Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Tripping Homer

So I'm trying to sort out my plans for this coming Spring Break. There are a lot of options up in the air right now, most of them involving the Mediterranean. I think my number 1 destination is going to be Istanbul - I've always wanted to go there, and it seems like a truly amazing, cosmopolitan city. Lots to see and do, not too far away, and fairly welcoming to Westerners.

Some of my friends are lobbying for another trip after Istanbul - to Beirut. I have to confess, I'm kind of nervous about the prospect. As amazing as Beirut may be, I can't get away from its automatic associations with the kind of violence that plagued it both in the 1980s and last year. I want to go - I want to be able to say that I've gone, and I don't want fear to deter me - but commonsense keeps butting its head in.

Another thing that seems to interest only me is seeing more of the Aegean and the Greek and Turkish coast after seeing Istanbul for 4 or 5 days. There are a lot of interesting, beautiful little sights and places tucked in amongst the coves and crags of that part of the world. But everyone else is focused on seeing the Middle East, so if I did that, I'd probably have to do it alone.

This probably sounds like an embarrassment of riches rather than a dilemma, but I would appreciate anyone's advice on the matter. People who have been, people who know the deal...anything would help.

I am, however, going to be spending this weekend in a desert oasis called Bahriyah. Should be a blast!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Parties, Ballets, and Journalists...Oh My!

Obviously, the most notable event of the weekend was my adventure to Saqqara. However, there were some other interesting things that went down.

Thursday night was the Gallabiya party, which was really a lot of fun. Everybody purchased a gallabiya - essentially a long cotton robe - which is the traditional garb of the Egyptian working class. We sat around, drank beers and a mojito punch, smoked various substances, and had a good time. It was a little awkward when some of the Egyptian students started arriving - some of us thought they might see it as exploiting their culture - but they seemed to enjoy it and joined in the spirit of the thing.

After the party had wound down a bit, I changed back into Western clothes and headed out to Latex, a western-style disco under the Nile Hilton, with Hanna and a bunch of Egyptians. It was pretty interesting, because inside it was just like any club anywhere in the world -dark, smoky black-box bar, scantily dressed women flirting with men, a dance floor and pounding bass beats. But the Egyptian girls entering at the door were all wearing jackets and overcoats that, as soon as they entered the club, came off to reveal halter-tops, backless shirts and all manner of short skirts and high-heeled boots. It was a pretty fascinating and compelling cross-cultural bridge.

I got home at 4am and had to get up at 8 to go riding. That was...well, I survived. Although I did get hit with a spot of hangover around Saqqara. It kind of shows in the photos.

After the ride, Joe, Claire, Jacob, Jay, Thalia and I all went to the Cairo Opera House to see "Thousand and One Nights." It was a ballet, but not the Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade as I had thought. Rather, it was an Egyptian production. Not the most polished or professional ballet, with the exception of the Russian woman who danced Scheherazade, but a fun cultural experience.

Finally, I saw the journalist Seymour Hersh speak this evening. He's the real deal - he was the guy who broke the story of the My Lai massacres in Vietnam and ran some of the exposes about Abu Ghraib in Iraq. He spoke mostly on the war and its effects on both the Arab and American worlds, as well as the threat of further destabilizing the region via conflict with Iran.

He also has just published a story which basically alleges, with a good deal of proof, that the US is repeating some of the techniques of Iran-Contra, funding Sunni jihadist groups - with ties to Al Qaeda - against Hizbollah and Shi'a groups in the region. It's all very iffy stuff, but damning if true. I don't doubt that the US is involved in some very shady dealings in the region.

Anyways, his life as a reporter sounds really fascinating. The more time I spend here, the more I want to come back and do this kind of thing - get these stories and these scoops and so forth. But I'm not sure if it is a life that I am cut out for.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Sands of Egypt

So the big story here today is that I rode from the Pyramids of Giza to another, much older and more primitive complex in Saqqara. The destination wasn't really the point, though - it was the voyage. It was one of the most amazing and crazy experiences of my life.



After dragging myself out of bed at 8am - keeping in mind that I only returned from partying and clubbing at 4 am...I headed down to Giza. It took two cabs, ten minutes of walking and a short horseride through Cairo traffic to get there, but I survived. There were 12 or 13 of us all told, none of whom had any particular riding experience.

After a bit of Egyptian tea, we headed out, winding our way through the alleys of Giza. Local kids rode all around us, some going to work by horse and camel, and some just fooling around. It was really fun. A quick briefing, and then we went off. For most of this first bit, this kid was holding onto the reins of my horse as well as our friend Aleema's. It was a bit limiting, but I was glad of it for the bit that came next.

We turned out of the alleys and rode along the city walls. A pungent smell kept getting more and more intense, until we realized we were in the part of the city where they dump all the dead horses and camels. It was scary and intense, and the horses were very skittish, understandably so.

Once we ran that gauntlet, a couple of people's horses flipped out, decided to roll around in the sand, refused to go forward. My escort had to let go of my reigns and I took advantage to gallop up to the head of group. It's a breathtaking feeling: charging through the rolling dunes, wind blowing in your hair, total freedom and liberating speed. Its also terrifying as the 1-ton beast under you has quite a mind of its own. Just control it and let it do its thing, however, and its one of the best experiences there is.

We sorted out the horse issues and continued along. Since there were these two kids walking along, we alternated walking and trotting or galloping. The desert is amazing - there are long smooth dunes, cliffs, eroded rock formations, and a billion different kinds of sand, some soft, some studded with rocks. We finally reached this little village where we picked up a minibus to take us to Saqqara proper.

The bus drove through real, rural Egypt. Green fields, kids riding donkeys, families pumping water from the canals - it was a sight to see. In many ways, it was more interesting than the pyramids/temples at Saqqara themselves. They were neat and all, but the countryside was just so different and fascinating.

We were pretty beat after walking up to the Step Pyramid, so we headed back. At this point I'd been going since 8 with just two pieces of bread and some glucose pills. Nevertheless, we remounted and headed back. We took a different route, this one through streets and alleys. People called out to us, cheered, honked horns, asked us questions. The level of friendliness is amazing. Tourists can't be that much of a novelty - nevertheless, people seem generally very excited to see you.

The last part was by far the most amazing. We left the side streets and headed into the desert behind the Pyramids of Giza, at a different angle than the way we left. There was a great hill for photo-ops, so our guide pointed us towards it and let us loose. My horse took off like a bullet, galloping up the hill into the afternoon sun, far ahead of the rest of the pack. It was the most picturesque moment of my life. I wish someone had taken a picture, because it felt so amazing. I tried to recreate it, but it just wasn't the same.

At the top we got pictures, mounted and in front of the Pyramids, then headed back. On the way in, we saw some guys breaking in a new horse, which was really cool to see.


And that was our voyage from Giza to Saqqara. Tomorrow I'll talk about all the OTHER stuff I've done in the past 24 hours, like the Galabeyya Party, Club Latex and the Cairo Opera House Ballet.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Rabbit Kiosk

Sounds like a great band-name, huh? Well its actually verbatim from the latest campus-wide email we got this week. Check out this item tucked in amidst the usual announcements:

Rabbits at the DDC Kiosk Today
The DDC Kiosk will be selling rabbits for LE 20 per kilogram on the Main Campus in front of the Science Building starting Wednesday, February 21 through Thursday, February 22 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, and 2:00 to 4:00 pm while supplies last. For more information, contact DDC at ext. 6611 or the kiosk at ext. 5992.

So how incredibly awesome is that? If anybody wants me to buy rabbits - by the kilo, mind you - just let me know. It's a bargain!

Also: pictures of Cairo - check 'em out! A funny note, though - I took some photos of soldiers standing guard, and did so discreetly, since it's technically not allowed. Much to my surprise, when I got the pictures back, those shots had been removed from the film! By the developing studio!

A police state, indeed.

Other assorted happenings - tomorrow night some friends are planning to have a gallabiya surprise party. A gallabiya is the big, robe-like traditional Egyptian garment - so the idea is of course to all wear our newly-purchased gallabiyas, get sufficiently drunk and then take them off to reveal...a surprise.

It should be interesting.

Also, I'm supposed to take a ride the next day, 6 hours round trip from the Pyramids of Giza to the much more ancient Pyramids of Saqqara. Hopefully the party won't interfere with that - a six hour horse-ride is hard enough without being hungover to boot.

There was also some interesting discussion on my literature class today about women in 20th-
century Egypt. The book we have been reading, The Open Door, is a feminist novel from the 1960s about a young woman struggling against the society and patriarchy she is growing up in as Egypt itself struggles against colonial rule in the 1946-56 period.

So why is this interesting? Well, those of you who know me have probably noticed my constant struggle with and arguments with a lot of feminist literature - the demonization of men always gets to me. But this book really lays out in a clear and nuanced fashion the challenges faced by women in patriarchal societies, and the role that both men and other women play in enforcing those roles.

What I'm trying to say is that I think, having read this book, I have a better understanding of why its so hard to be a woman in general and in particular for those in conservative or reactionary societies, be they in the Muslim world or immigrant communities.

Anyways, enough intellectual posturing. I'm going to go buy some rabbits.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Bureaucratic Chicken

Joe, Jay and I went out to eat today, at what may well be the best chicken restaurant in the world. It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall across the road from a bizarre little market full of spices, meat, vegetables, and of course chickens and rabbits. You get to see the fear in their eyes before you eat them...

It's nothing special - just half-chickens grilled over a charcoal fire with salt, garlic, and onions. But the chicken and the ingredients are so fresh and so savoury that it makes for the tastiest dish I have had in a long time.

That was by far the highlight of my day. The rest was consumed with bureaucracy and other such bullshit - imagine, if you will, going to one office, being sent to a second where they redirect you to a third, which requires ascending four flights of stairs and crossing a rooftop to get to. In this office we apply for our student visas - but only if we previously submitted a form, with a copy of our passport, back at the first.

Oh, and can anyone understand the logic of requiring you to submit a passport-size photograph...with your passport? They already have the legal document. Presumably that would suffice? You need photos for everything in this country. We have at least3 seperate IDs here at AUC - Campus ID, Dorm ID, and Gym ID, nevermind the IDs for each activity or office you might join. And for each you have to submit photos stamped by the appropriate department - because you know, you might get someone else to take your physical to allow you to use the gym.

Yes. They really are that crazy.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Ahwas & 3aeesh

For those of you who have never been to an Arab country, let me explain the brilliance of an ahwa. It means coffee in Arabic, yet it also implies a great deal more. Simply put, an ahwa is a place for men(sorry ladies, but they are traditionally not co-ed) to sit and smoke shisha while drinking tea and Turkish coffee. They don't serve anything else, but they usually make those three things really, really well. I spent half of this afternoon sitting in one, sipping on a strong, sweetened coffee and then a savoury mint tea, all the while puffing on a molasses-flavored waterpipe. The coffee jolts you awake and the smoke takes the edge off, leaving you incredibly recharged and inundated with good-feeling towards the world. Nevermind how bad it is for you - some thing sin life are meant to be enjoyed without worrying about all the consequences.
The sad thing is that these institutions are mostly the preserve of old men and curious tourists. Young, hip Cairenes tend to flock towards Starbuck's-style coffee bars like the British Costa Coffee chain, which, while they serve decent Western coffee, don't have a tenth of the atmosphere of the ahwas. It's a damn shame, but nevermind.
Some of you might also be wondering about the weird "3aeesh" word in my post. Well, there's no letter in English that approximates the glottal "3ayn" sound in Arabic, so that's how you fake it. Anyhow, 3aeesh means bread, which is what you get for every meal, snack and feast here in Cairo. The reason I mention it is one of the amazing yet never-mentioned spectacles of the Cairo streets: the man riding his ancient single-gear bicycle down the chaotic, potholed, gridlocked streets with a tray of bread balanced on his head. And not just any try - there are probably a solid one hundred round pitas balanced on a wooden frame the size of a VW Bug chassis. Its like a circus stunt, only you see it every day, several times a day. Since this is how these guys make their living, it would be a disaster if they fell or lost the bread. And yet they never do.
I'll post a picture of it if I get the chance. It has to be seen to be believed.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

The Battle of Algiers

We went to see this amazing French film at the student center. That's pretty much been the highlight of my week as I've been spending most of my time getting over a persistent cold/fever. But the movie was really something - for those of you who haven't seen it, it's about the guerilla-style insurgency of the Algerians under the French occupation. Bombings, military crackdowns, counter-terrorist actions - nothing like anything we're dealing with today, of course.

A lot of the discussion after the film revolved around parallels between France's colonial pull-out and the USA's predicament. It seemed to me that, in the end, we're probably just as screwed as the French were, and when we pull out - things are only going to get worse. So there's that to look forward to...

Other than that, an incredibly slow week. I'll be writing for the Dimensions newspaper here, which is sort of the secondary newspaper on campus. It ought to be interesting - since I am only one of two or three people on the staff with actual prior newspaper-editing experience in English. Should be fun. If I write anything good I might post it up on here.

Cheers,
Daniel

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Out and About

That was the strangest possible introduction to an already peculiar city. But I've had other, less bizarre adventures and misadventures in Cairo, so I thought I'd explain a little more about the parts of the city that I have seen.

Zamalek - This is where the AUC dorms are, along with 30 or 40 embassies from all over the world and many of the affluent residents and expats of Cairo. Its an island in the middle of the Nile(which is actually a sort of disappointing river. It may be a cradle of human civilization, but it looks sort of like a dirtier version of the Charles River). Zamalek is like Greenwich Village by way of London and the Left Bank, set in the middle of a frantic 3rd-world metropolis like Sao Paulo or Mexico city. A lot of people claim that living in Zamalek isn't the "real" Cairo - and I think they're right. I don't care, though - an oasis of green, calm, and relatively fresh air is nothing to sneer at.

Wast al-Madina/Downtown: The AUC campus is around here, as well as the Mogamma - the heart of Egpytian government. Midan Tahrir is the main plaza, bordered by the Mogamma, the Nile Hilton Hotel and the Egyptian Museum. This place is a solid competitor for the worst traffic in the world. When its gridlocked, its just obnoxious. When traffic is moving fast, it is terrifying beyond belief. Most of my day is in around this area and Zamalek.

Old Cairo/Coptic Cairo: Only been to this part once. Pictures available here. Definitely a tourist trap, but also a thriving local community. Watching the Copts and I guess Orthodox Christians crowd around the icons and relics of the saints and make wishes upon them was an interesting experience. For me, though, the defining moment of Old Cairo was the kids playing football in the courtyard of a circa-500ad church while their parents went inside. Everywhere in the world...I thought about joining them. I wish I had.

Islamic Cairo: I had only a brief intro to this place, wandering through the Khan al-Khalili, the medieval bazaar. For me, there were two highlights: first, the bazaar itself. It was Friday, and thus a day of rest, prayer - and shopping. There were no tourists in the bazaar and it was packed to the walls with Egyptians shopping, selling, buying, haggling, and generally just going about their lives. Moving through the stalls of gold, silver, cloth, toys, shishas, clothing and pretty much every other imaginable thing was quite an experience of sensory overload.
The other awesome thing was Fishawly's. Imagine Starbuck's, only 250 or 300 years old. So, not like Starbuck's at all! Thank god. It was pretty sweet, if overpriced - the place has definitely been turned into a tourist trap. But locals go there too, and the atmosphere is just to cool to pass up. I'll have to return to Islamic Cairo to see the Citadel, the huge al-Azhar mosque, and the other various sights...

Mohandiseen: This is an affluent district on the other side of the river, away from the main campus. I've only been there once or twice, most memorably to get a full barbershop shave. Straight razor, brushed cream, hot and cold towels, the whole nine yards. All for 6 or 7 dollars. I emerged feeling a new man.

Ok, that's enough for now.

Cheers,
Daniel

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Salaam Aleikum and Bom Viagem

I wake in Cairo and I think I am in the center of the world. I don't think there is any place quite like this on Earth. Even when I am sick with the flu and and tired from work and sleepless nights there is an undeniable pulse in this city. I'm sick because I spent the whole weekend out, pulling 36 hours in a row without rest. Why? Well, that's a longer story.

I should first introduce the cast of characters for this weekend. There's my roommate, Joe. Some you will already know him, closely or in passing. We've both come from Brandeis to the Middle-East, and finding fascinating and frustrating in turn. Thalia Beaty is the one who started this weekend's madness; she comes from Brown, and we actually went to Chenery Middle School together. Jon Guyer, also from Brown - I think he was the most excited of us all about the prospect of the crazy night we had. Nick is his roommate, the resident archaeologist and from Univ. of Chicago who translates French, yet doesn't speak it. Zen, I know. Claire Hefner, from Univ. of Wisconsin Madison, Anthro major and dabbler in Sufi by way of Indonesia and India. So you know, pretty normal... Finally Hanna, the Swede from California, who was not on the ground two weeks before she attended an Egyptian wedding and a Sweden-Egypt football game with some locals.

It was this motley crew that Thalia convinced to come on her little adventure. See, a few days earlier she was sitting in an ahwa(like a coffee-shop only 10 times sketchier), when she was scouted as an extra for a film. Now, everyone knows what strange men mean when they scout strange women for "a film." But this is Egypt...surely something less sinister is afoot. Thalia's only instructions: come to Cinema Tahrir in Dokki, and bring your Western friends.

After a lot of debate we decided that hey, what was the worst that could happen? I mean technically, the worst would be a starring role in an Islamist beheading video, but we were willing to take our chances. So off we go. At Cinema Tahrir, there's a crowd of Africans, Asians, and White Westerners. We get redirected by an old guy with a killer baldspot-mullet combo, and another fellow with a Darth Vader voice and a skin condition that makes him look like a B-Grade Bond henchman.

Off to another theater, this one on the island of Manyel. Here we wander into a scene of total chaos. Wardrobe, makeup, and tech setup all appear to be happening simultaneously. Assistants direct us to and fro with all the aplomb of drunk airtraffic controllers. I wore a white suit to this event, knowing it was formal dress. They change me out of it into an ill-fitting tuxedo and ghastly dress shirt, back into my own(exquisitely tailored!)suit, and finely into a bastardized combination of the two. Lovely.

Thereafter, we sit. And sit and sit and then sit a little more. Thalia, Claire, and Hanna endure hours of makeup and hair styling, until finally they emerge, looking like survivors of the Titanic - both in the elegance of their attire and the shock on their faces. This is 4am. We sit some more. Joe endeavors to stay awake by the desperate tactic of drinking the hyper-concentrated sludge at the bottom of a cup of Turkish Coffee. This is widely regarded as a humorous but ill-planned move.

A couple of odd conversations ensue. Our agent, Mr. Mullet, elaborates on the filmmaking genius of the movie Swordfish. Yes, the one with John Travolta. Smile and nod was about as much as Joe and I could muster.

We resolve to quit the scene by 5:30am. At 5:15, they usher us into the theatre. We are glad for the moment, but hope quickly turns into despair as the director, crew, and main actress launch into a marathon session of shoots, reshoots, equipment moves, takes, second takes, and so forth until everyone is thoroughly exhausted. Those with film experience(Jack-san?) may correct me if I'm wrong, but is it normal filmmaking process to dismantle and reassemble the entire dolly/track/camera in the middle of a shoot? It shouldn't be.

Anyhow, we finally here Qwais AWI!, Very good, and the take is done. In desperation at this point, starved, dehydrated, and on the point of collapse, we dash for the exits although its pretty clear the director wants more reference shots or scenes or something. We can't take it anymore.

In the dressing room, chaos ensues. We struggle to find our clothes and IDs and personal belongings. In the midst of all this, the Darth-Vader fellow comes up and starts wheezing something at is in distressed English/Arabic about money, more shots, 30 or 40 more minutes...at this point, we are beyond caring. We tell him, enough is enough, and away.

He and several members of the film crew are literally following us out the door at this point. We yell and hail cabs, throw in our belongings and more or less bolt. In the adrenalin-fueled charge of the escape, we hardly even notice the suicidal driving of our cabbie, dire even by the berserk standards of Cairo traffic. This man was literally playing chicken on a two-lane road at 60 kph with a van in between, and we hardly noticed.

Surviving this voyage, we return to Jon and Nick's apartment, where we find the third member of their trio, Katie, asleep on the couch. She is, needless to say, baffled by the arrival of six over-dressed, underslept, entirely mad people in evening dress. Nonetheless, we manage to scratch together a heroic breakfast of omelets, fuul, sausage, hash, bread, and of course Nutella. And that was the end of our career in the Egyptian film industry.

A few notes after the fact: Nick informed us that the French-speaking woman playing the lead role might in fact have been a MAJOR Egyptian star called Youssra. This woman is something like an Arab Angelina Jolie - instantly recognizable. Also, we ran into a fellow AUC student who participated in this whole farce. She actually got paid by Mr. Mullet and Mr. Vader, who informed her that they wanted to see the six of US again. When we found this out, we were a little shocked, not to mention terrified. We'll see what comes of it...

Anyhow, this is my first post. Hopefully more adventures will follow.

Cheers,
Daniel Pereira