Only 6 more days in Egypt...so weird!

I have just come to terms with the fact that I will probably be good about posting blogs frequently and on time. So probably just get used to it.
Thursday...it was so awesome! We learned how to cook this amazingly delicious Egyptian dish called kushri (spelling?). It is pasta and rice and chickpeas and onions all mixed together in homemade tomato sauce. It is really good, so mom, get ready to have some when I get home! To learn how to make this, all the girls went over to Abduh's house after Arabic and his wife had a huge feast prepared for us. It was kushri, baked chicken, vegetables, potato chips, hummus, and pita bread. Before we were allowed to eat though, she went through all the dishes and told us how to cook all of them. They are really pretty simple but taste amazing. All of us devoured the meal afterwards and were so full. We played games with Abduh afterwards and they were so funny. There was this one that was like telephone but with charades and all the people have to go down the line and act out something and the person at the end has to guess what it is. Such an entertaining game. There is another game that we play a lot that is a person puts their hand on their back with their palm facing out. They cover their face with their other hand and then everyone gets behind then and one person slaps their hand. The one person then turns around and has to guess who did it. People were getting pretty into it and it is really funny. After lunch, Abduh took us to a perfume shop. We got a 50% discount there because the owner knows the leaders of our dialogue. They aren't really perfumes though, they are all essential oils that are hand squeezed out of different flowers and stuff. It was a really near experience.

Friday, we went to Alexandria. Alexandria was ABSOLUTELY stunning. The ocean there was so pretty. One thing that was pretty disappointing there though was that the people were rude. We got a lot of comments and like I have said previous times before, it gets really annoying to have people just stare at you and yell American stereotypes at you all day long. All they yell is "howdy", "howdie doodie" "God bless America and nowhere else" and "OBAMA!!!!" over and over again. Ya... so we went to this gorgeous fortress on the tip of the city. It was right on the mediterranean and was absolutely beautiful.

This is a few of us at the fortress. We walked around the city for a bit and got some lunch at the famous fish market. I got grilled shrimp and it was fantastic. Then we walked to the bibliotecha Alexandria. This is probably one of the best libraries in the entire world. They have archives of EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE since 1996!!!!! That is so many websites!!!!!! The technology they have was just unbelievable. Also, they had a museum dedicated to Anwar Sadat, the third president of Egypt but was SUPER popular. Everyone in Egypt loves him, but he got assassinated by a Muslim fundamentalist in a military parade in 1981. The reason that all this is pertinent is because this museum had the suit that he was assassinated in!! It was kinda gory but kinda cool. He cause demolished when we died, people threw grenades at him and shot him like over 10 times so I couldn't believe when they said they had the suit. It was kinda put back together but it was definitely still stained with blood and had lots of tears and bullet holes in it. After we came out of that museum in the library, we got accosted by a bunch of boys that wanted our pictures. It took like 20 minutes and was really annoying but at least they weren't creepy. After the library, we just came back to Cairo and I just fell asleep cause I hadn't slept in like 2 days. 

Saturday, or yesterday, we had a free day. Lauren and I slept in and then went to find this bazaar that we really wanted to go to. It is called the tentmaker's bazaar and it is just a street filed with guys that make wall hangings and stuff like that, but they are all beautifully embroidered. We walked around the whole area before we bought anything. I got the COOLEST tent! It is like 8 inches tall and even has a camel to go with it! haha. I have no idea what I will do with it but I thought it was cool! Then, we met this guy that spoke English and he took us to his workshop to see all the stuff he made. It was so impressive and he basically tore his store apart for us to show us all the stuff he had so we could decide what we wanted to buy. Funny story about this as well, there is the guy in Arabic folklore named Joha the wise fool, or Goha as they call him in Egypt. Our Arabic teacher at Northeastern teaches us these stories about Joha and makes little powerpoints about him with pictures. When Lauren and I were at this store with this guy, we looked down and say that there was a book that had the same pictures of Joha that our teacher uses. The explained to us that he quilted the illustrations for the book and we even saw his picture and a description of him in the back of the book! So we met the guy who animates the book that we use in class in the US! It was kinda weird. 

So we ended up buy some stuff from this guy and then just came back and relaxed the rest of the evening in the hotel. 

Today was our tour of Islamic Cairo. Our tour guide had his PhD from Harvard in Islamic Architecture. He basically knew everything about this entire part of Cairo. It was amazing. We went into a bunch of mosques and saw a lot of really cool monuments. I had already been to a lot of them at night and I thought they looked a lot prettier at night than they did during the day, but it was still really cool. I learned so much history about all of the building. 

This is the first mosque we went in to. It is inactive now but it has an amazing history behind it. 

After the tour of Islamic Cairo, we came back to the hotel and most people took naps. We then went to Al-Azhar park on the outskirts of Cairo, by the citadel. It was a nice park, and basically the only green space that I had seen since being in Egypt. We watched the sunset over the city and then headed back. Now I am here and have to study for my Arabic test tomorrow. I dislike Arabic. So thats really it. We leave for Syria on Friday morning I think and are CRAZY busy after that. We move hotels almost every night. Hopefully I will be able to keep blogging. Comment comment comment!

XOXO

Katie

Katie learns all about what it is like to be an animal in the zoo.

This has been a very interesting time since I last posted. I'll get right into it!!!

Monday, class in the morning. Arabic is still going. Ehhhh. Enough of that. After class, we went to Saint Andrew's, a refugee center located in downtown Cairo. It was such a cool experience and nothing like I had ever seen before. I'm pretty sure we went there in the first place because a lot of Northeastern students that are majoring in International Affairs or Middle Eastern Studies do their co-ops there. So basically Saint Andrew's deals with refugees from Iraq and Sudan, and a few from other countries in Africa such as Eritrea and Algeria. These people come to Cairo to escape persecution in their own country but in the long run, many of them are looking for resettlement into the US, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada, because those are the only countries that really accept refugees that are looking for permanent resettlement. At St. Andrew's, a big part of what they do is provide legal aid to these refugees so that they can claim asylum before they enter a country rather than going through the process of getting smuggled into the country and applying for asylum once they get there. It was a truly eye opening experience. Most of the people that apply for resettlement are Iraqi citizens that have helped out the US military and are having their lives threatened because of the help that they provided us. As we were talking to the lady, I realized how ineffective this whole system is. For example, to come to the US, a refugee must pass 4 background checks, from the CIA, FBI, DIA, and Homeland Security. These background checks all take up to a year. To be eligible for the checks, the refugee must have their fingerprints taken, but these prints are only useable for a year....so they can expire before the US government finishes the background check. That is just screwed up to me. These people risked their lives to help our military when they didn't even need to and this is how we repay them? We make them jump through hoops and finish a process that takes roughly 2 years? Absolutely ridiculous! Sorry. That is the end of my rant. On the other hand, the US takes WAY more refugees than any other country in the world. I think she said that the US took roughly 90,000 while the next closest country took less than 9,000. At least we are doing that. I'm not sure if I would be able to do my co-op here but it would certainly be an experience. The students here works just as caseworkers and have to hear the horrible atrocities that were committed to these people and have to tell some of them that it isn't bad enough to be able to get refugee status. It makes me sick and I just don't think that I could handle that. I would get way to depressed. After St. Andrew's nothing exciting happened.

Oh Tuesday. Such a weird day. After class (I had an Arabic test and forgot to study the prepositions so I didn't do so hot on that), a bunch of us went to the zoo. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. First off, just imagine the animal rights. Egypt has a hard enough time guaranteeing their citizens with basic human rights, just imagine how they treat the 15 full grown lions as their zoo. The lions were all in cages about the size of my dorm room, with some of the rooms having 2 or 3 lions in them. It was so depressing. Everything reeked because it obviously hadn't been cleaned in a very long time. Many of the animals had open wounds or sores on them and flies were buzzing all around these cuts. Gross. Also, there were cats in almost all of the cages! I haven't said anything about this yet, but Egypt has a huge problem with stray cats and dogs. And I mean HUGE. There are stray cats everywhere. They are alwyas going through the trash and other things. They don't bother people, but they are just always there. So it was weird seeing cats in the cages with water buffalo and zebras. Shows how good the security to get into the cages are. A small child could certainly climb into the cages without any problem or help from anyone else. Next problem....WE were the exhibits. I seriously felt like people were there jsut to look at us. People were taking pictures of us and having their children stand in front of us so that we would be in the background of their pictures. It was so weird. Everywhere we went, people followed us and stared. I am used to people looking at us, but it was way worse here than it ever was in any of the streets. SOOOOOO awkward. But our security guards were with us that was good =) We are so spoiled it is ridiculous. Our guards carry around M-8's with them at all times. At least I think that is what someone called them. No matter what they are, they are huge and it is absurd that these guys walk with us everywhere. Anyways, that was one of the most awkward experiences that I have had so far in Egypt. I don't think that I will be back to the zoo. Also, it cost Egyptians 1 pound and it costs non-Egyptians 20. What the heck?!?! So over the zoo.

Today, we had Arabic class and then we had a meeting with Sullivan to go over some readings and boring stuff like that. Then I came back and napped for like an hour. Then, a bunch of us went to this thing called Sufi music. It was awesome!!!!!!! It is these guys that play Egyptian instruments and they dance and then there are these people that spin in circles with crazy skirts on for like 15 minutes at a time. I have no idea how they do it. It is probably better for you just to google what I am talking about cause it probably sounds a lot weirder than it actually it. Google Whirling Dirvish or Sufi Music. It was amazing how they spin in cirlces for that long. I can't even get over it. So many circles. And then when they are done they don't even look dizzy! They Just stop and stand normally like nothing happened. It was completely mind-boggling to me and I couldn't get over how they did that the entire time. When we cam back from that, we went to Metro, the grocery store that is close by. Again, I had an incredibly awkward experience. To start this off, let me just explain something. I dress conservatively here. I try my best to always be covered, not because someone would say something to me but because it is more comfortable and we get less attention on the street. But this being said, guys are RIDICULOUS here!!!! It is like they think that just because you are a tourist, they can harass you. To be honest, I am completely sick of it. Guys just blatantly stare at your boobs and I really don't appreciate it, but I can't say anything. Even our trip leader has noticed though that I get a lot more attention than some of the other girls, we think because I have reddish hair, am really pale, and basically don't blend in here at all. I can't wait to get back to the US where guys won't star at me all the time!!!!! So....back to my awkward story, we are at the grocery store and this guy comes and asks me and my friends if he can carry our water for us, cause it is a really big box. We politely say no and he goes away. No big deal, this happens like every time that we come here. But then this same guy kinda starts following us. Then he comes and asks me if he can take a picture of me. I was so caught off guard and didn't want to be rude so I kinda shrugged and didn't say no. Then he tells me to start following him to this back part of the store (No Mother, it wasn't isolated I had people with me the whole time, and he wasn't going to do anything to me, don't worry). WHAT?!?!?!?! I will not let you do that creepy man!!!!!! So then me and two of my friends are in the back corner of the store and we start telling him that we have to leave. He kept saying no and finally we just walked away, but we still had to check out. We went to the check out and found our group leader that was with us and told her what happened. We kinda just all shrugged it off and thought that it was made further dramatic by the communication barrier. SO then we are in the check out line and here comes the creepy guy again!!!! He kept trying to get me to go back there. It was creepy and weird and I would have none of that. I finally wasn't so polite and told him to leave me alone and then he just stood there. And stood there. And stood there. I just kept avoiding eye contact and acted like he wasn't there. Then we left and checked out. That is the end of the story. Again, I will be happy to get back to the US where it isn't OK for people to do that. I know that I am a tourist but that still is not OK with me. After this experience, I will definitely be more upfront about just saying no and telling people to leave me alone. So that is basically the end of my story. Now I am sitting here in bed typing. I am going to go watch the new episode of Glee and then I will go to bed.

If you read this far, you get a gold star! Good job!
XOXO
Katie

Sorry I am soooooo late!!!

I am sorry that I am so late with writing this blog! I know that I haven't posted in a while. But I am trying!!!  Not surprisingly, things have been very hectic. They sure know how to keep us busy!! But let's get started...First off, I am no longer sick which is very good. I'm not sure what I had, but whatever it was, I was happy to see it go. A few doses of nyquil and rehydration packets (which taste like sweat and the flavor can only be masked by Gatorade packets) took care of that is a few days and I am feeling quite ready to go. The last post was Tuesday, so I will start from there with a quick summary of what we did each day.

Wednesday, we had Arabic class. We split the class into two different groups which is awesome!!! It is so much easier when you aren't in a class of 16. It was just too easy for me to tune out and not pay attention. Arabic is still the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life (no exaggeration at all there) but My teacher Noora is great and makes it a lot easier. After classes ended (they go from 9-1), a few of us went to downtown Cairo. We had lunch at a little cafe and then walked around, with the ultimate goal of finding Groppi's. Groppi's is a cafe/chocolate shop that has been open since the early 1900's and was mentioned a lot one of our required readings for the course. After much searching and help from two different tourist policemen, we found it. It was a little run down and not that amazing, but it was still cool being there. Having read the book, I felt like I understood its historical significance and the role that it played in how sophisticated Cairo was during and after World War Two. After that, we came back and got ready to go with the group to go to a music performance, but we ended up getting there and it was sold out. Our vans had already left so we were stuck in Islamic Cairo. Islamic Cairo, like its name implies is predominantly Muslim, but the name more refers to the type of architecture of the place. It is very historic and the building are amazing. This is one of the monuments that is in Islamic Cairo. Expect more pictures because we are doing a full tour of Islamic Cairo on Sunday with a tour guide and everything.

 On Thursday, we had Arabic and then I slept all afternoon. I was so tired, I think that it was still some of the affects of being asleep. At 8:15 though, we left for the train station so that we could take the overnight train to Luxor, where all the famous temples and tombs are. The 13 hour overnight train ride was certainly an adventure but worth it. Luxor was absolutely gorgeous. It was exactly how I had picture Egypt in my mind. We were definitely still in the middle of a desert but the banks of the Nile were lush, green, and amazing, just as I had thought they would be. We got an early start to the day and got going right after we got off the train at 7:30 in the morning, with our first stop at Karnak temple. This temple is amazing. Just the sheer size of it is awe-inspiring to me, especially when I think about the machinery that they had available at the time. To build the walls so tall, they constructed HUGE mudbrick ramps around everything and then dragged all the stuff up there. Our construction process is so much easier now but I feel like the product just doesn't have the same quality and appeal that these building do. The ones that we saw were all roughly 3000 years old and could still make any person stop dead in their tracks. I can't think of one building like that today. Anyways... that was a tangent. After Karnak temple, we went to Luxor temple which was really cool as well. As we speak (well I guess as I type,) I am trying to figure out how to make my photos available to all of you guys that don't have facebook, so hopefully you can see the pictures soon. I think I got some really neat ones. Friday afternoon, we just hung out at the pool and then took a boat ride on the Nile at sunset. Saying it was beautiful is an understatement. My pictures turned out amazing as well, better than the sunset I would say. Although they are stunning, they are much more dramatic than the sunset actually looked and I have no idea how that happened.

Saturday we went to the Valley of the Kings!!!!!!! It was AMAZING!!!! I feel like I overuse that word on here but I am just too tired to care haha so too bad. We only saw three tombs but they were absolutely incredible. Words can't even describe them. They are still painted, almost completely and are very much intact with long winding passageways and low ceilings. The whole time all I could think about was being the first person to discover one of those must be the most phenomenal thing in the entire world. I am so jealous of the people that get to do archaeology as a living. I would kill to be able to do that, even just work on one dig. While the Valley was great, it was so hot as well. It was at least 100 degrees and the tombs are even hotter than outside and they are more humid as well, I think from all the people that go in them. It took all my willpower to keep a positive outlook through that. After the Valley of the Kings, we went to Hatsepshut's temple. She is totally my favorite Pharaoh. She took control from all these royal men in her life and proved to be a successful woman who helped Egypt. Her temple is amazing too. It looks like it is carved into the side of a mountain, although it really isn't. It has three layers all of which have multiple pillars, giving a very regal affect for the whole thing. Picture take forever to upload on here, so I can't put one up, sorry. Again, it was hard to stay focused because it was so hot and beginning to near noon. After we went to the temple of Ramses the Third. He basically fought a lot of people for the whole time that he was pharaoh and his temple showed that. It was very violent. His is different from a lot of the others because he carved all of the hieroglyphics super deep so they could never be scratched out. It doesn't really sound like a big difference but it definitely gives the temple a different feel.

That was basically the end of that day, we just flew home really late at night.

Blah blah blah, this is probably all boring to you guys, all my rambling. Just one last thing I swear.

This morning (Sunday) we went to the Arab League. It was AWESOME!!!!! We met with this guy who was fairly high up and he actually answered out questions!!!!!! No one ever does that!!!!!!!!!!! People were asking him about terrorism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the huge wealth gap, and many other issues that are pressing in the Middle East today. To take a step back for those of you who aren't so familiar, the Arab League is kind of like the United Nations, just on a smaller and regional scale. It is the unification of a bunch of Arab countries that just come up with official "stances" on different issues. Although the UN has trouble having much real influence, a lot of countries in the Middle East are vying for the support of the Arab League on their issues.  There is also a co-op at the Arab league through Northeastern and this definitely made me more interested in that.

I am tired and I want to go to bed now. If you guys have any questions, post them as a comment and I will answer them in the future!!! I love hearing from people that are following my trip! I will keep you updated better in the future, I swear!!!!
XOXO
Katie

Just as a disclaimer, I apologize if parts of this don't make sense or spelling is wrong or anything. I haven't been feeling well and I am on some medication that makes me a little...off.

Sorry it has been a while since I have posted! Surprise, surprise, I have been really busy! The last thing that I left off was Coptic Cairo Day. This was an amazing day and I really enjoyed it. We took a van with our whole security team (usually 3 security guards provided by the Egyptian government armed with automatic weapons) to the entrance of Coptic Cairo. There, we regrouped and prepared for our tour. The thing that was really neat about these tours is that we did them ourselves. We were divided into...7 groups I think and then in each group there were 6 or 7 people and we each researched one of the sites inside Coptic Cairo. It was really cool and a lot easier than getting a tour guide for roughly 50 people. We learned a lot about Christianity in Egypt as well as Judaism. There are a lot more Christians in Egypt than I thought. Most of them are  Coptic, which is a really old denomination that is very orthodox.

After Coptic Cairo, we went to Abduh's house for lunch. I don't think I have explained who Abduh is yet though in the past few posts. He is really close with professor Sullivan and basically does everything for us while we are here. He organizes all our trips and goes everywhere with us. He is HUGE too! He is like...at least 6'5" and probably 250 or something like that but is the nicest person you will ever meet. He is such a big teddy bear and all the students love him. But we went to his house for a huge lunch that his wife cooked us and it was amazing!!! We had turkey (I LOOOOOOOOVE turkey!!!) and all these other weird things that I didn't really know what they were. We just hung out and played some games and chatted for a while too.

We left Abduh's house and went back to the hotels for a while to rest and then we went on feluka rides at dusk, which was beautiful. A feluka is basically just a big sailboat. We had like 20 people on each and just rode on the Nile for like an hour. Seeing the sun set was really amazing. Uh...thats really all there is to say about that. After that, we just hung out in someone's hotel room and then went to sleep.

Sunday I had a free morning cause I had already gone to the Egyptian Museum on Friday. I slept in till 12:00ish and then just hung out for a while. At 3, we left for our dialogue with students at the University of Cairo, or UC. Their week is Sunday-Thursday, just FYI. Going there was a really life changing experience. We had a really deep conversation about everything, but we talked a lot about terrorism, westernization, and how each place perceives the other. It really was eye-opening. We were asked to pick one word that described our country and its culture and the students from the US decided on individualism. The Egyptians picked religion. They didn't pick Islam, just religion in general. I think that right there goes to show how different it is for our cultures to understand each other when religion is really only a private practice in the US but a huge communal issue in Egypt and much of the Middle East. Anyways....afterwards, a few of the students came up to talk to me and told me that I was very well cultured and they thought my ideas were well constructed and I was well educated! WOOT WOOT! I seriously was so happy when they said that. SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!! I hope that I was able to break the American stereotype for just one person that day. We just came back and did homework after that and went to bed.

Now....I am sick. I got sick Monday morning at Arabic class so I left and came back to the hotel and slept all day yesterday and slept almost all day today. It has been so nice but I have missed 2 arabic classes so I will have to work to catch up on those. Other than that everything is good. We go to Luxor on Thursday night and will be SUPER busy till like Tuesday of next week so I am not sure when my next post will be.
XOXO
Katie

I am actually going to die of exhaustion on this trip. We do so much stuff it is crazy!! So the last I talked about was Tuesday. It has been so hectic since then. We started our Arabic class on Wednesday which was a big deal. Classes are 4 hours a day and basically just dismantle everything that we have ever learned about the language. In amia (colloquial), you don't conjugate any verbs and the grammar structure is much more simple, comparatively. And like....basically every single vocab word is different. They even have a different word for yes; usually we say "naam" and now we have to say "eowa" (kinda like iowa). Also, the letters make different sounds. The ج usually makes a "j" sound, but in egypt it makes a "g" sound. I certainly don't think it sounds as pretty. And the ق that is usually a mix between a "k" and a "q" now makes the sound of an "ا", which sounds basically just like the letter "a". It is really frustrating cause we have to learn how to repronounce everything. Sorry, that was the boring part. Arabic class is good for the most part though. We have a really good teacher named Hassna. I have never met someone that giggles more in my entire life. It is semi-ridiculous. The only thing that is really hard is that it is 4 hours. I can hardly think of anything that I can do for 4 hours straight. It is a little hard to absorb things that quickly. 

After our first Arabic class, we went to the US embassy. I have to say, I was not impressed by this trip. We were required to dress up, with most of the guys wearing full suits, which is not that comfortable in the Cairo weather. When we arrived, we were brought around to one gate, and then moved to another gate after waiting for like 10 minutes. The whole place was very cold and not welcoming at all, which was only furthered by the 3 metal detectors. I totally get that though, it was just annoying. When we got in, we were supposed to be meeting with a deputy chief, I think, or someone that was fairly high up. Instead, we got a man who was in middle management and was only involved in the economic status of Egypt. The other guy got stuck in "Cairo traffic" which can totally be a legit excuse but I think that he just didn't want to talk to a bunch of college kids. The man that we ended up talking to was in the Peace Corp in Morocco though, and that was cool. As soon as I heard him say that, I knew that he was not the typical diplomat. I think that there is some sort of rule somewhere that says a diplomat can never actually answer your questions, then must just always talk around them. We were instructed to ask hard-hitting questions about the US-Egyptian relations and other topics as well. This guy was better than most at answering more, because what he said didn't really matter. He did give us his opinion on certain matters and it was definitely a breath of fresh air. But other things, he just talks for like 10 minutes and then never answers the question. Oh diplomacy. At the very end of the presentation, the guy that we were originally intended to talk to stands up and thanks that man for filling in for him and how he "really appreciates that we came out here". Such a lie. If you got here late you could have at least pretended that you cared. This entire time, all I could think about was that is this is what OUR OWN embassy treats their citizens like, I can't even imagine how the treat the local Egyptians, the people that they are supposed to be interacting with and understanding. It was all very frustrating to me and makes me hate governments for their lack of transparency and ability to even pretend like they care about all of us little people. But I guess some of the things we learned from the trip were interesting, like how we give a gigantic amount of aid to Egypt every year and fund SOOO much of their military. 

We got back from the embassy and it was time to go to dinner. A guy in the group, Rob, found the name and address of this really good and authentic place to eat, so a bunch of us headed out there. Needless to say, things did not go as planned haha. This restaurant was supposed to be like 10 minutes MAX away from our hotel, but we probably spent over an hour looking for this restaurant. When we finally found it, after help from many security guard that are stationed on basically every corned and random people on the street, we found it and realized we had passed it twice on our walk. It was sooooooo good though! The food was very authentic and pretty cheap, although basically everything is cheap in Egypt. 1 US dollar is worth roughly 5.5 Egyptian Pounds. I usually eat a falafel place once a day that only costs 1.5 EP. It is AWESOME! Even at the sit down dinners, I can get a big plate with a drink and water (which you have to pay for because we can't drink tap water) for around 10 dollars if the restaurants are nicer. Cafes are even cheaper. I love it and can't wait to go shopping!!! But I have decided I will not buy anything until I get to know Cairo and Egypt a little more so I don't get completely ripped off. Wow tangent. We just went to bed after that. 

Thursday we had Arabic class again, although nothing exciting happened. The cool thing was the dialogue with some students at American University at Cairo, which I was especially interested in because that is definitely a place where I might be studying abroad. At first, we just talked about our first impressions of Cairo and Egypt with the students. It ended up being a lot about driving, because we are all amazed at the driving here. Words can't even describe it. It is absolutely the most unorganized thing I have ever seen, worse than any other country. I don't even know what else to say, it really just must be experienced. I wasn't impressed by the dialogue with the students, but thats OK. I was really tired and felt like I just had an off day the entire day. 

Today was our free day. 3 of the Arabic language students and I went to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, where they have all the mummies and artifacts and stuff. I am SUCH a history nerd so I love every minute of it. We hired a guide who was OK, nothing too special but he was absolutely necessary. The museum is pretty confusing and things aren't really marked very well so it was nice having someone who knew his way around. We spent about 2 hours with him and then explored the museum by ourselves for a while. I was SOOO bummed because I wanted to see the mummies really bad but it cost 50 pounds and I have been having trouble with my bank account (Screw you Bank of America!!!!) so I couldn't see any human mummies!!! We did see animal mummies though, and that was still pretty interesting and pretty gross. There was a crocodile that was like 15 feet long at least. It was huge. 

We came back to the hotel, got some falafel, and then went to watch a motocross competition at the pyramids!! It was really western but still fun. We got to see the sun set on the Sphynx and the Pyramids and then saw them lit up at night and some fireworks. It really was beautiful. I heard that you can take camel rides at sunset and I for sure want to look in to doing that on a free day. The motocross was OK, nothing special. They just went off the same jump like 598344 times and it all looked the same to me. I wouldn't have been much more interested if it was racing. It was funny cuase each rider had a different song while they rode and 2 of them picked black-eyed peas songs. The Egyptians went nuts! They knew all the words and were singing along the whole time. I thought it was so funny. They were slightly indifferent towards Green Day, didn't like Nirvana, and kind of liked Outkast. It was weird to see all their reactions to the different music that was being played. There was a bunch of metal and they for sure were not fans of that at all. 

I am absolutely exhausted right now though, so I have to go to bed. We have a super long day tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep for the day long tour of Coptic (Orthodox Christian) Cairo!!

XOXO

Katie

Finally here!!!

I am in Egypt!!! Sorry this took so long to write, but we had a hectic trip getting over here. We were delayed about 10 hours in total. First, our flight was delayed 3 hours going out of Boston because of the volcano. Stupid Iceland. They don't contribute anything useful to society except Bjork (who isn't really awesome) and then WABAM! They jam up world travel for like 2 months. Cool. I really appreciate that. And because that flight was late, we missed our connection to Cairo. We had to wait 5 hours for the next flight and then guess what?! We got delayed again! This time it was from 3:30 to 7:10. It really was a group bonding experience. That much time in the Frankfurt airport really messes with your brain, like by telling you it is OK to by 8 dollar hagen daaz (how do you spell that?).
Anyways, we got here. That is really what matters. Yesterday we had our first full day in Cairo. We did a walking tour of Zamalek. Zamalek is just an area, kinda like the Manhattan of Cairo. I thought it was going to be a lot nicer than it actually is, but I am totally OK with that. After that, we went back and rested for a little bit and then we had our first Arabic assessment. It was SOOO stressful. Most of us are at the same level technically, but some teachers work on different things than others do so we all know different things. But we are learning the Egyptian dialect, which is way different than the Modern Standard that we learn in school, so that levels the playing field a little bit. Needless to say, I feel very unprepared. It takes a lot of confidence that I just don't have yet. I still don't even feel like I am pronouncing things right. I'm sure it will all work out though.

Today, we went to the PYRAMIDS!!!!!!!! It was so amazing. Our group of fourty, all the arabic language, photography, and engineers combined, all rode camels. I have no idea how one place can even have that many camels. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I know, I know, it's really cliche, but things are cliche for a reason, because they are awesome. I am convinced that no picture can ever capture the pyramids. They are so amazing in person. After the pyramids, we went to the sphynx, which is actually like 100 feet from the pyramids. It was cool I guess. There were SO MANY tourists. Which we are so I guess we shouldn't be complaining, especially since we were in a group of about 50 in total. I need to read more about it to appreciate it. After, we went to the Egyptian Papyrus Museum, which is not a museum. It is actually a store but it was really cool cause we got demonstrations of how they make it and everything. And because they love our professor leading the trip, we got 50% off the whole store. That was cool. Then we went to a "typical" middle eastern lunch in Giza. It was cool but very touristy. I prefer getting off the beaten trail. Now, I am just sitting in our hotel, about to get ready to go out tonight. It is an arabic Language guy's birthday today so we are going to celebrate for that. Then we start classes tomorrow morning at 9! AHH!

So....ya. Thats all I can really think to say right now. I am trying to figure out how to upload pictures onto this, so I will let you all know when I can do that. Otherwise just check out my facebook if you can.
XOXO
Katie

Almost there...

Right now, I am just sitting in Hingham with Tori, waiting to go to Egypt. I leave in 2 days!!!!! I can't believe that I am actually going! It still seems like something is going to happen so that I can't go. It is just to god to be true. Getting ready has been REALLY hectic. I have to get so many little details tied up before we get going. If I didn't have Tori with me right now, I would probably die. She is so much more organized and rational than me. I am finally going to start packing tonight. AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! SO much stuff to fit into one little bag! And I haven't even started my readings for the trip yet. I'm gunna get that started tomorrow. And it is only like 160 pages or something like that; I have done much more cram reading than that for all of you who know my study habits! =) Blogging is weird. Just saying. This is gunna be short cause I don't really have anything to say yet. But please keep reading them! They will get more interesting as I get to Egypt and start doing real things, not just sitting in bed watching Law and Order SVU on my computer with Tori. COMMENT!!!!!!!!

XOXO

Katie