The Dead Sea

We only stayed in Jordan for 2 nights and 1 day so we didn't get to see very much.

Something we did do was to float in the Dead Sea.

It was super fun to float/ so crazy that you really can't control it.

Sometimes I was actually annoyed because I love to swim around and use my legs to float, but you just gotta embrace it.

It was Great!

Syria

Our time in Syria went by so fast.

We spent the first day in Hama after an exhausting day of traveling. The next day we went to the krak des chevaliers, one of the last few standing Crusader castles. It was awesome! I felt like a little boy in a dream as I was running around and exploring the place. There were even times of sneaking through corridors, tunnels and secret places to spy.

Then we had one of the best lunches ever with savory delicious garlic chicken.

Then we went to a town of some of the last people to speak Aramaic. We saw the church of St. Tecla in the mountains. I got a swig of holy water, saw some old icons, and even met with a head priest who prayed the Lord's prayer in Aramaic for us.



Then it was off to Damascus. We stayed in a monastery close to the city wall of old Damascus. It was so beautiful. We got to take a tour of the church of St. Ananias, where there are still ruins of where he was and where Paul was. There was plenty of shopping and delicious food (seriously, every meal was SO good). We got to particpate in a Turkish bath a.k.a. getting scrubbed down by a fat hairy Turkish man but feeling so good afterward. We got to met MESP alums who were working in the area, that was my favorite night because it was a talk on the future, we got to hear their heart on everything. Then a few of us went on the roof and saw all of Damascus. My heart was so happy.

The place was beautiful.

Travel and Shotty Internet

My dear friends and family,


I am so sorry that I have not been as consistent with my blog as I have hit travel blog. Travel schedule here is filled speakers but also during down time there is SO much to explore.

We left Istanbul the other day after a final night doing Karaoke! (one of the best nights for sure). We have currently been spending two days in Ankara the capital. Today we talked with two officials in the Turkish foreign ministry which was SO insightful in Turkey's piece to Middle Eastern peace puzzle. We also visited Ataturk's tomb (look him up if you don't know why he's a big deal over here :]). Luckily I have been finding rest because there isn't much to do here in Ankara, so we have been watching movies and I learned how to play the card game Rook (so fun.)

Tomorrow we head to Syria, and the day after that we actually make it to Damascus (we fly to border then drive for a while and stay in Hamas, then actually head to Damascus).

I cannot believe that this is my life right now. The day the bombing happened, as I was biking around the entire perimeter of an island in the Asian side of Turkey, I thought to myself "How is this my life right now??"

To a friend I wrote about how I am going to Syria for about a week (a place I never dreamed of going to) and then to Israel/Palestine (the place I dreamed of going to) and that fact that I never even knew about Turkey and have loved it.

It's crazy that I have become more interested in politics, in the world, in religion. Things that once overwhelmed me are becoming more and more interesting.

I am so amazingly thankful for these opportunities of a lifetime.

Miss and love you all.

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.

Night 4

After a day of classes, I realized that taking the metro/microbus was a lot easier of way home than taking a taxi to who knows where. I got home and spent a lot of time doing "wageb". Mama helped me a lot with it. Then little Lisa came over to with her own "wageb", this time she was learning the letter "A". Basma, my sister, was helping her and when Lisa learned the word "Ant", she ran around screaming Ant. Then Lisa's parents came over. Our families then had a time where they shared all the embarassing things that I have done over the week (it seems some things in families are cross-cultural). After that came the event that I have titled "The Clash of Hospitality". As dinner was about to be served the other family was invited to dinner. As is custom, they deny. The only thing though is that my family would not take no for an answer. As the other family continued to say no, baba blocked the doorway as my sister was yelling and shoving the wife down to sit (never in an angry way). It was quite the spectacle to watch and my family eventually won, though the other family got away with cleaning some of the dishes afterward (which was then protested). After that I had to study more for my arabic quiz so I went in the other room to study. I ended up crashing out early as my sleeping patterns have been crazy this week.

Homestay Day/Night 3

Tuesday is our usual service project day and so I got to sleep in until about 9:00am. Something about Egyptian families is that when they are home they are in their pajamas until they leave the house. So I stayed in my pajamas until 4:00pm when I finally had to go to my service project. My day was filled with watching Tv, then being beckoned over to the computer to watch wrestling since I had expressed that I used to watch it (though we ended up watching some knock off with Hulk Hogan in it), then I watched the first Lord of the Rings movie. When it was time to go, I took a different way to get to my service project. I took a microbus (which is much tamer than a microbus in Nepal) to the Metro. My service project was great and we had a a great discussion at the end which allowed for our students to speak the English that they know. It was a lot of fun and they definitely enjoyed Kyra and my stories about our interactions with our family. Getting back was so much easier. Though I seemed to have lost all sense of direction being here, it was easy to hop off the Metro, get on the micro bus and walk home (I head left from "Crazy Hair" barbershop and turn left at the tires). I decided that instead of getting in a taxi and ending up who knows where, it is easier to ride the metro and take the microbus. The night was filled with power outages and time where I gave my gifts I brought from home (a can of California almonds and a book of San Francisco). They had me write notes in the book then my sister translated it to the family right front of me. It was a funny experience, they especially found it funny that I had written "Sorry you have to translate" on my sister's note and that I only wrote to the mom and Basma's fiance that I would be praying for them (though I totally will be praying for all of them). Afterward was dinner at 11:00pm where I ate a lot then was given two "gawaffa" (guava)to eat and then bed. Needless to say I went to bed stuffed full.

Homestay Night 2

Early in the morning I awoke in the bed that my family had given me, I felt bad but because I did not know how to get to the Taxi stop, I went with my brother Emad to the place. He was telling me where to go in Arabic, and I thought to myself "It'll be easy, it's just a taxi ride there", little had I comprehended that the Taxi ride back would have to drop me back off in the same exact spot for me to know where I am.
I went through the days classes, had Dobka class, showered at my flat then it was off to my home. I was super nervous now because I realized over the timespan of the day that I really had no idea where I was going. I told the driver "Talbia Haram! (my neighborhood) and he took me there. After stopping for gas, to talk to a friend and put air in his tires, my taxi driver pulled on the side of the street and said "Talbia Haram" and pointed to a street perpendicular to the street we were on. Realizing I had not come from this way before I felt that if I just asked the right people, I would get there, no worries! Knowing the words of my street, I would only ask store owners who may know the area. I kept getting pointed in the direction of going a lot farther. 45 minutes into it, I realized that when MESP warned us that Egyptians like to help even if they have no idea either was definitely coming into play. Finally I found someone who told me it was on the other side of the street, then people started pointing me in the opposite direction but with more specific pointing and Arabic. Around another 30 minutes I decided that it was time to ask for a mobile, I borrowed one, called my sister who talked to the guy and was told to wait there. 3 minutes later Baba comes out. I was literally right next to the street that connects with my home. I was relieved to come home (who was not worried because they just figured I had come late in a taxi). I played with little Lisa, a daughter of mama's best friend. It is great because she speaks basically my level of Arabic (actually, she's definitely much better). Then the usual routine of watching tv, doing "wageb" (homework) and then eating dinner around 10:00pm (bread, refried beans, hard boiled eggs, cucumbers and cheese). I got to use the internet (which I am using now) which was great also. My brothers Romany, Emad and I stayed up watching a Miami Vice the movie (Awfully boring, I wished I even didn't understand English for that movie).

Homestay Night 1

Sunday night started at 6 o'clock with all the MESP students waiting around the Villa (where our classes, lunch, pretty much everything is held). The program of the night was that we would have a reception as parents came to pick up the students that they were housing. It felt like an orphanage as slowly by slowly (time to Egyptians is a relative thing) families trickled in and picked up one of the kids. When 3 guys walked in, I just had a feeling they were there to pick me up. All the girls are staying alone this week, but all the guys had to be paired albeit 2, and I was one of the two. I had asked to be alone because I knew that if I was with someone I would be too comfortable leaning on them to do the socializing. Anyway, the three walked over to me, and well.. none of them really spoke English and my Arabic is a long shot. As we were sitting around trying to communicate we managed to get some info out, their names, my name, where they were from and where I was from. I was actually just staying with one of the guys, my brother "Emad", while the other two just came for the ride. What was also cool was that Emad and his family (my family now I guess) were coptic while his two friends were muslim.
After a half hour drive I arrived to the apartment, a pretty small place but filled with charm. They even put up an American flag which we all got a laugh out of. I then met baba and mama and the only daughter (my sister Basma). Basma can speak English pretty well so it is so funny when I would have NO idea what was being said and then she would translate a little bit. We then spent the night watching movies, butchered conversations, they loved helping out with my Arabic homework (definitely the big hit). Edward, Basma's boyfriend/fiance came over too and I met him. He definitely laid out on the table those usual American dinner table conversations you don't have like politics ("Do you like Obama?" Me: "Yeah" Edward: "Good, I don't like Bush") or religion ("You Christian? Me" "Yup" Edward: (very happy) "Good!").
After hang out time near 11 I was thinking bed time but nope, it's the perfect time for dinner! My brother Romany came and joined and he is definitely a character, loud boisterous and fun. It was great. We had a DELICIOUS green basil sauce with bread, cucumbers, rice. I felt that hospitality as my plate got filled three times (without me even finishing it), it was so great. They also gave me some slushie thing and it was so good! After another MBC Action Channel movie (Bruce Willis in some African rainforest?, I sucked it up and went to bed. Here in Egypt, the night life is very active at all times of the night/morning, so we were told to try and stay up so it wasn't awkward if they wanted to stay up more. It's a guessing game to find the perect time! My host brother Emad supposedly hadn't slept for two days straight! It was really hard to wake him up the next morning for him to take me to the Taxi stop.

Adventures still to come:
- figuring out how to get back home
- showering in the bathroom/using the bathroom in general
- figuring out how not to gain 100 pounds this week

Christian Differences

This past week has been filled with classes. It is so interesting that this has become the norm, this is life now.

Yesterday, Friday, us MESPers met up with a Coptic Orthodox church and went to their retreat center called Anaphora where we spent time together talking about each other's faith background.

It was so interesting that people who both would label themselves as Christians are very different. The Coptic Orthodox church is a church that has been traced all the way back to St. Mark and has inhibited Egyptian since that time.

We sat around in small groups and discussed our backgrounds and then got into other heavier topics like gender roles in the church, cultural impact and other things. The greatest thing that I realized is how the Coptic Christians answered in a unified answer whereas we Americans differed greatly on our own views. It was very hard to be given the task to "represent American Christianity". I have never before felt like I actually needed to stick up for Protestantism. Also just our cultural difference, I felt like often it was a traditional vs. a more post-modern way of thinking.

No one afterward could stop talking about all that had happened, we MESPers learned a lot about each other in that time and about the Coptic church. Though there were times of frustration in our small circles, we learned a lot which was good.

Tonight we go bowling with all of our Egyptian friends! It should be fun!
---

Our home-stays are tomorrow and so I will not be posting this week until next weekend. I will try to keep a journal and update on the whole time. I am very excited but also kind of nervous to have to get used to really unfamiliar thing! They keep warning us that it will be awkward in the beginning. I know it is going to be great!

Luxury Weekend in Luxor

This past weekend we spent our time in Luxor. This is where many of the Pharaonic temples are, so I was definitely excited to journey on over here.



On Thursday night we took a night train to Luxor and arrived Friday morning around 7am. I went to back to sleep at our hotel and spent most of the morning/day lounging around our hotel pool, napping and walking around. The afternoon we went to Karnak temple and Luxor temple. Seeing it was AMAZING. The statues, the pillars, everything that was intricately designed had me in awe. I definitely had to take my share of touristy pictures (as you can see).






The next we went to the Valley of the Kings (where we couldn't take pictures) and the temple of Hatshepsut. In the Valley of the Kings I got to go into the tombs of Ramses III, Ramses II and Tutmoses. The were beautifully decorated with painted walls that have still lasted. It was awesome. That afternoon a bunch of us got our class readings down, played pool games and played the card game Mafia. One of my friends managed to find a sail boat that would take us to "Banana Island",for only ten pounds (less than $2) we took a sailboat to the other side of the Nile (not an island) and had bananas in some restaurant hut. It was fun but a little eerie as it was getting dark. The next day we took a 10 hour train ride (such a long time!!) and classes resumed again the next day.

What a crazy lifestyle I am living at the moment!

Home stays start this Sunday!! Ahh!!

Egyptian Friendship

MESP (the program I am with) really wants its' students to interact with the community and have relationships with people that live here. A few weeks ago we had a "cultural exchange" party in which we were paired up with a friend that we could hang out. My friend's name is Emad.

Last night we hung out for the first time since meeting and it was super fun. We ate this food called "fatta" and it was delicous. It had dried bread pieces in rice with some garlic in it along with beef on top. I was afraid I wouldn't like it but it was delicious! (though maybe a little fatty). After that we went out for ice cream (Egyptians love to eat I've been told) and got two scoops for the price of 65 cents in the US.

We had great conversations about life, differences in America and Egypt and the differences in Coptic Orthodox Christianity and Evangelical.

It was a great night and tonight we will be heading to Luxor via a night train. I am excited to see temples and see Upper Egypt. So much to do, so little time!