I Can't Stop

Yes, I did write two posts yesterday, and yes it is after midnight and I'm traveling tomorrow, but I still felt an urge to write a post about tonight. Because I never really expected to have a Passover Seder and to narrate the story of the Jews' exodus from Egypt, while currently sitting in an apartment in Egypt. Nor did I ever expect to attend a Seder conducted in English, Hebrew, and Arabic with Jews, Christians, and Muslims all sitting around a table together. Or to have actually visited the important places in the Passover story, such as the Red Sea and Mt. Sinai.

Sure, it wasn't exactly traditional since it's impossible to find matzah or matzah ball mix here (Alexandria has a population of approximately 6 Jews), but Sarafina, Jade, and Hima researched online and did a damn good job of making homemade matzah and matzah ball soup (albeit with flour, but we'll overlook that).

But all parts of the service were there. Hima led the seder, with help from Leah, and together they explained all of the symbols, traditions, and the story of Passover. Jeremy, being the youngest Jew present (for once not me!!!!!!!!) sang the Four Questions in Hebrew, we drank wine, sang Dayenu and Chad Gad Yah, welcomed Elijah, and searched for the Afikomen that Sameh had the honor of hiding.

There were about 30 people in Lizz's apartment, ranging from students in the Middlebury Program, the Flagship Program, two of the directors of the Middlebury Program, and even the host mother and host sister of one of the girls in our programs.

It meant a lot to me that so many people of different backgrounds came to learn and to be with friends who happened to be Jewish (but the fact that we were Jewish didn't make any difference to them). Particularly after the demonstration that I saw a few weeks ago and the movie dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian situation that we saw in theaters two days ago, I was really proud of the Egyptians who came and asked me questions about our traditions. I spent a while talking to Sameh about the similarities between Arabic and Hebrew, and he told me that he wanted to study Hebrew after he graduates. I asked him why, and he said no particular reason...just for the experience.

All that I can say is that tonight was like a microcosm of what the ideal world would be like for me. It's what I want to spend my career (and the rest of my life) working to project on the rest of the world. And I am so lucky to have been a part of what took place tonight. Thank you to everyone who made it possible.

Midnight Ramblings

Well I'm on a roll, so I thought I would update with more recent events from Egypt before I go visit Mihiri (did I mention that I'm going to ITALY??).

First of all, I am now 21. Turning 21 in a country where alcohol is forbidden by the majority religion obviously is not your typical turning 21 celebration, but I managed to celebrate in Egyptian style by going to a random restaurant that turned out to not have menus, and then deciding to move on to Aseer Mecca (basically juice paradise) where I had 5 different cups of juice: mango, banana, watermelon, pumpkin (?!?), and guava. All I can say is mmmmmmm.

Also, the reason that I have not updated in practically forever is that in addition to frantically scrambling to apply for summer internships, I have had a pretty annoying health concern for over a month. Thank goodness it's finally better, but I have learned several things from this experience. First of all, even if the directions to a drug are translated into English, I should read the Arabic version. Because the translators have an annoying habit of leaving out important pieces of information or using words that have different connotations when translated into English. Needless to say, that was fun. Also, I have learned that Egyptians try to comfort you by telling you that something is not a big deal, and not to worry, when you really should take concern. I think that we Americans are on the opposite end of the spectrum where we want to take all precautions and perhaps make something into a slightly bigger deal than it needs to be, but in order to ensure that it gets taken care of totally. So it was really fun for me to be in the middle of these two ways of coping and to hear advice from relatives in America telling me that it was necessary for me to do certain things that the doctor here in Egypt thought were totally uncalled for (and shared with me her opinion that Americans are germophobes). Just another cultural lesson.

I also went on a overnight biking trip in the Egyptian countryside which was both fun and, well rather difficult. I have come to the conclusion that I should have had more biking excursions as a child because, well I kind of stink at bike riding, particularly when it is on bumpy, rocky, country roads. Which meant that the actual biking part of the trip was really not fun for me. I fell off my bike several times, and each time I was hurried back onto it by Khalid because there were children from the village running behind us, and I think he was worried about some sort of confrontation/mob. But the scenery was beautiful, and the food was delicious. Best meal I've had in Egypt. I also had my first ride in a tuk tuk (sp??) which is like a motorcycle with a little cart thing attached to the back of it for passengers. The tuk tuks are probably my favorite part of the Reef (countryside). Because they are completely "pimped out" with feathers, bumper stickers (in misspelled English), huge stereos blasting music, fur, and even feathers. Oh, and it wasn't until after we sat down that I saw our driver. He was about 9 years old. No lie. Haha.

We also finally had a chance to see where the boys are living, and let me say that I am pretty jealous. There are actually statues and paintings in their main building. I'm trying not to complain, but well our living situations are just kind of the opposite. Oh, and their food was amazing. They actually had fresh juice and vegetables at breakfast. Whereas usually we have bread and jam and cheese. But of course this is Egypt and there are different standards when it comes to the sexes.

I've also seen two more demonstrations/ public masses. The first one was a parade in support of Mubarak (who is alive apparently!). I was at the tram station with Chris, and I saw the mass of young men coming. But, this time I learned my lesson. When they started coming towards me, I pulled Chris away and we hid behind the tram station. The other demonstration that I saw was about two weeks ago in the university right outside our building. It was against Israel (right after the statement about not giving up part of Jerusalem). I've been avoiding discussing politics until now, but before I leave I really want to talk to some Egyptians and see what their views are.

Okay, I really need to go to bed now. That's it for now.

Looooong Overdue

Well this post is long overdue, and I'm writing it at the expense of studying for my Amiyya test tomorrow, but I figured I should update before I leave for...ITALY in 2 days. Now to just remember where I left off....

Actually I can't remember where I left off, so here are random memories from the past month and a half. I suppose I'll start off with our trip to Dahab (an Egyptian "hippie" resort town), Sinai, and Jordan:

Basically the trip to Dahab was every road trippers' worst nightmare. We went through not one, but TWO flat tires. And we only had ONE spare tire. Which meant that we spent no less than SEVEN hours waiting in what I will call a rest stop but is nothing like the rest stops in the U.S. (picture a decrepit sort of gas station with a small front porch in the middle of the desert) while they got another one. I was not one of the smart people who brought my things with me from the bus, so I had no books or iPOD to entertain me, so I spent the time trying to sleep or playing cards. The story just gets better, though, when some members of our group decided to go on a walk in the desert and we got caught in a sand storm. Woohoo! But the amazing thing (and this speaks to the type of people in this program) was that I only heard one person complain during the entire 7 hour affair. And that person was one of the Egyptians that came with us. I also got a pretty cool video of the sandstorm, as well as a rather metaphorical picture of a rainbow appearing after the storm, about the same time that the bus pulled up. How's that for symbolism?

Driving to Dahab was amazing as well. I got to see the mountains and coast of Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia all at the same time!

There's so much to say about Dahab...First of all, it's a small town, so after one day of making my rounds to the different shops, I felt like a celebrity (in an annoying way) because every shop keeper knew my name and what I was doing in Egypt, and called to me as I walked down the street. I say that this was annoying because I really have gotten to the point where I just want to blend in here. But I don't know if I'll ever get to that point. Sometimes I feel bad when I just walk by without acknowledging them, especially when they make a genuine effort to be friendly, but my policy now is to just put on my "horse blinders" and not listen to them. Which is tough.

All of the restaurants at Dahab are pretty much the same thing. You sit on the floor on padded cushions around a big table and eat/drink/smoke shisha while looking out at a beautiful view of the Red Sea. But we did have one interesting experience one night...We were all eating dinner and all of a sudden Farahat pulls something furry out from under the table and puts it on the table. We look closely, and it's a kitten. We look more closely and see that it is wet. So we look under the table. There is a cat literally in the process of giving birth. Now in America, the restaurant owner would be appalled at this, probably apologize profusely, and give us a discount or something. But this is Misr. So we just leave the cat there, and move to the next table over as if nothing had happened. "Welcome in Egypt."

I will also say that although I prefer Dahab to Sharm al Sheikh, the snorkeling in Sharm is much better. We spent a day in Ras Mohammad national park in Dahab which...was an experience. First of all, we didn't really see anything. Second of all, I really think that there should have been a warning that only strong swimmers should participate. I say this because at one point it was just me and a friend of Nihad's (one of our program directors) left, and we were trying to get back to shore, but the current was very strong. Nihad's friend was having serious difficulty, so she grabbed onto my flipper. So I swam the entire way back to shore in water with a very strong current, using only one leg, and while toting a somewhat large woman on my other leg. I'm actually not sure exactly how I did this, as I'm not a really great swimmer (just like last time...I don't know how I managed to be fine by myself in the middle of the Red Sea for 3 hours). I also don't know what it is with me and snorkeling but I guess it's always an adventure...

After Dahab we moved onto Sinai. And let me just say that the weather was the opposite of what it was when we climbed in the summer. Let me explain...we climbed Mt.Sinai in July in the middle of the afternoon. That was not a good idea (and we told our director this, but ma'alesh). This time, we climbed Mt. Sinai at 1 am during the "winter" in Egypt so it was frrrrrrrrreeeezzzziiiiinnnnnggg. Also, the path is very narrow which means that if there is a camel (which there are tons of because of the lazy people who don't want to climb it themselves) you better get out of the way. I have vivid memories of practically getting run over by camels while I was just minding my own business (also, really if you yell at me to "watch out," you should really specify a direction that I should move to, so I don't jump to the very direction in which the camel is located, which happened to me several times...). Anyway, we finally got to the top in time for the sunrise, and Khalid was a lifesaver and paid the bedouins at the top to give us blankets (not that we weren't still freezing, and I was wearing several layers). The sunrise was nice, but in my opinion, the moon setting was even more beautiful. It was lit up in pinks and purples from the sunrise.

The group of us set for Jordan had to leave right as the sun was rising because a bus was supposed to meet us at the bottom of the mountain to take us to Nuweiba to catch the ferry to Aqaba. So we hurried down (well actually down, then up again because we got lost, then down again) the mountain only to find that the bus was not there. So we lay down in the abandoned parking lot. And we slept on the asphalt. We really needed to get to Nuweiba by 11 to buy our tickets, but it turns out that even though the bus was 2 hours late it didn't matter because the ferry that was supposed to leave at 12:30 was....4 hours late (once again, welcome to Egypt). So we sat in a rather sketchy station, and then moved to a rather sketchy ferry station where I noticed some random man kept taking pictures of me (welcome to Egypt), and then to a very nice ferry (which left at 5 pm, not 4), which turned out to be sketchy as well. It turned out to be sketchy because although I tried to sleep, every time I opened my eyes during the 2 hour trip, there were at least 2 sketchy men filming me on their cameras or cell phones! Now I suppose this was partially our mistake, because we should have chosen a less central location in which to sit, a place where we (maybe) wouldn't have stuck out as much, but really! At one point I had seriously had enough (and no one else from our group had noticed) so I curled up into a ball and pulled my sweatshirt over my face. Needless to say, I was NOT in a good mood by the time we got to Aqaba. I mean it is a MAJOR invasion of privacy to film me without me knowing or without my consent. And although the men were probably just not used to seeing foreign women, once again, that does not make it okay! Anyway, finally the other guys in my group noticed at told the men to "halaas" (cut it out), but at that point we were already de-boating.

To continue this lovely saga...we then arrived in Aqaba where Jordanians were yelling at us from all directions trying to get us to take their cab and to pay ridiculous prices. We finally got the group into 2 cabs and got off to the hostel that we had picked out, when (yes, the journey gets even more exciting) we drove through our second sand storm. Most of the people in my car were asleep. I consider them lucky. Because I saw my life flash before my eyes. You could see literally nothing out of the windows, and the driver was speeding down this winding road. Occasionally we would see another car, but not until it was like 5 feet away and the headlights were blinding and our car shook as it whipped by. I remember looking at our driver at one point, only to see that he was sweating bullets. That was not comforting. Oh, and to top that off, we got lost. And the driver kept going like he knew what he was doing. Finally, Jahd made him call our hostel to get directions (not that it would do any good, since we couldn't SEE anything). Anyway, I don't really know how we eventually made it, but we did. And it was a humongous relief.

The next day was Petra. Which I cannot put into words. It's been my favorite part of this entire semester I think. We started off on a tour and rode horses through the Siq (canyon). Then we explored the Treasury, tombs, ritual offering places, djinn blocks, and a bunch of other sites that unfortunately I forgot. I just can't really comprehend how old it was, or how big, or how beautiful the colors of the rock were, or how advanced the Nebateans were for building a city that impressive! We climbed up to the High Place of Sacrifice which had an absolutely breathtaking view (and a cat at the top...once again, welcome to Misr!). There's no way that anyone could take an unimpressive picture from that site. Then, after having kibbeh for dinner (yum) we went to Cave Bar, a bar that was made out of a cave dating back to the first century CE!

The next day we headed to Amman and after deciding on a hotel (which was no small feat...all the hotel owners must know each other and are in deals with each other, and they sure try to manipulate you/guilt you into staying at their hostel) we set off for the Dead Sea. Now I can say that I've been to both the Israeli and Jordanian sides of the Dead Sea. Also, unlike last time, this time we found mud and of course "mudded" up to exfoliate ourselves/just look stupid and take pictures. (Once again I had a lovely "woman in the Middle East experience" when our cab driver tried to rub the mud on me. But we won't go there...) After about an hour floating, we went back to Amman for a deeeeeelicious dinner (there is no comparison between Jordanian and Egyptian food) and bed.

The next day we went to Lawrence of Arabia's old haunting ground (yep, we saw the remains of his house)...Wadi Rum! Another breathtaking place. The different colors of red sand were super cool, as well as the changing color of the rock depending on the time of day, but even cooler was that we found some cave drawings from ancient Nebateans!!

After Wadi Rum we headed back to Nuweiba, and stopped at the Turkish Baths because Jahd couldn't stop raving about them. That was a really nice change. We sat in a steam room, then got scrubbed down, then a massage, and tea all for super cheap.

So, as far as my impressions of Jordan (compared to Egypt):

Better food, more expensive, less crazy driving, there are actually traffic lights and cars stop for you instead of speeding up and trying to run you over when they see you, calmer, quieter, much hillier (just seeing the shepherds in the hills and bedouin villages...well I can definitely picture it as the biblical land).

Whew, that was a lot. And that doesn't even cover what has happened since I got back from Jordan. But I'll make that another post...