My apologies!!

I'm so sorry I haven't written in two months! I have been extremely busy, and once I finished school I was extremely lazy!! Here is a summary of what is written below:

1) Spring Break: I traveled to Syria, Palestine, and Israel
2)My family came to visit! Hmmm I think I almost killed them several times. Lets just say they had a unique experience:)
3) Summer!
a) I moved apartments, and have 2 new roommates
b) I found some places to play soccer
c) started in a new school to learn Arabic
d) sleep at the strangest times
e) BEACH!!!

My family Came!

My family came to visit me in Egypt! It was really good to see them again, plus I was able to show them my crazy life and Egypt and have them meet the people that I talk about all the time:) My family definitely experienced all of Egypt. We stayed in Cairo for a few days where we hung out at the pyramids, went shopping for souvenirs, and watched the sufi dancers. Brent was even able to hang out with me at night and see what Egyptians do for fun. He was amazed that there were still traffic jams at 3 am. Yes, Cairo is crazy and full of traffic. Every time we rode a taxi, my parents were thrilled. There is no traffic system in Cairo, so everyone drives as they please and honk their horns constantly. It was almost like a game of bumper cars and haha some of the cars looked like they were actually bumper cars. We then traveled to Aswan and Luxor. The two cities are homes to all the temples of the ancient Pharaohs. The temples were extremely massive and full of hieroglyphics. Between the two cities we visited: Philae Temple, Edfu Temple, Kom Ombo Temple, Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Queens, Colossi of Memnon, funerary temple of Queen hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings, Karnak temple, and Luxor temple. The history of those places are so vast, I recommend buying a book or renting a video if you are interested. I enjoyed visiting the temples but it was so HOT and some buses had no air conditioning, which caused some problems. But I knew the right people and came up with stupid excuses and landed a nicer hotel and nice tour cars. In between Aswan and Luxor we lived on a falluka for two days. We originally thought the falluka was going to be one of the many large boats. Oops, thanks to my miscommunication we were surprised with a small boat and a small sail. We shared the boat with 4 other people, plus the 4 crewmen. Then we freaked out when there was no bathroom! So whenever someone had to go to the bathroom we had to pull off to the bank and find a place to go to the bathroom. That was a challenge in itself because most of the land was farmland and people show up in the most surprising places! hahah oh well, talk about roughing it. Luckily the crewmen were really nice, which made the trip more enjoyable and I got to use my Arabic speaking skills with them, which was helpful because they sometimes didn't understand our English:) We even tried camel meat and swam in the Nile river! The water was soooooo cold and the current was really strong so we had to hold onto a rope, but the water felt wonderful because it was so hot and of course there was no AC on the boat:)

After surviving Aswan and Luxor, we took a plane to Sharm el Sheik. It is a beach resort on the red sea. It was heavenly. I did not feel like I was in Egypt at all, mostly because everything was in English and there were mainly foreigners:) The resort was really clean and it was nice to be pampered and do nothing but swimming and tanning on the beach. We even went snorkeling! It was as if we were inside the discovery channel:)

We stayed in Sharm for three days then returned to Cairo, where my dad helped me find a new apartment and my mom helped me pack. I had a lot of problems in my apartment and the brokers wouldn't help me, even when my dad was there! So we called it quits, my dad pretended to throw a fit and we got some money back and I found a new apartment. Luckily I found an apartment in the same building, but on a different floor. It made moving a lot easier because I didn't have to rely on a car and I didn't have to venture out to meet new neighbors and find new stores. Although I still get lost here:) haha.

All in all, it was really nice to see my family. They definitely saw a different side of life, but I think I surprised them too many times (such as thinking they would be able to eat food off the street. I forgot I got sick several times before I could eat the food) but they also adjusted a lot better than I thought. The were good at understanding the taxi system and could even cross the busy streets by themselves! (haha yes, there are no crosswalks or traffic lights in Cairo:)) They even learned a few phrases in Arabic. It is worth sending them an email asking about their experiences. I'm sure they have a lot more stories because what may seem normal to me is probably new to them.

family visit

Syria

Syria is a very interesting country. Some historians claim the first alphabet was found in the region, it played a crucial role under major empires including the Pharaohs, Greeks, and Romans. The crusades and struggles with Israel deeply involved Syria, and to some extent associated with the Axis of Evil....and I went there:)

My friends and I were really lucky to make it into Syria because we didn't obtain a Visa while we were still in America. So the only option we had was to wait at the border, and we waited for 6 hours! But that is considered a short amount of time. My friends who entered Syria through the Turkish border (we went through Jordan) had to wait 24 hours! wow. Luckily the soldiers were all really nice. They didn't hassle us, instead they permitted us to take all the chairs to sleep on and smiled at us when we played UNO on the floor. I didn't expect this kind of treatment from a so called "terrorist" country. Hmmm oh well. But I have to admit, some aspects of the government were a little frightening. There were pictures and statues of the president everywhere! Even on the cars! And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere...like every 5 feet. And there were military advertisements in every building. Some of my friends even even met some soldiers who were preparing to travel to Iraq and fight the Americans the next day! What an experience! But of course like every country the majority of the citizens are not in tune with the government. The owner of the hotel helped us argue with the taxis over prices, and when we were lost the people were very helpful and even invited us to tea.

The first day in Syria, we stayed in Damascus. Damascus is so beautiful! It has the busy vibe of Cairo but with fewer people, overpasses for pedestrians, less pollution, and mountains! I was in love, but Cairo will always be in my heart:) In Damascus, we visited the Ommayad Mosque. It is a beautiful mosque! I has 3 towers, one of which some Muslims believe that Jesus will return to. It also contains the so thought burial place of John the Baptiste (which is really cool, but I expected it to be in a Christian shrine, then a Muslim shrine). We also visited the mausoleum of Salah al-Din (the main Muslim fighter during the Crusades). I still can't get over how much history there is in Damascus. They also have a large market (similar to the market in Cairo but with less souvenirs) and they are also famous for ice cream with pistachios on top. Yummy:)

The next day we went to Azem Palace:
he Azem Palace was built in 1749 by the governor of Damascus, As'ad Pasha al-Azem. It's fashioned in typical Damascene style of striped stonework, achieved by alternating layers of black basalt and limestone. The rooms of the modest palace are magnificent, decorated with inlaid tile work and the most exquisite painted ceilings.

Azem Palace comprises a complex of splendid buildings, courtyards and gardens that were built between 1749 and 1752 as a private residence for the governor of Damascus, As'ad Pasha al-Azem. It remained the Azem residence until the beginning of the 20th century, when the family moved outside the Old City and the house was sold to the French to become an Institute of Archaeology and Islamic Art. Badly damaged by fire during uprisings against the French in 1925, it has since been beautifully restored.

After buying your tickets turn left, then right, into a small leafy courtyard, before entering the main courtyard, which has a serene central pool and fountain. The courtyard is fringed by low-rise buildings, all boasting the beautiful black basalt, limestone and sandstone banding technique known as ablaq, a characteristic of Mamluk architecture typically found throughout the Levant and Egyptian, and later adopted by Ottoman masons.

Off the courtyard are a number of sumptuously decorated rooms with wooden panelling, lustrous blue tiling, painted ceilings and coloured paste work - a technique in which a pattern is incised into stone and then filled in with pastes made from different coloured stones to give the effect of an immensely complicated stone inlay. This area served as the haramlik (family or women's quarters).

Also known as the Museum of the Arts & Popular Traditions of Syria, the rooms contain rather kitsch mannequin displays, each with a different theme (the wedding, pilgrimage etc), and displays of exquisite ceramics, costumes, textiles and musical instruments.

We also made friends with the guard. We visited him the rest of the days we were in Damascus and drank tea with him. He also recommended to some really good places to eat. Its amazing what you get once you learn Arabic:) We also managed to find a gorgeous Church on Palm Sunday. It made us all homesick, because we wanted to go to Church:) oh well.

Syria Cont'd

While we were staying in Damascus, we took a day trip to Palmyra. It is an amazing place that is out in the middle of no where, and it is so hot! I was smart enough to wear jeans and a sweater. Ah! Well they can't complain that I wasn't dressed appropriately:)

Palmyra was an Assyrian caravan town for over 1000 years and was later annexed by Rome in AD 214. The city's most famous character was Zenobia (the 1/2 Greek 1/2 Arab Queen) who claimed to be a descendant from Cleopatra. She ruled Palmyra in 267 after the suspicious death of her husband. She later lost power to the Romans then the Muslims conquered the area and then it was ultimately destroyed by an earthquake.

The site is well preserved and is full of never ending columns. Inside the area there is the Temple of Bel which dates back to 32 AD. It is the most preserved temple in the area and the passage way for sacrificial animals is clearly seen. Yuck. I'm glad that blood eventually goes away!
The ottoman governor also built a huge residence inside the columns along with a theater and a small shrine dedicated the god Baal Shamin (God of storm and fertilizing rains).

Outside the premises there are large towers. My friends and I thought they were watch towers but it turns out that they are burial chambers. The towers actually keep cool in the heat and have several niches to stack the dead bodies. One famous tower was called the "Hypogeum of the three brothers" The colors inside the chambers are still intact and there are beautiful frescoes of Greek gods.


http://www.made-in-syria.com/palmyra.html


After touring, we jumped on a bus and rode it for 3 hours, returned to Damascus where we hopped on a second bus and traveled to Aleppo.

Aleppo

Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria. It is similar to Damascus with its large population and large markets but it does seem older because the people are more traditional (in a conservative sense).

Pre-20th-Century History

Aleppo vies with Damascus for the title of the world's oldest continually inhabited city. In fact, a handful of other Middle Eastern towns make this claim too, but texts from the ancient kingdom of Mari on the Euphrates River indicate that Aleppo was already the centre of a powerful state as long ago as the 18th century BC, and the site may have been continuously inhabited for the past 8000 years. Its pre-eminent role in Syria came to an end with the Hittite invasions of the 17th and 16th centuries BC, and the city appears to have fallen into obscurity thereafter. During the reign of the Seleucids, who arrived in the wake of Alexander the Great's campaign, it was given the name Beroia, and with the fall of Palmyra to the Romans, it became the major commercial link between the Mediterranean and Asia.

The town was destroyed by the Persians in AD 611, falling again to the Muslims during their invasion in 637. The Byzantines overwhelmed the town in 961 and again in 968 but they could not take the Citadel. Three disastrous earthquakes shook the town in the 10th century, and another, on August 9, 1138, ravaged the city and the surrounding area. Although estimates from this time are very unreliable, it is believed that 230,000 people died, making it the fourth deadliest earthquake in recorded history.

In 1124, the Crusaders (under Baldwin II, the Frankish king of Jerusalem) laid siege to the town. After raids by the Mongols in 1260 and 1401, in which Aleppo was all but emptied of its population, the city finally came into the Ottoman Turkish orbit (in 1517.) It prospered greatly until an earthquake in 1822 killed over 60% of the inhabitants and wrecked many buildings, including the Citadel.
Modern History

By 1901, Aleppo's population was around 125,000. The city revived when it came under French colonial rule but slumped again following the decision to give Antioch to Turkey (in 1938-1939.)

From 1952, many parts of the old city were sacrificed to progress. This started with broad roads being built through the city centre. In the 1970s, this process had reached its peak. Much of the old substance was demolished, and replaced by modern apartment buildings; what had still survived was left to decay. The turnaround came in 1986. Since the old city was declared a site of world cultural heritage by UNESCO in 1986, several Syrian and international organisations - such as the Agha Khan Trust for Culture, the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development and the German GTZ agency - work for its conservation.
Recent History

Today the major local industries are silk-weaving and cotton-printing. Products from the surrounding area include wool, hides, dried fruits and, particularly, pistachios - for which Aleppo is justly famous. Aleppo was named by the Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) as the capital of Islamic culture in 2006.

The city is beautiful and the people were once again very helpful. While we were there we toured the Citadel. The Citadel is amazing! It is literally like a fort. My friends and I randomly walked everywhere and the Syrian Children climbed the buildings like it was a jungle course (hmm we did too:)). The citadel has a large moat and towers over the city. It was a main base during the 12th century Crusades and then was re-strengthened during the Mamluk period.

The next day we took a day trip to visit the Basilica of St. Simeon and the dead city Serjilla. The Basilica overlooks farm land, and is amazing. Most of the structures are intact and the broken columns are overgrown with grass. St. Simeon was one of Syria's most eccentric Christians. In AD 423 Simeon climbed to the top of a 30 M pillar and went to spend 36 years on top of it and other pillars. He wanted to be away from civilization and closer to God, but he attracted more attention because pilgrims came to visit him and ask him questions about life. He also wore a chain around his neck to prevent him from plummeting to his death. After his death (I'm not sure what the cause was) a church was built in his memory.

My friends and I happened to go visit the Basilica the same day as a school field trip. So like my trip to Yemen, I have thousands of pictures of kids!


Later that day we had our driver take us to the dead city of Serjilla. It is an ancient city that almost completely intact, but all the people were gone. Its worth seeing but I think my friends and I had more fun with our driver. He is a really nice guy and he brought his wife along. They later invited us to their house and to meet the rest of their family. It was nice to be in a home for a little while:)

Syria

Israel/Palestine

After touring ancient Roman ruins and citadels we took a bus from Aleppo, Syria to Amman, Jordan. It was an extremely long bus ride that we caught at 11 pm! I have problems sleeping on buses but was so exhausted that I slept on the floor! haha I got a lot of strange looks, but they let me sleep:) We had to get our passports re-stamped before we left Syria and had to unload all our luggage. As the bus was leaving I realized that the guy sitting next to me was gone. The bus left him! And this was his first time to leave the country! poor guy. But after a few shouts and foreignized Arabic we got the problem solved and found the lost guy. He looked like he was about to cry.:)

Once we made it to Jordan, my friends and I caught a taxi to the border of Israel. As you know Syria and Israel don't get along, so we couldn't go straight from Syria to Israel, which would have saved 5 hours of traveling time. Oh well, hopefully someday the governments will reach a truce. They should do it just for the sake of the poor college travelers:) haha.

Israel is amazing. It was weird to be in a westernized country in the Middle East. There were even women soldiers! And they looked tough! I didn't want to make them angry thats for sure. But there were actually a lot of really young soldiers thanks to the draft. We had to wait 3 hours at the border. They didn't appreciate the fact that we didn't want them to stamp our passports (If people have an Israeli stamp, they are forbidden from many countries including Yemen, Syria, and Saudi Arabia) But they luckily understood and we were Americans so the have to treat us nicely:) But it was really sad how they treated the Arabs. They had no patience with them! Its amazing how fear and internal conflict with a particular group can change the scenario of a simple situation.

In Jerusalem we stayed in a hostel just outside the walls of the old city in the Arab quarter. Inside the old city is a lot of markets, the wailing wall and the Dome of the Rock. Here is a good website that explains the Holy sites in Israel http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-dome-of-the-rock.htm


Israel is beautiful! It is clean and you can tell that a lot of money was put into the infrastructure. It was also really cool to be in the holiest place on earth. After shopping for souvenirs and chowing down on bread on hummus we followed the Via Dolorosa trail. It consists of several stations that follow the path Jesus Christ took before he was crucified. Here are the different stations:
1)Courtyard of Omariye College. The site where Jesus was condemned to death.
2)Chapels of the Condemnation and Flagellation. The area where Jesus took up the cross.
3)The corner of El-Wad road. Area where Jesus fell for the first time.
4)Armenian Catholic chapel. Area where Jesus met his mother.
5)Franciscan oratory. Area where Simon the Cyrenian is forced to carry the cross.
6)Convent of the Little Sisters of Jesus. Area where Veronica wiped the sweat from Jesus' face.
7)Roman column in a Franciscan chapel. Area where Jesus fell for the second time.
8)Greek monastery. Where Jesus consoled the women of Jerusalem.
9)Holy Sepuchre Basilica (actually contains several stations)
a) Where Jesus fell for the 3rd time
b) Where Jesus was stripped of his garments
c) Where Jesus was nailed to the cross and later taken down
d) Where Jesus was laid in a tomb
e) a monument commemorating his resurrection.

It was an amazing walk and it was interesting to see all the different kinds/denominations of churches inside Jerusalem. But it was also frustrating how all the monks were fighting over power. Reminds me of that

After the long walk we had dinner and met some Palestinians with Israeli IDs. Since they are Muslims and Palestinian they can't be Israeli, but technically aren't in Palestine anymore. Complicated, I know. Anyway, they showed us around at night. It was a lot of fun. Do the touristy things during the day, then experience the nightlife with the locals. My kind of vacation:)

The next day we took a day trip to Tel Aviv so Jessamyn could visit a family friend. I love Tel Aviv! It has a younger population like a college town, but is in a big city setting. Plus there is a beach! We didn't have our bathing suits but we at least took advantage of the sun. I however fell asleep and burned only half of my face! oops! If I return to Israel, I will definitely spend more time in Tel Aviv.
On the way home to our hostel we met some Palestinian Christians from Gaza. They were permitted into Jerusalem to celebrate Easter. They were really nice and helped us find our way back to the hostel. We actually saw them the next day in Ramallah, Palestine and they tried to convince us to go to Gaza....no thanks:)

Behind the wall in Palestine...

Let me make this clear. I DO NOT LIKE THE WALL BETWEEN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE. Its really frightening because it is huge and is covered in barbed wire and the check points are complicated. My friends and I felt like we were being shoved around like a bunch of cattle, and we were Americans so we received nice treatment! It is also obvious that the wall helped suck a lot of life out of Palestine. Every Arab city I have visited is full of energy and people haggling over goods. Palestine (the areas where I visited which was Bethlehem and Ramallah, the "nicer" areas) was like a ghost town. We didn't see that many people, especially near the wall and it was really quiet. The tourists helped with the noise when we visited the Nativity Church that was built where they believed Jesus was born.

Ramallah was busier, but still depressing. We had dinner at a friend's family house and they were so nice, and the food was amazing! But it was hard to hear that they had problems leaving the country, even for work related matters.

I don't have a lot to say about Palestine because I didn't spend that much time there, but I at least learned a lot about the affects of the occupation and I didn't even get to witness the most oppressed places.

I really hope the conflict between Israel and Palestine gets solved. Its really hard to see people live with fear, hatred, and frustration. I also think that people should be able to leave their country whenever they want (but this problem exists in the majority of 3rd world countries as well). Hmm, this is when I wish that the Miss America's words of world peace would actually come true. Hahaha.

Israel/Palestine

Interesting look on life in Cairo

Thought that this was interesting....and also very true!! I know its not politically correct to copy and paste the article, but blogspot wasn't a share option:(


June 20, 2008
Cairo Journal
With a Word, Egyptians Leave It All to Fate
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

CAIRO — The McDonald’s here has golden arches, the same golden arches as anywhere else in the world. The food is prepared the same assembly-line way, too. But there is an invisible, or more precisely, divine, element in bringing that burger to the plate that the uninitiated may not be prepared for.

“Inshallah,” or “God willing,” the counterman said as he walked off to see about a burger without onions at the McDonald’s on the Alexandria Desert Road, 30 miles from the center of Cairo.

Egyptians have always been religious, from Pharaonic times to the present. Any guidebook to Egypt alerts tourists to Egyptians’ frequent use of inshallah in discussing future events, a signal of their deep faith and belief that all events occur, or don’t occur, at God’s will. “See you tomorrow,” is almost always followed by a smile and, “inshallah.”

But there has been inshallah creep, to the extreme. It is now attached to the answer for any question, past, present and future. What’s your name, for example, might be answered, “Muhammad, inshallah.”

“I say to them, ‘You are already Muhammad or you are going to be Muhammad?’ ” said Attiat el-Abnoudy, a documentary filmmaker in Cairo.

Inshallah has become the linguistic equivalent of the head scarf on women and the prayer bump, the spot where worshipers press their foreheads into the ground during prayers, on men. It has become a public display of piety and fashion, a symbol of faith and the times. Inshallah has become a reflex, a bit of a linguistic tic that has attached itself to nearly every moment, every question, like the word “like” in English. But it is a powerful reference, intended or not.

Political and social commentators here say its frequent use reflects or fuels, or both, the increasing degree to which people have dressed the routine of daily life up with religious accessories. Will the taxi get me to my destination? Will my sandwich come without onions? What’s my name? It’s always, “God willing.”

“Now inshallah is used in a much broader way than 20 years ago,” said the Egyptian playwright Aly Salem. “We always used to say inshallah in relation to plans we were going to do in the future. Now it is part of the appearance of piety.”

The starting point for inshallah is faith, but just like the increasing popularity of the head scarf and the prayer bump, its new off-the-rack status reflects the rising tide of religion around the region. Observance, if not necessarily piety, is on the rise, as Islam becomes for many the cornerstone of identity. That has put the symbols of Islam at the center of culture, and routine.

“Over the past three decades, the role of religion has been expanded in everything in our lives,”’ said Ghada Shahbendar, a political activist who studied linguistics at American University in Cairo.

Deference to the divine has become a communal reflex, a compulsive habit, like the incessant honking of Egyptian cabdrivers — even when there are no other cars on the street.

Samer Fathi, 40, has a small kiosk that sells chips and cigarettes and phone cards downtown. He was asked for a 100-unit phone card and responded almost absent-mindedly “inshallah,” as he flipped through the stack to find one.

At 19 Ismael Street the elevator door opened.

“Going down?”

“Inshallah,” a passenger replied.

As it has become routine, inshallah has also become a kind of convenience, a useful dodge, a bit of theological bobbing-and-weaving to avoid commitment. No need to say no. If it doesn’t happen, well, God didn’t mean it to happen. Nazly Shahbendar, Ghada’s daughter, said for example if she was invited to a party she did not want to attend, she would never say no.

“I’d say inshallah,” said Ms. Shahbendar who is 24 and anything but a picture of the new religiosity. She is not veiled or shy about talking to men; she smokes in front of her mother.

She also points out that inshallah is not the only religious term to infiltrate the lexicon of routine. The younger Ms. Shahbendar, like many people here, have taken to using the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of belief, as a routine greeting. So instead of “How are you? Fine, and you?” she will say to a friend “There is no God but God,” to which the friend will complete the statement. “And Muhammad is his prophet.”

People now answer the phone that way, too, skipping hello altogether. It would be something like Christians greeting each other with “Christ is risen!” followed by “Christ will come again.” Not just on Sundays, but every day.

“We are a very religious people, Egyptians,” said Mostafa Said, 25, as he told his friend he hoped, inshallah, to have his car turn indicator fixed by next week. “We believe God is responsible for what happens, even to the car.”

But it is not just about faith in the celestial that has people invoking God. It is also, at least for some, a lack of faith in the earthbound rulers who run the place. People here are tired — of the rising prices and the eroding wages, of the traffic, of the corruption, of the sense that it is every man for himself.

“In this place, when something works, or you want something to work, you thank God, because it’s certainly not the government who is going to help you,” said Sherif Issa, 48, a taxi driver in Cairo with a nicotine-stained mustache and a fair size belly. “It’s because everything is going in the wrong direction — who can we look up to except God?”

That Mr. Issa is a Christian is evidence that the use of inshallah is not just a phenomenon of Egypt’s Muslims.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian or a Muslim,” he said. “I’m going to take you to your house, arriving there in a decent amount of time is already a miracle. Of course I say inshallah!”

Nadim Audi contributed reporting.