Saturday, March 17, 2012

مشغول - Busy

Majhgul - Busy


Life is busy. You're probably all busy too. Now you know how to describe it in Arabic! Just say "ana majhgul" ("majhgulA" if you're a woman) and though people might think you crazy, yo, you'd make perfect sense to the 280 million native speakers of Arabic in the world. (That number's the result of some recent wikipedia time-wasting/justifying-my-decision-to-study-Arabic sessions. Noooot sure why I do that to myself and then complain that I have too much homework to be doing.)

I have a half-written post about embarrassing moments (ooh oh oh so many), a few thoughts scrawled down about insane ideas concerning exercise and nutrition in Egypt, a whole list of strange and sometimes terrifying experiences that have happened in my elevator, an angrily scribbled paragraph about the bewildering issue of classicism here, and some other bits here and there..... but those posts will need to wait for March to pass, with its silly amount of projects, essays, and internship assignments that draw my writing attention away. And really today I just want to put up some pictures of the two past weekends. And they've been two very contrasting weekends indeed. 

Last weekend, several of us travelled to Fayoum, a rural, agricultural area about 2 hours outside of Cairo. We walked through crops and fields at sunset, stopping for donkeys and buffalo to pass, visited a deserted temple, got sand in our hair, picknicked at some man-made waterfalls in the middle of the desert, and eavesdropped on French tourists at our "eco-lodge." (In Egypt, I'm not sure what the difference is between an eco-lodge and a regular hotel, because the eco-lodge had more comfortable and reliable access to hot water, toilet paper, electricity, and food than some of the hotels I've stayed in, but whatever, ma'alesh, it was a beautiful place that oozed warmth and exuded calm.) We also got yelled at (and learned some new, um, slang) for being Americans at a rest stop but that's a subject for a different sort of blog post entirely.

Aaaand just these past couple of days, some of us travelled to Cairo for 4th annual Cairo Jazz Festival. We stayed in a breezy, wooden-floored, welcoming downtown hostel, explored leafy, quiet Zamalek during the day, ate REAL tofu flavored with lemongrass and ginger at a Thai restaurant, listened to a number of truly talented jazz musicians while sipping cups of 1-guinea tea, and watched an excellent film on the underground music scene in Alexandria, with the director in attendance. We all weren't sure we'd ever experienced this liberal side of Alexandria the film portrayed, but it was a good film nonetheless, and fun to see our temporary home portrayed with such loving cinematic panache.

The first weekend was mostly relaxing though still managed to prompt introspective questioning and stressed-out "what am I doing here anyway?" thought sessions, amidst scrambling to finish homework and assignments in every spare moment en route and in Fayoum. The second weekend was invigorating and refreshing and encouraging, while still set in often-chaotic Cairo. Through the second weekend, God answered some of the "what am I doing here anyway?" murmurs in my brain. He is good, Arabic is good, and lazy hostel mornings with a group of 8 of your friends can be a good, sweet medicine for stress.

Pictures are good too. Enough rambling.



Dinner in Fayoum

Fayoum

A temple, and Ryan. (Confession: I don't remember the name of the temple. We'll call it Ryan's temple.) 

desert dog
desert birds



The desert's a GREAT place for some... 
...waterfalls?

This goat had flair, I tell you. 



A tenacious sunflower that survived from last season.


Sunset yes yes yes

Mama camel and baby camel

Camel family on their way to... Dream park! (so we told ourselves :(:(:( )

Eco-lodge
 

 And now for Cairo!

Katie and I, immediately after finding TRUE cupcakes. This peanut butter masterpiece rivaled anything I've eaten an an American bakery. And Egyptians don't even LIKE peanut butter!

An oft-seen symbol of Christian/Muslim solidarity

One of the better afternoons I've had in a while, y'all.


View from the Zamalek festival grounds.


Late-night dinner at our favorite yemeni restaurant after the festival.

..aaaand, half a gazebo. Why? Who knows.


And finally, a good song from the film we watched, Microphone, with many, many shots of Alexandria in the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up-a-00k4u4

Saturday, March 3, 2012

الاستقلال - Independence

Istiqlal - Independence


It was Texas Independence Day yesterday. I'm thinking about the idea of independence for a couple reasons. If you'll bear with my turkish-coffee fueled musings, I'm mulling over the idea of independence with respect to...

... Texas! It's never really stressed me out to be distant from Texas, simply because I know I'll be going back many, many times in my life. Plus it's my immediate point of return after Egypt, at least for the fall semester. Being away from people can be, well, lame, but largely because my crew of ambitious, talented friends keeps moving AROUND the country. (Stay still! Gotta know where to find you all come fall. Fortunately, an exodus to NYC continues, which will make autumn visits a simpler endeavor.)

But yesterday, on the 176th anniversary of Texas declaring itself a separate republic from Mexico, a half-hour's drive through those isolated, prairie-surrounded roads north of McNeil High, a Town Lake run (does anyone actually say Lady Bird?), a margarita (rocks, frozen, salt, idonotcare), a bowl of tortilla chips and salsa doña, and a table full of Texans (any Texans, not being picky) would have been SWELL, y'all. Happy birthday you lovely state, you, Texas!

Other sorts of independence include...

.... freedom from English-Arabic dictionaries. This sounds THRILLING, yes, and you probably really want details about my daily interaction with dictionaries. I know. I know. But in the life of any language dork (which you aaaaall are, in some way, with some language, admit it), this is a big deal. I have this one enormous French-French dictionary that I treasure, and I remember the point at which I felt like a big enough girl to use it. I'd held off buying one or using one and just kept using a small, banged-up French-English Larousse (remember when google translate DIDN'T exist?) until a UT French professor of mine said "That's it, I'm sick of all of you not using real dictionaries. Buy something worthwhile, for God's sake.") In office hours with my Foussha (formal Arabic) teacher this week, a similar episode occurred. She asked which Arabic-Arabic dictionary I use... I replied that I still use the Hans-Wehr (a green Arabic-English tome of root-system-organized magic). She got upset and said "You're all well past that point now! Arabic-Arabic only!" I laughed and (actually, kind of rudely, whoops, I'm realizing now) said, "Absolutely not... I NEED that Hans Wehr, I need my Google translate, and I need my English translations." She said to try a go without them. I've been trying. It's not been half bad! I curled up on our red and orange couch (yep. Egyptian color schemes), without a dictionary, reading a book on Islam and democracy for our Islamic Studies class, and while I didn't understand everything, I understood most of it (though really, democracy + Islam + Middle Eastern politics... it all doesn't get any simpler in Arabic. Buh. )

... freedom from feeling any need to act like I'm more into politics than I actually am. Being here, it's impossible not to remain somewhat involved in political talk. Presidential elections are supposedly taking place on May 24th, a swiftly upcoming date that was just announced this past week. It is, without sarcasm or falsehood, truly fascinating to be in a country in the very midst of such historic transition. BUT. That said... Having gone through a semester of often politics-focused coursework last term, and facing another few weeks of politics-focused coursework this term, I'm tired of a lot of it, at least as fodder for our classwork. In our Egyptian novel class, on the other hand, we're reading the Arabic equivalent of Fight Club (seriously, I don't know how this doesn't infringe on copyright issues, it's nearly exactly the same story in a different language), and even though the novel is ridiculous and tricky, prose-wise, I LOVE reading something that isn't about Israel, that isn't about democracy, and that isn't about the current and oft-depressing state of Middle Eastern politics.

... freedom from pointless internship work. My internship has changed from something time-wasting to something still time-consuming and stressful but in the best sorts of ways. My crew and I's tasks include filming short interviews with folks in Egyptian Arabic, so if I don't know how to say something, it's on display. And on film. It helps encourage some ridiculous on-the-fly Arabic constructions that fall out of my mouth, and as a result, some awful video clips are in my boss' possession. They'll likely be put on the internet on my workplace's website, the link for which will remain undisclosed. :) 

... from fear of men. This last one is something I'm actually working on, something I didn't have in the slightest before I came here, and something I WANT independence from. Today I went running on the corniche, with a male friend from my program, and it was wonderful, fabulous, relaxing, and a far cry from the experience when I'm by myself running in public (which I've all but stopped doing.) It's an awful truth that I (and a lot of my female program-mates) flinch from unknown men in the street, or avert our gaze. We've just had too many episodes of unwanted verbal and occasionally physical harassment. Walking with someone, the world is totally different than when walking alone, when Egypt can be an unfriendly sort of place.

At a potluck last night, thrown to bid farewell to the wife of one of our program-mates, who is going home a few months early, this subject was front and center. She's returning to the States for a number of reasons, but mainly because she's reached her last nerve with respect to the daily harassment and fear of things escalating. It just plain sucks that uncivilized behavior would cause someone to leave, especially someone as great and brave as her. 

That depressing note aside, finally, I've realized there are a few things I will never be independent from. Some include this blue Old Navy fleece jacket I'm wearing (in my wardrobe since the 7th grade), my habit of listening to Edith Piaf while cleaning, and morning news-grazing on nytimes.com. These things that don't change, despite where we go, keep us sane, non?

(Speaking of nytimes, if you can access this link and have interest, read this haunting, beautifully crafted story about Anthony Shadid's final days in Syria. If the deluge of media about Syria is confusing, this article might help clear up the basics, while paying homage to a fabulous journalist, allahyarhumu.) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/world/middleeast/bearing-witness-in-syria-a-war-reporters-last-days.html?pagewanted=all