As usual, I haven't written in a while, but that's because not a lot has happened. Classes are progressing, the end is nearing (1 month left), and I finally have some actual homework, although still not much. I have been on several field trips, for various classes and with CIEE, in the last couple of weeks that were somewhat interesting, although not nearly as exciting as Petra and Wadi Feid. The weekend before last, I went on the CIEE trip to the desert castles in western Jordan, but it wasn't really as exciting as it sounds. We went to 4, and all except one looked like large houses in the middle of the desert more than castles. One of them had very impressive murals, and another had a mosaic floor that was quite beautiful, but even though we had a guide, we weren't given a lot of information about the sites. Most of them were from the Ummayyad period, (roughly the 8th century) and the only one that looked like an actual castle (outer wall with rooms, large courtyard with a mosque in the middle) was originally Roman, rebuilt by a relative of Saladin. West Jordan itself is quite desolate, for the most part. Most of the population lives in east Jordan, because of the lack of water in the west, so although there were a few towns, it felt empty. Oh, and I almost forgot, on our itinerary one of the stops listed was at an "Iraqi border sign" to take pictures. I was confused when I read this, because it didn't look like we were going to be driving long enough to reach the Iraqi border, and that seemed uncharacteristically risky for CIEE, but their meaning became clear when we stopped under a highway sign saying "Iraq" with an arrow pointing west. The funniest part was that nearly everyone filed out of the bus to take pictures under this sign, despite the fact that we were probably at least 200 kilometers from the border. In terms of entertainment, that was the high point of the day.
Last Saturday was also spent on a bus, this time with my Contemporary Thought in the Islamic World class, with brief stops at various mosques, most of them connected to graves of some of the Prophet's Companions. The mosques were beautiful, but unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries, so I don't have any pictures. My favorite mosque was the first one we visited, where the prophet Joshua (according to Islam: I don't think he's considered a prophet by Christians or Jews), who took over leadership of the Israelites after Moses died in the Old Testament. There weren't very many people there, and the imam took quite a bit of time telling us Joshua's story and the history of the mosque. We were of course welcomed at every mosque we went to, which included drinks and brief descriptions of the important people buried there, but the imam at the first mosque seemed the least perturbed or... affected by the fact that we were Americans, which was nice. He addressed us as students, not necessarily foreigners. At the last three mosques we went to the same group of men gave us tours of each and one of them was constantly taking pictures. We went pretty far north but stayed in the east (the West Bank was always in sight) and I was surprised at how much agriculture there was. It was a complete contrast from the desert castle trip.
Today I went on yet another field trip, this one to the zoo with my Arabic class, of all places. I had braced myself for the zoo, but honestly it was still worse than I expected. It wasn't actually in Amman, and it was a combination amusement park and zoo. The animals were in barred, very small cages with concrete or dirt floors. That I was expecting, although it was still a bit of a shock, but the amount of trash in the cages was disturbing. They had almost all medium to large animals too, none of them were very small. They had vultures, pelicans, camels, deer, several species of monkey, what I think was a small species of wolf, or else a coyote relative, 2 black bears, and the main attraction, lions and tigers. All of the animals were either sleeping or doing some kind of pacing behavior. At one point there was a trainer in one of the cages with a baby jaguar, holding it by it's tail and using a stick to keep it from biting him. It wasn't clear if there was a purpose for this, but it was definitely disturbing to watch. It was not a fun field trip.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Egypt
Cairo is more or less as I remember it, but with more pollution and worse traffic, if that's possible. For those of you who don't know, I spent 6 weeks in Cairo with the AFS exchange program right after I graduated high school. I lived with 2 host families, and my main reason for wanting to go back was to reconnect with them, since I had completely lost touch with one and almost lost touch with the other. I was only half-way successful, but I now have the means to contact the other family, so next time (whenever that is), I'll be able to directly contact them. The family that I did have a tenuous connection with (through Facebook, with my host sister Dina), the El Sherbiny's, welcomed me to Egypt enthusiastically. I was actually a little surprised that they even remember me very well, since I had only stayed with them for a week and a half while my host father in my first family had surgery and was recuperating, and that was 4 years ago. Nevertheless, they invited me to stay with them for spring break.
My host mother, Nashwa, is a regular volunteer with the AFS office in Egypt, so as soon as I arrived, she offered to hook me up with a group of 5 women from Belgium who were doing a week-long exchange as part of a potential expansion of the EVA program, a European program that does short (1 week) exchanges for host mothers, so they can experience a little of what an exchange student goes through. This was the first exchange that had taken place outside of Europe. They had a very busy schedule, so I didn't join them for everything, but I did go to some of the sights in Cairo that I didn't make it to the first time, as well as Fayoum, a town outside of Cairo that has several pyramids (although a bit less impressive or well-known as the Pyramids of Giza). It was an almost entirely female trip, since the volunteers guiding us around were the Egyptian host mothers of the Belgian ladies (as everyone called them). Everyone was at least 20 years older than me, so that was interesting, but also fun. I now have contacts in Belgium if I ever get there. Dutch is also much easier than Arabic, not surprisingly. There were enough words that are basically English with an accent that by the end of the 3 days I spent with them, I was more or less able to follow a conversation based on the key words I picked up and body language, which is very similar, if not identical, to American body language. I hadn't realized how different Egyptian (and Jordanian) body language is from American until I realized that I could understand almost without words what the Belgian ladies were saying, while watching a conversation among Egyptians or Jordanians is almost a complete mystery to me, even if I understand more of the words. I understand Egyptian better than Jordanian though, both the language and the body language, probably because I lived with a host family there.
Besides tagging along with the Belgian ladies, I didn't do anything spectacularly interesting. Mostly, I just relaxed. I went with Dina to her college a couple of days, which was interesting. It's a private school, and in order to get in, it was easiest if the guards thought I was a student, according to Dina. However, the first day I wore a backpack, which immediately gave me away as an outsider. (Dina had to say that I was looking over the school with the possibility of attending.) College students don't wear backpacks here, in Egypt or in Jordan, only high school students. Very occasionally, a man might, but women carry big shoulder bags/purses. So the second day I borrowed one of Dina's bags, and was let in without question. Dina's school is a British private college, so the classes are taught mostly in English, although all of the professors that I saw were Egyptian. Dina is studying marketing, and mid-terms were coming up, so I essentially got a crash-course in junior-level marketing. It was somewhat interesting. Some of the strategies they outlined I recognized from ad campaigns I've seen. The accounting class was fun, oddly enough, because I tried to guess the formula before the professor put up the answer (the other students were supposed to know the formula, of course), and solve it in my head. I'd forgotten how much I used to like math, since I haven't done it in so long.
My host family was largely the same, with one big difference. Both of my host sisters were veiled, starting in September. Nashwa had always veiled, but when I knew Dina and Kout (her sister) 4 years ago, neither of them was particularly religious or politically conscious, which are two major reasons I have heard for veiling. When I asked them about it, Dina said that a very good friend of theirs had died, and that was why they started veiling. She never explained exactly why his death (he died in a freak accident) would cause them to veil. Now that she is veiling though, Dina is very serious about it. I spent more time with her than with Kout (she's 19, Dina's 20), but Dina at least is much more politically conscious than she used to be (not surprisingly; she was 16 when I knew her, and I wasn't particularly politically conscious then either). She also has a boyfriend, which is not exactly allowed. Her mother knows, but her father doesn't, because she wants to marry him, but he's still a student, and her father wouldn't want her to marry him if he can't immediately support her. Dating is no more encouraged in Egypt than it is in Jordan, although of course it happens, especially at university, where everyone is away from their families. However, I had several conversations with Dina in which she criticized veiled women who were physically close to their boyfriends at university, and she doesn't intend to allow her boyfriend any liberties until they are at least engaged, more likely married.
Cairo itself, as I mentioned above, is largely unchanged, from what I saw. It's incredibly dirty, taxi drivers are generally bastards, and as soon as people see a foreigner, the price rises 10 pounds (about equivalent to $2, but a lot in Egypt), unless it's already marked. Nevertheless, I like Cairo better than Amman. It might simply be because I went there first, since I've heard the same opinion expressed, but about Amman, by several other CIEE students. Other cities are nice, but Amman is better. Cairo is much bigger, both in terms of population and in terms of the buildings and sq mileage. In Amman, the average building is about 5 stories, and there are empty lots all over the place, often occupied by small herds of sheep or goats, and the occasional camel or two. In Cairo, the average building is 10-15 stories, and there are no open lots anywhere. There are some donkeys and horses, but they are all working, not grazing, and the only camels are at the pyramids, for tourists to take pictures on. However, Amman is also much more Westernized, in some ways. The malls here are essentially identical to malls in America, and although Cairo has a couple of those too, it also has malls that are nearly completely deserted, in which the escalator has been turned into a stair (wooden railing and all), but a few shops survive, along with a bunch of cats. That particular mall was in Zamalek, one of the richest parts of town. There are definitely Western influences visible in Cairo, but, at least in my opinion, the Egyptians have mostly transformed them to best suit themselves, whereas in Amman, a lot of things seem to be directly imported from the West, without any adjustment. I'm not sure that that's a bad thing, necessarily, but in terms of preserving their cultural independence, I think Cairo is doing better than Amman. I'm not sure about the communities outside of Amman or Cairo, since I haven't really been there, or about Egypt and Jordan as a whole.
Leaving Egypt was an adventure all by itself. I had originally bought a one-way ticket, because I was planning to travel by land to Israel and spend a few days in Jerusalem, but since the Israel's announcement of it's intention to build more settlements in Jerusalem, which got the university students at UJ a bit riled up, I decided that I probably shouldn't go alone, and it was too late to try to find another group of CIEE students who might be there at the same time. So, I decided to go by bus to Nuweiba, a port on the Red Sea, take a ferry to Aqaba, and a bus to Amman. The bus to Nuweiba was the worst part of the trip, because it was overnight. I left around 10 pm, and we were supposed to get to Nuweiba around 5 am, leaving plenty of time to catch the ferry which I was told left at 11 am. Knowing Egypt's record for timely transportation, I figured that was a highly optimistic estimate (both for the bus arrival time and the ferry departure time) and I was right on both counts. The bus seemed to have a lot of trouble with the tiniest hills, and our bus driver apparently had the flu, so really it was a relief just to reach Taba but for whatever reason, we had to switch buses (unscheduled) there. On the next bus, I happened to meet up with two CIEE students who I knew who were also going back to Amman, so the rest of the trip I had company. We didn't have any major bumps, just a lot of waiting. The ferry was the most expensive part of the trip, and we seemed to be almost the only women on board, as well as the only foreigners. They didn't seem to know what to do with us. We were put at the head of the line wherever we went, which we were all kind of uncomfortable with, and once on the boat they shuffled us around a bit until they finally settled us in what had to be the first class section, since it was nearly deserted and was very comfortable. That was the most comfortable part of the journey, but unfortunately it was also the shortest. In Jordan, we got off the boat and onto the bus, so I didn't see any of Aqaba, which is too bad. Apparently it's very pretty.
And now I'm back in Amman. There are 5 weeks left of classes, and then a final week of tests. This semester has going to be over very quickly.
My host mother, Nashwa, is a regular volunteer with the AFS office in Egypt, so as soon as I arrived, she offered to hook me up with a group of 5 women from Belgium who were doing a week-long exchange as part of a potential expansion of the EVA program, a European program that does short (1 week) exchanges for host mothers, so they can experience a little of what an exchange student goes through. This was the first exchange that had taken place outside of Europe. They had a very busy schedule, so I didn't join them for everything, but I did go to some of the sights in Cairo that I didn't make it to the first time, as well as Fayoum, a town outside of Cairo that has several pyramids (although a bit less impressive or well-known as the Pyramids of Giza). It was an almost entirely female trip, since the volunteers guiding us around were the Egyptian host mothers of the Belgian ladies (as everyone called them). Everyone was at least 20 years older than me, so that was interesting, but also fun. I now have contacts in Belgium if I ever get there. Dutch is also much easier than Arabic, not surprisingly. There were enough words that are basically English with an accent that by the end of the 3 days I spent with them, I was more or less able to follow a conversation based on the key words I picked up and body language, which is very similar, if not identical, to American body language. I hadn't realized how different Egyptian (and Jordanian) body language is from American until I realized that I could understand almost without words what the Belgian ladies were saying, while watching a conversation among Egyptians or Jordanians is almost a complete mystery to me, even if I understand more of the words. I understand Egyptian better than Jordanian though, both the language and the body language, probably because I lived with a host family there.
Besides tagging along with the Belgian ladies, I didn't do anything spectacularly interesting. Mostly, I just relaxed. I went with Dina to her college a couple of days, which was interesting. It's a private school, and in order to get in, it was easiest if the guards thought I was a student, according to Dina. However, the first day I wore a backpack, which immediately gave me away as an outsider. (Dina had to say that I was looking over the school with the possibility of attending.) College students don't wear backpacks here, in Egypt or in Jordan, only high school students. Very occasionally, a man might, but women carry big shoulder bags/purses. So the second day I borrowed one of Dina's bags, and was let in without question. Dina's school is a British private college, so the classes are taught mostly in English, although all of the professors that I saw were Egyptian. Dina is studying marketing, and mid-terms were coming up, so I essentially got a crash-course in junior-level marketing. It was somewhat interesting. Some of the strategies they outlined I recognized from ad campaigns I've seen. The accounting class was fun, oddly enough, because I tried to guess the formula before the professor put up the answer (the other students were supposed to know the formula, of course), and solve it in my head. I'd forgotten how much I used to like math, since I haven't done it in so long.
My host family was largely the same, with one big difference. Both of my host sisters were veiled, starting in September. Nashwa had always veiled, but when I knew Dina and Kout (her sister) 4 years ago, neither of them was particularly religious or politically conscious, which are two major reasons I have heard for veiling. When I asked them about it, Dina said that a very good friend of theirs had died, and that was why they started veiling. She never explained exactly why his death (he died in a freak accident) would cause them to veil. Now that she is veiling though, Dina is very serious about it. I spent more time with her than with Kout (she's 19, Dina's 20), but Dina at least is much more politically conscious than she used to be (not surprisingly; she was 16 when I knew her, and I wasn't particularly politically conscious then either). She also has a boyfriend, which is not exactly allowed. Her mother knows, but her father doesn't, because she wants to marry him, but he's still a student, and her father wouldn't want her to marry him if he can't immediately support her. Dating is no more encouraged in Egypt than it is in Jordan, although of course it happens, especially at university, where everyone is away from their families. However, I had several conversations with Dina in which she criticized veiled women who were physically close to their boyfriends at university, and she doesn't intend to allow her boyfriend any liberties until they are at least engaged, more likely married.
Cairo itself, as I mentioned above, is largely unchanged, from what I saw. It's incredibly dirty, taxi drivers are generally bastards, and as soon as people see a foreigner, the price rises 10 pounds (about equivalent to $2, but a lot in Egypt), unless it's already marked. Nevertheless, I like Cairo better than Amman. It might simply be because I went there first, since I've heard the same opinion expressed, but about Amman, by several other CIEE students. Other cities are nice, but Amman is better. Cairo is much bigger, both in terms of population and in terms of the buildings and sq mileage. In Amman, the average building is about 5 stories, and there are empty lots all over the place, often occupied by small herds of sheep or goats, and the occasional camel or two. In Cairo, the average building is 10-15 stories, and there are no open lots anywhere. There are some donkeys and horses, but they are all working, not grazing, and the only camels are at the pyramids, for tourists to take pictures on. However, Amman is also much more Westernized, in some ways. The malls here are essentially identical to malls in America, and although Cairo has a couple of those too, it also has malls that are nearly completely deserted, in which the escalator has been turned into a stair (wooden railing and all), but a few shops survive, along with a bunch of cats. That particular mall was in Zamalek, one of the richest parts of town. There are definitely Western influences visible in Cairo, but, at least in my opinion, the Egyptians have mostly transformed them to best suit themselves, whereas in Amman, a lot of things seem to be directly imported from the West, without any adjustment. I'm not sure that that's a bad thing, necessarily, but in terms of preserving their cultural independence, I think Cairo is doing better than Amman. I'm not sure about the communities outside of Amman or Cairo, since I haven't really been there, or about Egypt and Jordan as a whole.
Leaving Egypt was an adventure all by itself. I had originally bought a one-way ticket, because I was planning to travel by land to Israel and spend a few days in Jerusalem, but since the Israel's announcement of it's intention to build more settlements in Jerusalem, which got the university students at UJ a bit riled up, I decided that I probably shouldn't go alone, and it was too late to try to find another group of CIEE students who might be there at the same time. So, I decided to go by bus to Nuweiba, a port on the Red Sea, take a ferry to Aqaba, and a bus to Amman. The bus to Nuweiba was the worst part of the trip, because it was overnight. I left around 10 pm, and we were supposed to get to Nuweiba around 5 am, leaving plenty of time to catch the ferry which I was told left at 11 am. Knowing Egypt's record for timely transportation, I figured that was a highly optimistic estimate (both for the bus arrival time and the ferry departure time) and I was right on both counts. The bus seemed to have a lot of trouble with the tiniest hills, and our bus driver apparently had the flu, so really it was a relief just to reach Taba but for whatever reason, we had to switch buses (unscheduled) there. On the next bus, I happened to meet up with two CIEE students who I knew who were also going back to Amman, so the rest of the trip I had company. We didn't have any major bumps, just a lot of waiting. The ferry was the most expensive part of the trip, and we seemed to be almost the only women on board, as well as the only foreigners. They didn't seem to know what to do with us. We were put at the head of the line wherever we went, which we were all kind of uncomfortable with, and once on the boat they shuffled us around a bit until they finally settled us in what had to be the first class section, since it was nearly deserted and was very comfortable. That was the most comfortable part of the journey, but unfortunately it was also the shortest. In Jordan, we got off the boat and onto the bus, so I didn't see any of Aqaba, which is too bad. Apparently it's very pretty.
And now I'm back in Amman. There are 5 weeks left of classes, and then a final week of tests. This semester has going to be over very quickly.
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