So, yea. I'm really pretty tired right now from getting up early and being in orientation all day today. So this is going to be a little short. Please don't hate me for it. We have to get up early again tomorrow, too. Even earlier, actually. We leave for Alexandria tomorrow for the off-campus orientation. Where they basically put us up in five star hotel (which are really cheap over here) and take us out to dinner. We do have to listen to a few more talks and they are a bit strict about keeping a hold on people. There was a contradicting message: on one side they were like, why go into town? The beach is here. But the other side is that it is still January here and though it's on the Med the water is still really cold. So yea. Apparently, Alexandria is a bit colder that Cairo in the first place and it rains up there. Today, even in Cairo it was kinda cloudy and chillier than usual. I mean, I guess I don't have any right to whine to you guys. :-P
In other news, I have classes!
My schedule - Cairo time
My schedule - Eastern Standard time
(ignore the CAMS class, I had to put one real Penn State class on there to make it work. I picked an Egyptian Civ class. I thought it was appropriate.)
And, fyi, my mailing address here:
Brian Siembieda
The American University in Cairo
Zamalek Residence
16 Mohamed Taked Street, Zamalek
By Mara'shly Church
Cairo, Egypt
I know there was other stuff I wanted to bring up, but I'm really tired now as I said before. And, I need to buy like a small book or something to write down what I want to write about so I don't forget about it like now. Though, I have meant to mention this: that after further review, I don't think that drink was alcoholic after all. They sell a lot of non-alcoholic beverages here. So, I think it was simply meant to taste like it was alcoholic, but it, in fact, was not.
I will leave you with this though. One of the people who spoke today at the orientation was very fascinating. He had a very roundabout way of talking, like he got sidetracked really easily. It didn't bother me too much because, as I said, I found him fascinating. He talked a lot about our (the United States') link to Egypt, mainly in the past. And after a while, he finally got to the biggest way that the Great Pyramid in Giza has affected us as Americans. Basically, there was this guy in Scotland in the 1800's who wrote a book about the Great Pyramid. Claiming that the 10 lost tribes of Israel (there were 12), went to Egypt built the Pyramid, moved on to Morocco, turned north to Spain and France, then crossed the English Channel, intermarried with the people living there and fathered the British People.
So, it doesn't stop there. Starting from the entrance to the Pyramid, there is a path that starts downwards, then it splits. One path continues to lead downwards to an empty chamber, what modern Egyptologists think was a mistake. The other path starts upwards and after awhile it opens up with 21 foot tall ceilings. Right at this opening there is another split off that goes horizontally to what is referred to as the queen's chamber, though it's actual use is unknown. The interesting thing is that a little ways into this pathway there is a hole that leads downwards all the way to that first chamber at the bottom of the downward sloping path. If you continue along the grand gallery (what the open path with the high ceiling is called) you eventually get to a horizontal path that leads to the king's tomb.
So, this guy looked at this, made some measurements and came to a conclusion. The Pyramid was able to record the past and predict the future. He measured the length of these pathways and determined that if for every inch of pathway a year went by some astounding things could be determined from this Pyramid. *Now, I'm recalling this from memory so bear with me.* The Pyramid starts recording at 40,000 BC and about at 20,000 BC is where the split upwards is. This marks the point where some people continue their decent to hell (the mistake tomb in the bedrock under the pyramid) and some are lifted towards enlightenment by Abraham. The upwards path continues on to about 0 BC when it opens up to the gallery. Jesus' coming. And the path that shoots off horizontally? The Jews, whose rise ends as they refuse to follow Christ. The hole that is 30 some inches down that path is to represent Christ's death and resurrection. It is at the end of the gallery where strange things happen and this was interpreted to be the end times. It was originally predicted by the writer that this would be sometime in the late 1800's. The end times didn't come then, Btw. But others have remeasured and recalculated the end times. A notable example was a group of Koreans who believed the end was coming. They sold all their belongings and went to the Pyramids to await then end. This was also used as an example to show us that some people really believe all of this.
Anyways, the book concludes, and the professor starts to work towards his point of how the Pyramid as Giza has affected us the most as Americans, by saying that with the measurements here, this is prove that the system given to the Jews by God - our inches, feet and pounds - should not be given up in favor of the Metric system developed by those damn socialist, communist, Godless French. Pretty incredible, huh? Of course, a few years later, the British did adopt the metric system. But this book was used on the floor of Parliament to argue against it. And was also used in the States to do the same thing. So there you go!
But, yes... Alexandria is supposed to be beautiful. I will take lots of pictures and will be back on Thursday for the weekend then classes start...
Love to all! Especially you, my love. :-*
Monday, January 29, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
One for the money... two for the show... three to get ready... and four to go!!
Damn, that really needed to be for the number three. I would have used "third time's the charm," but everyone uses that line. However, it would have properly described my day two days ago (Friday)...
It was around lunch time and I went in search of a restaurant nearby that I had seen from the shuttle. However, along the way I must have taken a wrong turn and realized that I was on my way to the campus. So, I shrugged it off and decided to walk the rest of the way there. I took lots of pictures which you can see on my web albums site :-D. So, I'm strolling across the bridge taking pictures every now and then (I still feel like a dweeb doing it and it instantly marks me as a tourist), when this Egyptian guy walks up next to me and says hello and welcome to Egypt. He continues to talk in decent English about the American University where he says he studies English and tells me that if I ever need help I should turn to him (which, even at that point I was going yea, right). He tells me that he will give me his card and that his sister works in an office just beyond the bridge. There is still time before my survival Arabic class starts, so I follow gladly. As soon as we get there and I see the papyrus on the walls, I silently cursed to myself. I'd been had. Papyrus is the ultimate touristy thing in Egypt. I mean if you want some, it's nice. But the Egyptians know what they are doing. They jack up the prices to western levels. So, I know at this point they are going to try to sell it to me one way or another, I just don't know how or when. So, the guy who drew me in introduces me to his 'brother' and 'sister' then sits down and zones out. The 'brother' speaks much better English, to his credit, and he was very friendly and maybe only a year or two older than I am. He tells me that tomorrow his sister is getting married and he points to her. She's sitting there staring at the wall, not looking at all excited, nervous or anything about her big day tomorrow. As a result, I must have some coffee or tea. I decline, but he says that it would be an insult. So, I have some tea. He talks about America with me, saying he's been to Oklahoma and it's as flat as Egypt. I have no idea where he picked that up, but it was humorous to me. Then he tells me that he used to study art and history at the AUC and that I should pick out any of the papyrus paintings on the wall and he will tell me what the meaning behind it is. So, I do and he explains. Then he offers to show me some of his 'art.' He grabs a big ol' stack of papyrus and starts flipping through them asking me if I like any. I know that he is going to try to sell me the ones I say I like. So, I try to hold off, but he forces me to say I like some. Some were actually very nice. Don't get me wrong, it's just I didn't want any at the time and you have to bargain hardcore and very well to get them to get the price down to where it should be. He then demonstrates that the papyrus will not break and shows me that he has these awesome tubes to put them in. Here comes the sell. Btw. He says since his sister is getting married, he will give me a gift. Free?? Haha. Yea, right. He wants 200 LE for it. That's about $35. He rapidly goes down in price as I start getting up to leave. 150 LE. 100 LE. I left saying thank you and goodbye in Arabic.
I then went to class as usual and for the second half of it, since it was our last class, our teacher took us on a little tour of the area. When she was done we were all in the Midan al-Tahrir where I was taking some pictures with the other guy in my class. When an Egyptian guy slowly came up to us and politely started talking in English. He said he was learning at the American Embassy and showed us a card (don't worry, it's very plausible that he is/was, the Embassy here has a library for Egyptians to study the US). He asked us where and what we were studying and started talking about the army. He wanted to know if we had a choice if we could enter the army or not and how much soldiers get paid in the US. At first, when he was asking questions he asked something about how long stay and army. I thought he was asking how long we were going to stay in Iraq and that the shit was going to hit the fan. So, it was all very nice until he told us that he owned a perfume shop and that we should come with him and he'll give us his card. We immediately told him that we had a bus to catch and we couldn't. Two sells avoided.
So, the guy I with and I decided to grab some dinner. We circled back to the place where we saw when we were on the tour. As we were scoping out how to buy the sandwich we wanted (very good, btw... I've been back since, didn't get it spicy like the first time, cause that was really spicy... oh... so you know the like cones of meat that you always see in movies or shows about the Middle East where they carve little bits of meat off... they put that together with some like onions, tomatoes and other things I can't quite place on a sandwich, quite good, like an Egyptian version of a cheese steak maybe?) and this guy came up to take our order. We followed him in to pay for the sandwich he told the guy what we wanted and then helped us back out as we got the sandwiches. We were standing on the street eating them and that's when I noticed that this guy was showing us a lot of attention if he was working at the restaurant. He was actually really funny and probably spoke the best English of the guys who tried to sell me stuff today. With Steff, I like to tease her by doing the whole, "you've got something on your shirt" and then getting her in the nose thing. So, this is especially embarrassing for me to admit to, but this guy got me with that. Not once. Twice. Sigh. So he then tells us... ready for it?? ... Let's go to my shop so I can give you my card. I dunno why we went with him. Maybe cause we had food and we were then looking for entertainment. I don't know. But we got to his place and it was a perfume shop. Probably the same one that the other guy was trying to get us to. So he shows us, these pictures of Muhammad Ali supposedly when he visited. I asked him how long ago that was, he said seven years (I'm doubting Muhammad Ali visited, nice try though). He asked us if we wanted something to drink like a 7up or a Coke, we declined but again, we were insulting him by doing so. This does actually have some basis in Arab culture, they are supposed to welcome in guests and offer them lots of food. However, this was also, as we found, a delaying tactic. So he let us eat our food. Then when I was done, he asked me if I wanted to smell some men's or women's perfume. Thinking of Steff, I said women's. He asked me if I had a girlfriend. To which I, of course, responded, yes. Here? No, back in America. He asked the guy, Dan, with me if he had a girlfriend. No. Why? Are you small? LOL! It was amazing. The Egyptian guy and I high fifed. I was totally not expecting that. Dan was laughing, but clearly didn't like the joke as much. So he then dabbed some perfumes on us and they smelled alright. To shorten this, I ended up getting Steff some perfume after haggling a bit for prices.
Needless to say that was a very interesting day. The nice thing about these encounters is that because you know what is coming like a telemarketer you can fuck with them a bit. But also you get to practice your Arabic. There was another attempt today, so maybe the title actually works. This time it was an older guy sitting on a chair on the sidewalk. He greeted me and welcomed me to Egypt. He asked me how long I was there for, if I liked it, where I was staying and studying and how long I was there for. He clearly was out for just the sale or didn't have the patience anymore, because at that point he stood up and said "I have a shop" and turned the corner. I said fuck this and turned back the way I was going before he stopped me. I could hear him yell after me and I felt bad. But if this is going to happen for the whole four months, I'm going to have to learn to deal with it.
Once again, much love to you all back at home. Steff, you are the best and I love you dearly!
It was around lunch time and I went in search of a restaurant nearby that I had seen from the shuttle. However, along the way I must have taken a wrong turn and realized that I was on my way to the campus. So, I shrugged it off and decided to walk the rest of the way there. I took lots of pictures which you can see on my web albums site :-D. So, I'm strolling across the bridge taking pictures every now and then (I still feel like a dweeb doing it and it instantly marks me as a tourist), when this Egyptian guy walks up next to me and says hello and welcome to Egypt. He continues to talk in decent English about the American University where he says he studies English and tells me that if I ever need help I should turn to him (which, even at that point I was going yea, right). He tells me that he will give me his card and that his sister works in an office just beyond the bridge. There is still time before my survival Arabic class starts, so I follow gladly. As soon as we get there and I see the papyrus on the walls, I silently cursed to myself. I'd been had. Papyrus is the ultimate touristy thing in Egypt. I mean if you want some, it's nice. But the Egyptians know what they are doing. They jack up the prices to western levels. So, I know at this point they are going to try to sell it to me one way or another, I just don't know how or when. So, the guy who drew me in introduces me to his 'brother' and 'sister' then sits down and zones out. The 'brother' speaks much better English, to his credit, and he was very friendly and maybe only a year or two older than I am. He tells me that tomorrow his sister is getting married and he points to her. She's sitting there staring at the wall, not looking at all excited, nervous or anything about her big day tomorrow. As a result, I must have some coffee or tea. I decline, but he says that it would be an insult. So, I have some tea. He talks about America with me, saying he's been to Oklahoma and it's as flat as Egypt. I have no idea where he picked that up, but it was humorous to me. Then he tells me that he used to study art and history at the AUC and that I should pick out any of the papyrus paintings on the wall and he will tell me what the meaning behind it is. So, I do and he explains. Then he offers to show me some of his 'art.' He grabs a big ol' stack of papyrus and starts flipping through them asking me if I like any. I know that he is going to try to sell me the ones I say I like. So, I try to hold off, but he forces me to say I like some. Some were actually very nice. Don't get me wrong, it's just I didn't want any at the time and you have to bargain hardcore and very well to get them to get the price down to where it should be. He then demonstrates that the papyrus will not break and shows me that he has these awesome tubes to put them in. Here comes the sell. Btw. He says since his sister is getting married, he will give me a gift. Free?? Haha. Yea, right. He wants 200 LE for it. That's about $35. He rapidly goes down in price as I start getting up to leave. 150 LE. 100 LE. I left saying thank you and goodbye in Arabic.
I then went to class as usual and for the second half of it, since it was our last class, our teacher took us on a little tour of the area. When she was done we were all in the Midan al-Tahrir where I was taking some pictures with the other guy in my class. When an Egyptian guy slowly came up to us and politely started talking in English. He said he was learning at the American Embassy and showed us a card (don't worry, it's very plausible that he is/was, the Embassy here has a library for Egyptians to study the US). He asked us where and what we were studying and started talking about the army. He wanted to know if we had a choice if we could enter the army or not and how much soldiers get paid in the US. At first, when he was asking questions he asked something about how long stay and army. I thought he was asking how long we were going to stay in Iraq and that the shit was going to hit the fan. So, it was all very nice until he told us that he owned a perfume shop and that we should come with him and he'll give us his card. We immediately told him that we had a bus to catch and we couldn't. Two sells avoided.
So, the guy I with and I decided to grab some dinner. We circled back to the place where we saw when we were on the tour. As we were scoping out how to buy the sandwich we wanted (very good, btw... I've been back since, didn't get it spicy like the first time, cause that was really spicy... oh... so you know the like cones of meat that you always see in movies or shows about the Middle East where they carve little bits of meat off... they put that together with some like onions, tomatoes and other things I can't quite place on a sandwich, quite good, like an Egyptian version of a cheese steak maybe?) and this guy came up to take our order. We followed him in to pay for the sandwich he told the guy what we wanted and then helped us back out as we got the sandwiches. We were standing on the street eating them and that's when I noticed that this guy was showing us a lot of attention if he was working at the restaurant. He was actually really funny and probably spoke the best English of the guys who tried to sell me stuff today. With Steff, I like to tease her by doing the whole, "you've got something on your shirt" and then getting her in the nose thing. So, this is especially embarrassing for me to admit to, but this guy got me with that. Not once. Twice. Sigh. So he then tells us... ready for it?? ... Let's go to my shop so I can give you my card. I dunno why we went with him. Maybe cause we had food and we were then looking for entertainment. I don't know. But we got to his place and it was a perfume shop. Probably the same one that the other guy was trying to get us to. So he shows us, these pictures of Muhammad Ali supposedly when he visited. I asked him how long ago that was, he said seven years (I'm doubting Muhammad Ali visited, nice try though). He asked us if we wanted something to drink like a 7up or a Coke, we declined but again, we were insulting him by doing so. This does actually have some basis in Arab culture, they are supposed to welcome in guests and offer them lots of food. However, this was also, as we found, a delaying tactic. So he let us eat our food. Then when I was done, he asked me if I wanted to smell some men's or women's perfume. Thinking of Steff, I said women's. He asked me if I had a girlfriend. To which I, of course, responded, yes. Here? No, back in America. He asked the guy, Dan, with me if he had a girlfriend. No. Why? Are you small? LOL! It was amazing. The Egyptian guy and I high fifed. I was totally not expecting that. Dan was laughing, but clearly didn't like the joke as much. So he then dabbed some perfumes on us and they smelled alright. To shorten this, I ended up getting Steff some perfume after haggling a bit for prices.
Needless to say that was a very interesting day. The nice thing about these encounters is that because you know what is coming like a telemarketer you can fuck with them a bit. But also you get to practice your Arabic. There was another attempt today, so maybe the title actually works. This time it was an older guy sitting on a chair on the sidewalk. He greeted me and welcomed me to Egypt. He asked me how long I was there for, if I liked it, where I was staying and studying and how long I was there for. He clearly was out for just the sale or didn't have the patience anymore, because at that point he stood up and said "I have a shop" and turned the corner. I said fuck this and turned back the way I was going before he stopped me. I could hear him yell after me and I felt bad. But if this is going to happen for the whole four months, I'm going to have to learn to deal with it.
Once again, much love to you all back at home. Steff, you are the best and I love you dearly!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
I've had to develop strategies for crossing the street...
Nothing really noteworthy as far as events go has happened lately, so I'm just planing on writing about more random observations that I've noted over here.
As I've mentioned drivers in Cairo are pretty insane. And thus, as my title states one has to develop strategies for crossing the streets here. One is the "in Egypt do as the Egyptians" strategy. This is done by waiting on the side of a street with a local and then waiting for them to cross. Cross with them. This works best if they are between you and the traffic. Even better if you can get a woman carrying a baby between you and the traffic. (I did this once. She was stopping cars all over the place.) Another, more boring strategy is the wait. Simply put you wait until there are only two or three cars barreling down at you instead of the usual six or seven.
There is some kind of buddy system for parallel parking in this city that I must figure out before I leave. When someone starts to pull into a spot to park there always seems to be someone there to block traffic and help them figure it out. And on top of that, this is the really crazy thing, to make room some how cars are left in neutral so one can push them forward or backward as needed. I don't know if people just leave them like this out of common courtesy or if there is some hired guy watching over the cars. This "put it in neutral and push" scheme also works for pulling out, too. They don't bother using their rear view mirrors and guessing where the car behind them is. Screw that! Open the door, stick your head and a leg out, and push. I saw this done once as I was passing on the sidewalk, where the guy knocked over the motorcycle parked behind him using this trick.
This next thing I read about before I came over, so I thought I was ready for the shock of it, but really I wasn't. It still causes me to stare when I see two guys walking down the street one with his hand in the other's arm. I don't know if I put that correctly, but what I'm trying to say is that think of how instead of holding hands at like a wedding, the bride puts her hand just in the bend of the groom's elbow. Yea, that happens here with guys. Not just old ones; ones my age do it too. Just today, I saw two guys actually holding hands. I mean, this isn't a judgment of them, I'm just saying it takes me back that a country where you can see women in the full body coverings with just their eyes showing. The two are probably not even related in the minds of Egyptians.
I should point out after mentioning it above, that the vast majority of women cover their heads here. Most of those that do wear modern - but conservative - clothing. Fewer where traditional clothes. And fewer still are covered completely. Every now and then you will see a woman without a head covering. I'm not sure yet if for the most part that means she's a really modern Muslim or if she's Christian. You see more women without head coverings on campus though, but I don't think that's all too surprising.
Otherwise, things are looking up here. But no matter how good they get, I'll be missing you all. Especially you, Steff! Much love, all!
OH! and I've started taking pictures: My Egypt Album
As I've mentioned drivers in Cairo are pretty insane. And thus, as my title states one has to develop strategies for crossing the streets here. One is the "in Egypt do as the Egyptians" strategy. This is done by waiting on the side of a street with a local and then waiting for them to cross. Cross with them. This works best if they are between you and the traffic. Even better if you can get a woman carrying a baby between you and the traffic. (I did this once. She was stopping cars all over the place.) Another, more boring strategy is the wait. Simply put you wait until there are only two or three cars barreling down at you instead of the usual six or seven.
There is some kind of buddy system for parallel parking in this city that I must figure out before I leave. When someone starts to pull into a spot to park there always seems to be someone there to block traffic and help them figure it out. And on top of that, this is the really crazy thing, to make room some how cars are left in neutral so one can push them forward or backward as needed. I don't know if people just leave them like this out of common courtesy or if there is some hired guy watching over the cars. This "put it in neutral and push" scheme also works for pulling out, too. They don't bother using their rear view mirrors and guessing where the car behind them is. Screw that! Open the door, stick your head and a leg out, and push. I saw this done once as I was passing on the sidewalk, where the guy knocked over the motorcycle parked behind him using this trick.
This next thing I read about before I came over, so I thought I was ready for the shock of it, but really I wasn't. It still causes me to stare when I see two guys walking down the street one with his hand in the other's arm. I don't know if I put that correctly, but what I'm trying to say is that think of how instead of holding hands at like a wedding, the bride puts her hand just in the bend of the groom's elbow. Yea, that happens here with guys. Not just old ones; ones my age do it too. Just today, I saw two guys actually holding hands. I mean, this isn't a judgment of them, I'm just saying it takes me back that a country where you can see women in the full body coverings with just their eyes showing. The two are probably not even related in the minds of Egyptians.
I should point out after mentioning it above, that the vast majority of women cover their heads here. Most of those that do wear modern - but conservative - clothing. Fewer where traditional clothes. And fewer still are covered completely. Every now and then you will see a woman without a head covering. I'm not sure yet if for the most part that means she's a really modern Muslim or if she's Christian. You see more women without head coverings on campus though, but I don't think that's all too surprising.
Otherwise, things are looking up here. But no matter how good they get, I'll be missing you all. Especially you, Steff! Much love, all!
OH! and I've started taking pictures: My Egypt Album
Monday, January 22, 2007
Cairene -adjective of or pertaining to Cairo, Egypt, Btw :-p
So, after taking my first Cairene shower, I can tell you I like the ones at home better. Even more so than the ones in Camp Hill where the water pressure is low, but at least there there is only one temperature knob and the hot water doesn't get depleted quite so quickly. And I don't think anyone wants to know why I prefer State College showers to this one. ;-)
I'm now eating a sandwich I got around lunch time today. It's not quite as good as when it was warm, but at least I don't have cats harassing me for scraps. But, yes, for those of you who have not been informed directly (which is quite a few, sorry, I've been busy and time zones are a pain) I have arrived in Cairo!
Last night was pretty rough getting in late here after having to put up with wailing kids in the row ahead of me. It took me awhile to get up to my room (like 1 in the morning local time), and when I did I found out that I'm sharing it with two other guys. Both are American, which I guess is a relief. The one goes to Emory and the other to Arizona State. And one of them snores. I got to sleep right away after writing a quick e-mail to my parents and chatting with Steff a bit before I had to get some rest (the next morning, this morning, was the general advising meeting at 9 in the morning). Yet, I was woken by one roommate as he came back in from wandering the streets at 3 in the morning. This one is the snoring one, and I know this because there was no snoring before he came back.
After that I couldn't get back to sleep and thoughts of doubt were entering my mind. A lot. Through part of last night I was convinced that I was going to be trying to catch the next plane out of here the next morning. Part of the night I felt like I couldn't breath because I felt I was so constricted. Many of you don't know the shy me, since you met me through friends or the rambunctious me has blown the shy me from your memory. But it was back to being shy me. Which I think was only hurting the situation, since I hadn't really talked to anyone that night.
Don't worry too much though, after today, I'm feeling a bit better. I'm still not entirely convinced that this is still where I want to be spending my semester. I did talk to some other people today. None of them were anywhere close to the friends I have back home. But, I shall have to keep trying with them, lol.
Well, yea... I'm taking it slow with this sandwich since when I originally tried eating it, I quickly lost my appetite and wanted to puke. It's not Cairo that's doing this to me, I'm pretty sure. I wanted to puke during my layover at Heathrow as well. So, I believe airplane food is to blame here. But, I'm hoping I make a recovery soon. Nothing sucks worse than being sick in a foreign country.
On somewhat of a lighter note: I'm afraid for my life! Drivers here are insane. Not only do they drive wickedly fast and crazed but they love using their horns and high beams when it's night time. Makes for crossing the streets a bit too scary. And on another note, I think I accidentally bought alcohol today. I was at the coffee shop buying my sandwich and I wanted a big bottle of water to have, but they didn't have it there and I didn't want coffee. So I looked in the case and it looked like they had flavored sodas there and I was like are these sodas? and he's like umm... it's the same stuff as [insert name here] as he points to a can. It was pineapple flavored. That's all I saw and I was sold. I sat down on campus to eat my sandwich, popped it open and read the label telling me that it was a sparkling malt beverage. I didn't finish it cause of my appetite loss, it wasn't really that good and I didn't want Egyptians walking by going "figures, americans boozing up at lunch."
That's about all I can think of for now... plus, it's getting kinda late. Much love to everyone back at home, but most of all to that very special girl of mine! Missing you, Steff. :-*
I'm now eating a sandwich I got around lunch time today. It's not quite as good as when it was warm, but at least I don't have cats harassing me for scraps. But, yes, for those of you who have not been informed directly (which is quite a few, sorry, I've been busy and time zones are a pain) I have arrived in Cairo!
Last night was pretty rough getting in late here after having to put up with wailing kids in the row ahead of me. It took me awhile to get up to my room (like 1 in the morning local time), and when I did I found out that I'm sharing it with two other guys. Both are American, which I guess is a relief. The one goes to Emory and the other to Arizona State. And one of them snores. I got to sleep right away after writing a quick e-mail to my parents and chatting with Steff a bit before I had to get some rest (the next morning, this morning, was the general advising meeting at 9 in the morning). Yet, I was woken by one roommate as he came back in from wandering the streets at 3 in the morning. This one is the snoring one, and I know this because there was no snoring before he came back.
After that I couldn't get back to sleep and thoughts of doubt were entering my mind. A lot. Through part of last night I was convinced that I was going to be trying to catch the next plane out of here the next morning. Part of the night I felt like I couldn't breath because I felt I was so constricted. Many of you don't know the shy me, since you met me through friends or the rambunctious me has blown the shy me from your memory. But it was back to being shy me. Which I think was only hurting the situation, since I hadn't really talked to anyone that night.
Don't worry too much though, after today, I'm feeling a bit better. I'm still not entirely convinced that this is still where I want to be spending my semester. I did talk to some other people today. None of them were anywhere close to the friends I have back home. But, I shall have to keep trying with them, lol.
Well, yea... I'm taking it slow with this sandwich since when I originally tried eating it, I quickly lost my appetite and wanted to puke. It's not Cairo that's doing this to me, I'm pretty sure. I wanted to puke during my layover at Heathrow as well. So, I believe airplane food is to blame here. But, I'm hoping I make a recovery soon. Nothing sucks worse than being sick in a foreign country.
On somewhat of a lighter note: I'm afraid for my life! Drivers here are insane. Not only do they drive wickedly fast and crazed but they love using their horns and high beams when it's night time. Makes for crossing the streets a bit too scary. And on another note, I think I accidentally bought alcohol today. I was at the coffee shop buying my sandwich and I wanted a big bottle of water to have, but they didn't have it there and I didn't want coffee. So I looked in the case and it looked like they had flavored sodas there and I was like are these sodas? and he's like umm... it's the same stuff as [insert name here] as he points to a can. It was pineapple flavored. That's all I saw and I was sold. I sat down on campus to eat my sandwich, popped it open and read the label telling me that it was a sparkling malt beverage. I didn't finish it cause of my appetite loss, it wasn't really that good and I didn't want Egyptians walking by going "figures, americans boozing up at lunch."
That's about all I can think of for now... plus, it's getting kinda late. Much love to everyone back at home, but most of all to that very special girl of mine! Missing you, Steff. :-*
Sunday, January 21, 2007
heathrow...
So I’m typing this as I’m waiting for my connecting flight to Cairo. It’s now 1243 local. This trip so far has been, as I described to Steff, a roller coaster ride. Up until I got on that plane last night, it was as if I was in the line for a roller coaster. Pretty sure I want to do it, but there was still time to go back and exit gracefully. However, now I’m pretty much on the ride and there is no going back, no more thinking involved, just got to go with it.
The plane ride over the Heathrow wasn’t so bad. Well, six hours, but whatever. I watched one movie: The Black Dahlia. I couldn’t really tell you if it was good or not, cause I could hardly hear it. The sound quality was pretty bad. There were some other movies, like Flyboys (saw that with Steff :-P) and Shrek. But, I got some rest after the one movie. And when I say rest I really mean about 2 hours worth.
Right now I’m just trying to pass the time here. I’m going to attempt to get some rest on the Cairo flight. We’ll see how that goes. I’m basically sure that as soon as I get there I’m pretty much going to collapse. My stomach is doing weird things and I’m pretty tired. I wish I was in bed sleeping with Steff next to me right now (which I would be doing normally considering it’s 7 your time).
Not having an internet connection here is a bit annoying since I’d like to be talking to you all. But then again, most of you aren’t up. Right now, I’m just hoping with all hope that I show up in Cairo with both suitcases, the cab is there to pick me up, I can get online easily when I get to the dorm and that the bed is at least comfortable for me to sleep in.
And sleep I shall; hardcore. The next morning it’s up bright and early for some general advising stuff. No rest for the weary, eh? Oh, and silly Steff is so very silly! :-*
The plane ride over the Heathrow wasn’t so bad. Well, six hours, but whatever. I watched one movie: The Black Dahlia. I couldn’t really tell you if it was good or not, cause I could hardly hear it. The sound quality was pretty bad. There were some other movies, like Flyboys (saw that with Steff :-P) and Shrek. But, I got some rest after the one movie. And when I say rest I really mean about 2 hours worth.
Right now I’m just trying to pass the time here. I’m going to attempt to get some rest on the Cairo flight. We’ll see how that goes. I’m basically sure that as soon as I get there I’m pretty much going to collapse. My stomach is doing weird things and I’m pretty tired. I wish I was in bed sleeping with Steff next to me right now (which I would be doing normally considering it’s 7 your time).
Not having an internet connection here is a bit annoying since I’d like to be talking to you all. But then again, most of you aren’t up. Right now, I’m just hoping with all hope that I show up in Cairo with both suitcases, the cab is there to pick me up, I can get online easily when I get to the dorm and that the bed is at least comfortable for me to sleep in.
And sleep I shall; hardcore. The next morning it’s up bright and early for some general advising stuff. No rest for the weary, eh? Oh, and silly Steff is so very silly! :-*
Thursday, January 18, 2007
T-minus 2 days...
So, I'm in a weird place right now. I think Colin put it best when he said that I was in purgatory: stuck between State College and Cairo. My life feels like it's on pause or something. Like when I was out and about yesterday with my mom doing some last minute shopping everything was as it should be but it just felt as though my life was on hold. Like that I was just stuck in that time.
Moving on from weird feelings I can't explain to more concrete things: I had a great weekend up in State College. I will miss my time up there, there are some good memories I'm taking from the place, but I will be back before you know it to make some more. Hey! I mean, I still have to turn 21 up there, right?
On to packing... So my sister's away at school, so the bedroom floor in her room is being used as a staging area for my packing. As it is right now, I have a lot of stuff spread about in there and two suitcases to fill still. With my mom's recommendation that I should pack a little of everything thing in each (meaning don't pack all your underwear in one) in case one gets delayed or (God, please no!) lost on the way there things get a little trickier.
But yea, so pretty much everything needs to get into those suitcases tomorrow before we head down to DC on Saturday, where any number of things is going to happen, like: visiting my sister, visiting my mom's sister, or visiting friends of my parents who just moved down there. But one way or another, I should get on the plane at some point that day. The game plan is that I leave Dulles at 10pm here, get to Heathrow at 10am local, sit around for about, oh... 6 hours! until I leave Heathrow at 4pm local and land in Cairo at 11pm local. It should be interesting. But basically, that means I should be in Cairo at about 4pm EST if everything works out.
Then starts all sorts of orientations and meetings and that kind of good fun shit. I guess it's the price you pay for leaving a place as you are starting to figure out all the ins and outs for a place where you have no idea what the hell is going on. But, such is life, I suppose. If I didn't want a challenge, I should have gone to England for the semester.
(my sister's room with my stuff in it... that's not even all of it, quite)
Moving on from weird feelings I can't explain to more concrete things: I had a great weekend up in State College. I will miss my time up there, there are some good memories I'm taking from the place, but I will be back before you know it to make some more. Hey! I mean, I still have to turn 21 up there, right?
On to packing... So my sister's away at school, so the bedroom floor in her room is being used as a staging area for my packing. As it is right now, I have a lot of stuff spread about in there and two suitcases to fill still. With my mom's recommendation that I should pack a little of everything thing in each (meaning don't pack all your underwear in one) in case one gets delayed or (God, please no!) lost on the way there things get a little trickier.
But yea, so pretty much everything needs to get into those suitcases tomorrow before we head down to DC on Saturday, where any number of things is going to happen, like: visiting my sister, visiting my mom's sister, or visiting friends of my parents who just moved down there. But one way or another, I should get on the plane at some point that day. The game plan is that I leave Dulles at 10pm here, get to Heathrow at 10am local, sit around for about, oh... 6 hours! until I leave Heathrow at 4pm local and land in Cairo at 11pm local. It should be interesting. But basically, that means I should be in Cairo at about 4pm EST if everything works out.
Then starts all sorts of orientations and meetings and that kind of good fun shit. I guess it's the price you pay for leaving a place as you are starting to figure out all the ins and outs for a place where you have no idea what the hell is going on. But, such is life, I suppose. If I didn't want a challenge, I should have gone to England for the semester.
(my sister's room with my stuff in it... that's not even all of it, quite)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
