Quality Time with Cairo

Monday I had a chance to really get in touch with Cairo. My entry visa expired on June 10, so I was long overdue for a new one. The only place to get a visa is Mugama - the massive brick of a building that looms over Tahrir Square downtown. It's the heart of the Egyptian bureaucracy and so it handles all the paperwork. There are policemen with guns outside who direct you through a metal detector and ask you to run your bags through the x-ray machine. The fact that I walked through the metal detector with my keys and cell phone should give you an idea of how tight the security really is. Inside it's surprisingly cool, despite the lack of air conditioning. Egyptian buildings are designed with lots of tile and light colors that keep the indoors relatively cool (well, at least bearable).

I fought my way through winding hallways and endless lines for an hour, only to be pointed to another line once I got to the counter. I had copies of my passport made, and returned to the ladies at the tourist visa counter. They took my paperwork and told me to go buy stamps. To this I responded that I didn't want to mail my passport...I just wanted a visa. Apparently you have to buy stamps that go on your papers for them to process your passport. I paid the 11 pounds and 50 piasters, and returned a third time to the tourist visa counter. More waiting in line...handed them my stamps...and they told me to return in 2 hours to window number 38.

This is where the story gets interesting. What am I supposed to do in downtown Cairo by myself for 2 hours in the worst heat of the day? I thought I'd play it safe and just read at a cafe. I'm reading a short novel called Adrift on the Nile by Naguib Mahfouz, a Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian author. I took a walk down some street looking for the closest coffee shop or something. Walking down the street as a white foreigner in Egypt is not a normal activity. It takes skill to walk like you know where you're going in a city where you can't read or understand anything, you can't walk on the sidewalk because it's too uneven, and the cars make you flinch every time it looks like they're going to clip you as they pass. If you make eye contact, smile, or in any way acknowledge someone they will want to talk to you, and most likely be trying to sell you something. The point is, my street walking skills were not up to par that day.

Of course a nice old man came right up to me saying "salaam alekum" - peace be upon you -and grabbing to shake my hand. He asked if I was American, where I was from, what I studied in school, etc. I had plenty of time to kill, and I was interested to see where it went, so answered all his questions. "What are you looking for?" he asked me (his English was good - don't think that my Arabic is good enough for a conversation like this). I told him I was looking for coffee, and he said he could get me some...so I followed him down a side street. I asked myself if I would ever do this in any other city in the world, and the answer was NO. I convinced myself that it was safe in this instance because Cairo is one of the safest cities around in terms of crime, and I needed an adventure. We ended up in a little room off the street with a couch in the corner where I reluctantly sat down. "It's my hospitality" my host kept saying. He left to go get the cup of coffee he had promised me. When I noticed that the room was filled with bottles of perfume, I knew I wasn't in a coffee shop.

My host, who's name was Ahmed, returned with some Turkish coffee, black, which was really good. We talked for seriously about an hour about everything. His story was that he lived in Fayoum (an oasis about an hour from Cairo) where his family grew flowers that they made into all-natural, alcohol-free perfumes. He talked about his brother who lives in Wisconsin, and his sons who are studying hotel management at Cairo University. Over the course of two coffees, we talked about what seemed to him to be the "good old days" under Sadat, when the government cared about he poor people, and supported them. His opinion on Mubarak (the current president) is that he doesn't care enough about the common people and, like any ordinary Egyptian right now, Ahmed is worried that prices are going up and salaries are stagnant. I asked him if he thought Mubarak would die soon and the president would change. He replied "inshallah" which means god willing.

In the end, it came down to the fact that he wanted me to buy his perfume...so he began rubbing it on my arms. Lotus, rose, 'arabian nights', and jasmine. They really do smell good, but he was asking 200 pounds for 100 grams. This might not seem like a lot in terms of dollars, but I spend 200 pounds in an entire week, so it was pricey. He obviously thought that I hadn't adjusted my price-perception to Egyptian standards. I told him I just couldn't afford it, but he really wanted to haggle. The closer I got to the door, the lower the price went. As I walked away, thanking Ahmed for the coffee, he dropped the price to 100 pounds for two 100 gram bottles. Tempting...but I really didn't need perfume and I knew I could get it cheaper. Unfortunately, Ahmed and I didn't part on the best of terms.

I finally found a cafe and got a little reading, and just do a little people watching. I'm starting to feel comfortable in Cairo. I headed back to Mugama to pick up my passport, freshly stamped with a 3 month tourist visa, because I'm not working in Egypt ;)

Tomorrow I'm of to the Sinai peninsula to visit Dahab on the Red Sea. More on that when I get back...

Alex

I needed a trip out of Cairo so bad, and I finally made it to Alexandria yesterday. I had the most relaxing weekend I've had since landing in Egypt. It all started off with a party thursday night at the American embassy, hosted by the marines. An abundance of Coors and Bud made me feel like I was back at UNC. I went with some friends I've met through my roommates and at work. When they kicked us all out at 1am, we continued on to the rooftop club at the Nile Hilton, and had a blast. A quick stop home to get some sleep....back up at 8am...and off to Alex with Ma'andi, Omar, and Karim (all awesome @ers here in Cairo). It's about a two hour ride on the desert road between the cities. Alex is on the Mediterranean, so it was cooler, windier, and pleasantly humid--not like Cairo where it's so hot and dry you feel like you're breathing dust.

We hit two popular sites right away: the citadel (built sometime in the 15th century), and the library. Alex is historically famous for its ancient library, and the modern library (built in the last couple of years) is an architectural w0nder. It is in the shape of a disc, rising from the ground to represent the sun rising from the horizon, and metaphorically, light and knowledge spreading to the world. Inside it is sleek and modern and beautiful. It is built to house 8 million books, and can seat 2,000 people in the reading area. It was by far my favorite building I've seen in Egypt.

The citadel was equally fascinating. It's built on a point just out in front of the harbor, and was established to protect the city under the Marmluks. It's basically a castle with a wall around it, and a mosque nestled inside. Very spartan, but interesting nonetheless--it has all kinds of winding passages and neat look-out windows.

For lunch we had beef liver, which I'm actually starting to enjoy a lot...it's tasty. Then we met up with Maddie and AUC crew who were there for a weekend trip as well. They had their own private beach at the hotel they were staying at (which was way nice), and although I forgot my bathing suit and couldn't swim, I did get a chance to at least touch the Mediterranean water. We had dinner at an awesome seafood place. The shrimp was the biggest and best I've ever had, but the crab was missing something...probably the Chesapeake and some Old Bay. We hit the road back home and got in late to Cairo. I caught up with Harry and Salman, who I hadn't seen all weekend, and then went to bed, exhausted.

Today we got up and went to a friend's house for brunch--chocolate chip pancakes and french toast! Just got back home for a bit of rest, and I'm waiting for all my east coast people to wake up so I can skype them. Later I'm going to brave the barber shop for a haircut (my second since I've been here). My first experience at the barber was a bit of a culture shock because they were so accommodating and gave me the full treatment. I was shampooed and conditions before and after the cut, I was pampered with a trimming of my nose and ear hair, a cold face wash, some very nice face lotion, a quick neck and shoulder massage, and a brutal cracking of my neck. You can't beat that for 25 pounds. It's like going to a spa (I've never been to a spa, but I imagine it's similar).

So those are all the updates for now. Work is just the same old stuff, so I will write next time something exciting happens.

Motorcycle Crash!

OK, so I forgot one very very interesting/terrible story from the weekend....I was standing along the corniche (road that runs along the nile) in Garden City (district in Cairo) when a man and a woman on a motorcycle/scooter kind of thing got too close to the curb trying to pass a car, rode up on the curb, wiped out, and were flung onto the pavement, almost into a tree. One of the scariest things I've ever seen so close up (like 20 yards from me). They had to have been going 25mph --no helmets. The man, who was driving, was cut and limping, but he jumped up immediately to help the woman who did not get up. She was bleeding and had broken her hand or wrist or arm. Everyone rushed to help them, including police, however, no ambulance was called. After a few minutes, and once the woman decided she could stand up and walk around, the two of them got back on the motorbike, bloodstained clothes and broken bones, and drove away. Wow. Honestly, this scares me because I regularly see families (Dad driving, mother sitting sideways on the back with up to two children sitting on her lap) riding on similar motorbikes in similar traffic conditions.

Oh, and an update on my taxi situation. I've got it down well enough that I can tell the driver where I need to go, and I usually remember to bring exact change so that I don't have to haggle--I just hand them the money and walk away. But, the taxi drivers never let me put on my seatbelt, even when I'm in the front seat. I reach for it and they tell me "no, no, you don't need." All of this is perfectly acceptable behavior for cars, taxis, motorbikes, whatever. I don't write this to complain about Egypt. I write this as an example of the many striking differences from the world that I grew up in, and the world that I now have been living in for 1 month (to this day). Life here is more relaxed. People don't get as stressed out over things. They're not as uptight. It's actually quite nice coming from an American university where life can be hectic and tiresome and stressful. Most of the time I just see people as being more chill about things here, but sometimes I see it as blatant carelessness. I guess there's a trade-off for everything.

Tourism

After much resistance to the typical touristy sites around Cairo, I've finally given in and hit some of the best. Yes, I did go to the Pyramids within my first three days here, but I went with an Ma'andi, who is an Egyptian, so I didn't look quite as touristy and lost as the other foreigners there. Earlier this week, Maddie from @GT arrived for study at AUC, and we hit up Khan al-Khalili, the outdoor market place in Cairo. It sounds like a pretty authentic Egyptian place to go, but it's targeted mainly towards tourist, who wander aimlessly through the streets buying up overpriced souvenirs. The shopkeepers stand by the street and advertise their products, which include mini pyramids, sphinxes, little beanie baby looking camels, along with clothing, sheeshas, jewelry, and a variety of other things. The shopkeepers don't all speak English, but most of them know a few pickup lines that they use on any white girl that walks by. The funniest one I heard was "Hey honey, I don't know what you want, but I've got what you need!" I didn't buy anything because it was my first time and I didn't want to make any impulsive and confused purchases and end up paying way too much. Don't worry, I'll go back to get souvenirs for everyone back home.

I also played tourist at the Egyptian Museum yesterday, where they house tons and tons of ancient artifacts, including the mummies! We (me, Maddie and her AUC friends) spent a good 4 hours walking around the museum, and only saw half of the material there. We fit right in amongst the swarms of scandalously dressed (by Egyptian standards) tourists trailing behind a tour guide. Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow us to bring cameras inside, so I don't have any pictures to show. The mummies were absolutely disgusting, but really cool at the same time...some of them even still had their hair. Yuck.

Aside from my life of tourism, I've been working away at SilverKey, and mostly enjoying what I'm doing. I've had some strange food cravings this week. I had a hankering for some lemonade on Monday (probably because it's so hot), but I couldn't find any in the supermarket, so I bought some lemons and made it myself. Another strange craving I had was for a caesar salad from Longhorn (I hope you're reading this Mr. Yergey!). The food is so heavy and greasy here that I probably just needed something lighter, so I made myself a sorry excuse for a caesar salad and threw a half of a grilled chicken on top.

Today I spent a lazy afternoon at home with Harrison, and Salman, and then we went bowling this evening. I also managed to get the motivation to take some pictures of the apartment and put them up on "flickr." I'm not exactly sure of the URL yet, but I'll post it as soon as I figure it out. Tomorrow is Sunday, and I don't have to be to work until noon, so I'm planning on finding my way to the Anglican Cathedral here in Zamalek to see what time they hold their Sunday service. No plans for this week yet, but I'm hoping to get out of Cairo ASAP for a relaxing weekend trip.

What a Great Week!

Wow! What a great week! The very best thing by a long shot was that we finally got air conditioning at work! Now I'm not sweating through 8 hours of 97 degree heat in a leather chair. It's so much easier to get work done in the office now. I also found a great restaurant near work where I can get pretty good food for really cheap. It's called mohandas which means "engineer"--not really sure how they came up with that name, but they have good food. I usually get three things--baba ghanoug (mashed up chick peas with spices), tamaya (fried bean curds with lettuce and sesame sauce) and eggplant. It's so much food and it only runs me about 3.5 LE--that's not a bad deal at all! If I'm in the mood for something non-vegetarian, it's a bit more expensive, but they have shuerma (meat) sandwiches which are pretty good. They also have fries and potato chips which are nice sometimes when I'm missing American sandwich shops. So basically my diet consists of a variety of vegetarian dishes shoved in a pita and an occasional beef sandwich. I love it.

Another thing that made this week particularly pleasant was that I now have real work to do. My first few weeks were slow and boring because I was still training. Now I actually have a list of things to do and it feels good to be productive. I'm not positive that internet marketing is my life's passion, but it's interesting enough to keep my attention for a summer--and it's paying the rent and living expenses, so I can't complain.

One night this week, Ma'andi and Omar and I met up with a group of students from the University of Illinois, who had an AIESECer among them. They're here for 3 weeks studying Islam, visiting mosques, and seeing the city. We went to a shisha cafe called Arabesque, which has become one of my favorite places to hang out--they have the most amazing juices and yogurt-fruit smoothie kind of drinks, and shishas of course (which are a thousand times better here than they are in the states--and way cheaper).

Yesterday I got off work and headed out to Harry's Pub with my flatmate, Harrison. It's a karaoke bar on the first floor of the Marriott hotel. We all sang karaoke to the wee hours of the morning and it was surprisingly a ton of fun. Tonight was a going away party for Kathleen, one of the ex-pats here who is moving to Lebanon tomorrow. We went out for a felucca ride on the Nile, and then to a Korean barbecue restaurant, which was expensive but delicious. It's a really great community of foreigners here in Cairo. I've never heard so many amazing stories and interesting backgrounds before in my life. Everyone has been so welcoming and helpful and just generally fun to hang out with, although I am known as the baby because I'm by far the youngest person here. Kathleen, who's leaving, is the second youngest at 20. At the age of 18, this puts me at least three years behind everyone else, but I don't mind. I'm having the time of my life, and being young just means I've got plenty of years left for more adventures.

So some of you have asked to hear a bit more about daily life in Cairo. Well, for me at least it goes a bit like this...I get up (usually around 10:30) and shower and dress and whatnot. Then I head down to the supermarket on the bottom floor of my building to buy a candy bar or something to get change. I have to make sure I always have exact change for my cab ride because it's a pain to haggle with the driver for your change. It's about a 10 minute ride to work in Dokki. The rule is that you have to be at work between 9am and 12pm and you have to stay for 8 hours. I generally get there right at noon because I usually end up staying late to talk to my boss, Adam, who's in California. I grab a cup of coffee and some kind of pastry for breakfast and get started on my work. Although the Egyptians in the office tend to get lunch around 2:30 or 3, I get too hungry and can't wait that long, so I usually take my break at 1:30. Depending on how much work there is, I get off around 8pm and head home to Zamalek.

It's a strange workday because it starts so late, but it is nice that I don't have to get up early. I should probably starting waking up a little earlier so that I can study Arabic or do something more productive than sleep. The problem is that I never go to bed at an ordinary time because this city never sleeps. I've realized that part of the culture shock in coming here has been the transition to a city of 22 million people from little old Hagerstown, Maryland. I've never lived in a really metropolitan area before, and so I do miss the quiet, the clean air, and anything that is green. Cairo is a wonderful, lively, exciting place to live, but I like my mountains and lakes and fields and trees. I won't make judgments about Egypt in general just based on Cairo, since I've heard that the oases and coastal areas are beautiful.

I should be sending out postcards tomorrow or the next day (assuming I can figure out how to mail them), so be sure to check your mailboxes in a few weeks...or months, depending on how fast the post is here. I miss you all and am always looking for an email from a familiar face/email address!

An Egyptian Wedding

Today I went to a wedding here in Cairo with Ma'andi and Omar. There are a few different steps in the wedding process. There is a dating period, an engagement ceremony, an official documentation ceremony, and the actual wedding celebration. What we attended was the documentation, which takes place in the mosque. The bride and groom sit at a table in the front of the room with a religious official and the bride's father. They all fill out and sign various forms, then the father and groom hold hands and exchange words (I don't know what they said because it was obviously in Arabic).

The room we were in was actually an extension to the mosque, but I did get a chance to go into the actual mosque and look around. In the pictures you can see the candles hanging from the ceiling, me in front of the prayer niche, and one of the attributes of God written on the wall (there are several other attributes like this one written the whole way around the mosque). Pretty cool stuff. After the ceremony everyone goes crazy applauding and yelling. We congratulated the couple and took some pictures.

I thought I would include some pictures of Cairo as well to give you all an idea of what it's like. For lunch we went out for koshari which is a traditional dish made up of rice, macaroni, lentils, chick peas, and a tomato sauce. It sounds like a strange combination, but it's actually really good (and super cheap - LE 4 for a bowl that I couldn't even finish). There's also a picture of a nice woman who helped us get out of our parking space. A lot of times people will help you park, watch your car while your gone, and help you get out of the space, and then you tip them when you leave. Also included is a picture of a Coca-Cola sign in Tahir Square and a man and child riding on a motor cycle.

Life has been good here in Cairo lately. I'm getting into a regular rhythm and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable getting around and shopping and all those regular everyday things. My work is actually really interesting - I'm learning all about HTML and how to create web sites. I still have a long while left, but time is going by quickly. I love hearing from you all! If you read this make sure you drop me a line, or feel free to send me an e-mail!

Taxi Driver

I am especially sad today because I will never again see my taxi driver. His name was Abdoulazim and he was a superb driver. I thought New York cab drivers were nuts until now, but I'd like to see them try to drive in a city of 22 million where there are no traffic lights, no speed limits, and little respect for a car's paint job (or pedestrians for that matter).

Anyway, the reason I refer to Abdoul as my taxi driver is because we had a deal that he would pick me up every morning, take me to work and pick me up at night and take me home. We had a set price, so I was to pay him LE 75 (egyptian pounds) weekly - thats a little less than $15. I wish I could say that I used my incredible Arabic skills to negotiate this deal with him, but no. A friend named Hend arranged it for me since she's Egyptian and she speaks Arabic.

So Abdou drove me for 5 or 6 days and I really enjoyed his company. We had a number of great conversations in a messy mix of broken English and Arabic (his English was a lot better than my Arabic). I learned that he is 38, unmarried, and speaks German, which is a bit ironic since I was enrolled in a German class about 5 months ago, but I dropped it after the first day. Strangely enough, Abdou hates Cairo (probably because he has to drive here).

Driving in Cairo is only for the very brave, and I don't think I would attempt it without a few years of practice. Literally not a single second goes by when you're on the street that you don't hear someone honking their horn. In the states you only honk when you are very annoyed or someone does something really stupid. Here they use a horn like a gentle reminder to look out. Most cars have scratches and dents on them from little bumps here and there. When I was driving with Abdou it wasn't uncommon for the side mirror to get folded in as we just nicked another car. It has been a wild ride to and from work everyday.

Trying to keep a long story short, I had to back out of my deal with Abdou because I don't get off work at a regular time everyday - sometimes I have to stay late and have no way of communicating that to Abdou. And so I'll have to start getting a different cab every time I want to go to and from work, which is actually a good thing because I'll have to practice negotiating prices (they don't use meters) and speaking in Arabic.

On another note, I went to do some serious grocery shopping today for the first time since I've been here, and I made spaghetti tonight with Harrison. It was so good. No dining hall here, so I guess I'll have to start cooking more often.