Reflecting on Ramadan

Ramadan is the time of year when many Muslims fast all over the world from sunrise to sundown. It’s been fascinating to live in a culture where this habit is lived out by the majority.

But all I can think of to describe this holiday is food, food and more food.

I have never eaten so much in one sitting in my life. Families come together nightly to break the fast starting with a drink that consists of figs, dates, coconut and apricot juice. It’s delicious!

Then comes one of my favorite meals here. It’s a typical Egyptian dish called Mashi which is eggplant, bell pepper, and zucchini stuffed with a seasoned rice that is reminiscent of mexican rice. Some form of meat is also present usually chicken, which is fed to you by the hand of the mother of the house, not awkward at all I promise(haha.) And thanks to my friend Mona, I had the pleasure of eating fried camel liver and raw salted fish this year.

Not my favorite to be honest but in typical Egyptian style, your plate is loaded beyond your ability to consume the food in front of you. Continuing on…there are also a plethora of side dishes that accompany the meal including but not limited to

• bird tongue soup(which is just a brothy noodle soup)
• a sort of pastry with ground beef
• eggplant that is rubbed in vinegar and stuffed with garlic and hot peppers
• and all the dips that go with the local bread here.
• And i can't forget the pickles!!!

During this feast an assortment of juices is available for you to drink like Guava, coconut, hibiscus, and shrub root drink called Rus-Rus and tastes like something from Willie Wonka’s Factory because of how many bitter, sweet, salty, sour flavors you get with one sip of this drink. After this feast, an obligation to drink

• a cup of tea,
• a cup of Turkish coffee,
• a glass of Pepsi(pronounced bebsi)

while enjoying the buffet of desserts they have layed out that look better than they actually taste. I wasn’t kidding when I said I could think of nothing else but the food for this holiday.

Wedding Season!!!

Hello!

It's been too long since the last post! But here i am finally. So i went to a wedding this week!Probably the best wedding i have been to so far during my time here! It was beautiful! Actually it was the wedding party (think reception)...the couple has been married for a month 'techinically'. A month ago, there was a ceremony of the signing which means that legally they have been married, however both the bride and the groom have still been living seperately until after the wedding party. So this week i went to the wedding party which is where they celebrate the siging and then they are officially able to live together. One of my favorite things about weddings here is the "wedding call." It's hard to describe but it sounds like something from 'Xena:The Warrior Princess'...anyway...

One of the most interesting things that took place at this party was the music. Bagpipes, that's right i said bagpipes, played "Amazing Grace" and "Auld Lang Syne" when the bride is introduced into the wedding reception. They also have a first dance like we do in which the couple chose Shania Twain's "From This Moment On" which i thought was an interesting choice. They also had a second dance in which they chose and arabic love song to play. Below is a picture of the first dance.

So here are some more beautiful pictures of this wedding! Below is a picture of the two sisters that we know.

Here is a picture of the dancing. Typically the men dance around the groom and the women dance around the bride. But here everyone is dancing around the couple shaking napkins in the air!

Here is a picture of the bride and groom cutting the cake.

Here is a picture of Rachel and i eating the cake.

Here is a picture of me and my friends with the bride and groom and the bride's sister.

We had a fabulous time!

Lyrics I'm Humming:

Let's Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer (which they also played at the wedding)

Parents in Egypt!!!!

I think my parents had a blast! and had quite a cultural experience for sure. I made sure of it. ;) Don'tworry they survived. The traffic was a little hard to get used to but i will say that my parents did great trying Egyptian food and riding the metro! We took some great pictures! We saw the pyramids of course and went down into one. We rode camels!

We went to the Egyptian museum and rode a felucca (sailboat) on the Nile.

We saw the Hanging Church and the cave churches and the Greek Monastery in Old Cairo.

To celebrate my dad's birthday we went to Hard Rock Cafe in Cairo!

We went to Sharm El Sheikh and i finally got some good Vitamin D in my skin! We went to the Khan El Khaleeli (which is the popular market place here) on our last day and mom bargained away! Overall a fantastic trip! and i am so thankful for my parents! Hope you enjoyed the pics!

ally

Lyrics I'm Humming:

She's Only Happy in the Sun by Ben Harper

Suez Canal

One of our language helpers is very adventurous and loves to take us places all around Egypt and I mean everywhere. So last week, my roommates and I went to the Suez Canal in Ismalaia. To cross the Suez you take a ferry. We were coming back from the other side (Asia side) and we were on the ferry with a bus filled with women from a retirement home in Port Said who invited us onto their bus for a little dance party. Arab music was blaring, and a lady named Zuzu was playing the recorder, harmonica, cymbals, I mean any instrument you could think of. Another lady named Sayeeda was playing the drums. Sara ended up playing Maracas and I attempted the drum but it’s a very unique drum that takes a little more practice than just winging it. So who knew that we would be on a party bus filled with old Arab women playing instruments and dancing, while crossing the Suez Canal on a ferry. These women also have a talent for doing the wedding call which sounds a little bit like Xena the Warrior Princess. Definitely the highlight of the day!

update! ...finally

First, sorry for the extreme lack of updates....we're really bad at blogging....

in any event. it's hard to believe we've been here for almost more than 5 months. this first year is flying and it's even harder to believe that we should be beginning other projects around july or august. how exciting! language continues to get increasingly hard--as you learn more and more about arabic your eyes are opened more and more to how much farther you have to go. it's awesome to be able to use it a bit more but it still is tough to realize the consequences of the realization that you are no where near where you want to be with one of the hardest languages of the world. it takes some serious time. and effort....

other than it's cool. yesterday ally and i (kt) went to an oasis out in the desert. it was pretty awesome. we rode in several different forms of transportations (metro, taxis, microbuses, and truck beds) to get there. but it was well worth the time. we were able to see a temple that supposibly was used to store grain by the King's assistant, Joseph, during the 7 year famine. Pretty awesome.....

as well as eat some pretty sweet fish next to a massive lake that apparentely is the source of the Oasis. It was gorgeous. green lush--not like cairo. very tropical and exotic it many areas. 

we look forward to returning! 

Top 6 pickup lines (Gag me) by ally

From the Pyramids to the Khan El-Khaleeli

6. “You want to marry Egyptian? Here’s my brother.”

5. “Are you from the moon?” (I don’t get this one.)

4. “I’m a doctor! I’m a doctor!” (as if this is what I’m looking for only.)

3. “You have beautiful eyes.” (This was a strange one considering Katie was wearing very dark sunglasses and he couldn’t see her eyes.)

2. “You dropped something!” (I turn to look for what I dropped) “My Heart.”

1. This was said to my team leader(TL), who the Egyptian(E) man assumed was my father (BTW: offerings camels is a marriage proposal.):

E: “How many camels?”
TL: “10 thousand camels.”
E:”Oh, that is not enough.”
TL: “10 million camels?”
E: “10 million camels for 1 eye.”

Quite the lines…huh? I was sooooo glad my team leader played a long. (being extremely sarcastic here guys.)

Lyrics I'm Humming:
Relax, Take it Easy by Mika

Cultural Experience #39 and counting....

so i went to oscar's the other day to get some food. oscars is sorta like a grocery store about the size of one aisle of walmart. so there's maybe like 10 items to choose from that don't look shady. but unlike the others, it feels more "cultural" i.e. instead of hearing "what goes around comes back around" playing when we (americans) walk into our metro market (another grocery story maybe a  bit larger than oscar's), we hear blaring arabian music in which every song is about a "habibi" (girlfriend/lover/whatever). In any event, Oscar employees don't know any english. Not that it matters as I spoke to them in arabic. Anyways, here's the story:

I ask for 4 bananas. just 4. i said "I would like 4 bananas please" in arabic. but apparentely you have to clarify a little more than that which I had forgotten to do since I had been trying to use my arabic all day and everything was now flying out of my head so that I couldn't remember anything. In any event, the man cut me 4 Kilos. Which is a TON of bananas. Like a whole palm tree. He might have well just let me carry the tree back home. i think i would of been eating bananas for like a year. ew. in any event, i tried hard to explain that no i didn't want enough bananas to feed a family reunion in lower alabama, i just wanted 4 bananas for myself. Finally, he caught on and erupted in laughter and cut me 4 new bananas. Which he could of just taken 4 out of the supersized plastic bag he had for me. but whatever. When in Rome.....

or in egypt. 

whatever. 

Atleast i know how to get bananas now. 

-kt