So I guess I could have titled this “The Waiting is the Hardest Part”.

HUZZAH!

It’s been months since my last post, and I sincerely apologize. I’ll try to pick up from where I left off? When we last checked in with our plucky heroine, I’d just evaded a post-karaoke riot, which had broken out in response to a poor performance of “I Love Rock and Roll”.

Later that week, my family came to visit me over Thanksgiving/Eid Al-Adha break, as both  American and Islamic holidays coincided this year. Eid Al-Adha celebrates Abraham’s sacrifice. According to the tradition, as he raised his knife to sacrifice his son, an angel staid Abraham’s arm and replaced the boy with a sheep. So, to commemorate his devotion to God, families kill a sheep and have a feast, and college kids get the week off to travel. Or spend time with their families I guess.

With my parents and siblings (Hi guys!) we traveled to Upper Egypt, in the south, and cruised along the Nile from Aswan to Luxor. We visited almost every major temple along the way, including the stunningly gorgeous Karnak. But after months of sleeping on the bus to AUC, I crashed every time we got on the tour bus! It felt strange touristing in such comfort, though I’m certainly not complaining! My family also got to visit Giza and Wadi Rayan- an ancient whale boneyard- while I was in class, and when we arrived back in Cairo we had a shisha and tea in Khan El-Khalili.

I loved seeing my family because I had been feeling very homesick. I also loved that Hosni Mubarak closed the schools for an additional week for Swine Flu again. This gave me the chance to visit Israel and Palestine, a trip I never thought I’d have the time to take legitimately… yet had planned to go on regardless with a few friends. With the rest of the Georgetown contingent, our trip to the Holy Land was to be called “Eid Al-Georgetown”, but we ended up going with non-Hoyas as well.

I left my family at Cairo International Airport, they flying to the States, me to Istanbul to catch a connecting flight to Tel Aviv. The adventures started at the airport. I realized my one-month travel visa (from my last entry into Egypt) had lapsed, so I was pulled aside into a back room at the airport, where I had to pay a 150 LE baghsheesh to leave the country. That accomplished, the flight to Istanbul was uneventful, though we all had to go through Swine Flu screening before we could get to our connecting flights. Governments were concerned that pilgrims returning from the Hajj would have contracted the disease and brought it back with them, though I don’t believe materialized into a real serious problem.

But I have to express my love for Turkish Airlines. The flights fit a backpacker budget, yet come with all the amenities of business class. You can’t bring a bottle of water with you, but they will serve you real metal cutlery with your meal, even on the shortest of flights. Oh, Turkish Air.

Arriving in Ben Gurion Airport I, along with several hundred Nigerian pilgrims, got the dreaded Israeli Stamp in my passport. Assuming that this was my last trip in the Middle East, I wasn’t too concerned. However, many countries in the region, due to the political tension, will refuse entry to anyone bearing evidence of a trip to Israel in their passport. This not only includes a visa, but any evidence of their once being something stapled to the passport, missing pages, or land-border exit visas from Egypt or Jordan without explanation. Jordan and Egypt will allow Israeli stamps to enter, but Lebanon and Syria do not, so I advise anyone visiting the MENA to make Israeli the end of their trip.

Tel Aviv is beautiful. I had a few hours to myself before meeting up with the other girls, so I walked around the city, where I found- I kid you not- a candy shop with a wet bar. There was also a stir-fry bar in the middle of the street, which I commemorated with a picture of an American tourist (myself) in Israel, having dinner on the street of German beer and Chinese food. It pretty much summed up my semester, I felt.

After an unfortunate cab ride back which result in getting ripped off and being penniless, we all made it to our hostel in Jerusalem’s Old City. The hostel itself was inside a 700-year-old building surrounded by religious-run houses for pilgrims. From the rooftop of the hostel we could see the Dome of the Rock and Western Wall, which we visited on our last day in the Holy Land.

Our second day there, one of my friends and I took a bus to Bethlehem in the West Bank, where we visited the Church of the Nativity, Jesus’s supposed birthplace. Next to the ancient church is a more modern Catholic church where Yasser Arafat used to observe Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve with his Christian wife. Walking around the city, we saw many “meateries” and butcher shops, as Bethlehem translates to “House of Meat”. We also saw two of the famous Banksy murals near the wall separating Israel from the West Bank- one of a small girl patting down an IDF soldier and one of a dove with an olive branch, wearing a Kevlar vest and set inside rifle sights. The wall itself is covered with graffiti, reminiscent of the Berlin Wall. The most moving piece of graffiti was written in small letters, “Please turn the water back on.” I personally am willfully neutral on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I found that touching.

The rest of our time in Israel and the Palestinian territories was spent eating bagels for breakfast and dinner, and trying to get into the Haram i-Sharif. Our first several attempts to get to the Dome of the Rock were thwarted by our non-Muslim status, however we finally found some fellow AUCers in line for the attraction, so we joined up with them. Although we didn’t actually go in the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aqsa Mosque (again, reserved for Muslims only), we did take many beautiful pictures up there, as well as visited the Western Wall and Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of Jesus’s execution, burial, and resurrection. We were also able to see the Mount of Olives via bus. We arranged to take a bus to the top of the mount, but once there, it was nighttime and there wasn’t much to see. Interestingly, the valley between the monuments of the Old City and the Mount of Olives was Megiddo in ancient times. The valley is the supposed site of the final battle between good and evil in Christian Apocalypse story, while the top of the mount is the site of the Islamic Apocalypse.

The return to Cairo was uneventful, although I was pulled aside for questioning twice by airport security, had my bags searched three times, and was frisked. The Israelis don’t play around with their airport security, and even very preppy girls are suspect when they come bearing Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian visa stamps.

Unfortunately, I did have to miss an excursion to Ramallah because of a paper for school (who studies during study abroad anyway?). So then I had final exams, and those went fine. And then I came home, and flew Business Class much of the way, and took full advantage of all the luxuries that go with that. And then I had school at Georgetown and work and my internship start up, and so I lost track of the blog but now it’s back!

My reason for resurrecting the blog, and the title, is that I might be heading back overseas earlier than I thought. I had always talked of joining the Peace Corps. Rather than just talk about it, I decided to just… get it done? As Larry the Cableguy might say? (I don’t know, I don’t really watch him. But I did see “Cars”.) I’m currently nominated to be a health care worker in the Middle East/North Africa region, leaving in March 2011. I know, my expected graduation date was supposed to be May 2011, but by some miracle, I didn’t fail out of Georgetown and I may be graduating a semester early. I’ll miss some of the fun activities that come with Georgetown Spring, like Senior Week and Commencement, but I was never terribly attached to them in the first place, and this seems like such an incredible opportunity that I can’t pass it up.

Nothing is for certain yet, but it looks like there will be a “Ryan Overseas Episode II: Back to the MENA”. (Alternative Title? “Ryan Overseas II: Electric Boogaloo”.)

However, this year, the rioting couldn’t be easily quelled with police clubs and cheaper aiieesh. Instead, the soccer defeat was also a defeat of the Egyptian spirit. In a country of 80 million people and where 40% of the population lives on less than 10 LE per day (approx. $2) sports were one of the few outlets of national pride and an escape from the poverty that cripples most of the population. And, unlike the 1989 WCQ against Algeria (which also saw violence, including the blinding of the Egyptian team doctor with a beer bottle by an Algerian fan, although Egypt won) the match proved to demonstrate the declining influence of the participant countries in the Middle East.

So, this sentiment, coupled with the government’s tacit compliance in the rage of the people, saw violence erupting in the Zamalek area of Cairo the Thursday after the match. Zamalek is an island in the middle of the Nile River where many embassies are located and which houses a decent expat community. Three of the most important buildings in Zamalek, at least as they pertain to this story, are the Marriott Hotel, Algerian Embassy, and the AUC dormitory two blocks away from it, where I lived.

Every Thursday night, Harry’s Pub, the bar adjoining the Marriott Hotel hosts a karaoke night. One of the best parts of being a college girl is that no one else goes to karaoke night except for other tone-deaf college girls (and in the case of Harry’s Pub, about forty-five Russian expats). So, not being ones to pass up the chance to howl “Don’t Stop Believing”, a few of my friends and I headed out past 26^th of July Street to the hotel around 9pm. After a few rousing slash cacophonous renditions of sounds from our early childhood, which classily ended with the entire bar dancing along to the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian”, another girl and I opted to head back to the dorm. Time out 0200.

Our first clue that heading home would have been a poor choice would have been the fact that no taxis would take us within the vicinity of 26^th of July, and that all vehicular traffic was being turned away at the highway exit ramp, but we were tired and aching to get home, so we walked down the ramp. About two minutes later two youngish gentlemen run by us, cheering “One, two, three [expletive deleted by author] Algerie,” an incredibly offensive, tri-lingual chant from the soccer match. Then we realized that we were the only two women in sight, and that our path to our dorm was blocked by approximately fifteen hundred young men screaming and lighting things on fire. Later pictures showed that the fire was from homemade flamethrowers, and other students coming home that night reported that they’d seen Molotov cocktails thrown, rioters storming the police line and being beaten back with clubs, and a police officer set on fire when someone threw a road flare at him.

My friend and I decided that this was not exactly our scene, and found a pair of British men watching the melee and asked if they would escort us across the street, past the active riot, but they declined, saying that they would prefer to watch the show instead. So we were pretty much on our own. Walking swiftly and with a sense of purpose, we walked length-wise down the island, avoiding the insanity at the Algerian Embassy, from which we could later hear police fire tear gas canisters into the crowd, and back to the dorm.

The next few nights saw a heightened riot police presence in Zamalek due to the threat of additional violence. Friday night, myself and five other Americans needed to go on an excursion a few blocks from our dorm, crossing the Embassy. We explained, in English, that we were just students, and the police line parted and let us through. Armored trucks lined both sides of the street and occasionally we’d see a troop of police run by in riot gear. One of them turned and ran toward us, so we all got flat up against one of the trucks, but other than that we had no issues. The war zone walk about was exciting, but we knew we were in no serious danger; any fighting would have been over before it began. While the riot the night before had been allowed, the government was not about to allow additional violence.

The United States will be playing Algeria during the World Cup Tournament. Don’t worry, Egypt. We’ve gotcha covered.

Once again, swine flu is the new snow day. The Egyptian Ministry of Health announced earlier this month that, in light of the increased travel during the Eid Al-Adha holiday, all public schools and universities will be closed from November 25th through December 5th in order to prevent the spread of H1N1. The American Embassy Warden sent out an email to those registered with the State Department that there have been over 1800 cases of swine flu in Egypt, prompting the extended break.

There has been no confirmation yet wether this will apply to private universities, such as AUC, as well, but it is suspected that it will. I’m personally pulling for the closing– we would only miss two days of classes– so that I can finish my Study Abroad Bucket List. There is also a rumor circulating that the government may close the schools for the remainder of the semester, but I’m refusing to believe that. Should that happen, I may come home early if my airline allows it; the threat of a British Airways strike over the holiday season is also going to be a factor in my return flight plans.

This has also been an intense week for sportsfans here in Masr as the Egyptian soccer team played Algeria in order to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa on Saturday. The match was touted as a grudge match between the two countries, who last played for the World Cup Tournament twenty years ago. At that particular game fights broke out and a doctor for the Egyptian team lost an eye when he was hit with a bottle. With this in mind, and tensions high, the American Embassy warned us that there would be road closures and to steer clear of Nasr City, where the match was being held, and places where crowds were likely to congregate for risk of rioting and violence. Nasr City is located across town from the Zamalek dorms, however the Algerian Embassy is only about two blocks away. On our way home from school Thursday night, we passed huge (entirely male) crowds in front of the embassy and riot police and armored vehicles lining the streets. I stayed in the dorm for the duration of the match– which Egypt won 2-0– but I heard from friends who went to the game that there was only mild rioting and they only saw two people with flamethrowers. Also, prior to the match, it was reported that Egyptian fans threw rocks at the Algerian players upon their arrival, sending two players to the hospital.

Egypt needed to win by a three-goal margin in order to advance to the tournament, and didn’t, so there is going to be another game at a neutral location. The teams play in Sudan tomorrow night to decide who goes big, and who goes home.

Considering the insanity of the streets, and that I had already scheduled this past weekend for some sort of travelling, two of my girlfriends and I arranged to go camping in the Black and White Desert. We left our dorm at 6:30 Friday morning to catch a 7:00 bus from Tahrir Square to the Bahariya Oasis. The oasis was five hours away by bus, and halfway to Libya, so we arrived a little after noon at our hotel. Through the hotel we arranged to take a 4WD tour of the desert and camp under the stars.

With our two Bedouin guides, a pair of Australians travelling through the Middle East, and a Japanese backpacker who opted to see the world before graduate school, we set off through the desert. We first drove through the Black Desert, which is so named because of the volcanic rock  coating the dunes. In the prehistoric era, the Black Desert was a field of volcanoes, which have long gone extinct, but whose black rocks characterize the area. Along with a group of Hungarian tourists in a separate vehicle, we climbed one of the ex-canoes, and of course posed for a photo shoot at the top. Outside of the people climbing the mountain, the only sound was the wind. The silence was oppressive, especially for someone like me, but wonderful.

After our mountain climb, we drove another half an hour to Crystal Mountain and the White Desert. Located between the Black and White Deserts, Crystal Mountain is exactly as it sounds– made of crystals. I picked a few small ones out of the sand for souvenirs, but we only stayed briefly so that we could get to the White Desert before sunset. Like the Black Desert, the White Desert takes its name from the color of its sand dunes, as well as huge limestone rock formations. It looked like Mars. We made camp here, and our guides cooked us chicken, rice, and potato stew over an open fire in the sand and sang songs around the campfire. We fell asleep looking at the stars, and I could swear I saw more of them that night than in my entire life combined (and even saw three shooting stars!). It was breathtaking.

In the morning, we had the opportunity to see the sunrise over the desert and ate a foul and vegetable mix cooked over the fire with tea, flatbread, jam, and a soft white cheese. I think it was the “Istanbul Cheese” I’ve seen at the grocery store. We took a quick last tour of the White Desert before heading back to the hotel, stopping at and taking pictures with the famous Chicken Rock formation. Like all names in this post, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

The bus ride back took longer than we expected, considering the road closures and insane traffic congestion from the game, but we made it back just in time to watch the game on TV back in our dorm.

But it’s currently raining here in Cairo. I thought that deserved its own post.

Oh and this is fun:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8324024.stm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfU9_rS64kc&feature=related

Man at checkpoint: شمسيات في الصحراء؟ (Umbrellas in the Sahara?)

Cage: !شمسيات لالشمس  (Sun umbrellas!)

Man at checkpoint: !ياللا. مع السلامة (Go on through. Goodbye!)

The Mosque was built by Ibn Tulun in the 870s AD and its minaret was, at the time, the tallest building in Cairo. So many people were expected at Friday prayers that there was a pharmacy and doctor on-call in the mosque to treat people who were injured in the crush to get to the front. The mosque wasn’t always treated with respect usually afforded a place of worship, as in later years it was also used a caravanserai for merchants moving East and then as an insane asylum. It was restored sometime in the last century as a working mosque, and all the souqs that surrounded it were cleared out. According to some of the artwork on the walls, it has flipped back and forth between being a Sunni and Shiite mosque, and the people we saw filing in for Friday prayers were dressed in Shia prayer garments. The mosque also has some very beautiful carved arches, which are each decorated with a unique and intricate design.

We climbed up the minaret and we could see a great view of the city, though we weren’t allowed to climb up into the dome. A few of us may or may not have done it anyway and seen hundreds of years old graffiti carved into the stone. Just sayin’, hypothetically, if anyone had, he or she would’ve seen a really fantastic view of the city, mosque and Fatimid madrassa next door really well from above.

The minaret was a later addition to the mosque and is made of marble and stone while the rest of the mosque is made of brick. I’ve also heard that it was built from stone taken from the Pyramids, but I’ll have to fact-check that.

After the mosque, we crossed town to go to the Nilometer, which was also built in the Middle Ages. It was used to measure how much the Nile flooded each year so that the governors could determine how much tax to levy. We climbed down into the pit, which was very cool. There’s a beautiful mosaic dome above the Nilometer now, but that was added later by the Ottomans, I think.

Then Friday night some friends and I went out to dinner celebrate our other friend’s birthday. It was nice to get all dressed up, and I tried goat for the first time. It tastes like a chewier version of lamb, and I liked it, but I doubt I’ll get it a second time.

So that was my weekend! Pictures are up on Facebook. Here’s some more news that might be interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8324269.stm

I was not anywhere near this. Apparently Egypt has pretty frequent train crashes, though.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/world/europe/25agincourt.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

I thought this was interesting because it’s basically a summary of all the classes I took last year.

I started an internship with Helwan Community Development Association this month. All the women who work there are very kind and patient. I speak very little Egyptian Arabic and the language barrier is pretty significant, but I think I know what I’m supposed to be doing. Mostly I think I’m supposed to fill out grant applications. Our organization is basically a social services clearinghouse– we teach local women how to crochet and do embroidery and make handicrafts, which are then sold to fund our other activities. They sell a bunch of cute things, so I might bring a tablecover back. They’re pretty sweet.

Outside of the handicrafts production, HCDA also provides legal assistance to residents in Helwan (which comprises 27% of Cairo’s slums), runs a health clinic, and provide counseling for victims of domestic violence. The project I’m working on works to teach literacy skills to children with learning disabilities, which is part of a larger child development project. My job is to fill out grant applications, which is good, albeit new for me.

So that’s what I did today. I go one day a week, since we now have makeup classes on Tuesdays to compensate for the lost class time during Eid Al-Swine Flu.

Other interesting things lately:

- I finally learned how to give cab directions! I can now say “left”, “right”, “go straight”, and “here”. I now know as much Egyptian as I do Japanese. Kindly forget that it’s mid-October?

- I went on a felucca ride on the Nile the other day with a bunch of other study abroad kids. There were maybe fifty of us and a DJ, so we danced and sailed around for about three hours. It was a great time!

-I heard New Jersey saw snow this week. Today it was 101 degrees in Cairo.