Cultural Observation 4?

As I proceeded to gawk at all of the temples and artifacts that are so old, I kept wondering how they were in such good condition. For the most part the majority of the temples, especially the large ones, such as Luxor, Edfu and Karnak were in pristine condition considering their age. Come to find out the main reason for their good condition was that they were buried in over 40ft of sand, deeper sometimes as though the temples range from 40ft to 90ft tall.

However, there were other temples like the Pyramids and the Sphinx that were not in such good of shape, even though they were buried the sand and I wondered just why this was? To my surprise it was a combination of two things, one more detrimental than the other.

The first reason for the deterioration of the monuments and temples was the exposure of the stones and paintings to the elements of the weather. Which is natural. Some of the temples were affected by flooding of the Nile, however even then, were relatively well preserved. The hieroglyphics were still carved into the rocks, the paintings were still there on the walls, and the mummies were still wrapped and preserved thousands of years after the people inside them had passed. Moreover though, it would take thousands of more years to actually destroy the temples in the manner that the 2nd reason, the human element had upon them.

The most detrimental thing to the monuments was the lack respect and knowledge applied to the ones that poked up out of the sand. At Edfu, only the top 10 or so feet of the walls of the temple rose above the sand, and instead of the preserving the carvings and paintings that were upon it, the armies that passed through the temple used the walls as target practice for the rifles, swords and arrows as well as a place for graffiti. Luckily, there was another 50ft of temple and hallways below the sand.

As for the Pyramids, the once used to be white instead of the yellowish stone that they have now. This is due to the stripping of the limestone, white in color, by the Arab Muslim invaders who conquered Egypt in 700+ A.D. and used the stone for the local mosques. I can’t say that the mosques here are not beautiful, but really, to destroy something so grand and well preserved, when there are beautiful granite rocks all around Egypt to carve from, they destroyed some of the greatest wonders in the whole world. I wonder if one day the limestone from the mosque’s will be re-used for another temple for another religion. Only time will tell.

So, I am a little bitter about the peoples that have lived on this ancient land for the past 2,000 years and their lack of respect and much less, their curiosity to learn and to preserve the wonderful things that existed on their land well before they did. Maybe it’s the Boy Scout in me, but I can for sure say that if I were to go roaming around in the Nevada desert or anywhere for instance, and I happened to stumble upon a monument, even a small one, that no one knew what it was, I would consider it a good fortune and the last thing I would do is shoot it or carve it up. Furthermore, to think, that I didn’t descend from the peoples that invented the calendar, papyrus, pie (3.14), irrigation, oh yeah and beer.

Cruising on the Nile: Luxor and Aswan (Part 2)

Nile Cruise

Now, a Nile cruise is a must if you are planning on visiting Egypt at all. Cairo is good to see, but really the real ancient Egypt exists outside of Cairo in the small cities and Bedouin camps. The people and the culture are richer there and more authentic than the crowded, smoggy, dirty limits of Cairo. Plus the weather is much warmer in the winter.

Our cruise boat was quaint but nice. Food is always buffet style like any good cruise and the boat had nice clean rooms with a nice large roof top hangout area. However, the best part of cruising the down the Nile was to sit in my chair in my stateroom with the double French doors open to the water’s edge and watch the Nile river banks drift by. Truly it was like being in a old movie, with all of its grand romance and majesty, and be on the Nile river surrounded by ancient temples and quarries, and to breath the mist of the water that gave birth to Egypt and some of the most important civilizations in the world. Looking out from the boat you never knew just exactly you might see, but whatever it was, it was amazing.

The way I suggest cruising the Nile is to start in Aswan and proceed north, or down the Nile, towards Luxor. In doing this your last site you will visit will be Karnak Temple in Luxor, and it will have you leave Egypt with much respect for the Egyptian peoples and their history.

Along the cruise, which took 2 days, we saw the Temples of Edfu, Kom Ombo, Elephant Island, and the Pyramid Rock quarries. Docking at each one, we would take a local horse carriage to the temples, which were mini adventures in themselves and begin our explorations of the temples. My favorite temple was Edfu, as we saw it during the night, and its massive stone columns that held up the roof were still perfectly intact. The roof was about 50ft up, and even though originally had beautiful hieroglyphics painted on it, they were covered in black ash from the 1000’s of years the temple was used as a hideout for Christians are they were fleeing from the Roman’s and then the Muslims. Also, you we able to go exploring the temple and we found a dark hallway that descended below the temple, but was full of water and we had to stop. Who knows just what could be further down the hallway, underneath all of that water. I thought that this temple was huge when I first saw it, however, once I saw Karnak, Edfu became dwarfed in size.

Luxor

After seeing many temples along the banks of the Nile we arrived in Luxor. The name Luxor comes from, bear with me now, the plural of the plural of the word palace in Arabic. So lots of groups of palaces here…In the city of Luxor alone is 1/3 of the ENTIRE world’s historical monuments. Egypt in its entirety holds about 40% of world monuments. Not bad for one country. Reno has to get on the ball eh?

Luxor has fantastic sites to go see and it is recommended that one spend at least two days there. In seeing the sites you must spend one day on the west bank of the Nile, which is where the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Queen Hepepchutes Temple and the Two Statues are. The East Bank is the Temple of Luxor and Karnak Temples are and they are big enough to explore for hours, as Karnak is 19 acres large by itself. The significance of visiting each bank of the Nile separately derives from the symbolism the Egyptians put of the rising and setting of the sun in their ideology. The east bank represents birth, life and fertility. So, the temples of worship, farming and fertility, such as Luxor and Karnak, were built here. The West Bank symbolizes death and the after life and there the Egyptians buried all of their kings, queens and nobles along with the treasure and items they would need in the afterlife.

Oddly enough though, our trip started off with the West Bank first as the sun came up, but maybe because there was better light? Anyway, we drove the Valley of King’s first which is very very cool. It lies in a desert canyon surrounded by high cliff on each side. A gravel path extends from the Nile valley up into the canyon, and it looks like the gravel is the broken stone remnants of the massive excavations that took places into and below the canyon walls. As I walked up this gravel path I couldn’t help but wonder and visualize the thousands of workers and burial parties that have walked on this same path to the tombs below. All of the Kings that we read about and study in school and all of the power and grandeur that they exuded upon this land and the later influence that it would have upon peoples from all over the world up till today. So large that tourism here in Egypt is big enough to be the one of the largest imports and sources of money to keep almost 80 million people alive and working. Thanks to the Pharaoh’s eh?

After hiking up the canyon further you come to the tombs themselves. As they were discovered throughout the past 100 years, the foreign expeditions that came to dig here, built stone faces around the temple doors to identify them as being temples. As you look around all you can see are the many stone faces that are everywhere, basically one on top of another. If totally sparks the imagination to think that just below your feet are more tombs undiscovered, and I am willing to be a lot that there will be a lot more discovered within my lifetime. As I look around, just next to Tutankhamen’s tomb, which is one of the smallest yet richest of them all, and located just underneath the entrance to another tomb, the local labor is digging into the canyon in search of another tomb. I can’t wait to see what’s inside!

In the valley here you can usually go into many of the tombs. Some of them are quite large. For instance, Ramses the 2nd’s tomb has 52 side chambers, for all of his children to be buried. Because of the mass amount of rooms in Ramses tombs, archeologists are now looking for a large tomb in the Valley of the Queens that would hold all of Ramses’s wives. He was living large! The Valley of the Kings is something everyone must see if they come to Egypt. It is not too crowded usually, and is inspiring to think if these people died and were buried in this manner, who knows just how rich their lives were!

To conclude our West Bank of the Valley visit, we went to Queen Hepepchutes temple that I have previously written about, so I encourage you to read that blog entry as well.

Cruising on the Nile: Luxor and Aswan (Part 1)

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I opted to take another AUC/ALI sponsored trip. The ALI (Arabic Language Institute) organizes trips throughout Egypt in a highly efficient manner and usually they so much fun that one doesn’t even have to try to have a good time. This was trip #3 of 5 in my traveling while abroad.

One of the better things about the ALI is that it takes into consideration that the study abroad students will have a tough time adapting to Egypt and the rigorous intensive Arabic program that it has. With the students in class for about 5 hours a day, 3 more hours for commuting to school, topped off with a good dose of homework each night, the real study abroad experience of seeing the Egyptian culture and its history is quiet limited. However, it is my opinion that students would be able to see the culture and use the language more, if they didn’t have to spend 3 hours, or more sometimes, on a bus, 6 days a week; a little counter productive I think.

The trip to Luxor and Aswan only cost me about $400 and it included, all transportation and flights to and from Cairo; which were a godsend compared to traveling on the train, along with food, entrance fees to all the sites, and the Nile cruise ship that we would be staying on.

I became very excited to go on this trip because I was finally going to see the Egypt that exists in all of the dreams everyone wanting to visit Egypt growing up. I was proud of myself for choosing to come to Egypt. I knew that I was going to see the culture that thrived along the Nile for thousands of years, whom had in their possession the technology to build and develop their society to an advanced level. More advanced than many other modern cultures and societies today.

Our first stop was to Aswan, which is towards the southern part of Egypt, about 300 miles north the Sudanese-Egyptian border. We flew from Cairo to Aswan on a wonderful and clean Egypt Air flight, that only took about 2 hours from Cairo, and as I mentioned earlier is much more convenient than the 14 hour train ride, if the train didn’t derail or worse enroute. In Aswan we were to visit the High Dam, Abu Simble, Elephant Island, the Nubian Museum and also board our cruise boat. We landed and the weather in Aswan was marvelous, it was about 83 degrees with no wind and the sun was shining. I could instantly feel warmth of the city, and being a summer person within a heartbeat my mood perked up significantly and I was ready to be a tourist, well partially; coming from Tahoe and Reno I don’t like tourists…


The High Dam is huge dam, but its design makes it less impressive than other dams that I have seen in my life, such as the Hoover, Lake Powell, and Bonneville dams. The High Dam is thick in its width, and it is tall, hence the High Dam name, but as you can see from the picture, it height is spread out over gradual steps, and the slope of the face of the dam is very shallow. I believe the reason for this is to be to give the dam the strength to withstand the massive force exerted upon it by Lake Nasser, which is now the worlds largest man made lake and extends the 300 miles or so from the High Dam into Sudan. However, the beauty of the dam comes not from it size or design, but from the importance of it existence in Egypt, and the role it played in the international political systems during the Cold War between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.

The dam’s role in Egypt was to stop the annual cyclical flooding that would destroy towns and farms that sat along the Nile River each year and killed thousands of people each time. Instead, the dam regulates the flooding and as an upside provides a constant year round supply of water that can be used to irrigate the Nile valley and provide for three agricultural growing periods each year, instead of just one before the dam was built. This constant water supply also is a contributing factor in the population explosion that Egypt has faced, as now about 60+ million people (maybe as much as 80 million) live in the Nile Valley alone.

The role the High Dam played in the international community was a turning point in the U.S.’s relationship with the Middle East, both then and now, with the Socialist Nasser regime in 1956, and more importantly the efforts to stop the communist expansion of the U.S.S.R. President Nasser of Egypt was looking to propel Egypt into the modern western world through a large variety of government subsidized programs which included developing a large agricultural base to export goods to the world through the building of the High Dam. However, Nasser did not have the funding to so and asked the U.S. for financial assistance to build the dam. The U.S. refused to give the money to Egypt as a result of Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal. The result of this refusal gave the U.S.S.R. and opportunity to gain a footing in the Middle East as they sent money and advisors to Egypt to construct the High Dam. This allowed for a Soviet influence and arms trade to develop in the Middle East, until President Sadat kicked them out in the 80’s. After the dam was completed the U.S.S.R. built a large monument of friendship to Egypt at the site of the high dam in the shape of a lotus flower, but to me, it looks like a giant signal or temple to aliens, like in the movie Contact, and is probably more impressive looking when seen from space as communists were never known for their style. See picture below.

However, the best part of this dam was to see my first Nile crocodile! In the Lake Nasser side of the dam is where all of the old Nile crocs live, and we saw a “Big Mother!” as Steve Irwin would say, swimming along the dam waiting for something to fall in. My friend Graham and I were trying to coax our 5’1” friend Laurie to approach the water’s edge, so that we could get a better look at the croc. We were confident that we were able to pull her out of harms way quick enough to get a picture. Oh and to save her too….;)

Abu Simble

Visiting Abu Simble was a very long journey from Aswan, but is probably in the top 2 sites to see in all of Egypt after Luxor. In Abu Simble is the large temple of Ramses the 2nd. This temple and about 11 others, not including the thousands of discovered and undiscovered graves and temples of the Nubian kingdom, were to be drowned in water as Lake Nasser filled up after the completion of the High Dam. Under what I think is the largest and best example of international cooperation ever, the UN (UNESCO) and 35 countries from all over the world realized the importance of the Ramses the 2nd Temple and the 11 others in the area south of the High Dam, and a massive effort went into place to save these sites from being lost forever. However, the same effort was not put into saving the Nubian sites and temples, so they now lie at the bottom of the Lake. In the case of Abu Simble (Ramses the 2nd) UNESCO cut up the temple into thousands of pieces, each weighing anywhere from 1 to 10 tons, and piece by piece reassembled them in perfect unison about 300ft higher up the mountain they were carved into, so that they would now be located on the beach of the new Lake Nasser, instead of beneath its waters.

The magnificence of Ramses the 2nd’s temple is breathtaking. This temple is one of the largest and most detailed temples ever built by man, and the original paint, hieroglyphics and sculptures, are still in amazing condition. When visiting this temple, you walk around the mountain from behind and come the face of the temple along the waters edge, and you stop instantly in front of what lies before you. Few times in my life have I paused like this, but really this is something that gives me hope in the art and scale of creation that humans are capable of. In addition to think that this temple was cut up and put back together again. This temple was built 2500+ years ago and still looks this good. I can promise that not many of our current structures will last this long and let alone look this good!

After taking around 200 pictures of the temple, inside and out, it was time to head back to Aswan. I hope that one day, I will be able to visit this temple again, as it is well worth a second trip to Egypt, well 3rd for me ☺

Next post coming soon!

Rotary Medical Caravan

11.14.2008

Hello again! Finally, I am happy to report that I have been able to truly contribute to the benefit of some Egyptians that actually need it. My Rotary club, Cairo Capital, every so often, assists a team of doctors in a medical caravan to remote parts of Egypt. This particular caravan was bound for a farming village just south of Alexandria, in which a large Coptic Church was being constructed and was to be used a base for treatment. Now, if you were like me at first, you are probably wondering just what exactly is a medical caravan. What it is nothing more than true giving of unrestricted aid, attention, and service to those who need everything that comes their way.



The medical caravan that I was fortunate enough to help with, was a group of forward looking doctors, who donate their time and talents, at no cost to those they help. This team provides medical attention and corresponding treatments to Egyptians that are well below the poverty line and are hindered many times over by physical illness or disability. The caravan consisted of 6 doctors who covered a large breadth of medical services i.e. dentistry, OBGYN, general practitioner, dermatologist, optometrist and pediatrics. In addition to this team of docs, several members from Cairo Capital Rotary club as well as myself, two of my friends, Jessica and Graham, and another Rotary scholar Nathan. We all played a supporting role of managing the large crowed of patients that have come from far distances around and using our limited Arabic skills to find out which ailments they were afflicted with. We would then record the ailment, in general terms, and designate a particular doctor in which they would see. Furthermore, we would go back and forth between the mobile ambulance, that the docs traveled in, to retrieve the particular pharmaceuticals needed by the doctors.

I have to say that this was not an easy task, for many reasons. The first being the language barrier, the second the dialect, and the rest for being just utter overwhelming humbleness in which we all felt, seeing our standard of living compared to those that needed treatment. Now, Jessica, Graham and I, are learning Fusha, which is the Modern Standard form of Arabic, used in Media and diplomatic circles, so conversing with farmers who are only taught Amaya(sp?) the local Egyptian dialect, most likely not in a formal school system, was a daunting task. Nathan and I manned the GP, dentist and optometrist station and we had the majority of patients to deal with. To simply put it was difficult to explain in Arabic how the people in need had to wait there turn for the doctors. You could see in the eyes of the children and parents alike the disparity of wanting to be healthy and the urgency in which they wanted to fix it, and hence why the had traveled so far. At time, I felt utterly helpless that I did not know how provide some medical assistance to them, as well as having the language barrier prevent a mutual understanding of patience and our intentions to help them.

After a few hours, the doctors had seen all of the patients and everyone that was still around the church felt a sense of accomplishment and peace. Soon, the children that were around, even though some were sick, started playing soccer with Graham, and also decided to learn how to be a photographer. Nathan and I on the other hand helped clean up and see if anything else needed to be done before we left.



In my opinion, this day was a good one, but really not good enough. The way I see it, is that helping those that need it doesn’t really take much time nor energy. It is so easy to give a bit and help a lot. The magnitude of the impact of the monies invested and the time spent by the doctors and assistants created waves of good in this particular community, and those like it. Moreover, this time and energy significantly improved the day and possibly the long-term future of those that received treatment. It strikes me with the desire to help more, learn the language further, and to always put into thought, the relative position of myself and my endeavors to those I meet. I am very fortunate enough to be here in Egypt and to have one chance to help.

When I return to Reno, and I going to provide a presentation on my experience to raise funds for the completion of this church, who provides services to both Muslims and Copts a like, equally. I am happy to do this in hopes that maybe my Rotary club in Reno, Reno Sunrise, or my community could give a bit to help, and have it continue to make waves here in Egypt. This is the upside of diplomacy and I am happy to help.

Posts to come!

Meshy (Ok), so things have been pretty busy around here for me, with Arabic midterms and some catch up work but after tonight I only have 15 days of school left here. Its pretty insane how fast the semester has gone bye, but that is what one should expect from an intensive language program. To let you know what my posts are for the near future I will lay them out as I feel that my reflective thoughts and my blog have been seriously neglected. I promise no more of that!

My Rotary Experiences
Medical Carvan to Alexandria
Trip to Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine's and Dahab (this weekend)
Trip to Aswan, Luxor (next week)
Departure to Istanbul Turkey, Amman Jordan, and the West Bank (Beginning of Dec)


So, lots to come with more posts in between! Thanks for reading!

Mike

Stomp: The only band that brings its own trashcans…

Today provided a nice surprise for us as we got off the bus before heading to class. We had noticed a large stage erected in the middle of the courtyard by the library with a bunch of trashcans scattered about around it. I was taken aback as I thought that finally the AUC has gotten its act together and had actually bought trashcans for the campus! They were nice and shiny; large enough to hold all the cigarette butts and coke cans that are strewn around the area, and totally empty and waiting to be used. However, to my pleasant disappointment, the AUC didn’t improve in its sanitation priorities, but instead it was a Stomp concert!

We had heard that Stomp was performing in Cairo this week at the Opera House in Zamalek, but the tickets are 900LE per person, or about $180. So, obviously it was out of the picture. The group put on a great show with some great beats, and I would love to eventually see a full performance sometime. I had flashbacks to my drumline experience in high school and all the fun we had banging on drums. Also, I thought the here is living proof that when small kids bang on things around the house; they just might actually have a future in a group like Stomp. So, it was glad to support the arts and see these talented musicians at school… in Egypt!

In closing, Stomp unfortunately took their trash cans with them, back to the State’s where no one really needs them…sigh. Oh well…Welcome to Egypt.

Rotary in Cairo and the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt.

I have finally made contact with my Rotary Club here in Cairo after some difficult communication via email this first few month or so that I have been here. I am happy to say that after last night all is well and that I look forward to working with Cairo Capital Rotary Club and the service projects that they do for the time that I am here.

I had spoken with Atef my Rotary Counselor here in Cairo last week on the phone and he had invited me to attend the weekly Rotary meeting to be held on Wednesday nights at the World Trade Center Building in downtown Cairo. However, yesterday while I was sitting in my Arabic writing class I received a text message from Atef informing me that the Wednesday meeting had been changed to tonight (Tuesday) instead. The reason for the change was that the Rotary Club of Zamalek, which is on the island that I live on, had invited the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt to speak at the Al Gizera club over dinner. I was very excited to attend this meeting! One so that I could finally get to meet my Rotary Club, who turned out to be an amazing group of people and two maybe have a chance to speak with the U.S. Ambassador.

My roommate Graham and I suited up and headed down to the Al Gizera Club, which is very famous, Gatsby-esk, and prestigious. For an Egyptian to gain membership there they must pay over 300,000 LE (Egyptian Pounds) or 50,000+ dollars a year. It was an honor to even walk in the club as a foreigner, as the famous Ali soccer team practices there. With in the club there is a massive swimming pool that is probably the nicest in Cairo, many full soccer fields, a horse track, running track, tennis courts, restaurants and more.

When we arrived in style to the club, where we were ushered in immediately in very professional manner, as the security knew that we were attending the Rotary meeting. Upon going into the restaurant I introduced myself to Atef and some other wonderful Rotary members from Cairo Capital, and we sat down among a larger group of about 70 to 100 Rotarians and guests, and we proceed to chat and get to know one another as we waited for the U.S. Ambassador to arrive. About 45 minutes later the Ambassador arrived and gave a basic speech that defined an outlined U.S. Foreign assistance policy, and also the foreign policy objectives that the Bush administration was pushing in the Middle East. It was a good speech, in the sense that it gave a lot of basic information about history of the relationship between Egypt and the U.S. and had a focus on the USAID goals and the military assistance budget that now tops over 1.25 billion dollars. The speech was positive and friendly but left no room for any tough questions afterwards. Smart play I thought by the speechwriter, however I feel that the Rotarians wanted a little bit more sustenance and honestly, so did I.

After the speech the Ambassador took questions that were fielded by the president of the Al Gizera Rotary club so that any aggressive inquires could be avoided to keep the Ambassador off the hot plate. Soon after that the Ambassador was open to introductions and interviews by the local Egyptian media and I thought it would be a great time to introduce myself. As I went to the line that formed to talk with the Ambassador, Mrs. Salwa Hadid, another one of my awesome Rotary counselors, grabbed me by the hand and rushed me to the front of the line. Soon, I was talking about U.S. Public Diplomacy and my experience with the IVLP program with the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Mrs. Margaret Scobey. I was very happy to have this opportunity and I am thankful my friend Graham offered to take my picture just in case I was successful in talking to her. All and all it was another great night in Cairo and one for the record books. Graham and I met some amazing Rotarians who were very friendly and helpful to anything that we might need and I hope to stay in close contact with them. I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying it here, and I look forward to many more memories of this great experience in Egypt!

Day at the Zoo.

Recently, after the oasis trip, I took a trip to the Giza Zoo, which at one time, was one rated the best zoo in the world in the 1930’s. The zoo even has a historical bridge that joins two areas of the zoo together that was designed and build by Mr. Eiffel himself, the same man that build the Eiffel tower in Paris, France. Also, the Giza zoo was claimed to be the best zoo in Africa, which I find ironic because to me, a zoo is place made so people who don’t live in Africa can visit and see the native African and other continental wildlife, such as the Nile Crocodile, in which hometowns in the U.S. and the world, not 100 yards from the Nile River itself, have. However, all this great history aside, the zoo now is quite sad and was recently removed from the international zoo associations membership for its lack of care for the animals and living conditions… Anyway, I had heard about the Giza zoo from a classmate of mine who had just went the previous week and had held a baby lion. My friend Jessica and I were determined that we too would hold a baby lion. So, now you can see from the pictures, that I am a man of my word and that I have held a baby lion, in Africa.

My Oases Trip- Just a little late...

Hello again! Just to give an update as to the things that are going on with me here, I have been pretty busy with some trips and school but I have finally found a minute to sit down and write out the adventures I have had here in the past weeks.

In Egypt, immediately following Ramadan, is another holiday called Eid. Eid is end the month long fasting that takes place during Ramadan, in which everyone can celebrate their achievements of making it through Ramadan, by eating, spending time with their families and giving gifts. For me, this meant no school. So to fill the time for the non-Moslem students here, the Arabic Language Institute at the AUC organizes some great trips for students to go on during the holidays. The trip that I signed up for was a 4-day trip to the western oases of Egypt, called Bahariya, Dakla, Al- Kharga and also to the Black and White Deserts. FYI the last oasis Al- Kharga is where the Italian tourists departed from about 2 days before they were kidnapped and taken into Sudan and Libya, a week prior to our arrival.

Day 1 Bahariya
Our tour bus left downtown Cairo at 7am Tuesday Morning and we had a 4 hour drive southwest from Cairo to the smallest of the desert oases, Bahariya. I had no idea what to expect for these oases in general, and my mental picture was a small patch of palm trees and a small lake or watering hole surrounded by sand dunes in the middle of the desert.

When we got to Bahariya, we found the oases to be huge and not what I had imagined. I got the palm trees part correct, but from what we were told by our AUCian Egyptologist tour guide, that there were over a million palm trees in Bahariya, and every single one of them had thousands of dates (the fruit or tAmur) hanging off of them, just ready to be eaten. In total the whole oases was as big as the town of Fallon, Nevada with palm trees everywhere and small lakes here and there throughout the area.

The way that the desert oases in Egypt are formed, comes through natural depressions in the earth crust, in which the oasis sits, about 1000ft lower the desert plateau that rest of Egypt lies upon. Within these depressions, there are natural fissures in the ground that allow for some large quantities of water to escape large underground rivers and aquifers that exist under the desert. We were told that the aquifers and underground rivers were so large, that a recent NASA space mission, took a radar image of the Egyptian desert, from space, and could easily point out and follow the contour of the flowing waterways. So, from these fissures, there was a large amount of water that rises to the surface and creates these oases in the desert.

After arriving to our hotel, which was extremely nice, even by western standards, it also resembled an oasis within the oases, as the hotel was a circular one, with the rooms being the outside border and there being a large garden in the middle that all of the rooms opened into. I would definitely suggest staying here again.

After checking in we got back on the bus and went to some nearby tombs that were found in the ground about 10 years ago. We arrived at the tombs and were greeted by the man who discovered them, as he was the senior antiquities manager for the oasis, and he took us on a guided tour of the tombs or Bahariya. The tombs or Baharirya was dug around 300B.C. in the 26th Dynasty of the Egyptians. The tombs are quite smaller than the ones at Luxor or the Pyramids, however, there were dug entirely out of solid rock, that exists under the desert sand. The tombs sat about 20ft below ground, and were perfectly preserved, with the original color paintings on the walls still bright, as well as perfectly carved stone and rooms. In each of the tombs, there was an initial entrance, then a large room about 6 ft tall, with four large stone columns carved out. Surrounding this main room were smaller rooms in which the mummies and scarphogi were buried. The tombs were made for local governance officials as well as other nobles of the Egyptian rulers at the time. Inside, they found 6 full mummies with some gold plated coverings still intact. These tombs were great as not only did that have some A/C in them, which no other tombs in Egypt had, but that they do not get the large amount of tourists to ruin them. It was an honor to see them first hand. I have one picture that I took here. They took the mummies to a nearby museum, in which were allowed to go to, but in general is not open to the public. Thank you AUC!

Something funny: For a little background on the tombs here in Egypt as a whole, there is a comical thing that I have discovered, along with my friend Jessica. The way that most tombs in Egypt have been discovered has not been through technology or perseverance on behalf of the local Egyptologist or Archeologists, but instead by local donkeys. Most of the major tombs, including Tutankhamen in Luxor, 4 temples and tombs in the Oases Deserts including Bahariya, Dakla and Al Kharga, the Roman Outpost in Cairo, as well as the entrance to the pyramids of Sakara, have all been found by donkeys walking along the desert and falling into the open tombs below. From there the tombs are uncovered and excavated. So, it is the running joke of my friend Jessica and I, to let a herd of donkeys strapped with GPS go wild in the desert, in any direction they want, and as soon as we see one fall into the sand, we will have struck gold and new piece of Egyptian history.

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The Deserts of the Black and White, and the Accident in between.

The next morning we arose to breakfast at the hotel of normal Egyptian food, bread, foul (beans, my favorite!) and vegetables. After breakfast we stepped outside to see a long convoy of 4x4 Land Rovers parked in the driveway of the hotel. This was to be our transportation for the day to the Black and White Deserts and then on to Dahkla.

We drove through the Black Desert on our way to the White Desert, which earns its name from the black iron dusting that exists on the ground as far as the eye can see. It is here that Egypt scrapes the iron off the sand and then melts it down to make steel. It is quite a sight to see, like none I have seen in the U.S. so far, and when I was standing in the middle of it, I felt like I was visiting another planet.

After we had left the Black Desert, we proceed to the White Desert. However, we had a minor, but luckily not worse, accident on the way. Let me explain…

I and three others were lucky enough to be riding in the lead 4x4 of our convoy and our driver Mustafa was the leader of all the drivers. As we were driving for a while, Mustafa looked in the rearview mirror and noticed that none of the other 4x4’s were behind us. We stopped and waited for a sec and then turned around to see where the other Land Rovers where. As we drove back down the road, Mustafa and I had a bad feeling about why the other vehicles were not behind us. Soon, I could see a group of Land Rovers in the road, with some of them off the road. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I stuck my body out the window as we were driving and I saw the Land Rovers strewn about everywhere on the road and a few far off the road. Finally, when we arrived to the group, I noticed that about 90% of the vehicles had damage on them. Especially, the two that were far off the road. So, basically, there was a massive pile up that took place and we missed the whole thing.

What had happened was the Land Rover behind my vehicle had stalled and pulled to the side of the road. The driver followed protocol for such and incident and waved to the next Land Rover after his to stop. The second Land Rover that stopped to see if all was alright, had stopped right in the middle of the road next the broken Land Rover. Soon, a third vehicle who do not see the other stopped in front of them, shot right between the two stopped vehicles, shaving off the side paneling and the mirrors of all three vehicles as it smashed through. Soon, a 4th, 5th and 6th vehicle had smashed through the now dusty area and had hit the first few vehicles. The Land Rover that got it the worst was the very last vehicle. Our ALI secretary, Mrs. Sherine, was sitting in the front seat of the last Land Rover and as it smashed directly into the back of another parked Land Rover, she proceeded to fly into the windshield and cut her head severely.

When my Land Rover arrived I immediately got out and tried to assess the situation. Most of the students were dazed and shaken up, but not injured. However, there were 4 people including Sherine that were pretty badly hurt, mostly coming from the last two vehicles, with concussions and cuts. A few of us attended to those that were hurt and also the drivers who were very upset for crashing into each other.

The most amazing thing about this accident is that even though we were 150 miles away from either oasis and any sort of clinic or aid station, in either direction, about 20 minutes after we had started first aid on those that needed it, another Land Rover was driving towards us. It just so happens that the driver was the only doctor in the area of both the Bahariya and Dahkla oasis. Amen to Murphy’s Law once again, as the most improbable thing, just might be the most probable. The doctor deemed everyone ok and gave some painkillers to those that needed them. The drivers pushed the worst of the Land Rovers to the side to the road, meaning that two were totally broken and out of commission and to be left in the desert for another day or two or however long it would take to retrieve them.

When we arrived at Dahlka, the Egyptian Military made us report the accident, as word travels fast, even in the desert. We waited for three hours in the bus and a nearby café to the military checkpoint until all injured people and all of the drivers had written down what had happened and that all injuries were attended too. All and all, it was still a great day it could have been much worse, maybe even fatal. Thank God it was not so and for being in the first Land Rover! More stories to come.

My Other Blog

I have created another blog to help convey some of my frustration or excitement about the world around me and I will be posting videos there from time to time to share with you all. I encourage you to watch if you have the time. Thanks!

Mike

http://mikegrafsvideos.blogspot.com/

A day in Cairo

Today was like many other days here, but worth writing about. I have just recenty began reading a book called The Art of Thinking Clearly, which I had found in my search for literature to read on my daily commute to school. It is a great book about logic and memory, and one of the main point the author stresses, is that all people think according to the memories that they have had. The author goes on to state the it is very important, for humans more so, to record what it is that happens to them in order to accurately reflect on the memories they have, in turn keeping our thought processes factual and logical. Today, was a day I would like to reflect upon later in life.

To start the day, I had initially set my goal to get up at 730am to begin my preparation for the day and to include coffee and breakfast, coffee being the most important of the two. However, I had snoozed my phone as soon as the alarm had gone off, and over slept until about 830am. Upon getting ready, I had already disappointed myself for not sticking to my plan. However, it seems I am doomed to fail my attempts at being further self disciplined in being productive early in the morning, due to my lack of sleep at night, from the heat and noise of Cairo. So, I am coming down to a mind over matter debate in which, even though I fall asleep late, that it will not affect my schedule the next day. I must try this attempt at just getting up and not hitting snooze as a lesson to myself.

However, my intentions for my morning were to be that I would visit the Egypt Air office in Talat Harb area of Cairo, in order to finish my booking of my trip to Rome for New Years Eve. The office opens at 9 and I wanted to be the first one there. So, instead I arrived at about 920, without coffee or breakfast, only to take a number, about 5 away from the current customer, and sit and wait. As, I waited for my number to be called, I noticed one Egypt Air associate helping customers. His window was one of about 10, and as I waited to be called many other Egypt Air employees began arriving to work. Each of them, about 7 total, strolled in anywhere between 930am and 1015am, went to the time clock, clocked in, and then went to their respective windows behind the counter. Each of them, men and women alike, sat down at their window, and just sat there. At first, there was an unspoken concensus amongst the waiting customers that they were obviously waiting for something. However, as the morning creeped by, it was now 1020am, that none of them seemed remotely interested in helping the now full lobby of Egyptains and foreigners alike. Tension could be felt building as the room became more and more crowded, as each person was instructed to take a number and wait. Wait for what,  we thought? For Mubarak to die or something? The next ice age? The Egyptain man next to me became overwhelmed with impatience and went to the counter and spoke to the associates idly sitting there. I didn’t even have to understand the Arabic he spoke to them to know that he was asking why they weren’t working to help us? In response, they asked if he had a number, Yes, well sit down then and wait then. So, by this time it was 1030 and I was still two numbers away from being called. Meanwhile, to keep us entertained, one of the loitering other travel company head hunters that were waiting outside, got into a fight with a passerby, who told them he was here to visit the Egypt Air office and that he is not going with their scams to sell him tickets at another located nearby. So, finally my number was called, at 1045, and I bought my ticket to Rome, and said goodbye to my friends that I had made in the last hour or so.

My impression was, what was that all about? The employees just sat there, in front of us, for an hour, doing nothing. Why? Now, I do not write this to say I was impatient, I have come to know that nothing here is done easily, nothing. However, it gives me a great cultural impression to see that many Egyptains lost their cool long before I did. Their frustration was widespread throughout the 50 or so people waiting to be helped. Further, the lack of an explaination or even a sign of a sense of urgency or guilt from the Egypt Air staff, only exasterbated that situation. I was happy that I got there when I did, and I didn’t feel as bad for being 20 minutes late in my dream schedule. However, the culture here is one of mass frustration. You can see it in people’s eyes everywhere, when something is bad or is not working. However, that is where it stops, there in their eyes, normally, as cab driver will not get road rage at a traffic jam, or as a Egyptain who just ordered a sheesha at a café, it never shows. Not many people here are willing to do anything about it, especially the people in power who can do things. Everyone says, inshallah, which means “if god wills it” as there only way of keeping calm. Sometimes, I think to myself, that even though I know there is more to it than that to create fundamentalism and radicalism, I think partially that is why religion flourishes here. People cannot change their everyday lives, and leave it to God. Ironically however, here of all places the littlest things that can be done, like using blinkers on cars, thinking that “Hey, if I park my car in the middle of this bridge, that it just might affect some of the other 10 million people around me.” So, all frustration aside, from all parties involved, it is a learning lesson of patience and importance of doing things right, completely and the first time around.

Which brings me to my next subject, my progress in Arabic. So far, the language is not above my level, but it does take a significant amount of time, and pondering of the meanings and rules, to grasp. I have a daunting task ahead of me, but I am going to make it fruitful, worth it, and I will do it right, completely, and since this is really my first time studying it, I will take advantage of my opportunity, as I may not get another. I took my first quiz today, which I studied for, but could have done more, and I thought I did well enough on it to say that I am indeed making progress. However, on my commute home, my classmate Conner spoke with our teacher, and she reported that our class as a whole, or at least a majority of the students, are not retaining what is needed for our class fly through our lessons. So, I hope I am a minority, but I will study even harder to make sure I won't be in the future.

Ok, so on to some positive stuff. Upon arriving downtown, another aquintance that I have met here, Ben Friedman from DC and attends school in Ann Arbor at Michigan, and who I think is Jewish, not that it matters, but for the record, invited Conner and I to an Iftaar in Shourba, Cairo, with some Sudanese refugees. Hearing this, I instantly said yes, took a 180 degree turn away from walking toward my apartment or 'shaqqa', and hopped on the metro instead. We arrived in Shourba, at a very crowded metro station, about 20 mintues before sunset. Hailing a cab, we proceeded to drive away from downtown, but further into a lesser developed, crowded part of Cairo, with everyone around us trying to get home, to break fast, and calm their hungry stomachs. We arrived a large trash heap on the side of road and got out of the cab. We then walked into a very narrow alleyway, until we came upon some buildings, run down, but functional, to a large metal door that lead inside. Going into this building, we could see it was very old, as the stairwell we took was made of old stone, very dark, had small steep steps and a low ceiling. We climbed up about 4 floors to arrive in a very small two room/bedroom shaqqa, in which 8 Sudanese men where sitting closely together on the floor, with a large spread of food between them. They all offered us to sit and join them, which we did, and we ate together, even before some formal greeting where exchanged. The food was awesome! Everything was fresh, and freshly cooked. We had the basic staples of most Egyptains, rice, salad, boiled beef, potatoes with red sauce, and mayya (water). However, this feast was much better than even the food given to me by Mahmoud’s family, which is also quite good. The beef was perfectly cooked, with some mystery seasonings, that was the best I have had here in Egypt. Also, the bread was different than the wheat khubs(bread, but meaning 'life') that all the Egyptains eat, but instead was a flat pancake like bread, like that found in Somolia and Ethiopia, and even I guess, in Sudan. The potatoes were amazing, as well and the whole meal, made for a great Iftaar, even though I am not fasting.

After the meal we exchanged names for the first time and then began to talk in Arabic. Ben, who is pretty good, as he studied for 4 years at Michigan, and 1 year in Egypt, talked the most. Conner, Joel another friend of Ben’s, and I said what we could, but wasn’t much. Our topics ranged from the Arabic language, to the AUC’s move, to Sudan (although brief) to Obama and the election in the U.S. They all uninanimously said that they wanted Obama to win, as “McCain is too much like Bush.” They said that he brought a change to the American political scene, and that being from Kenyan roots, that his was moral and had the people in mind with his decisions. This was interesting to hear, and refreshing for me, it was eye opening to hear just how much the rest of the world, especially Sudanese refugees, are watching this election. I pray to God, for a change, that we (the U.S.) don’t disappoint them. I tried to inquire just what they were running from in Sudan, knowing that it could be a variety of things, but quickly saw the topic was a sore subject and was to be avoided. We moved on, and were challenged to a game of football (soccer) of Sudan vs the U.S. I had a gut feeling it was to be an ass kicking if we played, but luckily they said that we should do it another time. So, the pain will wait instead. Soon, it was getting late and we had to leave.

Conner, Joel and I left, while Ben stayed longer, and we arrived downtown again. As soon as I got up to my shaqqa, the power on the block went out, but just my building and the ones immediately next to it. So, I sit here in the dark writing this before my battery on my laptop goes out, hoping that the power will come back on so I can shower and get ready for my trip to the Desert Oases of western Egypt tomorrow. It should be fun and I will write more!

That’s all for now from Cairo!

Mike

Cultural Difference Observation 1

As far as my life, things are well. The biggest thing that I am getting used to is the hospitality. It is crazy how nice everyone is here. Especially just walking down the street, since I stand out so much :) People look at me, smile and say welcome, or ahlan wa sahlan. But, there is a downside to the hospitality as well. The people here do not know when to say no. They will give, and give, and give, and say yes, yes, yes.  They will do it to the point that it hurts them. So, being a foreigner, I have to know when they are giving a lot, maybe too much and say no. Here is an example:

While my friends were here, we wanted to go to Luxor. So it is a cheap train ride, but a long one, 8-12 hours, to Luxor. I went to the train station to buy tickets for us and they had none to sell. The trains were full for the beginning of Ramadan. A tourist police officer came over to help me, and then seeing that the train was full, he said he could get me tickets anyway. He told me to come back the next day at 8pm, about an hour before the train left, to get any unsold tickets that might be around. I agreed and went back to the train station the next night to get these tickets. When I got there, I spoke with the Tourist Police again, and they said I was too early, even though I was there on time. They told me to wait 45 minutes, about 15 minutes before the 9pm train left. I waited, and then 45minutes later, they said the tickets won't be ready until 11pm. They assured me that I could get tickets that night, no matter what so, I stuck around until 11pm. When 11pm hit, the tourism police found me and gave me 4 tickets from Luxor to Cairo, for the next night...  I told them that was great, but I needed tickets to get from Cairo to Luxor first, and that the next train left Cairo at 1230AM. They said it is no problem and that I should wait until 12pm and I would get the tickets I needed. I waited around and midnight came and went, then I waited some more until about 1225am. I found the tourism police again and they were still tying to get tickets. I told them that I could just go home and come back tomorrow to take another train, and that it was no big deal if I went or not to Luxor, and I could just go to Alexandria instead. They told me no, that they had tickets for me and that I would now take the 1am train to Luxor. So, patiently I waited again, and then right before 1am, they tourism police came up to me and gave me four little pieces of paper. On them was hand written, in Arabic, that supposedly said, tickets to Luxor. I laughed and asked if this was for real and would actually work on the train? They assured me that it was ok....

So, now I had makeshift round trip tickets for four people to go to Luxor on the 1am train, which ended up being 30 minutes late. So, we got on the train to Luxor at 130am, after waiting since 8pm. We then found out that the seats were not next to each other and also in different cars. This was not acceptable because, my friends, being Sorority girls who spoke no Arabic (no offense girls), and who were also looked at as pieces of American meat here, would have to sit next to Egyptian/Arab men for up to 11 hours. So the tourism police told us it was not a problem and that we could sit next to each other. I agreed and then when we got on the train, the tourism police started kicking people out of there seats and told them to sit elsewhere, even though they were already situated on the train first before it even got to Cairo. I did not like this as, now it seemed to me that an exception was being made for us, and that because of some special treatment, ordinary paying Egyptians were paying the price. This was not my intention, what so ever, and I wish they would have just told us it was not possible to take the train and not go through such a long, difficult process, just so we could piss off some sleepy Egyptians at 130 in the morning. So that being said, they don't know when to say no here, but it was a good thing that the girls were able to sit somewhat near me and each other on the way to Luxor, and only Stephanie was slightly fondled, which was bad enough and could have been worse, by the Egyptian man sitting next to her pretending to be asleep with wandering hands.

This lack of restraint to me and policies behind them are bias, especially to the favor of foreigners, and that is a synonym of the political atmosphere, in which the government caters to tourists and foreign objects, ideas, and goods, instead of promoting local peoples, customs, and goods to help the struggling economy here. This catering is breeding a slight bit of social unrest from the locals against the policies of the Mubarak regime and the U.S. presence here and I may note that if more severe policies are taken to I am curious to see if the same policies are enforced for other foreigners here, such as Europeans and mainly Russians. That will be for later.

Cairo, Egypt- Week One

Ahlan was Sahlan or Hello and Welcome all! It is my intention to write my general thoughts and impressions here for all to read about my experiences and then to write email updates as to more direct things. I encourage you to hit me back with any feedback or questions you might have as I would love to discuss them with you further :).

I arrived in Cairo on Monday August 25th and I have preceeded to stay with my former Fulbright Arabic Teacher Mahmoud El-Sedawy and his family in Helwan, Egypt, or about an hour south of Cairo. Mahmoud and his family have to be some of the most caring individuals that I know. The family has taken me into their home and have been cooking me more that food then I can ever eat. The food is very good as I will eat almost all of it, with exception to some of the goat products. They just dont beat cow's milk products. After a few days of getting acclimated to Cairo, I decided to spend the first week with my friends Sihomara, Ashely and Stephanie, who were starting out a two month world tour of Europe, by visiting Cairo. The girls were to visit me for about a week and it was my intention to give them a quality glimpse into the culture of Arabs as much as I could. After their first night in Cairo, with a visit to a local cafe to drink Manga Asiir (Mango Juice) and to smoke some apple sheesha (hooka), the girls truely enjoyed the seemingly calm, laid back atmosphere that could exist within a town of 18+ million people.

In my first week here I have done a lot of touristy things. I started off in traditional Egyptain fashion by visiting one of the many hundreds of Egyptain cafes that are situated on just about every corner of Cairo's city blocks. The more away from the main streets you go to sit at a cafe, the better, as it is the real Egyptain culture, and the prices decrease from 15LE (Egyptain Pounds) to about 3LE for the same items. My favorite place that the girls and I visited quite a bit during our first week, in which Mahmoud highly approved of is, Cafe Zizo, located in a walking street across from the Meramis Hostle on Sabri Abou Alam St near Talat Harb Square. Sayyid the owner, is the best cafe manager that I have seen yet, and was always more than happy to have us in his Cafe.

One of the next few nights that girls and I took a dinner cruise on the Nile. The boat was called the Memphis and was extremely nice. Once inside they boat crew has a spread of Calamari, Ravilois, Egyptain Rice and Salads, as well as Samaka (fish) and Lamb in a buffet line ready to eat. We all dug in and proceeded to eat, when we noticed that a lot of the people around us were far more dressed up than we were. I asked what the occasion was and I was told that there were two Arab wedding receptions that were being held together. Instantly, I felt honored to observe the festivities. The reception were pretty similar to most American weddings, minus the alcohol of course, and the bride and groom took lots of pictures together, danced a bit and then cut the cake. After the cutting of the cake, a Sufi band played and a talented belly dancer took to the dance floor. She was very good and conservative as well. Soon, the belly dancer was pulling men and children out of their chairs to dance with her while everyone else took pictures. She pulled each of us from our group to the floor and we all enjoyed a little belly dancing. See the pictures. After the belly dancing we had a whirling durvish dance come out to the floor. If you do not know what this is, a whirling durvish is a man or woman who spins in circles for about 20-30 minutes doing dance routines and stunts with out getting dizzy. Soon, the dancer was also pulling people out onto the dance floor to let them try to dance/spin. Everyone the went up there became dizzy/sick within a few spins and has to sit down. It was a sight to see. So all in all the Nile cruise was far worth the 130LE pounds ($22) we each spent for such a great time.


The next night we took a overnight train to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings and Queen Hapetshut's temple (spelling?). In Luxor alone, there are one third of the entire world's historical monuments. It is said that you need to take a least 4-5 day to really see everything. Unfortunately, we were only going to be there for a day. So in turn, we went to the Valley of King's first and second, the Queen's temple. We took an air conditioned van with our own personal Egyptologist guide. Both were amazing as it was surreal to walk on monuments and the paths where the original monuments were built 4000+ years ago. We were very lucky as the crowds were very low that day, and we were able to see a lot in just a little time. After visiting the girls and I had dinner on the Nile with our Egyptoligist Amal. She told us that she had just got accepted to Oxford to get her doctorate in Egyptology. It was very cool to have such an expert give us a tour in Luxor. However after dinner we had to return to our train to get us back to Cairo and about 9 hours later we were back to the hectic and crowded streets of Cairo.

The last day before the girls left we went to the Pyramids in the morning and rode camels. It was very cool to ride a camel as I think they are much more comfortable to ride than horses, however, they do spit, gurgle, drool, and fart more than horses do, so I must take the good with the bad... Seeing the pyramids is an amazing experience. Period. Just driving to Giza from Cairo, you can see the structures looming in the distance. Their massive presence dwarfs any other man made object, or any other object in the area. Then once you stand next the base of the big Pyramids, it is hard to fathom just what amount of effort and work it took to make them. It is an remarkable experience and even though I have seen them twice now, I would always accept another invitation to see them more and admire their majestic presence. Furthermore, the more I read and learn about the Pharaohs and the ideology that they had, with regards to the afterlife. It further makes an admirer out of me to appreciate the wisdom, intelligence and spirituality that the Ancient Egyptians lived in their everyday lives.











In the last night the girls were in Cairo, we met up with Baby Mo, once more, for some great Egyptian food in a nice place in Zamalek Island, in the middle of the Nile, and smoked some more sheesha. We had a great time that night and really for the week the girls were here. I am glad they were able to see it and maybe open there minds to such a contrasting culture to our own, and appreciate that good and bad points that each culture has. I will save the academic perspective of the cultural observations for future blogs, but for starting out I think it is better to write my blog to be generally informative to all with out going into further details. Maybe instead I'll save them for my graduate thesis papers, who knows... Anyway, please check back soon for more updates!

Maa'salamma (Go in Peace)

Mike

The New Campus- First Impression

After taking an hour bus ride and passing massive future developments, earth excavations and upcoming commercial business parks, we arrive literally, to the desert/new campus, again. Huge walls separate the desert from a very large-scale construction endeavor that is the new AUC campus. Upon walking into the campus though side entryway, myself and my fellow bus passengers walk into a large open courtyard, that despite its openness and exposer to the sun, seems cools and tranquil. Not knowing our bearings, Egyptian and foreign students alike look to find someone, anyone, that can show them the way, to wherever they need to go. For me, it was the Arabic Language Institute’s office. For once, in my life, I did not know which direction was which. Which is ironic for me, as this new journey to a new school is seemingly one of the most important times in my life and I should know which way to go. The good thing for me was that I was not the only confused student in the crowd, as today was the first day for all 5,500 students at the AUC. Soon, I saw a large lone tent at the edge of the courtyard, with two Egyptians basking in the shade, watching everyone looking at the sky and the large buildings surrounding them. I noticed a small sign by the tents that read in small letters, "Information."

This being the first stop towards getting my bearings back, I approached the tent to ask where the ALI office was. The reply I received, which, until my trip to Egypt, I would normally think abnormal, was “we don’t know.” I laughed and asked for a map of the campus. I was promptly handed one, but even though it was neatly drawn and professionally printed, I the map lacked two important things, a legend and a compass. Seeing the lack of directions on the map, I asked the students at the desk, where exactly we were on the map to get a base starting point for myself, and got a similar reply. “We don’t know. Asif."(Arabic for sorry).

So, all in all, I considered finding my way around just another challenge in my ongoing gauntlet of making sense of the Egyptian way... I just started walking and soon I found the office I was looking for, I was promptly disappointed to see, that my department has not even moved into the offices here at the new campus. So, my quest to find out my schedule and which rooms my classes would be in, I would have to wait, again, until probably the last minute, just like the Egyptians, like it is here...

I continued to walk around the huge 260-acre campus to make the best of my first day and to find my way around and enjoy the beautiful architecture that some great minds, somewhere, had created in order to make this campus a beacon for education for Egypt and the Middle East.

Upon sitting down to record my thoughts, an older man sat down next to me in one of the bamboo chairs scattered about the giant courtyard, and asked me what I thought of the new campus. I was glad he asked, because I was looking to find a sentence to describe this place that I could convey my thoughts on paper (cleaned it up a little ☺). “Simply, the new campus, is everything the AUC has dreamt it would be, as the school has a second first chance to build an oasis institution of education, where the best aspects ancient and modern architecture, design and technology converge, all alone, in the desert, far from the congestion, chaos and honking of cars, in the heart of Cairo, that was the old campus." I think he liked the answer, but I don't think he understood it as I did. The AUC was about to face new challenges as it propelled itself into the mainstream. This old man may not have been ready to hear that.

Being on the new campus made me excited for the potential the school has to be modern, edgy and new. I am excited to spend my time here, and I think that things will get even better as time goes. Truly, I envy those student that will attend the AUC when all of the wrinkles have been ironed out and become distracted by the periphery disarray.