turned "donkey" into a term of endearment among the hip young Egyptian people. You should really check out these videos - the dancing must be seen to be believed.)

Tonight, we ventured out to Nasr City to go to City Stars mall, a structure which makes Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg look like child's play. I believe City Stars' website describes it as having five stories; it is actually developing two additional floors as we speak, as though there was some niche unfilled in the existing structure. There are at least six coffee shops (two of them the same chain, even), restaurants covering all the major categories of foreign cuisines (Japanese, Mexican, Chinese/SE Asian, Indian, French; also Chili's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's and Hardee's [if you were wondering what happened to Hardee's, it defected to Egypt]), a Wal-Mart-like store called Spinney's which occupies an entire wing on the first floor, and a 16-screen multiplex. Allegedly, there is also an indoor theme park; we didn't see it, but based on the rest of the place, I do not doubt for a second that it exists.

Right across the street from City Stars (on one of its sides) is a mosque occupying an entire block. Different kind of religion.

This is like that one time the stapler kept breaking.

9:00 AM: I arrive at AUC and dash over to Ewart Hall to sign up for an appointment with Ms. Jehan, the ALI director.

9:30 AM: Drink volcanic coffee from L'Aroma.

9:45 AM: Go to my appointment. I am informed that it will not be possible to switch classes, as the class I was supposed to move to (as of Monday at 3:30 PM) has been filled. Ms. Jehan is very sorry, but this is the situation. "This is not paradise." Recommendation: ask Lisa for extra homework.

10:00 AM: Panic, because this means I have to go to fusha without having done the homework (to say nothing of the fact that I'm going to be spending the rest of the semester gouging out my eyes while everyone else tries to learn what a masdar is) AND I will only have 20 minutes to prepare my presentation for amiya.

11:00 AM: Our entire class learns that the posted room for this session is incorrect. We troop downstairs and across the building while I explain why I am even here at all.

11:03 AM: "You thought you got rid of me, but you were wrong."

11:04 AM: Lisa sends me upstairs to talk to Ms. Jehan again.

11:30 AM: I learn that in fact my space that was filled by someone else was in fact filled by myself. Tip for those in administrative roles: This is why we write things down.

12:30 PM- 2 PM: Amiya (same class as before the switch). My presentation was okay, but it's probably better that it was not graded.

2 PM-2:40 PM: Adventures at Hegazy. Good sandwiches. Slow service.

2:55 PM: I attempt to attend class.

2:58 PM: My new grammar professor explains quite forcefully that he has NEVER BEFORE PERMITTED A STUDENT TO ATTEND HIS CLASS WITHOUT A PASS, the implication being that he's certainly not going to start with me. Okay, fine, I will go get a pass from Ms. Jehan. BE QUICK ABOUT IT, WE ARE STARTING CLASS.

2:59 PM: I attempt to ascertain Ms. Jehan's location. She is gone for the day. Naturally, she is the distributor of these fabled passes.

3:00 PM: Dr. Taha tells me that I must attend the Ramadan Orientation at Hill House, and that surely the class which I was not permitted to attend will be arriving there soon.

3:10 PM-4:20 PM: Ramadan Orientation. Brief presentation. Free food! Class which I was not permitted to attend never shows up, which means that I have missed a day of class! After joining the class on the fourth day of the semester! And if Ms. Jehan will not write me a pass tomorrow, or is not available to write me a pass tomorrow, I will continue to miss class until Thursday! Oh, and since Add-Drop is over, I have to be in this class, or no class at all!

4:25 PM: Kanzy shuttle leaves because it is full of people who are not me (or Jess or Caprill).

4:41 PM: AUC Security Guy Who Doesn't Know What's Going On tells us another shuttle will come in five minutes.

5:15 PM: Shuttle has not arrived. We decide to take the Metro instead.

5:45 PM: Arrive at Kanzy. Internet is down. Internet is down a lot of the time lately. This makes me angry.

6:00 PM: Try to get internet in the lobby. No internet there either.

6:10 PM: Give up and watch The Office instead.

Oh whey oh!

Ahlan! I apologize for neglecting the blog for a whole week, but my busiest days in Cairo have been the past five. Classes began last Wednesday, preceded by an all-day orientation session for ALI students. I met a lot of great people at orientation and got to touch base with many people I'd met before, including several who would become my classmates.

I've spent 4 school days in fusha with Professor Lisa White, who is undoubtedly one of the kindest and most approachable professors I've ever had. Although Lisa is American, she's lived in Cairo for 25 years - she was actually part of the first ALI class, and just never bothered to leave Egypt. (Don't worry Mom, those remaining credits for my BA will bring me back to the US.) Our class began with about 10 students, three of whom were re-placed after the first class and one of whom only left us this week for an alternate course. In that time, however, the six of us who remained have achieved what I would consider to be a good dynamic with Professor White, as well as with our professor for Media Arabic. Three of us (myself, Eric and Chris [who's from Elmhurst - again, ask me about my "Center of the Universe" theory]) are also in the same amiya class, along with my friend Amy.

Somewhat sadly, I will be leaving my current fusha cohorts tomorrow. I say somewhat because while I am sad about leaving my new friends and my professor, it is clear that this isn't the class I belong in - few people in that class have had more than a year of Arabic, and I'm talking circles around them. I have to go in and meet with the ALI director tomorrow morning, and then I'll start my new fusha class in the afternoon. (Now I don't have to feel bad about not posting about my new classes earlier...)

Some of the American students here are seriously into partying, which I guess is fine, but my theory is that I didn't come to Cairo to hang out in hotel bars. I've been lucky enough to attend some social functions over the past week, though, wherein I've met some really cool people, both from ALI and from my residence. On Wednesday night, Kanzy had a "girls' night" on the roof, with free food from the Student Housing Office, and henna and bellydancing. Here is a photo of my awesome henna tattoo (too bad I neglected to shave before I got this done). Please enjoy also the stark contrast between the dark henna and my blindingly white skin. I was unable to take photos during the party; due to it being a girls-only event, many of the Egyptian students elected to go hijab-less. However, you can view photos taken from and on the roof at other times on my Flickr site (see link in left-hand sidebar).

Last night, after attending a meeting about teaching English to some of Cairo's refugee communities, Caprill, Amy and I went to a friend's birthday party at the Sequoia restaurant on the Nile. For some odd reason, I did not bring my camera with me when I left the dorm yesterday morning, which I deeply regretted when we got to the party. The restaurant is breathtaking - outdoors, with low tables with comfortable plush chairs, umbrellas to block the sun (not that there was any at 8:30 PM), and an incredible view right on the Nile. The food was great, too - Caprill, Amy and I split hummus with meat, tabbouleh, fattouch (Lebanese salad with cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and a light oil dressing), and these little shwarma finger sandwiches. Their entrees were quite pricey, but I'd love to go back and try one anyway - luckily Nafiza said we can go for her birthday (which is in November), so I'll be sure to tote the Canon then.

I'll try and post about my new classes later this week. Ma salamma!

Signs of acclimation?

All my friends back home seem to be basking in the glory that was their weekend (this I have learned through Facebook and AIM). I'm sitting here (at 7:30 PM on Tuesday) thinking, geez, people, get a grip. It's Tuesday, you've been in school for a week, two weeks, tops? And you're still stuck on the weekend?

Totally forgot about that whole "Labor Day" thing.

I think Gregor said it best.

I got my course schedule today (we start classes tomorrow) and frankly it's a little insane - not like at MSU (or other American schools) where you probably have a very similar, if not the exact same, schedule on, say Monday and Wednesday, or whatever. Not so here. Two days a week (Sun/Wed), I start at 9:30 AM; two other days, I don't start until almost 1 PM (Mon/Thurs).* Every day except Thursday, I have 3 classes, with breaks in between ranging from 10 minutes to over two hours - but again, these are not consistent. Hopefully, I will be able to adapt to the Egyptian schedule of taking the midday meal closer to 3 PM, or some of my days are going to be very difficult. And of course, with the start of Ramadan just over a week away, everything will be further thrown off until mid-October.

I ended up placing into ALIN 103, High Elementary MSA (Modern Standard Arabic), which I am less than totally thrilled about, to be perfectly honest. While I realize that there is a big difference between the way Arabic is taught here and at MSU, I really feel that I should have been better prepared for a higher level (even the first Intermediate class) with two years under my belt. It is really depressing to think that I'm that lousy after all that time and effort. However, I did get placed in a class taught by a professor Nick recommended to me as being tough but worth the effort, so...yeah, let's see what happens.

*Remember that my week runs Sunday-Thursday, with Friday being the Muslim holy day.

Yes, wonderful things!

I have spent approximately six hours at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in the past two days, and I couldn't be happier about it. Caprill and I dragged ourselves out of Kanzy around 10 AM yesterday (after staying out late at Khan el-Khalili) and took a taxi over to the Museum. After getting our tickets (LE25 with a student ID) and checking our cameras (no photography, even without flash, allowed inside), we headed in.

Prior to our trip, I had done some reading about the Museum in my various guidebooks. According to the Rough Guide to Egypt, which I inherited from Nick, if a person took one minute to view each artifact on display there, it would take nine months to see everything - to say nothing of the tens of thousands of objects in storage for lack of space. The guidebook suggested that we begin our tour in the Museum's atrium, which has examples of statuary, pottery, and sarcophagi dating from the pre-dynastic period to the days of Roman rule. One of my favorite exhibits in this area was the restored floor from the royal palace at Armana, built under Akhenaten and Nefertiti. The style of that particular period (known as the Armana period) is distinct from the more widely-recognized styles of Egyptian art; there is a much greater emphasis on the depiction of nature and of everyday life, rather than scenes associated with the afterlife, and the human figure, while still highly stylized, appears much different than in other eras. At the end of the atrium, opposite the Museum's main entrance, is the Armana Gallery, which contains examples of statuary, relief work, and jewelry from the Armana period. This gallery is undoubtedly the most user-friendly in the entire museum, with descriptions of each piece or group of pieces detailing the context in which they were produced and how they differ from the art forms that came before and after.

While the museum is an essential stop for anyone traveling to Cairo (it's located on one edge of Midan Tahrir, so you have to walk though the city with your eyes closed to miss it), I think that spending hours there as I did is going to appeal primarily to those who are satisfied to look and absorb information and draw conclusions based only on what they see. I'd say that an average of about 15-20% of the objects in each gallery had posted descriptions, and often these were no more detailed than "Statue of the god Horus, limestone, XVIII dynasty." In defense of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, it would probably take a large team of individuals several lifetimes to arrange every piece in a more user-friendly way; there is just so much stuff there. In many galleries, well-preserved stelae covered in hieroglyphics and scenes of gods and men were simply shoved in corners because the room was so jam-packed with artifacts. However, viewing the museum in a chronological manner (starting to one's right at the main entrance, the ground level is organized in order form the pre-dynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom), I was satisfied simply to view the artwork and spend extra time looking at pieces I found particularly interesting.

Upstairs, the highlight is the Tutankhamun Gallery, which features all that gold stuff that didn't make it to Chicago. After breezing through the atrium and Armana gallery on Friday, Caprill and I headed upstairs to see the treasures. It took us a few minutes to locate the beginning of the Tut Gallery (the galleries are numbered, but the numbers aren't always clearly posted); silly us, we should have just looked for the masses of scantily clad Western tourists. It was pretty amazing stuff; the golden chariots, the famous golden throne featuring Tutankhamun and his wife, hundreds of blue faience and stone shabtis, and intricate jewelry. And of course, the mummy's accessories: golden sarcophagi, painted tombs, and the golden mask. Tutankhamun's mummy itself still resides (under guard, obviously) in its tomb in the Valley of the Kings, which I think is fitting.

Today after exploring a few galleries on the second floor that we'd skipped yesterday, including the exhibit on animal mummification (highlight: a full-grown, mummified Nile crocodile), I shelled out an additional LE50 (I love student discounts!) to see the royal mummies, an exhibit which is deceptively small, but worth the extra charge. Leading to the mummy room itself are reproductions of ancient art depicting the mummification and funeral process, as well as examples of the tools of mummification and common artifacts found in tombs (shabtis, canopic jars, amulets, pottery vessels, etc.). The mummy room itself holds a dozen royal mummies, primarily from the 18th and 19th dynasties - Thutmoses I-IV, Seti I, Ramses II, and of course, the recently discovered mummy of Hatshepsut.

Other highlights for me included the photo exhibits explaining how some artifacts had been restored (they've obviously got a great team working on that); the papyrus exhibits (one entire room on the second floor - unfortunately devoid of signs - and several in one of the stairways); blue faience artifacts, including shabtis, ankhs, and jewelry; and a beautifully preserved shrine to Hathor (cow-goddess who protected women) from the 18th dynasty. Many of the objects (sarcophati, statuary, etc.) are decorated on all sides, and so they have ingeniously set up these pieces with mirrors so that the visitor can see everything.

After we'd had our fill of antiquities on Friday, Caprill and I ventured over to Mohandiseen ("City of Engineers") to try Papillon, a Lebanese restaurant she'd read about. It was pure luck that we made it there at all - like most Cairene cabbies, this one had no idea where he had agreed to take us, though the fact that I was pronouncing the name of the restaurant correctly (i.e. in French) probably didn't help - but I'm glad we did, because it was easily the best Middle Eastern food I've ever had. Caprill and I split four appetizers (hummus, falafel, labnah [yogurt] with garlic, and tabouli salad), which came with fresh-baked pita bread. We ended up spending about LE30 each, having eaten most, but not all, of our food, and I'd love to go back for a nice dinner and try their entrees.

Nafiza just got back from her trip to Alexandria (she stayed with the family of her fiance's best friend), and the study abroad kids will return from the Red Sea tomorrow. It's been a quiet weekend here in Cairo, but I'm glad I got the chance to see the Egyptian Museum up close.