McDonald's Madness

Sometimes if you want something to get done, you just have to be aggressive. Especially if you want to get your meal in a relatively short amount of time. It is best to explain the situation via diagram, so I have sketched two pictures for you.

This first picture is that of a counter at McDonald's in Your-hometown, USA. It is also a picture of efficiency at its finest: wait in line, place order, pay for food, grab food, leave to eat food. This is the wonder of McDonald's.

This second picture is of the McDonald's at our campus. It is also a picture of inefficiency, which works like this: weasel to register with three friends, move in front of any American who's not being assertive, pause in front of register, continue to pause, call fourth friend, order food, wait, continue to wait, get food, continue to hang out in mass of people.

If you're American, you can't just sit there like a potted plant--ya gotta get into the game! Use whatever Arabic you know, move people out of the way, flail your arms...just do something!

On the other hand, there have been several things that have happened this week that have made me think about home.

1) It rained. In the desert! It was amazing!!! In several spurts throughout the day, it rained for maybe a minute or two. But it was basically a big deal.

2) I got to use MATLAB for the first time since this summer (nerdy comment, I know). Oh, how I miss spending 6 hours on a single homework problem...

3) I had pancakes at McDonald's today. They tasted like freedom...and Bisquick. They were SOOOO GOOD!

Also, it's official--I've lived in Egypt for 2 months now. It's hard to believe!

Have a happy Tuesday!

Run for Breast Cancer

This weekend was the run around the pyramids to raise money for breast cancer research. The morning of the event, Henry, Johan, and I were going to take a cab to the Heliopolis Sporting Club where we would catch an event-sponsored bus to take us to the pyramids.

Sometimes your cab drivers know where they are going. Other times they just make their best guess. Sometimes the people riding in the cab pay attention to where they are being dropped off. Other times the people riding in the cab get dropped off at unexpected locations, thinking they're in the right place.

As you can see in the picture below, we didn't quite make it to the Heliopolis Sporting Club. Close, but not quite. And it took us awhile to figure out that we weren't in the right place. So we had to pay for a cab to the pyramids, which isn't really that big of a deal, but we just had to pay another $9 to get there.

The race itself was packed with people, and for those of us who ran it, it lasted about 10 minutes. But it was definitely worth it.

Next up, Run for Lung Cancer...I wish.

Take a look at this video about the "Black Cloud" that has settled on Cairo. The pollution has been considerably worse the last week or so. Today on our way back to New Cairo (where we are able to see blue sky, الحمد للة--Alhamdulillah, "Praise be to God"), I decided to cover my nose and mouth with my shirt. That little brown spot isn't dirt that was filtered in the 45 minute cab ride, but was dirt that was plastered on my forehead that I had wiped off. Either way, there's a lot of particles in the air, and I'm pretty sure that's the reason why I've had a chronic cough for the last 3 weeks...

Happy Sunday!

Mamluk Architecture & Egyptian Museum

Today I got to see the most beautiful building I've seen in Egypt so far. In fact, I'd say it's the most beautiful interior of a building I've ever seen.

Here's a little bit of history about the Mamluk dynasty, which is quite interesting:

The Egyptian army had become very weak because of the many wars with the Crusaders. So they had to reinforce the army. Either they had to buy soldiers, or they had to pay mercenaries. In general, the Muslim army didn't like to pay mercenaries because the enemy could pay him more and he would switch sides. So they bought soldiers. They started asking slave merchants to bring young men so that they could be soldiers. So the merchants started bringing young men from Southern Russia/Northern Turkey. This area had been ravaged by the Mongols, so the people were starving here--this is how they recruited the men.

The ones chosen for the army were put in military school for 7-8 years. They had to learn Arabic, become Muslims, and learn military drill. Once they finished, these slaves became "Mamluks"--educated, military slaves. The Egyptians were mostly illiterate, so the Mamluks became the educated class, and in 1250 they took over power in Egypt. They were tremendous builders, bringing craftsmen from all over the world to build during this period.

This building is called the Complex of Sultan Qalawun. It is amazing.

Stucco window carving in the courtyard.

What do you think this mosaic says?

(Answer at the bottom of this post.)

This is inside the mausoleum, which was the best part of the complex. The whole thing was brilliantly decorated. Unlike the Fatimids before them, the Mamluk dynasty used color!

Artsy shot of the entrance to the complex.

After the trip this morning, I met Rachel and Henry at the Egyptian museum, since Henry and I hadn't been there yet. It's huge and packed with everything Egyptian.

Tomorrow is a walk/run around the pyramids for breast cancer...and then homework! I should have an update from that sometime tomorrow, إن شاء الل (insha' Allah, meaning "God willing"). Happy Friday!

The answer is "Muhammad".

Creepy Passport Pictures

In order to get a student visa so that we can live in Egypt for an extended period, we had to go downtown to get our pictures taken. Instead of just getting 1 or 2 pictures each, we ended up getting a nice collection of about 20 pictures of each of us. Since we all had AWESOME pictures, we decided to do a photo swap. Here's some of the gang, with their profile (which is extremely accurate) listed under them.

NAME: Johan

PLACE OF BIRTH: Russia

WHAT I'M THINKING: I need a one-way ticket to Moscow.

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: Cardigans

NAME: Henry

PLACE OF BIRTH: Mexico

WHAT I'M THINKING: I'm gonna get you.

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: Hot Cheetos

NAME: Trude

PLACE OF BIRTH: Norway

WHAT I'M THINKING: I miss my dog sled.

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: Polar bears

NAME: Ben

PLACE OF BIRTH: America

WHAT I'M THINKING: Do you know where your children are?

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: McDonald's

When I went to the passport office today, the man didn't ask me for a picture. So now I have 20 of these creepy pictures of me that I have no use for. Maybe I could pass them out at Halloween.

City of the Dead

Cairo is a city of contrasts.

New Cairo is a sparkling city in the making. On campus, our palm trees are automatically watered several times each day, our windows are dust-free, and we even have grass growing on the sand! We have it made...

Not too far from campus is an entirely different world. Today I got to see part of this world--The City of the Dead. Piles of trash, blood in the streets, swarms of flies...

We really have it made...

It is given the name "City of the Dead" because the "city" is a cemetery. I was in the area to see some of the burial architecture from the Fatimid dynasty. Cemeteries in Cairo aren't like what we have in the US. Instead of having a gravestone, each family has a house-like structure where their kin are buried. These structures have become the homes of many, many poor Egyptians.

It was quite humbling.

Below you can see several of the mausoleums that we visited.

In other news, it was 100 F today. Fun times since it's the middle of October. I was hoping it would be cooling down soon. I decided I needed a little bit of an autumn-fix, so I found these really nice October pictures I thought I'd share, here.

That's all for now! Happy Saturday!

Fun Weather Report

I've never seen anything like this before, and I thought it was funny...and therefore, blog-worthy:

In other news, this week's copy of The Caravan came out today. Of the 11 English articles, all but one of them had the words "swine flu", "H1N1", or "virus," making a total of 64 instances of those wonderfully over-used words in the whole newspaper.

There was even an article about designer face masks. You know those of us who are in the Gucci corner would not dare be seen with a grossly white face mask...that would be an unspeakable outrage!

Happy Sunday!

Fatimid Cairo

This weekend my Art and Architecture of the City of Cairo class went on a field trip to Fatimid Cairo.

The Fatimid rule began in the early 900s, and they fortified Cairo as their capital city. The Fatimid dynasty was a Shi'ite dynasty, which is subtly reflected in the architecture. Today each of the four mosques we visited are Sunni mosques (the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Egypt are Sunni), including Al-Azhar mosque.

This first picture is from a mosque that we walked past and didn't discuss because I believe it is from another time period (maybe Mamluk dynasty). It was the most intricate and beautiful carving of the trip.

This second picture is from Al-Azhar mosque, which is the center of Sunni Islamic scholarship. There weren't too many people in the mosque when we visited, but there was an imam instructing a group of about 20 men at the main mihrab. There was also a woman who was listening, but as dictated by Islamic practice, she was separated from the men by a sheet strung between two of the columns.

The third picture is the entrance to Al-Azhar mosque from the barber's gate, which is where all of the men used to be shaved before they entered the mosque. Again, the carving here was simply incredible.

On one of the walls the mosque had a bookshelf with free literature. I picked up a little book called, "The True Message of Jesus Christ" by Dr. Bilal Philips. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but so far I haven't been impressed by his arguments. I will probably respond to this book in a future blog post because I love the topic of comparative religion.

It seems like it's gotten a little bit cooler here--now it only gets into the mid-80s during the day, which is quite pleasant. I'm certainly going to miss the mid-western autumn, especially seeing the leaves change colors. For some reason I don't think palm trees really change colors...

Have a good Saturday!

Week in Bullet Points

I should be working on Arabic homework right now, but I want to put it off for a little bit. So in the meantime:

• I bought some peanut butter yesterday at "Best Buy." It is not an electronics store in Egypt but a nice little supermarket in El Rehab city. Peanut butter and sliced bread (which is also uncommon in Egypt) have never tasted so good.
• Yesterday there was a football game in Cairo. Football is a huge deal, so we got to cheer on Egypt as they were playing Costa Rica. As we were watching, I saw a girl who's in my Arabic class on TV. She has long, blonde hair, so she was very easy to spot. We might be going to a football game this weekend...it should be fun.
• This weekend I get to go to Fatimid Cairo, including Al-Azhar mosque, which is pretty much the Harvard of the Sunni Muslim world. I can't wait. I should have pictures up shortly after I return.
• My roommate, whose name is Mohab, finally moved in. He brought a full-sized refrigerator with him. He's cool, though. He invited me to his house during Thanksgiving break, so I'll probably take him up on the offer.
• There is a "Gucci corner" at AUC where all the people with expensive clothes hang out. I think I'll probably join them. And speaking of clothing, I'm really sad I didn't remember to pack my "I love math" t-shirt.

Ok, folks. That's all for now. I suppose I should really get some Arabic homework done! Have a happy Wednesday!

Petra

Since Petra was such a fascinating place to visit, I thought I should write a little bit more about it. Here is part of an article I found online regarding Petra:

Petra is the Greek word for "rock." In the heart of Mount Seir, halfway between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, there is a valley surrounded on all sides by very steep rocky cliffs, with a few narrow gorges leading inside. In this valley, the city of Petra was built. Its biblical name was Sela. The earliest inhabitants of this area were the Horites, or Hurrians. Later, Esau, the brother of Jacob, settled in the territory south of the Dead Sea, and his descendants, the Edomites, gradually replaced the Hurrians. The Edomites lived here when Israel came from Egypt during the Exodus, about 1445 BC.

About 400 BC, the Edomites were driven out by the Arabian Nabataeans. These people made Petra their capital and controlled the most important trade routes between the East and the West. Caravans passing through this territory had to pay taxes to the Nabataeans, who in this way became very wealthy enabling them to build beautiful palaces, temples, theatres, and tombs hewn out of solid rock in their capital city.

In later centuries, caravans followed other routes between the Orient and Europe. Traffic through Nabataean territory dried up, Petra became deserted and forgotten, and for centuries it was a legendary city. All the references in Scripture were considered by higher critics to be figments of the imagination. They claimed the non-existence of Petra as proof for the unreliability of Scripture.

...Because of the unstable Middle Eastern political situation, visits to Petra were made virtually impossible, and only in recent years has this ancient city become readily accessible to tourists. Obadiah describes the lofty places of Petra and the confidence of its inhabitants. However, Jeremiah predicted that the city would lose its power and become uninhabited (Obadiah 3-4; Jeremiah 49:16-18).

This city was prophesied to be destroyed because of the people's rituals and practices. Interestingly enough, I have a picture of one of the Nabataean gods, as seen below. In this arch you can see two rectangles, which are the god and his virgin mother beside him. There's not much to them except for their square eyes and nose. Throughout Petra there are many other places where these and similar carvings of gods can be found.

Besides the flurry of tourists and Bedouins selling their trinkets for 1 Jordanian dinar , Petra is now a quiet, desolate land, just as was prophesied.

I have more pictures from our trip to the Sinai peninsula here.

Swine flu break is over now, so it's back to school today! Happy Sunday!