Khan al Khalilli attack

Ok, so I am fine and just wanted everyone to know that I am fine. I don't know if the news has hit the States yet but this is all we know as of right now and I will keep you updated as I learn more: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7904731.stm 

Please do not worry, I love you all. 

Latest Update

So, I'm sorry this has not been updated as frequently as everyone seems to expect but please try to keep in mind that I am in school and trying to experience as much as possible so I actually have something to write about.

Ok, so lets skip straight to the weekend as nothing of great importance happened during the week. ( I went to class, did homework, etc. etc.) 

Thursday: Being in egypt has put a whole new perspective on Thirsty Thursday. We all headed downtown for dinner and drinks, not really having a game plan in mind beyond that. We ended up at a great little local place, where we were soon to learn they did not take kindly to foreigners. First of all, we sat at the bar for about 30 minutes while plenty of tables remained open. Then, once we were finally seated, the maitre' dee informed us that we had one hour to eat. We thought he was kidding. To our surprise about ten minutes after receiving our food, we were presented with the check. I should note here that by we, I mean Ben, the only male in our party, and the only one with whom the staff would communicate. This is not uncommon, but still rather annoying. After Ben was presented with the check, we were all hurried out of the restaurant as quickly as possible as a new group had just entered. Outraged, we left and swore never to return. In order to lick the wounds of our damaged pride, the group wandered over to Deals, our friendly, local neighborhood bar. Sadly, the barkeep knows us by name. As we sat in the back booth and made plans for how to continue our night, someone suggested Mojitos, the bar at the top of the Nile Hilton, very swank. As we all agreed this would be our best bet for late night dancing someone mentioned that there was a 200 LE cover charge, or about $40 American. Not wanting to drop $40 just to get in the door, our group split between those willing to pay and those not. I was among the later group. So we spent the next three to four hours sitting in the back of Deals enjoying our Stella (truly awful Egyptian beer, but its cheap). Next, we made our way to Mikey T's apartment for after hours drinks, Mikey is currently in the Naval Academy working towards an intel. position. After a 4 a.m. cab ride back home, it was time for bed.

Friday: Not so much to report, mostly we just wandered the city looking for my friend Gordon's apartment as he was supposedly having a party. Well, after him not answering his phone for three hours, we decided to give up and go get a shisha. (Gordon texted the next day that he had started too early and passed out before the party began, way to go Gordon) This was a nice relaxing evening especially since I had to catch the bus at 9 a.m. for a field trip the next day.

Saturday: By far my best day in Egypt yet! We started off the day with a field trip to the Nileometer, which is how ancient Egyptians would measure the changing tides of the Nile and plan their crops accordingly. Descending down into this huge cylinder with only small steep stairs devoid of a railing standing between you and your plunge towards death is an experience I hope everyone gets to have at least once in their lifetime. Next, we ventured forth to the Mosque of Ibn Tullun, the first mosque ever built in Cairo. It was built around 834 A.d. and most of the original structure remains. I climbed the stairs all the way to the top of the minuret from which I could see all of Cairo. It was amazing to see structures that had been standing for over a thousand years contrasted against the urban development of the past decade. Once inside the mosque, we were requested to wear little booties over our shoes and also that the women covered their hair. As it was already noon, we were able to see prayer services first hand. 

After that, we were dropped off downtown and a group of us decided to stay and spend the day in Zamalek. We had lunch at Khan al Khalilli market, the same one where I had my marriage proposal, and luckily we had Andrew with us who is an Egyptian American. His arabic saved us from getting ripped off at lunch as the guy told him point blank that he usually makes ridiculous charges on foreigners checks. After lunch, we decided to get lost in the city and did just that. We made decisions on which road to take based on the noise level and the flow of traffic, we tried looking for street signs but Egyptians don't believe in such frivolous things. It was a great time to see "real" Cairo away from the touristy places. However, due to the fact that we were in "real" Cairo, extra security measures were put in place. There were five members of our group, Andrew I already mentioned, is a very funny American Egyptian, Max, a total sweetheart from North Dakota, Kristina, from small-town Connecticut, and Jeremy, from Kentucky and myself. First security measure was the make up of our group, two guys for every girl in the group is a must, also when walking, we went single file boy, girl, boy, girl, boy the whole way. This is not to say that we were still not harassed, oh no, but it did cut down on the physical harassment quite a bit. 

    You see because Saturday was Valentines day, we had many requests made of Kristina and I. Actually, at one point one guy pointed to Max and called out "Oh, two Valentines!  You very strong man!" I think this made Max's day.  Once we returned to Zamalek, we decided to take a falooka cruise of the Nile. It was sunset and absolutely breathtaking to be on the water, we travelled up and down the banks for about an hour. All the while, the passing boats which were all decked out for Valentine's day and full of couples, so we decided to have a "romantic" photo shoot on the boat at sunset. After walking for about six hours straight we decided to head to the Pottery Cafe for dinner. Along the way however, I made the most amazing discovery, I found the Irish embassy and a pub next door (of course). So I have already started planning my St. Patrick's Day extravaganza and I fully intend to show these Egyptians what a great time March 17th can be! 

Well, that was this weekend, the only other noteworthy thing I did this week was venture back to CityStars, the world's second largest mall, after the one in Dubai. We watched "Yes Man" with arabic subtitles and for some reason they put an intermission in all movies, and they also have assigned seating. It was weird but fun. So thats the latest update for now, if anything exciting happens you will be the first to know! Ma salama, Bridget

So much to say

Ok, So this has not been updated as it maybe should have been but when I tell you about the past week perhaps you will understand. 

  First of all a breakdown of classes:

      Colloquial arabic: This is a 100 level course designed to teach me Egyptian Arabic, which is the most widely understood dialect. So that I might actually talk to people, what a novel idea. 

    Modern Standard Arabic: This class teaches fous-ha or the language of the elite and the media. All news networks use this form of arabic as do two Arabs who want to communicate with each other but speak different dialects, mind you this is only for the extremely educated and most people on the street do not understand it. I signed up for the 102 course as the 101 covered everything I learned last semester, but what I did not know was that this 102 course starts at chapter 6. My last semester ended with chapter 2, so now not only am I trying to learn chapter 6, but 3,4, and 5 as well. It is very frustrating, but I explained my situation to my professor as I can no longer drop the class without receiving and "F" for the course. He has been very helpful and agreed to meet with me during his office hours to go over the missing chapters. He is my favorite prof. thus far here, he is very good at simplifying and explaining things. He is also an Albino, which apparently is very common in certain parts of Africa but they are often discriminated against and treated as second class citizens. That is why many of them come to Egypt as they are much more accepted here. 

   Anthropology: The People and Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa: VERY interesting course, really eye-opening about the imperialistic views of the West towards Black Africa. I actually already have a presentation in class on Monday about "Blacks in Film" so wish me luck!

Political Economy: Yuck.

  Art and Architecture of Cairo: As previously mentioned, this course meets twice a week to learn about different key features in Cairo art. Then on Saturdays, we take trips to visit what we discussed in class. Expect tons of pictures!

So combine this insane work load (I wanted to prove to the Egyptian kids that you CAN work hard and play hard; what was I thinking?) with the fact that the inauguration of the new campus has been going on all week and you understand my lack of time to blog. 

  As I mentioned earlier, Susan Mubarak, the First Lady of Egypt, is an AUC alumna and came to see the new campus on Saturday. Those of us who did not make the guest list were forced to stay in our dorms all day for security reasons, but during my renegade trip to the food court I discovered that we had snipers on our building. Legit snipers in the dorms. The thing that really gets me though is not the snipers, but the fact that campus was beautified with fountains and lush plants for her arrival but half the classrooms haven't been painted yet. Also, the new recreation facility was supposed to be finished in time for the inauguration, but in typical Egyptian fashion, it wasn't. So they  FILLED AN OLYMPIC SIZE SWIMMING POOL, ONLY TO DRAIN IT SEVERAL HOURS LATER. Seriously? We are in the middle of the desert, there is a water shortage, they want us to take shorter showers and do laundry less frequently but they will fill an incomplete pool with water for several hours and run thirty fountains, just to show off to the board of trustees? 

  The rest of the inaugural activities, however, have been wonderful. Tonight I attended both a lecture by the infamous Jeffery Sachs ( I love his work, I was like one of those stupid screaming girls during Beatlemania, minus the screaming) on the elimination of poverty in Africa and around the globe. I love that he is so rational and reasonable, but still has an evident passion for his cause that is so inspiring. I also enjoyed his caution for the new U.S. administration, don't get me wrong, I think it is a definite step in the right direction and we have elected a great leader, but I am really sick of people worshipping the ground President Obama walks on before he has even done anything yet. It is just setting him up for disappointment, as things will not just magically change as people seem to expect them to do immediately. Anyway, I digress. 

  After the lecture, I went to the Faculty showcase concert which featured most of the Music Department staff performing what they love. It was a vast array of styles which included Opera, Spanish guitar, traditional Oriental music, American folk songs,  and ended with a Byzantine chant. It was a spectacular performance by all the staff and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

   Now this last section is the most important and the most sensitive information I give but I feel I should do my part to "spread some ink" on this issue. Friday night, Philip Rizk, a graduate student at AUC, was detained for a peaceful protest in the support of Gaza, there is no freedom of assembly in Egypt. He, along with several other students had been peacefully marching to the Gaza borders in hopes that Egypt will open the border to humanitarian aide for Gaza. For more detailed information on this event, see his facebook group. I do not think it wise to write any more information here but this is a serious issue on campus and has everyone worried. Philip is half Egyptian and half German, so there is hope that the German Embassy will intervene as Amnesty International already has. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. Please do not worry about me though, this is because he is a journalist and documentarist of political movements. All I write is this blog. 

  Well, on that lovely note I will leave you as I have a mountain of reading to do. I love you all and would really like to have some comments to read! 

   

Classes

So now that I am in my second week of being here I have finally started classes and let me tell you about the odyssey of registration. Thus far, I have spent 10 hours in the registration office, they know me by name and ID number. Hopefully though, my classes are finally set and I am ready to start this semester. A few notes about AUC first:

 To begin, I am told that this school is really just a playground for the rich elite kids to hang out until they take over the family business. Sadly, I have found this to be true in most of my encounters with the Egyptian students, some of them did not know what plagiarism was in my 300 level Anthropology class. (yikes) I was also told that I could miss up to 9 classes a semester. NINE! At Bradley, you could maybe miss one or two but you had better be on your death bed. Most of the Egyptian students have made it abundantly clear that they hate all the international students, especially the Americans. I think it is because we ruin their MTV perception of America and force them to realize that their own lives are petty and shallow. (No bitterness here mind you) This kind of discrimination even extends to the administration at times, I have had several friends be jumped in line waiting for bus passes or ID cards by Egyptians and this is found acceptable by the administrator. Everything here is so bogged down by the bureaucracy and everything is a constant battle. 

    This weekend we will official inaugurate the new campus so everything is going double time on the construction. Not the classrooms mind you, but the fountains and benches. The First Lady of Egypt, Susan, will be here to celebrate as she is an AUC alumna herself. The Egyptians all hate her and many are not attending the ceremony because of it. I think it should be interesting to see.

    Aside from all the negatives though, campus is beautiful, and we hope to leave the compound much more often. See, new campus is in "New Cairo" which is yet to be built. We are the only structure for at least 15 minutes, completely surrounded by desert. Because of this there are guards everywhere, many of them armed. I do wish I had applied to live off campus as maybe then I could interact with the real Cairo. But soon the shuttle buses will work and we will go downtown on a regular basis.

I realize that this has been a mostly negative account of AUC but rest assured that I am enjoying myself in spite of these nuisances and will post a more upbeat message later. Please leave a comment or write back as it makes my day 100% better!