4-0

For those of you that are not aware Egypt is currently playing in the African Cup of Nations. It is similar to the World Cup except just countries of Africa. The Egyptian football team (soccer for you Americans) destroyed Algeria last night in the semi-final match to win 4 to 0. This city went crazy. The love for football here is unlike anything I have ever seen. That passion mixed in with a total disregard or enforcement of traffic laws made last nights win and the hours that followed very exciting. Riots would be the wring term to use because there was no violence, yet it is the only word I can think of to describe it. It is as if the entire city poured out into the streets along with their Egypt gear and flags. Nearly every taxi has an Egyptian flag mounted on it and hundreds of individuals where hanging out of windows waving flags and cheering as if to let all of Africa know that Egypt had won. Eventually the honking and the hollering had stopped but the city is only recharging until the finals with Ghana. If Egypt wins they will become the first county to win the cup 3 times in a row. I have a couple pictures of everything and I make a couple videos.





Today I got up and went to breakfast with a friend here at a place called Cafe Noir. It is about 3 blocks of the Res hall and is more along the tourist lines of places here on the Island. We both got a bottle of water and a full breakfast for a total of 40LE. Long story short is it cost us both a little less then 4 dollars. It is odd getting wrapping my head around the idea that I can spend upwards of 40 pounds on a single meal and understanding its only about 5 dollars worth. I still have the "its 40" thing stuck in my head. One this that is different here is that although they do have a form of currency that divides the pound into 100, similar to cents in American currency, they are hardly used so almost everyplace gives you change rounded to the lowest pound. That part kind of bugs me but I feel bad wanting my 34 piastres (.34 of 1 pound) when I think about it and realize its only like 3 cents.



Two days later...



Citadel and azhar park

We took a trip to the Citadel in Cairo yesterday. More or less is the site was two large mosques (one of the the White Mosque from your Cairo travel guide books) and a fortress wall. It was pretty cool to see the epic scale of architecture and the "view" of the city. It would have been an awesome view but the smog was so bad that day we really couldn't see very far. I posted a video of it to give a better idea of how bad the visibility actually was. It may actually make you at home want to hold your breath. (sorry mom) After the Citadel we went to Azhar park and enjoyed a little over an hour there. It is a very large open green area with a man made pond/lake and a bunch of fountains. We hung out, ate felafell and some of us got ice cream for two pounds from a cart vendor.

cup finals

Last night was the finals of the African cup of nations and Egypt beat Ghana 1-0. This city went crazy. If it was not enough that Egypt defended their title from last year, they have not established a winning streak as this was the third year in a row they have won the cup and therefore will permanently keep it. (A new cup will be made) The streets where packed and there was rioting and celebrating everywhere. Again constant horns until 3am and flags everywhere. I have never seen any group of people express such a passion for something as the Egyptians do for their football.



classes and what I am taking

I got my class schedule set and as of right now I am in alng 111 accelerated Arabic, anthro 247 making of the modern Arab world and peng 301 petroleum geology and exploration. Mondays and Thursdays I only have Arabic but Sundays and Wednesdays I start at 8:30 (which means catching the 7am bus) and I finish as 3:15. For a my full class schedule go to my schedule link on my face book page.

any questions or comments post them on the face book group "phil goes to Egypt" wall. I will try to get more pictures up tomorrow.