سيرتي الذاتية

٧ سبتيمبر ٢٠١٠


ولدت في مدينة سان فرانسيسكو في سنة ١٩٨٩ وأنشأت في نفس المدينة وبعد سنتين أمي أنجبت أختي وهي اسمها كارولين. خلال طفولتي كان عندي اهتمامين وهما كرة القاعدة والتشييد ولكن بالاضافة إلى كرة القاعدة كنت أحب كثير من الرياضات مثل كرة السلة وكرة القدم الامريكي. وإنّ كنت أقضي وقت كثير طفولتياً لاعباً كرة القاعدة مع صديقي في الشارع أمام بيتي وكنا متخيلين أنّ كنا أحسن لاعبين في أشهر فرق في العالم وكنت ألعب في فرق كثيرة وحقيقية أيضاً واستمرت في تلك الرياضة حتى السنة الثانية في الجامعة وأكيد ما زلت أستمتع بمشاهدة كرة القاعدة في التليفيزيون.

وبالنسبة للتشييد أحببته بشكل شديد خلال طفولتي وكنت أذهب إلى اماكن التشييد مع والداي تقريبا كل يوم عندما كان عندي ٥ سنة من عمري حتى كان عندي ١٠ سنة من عمري وحتى الآن أنا مهتم بالتشييد وأحب أن أقرأ مقالات في الجرائد عن تنمية البنية التحتية في امريكا والعالم بصفة عامة.

بدأت أن أسافر في المدرسة الثانوية إلى بلاد كثيرة وفرص السفر تلك سببتني أن أتخصص في العلاقات الدولية في الجامعة لأنني أدركت أنّ أهتم بثقافات أخرى والعلاقات بينها وامريكا. فإنّ زرت دول كثيرة في افريقيا وآسياء وأوروبا وأتذكر تلك التجارب حتى اليوم وفي الصيفين الماضيين اشتغلت في كينيا وأيضا زرت غانا مع مجموعة من جامعة توفتس في السنة الثانية. لا أشعر بالغربة لما أنا في دولة أجنبية لأنني متعود جدا على الحياة هناك وأيضا تحسنت بالنسبة لمهاراتي للعلاقات وللفهم بيني والناس الذين أنا أتعرف على في هذه الدول فعندي أصحاب كثيرون من كينيا ومصر ونتواصل بعضنا البعض حتى الآن.

وأخيراً هناك جزء كبير من دراستي في الجامعة وهي اللغة العربية وفي رآي شخصي هذه اللغة جميلة ومعقدة جدا (ولكن معقدة بشكل جيد) ودرست اللغة العربية لمدة ثلاث سنوات ومن هذه السنوات قضيت سنتين ونصف أدرس داخل الجامعة في مدينة بوستون وأربع شهور أدرس في الاسكندرية في مصر ولكن تعلمت في تلك الفترة في الاسكندرية أكثر من كل الصفوف في جامعة توفتس لأننا تكلمنا العربي كل يوم في كل وضع وكان عندنا مجموعة رائعة تتكون من امريكيين ومصريين وبالاضافة إلى الصفوف تعلمت كثير في الاحداث الثقافية المتنوعة التي حضرناها مثلاً مسرحيات وأفلام وفرح.

فأنا متحمس جدا لانني سأواصل دراسة اللغة العربية في هذه السنة الأخيرة في جامعة توفتس وأتمنى أنّه سيكون عندي فرصة ثانية للسفر إلى الشرق الأوسط في أي أستطيع أن أتحسن بقدرتي على الكلام والكتابة بالعربي إن شاء الله.

Back in My Day...

Some of the most memorable conversations I have had in Alexandria have been with taxi drivers. At times this city (and Cairo) feels like New York because of the ubiquity of taxis – a fact that has its benefits (easy to get from place to place) and its drawbacks (congestion, congestion, more congestion). Driving a taxi is a job that is readily available and doesn't require much skill other than knowing how to work a stick shift. In a sign of the economic reality in Egypt, however, many of the taxi drivers actually have college degrees but are unable to find work in the fields they specialize in. I have been driven around by Agricultural Engineers, Philosophy Majors, and a man who used to work in the oilfields of Iraq. Some of them are quite uninterested in their passengers and simply drive us from point A to point B, but others want to hear our entire life stories (or tell us their life stories), discuss politics with us, or try to convert us to Islam. While taxis are somewhat of a luxury for your average Egyptian – most people in the lower and middle classes prefer to take the cheaper, but slower, public microbuses – we Americans love being able to get almost anywhere in the city for just about $1. I average between 2 and 3 separate taxi rides per day, so you can imagine the variety of drivers that I have met.

Today, I had two unique experiences with taxi drivers. I usually try to strike up a conversation with the driver, and we almost always go through the basics of where I am from (America), why I am here (to study Arabic and learn about Egyptian culture), what my opinion is of Egypt and Alexandria (حلوة (hell-wa) which literally means “sweet” in Arabic but is used in everyday speech to mean “nice” or “cool”). After that, I generally ask the driver about his background and the conversation goes from there. This driver was from Alexandria, born in a working-class neighborhood in which I have spent some time exploring and found to be full of color and life. So I asked him one of my go-to questions: “How has life changed in Alexandria from your childhood until now?” His answer was a classic “back-in-my-day” response: “Life is so much worse now than it was before. The biggest change is all of the congestion on the streets, which didn't exist when I was younger. On top of that, nobody respects anyone anymore. On the streets everyone drives like an animal, and the veneration that the younger generation used to have for the older generation is gone. In the old days, when a student saw his teacher in the street he would cover his face and look the other way out of respect for him (an odd way of showing respect, if you ask me), but nowadays the students have no morals and they make fun of their teachers when they seem them in the street. No one has any morals.” I had heard versions of these gripes before, almost all of them from older taxi drivers, and my next question always revolves around the causes of these changes. In the driver's opinion, “The root of the problem is that there has been no change in peoples' salaries for a really long time, but the cost of life has continued to rise. The population keeps on growing, but there is no corresponding economic improvement. Furthermore, this society has moved away from Allah, no one is a true Muslim anymore.” I then asked him who he blamed for the mess “الرئيس (al-raees) – the president!” So I then asked him how he viewed his current situation, and his response: “الحمد لله (hamdullah) – Praise be to God, I'm doing fine because I have stayed close to God.” “So what is your opinion on the solution to this problem? How can Egypt improve itself?” “The people have to find God again. Allah is the solution.”

That was the end of our conversation, as we had reached the dorms. The driver's answers, however, are representative of the views of a sizable portion of the population here (or at least those I have come into contact with). Everyone acknowledges that Egypt has problems, they identify President Mubarak or the government in general as a source of the problems, but the biggest issue, in their eyes, is that people have strayed from religion (which is the true solution). What is odd about this answer is that Egypt has become a much more overtly religious society over the past 30 years. Despite a secular government, the tide of a “tightening” up of the country's interpretation of Islam is manifested in the hijabs that almost every woman wears, the niqabs that some of them wear, the usage of religious phrases in everyday speech (which, to be sure, is a natural part of the Arabic language but one that in many instances has been taken to the extreme), and, to cite an example from taxis themselves, the fact that about 75% of the taxis that I ride have their radios turned to 90.1, the “all Quran, all the time” station. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am very interested in the contrast between Egypt's move toward a more outwardly evident form of Islam, but at the same time an decrease in the quality of life and a more self-focused, consumerist view of life. Make no mistake, Egypt has found a way to balance religiosity with consumerism. In many instances the hijab appears to be more of a fashion statement than an indication of modesty, and I know many people in the dorms here who pray five times a day and can also reel off more lines from famous American movies than I can. Of course it is prudent to realize that these generalizations about Egyptian culture are not fully sufficient to explain the current situation in the country. There are dozens of exceptions, and I can think of many people who don't fit my previous characterization of the country in the slightest. But the question that I am left with at the end is “where is this country headed?” In all honesty, I haven't the slightest idea.

In other news, I had one of my odder interactions later today with another driver who asked my friend and I whether we were Muslim or Christian. Of course when we answered that we were Jewish we readied ourselves for the inevitable debate about Israel and Palestine, but both of us were completely taken off guard when the driver let out a laugh of joy and told us that he thought that the Jews were the best people in the world. My friend and I exchanged perplexed looks, and then listened to him continue to tell us that he hated the Palestinians and thought they were bad people because of their use of suicide bombers. He then added that the Jews had an absolute right to Israel because the land was originally Moses' land. After the first moments of confusion, we tried to to take the middle ground, pointing out that it was incorrect to characterize all Jews as great and all Palestinians as terrible. There are good and bad people on both sides, we said. But the driver was determined not to deviate from his initial assertion, and he dropped us off at our destination with a hearty good-bye, and we were left shaking our heads in disbelief as he drove away. The lesson to take away: in an Egyptian taxi, anything is possible.

The Egypt Syndrome

It's hard to believe that we will finish the program here in Egypt exactly one week from today. The semester has flown by! I have fallen a bit behind on the blogging front, mostly because I've been quite busy with school, teaching, and also trips to Cairo and various other spots in Egypt over the past few weekends. Two weekends ago in Cairo, we visited most of the major spots in Islamic Cairo, Coptic Cairo, and also managed to work in a trip to a camel market that was one of the craziest experiences I have had in Egypt to date (more about that later).

But first, I want to talk about something I have decided to call the "Egypt Syndrome." Having been here now for four months and having visited most of the major tourist sites in the country, I have developed a very skewed perception of time as it relates to history. In the US, just about the oldest buildings you'll find were built in the 19th century and a few still exist from the 18th century (in Boston, for example). In Egypt, however, I have now come to feel normal when I walk into a building or a mosque that was built over 1,000 years ago. It goes without saying, of course, that the Pyramids trump everything else in this country in terms of grandeur in relation to age. I cannot even begin to comprehend that those majestics structures were built over 4,000 years ago. Seriously. The Pyramids aside, however, Cairo is littered with ancient buildings that are still being used today. We visited the Hanging Church in Coptic Cairo, built sometime around the 4th Century (!) AD, and early in the day we walked around inside the Ibn Tulun mosque, the oldest in Cairo, that was built in 876 AD. Less than 300 years after the death of Mohammed!

After becoming used to seeing those ancient sites all over the place, buildings built in the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Period, or the Ottoman Period just don't seem that old. Don't get me wrong, I still love to visit them, but I enjoy them more for their architectural intricacies or stories about past events that happened there. Whereas a building built the 14th century in the US would probably be known primarily for its age, the 700 year old Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo is famous because of its role as the focal point of Islamic study in Egypt. People know that the mosque has been around for ages, but that fact is simply mentioned in passing rather than emphasized.

I have heard many people here in Egypt (and in Syria and Lebanon) refer to the country as "Um al-Dunia" (mother of the world), and I can say with certainty that Egypt definitely deserves that title. Everything here is extremely old, but the grandeur and architectural genius of those old structures have preserved them very well. Therefore, when you walk around the Pyramids or climb the minaret of Ibn Tulun Mosque to get a panoramic view of the city, you might try to get your head around how long of a period 1,300 years(in the case of Ibn Tulun) really is, but ultimately you will find yourself simply unable to comprehend it.

For anyone wanting a funny description of what happened on our trip to the Camel Market outside of Cairo, take a look at this post on my friend Emily's blog (we shared the unique experience.)http://emilyisinegypt.blogspot.com/2010/05/hit-and-run.html

Carpets for Sale in the Alleys

I arrived at the language center where I teach English early today, so I decided to use the rare bit of free time that I had to sit down and type up a post about my trip to Syria and Lebanon. Just as I was about to start, however, I heard shouts echoing through the alley outside the building. I stepped outside of the classroom and onto the balcony, and looked down into the street to see a group of four men strolling through the alley with giant carpets balanced on their shoulders. They were repeating a chant which I at first couldn't understand, but I soon realized that it was their way of getting the residents of the alley to come out to their balconies and take a look at the carpets. I don't have a precise translation of the chant, but it was something along the lines of "Carpets for sale! High quality! Cheaper than you'll find in stores!"

The sellers' strategy soon became clear as I noticed how densely populated the alley was. There were high rise apartment buildings on both sides up and down the street, each building generally consisting of six or seven floors with two apartments on each floor. Assuming that at least one or two people would be home in each apartment (the time being 5:30 or so in the afternoon), the sellers figured that they would have at least several dozen prospective buyers who would at least take a look at the carpets. When the sellers reached the middle of the alley, they stopped, unloaded the carpets off their back, and continued their calls to the residents of the alley to come out to their balconies and take a look.

As people slowly began to emerge on their balconies, the sellers then unfurled their carpets in the middle of the street! They then proceeded to try to convince a few of the residents that seemed genuinely interested, but unfortunately today was not their lucky day. From an aesthetic perspective, however, I loved the contrast between the colorful carpets and the street and the general oddity of seeing a carpet unfurled on the street (although, in fact, there are carpets rolled out on the street every Friday for the spillover from Friday prayers). Yet another unique image of Alexandria. Furthermore, when I peeled my eyes away from the sellers themselves, I stepped back to take in the sweeping views from the street to the sky: starting with the colors of the carpets, up to the colorful clothing and other laundry hanging from each floor of the high rises, and finally to the slim sliver of sky that was just visible above the buildings. A lot of times I feel like Egypt lacks color, which seems to be primarily a consequence of not washing buildings that are covered in a thick layer of dust, but the laundry hanging throughout every alley in the city, and especially this alley in particular, provides evidence to the contrary.

After rolling up their carpets once again and loading them up on their shoulders, the sellers continued their walk down the street. Certainly not an easy job, but I imagine that it has to be somewhat lucrative because at least a few of the hundreds of the alley residents that come out to view the carpets each day might decide to make a quick and easy buy.

Riding the Train to Class

After spending a wonderful week and a half in Lebanon and Syria (a post about the trip is in the works), I returned to Egypt last Saturday. As usual, we wasted no time yesterday getting right back into the swing of the things at Alexandria University. In addition to my classes, however, I also taught my first English class. A friend of mine on the program had spent a month teaching English classes at a private study program in Alexandria, and he handed the reins over to me for my last month in the city. This is my first experience teaching English as a second language, and because the students are still at a pretty basic level I'm speaking Arabic just as much as English with them. Of course I am trying to get them to speak in English as much as possible, and I feel like a broken record after repeating to them over and over that I would rather hear them make mistakes in English than speak correctly in Arabic. After talking about some general goals for the class, we worked on using the phrase "at the same time" to describe two different actions in the same sentence. I am going to be teaching for two hours each Sunday and Tuesday for the next 4 weeks, and I am looking forward not only to my first chance to teach English as a foreign language but also to the chance to improve my Arabic because of all the explanations I have to give them about English grammar or the meanings of English words.

The one drawback about the program is that the language center is located far away from the dorms, so I have to take a thirty minute train ride there and back. The train is a true Egyptian train - it works, but it certainly is a little bit rough around the edges as evidenced by the doors that do not close and the cacophony of screeches as it hurtles (or sometimes crawls) down the the tracks. On the train, there is a mix of all types of people from every different level of society: businessmen riding home in their three piece suits, mothers weighed down with huge bags of groceries, children playing around in the aisles, and beggars, too. The train also presents a significant business opportunity to a number of vendors hawking little candies or gizmos and gadgets throughout the ride. I was inspired to write this post because of the odd, but also effective, method that the vendors use to sell their goods. Most of them will walk down the aisle calling out what they have to sell and at what price, and in addition to that they will actually intentionally drop their ware into your lap and walk right past you. The first time I had this happen to me I was obviously quite confused - I didn't ask for the chew candy that the vendor had just dropped into my lap, but at the same time he just kept on walking down the aisle without even making eye contact with me. Watching the vendor continue to hand out his candy to the rest of the people on the train, I soon realized that his plan was to walk up and down the train car handing out candy to everyone, and then retrace his steps collecting the candy back from those who didn't want it or collecting money from those who did. The astuteness of this strategy became clear when I saw a number of kids imploring their parents to buy the candy that they were now holding in their hands. So as the vendor came ambling back down the car to collect his candy once again, he managed to make about five sales to parents with young children or adults enticed by the candy that they had been holding in their hand and staring at for the past few minutes.

Being a train vendor is by no means a ticket to earning a comfortable living, but I love the unique style that the vendors employ as they hawk their goods. It's much harder to say no to a piece of candy or give it back after holding it in your hand for a few minutes and imagining the sweet taste and the enjoyment you will get out of eating it.

Nose to the Grindstone

I just realized today that it's been almost two weeks since I last posted, so I figured I'd give a quick rundown of the happenings about town here in Alexandria. I've been quite busy with classes and schoolwork, but of course there has been more than enough time for adventures and discussions outside of the classroom. Here's a quick outline of what I've done the past few weeks, and I'll come back with some more details tomorrow or Wednesday.

First of all, I spent a night two weekends ago with Khalid, the academic director of the program and my first ever Arabic teacher at Tufts, in a village located just outside of Cairo called Abu Sir. This is the village where Khalid (who is American) lived for a year while he was learning Arabic and working in Cairo. He stays in contact with his former host family, and I was elated to have the chance to accompany him for a night with the family. The warmth of everyone in the village, the delicious home-cooked food, and the exposure to completely new viewpoints reminded me of my time in rural Kenya last summer.

Second, I had several really interesting conversations about the contrast between most Egyptians' outward appearance of religiosity and dedication to Islam and the clamor and sometimes ugliness of daily life - dirty streets, no respite from honking horns, and the general lack of order in everything from restaurants to basic services. Is the ostensible contrast between the order of religious life and Islam and the disorder of daily life a problem that stems from the Egyptian people themselves, or is there a political basis for it instead?

Third, I had a great time last weekend playing tour-guide for a day and showing my friend Ben from Tufts around the city. The essentials of Alexandria: ful and falafel, a walk through the "Bahri" neighborhood near the sea, a trip to the Qait-Bey Citadel overlooking the Mediterranean, a meal of grilled, delicious fish, and, of course, fresh juice!

Finally, I attended a really interesting lecture today at Alexandria University about the relationship between Egypt and Russia in World War II and the continuation of those relations in the 65 years since the war. The professor in my seminar on "Geopolitics of the Middle East" chaired the lecture, and we heard from him, two other professors at the university, the dean of the college of arts and sciences, and two Russian guests who had their speeches translated into Arabic. Quite a whirlwind of information for my brain to process. I managed to understand most of it - the gist was that the battle of El-Alamein, which took place just a little ways west of Alexandria, and the siege of Stalingrad were two of the most important turning points in the war and that the cooperation between Egypt and Russia was essential in guaranteeing victory for the Allies. All of the speakers also mentioned the collaboration between the two countries in the building of the High Dam at Aswan. Interestingly, the U.S. was not mentioned in any context during the speech. In addition to having a chance to keep on practicing my Arabic, it was really fun to be a part of a true cultural exchange without any English whatsoever. One of the Russian presenters, a former general in the Air Force, brought the house down when he declared that were he younger and if he had the chance to go back to school, he would most certainly learn Arabic.

I'll flesh out these experiences some more in the coming days when I have time. By the way, I'm off on Wednesday night to Lebanon and Syria for a week and a half of travel in the two countries.

Adventures in Alexandria

Upfront disclaimer: Really long post!

Word of the day: مغامرة - (mookhamara - "adventure")

On Mondays and Tuesdays I usually have a one-on-one seminar with a Alexandria University professor focused on "Geopolitics in the Middle East," but, since my professor is out of town this week, I had a full afternoon free today. With so much time on my hands, I decided to undertake an adventure that I had been planning to do for a long time. I have written before on this blog about how much I love the "مناطق شعبية" ("minataq shaabia" translation: traditional/working class neighborhoods) in Alexandria. They are full of life, hustle and bustle, delicious bakeries and street-food shops, and there are always people there eager to talk with me about anything and everything. I have been visiting these neighborhoods one by one, usually with Galal, my Egyptian friend and running buddy. Today, however, Galal was busy so I went out by myself. My plan in the beginning was to go to my favorite lunch spot, stroll through my favorite souq that is near the restaurant, and then hop on the one of the tram lines that runs through a neighborhood called "ميناء البصل" ("Meena al Basal" literal translation: seaport of onion), a "shaabi" neighborhood that few if any of the Egyptian students living with us had ever visited. After that, I planned to ride another tram to the main train station and then, after a short walk, ride another tram back to the dorms. I ultimately achieved all of these goals, but the best parts of the adventure was not the transportation but instead the conversations and interactions I had with people on the street.

Here's a link to Google Maps that shows the route I took: http://bit.ly/aUFUcU

After I eating a delicious lunch of "فول و فلافل" (fava beans and falafel) at my favorite restaurant, Mohammed Ahmed, I took a short walk to my favorite souq that stretches out through one of Alexandria's oldest neighborhoods. Everything under the sun exists there. Today, I talked with a man selling squid about the possibility of cooking calamari, and I saw, for the first time in my life, a series of severed cow heads sitting on the street. Clearly nothing out of the ordinary. A few seconds after I first noticed the heads, the butcher started swinging his hatchet to break down the heads. I now have a firsthand understanding of just how big cow tongues really are!

I finished my walk through the souq and ambled over to the Abu Al-Abbas Mosque - Alexandria's most beautiful, in my opinion. Set just off the Mediterranean, the mosque is an architectural and artistic marvel. I was planning to go in and poke around the mosque for a bit, but instead I found a group of teenagers playing soccer in the mosque courtyard. They invited me to join in, so we spent about 20 minutes playing soccer, using one of the mosque walls as one goal and the other side of the courtyard as the other. As I was about to leave, one of the boys piped up "Give us some money, maybe five dollars!" I was somewhat surprised upon hearing this request. Unlike my experience in Kenya last summer when I was constantly asked for money almost everywhere I went, I really haven't had any similar experiences during my time in Egypt save for the occasional beggar on the street. Whereas in Kenya I probably would have shrugged it off and just went on my way, I decided to ask these kids why they had asked me for money. "We just played a friendly game of soccer, why are you asking me now for money? Is it because I am a foreigner and you think all foreigners have lots of money?" I asked them. Instantly, they turned very apologetic: "Oh no no, we didn't mean anything, we just want to buy a new soccer ball...sorry!" "Ok" I said, "No problem. I was just interested in why you asked me that question." I still tried to ask them one more time what the logic was behind their initial request, but I got the same response.

We chatted a little more as I was leaving the courtyard of the mosque, and somehow the conversation turned to the recent events in Israel. There has been a lot of resentment and anger amongst the Egyptians over the last few days over the Israeli expansion of settlements into East Jerusalem and the perception that a newly rebuilt temple near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is disrespectful and reflective of Israeli plans to desecrate the mosque. There was a protest yesterday at Alexandria University, and the newspapers have been following the story closely, too. Throughout the 2+ months I have been in Egypt I have never been reticent to tell people that I am Jewish, and I have never felt any threat to my physical safety as a result of telling people that I am Jewish. On the contrary, almost without exception I have been treated with respect even if the other person does not share my viewpoints. So I decided to seize the opportunity for another interesting conversation by telling these kids that I was Jewish. I think their being teenagers together in a group partially contributed to their initial reactions, which tended to be pretty negative. I had a few insults thrown at me and there was generally a lot of whooping and hollering among them. I kept completely calm, however, and made it completely clear to them from the beginning that I considered all of them friends and had tremendous respect for Islam. In the same way that I respected their religion, I expressed hope that they would respect me and my religion, too. Respect is a very strong word in Arabic and in Islam in general, and Muslims who I have talked with frequently quote the Qur'an as specifically telling them to respect Jews and Christians. So after the boys calmed down a bit, I explained to them that even though I am Jewish I do not automatically support everything that Israel does. "As a matter of fact," I told them, "I don't agree with the recent expansion of settlements and I think that Israel needs to reconsider its projects near Al-Aqsa seeing as to the extremely negative reaction from Muslims throughout the Middle East." Having established that I generally agreed with their current grievances, I went on to say that my overarching hope was that the two sides would find a way to work together to achieve peace and a two-state solution. "I don't respect any side - Israel or Palestine - that uses violence to further its causes," I told them, and most of them nodded their heads in agreement. At the same time, however, they became increasingly interested in the idea of convincing me that I had to recited the Shahada (There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger) and become a Muslim then and there. Staying patient, I explained to them that although I deeply respected their religion I did not want to convert. The conversation then reverted back into commotion, with some of them chanting the Shahada and some of them singing other random songs, so I sat back and waited for them to finish so we could return to our civil conversation that we had been having earlier. They eventually did, and we spent the last few minutes discussing the differences between the actions of the Israeli government and the general desire of the vast majority of the Jewish people for peace. I never felt any physical threat from them, but it was interesting from my perspective to see how they reacted upon hearing that I was Jewish and to hear some of their initial insults. I am happy, however, that the conversation took a turn for the better and I think we did reach a point of mutual understanding by the end of it.

After eating some delicious ice cream at the end of the peninsula in Alexandria that juts into the Mediterranean, I hopped on my first tram of the day and struck up a conversation with Mohammed, an old man who was sitting next to me. After the obligatory initial exclamation of surprise that I inevitably hear when I start to speak to someone in Arabic, we struck up a really interesting conversation about how Alexandria has changed throughout his life. He was born and raised here, and he spun the classic "back in my day" narrative about how life here used to better than it is now. At the same time, however, we did discuss some real issues such as the problem of youth unemployment. Mohammed said that when he graduated from college, a degree automatically earned you a stable job. For those without degrees, work was readily available in skilled trades. His opinion on the situation today was that fresh graduates feel entitled to instantly jump into a high level job in engineering, medicine, law, etc. Problems arise, however, when many of them realize that that option is not available. He said to me that the main problem is that they are unwilling to take any lower-paying or less-skilled job in the meantime. I have heard this story from many Egyptians - including my fellow Egyptian students at the university - and I have yet to hear any convincing ideas on how to solve the problem. One observation that I do have is that the idea of "entrepreneurship" is not particularly prominent in students' thinking about their options after graduation. A possible reason for this lack of entrepreneurship that I have heard from many of my fellow students is the Egyptian education system's seemingly endless quest to privilege memorization of information over creativity, critical-thinking skills, and discussions with professors instead of one-sided lectures.

In yet another example of the generosity that I have been so fortunate to have received here in Egypt, Mohammed absolutely insisted on paying my fare (5 cents) on the tram, and before he got off he made sure everyone else on the tram knew where I was trying to get to and would direct me accordingly.

The neighborhood Meena al Basal that I had planned the adventure around turned out to be fairly uninteresting. Just a conglomeration of light industrial factories and trucks coming and going from the port. Definitely working class, but generally without the general vibrancy that I have repeatedly found in other neighborhoods. Because I only saw it from tram, however, I think I owe the neighborhood another visit to poke around some more before I fully pass judgment. As I approached Alexandria's main train station, I was vaulted back into the working class world full of honking horns, crowded streets, and overwhelming sights and smells. After picking up a small pizza at one of the bakeries - and having yet another conversation on Israel, this time with the baker - I strolled down the main street of another working class neighborhood taking in scene. Bustling souqs, vendors hawking their wares, Egyptians relaxing in street-side cafes smoking sheesha and drinking tea, and mothers shepherding their children through the hustle and bustle of it all. I had to interrupt my walk for one of Alexandria's finest treats: fresh orange juice. And by fresh I mean literally juice squeezed from an orange on the spot. Delicious.

I finally reached my last tram of the day, and, of course, had to strike up a chat with everyone on the train. I was especially interested in a 10 year old kid who informed me with absolute certainty that he planned to visit me in America. I didn't realize how tired I was, however, until my eyes started to slowly glaze over in the middle of the ride, and before I knew it I found myself being tapped on the shoulder by one of my newly-made friends on the tram telling me that the tram had reached my stop. After bidding the people on the tram goodbye, I bought half a kilo of bananas from my favorite fruit stall and picked up a piping hot piece of of pita bread for 5 cents at the bakery. Finally, 5 hours after I started, I ended my adventure by triumphantly walking through the dorm gates and making a beeline for dinner.

Alexandria is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Not too big and not too small, I always find something new to surprise me when I go out exploring in the city. The best part, though, is the interactions that I have with people in places like the mosque courtyard / soccer field, the bakery, or the tram. Luckily for me, everyone's interest in chatting with the tall, undoubtedly foreign, blonde-haired guy who speaks Arabic never wanes.

4 Idyllic Days in Jordan

After our trip to Sinai, a group of us slogged through a long day of travel to finally arrive in Wadi Musa, a Jordanian town that is most famous for its proximity to the ancient city of Petra. I had the good fortune to be able to spend a day and a half exploring Petra, and I came away from the experience absolutely convinced that Petra is one of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring places in the world.

Three of us (myself included) managed to power ourselves up for an early start the next morning despite the fact that we had just finished such a long day of travel. It was completely worth it. The majesty of Petra is indescribable - it would still be famous for its natural beauty were there not an extensive city carved into its rocks. The initial walk from the town to the city winds through a steep, colorful canyon. All along the sides of the path you can see two channels dug into the rocks. More than 2000 years ago, when Petra was a flourishing city, these channels carried water from the spring at the top of the hill in Wadi Musa to the city of Petra (about 3 miles away). Water from one channel was used for agriculture and water from the other was for drinking. Some of the old clay pipes from the drinking water channel are still intact today.

When you turn the final corner of the path you are hit full on by "The Treasury," Petra's most famous structure and the one that is still in the best condition today. The Treasury, like nearly of the structures still standing in Petra today, was literally carved directly out of the side of a mountain. As we wandered through the rest of the extensive city over the next day and a half we kept stopping in our tracks and staring agape at one stunning building after another. Again, words cannot do justice to the city. Petra is a place that you have to visit and see with your own eyes to fully comprehend.


After Petra, we spent a night in the desert in a place called Wadi Rum. Between the soaring mountains and beautiful rock formations in the desert, the normally barren and sandy ground was actually covered in small green plants that shot up as a result of the recent rains there. This "desert meadow" was a true sight to behold. After taking the obligatory camel ride through the desert, we spent the night at a Bedouin camp (and had the best dinner I have had since I left the US).

We left the camp early the next morning and all that was left after that was a long day of travel back to Cairo. Even though the day seemed to drag on and on (it took 24 hours all told to get from Wadi Rum to Cairo), we also had a number of amazing interactions with random people along the way that happened for two reasons: one, we spoke Arabic, and, two, the people we met were unbelievably nice and generous. We rode a microbus from Wadi Rum to a small town about 20 miles from the Red Sea town of Aqaba where we had to catch the ferry back to Egypt. On the way, we befriended the microbus driver, a student majoring in Arabic at the University of Jordan. In the process of chatting with him while we waited for the second bus that would take us to Aqaba, we also struck up a conversation with a member of the Jordanian Army who was waiting for the same bus. When the bus finally came, both guys absolutely insisted that they pay for our bus ride, and they then shepherded us through Aqaba to a take-out restaurant where we picked up lunch and then connected us with a taxi driver they knew who took us to the ferry terminal. There is nothing I appreciate more than random and unrequested acts of kindness, and such generosity has been a theme that has run strong throughout my experience in Egypt and Jordan.

Finally, as we boarded the ferry for our return trip to Egypt, the captain of the boat recognized us as the Arabic-speaking Americans who had rode the ship a few days earlier. I think he must have been from Jordan because after we greeted him with a Jordanian Arabic greeting that we had learned he doubled-over with laughter and pointed to one of his crew members and yelled "fohk!" (up!). At first we didn't know what he meant, but we realized seconds later that he had told his crew to take us up to the first-class deck on top of the boat. We proceeded to enjoy our ferry ride in the lap of luxury, taking in the beautiful views of Jordan, Egypt, Israel, and Saudi Arabia all together on the shore of the Red Sea.

But there is still no place like home. I have had a great week back in Alexandria, making frequent trips to my favorite juice and falafel stands and generally enjoying the warm weather tempered by the cool sea breezes here. Today a group of us are about to head off on a 1.5 day bike trip in the countryside. And with that in mind, I'm sure I will have much more to report on when I get back!

Sinai, Snorkeling, and Saudi Arabia

We've spent the past few days in Dahab, a beach town in Sinai, in the lap of (relative) luxury. It's been quite nice to relax for a few days, and I am currently on a ferry from Sinai to Jordan where I will be visiting Petra and Wadi Rum over the next few days. The boat was supposed to leave at 12:30, but we're just pulling away now at 5:45. When you combine this experience with the one I had a week ago when we sat on the side of the road for five hours during our trip from Alexandria to Sinai waiting for a flat tire on the bus to get fixed, I think I've found every possible way to force myself to just relax and stay patient. A good book and a nap certainly help, too.

Speaking of naps, I took a very pleasant one today because I didn't get any sleep last night. On our last night in Sinai, we climbed Jebel Musa (the mountain where Moses supposedly received the 10 commandments) and reached the summit in time to see a beautiful sunrise. The Sinai is a harsh, dry desert, but at the same time it is stunningly beautiful. The sharp, rocky mountains here remind of me Yosemite, and the dryness is partially offset by the crystal clear Red Sea that lies just below the mountains.

As a group, we spent a two days snorkeling, including one at a beautiful national park called Ras Muhammad. A few of us also went on a desert safari (picture below) that included hikes through two winding, narrow canyons flanked on both sides by sheer rock faces with unique designs carved into them by the work of sand and water over millions of years.



Finally, as for Saudi Arabia, I caught my first glimpse of the country across the Red Sea from Dahab. Of course there is not much that you can see other than mountains and a few twinkling lights, but our proximity to the country sparked some interesting conversations about the cultural differences between the two countries and the phenomenon of labor migration from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and its effect on Egyptian society. One of the "friends of the program" named Shoowee (spelling approximate, a friend of the program directors and a frequent participant in our group events) who came along with us on the trip spent 10 years of his childhood in Saudi Arabia where his father, Egyptian by birth, worked as a dentist. I was particularly interested to hear about the state of relations between native Saudis and foreigners in the country. According to Shoowee, almost all the foreigners in Saudi Arabia live in a compounds with their own countrymen, and life inside those compounds is essentially a microcosm of their former lives in their home countries. Workers spend their days outside the compounds working with Saudis and other foreigners, but at the end of the day everyone returns to their own enclosure. In ten years of living in Saudi Arabia, Shoowee counted only two Saudis as real friends. He didn't go as far to say that their is discrimination against foreigners in Saudi Arabia, but it was clear from his description that huge discrepancies exist between migrants and natives there.

Learning about Shoowee's experience in Saudi Arabia led me to ask him a second set of questions about the influence of the Saudi culture and brand of Islam on Egypt over the past 30 to 40 years. We have heard from many people that Egypt's tendency to move toward a more conservative, religious-focused culture over that time period was at least partially due to the experiences of Egyptian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and the customs and ideas that they brought back with them to Egypt upon their return. For example, whereas the hijab was rarely seen on the streets in the 1950s and 1960s, today I would estimate that in Alexandria about 95% of Egyptian women on the streets wear one. After hearing Shoowee's description of the divide between migrants and natives in Saudi Arabia, however, I asked him how Saudi culture could have such influence on Egypt. It seemed to me that if you spent a majority of your time in a compound with your own countrymen that the influence of Saudi culture would be limited at best upon your return to Egypt. Shoowee said that in a sense this idea was correct, but that just because he or his Egyptian friends didn't have many close relationships with native Saudis didn't mean that they weren't exposed to the culture and customs on a daily basis. When you're there for a long time, it is inevitable that your opinions about Islam, gender relations, etc. will be influenced if not changed simply because of the length of exposure. It is important to keep in mind that the influence of Saudi Arabia is just one of many factors that contributed to Egyptian society's move toward more conservative customs and a deeper sense of religiosity, and also that not every migrant who spent time in Saudi Arabia or other Arab countries returned to Egypt with a changed viewpoint. Nevertheless, the sheer number of Egyptian migrants to Saudi Arabia and the length of time that they have spent there (primarily because Saudi jobs are quite lucrative) has had a clear influence on Egyptian customs and society.

The Last 2 Weeks in a Nutshell

It's been awhile since I've written on the blog, somewhat because school work is starting to pick up but also because there is just so much to do here that I don't have much free time! We are now on break for the next week and half, so I no longer have an excuse for not posting. Thus, here are a few fun experiences from the past week and a half:

1) My first Egyptian wedding. Last Thursday, three of us tagged along with the program's academic director to his friend's wedding. The wedding was in a suburb of Alexandria named "Wahed wa Ashreen" or, in English, simply "21." The unimaginative name is inspired by the fact this town is 21 kilometers from the center of Alexandria. The town didn't have many distinguishing features, and seemed decidedly middle class by Egyptian standards - modest, low-rise apartment buildings without much attention paid to aesthetics, satellite dishes everywhere, electricity, and bumpy roads. What was most interesting to me was the general absence of all forms of transportation on the streets. We saw a few cars parked along the sides of some of the streets, but we never saw or heard nary a motorcycle, bike, or car actually moving while we were there. As such, the roads turned into a playground for the local kids and a free and public venue for the wedding.

As guests, we were treated with the utmost respect and at every opportunity someone from the groom's family insisted that we eat more food or drink another cup of tea. One of the hardest jobs in Egypt is that of the guest: the host will always bring more food to the table than is humanly possible to eat, but you have to try your best to eat as much as possible lest you appear disrespectful. It's a tough task, but one I do enjoy (especially when there is good food like the Upper Egyptian food we were treated to at the wedding). When you are obliged to eat two huge meals in the span of two hours, however, it can become a bit much.

After our two dinners, we sat in the street and alternately watched and participated in the dancing / fundraising portion of the wedding. The groom and his family were from Upper Egypt (i.e. the south of Egypt), so this portion of the wedding included music played on a recorder-like instrument and drum from the region. As each person gave a small donation to cover the cost of the wedding, he would say who the donation was in honor of and would then get up to dance with the musicians. We donated in honor of Alexandria University, America, and finally Barack Obama, and then proceeded to do our best to emulate the Upper Egyptian style of dancing that we had watched the other men do quite gracefully before us.

Unfortunately after the dancing ended we had spent four hours at the wedding and we had to get back to Alexandria for a birthday party (and another huge meal). There was still no sign of the bride when we left, but I ran into the groom by coincidence a few days ago in Alexandria and he told me that the rest of the wedding went quite well. Alf mabrook (congratulations!)

2) As my Arabic skills continue to develop, I am starting to have some interesting conversations with the Egyptian students that go beyond basic, daily topics such as school, sports, and, my personal favorite, food. As opposed to my experience in Kenya last summer where I would read the English-language newspaper everyday and stay abreast of political developments, I am relatively cut off from Egyptian politics. I don't have time to slog through Arabic newspaper articles every day, and I didn't know much if anything about Egyptian politics before I arrived. In the month and a half that I have been here, however, I have heard the constant refrain from nearly everyone I've talked to that the current government is rife with corruption, inefficient in service delivery, and generally unable to take up the real problems (primarily unemployment) that the country faces. I have focused particularly on the shabab (youth) when thinking about the political situation in the country, and over the past week and a half I had a few chats with my Egyptian friends focused on the future of youth and politics in Egypt.

There are groups of young men all over the place in Alexandria, and Egypt, like most developing countries, has a disproportionally high percentage of its population under 30 years old. So the first question I always ask about the issue is about the options that these youth have. Is a steady job available for your average college student after he graduates? What if you don't make it to college? Are these youth seemingly languishing on the streets simply unambitious, or are they victims of an education system that doesn't prepare them well for future employment? What is their level of interest in politics? The general answers that I have heard so far is that these youth are victims of a poorly-designed and antiquated education system and a gerontocratic society that prioritizes age over skills at their expense. It would be a mistake, of course, to apply these sweeping generalizations to every Egyptian, but the reality on the street should not be taken lightly. Having large groups of unemployed, disaffected youth who are thereby cut off from engaging in the normal social processes of earning a steady income, finding a spouse, and starting a family is a potentially dangerous situation for the government and general stability in the country. The question that remains and that I want to take discuss more with my Egyptian friends is about the political alternatives that might or might not exist. I have heard some of my friends express support for the Muslim Brotherhood, some for the potential presidential candidacy of Mohamed el-Baradei (former head of the IAEA), and some continue to support Hosni Mubarak. As the semester goes on, I am going to keep trying to get my head around these issues and hopefully learn some useful Arabic vocabulary in the process.

We're off on our group trip to Sinai for the next few days, and after that some of us are going to Jordan to visit, among other things, Petra. I am complete ready for the beach, snorkeling, and, of course, for some more fun adventures in Egypt and Jordan.

UPDATE: After waiting five hours for our shredded bus tire to get fixed in a random rest stop on the side of the road in Sinai, we finally made it to Dahab. All of us are 100% relaxed here - life is good. More to come soon on Sinai and my upcoming trip to Jordan

A Trip to the Desert

Last weekend we took our first group trip of the semester, spending three days in Siwa - a desert oasis in western Egypt. Siwa is a beautiful town. It is literally smack dab in the middle of a huge desert, but because it is at a much lower elevation than the rest of the land around it there is a huge lake (which seemed to be a mix of saltwater and fresh water, I'm not quite sure) that gives rise to thousands of palm trees, and, of course, a human settlement.

My favorite part of the trip was the beautiful views that we were treated to from atop the hills that dot the area. Because the desert beyond the town is relatively flat, you can see for miles in every direction from atop the hills. To one side you see the palm trees, the lake, and town, and to the other side you see the endless sand of the desert.

The hills themselves are intriguing, too. Some of them hold tombs from the era of Alexander the Great or from the various groups that populated Siwa in the Middle Ages when it was an important trading post. We saw hieroglyphs, the trademark, one-eyed Egyptian wall paintings, and old dwellings carved into the hillsides.

We spent our last night in Siwa in a camp in the desert. Contrary to what you might think, nights in the desert are really cold! Luckily we had a fire (and s'mores) to take our minds off the temperatures that felt like they were in the high 30s. The night was great; we ate a traditional Siwi dinner, chatted, and ran around in the desert outside the camp. Unfortunately it was a cloudy night so we couldn't see too many stars. That one cold night, though, was enough for me. As I write this I am sitting in a cafe in Alexandria in a short sleeve shirt enjoying the warm day. My heart goes out to everyone at Tufts shivering in the cold.

One last thing that I found interesting about Siwa was the interaction between the old town and the new "touristy" parts. The first paved road to the town was built only 10 or 15 years ago, so tourism and connections to the outside world (even to Egypt) in general are still very new. Whenever I visit a place like Siwa that tries to cater to tourists as an "exotic" destination offering things like desert safaris and building tourist-trap sort of restaurants and shops I am always interested to talk to the locals about how they view the influx of outsiders into their town. I had an interesting chat with one of the staff at our camp about the topic, and he said that, although tourism had opened up some job opportunities, the average standard or living for most of the Siween had not changed. Perhaps this is best exemplified by the new, state-of-the-art streetlights that dot the town's main streets and the roads that lead to the sightseeing destinations. The irony, of course, is that the lights illuminate the ramshackle dwellings that dot the sides of the streets. Furthermore, the side streets have streetlights too, but they are much older and usually all that remains of them is a pole -- the actual lights have long since been removed. We went on to talk about the way that most Siween viewed the advent of tourism in their town in general. He said that the Siween not employed in the tourist industry tended not to view the changes that tourism had brought about kindly and would rather just be left alone. It's hard to tell how the younger generations will adjust, or even to think about how the town will look 10 years from now considering how much it has changed in the past 10 years.

So all in all it was really fun weekend. We have a really great group of people and it was nice to spend time together exploring the town and huddling tight in the desert to escape the cold. I would temper my rave review, however, with the observation that it is important to enjoy the beautiful views from the hilltops while at the same time considering the impacts - positive and negative - that the swift advent of tourism brings to a previously isolated area.

News, News, and more News

It's been quite a week since I last posted. Egypt won two soccer games (both of which set off crazy celebrations in the streets), I attended the first rugby game of my life, and of course I had a chance to explore the city some more.

First, soccer - or, as they say in Egypt, kura. Egypt played Algeria in the African Cup of Nations semifinal last Thursday and the anticipation was palpable throughout the city leading up to the game. Whenever you see people selling Egyptian flags in the middle of the streets and face painters with only black, white, and red paint it can only mean one thing: there's a big soccer game coming up. This game was particularly important because of the painful memory of Egypt's loss to Algeria last fall that prevented Egypt from qualifying for the World Cup. According to every Egyptian I talked to, the Algerian team plays extremely dirty, and that style of play represents the qualities of Algerians in general. So with that in mind, I was prepared for raucous celebrations if Egypt won (revenge!) or possibly riots if Egypt lost a close, contested match. Luckily, Egypt dominated the game - they won 4-0 and three Algerians received red cards and were ejected from the game. The ensuing celebration was unlike any I have ever seen, except maybe the somewhat contained celebration around Fenway Park after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007. All throughout the Alexandria people were dancing the streets, shooting off fireworks, and using lighters and aerosol cans to create fire blasts at random intervals. Pandemonium. We watched from the sidewalk, and decided after a few minutes that it would probably be a good idea to walk away from the main street near the dorms and onto some calmer (relatively) side streets. Nevertheless, the party continued until the wee hours of the morning. When I went to bed at around 1 AM I could still here music and car horns from the street. Talk about a national catharsis...I think every Egyptian - literally everyone - watched the match and partied afterwards!

Egypt won the African Cup of Nations three days later, and that set off another round of celebrations in the streets. Unfortunately in our excitement to join in with the frenzy on the street we had a small run-in with a group of unruly young Egyptians who harassed our group (about 6 or 7 of us, mix of boys and girls) as we were watching the partiers on the street. Nothing came of it in the end - we went into a shoe store off to the side of the street and the we were able to push the harassers away - but I think the girls in particular were not very happy with what happened. They face a lot of adversity on a daily basis (for various reasons and from various people on the street), and in retrospect it was a poor choice on our part (the guys) to go nearer to the celebration and make ourselves more visible to people who, although they probably weren't drunk, were certainly in a charged-up mood. Lesson learned, we'll do better next time.

We had our first rugby match on Friday. A club team from Cairo came to town, and we faced off under the lights of the university's stadium in front of a small crowd (well, in reality, it was just a bunch of the students in the program and our rugby club's junior team). Of the five of us from the program who joined the team, three - myself included - had never played rugby before in our lives. The other two had, so they actually started the game, but we three were content to simply watch from the sidelines. Rugby, as you might know, is quite a physical game. Unlike football which has a set beginning and end to each play, there are no set stoppages in rugby. The teams go back and forth unless there is a penalty, the ball goes out of bounds, or someone scores a "try" (touchdown). So in addition to requiring speed and size, a good rugby player has to be in really good shape, too. I think conditioning was our main problem, and we went on to lose the game 23-12. Our coach gave quite the speech afterward in the locker room. We are learning all sorts of interesting Arabic words from him that are not suitable for this blog. I now understand the basic form of the game much better after watching on Friday, but I'm still not sure I'll ever get to the point this semester of understanding it well enough or playing well enough to actually get into a game. As far as I'm concerned, however, playing in a game would just be an added bonus. It's been really fun to get to know the guys on the team and learn sports vocabulary, and I've particularly enjoyed getting to experience the camaraderie of team sports once again.

Finally, an Egyptian friend of mine and I went for a run Monday along the Corniche - Alexandria's main road that runs right next to the Mediterranean. My ambitious plans to run about 4 miles soon fell by the wayside when he told me that he hadn't run in over a year. We ended up going at a "comfortable" pace, which included a stop for ice cream in the middle, a walk through an old fortress at the end of the road, and a stroll through a shabi (working class) market right next to Alexandria's oldest and most beautiful mosque. Our short run seems to have inspired my friend, though, who has now vowed to run every day of the week so that when we go out again next week he'll be able to make it the whole way In'sha'allah (god willing).

We're off to Siwa today, a desert oasis in the southern part of Egypt. This is our first group trip of the semester, and everyone is really excited. We have a 9 hour bus ride, but there has been talk of a prolonged Arabic singing session and who knows what else on the bus. We'll be spending 2 days in the desert and then coming back to the city on Saturday. More updates to come!

A Discovery of the Utmost Importance!

Right on cue, after I just posted about how much I love the alleys here, I went out for a little walk with two of my friends from the dorm through the alleys / market close to the dorm. Amazingly fun and interesting, of course, and full of chatter, food, and hawkers. We walked past a myriad of vegetable sellers, fruit stands, small electronics shops, people selling Egyptian flags (probably in anticipation of the big match with Algeria tonight in the African Cup of Nations), and people cooking various things.

As we rounded yet another tight corner I saw, lo and behold, a baker rolling out dough, putting some meat and vegetables in the middle, and covering them with another layer of dough. When he had made four of those doughy creations, he stuck them all in oven and let them bake for a few minutes, at which point he pulled out four golden brown circles of meat-filled dough. Sound familiar? Instantly, I realized that I had just made a huge discovery, possibly akin to that of King Tut's tomb or the Titanic deep underneath the Atlantic...I had found the Egyptian version of a calzone! Anyone who knows me knows the special, special place that calzones have in my heart. Of course I had to buy one - 60 cents, what a deal! - and it took all of my willpower to restrain myself from buying two! After watching the baker roll out fresh dough, put the meat, tomatoes, and onions in the middle, and throw it all in the oven, I sunk my teeth into a fresh, hot, and incredibly delicious ha-wow-she (spelling approximate/phonetic). I think I'm going to break the language pledge on this one and just call it a calzone from now on. So good!

I am now happily relaxing back in the dorms, content with the knowledge that even if this semester turns out terribly for some reason (highly unlikely) I will at least have the calzone to fall back on for comfort and solace. And, in the more likely scenario that Egypt continues to be awesome, it will be even better because I will be feasting on calzones quite regularly!

The Magic of the Alleys

I mentioned briefly in a previous post the odd feeling that I get when I walk down the small side streets in Alexandria because of the towering apartment buildings that inevitably rise on both sides. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am not used to being shorter than everything around me. But although (or maybe because) I feel like I am in the middle of a deep canyon I find myself constantly drawn to these alleys whenever I walk through the city. For one thing, there is so much more life in them than on the big boulevards that run through the city. Whereas a walk on the boulevard will yield nothing but car fumes and constant honking, a walk in the alleys always leads to new discoveries or sights that I would never see in the US.

Sidewalks technically exist here, but in the alleys they are generally dirt or jagged concrete, and you are apt to receive a free (and unexpected) shower if you walk on them from someone's dripping air conditioner, drying clothes on their balconies, and God knows what else. Thus, everyone walks in the streets. In addition to the constant foot traffic, there is also the constant hum of conversation. From within shops, between people on the street, the calls of the milk or fruit seller hawking his wares, or jabber back and forth between people on different balconies of the apartment buildings on both sides of the street. I periodically stop and just lean on the wall of a building or stand in front of a shop to drink it all in.

The whole life of the alleys is particularly interesting to me because I am currently reading Jane Jacobs' "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" in which she pinpoints sidewalk conversation, spontaneous interaction between customers and shopkeepers or passers-by on the street, and constant involvement by residents and visitors alike in the life of the street as critical for a neighborhood's vibrancy, safety, and overall quality of life for its residents. Jacobs assails housing projects and wide, sweeping streets through the city for their complete disregard for the importance of this street life and the negative consequences that result. I can say with absolute certainty that were Jane Jacobs still around today and were she to visit Alexandria she would be absolutely charmed by all of these alleys.

I might have felt some hesitance at first to get off the main streets and explore the alleys, but after a few weeks here and many amazing sights in the alleys that I now avidly seek them out whenever I walk anywhere. As a matter of fact, I think I feel even more safe in them than I do on the big streets (namely because of Egyptian drivers' general lack of sanity and propensity not acknowledging the existence of pedestrians). This sidewalk life in the alleys and total mixing of residents, businesses, and passers-through is largely missing in the United States (places like Chestnut Street, Fillmore Street, or Clement Street and Chinatown in San Francisco come close to approximating it but lack the residential aspect). So with that in mind I am going to relish every opportunity I have here to get off the beaten, smoggy paths on the main streets and work my way through the thousands of alleys that are hidden - but by no means undiscoverable - in this city.

Rugby in Alexandria

For the first time in my life I decided to strap on some rugby boots (well, running shoes actually) and head out to play the hard-hitting, unpadded, and gentlemanly sport of rugby. All in Arabic, of course.

Two of the other students on the program play rugby in college, and one of them had gotten in contact with the coach of the club rugby team at the university. I decided to tag along with them to the first practice more out of a desire to find a fun team sport to play here than because of my love for rugby - in reality I didn't even know that forward passes were illegal until practice started.

Despite my lack of knowledge about the rules and the difficulty of trying to learn a new sport exclusively in Arabic, practices have been quite fun so far. We practice three times a week and have games on Fridays (the first one is later this week, إن شاء الله God willing). The sport itself and practices in general are quite intense. Lots of conditioning and lots of hitting, but also a great deal of strategy, which I am slowly picking up more by watching than by listening. Also, the coach is quite a character. In what I think is a perfect example of the Napoleon complex, our 5'4" coach packs a lot of punch and is not afraid to use it (sometimes literally with the Egyptian players) if he is not happy. But he is also a very nice guy who is bending over backwards to teach us, a group of rookies, about the game and be patient when we don't understand basic aspects of it.

And we also have some opportunities to practice our Arabic. For example, we can all now count very quickly in Arabic because we have to shout out the count for each stretch during our warmups. My sports vocabulary is expanding, too (run, catch, jump, etc.) as a result of trying to understand where to go and what to do on the field. None of us are sure if we are going to actually play in the games, but at the very least I love the opportunity to get out and run around during practice. We've also had a chance to get to know some of the guys on the team, but I will save insights from that for another post.

Images from Alexandria

As I said in my last post, there have been some images of Alexandria that I have seen in the past few days that I hope will give you an idea of life in this city. I don't usually take my camera out with me, so I will have to rely on my descriptions to illustrate the scenes.

Lunch at the "Mohamed Ahmed" restaurant
We went to eat at a restaurant called Mohamed Ahmed which specializes in Ful (a dish made from fava beans) and falafel. It was absolutely delicious. My lasting image of the restaurant is a large pile of falafel and pita in the middle of the table that all of us proceeded to dig into with pleasure. I'm not sure what kind of reputation Egyptian cuisine has internationally, but I have found it so far to be quite good. I generally like bread in all shapes and sizes, and so I have been voraciously devouring pita from day one here. Falafel is quite good too, and I had a delicious grilled and stuffed cauliflower last night (karnabeet in Arabic) that I will definitely be on the lookout for again.

The bouncing train
During our orientation we visited a place called Muntaza. It was located right next to the Mediterranean, and we spent a very nice afternoon in a park about a quarter mile from the shore. To get there we took the local train (probably the equivalent of commuter rail as opposed to the tram in Alexandria). The train was very emblematic of Alexandria's feel on the whole: it left on time and got us from point A to point B, but it wasn't necessarily in the greatest condition and the doors didn't close. But, as I thought to myself on the train, the fact that the doors didn't close didn't really mean anything as far as our being able to get where we needed to go. The funniest part of the ride was when we hit a bouncy stretch of track (I don't know how a train track can be bouncy, but this one certainly was) and some young boys in the car ahead of us started jumping up and down as if they were on a trampoleen. Quite a funny sight.

Walking down the alley
As I mentioned yesterday, I went on a meandering walk through Alexandria as I was walking from the girls' dorms back to the boys' dorms (they are about 15 minutes from each other by car, 40 minutes walking). I happened to walk down a narrow alley just to see what was there. There were tall apartment buildings on both sides (there are almost no one or two story buildings in the part of Alexandria that we're in), and the narrowness of the alley made the buildings seem even taller. It gives you the feeling of walking through a narrow, deep canyon. At any given moment, dozens of people are looking out their windows or sitting on their porches looking down at the street. The streets never feel deserted. I happened to look up at one point and I saw a woman in a full hijab (nothing showing but her eyes) peering over her balcony and slowly lowering a basket to ground level from her tenth floor perch. I'm not sure what she wanted put in that bucket, but it remained about 10 feet above street level while she rested her arm on the balcony ledge and looked down at the street. From my perspective, with my head tilted all the way back to see high enough and with the tall buildings on both sides of the streets framing her, the woman cut a striking yet absolutely mysterious figure. My trip down the alley ended with my realizing that I had gone the wrong way, but after I asked a man working on his car in the alley for directions back to my dorm, he asked me to sit down for tea before I headed on my way. We had a nice chat (albeit in my somewhat basic Arabic) and, after meeting and talking with a few kids who had been milling around us, I walked back to the dorm just as the evening call to prayer sounded.

I'm sure that there will be many more stories and images like these, and I will try to write about them throughout the semester. For tonight, I have to finish a little homework for my "Media Arabic" class and then some of the Egyptians and some of my friends on the program are going to head to a coffee shop to chat and play backgammon (my new favorite game). إلى لقاء

Settling into Alexandria

It has now been five days since I arrived in Alexandria, but it feels like it's been five months! The past few days have been filled with orientation activities, crash courses in Egyptian Amiyya (colloquial Arabic), hanging out in the dorm with our Egyptian dormmates, and exploring the city. The program "officially" started today when we all took the language pledge - thus, I am now speaking exclusively in Arabic.

Many of the sights and sounds in these first few days in Alexandria have on the whole been quite unlike anything I've seen or heard before, although there are many things that seem normal to me, too. After my experience in Kenya last summer and after hearing about the city from friends who did this program in the fall, I had prepared myself for an experience similar to the one I had in Nairobi: a third world city, crowded, polluted, and chaotic. I might use some of those adjectives to describe life here in Alexandria, but for the most part I have felt quite often during the first few days that life in Alexandria is not too far from what I'm used to at home. For example, the roads are nicely paved, there is a tram that runs throughout the city, some beautiful architecture, and great views of the Mediterranean along the coast. There is a lot of traffic, crossing the street is an exhilarating experience in and of itself, the trams aren't necessarily state-of-the art, and people tend to walk on the street instead of the sidewalk, but as a whole my impression so far is that there is certainly a logical way that this city works. The divide between private and public space (houses / shops and the street) just isn't as "clean-cut" as it would be in the US.

On the other hand, this is the most foreign place I have ever been to. I had no idea how present Islam is in everyone's daily lives. I wake up every morning to the call to prayer outside my window, religious sayings are commonly seen on car bumpers, storefronts, and even graffiti on the street. On top of that, the clothing that people wear makes you feel that you are in another world. Of course many people wear Western attire, but I would say that 99% of the women here wear hijabs (head scarves) and about 10% have the hijab covering their whole face with only their eyes showing. Many men also wear Islamic garb, though none cover their heads. Despite the ostensible differences in clothing, however, there is no awkwardness once you strike up a conversation with someone. I have found everyone that I have talked to extremely kind and welcoming (it is not uncommon, as happened to me today, to be asked to sit down for tea or coffee and a conversation by a stranger on the street). As my Arabic improves, which it is already starting to, I really am looking forward to wading deeper into the culture.

Finally, and this subject certainly deserves its own post, Alexandria's history is very visible throughout the city. The new library is beautiful, Roman and Greek ruins are all over the place (including shipwrecks and pottery that are still being explored in the Mediterranean), and British and French style architecture, roundabouts, trams, and grand boulevards run throughout the city.

I have seen so many images in my first few days here that will hopefully help bring the city to life for any readers of the blog, and I will write about some of them later this week. I am exhausted from a long day today which included watching Egypt's national soccer team win their match versus Mozambique in the African Cup of Nations in Angola - You can imagine the celebration on the streets after both of Egypt's goals...

Leaving for Egypt in One Week

The countdown to Egypt is on. Next Sunday, I will be heading out to NYC, and after spending a day there I will be in Egypt on Tuesday, January 12. I will be spending the semester studying Arabic at Alexandria University (in Alexandria, Egypt) through Middlebury College's study abroad program. Here is a description of the program. I will be posting on this blog throughout the semester with stories about life and school, observations about the overall experience of being in Egypt, and anything else that seems worthy of being put down in writing on here. This is my second travel blog - you can find the blog that I kept in Kenya last summer here.

Don't be alarmed by all of the Arabic writing on the previous posts on this blog - for my Arabic class last semester we all kept blogs that we updated semi-regularly throughout the semester. I figured that it would just as easy to simply convert that blog into my Egypt blog instead of starting a whole new one. Despite the fact that the Middlebury program is focused on the language and all the participants signed the "Language Pledge" saying that they agreed to speak Arabic 24/7, I will be writing in English on this blog.

Feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested. For now, إلى لقاء (until next time).