Wadi Hitan

Hello again,














So in my last post I wrote that that this weekend I would be going on a geology field trip and although I did do that the plans got changed again. Instead of making the trip and over night adventure my professor decided that we would do it all in a single day. This new travel plan meant meeting at the old campus in Tarhir square at 5:30am and return to Cairo around 11pm. With that all in mind, on Wednesday I came up with a plan. For those of you who know me, you know I am not a morning person and I am not friends with Mr. 5am. So, I decided that since I was done with classes at noon on Thursday I would take the 1pm bus back to campus, take a nap,(which gloriously lasted 5 hours) then do homework through the night and just not go to bed. That way I would have made up for not sleeping the day before and I would not have to get up at 4:30am to make it to the bus on time. I thought it was brilliant. It worked out mostly, but I was pretty exhausted when I finally went to bed last night.


Thursday evening was a little bit of failed execution on my part. After I got up from my wonderful nap I went to Harrys pub in the Marriot hotel with Erin and Katie for a little bit of Saint Patricks day fun. They had a live Irish band playing and while they only played one Irish song (and only because of a request) their music was really good. It was interesting to note that first we where about the only people in there under 35 and second it was and Irish band, in an Irish pub, playing American music, to am American crowd, with all Egyptian workers, in Egypt. It was an elixure of culture.


We came back to the Residence hall a little after 1am. Katie decided to head to bed and Erin stayed down in the lobby with me for a little bit. She was picking rooms and since we are 7 hours ahead now that mean late for us. She left about an hour later which left me chilling alone in the study lounge. I ended talking to my dad on skype for an hour or so which helped the time go by a lot faster. All in all, the goal to get homework done and study for midterms did not happen. That just means that today I really need to be on the ball.


The field trip itself was...long. We went to a desert camp site near Fayoum next to a man made lake and then went off to Wadi Al-Hitan, The Vally of the Whales. (The lake is fed by underground aquifers which in turn are fed by the Nile) It is a large expanse for desert with fossilized whales. What makes it impressive is the number and concentration of them and the species of whales that are present. There are over 100 whale fossils known/uncovered and they are continuously finding new ones. It is thought that the area may have at one point been a shallow inlet bay and when the whales did for what ever reason the winds and currents blew their corpses to the area and they accumulated over thousands of years.



This link is the Egypt Tourist link of you want more details about the area then I am going to give you. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/valleyofwhales.htm



Another important note is that the species of whales found, such as Basilosaurus, provide the evolutionary link between mammals on land and those at sea. In some of the skeletons you can see their stubby little arms such as in the photo to the left. I really recommend the link if you didn't do so already.


After a lot of walking around the area looking at dried up dead things we had some time to just chill and hang out. Since the protected area was the Vally basin, myself and a couple other students decide to climb the sandstone deposits and get a better view. In short, it was awesome. Yes the whales where cool but the geology and topography of the area was what impressed me. Once we finally reached the top of the Plataea the view was amazing. (the wind was impressive too) For as far as you could see in every direction it was just an arid waste land full of nothing. Sand dunes and limestone/sandstone pillars and mounds scattered about everywhere.




I was amazed by it and how cool it was. I was talking with one of the Egyptians about it and he explained to me that he and all of the other Egyptians hate the desert and that he did not understand why I thought it was so neat. As he said it, "Fuck the Desert because it was hot and dry and sand blows in your eyes." I proceeded to ask if he had ever seen snow before. He said no so I asked if he would want to come to Minnesota and spend a day out in a field walking around the snow drifts. He actually said "Yes that would be so cool." I said no, fuck snow, its cold and its wet and also blows in your eyes. He then understood my point.

We boarded the bus and started heading back to Cairo. May note that the trip took 5 hours both ways. It only took 3 hours to get to Fayoum and from Fayoum its only another 30 kilometers but we where driving a couch bus on a "road" designed for large SUV desert going vehicles. Kudos to the driver though.


I will be posting more pictures of the trip to my facebook group page and am still trying to get the videos posted, sorry about that.

Going to the Mall

Hello again, I do not have a lot to write about in this post. About the most exciting thing I have done recently is going to the Mall. That sounds pretty bland at surface level and for those of you who know me you know that I am not a mall person however this mall is special. The trip today took several hours (although I was enformed it was "quick") because I had the privilage to go to the largest mall in all of Africa or the Middle East. Yes, I went to City Stars in Cairo (in Nasr city) and actualy had a pretty good time. The mall is enormous, while it takes up less space physical space than the mall of america it actually contains more stores.

From Wikipedia:

"City Stars consists of:[1]
Three international hotels that provide over 1,500 rooms and suites.
Shopping and entertainment centre.
Medical centre.
Residential Towers; offering 266 apartments, duplexes and penthouses.
Office Towers; offering 70,000 m2 of office space.
An International Exhibition Centre (20,000 m2).[2] "

(The pictures are off wikipedia too because I forgot to bring my camera with)

It was a lot of fun to go and see the mall not so much because of the mall itself but because of what it really represents on plateform for Cairo and for Egypt. There are so many areas of Cairo that are bum broken crap holes and places that are labeled as "nice" or "upscale" that it really speaks to the modernization that Cairo and Egypt is trying to attain to continue to be competitive with the western world. Now obviously this also opens the door for questions like "should'nt they work on development in the broken down areas before they build super malls thing" but I am hoping not to get into that. I just throught that it was a really cool mall with tons and tons of stuff.

So for now that is about all I have. This coming weekend I have a geology field trip out into the desert somewhere so be looking forward to a new blog and more photos. I also have some more videos to post but I have not been able to get them uploaded yet, but I will keep trying.

surgeon general warning: This may be hazardous to your health

One of the things that I really love about Cairo is the beauty of everything. Sure a majority of the buildings are falling apart and the word maintenance really does mean that much here whether you apply it to buildings, sidewalks or vehicles; yet everything here is full of character. The walls may not all be strait but they have their own life, it makes for a lot more uniqueness in everything. It also helps me to really realize the luxuries that we so often take for granted back home. I find myself extremely excited when I go to dinner and they serve you water and don't charge you for it or even more so that when you order it at a place that does charge they actually give you an option for which size you want as opposed to just giving you the most expensive one on the menu. I find myself thankful that now having been here and getting to know places with friends and those places getting to know us that they no longer give us a "white" tax with our meal. (Cairo sunset below)



However to get back to the first point, what I find most beautiful here is the sunset; which even that as with everything else here you have to take with a grain of salt. The sunset here is incredible and practically everyday. My favorite place on earth to watch the sun go down is atop Brockway mountain in Copper Harbor Michigan yet dusk here gives Copper Harbor a good run for its money. Copper Harbor is wonderful especially in Autumn because the sun drops all the way down until it is swallowed by the lake and the brilliant colors seem to ping pong off of the lake, the clouds and the ever changing leaves on the trees covering the rolling landscape for miles.



Cairo's sunset on the other hand has the most brilliant and rich colors of red yellow and orange I have ever seen. They ricochet of the windows of several million cars and the rubble of so many deteriorating buildings. It really is its own kind of beauty and takes its own form of appreciation. Where the grain of salt comes in is that here in Cairo the sun literally sets before it actually hits the horizon. Why? Not due to buildings, its due to smog. The smog and pollution here is so bad that it actually blocks out the light of the sun before it hits the horizon. However the CO2 paste in the air does lend its hand to colors that would make some of the great artists of the world cry.


(Somg at right)
In addition to making those great artists cry it would also drastically increase their potential for lung cancer. I have heard several people mention different statistics so don't quote me on the following but I have more or less extrapolated that living here in Cairo for a year is roughly the same as smoking a pack a day for about two years. No matter where you go in the city you are always breathing second hand smoke. 99.9 percent of the locals here smoke and they do so a lot. They are like walking chimneys. That has been one of the hardest aspects to adapt to.



On the health note, in my last blog post I wrote that I got sick and had suspected the water. While I have so far avoided the water on tap since then, unfortunately I was the victim of some very unpleasant sickness again this morning. Last time it caused me to miss a class but this time it caused me to miss my camping trip out into the black and white desert this weekend. I am pretty bumbed about that because I was really looking forward to it. I hope that at some point down the road I will be able to get out there though.



Although I did miss out on the desert this weekend, today Katie, Sheehan and I decided to head on over to the Cairo museum. The Museum itself is a pretty neat building and the stuff is pretty cool however it is not exactly organized very well and a lot of displays are not labeled well...if at all. I did enjoy it though. There really are some impressive displays of large stone works and lots of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

The three of us and a couple other people capped of the evening with dinner at an Indian food place a couple blocks from the dorm. The food was really good but I still find myself fishing for the cheapest options on menus here even with the wonderful exchange rate. I come some kind of rice, almond and raisin dish for an expensive by my standards 20 pounds. Honestly that actually is the higher end of an average meal when it comes to price but realistically when you convert it to dollars it cost me about $3.80. I feel like I am spending way to much money when I put down 50 pounds or more a day between food, taxis and buying things at the store but I constantly have to remind myself that all in all everything here is cheaper. I have a feeling its going to be hard when I return home. I am going to go to the store and see something listed for 10 dollars and say to myself, "yea right, I wouldn't pay 10 pounds for that." All the while keeping in mind that the dollars is worth over five times as much as a pound. My degree of value has changed a little bit and it is going to be a rough struggle to change it back. Until that time I just keep reminding myself that I can two full meals a day and groceries for less then 10 usd a day, and I love it.

(I did not take the pictures of the sunsets, I got them offof google images because I dont actualyl have any pictures of it yet but I thought the pictures of it would be a nice aid.)

when it rains it pours

On Feb 25th something happened here in Cairo that is typically very rare and it happened to a degree that is unheard of. Firstly it rained, a lot. Granted I did fly here from the arctic of Minnesota so it has been a little while since I had seen rain but even to that it had been awhile sine I had seen rain as hard as it poured here. Now I am sure some of you are thinking that perhaps it rained but did it last? The answer is yes. In fact, it lasted pretty much all day. It was a lot of fun to watch the mixed reactions from the Egyptians on campus during the day while it was coming down. A lot of them just stood out enjoying while others did everything they could to avoid getting wet. I guess its not very different from any ones reactions at home, just my perception of it is different. At home we get winter storms and traffic goes to hell, a little bit of the rain here and the bus took forever to get back to the dorms. A lot of the cars here simply just don't have windshield wipers and yet people would go out driving anyways. Headlights, if you feel like it.

I went to dinner with a group of people to our favorite cheep local place Alex Top during the down pour. I am pretty sure it is a family run place because the same guys are working in there all the time regardless of the time of day. The server, Tarek, explained to me that he is not a fa of the rain itself but does like that it brings more people to his place for food. Tarek does not speak English hardly at all so that explanation involved a lot of hand gestures and some fill in the blank guessing. Rain is uncommon here but it does happen, usually about twice a year. What made that evening slightly extra ordinary is that we also had hail. The hail was about the size of chick peas. It didn't last long but the locals had a pretty neat mixture of excitement and disgust for it.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there is no drainage system of any kind here so when it does rain (pour) the roads turn into rivers and the parking garages turn into lakes. It was really nice in Cairo the two days or so after the thunderstorm because all the rain cleared a ton of crap out of the air. One of my friends here was wearing a white shirt while out in the rain and when she got back into the residence hall she noticed that ever where the rain hit her shirt it left gray and dark streaks on here from all the dirt and shit the water picked up. Fun stuff, I know.

I did not personally take any pictures of any of it however I did "steal" some off of a face book group made in honor of the event that other people posted. I will post those to the photos in my face book group Phil goes to Egypt so you can get a visual image of it all.



On a different note last night was the men's hockey gold metal game between Canada and the United States. It took me about an hour of searching on google and a couple downloaded programs later and I was able to watch it live on my laptop. It...was...awesome. I love hockey and that game did not disappoint. The game was really intense and very fast paced. I was amazed at how fast paced the game was. It really took it to a new level, the way the Olympic final should be. Canada was up 2-1 in the final minute of the game; in most situations a golden clutch however with 27 seconds left the US rallied back and put one between the pipes to tie it up. I really wish I could express in words how worked up am i am feeling about it now some 12 hours later and after a really long night. (I explain that next) The game went into overtime sudden death and 7 min the 22 year old Canadian Crosby ended his 3 game slump with a light flick of the puck and hung gold around Canada to cap of the Olympics and put down another mark for the country that has now won more gold metals in a single Olympics than any other in history. I love Hockey, I love the Olympics and I loved that game.

After the game and the metals ceremony I was pretty tired (remember the game didn't start until 10:15pm for me) so I decided to head to bed. I got ready, drank a little bit of water and lay ed down. You know how they say that you shouldn't drink the water...well mostly that is not a problem however "mostly" leaves room for sometimes it is. Long story short, I spent all night in the bathroom throwing up and didn't go to class today. I was still up when my roommate go up this morning to head to the bus to go to class. I was feeling better, mostly because I had nothing left in me, and eventually did fall asleep for about 4 or 5 hours. I am fine now, I think I just got a bug or something...who knows. At least now I have the rest of the day to chill out here and get homework done.

I love the schedule here and I am going to miss it when I come back to the states. It is Monday and I only have two days of classes let this week and then I am going camping in the black and white desert. We have classes on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays. Mondays and Thursdays I only have one class also so that is pretty cool. Tuesdays are really nice to catch up on homework or explore around Cairo. The Pyramids and Cairo Zoo where both made possible by Tuesday, my new favorite day of the week.

the good and the bad

Hello again,







I am sorry that I have let a while go bye since I wrote last but I had a stretch there where I was pretty much just going to class. I know its weird, that I spend a week and the main focus is class but I feel that it is important for everyone to know I pulled through.







This past week so far has been very bitter sweet. I will start with the awesome part. This last Saturday myself, my adventuring partner in crime Sheehan and about 28 other people headed off into the desert about 80 kilometers west of Cairo to do some sand boarding. Plainly, it was awesome. We drove a little over and hour out on the desert road and then eventually just turned off the road into the open desert and drove for about another half or so. It is mostly flat however there is a single line of dunes. They are I would guess upwards of 100 feet high and probably close to 1000 feet wide and the line of them extends as far as you can see. It took about ten minutes while our legs where still good to climb up them with boards. Once we got to the top literally there was nothing, nothing but sand in every direction for as far as you could see. We where out in the desert.

The boarding was a lot of fun and I was doing really well considering I have never tried snowboarding back home. (I think now I would like to) There was even a ledge on one of the dunes that we where able to use as a jump. I was pretty confident (or stupid) and went off of it several times. I never landed it but I got a lot of air each time and one of the guys took a video of that. (that will probably get posted to my personal fb page- not the group)





The guides we where with also provided tons of water for everyone which was really good because between the 90+ heat and the effort of climbing the dunes I drank about 7 liters of water. In addition to the water they also made lunch for everyone which was really good. There where burgers and also the things on a stick (meat vegetables and such) that for all your sakes I am not even going to try to spell. Everyone got along great with it except Sheehan because she is a vegetarian, so she just removed the chicken and I ate it. All in all it was a ton of fun but it did leave me pretty sore, very tired and a little bit behind on some homework. Totally worth it though.





On a less exciting note; I found out some bad news last night while working on Arabic homework. A friend of mine from high school, Patrick Freeberg, was killed on Friday. I didn't find out about it until kinda late and it disrupted me pretty good. Pat was a pretty cool guy. I had a small group of friends that while not super close; we hung out a lot. After high school he went into the Navy and the last I had heard was stationed at Norfolk VA. I do not yet know any details of what happened or why. I honestly had not talked with him for a long time; you lose contact with people when you go separate ways and even more so with Pat due to his long absences thanks to the US Navy. I can remember him crystal clear though, hanging out with him. I couldn't sleep last night at all so I ended up calling a friend here, someone I have gotten pretty close to and the two of us just went for a walk and talked. That helped a lot. It had been a long time since I had seen or talked to Pat but it still through me off pretty bad; we got back from the walk about 4 am and it was nearly 6 before I finally went to bed. At that, I didn't sleep much. There is already a tribute group to him on facebook with nearly 400 members. Also I do not know who made it but this video was made and posted on youtube; never forget.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcN5klu8Uzk

"Those who are dead are not dead there just living in my head." -42

Alexandria

This last weekend I traveled to the fantastic city of Alexandria on the northern mediteranean coast of Egypt. Although we really did not have enough time to really savor the flavor of the city it was a wonderful trip. We left Cairo friday morning and and about three hours on the bus we arrived in Alexandria. Our first stop was a castle fortress type thing sitting out on the end to a point that divides the harbor into two main port areas. Where the fortress is located used to be an island but there is now a manmade concection one mile long and two hundred meters wide thanks to the efforts of Alexander the Great. After spending two weeks in Cairo where just breathing here is on par to smoking a pack a day the fresh air and cool breeze coming of the gloriously beautiful mediteranean was very much enjoyed. Standing on the ancient fortress wall watching the waves crash onto the rocks, feeling the wind gusts accross my face and the incredible blues of the water made the whole situation one of those "whoa" moments. I have several awesome pictures that will be posted to the facebook group.



After a little over an hour of enjoying the fortress we left for the Roman Catabombs. Unfortunatly they did not allow cameras in so I do not have any pictures of them however they where very cool. We entered the park area and preceded to decend a spiral staircase roughly 120 feet strait down. These catacombs have been slightly frustrating to archaeologists thus far becase no bodys have been discovered inside. As it is understood the catacombs where in use for some period of time (due to non-natural wear on the floors and walls as well of remanents of fires and trash deposits) yet it is believe that although they contain many burial tombs (all empty) they where used as a hiding place. Another unique thing about them is there is a very apperent mixture and blending of the three main cultures of the time influencing that area in its design; Roman, Greek and Egyptian.

The second day we went to the Library at alexandria. It was awesome, it was very cool and the programs they run through their livrary are very cool and world renownd. We did'nt get to stay there very long but the time spent was very much enjoyed. After two weeks in cairo breathing the smog and the sand it was very refreshing to enjoy some beautiful mediteranean air.

Pyramids

Before I start writing this blog I just want to say right out that mom and dad, I didn't get mugged, ripped off, taken advantage of or into trouble. The pyramids where amazing and although it took a lot to get to them it was worth it.

The other day myself and a friend decided that we wanted to take a early afternoon trip out on our own and check out the Great Pyramids at Giza. We got out backpacks and water and I asked the front desk worker to write down in Arabic where we wanted to go on a piece of paper for the cab driver and he also gave me the desk phone number. We caught a taxi and told him we wanted to go to Giza, to the pyramids. We agreed on 30 pounds and he took us to Giza. The problem is he took us to a different part of Cairo also known as Giza. After some back and forth banter and some translating by the front desk worker we got it figured out.

This is where it gets interesting. After about ten min of driving from that point the driver started making a bunch of phone calls. We didn't think anything of it at the time. A few min after that his taxi broke down. Ironically though, there just happen to be another taxi waiting right where ours broke down and the driver took the liberty to inform the next taxi driver where we where going and what we wanted. We paid the first driver and agreed on a price with the second driver for the rest of the distance. We where in the second taxi on our way to the pyramids and although so far we had had a small problem we where feeling pretty good.

The two of us where both sitting in the back seat of the taxi. The person I was with was a female and I wanted to sit in back so I could talk to her, otherwise I would have had to sit in the front. (It is culturally not acceptable for women to sit in the front with men in the back-the taxi drivers get pissed.) The taxi pulled over and a guy waiting on a street corner quickly got in the taxi with us and the taxi took off again before we had a chance to try and ask what he was doing or who the guy was.

The guy then turned around to us and asked us who we where, what we were doing and where we where from. I asked us if we had been to the pyramids before and if we where excited to see them. At the time, it did not even occur to us that we had not even told him we where going to the pyramids. He was talking to us about how to go about seeing them, as in what gate to use and such to avoid excess fines. All in all he was very nice, and seemed genuine. We got with in visual range of the pyramids and that was pretty cool to see them at first out the window but they where mostly blocked by buildings. The taxi drove around some buildings and then went up a really sketchy looking ally and along some stables for awhile and took us to stable where a guy was standing outside waiting for us. They had us get out of the taxi and while the driver waited outside they took us into a room, sat us down and explained several different viewing options that involved paying them a lot of money. We knew that a ticket in was 60 pounds (30 for students) but they where telling us that that was for each thing if you walked in. That we would have to pay 150 pounds at least and we would keep getting stopped and asked for our tickets. They where very persistent and very aggressive towards us. At one point they agreed to tell us the prices if we got on their camels. We where talking to each other also and decided we where not going to give them any money until they provided us with a legit looking ticked which they failed to do; so I got a free camel ride. (it was really short, but still) We just walked away even though they where yelling and screaming at us and we eventually found the main gate. (the entire area is surrounded by a 10 concrete wall with a 10 foot chain link fence on it) We got out tickets for 30 pounds instead of the 150-300 pounds the schemers where trying to sell them to us for and we walked right in. We went all around the Sphinx, the pyramids as well as some ruins around them.

There are tourists everywhere, tourist police everywhere, and guys riding camels everywhere. They vendors are very aggressive and pushy. One guy took my camera and took some pretty cool pictures of me using angles and I was going to tip him 5 pounds for it but he demanded 50 pounds. As we walked around the Sphinx and the grand tomb entrance he continued to follow me, push me and grab me demanding 50 pounds. He even went up to the tourist police at one point trying to scare me into giving him the money. We where followed by creepy guys on camels all over trying to give us "Egyptian" prices to ride their camels and they would follow you around also. I have a bunch of pictures to post as well as a video. At the end of the video you can actually hear Sheehan telling a guy on a camel who came up behind me while I was making the video that we didn't want to ride it. That conversation is in Arabic, mostly its us just telling him no.

The pyramids themselves where very cool. I was able to walk right up to them and touch them. Standing there touching something that is so old, Carries so much history was really awesome. I was more or less standing beside myself.

We left the pyramid area and decided to walk a few kilometers down the road so we wouldn't get charged 400% percent for the taxi ride back. When you hear about people saying that the locals there rip off and take advantage of the tourists, its and understatement. We where going down the road and it became apparent after awhile that we where no longer in a "tourist" area. I don't mean to insult anyone, but it became very apparent we where no longer in a "white person" area. In the ten minutes of walking the buildings had fallen apart and the road had turned to animal shit covered rubble. We where very thankful to find and hail a taxi (and a nice taxi at that) to get us back to the inner city. We ended up going back to Giza but this time it was intentional. We met up with another friend of mine here and walked around for awhile, went to a juice bar and really appreciated the quality of Giza and Zamalek. We got back to the dorms with a bunch of pictures, the ability to say we have been to the pyramids, an acceptable amount of money spent and a huge cultural experience. Although it was about the most cliche trip to take while I am here, so far it has been the most interested and culturally shocking so far.

If you have any questions or comments write them on my face book group wall. I will post the pictures and the video of this as soon as I can. I also have pictures to post of the Citadel, Azhar park and some other stuff. I am sorry I am behind on the pictures, the Internet here sucks pretty bad.