Day 4

Ahhh I loved today. We (Dina, her sister Sarah and me) woke up super early and caught the train to Alexandria. Alex (as the locals call it) has been in the news a lot lately because a few weeks ago a university student was sitting in a coffee shop writing a blog thatwas very critical of the Egyptian government. Armed police officers stormed the shop and beat the guy to death. So for the past few weeks therehave been massive protests in Alex by the train station. Fortunately that had all cleared up by the time we got there. Though Egypt is a fairly modern city they still do have to worry about possible consequences of political dissonance especially if it is published. Anyways, I digress. Alexandria is a city on the northern coast of Egypt that was started by Alexander the Great. At one point Cleopatra alsotook residence there. The train has 3 classes, 1^st, 2^ndand 3^rd and we were in 1^st. Obviously. Hahaha. The cars are nice; the seats are much like airplane seats, very comfy and they go back. 2^nd class has more like bus seats and3^rd is just benches. The trip is a little over 4 hours through the Egyptian countryside. We went through lots of small towns and fields all along a tributary of the Nile.

Each town, no matter how small or rundown, has a beautiful mosque with a towering minaret. At one point I saw them constructing a mosque using only horses to pull the materials. The orchards and stables are all handmade out of sticks tied together to make small shelters and I didn’t see one piece of farm equipment. There were people trapping fish in the Nile barefoot with nets and women carrying towering baskets of who knows what on their heads for who knows how far. It was very surreal in that it is exactly what I picture when I imagine sub Saharan Africa. Interesting side note, many Egyptians do not consider Egypt tobe in Africa. Alexandria is the northernmost city in Egypt and is on the Mediterranean. Alexander the Great built it to resemble the cities of the Greco-Roman Empire and so the city feels much more Mediterranean that African. The food is also much more similar to the Mediterranean and there is a Greco-Roman Museum and remains of a Greco-Roman stadium thing. We first went to a restaurant on the coast for coffee (all coffee in Egypt in Turkish. super charged.) The inside was beautiful – very ornate decorated in red and gold with dark wood tables and chairs. It reminded me of something you might see in the 1920s. The whole coast actually feels that way. Back in the 1920s the city was full of Europeans and you were more likely to hear Frenchor Spanish spoken in the streets than Arabic. Once the Europeans moved on the city stayed very modern – western dress and liberal thinkers. Many greatEgyptian writers and intellectuals livedand/or worked in Alexandria. Recently however, as in the rest of Egypt,the ideology has become much more Islamic and conservative. Now many women in the street arewearing Buras, some even in Galibayas (the long black robes with black head and face coverings.) As few as 20 yrs ago it was not so common to see this type of dress anywhere in Egypt. OK, sorry, that’s the history teacher in me. So after coffee we walked around for a while and then headed to the Alexandria National Museum. All historic sites in Egypt are discounted for Egyptians, so for Dina and Sarah it was 10 pounds to get in and for me it was 20. Pretty awesome concept though it kind of blows for me. heh. We always end up paying all together and splitting it 3 ways though so I can’t complain. The museum was perfect – one of everything instead of 40 different statues of the same thing, arranged well so that you can see it all and get through quickly. I love museums in theory but damn do I get bored. There was a room of artifacts that were found by fisherman and divers in the Mediterranean – everything from small figurines to giant parts of statues. Much was Greco-Roman.

There was a sketchy security guy who followed us EVERYWHERE. Egypt likes to remind you who’s in charge. Seriously. They do. The basement housed 2 tombs each with 3 sarcophagi and mummies still inside. Holy heeby jeebys. There were also 2 cannopic jars – the jars they put the brains and organs in. Awesome. After the museum we went to lunch at a seafood place on the coast. Alexandria is known for its amazing seafood, which is prepared ina very Mediterranean style. You first handpick your fish and they then prepare it and bring it to you. We chose some prawns (GIGANTIC shrimp) and Burundi. As you wait for the fish they bring you “salad” which really means like 10 different small plates of sauces and differently prepared vegetables. AMAZING. The fish were fried and served whole which was a bitdisheartening, but hey, when in Rome. Holy balls I swear to god it was the best fish ever. Sorry Florida, Alex got you beat!

After lunch we headed to the Library at Alexandria, a pretty famous spot. So famous that you have to pay to get in. The original library housed thousands of years of Egyptian literary history but waay back in the day it was burned by the Christians or Jews or pirates. Depends on whom you ask. It’s still very impressive. The architecture is unlike anything I have seen and thereare a lot of…books. I mean honestly, it’s just a big library. But you can’t come to Alexandria and not go to it.

After the library we caught the train back to Cairo. Once back we headed to Sarah’s boyfriend Hassan’s house for a surprise birthday party for Sarah. On the way we drove through an area called the City of the Dead, which is where many of the modern day cemeteries and tombs are. The people who tend to the cemeteries all live in this walled area. How creepy. Literally there are small houses between tombs and cemeteries. It is a whole community of people that just live in a giant gravesite. SOOOOO creepy. But then again I guess the Egyptians have never really had too many qualms with being around the dead, right?! At the party there were about 15 people including Hassan’s parents. There was amazing food of course and they spoke as much English as possible so I didn’t feel too left out. It was a very humbling experience to have them make such a point of including me. It’s something that would never happen in the U.S. since we don’t speak any other languages for the most part, but they all speak Arabic, some French and English. After all Sarah’s friends left it was me, Dina, Sarah, Hassan and his parents and we stayed and talked with them for awhile. They were so gracious and fun to be around. We talked a lot about politics (shocking I know). At one point his dad asked me how we teach about Columbus and the Native Americans in American high school. It was almost embarrassing to tell him about the hypocrisy and outright lies we use to justify the annihilation of the people who rightfully belong on the land we call home. It was also interesting (albeit not surprising) to find out that he knew more about the Native Americans than I think most Americans do. He told me I did not belong to the United States but rather to the world. Ahhhhhhhhh what a relief. They spent awhile trying to convince me to move to Cairo because they feel I “belong here” which was so so flattering. Teaching jobs here pay well and in U.S. dollars and many are tax-free. They are looking for American teachers since they speak mostly English in the classrooms and I must admit, I am more than tempted. Cairo has a really great vibe to it and I love the culture and history that it embodies. It was a great but loooooong day. We left the house around 8am and didn’t get back until about 2:30am. Yeesh. So I am off to bed. The Internet has been a little dicey so hopefully I will be able to post tomorrow but no promises….