How to handle a boyfriend's memory??

I wonder how to improve guy's memory...

One day I stayed at home wanting to write my thesis. My boyfriend left to work with his bag where I had my thesis material. I also had my medicine in his bag. (Though I did ask him to take it out of his bag before he goes...)

I called him and asked to bring my thesis material back and the medicine.

In 20min he came back home and brought my medicine, only.

!!??

Maybe if I asked for my thesis material, medicine AND computer... he would bring two things out of three. What is the statistical probability that he would choose the right two things out of the three??

the candle

Candle-making

Last week Nesreen arranged me a meeting with her sister who is an artist and makes great wooden and candle creations. I got a quick lesson how to make candles and yesterday and today I tried my very first candle made from the scratch by me.













The best part is it is actually quite easy to buy your own wax here. We were pointed to Bab Zoweilah, a market in Old Cairo, where Dody and me spent few hours looking for one candle street where we could make such purchase.













On the way home we stopped by the towers with a great view of Cairo.

things that drive me crazy

Yesterday I went with my boyfriend to Pizza Hut... before the food came I decided to go to the toilet. The toilet was occupied - one single room with toilet, sink and mirror. Mind I am usually rather patient and polite girl. Within the 10 min of waiting, the anger slowly rose in me to such level that I actually furiously knocked on the door to remind the girl inside that there are others who might want to use the toilet (I never do such things). Some more minutes later I went to the male's toilet. You might say I should have gone straight away to the other toilet but being in Egypt I wanted to be bit culturally sensitive.. but this girl obviously was not sensitive at all to my needs so who cares...

And this leads to my complete astonishment when it comes to girls in Egypt and public toilets. Few weeks ago we were in the cinema and I went to the toilet afterwards. In my country, the toilets are always full, here I found hardly anyone actually using the toilets.. yeay, I thought, how cool, no need to stay in the line. Well, to my astonishment I waited in the crowd later on when I wanted to wash my hands and could not pass through the bunch of girls (read 30 in 3 square metres area) packed around the sinks, staring into the mirrors, correcting their make-up, retying their veils... I was shocked as I had to literally PUSH through them to get to the sink.

I would never think that this is where the cultural differences lie...

I saw Bond, James Bond

and I liked it...

And I definitely was not a fan of Daniel Craig and his looks...

no, no, no, to the right... hehehe... hilarious

Where is my fool?

The peeing wall of Cairo

I know of a peeing wall in Cairo. It is the looong wall on Tahrir street.

Once i was having this nice walk to Dody's work when the smell hit me. But I wonder, nothing strange, I get to smell that quite often in Prague too. I continue walking, the sun is shining, the children are running around, huge traffic passes by, some guy is peeing behind the door of the taxi... oh, wait, that is not normal to see a guy peeing in Cairo at 1pm in the bright light... well, I think, emmergency is same in all parts of the world. So I happily continue walking, I pass the guy, turn to look as some school kids are shouting on the street, I look back on my sidewalk... to face this big white ass stuck out in my direction. I was so shocked, I froze and kept staring at it... then I started to laugh... and then I happily continued walking to Dody's office... another normal day in Cairo.

... and that is what USA is about...

I have a satelite in Egypt. For the past 14 days, I had the TV on few times... and this is what I found out...

What to do if my kids are nasty, beat me, talk back at me, ... I call Super Nanny
My adult "kids" mooch me and I want them out of the house... I ask Dr. Phill
I have not cleaned my house for four years... yuck... I call the cleaning squad
My husband is cheating on me, but still loves me... Dr.Phill, can you help again?
My three weeks old marriage is falling apart... Dr.Phill, can I win a kitchen in your show?
My overweight kids, beware... I know what you ate last summer!

What a great picture of US being shown to the world...

so what do you think Tyra...

shall we flaunt it or hide it??

Rain in Cairo

Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of water running... since the water hardly works in our appartment we get to hear wobbly dobbly sounds of water here and then, when the tank is pretending to be filled... but this time it was different and unless we were getting new supply of water from the roof, this must have been the rain!

I was happy to see the rain, as it helped the dust of Cairo streets to settle down a bit... I enjoyed watching the rain, till i realized i have clothes on the line, and some part of the clothes was under the edge of the roof, so all the dust was leaking on my freshly washed clothes... nice... at the end I got to feel the rain too, when saving the clothes.

angels... :P

Siwa trip - full of activity :o)

5 days of ...

Snorkling
Sleeping
Swimming (sort of)
Eating (a lot)
Driving a car (yeay!!)
Horseback riding
Diving
Bike riding
Shell picking
Table tennis playing
Relaxing

Dahab...

skills

my company's organizational skills...
my company organizes a trip for the 6 trainees that work there.

company responsible calls me on monday:
we are leaving at 2am in the morning on thursday... the company responsible hangs up...
Where are we leaving from I wonder?!...

I call two days later the company:
where are we leaving from? I am told from Mokkatam.

At 7pm on Wednesday, 5 hours before the trip, I call the responsible:
So, Martina, I am told, I will meet you at 2.30am (2.3o??) at Mohandseen at the Mosque (Mohandseen??? WTF) ...

When was the location changed from Mokkatam to Mohandseen? And when where you planning to tell us? I wonder how many other trainees were actually told. I definitely know 2 other people that do not know this news...

A trip to Luxor :o)

auch...

Gosh, after hearing Jana's stories about her traineeship in Alex... I believe she deserves much more than 5 days of relaxing on the beaches of Sharm...

DUMBO security service

we are here for you 24/7

we take care of your own security

we make sure your property is untouched

we watch for the security of your belongings

we are proud to be here for you at all times, good or bad

except when we eat or sleep
eaty and sleepy time is the time when we are
not responsible:
- for your security
- for your belongings
- for your property

e-mail us at: dumbo@smallelephant.com

note: we eat or sleep most of the day... our IT office was officially renamed to Eaty Office :o)

Fnuk

It is official... I have a new nickname... small elephant... fnuk fnuk...

business opportunity

Have you ever wanted to open a business in Egypt?
The desire was there, but the idea was missing??
Well, here is a great suggestion... go into a door-handle business...

I assure you that every company and every household has at least one broken handle...
You can get a backpack full of different handles and then go door to door offering handles...
if you come up with reasonable price, you are soon to be millionaire... :o)...

yep, a looong day.

Buuuuu

"You will become a small elephant in two weeks."

"You will scare everyone when you will come to work in the morning."

I pause as I stuff myself with cakes (yep, two cakes - chocolate and fruit cake); it is a farewell cake to one of my co-workers who is returning to France. I look at Omer and ask... "are you talking to me?"

"No", is the answer, "I talk to my computer screen."

"Why cant you talk to your computer screen in Arabic???"

Abu Simbel and Philae temple

Asuan

Asuan - the second day

Few hours of sleep passed and at 3am we had a wake up call. The trip was to start very early. We come down, get our breakfast box (wow :o), and three of us get to this one minibus. We get few more people along the way and I am happy there will be not many tourists at our today’s destination, which is Abu Simbel.

Yep, I admit it was a silly thought. Within 20 min we stop on a road and there are already several big buses and we are standing there and waiting for more to come. The point is simple, we will have a guarding convoy with us and thus all the buses will come to Abu Simbel at once. Thank god, this was off season. Thus we ended up only with some 20big buses and 20 minibuses. (We were told that in high season there are approx. 60 buses and during one specific day, when the sun hits the face of the Ramses statue inside of the temple, the 22nd (resp. 21) October there were 1,5mil people last year!).

We arrived past 7 at Abu Simbel, the place itself was magnificent from the very beginning. It was sunrise, there was the huge Nile with rocky banks and as if little fjords… hmm… and there were actually also several huge tourist boats with some more hundreds of tourists on it! (Fortunately they actually left the very time to go back to Aswan).

So we took the walk to Abu Simbel temples. There were two temples awaiting us. One built for Ramssese II. himself, the other one, smaller one, for his beautiful and beloved wife Nefertari, both dating to the 13th century BC. The temples should have commemorated the victory in the battle of Kadesh, and also were to impress and show the power of Ramssese to the neighbouring Nubians.

In 1964, the temples were moved from its original position to some 290km south of Aswan, as Aswan High Dam was to be build in that area, which meant the complex of the two temples would be flooded by the emerging artificial reservoir Lake Nasser.

The inside carving of the smaller temple could be view here.

A little after 9 we left Abu Simbel and drove some 3 hours back to Aswan. Our first stop was the Aswan High Dam. It is 111m high and nearly 4km long. Well, hmm… dam :o). The trip continued to Philae temple. We paid entrance, got on a boat and were brought to the island where the Philae temple is situated. In 1977, the temple has been moved from its original position on Philae Island to nearby Island of Agilika due to the Aswan High Dam which raised the waters of the Nile.

The temple was built during the 3rd century BC and was dedicated to the goddess Isis. The Vestibule of Nectanebos I served as the entrance to the Island of Philae. The original stairways leading to the vestibule were unfortunately washed away by the Nile and out of its original 14 columns only 6 remained till now. The complex further consists of the Temple of Emperor Hadrian, Temple of Hathor, Trajan’s Kiosk and other. Pilgrims from all over Mediterranean would come to Philae Island to worship the goddess of Isis.

Most of the sights built on the island date to the 26th Dynasty or the Roman Period, although they are predominantly of Roman style. The construction on the island took over 800 years. The temples were closed by Justinian in the year 550 AD after some 4000 years of worshipping of the pagan gods.

The island was incredibly colourful with all the flowers and the trees and was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. It was also one before the last stop. We ended up going to see one incomplete obelisk in Aswan. But I was not allowed to get in with my “fake” student ID. Well, your loss :P.

We arrived back to our hotel after 3pm. Later we stopped to get some food on our way back to the railway station and were on the train back to Cairo at 6pm.

Asuan - the first day

We left for Asuan on Thursday night. My bus from work was late that day by 45min, I did not pack for the trip the previous day and so coming home I had 40min to get ready. I am a slow packer, although I pack 3 t-shirts and couple of underwear. So in a way we were running late... BUT (hihi)… I discovered that there is one metro station actually 3min from our place and so we don’t have to walk 15min to Dokki station, as we always did before. Thus we were 15min “early” for the train :o).

The best part came right after, it was 8pm in the night, I did not have proper sleep the past several days (6.30am each morning is early!) and there was the sleeping train waiting for us…!!! And yes, it is the best travel on the train that i have ever had! We left on time, after 8pm and made it to Asuan the next morning past 9pm. Loooong sleep, good sleep.

By the train station we were caught by one young Nubian guy, offering us a ride in felluca (a boat), and at the end we ended up going to our hotel by boat instead of walking. Though since there was no wind, it took us over an hour to get to our hotel instead of 10 min walk. But nonetheless, the boat trip passed extremely fast and we got to enjoy the sight and slight movement of the nile river with lots of felluca passing by and big tourist boats parked (?) everywhere by the banks in double or triple rows.

After settling down at the hotel, our first trip lead to the market street of Asuan. This place is famous especially for its heaps of little shops with spices of all colours, teas and of course the usual clothes, scarfs and little statues and other silly things. I am ashamed to say that 500m of the street we have passed in over 1 hour! Surprisingly we actually shopped a lot, which is not only for me, quite unusual. :o)

Past three we met our felluca boy. He was to bring us to the numerous islands and sights that were on the Nile or on the other bank of it. Altogether we spent some 5 hours on his boat, due to no wind. Few times he and his friends had to paddle to get us somewhere. And still I was not bored, I sank my feet in the water to cool down a bit and enjoyed the light breeze, and calmness of the place.

First stop was at the Kitchner island. The UK honorary consul has established a botanical garden on this little island. I really liked that place, very nice and silent, with lots of flowers and tall palm trees. Another place to simply sit and do nothing.

Our second stop, after cruising zig zag over the nile was the right bank of the river. There is the Simeon monastery, or rather say the ruins of it, to be found. We walked for some 15min to reach the ruins, we walked around and ... well, we saw the ruins :o))... The other sight, the Mausoleum of Aga Khan was closed down recently, so except the desert, the camels and the green islands, there was nothing else to be seen.

Back on board, we headed for the Elefantine island. That is the biggest island in Asuan, has some big ruins of a temple and at the other edge there is the Nubian village. There are over 5000 people living in the village. The main activities of the Nubian people are running fellucas, farming, tourism, they actually "charge" tourists for entering and being shown around the Nubian village.

The village itself is very colourful. We saw mothers hanging out with their children, their hands busy with making plaits to the little girls, little children playing in a mud, some asking for bakshish and youth lazying around in the heat of the day. (Dody quote) We were offered to visit the Nubian house, I was offered to get my hands coloured with Hena, but we were in rush, so we skipped all this and just wandered around. The village is a cocktail of the beauties and uglies, where the colourful walls and finely painted windows danced together with the dirty abandoned mud walls. You will see turquoise, yellows, bright green, daring red lighting up the drab background of egyptian dust (Dody quote).

The visit has not lasted more than 20min, but we have still managed to miss the sunset on the Nile river...

As the boat drew back to the bank, we have passed the tombs on the west bank of the river. It was too hot and not much left to visit those.

During the night, we were sent to one local egyptian restaurant. It was supposed to be close by but we still managed to miss it and ended up at the pizza place by the railway station... hmm... great choice :o)).

Picture of the Day

Random image - neglected gnome

Frida continuation...

some more responses:

I have being following this thread for some days now and I thinks is hi-time you guys should accept the truth.And the truth is this :1.There was a trainee from Kenya who came for a Project through the platform of AIESEC at Eygpt.2.Her experience during her stay at Egypt was not what she really expected so she left unhappily, bearing a serious and personal grugde against Egypt.Well, whatever , everyone has aired his/her opinion on this issue. If she was right or not depends on her personal judgement.On the other hand, her negative personal jugdement might to the next neighbour mean something else, something positive. vice versa.Please lets say something productive for the benefit of everyone in this community.Pleaes, let there be a new thread of discussionThanks.

I have a really stupid question: Why are people not able to handle negative feedback? I think freda is making merely very reasonable factual observations (i on my part would have lashed out much more). I understand that people want to live in their happy little bubble of fun and that hearing negative things is not ideal but it does not give you cancer or make you infertile.
Especially we as AIESECers claim to be open but being open does not only mean being open for the positive things but also open to accept negative things about ones own country. and of course generalisations are not quite true (personally I think pareta 80-20 works well) but even so, if this is the impression she got is the appropriate respons not "how can me minimise this problem for the next trainee"? is arguing that she shouldn't be so negative not inappropriate?
i mean i do appreciate looking at women and all that but the way the get oggled here is partially really very inappropriate. any i have made very many negative experiences in only three weeks. some of theme were due to a greedy nature of the people in question, other where even when they were trying to help but had no clue what i wanted (e.g. send me to a random museum although i ask for the catacombs cause that is where all the other tourists go).
it is not so much that people try to overcharge you at khan al khalili, that is just business, not more. it is how they treat you at other locations and maliciously abuse that you have an inherent trust in people.
that does of course not mean that i don't really enjoy my time in egypt and that i had very man positive experiences.
i guess what i want to say is: is it really appropriate, esp for us supposingly open AIESECers, to get defensive when someone critisised our country and culture? even if a generalisation is in your opinion not appropriate think about why someone would generalise: would they do it cause they only experienced it a small number of times or because it happened over and over again. it might not be something you might have ever noticed but that is what AIESEC is all about: learning to see things through the eyes of other people. They will have other experiences and insights in your country that you will get. so if you don't like what you hear don't deny it, don't dwell on irrelevancies (i.e. it doesn't matter whether it is a problem with all people or merely with 50%, it is just as much of a problem) and put you head into the sand (as has been mentioned by someone before me) but have a think about it and try to fix it.
just my two pence on the matter

I wonder if Frida was the only one who had written some evaluation of her traineeship in Egypt? ;o)

dream come true

Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars created a floating bed that would allow you to sleep in a bed that is floating in mid air. Estimated to make you poorer by US$1,533,419... more

...magnetic field under the bed though could cause a problem to people wearing piercing :o)).

hmm :o)

My co-worker took a part on a Time management training last week run by our company. The training took two days - tuesday and wednesday. On Thursday my collegue was 36min late for our company bus... That is what I call putting training into an action ... :o)))

Another bad trainee?

A word from Frida, the Kenyan girl

It is only normal for a being to be patriotic to his country and hear positive things about it. I am a kenyan girl who came to Egypt with a lot of enthusiasm which i got my fair share.

AIESEC AAST Cairo; here goes my experience. It's probably what you want to hear or may be not.

Egypt is a lovely place; the north coast and the beaches are amazing. The pyramids are awesome, lovely jewerly, a little bit too flashy clothes, comfortable cafes and i still insist that the smell of shisha has more pleasure than smoking it. Islamic City....very interesting . I believe i did not visit all the tourist places because they are many and too little time.

I wonder what Egypt would be without all the amazing places and the Nile which also passes through a number of countries and starts at kenya :P

Egyptians, i feel , do not appreciate foreigners as thay ought to.

The taxi guys the people around the pyramids will do anyhing and come up with all sorts to get a little bit more out of you. The same goes for khan el khalili.

There is a lot of cultural differences between Egypt and where i came from especially in terms of people's attitude. I find it very uncomfortable that people (except guys) cut-call and stare a little bit too much; doesn't matter the age, young or old. Didin't their mums ever tell them it is rude and idiotic to stare? No it is not uncomfortable; it is annoying.

People here do not say YES or NO they always beat about the bush way too much.They are saving you the embarrasment.

I have not written everything. If i wrote everything you would probably not like it. Guess this would do. The rest i will share it with the rest of the world.

Frida.

Responses:

I can understand your frustration fully and I can understand why you want to express it out loud, but I just want to clarify one thing; one of the fatal mistakes that human beings fall in is generalizing which is the mistake we are falling in now. If you have faced some problems while being in Egypt from different people then this doesn?t mean that all Egyptians are what you think... I will just ask you to remember every good person you met and dealt with during your stay in Egypt. Count them and count the bad people who gave you hard time. Think how many people gave you generous hospitality, think how many showed total respect. And trust me its not the nice places in Egypt is what makes it beautiful, the people who lives in it because without these people these nice places will not be as beautiful as it seems. Just question and think how many good people you met here and you will find all the answers...

frida i read what wrote and i totaly agree but this actions u r talking about it's not done only with forigeners but its with people from inside the country as well i mean the minuit u take a cab in alex,cairo or anywhere and the driver sense that u r not from the city he trys to suck u dry, and this is a fact and we shouldnt be annoyed cz u r telling it ....as for fawzy what u r saying sounds so poetic however the number of people u r talking about (( the decent people )) r lesser than the number of those who try to use others and even if the number of the decent people is larger yet they did nothing to stop those who take advantge of others they r as bad as them , so she didnt make the mistake of GENRALIZING cz thats truely what happens and it became a culture here in egypt,and if we keep on trying to hide from this fact then it will keep on getting bigger and bigger even biger than it already is....
so instead of trying to prove that everything is fine and that only a few people who does that we should start digging (( and i mean it with every meaning this word could hold )) to find the roots of why we became a society who trys to take advantge (( in a bad way )) of forigenrs.... thank you

i'm not against or for anything here, just wanted to clarify that, anything different faces some problems (idea, person ANYthing) it is a problem, and we all face it , but it's everywhere not in Egypt only, and this is a part of living diversity, learning about other?s traditions, respecting and enjoying it. we have to overcome things, think positively and have the nice memories in mind. as i'm sure if i went to Kenya one day or anywhere.. i'll face the same problems, and it won't prevent me from being there more than once and loving the ppl. And would happily here the rest of ur comments, because I think there might be some misunderstandings.. and I really hope u did enjoy at least some of ur time here and think about coming again.. inshAlla..:)

In my opinion, what really is the reason of that problem is that Frida as an SN didin get any kinda of preparation before she leaves Kenya. I mean that the 1st thing ppl say to their SNs is how to deal with culture shocks and how to respect the cultural differences. I think we as AIESEC Egypt cannot blame ourselves cause of an SN who does not want even to listen to others opinion. Frida told me about a rule in our country Egypt that discriminates between black and white people, and what's amazing is that she heard abt that rule from a trainee who told her that egyptians discriminate between black and white ppl and that we treat black ppl as if they are shiiit.....specially black girls are always known as prostitutes when they walk in the streets. All these was said to frida by a trainee and a white trainee and cause of that she got that idea abt Egypt and before she left she decided to tell everyone do not come to Egypt.With all my respect to Frida and to the LC who gave her the preparation....." You guys should know more abt AIESEC". And as Fawzy said Egypt is not just beautiful because of its amazing places but cause of its amazing people.
How do you prepare a person for being annoyed every minute of her walking on the street? maybe you should actually admit to yourselves that what is happening here in Egypt to girls is beyond the regular stuff and YOU, yourself, could be the one who can prepare us girls for getting such shit on the streets - I doubt any other AIESEC country actually knows this, so it is hard to get us prepared in this matter.
Frida is not the only one who complains, ask ANY girl here and she will tell you the same stuff. I get it too and I hate it and no matter how hard i try not to notice it, I just cant. PLUS, if I try not to notice, the only thing I see from Cairo is the dirty streets as I stare on the ground and try to shut my ears from listening... And so far, unfortunately this annoyance is the strongest impression that I am getting from Egypt... and yes, please, call me unprepared SN if you want.

-------------------
Guys, if you get harassed every day, you would also talk differently... and no, you cant say "I understand" - you cant! I think all the girls try to see it positively, no one wants to come to different country and return with bad experience...

work

well, first part of the work is accomplished... i was working on some banner while learning photoshop... i made three suggestions out of which one got selected... i liked the other two better... but :o)... not my webpages :o))

lunch

Martina, would you like to order something for lunch from Bon Apetit?
Yep, I will have the Fajita sandwich. Will Omar order too?
I will find out.

***

Omar would like to order from Hardees.
Oh, but he should be a gentleman and order from Bon Apetit, since both you and me would prefer that. :o)
I told him so, but he said he will persuade you easily to order from Hardees.
Oh, hmm, :o)) let me go talk to him.

***

Omar, Nesreen told me you would like Hardees. So, please, as you try to persuade me, look here at the menu and choose a Bon Apetit sandwich.

***

Nesreen, two Bon Apetit Fajita sandwiches for me and Omar. ;o)

the best ever...

My co-worker that I share the office with is the best ever... I get to be presented with a breakfast each day (he does not like to eat alone and he wont listen that I already had one breakfast and will stuff me with some more food... I accidentaly revealed that I love to eat - well, accidentaly revealing means that I pretty much eat and sleep during my working hours). He gets to order me food, drinks... shares anything he might bring with him to work... Well, it pretty much seems that he assigned himself a task to look after my well being. I get spoiled whereever I am and that is dangerous as I might get used to it...

the praying

In Azerbaijan, I have hardly ever heard the prayers to be announced or held. Here in Cairo, 5 times per day one can hear the prayers from the amplifiers. Also at work, or transportation, the radios are turned on to hear the prayers...

sleep

pavement as bed, sky as the covers...

... several times I had the chance to see kids and adults sleep outside on the streets... Cairo, at least the center (have not seen the outskirts), seems as very well developed (infrustracture, buildings etc.) and thus seeing people sleeping outside on the hard ground is sort of surprising and very sad, of course, especially if those on the hard ground are children...

transportation

Although you can see the latest models of any car, the best is to see donkey and horse carriages pass by as you walk the streets of Cairo (they always decorate the animals so neatly :o))... It is incredible how can all sorts of transport mingle together and cause no trouble on the street. Well, unless one has a problem with lots of traffic, lots of car exhausts blowing into your face, lots of noise from the horns, lots of waiting to pass the road... :o))

shop assistants

I find it amazing that any shop you enter has at least 4 shop assistants to help you. And the amount of them does not depend on the size of the shop, as they seem to be able to squeeze 4 shop assistans on 1 square meter and yet have a lot of customers there that are being taken care of at the same time. :o))

auch... :o)

competition?
"who can diss egypt more"
Apparently there's a competition between nevernever and etravels on nomadlife

you ask me why i hate trainees?
----------------------------------------------

Oh… have I missed something!? Has my company complained about the way I work? Am I too irresponsible and take too long to understand what my job description is? Do I come late to work and leave too early? Do I act arrogant towards my co-workers? Am I dependable and annoy aiesecers too much with my complains? Do I require too many services from aiesecers? Am I unable to shop for myself and need someone to walk me home in the evening? Do I complain about my accommodation? Do I gossip about aiesecers behind their backs? Do I have a communication problem? Am I too immature to be able to discuss with others their different opinions?

Well, if none of this is the problem then I see no reason, Luli, why should specifically you complain about me as a trainee… So far all the aiesecers that DID TAKE INTEREST in me have done a great job and I hope I did show enough appreciation for their work.

On the other hand if you have any problem with my opinions and perceptions of Egypt, then you are more than welcome to comment on my blog or even make time and meet me in a café and discuss whatever problem you have. Some of my opinions are negative but there are also a lot of things that I see in positive way… and to be honest, your approach as an old aiesecer and Egyptian does not exactly positively influence my opinion about Egypt, your hospitability and friendliness. It is thanks to people like May, Semi, Bahaa, Omar, Dody, the Silverkey employees and my co-workers at Kia who make me think about Egypt in a very good way and I am sad to say that those that seem to create the core of Egypt on nomadlife do not exactly fall into this category.

I am 26 years old, I have 6 years of aiesec experience and I at least pretend to be open-minded and friendly towards those that come to my country as I know that the way I behave will definitely leave an impact on how they will perceive the Czech Republic. And if I see that someone has a problem with my country or some of its aspects/traditions, I do not get blindly offended but I might as well try to explain these cultural differences and have the people understand better my culture and hopefully have them become to like it and have them want to come back again. ;o)

By the way, what are the indicators according to which you decide for the winner?! I can as well strive for the excellence in something :o).

mango

Today I ate mango for the first time... we sat with my co-worker and he introduced me to the right way of eating it... that was hilarious... i ended up with sticky face and hands from the mango juice... but fortunately my clothes were spared ... now i can pass the knowledge further or rather learn eating it properly :o)))

toafa

i started to yawn, I yawned a lot and i transfered each and every yawn on my co-worker... the result? He got me the nescafe... :o)))

czech out check stuff in egypt...

yep, yesterday in Maadi I realized that Czech brands or copies of Czech brands (imagine that!!)are to be seen in Egypt too...

Škoda - there are so many škoda cars on the streets here ... well, great cars what can i say (and no, I dont care that VW bought it, it is ours).

Bohemia crystal - Czech cut glass, to be found pretty much in any country... too good not to be exported... the golden czech hands...

Baťa - if you ever wondered where Bata got his brand name and logo then go and CZECH the Czech brand Baťa and you will know :o))...

I have not been in a bar yet (hmm... is Nomad a bar??) but as soon as I get there I will look for Czech beer, I bet it is present... who does not know Budweiser, right?! :o))

Guy with a taste

Yesterday, while walking home, I passed by this one young lad... he was wearing a football jersey with Czech emblem, Czech flag and the name Nedvěd on the back... good taste!! :o))

Manners...

Coming to Egypt and meeting with Egyptians and foreigners, I was left to believe there are no manners left in the society... I was sure Czechs lost pretty much all manners after the revolution in 1989 but coming to Egypt made me realize it is not so... The former Eastern block was brought up with manners and ok treatment of one another, we were taught basic rules and stuff... and that makes the living so much easier...

i wonder... if you remove the horn from cars... does it mean Egyptians will stop using the cars?

i liked the taxi driver today, so i decided to give him bit more money than i usually do ... the bad thing about the drive was that he dropped me at a wrong place... well, i still managed to make it to work... :o)

the good thing is i brought my socks and warm fleece jacket to work today, so i wont freeze and hopefully my nose wont turn red as usual... the bad thing is the daily nescafe was only for visitors and i was refused to be given one today, instead i have boring tea without chocolate droplets on the foam of my lovely creamy nescafe... :o((

... when i was little, my mum taught me not to talk to strangers... shame Egyptians werent brought up the same way...

Mummy of Tattooed Woman Discovered in Peru Pyramid

An exquisitely preserved and elaborately tattooed mummy of a young woman has been discovered deep inside a mud-brick pyramid in northern Peru, archaeologists from Peru and the U.S. announced today.
The 1,500-year-old mummy may shed new light on the mysterious Moche culture, which occupied Peru's northern coastal valleys from about A.D. 100 to 800.

In addition to the heavily tattooed body, the tomb yielded a rich array of funeral objects, from gold sewing needles and weaving tools to masterfully worked metal jewelry. Such a complete array has never been seen before in a Moche tomb. Surprisingly, the grave also contained numerous weapons, including two massive war clubs and 23 spear throwers.

...
Verano, an anthropologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, who is part of the research team, said the finding is the first of its kind in Peru, and he likens it to the discovery of King Tut's tomb in Egypt. More

Shisha

Big local obssesion that spreads upon all incoming foreigners - Shisha. It is sort of a water pipe that you get to smoke, flavoured with something you choose. Could be mint, mango, strawberry etc. You sit in a cafe and order yourself a shisha and spend hours talking to friends and forget about all the troubles around you.

Shisha is being smoked everywhere. In cafes, outside on the streets, at home...

Positive comment

I had a very good dinner yesterday night :o).

Tourist police

Egypt lives from tourism, thus Tourist police was invented to ensure the tourists are taken care of, that nothing happens to them, as tourism is crucial for Egyptian economy. Tourist police usually pretends to speak English and they sometimes turn out to be very annoying when they try to help, unfortunately (hehe, all my recent posts are turning out to be quite negative, auch :o)). On the other hand it is nice to know that there is a special comando asigned to watch for your well-being while being in Egypt... :o))

Compliments...

I got to talk to a dad of my Egyptian friend. He seemed very nice and very well educated and thus I decided to ask about the topic that interested me the most - why do guys compliment women so much since the women dont like it. He stared at me and said but the women like it!!! I looked at him in disbelief, as well as his daughter, and we pretty much entered in a fierce discussion about how women hate these compliments, how annoying it is to be constantly commented upon, whispered to or laudly shouted upon in the streets... But he would not give an inch from his opinion and would firmly believe women enjoy compliments! Imagine that. And he is not the first guy to be so sure that women love all these compliments.

Ok, here is the truth. Women do like compliments. Women might enjoy compliments every 5seconds - but those are usually only those women that come to these countries as a tourist, they spend a week here, build up their self-confidence and go home, go home to cold and non-interested guys where they dont feel attractive any longer and they live from the sweet and memorable time in Egypt.

If women dress up for some special event, or even dress to go to work or any other place, it is nice to be told "you look nice/beautiful" in that outfit, or any other "normal" compliment. But these sort of compliments are expected from family members or friends but not really from every second guy on the street!

5second compliments - these are not liked!! Who wants to be told every five seconds some bullshit about ones looks. NOONE. Believe me. It is uncomfortable and the compliment loses all its value. The special thing about compliment is, that it is told unexpectadly. The compliment must be desired and longed for. Thus shouts on the streets are not considered as compliments, they are not appreaciated and they do turn annoying within first hour in Egypt (or any other similar country).

As far as I am concerned, I dont like compliments altogether so learning Arabic is out of question for me... at least once it turns out good to be ignorant...

Guys suffering in Egypt...

Within some time it gets boring to hear how guys suffer in Egypt since "all" girls are covered and you hardly see a flesh of a skin... imagine the face of this guy seeing a girl in bikini... well, I am afraid, the guy would not like to see his face in that moment - it pretty much indicates IQ the level of a cucumber. Oh, gosh, and men love to talk about it too... and feel sorry for themselves...

On the other hand, have you ever realised it is not that easy for a girl either? I do not fancy Arabic men, which means that I dont like the look of 99% of men that I meet, I wish their faces were covered with a scarf :o)). Here logically should come the stage of longing to see some faces of men that I might like (flesh of a skin for guys) - this would have been the IQ cucumber stage for the girls BUT here comes the difference... The girl gets to be complimented, stared upon, annoyed so much by guys around her, that she loses complete interest (in my case) in guys and on the contrary builds aversion to them. I find it rather interesting :o).

Head Scarfs...

I have never imagined that so many women in Egypt will wear head scarfs, or even cover their whole face. Egypt gets a huge supply of tourists each year and as such I thought the "overseas" influence will be far stronger. I understood now it is even a trend to actually wear the headscarf. Funny thing is that some girls tuck and hide their hair under the scarf but wear tight clothes that pretty much show and highlights every bit of their body, which in my opinion sort of contradicts the reason for wearing the scarf.

The truth is though that not every girl wants to wear the scarf but might be forced by her family or husband. But there are still fair amount of those that want and believe they should wear the scarf.

The scarf is though necessary only in front of other men. The girls orgnanize lots of parties where only girls meet and wear no scarfs and come in "european clothes", I think heaven for any guy if he had access to that party.

It is amazing if you stroll around markets and shops and see what sort of clothes they are selling - pretty much range of clothes that would fit prostitute to circus performers - and then you go to the streets and see the covered girls, long skirts, long t-shirts, long scarfs all over the body... well, imagine how girls look and what they must wear behind the closed door of their homes, I bet the blood pressure of any guy would raise by a lot entering any egyptian home unexpectadly!! :o))

pocit

Pyramidy me zklamaly :o(... co nejhorsi se cloveku muze stat je, ze o necem porad slycha a neco porad vida na obrazcich, z cehoz si logicky vybuduje urcitou svoji predstavu. A casto kdyz pak vidi realitu, tak je z toho zklamany...

To prostredi, ve kterem se ty pyramidy nachazi vubec nenavozuje tu spravnou atmosferu... neco mi tam chybelo... bylo horko a turistu zase tolik kolem nebylo a stejne ten vysledny efekt nebyl nic moc... pripadam si takova nevdecna... a je to smutny byt zklamana z neceho, na cem se tisice otroku drelo desetileti. Doba nas zrejme rozmazluje.

Uvedomila jsem si, ze v posledni dobe jedine, co me skutecne nadchne, je pohled na prirodu... neco, co jsem jeste nikdy nevidela... Rim, Pariz, Pyramidy... nejsem schopna to ocenit a je to skoda... tim vic ale ocenuju prirodu ... protoze ta nikdy zklamat nemuzu, protoze kazdy pohled na ni je novy a necekany a prinasi pocit tolik ocekavaneho nadseni a ohromeni.

Five annoying elements...

Guides ... if you dont rent my camel, you will not be able to see the Sphinx, ... it is too far - Is that the Sphinx I see 100m away from here?! What a loooong walk :P

Security ... show me the tickets ... darn, AGAIN?!!? ... I am the security, lady, you can go and see the museum with this ticket... the museum ... Thank you, but I will rather go and see the pyramids and avoid you.

Vendors ... for how much did you buy your scarf?! (this one is selling scarfs himself) ... I bought it in Azerbaijan ... oh, ok (dissapointed face) ... Hehe, any other question my dear?! :P

Tourist police ... you can take a picture... you can go and touch the pyramids ... you cannot climb there... stop, stop ... Wow, LOOK! Some other tourists, go and annoy them! :o)

Tourists ... can I take a photo with you? NO, hehe, for 10LE maybe ... ok, here you go... WTF?!?!

The Pyramids...

I made it to Giza with Dody on Saturday. The drive was the best, especially the part when one of the guides stopped our car and as an answer to my dismissive look he says I am a government worker, lady. Mubarak will come to Pyramids today, they will close the place from 3pm. It is a christmas day... Sometimes one really wonders what to think. I am afraid to find out what shall they come up with the next time.

There are lots of stories, and lots of misuse of poor naive tourists. I am afraid we are not used to be told so many lies within such a short time and with such persuation that the local guides are capable of.


The weather was hot, but the place was quite empty, I expected lot more tourist to be around but there were hardly any. So that turned out to be enjoyable.

b a k e r y

I think I discovered my new favourite place in Egypt, except it has nothing to do with Egypt... as it is a bakery with lots of yummy stuff and very comfy environment... and I am hungry... and it is really close to go there :o)).

tick

We have been to the Egyptian Museum on Saturday. I am afraid I am not some big museum freak and thus I regard this as one obligation fulfilled. :o)

The chamber of Tutankhamon was great though, but I think seeing the mask and the coffin in the actual tomb in the Kings Valley would be wayyy different. I wonder how did Carter feel when he opened the tomb years back and found all the treasures and the mummy of Tutankhamon...

There were also some dry bodies to be seen for another 35LE, fortunately I am still a student, comes useful once in a while. But to be honest, seeing that was amazing... I cant imagine that those bodies actually do belong to someone who ruled Egypt thousands of years back.. Seti, Ramsese, Tuthmose...

If tomb of 18 year old boy was so rich on burial gifts (the tomb of Tutankhamon), how must have the tombs of kings that ruled Egypt for decades looked like ... I wonder if all those treasures got stolen and lost or whether some might have just been stored/hid somewhere ... Well, the time might show :o).

what you learn as a child...

After 24 years i got back to my traditional way of opening coke... big knife and patience...

sweaty butt

hmm... could not resist posting about this. :o))

Any time I come to some "hot" country, I logically sweat... uff... dont like that... cant help it though... and I always envy the women around me, as they look so cool... (maybe they have refrigerator under their clothes??!!)... simply, they look so untouched by the hot weather around them... and I feel the much worse...

Ok, sweating is natural... but... what i hate is when your clothes actually get wet stains. It is fine with guys, somehow expactable... with girls it looks weird... and I really dont like if I would be the one like that. Eg. I cant understand how can people fancy to sit down in transportation (please, men, this time dont be polite and dont ask me to sit down if we are in the public transport and it is hot around... I dont appreciate that... and I will fight till I can to refuse your offer). Another example after walking in the hot sun you go to cafe and sit there... bad idea... i feel uncomfortable as soon as I touch the chair, it seems that inevitably the skirt and the t-shirt will get wet... yaaaaack.

But finally, I found what can be a great way to prevent all this... the secret to look so cooool... and all that due to few looks around on the girls in Egypt... They actually wear several layer clothes and many have this loooong t-shirt... so if by any chance your butt got sweaty and wet... the t-shirt will easily cover it... I guess, a good reason to go shopping. :o)))

auch

There is nothing worse than untidy cleaning lady...

Welcome to Egypt

After we arrived to Cairo, the guys that picked us up told us few times "welcome to egypt" and laughed... i heard some other aiesecers around saying so and laugh... then I did not understand it but was becoming suspicious... now I know... you walk on the streets and there are six things you will hear constantly (ok, I dont understand Arabic so I talk only about the English frazes you will hear):

- "Welcome to Egypt" (Thank you)
- "Hello" (Do I actually know you??)
- "What is your name" (I never got one... sorry!)
- "How are you" (I was fine till you asked, thank you)
- "You are cute" (Must have been some donkey next to me when this was said)
- "You are beautiful" (Well, you are not)

Sounds are there too. The guys whistle, use their tongues to make the weirdest of sounds. That makes you want to turn your head by instinct and see what is it... I learnt not to look... (Do that to your wife, moron!)

shay

so many times the powder tea is used here instead of tea in bags... it is actually quite nice... one teaspoon of this tea to your cup, hot water, maybe bit of milk, sugar, ahhh and the drink is done... simple but good...

just finished one cup...

aints and flies

The most annoying "animals" in egypt so far are aints and flies... aints ate my dinner last night, there were hundreds of them feasting (the yummy czech cuisine)... the flies are annoyingly attacking here, they will keep on sitting on you with stubborness that can only equal to mine...

I met one cockroach, we became friends, I even named her... I looked for her each time I entered the kitchen of the vila... :o) ... to have a little chat (yep, the realists understand that looking for cockroach is not out of shear excitement to see her again, but only to ensure I know where she is, so that I make sure I am not around in that particular area).

My favourite animals keep on being the donkeys of course... they are so cute and so stubborn (read talking annoying animal), they are so much like me... :o)))))

skin

most of the burnt skin from last week has already peeled off, the problem is there is some more burnt skin under... hmm... i must have sunburnt myself really properly... auch :o))

agent action...

I feel like at home again... an agent action is coming up... i love agent actions... the lolly pop and the lipstick is ready... the table is waiting in the corridor... few more minutes and the boss will be gone... i will sneak to the corridor with few bribed helpers I will steal one of the tables that stand next to the office of the boss and put it to my office...

Goals:
I will have my own big desk.
One remaining desk in the corridor has to look like two desks... hmm... how to do that...
Boss wont notice one desk is missing in the corridor.
Boss wont notice there is one new big m*f* table in my office.

Means to achieve it:
Accompany boss to his office through the corridor each time, entertain him and he wont notice desk is missing.
Meet the boss as often as possible outside of the office, so that he does not have a need to come to your office and see the new table.

Alternative means:
Poke the eyes of your boss.

Oh, cant wait... few more minutes... and the action will take place...

The helpers, i bribed them to help me, i might not have bribed them enough to stay silent... I will have to find means to silent them... hmm... heaps of food supplied for them each day will make their mouths occupied...

Brilliant plan...

refreshments

Mango is big here :o)... you walk and everywhere you meet some locals with little wooden carriages full of mangoes to sell. I have not yet seen what actually happens with the mangoes... I have to spy for that... but it must be that the seller sqeezes out the mangoes for customers to some jag and I guess that way the mangoes actually become the juice :o). As by the end of the night, the carriage is full of mango skins only :o).

Another thing is, there are lots of little stores that sell juices... they have several glasses around and you pick oranges, mangoes or even sugar cane and they make fresh juice for you on the spot... what else can one wish for over a hot afternoon? :o))

Homosexuality in Egypt

well, of course there is none... but I was talking to my co-worker today, btw, very nice girl, and she told me this topic is Tabu here...

I wondered about one thing though... I met one guy here in Egypt and if you excuse me, all the movements he makes are as if copied from the book "This is how gay men move". Yep, definitely not a sign he is gay, but it made me think.

Imagine you are an Egyptian male, you are religious, you have a wife... would you ever admit to yourself you are gay...? Would you be horrified by the idea of liking other men? I guess you would either deny it and force yourself into women and kept on persuading yourself nothing is happening... or the other way is, you would accept you are different but then you would have to leave the religion and more like become rebel of the society... or any other way out?

It is funny to watch how men are fine with close contact of one another in muslim countries - kissing, hugging, touching, holding hands - constantly... but as soon as one would be considered gay, other men will avoid and despise any slight touch or contact with that person.

the dark spot...

I noticed some guys in Egypt have this dark spot on their forehead... first I thought they might have accidently touched their forehead with dirty hand or something... but later I became curious as so many have it... and then I got it! It is from the prayer... they touch the head to the ground and with years a black spot is created on their forehead... incredible...

Dilema

So many twists and turns concerning my project and the web page has been successfully launched... so now there will be the second round... and fight for creation of different web page :o)))

Office boy

I guess I have heard the term “office boy” before but I have definitely never come across one till I made it to Egypt. Any office I come to there is some office boy, a guy that pretty much does everything. The bigger the office the more specialized the office boy is :o), as bigger companies will employ more office boys for different tasks. Such office boy does minor repairs, brings refreshments, cleans dishes, does shopping for necessary supplies etc. I am not that well acquainted with all they do, so can’t tell more. But I definitely can say I am surprised and feel strange when some guy is running around me to bring me whatever I might wish to have in that moment. Oh, but, well, the office boy at my work, he makes splendid Nescafe (lots of milk and one sugar)… mnam, so I am afraid I will definitely use his services :o))).

Weird

Ahhh, this is how it feels to be a snake… my newly gained red skin is rapidly coming off… :o))

IT assistant ;o)

Cool, I got to try to make the internet cable… blue, brown, green, orange wires… straighten them… cut them… put them in order… yeay… and the internet works :o).

Honey

I was taught to call my co-worker Asal … hehehe

My office

I was sitting with Riham and Nesreen in their office, but there is no internet connection which I need for my work. So I discussed it with Omar (IT/IS manager) and Riham and I was put into the IT office, nice… the best place at this company is the IT office as I said before - the food, the fun, the chatting and now the internet. :o))

ready to roll... :o)

Yeay, I have my office… I have my computer… I have my great project … I have the internet… all achieved within two days at work… what else to wish for?!

My project

I sit at my new boss’ office. He looks at me and says. You will work in marketing and IT department. I noticed you have strong web development background (if my face could make it, it would look like a question mark in that moment… since when do I have strong IT background???!!! … so I smile and slightly correct him, that I have basic knowledge of HTML). Never mind, my new task is to create the web pages of the company, YEAY. I always wanted to learn that, now I have a great opportunity. It is going to be a huge challenge, but I can’t wait to start and I hope to succeed. Not sure what the marketing part of my job is, I understood something of me being a foreigner and thus not suspicious if I enter the showrooms of other companies around… I guess I should sneak in the other automobile places and search what colours do the competitors’ cars have and if they also use round steering wheel… nice :o)).

Buses

I don’t know about any other country that does it. If the company is too far away from the city center (with Cairo having around 20mil people, any company is probably far), the company provides transportation. Thus each morning I get to be picked up at one square and together with my colleagues I am driven to work. It is nice, but sometimes I would not mind arriving and departing myself… I like freedom in this.

My first day at work

So finally I made it to work. I got accepted out of the blue by one company (they have rejected me before, so that is why the surprise). I was supposed to start working on Sunday (read Monday), but since I was at a conference, the work got postponed to Monday (read Tuesday). But, as the only casualty of the conference, I was forced to stay at home for few days, as leaving the house was dangerous for me :o), yep, stomach problems are nasty. So my work got postponed till Wednesday. On Tuesday I was told Wednesday is not good for the company and so my starting date will be Monday (Sunday was a national holiday). :o)

So finally, the Monday came. I was too lazy by then to look forward to any kind of work. Two aiesecers, after adventurous search for my company building, have delivered me to work. I kept on nagging them on the way to go and see pyramids instead. :o)

At the company, I was told I will work elsewhere. So at the end I did end up seeing the pyramids when driving across the Cairo to its other side. I ended up working on the same road as Jana does, only from the other side (the Alex – Cairo Desert road) :o)).

Yep, got lost few times on the way again but we found our way at the end. Finally this modern glass building of Kia motors appeared in front of us. My new work place.
My new boss is Marketing Manager. He is nice though sometimes it looked he totally forgot we are sitting at his office and would do his stuff and we would just sit and wait, not sure what we are waiting for :o). At the end the two aiesecers left and I got stuck all alone in the horrible place, with totally unknown people that kept smiling at me … :o))).

Riham, the assistant of my boss was to take over the responsibility over me. She took me around the company and introduced me to everyone. The people around are really very friendly. There are several other girls working at the company and all are really great, very friendly and very open. I did not expect that, and I am very grateful for that.

When back at Riham’s office I got my first task. Imagine how would you advertise our company. I was bit surprised by such quick and straight question… I was sleepy and the brain was not entirely working, so I sweated out few things that I remembered from marketing books, Riham got impressed (she is too nice not to be impressed) and so I passed the first test :o). Later she gave me a task, to come up with ideas how posters for Kia cars can look like. So I tried to turn my brain on, but I came out only with the usual boring ideas how a car can be presented. Suddenly she asked if I can draw, I excitedly nodded with my head as I thought she said something else… oups, well, here I was sketching my ideas on the paper… hahah… Well, quite a creative start of work.

Then the lunch time came (who waits with lunch till 3-4pm???!!!, ok, Jani, I take it back, I at least have a lunch time :o)). IT office is becoming my favourite room as that is where all the fun and food happens. We sneak in there, we chat, we laugh, we eat. I never thought I will have so much fun on my first day at work. The people around me, mostly at my age (read old), are really funny and somehow it is really easy to like them and get along with them. :o))

Well, ok, 5pm approached and the work is over. Most of us take bus to go home from work, so chatting and laughing continues. Well, (knock on the wood), it was really great day and I hope all the following days will be alike.

Maadi beach

I planned a trip to Luxor with friends. There was this 3day weekend, so an excellent idea for such a long trip. But I am afraid not only I had such an excellent idea, thus train tickets were sold out and Luxor will have to wait to see me.

I told Dody and in 5 minutes I had alternative plan. Aalia invited me to come with her and her family to the northern coast, to Maadi village, where her family just bought a summer house.

We left already on Thursday morning, two cars, lots of family members, all of them great sense of humour, thus assurance for a great weekend in their company. The trip takes some two hours, passing through desert road. But soon the sea opens in front of us and I was completely stunned. I have never seen such beautiful colour of sea. I do not like beaches or sea too much, but this sea was simply too beautiful not to enjoy it and the white sand beach too gorgeous not to touch (till you find out the sand wont leave your body even when forced).

We made it to the village, unpacked the car and went for a stroll across the village. There were lots of little villas, lots of blossoming flowers and in the back white beach and turquoise blue sea. We put our swim suits on and spend the whole afternoon at the sea. Mind, I am white girl with white body, very white body... or shall I say I was white girl with white body? I still hurt till today, how burnt I got. Hihi, from the front only though...

In the evening I finally learnt how to play backgammon. I lose several times and I go to sleep. :o)

The next day is again to be spent by the beach. I try to even my colouring, but this time carefully, as I do not want to get burnt form the back too. We rent a villa as there should be few guys coming for the night from Aalias work. We spend afternoon washing the sheets, including ourselves and cleaning the house a bit.

On Saturday I joined the guys to return to Alexandria. They went for their final diving lesson, while I acted as the main photographer and went into the boat with them to the open sea. Advice, do not accompany friends on a boat if they go diving ... there is no return and the waves are big, and the stomach gets weaker and weaker... :o)). But on the other hand, it was really cool experience and I really enjoyed it once back on the bank :o))).

Mersamatrouah

Exactly a week after my arrival to Egypt, Jana made it to Cairo too. We picked her up at the airport and got dropped at my place by 4am. I quickly did some packing and by 5.3oam, Jana and me were stepping at the Ramses train station. At 6.30am we were off with some other aiesecers and trainees for a conference to Mersamatrouah.









The train ride was loooooong. Already 6 hours on train, after sleepless night sounded horrible. 6 hours turned to 8, "welcome to egypt". Walking would be faster. :o)










Mersamatrouh, paradise for trainees, hell for aiesecers. Mersamatrouah, a sleepy town on the north coast of Egypt, with blue blue sea and white sandy and rocky beaches. Place full of sea resorts, where mainly Egyptian come for tourism. Hehe, though I bet even Egyptian come seldom, due to the endless ride from Cairo. :P

Trainees agenda:
sleeping on Thursday afternoon,
some more sleep at night interrupted by the 4am arrival of the rest of the trainees.
Friday morning plenary,
later on some discussions and sessions.
Afternoon swimming with 5am lunch break,
some more swimming,
truth or dare game at night and some mini session.
Saturday morning trip,
some more swimming and hanging out
closing plenary,
trip back home.
In other words - t o u g h w o r k :P










AIESECers agenda:
Thursday, work till after midnight.
Friday, work till after midnight.
Saturday, work, closing plenary, hopefully early (11pm) arrival to home town.
No swimming, no parties, just envious looks.

I left Mersamatrouah on Saturday morning to come to Alexandria. The trip took not even 4 hours on the bus, I got dropped by one aiesecer at the centre by the sea and spent few hours hanging around in Alexandria. I got a company of two Egyptian girls, who spent over an hour talking to me while walking to the Alexandrian library which was 10min of walking distance from where we met :o)). The conversation was interesting, as well as all the things I found out. It helped me to make a clearer picture of how the girls in Egypt think and live. Hmm.










I met with few friends later on and joined them to visit few more places in Alexandria. We went to one excavation place (Serapeum) where the old Alexandrian library used to be and where the Pompey's pillar, a granite column which was erected by the Roman emperor Diocletian in 3rd century AD, can be found.













Later we have also visited the Catacombs. In Alexandria, there were many archaeological treasures gathered, as the treasures were either used to decorate new temples, or were prepared for transportation to other parts of the Roman Empire.

Bunny :o)

Btw, I finally met Bunny!

The Sunday game

I went to Dody's work on Sunday and Monday. I wanted to catch up on some emails, wanted to do some blogging and some work for Alex... Well, was not that successfull :o)) since I spent most of the day online and real chatting. I met some really nice people at Dody's work and through out the day they were coming to "my office" for their break time, so the time there passed very fast and in a very pleasant manner.

In the evening I closed a bet. France wins, I get a dinner. Darn... it was me cooking. :o)))

Coptic Cairo

On Saturday (the second weekend day, I simply cant get used to it) we did a trip to Coptic Cairo.

Coptic Cairo is the oldest part of Cairo, dating to some 6th century BC. The area used to be predominantly Christian, thus over 20 churches were build there. With the time only 5 churches remained, along with the earliest mosque that has ever been built in Egypt and the Egypt's oldest synagogue, Ben Ezra, that has been built after the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD.

In this part of Cairo you can also find the Coptic cemetary and the Greek St. George church. One of the most famous churches is the Hanging church (el-Muallaqa) which is built on top of the Roman fort.

We ended the day with seeing the Sufi Dance in the Citadel of Islamic Cairo.

first day

Quick walk around the area where we lived, first taste of egyptian food and drink, first shopping and first several hour cleaning of the flat. I was very proud of the bathroom, the original colour was pink, imagine :P...

The appartment is situated on the 11th floor. Though there is no A/C, the appartment is long and U shaped and thus there is constant breeze around.

first impression, the airport

We have arrived at the airport, to be awaited by Dody and some of his friends as we found out later. I was rushed out of the plane, to be the first at the customs, otherwise it would have taken ages with all the other people from several planes in the queue. We got our luggage and searched for Dody. There were hundreds of Egyptians around, tanned skin, dark hair, most women with head scarfs. But there was no sign of the hat, till Farid spot the guys waiting for us sitting outside on the railing. Trip to the new home was fairly quick, we came before four and went straight for bed...

biased

I am constantly getting ready to post and I dont know how. I came to Egypt and so many things remind me of Azerbaijan that I somehow am unable to take an unbiased and clear picture, as I constancly compare. We will see what is to come out of it :o).

*

Something just makes me rage with anger. F* americans.
Get the bloody out of my country!

There are two things on my mind that I want to blog about... but I will keep them secret as I usually do -- though tempted to say it. :o)
I had no expectations. I am very happy.

Sufi dance

The egyptian men

My theory goes this way: by evolution, arabic men will have the head turning 360 degrees on their neck in 100 years . It shall be more convenient for them to watch the passing by women.

If you like attention, you will love Egypt. Every single man will turn to look at you, will tell some compliment to you, in better cases will try to touch you. This works for any European woman, no matter what her looks are. This also works for any Egyptian man no matter what his age is.

As my flatmate said about older men and their turning heads: That is the only body part that still works.

Not to be completely positive I will search for some other qualities of Egyptian men. :o)

The first impressions

Od malicka jsem zvykla vidat a slychat o Egypte. A moje prvni predstavy se od toho, jak vypada Egypt, respektive Kahira, relativne dost lisi. Hlavni duvod je, ze i presto, ze je Egypt arabska zeme, ja jsem proste i tak predpokladala, ze kolem uvidim Egyptany. Vliv Arabu, ci muslimskeho sveta v teto oblasti je nepopiratelny a ac jsem to vsechno vedela, stejne me mrzi, ze kolem sebe zkratka vidim vic arabsky vypadajici lidi nez egyptsky.

Prvni dojem byl, ze jsem zpatky v Azerbajdazanu, az na to, ze se mesto trochu lisi. I nadale je clovek vystaven pohledum chlapu kolem a tentokrat dokonce i pokrikuji ve velkem. To se mi pred tim v Baku skoro vubec nestavalo. Zaver z toho je takovy, ze mi chlapi v Egypte lezou krkem hned od prvniho dne a ne az od nekolikateho tydne. Takze uz jsem zpatky k delani kschichtu, kdyz me nekdo oslovi a vymysleni nadavek na komplimenty, ktere dostavam. Nekdy se mi to povede, tak dobre, ze se musim smat... takze to budu muset trochu pribrzdit :o)).

The Egyptian story

I ended up in Egypt for the summer... not much more to say about that. Maybe in some time the purpose will be clear. :o)

... among all other work he studies Sanscrit, Arabic and Persian language ("the Italian of Levant" as de Sacy calles it) and in the middle of all that he writes to his brother to send him the Chinese grammar - "for diversion"!

"Oh mother Nut, spread your wings above me like the heavens studded with the immortal stars."