My schedule

I will post more fun stuff after this, but for now, look at my schedule and drown in the jealousy that is me taking three Egyptology classes...
Introduction to Colloquial Arabic
Art and Archaeology of Cairo
History II: the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom
The Cultural Geography of Ancient Egypt
Temples of the Ptolemaic Pyramid

Jealous yet? Oh you should be... because I get to go on field trips and my advisor loves me. Unlike the 75% of the people that she makes cry, I was in, out and had a prettified slip of white paper in front of me courtesy of the American University in Cairo.

On to other more amusing things that I have been up to, my past two days have been filled with island exploration. This is in no way meant to sound exotic--no I haven't fled Egypt yet for the Greek Isles. While I did fly over them on the plane and definitely want to visit at some point based on the pretty blueness of the water, there must be pyramids before ionic columns. The islands I have been exploring are two islands in the middle of the Nile called Zamalek and Geziret el Roda. I live about 4 blocks from the Nile at a point between the two islands, in an area called Garden City. Garden City is the home of the American, British, Canadian, and Italian Embassies, so if there is any running for embassies, I am in close range with lots of big trees and crumbling fences in the way to hide me. In fact, crumbling is a major theme of Cairo--the buildings, the sidewalks, the bridges, the boats, the stray cats and dogs and a variety of other animate and inanimate objects that probably shouldn't be crumbling. It's a beautiful city with the remnants of varied and eclectic architecture of Islamic, Oriental, and European styles. I guess I'll talk more about that when I start classes on February 4th and get to take my fun Cairo field trips. Eventually, I'll also get my pictures posted online, but that will only happen when I get my appropriate RAW converters so I can post them online and appease all of those demanding evidence that I am here and alive.
Still on the theme of crumbling, though not a politically corrent observation, I have experienced and witnessed an interested hypocracy of gendered issues. In modern Cairo, the vast majority (well over 90%) of the women are veiled, a dramatic increase from the norm of even 5-10 years ago. However, as the call to prayer rings out five times each day from the minarets and loudspeakers of the city, very few women or men are praying, but are instead walking, talking, conducting business, and otherwise carrying on without regard to this brief "interruption". A traditional sign of piety, the veil is clearly not worn only by the pious and instead is a social obligation and pressure. Not only does this create a hypocracy in that the men are not required to show a similar modesty and piety, but in that it makes life for difficult for non-veiled women such as most westerners. Men from 8-80 years old feel they have the right to harass women (actually all women, though the emphasis is on non-veiled women) with simple comments ranging from "hello" or "welcome to Egypt" to following a woman down the street demanding her name, place of origin, calling her a "yankee" (my personal favorite), or asking her "how much?". While I understand that the general perception of western women is taht we are collectively promiscious and easy, but my new roommate Kari stated it best: "Oh yes, he found my weakness... when someone says "hello" to me, I get so turned on my pants start unbuttoning themselves. But really, this is just pathetic." Realistically, forget easy... we're not that gullible and we're all wearing way too much clothing to act in a loose manner.
An additional and unfortunate paradox of this behavior is that it creates a barrier between the women who are veiled and those who are not. That women walks in, hair gloriously shining in an obvious seductive manner and it isn't a matter just of propriety, but a personal threat against other women as she is "consciously seducing" the men around her.
The entire matter is very reminiscent of "My Short Skirt" from the Vagina Monologues--my clothing isn't an excuse for your lack of respect for women and moral conscience.

in Cairo

First allow me to explain the title of my blog. Ma'at is the Egyptian goddess of order and balance and justice; more of a concept than a goddess. but that is my goal for the semester. Plus, it's one of Ramses II's dozens of titles--
So here I am, after my first full day in Cairo. It has, as my school would say, an interesting introduction to "the land of the pharoahs". Nevermind that we managed to spend 20 minutes today harassing our academic advisor about the mockery they are making of themselves by saying that...
Yesterday, I arrived on Lufthansa after a relatively uneventful flight from JFK to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Cairo. Shan nearlly had a large-scale panic attack while on the plane, but we gave her chocolate and managed to survive plane travels, despite her utter terror and fear of planes...
Then just before landing, the plane made a 360 degree turn to approach Cairo International Airport from the south--as the left wing dipped down and the sun glinted off the wing into my eyes, I saw that site. Or, should I rephrase, those three sites. Sitting surrounded by urban sprawl on three sides was the Giza plateau and the three pyramids. For the first and only time, I tears welled into my eyes and I realized, before landing, that "this is it"!!! Cairo is worth it, if only for this reason. Later on, I would work hard to remind myself of this fact! They're huge and golden-brown, and even from 5000 feet they were the most impressive man-made structure I have ever seen from a plane.
And then we arrived in Cairo. Arrived in style, one might say... no customs emergencies (since they let all the AUC students go through the special "we don't check your luggage but we will check out your backsides" line). Shan got a marriage proposal, I just got all my luggage, and everyone got into a van with relative ease. We saw the scrawniest little dogs I have ever seen in the eternally long wait for the driver to have him smoking break--finally onboard and en route to Cairo itself, we were handed a manila envelope with a letter and a key... a key to apartment 18 at 24 Hussein Hegazi street, Garaden City, Cairo. A key that you, apparently have to force into turning 4.5 times and kick-box open. So, failing to realize this detail and with several bruised fingers, we found the doorman, he failed to open it, we used a random strangers mobile phone, it wouldn't let us call the phone number on the letter, and we finally we were wandering in front of the apartment building when the "Garden City apartment manager" miraculously appeared. Then disappeared for a couple hours, leaving us with an apartment, but no working phone, no idea how the heat works, a sketch elevator, a somewhat dirty bathroon, and no directions or room contracts. He reappeared for a matter of nanoseconds, enough to see his backside go down the stairs, before leaving for the evening again. (That orientation we were supposed to get didn't so much happen...) Anyhow, later that night we got a new roommate, Kari, who had lost her luggage in New York, and we all officially decided that we are going to create a reality tv program showcasing exactly what can happen to you if you go abroad.
So it's the end of day 2 and I can find campus, a fabulous bakery, the nearest coffee shop, the next 4 nearest coffee shops, the Radio Shack, a place to exchange travelers checks, a couple of great food stands, and I am suffering from mineral deficit due to lack of vegetable intake. Let's just hope this salad I am eating doesn't leave me on the floor.
I have two new roommates today, both of whom seem very nice, and Shannon and I cleaned the floor and de-cided the freezer, which had enough ice buildup to create an ingloo for one of the many mangy cats wandering the alleys and fire escapes of our apartment complex.
So, inshallah, the tour, etc. wil go well tomorrow, I won't get sick, and much love to all of you back home.