Egypt's Through to the CAF Final!

I'm afraid this is becoming for of an Egyptian football blog than one about me, but the biggest news of the week is easily Egypt's progress through the African Nations Cup. Tonight Egypt beat Algeria 4-0, with two of those goals coming very late in the game after Algeria was penalized again and again. Finally, they finished with only eight players left on the field, and faced a humiliating loss to their most bitter foes. Of course Cairo is celebrating like crazy right now. There is a car horn rythm that seems to have become the national expression for supporting the soccer team. It consists of two short blasts followed by a triplet, and that is definitely the predominant sound of the city right now. Taxis have been playing it all day, and before the game all the cars at an intersection would synchronize themselves, "dum, dum, da da da." There are also the expected celebrations in the streets with people waving flags and chanting "Masr, Masr;" which is Arabic for Egypt.

I saw most of the game at the Marriot Hotel here in Zamalek, which is an incredibly nice place. It would have been preferrable to see the game in a cheaper location, but most of them were already standing-room only by the time we got back from campus. The upside of the experience is that we met a German man who happened to be the president of the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes. I'm assuming most of you, like me, don't know much about the Baltic Hurricanes. Well, they are a German American football team, as in they play American football in Germany. They are also quite good, having finished second for the past two years. I've never followed the German Football League, but as of now I'm hoping Kiel can break their string of finishing second.

The bar at the Marriot got too crowded for us to see a TV near the end of the game, so we left and joined an Egyptian crowd of about 50 people sitting in an alley watching a single TV. By this time the match was more or less over, so I was mostly watching the Egyptians reactions. Their exuberance didn't disappoint. Next up: the final against Ghana on Sunday. Coincidentally, my sister spent her semester abroad in Ghana, so the game creates a bit of a family rivalry.

Zamalek Dorms

Last Friday I moved into the AUC dorms at Zamalek, and the change of scenery is quite refreshing. The island is almost European; with lots of trees, relatively uncrowded and wide streets, and lots of expats and embassies. I also took the bus out to AUC's new campus on Saturday. The ride is very long, but the campus is beautiful. Everything is almost brand-new and the architecture neatly reflects Islamic tradition. The buildings are very open, with lots of courtyards. The only problem is that it will be very easy to get lost for the first few weeks.

Today Egypt played Cameroon in the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations, and pulled off a 3-1 win in overtime. The game was much closer than the score indicates, and Cameroon probably played better througout, although I wouldn't say that to the locals. We caught most of the game in the dorm lobby. There was a crowd of about 30 Egyptian staff crowded around the T.V., and then about the same number of students watching from outside. In reality, most of the students were watching the Egyptians cheer as much as they were the game. And, of course, their passion did not disappointment. After the game we walked towards a cafe to get dinner, and all the taxis were honking the horns (although this is hardly a rare occurence) and the Egyptian flags were out in force. If this is the celebration for a quarterfinal victory, Iid like to see the cheering after a major victory. This Thursday provides a big chance, as Algeria and Egypt face off in a semifinal. The two teams already have plenty of bad blood, as Algeria recently beat Egypt to secure a World Cup berth.

Tomorrow I have classes for the first time in over a month, and they began with a vengeance. From Tuesday to Saturday I will be taking a survival Arabic class which focuses on the Egyptian dialect from 3:15 to 7:45, with two 15 minute breaks. I'm excited to learn some practical Arabic that I can use in the streets, but I've never had once class for 3 hours and 45 minutes in one day. Finally, today I visited the Egyptian Museum. The amount of material there is incredible, and I was quickly inundated with mummies, hieroglyphics, and other Ancient Egyptian things. The presentation is fairly poor; as one person told me, the place somewhat resembles a warehouse stuffed full of priceless artifacts. Nevertheless, it was certianly worth a visit just to see the sheer volume of artifacts. And, of course, to see King Tut's mask and tombs, which are impressively laden with gold for a king who only ruled for a decade and died at nineteen.

First Impressions

With two full days of exploring, I think I might be getting a basic feel for this place, meaning that I found my hotel without wandering in circles for four hours asking confused locals where a nonexistent square is. That was Tuesday. Yet for the most part I've enjoyed getting semi-lost repeatedly over the last two days; that way I see parts of Cairo I would normally have missed. On the other hand, I haven't made it to all the famous places I intended to go, but I suppose I still have 5 months.

Tuesday morning I headed vaguely east, and before long found myself in Khan al-Khalili, the famous market for just about everything, but especially for tourists. Before long I had accepted a nice fellow named Ali's offer to guide me to any section of the bazaar: spices, silk, gold, and so forth. I chose the spice market, figuring that there couldn't be too much harm, since he wasn't actually taking me to his shop, right? Well, not exactly. First he guided me through the spice market, and gave me all sorts of good information about which saffron was actually safflower, and thus should be avoided. I bought some basic spices, mostly for tea, and then he asked me if he could host me for tea. Hint: tea is a Cairene salesman's most potent weapon. After all, once it's served you can hardly leave until its finished, and if it starts at near boiling then that could take awhile. Meanwhile there's time to discuss all matters of topics: family, football, Obama (Egyptians love him), and of course whatever happens to be on sale. To be fair to Ali, he did give me considerable practice in Arabic, and was always very nice. I'm only a little riled because, somehow, he managed to get me to buy 8 small bottles of ointment. Sure the price was nice, but soon after leaving I realized that I now had enough perfume/musk to last me approximately 500 years at my going rate, which is basically occasionally putting on after-shave.

The other notable event Monday happened when I finally gave up on finding my hotel on foot and hailed a taxi. Luckily the driver figured out that by "Midan Ibrahim Pasha" I was actually referring to Midan Opera, which happens to have Ibrahim's statue. Then he took off, and for the next thirty minutes I saw more near accidents than in the rest of my life. First of all, most Cairo taxis are old black and white vehicles which are invariably missing some part-on mine it was, of course, the back seat belt- and only continue running because all the taxi drivers are secretly MacGyvers. These vehicles are then driven with a recklessness that makes the little street racing I've seen a joke. I'm convinced that if someone practiced defensive driving skills they would never move, because any forward progress of the car is a mini game of chicken, as two or more vehicles compete for the coveted position. I'll probably keep blathering on about the traffic during a later post, so I'll stop for now.

On Friday the other ND students will be showing up, and by now I'm quite looking forward to their arrival. Having complete independence is nice, but eventually it would be good to know someone who I didn't meet five minutes earlier. Finally, I put some pictures from Amsterdam and Cairo up, you should be able to access them here. And just to keep this place a little visually interesting, I'll throw one in here.

Arrival!

After 6,900 miles, 32 hours, and five airports I arrived in Cairo this morning at 2:00 AM local time, and was very glad AUC arranged a pickup for me at the airport, saving the hassle of finding a cab. My driver averaged about 110 km/h on the way to my hotel, and on arriving I got to experience my first stranger intent on getting baksheesh, or tips. The entrance to the Pension Roma is down an alley off a major street, and as I approached an elderly man came out of the shadows on my left, mumbling something in Arabic. I was either too tired or too trustworthy to be suspicious, which turned out to be fine, as all he wanted to do was direct me to the elevator towards the fourth floor, and help me with my bags. I underestimated the dedication of these guys; anyone guards an entrance until 2:30 in the morning on the off chance that someone checks in at that time deserves a tip.

I'm still quite bleary from jet lag, and I might not make it all the way until tonight without a nap, but now I'm going to take my first fairly random walk around the city. Today's the 19th, and the AUC dorms don't open until the 22nd, so the next few days are more or less entirely mine. One of the nice things about Cairo is how cheap it is, I'm not sure I could afford to arrive a few days early if I had gone to London or Dublin. But here I'm able to get a single for under $15 dollars a night, with breakfast included. Granted, it's not the nicest hotel in the world, and I haven't fully solved the mystery of the shower with two reddish handles, both of which caused very cold water to come out, but I'm young and should be able to handle these sort of things. I'll try to get some pictures up later, I have a few from walking around Amsterdam during my 9 hour layover, but the internet service here is only up for around 4-5 hours a day, so I can't promise they'll be up soon.