What Happened on Halloween.

Today there was a bombing in one of the major business squares of Turkey where my hotel is located.

I was no where near Taksim Square (the incident where the bombing happened), I was actually on a boat going to a island near the Asian side of Istanbul. I went bike riding the whole entire day and didn't know that anything really went on until I was on that island.

We are still staying in a hotel near the square for one more day before we head off to Ankara (the capital) for the rest of our travel component. We had a meeting tonight to lay out more safety boundaries and such. Overall, I am so thankful that all of us were instantly accounted for within the first five minutes of hearing about the bombing.

Here is a CNN article on it if you are interested:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/31/turkey.blast/index.html

I am doing fine. It's weird to come back to the hotel and everything around us is generally back to normal.

Goodbye Egypt, Hello Turkey.

Saying goodbye to Egypt was a very strange feeling as we had spent 2 months of our time there.

When we arrived it in Turkey, it was immediately different, there was RAIN!! It was cold, rainy and everywhere we looked outside our bus windows we saw lots of modern cars and modern windows mixed in the ruins. It was flippin' sweet.


We then took a boat tour (the picture is of my friend Ben and I on the boat) we got to see the Europe side and the Asia side of Istanbul.

Then the next day we were got to meet with a foreign affairs member from the U.S consulate and a very famous journalist while spending the day touring around Taksim square.


Today we met with a person from the AK party (the government party currently in control) and then we went to the Hagia Sophia! It was beautiful. Pictures could not capture the beauty within.


It is really nice to be here. I am so interesting in the politics of Turkey and seeing the role it plays in the West and in the Middle East. In Egypt I was so bogged down with learning Arabic, studying for Islam Thought & Practice and then trying to figure out Egyptian politics. Here it is so great to engage in the politics, easily be able to follow the political topics. We are here truly in an unique time as they are bidding to be in the EU and becoming a power country.

Not to mention, cold is a nice change :]

The Last Days of Egypt

The last weekend of Egypt was filled with plenty of adventures. It was hard because we had two finals and three papers over a week span but we also realized that we only had a little bit of time to get things done.


On Friday I decided that I had written enough of my papers that it was time to get mark something off the list of Egyptian sightseeing! After waking late in the morning, I called my Egyptian friend Emad and went with my roommate and him to the Cairo Museum. It was crazy! Imagine instead of a organized museum, a huge warehouse of some of the most ancient things. There were tons of statues, ancient artifacts. The coolest thing was the Tutenkhamen exhibit, were the gold mask that would be on his mummy is on display as well as the elaborate coffins.
Other coolest thing: Ancient tweezers. They used tweezers back then!


The next day, I had signed for the "Race for the Cure". It was .93 mile race and it was so fun. Ridiculous thing though was that the starting line could not be contained and when they announced for the start, there were still buses and cars using the roads so we ran against traffic. It was hilarious!!! I saw a boy run into a car, he was alright, but that was just how wild it is. My friends and I who went had such a good time.

Then that day I went to lunch with a few of my MESP friends along with a few of my Egyptian Christian friends, it was so great and it felt like grabbing lunch with old friends. We joked about our awkward first few weeks, our homestays, our arabic, it was a great time.


Sunday after turning in one of our papers. Sunday night was filled with studying arabic the entire night at hanging out at the other guys' flat.


On Monday, I finished the final Arabic test which turned out to be so much easier than I thought. It was also so awesome that my teacher said that I was really good and that I should continue studying it.

Then afterward I did a Dabka dance recital that I had been practicing for with a group of people. We did pretty well. I will be teaching lessons once I am back in the states if you are interested (not really, but hey, I probably could).

That night a few friends and I went to our friend Lynn's host family's wedding. It was SUPER fun. I busted out my dancing skills and they would never let me sit down since. There were tons of people dancing, some people were spraying fire out of a canister and the groom even played with a sword (which I got to dance with too, so cool).



Great last hooray before packing the next day and and a little get together with my English students. It is so weird to be saying goodbye to this place already.

Spinning and Spinning and Spinning

There is a place in the Khan-Al-Khalili where the Whirling Dervishes are and it is one of the most spectacular shows.

Did you know a man can spin for a half hour straight and take off then twirl a skirt-like thing while never stopping?

To say the least, I was amazed.

Day Trip to Alexandria

I was in heaven the other day.
It was heaven because everywhere I looked, there was something to learn, something to see, something to explore.
I loved it, I loved every single minute in the hour and half of time I got to spend there.
I loved the Alexandria library.



The catacombs were interesting with it's mix of Egyptian/Roman and Greek philosophy,
Pompey's pillar was well.. a pillar,
the quatbay fort/citadel was beautiful, but all the more beautiful was the Mediterranean ocean breeze that flowed through it,
but the most beautiful? that library filled with knowledge and wisdom.
My favorite book I found: The Superior Person's Book of Words by Peter Bowler
Favorite word I found in there? Firkin: a small cask used chiefly for liquids, butter, or fish.

I will be very busy from now on: 1 paper finished, 2 more to go, with 2 finals.
In a week and a half I will traveling around the Middle East.

Faith Dialogues

We have had very interesting discussions this week. As part of one of our classes we have discussed religion/Islam with two groups of people.

The first occasion we had met with students from Dutch-speaking Belgium and discussed religion and their thoughts on Islam being in their country. It was so interesting to talk to a lot of them because Atheism is so big in the younger generations. A lot of young adults have turned away from the church because of all that it has done. It was interesting talking to them too about Islam, we talked a lot about religious identity and whether a religious culture and a nationalist culture can interact. We had no answers but it was such an interesting discussion. I wish we had better time to prepare because my small group wasn't very talkative but there was still a few things to gleam from it.

The second occasion was with Muslim college students. These students actually invited us to have a dialogue with them after they had heard about the community center that was being built near ground zero. For the dialogue we were actually placed into 2 groups: for and against. Instead of choosing the option of what we sided with, we were chosen on one side and then had to debate the other. I was in the "Against it being built" side. We came up with our argument then had a debate. It was interesting that some of the Muslims were actually on the side of being against whereas most of the Americans were for it being built.

The Sand of Siwa

This past weekend we spent our last organized trip out to the beautiful land of Siwa. This is a part of Egypt that is known for it's traditional roots and non-Western influence (except tourism has been hitting the place big time). After a night bus ride out to the place, we stayed the night in a hotel. Our hotel was awesome because it had no electricity so everything was by lit up by candle and kerosene lamp. I loved it.


The next morning we rented bikes and were out for the day. This is the day that I had been terrified of from finding out all the things we do on this semester because I will publicly announce that I never really learned how to ride a bike. Though I did ride a motor bike this summer in Nepal (terrifying!), I was still nervous about this experience though I knew there was no way I was gonna give up. I ended up taking it on really well and never fell. It was exhilarating! Everyone was surprised when I told them this was basically my first time really riding a bike and everyone was cheering me on and said I looked like a natural.


The first thing we did was to go to the Oracle Temple, which was ruins in the mountainside. Then we biked to Cleopatra's bath, one of the many but most famous fresh water pools in Siwa. This is where we swam in Cleopatra's bath, ran and jumped in, and played games like synchronized diving and dominoes. After that a crew and I explored a fortress and then saw a mountain that looked like Pride Rock from the Lion King so we decided to climb that too.

Then all the MESPers got together and we took a 30 minute bike ride out to a salt lake. We floated on the water as we watched the sun go down and then rode our bikes back in the night. (Two crazy first time biking things: off-roading and riding in the dark).



The next day we spent some time at a friend of the program's house and then got on jeeps and headed to the desert! Riding the sand dunes reminded me of the times of off roading in jeeps going to villages in Ethiopia. I loved all the bumps and swerving and close calls. We hopped out and went sand boarding for a little bit. (which isn't as cool as it seems because you get a really slow start on sand). Then we stopped at a place to spend the night. Our food was cooked under the sand and it was delicious. We spent a lot of time around a bonfire and headed off to bed under the stars.

It was a wonderful adventure!

Now it's time for the 3 papers and 2 finals that will coming up these next two weeks before we go on our travel component to Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Israel/Palestine. Time is going by so fast!

Ahly!

Going to a foreign soccer game has been quite high on my list as I have been traveling around and finally I got to witness one!


It was insane to go on the way to the game and see people wearing read (the team color) everywhere we go. Ahly playing was a big deal and it was evident. We took a bus there and shuttled ourself inside. We were told not to draw attention to ourselves until we sat down but it was kinda obvious when there is a huge group of 30 westerners walking around. We had security guard us in and then also guard us out while we were there.

The most epic thing that happened during the game is that the other team, Tunisia, actually had a riot. Ahly had scored two goals, and as we were celebrating when out of the corner of my eye I saw smoke. The other groups fans had lit flares and were throwing them on the field. They were also breaking off the bottoms of the chairs and throwing them at the guards. It was crazy! It was definitely very contained (their bleacher section had two rows of guards blocking them from everything) and we were on the direct opposite side. The last part of the game, I was very much watching the fans more than the game but oh well. It was still a blast!!

Day 7 (The Finale)

Pictured: Mama, Brother Emad and Baba. Not pictured: Romani and Basma
On Saturday I woke up knowing that the home stay must come to an end. Instead of an exciting time together, we actually all napped throughout the day because we were all so tired.

It was sad to say goodbye and I had to promise to come back again (which, of course, I will try :] ).

I left happy to have such an amazing experience and to be allowed the opportunity to be a part of a family. I learned a lot about how even with a lack of language and therefore a lack of factual knowledge of each other, there was still the feeling of love and being loved. We could really only say each other's names and a few simple sentences but that was enough.

I will forever remember and love my Egyptian family :]

Nights/Days 5-6

The next few days went by relatively fast.

On Thursday, I headed home and relaxed with my family the entire night.

The next day was Friday and it is the day off for all Egyptian families either so they can go to mosque or to church. My family and I stayed inside the house the entire day. I have not spent a day in a long time in which I stayed in my PJs the entire day. I watched some great movies with my family. First we watched 10,000 BC then later we watched Live Free, Die Hard with my mama included. It was hilarious to watch it with my sister and mama because they would react huge to the violence and if a bad guy died there would be lots of cheering. For meals we had an Egyptian meal called Koshary (sp?) which consists of rice, macaroni, chick peas, little brown beans... basically a carb fest but it was good (though sat kind of heavy). Though I was itching to go outside, I knew not to take for granted a moment with my Egyptian family.