Cairo, sweet noisy Cairo :)

Hi everyone!  Sorry it has been so long since the last post!  That leaves me with a whole lot to share though :)  By the way we are past the half way point with only 11 more days until we fly out!  Strange eh!?  

So I believe the last time I wrote we had just been in Cairo taking classes and we had just visited Coptic Cairo.  Well we were in Zamalek for another week after that before we took our recent excursion to Sharm El-Sheikh!  Classes have been reliably the same but always great.  I really love the language school where we are learning Egyptian Arabic and I can see where studying at a place like this, with natives of Cairo, is so much more effective than any other method!  It blows me away how I feel like I retain something so much more than I do back in Raleigh during the semester.  I really love this language so much.  I am not sure where God is going to take me in the future but I am so at peace right now with the fact that I want to continue to pursue fluency in Arabic.  I know this is something I want to use and I can see that every day that I use the language.  As I write this and look back a little bit I am seeing that God has really ignited a passion in me that wasn’t there before.  It can be very hard to see past my seemingly small, enclosed world at school and home but being in Egypt has helped me see the purpose in studying what I am and the passions I have!  So one of the coolest things I have done was the week before we left for Sharm.  First we went to see two mosques, the Alabaster or Mohammad Ali mosque and the Sultan Hassan mosque.  Both of these were beautiful and historic mosques.  The Sultan Hassan mosque was apparently haunted because a lot of things involved in building the mosque were suspicious as well as characteristics of the actual structure.  Sultan Hassan died and his body was never found but his son is buried in the mosque, right behind where people are supposed to pray.  Sultan Hassan intended that to be his burial place.  Also the spot where people pray does not face the correct direction (towards Mecca).  Very strange things...and honestly it was a little spooky.  Anyway both mosques were incredibly beautiful and ornate.  In both mosques I got this overwhelmingly feeling of how beautiful it is that people would create something so gorgeous and reverent for Allah, God.  This was probably the first time since I was in Cairo I felt hit with how incredible God is, in ways far beyond my understanding.  That turned into something I feel very challenged by in Egypt, which is seeing God wherever there is truth and beauty and seeing Him without the walls and boundaries people create for Him.  It has really been awesome to try and break down the stereotypes and misperceptions I have in my head and see things as more connected.

Not long after we visited a mosque inside the citadel.  Now I honestly don’t know the history of the citadel except that Saladin built it in the 12th century and for the next 700 years Egypt was ruled from this place.  After that long rule many of the buildings were destroyed but were later restored and a mosque was built.  To visit this, something so old, was amazing.  Ancient history is so old that it can be hard to grasp its reality.  Things like this seem so much more real to me yet old enough that I am still in awe.  This mosque was larger than the others and less ornate but so open and beautiful.  At this mosque we were able to climb up the minaret!  Finally!  I had been wanting to do this and finally we had our chance :)  Now this is already on a hill and considering it is an incredibly high point on a larger building we saw a huge expanse of Cairo!  It was a windy day but did not stop me from sitting on the edge :)  No worries, I am okay!  It was so freeing though.  Being in Cairo, there is no quiet place or way to feel like you are the only person in a certain area.  I cherish feeling like this sometimes and found that here- too many people around to drive out but you can go up!  Tonight I was asked by a group member my favorite moment so far and this was one on a list of three. 

Sometime in those days before we left for Sharm we also visited the Cairo museum, which is packed full (they are moving because there is serious overcrowding) of ancient history and relics from the pharaohs.  It is kind of crazy to think of time periods where there are no relics or artifacts yet from a period unfathomably long ago, there is almost too much.  One other highlight before leaving for Sharm El-Sheikh was going to see an American movie in an Egyptian cinema!  A few other people and myself went to see The Happening.  Turns out the movie was pretty bad (just in our opinion) but the whole thing, even finding our way there, was quite an experience!  Including the part of the movie where the projector in the back (like the ones in classrooms at NCSU :) )shut off…twice!  It was great.  Also, you are apparently supposed to tip the man that points you to your seats, even if the seats are right in front of you and he pretty much did nothing.  It took a lot of confused looks and attempts at understanding before he finally said to us, “give me money”.  Haha, he was not embarrassed of telling how it is supposed to be :)…like I said, I am learning all the time! 

I don’t think I am leaving any major events out but I very well might be- there is just so much always going on!  Well on the 20^th we left for Sharm El-Sheikh.  This was the vacation we had all been waiting for and dreaming about and it was so exciting to finally we headed there!  I unfortunately am going to have to tell you all about Sharm and Sinai tomorrow because I am exhausted and feeling a little under the weather tonight- just need some good rest!  I promise I will tell all about that tomorrow and this is plenty for now anyway :)  I am safe in Cairo now though…back to the noise!  I have class in the morning and afternoon and then I am going to the market with some people.  Tomorrow evening I will be updating again.  Alright all you lovely people, I hope all is well at home and I really so thankful for all of you!  I am growing to appreciate home even more and just really learn about what I value since I have been here.  So thanks for being in my life and until tomorrow- Goodnight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

alive and well!

Hi friends and fam!  

So this update will be short but hopefully sweet :)  Things are going great here in Cairo.  We have been in Zamalek the whole week taking class and getting used to the area.  Being a tourist was incredible but it feels so nice to settle in to a routine and learn more about the life style here.  Classes are fantastic!  Our first class is at 10am and this is our Egyptian colloquial class (or amia) that we take at Kalimat Language Center.  I have had two different teachers, they switch out, but both are great!  This class is really teaching us the common language (so slang/dialect) of Egypt.  I really love learning dialect because it helps in communicating with the people here SO much!  I have been introduced to this before (in BYU) but it is still very helpful.  A lot is thrown at us in two hours but I honestly love it!  Then I have a short break and go to fusHa, or classical Arabic.  We are looking a lot at the newspaper since this is a modern source of classical Arabic.  In Arabic there is this strange divide between fusHa and a nations' dialect.  The two forms of Arabic are very different to the point where many natives, unless they are very well educated, do not know fusHa and therefore can't read the newspaper and Arabic literature.  The realm of free speech, creative writing, non-fiction, and so on are still a privilege of the better educated and often wealthier members of society.  I find that pretty interesting and a current debate going on is actually about the possibility of some books emerging in a nations' dialect.  Since dialects, like amia in Egypt, are not standardized this would be difficult.  

Anywayyy...I love my classes and am learning so much already.  The most effective of all my learning experiences, however, is just being in the city and interacting with the people.  I love trying to speak Arabic and everyone around me expecting that.  It is so wonderful to feel these years of learning it, actually being put to use.  We visited a book store this past week for fusHa class and I bought the "mother of all dictionaries" as ustaaza (my female professor) says, which means I have officially committed to learning this language no matter how long it takes :)  The dictionary is awesome!  

So along with class, hanging out with group members, and getting lost in Cairo, we visited a few things this week.  We went to see the Coptic part of Cairo where we visited a church, a synagogue, and The Coptic Museum.  They were all beautiful.  The church is actually said to be the one where the holy family (Jesus, Joseph, and Mary) stayed when they were hiding in Egypt.  I don't know why it is said to be that exact church but the thought of that even being possible was pretty incredible.  The synagogue is supposedly where Moses came and prayed that God would lead his people out of Egypt.  It is incredible to imagine Biblical history unfolding on the ground I was walking on.  It makes everything I have learned about for so long look so different.  Suddenly I felt like I saw the story of Moses, Mary and Joseph, and Christ as real human stories.  Strange yet awesome feeling.  We also saw the hanging church that day.  It is somewhat famous because it has no foundation and is built on the ruins of a Roman temple.  Those Roman ruins are the only left in all of Egypt.  Crazy stuff.

Other than those sights this week has been filled with just walking around, finding our favorite food joints, and seeing as much of Cairo as possible.  One thing taking me a while is the absurd traffic here and crossing a street with cars coming at you.  Yes, I know my Mom is freaking out as she reads this but you literally have to.  It makes me nervous too but as crazy as taking taxi's and crossing the streets is, it seems like no one ever gets hurt!   Oh, and I found a Dr.Pepper!  Yea, that was pretty exciting.  So most soda's are 2 egyptian lbs. but Dr.P was 7...they really don't love the DP here.  That is a little upsetting. (But I have my DP lipsmackers :) )   My roomie and I are having an awesome time together and getting along really well.  Honestly, the whole group is pretty tight and gets along great!  Tonight we went out to dinner as almost a whole group to a restaurant called Felfela and it was delicious!  Afterwards I had the amazing experience of walking around with a small group and finding a disco tech.  Yes, a disco tech!  This means dark, smoky, houka (shesha) and tea/juice bar with mirrors, cow print, ballons, and a d.j.  Can you picture anything more fun!?  Needless to say we had an awesome time dancing!  That leads me to where I am now, sitting in my bed, roomie asleep, me exhausted, and needing to get up pretty early.  So I will bid you all goodnight now from Cairo, only to update you again soon! 

Maa Salaama,

Lauren  

p.s. i put a lot more pictures on facebook so check there if you want! 

the great pyramid at Giza

i managed to upload one more :)

cairo, luxor, now back to cairo :)

People all over Cairo LOVE their satellite dishes, it is just ridiculous!  They are about as numerous as the number of bricks you see there!

(so pictures take too long to load- hopefully I will get the rest up on facebook!)

Hi everyone!  I hope you are all doing well wherever you might be reading this from!  I am doing great!  So we got here to Cairo almost a week ago now, which is very hard to believe.  The plane ride was nothing spectacular but was over soon enough and then the shock came- I am in Cairo.  As soon as we arrived we came to the hotel we are staying at called the Mayfair Inn in Zamalek.  Zamalek is actually a small island in the Nile River but just considered another area of Cairo.  Cairo is huge.  It is unreal- there are currently 22 million people living in Cairo!  So now you might be starting to form an image of how crazy things are here.  Now multiply that by 15 and you are getting closer :)  The traffic is a cultural experience in and of itself!  If there are lanes they are more of a suggestion and the honking is constant.  The Mayfair is wonderful.  I am sharing a room with one girl, Kim, and we have two single beds, two balconies (we were lucky ones!), a mini fridge, a tiny bathroom, and a bright teal wall :)  It is starting to feel like home after today (just for 4 more weeks of course!).  After checking into our hotel we had dinner as a group in a room at another hotel by ourselves and that was a nice way to just relax after a lot of traveling.  The next day we hit the pyramids! 

First we visited the Great Pyramid (the one you have seen in pictures) in Giza, which had two other pyramids behind it.  The largest was built by King Hofu to protect his body when he died in order to ensure his body would be safe and he would make it safely to the afterlife.  They can only reach their afterlife if their bodies are preserved in the present life, hence mummification!  The other two temples were built by Hofu's son and his grandson.  This is a huge tourist sight so as you can imagine some Arab men have come up with clever tricks to get American's to give them money.  It is pretty hilarious (mostly because I fell for it at first and after realizing how nieve I was, just had to walk away) but they are relentless, which wears on anyone.  After those pyramids we visited the sphinx that same day.  Like the pyramids, the sphinx was incredible.  It is hard to grasp what you are standing when you squint up to see the top of the ancient pyramids built by kings living in times before Christ was crucified, as early as 2200 B.C.  That is pretty unfathomable but certainly did not keep me from feeling awe, excitement, and the significance of what was in front of me.  Unfortunately my camera decided to break (after I dropped it :) ) after visiting the sphinx.  After that we went to see two more pyramids in Dahshour.  These were incredible and by far my favorite.  There were no tourists here and so really taking in the breathtaking size and mystery of these structures was made much easier in Dahshour.  Also, the face or the outside stones on the pyramids are made of limestone which decays over time.  Thus, many pyramids don't have any or hardly any of their face remaining.  The pyramids in Dahshour however had a lot more so it was easier to see their original construction.  And whoever made the pyramids, they were a very brilliant and creative people (possibly aliens :) ). 

After seeing the pyramids in Giza and Dahshour we hopped a plane to Luxor to see a few more ancient ruins.  There we visited the Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.  These were huge and beautiful, both containing original hieroglyphics, some with color.  The kings and queens who made these temples clearly saw themselves as gods but what came of their vanity is incredible!  We stayed at the Sheraton on this excursion so hanging out by the swimming pool with our view of the Nile was pretty much perfection (yes I said perfection!).  Needless to say we felt pretty spoiled there but very grateful to take in the beauty of this place!  The next day in Luxor we visited the Valley of The Kings and Queen Hetshapsut's Temple.  The Valley of the Kings is where many kings of the early dynasties (17-2o ish) hid their bodies since I guess they couldn't pull off a pyramid.  These tombs were supposed to be secret but many were discovered early and robbed (62 discovered in all).  This is also were king tut's tomb was discovered in 1920 and therefore is the only one with the body and sarcophagus still intact and preserved.  Because of the mummification process I was able to see King Tut's body with "skin" more or less still on his face.  He was tiny and black but it was awesome!  I also saw Rameses III, IV, and another really early kings' tomb.  Those were possibly my favorite things I have seen thus far.  The hieroglyphics were perfectly preserved with the color they had originally been done with, which of course meant we could not take pictures though :(  These were long hot days (Luxor is boiling) so we were all very grateful for a little R&R at the hotel in the afternoon :)  

Today we are back in Cairo and classes start tomorrow!  yikes!  Cairo is a wonderful, smog covered city that I am growing more fond of I think.  Of course I do miss home and all you who are reading this (ALL OF YOU!) but I am so sure that this is where God wants me right now and it is much easier to rest in that.  Another thing I forgot to mention earlier is how awesome the group is!  Everyone has a unique flavor but everyone seems so eager to know one another and be here.  It is really cool that on no level is our being here forced so everyone really wants this on a personal level and coming to understand why has been awesome!  One thing I love about Cairo is of course getting to know a culture that has such a stark contrast to my own and learning the language more and more but also the tradition that is ingrained in the people here, no matter how devoutly Islamic they are.  The people are incredibly friendly despite the busy feel of the city and I have already grown to love the call to prayer.  My roommate and I like to open our little balcony doors or go sit outside and listen to the voices calling over the whole city of 22 million people.  Thank you all for checking and caring enough to read.  Please email or comment if you want- I love hearing about the familiar in an unfamiliar place :)  

 Goodnight for now- I will update again soon, hopefully with more pictures!

test run!

HIIII! I'm leaving for Egypt in the morning eek!  I just wanted to make sure this works :)