Egypt wins the African Cup!!

This year's African Cup (for soccer) took place in Ghana...and Egypt won!! Jessica and I were always going to cafes to watch the games.

Here is a clip of the best goals during the tournament:




We even bought Egyptian flags...and one is hanging up in our apartment (yes with a lovely duct tape frame:))Anyways, Jessica and I watched the final match between Egypt an Cameroon in a cafe in Mohandiseen. lol we were a little jealous that we weren't the only foreigners...but the two other guys were cool. It was so much fun watching the game and it was a really good game too!! You can watch some highlights on this link:


http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/11022008/58/african-cup-nations-cairo-celebrates-historic-triumph.html


And the best part of it all....Egypt won!!!!!!!!!
"Egypt won the Africa Cup of Nations for the sixth time in the tournament's history, this afternoon in Accra, Ghana. The Pharaohs (Egypt) defeated the Indomitable Lions (Cameroon) 1 - 0 to win the Cup with a goal by Mohamed Aboutrika in the 77th minute of the game. Egypt was the Cup winner last time (2006), when the finals were played in Cairo. While the Pharaohs were not favored to win, they were always strong contenders. "


http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/11022008/58/african-cup-nations-cairo-celebrates-historic-triumph.html


After the game, we cheered Egypt some more at the cafe and waited for Ahmed to pick us up....because as foreigners and girls it was too dangerous for us to walk to ride a taxi home alone. Plus he wanted to celebrate the victory with us:) In between the cafe an our apartment is a street called Gamia al-dowall. It is a huge street, and the majority of Egypt was there celebrating the match. Of course Jessica and I wanted to go there. We lived in Egypt, cheered for Egypt, and wanted to celebrate with Egypt. But Ahmed wouldn't let us...it was too dangerous...because they might make us dance? hmm Jessica and I couldn't understand the dangers so we gave him an ultimatum. Either he comes with us or we go alone. Haha, he went with us. But we were only on the street for 1 minute...because it really was dangerous!!! With my height and Jessica's red hair, it is hard for us to go unnoticed. All of a sudden the celebrating crowds turned around an started coming towards us!!! We were pushed up against the shop windows and Ahmed was trying to protect us. Then the police came and starting beating people with wooden sticks to leave us alone...they even hit Ahmed! :( so we retraced our steps and some other people helped us escape. But we still didn't know how to get home....so we hid in a Coptic church until the celebrations calmed down. The caretakers of the church were really nice and let us watch a wedding that was taking place. We were even allowed to take pictures during the ceremony. So I whipped out my camera and started taking pictures...but I didn't know where the bride and groom were at first. oops! Once I found them, people realized that there were foreigners attending the wedding. They were sooo happy! and the pushed Jessica, Ahmed and I closer to the stage. But Jessica and Ahmed left me and the next thing I knew I was on stage with the closest relatives of the bride and groom and I was right next to the priest! I was embarrassed....but at the same time happy that I could experience that. Its not everyday that you hide from celebrating fans in a church and next thing you know you are almost part of the wedding!

We were eventually able to walk safely home. Some more of my Egyptian friends met us....so I think Jessica and I had 8 body guards:) we were even able to stop on a bridge where we could safely witness the celebrations on Gamia al-dowall.

And yes, Egypt is still celebrating the championship. I love the people here!!

African Champions

2nd semester in Egypt

All I have to say is that I'm having so much fun right now! I'm keeping myself really busy...to the point that Jessica and I are really happy when we get 6 hours of sleep:) We have met a lot of really cool people, go out almost every night and always do something different...such as: playing pool, squash and ping pong, watching soccer games on tv at home or in cafes, horse back riding at night(its so much fun making the horse run when you can't see anything at all! Ahmed and I even rode a horse that bucked! so scary but cool:)), exploring restaurants and new areas, cooking new foods...and realizing that there are differences between foods in different countries...such as the celery (you will see the pictures and laugh) and of course just hanging out with friends and having a great time. haha Jessica and I hope/plan to return to Egypt together after college....I really hope we can manage that:)

random outings

New start in Egypt

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been crazy busy setting up my new apartment, doing school work, and of course enjoying myself in Cairo!!

I returned to Cairo in February and have been sooo happy ever since! After arriving at the airport, I surprised everyone because I had so much luggage!! haha, I did also buy a lot of stuff for my friends:) I saw Hesham's new car and I was finally able to learn the name of my new street!!

I currently live in Agouza (an area near Mohandiseen and Zamalek) behind the circus (yes a real circus, and we can hear the lion roar...even sometimes see him! so he is our new guardian).

I love my new apartment...haha except in the beginning it was so dusty (no one had lived there for at least 2 months), the toilet had issues, the washer didn't work, and there was no internet. But now, all the problems are solved! And I'm so happy the refrigerator actually works so there is no more food poisoning. I still have problems with the maid, but my Arabic is improving a lot so now I can chew her out in Arabic:) hehe....she is a great cleaner, but doesn't always show up or is 3 hours late. hmmm. Patience is a virtue!! The walls are extremely hard for some reason, so we can't hang anything on the wall:( But luckily I brought duct tape so now we are classy college students with duct tape picture frames. oh well it works:) I'll attach pictures, but the apartment is much bigger than my old one, has a tv, a large balcony, and we have lots of adventures with the sketchy elevators. haha and when they don't work, we get to walk up 10 flights of stairs! so much fun....hah...but good exercise at least. We even have a garden under our building. We can see the Nile river and sometimes a pyramid!! It is much closer to everything in Cairo...so I am much happier here. I can even have people clean my clothes an I can quickly run downstairs to a little corner store and buy anything I need. If they don't have it, then they get it from somewhere else and deliver it. One time they ran out of light plain yogurt, so they found it somewhere else and delivered it...even though it was 1:30 in the morning!:) haha. Now, they know me and my roommate and always have light yogurt in stock. Man I'm so spoiled. There are also no restrictions about people in my apartment...so I have been inviting all my friends. Sometimes they even randomly show up! hahaha. We even know some of our neighbors:) ....I didn't even know my neighbors in Seattle!. One works for a phone company....so if I have any problems he can help...he also works for an NGO in Alexandria that deals with people who have HIV/AIDS and he is willing to invite me to the next meeting:) The other is a Palestinian who is studying at the Canadian University and is sharing his internet with us.....We are friends now and play pool and smoke shisha with his friends:)....so as you can tell....my second semester is much better!!


My new roommate...

Her name is Jessica and she's from Texas (studies at USC) and is the coolest person ever!!!!!!!! We bust a gut everyday, we go everywhere together...get lost, eat babaganoush, an walk home 1 hour from school everyday. She has even gotten used to me running into things and tripping! and I don't scare her anymore when I sleep walk...funny stories. Anyways she always there for me....and its nice to have someone to explore everything and anything!!

new apartment in agouza

Bahrain and United Arab Emirates

On December 21, 2007 I travelled to Bahrain to visit my friend Maryam. This is the second time I have visited her in Bahrain. I met her at a leadership conference in Europe in 2004, and have been good friends with her ever since. It was really fun to see her and her family again and speak a little Arabic...even though Bahraini Arabic is much different than Egyptian Arabic. It totally threw me off guard!! Also, Bahrain is beautiful!! There is no pollution and trash in the streets, and everyone lives in huge villas and drive really nice, clean cars! I almost felt at home...except it was very expensive!!! haha oh well, I window shopped at the malls instead...and I think I saw half the population of Saudi Arabia. Many of them had a vacation due to Eid al -Adha. And Bahrain is an easy drive over the King Fahd Causeway from Saudi Arabia. I was watching the news and they reported that the Saudi Arabians spent $15 million dollars in Bahrain in one week!! Talk about wealth!! Even though I had already been to Bahrain, I learned a lot more about it. I visited the public beach, explored some more tasty restaurants, saw the Alumni country club, and the new financial buildings that were under construction when I was there in 2005. I also learned that the island used to be completely covered in palm trees and is considered to be the place of the Garden of Eden. To read more history, check this out: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107313.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain


One week later I flew to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to visit my roommate (Petra) from Seattle. She is American but her family has worked in hospitals in the Middle East her entire life. And I have to say that Abu Dhabi is amazing!! It is very similar to Bahrain in that everything is clean, quite, and fancy but there is a lot more vegetation....but on the downside, Abu Dhabi uses the most water in the world. oh well, its worth it because it is absolutely gorgeous! I spent my days hanging out with her crazy high school friends, being spoiled in the spas with a Moroccan bath, facial, and body massage, and they put Henna on my hands. What a tough life! hahaha. I was even able to celebrate New Years in one of the coolest cities in the world! It was really great:) Unfortunately I became really sick and slept almost 2 days straight. But I did manage to gather some strength to visit Dubai for 3 hours. The main mall was decorated in the Chronicles of Narnia theme, the skyscrapers were extremely tall, and the burj of Dubai was as awesome of the pictures. I also visited the Dubai cultural center. Its amazing how quickly Dubai has developed! In the 1930's Dubai consisted of Palm tree huts, and now it is one of the most modern and richest cities in the world! It's amazing what technology can do! For more information of Dubai and Abu Dhabi check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai


I loved the two countries and I would definitely return in the future!!

Bahrain and UAE

James's visit

My friend James from my university came and visited me in Egypt. It was great to see him again and show my new life in Cairo. And he definitely had a culture shock! He was scared of the crazy driving, happy the food was cheap and tasty, surprised that people held tradition very seriously and was able to celebrate the Muslim Holiday: Eid al-Adha. Eid al-Adha is a Muslim holiday to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. The event happened where Allah ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son in order to test his faith. Abraham was very faithful and as he was about to sacrifice his son, Allah supplied a lamb to be sacrificed instead. In Christianity and Judiasm it is believed that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Issac...one of the significant differences between the religions. Anyway, the holiday is very important. It honors an important prophet, brings families together and everyone walks around town showing off their new clothes. The holiday begins on the 10th day of the Hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca...that they must complete once in their life). On that day, Muslims are expected to dress their nicest and pray a special prayer in a mosque. Then, those that have the money to do so, slaughter a sheep (or sometimes goat, cow, camel) in a traditional manner and donate a third of it to the poor. Then they celebrate with family gatherings and eat the remaining meat. It was fun to be in Egypt during that time because they take their holiday very seriously (more than other countries in my opinion...well probably not Saudi Arabia:) ) And my friend James (along with my friend Erik...he was in my colloquial class) was able to spend the night at my friend Mahmood's house and witness the slaughter of a cow. yuck! but its a new experience!!:)

James of course was able to visit the pyramids (we rode horses around them!! with my friends Erik, Hesham, and Moustafa), the citadel (where the Mohamed Ali mosque is located) and the famous bazaar. Unfortunately I left him in Egypt to visit my friends in Bahrain and UAE....but my friends took care of him and he also travelled to Alexandria and Aswan, Luxor (where the majority of the famous pharonic temples are located). I hope he had fun...it was nice to see him at least:)

James Visit

Alexandria

I finished finals Dec 13th and was so happy to be done. I really needed a break...even though I just had Thanksgiving vacation. Oh well. I even managed to pull straight A's! To celebrate the end of school I went to Alexandria with a few of my friends. Alexandria was founded as the capital of Egypt by Alexander the great in 332 BC and became one of the greatest cities in the world. It is also believed that it thrived as a Jewish city and Coptic Christianity was founded there. After Alexander's death, Ptolemy took over the city and helped its sophistication flourish. He even founded the great library that held thousands of manuscripts and scrolls from famous scholars of history, philosophy and religion. Unfortunately the library burned down. Alexandria is also known for its lighthouse, catacombs, and recently a new bridge.

Alexandria is a beautiful city and I had a hell of a time getting there. To begin with, I had to meet my friends at the train station. No big deal, except I didn't know exactly where it was and I arrived before my friends. I asked a little girl where the train station was, but she pointed me down an alley and there was no way I was going down there! I tried walking around a little bit, but became lost even more. I finally got the guts to ask some security guards and they pointed me in the right direction:) My friends still hadn't shown up so I decided to buy the train tickets for them...but when I went to buy the 9:30 train tickets the man at the counter told me that the time didn't exist and the next train would come at 11 am. oh no!! It takes about 3 hours to get to Alexandria and we were only going to be there for one day. Once my friends showed up we decided to take a taxi but no one would drive the distance and they wanted way too much money. Anyway we ended up squishing ourselves in the back of a micro-bus. Luckily it was an easy and an uneventful ride. The driver dropped us off in the middle of a street and we had no idea where we were but luckily a man spoke English and helped direct us to the train station and corniche (boardwalk to the water). The walk to the corniche was amazing. The streets were not as crowded as Cairo, there was a clear blue sky and even some rain! The taxis didn't honk their horns, the buildings had European influence, and it was really nice to see something different. And to top it off the view was amazing! And of course the Mediterranean Sea was never ending. My friends and I strolled along the corniche and I even managed to embarrass everyone and fall two times lol. While we were walking we spotted some fishermen pulling in nets. We stopped and watched them only to discover that they were bringing in very small fish. After that we were hungry and decided to walk to a well known Greek restaurant but it was too far away and so we acted as dorky tourists and rode a horse drawn carriage. It was actually fun and worth it because the food at the restaurant was delicious! haha we stayed at the restaurant for 4 or 5 hours and watched the sunset over the water. I have to say it was a wonderful location. To top it off we visited the Alexandria Library...very modern and cool looking. I think I could actually get some homework done there!!:) After that we took the train home and ran into some more problems when we found out that the lady gave us tickets for 2:30 pm even though we asked for 7!! But the crew members were generous and let us stay on the train in the smoking section between the cars. Although we had many troubles getting to Alexandria and back home, it was a great experience. We learned to handle stressful situations and visited one of the greatest cities in Egypt's history!

Enjoy the pics....
Also, for more information on Alexandria check out these websites:
http://www.halexandria.org/dward019.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria

Alexandria

I'm a journalist!!

Hahah no not really. This blog will probably be the closest thing I'll get to becoming one. But one of my rommmates is an editor for a school newspaper and she was short and article, so she asked me to write about my view as Egypt as a foreigner. I hope I did a good job. It still needs to be edited by her and other people working on the newspaper but this is what I have so far...


Its 3 am, the weather has finally cooled off. Little kids are running around with their families. Taxis are trying to get new customers with catchy Disney tunes and blight blue flashing lights. Young couples are strolling along the Nile River while groups of friends are racing in horse drawn carriages on the highways alongside fancy sedans. Welcome to Cairo. To her people she’s known as “Al om al dunia”, or “mother of the world.” To a foreigner she is an amazing city full of crazy stories, frustrations, and most importantly excellent opportunities. As a study abroad student I was able to learn Arabic from Arabs, live in an area that housed one of the world’s greatest civilizations, and gain a different insight on life by living in a different culture. However, living in Cairo is by no means easy, because life here is extremely chaotic. Cars have no form of traffic system, the drivers drive how and where they please only honking their horns to prevent accidents. There are no crosswalks or stoplights forcing pedestrians to weave in and out of the jumbled stream of traffic. The metro cars are always jammed packed, goods aren’t consistently offered in grocery stores, and once a month the electricity goes out. It is also imperative for women not to make eye contact with men, unless they want to be followed and haggled. It is true that Egypt is a hospitable country, but the majority of the foreigners live separately. They live their own lives, and are catered to with familiar necessities. This is a relief, because it prevents home from feeling so far away. At the same time it is very frustrating. The majority of my friends are American. I didn’t travel halfway across the world to be friends with more Americans. I have some Egyptian friends, but only because I joined a language exchange program. I have three Egyptian friends that are girls, which is surprising because I am a girl. One would think that making friends of the same sex would be easier. Also, many Egyptian males act that it is ok to take advantage of foreign girls. My friends and I have encountered too many situations of being followed, being teased and having rocks thrown at us. Although these problems are very wearisome, I absolutely love Egypt and can’t decide whether or not to extend my stay. People are always with positive spirits, and have a special complementing phrase for every occasion. Egyptians are serious about preserving their culture, maintaining family ties and football. I have attended several football games and am always amazed to see how passionate, dedicated and emotional grown men can be about a sport. I wish all Americans had the same attitude. There is also always something to do in Egypt such as touring ancient and religious sites, haggling over prices in Khan el-Khaleli market, sailing down the Nile River, gazing at the city lights from the “moqattam” or just chilling with friends in one of the many coffee shops. Egypt has the best of the best and the worst of the worst. The experiences I have had here have taught me important lessons that will help me fully and successfully live life.