The Home Stretch Part III: Khalas

My last week here was spent in something of a finals/Christmas fervor.  It’s mostly all a blur but I remember that, among other things, I went to see the Cairo Choral Society’s performance of Handel’s Messiah in its entirety. The Soprano soloist was phenomenal (and the only one other than the concertmaster to get a bio in the program haha).

They had three child soloists do “And Suddenly..” and it was... cute.. but they cracked and I would have preferred to hear it on the Soprano, which is, to the best of my knowledge, who it was originally written for.

The kids

 Later in the week (or earlier?) I was presented with the singular opportunity to buy... a Christmas tree!!!

 

The snazzy establishment

It’s so amazing and I love it. To date its decorations include: A Charlie Brown Star made from yellow paper off my legal pad..

Making the Charlie Brown star

... an Easter bunny angel, a long broken necklace (trim!), a short unbroken necklace (more trim), beautiful pink and silver ornaments that I bought with the tree (the lone legitimate decorations) aaand my red scarf as the tree skirt thing (complements of Rohit and Anisha).

 

It feels so Christmas-y in the apartment now!! 

Thank you Mido for your excellent bargaining skills and for telling everyone I’m Egyptian.

Success! 

 Poor timing though it was, last Monday I was blessed with the presence of two of my very own Hopkins colleagues, Dylan Cowart and Christine Fiedler. Unfortunately I’m super lame and was desperately trying to write one of those last minute papers of mine so I couldn’t exactly devote my full attention to them. We were able to share a few beverages together though and all in all it was just lovely to see some familiar faces again.

And finals came, and finals went.

In celebration of them going, on Saturday evening I ended up at the German bakery in Zamalek (we're regular customer there for the purchase of German pretzels) which was decked out for Christmas.

I then continued on to relaxing at khan al-khalili with some tea, shisha and friends. Which provides a pretty appropriate segue into the truly final leg of my Cairo adventures: Christmas shopping in the Khan al-Khalili. It inadvertently began that night. I just meant to be looking around and before I knew it I was in a scary back room full of merchandise (reminiscent of that one time on Canal street....) I can’t actually spill too much because then you all will know what I got you for Christmas, but just know that most of the shopping involved me being a quiet Egyptian girl pointing at what I wanted while I let (a) real Egyptian(s) do all the heavy bargaining on my behalf.  You can buy A LOT with $200 using this method. I went back the next day to get whatever I hadn’t already got, and khalas.

On Monday I took my last final, made a few last Christmas stops on my way home from University, showered and packed my stuff and was chauffeured in style to the Airport. Predictably it was something of a hellish experience and, even more predictably, I was the only standby denied entry to the flight. Well second trys the charm when it comes to this trip, so tonight I should finally be headed home. Expect a full run down in my epilogue, to be written upon my arrival in 76137.

Home Stretch Part II: Lauren and Marlene’s Sandy Adventure

As luck would have it, a couple Thursdays ago I was refused entry onto the bus because I was partaking of an ice cream sundae. So while I was finishing it up, my long lost friend Jacob, from the Luxor-Aswan days, showed up out of nowhere. After a bit of conversation I learned that he and a few others were heading to the Black and White desert over the weekend for a camping trip. Whether out of politeness or genuine friendly interest, he invited me along. Just so I’d have something to blog about of course, I readily assented. While the trip wasn’t exactly as planned as I would have liked (no bus tickets, no desert guide, no nothing) we all had smiles on our faces and extra pairs of underwear. We could have conquered anything. Of course things started going wrong almost immediately. To begin with, our plans to show up at the bus station and buy our tickets in the morning were hastily scrapped when we found out all the tickets had been sold. We rushed to another station about 15 minutes away to see if their portion of the tickets were sold as well, but by the time we arrived the bus had left. Lucky for us, this bus station number two is also a general rallying point for the microbuses of Cairo and we tried our luck at securing a mini bus to Bahariyya oasis, the departure point for trips into the desert.

Waiting to get a mini-bus

Thanks to the excellent Arabic skills of a certain Mido (being Egyptian helps with that..) we/he eventually worked through a number of unforgiving drivers till about two hours later we nearly secured passage on a private minibus for Le450. Unfortunately at around the same time Jacob had utilized his fallback and called a tour operator who arrived on the scene and got us a Le500 minibus and a arranged for two guides with 4x4’s to meet us when we arrived in Bahariyya. I can’t really complain. So a few hours, some snacks and an unsuccessful nap later we roll into the ‘oasis’ and are met by a couple of really beat up Jeeps which hastily whisked us away into the black and white deserts. 

Getting Whisked

As handy as I like to think I am with the English language I think this short clip will give you the most accurate idea of what our desert romp was really like. These guys are wayy too handy with their 4x4's.

Brief intro to the whole black and white desert thing. Both desert areas are part of Egypt's Western desert. The Black desert is so called because of the layers of black debris left by previous volcanic activity. You know you're in the Black desert because the entire place appears to be covered with crumbled oreos. The white desert is the pristine opposite of the black. The sand is so ridiculously fine and soft and large white cusps of chalk rise up out of the ground all over the place. Some of the more giant ones have been shaped by wind and sand over the years creating some pretty sick rock formations- the major appeal of the place.

I think this one was called the chicken? 

After watching the sunset from the top of the hill featured in the above video we scurried off to a nice flat space to make camp...

 

Sunset in the desert. Jealous?

In no time at all our bedouin guides had erected what at least amounts to a 4 star establishment using only their cars, some tapestries and a few blankets. While this was going on I wasted no time in plopping myself down on the sand and basically just staring at the sky. I was feeling a little Lion King-esque, but no seriously guys I have never seen this many stars in my entire life. There a like 12 dippers of varying sizes out there. I even saw the milky way, for the first time ever. Oh, and Orion’s bow? Yeah, I saw it, no big deal (=REALLY FRICKIN HUGE DEAL) On the one hand I wish I could have captured this on film, on the other hand, you punks are just gonna have to see it for yourselves one day.

Around this time the desert, as it is wont to do, started to turn deathly cold. We did our best to huddle around the campfire and entertain eachother while our Bedouins cooked some delicious foods. I remember sharing a lot of entertaining stories, I just don’t remember what they were.

Campire and accommodations in background

Badi shwaya Our delicious meal was ready and we eagerly sat down to consume our chicken, rice, and tomato-potato soupy delicious stuff. Maybe we were just starving... but that was one of the best meals ever. I think there were potato chips involved too. There usually are.

After the meal we migrated back toward the fire where the guides made some tea to pass around that was so sweet it actually made my teeth hurt. I had three cups. Our time around the fire was most memorably marked by song time, complete with tabla and balady tunes. Once our Bedouins got tired of us not knowing any songs we all slowly began to pitch in our own cultural musical contributions. Which is how I ended up in a desert in the middle of Egypt singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with a couple Christians, four Muslims, a Hindu, and a Jew. Add Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire and I’ll be Home for Christmas and it was certainly an experience I won’t be forgetting soon. Eventually it was time to head bed-wards and I walked across the icy sand, cringing, to finish putting on every single item of clothing I’d brought with me, and some of Mido’s too. All in all I had on about 5 layers up top, I think 4 on bottom, a scarf, and a pair of socks (thanks, big guy!) Of course as was bound to happen eventually, nature called, and while I try to refrain from sharing my defecation stories with you, I just want everyone to know that not only did I walk about 10 minutes to get to a spot that felt private enough to dig a hole and ‘go’ in, but that I’ve had to pee in a lot, and I mean A LOT of strange places since my arrival in Egypt, and this was by far the most magical of them all. If I hadn’t had tp with me though it would have sucked. Because not even billions of divinely beautiful stars can make up for the need to air dry in below freezing weather.  TMI mumkin? Sorry.

Back at the campsite, we were each issued one camel hair blanket and one fluffy sleeping bag. While some of us could have fit ourselves in them twice (Nitasha), and others just plain didn’t fit at all (Mido), most of us managed to cover most ourselves with some ounce of cloth and in the freezing cold, under the stars, we attempted to sleep. Attempted. I woke up what felt like every 30 minutes wishing for either the morning or a quick death. Mostly the quick death.  When I was not being suicidal however I’m told I was busy kicking off all my blankets, thankfully a special someone was there to throw my blankets back on. Thanks you. Eventually I opened my eyes for the millionth time and was a little jolted because everything was red. Ahh said I, and removed the red blanket from over my face. Sun! At last! I was the second one up guys, can you believe it? Mostly because I was too cold to stay supine any longer, I spent a few minutes trying, unsuccessfully, to regain feeling in my extremities then just gave up and went off to find Jacob, the first one up. He was, predictably, off taking pictures, so I joined him and we opted for a rather long Bollywood style photo shoot, not returning from our adventures till breakfast had been lain on the table. Whether from the cold or some unsatisfactorily prepared chicken the night before my stomach was in major revolt mode and I just sat by waiting to depart (I took a piece of bread though, just in case. Oh and some cheese, because its not cool to waste that stuff).  We wended our way back from where we came from with a few variations and quite a few more stops which took us to some terribly photographable places...

...including one hike up a semi treacherous hill-mountain thing. It was awesome. There were those little piles of stones from all the people who’d made it to the top.

Made it!

            Eventually we made it back to the town proper, but not without getting stuck in the sand first...

... And right outside what I think was a guard tower that we weren't supposed to be driving around...

We paid the drivers, bought some snacks, and headed back to Cairo. The next morning marked the beginning of the end of my semester at AUC and was fun filled with rehearsals and quizzes. I’ll save the remaining events for my last post, which will come before I actually depart Cairo Inshallah.  

Home Stretch Part I: Fancy Duds

It’s a shame that only now, on the eve of my departure from this great nation of subsidized goods, have I realized the true function of my blog all along: not merely to document those activities worth documenting, but to ensure that I am actually regularly engaging in such activities. As will shortly become shockingly evident, to the latter point’s end, the blog has failed me. I fear that I have, in fact, wasted some of my time here in Egypt. The shortage in my list of noteworthy activities can, however, be attributed to two things: A well nurtured fear of the notorious Bedouin Kursi i.e. Bedouin chair a la aforementioned train ride from Luxor (Have I become a comfort first traveler?!), and secondly, my arrival at the adjustment phase of the culture shock process; I think I might feel so at home here now that sometimes I forget I’m supposed to be exploring.  All of that being said, allow me to delve into some of the more photographable events of the last month or so.

Shortly following my last post of just over a month ago was the start of the Eid al Adha, or, the feast of the sacrifice. This is a Muslim holiday celebrating the decision of Abraham to obey God by sacrificing his only son. In commemoration of the fact that God said jk at the last minute and had Abraham sacrifice a lamb instead, everyone sacrifices and feasts on lamb during the Eid. Blood runs in the streets of Cairo, amusing cartoons depicting terrified sheep are printed in the local papers, and everyone gets a week off from work and classes. No one does much of anything except for the butchers and felluca captains.

Rather than do the smart thing and plan an exotic trip to some nearby country, or a different city even, I sat back on my haunches and observed the transformation of Cairo during the Eid. Large families of ghetto Egyptians pile into microbuses and flood into the city to treat themselves to a night on the town, some ice cream for the wife, toys for the kids. Intimidating groups of gangly youths with their hair slicked back stand on the corniche gently harassing out of towners and passers by. Its like regular Cairo with the population and cars multiplied. All the rich people leave the city, all the poor ones enter, and traffic is abominable (except on Kobry October, which Mido drove over multiple times during the Eid just to feel the wind on his head).

My rhythm during the week resembled finals period, but without the stress. I stayed up all night smoking and talking with friends then slept all day, woke up around 5 or 6, spent some time with my pals Sean T. and P90X, then did it all over again. To break up the rhythm were a few things, including a visit to Cairo tower, and seeing The Social Network and Arry Botter with Arabic subtitles. At Cairo tower, rather than pay the extremely high price charged to foreigners as opposed to Egyptians, I successfully imitated an Egyptian and entered for about Le30 (well really I entered for free since I was accompanied my an Egyptian male and they never let you pay for anything yourself). We arrived at the perfect time and got to see the city just as the sun was going down, intensely cool. 

 

The tower from the bottom, complete with proud Egyptian eagle. Do they even have Eagles here?

Look carefully, those are the pyramids in the background!

Al Ahly practicing! Just a bit too cool.

To complete the near perfect evening, I went to Chili’s, yes, Chili’s (there was Texas stuff errywhere), ordered a Cobb salad, and consumed my fried chicken and beef bacon in ecstasy. 

At some point during the week one of my shisha expeditions took me to an empty alleyway of the Khan al Khalili where I stole a few choice night shots of some of the oldest mosques in Cairo and what remains of the wall that surrounded the old city. 

Bab al Futuh, built in 1087 AD

Empty street along the northern edge of the khan

masgid?

Immediately following the Eid I had to complete a couple papers for class. I turned them both in on time (it was like high school all over again!) and then slumped back into the boring cycle of things. As invigorating as some of the coursework here is, it’s no Hopkins. I’ll admit that I’m pretty bored most of the time (so I better get all A’s right?). Just know, Johnny Hopkins, if you’d actually get your act together and invest in a real Arabic program, and a real Middle Eastern studies professor (let alone a department or program), I’d come back to you in a heartbeat. Till then I’ll gamble on this place.

Speaking of this place, I got a new place. Discouraged by the lack of suitable apartments in Cairo, we slowly gave up on moving, until one day a magical email came through on the CairoScholars Listserv advertising a beautifully renovated apartment of the same architectural background as our own, in a more convenient location and for a reasonable price. We immediately went to see it. Same high ceilings and wooden floors, with fresh tiling and paint, a working elevator, attentive bowab, and a mosque only 1/16^th the size of the old one next door. Friends, it was love at first sight. As if all this wasn’t enough, we soon discovered that the landlady was in fact a cousin of Alison’s boyfriend (Armenians are not unlike Mexicans in this regard), and therefore much more favorably inclined toward us than the replacements the previous tenant had handpicked. A few minor squabbles and an incredible amount of cash later, the apartment was ours.

A brief tour:

When you walk in the front door..

 ..Then turn right..

..Then turn around..

..then keep turning..

..then walk forward and turn around again..

hamam

Küche

More to follow. 

This is only an account of a few weeks from the last month. I'm gonna go all wikileaks and carefully time the release of my material so as to do my adventures justice. That and I have no internet in the new apartment yet so I'm posting all this from the bus that transports me between downtown and my desert school. The next post is mostly written though so check back in a couple days for events even better than these! Plus I'm leaving in about a week so I have alot of material to cram into a small period of time...