Yeah so sorry I totally gave up on this blog a few months ago, but I decided I should write a final blog entry. I go back in two days, and I've been switching off and on from being sad about leaving to being excited about going back. Right now I'm kind of in the middle. I also kind of don't believe I'm leaving.. It feels really similar to how I felt before I came here.
This experience has been rough sometimes, but overall I don't regret anything and I'm so grateful I've had the opportunity to do this. Egypt will always be a part of me and it's most definitely shown me so much. It has made me stronger as a woman, more clear in my direction and chosen purpose for life, and ready to really start getting stuff done. And I'll be doing that in a month when I go to Mississippi for Americorps for 10 months. I plan to spend the rest of my life making the lives of others (in particular, women) fair, just, and hopefully at least a tad bit better.
Things I'm going to miss the most about Egypt, in no particular order:
- Kosheri!
- Juice
- Host family and friends
- Overbearing kindness
- Shaabi music
- Egyptian dancing
- Public transportation
- Unceasing car horns and sirens
- Extremely corny and cheesy music/jokes/people
- Lib
- Eating dinner at midnight
- Eating breakfast at 2 pm
- Sunshine
- Kung fu on the roof of Resala
- Resala and the amazing people who volunteer there
- Haram street
- Being called a banana and a cat by men on the street
- Egyptian English
- Kalimat and our fantastic Arabic teachers
- People not being germophobes
- Feluccas on the Nile
- Egyptian pride
Things I'm excited for in America:
- Silence
- Nature
- Friends and family
- Food!
- The park
- Bonfires
- Ice cream
- Walking down a street without being stared at/creeped on
- Wearing whatever I want
- Driving
- Biking
- Rain
- Staying out late
- Dollar movies
- Thrift stores
- My bed
- The Fourth of July!
- Americorps!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Life in Egypt is going by normally and quickly. I can't believe I'm almost half-way through the exchange. I've been getting so frustrated with my Arabic lately because I feel as if I still haven't made very much progress. Or at least not as much progress as I could be making. Arabic class still isn't really teaching me very much conversationally. But I suppose I just need to be patient.
Other than Arabic, nothing else is really frustrating in my life here. My English classes are going well and I really enjoy talking with the students and getting to know them. I found out last week that I've been accepted into Americorps NCCC at the Vicksburg, Mississippi campus! So that's what I'll be doing next year and then after that I will go to college.
So these past few weeks I've done some pretty exciting things and found more magical places in Cairo. Well first we had our 6-week orientation at a really beautiful place. It was a fun little get away to talk about how our Egypt experience is going. But then afterwards, 5 out of 9 in our group got really sick. Not me though! But it was pretty bad. In the past week or so I also got an opportunity to go to an Egyptian wedding! Here people have like three different celebrations for the wedding process I think. There is the one party that happens when they get engaged I believe, and they just have a party in the street outside of their home. They bring out rugs and other things from the home that the husband will give to the wife, I think. I was told all of this by different people in broken English so I'm not totally sure. But then there is a lot of loud music and dancing in the street and joyfulness. After this party another day or maybe sometimes the same day, there is a ceremony at the mosque when the bride and groom sign the official documents saying they're officially married. Then another day is the wedding-type ceremony that we have. I was able to go to the ceremony when the bride and groom sign the documents. Afterward is the real fun though, when everyone crams in their cars and drives around beeping this certain tune and blasting music and clapping. They also make this funny noise, I don't know how to explain it. After driving, we went to a mountain in Cairo that has a beautiful view of the city.
Last week I also went to Khan el Khalili which is a really famous old bazaar and there were so many beautiful things I wanted to buy. I'm definitely going to go back and buy stuff for everyone at home. Next to Khan el Khalili is Old Cairo which has many old mosques and buildings. We didn't explore very much of it but we went into a couple really beautiful mosques and a famous old house as well. In one of the mosques especially, you could really feel the history inside of it. It felt like we were exploring ancient ruins almost. The next day I went to a really fantastic Egyptian cafe. It was down this dirt road near the pyramids and then the road just opened up to these wonderful tent-like but also really nice cafes. All the cafes I've been to before here are very normal, westernized looking places, but in this place you sit on the ground and there is a little stage for dancing to shaabi music and it was so wonderful. And there was also a baby lion. Shaabi music and dancing makes me so so happy! It is considered the lifestyle of the "working class" and really local people, and the music is this mixture of Egyptian folk songs remixed with new electronic instruments and loud dance-y beats! It is considered rougher and more edgy than other music and many of the songs are banned from radio and television. But on the streets you can hear these songs everywhere! So many people know and love them but the artists are far from any type of fame with the media. Maybe some of you will enjoy this music as much as I do, so here is a link to a youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpf8ZDx3J7I
Oh, and another thing I saw in the past couple weeks was the market! It was so magical! And I live basically across the street from it but I didn't even know. The market is basically just a bunch of small back streets filled with stands and shops and tons of people. And there is the market of vegetables and fruits. The one thing that really disgusted me though was the meat.. There is just raw meat hanging or sitting out everywhere and it is so nasty.But everything else about the market was incredibly magical! And I will go again soon and take pictures!
As for now, that's all, and if you are someone who I am not friends with on facebook and you'd like to see lots of pictures, let me know and I will send you the link!
Other than Arabic, nothing else is really frustrating in my life here. My English classes are going well and I really enjoy talking with the students and getting to know them. I found out last week that I've been accepted into Americorps NCCC at the Vicksburg, Mississippi campus! So that's what I'll be doing next year and then after that I will go to college.
So these past few weeks I've done some pretty exciting things and found more magical places in Cairo. Well first we had our 6-week orientation at a really beautiful place. It was a fun little get away to talk about how our Egypt experience is going. But then afterwards, 5 out of 9 in our group got really sick. Not me though! But it was pretty bad. In the past week or so I also got an opportunity to go to an Egyptian wedding! Here people have like three different celebrations for the wedding process I think. There is the one party that happens when they get engaged I believe, and they just have a party in the street outside of their home. They bring out rugs and other things from the home that the husband will give to the wife, I think. I was told all of this by different people in broken English so I'm not totally sure. But then there is a lot of loud music and dancing in the street and joyfulness. After this party another day or maybe sometimes the same day, there is a ceremony at the mosque when the bride and groom sign the official documents saying they're officially married. Then another day is the wedding-type ceremony that we have. I was able to go to the ceremony when the bride and groom sign the documents. Afterward is the real fun though, when everyone crams in their cars and drives around beeping this certain tune and blasting music and clapping. They also make this funny noise, I don't know how to explain it. After driving, we went to a mountain in Cairo that has a beautiful view of the city.
Last week I also went to Khan el Khalili which is a really famous old bazaar and there were so many beautiful things I wanted to buy. I'm definitely going to go back and buy stuff for everyone at home. Next to Khan el Khalili is Old Cairo which has many old mosques and buildings. We didn't explore very much of it but we went into a couple really beautiful mosques and a famous old house as well. In one of the mosques especially, you could really feel the history inside of it. It felt like we were exploring ancient ruins almost. The next day I went to a really fantastic Egyptian cafe. It was down this dirt road near the pyramids and then the road just opened up to these wonderful tent-like but also really nice cafes. All the cafes I've been to before here are very normal, westernized looking places, but in this place you sit on the ground and there is a little stage for dancing to shaabi music and it was so wonderful. And there was also a baby lion. Shaabi music and dancing makes me so so happy! It is considered the lifestyle of the "working class" and really local people, and the music is this mixture of Egyptian folk songs remixed with new electronic instruments and loud dance-y beats! It is considered rougher and more edgy than other music and many of the songs are banned from radio and television. But on the streets you can hear these songs everywhere! So many people know and love them but the artists are far from any type of fame with the media. Maybe some of you will enjoy this music as much as I do, so here is a link to a youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpf8ZDx3J7I
Oh, and another thing I saw in the past couple weeks was the market! It was so magical! And I live basically across the street from it but I didn't even know. The market is basically just a bunch of small back streets filled with stands and shops and tons of people. And there is the market of vegetables and fruits. The one thing that really disgusted me though was the meat.. There is just raw meat hanging or sitting out everywhere and it is so nasty.But everything else about the market was incredibly magical! And I will go again soon and take pictures!
As for now, that's all, and if you are someone who I am not friends with on facebook and you'd like to see lots of pictures, let me know and I will send you the link!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Under the Egyptian Sun
Yesterday was definitely the hottest day yet, reaching nearly 100 degrees. Not only have you people in America been having a strange and extreme winter, but we've been having one here in Cairo as well. Temperatures usually never reach this high in the winter here. And a couple weeks ago there was an intense thunderstorm that flooded the streets and hail also coated the ground in some places. Most Egyptians had never seen hail before so a lot of them thought it was snow.It was pretty amusing.
So it's just daily life here now, I can't think of much of anything new to write about. I am still awed by the fact that I'm in Egypt though, so the newness hasn't worn off yet completely. My day usually consists of going to teach an English class and then going to my Arabic class, each of which are 2 and a half hours long. Some days I don't have English classes though, so I just go to Arabic.Either way, I never have to wake up earlier than 10. Which is a really good thing because at night I stay up late sitting and talking or playing cards with my host family. Last night we were up until 2 I think. I have no clue how my host mom gets up early for work everyday! Oh, and I also just started taking a kung fu class! It's a lot of fun and my friend Michelle does it with me.
I definitely really feel like Egypt is my home now and I'm going to miss it so much. I really think the thing I love the most about Egypt is the people here. They are incredibly friendly and Cairo is a very safe city because of them. I remember when I was telling people that I was going to Egypt, many of them were afraid for me or something because they thought it would be unsafe. Why? There is no difference in safety between Cairo and any other city in the U.S. In fact, I've read articles that state that Cairo is much safer than many major cities in the U.S. Another thing that I've noticed here that I really want to write about to dispell stereotypes is how accepting and peaceful everyone I've talked to is. For example, even though the majority of Egyptians are Muslim, there is a minority of Christians here, and whenever anyone explains this to me, they say how both the Muslims and Christians live as one. There is no hostility between them or anything of the sort. Another thing I've noticed from people that I've talked to that are Muslim is that they are just in general extremely accepting of others' beliefs. They would never tell you that your belief is wrong and they do not try to force their religion on others. From my experience, the majority of Muslims that I have met here are so much more accepting and peaceful than the majority of Christians that I have met in America.. from my experience. And also from what I've noticed, people here follow their religion much more strictly and it plays a bigger part in their daily lives than what I've seen in America. These things are just my observations from my experiences. But hopefully this will change a few people's prior misconceptions about the middle east and Muslims.
Oh and this past week I also visited the Citadel, an ancient Islamic place and it was incredibly beautiful. I will post pictures.:)
We also went to Azher Park and I saw some grass and trees!!! It was really exciting.
So it's just daily life here now, I can't think of much of anything new to write about. I am still awed by the fact that I'm in Egypt though, so the newness hasn't worn off yet completely. My day usually consists of going to teach an English class and then going to my Arabic class, each of which are 2 and a half hours long. Some days I don't have English classes though, so I just go to Arabic.Either way, I never have to wake up earlier than 10. Which is a really good thing because at night I stay up late sitting and talking or playing cards with my host family. Last night we were up until 2 I think. I have no clue how my host mom gets up early for work everyday! Oh, and I also just started taking a kung fu class! It's a lot of fun and my friend Michelle does it with me.
I definitely really feel like Egypt is my home now and I'm going to miss it so much. I really think the thing I love the most about Egypt is the people here. They are incredibly friendly and Cairo is a very safe city because of them. I remember when I was telling people that I was going to Egypt, many of them were afraid for me or something because they thought it would be unsafe. Why? There is no difference in safety between Cairo and any other city in the U.S. In fact, I've read articles that state that Cairo is much safer than many major cities in the U.S. Another thing that I've noticed here that I really want to write about to dispell stereotypes is how accepting and peaceful everyone I've talked to is. For example, even though the majority of Egyptians are Muslim, there is a minority of Christians here, and whenever anyone explains this to me, they say how both the Muslims and Christians live as one. There is no hostility between them or anything of the sort. Another thing I've noticed from people that I've talked to that are Muslim is that they are just in general extremely accepting of others' beliefs. They would never tell you that your belief is wrong and they do not try to force their religion on others. From my experience, the majority of Muslims that I have met here are so much more accepting and peaceful than the majority of Christians that I have met in America.. from my experience. And also from what I've noticed, people here follow their religion much more strictly and it plays a bigger part in their daily lives than what I've seen in America. These things are just my observations from my experiences. But hopefully this will change a few people's prior misconceptions about the middle east and Muslims.
Oh and this past week I also visited the Citadel, an ancient Islamic place and it was incredibly beautiful. I will post pictures.:)
We also went to Azher Park and I saw some grass and trees!!! It was really exciting.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
I've been here for almost a month and the time is most definitely going by way too fast.!
Well this past week and a half I have been going out, doing random things, meeting new people, and going to Resala. And getting juice of course. Although I've been thinking that my Arabic has barely improved, I realized today that it has probably improved more than I think. It's just been coming along slowly. Yesterday we finally started Arabic class! But we are starting from the very, very beginning and I already know those things... So we'll see what happens. But this way all 9 of our American group gets to take classes together so it's good :)
And on Sunday I also finally started actually teaching my English classes! At first I was kind of nervous about it, especially because all of my students are older than me, but once the class started it went well and I really enjoyed it. I'm excited to do fun creative learning activities in the classes. One con of teaching English is that the main rule in this course is that there is no Arabic allowed, so I don't learn any Arabic in return. But it's okay because I have about 6 people that I've made deals with for them to teach me Arabic and I will teach them English. And there are many people at Resala who are really enthusiastic about teaching me Arabic. In Resala when I am not teaching, I usually help out in the medicine department, and I sort donated medicine by type and expiration date. I hope soon I will start helping out in other departments as well.
Another big thing that happened this past week is that I moved in with my permanent host family! They are really wonderful and I love them very much :)
One thing I am getting used to here though is that now I live right next to a couple main roads and it's extremely loud. And it never stops being loud. Horns and sirens literally never stop. My apartment building is also right next to an elementary school and so there are also screaming children early in the morning. I will probably get used to the noise soon though and be able to tune it out.
One thing that I didn't realize I would miss so much is nature. Coming here has shown me that I'm definitely not a city girl at all. I like big cities for short periods of time, but I don't particularly like living in one. I would much rather prefer a small town with nature or a rural setting. But I also do not enjoy living in the suburbs. Being here has made me realize how beautiful South Park is though because there is so much nature... I just want to find a big field of grass and some woods, but I don't think that exists anywhere near here.
However, one really great thing about living in a big city is public transportation. There is a massive amount of buses and microbuses and taxis here. There are no bus stops or schedules or anything like that though; you pretty much stand on the side of the road and make the hand signal for where you want to go or yell out your destination and if the bus is going there, it will stop and let you on. Sometimes it doesn't stop, just slows down a lot. When I first started taking public transportation by myself I was nervous and scared, and before I came here one of the things that I was most afraid of was navigating a big unfamiliar city without knowing the language by myself. But the Egyptian "ma'alesh" culture has made me much more relaxed about it. "Ma'alesh" is a commonly-used word meaning "go with the flow" or "roll with it" or something of the sort. I've gotten lost the past two nights trying to find my new apartment building and I think it's pretty hilarious. And there are so many people in the street willing to help you out if you ever don't know where to go or how to get there. Monday night I came home after dark and the bus dropped me off on the other side of the street with a barrier, so I didn't recognize where I was and I was really confused, but a guy helped me out and then my host mom came to get me because I was like two blocks from the apartment. Then yesterday afternoon, trying to get from my Arabic class to my English class, I was waiting in the street for 15 minutes for a bus and I wasn't sure which one to get on, so I asked a girl and she was going to the same area and she helped me get there. She even took an extra bus with me to make sure I made it all the way to Resala. And now we're friends. :) Then last night a friend from my English course drove me home and we got lost for 2 hours because I had no clue where I was and I guess I wasn't able to communicate very well where I lived.
I think now I know where I live and maybe I won't get lost anymore coming home. I really need to get a map of Cairo... It makes me laugh a lot though when I get lost. I'm sure this won't be the last time though :P
Well this past week and a half I have been going out, doing random things, meeting new people, and going to Resala. And getting juice of course. Although I've been thinking that my Arabic has barely improved, I realized today that it has probably improved more than I think. It's just been coming along slowly. Yesterday we finally started Arabic class! But we are starting from the very, very beginning and I already know those things... So we'll see what happens. But this way all 9 of our American group gets to take classes together so it's good :)
And on Sunday I also finally started actually teaching my English classes! At first I was kind of nervous about it, especially because all of my students are older than me, but once the class started it went well and I really enjoyed it. I'm excited to do fun creative learning activities in the classes. One con of teaching English is that the main rule in this course is that there is no Arabic allowed, so I don't learn any Arabic in return. But it's okay because I have about 6 people that I've made deals with for them to teach me Arabic and I will teach them English. And there are many people at Resala who are really enthusiastic about teaching me Arabic. In Resala when I am not teaching, I usually help out in the medicine department, and I sort donated medicine by type and expiration date. I hope soon I will start helping out in other departments as well.
Another big thing that happened this past week is that I moved in with my permanent host family! They are really wonderful and I love them very much :)
One thing I am getting used to here though is that now I live right next to a couple main roads and it's extremely loud. And it never stops being loud. Horns and sirens literally never stop. My apartment building is also right next to an elementary school and so there are also screaming children early in the morning. I will probably get used to the noise soon though and be able to tune it out.
One thing that I didn't realize I would miss so much is nature. Coming here has shown me that I'm definitely not a city girl at all. I like big cities for short periods of time, but I don't particularly like living in one. I would much rather prefer a small town with nature or a rural setting. But I also do not enjoy living in the suburbs. Being here has made me realize how beautiful South Park is though because there is so much nature... I just want to find a big field of grass and some woods, but I don't think that exists anywhere near here.
However, one really great thing about living in a big city is public transportation. There is a massive amount of buses and microbuses and taxis here. There are no bus stops or schedules or anything like that though; you pretty much stand on the side of the road and make the hand signal for where you want to go or yell out your destination and if the bus is going there, it will stop and let you on. Sometimes it doesn't stop, just slows down a lot. When I first started taking public transportation by myself I was nervous and scared, and before I came here one of the things that I was most afraid of was navigating a big unfamiliar city without knowing the language by myself. But the Egyptian "ma'alesh" culture has made me much more relaxed about it. "Ma'alesh" is a commonly-used word meaning "go with the flow" or "roll with it" or something of the sort. I've gotten lost the past two nights trying to find my new apartment building and I think it's pretty hilarious. And there are so many people in the street willing to help you out if you ever don't know where to go or how to get there. Monday night I came home after dark and the bus dropped me off on the other side of the street with a barrier, so I didn't recognize where I was and I was really confused, but a guy helped me out and then my host mom came to get me because I was like two blocks from the apartment. Then yesterday afternoon, trying to get from my Arabic class to my English class, I was waiting in the street for 15 minutes for a bus and I wasn't sure which one to get on, so I asked a girl and she was going to the same area and she helped me get there. She even took an extra bus with me to make sure I made it all the way to Resala. And now we're friends. :) Then last night a friend from my English course drove me home and we got lost for 2 hours because I had no clue where I was and I guess I wasn't able to communicate very well where I lived.
I think now I know where I live and maybe I won't get lost anymore coming home. I really need to get a map of Cairo... It makes me laugh a lot though when I get lost. I'm sure this won't be the last time though :P
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Due to popular demand, I will be posting more often, insha'allah. This extremely common Arabic phrase means "god-willing", and gives you an excuse if something you say will happen does not happen, because God just didn't will it.
The days here are going by faster and faster and I can see how short these five months can really be. It gives me all the more reason to relish every moment here and never take it for granted. Oftentimes if I am on the melancholy side I will just remind myself that I'm actually here, in Egypt, and it's so fantastic and I feel incredibly lucky to just be here. Then I usually don't feel so melancholy. But I don't often feel very melancholy to being with, so it's all good.
So to get you up-to-date on my happenings in Egypt, last Saturday we had an AFS outing for the group of 9 kids I came here with. Even though we only met close to two weeks ago, I feel like I've known them way longer. We are totally BFF's.
Monday I went to the pyramids! It was fantastic and I definitely want to go back and spend more time there next time. We went into a couple tombs that were outside of the pyramids, and for the first one we crawled through these tiny passage-ways only to end up in a small stone room that was extremely hot. So for the second one we were a little apprehensive about going in, but we did, and that ended up being a very good choice, as this tomb actually had interesting things like hieroglyphics on the walls. So after this we walked by the Sphinx on our way to the place where we were getting horses to ride into the desert. It was quite large. Then we rode horses into the desert! I'm pretty sure none of us had ever ridden a horse before, and the experience itself was something to talk about. It was pretty painful. And you bounce uncomfortably a lot. But once I got used to it, it was absolutely incredible. Then on our way back, I fell off the horse. They made me switch horses for some reason but didn't shorten the straps on my feet, so I lost my balance when the horse started galloping and I fell off. At the time it hurt pretty badly, but afterwards it was quite hilarious, and it still is. The day afterwards I was so sore I could barely move at one point. But it was an amazing experience and I'm so glad it happened.
A few other days this week was spent at my community service organization, Resala, giving placement tests for the English course I'm going to teach. Since I'll be speaking in all English, the students have to have at least some basis in English.
Then today was really fantastic, although equally tiring. We had another AFS outing and woke up at 6:30 to go to a place to get extensions for our visas. Then we did a lot of standing around, then went to the Egyptian museum, but we pretty much just stood around there too. None of us were really in a museum mood, even though it probably is the most fascinating museum I've ever been in. Then we ate some traditional Egyptian food, kosheri, which was delicious. Then we did what Egyptian teenagers do all the time, hangout in a cafe. After that came the real fun, when we took a feluca on the Nile! And of course had a dance party, but Egyptian-style, which included belly-dancing and some form of strange dancing from the guys.
It's been another wonderful week in Egypt, and insha'allah the computer will soon allow me to post pictures!
The days here are going by faster and faster and I can see how short these five months can really be. It gives me all the more reason to relish every moment here and never take it for granted. Oftentimes if I am on the melancholy side I will just remind myself that I'm actually here, in Egypt, and it's so fantastic and I feel incredibly lucky to just be here. Then I usually don't feel so melancholy. But I don't often feel very melancholy to being with, so it's all good.
So to get you up-to-date on my happenings in Egypt, last Saturday we had an AFS outing for the group of 9 kids I came here with. Even though we only met close to two weeks ago, I feel like I've known them way longer. We are totally BFF's.
Monday I went to the pyramids! It was fantastic and I definitely want to go back and spend more time there next time. We went into a couple tombs that were outside of the pyramids, and for the first one we crawled through these tiny passage-ways only to end up in a small stone room that was extremely hot. So for the second one we were a little apprehensive about going in, but we did, and that ended up being a very good choice, as this tomb actually had interesting things like hieroglyphics on the walls. So after this we walked by the Sphinx on our way to the place where we were getting horses to ride into the desert. It was quite large. Then we rode horses into the desert! I'm pretty sure none of us had ever ridden a horse before, and the experience itself was something to talk about. It was pretty painful. And you bounce uncomfortably a lot. But once I got used to it, it was absolutely incredible. Then on our way back, I fell off the horse. They made me switch horses for some reason but didn't shorten the straps on my feet, so I lost my balance when the horse started galloping and I fell off. At the time it hurt pretty badly, but afterwards it was quite hilarious, and it still is. The day afterwards I was so sore I could barely move at one point. But it was an amazing experience and I'm so glad it happened.
A few other days this week was spent at my community service organization, Resala, giving placement tests for the English course I'm going to teach. Since I'll be speaking in all English, the students have to have at least some basis in English.
Then today was really fantastic, although equally tiring. We had another AFS outing and woke up at 6:30 to go to a place to get extensions for our visas. Then we did a lot of standing around, then went to the Egyptian museum, but we pretty much just stood around there too. None of us were really in a museum mood, even though it probably is the most fascinating museum I've ever been in. Then we ate some traditional Egyptian food, kosheri, which was delicious. Then we did what Egyptian teenagers do all the time, hangout in a cafe. After that came the real fun, when we took a feluca on the Nile! And of course had a dance party, but Egyptian-style, which included belly-dancing and some form of strange dancing from the guys.
It's been another wonderful week in Egypt, and insha'allah the computer will soon allow me to post pictures!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Wow, so much has happened since the last time I posted. I feel like I've been here for so much longer than a week. I'm starting to really feel that Egypt is my new home. So to catch you up on everything I've done since Sunday, Monday night I saw some authentic Egyptian music and bellydancing and it was really amazing. My host mom is a bellydance instructor! So I'll definitely be learning how to pretty soon. Oh yeah, and I also rode in a tooktook that day!!! It's my favorite form of transportation, it's so adorable! But it's probably the most unsafe too haha. It's this little carriage thing with three wheels and no doors or anything. My second-favorite form of transportation is the microbus, which is usually an old vw bus, and it crams as many people as possible in it and takes you places. For some reason a lot of microbuses and tooktooks and taxis here are all tricked out with cool lights. Like the headlights on some of them are blue and green and red or something, and in a lot of tooktooks there's a blacklight. It's pretty sweet.
So on Wednesday I got to go to my community service organization! It's called Resala and I absolutely love it there. My real "title" there is an English teacher, but they have so many other things going on and I can pretty much go in whenever and help out with anything. They have departments for the blind, the deaf and mute, the mentally challenged, the poor, and they pretty much do anything and everything you can imagine. It's really amazing. Everyone there is incredibly friendly and I feel so at home there already. I went to Resala again the next day and took the microbus by myself for the first time! I was so scared haha. But now I know I can do it. And then I went to Resala again yesterday to go with a group of people to this really poor city so that they can find poor people and evaluate their living conditions and whatnot and see who needs what the most. It was really intense, seeing the homes of some of these people. Some didn't even have floors, a lot didn't have beds, most didn't have more than two rooms. It really made me want to live with only the bare necessities and give the rest of my money or things to people who don't have those necessities. Some of the city was really beautiful though, in the parts that were just surrounded by palm trees. It was like a palm tree forest.
Anyways, some basics about my daily life are that I have to walk up a tooon of stairs to get to the apartment, we don't go to sleep until at least 1, usually 2 in the morning, even the little kids next door. I pretty much have two families because we're always with the family next door. We eat meals with them everyday, they come over here all the time, we go over there all the time; it's pretty adorable. I'm going to miss my new families a lot when I move in with my new host family, which should be very soon, although I don't know when. So for meals we eat on the ground, usually with a big plastic tablecloth, and there is no such thing as "double-dipping" here because everyone just shares everything. A lot of the time we only have 2 cups for 6 people. I'm so shocked I haven't gotten sick yet! I guess my body just loves Egyptian germs, yay. They have the best mango-flavored things here... I had mango ice cream the other day and it made me super happy.. and all the juice here is so delicious!!! None of the food has preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, partially-hydrogenated oils or whatever. It's really great.
Oh yeah, and everyone here calls me Hooley with their accents.
:)
The top two photos are from the poor city I went to with Resala, and the bottom picture is my host sister and I in a cafe.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
First Impressions?
So I've been here a couple days now and I don't really know what I'm feeling. I like it here, but I think there's just a lot to take in and process and I'm still doing that. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm actually here, in Egypt. I get super confused a lot when I'm reminded that it's January because it feels like spring or summer outside. My sense of time and place is totally whack. But anyways, I met and moved in with my welcome host mom and sister last night, Saadia and Reema. I'm staying with them for a couple weeks until I can move in with my permanent host family. The first full day in Egypt, yesterday, was spent inside a little hotel with the other exchange students and we had an orientation. Then I went to my host family's apartment in Giza and it's incredibly different here. At first I wasn't sure if we were supposed to even be driving on the roads back by the apartment because they're so rocky and hole-y. And tons of people were walking in the middle of the road. But don't get me wrong, I totally love it. Driving here is absolutely insane. Steph, you would die if you had to be in a car in Cairo. I thought driving in Brazil was crazy, but Egypt makes Brazilian driving seem very mild. Crossing the street is such an adventure! Apparently there's a whole communication system between pedestrian and driver through their eyes so they know if the driver will stop or not.
So tonight was utterly amazing! Egypt won a really close soccer match against Ghana for the African Cup! The streets were soo crazy! My host mom took me, my host sister, two other girls our age, the little neighbor boy, and my host mom's friend out to celebrate on the streets. We painted Egyptian flags on our cheeks and drove around honking, singing, clapping, banging a drum, and waving a flag out the window. Then the real celebration started when we got to a street that basically had just turned into a total party and we sat half out of the car on the window. People were piled into the beds of trucks, standing on top of cars, waving flags, chanting, being joyous. It was a beautiful moment. I've never seen anything close to that amount of celebration and pride.
Masr! Masr! Masr!
These last two photos are taken from the roof of my welcome host family's apartment.
So tonight was utterly amazing! Egypt won a really close soccer match against Ghana for the African Cup! The streets were soo crazy! My host mom took me, my host sister, two other girls our age, the little neighbor boy, and my host mom's friend out to celebrate on the streets. We painted Egyptian flags on our cheeks and drove around honking, singing, clapping, banging a drum, and waving a flag out the window. Then the real celebration started when we got to a street that basically had just turned into a total party and we sat half out of the car on the window. People were piled into the beds of trucks, standing on top of cars, waving flags, chanting, being joyous. It was a beautiful moment. I've never seen anything close to that amount of celebration and pride.
Masr! Masr! Masr!
These last two photos are taken from the roof of my welcome host family's apartment.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Very Beginning
So I thought it was time to begin blogging on my thoughts/feelings/ideas of going to Egypt, since I'll be leaving in exactly two weeks! As of right now, I'm excited, but at the same time I'm not as excited as I should be because I kind of don't believe I'm really leaving so soon. Although I'm going to miss my friends here and everything, I'm feeling pretty ready to move on to a new place for a while. It's not like I'm never coming back. It's quite odd to be finishing high school right now though since everyone else still has another semester left. I'm kinda sad I'll be missing all the Senior traditions, like senior skip day, senior pranks, the cookout before the last day of school for seniors, and of course graduation. But I suppose that's a small price to pay for living in Egypt for five months!
So I guess I should write about the basics in my first blog. Last January I applied for the NSLI-Y full scholarship to study abroad. I found out about the scholarship about two weeks before the application was due, so there was a ton of frantic running around trying to get medical forms and letters of recommendation and whatnot. Before the gifted coordinator at my school, Miss Mills, told me about the scholarship, I had never really entertained the idea of studying abroad in high school. I just figured I would do it in college because the high school programs are really expensive. But then I found out about this scholarship! I had absolutely no clue if I would get it or not, but I figured I should give it a shot. You should've seen me when I found out I got it. When I get super excited about something, I just go crazy in my room and dance like there is no tomorrow. It was fantastic. So up until a month or two ago I thought I was going to go to high school in Egypt, but I found out that I'll actually be doing a community service program instead! Which I'm really excited for, although pretty nervous. I haven't had that much community service experience, and all the other kids on the conference call for it had a loooot. I feel pretty inexperienced. But I guess everyone has to have a starting point, right? So in Egypt I'll be living with a host family in Giza, right across the Nile from Cairo. My host family has two sons but one will be in America the whole time I'm in Egypt and the other is older and doesn't live with them. He'll be around on weekends and holidays though. I had wished for a host family with like six kids but I'm sure I'll still have a blast. I've just always wanted to live in a household with tons of siblings. So I guess that's it for this blog!
Egypt here I come!
So I guess I should write about the basics in my first blog. Last January I applied for the NSLI-Y full scholarship to study abroad. I found out about the scholarship about two weeks before the application was due, so there was a ton of frantic running around trying to get medical forms and letters of recommendation and whatnot. Before the gifted coordinator at my school, Miss Mills, told me about the scholarship, I had never really entertained the idea of studying abroad in high school. I just figured I would do it in college because the high school programs are really expensive. But then I found out about this scholarship! I had absolutely no clue if I would get it or not, but I figured I should give it a shot. You should've seen me when I found out I got it. When I get super excited about something, I just go crazy in my room and dance like there is no tomorrow. It was fantastic. So up until a month or two ago I thought I was going to go to high school in Egypt, but I found out that I'll actually be doing a community service program instead! Which I'm really excited for, although pretty nervous. I haven't had that much community service experience, and all the other kids on the conference call for it had a loooot. I feel pretty inexperienced. But I guess everyone has to have a starting point, right? So in Egypt I'll be living with a host family in Giza, right across the Nile from Cairo. My host family has two sons but one will be in America the whole time I'm in Egypt and the other is older and doesn't live with them. He'll be around on weekends and holidays though. I had wished for a host family with like six kids but I'm sure I'll still have a blast. I've just always wanted to live in a household with tons of siblings. So I guess that's it for this blog!
Egypt here I come!
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