Nothing

Nothing happened, nothing, I spent two weeks, studying. Something happened, I'm sure, I just forgot. I gave a presentation; I always give presentations in Arabic Class. I was supposed to give a presentation on my friends from back home. I didn't have any pictures of friends with me, so someone joking suggested I take pictures of cats around campus and say they were my only friends. Well, so that's what I did. I think half the class thought it was funny, and the other half was just concerned that I might be serious. Good times.

I have more presentation next week. I'm going to talk about the future of cinema in the Middle East. I've been reading articles about American movies and the reaction by Arabs. Specifically, I was reading about the movie called "The Kingdom" in an Arab magazine. I haven’t seen it, but from the previews it looks like a crack commando team from America goes into Saudi Arabia to straighten out some terrorist or something. I read the review of the movie in Arabic in an Arabic magazine. I was surprised, I was expecting some sort of backlash or resentment from the idea of Americans fighting in Saudi Arabia, but no, the review is exactly what I would expect from an American review of the movie. The article talked about the action, the actors, the special effects, and good and bad parts about the movie. The point of view of a Middle Eastern movie critic is strikingly similar to the point of view of an American movie critic. It makes sense when I think about it, I just guess I assumed that a Middle Easterner would have some mysterious insight into a movie that takes place in the Middle East. Not so far as that article was considered, at least not anymore than an American has mysterious insight into a movie that takes place in America.

Anyway, I'll try to have more interesting, camel riding, belly dancing adventures in the future!

Constantinople

I know I'm supposed to be in Egypt, but right now I’m in Istanbul, Turkey. This city is phenomenal. It has so many amazing buildings and they are all huge. I’m here with friends because of the Eid. That is Arabic for Holiday and this particular holiday is celebrating the end of Ramadan. For the past lunar month, Muslims round the world have been fasting from sun rise to sun set. At the end of this month, there is a holiday which for me means a four day weekend. Some friends of mine decided it would be worthwhile to stretch it to a five day weekend (missing one day of school) and go to visit the seat of the Byzantine Empire.

It is really great here. The best things I’ve done are seeing the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, and two jumbo sized Turkish Palaces. The Hagia Sophia is filled with too much. Its vaulted ceiling is inspiring and it is incredible to see the mix of Christian and Muslim influences in one place. It was originally built by Justinian as a church, then converted into a mosque when the Turks conquered Constantinople and now it is a museum or tourist destination really, since there is nothing in the museum except itself. Still, every wall has Arabesque art or ancient Christian’s paintings that were painted over but are now being uncovered. And there is a mystery there that I don’t understand. Throughout the structure, there will be just a few fake paintings in an arrangement of real things. For example, there will be two real windows and one painted window all next to each other. Or there will be pillars behind pillars, but one spot is actually a wall with an optical illusion painted on it to seem like an open arch way with pillars behind it. It’s all very mysterious. Someday I will understand.

The Basilica is amazing; with just the right amount of modern-day presentation to accentuate it’s old world awe. Its entrance just looks like a box on the side of the street smaller then a Taco-bell but it leads to this vast underground chamber of pillars and flowing water. The low light and slightly strange music they play in the background really does accentuate the whole effect.

I was also massaged by a large Turkish man in one of the bathhouses. It’s really more fun than it sound, and if you ever get a chance, the Turkish bath house is on a list of 1000 things you should do before you die. I only have two more days left here, but there is plenty more to see. It’s a great vacation, but also I can’t wait to get back to Cairo!

Zoos, Pyramids, and Tutors

Has it really been this long since I posted? I have got to tell you, time is flying by here, probably because I stay so busy. I’ve done a lot of fun things over the past week.

I visited the Zoo in Egypt, which was awesome! They don’t have the same “rules” as the zoos in America. Things here are a little more relaxed which means that by paying the zoo keeper two dollars, I got to hold the baby lions. It was so cool! It’s like I get to live out my childhood fantasy. You know that this year there was a new world record for the longest jump made by a man riding a lion. I’m not sure if that is relevant, but have you held the baby lion? It makes you think about these things. And I got to play with the monkeys too. I didn’t quite have enough time to teach it to be my monkey butler but I may be making a return visit, so who knows.

I also visited more pyramids. It was fun, some friend and I got a guide and we went horseback riding through the desert to the ancient pyramids of Sakhara. We climbed down into one of the ancient pits that, according to what the guide said was used by priests to punish people. So it was an ancient Egyptian torture chamber. Awesome! There’s not much left except one support pillar and a broken table, but my mind can fill in the blanks.

In other news, I have been finding tutors to teach me Arabic. I need it, because I spend all my time just doing homework. My classes are a killer, and I need help. I talked to the director to try to get out of the advanced level. I said it was too hard and I need to leave. She said "no!". I like the classes; I think they're great, I'm really just worried about the grades. I need A's! I talked to my teachers and they all say that it will be ok. They say that they don't judge you based on your level, but on your dedication and how much you improve. This is good in theory, but if one guy is always making eloquent statements in class and another guy doesn’t know what’s going on, who are you going to give the ‘A’ to? So, I got me some tutors. One tutor is the official tutor for free through the ALI, I meet with him twice a week for an hour. Then there is a guy I pay 40LE ($1 = ~5.6 LE) an hour to meet with every day. I go over homework, he’s good, but like any native speaker, he doesn't understand all the grammar, though he uses it, and he doesn't know what every word means in English, but that’s because the class uses pretty specific words sometimes. Then I have one more tutor that I've started to meet with every day. It's this attractive, 23 year old Egyptian girl that I also pay 40 Egyptian pounds an hour to. I tried to do homework one time with her, and I wind up just flirting with her in Arabic. She's the worst tutor I have, but who cares? She makes me want to speak Arabic, and that's priceless. I recommend it to anyone; the best way to learn a language is to put yourself in a situation where you desperately want to speak! Anyway it's a good set up, although I am paying slightly more for tutors every month than rent, but maybe I can come out of all this, ok gradewise. We’ll see.