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

Africa women’s day

This day is celebrated on the 31st July and is connected with the foundation of Panafrican Women Organization on the 31st July 1962 in Dar-es-Salam, "former" capital city of Tanzania.

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!)

bad girl...

guys keep on asking me ... do you smoke?

i know, i know... but i cant help it...

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!

Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it...

Cold, no matter what, sometimes all of it. When I met, I wonder everything already. He never always happy.

[E.C.]

battle

just you wait... i might lose all my nails, hehe, but i will win :o))))

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)

Vedrana Rudan

Vedrana Rudan, the Croatian writer and journalist has published a book that has been hugely critisized by the critics but appreaciated by the common reader. This book, Ear, throat, knife (In USA published as Night), talks about the Serbo-croatian war and sides niether the Croatians nor the Serbs.

I read an interview with her and some of her answers quite asthonished me, some answers did not surprise me at all. I have picked few to post here. (Polish weekly NIE)

What sort of war was the one between Croatians and Serbians?
I think it was a conflict that was forced on us from outside, it was a provocation against Yugoslavia. The goal was to split the big market among France, Germany, USA and Austria.

Are we able to comprehend what was the aim of the war?
Not even we can understand what the war was about, thus how can anyone from outside understand it? Within one night all our Serbian neighbours became our biggest enemies. Yugoslavia was pronounced as something that is the worst in the world. And us, the former Yugoslavians, had to become hearty Croatians within one night. And now, when there is the peace, we should try to comprehend why have so many people died in order for 10 people in Croatia to rake together millions of dollars. That is the only thing we were left with after the war.

Can the Serbo-croatian relationships become normal? Do you think the war is slowly being forgotten?
The same politics who forced the hatred on us, are forcing us now to feel love instead, but that is not happening so easily.

In the monologue of Tonka in the book Ear, throat, knife you describe a TV interview that broadcasted a funeral of a child live. The little body lies in the white coffin and the funeral evokes huge national psychosis. At the end it came out that all of it was just a medial fiction. Is that really truth?
It is truth. This manipulation was supposed to awake hatred in Croatians towards Serbians; they tried to evoke that everyday. The media was supposed to encourage and feed the hatred.

How was the truth discovered?
One woman that was working on TV revealed the truth after the war; but no one was interested in it then any longer.

Do you remember any other examples?
The newspapers were publishing names, addresses and telephone numbers of Serbians with comments such as they are murderers, criminals, agents, traders with arms. Some of these Serbs were murdered by their neighbours, some rather ran away and the neighbours have encroached their flats. In Rieka, there were personal data published about one Serb and it claimed he is dangerous, that he is policeman and murderer. All of it was published with huge letters. Before the next publishing happened, after the person got killed, the editor's office has prepared a correction, but the text was written the way that one would need a magnifying glass to read. The newspapers explained, this person was not Serb, but Croatian and added he died as the real Croatian patriot.

What can one believe in after a war like this?
Nothing. That is why so many Croatian men that have fought with arms in their hands in this war are taking their own lives now. They understood that they spilled blood for nothing. They pour inflammables over themselves and strike a light, they hang themselves, they blow up their houses. Recently one guy digged himself a grave, made a coffin, then he lied inside the grave and blew up explosive under himself. Other guy cut his head with motor saw. The men are trying to deal with the senselessness of the Serbo-croatian war in this drastic manner.

Give me beer, I will cheer for you...

Ukraine - Italy was playing today... Five of us went to watch the game to Old town square.

You have to realize that when you enter the Old town square during the night, you pretty much enter the living room of Prague homeless. Thus the closest VIP "seats" to the big screen on the cobblestone are always taken by drunk, dirty and smelling homeless who choose a team and then enthusiastically shout the country's name once in a while, eg. when they wake up. :o)) They usually have a really strong hoarse voice, and thus if you offer a beer (or they ask you for one) they will shout the name of your country or whatever resembles the name of your country with huge joy. Italiano!!

There were two cheering crowds of course. Standing Ukrainians that cheered for Ukraine and had few silly guys shouting things like "Berlusconi", "Musolini" or "Spaghetti". The other part was created by sitting Italians that usually got excited only when Italy scored. :o)
The funny part was when this young lad in Schevchenko's jersey ran in front of the Italian crowd with a camera, focused on the crowd and shouted: Italia, cheese!

I loved this little 3yo girl, who came with her Ukrainian parents to watch the game. She had five tiny pony tails on her had, she was dressed in yellow and blue, having a Ukrainian flag tucked in her hand. With her beautiful voice she made the crowds yell as usually when the crowd got silent, suddenly she shouted Ukraina and all the crowd around responded and joined her cheering. That was simply amazing! :o)

Well, Ukraine lost, but the mood there was incredible. I have not laughed so much in ages.