2nd full day in Egypt....

June 2, 2009.

Well today is my second full day in Egypt and so far so good. One of my roommates arrived last night and the other will come sometime today. I also really like my apartment. It’s much bigger than my other ones and its in a good location. My apartment has 1.5 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, 3 balconies (2 large and one small), 3 sitting areas, dining room, kitchen, washer, and AC in the bedrooms. The furniture is a little old but actually really comfortable…and also I have learned not to expect too much. The area is also quiet (for Cairo at least) and surrounded by trees making it cooler. The bowab (doorman/security guard/ sherpa, etc) is really nice too. My favorite thing so far about the apartment is that the apartment building is small and there are only 3 families living in it. The landlady and her family live in one apartment and a Sudanese family lives in the other apartment. There is no elevator, but I live on the third floor so it’s not too bad and there is only one apartment per floor. Meaning: I won’t have to run into any creepy neighbors. Last time when I lived in Agouza it seemed like every young guy who lived in the apartment building made sure I knew who he was. There was one guy who caused me a lot of problems too. He would always want to hang out and tell me how much he loved me (heheh I always said that I was American and didn’t fall in love). But then he turned creepy and I would always see him…and then he would insult me! It got even better when I met his older brother in the elevator. I seriously thought he was going to kill me in the elevator because he kept yelling at me. He was mad because a guy slept over in the apartment and apparently it was my fault (even though I was in Syria at the time…hmmm I still don’t understand his logic) But anyway it caused some drama and then I had to make it even worse when I moved apartments for the third time. I ended up moving right across the hall from him, making it even harder to ignore him. Oh well that is done and over with and people are really nice so far.

That’s it for me right now. I’m just settling in, trying to remember my way around, and getting ready for school. And I have managed two days without drama….but that doesn’t mean my life is boring. Last night I was able to ride on my friend’s motorcycle….which was a lot of fun but a totally different experience in Cairo because of the traffic. There is no set system in the streets so my friend was driving in between cars, and dodging cars and people. Some parts were a little scary but it was worth it! Unfortunately I won’t be able to get to ride it again because he is leaving for California on Saturday. But not to worry….the other forms of transportation can also be adventurous


Below is a photo album of my apartment. I will try to take more pictures of Dokki later and of course if you have any comments/questions let me know!

---Amy

The orientation is now June 7th because Obama is coming on the 4th. He will be speaking at the Cairo University. Unfortunately it is not open to the public...so I won't be able to see him

I'm back!

May 31, 2009

Well, I’m back in Cairo! At first I didn’t think that I could actually make it back but I did and I’m so happy. The reason why I’m back is because I received a fellowship to study Arabic at the CASA program at the American University in Cairo. Meaning: I will be studying more Arabic in a program that is more advanced than the program I studied at last time in 2007-2008 (that program was the Arabic Language Institute). Also, everything is paid for…which is even better! My airline tickets and my tuition are paid for and I will receive a stipend every month. The stipend doesn’t seem like a lot of money but it is a lot in Egypt. It is enough money for my apartment rent, expenses, food and hopefully some fun money. Either way I’m so happy to be back. I will be able to take more Arabic classes (I wasn’t able to back at UW because I tested out of all the available levels. I did take a translation class, but it was mostly old Arabic so it doesn’t count), and I will be able to see my friends again! I enjoyed Egypt last time I was there and I hope that I have an even better time this year since I already have some experience dealing with the culture and I know a lot more Arabic.
Right now I have 3 goals this trip: 1) Be smarter about my surroundings and get into less drama. 2) Stay in one apartment this year (I have moved way too many times!). 3) Enjoy myself and become fluent in Arabic (or at least really really close).

It will be interesting to see what happens!

PS. If you would like to know more about the CASA program, you can visit its website at: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/casa/
--Orientation is June 4th
--First classes start June 7th

PPS. I almost forgot! The American University moved to a new location. It is now about 45min-hour away from downtown Cairo. I will still be living downtown (in Dokki) and I will take a shuttle to the university. The commute will be long, but there aren’t very many places to live near the University because it is out in the middle of the desert (or at least far enough away that it seems that it is).
Oh well. Another adventure!!!

Egypt sure is nice

Thought this was an interesting article from Yahoo! news. I'm glad everyone in Egypt has the opportunity to celebrate Ramadan:) ....

Egypt allows prisoners to order out restaurant food

Sat Sep 27, 9:23 AM ET

Egyptian prisoners are set to be allowed to order meals from any restaurant they choose after a trial run during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan was deemed a success, a senior security official said on Saturday.

The state-run Al Ahram newspaper reported that prison authorities have been placing orders with restaurants and then handing them to prisoners about to break their fast.

Muslims fast from dawn to dusk in Ramadan, which started this year on September 1. The security official told Reuters the permission to order food would continue beyond Ramadan.

He said the prisoners were paying for the food. Asked about the favorite meals prisoners have ordered, he said they included meat Kebab and pizza.

The official asked not to be named, citing department policy.

It is not uncommon for prisoners in Egypt to receive meals from their visiting families. Egyptian human rights activists say conditions inside jails in the most populous Arab country are bad, with unclean cells and low-quality food.

Human rights groups also say torture is systematic inside Egyptian jails and police stations. The government denies this and says it prosecutes any officer who tortures detainees.

(Writing by Alaa Shahine; reporting by Matthew Jones)

Really good but frustrating article

I found this article from the New York Times. It discusses how the majority of Arabs are not convinced that Arabs were the only people behind the September 11 attacks. They believe that the Jews and the United States were the actual masterminds. They do have a point...both governments are really powerful and secretive....but I just can't comprehend the accusation. I personally can't imagine that the United States would kill so many of its people for the sake of oil??? And of course the accusation the all the Jews were warned of the attack and didn't show up for work. A lot of people didn't show up for work and several lucky ones missed their flight....Jewish or not! Its coincidence. I'm also more convinced that the US is not behind the attacks because they have more evidence to prove their side. If the Arabs were really convinced that they weren't the masterminds....they would have actual evidence and fight a lot harder to defend themselves(in my opinion at least). Unfortunately there is an ancient "family" feud between the Arabs and Israelis and when something goes wrong the other side is blamed. And I did witness this in Egypt. They would ask me...why do you believe the media...its all owned by the Jews? And if there was a major problem....it was because the Jews were so oppressive. Israel is oppressive towards Palestinians...but there is no way they can be responsible for every single problem....and at the same time not all Arabs are terrorists, so we need to stop accusing and stereotyping groups of people.

Anyways, I finished venting. Please read the article and keep an open mind to how other people view world events.


Memo From Cairo
9/11 Rumors That Become Conventional Wisdom
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times, 2007

The planning and execution of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are a continuing topic of conversation all over Cairo.

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By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: September 8, 2008

CAIRO — Seven years later, it remains conventional wisdom here that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda could not have been solely responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that the United States and Israel had to have been involved in their planning, if not their execution, too.
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Justin Lane for The New York Times

Many in Cairo see the attacks as part of an anti-Muslim plot.

This is not the conclusion of a scientific survey, but it is what routinely comes up in conversations around the region — in a shopping mall in Dubai, in a park in Algiers, in a cafe in Riyadh and all over Cairo.

“Look, I don’t believe what your governments and press say. It just can’t be true,” said Ahmed Issab, 26, a Syrian engineer who lives and works in the United Arab Emirates. “Why would they tell the truth? I think the U.S. organized this so that they had an excuse to invade Iraq for the oil.”

It is easy for Americans to dismiss such thinking as bizarre. But that would miss a point that people in this part of the world think Western leaders, especially in Washington, need to understand: That such ideas persist represents the first failure in the fight against terrorism — the inability to convince people here that the United States is, indeed, waging a campaign against terrorism, not a crusade against Muslims.

“The United States should be concerned because in order to tell people that there is a real evil, they too have to believe it in order to help you,” said Mushairy al-Thaidy, a columnist in the Saudi-owned regional newspaper Asharq al Awsat. “Otherwise, it will diminish your ability to fight terrorism. It is not the kind of battle you can fight on your own; it is a collective battle.”

There were many reasons people here said they believed that the attacks of 9/11 were part of a conspiracy against Muslims. Some had nothing to do with Western actions, and some had everything to do with Western policies.

Again and again, people said they simply did not believe that a group of Arabs — like themselves — could possibly have waged such a successful operation against a superpower like the United States. But they also said that Washington’s post-9/11 foreign policy proved that the United States and Israel were behind the attacks, especially with the invasion of Iraq.

“Maybe people who executed the operation were Arabs, but the brains? No way,” said Mohammed Ibrahim, 36, a clothing-store owner in the Bulaq neighborhood of Cairo. “It was organized by other people, the United States or the Israelis.”

The rumors that spread shortly after 9/11 have been passed on so often that people no longer know where or when they first heard them. At this point, they have heard them so often, even on television, that they think they must be true.

First among these is that Jews did not go to work at the World Trade Center on that day. Asked how Jews might have been notified to stay home, or how they kept it a secret from co-workers, people here wave off the questions because they clash with their bedrock conviction that Jews are behind many of their troubles and that Western Jews will go to any length to protect Israel.

“Why is it that on 9/11, the Jews didn’t go to work in the building,” said Ahmed Saied, 25, who works in Cairo as a driver for a lawyer. “Everybody knows this. I saw it on TV, and a lot of people talk about this.”

Zein al-Abdin, 42, an electrician, who was drinking tea and chain-smoking cheap Cleopatra cigarettes in Al Shahat, a cafe in Bulaq, grew more and more animated as he laid out his thinking about what happened on Sept. 11.

“What matters is we think it was an attack against Arabs,” he said of the passenger planes crashing into American targets. “Why is it that they never caught him, bin Laden? How can they not know where he is when they know everything? They don’t catch him because he hasn’t done it. What happened in Iraq confirms that it has nothing to do with bin Laden or Qaeda. They went against Arabs and against Islam to serve Israel, that’s why.”

There is a reason so many people here talk with casual certainty — and no embarrassment — about the United States attacking itself to have a reason to go after Arabs and help Israel. It is a reflection of how they view government leaders, not just in Washington, but here in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. They do not believe them. The state-owned media are also distrusted. Therefore, they think that if the government is insisting that bin Laden was behind it, he must not have been.

“Mubarak says whatever the Americans want him to say, and he’s lying for them, of course,” Mr. Ibrahim said of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president.

Americans might better understand the region, experts here said, if they simply listen to what people are saying — and try to understand why — rather than taking offense. The broad view here is that even before Sept. 11, the United States was not a fair broker in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that it then capitalized on the attacks to buttress Israel and undermine the Muslim Arab world.

The single greatest proof, in most people’s eyes, was the invasion of Iraq. Trying to convince people here that it was not a quest for oil or a war on Muslims is like convincing many Americans that it was, and that the 9/11 attacks were the first step.

“It is the result of widespread mistrust, and the belief among Arabs and Muslims that the United States has a prejudice against them,” said Wahid Abdel Meguid, deputy director of the government-financed Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, the nation’s premier research center. “So they never think the United States is well intentioned, and they always feel that whatever it does has something behind it.”

Hisham Abbas, 22, studies tourism at Cairo University and hopes one day to work with foreigners for a living. But he does not give it a second thought when asked about Sept. 11. He said it made no sense at all that Mr. bin Laden could have carried out such an attack from Afghanistan. And like everyone else interviewed, he saw the events of the last seven years as proof positive that it was all a United States plan to go after Muslims.

“There are Arabs who hate America, a lot of them, but this is too much,” Mr. Abbas said as he fidgeted with his cellphone. “And look at what happened after this — the Americans invaded two Muslim countries. They used 9/11 as an excuse and went to Iraq. They killed Saddam, tortured people. How can you trust them?”

Nadim Audi contributed reporting.







PS. This is what the United States has to say to support their position.

http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/14-260933.html

There has been a lot going on in Egypt!

There have been several developments lately such as a massive rock slide and accusations from the main sheiks (religious leaders) against the people.

Check out the 2 articles they are really interesting!

1) New York Times --> World --> Egypt --> Rescue Slow as Part of Cliff Flattens Cairo District

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/world/africa/07egypt.html



2) Egypt's Repressive "Hisba" Lawsuits
(this article was also written by a friend of mine:))

http://www.metimes.com/Opinion/2008/08/28/egypts_repressive_hisba_lawsuits/4699/



Enjoy!

MY BIRTHDAY!!

I turned 21 in Egypt. I didn't have the typical bar experience for my 21st but I had a wonderful time. So many of my friends took the time to come and gave me really cool presents. I even had a surprise. My good friend Mohamed Hesham received a small job offer in Italy. I thought his last day was Sunday. (My birthday party was on Monday but my real birthday was on Wednesday July 30). I was really sad because I know it will be a long time before I see him again and he would miss my birthday. It turns out that his trip was postponed at the last minute. So everyone had me close my eyes at the birthday and then surprise! There was Hesham with another cake! lol I was so surprised that I screamed. lol. My Egyptian friends are cool. I'm ready to come home and go back to my normalities but I will really really miss my friends here. They have the best qualities you could want in a person and truly take friendships seriously.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

bday