How Many Camels??

The next night was interesting, we hung out on the pool deck and attempted to start a dance party. It was dreadful music. I mean really dreadful. 90’s no name music. I had
Been deprived of good music and dancing so attempted to get everyone on board. Before that I looked at the stars- luminescent over the Nile. We went through a lock and watched the boat rise to the level of the lower Nile- kinda cool I guess but overeeggerated, though. When we were stopped at the lock guys on rowboats rowed up to the cruise and sold random things to the tourists. I bought a shirt for 80 pounds but the experience of haggling through the windows of the cruise boat. They would throw you a shirt or pashmina, try and it, on through the money back to them. Anyways since I have been here, I have a new obsession/appreciated for nature and the stars. So anyways, the dance party was a bit ridiculous- very 7th grade with people dancing in a circle. We changed the music and got everyone to dance for a while- overall a good story, bad experience lol. But at AUC in general, the university is kind of like a high school. The kids here seem very young- some are 17, and almost all of them still live at home. People at the university sit in clicks on the stairs in clusters very segregated by the clicks. We affectionately refer to place the really rich kids who all sit together in one place- Gucci Corner.

Today was our arrival in Edfu, there is absolutely nothing in this town but the temple of Edfu, although it sheds some light on how people here really live- minus all the touristy stuff: although it truly sheds light on how people really live here. Edfu temple is the most preserved/completed Egyptian monument. Its gates are huge- looming and quite new(ish) looking- blocking much of the view behind. When we entered the temple we got a chance to view the best preserved hieroglyphics. Our tour guides who came with us absolutely suck. I’m sorry, but there is no other way to describe them. This has been proved by the last two days- so on day 3 of our cruise, we decided to do a self guided tour with a combo of my Lonely Planet and Carter’s Rough Guide. Carter, Maggie and I learned about the different rooms- the library, laundry room, storage room and laboratory- which was the coolest because it had all the ingredients for the different medicines and concoctions on the wall separated in columns by recipe. There were pictures of people mixing the ingredients. We got to see the story of Seth and Horus which depicted Seth as a hippo, being hunted and then caught, chopped up and eaten as cake- which we found mildly comical.

When we got back we layed out at the pool today, had our free afternoon tea around 4 and then disembarked to see the Temple of Kom Ombo which is located in the town of Kom Ombo. {Side note: foreigners aren’t allowed to stay in Kom Ombo overnight- seriously not hotels or anything!} Mostly still standing, it towers over the Nile where we arrived just before sunset. We got to see the temple that was dedicated to the Crocodile God- all the crocs used to bathe here in ancient times. All our pictures of the hypostyle halls were breathtaking, once again. We saw the sun set over the Nile and the town of Kom Ombo. After the fire red sun set, we walked through all the shops, basically a mini sook (market) set up for tourists- which are oh so convientenly stationed right beside all the cruise boats so you have to walk through them to get back to your boat. The men there (woman sellers are absent) yell things at you like “look, only look, no haggle!” “just look, no buy!”. Some even rad your arms to try and pull you into their shops. They’re always impressed when I speak Arabic, though minimally- and then they lower the price. One guy tonight told me my eyes were so beautiful so he gave me a discount- such b.s. haha. And as I walked down the dimly lit promenade with men thrusting scarves and galabayas in my face, I was tickled by the men asking me- “How many camels??” Apparently, in southern Egypt (more so in ancient times) your worth is measured in the amount of camels a husband would pay for your dowry. I got several offers, one of fifty million! And much, I’m sure to my parents dismay, I resisted the temptation of the man of my dreams on the streets of Kom Ombo.

Right now, as I write, I am on the place from Aswan to Cairo. I am looking out the window to an aesthetically shocking picture. We are cruising at a comfortable 12,000 feet over the infamous Sahara desert above the least inhabited area in all of Egypt. To our right is the Nile, the life source of Egypt, surrounded by development and lush greenery. The Nile from an aerial view literally looks like a giant green snake lazily slithering through the endless yellow dunes.

And Now I’m Back in Cairo- where to begin.
Well Tuesday night was relaxing. I did all my menial tasks, laundry, cleaning, a bit of homework, eat- then attempted to do homework- failed, and went to bed. Wednesday we hung out, planned our trip while catching up on our lives via the internet at Goal, our favorite faux Italian restaurant. I always eat a tomato and mozzarella salad in an attempt to recreate my beautiful summer experience. The mozzarella here is much chewier and is a different texture but is still good. We went out for drinks to this hotel which had a bar on top- smoked sheesha and enjoyed a chilled Stella overlooking the city of Cairo. Then we headed back to the dorms.
In other news, we spent the day (Sept 25) in Alexandria. I had to wake up at 7am after staying up until 4- I was not super awake to say the least. We hopped on a train to Alexandria at around 8:30 am after buying our tickets in Arabic. We bought second-class tickets that were shockingly quite comfortable and air conditioned!! IT was about two hours- it had reclining seats, interesting smells, and was full of families, businessmen, and a few Asian tourists- a fantastic combination for people watching if I hadn’t passed out so quickly. We arrived and our Egyptian friends, Mahmoud and Ahmed picked up at the station. We walked through the streets of Alexandria enjoying the breezy weather and decided to grab some of the fresh juice Alexandria is famous for. I got strawberry banana, Vic got watermelon, Richie got a Boreo Shake (their version of Oreo’s!)- and we got these for 2 Egyptian Pounds each, which is the equivalent of 35 cents. Not that we paid for them because Egyptians absolutely refuse to let you pay for things when you are in their city. We took a cab over to the downtown area, drank some tea on the boardwalk, haggled with some carpet sellers for fun and basked in the beautiful sunshine. Afterwards we went to the famous Alexandrian library- which was the oldest in the world until it burned down. It was closed for prayers so we decided to go to a souk (open-air market) we actually found some really amazing stuff- hand made chess/backgammon boards with pearl engravings, beautiful fabrics and some really interesting furniture. We also found and bought Disney DVD’s in Arabic and decided it would be really good practice- we got the Little Mermaid and Aladdin. We retuned to the museum after prayer. I was actually kind of surprised. It is a strange shape- like a circle- almost, but slowly rising in height from the bottom up. The windows are huge- which makes the museum feel open and light but the inside is tiered making it looks smaller than it actually is. There were tons of books in every language and even a whole section for UN documents and critiques. We couldn’t get to the old/rare book collection area-, which was a bit disappointing. But dinner definitely made up for it. We went to this restaurant with a fantastic view of the water and the fort- which was made of Pharos (which is made up of the remains of the 7th Wonder of the World) The restaurant was called the fish King of Alexandria- best food EVER! We had 6 plates of fresh fish we literally picked out shrimp, tons of different fish calamari with the usual sides. We headed to this shessha on the coast. The place was full of old men playing chess, tawola (tables) which is basically backgammon while watching soccer. Yelling at TV’s, smoking while playing and intense conversations is the norm here, a relaxation haven away from the more pressing concerns of the world. We got the best Kunefa ever- from Ahmed’s mom who made us a whole freaking plateful. I was in heaven. We caught our train back to Cairo and packed for the rest of our Swine ’09 Break.