Siwa!...The Curses, Climbing, and Cleaning of a Desert Oasis

SIWAAAA! April 15-20

Our trip to the Western desert oasis of Siwa was quite an adventure from many different perspectives...just to give you a taste:

- When we arrived to the mall in Alexandria to eat dinner (April 15th) on our way to Siwa, a fight literally broke out around our bus among Egyptian men. When some of the onlookers realized a bunch of foreigners were watching, they started surrounding our bus and the Egyptian chaperones had to escort us into the mall...

- We were eaten alive by mosquitoes...I got the most number of mosquito bites in my life even though I was wearing long sleeves and pants - it looks like I have a rash on my neck and feet !

- A poisonous snake was found in the tent in which we were supposed to sleep - the workers there insisted that this type of snake had not been found at the campsite for over two years...

- Many of us were afflicted with a sickness which usually consisted of general nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and a weakness of body...fortunately I came down with it on the last day, so I didn't miss out on too much.

- My roommate and I had to bear the smelliest, clogged-up bathroom that I have ever come into contact with...it was truly unbearable!

- A sandstorm hit us while we were safariing in the desert, and since there was no opportunity to shower afterwards, we had to spend the 15 hour journey back to Cairo with sand caked in our scalps, filling our shoes, and in ever other imaginable place.

Despite all of these situations, we saw many amazing sights, did some community service trash pick up, and had a great time together. Not to mention that I got to wear shorts and tank tops a lot, which was wonderful...unfortunately there was no soccer-playing, though!! (picture: jumping off a cement block on the top of a mountain next to our hotel, overlooking one of the salt lakes in Siwa)

Day 1 - April 16:

We arrived in Siwa around 5:30am after leaving Cairo at 4:30pm the day before. Sleeping on the bus did not make for a very comfortable night, but our exhaustion didn't stop us from climbing up a very large, mountainous rock near our hotel/camp. The panoramic view was beautiful, and the obvious separation between the greenness of the date-palm trees and the blankness of the desert sand was amazing. An aerial view of Siwa probably shows the Great Sand Sea with the two saline lakes and the small circle of green that are Siwa. In fact, Siwa is so remote from the rest of Egypt that it has developed a very distinct culture and language that other Egyptians cannot understand, and it is closer to the Libyan border than to Cairo. (picture: one of the mountains next to our hotel)

After a long nap in our Spartan rooms and a light breakfast, we set out in the backs of pick-up trucks - which were our mode of transportation around the oasis - to begin sightseeing. We visited the site of the Oracle of Amun, which was famous throughout the Mediterranean World and was even visited by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Then we briefly stopped by a mostly-ruined temple and then were able to swim and relax at a nearby bath of spring water called Cleopatra's Bath (even though she never bathed there). When we had passed the bath the first time, it had been overflowing with shirtless Siwan men, but fortunately they had cleared out by the time we arrived, and when they began appearing again near the end of our swim, the security officers kept them out so we could swim as we liked. (picture: mid-way through our tour of the oracle temple)

Next on the list, we visited the old town of Shali in 'downtown' Siwa. This settlement was built around 1200, and all Siwan residents lived inside its walls because of their fear of raiders, and the settlement expanded upwards (instead of outwards) as the population grew. Its mud-brick dwellings are mostly in ruins now, although a few Siwans still inhabit its walls. (picture: our Siwan guide at the top of Shali; the mountains next to our hotel are visible in the background).

We spent the night back at the hotel, and I watched a soccer match with the Egyptians between the two biggest clubs in Cairo.

Day 2 - April 17:

In the late morning, we visited the 'Mountain of the Dead,' which is a small hill filled with ancient tombs that were reused in Roman times and were also used as bomb shelters by the Siwans during World War II. We went in some tombs that still had a few painted reliefs intact, but the mummies have all been moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The guide did show us a stash of human bombs that had been cleared out of the tombs and put in a small, hidden cave out of the way...kinda creepy, especially when one of my friends accidentally stepped on a femur!

We briefly toured a new water factory, which was actually interesting - I had no idea that waterbottles start as miniature, cylindrical tubes of thick plastic with the cap at one end, and then they expand somewhere in the process!

We did our first community service today, which consisted of picking up trash around one of the springs, so it wasn't too strenuous. The spring itself was the best one we went to in Siwa...the cool, clean water felt wonderful after being out in the hot Siwan sun. The drive back into town was pretty amazing because we passed by a salt lake whose surface looked like icy because of all of the white salt piled up! (pictures: the NSLI-Y year students in front of the spring (one guy was sick/back at the hotel); the group posing behind all the garbage we gathered at the spring!)

We enjoyed a Siwan party later tonight after dinner...about 15 Siwan men were sitting in a circle, singing, playing a flute, tambourine, drums, and they were clapping and dancing. So we sat around and enjoyed the atmosphere, and we did a bit of dancing, too, although couldn't replicate the Siwan dancing, which was animal-like and a bit erotic at times, as well :) (picture: Siwan men dancing, clapping, and playing instruments.)

When we returned to the hotel, some friends and I climbed the mountain again, which was illuminated by spotlights. The aerial view was really interesting because we could see some areas that were completely black and knew that was the beginning of the desert, and all I could think about was how utterly dark it must get at night.

Day 3 - April 18:

A lot of people were sick today, so our schedule had to be rearrranged, unfortunately, and we were unable to go to the Siwan Museum and some sewing factories. Instead, we spent the first half of the day at this spring, cleaning up and hanging out by the water, while one of the chaperones was finding medicine at one of the two pharmacies in town. After that, we ate lunch and did some more cleaning in the middle of town, and my group cleaned Shali, which wasn't too bad because we took some neat pictures of the sun setting. (pictures: overlooking Siwa from the top of Shali; getting ready to pick up trash with our plastic gloves)

After we finished, we had about half an hour of free time, so my friends and I rented bikes, and we did a quick tour around town, which was fun, although there wasn't much to see because the town is pretty small. I bought some small gifts for my host sisters and a kilo of dried dates for about $2 for my host family because Siwa is famous for its production of dates - it seemed like nearly all the trees in Siwa were date palms!

We packed up our belongings quickly at the hotel, piled into the back of the pick up trucks, and went to our 'campsite' for our last night in Siwa. We weren't truly 'camping' in the desert because there was a building with a kitchen and bathrooms (thankfully), and we were on the edge of the desert. There was also a small hot spring that was really nice, especially at 2am! We spent the evening hanging out around the fire, talking with each other, looking at the vast array of stars, and relaxing. A poisonous snake was found in the big tent that had been set up as our sleeping shelter...it had been hissing in the ear of one of my friends who was resting in there because he was sick...so everyone ended up sleeping on blankets in the sand. (picture: sitting down for dinner at our campsite in the desert)

Day 4 - April 19:

Our last day in Siwa was a safari into the desert in Landcruisers! I was feeling a little sick, but I enjoyed everything nevertheless from my front seat view in the car. The vastness of the desert was unimaginable, but the landscape was more varied than I had imagined...many dunes of course, but there were small rocky mountains as well. We picked up trash a a hot spring, but of course no one wanted to get in because we were already sweating from the heat! We spent a lot of time at a cold, fresh-water lake, swimming, eating lunch...and picking up trash, too. The chilly water was the perfect temperature to offset the beating sun, and the setting seemed so surreal because this was the only patch of green in sight. A permanent covering had been constructed on the beach and we took advantage of the shade it provided. A large group of Italians invaded after a couple hours, so it wasn't quite as peaceful after that, but a sandstorm started soon thereafter, so we had to move anyway. (picture: the wonderful cold lake!)

During the sandstorm, the sky was more overcast (or maybe the sand was just blocking the sun more) so at least it wasn't as hot, but the blowing sand was going everywhere. We decided to go sandboarding anyway, so that was a crazy experience! We drove the the top of this huge dune and the drivers parked the Landcruisers, straddling the crest of the dune right before a huge drop off! The sand was blowing off the crest of this mountain and made for quite a site, and it really hurt my bare skin, too!! I could barely open my eyes, too, and I managed to take a few pictures from inside the car before I got out. I went down, sitting on the sandboard once, which was pretty fun, although I had to close my eyes, and I was chewing on sand for the next hour or so! I didn't have the energy to climb back up the steep hill, so I enjoyed watching everyone else come down and wipe-out occasionally. I would've loved to go down standing up - only a couple guys tried and only one did it successfully - so it probably would not have been a good idea while I was sick. (picture: one of the Landcruisers traversing a sand dune)

We didn't have enough time to shower before our trip back to Cairo, but I did get in the hot spring back at the campsite to clean off the layer of sand, but it didn't help very much. We left Siwa at 10pm and arrived in Cairo around 8am, April 20th...all I wanted to do was shower and sleep! I spent the next few days recovering the trip and my sickness, which was pretty miserable, but the previous four days in Siwa made up for it!

I'm climbing Mount Sinai and visiting St. Catherine's Monastery (at the base of Mt. Sinai) tomorrow (April 30-May 2), so I can't wait for that!!!

PHOTOS!

A few pictures from Aswan, Luxor, and Hurghada...over a month later, but I hope you enjoy...

In front of the Philae Temple in Aswan, which was the first one we visited (left). A view of the Nile from our felucca ride in Aswan - in the background is a cruise boat similar to the one we took (right).

Buying our peanuts and karkaday for the "Egyptian" price at the Aswan Market...this is post-bargaining :) There are also dried dates and tamerhind in the foreground baskets (below left). In front of the Kom Ombo temple, which was on the Nile in between Aswan and Luxor (below right).

One of the many beautiful reliefs at Kom Ombo

The impressive front pylon at the Edfu Temple, which was dedicated to the god Horus (below left). The Temple of Hatshepsut, set at the base of a cliff - on the other side of this mountain (which we climbed) is the Valley of the Kings (below right).

The great court at the Luxor Temple at night (left). Copying Ramses II's pose at Luxor Temple (right).

Among the towering columns at the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak Temple in Luxor (left). Just a small portion of the gigantic temple complex at Karnak - an obelisk is in the background (right).

Getting on the boat to go snorkeling in the freezing water in Hurghada (below left)! On the beach of our hotel - it was very beautiful, but unfortunately a little too cold (below right).

Hurghada...our last group photo before the semester kids went back home :(

Dahshur-Saqqara 'Family' Outing

March 12, 2010

Thanks to the wonderful Hoffer family, who came to visit Egypt with their daughter Izzy, two other NSLI-Y students and I were able to accompany them to Dahshur and Saqqara.

(photo in front of the Red Pyramid - from left to right: Ernest, Meredith, Izzy, me (all NSLI-Y students)).

These sites contain the oldest pyramids in the world, but they are not as popular with tourists because they are harder to access because they're located south of Giza on a more rural route. However, the Hoffers hired a van for all of us, which made the entire visit so much easier because we didn't have to worry about finding taxis or walking the long distances in between sites. The driver would also tell the security guard at the gate that his passengers were Swedish because he told us that if the guards knew we were from the U.S., we would have to be escorted through the site for security reasons. The rationale is that if anything were to happen to us as tourists, the US government would most likely get involved and it would cause a huge problem, whereas the European governments would probably not make as big a deal out of it.

We got an early start from Cairo and didn't return until mid-afternoon, and luckily the weather wasn't too hot because the pyramids are in the middle of the desert. We drove through some rural-looking villages, one of which was Memphis, which used to be the impressive capital of the Old Kingdom but is now a very poor village. (picture: the Hoffer family descending from the Red Pyramid after going inside).

We visited Dahshur first, which is most known for the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid, both built by Snofru during the Old Kingdom (~2600 BC). We went inside the Red Pyramid, which was exciting, but it was COMPLETELY dark inside (we had to use the flashlights on our phones), the climb down inside was very cramped, and it smelled terrible. The Red Pyramid's name originates from the red color of its outer limestone casing which is now gone. (picture: descent into the Red Pyramid).

We drove to the Bent Pyramid, which is on the same site but located across a few sand dunes from the Red Pyramid. The most remarkable part about this pyramid is its 'bent' shape - the base of the pyramid rises at a steep angle and then partway up the slope decreases, giving the overall pyramid a curved shape. Most of the limestone casing is still in place, which also makes it an impressive site. We wandered around the pyramid a little, and I read the information about it from my Rough Guides book. (pictures: all the kids in front of the Bent Pyramid; the Bent Pyramid looking from the Red Pyramid).

After leaving Dahshur, we made our way to Saqqara, which was where the pharaoh's and nobility of the Old Kingdom were buried (c. 2600-2100 BC). It is the largest archeological site in Egypt, although much of it is still unexcavated, and we only visited the northern part. The highlight of North Saqqara is the Step Pyramid, which was designed by Imhotep for Pharoah Zoser - Imhotep is credited with initiating the pyramid-building phase in Egypt. We explored the ruins surrounding the pyramid as well, and visited the neighboring Pyramid of Teti, whose outer appearance was basically a loose pile of rocks, but the inside was amazing! (picture: the Step Pyramid)

The descent down was much more comfortable, the lights were illuminated, there was no suffocating stench, and the wall carvings were impressive. We also went in one of the many mastabas, which were the burial places of nobility, and the wall reliefs were really breathtaking because they were so well preserved, extremely intricate, and stretched from floor to ceiling. (picture: a view of hieroglypics inside the Teti Pyramid).

The site is much larger, but many of the other places were closed and we were happy with what we'd seen, so we headed back to Cairo and hung out for a couple more hours until we finally had to say goodbye to Izzy and her family - a very sad occasion, to say the least. (picture: drinking juice - I have a fruit cocktail and Izzy has mango - together, moments before saying goodbye).

Although the Giza Pyramid site is spectacular because of the proximity of the pyramids to each other as well as their sheer size, Dahshur and Saqqara were much more interesting (and a lot less crowded)!

Happy (early) Easter, and Happy Birthday, Grandma. I love you and miss you all!

Thank you, again, the Hoffer Family!

Heading to the Red Sea (the trip Part II)

Day 4, Feb. 6: We visited the gigantic Karnak Temple complex today, in our last day in Luxor. It is basically a conglomeration of thousands of years of additions, so it is very overwhelming and a little confusing, and I had to prepare ahead of time for my tour because eight pages in the Rough Guides book was dedicated to Karnak.


We went through in a semi-organized fashion while trying to avoid being seen by the rest of the AFS group, and then took some fun pictures afters...no piggy-back races this time, though. The entire site is a really impressive work of art, but we've seen so many pharaonic sites in the past few days, that most of us were feeling a bit fatigued.


The end of our very enjoying Nile cruise was over, so we put all our things on a tour bus for our drive to Hurghada. The weather was unfortunately pretty chilly the whole time, so it was nearly too cold to sit up on the top deck of the boat, even with a towel as a blanket. We went star-gazing one night and our feet froze, but the sky was gigantic, and the stars were beautiful because we can't really see them in Cairo.


We arrived in Hurghada around 10pm, and most people just went to their rooms and fell asleep, but I went out with a few other girls and one of the chaperones that was our age to a club in Hurghada. We ended up dancing their for a while and didn't get back to the hotel until about 4am, so we were thoroughly exhausted, but I had a lot of fun. Hurghada is basically all hotels and clubs, and most of the tourists were Russian, so the setting was kind of strange compared to what I've been used to for the past five months, but we mostly stayed in our group.


Day 5, Feb. 7:
The weather was unfortately pretty chilly today, but we went down to the beach and relaxed a little. I ended up playing soccer on a small sand court on the beach with a couple friends and some of the other hotel guests. Most of them were Egyptian, but there were old men and little boys, so it was an interesting mix, but I of course enjoyed playing because the opportunities to play soccer here are so limited for girls.

Around midday, a group of friends and I gathered to go on our snorkeling outing that we had organized. We had difficulty deciding whether or not to go because the water was so cold, but we reasoned that we may not be ever to snorkel in the Red Sea again, so why not just do it. The water was freezing cold, but we ended up staying in the water for over half an hour, although most of the coral was dead. I did see some beautiful fish, and some other peoples saw a sea turtle, so despite being cold for the next two hours, the outing was worth it. I warmed up afterwards by playing soccer again until dinner :)

I stayed at the hotel tonight and watched the show that the hotel put on for free, which consisted of some Russian dancers and various other acts. It wasn't anything great, but at least it was something to do.

Day6, Feb. 8:
I managed to squeeze in some more soccer after breakfast while most of the other people were relaxing on the beach, and then went down the water slide to cool off a few times before showering and packing to leave the hotel around noon. We took our last group picture together because the students who are only staying for the first semester left only a few days after we got back to Cairo.

We had to say good bye to each other on the bus, which was very sad and also strange because many of them are going back to high school in the U.S. and continuing on with their normal lives while the rest of us are still here in Egypt.

The trip was amazing, not only because of the beautiful setting and sights to see, but also because we had a lot of fund bonding with each other! Despite all of the this, I still found myself missing my host family and we called each other almost every day during the trip to say hello, which was really great. Two days after I came back (i.e. Feb. 10), we went to Dream Park, which is an amusement park about an hour outside of Cairo. My host mom, two host sisters, and the family that lives across from us went together. All eight of us packed into a little van that my host dad had hired to transport us, and we spent all day there and had a lot of fun.

And pictures are coming soon, insha'allah (depending on whether the computer cooperates). Last week, I spent the day down in Saqqara and Dahshur, and visited the Step Pyramid, Red Pyramid, and Bent Pyramid, which were fantastic. After seeing various History Channel/National Geographic programs on these pyramids, it was incredible to be able to finally see them (and go inside some of them)...I think I enjoyed them even more than the Giza Pyramids!

Hopefully I can write about that soon, as well. Have a happy Spring!!

Cruising the Nile (the trip, Part I)

Our six-day trip to Aswan, Luxor, and Hurghada was one of the most incredible experiences I have had in Egypt so far!

The trip was organized by the AFS program, so all 25 of the students on the NSLI-Y program traveled. It started with a 15-hour, overnight train ride from Cairo to Aswan, which was a long time to be sitting in one place, let alone try to get any sleep.

Day 1, Feb. 3: Aswan...We visited Philae, which is the ancient site of the cult of Isis, and the island houses a temple complex. We also took a quick trip to see the Unfinished Obelisk, which is supposedly the sister to the Lateran Obelisk which is now in Paris, and it would have been the biggest obelisk in the world, but it was never finished due to a flaw in the stone. Obelisks are carved out of one giant piece of stone, so if there is a problem with part of it, the obelisk cannot be finished. Later that afternoon, we took a beautiful, relaxing felucca ride on the Nile to the Aswan market. The Nile in southern Egypt is much more how I pictured it - open banks covered in long grass, trees, and lots of other unharmed greenery. The banks of the Nile in Cairo are covered in cement and is not nearly as beautiful as the natural scenery. We bargained our way through the Aswan market for a couple hours, which was a lot of fun. The shop owners were very amused by Arabic-speaking Americans, and we definitely got better deals on our purchases because of our language skills. I bought karkaday (dried hibiscus flowers) and peanuts, for which Aswan is famous, and Izzy and I bargained for a pair of scarves...we even managed to 'beat' the Egyptians in getting the cheapest prices for our purchases, which is an accomplishment because the shopkeepers literally have three different prices for their goods: the highest price for foreigners, the middle price for Arabic-speaking foreigners, and the lowest price for Egyptians.

It was quite an adventurous night, to say the least! We befriended one of the shopkeepers who was around our age, and he ended up walking around the market with us for about an hour, and helped us out a little without wanting anything in return, which was a lot of fun. We finally settled down in our cruise boat after the market, and headed down the Nile while watching "The Shawshank Redemption" (which I highly recommend), with some friends late into the night, and then we finally went to bed.

Day 2, Feb. 4: We woke up early to visit the Kom Ombo temple complex, another site of an ancient cult, and I gave a tour of the area to some of the other students using my Rough Guides guidebook. This became the routine for every other historical site we visited thereafter and is one of my fondest memories from the trip. It helped me learn the information better, and I'm glad that the other people enjoyed it, too. Rough Guides also showed us some neat things that we would not have normally seen by ourselves or with a real guide. Almost all of these ancient sites contained a temple complex dedicated to various gods, and made of huge stones covered with carved reliefs and hieroglyphics. They were all very different and completely amazing!

We hopped back on the boat to keep moving down the Nile, and we stopped later that day at Edfu, which was a cult site for the god Horus. The Rough Guides book really helped make sense of everything and explained a lot of detail to make each site more memorable, so I had fun trying to figure out the maps of each place and explain the background information and details to my friends...I felt like my mom giving one of her famous tours out of a guidebook, but I really enjoyed doing it!! At one point, I was pointing at a relief in the sanctuary of the temple and explaining what it was about, and then all of a sudden, a big French tour group that was in there turned around to look at the same relief around which we were all huddled. We all laughed, and then we backed away to let their guide have some room.

We had a gelabiyya party later that night on the boat, so we wore the traditional Egyptian outfits/dresses and danced to Egyptian music. Some of the Egyptian girls that came along as chaperones did some belly dancing for us, which was impressive.

Day 3, Feb. 5: We woke up today and went to the Valley of the Kings! We were only able to go into two of the tombs due to time constraints, but it was an amazing experience, and I couldn't actually believe that I was there after seeing so many History Channel shows on ancient Egypt and the Valley of the Kings. After that, most of the students went with one of the chaperones and climbed the mountain behind the Valley of the Kings and went down the other side to Hatshepsut's Temple. The view from the top of the sandy mountain was incredible...Hatshepsut's Temple was below us, and the Nile stretched out in front of us with its green banks paralleling both sides. The greenness stopped abruptly after a certain point, and everything else just stretched out into a never-ending desert. It was a reall dramatic site, to say the least, and unfortunately I did not have my camera because we weren't allowed to take it into the Valley of the Kings.

We descended the other side of the mountain and went to Hatshepsut's Temple which was very beautiful, especially the setting with the mountain in the background. It's still so hard to believe that all these sites were built over 3,000 years ago!

We spent some time in the Luxor market after dinner on the boat, but this time we were pretty exhausted, so we didn't get involved in much bargaining. Also, the market was incredibly touristy and the shopkeepers were even more aggressive than the ones in Khan il-Khalili...so much so that I didn't even want to glance towards their goods because they would immediately bombard us.

After the market, we visited Luxor Temple after dark, so all the lights were turned on, which was beautiful! After the tour we had some extra time, so we took some fun pictures and then ended up having a piggy-back race in a big open area of the court of Ramses II...definitely a memorable (and hilarious) experience.

There was a DJ party later that night on the boat, but most people didn't go because it had been an exhausting day. First, we watched a belly-dancer and then a whirling dervish perform, which was interesting, and after that the dance floor was open. A few of us danced around a little, and then went upstairs to watch another movie, but I fell asleep partway through.

..will post the second half soon, hopefully, and I also apologize that I can't upload the photos right now either.

Christmas in Cairo

It always seems like the stores in the US begin selling Christmas decorations and preparing for the holidays way too early. Here in Cairo, I was lucky to see a store displaying a sign of the approaching holiday season, and I certainly didn't see in Christmas trees on top of cars or Salvation Army bell-ringers, and unfortunately, I didn't hear any Christmas songs playing either.

I wasn't expecting much of a Christmas celebration in Egypt because the vast majority of people are Muslim and don't even celebrate it, and the Christians who do celebrate, consider January 7th, not December 25th, as their holiday. A part of me didn't even want to try to celebrate it because I knew it would not be the same.

However, I did try to introduce some of the "American" traditions to my host family by making stockings for each member. Izzy and I bought the most suitable material we could find, and then improvised by cutting out the shape of a "big sock" (as we call them in Arabic), sewing the pieces together, adding some tasteful decorations, writing their name on the front, and then filling them with chocolate and other treats. I woke up early on Christmas Day and put them under the tree for my host family to find when they woke up. Although the actual opening of the stockings was pretty anti-climactic, I had a lot of fun with that project.

I also went over to Izzy's house one evening, a few days before Christmas to make gingerbread cookies. We had gone to the store by ourselves to buy all the ingredients, and then prepared the dough in an improvised fashion, but unfortunately I wasn't able to actually cut out and bake the cookies because we forgot that the dough had to be refrigerated for two hours. The cookies turned out satisfactorily, but were a little disappointing because we didn't have any decorations for them.

Izzy and I attended a Christmas Eve service at a quaint, stone Lutheran Church near downtown Cairo, which I really enjoyed because I was finally able to sing some Christmas carols! The pastor was American, and most of the (small) congregation appeared to be foreigners, so it was surprising how similar everything seemed, even though we were in Cairo. The atmosphere was definitely not the same as back home, but I was glad I went.

My host family also surprised me by bringing home a REAL tree a few days before Christmas. They were all exclaiming how "huge" the tree was, and I couldn't help but smile and agree that this five-foot tall, potted tree was indeed "very big." Nevertheless, I was thrilled that they had gone out of their way to actually buy a tree. The next afternoon, I went with my host sisters and host mom to the nearby mall to buy a bunch of cheap decorations from the stores there, and we returned around 11:30 pm, and we put the lights and all the decorations on the tree as soon as we got home. I also played some of Andy Williams' Christmas carols on YouTube to get more in the Christmas spirit.

My host mom and sister surprised me with some beautiful gifts as well - my host mom gave me a pretty silver necklace with the head of Nefertiti as the pendant, and my host sister gave me some tasteful, small silver loop earrings, so I've been wearing these gifts nearly every day!

AFS organized an outing a few days after Christmas to see the Nutcracker ballet at the Cairo Opera House, which was a great treat! Unfortunately, the music was recorded, but I enjoyed the performance.

I spent the New Year's with my family at home, so we celebrated it with a big cake and kisses to go around. It was a nice occasion, but anticlimactic, as it always seems to be anyway. There were no scenes of Times Square on TV, and definitely no champagne - alcohol is forbidden in Islam, but my host family is very 'family-oriented,' so I enjoyed being with them. (Above: our NSLI-Y group on the steps of the Opera House. Below: my host sister, Nouran, and me with chocolate Santas that my host mom brought home for New Year's.)

I hope you all had a happy holiday season and enjoyed the massive snow storm (for the East coast people) that I heard all about! Although Christmas away from home is never the same, I was more than pleasantly surprised with how everything turned out. Have a happy 2010!!

Islamic Cairo

I finally made it to the huge area of Islamic Cairo but wasn't even close to seeing everything because it's so big!

THE KHAN

After Arabic class on Dec. 3rd, Izzy and I took a microbus and metro to downtown Cairo and made our way to Khan il-Khalili, the sprawling bazaar in Islamic Cairo. We followed the advice of my Rough Guides to Egypt guidebook and walked there via Muski Street. Muski Street is this incredibly narrow, crowded pedestrian street surrounded on every side by small shops and stalls selling clothes, souveneirs, gelabiyyas, and just about everything else imaginable. We worked our way slowly down that street, dodging men pushing large carts overflowing with boxes and the throngs of Egyptians wandering among stalls. (picture: at the start of Muski Street)

Khan il-Khalili occupies many intersecting streets and is roughly organized into areas of shops selling jewelry, perfume, spices, silk, and much more. The shopkeepers were very aggressive, which kind of discouraged us from browsing too much because they kept talking to us and advertising their wares. Many of the shops were also connected to their workshops/warehouses, so it was definitely a lively place. I was a little disappointed because it was pretty touristy (we saw a lot of foreigners), and we didn't buy anything because we plan to return with an Egyptian so we don't get ripped off by the shopkeepers. (picture: one of the streets of Khan il-Khalili)

We went into Al-Azhar Mosque, which was founded in 970 and has served for over 1,000 years as a university to teach its students the Koran and other subjects; as a result, the mosque itself has been (and continues to be) politically significant.

The mosque was beautiful and very peaceful, and Izzy and I paid a guard some 'baksheesh' (bribe, tip) to let us go up one of the minarets to get a good view of the Khan and Islamic Cairo. We were the only ones up there (because it's not advertised to the public), and we had to use the flashlights on our cell phones to see the stairs inside the minaret. It was a pretty neat view at the top and was luckily not too hazy, so we got some great pictures. (The picture is taken part way up the minaret, looking down onto the central courtyard of the mosque. We covered our heads to honor the Muslim custom.)

We made our way down some back streets and through a vegetable market to il-Ghuriya Mosque-Madrassa, which is a mosque and a madrassa (a center where students studied Islam inside the mosque). We paid some more baksheesh to go up the minaret, and there were even better views of Islamic Cairo from atop the minaret! (Picture: vegetable market and atop the minaret at the Ghuri, looking down onto Islamic Cairo and Khan il-Khalili)

We wandered back through the bazaar a little, drank some sugar cane juice (not my favorite, but really cheap), and then made our way back home.

THE CITADEL

On Saturday, Dec. 5th, Izzy, Sam, and I went back to Islamic Cairo to visit the Citadel, which is a bastion begun in the 12th century and has served as a fortress as well as royal residence. It is located on a hill overlooking Cairo, so there were great views again! (Mosque of Mohammed Ali inside the Citadel.)

We arrived early in the morning around 9am, so it wasn't too crowded, although many tour buses had already beat us there. The main attraction within the walls is the Mosque of Mohammed Ali, which was actually built in the 19th century, and was very pretty inside, with hanging lamps illuminating the central area.

We wandered through some not-too-interesting museums, and then skipped a few and headed out of the complex.

We walked down around the Citadel to the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, which is a cavernous, but beautiful structure. Its giant, open courtyard is surrounded by four vaulted liwans (areas devoted to teaching a rite of Sunni Islam). We entered the main sanctuary, admired the giant carved brass doors, and were lucky enough to hear a short demonstration of a muezzin's call to prayer inside the mosque. We were all amazed by his beautiful voice and the amazing acoustics of the mosque.

That's all we saw of Islamic Cairo, but we will definitely plan to come back, insha'allah.

And I hope you have a Merry Christmas! (Unfortunately there aren't many festivities around here, but I'm going to try to go to the Nutcracker Ballet and a Christmas carol concert at the Cairo Opera House!)