Hey everyone. Thanks for taking an interest in me, the Middle East, or whatever else motivated you to check this out. I’ve been here a month, so I apologize for the delay, but this should help catch you up. I’ve decided to put a guide together for those anyone interested (stateside or otherwise) in what it’s like to be an American student in Egypt. This is a list of elements of Egyptian life that I’ve picked up on and grown accustomed to, in categories like food, politics/govt, religion and other misc. cultural things that don’t really fit. Having only been here for a month, this is Egypt so far according to Jesse, so let me know if you think I’m way off on anything. To introduce Egyptian life as I know it, I’ve included a small, quickly written anecdote describing one of the day-to-day fiascos of life at my humble digs: The Marwa Palace Hotel:
“After waiting for two weeks without internet even though every other student dorm has it, we finally got it working today. the way egyptians fix things, even the maintenance guys, is by getting five guys together. one guy will look at the internet box, while the other four look at him. the guy looking at the box will say something and shrug, then they will all smoke a cigarette, then go back to their original positions of looking at the guy looking at the box. its a very effective operation.
when my friends and i arrived from dahab at 7am this morning exhasuted, we found that the internet actually worked. so excited. we all napped til around noon. by noon, unfortunately, all of the power on our floors had gone out, knocking out the internet and air conditioning. the maintenance folks got to standing around looking at the one guy looking at the circuit box, occasionally smoking a dag, etc etc - standard operating procedure. finally, after literally a couple of hours of this, one guy flips a switch and everything turns on (fyi - my friends and i are all sitting around talking and watching because our rooms are scorching hot with no AC). celebration ensues, but within a couple of minutes, the fuse box begins billowing thick, acrid smoke. how do the maintenance people react? they all pose around it and take a picture, then leave it unattended for a good fifteen minutes.
my friend calls down to the desk being like "hey the fuse box is kind of on fire, and we don't have access to teh stairs, should we be concerned?" and the front desk man responds "there is a fire, oh my goodness, i call fire department" and my friend says "no its just the fuse box." front desk "oh, ok." and hangs up. “
To make life easier for the more casual browser (aka, anyone who is shocked at how much more I’ve written than I should have) you can choose any category you’re interested in. They are ordered:
1. Religion
2. Politics/Government
3. Eating, Drinking and Smoking
4. Living with Egyptian Sexuality
5. Misc. Culture (highly recommended!)
Religion
1. Religion – In Your Face: Though this is not a big surprise, religion is far more in your face here. Not to mention the call to prayer, which rings out from hundreds of mosques several times a day, reciting the “Surat al Fatiha” or basically the core beliefs of Islam, it is impossible to be removed from it’s influence. If your cab driver is not Muslim, there will be a cross hanging from his dashboard. If he is Muslim, you can be sure there is a sticker somewhere on the cab, or a hanging symbolic pendant, or a prayer rug carpeting the dashboard. I’ve learned about the difference between compartmentalized religion versus religion that is integral to your every day actions and speech. This is the case here. From the architecture, to the noise of the city, to the words that have become so commonplace in Arabic, religion is omnipresent everywhere in Cairo.
2. Freedom of Religion – Egypt Style: Here in Egypt, the people enjoy full religious freedom. Everyone is free to be a person of the book, that is, to practice Judaism, Christianity or Islam? What if you want to convert? There is perfect freedom to convert from Judaism or Christianity. M’feesh mushkilla.
3. Ramadan: The Muslim Holy month, in which Muslims fast from sunup to sundown, makes for an interesting Cairo. It’s fair to say that people are a bit more irritable. The director of the International Student Office, a fifty or sixty year old woman announced to two-hundred and fifty kids: “I must take three days off at the beginning of Ramadan to adjust. I mean, what can I do? No caffeine, no nicotine, no sex?” Really, no sex? It’s like 14 hours during the day!? And you’re like fifty! Well, anyway, Ramadan is a special time. The coke cans are all specially decorated and say “Ramadan Kareem.” Most places have these large Ramadan lanterns that are beautifully decorated with Muslim prayers and colors. The tone of the city however, during the day, is sluggish. After sundown, however, things slow down even more. Everyone is gorging after a day without food. People are in much better moods when eating. Even the guards here are just laughing and joking around, security definitely loosens its grip. The best part about Ramadan, however, is “Allahu Akbar” being called out from the Mosques at sundown, signaling time for Iftar: breaking fast. As someone who isn’t eating during the day, breaking fast is very satisfying, and feels like an accomplishment. There’s also the added bonus of being able to eat when you’re famished. People are also more generous during Ramadan: there is a much more communal spirit, as nearly everyone in the country is going through the same daily routine of struggle followed by celebration. I’ve been waking up at 3:30am before sunup to eat so I don’t starve during the day. Iftar has been a fun communal thing, even though many Americans aren’t fasting. They don’t know what they’re missing. The other day, I had a conversation with one of the guards about what he was going to eat. He sounded so excited, and was making me equally hungry. Everyone bonds over the fantasy of food especially as the precious moment of call to prayer approaches. During Ramadan, everyone also has their pocket Qur’an and is praying. On the metro, on the street, whenever anyone has a brief moment. Prayers during Ramadan are more powerful during Ramadan, so Muslims take advantage.
4. In Aha Allah wa Al Hamdu Lilah: Two phrases you can’t get enough of in Egypt. Basically these can both be used for anything. In Sha Allah means “God willing” and Al Hamdu Lilah means “Praise be to God.” The smallest thing happens, or someone asks you how you are – naturally Al Hamdu Lilah. If there is anything happening in the future: In Sha Allah. One of my personal favorites was, while in the computer room, fully aware that it closes at 3:30, the guard gets over the loudspeaker and announces: “The computer lab will close at 3:30, In Sha Allah.” Sir, I don’t think there is much doubt as to whether or not the lab will close, you can just close it. Egypt is fun.
5. Clothing: As a part of the “religion in your face” element of Egypt, religion heavily influences clothing. As will be explained in Sexuality of Egypt, female dressing tells a lot about the image of piety one wants to put off. Interestingly, however, most liberal Muslims see the style of dress as a choice, not having any particular effect on one’s devotion. Those who decide to dress conservatively would likely disagree. Females wear the hijab, males wear the galabiyya. The galabiyya is like a long cloak with arms and a large opening for your head. Most men still wear pants underneath. I’m told it’s more of a cultural garb as opposed to religious. Either way, it’s not something you see in the States.
6. The Call to Prayer: I cover this a lot throughout this entry, but I’m obsessed with the Call to Prayer. I’m sure I’m going to miss it when I get back to the states. It’s so communal, knowing that everyone in the city is listening to the same prayer at the same time, even if they are either not Muslim or not strongly practicing. In addition, there is a definite Qur’anic/theological argument that the more beautifully one recites Qur’an or signs prayers, the more merit they gain with the divine. It seems that Mosque leaders are often trying to outdo themselves. There is something mystical, however, about the Call to Prayer, especially before light or after dark, and the power and feeling behind the Arabic wailing being bellowed out across this city of 18 million.
Social and Political Issues
1. Palestine: Here in Egypt, no one wants to mention Israel. Other than Palestinians, I often wonder whether Egypt is most bitter towards them. Historically, they now have a peace treaty and share a border. The 1967 war, however, almost certainly humiliated Egypt more than any other country involved. At the military museum, all sorts of facts are toyed with or omitted to avoid admission of defeat in ’67 or even mentioning their Jewish neighbors to the North. A Palestinian girl lives in my dorm. I asked her where she was from. “Palestine,” she says. “Oh, where in Palestine,” I ask. “Jerusalem,” she replied. I see. There are a number of Jewish kids studying abroad here at AUC. In all of Cairo, a city of 18 million, there are only 120 Jewish families left – they’ve all gone to Israel or possibly the United States. My friends and I try to avoid saying “Jewish” or “Israel” to avoid dirty looks. There’s really nothing wrong with it, nor is it dangerous, but sometimes we refer to the “country that must not be named” because we like Harry Potter and this is a semi-ridiculous cultural phenomenon.
2. Police: So some might call this country a police state. Before coming here, I found it hard to imagine police on every corner. Not anymore. It’s not just a policeman on every corner, it’s three police three different places on every block downtown. Granted, they’re tourist police and most days they just have pistols (the days when they carry AK-47s you know something’s up) but it’s still quite an impression.
3. Poverty & Social Problems: I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a relatively oil-rich nation that receives $30 billion in US Foreign Aid each year so socially stratified. My uninformed guess is that corruption and an iron grip by the social elite keeps the country as segregated as it is. I’ve wanted to figure out the way to decrease the wealth distribution gap, but there are so many complicated factors, I don’t know where to start. It’s astonishing, however, that a Muslim country, with a faith that strongly opposes social inequality, could be this way. Muslims are supposed to give 2.5% of their income to the poor. I know there is money in this country. I see it on the cars, t-shirts and sunglasses that AUC kids sport around. Among the other major social problems here are: Female Genital Mutilation (recent statistics claim that 96% of females are victims, absolutely appalling), Rampant drug use, particularly by the same tourist police who sit on the streets with big guns, and child homelessness.
4. Employment: I’ve heard that President Mubarak once promised a job for every Egyptian. While this may not have come fully to fruition, there are jobs in the most random places. At any given hotel, bar, or restaurant, there will be attendants waiting to hand you paper towels. It’s almost awkward when you’re literally peeing and a disembodied hand tries to hand you a paper towel. The number of police is obviously astonishing: that constitutes an enormous number of jobs. Finally, there are many people whose job it is to keep the city clean. For example, I often walk through city squares where scruffy looking guys will be tossing buckets of water on the dirty patio, and pushing it around with a mop. I’m not sure how effective that is, but it’s a job. All the random tasks that might pose as jobs to help make the city run smoothly, you can bet someone has that job, but is probably sitting somewhere smoking cigarettes and drinking tea.
5. Egyptian Currency: Speaking of money, it’s impossible to find change around here. The bank spits out fifty or one-hundred pound notes, but they are difficult to use. No one has change, because the government doesn’t print enough. When you don’t have change, people give you frustrated looks, but they are just frustrated more small bills aren’t printed. It makes for inconvenient but funny situations.
6. Political Conversations across Language Barriers: I often wonder what Egyptian people think of the American government. I’ve been told by a guy who works at my hotel that he loves American people. “Egyptian people have a white heart. We love all people.” The same guy, however, expressed his skepticism over US policies in the Middle East. When a man from Oman joined our conversation, Muhammad at the front desk told me “you should go to Oman, beautiful country. But as a visitor! Not a soldier!” He told me “I love Americans and I love you, but if you come invade my country, I will fight you.” He mentioned this not in the immediate, but in the abstract. With my Arabic, all I tried to explain to him was that I was against war, for peace and that I believe the American government didn’t fully understand what it was doing and invaded Iraq under misinformation. It’s difficult to have a nuanced argument across the language barrier.
Eating, Drinking, Smoking
1. Eating: Too much to say really. Some people have said bad things about Egyptian food. I don’t know what they’re talking about. The food here is amazing. Ta’amaya is like fried falafel patties served with vegetables and hummus in a pita. Fool is basically spiced refried beans served in pita. They also make fool ta’amaya mix sandwiches with full hardboiled eggs fried into the falafel. Kofta, schawarma, kabab and shish tawook are also standards. They are all delicious. The most pleasing of all foods, however, is simple koshiri. Koshiri is pasta, rice, fried onion, lentils and tomato sauce all mixed together and flavored with spicy sauce and vinager. It’s a strange mix, but its also delicious, especially for fifty cents or less for an enormous bowl. The American food here is interesting. McDonald’s (featuring the McArabia), Pizza Hut, Hardee’s and KFC are all pretty big here. In addition, nearly every food establishment delivers. McDonald’s delivery is funny to me, especially when you see McDonald’s delivery boys zipping around town on mini-scooters is a crack-up. It’s also fun going to hole-in-the wall places and seeing your food prepared in front of you. If the guy making it serves you meat out of the old container, brushing flies off of it then hopefully dripping sweat off of his forehead into it before serving you, consider yourself especially lucky.
2. Drinking: Tea. Tea is huge. I used to get surprised by young boys carrying around trays of tea from one side of the street, or Tahrir square, to the other. Everybody loves their tea. During Ramadan, if it’s just before Iftar (sundown when you can break fast) and you’re in a cab, strangers will come up to you handing out plastic bags of tea and dates. Oh yeah, if you don’t drink the tea with at least three spoonfuls of sugar, there’s something wrong with you. In terms of alcohol, Muslims aren’t supposed to drink it. During Ramadan the city goes especially dry. There are a few local beers that are pretty good though. There’s “Stella Local” and “Sakara Gold” and “Sakara Red,” which is on every menu, but doesn’t seem to exist. Most of the liquor here has ridiculous names like “Johnnie Talker” and “Jackie Daniels.” Word on the street is too much can make you blind but I think they’re bluffing.
As I said, during Ramadan, supplies run low. A large group of friends and I were up at this hotel roof bar, called Nomad, and as the night went on, we were slowly told that certain beers were no longer available. By the end, the waiter came over and told us “birra khalas.” We took a moment to clarify, and realized that in fact, he did mean that we had drank the bar dry of beer. We sort of felt like asshole Americans, drinking during Ramadan, but how often does one drink a bar out of booze?
Coffee is pretty big too. Turkish coffee is pretty spectacular. It’s thick and sludgy, very sweet and has a nice kick. It’s not as big as tea, but it’s nice to have around. Any other coffee is either NesCafe or Espresso.
3. Shisha: As most people know, shisha is flavored tobacco smoked out of a water-pipe hooka thing. It’s about as universal and Egyptian as you can get. It’s served just about anywhere you could imagine. Before my 7:30am Arabic class, you can find old men drinking tea and smoking shisha in little “ah’was” around downtown. They don’t waste any time getting to work.
Shisha bars and restaurants are interesting. A lot of them are basically like gentlemen’s clubs, because women are basically not allowed. When girls go out to smoke shisha, they’re given dirty looks at best and relocated across the street next to sleeping homeless people at worst (true story). In addition, Americans are given little plastic tips to the Shisha pipes under the auspices of being hygienic. We fondly refer to it as the “shisha condom.” Flavors of shisha are also important. Real men smoke straight, unflavored shisha. If you have to smoke anything flavored, apple is the only way to go. I cringe at the idea of ordering something as fru-fru as cantelope and peach, and being laughed at by the grizzled, shisha veterans in the back.
Finally, Egypt is a big fan of cigarettes. It’s pretty much impossible to go anywhere without seeing someone smoking. I’m always amazed to find myself in a place where people can’t possibly be allowed to smoke, but there will always be someone, kicking a dag. It never fails.
Sexuality
Being surrounded in Egyptian culture causes any American to confront their notions of sexuality. I suppose this is the only way to put it: Sexuality. America is very liberal sexually. While many Americans back in the states and studying here consider the hijab or veiling to be oppressive to woman, Egyptians and Arabs in general regard American culture and female openness in clothing, speech and sex life to be equally degrading and oppressive. This is a male-dominated society. Some Egyptian woman make the choice to wear modest clothing as a sign of their devotion to religion. Others dress modestly often according to the wishes their husbands or families.
“Modest” dress can mean a lot of different things. Thirty or forty years ago, the hijab would have been a relatively foreign sight here in Egypt. Now, the full black dress and full-veil face cover are quite common. The hijab is so common, that I find myself making a looking twice whenever I see a woman without her hair covered. Some woman dress completely western (especially at AUC). Others wear western clothing and a hijab. Many Egyptian girls wear skin tight clothing that reveals curves etc, but shows skin only on their face and hands. Those wearing a fully black cloak are completely covered except for eyes and hands. The most conservative dress I’ve seen (only a few times over the course of a month) are women who have black cloth gloves on and a mesh cover over their eyes and face so that literally none of their skin is showing. American girls are encouraged to wear pants only and cover their shoulders at the very least. Another element of life here is forcing oneself not to check out girls. That would be offensive, even if you are subtle. It feels especially taboo to check out a girl in a hijab, even if she is wearing skin-tight clothing. It’s really not fair, considering that for many guys it’s a knee-jerk reaction. But with brothers and fathers and cousins running around, one has to control wandering eyes.
Public displays of affection are non-existent. On campus, there is more male-female physical contact. On the streets, however, there is virtually none. Being surrounded in this environment does funny things to the psyche of young American males and females. In our dorms, we are forbidden from entering the rooms of anyone of the opposite sex. This is strictly enforced. Physical contact between males and females in the dorm is tolerated, but generally frowned upon.
To make things more interesting, despite all the cultural material we read about and hear about, the affection shown between Arab men throws off a lot of males and females here. American students go out at night coed, but Egyptians often are segregated by sex. Thus, walking around at night is basically group after group of Arab guys talking loudly, holding hands, putting their arms around each other and acting in ways that most Americans would probably perceive as gay if they didn’t know any better. I have gotten used to this, but it is funny to observe the reaction of other Americans who go to schools in Kentucky or the South for example. To be fair, things get pretty awkward when my friend Nur, the security guard who is my age, runs his fingers through my hair. This atmosphere, in which most Arabs and American guys are often in the company of exclusively men has led us to conclude that this country is “one big Bromance.”
Given the environment, twenty and twenty-one year old males go through a lot. Most people have resigned themselves to the fact that any sort of relationship here won’t go beyond (to borrow a phrase from my sixth grade “Students Today Aren’t Ready for Sex or STARS, curriculum) “friendly looks and smiles.”
Misc. Culture
1. Egyptian People: Despite all the everyday frustrations, Egyptian people are some of the kindest, most welcoming people of anywhere I’ve ever experienced. Sometimes they are trying to scam you, so you have to watch out, but mostly they are very genuine, very welcoming, and very accommodating people. Many times at restaurants or just on the street, someone will begin talking with you. They will ask you where you are from. “America, great country. You are very welcome here in Egypt.” They will practice Arabic with you for a bit and tell you how good you are. They love the fact that you chose to visit their country, and make you want to come back. Especially in tourist areas, where there’s a financial interest in making you feel good, you are treating like a king. Not like a “you are American so you are superior” way, just a “we are so happy you’re here and want you to truly enjoy our country” kind of way. The often overwhelming bustle of Cairo can get to you, but a few encounters with the people here always leave you smiling.
2. Traffic: Let’s talk about traffic. The Egyptians are great, but you can’t talk have sweet and not expect bitter. So one of my professors was talking about what it’s like to drive here. She says whenever she gets in the car she prays and stays in the far right lane (if you can call anything a lane) and lets taxis and everyone whoosh by her. Basically, if you are in a taxi, you get well exposed to driving here. There is a science to driving here. As a foreigner, you see cars sliding through inches of space to change lanes at 60 miles per hour. A car will pull in front of your cab and there must be some signal, because sometimes the cab just doesn’t stop and the other car does, and sometimes the cab stops at the last minute. In conclusion, traffic here is chaos when it’s moving, and slllloooowwww when it’s not. Throw bikers balancing boxes of pita on their head and donkey-drawn carts in the mix and it gets real interesting. Oh yeah, sometimes dudes just sleep on the donkey carts getting pulled through traffic.
3. Taxis: While on the topic of traffic, let’s talk about taxis. Taxis are quite the Egyptian experience. Sometimes you have an awkward ride where the driver doesn’t say a word. Sometimes the driver won’t shut up and asks you all sorts of questions. One of my first cab experiences was with Yahya with a group of guys. He was smoking and drinking a beer while zooming down the highway driving as crazy as cabbies do. He tells Robby in the front to throw the beer out the window, then bellows with delight as it shatters on the highway. Cab rides fluctuate greatly in price, or at least asked price. The other night, one cabbie charged 50 pounds that another group of Americans had paid seven pounds for. It’s a good way to learn how to haggle in Arabic, but the best solution is just to give them a low amount of money and run away.
4. Walking/Crossing streets: Whenever walking down the street, a car can pull up behind you and start honking wildly until you shift over six inches and it brushes by with literally a couple of inches worth of breathing room. You get used to it. Things get complicated because everyone walks in the street, and you try to pass people walking at you while taxis or other cars are coming up behind you or head on. Crossing the street is another fun part of Egypt. One either waits for a very small break in traffic to dash across, of just walks in front of cars, waits on the often non-existent lane markers (risky in itself) and continues walking in front of oncoming traffic. If you give the oncoming car a few seconds it will give you time to cross without being clipped. It’s a beautiful system.
5. The noise in Cairo: Aside from constant honking running about twenty-four hours a day, there are plenty of other common noises you’ll experience from the top of a hotel or walking down the street. First, greeting you every morning is a woman peddling lettuce out of a box balanced on her head. You can hear it from my 11th floor room several blocks away. Also, a little nerve-wracking at first, fireworks and firecrackers go off all the time. I don’t even know why. Then, there’s always the comforting call to prayer that can ring out inpredictably. Sometimes, if you’re in the right spot in the city, all the calls to prayer blend together into a ridiculous cacophony of “Allah” drawn out for a good fifteen minutes. It all blends together beautifully.
6. Pollution: Speaking of traffic and noise, let’s talk pollution. Cairo, to the acknowledgement of the AUC newspaper, was recently crowned number one worldwide in air pollution. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that gas is leaded and fifty cents a gallon (expensive now according to Egyptians). Walking anywhere with a large road around leads to watery eyes and coughing. Especially around the main downtown square where AUC is located. Noise pollution is constant, as one can gather from number four. When flying out of Cairo to the Sinai, I was confused by the thick cloud cover, because it had been a beautiful sunny day. It turns out the “cloud-cover” was just an enormous cloud-like mass of pollution lodged in the atmosphere. It makes me feel a little silly using energy-saving lightbulbs.
7. The Nile: it’s an enormous disgustingly polluted river, but there is something mystical about driving across it every day. It’s the Nile, what else can I say? One of the world’s biggest crocodiles recently escaped from Cairo Zoo and is apparently terrorizing swimmers (I guess there are people who swim the Nile) and fisherman. Just another standard day in Cairo.
8. Heat and Air Conditioning: The heat is oppressive, but it’s starting to cool off now that October is approaching. Wearing pants and shoes doesn’t help. Sweat is a way of life. Air conditioning is obviously a necessity, but everywhere you walk, the moisture from the machines drips on you. Walking down the sidewalk is a dangerous affair, considering that every tall building has hundreds of AC units on every face.
9. Tissues for Sale: At every minimally public place, one can find a veiled woman in black trying to sell those individual packets of tissues. People buy them a lot I guess, because the women are always there, and people are always pulling them out to swab themselves dry. Once I was walking down the street, this little girl is tugging on my shirt trying to sell me tissues, so finally I say, a little exasperated “Kam?” (How much) She replies “Ayee haga…” (Anything). It was far more adorable than pathetic, so I bought some tissues. They’ve actually been very handy.
10. The Metro: it’s very open and clean. Unfortunately, there is no AC inside, so its extremely sweaty, and people push you every which way. There isn’t much concept of lines here in Egypt. To get a ticket, you put a pound in this little glass opening and a guy gives you a ticket. Everyone mobs around him in a big ball so you have to claw tooth and nail to the front. The same goes for getting on of off the metro. Everyone creates a blob around the door, and no one can get out without shoving through the blob. You know your stop is nearby when someone behind you starts pushing you towards the door from the back.
11. Lines?: Continuing off of the past entry, lines don’t exist at the supermarket, or restaurants, or bookstores, or for taxis, or for getting through the metal detectors into AUC. Sometimes people shove past you, slyly slip by you, or just literally hang out right in front of whatever you’re trying to get to, regardless of whether they want to get something or not.
12. Egyptian Business: Moving back to the nature of the people, some of the ways capitalism works here are pretty interesting. There is so much cooperation between businesses. For example, one day a man, Ahmed, heard my friends and I asking about a falafel shop. He took us there, got us a table, ordered our food, got us drinks, brought it to us, took our money, paid and watched us eat. We had zero interaction with the staff of the hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Then, we went to his perfume shop, where he took us for a hefty sum (all part of the plan I assume) but a kid from a tea shop down the block brought us tea. Within the short period of time, we had interacted with three or four different places of business, all coordinating together to land us in that perfume shop. This example is one of the more ill-intentioned ones though. At any restaurant, if you order a shisha pipe and they don’t have any, they’ll just go next door and borrow one from their neighboring business. Or if you don’t have any small bills, they will go to the shop across the street and get some for you. It’s a very interesting mix of socialism and collective ownership designed to make a tourist getting milked for money very smooth. As a semi-tourist, you recognize it, but are so impressed with the ease of it all that you can’t get upset.
13. Waiters/Service Industry: Everyone who provides any service for you always remembers you. Even with a very non-Egyptian name like “Jesse” I am remembered. I went to a bar one night for the first time and met Ibrahim, the waiter. I left for a weekend trip to the beach. Not only did he remember me by name four days later when I went back, he asked how my beach trip was. I hadn’t told him anything about it. He had actually remembered my friends and asked where I was and how I was doing. In any tourist place, Egyptians will remember you, welcome you back and call you by name. It’s very personal. They will offer their mobile number to you so you can call them, and they will take amazing care of you as soon as you’re back, even weeks later.
14. Music: In any restaurant or taxi or bus, there is always one of two types of “music” playing. Either you will be listening to Egyptian pop (90% chance of it being Amr Diab, the Egyptian pop singer) and it all sounds exactly the same. Some people get sick of it, I’m starting to embrace it. You might think hearing the word “habibi” (my love) twenty times each song, in every song, could get old, but I am into it. The second possible audio is recorded prayers. This can range from solemn sounding Qur’anic recitation to upbeat singing to angry and intimidating shouted Arabic sermons, where you basically here “Muslim” or “Allah” every other word. We took a bus back from the beach once, and listened to a straight four hours of Christian prayer recitation. When we asked what they were listening to, they thought we wanted a change and put on a “Greatest Hits of Barbara Streisand” tape. We should have just kept our mouths shut about the prayers.
15. Egyptian names: There is a 60% chance anyone you meet is named Ahmed. There is a 30% chance a person will be named Muhammad. There is a 10% chance you will meet someone named Mahmoud. These aren’t real stats, but I think that’s probably about how it breaks down, and I’m sure less than 1% of the population is named anything different than Ahmed, Muhammad or Mahmoud.
16. Egyptian livelihood: Until anyone gets married, and maybe later, they have to live with their parents. Rent in Cairo is too high to live on your own as a young person, considering the average person makes 1000 LE per month. This is around $175.00. That’s not much of a yearly wage.
17. Buildings/Roads/Construction Projects?: So the look of this city is easy to get used to. It’s certainly not a clean, complete U.S. city. However, it’s not exactly boarded up and abandoned everywhere either. There are a lot of potholes and piles of dirt and garbage laying on the street. There are also cars double-parked everywhere, further complicating the whole walking-in-the-street thing. Most standard apartment buildings are in decent shape, with AC units dripping on the laundry hanging and drying on lower floors. There are, however, a lot of construction and housing projects that clearly just never get finished. It seems that someone comes up with the idea to build something, money runs out, and the project just dies. The look of the city is easy to get used to though. It’s relatively Western in places, but still holds it’s own as the Middle Eastern megalopolis.
18. Expats: They basically make their own world here. There are American softball leagues in Maadi, where a large American expat community lives. They drink beer during Ramadan (pretty Haram) and eat pork sandwiches (also Haram). We’ve been to this “British Club” where gin and tonics are all the rage and old British men and woman sit around and occasionally dance. I think these people came here to Egypt to work, then decided to carve out little pieces of Cairo for themselves.
19. Marwa Palace: I promise to post more about Marwa Palace Hotel, where I am fortunate enough to reside. AUC is using this facility for the first time, because of their large enrollments, so they’re working out the kinks, to say the least. The maid wakes you up every day when you’re mostly naked, which is awkward and probably fairly Haram. If you want toilet paper or fresh towels, you have to leave a tip on your pillow before you leave. There are AUC security guards who sit around ensuring that there is no mixing of genders anywhere but common rooms. They get very bored and talk to us a lot. I could go on and on about them, and the stories will continue as the semester wore on.
For now, this is a post from the Facebook group “Marwa Palace – Getting Better Every Day” created by one of the girls living here. The AUC newspaper actually wrote an article about us. As it may be difficult to pick up on without being here, anything that sounds amazing is sarcasm:
The Palace:
Have you ever been stuck in an elevator with 8 people?
Have you ever been consistently walked in on by the maids while you were in your boxers or just getting out of the shower?
Have you ever been unsure whether the elevator will go up or down?
Has your door knob ever come off in your hand when you tried to open your door?
Have you ever slept on a rock that they call a pillow and it smells like dirty feet?
Do your maids take your sheets and never return them?
Have you ever had your queen bed made with twin sheets?
Do you enjoy the pool and the well stocked gym?
Do you leave 20 minutes early to get down to the lobby, just in case?
Is your shower curtain falling off the wall?
Laundry?
Are your boxers ironed?
Have you found the cafeteria?
Are you afraid to turn on your stove?
Have you heard the rumor that Marwa is getting internet soon?
This should get everyone mostly up to speed. I apologize again for the belated nature of this information on my trip. I promise to be better about putting up more specific stories from my trip and keeping everyone filled in. Thanks for checking it out. Miss everyone back home. Min Masr, Ma Salema
