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!

From Jordan...

As swine flu break continues, I am enjoying my time on the Sinai peninsula. Rough life, eh? I have a lot of pictures to show, but for now I have two panoramics:

This first one is from Petra, on top of a mountain, near the monastery (see next picture). In the distance you can see Israel.

This is the monastery in Petra, which is probably the coolest part of the whole city. When I upload more pictures, you will be able to see how huge this monument is. For now, just trust me--it's huge!
I know in my last post I said that Luxor was the coolest place I've been so far, but now I have a new number one pick--Petra. Jordan in general is a wonderfully beautiful country. The Sinai region is much more mountainous than I had expected. Getting there by ferry from Egypt was the terribly difficult part. It was chaotic, to say the least. Fortunately, we made it through unscathed, even though it was quite stressful.

I'll be uploading more pictures later!