Safely in the US

No passport issues, no flight delays, no problem with visas. Happily in Chicago at my friends' house. Love you all very much - it's been a fantastic summer!

That's All, Folks!

I will pack tonight, stay the night at Sarah's in downtown, and we'll share a taxi to the airport together. And that will be the end of my time in Egypt - for now! I still have much more I want to see and most definitely plan on returning to see all of her beauty.

I will be home soon, at which point I will show all of you many, many, many pictures (I keep trying to upload more pics and videos from the cruise, but Blogger is not cooperating). I love you all very much. It's been a fantastic summer. I have grown more than I expected and learned things I wasn't planning to.

La vie est belle!

Peace be with you, Egypt!
السلام عليكم ، مصر

Back on Campus

Saturday morning I went out snorkeling after trying to figure out how to get back home. Buses were full until late that evening. And once I got back to Cairo, I still had to try and get to campus. I had no problem paying for a cab, but they are notoriously terrible about knowing where the new campus actually is and I did not want to deal with the stress of trying to get there.
So I went snorkeling. I found a lot of really, really cool reefs and went out really far. As a result, I was out for four hours...oops. Sorry, friends.
I got back, and the friend from class I'd been trying to call had finally responded to the text. If I left immediately, I might make their private bus to get back to Cairo. So I packed in five seconds and got into a taxi, barely saying good-bye to my buds. When I reached the hotel the bus was leaving from, turns out the bus was, of course, late. I had accidentally walked away with a bunch of Kim's money. So Tim came out to the hotel and got Kim's money and we actually managed to say good-bye. I called Kim and Kenny and wished the adieu.

The bus ride was without mishap. Sarah (friend from class) had a Egyptian friend on the bus who lives in Rehab. He drove me to Rehab (much closer to campus than downtown Cairo) and got me in a private car that knew exactly where campus was. I don't know I've ever traveled in Egypt so free of stress on my own. It was really nice, given the lateness of the hour.

The Glory of Aswan

Temple of the Two Gods


Valley of the Kings

Temple of Hatshepsut

The Two Obelisks of Memnon

Dahab

It is absolute gorgeous here. We went to the beach and floated in the sea for a while. The town is heavenly and still very much Egyptian. (Sharm el-Sheik was incredibly modern and felt much more a resort than a visit to my favorite country.) Local children are playing on the beaches. It's down season for tourists, so we aren't seeing white folks everywhere. I love the feeling.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

We had quite the adventure getting to Dahab. The 5 o'clock Wednesday bus we were planning to take was completely full when we got to the station. We managed to get seats on the 1 am bus Thursday. That meant we had several hours in Cairo...and we had all of our luggage. We left a bit of stuff at the station (which they weren't supposed to do), but couldn't have done a lot of crazy tourism stuff. So we headed to City Stars, had a good dinner at Wagamama, and saw "Harry Potter." It was phenomenal. I think it may be my favorite of the movies. Which is funny, given it's one of my less favorite books.

Rehab

Rehab is an upper-class neighborhood close to campus. Went there for the first time last night for one last dinner in Cairo with the gang.

My Favorite Mosque

This is my favorite mosque in Cairo. Mostly it's sentimental - it's directly across the Nile from our favorite cafe. But I also love it's combination of the regular, everyday mosque with its being one of the taller ones...a good blend of majesty and ordinariness.

Spartans!!

Stephen (a fellow student from MSU, though not studying Arabic this summer) came with us on our non-ascent of the Cairo Tower. Apparently he's wide-awake in this shot...

Roasted Corn

I got roasted corn on the street the other day...it was really, really good. I think the video may show up sideways. Sorry. No clue what's up with that. But my overall emotions are fairly clear, I think.T

Uyghur Essay

Since Granna commented about it...yes, 800 words in Arabic. 844 to be precise.


اليوغور واحدة من أقدم الجماعات العرقية التي تعيش في وسط آسيا. معظم اليوغور مسلمين. اليوم معظم اليوغور يعيشون في منطقة شينجيانغ من جمهورية الصين الشعبية. بعض اليوغور يعيشون في بلاد قازاقستان وقرغيزستان وأوزبكستان ومنغوليا وباكستان وافغانستان وروسيا. في الصين ، اليوغور يعيشون في الاقليم هونان والمدن الكبیرة مثل بكين وشانغهاي بالإضافة إلى منطقة شينجيانغ.
اليوغور يتكلمون اللغة الأغورية. هذه اللغة لها عدة لهجات و الرئيسية اللهجة تسمى ببساطة "سنترال أغورية." الأغورية التركية هي اللغة ولكن قد اقتبست الكثير من الكلمات من اللغة الفارسية وبعض الكلمات من اللغات الروسية والصينية. الأغورية هي واحدة من اللغات الرسمية للالأغورية شينجيانغ ذات الحكم الذاتى. هناك حوالي ثمانين الصحف والمجلات الأغورية. وبالإضافة إلى ذلك ، هناك خمس قنوات تلفزيونية و عشرة ناشرين.
شينجيانغ يعني "المحتلة الجديدة" في الصينية. أصبحت المنطقة منطقة حكم ذاتي ١٩٥٥. و على الرغم من شينجيانغ یكون منطقة حكم ذاتي فالشعب الأغورية عندها المشاكل الكثیرة مع الصينية و القوميات الأخرى.
كانت هذه المنطقة مليئة التوتر لعقود خصوصاً وأن هجرة المزيد والمزيد من الناس هان الى اورومتشى. ليوم ، عدد سكان عاصمة منطقة شينجيانغ حوالي ٧٥٪ هان. أقل من ١٣٪ من السكان الأغورية. الأغورية تهيمن عليها هان و يشعرون انهم محرومون من الحق في العبادة والسفر.
واحدة من هذه المشاكل في الأخبار الحالية.
یؤمن معظم الناس ان الحوادث بدأ في يونيو ۲۰۰۹.
يوم ۲٥ يونيو حزيران كان هناك عنف في مصنع للعبة في شاوقوان. شاوقوان فى جنوب شرق الصين ومنطقة شينجيانغ فى شمال غرب البلاد ، ولكن هناك العديد من العمال المهاجرين الأغورية في شاوقوان. فإن المصنع للعبة زوری يوظف ۸۰۰ عمال من كشجار (واحة في غرب شينجيانغ).
اتهم الموظف الساخط بستة رجال أغورية الاعتداء الجنسي تسعة عشر عاما هان بنت. في وقت لاحق، قالت البنت للمجلة "شينخوا" ان كانت المطالبات الشائعات و لم تجد تحقيق رسمي دليل على الاغتصاب. ومع ذلك ، فإن الشائعات تسببت عنف تلك الليلة. هاجمت هان المجموعات زملائهم الأغورية. قتلوا اثنان الأغورية واصيب حوالي مائة وثمانية عشر شخصا. وتم ارسال أربعمائة رجال الشرطة لتفريق العنف. وعقب الحادث، ثلاث عشرة أشخاص اعتقلوا ولكن ثلاثة فقط كانوا الأغورية.
ذكر بعض الزعماء الأغورية ان عدد القتلى من قوانغدونغ أعلى من المبلغ عنها و ورغم ان اعتقل الشرطة الرجل الذي انتشرت الشائعات الناس كثيرون یؤمن أن رد الحكومة ليس كافيا. تسبب هذا الحدث الاحتجاج الشارع في اورومتشى ٥ يوليو.
بدأ الاحتجاج في غراند بازار يوم 5 يوليو ٢٠٠٩. (جراند بازار واحدة من الاكبر في مناطقهم السياحية.) ألقى نور بكري (رئيس منطقة شينجيانغ ذات الحكم الذاتى الأغورية) التقرير الرسمي يوم ٦ يوليو. في حوالي الساعة الخامسة مساء ٥ يوليو تجمعوا أكثر من مائتي متظاهر في ساحة مجلس الشعب فى اورومتشى. صرح بكري اعتقل الشرطة قرابة السبعين القادة و تسيطر على الوضع بسرعة. ولكن في الساعة السابعة ونصف مساء تجمعوا أكثر من ألف الأغورية امام مستشفى فى شانشى الزقاق. ما بدأ تظاهرة سلمية أصبحت العنف عندما حاولت الشرطة تفريق المتظاهرين و رفض الناس لذلك. الاحتجاج السلمي أصبح اضطراب عنف و هاجم الأغورية هان.
قد ازداد عدد من متظاهرون ثلاثة آلاف الأغورية. تمیزت جين ماكارتني من التايمز اضطرابات التي وقعت في اليوم الأول حيث تتألف أساسا من "طعن هان من قبل العصابات المغيرة من الأغورية".
كان آلاف رجال الشرطة یرسلون لوقف الاضطرابات. أطلقوا النار في الهواء في محاولة لتهدئة هياج. ولكن تشجيع تدخل الشرطة العنف. فى الساعة التاسعة ونصف مساء تلقت الحكومة تقارير ان اصيبوا قتلوا ثلاثة اشخاص و اصيبوا بجراح ستة وعشرين شخصا اخرين. ستة من الجرحى من رجال الشرطة.
ذكرت شينخوا يوم ١٠ يوليو أن اليوم الأول من اضطرابات أدی إلى مائة وثلاثة وثمانين وفيات. و مائة وسبعة و ثلاثون من الضحايا من هان و ستا وأربعين منهم من الأغورية. تلقى منطقة شينجيانغ ذات الحكم الذاتى الأغورية مستشفى الشعب مئتي ثلاثة وثلاثين هان وتسعة وثلاثين الأغورية. قال لى نانفانغ (نائب رئيس مستشفى الشعب) ان "خمسة على الاقل" مواطنون عندهم جراح الرصاص. اثنا عشر من القتلى لقوا مصرعهم على يد الشرطة.
ولكن العنف لم ينهی 5 يوليو. ليلة ٦ يوليو اقتحمت الشرطة ابواب الأغورية في أحياء واعتقلت مئة من المشتبه. وأفاد مسؤولون ان ما يقرب من ألف وخمسمئة تم ألقي القبض على مثيري الشغب. يوم ٧ يوليو رد هان المتظاهرين ضد الأغورية. وقتل الأغورية الكثيرون في هذه أصغر ولكن أوسع النطاق نضالات. حاولت الشرطة لتهدئة العنف باستخدام الغاز المسيل للدموع وحواجز الطرق. اكتمل العنف الضخم 8 يوليو لكنها واصلت العنف المتفرق. ١٢ يوليو بلغ عدد الجرحى الناس ألف وستمائة وثمانين.
باللوم كل من الطرفين على الاخر في العنف. قال بعض الناس، بمن فيهم مسؤولون من الحكومة الصينية، أن خطط الكونغرس الأغورية العالمي المظاهرات. نفی رئيس الكونغرس ربيعة قدير الاتهام و يدعي أن یثیر "وكيل باستفزازات" الجماهير
قال قدیر فی بیان "انا أدین بشكل لا لبس فيه استخدام العنف خلال المظاهرة من اليوغور کما انّ أدین الصين استخدام القوة المفرطة ضد المتظاهرين"
استقر الحالة فی المنطقة و استطاع الأغورية المسلمين ان يصليوا فی مساجدهم. ومع ذلك فيخیف الناس الكثيرون إضافية المظاهرات و الأكثر من العنف. أصدر القاعدة تهديدا ضد الصين. تخوف الحكومة الصينية هجوم في الجزائر ، وذلك أصدرت تحذيرا لمواطنونها هناك.
ارجح المنطقة ستشهد الأكثر من العنف العرقي في المستقبل، ولكن آمل, ان شاء الله ، ان الشعب المسلم في الصين ستستطاع على العيش في سلام.



مصادر رئيسية هي : "شينخوا" و "ويكيبيديا" و "رويترز" و "ام اس ان بي سي و "ياهو! " أخبار و "جوجل" الاخبار

To Dahab We Go!

Plans for this next week have changed a bit. My friend (whose father is a prof here at AUC and with whom I was going to be staying) is now going to Jerusalem to visit another friend. I have decided to go to Dahab with my main gang of friends for several days to snorkel. I will come back on Saturday and have Saturday night and Sunday in Cairo. I am able to stay in the dorms during this time and have some friends with whom to tour around. I'm not sure what all I am going to do. There are definitely parts of Egypt I desperately want to visit that I have not yet seen. I think, though, that I am not going to try and squeeze in everything, instead having my missing parts as an excuse to come back. : )

And we're (almost) done

I have a brief Media take-home exam to do, but nothing too complicated. Other than that, I'm done.
Exams were okay. They were quite simple, but, as usual, it seemed that they mostly covered the 5% of the vocabulary that I hadn't memorized absolutely. But I feel like I've learned a LOT this summer and have had a lot of fun with it.
I wrote an eight hundred-word essay about the Uyghurs in China for extra credit. That essay was the best assignment I've had so far where my learning is concerned, because I blended my Media Class with my grammar and vocab classes. All in all, it's been an insane, stressful, overwhelming, fun, crazy, knowledge-packed semester of classes. And now it's done. I'm going to be going through withdrawal so badly in a few days...I'm already starting to feel it, sick as that is...

One Down, Three (Two) To Go

Why is it that my favorite class was the first final? I am sad to be done with my Quran class...
Tomorrow I have a combined final for my Grammar and Vocabulary classes, which is very nice. (Thus the "Three (Two)" number.) And the number decreases even more given that Media is a take-home final. I need to memorize a lot of vocabulary tonight and pray that the grammar involved on the final isn't too crazy. And then I'm home free...

Cairo Tower...or not

Went into town today to go up Cairo Tower, Egypt's response to the Empire State Building. The pictures were going to be amazing...
But it was a bit pricey. We looked online before going and found that there was a cost for photo-taking, but nothing was mentioned about admission. So we debated for a while. Finally we decided that we were all just going to go for it. But when we finally walked up to the ticket counter (after standing near it for ~20 minutes), we were told the lift wasn't working currently. So no Cairo Tower for me...but it was still a fun night. Saw a part of town I hadn't before.

Well, that had to happen at least once...

We were in town fairly late today because some friends had just returned from Alexandria. We were going to take the 11 o'clock bus back to campus. We saw a bus that belonged to us drive by, waved at it...it waved back but did not stop. So we sat until midnight. And the midnight bus said it was not going to New Campus, only to Tahrir Square. So we finally ended up in a cab that didn't know that way and took way too long to get here. But finally I am home! And I'd hate to not have to rough it back to campus at least once this summer. So there's something else crossed off the list...

Coptic Museum

The ALI Tour today was to Old Cairo. I had been to the churches before, but we went inside the Coptic Museum as well, which I hadn't seen. It was really cool. Sadly, no photos allowed. But I saw a lot of gorgeous woodwork, stone carvings, icons, and textiles. And...OSTRACA! (Shards of limestone with writing.) And really old books that were absolutely breathtaking. Happy girl!

"The Mummy Returns"

Tim and I watched "The Mummy Returns" tonight. I've seen it tons of times and I love that movie...but tonight's viewing was definitely special. Because I was suddenly saying "I've been there! And there! AND there!" And it was awesome. And I understood some of the Arabic that was spoken! It was really, really cool.

Heehee. For those who may have forgotten, I'm in Egypt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Goofed!

Tomorrow's ALI Excursion is to Old Cairo and the Coptic Museum. I will be attending - and I'll love - but I've seen some of it before. I should have bugged the office to reschedule the trip to Saqqara and Dashoor that were canceled due to Swine Flu, as they are the ones that will likely cost more money (that ALI would pay for if I went with them) and I'm more interested in seeing. But oh well - there's always next week!

The President's Here!

But we're not sure which one. Apparently the President (or maybe the Prime Minister) from either Malaysia or Denmark is visiting campus today. This is hearsay from our adult friend in ALI who has Egyptian family. He told us the Malaysian president was here, then came back about five minutes later and said that it may be the Denmark president instead. I doubt I'll see him, whoever he is, but it was fun to laugh at Tarek. And who knows? Maybe I'll go for a walk and see some strange combination of the Malaysian and Danish flags.

Sorry!

I'm sorry it's taking forever to get information about Luxor to you...my pictures are all on a computer that's currently in Alexandria with a friend. You will get them eventually, I promise!

Home Safe!

I'm home safe.

I'm freakishly happy.

I was in the Valley of the Kings today.

I owe you a lot of happy posts...I promise that you will receive them.

Off to Luxor!

I'm off to the Luxor and Aswan cruise. I doubt I'll have internet. I'll be seeing many, many tombs and having a freakish amount of fun. Love you all!

Cairo Sunset

We went into town to have dinner at our favorite cafe on the Nile. Gorgeous sunset on the way back to the bus...

Three Weeks!

It's very strange to think how time has flown. Tomorrow I have a midterm in my vocabulary class. I have only three weeks left of classes, including exams. I still have Luxor, more pyramids, Aswan, the camel market, and whatever is in store for me the final week of my time in Cairo to look forward to.
Classwork loads have eased up quite a bit. I've made some great friends; it's going to be hard to part ways at the end of the semester.
And perhaps this should be the end of the nostalgic post, before I start crying just before going to bed...
It's been wonderful. Egypt truly is the Mother of the World.

Birthday Surprises!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and greetings. I have had a fabulous time. I am now 19 and no longer qualify as a United Methodist youth - I'm now officially a young adult in the Church!
My friends and I were planning to go the camel market on Friday, July 3 (my birthday). We were going to get a cheap hotel near the market, go early, and then head to the mall for a birthday dinner.
And then...they wouldn't let me help plan accommodations. And told me to pack swimming gear. And got me on a bus. Had no idea what was happening.
The bad news (which isn't really bad news): We did not go to the camel market. This is in no way a problem, as I'll be able to go during my extra week in Cairo after classes.

Here's what happened:
1. My absurd (but wonderful) friends got a room in a 5-star hotel with fantastic restaurants, a pool, and a jet tub.
2. Thursday night we chilled in the hotel - eating, chatting, and taking the most fun bubble bath I have ever had in my life (we all got in swimming gear and got in together - there were a LOT of bubbles).
3. We didn't go to bed Thursday until very late (or very early), so we had a nice sleep-in on Friday - by which I mean I got up around 8. lol.
4. Our room came with a fantastic hot buffet breakfast. I got chocolate crepes, fresh mozzarella (!) and tomatoes, croissants and strawberry jam, and fresh mango juice. (For those of you who don't know me all that well, these are some of my favorite foods.)
5. We checked out of the room and spent around 3 hours in the pool. It had a swim-up bar, so the kids had lots of fun. (No, I didn't have anything to drink. I'm underage in Egypt, not that they actually card or care...)
6. We went to the mall and watched "The Proposal." Adorably cute movie. I definitely needed a chick flick.
7. We went to Chili's for dinner. I got fajitas, and heavens above, were they wonderful. I went to the restroom at one point with my friend. None of them said anything to the waiter about its being my birthday. And then, suddenly, there were a ton of Arabic men circling me singing "Happy Birthday" in Arabic and English and a Chocolate Molten Lava Brownie was sitting in front of me with a candle in it. It was fantastic.

And now I'm back in the dorms. A large group is out on a felluca (boat) celebrating Independence Day. One of my best friends here is British - he's quite possibly going to end up overboard at some point. I came back for some sleep. I have a big vocabulary exam on Monday - lots of memorization to do!

It was a very fun day, though it was very Western. Next weekend is the cruise to Luxor and Aswan, and I will get a lot of ancient Egypt highs then.