Day 4: Cairo

WOW. I suck at updating this thing on a frequent basis. Rest assured, though I may have forgotten for several months to update this thing, I think about Egypt every single day. I'll try to be more consistent with my posts so you all can read about my experiences more often!

Day 4 (May 21st) in Cairo was our first day visiting Misr University!

This would be my breakfast! I was OBSESSED with the donuts there; I took one any chance I got. The white sausage looked kinda sketch to me but it was actually really tasty! (My breakfast on that particularly day consisted of a donut, pastry, two kinds of sausages, two flavors of yogurt, some cheese, rice pudding [I THINK THIS IS WHAT THEY ALL WERE]).

Another picture of the traffic.

Some graffiti!

This made me laugh cause it reminded me of Water World in Colorado and I have been working at Water World for SEVERAL summers, including the summer I came back from Egypt. 

Misr University! We heard from several speakers here including the official media spokesperson of the Muslim Brotherhood.

We received this folder, a pen, and some candy! Delish!

This is Dr. Fatma Taher, a professor from the university, and we heard from her a lot which was SO COOL. I thought she was so passionate and intelligent and I loved hearing her speak.

A couple of friends from my ARAMFO group with some friends we met from the University! I have Facebook friended several of them and we still keep in touch!! I was really nervous a first to meet new friends on this trip and to interact with students but it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip!!

Outside of Misr University! Gorgeous! The shapes remind me of Edward Scissorhands!

It's just so green and pretty!

We spent about two hours in the MALL OF ARABIA. This is a thing.

I found a Coldstone! I know a little Arabic (I can read/write a bit but I still struggle with translating it) so I love that it literally says "Coldstone" in Arabic.

On the way home, we found a sketch looking party house!

Another tease of the pyramids with some awesome graffiti!

Look at close we were to this van!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The hotel peeps made my pillow into a heart!

I really loved being able to go to these universities! I have always loved Egyptian history and archaeology and so my interest gravitates more towards that and I was looking forward to experiencing that the most when I knew I was going to go. I didn't know that going to Egypt would not only increase my love for its history but for its people and its current events. I learned so much about their politics and their people. Their passion and love for their country was and continues to be such an inspiration to me! Going to the schools and interacting with the students was an AMAZING experience and it helped me to get a more personal perspective of their situation. 

Day 3: Cairo

May 20th - We started off the day with breakfast at the resort at around 7:00 and the resort has a buffet! I was convinced I was gonna gain like 50 pounds and I probably did but ended up sweating off all the weight anyway. I tried A TON of stuff! There was a ton of coconut desserts! What I was surprised most about the food was the lack of spices. I thought it was gonna have a ton of spices and that the meats/beans/other foods would be spicer. Maybe they are and the resort just caters to tourists? 

Anyway, the first couple of days in Cairo were spent at universities!

Here is an example of Egyptian traffic! Traffic is insane! They call is "organized chaos." Cars and vans are SO close to you and I felt like I was gonna see like 100 accidents. They drive fast and close and honk ALL THE TIME but at the same time, are seriously extremely aware of their surroundings. 

 Cairo University! I compared it to Metro.

Awesome flags!

We first listened to a speaker from the political science department in the school. She was able to give us information about both sides of politics and how she feels about feminism and Islam. I took a crap ton of notes from her, especially about the revolution. HOWEVER, I left that book in CAIRO at the Cataract Pyramids Resort somewhere. I couldn't find it so now my Beatles notebook with all my awesome notes is still chillin in Egypt...

The whole group with her in our matching ARAMFO shirts, haha.

Walking to the Library!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. THIS IS THE JOY THAT IS KUSHARI. It is made with rice, pasta, lentils, fried onions, and tomato sauce AND you have the option to top it off with a HOT SAUCE. It was the most delicious thing EVER.

We visited a bakery! Delish!

We ended the day on a Nile Cruise! That's right..a NILE CRUISE. 

We spent some time on top of the boat basking in the Egyptian air at night thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'M IN EGYPT. ON THE NILE."

We had several forms of entertainment on the cruise and belly dancing was one of them. The tall skinny kid is in our group and his name is Jarret, haha. Super entertaining!

Next was Egyptian folk dancing called Tanoura dancing where they spin around for like 10-15 minutes doing all these elaborate things with their costume. Like it lights up and turns into a top and all this other fun stuff. They got skill fo sho.

Me at the hotel room. YAY I'M IN EGYPT! Also, check out the water bottle behind me - had those with us at ALL times.

Remember how I mentioned that we got these gift bags from ARAMFO and they included t-shirts that only came in large and extra large? Guess what the five foot hobbit got? EXTRA LARGE. I also learned this day that Egypt doesn't have toilet paper! The hotels had plenty...but there was NONE at the schools! That was fun to find out, haha. My expression in this picture can both describe my feelings about the XL shirt and the lack of toilet paper.

Egyptness Prior to The Trip

Just a very small example of how much of an Egyptology dork I was BEFORE my trip...

2011- I went to the Denver Art Museum with some friends and we came across this place where you can dress up and they were all, "LINDSEY LOOK EGYPT STUFF. YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO DRESS UP."

Me and Sean.

Yo.

Also 2011 - I was a zombie Cleopatra for Halloween.

Yo.

And whaddya know?! 2013, I am in an EGYPTIAN MARKET!!

AND ON A PYRAMID.

Okay, that's all for now.

Day 2: Cairo

I wrote in word documents in my laptop small journal entries each day I was in Egypt so that's why I can easily write about each day here.

We landed in Cairo around 11:00 on May 19th! I remember the moment I stepped off the plane, I thought, "This is freaking it! I'm HERE. I can't believe I'M HERE." When we got on the bus that took us to our hotel (and various other locations throughout Egypt - we basically lived on those buses), we got these ARAMFO gift bags that had a notebook and pen, laundry soap, a power converter, and an ARAMFO t-shirt that only came in two sizes: large and extra large.

Every day, we had the option to eat falafel or fool sandwiches or this AMAZING dish called kushari, which I will get to in future entry, for lunch. Falafel is basically fried chickpeas or fava beans in a patty. I wasn't too big a fan of it mainly because it was suppperrrr dry. I probably would've enjoyed it better with any sort of sauce. I called fool "Egyptian burritos" because they're just fava beans in a pita-like bread. And it tasted like a burrito to me, haha.

This was our hotel during our entire stay in Cairo - the Cataract Pyramids Resort. 

The view from the window from my hotel room. Pretteh!!!

We had a couple hours to ourselves to unpack and shower and then we were scheduled to tour around Cairo. Look at the drastic change in appearance between this part of Cairo and how nice the view from our hotel was! 

We immediately got a tease of the pyramids on the tour!

We took our first shopping trip around Cairo that day. Here, I bought myself a cartouche of my name in hieroglyphs! While talking to the guy who sold it to us, I asked if I could get the ankh after my name and instead, he put it on the back of the cartouche...for FREE!

  

Here's a picture of my cartouche and the free scarab beetle I got with it! Everyone in Egypt has been so friendly and kind so far! I was SO tired though. I wish they gave us more time to rest! Yes, you should take advantage of every moment while you're away in a foreign country exploring it BUT I'd also like to do so on a well-rested mind, haha. I still had a GREAT first day in Cairo but let's just say I had no trouble getting to sleep that night. :)

Day 1: New York

HELLO! I guess you are interested in reading about my recent trip to Egypt! Let's just say you're in for a treat. It's like chocolate chip cookies (the best kind of cookie there is!) but you'll have to replace the cookie with my pictures and awesome commentary! That's just about as good, right?

Anyway, before I go on, I should talk about how and why I went on this study abroad trip. I am a history major and anthropology minor at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Last semester in November, when I left my Ireland and the Irish class, I saw a similar advertisement for a travel abroad trip to EGYPT sponsored by the ARAMFO foundation across from the classroom. I immediately wrote down the information and contacted the professor in charge. Unfortunately, about a month later, Metro pulled out of the program but I was still incredibly determined to go on this trip. I mean, it was EGYPT. It was a dream of mine 17 years in the making to go. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I had to take it! The professor referred me to Dr. Abeer Ibrahim and she immediately responded saying I could come with as a community member!

The rest is history as they say, hahahaha! History! I'm hilarious.

Our journey began in New York on May 18th! We had a 12 hour layover there before heading off to Cairo (!!!!) and I went exploring with a handful of others around the city.

New York! Taxis and buildings! I really like the way New York LOOKS but the vibe I got there was very RUSHED and not so-friendly, so I wasn't a huge fan. Perhaps if I toured the city with Ryan Star then I'd have a different opinion...

What? You don't know who Ryan Star is?

RYAN STAR

He's only one of the best singers/musicians/performers in the world and I've seen him in concert/met him 6 times so far AND he happens to be from New York! [/shameless promoting of awesome musicians, a.k.a. check out his music!]

Anyway. That was a slight detour.

Central Park!

A group of us went the Metropolitan Museum of Art and this place is HUGE. It's amazing but it's HUGE. I was expecting it to be kind of like the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where I could easily find the exit if I was done but NOPE. You think you're almost done but ANOTHER EXHIBIT AWAITS! We got lost a lot!

The entire first floor was filled with Egyptian art. It was a great introduction as we were about to see the real stuff in the actual country!

My next greatest love after Egypt when it concerns history and anthropology is that of the Native Americans. I was stoked to see some Native art at the MET!

Swords!!!

Bow and arrows and quivers!!!

This is what it looked like outside the MET when we were done. Super crowded!

Here, I present to you my first New York hot dog. It was $2 and quite delicious though I put too much mustard on it.

Could this be the bridge from Enchanted?!

"Giselle! I've been dreaming of a true love's.... (gets run over by bicyclists)"

New York! 

EgyptAir! The plane we took to Cairo!

My ARAMFO name tag, passport, and ticket from JFK to Cairo! 

At the end of 2009, I took a semester of Arabic and I regret not taking any more classes after! It was my last semester at Front Range so I didn't have the motivation but now I wish I did. I was able to go to Egypt with a very, very, very basic knowledge of Arabic but I could NOT keep a conversation. I'm very good with the numbers and letters and spelling out people's names and actually reading Arabic but I just have no idea what I'm reading, haha!

This was in front of my seat!

The plane ride was about 11.5 hours!!! I'm not a frequent flyer and so I was too anxious and not prepared for this flight. I wasn't relaxed enough to sleep so I maybe...maybe slept two hours total on the flight. I watched Chasing Mavericks since it had Gerard Butler in it but it didn't really keep my attention. We arrived in Cairo at around 11:20 in the morning! My next post will focus on my first day in Egypt!