Walk Like an Egyptian

Hello everyone, I know it's been awhile. I'm now done with my exams. Finally. Having exams stretched between the middle of December and the last week of January really makes life complicated and continually stressful. But I'm done. Like everything in France, my exams were nothing like I expected. Some were shockingly broad- one political science exam included no actual questions but simply phrases that I was expected to respond to. Others were pleasantly shorter than we expected- my linguistics exam was seemingly missing the first section, and luckily that was the section I didn't know. Now, though, it's time to dive right into the second semester. Still trying to figure out my schedule, especially because I'm hoping to get an internship and that will change the number of credits I need. We will see...
I went to Egypt. It's okay if you didn't know, I didn't tell my parents until just before I left. I figured it was less time for them to worry about it. Egypt was incredible, frustrating, amazing, and sad. Possibly some more adjectives that I can't think of right now. I've never been anywhere that created so many emotions. So many conflicting emotions. I want to go back. And I want to go to Morocco, and South Africa, and everywhere else for that matter. But it was hard. I went with Sean, a friend from high school. I don't think you could really see Egypt if it was just a group of girls. I hate saying that. It bothers my feminist instincts. But so does Egypt in general. I brought a scarf with me, not sure how many women would cover their head. I would say less than 20 % were uncovered, so I felt painfully obvious walking down the streets uncovered. But I felt like a fraud when I wore my scarf. Everyone still knew that I wasn't Egyptian, or Muslim. And I couldn't decide whether it was more appropriate to cover my head when I didn't believe in it or to obviously defy their customs. Still, I tried, and I wore long sleeves and long pants everywhere. Which is more than I can say for the hordes of tourists at the main sites, who saw nothing of Egypt that didn't require an entrance ticket. Our hotel was right in downtown Cairo. Which can be terrifying, certainly at least just crossing the street requires a blatant disregard for your life, or as our guide book told us, "just use one of the locals as a shield. they usually don't mind." We were in the middle of Egypt. And in the middle of millions of Egyptians. Every time we stepped out the door. Of course our hotel was on the 8th floor of an old appartment building who elevators stopped working the second day we were there. So stepping out the door was more of a process than what it sounds. We tried to really explore the city. It's overwhelming, though, with the traffic and the locals. In Italy, there's also people selling things and calling out as you walk down the streets. But not to the same extent as in Egypt. Egyptians are friendly, but taxi drivers, tour guides, papyrus makers are everywhere, just waiting to sell you something. Most often we heard locals offer a quiet "welcome" as we walked by, though I was also complemented on my eyebrows, hair, etc. One man told me to call him after I took my black nail polish off. Everyone assumed we were married, because I don't think many Egyptians travel together as friends. After we explained that we weren't, most of the men offered to marry me themselves. One man who ran an alabastor factory gave me "his heart." I walked away with a few souvenir pieces of alabastor, and in fact a carved alabastor heart. Does that mean we are married now? Probably. The obvious parts of Egypt are as incredible as expected. You can't hide the immensity or the grace of the Pyramids. Or the Valley of the Kings. Or any of it really. There were times when it felt a little too touristy but the ruins spoke for themselves. There are a million Egyptians at every tourist destination willing to give you the back tour or point out an extra hieroglyph for a few extra Egyptian pounds. There are separate tickets for nearly everything, as you can pay one price just to walk around the ruins, another to actually go in, probably another to take pictures...you never know. We hired a taxi for the day and traveled to the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid at Saccara. Then we stopped at Memphis, the old capital. And finally, the Pyramids of Giza. We rode a camel for a short trip from one pyramid to another, literally using the last of our money. That's always an effective bargaining tool, when you really have no more money. I enjoyed the ride between destinations almost as much as the destinations themselves, sitting in the back of a dusty taxi listening to Egyptian music and driving through the countryside of Egypt. Our driver stopped so we could eat oranges that his sister sells by the side of the road. My first impulse is to call Cairo dirty. But I think it's really just dusty. Understandable, considering the desert and the age of everything. It's loud and dusty, but surprisingly more charming than expected. We were invited by several people on the street to go to a coffeehouse and drink "shai" with them, Egyptians drink tea maybe 10 times a day and it's such a social activity. We met a surprising number of Egyptians who had lived in Minnesota. Everyone associates Chicago with Al Capone. I was so impressed with their English. Not just those in the tourist industry, but many of the people of the street spoke near perfect English. I want to learn Arabic.
We took the night train down to Luxor, which is where the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Colossi of Memnon, etc. are located. We ended up joining a small tour organized by a hotel owner which took us to all of the spots we wanted to see. I have no pictures of the mummies or the inside of the tombs, as you're not allowed to bring your camera inside, and I don't know that I can even describe them. But they are incredible. The officials had only recently returned King Tut's mummy to his tomb, so we saw both the outer sarcophagus and his mummy inside. Most of the spoils are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which is an incredible maze of discoveries. But the tombs themselves retain an almost austere glory. Hatshepsut's Temple seems nearly untouched as you first approach it. Up close, sure, there's fallen columns and destroyed paintings. But still. It's incredible. The Colossi of Memnon are, well, gigantic. And I made the tour stop so I could at least get a picture from the side of the road of the Ramesseum, which has the fallen statue of Ramses II that Shelley wrote about in his poem 'Ozymandias.' No one else understood why I wanted to see it. After our tour, the hotel owner appeared and invited us to his home to see the real Egypt. Although we were both a little nervous, I'm so glad that we did. He lives with his sister and her husband, and their four daughters in a small house near the Colossi of Memnon, in the middle of a small farming community. His sister kept bringing dishes out of the kitchen, and they were all delicious. I hated that she didn't just sit and eat with us though, although I don't think she spoke any English. The four daughters were adorable and hilarious. They loved our digital cameras, chewing gum and tried teaching us a little bit of Arabic. But you could already see the difference between the oldest, who was about 9, and the others. She came into the room with her head uncovered, but quickly left and returned with a scarf. Her younger sisters tore off their scarves as soon as they were in the room. She tended to stand off to the side, waiting for her uncle to tell her what to bring him or where to go. After a while, she started joining in on the fun, but it was sad to see how much more reserved she was. It was an incredible afternoon, though, relaxing and an amazing view into Egypt that I never expected to get. After our late lunch, we headed to the banks of the Nile where we took a 'felucca,' or basically a sailboat, ride. It was so relaxing and beautiful. And incredible to be out on the Nile. Luckily, I saw no crocodiles. We returned to Cairo that night, and the next day we explored Coptic Cairo. Ten percent of Cairo is Coptic Christian and their quarter contains some amazing buildings. We saw the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest in Egypt and supposedly where the Jews gathered after escaping Nebuchadnezzar. Just around the outside wall is the spring where the Pharaoh's daughter supposedly found Moses in the reeds. We also saw the Hanging Church, from around the 6th century. By the end of our time in Cairo, we had nearly mastered 'Gad,' the Egyptian fast food restaurant that our hotel recommended. Everything was in arabic so we learned just to ask for some kind of sandwich and take what we got. One day we got four falafel sandwiches for about one dollar. One day I might have gotten pigeon. We're not sure.
It's hard to love a city where you don't feel comfortable. And I don't think that I could ever really feel comfortable in Cairo. Certainly not by myself, and not entirely even with anyone else. But I want to go back. I want to explore it again. I want to see more of "real Egypt." But that will be later. My next goal is Morocco.