It's hard to believe I'm sitting here writing my very last senior project blog. This has been a long, time-consuming and, on occasion, stressful process, but also a rewarding one. I've learned a lot about a broad range of subjects, tackled some difficult questions and stretched my critical thinking and writing skills. 10 pages no longer seems like a lot for an essay, nor does a dozen cite sources. This experience has surely helped prepare me for college. I can, I hope, look back on the work I've done over the last four months with pride. I'm looking foreward to finishing my product over break and presenting it in mid-January.

Between now and then, of course, I'm going to have a very busy time of things. My first priority is college applications; it looks like I will need to do about one every day if I want to finish before leaving for a family vacation just after Christmas, which is my goal. . In addition, I still need to write an introductory text and edit all 25 pages of my final essay. I also am expecting to get back comments from my outside consultant, Sally Booth, which I hope to incorporate. It's going to be a lot of work, but not insurmountable.

That's about it. With a little dedication, these last pieces of my project can fall into place over the next 2+ weeks. It's been an interesting journey, one I'm sure I'll look back happily on...once it is finally over. Best wishes to everyone for the holidays, new year, senior project, college apps, and life in general. If there's one thing I learned this week, dealing with a rejection letter I didn't want to come, it is this: I have an amazing group of friends, a fantastic grade and awesome teachers. We're like a big support group. I don't know what I'd do without it. One way or another, I hope I can keep that spirit of community with me long after I graduate.

Maasalaamah for now,

David Kaner

My main goal moving foreward is maintaining enough inertia to finish this project. I feel like I'm sooo close, and yet my pace has been sort of slow. My essay is now 20 pages long, 2/3 of which Ms. Clark looked over on Fri. and gave me comments on, so I guess I could call this draft 2...maybe 1.5? I'm just a few paragraphs away from being finished, and I'm hoping we can discuss edits early next week. Hopefully, a final draft will be pretty quick in coming. I also need to write a brief introduction to complete my project; just a page or two about what I did and my overarching theme. Meanwhile, no word from Sally Booth yet; I'm hoping she managed to bring what I sent with her and will get back to me soon.

We're so close to break (and finding out about colleges on tuesday) I can barely stand it. In the interim, I know I just need to focus.

I'm moving along, I guess. From Thanksgiving break to now I've been able to get done most of the 1st draft of my 3rd essay, on the cityscape of Cairo. It sort of grew organically such that, though I expected to be done by now, I instead have a sprawling 15 page essay that still has a few pages to go. I'm dead-set on getting it done this weekend and then editing what I've done so far so I have a solid draft to hand to Ms. Clark next week. I also emailed what I had done by wed. to Sally Booth, my outside consultant, so she'd have something to look over during her trip to Bhutan. I still have a week and a half before I find out early decision results for college, so in the interim I'm prioritizing senior project over college apps. My goal for the time remaining until break is to have the essay I'm currently working on in a solid form. Once that happens, I can discuss with my mentor what my next steps are; i.e. is this enough, given my third essay was more in-depth than I originally planned for, or do I try to write a 4th piece before early January?

I couldn't be happier that I have a week off from school starting this afternoon, even if it will be a break mostly consumed by work on senior project and college apps. I'm going into the break with some significant milestones reached. Earlier this week, I completed BOTH essays I have been working on! I feel immensely relieved that I can finally label all 20 pages as finished.

The rest of the week was really busy, and I was overwhelmingly tired through much of it, but I managed to do some pre-writing work on my third essay: The Cityscape of Cairo as a metaphor for Egyptian History. My process folio is now filled with photographs I took I might want to use a jumping-off points, along with a map of the downtown I broke down into pieces representing specific eras and trends. I've been mulling this essay over in my head for practically two months, so although it will be a complex piece, I'm hoping to finish it fairly quickly. Ideally, I want to be done with it by the end of my first week back.

And, last but not least, pictures. Here's some of those urban landscape images I've been inspired by:
View from the top of the Cairo Tower.
The Islamic Quarter. Although beautiful and historic, the cleanliness and orderliness of the neighborhood is very unlike the rest of the city. I think of it as something like EgyptoDisney.
The Khan el-Khalili, the famous centuries-old souk/tourist trap. I like the contrast between the market itself, which embodies the typical image westerners have of the Middle East, and the people visiting it, such as my camera-wielding friend. While Western money keeps places like Islamic Cairo protected, it comes at the cost of some of its original character. I'm not sure what, if any, balance can be reached between the two.
This was also taken in the Islamic Quarter. I'm not sure what it says about Cairo. I do know, however, that this is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

I just wrote this post and it managed to disappear! Oh well, here it goes again...

This was a very productive week. I am currently on my 6th (and I hope final) draft of my essay on the headscarf. My essay on media is in its 3rd draft and, although more work remains, I'm fairly happy with it as of now. The drafting process has gotten markedly faster as I get better at anticipating what my mentor will say about my work and adjusting accordingly before handing it in.

I played around this week a little with my final product format. I threw together a test cover page in photoshop, but am not terribly thrilled with it. I also thought about what I should title all my pieces. I'm thinking about just keeping them short and sweet ("The Headscarf", "The Television", etc.), instead of givning them more academic-sounding titles, but I'm not dead-set on any one idea.

Goals for next week:
1. Be done with my essay on hijab, hopefully.
2. Be near-finished with the media essay.
3. Have a clear idea of/start writing my third essay. I'm considering one idea about the cityscape of Cairo as a metaphor for Egyptian history, and another about shopping malls vs. traditional souks. I'll see what happens.

Finally, I realize I've been drawing a lot of inspiration from my photos of this summer. I'm going to start sharing a few every week, I think.

This week: Food and Drink. It's a component of Egyptian culture that can't be overemphasized. Egyptian cuisine is delicious and highly varied. Hospitality involves offering huge amounts of food and very forcefully demanding people eat more.
This woman is baking fiteer. Fiter is a soft bread of many flaky layers, eaten plain or topped with tahini, cheese or honey. Having it fresh out of this oven with some honey from the nearby bees ranked among the simplest, and best, meals I've ever had.
Koshary is Egypt's answer to fast food. It consists of rice, lentils, chickpeas and macaroni topped with spicy tomato sauce and caramelized onion. It's great with some lemon juice sprinkled on top. It's popular, dirt cheap, tasty and filling, and thus is something of a staple food.
Tea, or shay, is an essential component of socializing. I also had it every morning for breakfast. Surprisingly, the tea is often plain old lipton, but the Egyptians like to add in their own spices.
These sacks are filled with hibiscus leaves, steeped in water to make a cold drink called karkade (similar drinks, I later learned, are present in many parts of the world). Fruit juices are ubiquitous at both restaurants, shisha places and stand-alone parlors. Other favorite drinks are assab, made from sugar cane, mango juice and moz w leban , literally banana and milk, essentially a banana smoothie.

The last two weeks seem to have gone by pretty quickly. My major accomplishment since I last blogged is the two more drafts I wrote of my essay about hijab, or Islamic dress. I hope that the 4th draft I just emailed to Ms. Clark to take a look at will probably be my last major revision. As things stand right now, the essay is just under 10 pages long, with two whole pages of citations after that. It is probably the most well-researched thing I've ever written! There's a part of me that worries that, a week into November, I only have one essay I consider nearly finished, but I am going for quality over quantity. I feel I really have put a month of work into my final product.

Since I've been concentrating wholly on my first essay, my second, about media in the Middle East, has not advanced too much. I am only partway through writing a second draft, which I hope to complete this weekend. I think I understand better now what sort of caliber I should be aiming for in my writing, so I expect the drafting process won't take as long. Personally, I believe the essay I've completed was the most complicated, and that also contributed to the timeframe.

So, to recap, one goal in the coming days: have a 2nd draft of the media essay done this weekend. My ideal schedule for the coming weeks is to have my second essay near completion in the next two weeks and to return from Thanksgiving break with at least a good draft of my third piece.

I feel like I got a good deal accomplished this week. By Tuesday I had completed the 1st draft of my essay on satellite TV in the Middle East. Along the way, I had some really interesting conversations with people on the topic, which apparently strikes other people as interesting too. I got back the 2nd draft of my essay on the headscarf with comments from my mentor and hope to have a revised version done sometime next week. At the moment, I'm holding off on starting a 3rd essay, but ideally I will start working on it late next week. Whether that happens is highly dependent on when I finish my college application due next week.

This afternoon, I will be meeting with Alex Cromwell for feedback on my essay. I hope she can point me in the direction of stylistic improvements I can make to my writing. Although the English component of my product (and grade) is smaller than the history component, I'm taking it very seriously and hope this experience will improve how I write.

All told, I think I maintained a good level of progress during what has been an unbelievably busy week. I need to keep up this kind of pace if I want to have my product in on time. This pacing, rather than any roadblocks with content, continues to be my single greatest issue, but this week, at least, I seemed to have improved.

I'm going to be honest here. I accomplished very little this week. On top of having Monday off, I've been sick all week. However, I did get to finally meet with Sally Booth! She had some good suggestions for book and articles to look up. On the topic of technology entrenching dictatorships, she recommended looking at how police hacked into text messages being sent by protesters and the WTO and therefore were able to anticipate their moves.
I also wrote my personal progress report. Although concerned about the fact I only have 1 essay done, I feel I can pick up the pace (especially since I have extensive research done on 2 other topics). I still feel I'm on track to get my project done.

Anyhow, I'm giving myself a very strict deadline: by next Tuesday, I must have a 1st draft of my 2nd essay done.

This week, I feel as though I made progress on my project. I got back the first draft of my essay on the headscarf and, hopefully, can finish a second draft by early next week. I did a lot of research this week on the effect of new media on the middle east, including several sources on how satellite tv has changed the political and media landscape over the last decade and an interesting TED talk on how access to the internet can, contrary to popular belief, strengthen dictatorships rather than undermine them. I also completed my product rubric, so I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do to get a good grade on my project.

Additionally, I confirmed Sally Booth will be my outside consultant. I'm really excited by her enthusiasm. Her expertise in ethnography and anthropology will be a very valuable resource.

Over the next week, I'm hoping to keep up the pace and, hopefully, be a little speedier. My goal is to have my first essay completed and my second essay drafted. All in all, I'm not extremely concerned about whether or not I can finish my project on time, but I do recognize I need to work faster.

This week I focused on writing a draft of my first essay. I've written about 3 pages, and I think I now have down most of what I want to get across. The problem is that, so far, my writing is pretty disjointed and the thrust of the essay isn't entirely clear. I have two long cross-country flights Fri. and Sun., so I want to work this weekend on finishing and editing the essay to make its progression more logical.

TO-DO
Finish first draft of essay on women in the middle east -Tues
Start drafting 2nd essay (move forward on urban landscape idea?)-Tues or earlier if time allows

I feel like I've been able to get the ball rolling on my project in the past week. I went back and looked at my blog for inspiration, and then talked to my mentor, Carrie Clark, about her thoughts on my record of my journey. Between the two of us, I've been able to draw up a list of maybe 10 or so topics for essays. The topics that are currently dominating my thoughts include the status of women in the Middle East, the effect of satellite TV and internet on the region and Egypt as a military state, especially regarding its relationship with Israel.

I'm also playing with the idea of writing an essay using the Cairo cityscape as a metaphor for Egypt's modern history. In successive layers one encounters the gorgeous but often crumbling colonial architecture of the period of British influence and occupation, tower blocks, a brick and mortar legacy of the era of Nasser, Arab Socialism and Pan-Arabism, urbanization and war and, finally, the more recent buildings of neighborhoods such as Heliopolis and Nasser City, evidence of the rule of Sadat and Mubarak, privatization, economic reform and growing inequality. I sketched this idea out in more detail in my portfolio, with accompanying visuals for each.

An important event this week was finally getting to meet with Ken Dorph, who I've been trying to contact since August. Ken is an expert consultant on the Middle East and fluent in Arabic. He just returned from a several week sojourn in Iraq, where he's working on attracting Western investment. I told him about my project, and he had some fascinating things to say about the status of women (he believes the wearing of the headscarf is more often an act of identity expression rather than religiosity), sexuality (world's number two consumer of pornography: Saudi Arabia) and Egypt's government (not a fan). I hope I can use him occasionally as an outside consultant, despite how staggeringly busy he is, and maybe get feedback from him on my essays.

TO-DO
1st draft of essay on women in the Middle East-sometime next week

From here on in, I will be using this space to note my achievements, obstacles and plans for my senior project. First, however, I will recap what my project entails.

I traveled to Egypt for 6 weeks this summer through NSLI-Y, the National Security Language Initiative for Youth, a grant program of the U.S. State Department. During my time there, I recorded my experiences and impressions in the posts below. I intend to use my experience as a jumping off point for a series of essays, taking certain events or observations from my trip and using them to expand on broader issues of Egyptian (and Middle Eastern) culture and politics. Stylistically, I'm inspired by writers such as Eric Larson, who use personal narratives in much the same way to explore moments in history.

Right now, my project is still in the formulative stages, and I've yet to do any writing. Nor do I know exactly what I will be writing about, or how many essays I will write.

TO-DO
Preliminary list of essay topics-Tues.
Re-read journal entries, annotate-Tues
Finish the last 70 pgs. of Bernard Lewis' "The Middle East"-non-urgent, within the next week if possible

Egypt Day 33-39

I've been away for the past few days on the community service portion of the trip. We stayed in the Governate of Faiyoum, a large oasis province around a lake in a depression in the desert, a few hours from Cairo. We were very warmly hosted by a Catholic mission in a small village surrounded by farm fields. It was by far the simplest conditions any of us had lived in during this trip: hot rooms, rampant flies, dirty bathrooms, plain and simple food like ful and pita. I returned home more covered in bug bites than probably any other time in my life.

Yet it was a very rewarding experience. First, I was touched by the hospitality extended to us by the mission and its leader, Father Yussuf, the picture-perfect image of the portly, laughing friar. How could one possibly complain about any mild inconveniences when you're being hosted out of generosity? Second, the service work was on the whole rewarding, even though I felt with some of the work we did as if out efforts could have been put towards something more impactful.

The first day of our experience, we headed out to another village. It was small and dusty, with more donkey traffic than cars. On one of its streets lay the town mosque and the town church, directly across from one another. In the spirit of religious harmony, the group split up, with half working on repainting the church and half repainting the mosque. we also planted trees in front, surely a welcome addition to any locale here.

The second day, we headed to the capital of the governate, where we worked all morning painting a fence in front of the local office of the ministry of youth and sport. This was the most taxing part of our service. We worked outside with no shade for hours, as the temperature climbed along with the sun. Furthermore, almost everyone expressed frustration with the task. The fence we were painting had looked ok to start with. Couldn't we be doing something of greater import?

The next day was spent planting trees and trimming hedges at an athletic center. Planting trees is always, in my mind, an extremely beneficial act, so I was happy to take part. However, upon starting, we discovered the soil to be almost ludicrously hard. Another student and I dug futilely at a spot one of the center's employees had indicated for 20 mins before he returned to inform us we were digging in the wrong place. I don't recall the last time I had been so angry. The program director gave all of us a gentle warning about all the swear words we were using.

The new spot we dug at proved to be equally unyielding, and when we finally made progress we discovered we were digging down to concrete slabs. Thankfully, at that moment a break was called, and afterward we were transferred to the far less aggravating task of hedge trimming. However, easier as it may have been, I was saddened by the amount of trash caught in the hedge. The center hadn't even asked us to clean up, but we did so anyway. I couldn't help but noting, as we did so, the field in front of us: it was strewn with wrappers and bottles, far more than we could pick up in the allotted time. We had been told the day before our fence painting was so the locals could take pride in their civic buildings. How does one affect a cultural shift that makes people take pride enough in their surroundings to not utterly trash them?

By far the best part of out community service was our work to show our gratitude to the mission. Over the course of our afternoons, we repainted its 3-room kindergarten and filled its bare walls with some really fetching mural work that looked good and taught the kids about letters, numbers and colors. One room was bedecked with flowers and candies, the second with clouds, balloons and hot air balloons, and a third with exceptionally realistic looking pieces of fruit. I am more proud of what we accomplished there in a few short days than almost anything else I've done. In my life. Period, full stop. I'm also feeling really fortunate, as our days together come to an end, I got to be with such an amazing and talented group.

Yesterday, in what was probably our final chance to just chill in Cairo, two friends and I spent the day downtown. We sat in a cafe for hours, then crawled to yet another, before taking a stroll. Our walk led us across the Nile, to the posh island neighborhood midstream. There, we found a really beautiful park, where we sat down to enjoy the dusk. We had a long talk about the trip, the people on it and how it has affected us, along with our thoughts of leaving.

I articulated something I've been thinking about the past week or so: I really feel this experience has changed me deeply. After 6 weeks of navigating a drastically different lingual, cultural and urban landscape, more or less successfully, I'm more self confident. I take things more in stride. I'm just more chill. Even with senior year, senior project work and college applications ahead, I'm not in my usual state of low-grade freakout. I'm not constantly imagining how stressed I'll be in the coming months, as in Augusts past. I've had a wonderful time here, and will miss my host family and all my new friends (though I'm going to try my hardest to keep in touch), but I'm experiencing a weird lack of high emotion about all of it. I just have this feeling of acceptance. What happens, happens. One way or another, things will turn out as they turn out. It's a very Egyptian way of looking at things. There's a reason any talk of the future in Arabic is ended with the phrase inshallah, "If God Wills". I may be an atheist, but more and more I understand the sentiment.

So we'll see, I guess. Maybe these changes are temporary, and I slip back into my old doubts and fears and stresses. Or maybe this is a permanent change. I'm really, really hoping for the latter. Inshallah.

Egypt Day 31, 32

Some brief snapshots from the last two days:

I walked along the Nile with a friend yesterday, for what could be the final time before I leave. It's fun, walking among the hustle and bustle of the corniche, but the constant hassling of men asking you to ride a falluka can get to be a bit much. As we were walking, a boy of perhaps 9 or 10 came up and asked us if we wanted to ride one. We brushed him off with our stnadard "la, shukran" (no, thank you), but the boy was very persistent and continued to follow and badger us. Finally, I had to say, sharply, "bas!: (stop!). He didn't miss a beat. "Bullshit!", he fired back, and then walked away.

I keep seeing a bus in the morning with a very unusual characteristic. The entire front board of the bus is covered in potted plants. It's almost like the driver has a miny arboreum right in his bus. I wish I had had occasion to ride that route at somepoint. It seems like such a wonderful, if unusual, way to brighten the often miserable commute here.

We went to Khan El Khalili today. The packed bazaar is huge, crowded and endlessly fascinating. Allys twist and turn with abandon. Shopkeepers are constantly cajoling you to take a look at their wares. Some of the most interesting-looking shops are those selling spices from giant bags and jars. I couldn't resist taking pictures of some of them, a risky proposition as you are often asked for money in return. It's late now, maybe I'll summarize it more some other time. I'll just say this: it's much closer to the westerner's view of what this place should look like than the rest of the city.

Today was our last day of classes. How time flies! Tomorrow, we're off to a nearby city to work on a community service project for 4 days. I hope it goes well.

Egypt Day 29, 30

Yesterday, a few friends went home with me, and we then set out for "Islamic Cairo", the old district of the city that includes Khan El-Khalili, the city's most famous souk. Although my family had mentioned to me before the entrance to the old city was just 5 minutes away, I had yet to go there. We spent perhaps 3 quarters of an hour wandering my neighborhood, trying in vain to follow first my host mom's, and then various passersby's, directions. Eventually, we wound up on a avenue I had been on many times before, where my brother had taken me to try all the different local drinks my very first night. Having finally procured clear directions from one of the employees there, we walked just a block down from the drink shop and, turning a corner, I was struck speechless. A medieval wall ran along the street for what seemed like a mile or more. I had never noticed it before.

We walked along the wall for several blocks before we found, as promised, the door to the old city. It was like something out of a movie, a massive gate flanked by guard towers. We stepped through the portal into an existence almost divorced from the reality of the modern city. There, the honking and screeching of tires that had long since become background noise to me was shockinly absent. Barely any cars raced down the cobblestone streets. No tower blocks blotted out the sun from the street. A thousand years on, the minarets of the mosques still stood unchallenged as the tallest structures around. The mosques they are attached to are national treasures (and labled as such), with some of the most ornate stonework I have ever seen. They could certainly give the great gothic cathedrals of Europe, their closest contemporaries, a run for their money in architectural magnificence.

From the leafy palms trees that lined the street, to the shops shuttered against the afternoon sun, the district radiated a feeling of calm that is hardly present in most of the other places I've been to here. One of my favorite places was a house open to the public we sort of stumbled upon by chance. It was so low-key we weren't entirely sure we were allowed in. Behind its tall, vaulted entranceway was, typical to old houses in the region, an interior courtyard. I had seen something similar in Spain but had yet to experience it here. The brilliance of the idea is immediate. Hidden away from the dust and bustle of the street, the garden forms a miniature oasis of green, calm and peace. It's no wonder we lingered there for quite some time.

As we went further into the neighborhood, we got closer to the tourist-swamped allys of Khan El-Khalili. This presented a perfect opportunity for souvineer shopping, something our host families had adamantly warned against as we would be charged double as foreigners. I wound up buying only one or two things, knowing I'd be back in the coming days. I bargained hard, or at least what I considered bargaining hard. It's part of the entertainment, this false facade, convincing Western tourists they somehow managed to fight this citiy's famously wily businesspeople to a draw, a boastful story they can take home.

It's bullshit, of course. I'm sure if I told my host family what I paid for my items they'd be outraged (Egyptians cannot stand being overcharged, even sums that in American terms are laughably small). And the matter of the different prices for Egyptians and non-Egyptians...that's a matter I've been discussing quite a bit recently with my American friends here. Some of them find it outrageous. I'm of two minds on the matter. Rationally, I can understand justifying it. It can be argued it's the way people here try to make up for the fact they've been getting the short end of the stick at the hands of Western powers for 200 years. A few pounds of overcharging tourists could never, in a millenium, come close to the value of the socioeconomic injustices suffered by the people of the developing world at the hands of the developed. Yet, at the same time, when you're the one being overcharged, well, that tends to overshadow any justifications you tell your bleeding-heart liberal self.

The same logic applies, I suppose, to the frequent request one gets for money, often for the simplest tasks. At the citadel the other day, for example, an offer to show us a great view of the castle, accesible through a door in the citadel wall, turned into a bit of an uncomfortable situation. When we finished taking our pictures, the man enquired, with an outstretched hand "money?"He was blocking the door. I gave him a few pounds and he showed us back. We weren't in any danger, of course-one of our friends had stayed out on the otherside anyway, waiting for us. Our guide was really just a harmless old man. We did get some pictures from a perspective we never would have been able to get on our own. Yet still, these requests, so inapproapriate by western standards, can be a little jarring.

Today, as we reached the one-month mark of our stay here, we assembled bright and early in the morning at the main government office building downtown to get our visas extended. It proved to be a perfect lesson in the patience and flexibility (especially with time) needed to operate in this society. We were asked to arrive at 7. The Egyptian volunteers who were to help us with the process arrived at 8. We were supposed to have the entire process completed by 11, so that we could go to school and begin class at 12. Instead, we only finished and had our passports handed back after 1. My form, which I wrote in red ink, got canceled and had to be rewritten, so I had to wait even longer. Mercifully, classes were declared canceled and we had the rest of the day off.

This kind of thing probably would have bugged me more a mere month ago. But I think my brief time here has changed me. I've adapted to how things work here. I feel I'm more laid back, more accepting of curveballs that come my way, less resistant to changes to the plan. I leave here in two all-too-short weeks but, I have no doubt, I'll be taking back more than postcards and scarabs.

Egypt Day 26, 27, 28

Although I spent all of Thursday, my extra day off, at home bored, this turned out to be an exceptionally full weekend.

Friday, per the suggestion of my brother's friend, a few friends and I went to Al-Azhar park. the park, set among hills and surrounded on all sides by Islamic Cairo, is one of the more stunning green spaces I have ever been to. In the midst of the incredible racket, dust and claustrophobia of this city, one finds an oasis bedecked in green, with soft grass, pleasant shade and running water. We had lunch at an exceptionally lovely lakeside restaurant whose beautiful location was matched by its wonderful readaptation of Islamic architecture in the form of a modern building. The retaurants numerous fountains, which gurgled down narrow channels into pools, were very remeniscent of those in one of my favorite buildings of all time, the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

We then continued to meander in the park, eventually walking down a blocked off path to reach the base of an impressive wall, dating to the time of Saladin, that marked one side of the park. Walking along it, one can't help but marvel at the expert masonry, which doesn't look too much the worse for centuries of wear. It was when we finally found a stair leading up to the ramparts that a guard found us and tersely directed us back to the open paths. Oh well...it was definitely worth (minorly) disobeying the rules to get a glimpse of history.

We continued to spend several hours in the park, lying in the grass, hanging in a playground in which we were probably older than everyone else by 5 or 6 years (although, Egyptian children often look much younger than their actual age to Americans) and generally having a needed break. Around sunset we took a cab downtown and spent the rest of our time out sitting in cafes and walking around, which is, I'm told, basically what Egyptian teenagers do on trips downtown.

One useful skill we did practice over the course of Friday and Saturday was how to take taxis without an Egyptian. It's preferable to take one of the white or yellow cabs, with their working meters, but generally you wind up in a black cab, with their cruel, broken suggestions of metered fares. Here's how we handled this:
1.We negotiated the price our host families recommended before we got in.
2.Said fare would be tightly rolled up in one of our hands
3. Any discussion (especially regarding how we should handle getting out without being hassled for a higher fare) would be in Spanish, to avoid letting the cabdriver in on our plans. Practice never hurts either, given I'm in AP level next year.
4. When we arrived, we would all get out and close the doors before hading over aforementioned tightly rolled bills. By the time the driver has unrolled said bills, we would have gotten several yards away, out of hassling zone.

Today, Saturday, two friends and I set out for the citadel of Saladin, also home to the national military museum. The citadel is an enormous stone structure on a rocky outcrop surprisingly close to the downtown. Inside its walls are a surprising variety of structures dating from between the Medieval period and the 1800s. My personal favorite of the structures we visited was the enormous Mosque of Muhammed Ali, built in the mid-19th Century. Given its high position and silvery domes, it's the most visible mosque in the city, and is spectacular up close. Every detail is intricate, every proportion pleasing. Inside, we took our shoes off and walked across the searing hot stone of the courtyard to enter the sanctuary.

I'm not religious by any means, but I happen to enjoy being in places of worship. There seems to be a sense of serenity and centeredness that is univeersal to such places, regardless of the faith they serve. This building was no exception. Seated crosslegged on a worn carpet, staring up at the lamps, representing the 99 names of God, that hang from the cupola, the collective roar of hundreds of tourists faded away. I thought about the magnificence of the mosque and how incredible it was, the lengths people will go to to glorify their god. When I stepped, blinking, back into the sunshine, it was with a great sense of peace.

The other major destination in the citadel was the military museum. That sort of thing isn't usually of special interest to me, and in this case I was if anything repulsed by it. The museum, for starters, consisted mostly of models. Very little seemed to be an actual artifact. Many of the rooms were roped off and their lights darkened. What we did see on our visit was extreme glorification of the military, including a statue of a soldier entitled "The Best Soldiers in the World." With its chronologically muddled displays, the museum, like so much else here, attempted to draw a direct link between the great military powers of Egypt's past and those of its future.

Most striking of all was the large hall dedicated to the 1973 war. Walking through it was like taking a trip through some alternate history. In the version of events here, the war was a magnificent victory for Egypt over the enemy. Evidence comes in the form of celebratory paintings and a chunk of the tail of a shot down airplane emblazoned with the star of David. One would never ascertain from the displays that that enemy dealt several blows to Egypt and Syria and was able to prevent them from overruning their defenses. In this version, it is a straight line from the early arab victories to the peace treaty between the two nations. Wanting to be associated with the victory, looming over the hall, in the form of portraits and a stone bust given, the inscription read, by North Korea, is the current president. (You may notice I never mentioned the name of the country Egypt was fighting. Nor does the exhibit.)

We then spent yet another evening downtown. Incredibly, walking along the nile we ran into one of my host brother's best friends, who called out to me and invited us to wait with him for some other Egyptian friends of ours. Sure enough, they showed up: with half a dozen of our fellow American students in tow. We had a great time taking yet another boat trip on the Nil It was quite the lucky coincidence, running into a friend, miles from home, in Africa's largest city. What are the odds?

Egypt Day 23, 24, 25

Much of this 4-day school week, cut short due to tomorrow being Revolution Day, was consumed with preparation for the presentation we held yesterday evening at a public library. The American students were asked to do something educational about the 4^th of July, while the Egyptian students presented on their Revolution Day. It turned out to be a much bigger deal than we anticipated, with a packed audience and even local media. I think our performance, consisting of some reenactments of the revolution war, the signing of the declaration and a typical modern 4^th of July, along with group singing of the national anthem and "This Land is Your Land" went well. Despite the language barrier, people laughed and clapped. After the show, we were filmed for the nightly news, reprising our performance of The Star Spangled Banner while holding a big American Flag, in the middle of a park in Nasr City, while amused Egyptian passerby looked on. Quite surreal.

The Egyptian group, on the other hand, had several issues they were unwilling to disclose. I did notice they had neglected to put on their costumes and apparently cut out some part they were planning to do. They also turned part of their act, utterly inexplicably, into an impromptu piano and singing recital having nothing to do with the subject at hand. For one reason or another, they left upset. At least we got some info on the holiday, which, by the way, is really just a day off from school. As far as I can ascertain, aside from getting the day off from school, nothing is done to mark the holiday save a small parade. It contrasts sharply with the importance of the 4^th of July in our country.

Does the relative lack of celebration reflect anything about national feeling? I wouldn't be so sure; many Egyptians have struck me as very nationalistic. They see their country as a regional powerhouse, which given its cultural and military might is almost certainly a fair assessment. The military, as I read about before coming and then have observed on the ground, is revered to a degree that makes this dovish westerner uncomfortable. With its massive defense ministry complex, its swank officers' clubs and ubiquitous faux ancient-Egyptian motifs depicting the army as direct descendants of the conquering Ramses the Great, Cairo demonstrates consistently the high esteem the military holds in this society.

On Wednesday afternoon, happy to be done with our penultimate week of school, a couple friends and I decided to spend some time downtown. We went to the top of the Cairo Tower, a tall tourist trap whose latticework frame looms large over the downtown, especially at night when its gaudy purple lighting makes it look a little like a giant glowstick. Afterwards, a girl in our group had to leave with her host siblings; many of the girls on the trip have to deal with the fact they are treated much differently than the guys, include much earlier curfews and restrictions on who they can hang out with. Us guys wandered downtown for a while, where I continued to be interested by how Western all the shops and restaurants were. One street we walked down had almost nothing save American fast food chains. Unable to find an Egyptian-style Café, and not wanting to go too far from the Metro, we eventually settled on hanging out at Cilantro, an Egyptian chain very much in the Starbucks mold, though to my mind more inviting and with much better food.

Just a quick note before I go: I may be going to Sharm El Sheikh either this weekend or next. In true Egyptian style, plans remain up in the air even though it's possible we could leave today.

 

Egypt Day 22

A quick anecdote I think I'll want to include in my project:

This morning, as usual, my host brother and I were standing along Ramses, Cairo's main thoroughfare, carefully watching the endless stream of busses for one that would take us to the neighborhood our school is located in. Twice, busses going the right way approached, but both times I steadfastly refused to get on. People were literally hanging out the door. I would probably manage, at best, a toehold if we boarded.

Now, I do my absolute best to accept and adapt to the culture here at all times. However, hanging out of a bus, in swerving traffic, given my klutziness and lack of balance, is one of (perhaps the only) thing I've completely taken off the table in consideration for my safety. I don't begrudge other people's comfort with doing so. I'm merely aware that getting around in such a way would not be a safe thing for me, personally, to do. My brother, thankfully, understands this. After 15 minutes of waiting to no avail, I convinced him we had to catch a cab to avoid being late. Within a minute, we had hailed one, negotiated a fare of 20 LE ($4) and jumped in.

I almost immediately cursed my luck. The air in the cab was acrid with the smell of gasoline. I'm fairly certain there was a leaking fuel line somewhere inches below our feet. When I tried to take a breath, I gagged. Choosing the lesser of two evils, I stuck my head out the window and drew big gulps of the smoggy miasma that hovers over the major roads here. Even then, I still got a powerful whiff of gasoline. I turned to my host brother.

"Nehad, I'm really sorry about not getting on the bus. It's just something I can't do. And my parent's would kill me."

Nehad looked at me with a bemused smile. "You can't tell me you have never rode a bus like that."

It was my turn to smile. "Never. In the United States, people don't ride busses like that. It would be illegal. You have to keep your body inside the bus at all times."

My host brother gave me the same incredulous look he had given me the time I told him women wore bikinis to the beach everywhere in the US (as opposed to Egypt, where it is strictly forbidden save for a few western resorts). He shook his head and lapsed back into silence. Meanwhile, I remembered I was in a low-to-no-oxygen environment and stuck my head out the window again.

It was then I noticed the driver had lit up a cigarette and was smoking with abandon in the front seat of his fuel-drenched car.

I spent the next 15 minutes with my atheism temporarily suspended. This was not how I planned to die, kickass as a car explosion may be.

I stumbled out of the cab a block from the school, practically threw the fare at the driver, and quickly stepped away from the potential blast zone. It was quarter to 9 in the morning, already in the 90s, with the sun blasting my already sunburned shoulders and four hours of Arabic grammar lay ahead. I took a deep breath. It was good to be alive.

Egypt Day 18, 19, 20, 21

Just a quick entry…

-Wednesday, we had an all-too-brief visit to the Egyptian museum. The sheer weight of history was astounding and, although people here are rightfully proud of it, it was sad to see the museum was poorly organized, had few explanatory markers and unforgivably lax security. It's a miracle the objects displayed have made it this long, to lose them now to the destructive fingers of one too many tourists would be tragic. I particularly liked the treasures of King Tutankhamen, which were even more dazzling than they appeared on TV and in my Middle School history textbook. Keeping in mind he was a minor pharaoh, one can only imagine the treasures of far greater kings that have long been lost to grave robbers. The room of the Mummies was also a fascinating experience, as I had never seen any in person. It was a bit surreal to be looking down at the shriveled corpse of Ramses the Great, once a living god and one of the world's most powerful rulers

-Thursday afternoon, with the school week done, almost the entire group went to the enormous movie theater in the mall to see the new Harry Potter movie. Movie-going here is not so different an experience, except that Egyptian movies have an intermission at the middle, something American theaters did away with before I was born. Also, you can get sugar on your popcorn.

-The movie did bring up the issue of literature in youth culture in Egypt. From what I can tell, from various sources, reading as a leisure activity is quite rare among Egyptian teens. I have yet to meet anyone who has read the Harry Potter books, perhaps the most universally read literary touchstone for youth in the West.

-We spent Friday and Saturday on our "Mid-stay" orientation. The location, kept a surprise until we boarded the bus, was a resort along the shore of the Great Bitter Lake. The lake, as I learned tonight after I arrived home, sits in the middle of the Suez Canal, which explained the parade of large tankers off in the distance. According to the Quran, the pleasant pedal boat ride my friends and I took this afternoon might have taken me over the bones of Pharaoh, who perished in the lake as he pursued my ancestors in their Exodus from Egypt.

The resort was very, very pleasant, and we all spent most of our free time in the pool or out on the lake, despite its uncomfortably muddy, rocky bottom, painful salinity (at least for anyone who had cut their face shaving that morning, ha ha ha) and the unfortunate experience of being chased by a group of Egyptian children throwing dead fish at us. This last point probably deserves more consideration. Try as I might, I can't come up with a reasonable explanation. We had been talking quite amiably with this group of kids when they started throwing the fish at us, and continued even after we had told them to stop. It got so annoying we left the water. The AFS volunteers, I should point out, advised us to wait until the water was less crowded (they also advised us to move in a group, with the guys surrounding the girls so no one could bother them, a strategy that came in to play less to prevent sexual harassment and more because some of the girls really didn't like getting a dead fish to the head, for some reason). I think it was probably all meant to be in good fun…Egyptian kids just have different definitions of fun, some of which can make Americans quite uncomfortable. The fact that we stuck out like sore thumbs, in a resort clearly not frequented constantly by Westerners, probably didn't help much.

All in all, though, it was a wonderful break. It was very nice to have a change of scenery, some peace and quiet, fresh air and my first glimpse of a night sky filled with stars since I left home. Being treated to good food and a performance of bellydancing and Whirling Dervish…ing was a nice bonus (being pulled up by the dervish to try out whirling was not as pleasant). The big takeaway I had from these two days of rest, relaxation and fun was a confirmation that I've made some really amazing friends here, friends I want to try to keep long after this incredible experience is over.

Egypt Day 16 & 17

Yesterday, we were invited to the US Embassy, where we listened to the Ambassador and several employees of the embassy talk about their jobs and their perspectives on American diplomacy. It was pretty interesting to hear the different paths that they took to get where they were. Working in foreign diplomacy strikes me as an exciting career option, one that, although maybe not on the top of my list, is very close to it. We were allowed to ask questions, and some issues I was wondering about came up:

-Apparently, it is actually possible to do diplomatic work and maintain a family life at the same time. All three embassy employees were married with kids, and all said moving around had been beneficial for them as a family and actually made them closer. Although keeping in touch with family and friends at home is not the easiest thing, the existence of high-speed internet access, in tandem with fairly frequent home leave, has made the task much easier as of late.

-Balancing your personal views with the foreign policy objectives you work for, according to the staff, is easier than one would think. For starters, much of the output of Embassies is pretty apolitical work in areas such as consular affairs, management, cultural affairs and assembling reports to Congress. Furthermore, all mentioned that, even if they didn't agree with specific policies, at the end of the day they felt their work did far more harm than good.

-I found it interesting that one concern the State Department has about employees is the possibility of "going native", which could interfere with an employee's ability to do their job. As such, postings are usually limited to 3 or 4 years, and home leave is offered every 6 months, I believe. I can see how moving around that much would be disruptive, but it would be a great way to see the world.

-A shared experience among several of the people who talked to us was one of being sent someplace unexpected. Although you can request where you go, the chances your request will be granted is fairly low. The ambassador got into the Foreign Service imagining she'd waltz between European capitals for a few years. She wound up in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Yesterday was also my older host brother's last day in Egypt. As I write this, he's almost arrived at his final destination, Arizona. I'm very thankful for all the hospitality and good cheer he's shown me over the last 2 ½ weeks. Here's hoping he has as an amazing time in the US as I am having in Egypt!

Egypt Day 12, 13, 14, 15

Thursday night I was finally able to get to the mall to have Mobinil make my cell phone work (turned out I was using an expired sim chip). I was once again amazed at the feeling of detachment from the world outside that seems to be the mall's hallmark. One thing I noticed this time was the (to me) strange juxtaposition of east and west one can find there. Especially noteworthy is seeing women in the full veil, revealing only their eyes, wandering around. In their dress, they in some ways personify the mystery and fear the West associates with the Middle East. Yet here they are, not on television screens but a few feet away, with children, husbands and friends indistinguishable from any other shoppers in tow. They tote fashionable handbags and linger at the same displays as women wearing decidedly un-Islamic dress. I don't think, having seen these women in person, in context, humanized, I can have the same when I see them depicted in the media. Behind the veil, I've come to see, are actual women, not symbols, living actual lives. This is sort of obvious, I suppose, but on the other hand, assuming you watch the same western media I do, when have you ever associated veiled women with the title of "mall patron"?

Friday, everyone went over to the houses of other host parents to learn how to cook traditional Egyptian food. Unfortunately, when I arrived at my assigned house I was told everything had been finished two hours ago. The other guests and I wound up being treated to a lunch of Koshari and then whiled away the time playing videogames with our hosts' children. At least I learnt an important lesson: maintaining my pride and dignity probably requires me to never touch a Playstation ever again.

Later that night, we brought all the food over to a pier along the Nile, where we had a party. We all donned galabiyas, traditional Egyptian costume we had been instructed to wear for the occasion. I felt rather silly and touristy wearing it, but I have to admit it's better suited to the climate than western clothes. I politely declined all requests from laughing Egyptian bystander to take a picture with me, the Stupid American. All in all, however, it was a very nice evening. We ate and danced and even got to watch as a wedding procession made its way into an adjacent ballroom, accompanied by loud singing and drumming. Apparently, weddings are almost always held in the summer here, which would explain why I seem to see one every few days and at least 4 or 5 of my friends have gone to one just in these past 2 weeks.

The next day proved to be an exciting change of scenery. We set off for the country home of one of the host families, about 1 ½ hours outside Cairo. It took a long time for the endless apartment blocks to finally give way to (some) fields, and even then the landscape was dotted with absurdly out-of-place apartments sprouting among the corn stalks. We arrived at the house to find a cluster of women assembled around smoking wood ovens, stretching dough into circles and then loading them into the fire. Within 20 minutes, all of us were sitting down to a simple, traditional Egyptian lunch of fiteer, served hot right out of the oven. Fiteer is sometimes known as the Egyptian equivalent of pancake or pizza, but these comparisons are way off. It is a circular food consisting of many layers of philo dough stacked on top of one another and coated with butter. It is flaky and cruchy and chewy and unbelievably delicious with honey, cheese, yogurt sauce or even plain. I had had it a few times before, but nothing compares to having it freshly baked. I pledged that when I returned to the states I would start searching for a bakery that made fiteer and, having done so, would immediately invite everyone over for a reunion. The response to my promise was universally positive.

We spent much of the rest of the day hanging around the homestead, drinking tea (surprisingly, plain old Lipton, but brewed with ginger root and with just the right amount of sugar added) and riding donkeys (mildly thrilling). We also shucked corn and threw it into the oven, and within a few minutes had roast corn, a very popular snack here (vendors, with their tiny charcoal grills, can be found all over Cairo). We were then loaded up on the bus for a short drive to the mayor's house. I'm not really sure how the mayor managed to figure out our presence, or why he would want to meet us, but we nevertheless spent 45 minutes being shunted from sitting room to sitting room before taking a group picture in the blinding sunlight and shaking hands with the mayors fan, silent son. Tha man himself, it turned out, was not there. We left with a distinct feeling of having wasted time. Small town politics, Egyptian style.

Later that night, I had my first real cultural misunderstanding with my host family. I came home exhausted, and was looking forward to sleeping, when close friends of the family arrived. I sat and talked with them for several minutes, but eventually my host parent noticed I could barely keep my eyes open and told me I could go to bed. I got up and went, relieved, but soon found myself unable to sleep. I could hear the TV and the radio, along with talking, coming from the living room, and the noise was keeping me up. The fact I had my door open (traditionally, you don't close your door unless you're changing clothes) didn't help. I eventually got up and went into the living room, where I groggily asked my host brother to lower the volume on the TV. He agreed and told me I could shut the bedroom door. When I returned to the bedroom, I noticed something strange: complete and utter silence. I cursed silently. Clearly, I had screwed up big time.

The next morning, I had my host brother explain what unfolded to me. First, they interpreted me as being very loud, almost screaming, when I was really just trying to speak over the TV. Second, they interpreted me through the lens of a culture in which communication is all about what isn't said. Although I thought I was asking for the volume to be lowered, they took that as me DEMANDING the TV be turned off. Furthermore, since the noise was a result of the visiting family, and under the rules of Arab hospitality your first concern as a guest is not to disturb anyone in the house, by lodging a complaint I was strongly suggesting that they should leave. I therefore acted extremely rudely, embarrassed my host family and basically kicked several very nice people out of the house (whom my host father had to call and apologize to).

This problem occupied my thoughts all day. I was absolutely mortified and determined to set things right. On my way home today, I bought a bouquet of flowers for my host mother and presented it to her with profuse apologies. I then also apologized to my host father, and my host siblings. Both my parents said they understood it was a difference of cultures, that they weren't mad at me and couldn't stay mad at me because they considered me their son, and that I should consider the issue over and done with. I'm sincerely glad that this, my first real test of cross-cultural conflict, was resolved successfully. I can only hope I avoid such problems in the future and, if I can't, my family will be as amazingly understanding and empathetic as they were today.

Egypt Day 11

This evening, my host brother and I rode a microbus to a neighborhood perhaps a mile or two away to try to get my international cell activated, and then walked back home. I love walking here at night, when it's cooler and the streets hum with activity. Along the way, we passed a beautiful old mosque. In the garden in front of it, children were playing soccer and families were lying in the grass relaxing. It was a delightfully peaceful, idyllic scene. Across the street, my host brother noted, was a huge cathedral, one of the oldest in Egypt. He added he could take me to the "religious area" of Old Cairo, where one can find the first mosque ever built here, along with numerous other Muslim, Christian and Jewish places of worship.

    This made me think back to a few nights ago, when my brother and I went into an Islamic-Period mosque just a few minutes from our home that I had marveled at my first night here but had yet to visit. The outside of the building, though beautiful, looked like a fortress, something not so unusual for religious buildings of the Middle Ages. Inside, it was a strange mix of the ancient and modern, serene and disruptive. Going through the door, I found myself standing on the side of a large room, covered in beautifully patterned carpets, on which a handful of men were praying or talking in hushed tones. In front of me were lines of shoes, which worshippers must cast off before entering to pray.

    A tall, dignified looking man in a gallabiya (traditional Egyptian dress, a common sight in Cairo but more universally worn in rural Upper Egypt) finished his prayers and greeted my brother. In Arabic, he asked about who I was, what I was doing in Egypt and whether I had studied Islam in school. This seems to be a topic of some interest to Egyptians, and I've occasionally been met with surprise that I know anything about Islam at all. I think we have a lot of work to do to show we have some (if nowhere near enough) understanding of the complex cultures of the Middle East.

    After they finished their conversation, my brother led me down the hall, to where it once opened up on the courtyard. Instead of trees and grass, we were greeted with the sight of bulldozers moving dirt around a construction site. The mosque was in desperate need of repairs and, therefore, work had commenced to shore up and restore the priceless piece of heritage. To my surprise, it was not the mosque itself or the local government funding the work. Having heard Egypt could not afford to save the building, the government of Kazakhstan had stepped in with the money. I don't think I had ever heard of a government doing that before. It was clearly a nice gesture from one Muslim nation to another, and maybe a savvy political move.

Such a gesture would not go unappreciated. Religion is an incredibly palpable part of daily life here, in the sights and sound and language, far more so than in any place in the West. It's an influence so alien to those of us from liberal, secular societies that it must be experienced to understand fully. Case in point: When I got home, around 10, I noticed loud, beautiful chanting emanating from the street. It was filling the whole neighborhood with sound. I asked my younger host brother what it was. Verses from the Quran. Somewhere in the darkness, a few winding streets away, at one of this cities seemingly infinite number of mosques, a funeral was beginning.

    

Egypt Day 8, 9 & 10

I can't believe I've only been in Egypt for a little over a week. I feel like at least a month has passed. Perhaps it is due to how full the days are here. Maybe it is just the energy that always seems to be in the air. I can already sense that this place has become a part of me, its people my friends. I want to make the most out of every last second here. Anyway, here's some things I've learned over the last few days.

-Watching an international football (that's soccer to us Yanks) match in Egypt requires a certain amount of protocol, as follows:

1. If you can't get tickets to the game itself, the next best thing is to join your friends in a café. For the full experience, arrive a few hours early and pass the time talking, drinking (non-alcoholic beverages only, please!) and, if it's your thing, smoking.
   
2. Be as quiet as possible during the game. Any sound above a murmur will result in angry complaints conveyed by your waiter from the surly-looking group of men in the next room. Keep off-topic conversations to a minimum; why would you talk about anything other than the game for the next 90 minutes, anyway?
   
3. The exception to rule 2 is when Egypt scores a goal. At this juncture, feel free to shout, high-five and wave the flag you brought with you (provided someone has not co-opted it for a stylish red, white and black bandanna). You DID bring a flag, didn't you?
   
4. Make sure you get in all your drink orders at halftime, as per rule 2. The rest of the café will be doing the same, so be patient.
   
5. If victory looks assured, you can pack up and move towards the entrance-but don't leave! Make sure you wait until the clock's run out completely before you leave the presence of a television.
   
6. Once time's up, celebrate! Whoop and yell and honk your car horn (if you weren't already, which, given traffic in Cairo, is a remote possibility at best). If you're a foreigner, ignore the feelings of guilt you have surrounding the fact you're celebrating a resounding victory against Rwanda.
   

• The Cairo Metro only runs until 12 or 1. Is this preposterous, given the fact no one here seems to even consider sleeping before well after that? Yes. Did I have to find this out the hard way? Thankfully, no. My host brother told me about this and added that it's suggested that after the metro closes Cairenes should take the pricey private busses that are often well out of their price range. Nice work, Metro.
  
• On Monday we were running so late I suggested taking a cab. My host brother begrudgingly agreed to hail me one after warning me it could be 30 times the price of the bus. Thankfully, we got a cab driver who agreed to take us to the school for just 25 pounds, about $5. Unfortunately, the cab dropped us off about a mile from the school, and we had to walk fast to keep our tardiness down to half an hour. I asked my other host brother, who goes to the school with me, why his brother negotiated to have the cab drop us off so far. Apparently, the extra mile would have brought the fare up by 5 pounds, or about a dollar. This kind of thing didn't really surprise me. Along with being incredibly generous, Egyptians also always seem to know exactly when they're getting their pound's worth, and won't put up with otherwise, especially when the money involved is a guest's.
  
• This late-night society is a procrastinator's dream. Get home tired? Nap until 9 pm and then go out to get your watch fixed and talk to someone at the cell phone store. Don't worry if you miss your alarm, they may stay open for hours yet.
  
• Give up on the food issue. Everyone will continue to demand you eat more at every meal, even after a week of explaining that the food is delicious and that you are perfectly capable of determining when you are full. This will never change. Just accept it with a smile, a blocking hand, and a "hamdoulah"("Praise be to God"), a phrase whose many meanings include "I'm full".
  
• Likewise, accept the fact you're a foreigner. Greet the unsolicited stares, the "Welcome!"s and "Hello!"s with a grin and a few words of Arabic. Tell yourself a few weeks of these exchanges will be enough to change the course of public opinion about America in the Middle East.
  

Egypt Day 5, 6 and 7

Thursday was not such a big day. I went to school, came home and napped for several hours. I then went with my brother downtown to find a Citibank to use the ATM. Navigating Cairo can be insanely difficult. The streets follow no logical plan. My brother had to ask several people before we finally found the bank. One interesting thing I realized is that (probably as a consequence of the twisting, hard-to-follow streets) Egyptians do not navigate based on street names. When one gives directions, they do so by pointing out landmarks, such as mosques, rather than the roads themselves. My brother told me that this way of getting around is such that he doesn't know the names of some off the streets right in his own neighborhood.

Friday, on the other hand, was one of the fullest days of my life. We woke up early to get to the school, where we congregated for the bus ride to the pyramids. After a good 45 minutes of anticipation, they appeared like mountains, dominating the buildings of Giza. As I mentioned before, I could see from the plane that they were massive. Up close, they didn't disappoint. The fact that the ancient Egyptians built them without some of our most basic building tools, with methods that are still a mystery to us today, is to me a stunning testament to human ingenuity. Their perfection, longevity and what they say about the human spirit were, frankly, moving in a way that very few other historical sites I've visited have been (Delphi springs to mind as another example).

Actually being able to go inside one was a real thrill. We hunched over to walk down a narrow passage with a low ceiling, and then up another. The passages were apparently designed to discourage people from breaking and entering. Along the way, we saw side passages blocked off with metal grates that faded tantalizingly into darkness. I would later learn perhaps this was for the best; the side passages were designed to trick grave robbers, and often contained deadly traps. Eventually, we reached the funerary chamber. It had, disappointingly, long ago been stripped of its treasures. All that remained were four plain stone walls, one still marked with the brazen graffiti of an expeditionary team from the 1800s. Against one wall was the pharaoh's inner sarcophagus. Beyond the fantastical gold trappings such as those of Tutankhamen (and this chamber would have been yet more resplendent, as King Tut was in fact a minor ruler), everyone was buried in what we found against the wall: a simple stone box. I would make an obligatory comment here about how death is the great leveler or something like that, except the Egyptians didn't believe that at all. Pharaoh would live in the afterlife with his body kept intact by mummification, surrounded by the gold and jewels put in his funerary chamber. As for those who built his pyramid…well, tough.

    After a visit to a museum containing the miraculously preserved royal flagship found in the Great Pyramid, we drove out to a lookout point from which one can see the whole Giza plateau, the Pyramids and, below, the Cairo metropolitan area shrouded in haze. My mind's conception of the Pyramids was so rooted in the idea of them rising out of some sterile desert that the contrast between the ancient buildings and the legions of tower blocks advancing on them, or the cars, trucks, busses, asphalt, and photo-snapping foreigners that had already arrived, came as a bit of a shock. Still, the view was sweeping and lovely. From the lookout, we rode out into the desert on camels to add one more checkmark to the list of touristy things one is obliged to do in Egypt. I was a little wary at first, having heard that camels (which, come to think of it, I'm not sure I'd ever seen in real life, and definitely never up close) were nasty animals. However, they came off as lumbering and lovable. Much like dolphins, their mouths are shaped in such a way that they seem to wear a constant smile. Although thrilling, a camel ride is not something I could imagine putting up with for days on end as traders in Arabia and West Africa once did. The "Ships of the Desert" pitch and roll more heavily than any ship I've ever been on. Furthermore, getting off them is downright intimidating; since they sit down forelegs-first, you achieve near verticality for several seconds, during which you pray not to fall either under or on top of the head of this heavy animal you would very much enjoy not getting angry.

    After getting down, the boy who had been leading our camels came around asking for tips. I had heard from the Egyptians you should never tip anyone, but also heard some of these kids were paid only in tips. I dug around in my wallet and fished out several Egyptian Pounds to give him. He then asked everyone for more, but all I had left was a note too large to give as a tip. The reality that this is a country with child labor is one I find difficult to deal with. When I am approached by toddlers asking me to buy packs of tissues, or notice the cab that just passed me was driven by a 12 year old, or wave hello to the boy staffing our local bakery at half-past midnight, I feel a sense of empathy and concern tinged with guilt at all the blessings I take for granted. I wonder if these kids get to go to school, if there's anyone taking care of them. I always say no when I'm entreated to buy something from one of them, but I wonder if this is ethical. I say no mostly because my Egyptian friends do likewise, and I try to follow their lead in everything, but is there any harm in giving away what usually amounts to less than 30 cents? I really don't know.

    We wrapped up our visit with a few minutes at the Sphinx. Unlike the pyramids, it didn't really live up to my expectations. It is, after all, a massive structure, but one utterly dwarfed by the tombs behind it. Whereas in films, pictures and the like it can come across as mammoth and imposing, in real life it eternally plays second fiddle to its surroundings. I did, however, enjoy staring at its face. It wears a mark of placidity, with a smile so lightly playing on its lips I began to wonder if Leonardo had seen a sketch of it before he painted the Mona Lisa.

    From the Sphinx, we rode an hour and a half into the desert to the oasis town of Fayoum, which springs shockingly green from the expanses of rocky desert surrounding it. The ride there was my first in true, all-encompassing desert, and I was so unused to the scene I kept expecting, in line with my own experience with sandy environments, we would see the ocean shimmering on the horizon any minute. One we arrived, we had lunch and then dived into the pool of the resort we were spending the rest of the day in. The cool water was unbelievably refreshing. We made such a commotion splashing each other I became a little worried we were working directly against our role as ambassadors, at least with the Egyptians who no doubt were expecting a nice, relaxing day by the pool. Nevertheless, we had a ton of fun. After swimming, everyone got up and danced to the mix of American and Egyptian music blaring from the speakers. Seeing girls dancing in public, in mixed company, was yet another of the many things I was told I would not see in Egypt, yet was happening in front of me. By the time we rode home, marveling at a sunset so impressive I believe I began to understand why the Ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun, I was exhausted.

    The next day I slept in until 12. I then went with my family to visit relatives. I was told Egyptians visit family far more frequently than Americans do, but apparently they hadn't seen these relatives in months. Many of their relatives also showed up, and I enjoyed answering their questions about America (race relations were of particular interest) and eating some great food. Still, my host brothers and I got a little bored sitting in the sunny room, and we left early to meet up with many of my brother's friends and the people they were hosting. We met at a mall called City Stars, in the heart of Cairo, and I can report the conception of Middle Eastern countries having gigantic malls seems to be correct, at least as far as this country is concerned. City Stars was far bigger than any mall I've ever seen in America, though apparently it is no longer the biggest in Egypt. If you wanted to look for western influence in Egypt, you probably couldn't find a better place. I can't think of anything that would place it outside Europe or North America save the number of women in headscarves. Many if not most of the people milling about, between their fashionable clothes and the bags from Prada and Burger King they had with them, wouldn't look out of place in the least in the US. The language being used wouldn't even be much of a giveaway. I suppose it's a mark of the adeptness at English of, at least, the segment of the population wealthy enough to afford shopping at the mall that most of the promotional posters and signs were entirely in English. I guess I wasn't really surprised. We hear so about how everyone is more westernized than we expect that I did, of course, expect it. Still, it felt a world away from the streets and souks outside-how much of a divide is being created here?

Cairo Day 3 and 4

Today was a huge day. Since we had a day off before Arabic classes started, we decided to go and hang out. I went with my host brother, Mahmoud, to a western-style, starbucks-lookalike café called Café Costa to meet his good friend Marwa and the girl she is hosting as a part of NSLI. The look of the place and everything on the menu would not be out of place in the least in New York City save for the Arabic menus and signage (although both were also in English). We sat in the café for several hours, talking about Egypt and America and generally just passing time. Café society is still strong in both western and eastern variations, it seems.

Later, we met up with several of Mahmoud's friends, including another host brother and the girl he was hosting, and we all went downtown. We first got koshari, a cheap and popular Egyptian dish consisting of rice, lentils, chickpeas and macaroni topped with tomato sauce and carmelized onions. Then, we went to another café to sit and talk for several hours. This café was more traditionally Egyptian in that it had a number of traditional fruit juices, shakes and other drinks on the menu and had available shisha. Shisa is known in the United States as hookah. The hookah contains tobacco in a variety of flavors, mostly fruits and mint. A couple of the Egyptians at the table ordered shisha and offered it to us students (there's no smoking age here). I'm very anti-smoking, and usually have a pretty negative reaction to cigarette smoke. However, I was intrigued by it from an anthropological point of view and did try a single puff, but, lightweight that I am, I immediately coughed it up.

We sat for several hours, talking and joking. Many of the jokes the Egyptians told, and the ones we told to them, seemed to get lost in translation, and few got anyone really laughing. I learned that, in Egyptian humor, people from rural, conservative Upper Egypt are the butt of many jokes due to their alleged stupidity and naiveté. Americans are also often ridiculed for being stupid. One genre the Egyptians did find funny was "dumb blonde" jokes, although I have no good explanation as to why.

We then all went down to the Nile, where the sun was already setting. It was pretty impressive to cross over the several lanes of traffic and then stumble down the uneven stairs to the base of the embankment (the corniche al-nil), and finally come to the river itself. It isn't as wide, fast-flowing or clean as the rivers at home, but it is equally impressive. After all, is any body of water more closely associated with civilization itself? Taking a falluka, the tour boats the take people on short jaunts up and down the river, was an interesting experience (one I think I'd like to expand on in my project). The river and its banks bustle with life; with boat traffic, crowds lining the bridges, hotels crowding the streets around the corniche and couples sitting together near the water, sheltered by the embankment from prying eyes. The boats are decked out in incredibly gaudy style, with Christmas lights, beads, stickers and teddy bears, and blast loud, tinny Egyptian dance music. In look and feel, the closest thing in America would probably be the midway at a county fair. An Egyptian man got up and started dancing in front of us, and some of the Egyptian guys with us joined in. The scene would be considered strange in the US, especially given the fact that men here dance a lot like women in other countries do, but, as someone explained to me, Egyptians are more comfortable with emotionally expressing that they are in a good mood than Americans would be.

We went home on the unbelievably packed and overheated Metro. Someone sitting near me started poking me and talking in rapid Arabic. I tried to explain that I didn't really speak it. One of my new Egyptian friends told me to stand off to the side a little, and started telling the guy we didn't speak the language, and rolled up his shirt sleeves, asking if he wanted a fight. We all piled off the next stop, even though it wasn't where our friends were supposed to get off. They decided the best thing to do was to avoid a potential conflict and just leave and wait for another train. They explained to us that some Egyptians knew about Westerners from TV, had never really seen one up close, and thus could get quite inquisitive and even pushy with us. It hadn't really bothered me at all, but they apologized for what happened as if it had.

Later that night, the TV, which hadn't been working for a few days, was fixed (since this is Egypt, by later that night I meant the repair man arrived at 11:30!). I spent two hours flipping through the channels with my host brother and talking about TV in the Arab World. Satellite TV is hugely important in the region as a way for people to get news and entertainment. Since all the Arabic channels are carried by one satellite, turning on the TV in the Arab world allows access to the broad spectrum of life in the region, from the Wahabist religious programs of Saudi Arabia to pop songs belted by Lebanese divas in tight Western clothes. It is impossible for governments to restrict channels, so that even the most conservative countries can see style and behavior wildly outside their cultural norms, and coverage from CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and other networks that may be critical in a way local media cannot. It is a fascinating issue that I think is an important part of how the modern Middle East is developing.\

The next day, much of my time was spent getting to and from my first Arabic class. Although I don't have anything to say about my lessons yet (we're starting with reading and writing the alphabet, which I already know how to do), the way commuting works here deserves explanation. Many get around by microbus; minivans that pick people up and drop them off along their route. These buses, although critical to getting around here, are technically illegal, with no fixed routes. For one bus we took, we had to run down the street to avoid catching it where a police officer would see. Both micro and fullsized buses don't always "stop" in the full sense; instead they roll fairly slowly to allow people to get out. The few times I did this, I stumbled out, totally unbalanced, but Mahmoud assures me jumping from a moving bus is a skill that one can develop with time

Cairo Day 2

Again, sensory overload and lack of sleep conspire against me. I'm just going to list some of the important things I got out of today.

-Much of Egyptian communication comes in the form of indirect communication. People make their feelings known through subtle hints rather than verbal directness. Requests are never met with a "No", but rather a "Well, I mean, maybe, if you want…" or a sighing "do as you wish" that indicates exactly what you shouldn't do.

-Some of the most striking differences with the west cropped up in our Q&A on Egyptian culture. We were urged strongly to not identify ourselves as either atheist or gay. The former might be met with disbelief, incomprehension and a belief the speaker lacks all values. The latter could lead to violence or actually land someone in jail here, something we were pointedly reminded would not be stopped by the intervention of our exchange organization (AFS).

-I finally met my host family. Mahmoud, Nehad (his younger brother) and their parents share a smallish flat not far from one of the main roads. They're unbelievably kind, generous and hospitable. As someone who doesn't like to receive any help, fearing I'm too much of a burden, the offers to get me anything I wanted every few moments are a bit much.

-Offers for more food at meals must be met with the firmest possible "No!", or you will be served more food.

-This city simply does not sleep. I went out with my host brother tonight, and at 12:30 there were still kids running around and playing. Everything hums with electricity. I feel there's a street party everywhere, all night long. We hung around a juice stand (I've probably had more sugarcane juice in the past hour than the rest of my life combined), watching the crowds go by, at a time any American city would be dead quiet.

-I noticed some women in full body burkhas that left only the eyes uncovered. Mahmoud told me this is very, very uncommon and that women are split 50/50 between those who do and don't wear the viel. The chief religious authority in Egypt has ruled women need only cover their hair.

Cairo Day 1

Sensory overload right now. I'm exhausted and can't really process any of this at the moment, but here are a few first impressions before I forget:

-Flying into Egypt over the Nile delta, you wouldn't even know you're in a desert country. It's lush and verdant in every direction to the horizon. Every square inch is under cultivation. It occurred to me we were flying over some of the oldest farms on Earth.

-Cairo is huge. It seems from the air to be bigger than New York. The main impression is that the city is incredibly dense; much of the cityscape is either the kind of mudbrick, closely touching homes you imagine as the classic Middle Eastern look, or large tower blocks. Conversely, interspersed with the gigantic apartment complexes are plots of desert, some with future roads and cul-de-sacs already traced out in a distinctly unfamiliar form of suburban sprawl. The cityscape also stops with breathtaking speed, with towers on one side of a street and untouched desert on the other

-One thing I was struck by flying in was the fact that, for once, places that held large sway in my imagination were no less grandiose in real life. The Nile River really does cut through the city in wide, serpentine arcs teeming with boats. The Pyramids look impossibly huge. Thousands of years later, they still tower over the city. They may loom larger in the mind of Westerners, devoid of any other reference point in Cairo, but the sheer physical reality of them I assume is impressive regardless of your familiarity with the city.

-Weather is not as bad as I was warned about, at least today. It is in fact a dry heat, and so standing outside can be reasonably comfortable if you're dressed appropriately. Even then however, the other members of my group and I got fairly sweaty and harried-looking, while the Egyptians seemed to stay cool as cucumbers. Lighter clothes? Are they just more accustomed to it?

- Everything I was told about driving in Cairo seemed to be confirmed. The concept of "lanes", even when clearly marked, is a joke here. I heard a lot of honking, but apparently honks may be not warnings but rather are used as a code to symbolize statements such as "You may pass". I would be very, very uncomfortable having to drive myself around here.

-I realize this is probably complete Orientalist fantasy on my part, but the concrete tower blocks the lower classes live in seem less odious then comparable structures in the United States and Europe. There's something about the colorful paint applied and the laundry flapping in the breeze on each balcony that present a friendlier, more human face compared to the bleak modernism of housing projects in the Western world. It doesn't lessen the crushing weight of poverty (something dealt with quite deftly in "The Yacoubian Building", a bestselling Egyptian novel I read on the way over that apparently is "the" novel of the modern Egyptian experience.)

 

Some Pre-trip Notes

The first thing I noticed after receiving word that I would be going to Egypt was the diversity of reactions people had, and how much age seemed to be a factor in those reactions. The response from my friends and other people was universally positive. As I can recall, none of them blinked twice at the fact that I would be going to a Middle Eastern country, or voiced any concern, even in jest, at my safety. Adults, on the other hand, were decidedly more mixed in opinion. Many of the conversations I've had with my family members have included markedly stern warnings to stay safe. According to my parents, many people they know have in private expressed surprise at their willingness to let me go and admitted they would not allow their own children to do the same.

My parents themselves have had wildly fluctuating feelings on the matter. On the one hand, they encouraged me to apply in the first place and are very excited for my trip and the opportunities it will afford me. On the other, they've been very concerned about my safety. Even before my acceptance, my mother began to doubt her ability to deal emotionally with my being over there, and at one point told me flat out she wouldn't be able to cope with the worry. She was backed up in this by my uncle, who, as a journalist who has lived all around the world, I was surprised to learn agreed with her assessment. Very begrudgingly, I agreed to not go if my parents couldn't deal with it; what else could I do?

Thankfully, once I was actually accepted, my parents changed their minds and agreed to let me go. Still, all of this left me wondering exactly why there was such a clear age gap in the responses I've gotten. Part of it is probably just natural; teenagers are usually willing to take more risks. Truth is, however, Egypt does not seem like an especially risky place to visit. It's a moderate country with a strong reputation for hospitality. It plays host to millions of foreign visitors every year. Although there have undeniably been some incidents of foreigners being hurt or killed in terrorist attacks, they seem to be few and far between, and most occurred in the tourist haven of the Sinai, far from Cairo.

My parents naturally want to feel as comfortable as possible with my journey, and I understand this. One thing they've attempted to do since I've finished school, in part to expand the network of people I could depend on while there, is to have me meet with as many Egyptian acquaintances as possible. As it turned out, I was able to meet with two of them. Both provided some useful insights into the culture and politics of the country. The sense I took away from the meetings was that the Egyptian reputation for hospitality and a focus on the family seems to be true. In both cases, I was offered the contact information for all their family members, along with a promise that said family members would show me around Cairo and/or make me a delicious home cooked meal. In one case, our guest drew out his entire family tree, going back 3 generations, and told me about everyone who was on it at how to contact them. I was very touched at how willing people seemed to be to open their doors to a complete stranger.

Of specific interest to me was the conversation I had with an Egyptian journalist who spent years working for a paper in Egypt and now covers the U.S. He told me that the Egyptian media was seeing great growth in terms of the diversity of opinions offered. There are far more alternative, non-governmental voices being heard then in years past. It will be interesting to look at the media in Egypt and how it operates in the existing political environment. I may also be able to contact someone who actually hosts a TV program on youth issues in Cairo. There are so many avenues of inquiry to explore; I really hope I get to delve deeply into them.

Ahlan wa Sahlan

Ahlan wa sahlan. Welcome. This blog will be a record of my travels in Egypt during summer 2009. I hope to gain, and share, some insight into the culture and people of Egypt.

But first some information about me and what I'm doing. I've been interested in other cultures from a very early age. Along with learning about them, my other relevant interests include reading, writing, current events, politics and history. The Middle East and the Arabic language have been particularly fascinating to me due to their high importance in world affairs. The region is one of the chief foci of global diplomatic efforts, so, as an aspiring International Relations major, I find a comprehension of it critical to both myself personally and the world in general. In my personal opinion, future world peace stability depends in large part on the West being able to understand and interact with the Middle East in a positive way, and vice-versa.

My studies of the region have included two trips I had the privilege of taking in 9^th and 10^th Grade, to Spain and then Greece and Italy, respectively. Both were during my school's (The Ross School in East Hampton, NY) M-Term, a 3-week period during which we have the option to either take a trip or a term-long class. Both trips were about the crucial role the Islamic world played in the transfer of knowledge between the Classical and Renaissance worlds. At the same time, as anyone who has ever wandered through the exquisite rooms of the Alhambra Palace in Granada can attest, the Islamic world made a staggering number of contributions on its own.

My history with the language itself is a somewhat rocky one. I took Arabic at my previous school for 2 years, in 7^th and 8^th grade, and then gladly dropped it when I switched out for high school. I could bore you with outside reasons I didn't like studying the language and, consequently, didn't learn much, but ultimately the onus was on me. I squandered an opportunity to get a head start with something I now realize may well become an important part of my life. All I can say about my previous Arabic experience is that it showed me how NOT to approach a language. After two years away, I'm reacquainting myself with a fresh outlook and an eagerness to learn.

It was a renewed interest in the Arabic language, and my subsequent search for a way to spend my summer learning it, that led me to the program I'm traveling with. I'm going to Egypt as part of the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y). The initiative, a program of the State Department, gives full, merit based-grants for youth to go overseas and learn languages of diplomatic importance. Its mission statement and goals (found here) are as follows:

NSLI-Y Mission Statement
NSLI-Y is about American youth speaking international languages to establish ties with people from other cultures. It is an early, formative program providing American teens – ages 15 to 18 - with opportunities they need to achieve language fluency and deepen their cultural understanding of the countries where these languages are spoken. The NSLI-Y program aims to guide American youth toward using language in their university and professional careers. It hopes to encourage young Americans to dedicate themselves to a lifetime of learning languages, and inspire future generations to be active participants in the international community by pursuing active roles in the private, academic, and government sectors. Ultimately, NSLI-Y is about people and language – young Americans speaking the languages of other cultures to advance the security of the United States and the global community through person-to-person relationships.

NSLI-Y Goals
1. Improve the ability of Americans to engage with the people of Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Turkish-speaking countries through shared language;

2. Develop a cadre of Americans with advanced linguistic skills and related cultural understanding who are able to advance international dialogue, promote the security of the United States, and compete effectively in the global economy;

3. Provide a tangible incentive for the learning and use of foreign language by developing additional overseas language study opportunities for U.S. high school students;

4. Spark a lifetime interest in foreign cultures among American youth.

Once I received word that I had been accepted into this program, my thoughts immediately turned to my Senior Project. At Ross, one's Senior Project is a chance to both build on previous experience and passions and explore new interest and inquiries. I can't think of a better mixture of the two then the experience I will be having the next six weeks. As my plan stands now, I will be synthesizing what I learn and see in the form of short vignettes that reveal important themes and/or truths in Egyptian culture. Through my research and some experience while in the States (more on that in my next post), I have some nascent, nebulous ideas of what these may be, but I believe I need to wait until I'm actually there before I decide what I want to convey in my writing.