I know I am way overdue on posts. There is just so much I need to catch everyone up on… the step pyramid Saqqara, the Red Pyramid which we got to go inside, the Bent Pyramid, pyramids, pyramids, pyramids, a long weekend in Alexandria complete with Greco-Roman amphitheaters with bizarre acoustic phenomena, catacombs, the sea, and all kinds of fun, lots of fun hanging out with Meredith, the choc-full Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, moomie, moomie, moomie, catacomb,… there is just so much. Soon, I will post pictures and catch you all up.
The Khan was amazing! Built in the 14th century, there was plenty of amazing architecture, interesting carved buildings, and huge old doors. Emily snapped a few photos on her cell phone after it got dark. It was stunning!
Where do I even begin? We were in the mood for a good old-fashioned family game night and thought we would see what we could round up. We found a “De Lux [sic]” version of Scrabble which I think we can all agree lived up to its name… DEEEEEEEE-lux. Check it out…
Category : Meredith's Visit, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt
Camels on the freeway. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry. We were probably going like eighty miles an hour, haha. This is the highlight of our cab ride. Good thing since we ended up getting stuck in traffic for another hour.
Hello! It’s Meredith here taking over for Emily while she is at class. I’ve been in Egypt for about ten days and I love it! It’s really great! I’m so thankful Emily and Brandon are letting me stay with them for the month because in addition to being great tour guides, they also make great hosts, chefs, and Scrabble players. It’s been so much fun!
After recovering from a good bout of jet lag, I decided posting some photos from the past week is quite overdue. We’ve spent a lot of time hanging around Emily’s neighborhood in Maadi, where even going out to buy groceries is an adventure to me.
Sunday was my first excursion to downtown Cairo. Emily and I took a cab to the metro station where we rode the very crowded women’s car to Tahrir Square. Now, when I say very crowded, I mean packed in like sardines. It was quite an experience! Once we got to our stop, we saw the old AUC campus and the gigantic Egyptian Museum but we are saving that for another day. Navigating through crazy traffic – which the locals describe as “organized chaos” (I’m yet to figure out the “organized” part) – we made our way down a side street lined with sheesha bars, coffee shops, and adorable kittens. I never knew there were so many cats in Cairo. I don’t really think of them as strays – they are more like domestic pets who sleep outside and do a little foraging for food. Anyhow, we were on a mission to find Koshari Abou Tarek. It’s known as the best Koshari restaurant in Cairo (which I think translates to the best in the world) and Anthony Bourdain even dined here when he visited Cairo for his travel/food show. We found the restaurant, got our Koshari, and hopped in a cab to head back to Maadi. The cab ride was a great tour of Cairo. I had my first glimpse of the Citadel, the City of the Dead, and the Khan al Khalili. Once we got back to beautiful Maadi we scarfed down our delicious Koshari and I “helped” Emily study for her Arabic midterm – as much as someone who speaks no Arabic can help.
And last night we went to the Khan al Khalili – a market that dates back to the 1300s – it was absolutely incredible! It was amazing seeing the really old, beautiful architecture and browsing around through the shops.
And that brings me up to today… Oh yeah, and we saw the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza, too… Did i forget to mention that? It was pretty awesome…
So Friday is the best day to visit Giza. Emily and Brandon were out of school for the weekend and we left their apartment around 7:30am and swung by the neighborhood convenience store to pick up some water to take with us… Have I mentioned how much I love Emily’s neighborhood? This is their version of a QuikTrip.
And here are a couple of shots from the cab ride. As we approached the Nile we started seeing bright green patches of farmland mixed in with urban apartment buildings. It was a beautiful glimpse of green.
My first glimpse of the pyramids! I was excited!
I hope everyone has a great Halloween! We didn’t feel like dealing with the mess of pumpkin-like-squash carving, so we picked up an extra yellow bell pepper and a white miniature eggplant. Meredith’s lil’ eggplant (yes, I said “lil'”) wins the cuteness award!
Stay tuned for pictures from the most beautiful day at Giza…
Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt
this is what it usually looks like…
and this is what we have had the last few days. just beautiful!
Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. It has been a busy last few weeks. Meredith got here on Saturday, and while we have done NOTHING really Egypty, we have been having a grand old time, and frankly, the pyramids can wait. Haha. Actually, we are going on Friday, so get ready for some camel pictures! Oh get ready!
Anyhow, it is wonderful having her here. While Brandon and I have been at school, Mer’s been recovering from jetlag at home with Marti and Alie. But today, we all took the bus and came to campus. And now I am sitting with Meredith in the shade of the beautiful buildings, recovering from the whirlwind of confusion that surrounds just about everything that involves something out of the ordinary and a tremendously lacking Arabic vocabulary.
I didn’t have a camera on me today, but this photo captures my confusion pretty adequately. Completely different situation; totally identical confusion. I think of this photo often when I have trouble finding the right words to describe how I feel.
In other news, remember that Arabic امتحان (exam) I had? Well I completely slept through my alarm that day, oh by about two hours or so. It was beautiful. I threw some clothes on and ran out the door to catch the bus. Not A bus, THE last bus that would have the ability to get me all the way out to New Cairo in time, Inshallah! Long story short, or rather short boring story short, I made it to class just in time. And since I am sure you are all wondering, I got an A… whew!
السلام عليكم, or “Alsalam aaaleykoum,” or Hello! Today was our first day back to school after our two week “break.” I am the nerd who is glad school is back in session, but being jobless and not having all that much to do in the way of housewifery, I am thrilled to get back into a routine. Tomorrow we have our first test in Arabic 101. It is such an exciting language to learn, but it isn’t exactly easy. So far, all I can say is “what is it?” “what does he do?” “what does she do?” and the ever popular “where is it?” Thrilling, huh? I also know a handful of vocabulary and a variety of greetings and farewells. Now to get the spellings down…
! مع السلامة or “maa salama!” or goodbye!
On Wednesday night, we went to an Egyptian wedding. We were honored to have been invited! Before the wedding, I started asking around to see what we should expect, what we should wear, and what we should bring. As with many things in Egypt, if you try googling “Egyptian” anything, you have to sift through all of the articles about ancient Egyptian anythings to find the relevant ones. It’s challenging, but what can you expect for a place with 5,000 years of history.
Anyhow, I decided I needed a long skirt, which I finally found at City Stars. It was surprisingly not an easy feat. I think shopping for a tube top and a mini skirt would be easier at City Stars with its western stores like Bebe and yet NO Banana Republic. But I digress.
At 8:00pm we headed to the wedding with Youssef. The wedding was held in an intersection of alleys lined with apartment buildings. It was incredible! There were bright bright lights, and colorful lightbulbs strung from building to building in the alleyways. There was a big stage in center with a full band and stacks of speakers. The music was really good. There were several vocalists, a keyboardist, a guy on the drums, and someone manning all of the electronic equipment. I really enjoyed it! I’ll see if I can post a clip of the band for everyone to hear. Everyone had their cell phones out taking video. It was really neat!
Oh dear, I guess I spoke to soon. Alie likes her space. Marti wants nothing more than Alie’s love. It’s a recipe for trouble.
Here Marti is watching Alie nap in peace.
It has taken her a while to get settled into life in Cairo… but she’s finally back to her old self. For the record, that’s a yawn, not a wild cat roar.
I almost forgot. It turned out pretty good seeing as it came from a box after sitting on a shelf at the store for who knows how long!
We splurged and got a box of devil’s food cake mix at the store. Brandon added a splash of grand marnier to the buttercream frosting. It’s gonna be good. No frills, but it smells like orangey grand marnier goodness.
I just discovered this photo effect in our photo editing program, Gimp. I promise not to make everything sparkly, but it just looked so good on this I couldn’t resist.
Category : Food, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt
I’m going to save my rant on how much I love really, really good high-quality gelato for another day, but here’s a picture of some I had today. It exceeded my expectations! Here it is sitting at the register.
What? Yeah, those are cigarettes at the register. Sorry if the fetal baby distracts from the picture. They try to warn people about birth defects, but everyone seems to smoke here. Not sure how well it goes with gelato. Bleh. And people were smoking IN THE MALL. Coming from a place where smokers can’t smoke indoors anywhere, it was a tad surprising. I hate smoke. Hate it.
But gelato… gelato I like!
I spent the entire day with Brandon at City Stars — a GIANT 7-floor mall in Cairo (this is a cell-phone picture we took while walking down a dizzying flight of stairs). It has everything… lots of great stores, grocery stores, a couple of giant movie theaters, rides, a million stores I have never heard of, and just about every popular American chain restaurant you can think of. We were on a quest for a mixer, a cake pan, a pizza pan, and something I can wear to an Egyptian wedding this week (more on that later!). We got everything but the pizza pan. I feel really accomplished! And neither of us got totally fed up with being in a mall for such a long period of time. Oh, and we picked up Season 2 of LOST on DVD. That’s right. We are RE-watching it. I’m excited.
It was a really fun birthday! I never would have guessed I would spend my 25th birthday in a mall in Egypt, but I did, and it was great. Thanks, Brandon!