Cairo

So this past weekend (Thursday-Saturday here) everyone with the Flagship program visited the capital of Egypt, Cairo and it was absolutely amazing. I was really impressed with the entire trip and how organized it was and really enjoyed myself.

Traveling with us to Cairo were also some Egyptian guests including one of my professors and his kids, language partners, and room mates. My professors two sons were absolutely adorable. One was named Ahmed and he was around 5 years old and basically spent the entire weekend with us. I think all the American students got a kick out of it because he was helping me with a lot of my homework. It was also funny because I could not understand a lot of what he said because he talked so fast in Arabic but he was so cute!

On the trip, I also discovered that my professor is also an active writer for one of the most famous newspapers in Egypt known as Al-Ahramath. Apparently, his dad was a mogul in the newspaper industry here and we got to talk a lot about the business. I found it really interesting because there are a lot of Egyptian newspapers available online here for free but the industry is not really facing the same crisis as in the United States. My professor told me that although some people prefer to read the paper online for free, it is an important part of the culture to read and discuss the paper in print. I thought it was the same thing in the US, but I guess what I have observed here is a lot of people just sitting in cafes or shops in the morning reading the paper. I am really interested to learn more about how the successful preservation of print journalism in the Middle East differs from America.

Right when we arrived on Thursday night we had dinner on a Nile cruise ship which was so amazing and the food was really good. That same night we also took a trip on a small boat all across the Nile. It was so beautiful because the skyline of Cairo was glowing against the water.

Cairo was definitely a lot nicer and developed than I expected. Its no New York City, but there is tons to do, great nightlife, and REALLY hot weather. It must have reached 90-95 F while we were there and those temperatures were just during the end of spring.

On Friday morning first we went to go see Saqqara, which is the first pyramid ever built.
After lunch in a really good Egyptian restaurant, we went to go see the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. The Pyramids were amazing, it was hard to believe that I was in front of one of the seven wonders of the world because it happened really fast. I was surprised that you could drive up really close to the Pyramids (of course touching is not allowed). It was kind of weird because I expected it to be a lot more official but its literally the city right across from the Pyramid. It was strange seeing a skyline full of tall office buildings and than behind them were Pyramids. Also, the Sphinx as I read in a travel guide is "like a celebrity, a lot smaller in person." The Sphinx was a lot smaller and less impressive than I imagined from photos and films.

While we were visiting all the sites it was really weird to feel like a tourist because I have not had that feeling since arriving in Alexandria. At all the sites there were tons and tons of Europeans and Asians and also I think all the tour buses and guides added to my feelings. I really disliked bring a tourist for the weekend because it kind of pulled away from my mentality that I am living in Egypt vs. vacationing in Egypt. We are not taking another trip with the group for about a month so hopefully I can feel at home for a while.

Around the pyramids and sites there were also tons of street vendors selling souvenirs. It was strange because for selling items in the streets a lot of them spoke perfect English. They were really annoying after a while though because they would not leave you alone until you bought something. However, I started feeling bad because a lot of young kids followed me and asked me to buy things. It was kind of silly, but when we were leaving the pyramids one little boy almost followed me onto the bus and as the door was closing kept begging me to buy some model pyramids for 10 Egyptian pounds (=less than 2 dollars). I seriously just started crying and ended up paying even double because I got emotional and my Egyptian friends kept laughing at me.

On Friday night, a group of my friends from Michigan State who are in the program took me out with one of their friends from the same school who has an internship with the Arab league for the summer. She was really sweet and took us to a cafe at the Marriott. It was fun but relatively very expensive and upper class. However, I was really glad I went because the group of us got to talk to her a lot about Egyptian politics from an American perspective and have shisha:)

The next and last morning before our return we visited the citadel of Saladin, the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, a church, and synagogue. The Mosque was stunning and it was really cool to see the old Islamic architecture. I thought it was amazing that such a beautiful place was built under Muhammad Ali rule in Egypt and really cool because when there was no electricity they used to light the entire mosque using candles. Because of this, there were enormous chandeliers of candles all over the Mosque.

Although there are very Jews in Egypt today a few synagogues still remain. For some of the Egyptian students traveling with us it was there first time to ever see a synagogue so I was really interested to see how they would react to the idea. Although there are obviously some political divisions between the two groups, everyone was interested to see the temple. Noticeably, when we entered the synagogue there was a Muslim man coincidentally praying right outside the door.

After going inside the Church we headed back to Alexandria. The week so far here has been good although the temperature is slowly creeping up. Today I had to give a presentation on one of my favorite writers Naguib Mahfouz who was one of the first Arabs to win the Nobel Prize in literature. I learned that he is not as well liked as I expected in the Middle East because his writings were quite politically and religiously controversial. We also had a minor debate in class about the war in ME and whether or not Iran should be allowed to keep nuclear weapons. I guess I assumed everyone here would say yes, but it was intriguing to here the different perspectives.

I am hoping this weekend should be pretty fun. I am planning on going to a concert with some friends. Sadly, I forgot my cord to upload my pictures for my camera so I need to find another which should not be too hard. Will write soon again, Thanks!