Not a pretty sight
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis of linguistic relativism argues that the language we speak reflects our view of the world – for example, the Eskimos have dozens of words for snow.
The Arabic word for winter is shita. Seems about right!
Perhaps the most interesting course I’m enrolled in is a undergraduate and graduate political science seminar about Authoritanarism and Mobilization in the Middle East. The course investigates the different thories explaining enduring authoritarianism — that is, the resistance the democracy and change — in the Middle East along with the various forms of mobilization that seek to challenge authoritarian regimes (from the title, I thought the course would address military mobilization by authoritarian leaders — what we’re doing is actually far more interesting). We will study and get to meet with activists supporting political Islam (I will be very interested in hearing comments from Muslim Brotherhood leaders), women’s rights, democracy, and labor/the poor.
Seven undergraduate and 4 graduate students are enrolled in the course. Yet, in a upper-lever seminar about democracy in the Middle East, not a single student is from Egypt or another Arab country. Read the rest of this entry »
A Typical Day in Downtown Cairo
Visitors often gain their first impression of a city during the airplane’s descent. Many planes flying into Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. take the River Visual approach, during which passangers can be awed by terrific views of the Capitol, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, National Mall, White House, CIA Headquarters, Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon, and the United States Air Force Memorial. Coming into LaGuardia Airport in Queens, passengers can often see Manhattan’s tall skyscrapers and symbols, such as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Alternatively, flights coming into Baghdad International Airport use the “corkscrew maneuver,” an uncomfortable, spiraling pattern of descent directly over the airport which avoids coming in range of small arms and missiles on the ground. This landing served as an ominous reminder of Baghdad’s precarious, albeit improving, security situation.
Even though my Lufthansa flight arrived just under one week ago at 4 p.m., as far as views are concerned, the flight might as well have come in at 4 a.m. Read the rest of this entry »
The opportunities I’ve had to practice Arabic over the past two days have left me feeling dissapointed with myself. Unlike my first couple of days, when my time was occupied with tourist activities (visiting the pyramids, Bedouin Night, and a Nile Cruise), more recent days have brought more opportunities to interact with Egyptians.
On Tuesday, I walked with a friend through Downtown and Islamic Cairo from Tahrir Square (the city center) to Khan el Khalili, Cairo’s oldest bazaar, and spent several hours eating and window shopping with friends in Khan. On Wednesday, I walked around Zamalek and to the El Sawa Cultural Wheel to hear a poetry reading.
This experience produced my first feelings of embarassment and shame for studying in Egypt with virtually no knowledge of Arabic. Read the rest of this entry »
Kosheri is a popular Egyptian dish consisting of rice, spagetti noodles, macaroni noodles, brown lentils, chickpeas, Egyptian garlic, vinegar, and a spicy tomato sauce. It costs 5 Egyptian pounds — about 90 cents — for 1/4 pound and is incredibly tasty.
At the previously mentioned Bedouin Night, there was a Bedouin dance show with extensive audience participation. During said dance show, the talented female Bedouin dancer ripped three layers of clothing off a brave male “volunteer” dancing with her, leaving him dancing shirtless in front of 100 of his recently-met peers. Whod’a thunk things would get hot and heavy in an Arabian tent!
The Office of Residential Life organized a Bedouin Night on Sunday, where those who were willing to pay 100 Egyptian Pounrds (about $17) could enjoy dinner, horseback riding by the pyramids, and a Bedouin dance show. The Bedouin are a predominantly Muslim, desert-dwelling nomadic group, akin in societal stature to the Basque or Native Americans.
While waiting for dinner, the DJ played a partially Arabic-language remix of the 50 cent song “Candy Shop.” If you’re how aware of how sensual the lyrics are, the chorus goes “I’ll take you to the Candy Shop, I’ll let you lick the lollipop, Go ‘head girl don’t you stop, Keep going ’til you hit the spot, whoa.”
I realize that is certainly a trivial observation that might not having any greater purpose than provoking laughter amonst me and my friends (which it absolutely did). Yet at the same time, an Arab-language remix of such a lewd song is indicative of the complexities surroudning the practice of Islam in Egypt.
Cairo is an astonishing city in so many ways; therefore, I think it only appropriate to compile some of the oddities that have and will continue to amaze me. Therefore, 127 Egyptian Nights will have a semi-regular feature titled “I Can’t Believe It’s Cairo”, documenting absurdities from my American perspective. These observations will often be accompanied by personal commentary on the situation.
For dinner Friday night, several study abroad students from Notre Dame and myself walked two blocks from our dormitory in the Zamalek section of Cairo to the Euro Deli — incidentially enough, there are no Euro Deli locations in Europe. While eating there, what came over the restaurant’s loudspeakers but “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry. In case you didn’t know, homosexual acts are a felony in Egypt.
In just a little over two hours, I’ll be packing up my computer and heading to the airport with my father, ready to embark upon the adventure of a lifetime. The one piece I forgot to include in my (slightly) satirical conversation in the previous post is the question I’m asked every time I tell anybody about my plans: ”Why Cairo?”
So far, my favorite thing about studying abroad at the American University in Cairo has been telling people where I’ll be for the semester. Every single person invariably reacts in one of two ways:
Scenario #1 (occurs most often with fellow Haverford students, and the occasional relative):
Other Person: “So where are you studying abroad?”
Me: “Cairo.”
Other Person: “Cairo! Are you serious? That’s so awesome! Oh my god, you’re going to Cairo! Make sure you get to the pyramids, and I’ve heard Luxor is incredible, and you’re got to get to Mt. Sinai … you’re going to have such a great time. I’m SO jealous*”