WELL...
It's been a very long time since I posted, and an even longer time since I gave any idea of what I'm doing here. Since my life right now is pretty much wagib all the time (homework), here's just a quick rundown of my last couple weeks.
We began in Cairo with our program orientation in the lovely (read: air-conditined) IFSA-Butler offices, getting presentations on Egyptian music, Egyptian art history, Egyptian ecology, and of course, Egyptian colloquial Arabic. Just so you know, Arabic isn't just one language - oh no. There's the classical fusha (pronounced "foos-ha"), which is Qur'anic Arabic, and then every region has its own colloquial amia dialect. Here at Alexandria University, we're studying both every day. It's totally not confusing at all.
On the night of Sunday the 12th, a group of us went out into downtown Cairo, hungry for some experience of authentic Cairo (our housing had us a little isolated in the suburbs). We definitely found it, as we stumbled through the oppressively crowded streets, overrun with Egyptians celebrating the last night of Eid el-Fitr, the three-day holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. It was wild and exciting, noise and smells and lights everywhere. Every riverboat on the Nile was covered with colored flashing lights and banners, and for a while we just stood on a bridge and soaked in the scene. It was madness - and frisky Egyptian men made the experience less than pleasant at times - but it was exciting! At the end of night, all of us simultaneously feeling wired and exhausted, we settled in for some delicious peach sheesha at a local restaurant and celebrated our successful adventure.
The next morning, I was not feeling very celebratory. I had been feeling a little sick the two days before, but on Monday morning I was completely non-functional. We were scheduled to go to the Pyramids of Giza (you know the ones) and Sakkara that day, but it just wasn't happening. My wonderful roomies called our student services director, who came straight over and took me to the hospital.
The hospital was an experience. We went straight to emergency, paid a hundred fifty pounds ($30 US), waited 10 minutes and I was in. They pulled up screens all around me and we waited another few minutes for the only female doctor in the place to come in and see me. Looking around, I noticed that the bed and pillow I was sitting on were stained and that the few instruments lying around looked a bit unclean. Mostly, I was struck to see flies buzzing around the ER. I'm really not in Kansas anymore*, I was thinking, underwhelmed. But when my doctor came in, she spoke to me directly in broken, but clear, English. She listened to me and understood, spoke kindly and slowly, and made me feel more comfortable than I had imagined possible when we walked through the hospital doors. She prescribed me medication that had me back on my feet by the next day, and kissed me on the forehead as she left. An American hospital would have been quiet and reassuringly sterilized, but no hospital in America would have taken an international student straight into ER without her insurance card, for $30, in 10 minutes and then spoken in her native language. Egypt was very good to me at my first need.
The next day, we visited the Citadel of Old Cairo, originally built by Salah al-Din. It was from this strategic location that Salah al-Din kicked Richard the Lionheart's ass for most of the Third Crusade. Today though, what stands is the famous Mohammad Ali mosque, a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. All that is left of Salah al-Din's mighty citadel is curtain wall, a deep well and a strong aqueduct. The Muhammad Ali mosque is beautiful - what you feel in a mosque is different from what you feel in a church or a synagogue. You feel space. There are no chairs, no pews, no altars. There is open space and light everywhere, reflecting off the names of the Prophet and his Companions painted in gold on the ceiling. I held my hand on head to keep my veil respectfully in place, and I kept looking up, trying to read the ornate calligraphy and discerning a few familiar names.
After the Citadel, we went for dinner in the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, which is visually everything you've ever imagined when you read about the great souqs and bazaars of the Thousand and One Nights, but in reality is not much more than a tourist trap. Still, dinner was excellent - I had grilled pigeon, an Egyptian delicacy!
The next day, 9 out of the total 18 students headed out early in the morning along the Desert Highway to Alexandria, where we would move in and begin our semester. We stopped at one of the few Starbucks' in Egypt (I was relieved to hear that is no Starbucks next to the Pyramids), and arrived in Alexandria in about three hours.
Alex is a dream compared to Cairo, and if leaving here for 10 days has dulled my first impression a bit, there is no doubt that the first sight of the Mediterranean and the smell of the sea was a shining moment. Breathing deeply and driving slowly, we went along the Corniche of Alexandria, snapping pictures of Bibilioteca Alexandrina, the Mamluk fortress of Qaitbey, and anything and everything we could see of the sea.
Moving into our dorms was a little complicated, and we were in temporary housing for the first few days, but everyone's settled in now (even though we don't have the promised Egyptian roommates). Our dorms are pretty bad, even for dorms, but we're all getting used to the ups and downs of the lifestyle, and hoping that it will get easier with each passing week.
Classes are good - mostly Arabic language, split between fusha and amia, but we also have two classes on Islamic history and culture. We have class from 9:00 to 1:30, Monday through Thursday, which gives us a nice long weekend for short travels. I like my classes and professors and classmates, but it's kind of hard accepting that I'm back in school, when it feels nothing at all like Kenyon. Still, WAGIB ALL THE TIME, and I'm trying hard to keep up and procrastinate as little as possible.
My roommate Lauren and I just went back to Cairo for the weekend to see our friends there, and so I could go see the pyramids at last. The weekend was epic, but this blog post has already gone on long enough, so I'll save that for another day (hopefully soon).
Life is hard here and every day is a battle, but I'm getting through it and waiting for the day when I just wake up and find that some things have gotten easier. I miss you all, friends and family, and I'd love to hear from anyone who has time to drop me a line. But life is exciting here too, and there are good people around me, so we get each other through.
And after all, there's not much that a long sunset walk along the Mediterranean can't fix.
Salaam,
Helen
*Sorry for the Kansas reference, Caitlin.
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