First off, there will most likely be a couple more posts coming over the next few days. There's more that I want to cover about my experiences in Cairo that I haven't gotten to yet. I had meant to take care of them last week, but oh well. We'll start with the last night in Cairo...
Actually we'll start a little earlier than that. My last exam and paper were due Monday, May 25th. I didn't have to stay up terrible late to get them taken care of, so that was nice compared to the previous week where between four papers, an exam, and seeing people off I had to pull a couple all-nighters. The building's on AUC's campus are mazes, and the winding stairways, random lookouts, and split-level floors reminded my of an M.C. Escher sketch. Almost all have some complex network of halls and corridors that eventually lead to roof accesses with great views of the campus. You can spot these from the ground while walking about campus, and the gazeebo type structures on the roofs cleary indicate that they were meant to be used, but finding your way up there can be difficult. One of my friends did however know how to get to the roof of the adminstration building, and from here three of us on the last day of exams on the New Campus enjoyed Stellas and looked over the campus we had called ours for the past four months. In fact, many of us hated our experiences on this campus. We all had our reasons: for some it was dealing with the ridiculous bureaucracy, or the biases of teachers, snobby students, or maybe just the long bus rides to and from campus, among other reasons. But its strange how knowing that you will never see a place again encourages you to forget the negatives and look on the place with a sense of sentimentality.
We had a nice little party the night before Sara and Ed left, although I forget exactly which day that was. It was at Mikey and Ben's apartment in Metro Towers, the giant apartment complex above the Metro Mart grocery store which I had probably been to at least once ever single day either to buy food or pull money from the ATM. The place had a wonderful view from the roof which was especially nice at night. Unfortunately I never brought my camera up there and have no pictures. The next night we met Mikey at the apartment to help him carry all of his stuff down to meet the cab. He was insistent that he leave the same way the show "Cheers" finally ended; that is, by giving the place one last hard look, turning off the lights, and closing the door for good. And then everyone fought over who got to hit the tweeting door-bell the last time.
But before Mikey left, we managed to play our first and only round of golf in Egypt. We made a tee-time at the Hilton Hotel and Dreamland Golf Resort in October City at 11 on what must have been Saturday morning. Of course, we followed the usual script when taking a cab some place we'd never been before. This always involves some poor cabbie agreeing to take you to (insert name of place) even though he has no idea where it is. He gets to the general area, follows ten sets of conflicting directions from various police officers, fellow taxi drivers, and haggs on the street, before finally finding someone who isn't merely pretending to have heard of the place, gives accurate directions, and then thirty minutes after this final set of directions you arrive. Arriving isn't always easy either because you just kind of have to assume "well this must be the place" when you pull up.
Anyway, we made it the golf course and greens fees, renting clubs, and buying balls was cheap as dirt considering we were playing on lush green fairways, at the Hilton, in the middle of the desert. We also decided to have a little fun by putting on galabiyyas and kufiyyas after we got off the first hole. Once during our nine hole round the course marshal even pulled up to us while Mikey was hitting out of the fairway thining we were Arab from a distance. I did look the part of a Saudi oil barron if I do say so myself, with my clean white galabiyya and red and white kufiyya, so I can understand his confusion. The round naturally ended at the 19th hole, where we struck it up with the bartender. We told him we were the guys out there wearing the Arab clothes and he got a good kick out of hit. He had seen us coming in since the bar's panoramic windows overlooked the 9th hole's approach to the green and he had thought that some of the groundskeepers had taken a break to play a few holes! We discussed America for a bit too and he professed his love for the culture. He liked rap and mentioned that Akon was one of his favorite artists. He also showed us a picture of his Russian girlfriend on his camera phone.
So this all happened over the weekend and by Monday I was completely finished with school. I made a trip down to campus the next day to turn in all my library books, clearing all debts to the university and allowing me to get my transcript sent to ND. Unfortunately I forgot one book and had to make the hour and half bustrip to and from school the next day, but finally all paperwork was finished and I would never be back to AUC again. At least not in the foreseeable future. At this point Julia and Jessie had left. The only remainging people were Spencer, Jim Genovese, and Ali. Taz and Michele weren't leaving until Friday, but they were in Luxor for the week. Chris was leaving with me on Saturday (the only other person of the eight from Notre Dame who did, for whatever reason, move his flight up from the Saturday May 30 flight given to us by Anthony Travel) but he was spending the week in Spain visiting some friends. Although I knew I was finishing my exams well before my flight, I had no intentions of getting the flight bumped up a couple days. I had planned on taking full advantage of a whole week with nothing to do but explore Cairo, and that's exactly what I did.
Spencer and I made a trip to Khan al-Khalili on Tuesday. It was his last I believe. He had a few items to pick up still, including a galabiyya, and I just wanted to go check on my taola (backgammon) boards. Before this day I had only ever cabbed to the Khan, but we took a route I had never taken before. We decided to take a cab to the nearest metro station, Opera, and then take the metro to Attba station. From Attba it was a twenty minute walk to the Khan. Partly I wanted to save money (a cab straight there costs 15LE, but the cab to the metro plus the metro ticket only costs 6LE) but I also wanted to do more walking in the city before I left. I find it to be a much better experience to see something on foot than by car. You are in it rather than passing through it.
After much searching, harrassment from ignored vendors, and of course bargaining, Spencer found his galabiyya. He felt he had paid way to much for it, which was probably true, but he did not pay nearly as much as I had for mine. Mark and I in Luxor, for whatever reason, decided to buy cusom-tailored galabiyyas made from the Egyptian cotton of our choosing from a tailor operating right next to the Winer Palace. Spencer's Galabiyya turned out to be pretty nice, and the more he looked at it the more he liked it. I visited Ahmed, the guy who owns the wood-working shop, and he told me the boards would be ready ba'da bookra, after tomorrow.
And now for some pictures!
Me and my Stella, from the roof of the Administration Building
View from the roof of the Admin Building
Jim, happpy to be leaving AUC for the last time ever.
The last night at Cafeteria Huria
Mark and Julia at Huria
Ed and Sara at Huria
And me
Walking from Attba to the Khan
In the Khan
Actually we'll start a little earlier than that. My last exam and paper were due Monday, May 25th. I didn't have to stay up terrible late to get them taken care of, so that was nice compared to the previous week where between four papers, an exam, and seeing people off I had to pull a couple all-nighters. The building's on AUC's campus are mazes, and the winding stairways, random lookouts, and split-level floors reminded my of an M.C. Escher sketch. Almost all have some complex network of halls and corridors that eventually lead to roof accesses with great views of the campus. You can spot these from the ground while walking about campus, and the gazeebo type structures on the roofs cleary indicate that they were meant to be used, but finding your way up there can be difficult. One of my friends did however know how to get to the roof of the adminstration building, and from here three of us on the last day of exams on the New Campus enjoyed Stellas and looked over the campus we had called ours for the past four months. In fact, many of us hated our experiences on this campus. We all had our reasons: for some it was dealing with the ridiculous bureaucracy, or the biases of teachers, snobby students, or maybe just the long bus rides to and from campus, among other reasons. But its strange how knowing that you will never see a place again encourages you to forget the negatives and look on the place with a sense of sentimentality.
We had a nice little party the night before Sara and Ed left, although I forget exactly which day that was. It was at Mikey and Ben's apartment in Metro Towers, the giant apartment complex above the Metro Mart grocery store which I had probably been to at least once ever single day either to buy food or pull money from the ATM. The place had a wonderful view from the roof which was especially nice at night. Unfortunately I never brought my camera up there and have no pictures. The next night we met Mikey at the apartment to help him carry all of his stuff down to meet the cab. He was insistent that he leave the same way the show "Cheers" finally ended; that is, by giving the place one last hard look, turning off the lights, and closing the door for good. And then everyone fought over who got to hit the tweeting door-bell the last time.
But before Mikey left, we managed to play our first and only round of golf in Egypt. We made a tee-time at the Hilton Hotel and Dreamland Golf Resort in October City at 11 on what must have been Saturday morning. Of course, we followed the usual script when taking a cab some place we'd never been before. This always involves some poor cabbie agreeing to take you to (insert name of place) even though he has no idea where it is. He gets to the general area, follows ten sets of conflicting directions from various police officers, fellow taxi drivers, and haggs on the street, before finally finding someone who isn't merely pretending to have heard of the place, gives accurate directions, and then thirty minutes after this final set of directions you arrive. Arriving isn't always easy either because you just kind of have to assume "well this must be the place" when you pull up.
Anyway, we made it the golf course and greens fees, renting clubs, and buying balls was cheap as dirt considering we were playing on lush green fairways, at the Hilton, in the middle of the desert. We also decided to have a little fun by putting on galabiyyas and kufiyyas after we got off the first hole. Once during our nine hole round the course marshal even pulled up to us while Mikey was hitting out of the fairway thining we were Arab from a distance. I did look the part of a Saudi oil barron if I do say so myself, with my clean white galabiyya and red and white kufiyya, so I can understand his confusion. The round naturally ended at the 19th hole, where we struck it up with the bartender. We told him we were the guys out there wearing the Arab clothes and he got a good kick out of hit. He had seen us coming in since the bar's panoramic windows overlooked the 9th hole's approach to the green and he had thought that some of the groundskeepers had taken a break to play a few holes! We discussed America for a bit too and he professed his love for the culture. He liked rap and mentioned that Akon was one of his favorite artists. He also showed us a picture of his Russian girlfriend on his camera phone.
So this all happened over the weekend and by Monday I was completely finished with school. I made a trip down to campus the next day to turn in all my library books, clearing all debts to the university and allowing me to get my transcript sent to ND. Unfortunately I forgot one book and had to make the hour and half bustrip to and from school the next day, but finally all paperwork was finished and I would never be back to AUC again. At least not in the foreseeable future. At this point Julia and Jessie had left. The only remainging people were Spencer, Jim Genovese, and Ali. Taz and Michele weren't leaving until Friday, but they were in Luxor for the week. Chris was leaving with me on Saturday (the only other person of the eight from Notre Dame who did, for whatever reason, move his flight up from the Saturday May 30 flight given to us by Anthony Travel) but he was spending the week in Spain visiting some friends. Although I knew I was finishing my exams well before my flight, I had no intentions of getting the flight bumped up a couple days. I had planned on taking full advantage of a whole week with nothing to do but explore Cairo, and that's exactly what I did.
Spencer and I made a trip to Khan al-Khalili on Tuesday. It was his last I believe. He had a few items to pick up still, including a galabiyya, and I just wanted to go check on my taola (backgammon) boards. Before this day I had only ever cabbed to the Khan, but we took a route I had never taken before. We decided to take a cab to the nearest metro station, Opera, and then take the metro to Attba station. From Attba it was a twenty minute walk to the Khan. Partly I wanted to save money (a cab straight there costs 15LE, but the cab to the metro plus the metro ticket only costs 6LE) but I also wanted to do more walking in the city before I left. I find it to be a much better experience to see something on foot than by car. You are in it rather than passing through it.
After much searching, harrassment from ignored vendors, and of course bargaining, Spencer found his galabiyya. He felt he had paid way to much for it, which was probably true, but he did not pay nearly as much as I had for mine. Mark and I in Luxor, for whatever reason, decided to buy cusom-tailored galabiyyas made from the Egyptian cotton of our choosing from a tailor operating right next to the Winer Palace. Spencer's Galabiyya turned out to be pretty nice, and the more he looked at it the more he liked it. I visited Ahmed, the guy who owns the wood-working shop, and he told me the boards would be ready ba'da bookra, after tomorrow.
And now for some pictures!
Me and my Stella, from the roof of the Administration Building
View from the roof of the Admin BuildingJim, happpy to be leaving AUC for the last time ever.The last night at Cafeteria HuriaMark and Julia at HuriaEd and Sara at Huria
Mikey at our Egyptian Golf Adventure
And meIn the Khan
2 comments:
Welcome home, Paul!
Who won the battle of the tweeting doorbell? As sophisticated as your experiences have been, I could picture your group bickering like little kids over this privilege.
Your mixed feelings upon leaving Cairo make for a great post! Get it all down in the near future, before everyday life dulls the intensity of your reflections.
Not that life in St. Louis, MO isn't exciting......
Bravo to you, for embracing every moment of such an awesome semester.
Can you add some pictures? The ones from the golf course need to be shared.
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