It's been a while since I've updated this blog, and also a long time since I've had access to reliable internet. My parents and brother, Peter, have come and gone from Egypt. They stayed for about two weeks. The first stretch of their visit was spent in Cairo. We visited the Pyramids at Giza (something I hadn't done in the previous 5 months here), saw more ancient artifacts at the Egyptian Museum than I could have thought possible), went to many significant mosques, and explored the streets of Islamic Cairo. Here are some photos:
Above: Family minus my dad at the Pyramids.
Above: a man selling pistols on Shari'a Tallat Harb, in Cairo. I don't think that this is legal in Egypt, but I bet the NRA would love to see this.
My dad, looking nervous with a camel belonging to the Tourist Police. He refused to step any closer to the animal.
After, we heading down to Upper Egypt, where we saw the ancient monuments in Luxor. My favorite places were the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Nobles and the Karnak Temple. We arrived in Luxor by train from Cairo. The inaptly named "fast" train, scheduled to take nine hours, took over 15 hours. My brother and Claire were running high fevers and slept and sniffled intermittently throughout the journey. I sat next to a wonderful woman from Luxor named Nour. She spoke no English, and was very forgiving of my many Arabic mistakes as we conversed throughout the train ride.
Above: Peter and a very sick Claire on the train to Luxor.
We finally arrived in Luxor, where we stayed at a wonderful hotel called the Mara House. It's run by an amazing Irish woman named Mara. We spent the following days on feluccas (sail boats) on the Nile. The weather was much warmer than in Cairo, averaging about 80 F.
It was great spending the holidays with my family, I had missed them and enjoyed showing them around Egypt. Here are some of the things I noticed about my family, myself and Egypt:
-Claire and I have acquired the ability to be comfortable and sleep almost anywhere.
-The respect I was accorded by people on the streets increased markedly when I was with my family.
-My dad can truly repair anything. The apartment I'm subletting for the month has a wealth of problems, and my dad has fixed most of them.
-Although my Arabic is far from eloquent, people are so used to expats and tourists who don't have any knowledge of their language and culture, they are tickled and excited that I am able to speak a little with them in colloquial about their country.
-I can be happy in almost any situation, in a sha'bi (popular) neighborhood or in ritzy Zamalek. Although I initially overwhelmed the neighborhood near my apartment on Shari'a Sheikh Reihan downtown, I've come to treasure my daily interactions with the people here. On most days, the only English I'll speak is with Claire, and other than that I must speak a lot more Arabic, as most people here don't speak English at all. There are two sisters at the local market who love to chat at great length as they sell me vegetables. Another woman always proudly shows me her chubby baby, "Abu Trika", named after the star of al-Ahly's soccer team. I also really enjoy talking with the children of my bowab (doorman) who live in the buildings ground floor; these interactions are genuine, funny and really educational.
Happy trails,
Julia
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