After a quick stop to Paris, I went on my way to Cairo for the continuation of my Spring Break to visit my friend Lina, a Berkeley/Chi O/BMUN alumni whom I became close with sophomore year. I got to the airport and headed to Madrid, where I had a three hour stopover. There, even though I'm sure I could get by the extremely limited amount of Spanish I do know, I found myself wanting to substitute por favor's and gracias's with s'il vous plait's and merci's. This language confusion continued even in Cairo, where I began to think in French each time I heard a lot of Arabic at once. I think this tendency reflects the fact that there seems to be a "foreign language dial" in my brain, which at present is switched to "French". I hope this is a good thing; maybe it means I'm absorbing my studies...? On my flight to Cairo, I was lucky enough to get an entire row to myself and slept very soundly.
When I arrived in Cairo at around 9:30 pM, I was TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY culture-shocked. Everyone seemed different from my in every way possible--from how they dressed to the language they spoke to the color of their skin, they were somewhat alike and I was evidently an outsider. And they all noticed. First, when I was going through the passport check point, I got held up because the guard had to call in multiple officers for reinforcement to be sure that I was who I said I was. Apparently, they don't come across highlights often, and my recently-dyed blond hair threw them off. Then when I got out into the arrival area, I was surprised to find that I was one of only a few women in a crowd of hundreds with uncovered hair. Lina, who does not wear a headscarf herself, later explained to me that in Cairo you find people with all different lifestyles co-habituating together--from "modern"/"Western" types to "conservative"/"traditional" ones. I must say though that I was somewhat satisfied to be perceived as outwardly "different" for probably the first time in my life and to be in a place where not everyone was like me. I think I've gotten too comfortable with the idea that the world revolves around Western culture, ideals and people and I was happy to be reminded of the arrogance and falsehood of that notion.
In any event though, I was relieved to have opted for a long skirt and sweater that morning, so as not to attract any more attention than the apparent curiosity that was already directed at me as a clear foreigner. I was further relieved to be approached by a man with a sing with my name on it, whom I later found out was Lina's driver and stand-in to pick me up as she was working late to finish up a project.
We headed off to Lina's house where her lovely parents kept me entertained until around 11:30 when Lina arrived from work and took me to a cafe. (She works way too hard!) There, we caught up and I heard all about Lina's post-Berkeley life as a working woman. Right now, Lina is working at a consulting firm that does a lot of government/public sector work. I was glad to hear that Lina found a way to utilize her business/econ double major to serve the public good. I wasn't, however, at all surprised to hear about all her hard work because Lina has always been an incredibly impressive person. Throughout the trip though, Lina and her friends urged me to savor every moment while I'm still in school before I begin life in the "real world"--probably just the advice I need at the halfway mark of my time abroad and prior to my last year at Berkeley.
Thursday morning, Lina and I woke up bright and early to take her to work and then drop me off to meet some of my Paris study abroad friends. I arrived at 10 AM at Hotel Luna and was so happy to be reunited with the rest of the "Cairo crew" (as we've been referring to ourselves), Matt, Neema, and Tami. I heard about their Spring Breaks and we chilled in their hostel as they booked a trip to Luxor. While they were doing that, I ended up talking with an Australian who has been traveling around the world since he graduated last winter and I decided that that sounded like the most fabulous experience ever--definitely something I'd love to do one day; I've officially caught the "traveling bug".
After N, M, and T were done booking their trip, we headed off to the pyramids in Giza, via a cab with a hillarious driver whom I think was trying to teach us and/or Neema Arabic. In general, people didn't really know what to make of our group. Neema, who is Iranian-American, and Tami, who is half Colombian and half Japanese, were taken for Egyptian, Matt who is Korean-American, got an annoying amount of Ni hao's ("hello" in Chinese), whereas my pale self was the only member of our party whom the Egyptians accepted as properly coming "from America". What's funny is that I'm sure our group wouldn't receive a second look in So Cal, where we're all from.
We finally got to the pyramids, bought our tickets and headed inside, where Lina's "guy at the pyramids"--a tour guide whose number she had gotten after a pleasant experience--was waiting for us. Our guide, Eid, greeted us by telling us that the pyramids were happy today because we had come to visit and we were on our way, assured that this would be a good time. We headed into a tomb and took some obligatory photos while Eid told us the history of the place and cracked jokes. I've heard people (Raf before our visit and Neema after) say that they were surprised at how small the pyramids were, but frankly, I was highly impressed by their stature and amazed by the amount of desert around and between them. This desert was so vast, in fact, that it merited a camel and/or horse in order to conquer. So, Eid took us to some guy who had camels and horses and we each got one or the other and were off.
I began on a very large camel, who was super fun to ride, but extremely difficult to get on and off of. Each time I did (which was a lot due to the number of photo ops) there was lots of leaning/holding/involuntary muscle contraction going on, which my legs paid for over the next few days. Probably one of the funniest moments of the trip was watching Matt get on and off the camel for the first time because he was visibly shocked by the whole experience despite Tami and my multiple warnings. I don't blame him though.... it was tough!
After riding around the desert for a while, Eid took us to the second pyramid where we all decided to go inside. We basically had to bend over completely while climbing up and down stairs through the sauna-hot passageway for about 10 minutes until we reached a room with an empty sarcophagus in it and then turned around. I concede that whether or not this experience was "worth it" is debatable, but I'm still glad we did it because how many people can say that they've been inside of a pyramid, and the whole ordeal kind of makes for a funny story. Even the guards seemed to be laughing "with us" on our way out as the welcomed us "back to life".
Next, Eid took us through a ride in the desert again and this time I was on a horse. It was fun to go trotting through the desert, but I was a bit too cowardly to "ride like a Bedouin" (let the horse run very very quickly) for more than five minutes, unlike the very brave Tami and Neema who were at it all afternoon. Apparently, I got on and off the camel very much "like a Bedouin", so that was enough immersion for me.
We eventually ended up at the sphinx where we took some more obligatory toursit photos, admired it's grandeur, and warded off all of the vendors who were trying to sell us stuff. I was quite heartbroken to see very young children made to sell souvenirs and I think they all could see that in my face, as I was especially hassled. I find it very disturbing that we live in a world where children are sometimes peddlers instead of students, and have a hard time being comforted without knowing any way to mitigate these circumstances. However, after half-jokingly deciding to adopt and/or build a school for all of these children when I am rich and powerful someday, I pulled myself together and left the sphinx for more desert riding with my travel companions.
This time my camel and I totally lagged behind as he was wholly unresponsive to any of my (perhaps too light) kicks. This particularly became an issue when Eid guided us out of the desert and onto the streets of Cairo where the combination of unresponsive camel + oncoming traffic + tired legs (after about 4 hours of riding/walking) made me a bit nervous to say the least. However, eventually Eid realized that we were ready for a break and we parked our animals which he then switched for a carriage. It is pretty cool though that I rode through the streets of Cairo on a camel, even though I didn't fully appreciate the experience at the time.
During the time that he was making the switch, Eid had us wait in a perfume shop whose owner (naturally) proceeded to conduct a number of demonstrations in an effort to get us to buy some of his oils. At one point, he doused some colognes and perfumes onto us and had us all smelling each other's necks and faces, which was equal parts awkward and hilarious. After a particularly compelling experiment involving peppermint oil and hot water, Neema took the bait and got a few (actually quite nice) oils. Coincidentally enough, Eid returned the exact moment after Neema paid (good timing Eid...) and took us in the carriage to an ATM so that we could pay him. All in all, it was an amazing, historic, and adventurous day--a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life (and one which truly merited the plethora of paragraphs that it took up in this blog).
Next, we headed back to Hotel Luna and after a short while were picked up by Lina, who had gotten out of work early at 5PM. She took us a BEAUTIFUL restaurant called Sequoia which was in a tent right on top of the Nile. We got a ton of amazing Lebanese food which, thanks to the fact that we hadn't eaten for hours coupled with our day's long journey, we completely devoured in silence. I think the fact that we can (and often do) eat without feeling compelled to make small talk is a sign that we have become really comfortable with each other. At the end of our meal, we temporarily parted ways until reuniting for a night on the town.
We first hit up a chic bar/resto/lounge called La Bodega which to me had kind of a French feel. Then, after some cocktails and caffeine (remember the part about waking up early and riding around the desert for 4 hours?), we headed off to a club called purple (also on the Nile) where we got jiggy with it to some great late 90's hip hop classics. Besides being an impressive person, Lina is also very cool and knows her Cairo nightlife very well, which we were all glad for. The night ended and I bode farewell and bon voyage to the rest of the Cairo crew, who were off to Luxor in the coming hours.
The next day, Lina and I slept in a little and then were off for breakfast/lunch. On the way, we drove around Cairo a bit and stopped at a a large and incredibly awesome park with a perfect view of "Old Town" Cairo. This area is the Cairo you see in movies with centuries-old mosques and other buildings, the Citadel, and old/decrepit shantytowns. Lina told me that Cairo used to be called the City of a Thousand Minarets (which are the towers from were Muslims are called to prayer throughout the day), and she elaborated on aspects of Egyptian culture a bit. Something interesting she pointed out was that all of the decrepit buildings in the shantytowns had multiple satelites on their roofs, indicated that pretty much all of these really poor people in Cairo have Direct TV. I haven't quite yet hypothesized as to what this signifies sociologically, so for now it will remain an interesting observation.
Next, Lina and I arrived at Sangria, a cafe with an outdoor cabana whose roof was made of multi-colored shutters, which again was RIGHT on the Nile. We then briefly parted ways as I enjoyed the Egyptian museum.
The museum was HUGE and chock-full of artifacts mostly found in the ancient Egyptian tombs. The highlights for me were the jewelry (typical!), the animal-related items, and most of all, the royal mummies. Yes, I actually saw thousands of years old corpses and yes I very much liked it! As a side note, I'm still trying to figure out why my favorite experiences abroad have all been related to death/dead people (catacombs and Pere-Lachaise in Paris and now the mummies in Egypt) as I don't consider myself a particularly morbid person. For now at least, I'm gong to go with my love of history as an explanation.
After I had my fix of dead people, Lina came to get me and we took a night cruise down the Nile in a sailboat called the Soltan with one of her friends. Then, we all three headed to a restaurant where I enjoyed some ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS traditional Egyptian food. We then headed to a very classy New York-esque club called Tamuri and danced for hours to the melange of all different kinds of fun music.
I was lucky enough to be visiting Lina during Coptic Easter, meaning that Lina got off Sunday and Monday (as weekends in Cairo are normally Friday and Saturday). I was even luckier to be invited with Lina to the Red Sea by Lina's friend Marwa and her family at Marwa's father's newly opened resort. So, Saturday morning, after around 20 minutes of sleep on my part and zero on Lina's, we beat the sun to the Cairo airport to catch our flight to Hurgada at 5 AM. From there, we drove 2.5 hours to Marsa Alam where we found ourselves at the Palace at Port Ghalib, a STUNNING beach resort which reminded Lina and I of Disney's Aladdin. We spent all of Saturday on the beach swimming, snorkeling, and lounging in the sun with Marwa and her sister Heba.
I knocked out a couple of times on the beach, thanks to the all-nighter Lina and I had pulled just before coming, so despite my multiple applications of sunscreen, I caught some SERIOUS RAYS. I mean really, really SERIOUS rays. Lina told me that the Red Sea gets its name from the color that the coral reflects onto the water in certain areas during certain times, but I contend that it's called the Red Sea because red is the color you return after a visit to its beaches. (I am literally the color of smoked salmon right now, no exaggeration.)
That night, we grabbed some dinner on the nice boardwalk type area by the resort and proceeded to pass out. Throughout the weekend, I apparently slept through radios, alarms, and phones; I guess I was a bit tired. When we awoke, we grabbed breakfast, returned to the beach for a bit, and then took a submarine ride. We saw some beautiful sea creatures and I was particularly impressed by the coral reefs. AT one point, their formations reminded me of the castle in the Little Mermaid and I think perhaps the majesty of the weekend trip caused the multiple allusions to Disney movies that I made. I then got ready to go and had a quick (and AMAZINGLY good) lunch with Lina, Marwa, and Marwa's family before saying goodbye to Lina and heading off to the airport in Marsa Alam. The trip back to Cairo ws particularly nice as I was with Marwa's parents who made sure I was well taken care of. This family was extremely hospitable and welcoming the whole weekend and I'm so lucky to have had my Red Sea experience. (I definitely plan on returning.)
If I could have a third subtitle for this entry (and yes I know, 2's already excessive), it would be "My Trip to Cairo and My Vacation to the Red Sea". Prior to our visit to Port Ghalib, Lina was a bit nervous about our all-nighter. I assured her, however, that we would be fine because the light at the end of the tunnel was a vacation, and not a trip--the distinction between which I think is very important. The former implies a refreshing and relaxing time, while the latter implies excitement, adventure, and activity. And indeed, our visit to the Red Sea was quite a vacation, the perfect few days to balance my "trip" to Cairo and to prepare me for the upcoming week of too many assignments.
In short, this half of Spring Break was as perfect as the first, though they were both INCREDIBLY different. I am the luckiest person EVER (!!!) to be afforded such unique experiences and I think I'm going to have to do a lot of good deeds in my life as positive karmic retribution for this past week alone.
Speaking of luck, and with regards to the first subtitle of this entry, I am incredibly lucky to have such awesome friends. This is something I've always known but don't often enough acknowledge, and which Spring Break has helped to shine a light on. First, there's my Claremont friends, like Serena or my twinsies, who always keep in touch with me and manage to make me smile even from across the globe with a funny youtube video or facebook hello. Then, there are my Berkeley friends, like Baggy and Lina--the two most hospitable/fun hosts a girl could ever ask for, or Ani and Mariana--the most easy-going and gracious guests you could ever imagine, all of whom happen to make great pals as well. Finally, there are my Paris companions, whom I'm particularly grateful for because even though our situation forced us together, I legitimatley consider them to be true pals and awesome people--the kind of people I'd love to be friends with even if I had my choice of many. So, world, thanks for connecting me with such awesome people, and friends, thanks for being so awesome and thanks for being my friends.
Now, the length of this post has long surpassed the absurd and my ability to write well has long ago diminished, so in lieu of an eloquent closing, I'll just call this the end for now.
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