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My First Marriage Proposal (and other stories)
The past two weeks have been altogether pretty good. Time has passed in that weird way it does when traveling-way too fast, but with periods of agonizing slowness dispersed throughout. In other news, I seem to be over my freak-out of the first week and a half or so (I believe it's called "culture shock"), and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
We took a trip to the pyramids. (I apologize if I repeat myself from the photo album I put up. You're just going to have to deal with it). Not surprisingly, I loved it. I've only dreamed about seeing the pyramids and the sphinx since I was in first grade or so. I had heard or read from multiple sources that they would be smaller than I expected.
False. They were, in fact, quite a bit larger than I imagined. We went inside the Second Pyramid, which was quite cramped on the way in, but the burial chamber was pretty cool. This tomb had been looted (probably multiple) times in Antiquity, so there wasn't actually much to see inside the burial chamber except a broken stone coffin on one side. The fact that we were inside a pyramid was pretty awesome, though (even if I was sweating bullets the entire time from the humidity. It actually seemed cold when we went back outside. Yes, I was cold. In the desert. At midday).
Part of the pyramids experience is the hawkers everywhere. Whether they are trying to sell you "Ice!Ice!Ice!Ice!CocaCola.CocaCola.", glass paperweights, statues, stuffed animals, or camel rides, they surround you. Though I enjoyed the camel named Michael Jackson, and the "Ice!Ice!Ice!" mantra was fairly entertaining in its relentlessness, I think the pyramid paperweight man will hold a special place in my heart...or at least memory. While my friend Kayton and I were walking back to the bus to drive down to the Sphinx, we passed yet another hawker who accosted us while we were waiting for the students in front of us to scramble down the narrow rocky path down. Even though we repeatedly said "La-a Shukran" (no thank you-by this point a reflex), he wouldn't leave us alone. Even though we were clearly not interested, he started chatting us up. He put his hand on my shoulder and said "Is Ramadan." I didn't argue with him. Ramadan had, in fact, started that day. He then turned to Kayton and said, "I give you 5,000 camels for her." I was a bit taken aback, but fortunately the way in front of us had opened up and we laughed and scrambled away.
Our next stop was the panorama and then the Sphinx (awesome. my favorite part was his paws. they were huge...and sort of sloppily restored). Before lunch, we were set to go to the Step Pyramids at Saqqara, but then we realized someone was missing. Even with our bus buddy system, we had managed to leave someone behind at the panorama. Oops. Due to that delay, we missed out on Saqqara and went straight to lunch (which was at about 3:30pm). And the other bus broke down on the way to lunch. As usual, nothing is simple with AUC.
As for the rest of that week, I had a few adventures and events. On that Wednesday, I attended an Iftar dinner at the dorms. Iftar is the dinner at sundown that breaks the Ramadan fast. I fasted that day (I did not go the full fast and not drink water, though), and thoroughly enjoyed the Asia Iftar themed dinner. It was mostly Pakistani dishes. We hung out on the rooftop terrace, which is beautiful and...closed except for special events. Probably because it can be accessed from both the women's and the men's side of the dorms, so we could mingle unsupervised up there. And that is just not really done here. We'll just have to try and organize as many events as possible up there.
On Thursday, I took an adventure on the Metro to visit Brice Rogers, one of my Uncle Dan's friends and head of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo. The Metro ride was actually quite nice (largely thanks to the women only car), and I successfully met up with Brice. He gave me a tour of the Seminary and apologized for the fact that seminary students weren't yet on campus. They don't start classes until the end of September. I still was able to meet Rami, who is a fourth-year seminary student from Iraq. He has a very interesting story (which includes his inability to get a Residency Visa in Egypt because he's from Iraq. He has been trying unsuccessfully for about three and a half years). Rami's dream is to go back to Iraq after seminary and establish a church in northern Iraq and set up assistance programs for the poor. I wish him the best of luck. I hope to go back and visit a few more times during the semester.
When i got back to the dorms, I encountered a minor crisis. A few days previously, I had plugged my charger for my computer into a bad outlet, and it melted my power cord. I was able to get it to charge my computer when it was at a very specific angle, but when I got back from visitng Brice, the cord no longer charged. I managed to find an Apple accredited store in Cairo (there are no actual Apple stores in Egypt). I successfully found the store (and crossed 8 lanes of Cairo traffic, no small feat) and bought a new charger for 640 Egyptian Pounds. Which is about $128. Ouch. But I did successfully direct my cab drivers to and from the store in Arabic. So it was a success, despite the cost of the power cord.
On Saturday I went to Khan al Khalili with Ambereen, who is a Pakistani law student. We mostly just wandered around and looked in shops and took pictures, although she helped my haggle for a very pretty scarf. It was a much calmer experience this time, since there were only two of us and it was a midday trip during Ramadan. We've been told we should go back after Iftar, because people are just partying in the streets and there are lots of tables of food set up (during Ramadan, people will set up tents and feed the poor. Especially around Islamic Cairo, where Khan al Khalili is located). Ambereen and I then went into Al Azhar mosque so that she could do a midday prayer. Fortunately, we had both bought scarves and could then cover our heads. Since I was with a Muslim, they didn't make me pay to enter the mosque (which tourists usually have to do). The mosque was gorgeous and very peaceful. There were many people resting and praying inside. As we left, a man offered to take us up the minaret to see a view of Cairo, but Ambereen didn't want to pay the LE20 he was asking for. It usually isn't a problem for her, but she said that you leave a donation to the mosque to go up a minaret and don't directly pay someone, so she wasn't comfortable doing it. i told her it was fine, because I will just go back another time.
As for this past week, classes have started, and that has been quite the adventure.
AUC has been touting it's big move to the New Campus in New Cairo for several years now. They bought the land for the New Campus 12 years ago, and construction has been going on for 5 years now. I mean, they are running on Egyptian time here, which runs at a slightly different pace (which has its pros and cons). This fall is the Big Move to the New Campus. The president seems hell-bent on getting us out to the New Campus this semester, regardless of the readiness of the New Campus.
Don't get me wrong, the campus is absolutely beautiful, and can be quite a relaxing place to be. The problem is that construction isn't actually done yet. Multiple buildings don't have windows or roofs in some places, and the cafeteria isn't ready yet. Since the campus is literally in the middle of the desert and we have no way to leave except by shuttle, our food options are Cilantro (think Starbucks), Jared's Bagels, and Cinnabon. And shuttles often fill up about 20 minutes before they are supposed to leave, since we only have two a day that come back to my dorm. Everything is just a little chaotic.
By the end of the week, things calmed down a bit. They actually put up signs that told you which building was which and where classroom numbers were, so the campus has gotten easier to navigate. And I've completely changed my schedule around, but I am now happy with my classes. i've decided to stick with the following five classes: Modern Standard Arabic, Colloquial Arabic, Art & Architecture of Ancient Egypt, Into to Islamic Art & Architecture, and Birth of Muslim Community & Rise of the Arab Caliphate. Even though a lot of the class titles are the same, I've had to switch into different sections of every one except for my Art & Architecture of Ancient Egypt.
I also applied yesterday to volunteer to teach English to Sudanese refugees. Hopefully that works out, so that I spend more time in Downtown Cairo and not just New Cairo (aka the desert filled with empty buildings in various stages of construction. and the New Campus).
I should probably go do some of my homework now.
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