Hi, my name is Kristen Belle-Isle and I went to Rehab tonight. Obviously, rehab's don't exist in Egypt because Muslims don't drink..or at least they are not supposed to drink. Anyways, we went to do random errands to this place which is about ten minutes away. Rehab (pronouced Ra-haab (think of Saab when you say the 'a's)) is a pretty bustlin place at night. Since its Ramadan, everything closes around 4 and opens again after sunset, but the places will say open until 3 or 4 in the mornings if they're social places. Shisha is very popular and you can find it anywhere and at any time. We have yet to do it but some of my friends went last night in downtown Cairo and they had a blast. This trip was a quick one, just to exchange money, get cell phones and Sim cards and grocery's. The exchange rate is pretty great if your American, and things are pretty inexpensive for us. But if your Egyptian, they are very expensive. I spent almost 200 pounds tonight on food and laundry detergent and water which is only around 35 dollars. But enough about that, lets talk shawarmas. First of all, they are delicious if they are done right. The ones on campus, not so much, and they are ridiculously overpriced. How typical of a school to not only make them less than desirable, but to make them dumbly expensive. These were from a little restaurant in Rehab that most would consider sketchy, and I'm pretty sure if there were Food and Safety Regulations, they would have some pretty serious fines. But whatever. So if you want a shawarma, you can get either chicken or beef and a huge chunk of meat are cooked on this big spit open flame thing and then the meat is shaved off and onions and peppers and unfortunately tomatoes are added to that and then simmers some more. Then, you can have it either on pita bread or a grinder role and they put some hummus on it and volia. Most people get the beef in pita, which is what we got tonight. It was quite delightful.
As always, what kind of post would it be if I didn't mention the driving. Let's just say it takes some getting used to. Okay, a lot of getting used to. But here's the deal. If you want to get to Rehab, there are two ways. There's the right why, which takes longer. Who wants to do that? Duh. And there's the way that is seemingly acceptable. And it involves driving down the wrong side of the street playing chicken with the drivers coming head on at you, usually at 40 miles an hour. We of course went that way both ways, and we went head to head with a nice large dump truck. Since he was obvioulsy in our way, we honked the whole way down the street. I think when I go home, I'm going to employ Egyptian driving tactics and see where it gets me....
There are a ton of things to do at night and the school has made traveling relatively easy for us, which has been very helpful. Last night, a crew went on a fallucca ride down the Nile. A fallucca is a boat that sits about 20ish people and you just cruse around the Nile. Anthony Boudain on the Travel Channel went on one when we did his show on Egypt. So it follows that I'm just as awesome as Anthony Bourdain. My TV show will be starting next month. The bus ride to downtown was longer than the fallucca, but of course, it was quite entertaining, especially when our driver got mad at the person next to us and started cursing the guy out through the window. Obviously we had no idea what he was saying, but since Arabic sounds like your permanently pissed off anyways, it was pretty impressive.
It's been a pretty hectic few days, but things are starting to settle down just a little. We are starting to adjust to the crazy time changes, which means staying up until 2 or 3 and sleeping until noon. Yeah, I know, I don't even do that at home, but I'm going to chalk it up to the sun and that most young Egyptians try to stay intside during the hottest part of the day. And its ridiculously hot. I'm going to freeze my ass off in December. And probably miss the sand, or rabal (which is how you say sand in Arabic, phonetically spelled of course). My phone finally works. I will put the number up, and calling and texting is okay, and it won't charge your phone which means it charges mine. So yeah, I'm basically saying call minimally, and get your ass on skype. Feel free to text me on my birthday though. Or come for a big ol celebration here. Just kidding! 0107210939.
Just for a clarification on my last post, Muslims wash the right side because it is the good side.
Anyways, I'm about to crawl into my sadly uncomfortable bed that resembles sleeping more on a table then a bed. Someone want to get me a chiropractor for when I come home? It'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Goodnight from 5,608 miles away :)
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Your Daily Ramadan Tidbit
Here's a random thought. Ramadan is the holiest month for Muslims, in which they fast from sunup to sundown and pray more than usual. So its Ramadan right now, it will end September 11th (just a little weird?) but during this month, you change the time. So normally Egypt is 7 hours ahead of the East Coast, but right now its only 6 hours. So its 730 at home, and normally it would be 230am but since its Ramadan its only 130am. Talk about really messing you up. Good night!
A Humanitarian Trip to Egypt...
I have to say that I had a grand plan of what I wanted to say in my first ever blog from Egypt...but instead I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to post a new entry because the website thought it would be helpful and only have the website in Arabic. So I opened every link until I got the right one. Just had to get that out there. On to the more interesting things.
My trip began at Logan, where we arrived three and half hours before my flight which ended up being delayed. As anybody who remotely knows me, I do not know how to pack; I had to take almost everything which ended up in my bags weighing a ridiculous amount. So we were anticipating having to pay overweight baggage fees. So I went to check in and this very nice man named Dexter starts talking to us and asking me where I was going and why. We're chatting away and my bags are weighted. Yeah, my two bags are very very overweight. So Dexter looks and me and says, "You are going on a humanitarian trip to Egypt, right? And the scale did say 50 pounds, correct?" I agreed, and he continued to check me in and I (well, my parents) saved three hundred dollars in baggage fees. Looks like I can't buy anything in Egypt....yeah right. I had known that there were many delays so I wasn't surprised to sit around and then sit on the runway for about an hour before we were finally able to leave at 8pm. I was hanging out in my seat unobtrusively waiting to get off when hottie two rows up stood up. And turned around. And ended up being Sammy Adams. I got to see my famous person.
My flight to Cairo didn't leave until midnight so I was able to experience the joys of hanging around an airport. The flight was pretty boring except the few things I will mention here:
1. Nice, Italy, Greece and Corsica look awesome from 37,000 feet
2. If your going to the Middle East, the on flight navigation follower thingy will tell you which direction Mecca is and how far it is
3. The girl I sat next too was going to AUC too and she had diabetes (Tit, this is absolutely for you)
5. Lower Egypt is wicked green. Until its not. Then its just sand, and a lot of it.
It turns out that there were about 30-40 AUC people on my flight so we all convened and chatted as we went through customs and got our bags. I walked into the lobby of the airport to find the driver and immediately 6 guys surrounded me like bees asking where I was going and if they could help. I was saved by a nice guy named Mr. Muhammad who arranges trips and tours for college groups and people Dr. Phil sends to Cairo. Seriously, I saw a picture of them together too. I was grabbed by some older male within five minutes. I turned around and was about to say something but I didn't. I don't think that would have gone over well at all. We finally left the airport, and experienced Cairo driving-no stoplights, no traffic lights and while there are lanes but they might as well not be. If you want to let a car know you are behind them, honk. If you want them to move, honk. If you are changing lanes, honk. If your trying to say hi, honk. It makes New York driving look tame.
We finally got to AUC, which is legitimately in the middle of the desert. Don't laugh, I know Egypt is all desert and I shouldn't be shocked, but there is nothing but construction and sand for miles and miles. The campus itself is wicked awesome. Karma is truly a bitch because Miss-Can't-Pack-and-Has-Overweight-Bags ended up on the third floor of the furthest dorm. Obviously. My dorm isn't really a dorm, more of what my roommate and I are calling a palace. Its a three story structure and its all outside and open. I have a short hallway and I walk outside onto a terrace and its the same on every floor. There's wicker chairs and tables and umbrellas so we can sit outside wherever and its all within our unit. Its very fun. The rooms are legit and not that small and air conditioned because holy hell its hot. It would be nice because the humidity isn't all bad but everybody wears long sleeves and pants and stuff. It's manageable at school but its insane if you go downtown. Cairo is the most polluted city in the world and its very dirty (and it goes without saying sandy). We were walking along the Nile tonight (its 426 at home and 1126 at night here) and there was this god awful smell and right on the side of the road was a dead cat....or dog. A dead animal and it had clearly been there for a while. Very unpleasant. There are also mountains of trash and other 'things' everywhere. Nobody will say its clean but it is undeniably cool.
Anyways, we went on a tour..well many tours. We went to Old Cairo which is home to the oldest Christian church, Jewish temple and Muslim mosque in the same area. We went to a normal Christian church and a Coptic Christian church, which is Egyptian Orthodox. Many of the icons were from the 6th and 7th century. Truly amazing. We also went to St. Sergio's which is were Mary and Jesus hid from persecution while they were in Egypt. The actual crypt where they hid is not open to the public but we were able to see the entrance. The church opens it every Sunday and only to Bishops and the like so they are able to pray. We went to the oldest mosque in Africa which was huge! We were told to take off our shoes and all the girls were given robes which covered our arms and heads and since it wasn't prayer time, we were able to walk around with the men in our group. If it had been prayer time, we would have been able to go into the woman's section only. The mosque was preparing for juma, which is the big Friday prayer, during which there will be a 40-50 minute lecture and prayer. Its hard to find a spot on Fridays. When Muslim prays, they first wash their face, rise their mouths, and wash their hands and feet, always the left first because it is the impure side. It was very interesting.
One of the most unsettling things I saw today was when we first got off the bus in Old Cairo. We were all standing in the street and there were two people fighting. It was a man hitting a women. We were all shocked but we didn't know what to do except stand there. Obviously that doesn't happen noticeably in the streets at home, but here its accept as a norm. I have a feeling there are going to be many more incidents that occur that will shock me,but this was the first.
Anyways, its late, we're hungry so were going back to the only place that's open 24/7 on campus right now, a Cafe Tabasco. Its alright. Eh. I haven't eaten pigeon yet. But I did get mashed potatoes unexpectedly last night. Well see. See ya later gater (didn't see one of those either...yet :)
My trip began at Logan, where we arrived three and half hours before my flight which ended up being delayed. As anybody who remotely knows me, I do not know how to pack; I had to take almost everything which ended up in my bags weighing a ridiculous amount. So we were anticipating having to pay overweight baggage fees. So I went to check in and this very nice man named Dexter starts talking to us and asking me where I was going and why. We're chatting away and my bags are weighted. Yeah, my two bags are very very overweight. So Dexter looks and me and says, "You are going on a humanitarian trip to Egypt, right? And the scale did say 50 pounds, correct?" I agreed, and he continued to check me in and I (well, my parents) saved three hundred dollars in baggage fees. Looks like I can't buy anything in Egypt....yeah right. I had known that there were many delays so I wasn't surprised to sit around and then sit on the runway for about an hour before we were finally able to leave at 8pm. I was hanging out in my seat unobtrusively waiting to get off when hottie two rows up stood up. And turned around. And ended up being Sammy Adams. I got to see my famous person.
My flight to Cairo didn't leave until midnight so I was able to experience the joys of hanging around an airport. The flight was pretty boring except the few things I will mention here:
1. Nice, Italy, Greece and Corsica look awesome from 37,000 feet
2. If your going to the Middle East, the on flight navigation follower thingy will tell you which direction Mecca is and how far it is
3. The girl I sat next too was going to AUC too and she had diabetes (Tit, this is absolutely for you)
5. Lower Egypt is wicked green. Until its not. Then its just sand, and a lot of it.
It turns out that there were about 30-40 AUC people on my flight so we all convened and chatted as we went through customs and got our bags. I walked into the lobby of the airport to find the driver and immediately 6 guys surrounded me like bees asking where I was going and if they could help. I was saved by a nice guy named Mr. Muhammad who arranges trips and tours for college groups and people Dr. Phil sends to Cairo. Seriously, I saw a picture of them together too. I was grabbed by some older male within five minutes. I turned around and was about to say something but I didn't. I don't think that would have gone over well at all. We finally left the airport, and experienced Cairo driving-no stoplights, no traffic lights and while there are lanes but they might as well not be. If you want to let a car know you are behind them, honk. If you want them to move, honk. If you are changing lanes, honk. If your trying to say hi, honk. It makes New York driving look tame.
We finally got to AUC, which is legitimately in the middle of the desert. Don't laugh, I know Egypt is all desert and I shouldn't be shocked, but there is nothing but construction and sand for miles and miles. The campus itself is wicked awesome. Karma is truly a bitch because Miss-Can't-Pack-and-Has-Overweight-Bags ended up on the third floor of the furthest dorm. Obviously. My dorm isn't really a dorm, more of what my roommate and I are calling a palace. Its a three story structure and its all outside and open. I have a short hallway and I walk outside onto a terrace and its the same on every floor. There's wicker chairs and tables and umbrellas so we can sit outside wherever and its all within our unit. Its very fun. The rooms are legit and not that small and air conditioned because holy hell its hot. It would be nice because the humidity isn't all bad but everybody wears long sleeves and pants and stuff. It's manageable at school but its insane if you go downtown. Cairo is the most polluted city in the world and its very dirty (and it goes without saying sandy). We were walking along the Nile tonight (its 426 at home and 1126 at night here) and there was this god awful smell and right on the side of the road was a dead cat....or dog. A dead animal and it had clearly been there for a while. Very unpleasant. There are also mountains of trash and other 'things' everywhere. Nobody will say its clean but it is undeniably cool.
Anyways, we went on a tour..well many tours. We went to Old Cairo which is home to the oldest Christian church, Jewish temple and Muslim mosque in the same area. We went to a normal Christian church and a Coptic Christian church, which is Egyptian Orthodox. Many of the icons were from the 6th and 7th century. Truly amazing. We also went to St. Sergio's which is were Mary and Jesus hid from persecution while they were in Egypt. The actual crypt where they hid is not open to the public but we were able to see the entrance. The church opens it every Sunday and only to Bishops and the like so they are able to pray. We went to the oldest mosque in Africa which was huge! We were told to take off our shoes and all the girls were given robes which covered our arms and heads and since it wasn't prayer time, we were able to walk around with the men in our group. If it had been prayer time, we would have been able to go into the woman's section only. The mosque was preparing for juma, which is the big Friday prayer, during which there will be a 40-50 minute lecture and prayer. Its hard to find a spot on Fridays. When Muslim prays, they first wash their face, rise their mouths, and wash their hands and feet, always the left first because it is the impure side. It was very interesting.
One of the most unsettling things I saw today was when we first got off the bus in Old Cairo. We were all standing in the street and there were two people fighting. It was a man hitting a women. We were all shocked but we didn't know what to do except stand there. Obviously that doesn't happen noticeably in the streets at home, but here its accept as a norm. I have a feeling there are going to be many more incidents that occur that will shock me,but this was the first.
Anyways, its late, we're hungry so were going back to the only place that's open 24/7 on campus right now, a Cafe Tabasco. Its alright. Eh. I haven't eaten pigeon yet. But I did get mashed potatoes unexpectedly last night. Well see. See ya later gater (didn't see one of those either...yet :)
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
One Week
So, its official. In exactly one week I will be en route to Cairo, Egypt. Well, New York City first. I'm starting to believe everybody who told me I'm crazy and maybe I am. But at any rate, I'm about to journey 5,608 miles to one of the oldest civilizations in the world for a year and I have a feeling it is going to be one hell of a journey. So if you can't come and visit me, even though you all should (and this does constitute a good nine month advance) read this and you can pretend you're in Egypt too. Or Skype (kristen.belle.isle). Or something. Say hi. I'll try to be a good blogger and update this with tales of treasure hunting and pyramid tour guiding and my sad attempts at trying to blend into the Egyptian culture with pale skin and blue eyes. But, its official. In exactly one week I will be en route to Cairo, Egypt.
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