Bon Voyage Update

Here are the details of the trip:
Bus from here to Saint Catherine, Begin climbing Mt Sinai around midnights so that we'll be there for sunrise (and it won't be hot). Descend in the morning.
The next day at midnight we're going to start climbing Mt. Catherine, the tallest mountain in Egypt. We might sleep up there for a night or maybe not.
Then we're going to take the bus to Dahab and chill out for a day or two before returning to Cairo. Yeahyah!

What's your angle on travel?

Off to Sinai tomorrow! I read today that biblical scholars don't actually think Mt. Sinai in Egypt is the Mt. Sinai (it can't actually be geographically located or something). I'm a bit disappointed that it won't be like.. THE place, but I'm sure I'll get the idea. Maybe it's THE place, although I guess it is too far south to make sense... I've been arguing a bit with one of the boys on the trip about it; he and I are approaching the trip from different angles. He thinks everyone should be there an hour early, but when I bought the tickets they told me at the bus-station that we should come half-an-hour early. He thinks that everyone on the trip should give 400 pounds to one person (so one person would be carrying 3600 pounds) in order to pay expenses that everyone needs to pay. I think dude, 400 pounds is a lot for just one person to be carrying; what if the person with 3600 is robbed! Gah! He also is sending us all emails about how we must wear cotton socks and must carry 15 liters of water for a 2-3 day hike where we will not even be in nature the whole time. He said he felt like undermining him- who died and made him King of Mount Sinai?!? Anyways though, I feel bad about it and am fully planning on being extremely nice to him tomorrow. AND I'm stoked for the trip! Becca and I packed up our packs tonight, and all is well in Hooverville. My Northface day pack holds hella stuff!! Already packed plastic bags to collect sand for Aunt Jean and Ksticker to for a photoop. The week of two days of class wrapped up nicely also. We have a lot of homework for the break though! In my class tonight (the one that I teach), the students pronounced terrorist and tourist the same way- rather sickly humorous. The reading in this chapter was about Love too, which was very interesting to discuss, funny too. Tonight is the end (or almost the end) of eid which was very exciting on the way home in the taxi. Apparently the moon didn't actually end up coming out today so there might still be fasting tomorrow. Either way, everybody seems pretty happy that Ramadan is over, and I am too, because I'm off on another vacation adventure!

Weekend

Hello Everyone!
It's the last day of the weekend here (Saturday), but we have a short school week- just two days of school before eid starts. I am going on a backpacking trip in Sinai for the break. We're climbing Mt. Sinai (where I fully expect to be handed sacred tablets of stone) and also the tallest mountain in Egypt. We're also going to one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world. I'm excited for the trip!! Later today I'm going to go search for a backpacking backpack and a sleeping bag. This morning I've just been doing some homework and some cooking. I made big dutch babies, an super fantastic breakfast food we used to eat a lot in Templeton. I've also been hanging out with the cat, who is in a horrible biting phase! He loves to run up and bite your ankles, or try and bite your wrists while you're typing on the computer, or chew on the power cords to things. Right now he is resting on my lap, which is a great relief let me tell you. He's getting really big too. We decided he's going to grow up to be super cat; he's so spoiled, but super cute too. Later today I'm hoping to go play frisbee with some friends, and go backpacking supply shopping (Must find Egyptian REI, which is apparently called Carfour...). I am excited to get some exercise at least, which is rather hard to come by here. I'm thinking about joining the gym because there's a nice, basic one a short distance from my house, but it would just be another thing to pay for. I've been running a couple mornings a week but it is still hot at 6am, and there are still gawking men awake at 6am, there is still pollution at 6am, AND 6am is still 6am, :-). SOOOOO perhaps I'll have to see about that gym. I'm excited at least because I'm hopefully going to do a triathlon on October 17 in Sharm El-Sheikh, and also start doing some diving with one of my friends who got certified. I can't wait!!
Love,
Ali

I never thought I'd write a paragraph such as the one to follow, but here goes: Tentatively, my current vision for winter break (I've just finished scheming): fly to Athens December 20 (one way ticket currently 220 USD). Then slowly make my way back to Cairo via Croatia (maybe, it'd be a detour) and then Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Isreal, and Palestine. This website is awesome and lonely planet is god (as we've taken to saying here). Hopefully I'd make it home to Cairo around or before January 10, making that a three week trip. THEN I am scheming to go to Kenya and Tanzania and Zanzibar for two weeks, tickets to Nairobi currently 500 USD round-trip. All that's not really a plan, just.. a scheme. I figure it'll be a lot cheaper if I start to figure it out now though. So I'm scheming away, perhaps it will become reality. MORE close to reality, I'm going to Jordan for Eid! I'm going to go to Petra and float in the dead sea and see sand and old stuff.. yeehaw! It's actually funny how awesome all this would be if/when I make it happen. Yeehaw! (again!)

Another school week, and then next week we have another break. Our school here sure takes a lot of vacation. I think I'm going to go to Sinai and Jordan during the break. For now I am studying and commuting a lot, and teaching my English class twice a week. Tonight I realized I need to learn how to teach English grammar better! It's hard since I'm a native speaker! Other than that the class is going well; today we read Obama's acceptance speech. I'm also looking for good book recommendations. I am on the bus for about three hours each day, so there is a lot of reading time! I actually don't mind the commute because it's slows the pace of the day down and gives time for reflection and such. I love looking out the window too. The other day I saw a truck bed filled entirely with discarded animal parts, such as the head, feet, and intestines. Rather revolting surprise when I looked out the window that morning :-) Also guys, if you leave comments, type your name at the end (unless you want to be anonymous). Mom, I think it's you who never signs your name! I hope all is well in California. Love, Ali.
P.S. Come visit me!

Some pictures, courtesy of my friend Josh, from our trip to Bahiriya and the black and white desert. There's me in the white desert, sunset over the white desert, as well as me and Miriam there, and at the end there's a picture of all four of us, right before we headed back to Cairo. Click to enlarge.

Experimentally, this is my address:

Ali Glenesk
1 El-Gezira El Wosta Street, Tower A
Across from the Flamenco Hotel, Zamelek
Cairo, Egypt

By experimentally, I mean you could send a letter to see whether it gets here or not, but who knows! (what a fun game...) If I do get mail, I can start to let everyone know what percentage of the time it arrives, and then you'll have a better idea of your odds.

Two recent successes:
I've been drinking tap water for a week and haven't gotten sick yet. I also haven't gotten sick at all yet in Egypt, unlike most of my friends. Go me.
I went to the Mogama (big, scary Egyptian Governmet Building) downtown today, and was able to obtain a year-long visa in just a few hours.
Hooray!

Today I went to the biggest mall and the biggest grocery store I've ever been too. I also went to H&M and Starbucks. After the first week at school I decided I needed some fancy sunglasses at least, not only for functionality out at our school in the desert, but for some semblance of fitting in with the upper-class Egyptians. Sooooooo.. I met up with some girlfriends and citystar, a HUGE mall. I was totally tripping the whole time about how big and fancy everything was. At H&M they had all these spaghetti strap shirts and the girls just buy them and where them over underarmor type long sleeves. Anyways, I bought two new shirts and sunglasses at H&M. It's interesting because the price tags have all the currencies from around the gulf. Let me tell you, over their in Saudi and Kuwait, their money is doing pretty well! Then we went to this HUGE store named Spinneys which is called a hypermarket, where I bought peanut butter and jelly and..... SCRABBLE IN ARABIC. Definitely excited about that. We also got some stickers of hijabi barbies and decorated our phone. Then I headed back home in a taxi while the sun was setting over the city. Now I'm off to ifTar dinner at Alyssa and Nisreen's, and then to a party at my friend Wolf's rooftop apartment. Much needed, relaxing and fun Friday!

Here is a picture from the desert trip, taken in a village near Bahariya. Dead bird and lots of children! They are showing the bird to the photographer and I'm in the background. Photo Credit: Australian kid named Aaron we met along the way.

Tidbits learned about life in Cairo though living in Cairo, the list:

-If you walk on the sidewalk, beware. Water from the air conditioners WILL drip on you.
-American fast food is upper-class. There is a doorman and sit-down dining, and it's not so fast.
-McDonalds, KFC, grocery stores, and most stores deliver.
-Taxis are black and white with a yellow light on top. Unless you are going on a long ride, do not negotiate a price. Just get out of the cab and hand over what you know is fair through the window.
-If you buy a soda in a glass bottle from one of the shops on the street, you are expected to bring the glass bottle back for recycling (preferably you'll drink it there), or else you should pay more.
-The only underground Metro in Africa is in Cairo. It costs one pound no matter how far you're going (cheap!), and avoids all the traffic on the street.
-If you ride the Metro at IfTar time, a little boy will be running around giving dates to everyone to break their fast.
-Because of Islam, most types of crime are very rare in Cairo. Cairo has lower rates of crime than almost every American city.
-School and work week is Sunday through Thursday.

I taught my second class today. It went so well. I have 19 students now, two women and the rest guys, although only one girl was there today. She spoke the most quietly, but she knew the most! I brought a copy of USA Today and they were so happy to read it. The favorite topics of discussion are sports and Barack Obama. Everybody here loves Obama! They also asked about Sarah Palin and Lehman Brothers and the Hurricane and told me about the bombings this morning at the US Embassy in Yemen, which I hadn't even heard about yet. One guy, Magboul, said he had a special question for me: Do people in America know what is going on in Sudan? I said that some people wanted to learn more about Sudan when they heard about Darfur. He asked, "but Darfur only?" I said, "oftentimes yes," and he replied, "But why? We know about the hurricane and your banks closing and your president and your embassy. We don't know everything, but some. Why don't Americans want to know about Sudan?" Big question. We went on to do some grammar and expressions for speaking in past, present, and future. Things always come up that I haven't thought about before. Like how "They are going to the store." is present, but it can also be future if you just put soon or later after it. After class they all thanked me.. "Thank you teacher" -very nice!
My classes are going really well too. I study Arabic all day long! I have six classes: FusHA, FusHA writing, Spoken FusHa, Egyptian Colloquial, Egyptian Colloquial Conversation, and Arabic Media. I love them all! Some of my teachers are funny, some are strict and in your face, and some are laid back like they just woke up and are suddenly teaching a class- a good mix. I feel like I will learn a lot- it's so great how when I watch tv or talk with a cab driver or read billboards on the way home things come up that I learned that day. I was also thinking today about how I will have to make a conscious effort to speak ammeeya (colloquial). I need more Egyptian friends! It's funny because my friend was telling me how the Egyptian girls at school were making fun of how all the American girls wear such loose clothing. And most of the American girls left all their skinny jeans and tops at home to be respectful of customs in Egypt! It's very funny. You should see the outfits worn by upper-class Egyptians! My roommate were in the cafe last night- such great people watching, let me tell you! These girls were having a birthday party and they sang Happy Birthday in Arabic, which I was very excited about, because it was just how my teacher taught it at Berkeley.
Finally, it's almost Eid El-Fitr- the end of Ramadan! We have a week of school (AUC has so many holidays!). I can't decide what I'm going to do. I feel so lavish; the bigget of my problems is deciding where to go on vacation! Two of my friends I went to Dahab with are trying to convince me to go to Greece. We'd go to Myokonos, Santorini, and Athens. The flight there is 400 USD, and then it'd be around 300 for food and hostels and boats. It would be really nice, but I'd have to miss school for a day, and it seems so fancy to just like.. pick up and go to Greece for a week. Another guy I know might go to Tunisia, which is about a 200 dollar plane ticket. Then another guy might go to Lebanon and Syria, which is similarly priced plane ticket. The Lebanese-Syrian border is the easiest for Americans to get into Syria apparently, and things will be cheap once we get to Syria. On the other hand my roommates and I discussed going to Jordan and the territories. That'd probably be the cheapest trip, and apparently if you go to the King Hussein border crossing you can avoid getting an Israeli stamp in your passport (If you have an Israeli stamp you won't be allowed to enter many Arab countries). I have plenty of time to go to Israel/Palestine though, and I really want to go to Syria and Lebanon, so I'd be happy just to take the trip in Jordan, go to Aqaba, Petra, and Amman, and work in Mt. Sinai on the way home. I think I may have just convinced myself of the Jordan trip, but we'll see! What do you think?

Classes have begun! In the morning I take the bus about 50 minutes, and in the afternoon it's about an hour and a half. Campus is like a fashion show everyday! The Egyptians who attend my school are by and large well-off and they dress very nice. The foreign students (like me) look rather sloppy in comparison. I'm taking six classes, all arabic, and everything is going great so far. It all seems manageable too. My media class will be the hardest I think. It's reading the newspapers and listening to the radio; there's just so much vocabulary and the teacher is tough. I'm going to learn a lot though, and I'm really excited to start learning colloquial, which I don't know yet. In Arabic there is a standard called FusHa which is spoken in the news and written down, but no one ever speaks it. This is what they teach in universities in America, and it is what I've studied. It's little help on the streets here though, so that's why I'm excited for my colloquial classes. They're also just more fun, since you get to talk mostly and about day-to-day life. Today was also my first day teaching at St. Andrews. There are 18 adults in my class, mostly guys, from Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The class went really well actually, and I'm really glad I'm doing it! With the start of school I can foresee how the semester will be- commuting and studying and class out in the desert- so teaching shakes things up a bit, for the better. As I settle into the new routine I miss home a little bit (also since my mom just randomly got a puppy and I wish I could play with it!), but there are all these little things in the routine make me very happy. On the drive home we go past the pyramids, and when I walked to St. Andrews today, I walked on the bridge over the Nile at sunset. And all under the overpass, tables were set up for ifTar, waiting for the sun to set. My appreciation of small things here, which are new to me, sends me into reflection about the little nuances of life back home, and I find that it makes me appreciate both more. The world is so great!!

The desert trip was out of this world. Two nights, three days, and we all wore the same clothes the whole time! This is a long entry but I promise it is still just bare bones description. We started out with a rather uneventful bus ride to Bahariya Oasis, about five hours southwest of Cairo. Bahariya is the type of small town that you may be familiar with; everybody there seemed to know each other. Donkey carts and fruit stands and children running around everywhere. When we got off the bus in Bahariya all these guys are there of course, trying to take us off to this or that place or get in their car or whatever. One of them said he knew Safir in Cairo (the travel agency we'd arranged things with), so we got in the back of his Jeep. I was thinking on this trip about how traveling in Egypt, you really can't harbor any types of expectations and you cannot try and create a trip you envision. You must accept that you just will not know what is going to happen; excepting extreme danger, you MUST go with the flow, and happily accept the unexpected. For me and my traveling companions this wasn't a problem, it just was in my thoughts as we climbed into this random jeep with this random guy when we got off the bus. There were other points on the trip too where we weren't really sure how things were going to come together, but then everything always worked out amazingly, in an Egyptian type of way. We rode in the back of this jeep to a hotel where an amazing lunch materialized in front of us. We ate with an Australian kid who'd been traveling through the Middle East, and he joined us when we headed out into the desert. The four of us sat in the bench seats in the back of the jeep, and the Australian kid and the driver sat in front. We left Bahiraya and were soon in the Black desert. This trip made me wish I knew more about Geology! For some reason, all the rocks, and basically everything in the Black Desert are (of course) black. Around six pm we reached the White desert, where we stopped for the sunset/ifTar, so that the driver and his friends in another car we met up with could break their fast. The sun was bright orange as it set, casting warm light on all these Dr. Suess style rock formations surrounding us. It was pretty surreal, I must say. We were talking there about how there is the splendor of the Pyramids or the Taj Mahal, and then there is the splendor of the desert or the mountains, and it's a different animal entirely. We drove a bit from the place where we had ifTar and set up camp in the middle of White Desert. Our party was two jeeps, three Bedouin guys, two French guys (father and son), one Australian kid, and us four americans. They parked the jeep in an L shape, and lay out the camp at the crux of it. Miriam had this light-up frisbee which we tossed around in the desert- it looked like a flying saucer, and we seriously could have been on Mars what with all the crazy rock formations. Then it was dinner time! It was pretty lavish actually- they cooked amazing food for us, and tea afterwards, and then we ate sweet potatoes cooked in tinfoil in the coals of the fire. Sitting around the fire we were telling jokes in Arabic, English, French, and for some reason Spanish. The Bedouin guys music which was pretty ridiculous- flute-like instrument and drum and singing; Miriam and I danced a bit. We ventured to climb some of the rock formations before falling asleep under the stars (a special luxury- you can't see them in Cairo!) The following day we went to Crystal Mountain and Black Mountain in Bahariya, and saw some of the springs in Bahariya- what make it an Oasis I guess. We also drove into this village on the way back for some reason, and walked around with a large coalition of large eyed children in tow. They brought us to the spring, which was clear at first, but then flowed into a muddy pond/large puddle (not sure which), in which goats and ducks and turkeys and children slopped around. They were also very excited to show us this bird, a tropical looking creature, definitely floppy and dead, great fun for them to play with although we declined. We did eat the dates they offered though, before getting back in the jeep. That night we slept out in the Sandy dessert in the sand dunes, again great food and music. We also saw a scorpion!! Miriam was walking and was lucky enough to spot it before it spotted her. We all wanted to take a look at it, but when the Bedouin guys got wind of what was going on, they smashed it with a log as quick as can be. They told us that in the past they've cut open people's legs and sucked the poison blood out after they've been bitten. Yikes! We also saw a lot of scarab beetles, drank a lot of tee, and had some running races and wrestling in the sand. One of the guys had been in the Saka part of the Egyptian army, which is the most intense part (he said they have to eat live chickens and kill snakes and live in the desert for three days in the summer and sleep on Mt. Sinai in the winter and run around a lot). Anyways, he won all the contests easily. We slept a bit earlier, and got up a bit earlier the next day to get to the bus by 8. Another instance where we didn't really know how we'd get there or anything, but everything of course worked out. We got to downtown Bahariya and got on right at 8. The bus was mostly Arab guys, some women, a Spanish couple, and of course us four Americans. No AC, but we rode with the windows down and the wind was actually quite nice. An hour into the busride there's this exploding sound. I thought it was a gunshot at first, just cus some of the guys had brought their guns onto the bus, but it was just the tire blowing out. At this point we're in the middle of the desert of course. Most of the men get off the bus and the women look out the windows. There's some yelling in Arabic, then we just keep going (driving on the blown tire), the bus rather lopsided. Another hour passed and then with a slow fart, another tire went out. Same scenario again, except this time when we start off, the bus is noticeably tilted to one side. I was happily seated on the upside, which I for some reason decided would be safer if we rolled. All the rest of the way to Cairo cars honked to let us know (as if we didn't know), that two of the tires were blown. We mostly just took the attitude that it was hilarious, as the driver necessarily slowed down a fair bit after the bus was that lopsided, so it didn't feel too dangerous. When we finally got off the bus in Cairo, I saw how the back tire especially was barely there anymore, just shreds! I love Egypt! Can't wait for next adventure.

Another winner from the pyramids! Click to enlarge.

To my Dad: all for you. (and other Kman fanatics).
Also, I'm wearing my parents wedding shirt!
Otherwise, classic pic of me in front of the great pyramid, courtesy of my friend Andrea.

I went to the pyramids today!!! Because our classes were delayed a week, the Arabic Language Institute arranged tours for us around the city. Today I went with a group of about thirty to the Giza plateau. We had a guide who did her undergrad at AUC and her phd in Egyptology at Yale, so that was pretty great. Usually I try and avoid tour group activities, but I'm really glad I went. The guide had a ton of information and it was an amazing AND informative first trip to the pyramids. I didn't have a camera, but my friends took tons of pictures. Dad, I took one with a Kman sticker, just for you. I'll post it as soon as my friend sends it over- you better be happy!! Mom, I thought of you when I went inside the pyramids. Even if you were got on a plane here, I'm not sure you'd want to go inside a pyramid. It's crazy! There is a little door and a wooden ramp going down angled maybe... 50 degrees. There are metal rungs across so you don't slide down to the bottom. All the way down you have to bend over- I'd say the roof is only 3 or 4 feet. Meanwhile the humidity is crazy and it's just pretty stifling in there. I'm not sure where the air that is there comes from even, although I was grateful for it, however stuffy it was. At the bottom of the ramp you can stand up for a moment before another ramp starts going up again. Finally at the top of that one, it opens up into the tomb. I learned by the second pyramid that if you're in a large group (like I was), it's best to go in last. This way, you will avoid the discomfort of descending into this tiny passage way with tons and tons of people behind you and in front of you ie you'll be able to turn around! I didn't stay in the tomb very long- booked it out pretty quick- but it was crazy to be inside the pyramid, definitely one of my favorite parts of the day. We also saw one of those old boats with all the oars (a real, 3000 some year old one that was found buried next to the pyramid), the sphinx, some little pyramids, some camels and some hecklers. After the pyramids I had lunch with some friends and we popped into the travel agency to see how we might occupy ourselves for the last few days before school starts (haha, it sounds so lavish). Two friends and I are now going for two nights and three days to Baharia Oasis in Western Egypt. I'm so excited! It's 400 pounds a person for the trip. It's an easy 4-hour bus ride there, and then there are hot and cold springs, the black and white desert, and whatever else we discover. We're spending the first night in a hotel, and then the next day we're jeeping out to a camp in the desert for bbq and music and who knows what. I can't wait.

I want to make a short post regarding the rock slide earlier this week on the outskirts of Cairo. Over the past few years, the human side of natural disasters has become an important interest of mine. On September 6 in the Manshiyet Nasser area a large section of cliff broke away, falling on and subsequently destroying a densely populated and largely impoverished shantytown. At least 30 are now confirmed did, with hundreds still missing. This Al Jazeera English article has more details. What is always interesting to me in the aftermath of these disasters, is how there is a time when the issue is "sexy". There is a time when we bring canned food to school, or send our kids off on a mission trip, make a donation to the Red Cross, or send up a prayer. We think, oh how horrible that this disaster has happened. What I want to emphasize is that the effects of almost every single natural disaster are anything but natural. Vulnerability to disaster is produced over hundreds of years of political, economic, geographic, and social relations. I could carry on for many pages or many hours on this subject, but for my interests here perhaps it is best if I discuss a few examples. The same size earthquake kills thousands of people in Pakistan, and yet injures just a few in my hometown in California. This is an example of how years of history produce vulnerability to disaster- the affluent are less vulnerable. In New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina passed and people were home safe in their beds and THEN the levees broke. This itself is a huge discussion- the levees broke in very specific places and not in others, because the levees were and still are constructed differently in different parts of the city. Years of history and relations between people shape who lives where, such that now white, upper-class people live on the high ground, surrounded by the best levees. Even though their homes were largely untouched by flood water, these people were still able to evacuate in their cars, and drive away to safety. I have actually written a paper on this subject in New Orleans- please let me know if you want to read it. I am interested in the rock slide this week because I'd bet that if I had a choice not to live under a cliff I wouldn't, but if it was all I could afford I'd take it. I'd also bet that if a government who had helped me little in my life came suddenly and told me to evacuate, I probably wouldn't heed their advice. It is endlessly interesting to me the huge amounts of attention and relief that go towards these types of natural disasters, when in actuality their effects are anything but natural. At the conjunction of history, politics, engineering, and economy, social vulnerability is produced so that the effects of “natural” disasters are felt unequally. The groups most marginalized and disenfranchised before tragedy bear the brunt of ill effects during disaster and long afterward. As a result, the on the ground IMPACTS OF A NATURAL DISASTER ARE ANYTHING BUT NATURAL. Bearing this in mind, it makes me sad when "disaster areas" fall out of the limelight, when they are no longer "sexy" to care about. It seems to me that natural disasters simply illuminate and intensify inequalities and problems previously present. Thus in relief, we are not responding to just the effects of a hurricane or rock slide. The disaster is much bigger than that, and we should conduct ourselves as such.

The last few days I've just been relaxing in Cairo, staying up late and sleeping in until the afternoon- the Ramadan way! Last night Alyssa and Nisreen made AMAZING ifTar and I made baklava. The night before I met some of my flatmate's coworkers from Amideast at a party, and now I'm thinking of applying to intern there next summer. It's the biggest NGO in the Middle East, and they have offices almost everywhere! Today I sent in my CV to St. Andrews, a non-denominational relief agency for Sudanese refugees in Cairo. They already wrote me back and offered me a position! I'm going to review my class schedule, but I'm definitely hoping to accept their offer. I'd have a full ESL class and be in charge of making lesson plans and everything, but I think I can do it. I taught a full class in Delhi and I worked as a mentor in Berkeley for almost two years, so they hired me for a reason :-) The other big news is that we have a kitten! Becca found a litter in a park in Alexandria, and took the cat to her hotel room, and all the way home on the bus. Masterfully politically incorrect college students that we are, we've named the kitten President Mubarak. Tonight we're having some friends over for post-ifTar dessert so now I'm off to bake a cake!

Yesterday I made three small-world connections at one iftar dinner! First, I met a guy named Catin and we realized we have a mutual friend named Nikhil. I went to school with him in India, and then he moved to United World College where he went to school with Catin. Second, I met a guy named Yousef whose older brother goes to Boalt, so I mentioned an acqaintance of mine, Alaaeddine, the only person I know who goes to Boalt, and it turns out he and Yousef hung out all last spring break. The third one was the best one. Alyssa and her roommate Nisreen were hosting the iftar, and I've known both of them for awhile now. I met Alyssa at the airport when I got off the plane, and she introduced me to her roommate (they're both from Yale) as soon as she got here. There is a picture below of Nisreen and I at the market last week. Just last night though, Nisreen and I figured out we are both from SLO county!! Nisreen went to Paso High! It's funny actually because we both ran cross country and track and I'm pretty sure I've heard of 'the girl from Paso who went to Yale' before. It turns out we have all these mutual friends and acquaintances. It's just funny that we only met now in Cairo! We both went home and emailed our mutual friend Caitlin last night. It's a small-world after all! Besides making the small-world connections, the iftar was good. They'd prepared a great spread of rice, watermelon, ghobz (pita bread), falafel, tahina (hommos), cucumber, and some stuff I don't know the name of. Nisreen even served tea and coffee after dinner! They also have a kitten running around that literally fits in the palm of your hand- so cute! Becca and I and our new roommate (who got here yesterday) really want a kitten! I went to look for Malik yesterday but he was nowhere in sight. I guess we did the right thing to leave him with his mom, but I miss him! Alyssa and Nisreen's cat was a good substitute though. I'm not sure I've ever seen a cat so small! Besides the kitten, we also sat around playing guitar and catchphrase. A funny thing happened when I went to get the guitar and catchphrase game from my apartment. On the way back I ran into all the bowabs hanging out by the stairs (as they usually are). I asked Salim (our bowab), about a key for Christine, our new roommate. He was poking around for awhile and while I was waiting the other Bowabs asked me to play something. I wasn't sure if this would break some Egyptian boundary I was unaware of but I just decided to play anyways and it was fun. My guitar pick, a gift from my friend Eric, was stored wedged in the guitar strings and it fell out on the floor when I got the guitar out of the case. One of the bowabs picked it up and tried to hand it to me, but I usually play without it so I said shukran mish mohim meaning like.. thanks it's not important, at which point he chucked it over the railing. I guess when I said that he thought it was a piece of trash or something! I didn't want to let him know it actually wasn't, so I just kept playing. I thought it was pretty funny though. It got better when I went down like three stories to look for it (back at iftar, I knew one of my friends would prefer to play with a pick). The bottom floor of our building is a parking garage so when he chucked it over the railing that's where it probably landed. It was circuitous route down there, through areas I don't think women usually venture. I kept getting the 'what is this white girl carrying a huge guitar case doing here' look. When I finally got down there, there were of course all these puddles and debris and trash and egyptian guys wanting to help me. It's hard to explain what a guitar pick looks like in a foreign language! Besides knowing hand gestures and how to say white and small, I was basically at a loss. I don't know how to say flat or triangular! After awhile one of the guys picked up a moldy binky to see if that was what I was looking for, at which point I said again shukran mish mohim (words of the night apparently!), and went back to iftar. All of this struck me as rather hilarious and my friend ended up picking with a credit card, so it all worked out. Now I have the adventure of finding a music shop in Cairo, and now maybe I can buy a new pick and a capo as well. Yay for adventures!! Today is my first unplanned day since I got to Egypt, and so far I've been enjoying it. I finished my book Still life with woodpecker (which was really good!!), and now I'm starting Love in the time of Cholera. The start of school was pushed back to September 14 because they haven't finished the new campus, so I have some good reading time. Instead of classes they are arranging guided field trips for us. I'm not always excited about big group activities since I am horrible at being led around, but I signed up for the tour of Giza on the 8th, and Memphis and Saqqara on the 9th. I'm excited to finally see the pyramids! After that I'm thinking about going to Jordan, but I have to figure out the finances of it. In the meantime, I am trying to figure out how to use our semi-automatic washing machine! I tried to google it but that didn't produce much, so now I'm considering the 'just mess with it for awhile' method. Wish me luck!
Love,
Ali.

Sorry, these pictures are from a bit ago, but that's usually how it goes since I dont' have a camera- I only find them from friends later. These pictures are stolen from Alyssa. You can click on them to see bigger.

1. Little Malik again, in his plastic bag bed. I have to go find this fella!

2. Me in the amazing American style supermarket underneath my apartment.

3. Me and Alyssa's roommate Nisreen from Yale in Wekalel el-Balah last week.

4. Some animals in Wekalel el-Balah

5. Me in the famous Fishawry Cafe in Khan el-Khalili in Islamic Cairo.

6. Me walking around another area in Khan. I like this picture!

7. A shop or two in Khan.

The last night in Dahab we sat at our favorite seaside restaurant, Al Capone, for hours and hours. They served us pot after pot of Bedouin tea for free since we'd been such frequent customers! When we got up to leave, Forsha, one of the waiters we'd been chatting with, asked us what we were up to and since we didn't know, he invited us over to his house. We'd tipped him about 30 pounds (a huge tip) since we'd been talking with him all night. On the way back to his place though he must have spent it all on snacks and drinks for us (this after he's just served us all night at the restaurant!). Egyptian hospitality never ceases to amaze me! Forsha's place was about a ten minute walk from the sea. We wound into a small alley way where everybody kept their shutters open, friendly Egyptian style, and we were at his house. Forsha is 22 and lived with, judging by the number of beds in his room, two other guys. They had a small sitting room adjacent to the bedroom, which was decorated with an 80s poster of guys playing basketball in what looked like laguna beach or someplace like it. Forsha said he didn't like basketball though, I think he just liked it because it was American. After cramming into the small sitting room for a few moments, I and five of my friends were ushered into the bedroom. Forsha and his friends continued to bustle about bringing in a huge table filled with cakes and sunflower seeds and sprite and cola and water and bringing in the television and a fan from the other room. Forsha knows english from working at the restaurant, and we spoke our broken fus-ha with his friends. Fusha is the standard form of Arabic that is always what is written but never what is spoken. It's what you learn if you study arabic in the states though, so we worked with what we had. My friend Casey is the most unabashed about speaking fusha, and he speaks it with a strong southern accent which I find very funny, yet admirable also. Like a lot of Egyptian guys Forsha and his roommates seemed very close, this enviable type of friendship that is such a rare gift in the states. In America you usually have to nurture a friendship for years, and even then, especially for guys, there are certain boundaries. In Egypt, you can become like brothers in a day and guy friends will greet with kisses on the cheek. We stayed at Forshas until very late, watching American movies on cable with Arabic subtitles and making fun of each others english or arabic slip-ups. Forsha was kind enough to walk us home and the next morning we were off again, back to Cairo. This time we drove back in the daytime, so naturally I spent a lot of time looking out the window and thinking. I can't say enough how fortunate Moses must have felt to get to the red sea!! The pervasive color through out Sinai is tan. The Sinai mountains are rocky and jagged and tan. When you get out of the mountains it's rocky and flat and tan, until it turns to sand dunes, which are sandy and lumpy and tan. Through the dunes the sand would blow up the road and then blow in these magical thin, straight wisps across the road. I still don't understand why the road didn't just get covered in sand, but anyways, it didn't. About half way we stopped at a half-way house place where we used the "toilet" and watched to men yelling while packing iftar meals for the poor (apparently Ramadan is like Thanksgiving and Christmas in the states, it's somehow worse for a person who is poor to starve during this time..). Outside the house fully covered women, hijabs blowing, were herding goats and sheep through the desert, eyeing us surreptitiously while pulling at different wisps of their clothes as to make sure they were all on. Around six o'clock we drove through the tunnel under the Suez Canal and then pulled up to another road side stop. Apparently the sun had finally set, so it was Iftar and our drivers could finally eat. Iftar is the meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan. Buses and loads of people began to pull up to the roadside stand, everybody happy to finally eat. The drivers invited one of our friends who is Muslim to join in Iftar, which he gratefully did. It seemed as though there was a ten minute window when all the food was free, so that everyone could eat. As the food spilled over picnic benches, the sky got dark and the ramadan lights lit up(another way Ramadan is similar to Christmas- people hang these big, flashing bauble lights everywhere). Everyone satiated, we got back on the road and made it into Cairo a few hours later. The girls in the van put on sleeved tshirts over our Dahab tanktops, and we piled out of the minibus in Tahrir in downtown. Taxis honking, men gawking, home again!

Hi All,
I want to encourage everyone to stay updated on Hurricane Gustav in the Gulf Coast, and consider learning and taking action as much as you can. I am here vacationing in Dahab and I know most of you are comfortable in California. However I have been working closely with gulf coast and hurricane related issues for almost two years now, so the news of Hurricane Gustav is heavy in my heart. It is important to realize that the nature of this hurricane will probably be that the wealthy and those who can afford it, already live on high ground or will have the means to evacuate. Social vulnerability to storms is produced over hundreds of years, and it actually not very natural at all. Ask yourself why for example the same degree of earthquake will kill thousands and thousands of people in Pakistan or China, but just crack a few buildings in California. It's hard because we hear in the news over and over again about destruction in the gulf coast and our attitude becomes 'same old, same old'. However in reality these bits of news are not enough to demonstrate the gravity of the situation, not enough to show how much is NOT being done. These issues are close to my heart. Now, I keep my thoughts with the Gulf Coast.
Love,
Ali.

Update: Gustav news here

It's the first day of Ramadan! All my friends and I thought it started tomorrow, so we went out for a huge noon-time breakfast and then ended up feeling kind of bad for feasting in front of fasters (well I felt bad at least). It's not so bad though because there are a lot of foreigners here so most people are eating actually. In Cairo though, I don't think I'll be eating in public anytime soon. I'll probably go to the bathroom at school to drink some water, hahaha! After breakfast today we walked around the bay to see about windsurfing, but it turned out it was a more serious venture than we anticipated. Who would have thought you needed a couple days of practice to windsurf... We ended up just strolling back to our hotel and plan to lounge by the pool and perhaps snorkel before getting some more food. I'm also hoping to get a massage! (How lavish of me, but I've never had one...). We're heading back to Cairo tomorrow on another minibus, leaving here around noon. Those minibuses sure are an adventure to travel by! On the 3rd I have orientation for school again and then after that I may go up to Alexandria with some friends, but we'll see. I'm starting to miss a few friends from home a bit, but so perhaps I'll figure out how to send snail mail soon. I think it will be easier to send mail once the new campus comes together because as a student I can have my mail sent there, which would be much more reliable. However, the campus is definitely being built on Egyptian time, which really means that it will happen when it will happen. This year is supposed to be the grand opening, although last week there weren't really flooring or electric put into most of the rooms. I heard talk of having classes outside, which seems dreadfully hot to me! Either way, I'm excited to be a part of the inaugural year at the new campus, and I'm glad I'm staying for the year; I'm hoping things will be more together by next semester. They are saying the athletic facilities might be finished by November, and I put in my application for the track team last week, so insha'allah things will be finished soon!