For the reader's who don't really know me, let me just inform you all that I am a scholar. My scholastic achievements actually helped me make this semester happen. I'm a member of three honors societies and I've been on the Dean's list every semester since I've started college. I say all this to remind you that although this semester is not only about me traveling the world and having the time of my life. I'm STUDYING abroad (emphasis on the study!).
I attend the University of Nicosia and I'm taking 12 credits of electives. The plan was to take at least one major course while i was out here but the university is not offering and communications classes that I need this semester. Womp Womp. I actually wrote this entry in my super irrelevant intro to hospitality management class. We have two teachers because it's a two part class. I absolutely love one and plan on telling the other teacher about his backside before I head back to the states. The one I do like, Chris Heracleous, teaches the cooking portion of the class (the portion that made me want to take the class) and was trained at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. He is hilariously candid and laid back, not to mention amazing in the kitchen. A few weeks ago, he made some bangin' vegetable purèe soup and fresh crutons in like 20min flat. I would give you the receipe but I'd rather cook it for my honeys when I get home =). Sadly, he gets easily side tracked (i.e. while I was writing the class broke off into a 10min discussion about the life span of people who drink Coke on a regular basis. One bold faced woman had the nerve to ask the man "Since you and I are both 33 let's ask the class which one of us looks better. I was a good girl I ate my vegetables and I don't drink or smoke. Look at the difference!" Now she clearly, looks way younger than the teacher so it wasn't even remotely fair. I was like "Why are you trying to embarrass him?" She claims it was for jokes but it wasn't funny and he was clearly uncomfortable.)
Sidenote: Cypriot students are SO disrespectful. It is ridiculous. The come to class 25min late, talk throughout the entire lesson, leave and don't come back after breaks. The first few weeks in my classes I was beyond appalled at the students and the teachers too for allowing it to happen. Thinking about it now I guess the teachers treat the students like adults and don't stress themselves out with trying to alter their attitudes towards their education. Whatever! Most of these Cypriot students wouldn't last a minute in a Morgan classroom. Back to the regularly scheduled entry.
Chris also makes class super long by taking at least 4 smoke breaks. The breaks aren't bad though because on the days we're not in the kitchen it prevents us from getting restless. So far we've only handled food in one class session but next week we'll be in the class for the entire 5 hours. Usually we do 2 hours with Chris and the other 2 with Nicholas Orphanides. He teaches practical hospitality management which is how to run various food service venues/how to be an efficient kitchen team member (i.e. setting and waiting tables, polishing glasses, etc.) We get into petty arguments at least once a week. It's probably because he can sense how much i hate his portion of the class ::kanyeshrug:: Moving on!
Naturally, because I'm abroad in a country that speaks a different language I am taking a foreign language and that language happens to be Greek. Before I started the class, several natives warned me that Greek is very difficult and more than likely I will not learn to o much of the language before my time in Cyprus is over. Sadly, they were telling the truth. Seriously, I can't even order my food in Greek at a restaurant. It doesn't pose a problem because almost everyone is fluent in English (Cyprus used to be a British colony at some point in history), I just feel silly. When I went out to eat with Yasmin and Yodalis in Paris, they ordered in French. When I went out with Efrata in Rome, she ordered in Italian. Joshua ordered in Spanish in Barcelona but he's Dominican so it doesn't count. The other three have been taking the national language of their study abroad countries prior to this semester but still man! I feel like restaurant vocabulary is a basic part of learning a language and for the purposes of being abroad it should be taught early in the semester! I literally just got the worksheet with the restaurant vocabulary today and their are only 42 days left in the semester. The teacher is really nice and I know she has the best intentions but I do not like the way she arranged the syllabus. We were writing sentences in Greek letters before we even learned any vocabulary! Plus, the class is through Global Learning Semesters which means whenever a group from the program is traveling, class is cancelled (i.e. Semester in the Mediterranean (that's my program) got back form their travels on Monday evening so class was cancelled for all students on Monday morning). Despite all that, I'm doing well on paper. I got 100 on the first quiz and a 98 on the midterm. Blah.
My only REAL class is Criminology. My teacher, Stelios Stylianou, studied at the University of Seattle and he loves to talk about how the media skews the public's perception of criminals. Considering I'm not taking any communication courses his method of teaching allows me to receive some form of information relevant to my major this semester. In this class there are only two Americans, one of them is me, the rest of the class is predominantly Cypriot and this is where i learned about their lack of classroom etiquette. It can be frustrating to be in a class with so many Cypriots because sometimes they spark up class discussion in Greek and even if you ask nicely they refuse to continue the discussion in English. The fact that Stelios answers them in Greek doesn't help the situation but it's okay. I suppose they understand somethings better when the teacher explains in their own language so I won't selfishly complain. I took the midterm today and got an 85. I could have done better but I was in a rush to get to cooking because I thought we were going to be in the kitchen. Welp. I actually have to write a paper for the class right after I finish this entry and I'm going to wrap it up right now because we all know how long it takes me to write things. The fourth class is photography but I told you about that two entries ago so I don't have to elaborate here.
I have SO much to write about my Mediterranean trip and I haven't even touched Paris and London and I'm going to Israel tomorrow. I might have to just do highlights from the trips or photoblogs and that makes me sad. We'll see. Wish me a safe trip please!
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Friday, 2 April 2010
Where In the World is Tracy Sandiego?
Hi. My name is Tracy and I foolishly left my computer in Cyprus when I went to Paris and London last week. Now I'm in Athens and I have at least one million things to type. Should I tell you about what happened in Athens today? Should I start from March 21st when I first left Cyprus? How about that entry that I promised Ashley about my last day in Egypt? I swear I would start vlogging to make my life easier if my hair would be consistently decent. Bahh. Here we go. Athens first. Paris and London in bits and pieces. Italy and Spain coming in a few days.
You ready?!
FYI - I didn't want to bring ALL my gadgets on the road with me because God forbid I leave something along the way, I refuse to replace it until I can pay for it in USD. With that said, my memory card reader for my camera is in Cyprus safely tucked away in a drawer. Next week, I'll post a link to my FB album so you can see the pics from Greece, Italy and Spain separate from the blog entries. Cool? Thought so! =)
Athens
After returning to the ghost town that is Makedonitissa to regroup after Spring Break Pt. 1, a very small group of GLS students and myself left for Athens this morning. The founder of GLS, Dr Polamides, his wife and the accountant, Elena, and another staff member Eleni are accompanying us on our journey through the Mediterranean. I have a bad habit of not sleeping before I go on exciting trips and I was a total zombie from the apartment until we landed in Athens. We fly out of a very calm and low traffic airport in Larnaca, Cyprus that requires minimal brain capacity to make it through. If you have your passport and you know how to read, you can make it through no problem. I grabbed an Apple Danish at this yummy cafe and knocked out one of their comfy purple couches until boarding time. Before I fell asleep I was able to ask Eleni some questions. She's pretty awesome. She started working with GLS about three years ago after speaking with Dr. Polamides, who was her student adviser at the time. She finishes her MBA at the end of this year. A masters at 23? I respect it! And while she's working on it she gets to have the coolest job ever?
"What do you do at your job?"
"Oh, go on trips with American kids to the Mediterranean for ten days twice a year."
I'm sure it's only cool because she gets to go to the Mediterranean. Imagine working for a study abroad program in America and having to accompany international students to places like New York and D.C.? Doesn't seem nearly as fun.
I had a window seat plus a row to myself on the flight and I definitely fell asleep as soon as I sat down. Like, before I put on my seat belt, before I turned off my phone. Sounds more like I passed out when I think about it. The roar of the engines woke me up when we actually got off the ground and I got myself together. Apparently planes CAN fly even if there is an electronic device turned ON. Go figure! Lol. Please don't intentionally break that rule the next time your on a plane. That was really irresponsible of me! Tell me why I slept so hard that I missed the in-flight breakfast too. I was TOO upset because I saw the flight attendants coming down the aisle and said,'I'm just gonna close my eyes for three seconds but I'll hear 'em when they get close.' The flight attendants were nice enough to bring me a vegetarian plate when I woke up in a panic 20minutes later. Airplanes and airports aren't that exciting so I can spare you the remaining details.
On the way to the hotel, the poet in me awoke from a long slumber and I threw a lil sumthin' sumthin' together. I'll post it as a video. It'll be more entertaining. Greeks drive on the left like Americans and they have toll booths on their highways. It was nice to see something that reminded me of home. Until I saw the price. 6 euro 50 centieme? That's a meal. Chill, I'll take the local roads. It took about 15min to get from the airport to the hotel and the ride wasn't that scenic. When I flew over Greece on my way to Paris the aerial view was amazing though so I anticipate more scenic views before I take off again. We're staying at the Crystal City Hotel somewhere in the heart of downtown. Despite the slum-like surroundings, the hotel is exceptionally nice. I'm sharing a room with Gillian (what's new?) and our balcony overlooks the crumbling balcony of an abandoned building.
We had a free day today so after a refreshing little nap, the whole lot of us (minus the escorts) ventured downtown to the Athens Flea Market. We walked it instead of taking public transit so we could take in the sites and enjoy the seventy degree weather. Along the way we encountered a cluster of African men who were too excited to see me. It wasn't anything different from walking past a group of men anywhere in the world and I was polite, saying my Hello's and Thank You's when I needed to and barked on the one man brave enough to grab me.
My roomies were freaked out by the interaction and Lauren attempted to admonish me and tell me that I need to be careful. This from the girl who walked off into the desert with two men from the netherlands in the dead of the night in Egypt. PLEASE, -_- . I had to explain that A. I can handle myself just fine (I'm from Brooklyn and I go to school in Baltimore. C'mon son) and B. it's polite to speak to people who greet you in passing instead of walking past without saying a word and looking rude.
Anyways, we passed a million shops before we got to the actual market and I was confused because it looked like everyday household shopping instead of tourist stores. Brooklyn readers, imagine Bobby's broken down by each department and in individual store fronts. We also passed an alley that looked like an outdoor meat market and a few pet shops too. After walking down "Bobby's Road" for what seemed like eternity we found Monastiraki Square which is where the flea market begins. There were tons of Africans selling all sorts of bootlegged goods, restaurants, fruit stands, a mosque, and hoards of people. Gilly got a patent leather multi colored patchwork Prada bag for 20 euro. Not bad if your into knockoffs! We shopped around for a bit and I found a few nice souvenirs but didnt buy anything because I wanted to shop around for the best price. I found out later that the markets are closing early tomorrow for Easter so I hope I can make it over there in time after our walking tour.
All the shopping made me super hungry and I persuaded my group to stop for an early dinner at this cute restaurant. I don't remember the name but I took a pic of the menu so I'll ask someone to translate tomorrow. I ordered Moussaka which is eggplants, ground meat and custard. Just imagine meatloaf with a Greek twist. It was really yummy and then I put some hot sauce on top and it was banging! While we were eating/people watching the bootleggers ran past our restaurant like three times attempting to dodge the police. I would have given up and went home but they were awfully relentless.
After we ate, we continued browsing through the flea market. I impressed Gregorios, a merchant, with my ability to write my name in Greek. He sells wire nameplates with Greek lettering and his sales pitch was "Come let me write your name to show you!" I told him I already knew how, wrote it out for him and pinky promised to come back and buy something for him tomorrow. My favorite shops at the market were the shoe stores with the young staff playing West Coast gangsta rap. The Nike store was playing "Gangsta's Paradise" and this ladies sandal shop called Reply was playing "Gin and Juice." Random!
We got back to the hotel pretty early after shopping so Gilly and I decided to go for a walk . around the neighborhood to find Jenny a good luck charm. Her life has been a series of silly unfortunate events these past few days so I figured she needed a pick me up. We walked opposite of downtown just to switch up the scenery but a native approached us and warned that there is a "teef" problem in the area and we should go. My sense of adventure and my warped sense of risk agreed for once and we head back in the direction of the market. I got Jenny a Mati "evil eye" bracelet from a skeevy little store for 2 euros. On the way back to the hotel I randomly bumped into my friend Samantha who I was in London with last weekend. She's staying at a hostel nearby and we're gonna try to linkup at some point. Second time I've seen a familiar face from home while abroad.
I'll tell you about the first time whenever I get around to writing about Paris. It's 2am and I have to get ready for bed because I have to blogging the same day did not help me get the entry out any faster but at least I got it out of the way. OH! I forgot to tell you how i almost got pick-pocketed! I'll tell you about it tomorrow 'cuz I am too sleepy but just know that you cannot swindle a swindler!
Nite Guys! Hope you enjoyed it.
You ready?!
FYI - I didn't want to bring ALL my gadgets on the road with me because God forbid I leave something along the way, I refuse to replace it until I can pay for it in USD. With that said, my memory card reader for my camera is in Cyprus safely tucked away in a drawer. Next week, I'll post a link to my FB album so you can see the pics from Greece, Italy and Spain separate from the blog entries. Cool? Thought so! =)
Athens
After returning to the ghost town that is Makedonitissa to regroup after Spring Break Pt. 1, a very small group of GLS students and myself left for Athens this morning. The founder of GLS, Dr Polamides, his wife and the accountant, Elena, and another staff member Eleni are accompanying us on our journey through the Mediterranean. I have a bad habit of not sleeping before I go on exciting trips and I was a total zombie from the apartment until we landed in Athens. We fly out of a very calm and low traffic airport in Larnaca, Cyprus that requires minimal brain capacity to make it through. If you have your passport and you know how to read, you can make it through no problem. I grabbed an Apple Danish at this yummy cafe and knocked out one of their comfy purple couches until boarding time. Before I fell asleep I was able to ask Eleni some questions. She's pretty awesome. She started working with GLS about three years ago after speaking with Dr. Polamides, who was her student adviser at the time. She finishes her MBA at the end of this year. A masters at 23? I respect it! And while she's working on it she gets to have the coolest job ever?
"What do you do at your job?"
"Oh, go on trips with American kids to the Mediterranean for ten days twice a year."
I'm sure it's only cool because she gets to go to the Mediterranean. Imagine working for a study abroad program in America and having to accompany international students to places like New York and D.C.? Doesn't seem nearly as fun.
I had a window seat plus a row to myself on the flight and I definitely fell asleep as soon as I sat down. Like, before I put on my seat belt, before I turned off my phone. Sounds more like I passed out when I think about it. The roar of the engines woke me up when we actually got off the ground and I got myself together. Apparently planes CAN fly even if there is an electronic device turned ON. Go figure! Lol. Please don't intentionally break that rule the next time your on a plane. That was really irresponsible of me! Tell me why I slept so hard that I missed the in-flight breakfast too. I was TOO upset because I saw the flight attendants coming down the aisle and said,'I'm just gonna close my eyes for three seconds but I'll hear 'em when they get close.' The flight attendants were nice enough to bring me a vegetarian plate when I woke up in a panic 20minutes later. Airplanes and airports aren't that exciting so I can spare you the remaining details.
On the way to the hotel, the poet in me awoke from a long slumber and I threw a lil sumthin' sumthin' together. I'll post it as a video. It'll be more entertaining. Greeks drive on the left like Americans and they have toll booths on their highways. It was nice to see something that reminded me of home. Until I saw the price. 6 euro 50 centieme? That's a meal. Chill, I'll take the local roads. It took about 15min to get from the airport to the hotel and the ride wasn't that scenic. When I flew over Greece on my way to Paris the aerial view was amazing though so I anticipate more scenic views before I take off again. We're staying at the Crystal City Hotel somewhere in the heart of downtown. Despite the slum-like surroundings, the hotel is exceptionally nice. I'm sharing a room with Gillian (what's new?) and our balcony overlooks the crumbling balcony of an abandoned building.
We had a free day today so after a refreshing little nap, the whole lot of us (minus the escorts) ventured downtown to the Athens Flea Market. We walked it instead of taking public transit so we could take in the sites and enjoy the seventy degree weather. Along the way we encountered a cluster of African men who were too excited to see me. It wasn't anything different from walking past a group of men anywhere in the world and I was polite, saying my Hello's and Thank You's when I needed to and barked on the one man brave enough to grab me.
My roomies were freaked out by the interaction and Lauren attempted to admonish me and tell me that I need to be careful. This from the girl who walked off into the desert with two men from the netherlands in the dead of the night in Egypt. PLEASE, -_- . I had to explain that A. I can handle myself just fine (I'm from Brooklyn and I go to school in Baltimore. C'mon son) and B. it's polite to speak to people who greet you in passing instead of walking past without saying a word and looking rude.
Anyways, we passed a million shops before we got to the actual market and I was confused because it looked like everyday household shopping instead of tourist stores. Brooklyn readers, imagine Bobby's broken down by each department and in individual store fronts. We also passed an alley that looked like an outdoor meat market and a few pet shops too. After walking down "Bobby's Road" for what seemed like eternity we found Monastiraki Square which is where the flea market begins. There were tons of Africans selling all sorts of bootlegged goods, restaurants, fruit stands, a mosque, and hoards of people. Gilly got a patent leather multi colored patchwork Prada bag for 20 euro. Not bad if your into knockoffs! We shopped around for a bit and I found a few nice souvenirs but didnt buy anything because I wanted to shop around for the best price. I found out later that the markets are closing early tomorrow for Easter so I hope I can make it over there in time after our walking tour.
All the shopping made me super hungry and I persuaded my group to stop for an early dinner at this cute restaurant. I don't remember the name but I took a pic of the menu so I'll ask someone to translate tomorrow. I ordered Moussaka which is eggplants, ground meat and custard. Just imagine meatloaf with a Greek twist. It was really yummy and then I put some hot sauce on top and it was banging! While we were eating/people watching the bootleggers ran past our restaurant like three times attempting to dodge the police. I would have given up and went home but they were awfully relentless.
After we ate, we continued browsing through the flea market. I impressed Gregorios, a merchant, with my ability to write my name in Greek. He sells wire nameplates with Greek lettering and his sales pitch was "Come let me write your name to show you!" I told him I already knew how, wrote it out for him and pinky promised to come back and buy something for him tomorrow. My favorite shops at the market were the shoe stores with the young staff playing West Coast gangsta rap. The Nike store was playing "Gangsta's Paradise" and this ladies sandal shop called Reply was playing "Gin and Juice." Random!
We got back to the hotel pretty early after shopping so Gilly and I decided to go for a walk . around the neighborhood to find Jenny a good luck charm. Her life has been a series of silly unfortunate events these past few days so I figured she needed a pick me up. We walked opposite of downtown just to switch up the scenery but a native approached us and warned that there is a "teef" problem in the area and we should go. My sense of adventure and my warped sense of risk agreed for once and we head back in the direction of the market. I got Jenny a Mati "evil eye" bracelet from a skeevy little store for 2 euros. On the way back to the hotel I randomly bumped into my friend Samantha who I was in London with last weekend. She's staying at a hostel nearby and we're gonna try to linkup at some point. Second time I've seen a familiar face from home while abroad.
I'll tell you about the first time whenever I get around to writing about Paris. It's 2am and I have to get ready for bed because I have to blogging the same day did not help me get the entry out any faster but at least I got it out of the way. OH! I forgot to tell you how i almost got pick-pocketed! I'll tell you about it tomorrow 'cuz I am too sleepy but just know that you cannot swindle a swindler!
Nite Guys! Hope you enjoyed it.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
How You Get Fired On Your Day Off?
---> Meant to post this ages ago. the Friday before I left for Paris to be exact. Excuse the tense.
Lol. Far from being fired, I actually got HIRED. I just think it's funny that I came all the way to Cyprus and got an internship. Who gets internships while there studying abroad? Tracy does.
I started to feel extremely restless about 3 weeks ago. Though Cyprus is a beautiful island, the laid back lifestyle was beginning to take a toll on my fast paced city girl emotions. In search of a cure for my mental distress, I visited the offices of Student Affairs and the Global Learning Semesters.
The Student Affairs office proved to be venue for a resolution to my problem. After meeting with the Director of Clubs and Campus Activities I signed up for the Wine Tasting Club, the Dance Club and the Volunteer Club. According to her, those are the top three to be in based on popularity among students and amount of scheduled events. My personal fave is the Wine Tasting club (DO NOT JUDGE!) because the Saturday after I (and the entire GLS program -_-) joined, we went on a wine tasting trip to visit the vineyards in the mountains. I'll tell you about that in another post.
The GLS office was also of superb assistance. I explained to my adviser, Thanos, that I was getting bored and had too much free time on my hands. He pointed at Andreas, another GLD employee, and told me that he had more than enough tasks to keep me occupied. Thanos was not lying. I am now an official Social and Marketing Officer of Kypros.com, which simply means I have to figure out how to encourage people to use the site and then get them to do it.
Kypros.com is the brain child of Andreas and the President of the GLS Cyprus headquarters. Similar to how Zagat works for the NYC restaurant industry, Kypros serves as a directory for businesses of all types in Cyprus. The major difference between the two sites is Kypros allows anyone to create a user account and begin adding content to the site. The duties of the Social Marketing Officer are essential to the success of the site because it relies so heavily on user contribution. I'm stoked about adding this to my resume! I spend 8hrs in the office Mon-Thurs and 6 hrs in the field on Fridays. Originally, it was supposed to be 10-12 hrs of office work for the week but Gillian (my roomie and the Assistant Content Manager) and I realized we wouldn't be able to add content to the site if most of our time was being spent at school/in the office. We negotiated with the boss and now we get field hrs and transportation money! Woop Woop!
Yesterday was our first day in the field and it definitely was not what Gilly or I expected btu it was still an interesting experience. In my heart of hearts... I take that back. In my stomach of stomachs, I wholeheartedly believed that my field work would involve going downtown and grabbing bites to eat at all the yummy restaurants! For the sake of my love handles it's probably a good thing that Andreas had us visit tourist sites and attractions but my stomach definitely let out a sigh of disappointment when he pulled out the map and started circling churches and monuments. All the sites were places I had visited previously on a tour during GLS orientation week but I didn't mind visiting them again if it meant salvation from a couch or an office chair.
We took a cab to Famagusta gate because it's smack dab in the middle of all the points we had to cover. There was construction equipment outside when we pulled up which ruined any chances of Gilly getting any good pictures but I reminded her that she had good pictures from the first visit. There are no signs, plaques or brochures outside explaining the historical significance of the gate but to the best of my knowledge the gate served as one of the entries into the city during the Byzantine era a gabillion years ago. For security purposes, it only opened at dawn and closed promptly at dusk. Those who arrived too late were forced to wait outside of the gate until it reopened in the morning.
Gilly put me on map duty because she feared looking like a corny American tourist. With no one to impress on this island, I had no issue navigating with the 2ftx2ft map but I warned her that my sense of direction is seasonal and it might not be working at this particular time of year. I did my best to channel my Kristopher Columbus abilities and told Gilly we should head due west in search of the Cypriot Statue of Liberty. Okay, I'm lying about the due west but it sounded cooler than to the right of the gate. We found the Aqueduct before we arrived at the statue. I was only able to recognize it because Andreas told us to look out for a series of archways, had he not said that I would have never noticed it. Not because I'm not good at finding things but Aqueducts typically have something to do with water and there was nothing even remotely moist about these archways. And once again, there were NO SIGNS. Not even one in Greek. Gilly took pictures anyway but I don't know what type of review either of us will be able to write on that attraction. The statue is across the street and a few feet ahead of the waterless Aqueduct and when we got there we saw other tourists taking pictures which made Gilly feel better. They offered to take pics of us posing with the statue which was nice. Unlike the first two monuments, the Statue of Liberty has a plaque but it was written entirely in Greek. All I can gather is that something happened between 1955-1959.
Next stop on the list of Old City must see's is the Archbishop's Palace. The street perpendicular to the Statue of Liberty leads straight to the Palace so I didn't have to call on Kristopher for help with that one. Again, there were no signs explaining the historical significance of the building but from the title I am almost certain that the Archbishop of Cyprus lives there. We walked into a courtyard adjacent to the courtyard and I immediately noticed a thick rope tied to a hook and hanging 20 feet from a bell tower. Typically, I am not a mischievous person but I can't tell you how bad I wanted to ring that bell and run! I tugged lightly but the yank it was going to take to actually make the bell ring would have caused too much drastic movement and I didn't want to get caught before I even finished hearing the "Bong." For fear of getting into massive trouble I decided to scope out the area instead and chanced upon the Museum of Folk Art. It looked interesting but there was a 7euro entry fee and that was not in the budget for the day. Gillian chose not to violate the no photography rule and there were no brochures so if you ever make it in there please feel free to tell me what you saw! It's not over for me and the bell, though. I plan on finding out what it means when the bell sounds and then if it doesn't mean anything too drastic it then I promise to ring it before I leave. Overly cautious thug life, sue me.
My inner Kristopher was napping so I asked a local for directions to Agnos Antonios Church. The language barrier made the directions choppy but after stumbling to the right for a bit, we found the church. There were a bunch of cute old ladies inside tidying up which means we missed Good Friday Service. I tried to express my disappointment to the women but my limited Greek vocabulary paired with their non-existent knowledge of English made it impossible. There was a counter at the front of the church filled with brochures, I took a few in hopes that Andreas could translate for me. When we got back to the office I found out that my efforts were futile because the brochure ended up being about Women's Health Awareness. We stopped on a side street to find out next destination and I discovered that the Omeriyeh Mosque and the Ethnological museum were close by. The Ethnological museum is SUPER non-descript and we actually walked past it on the way to the church. Gilly took pictures outside but the building was closed so I can't show you any of the contents. Hope the picture is worth a thousand words!
The Omeriye Mosque was the most interesting place I visited. We arrived shortly after one of the evening prayers so there were several clusters of men in the courtyard. Gillian wanted to take pictures and leave but I was determined to go inside. After reading Malcolm X's biography I am very interested in the teachings of Allah and the practices of the Muslim world. No intentions of converting, just curious as to how they worship. I told Gilly she could wait outside but she gave in and headed to the entrance with me. There were mats extending from the door into the courtyard with a few pairs of shoes on them. When we got close enough to the mats, I asked one of the many men if we could go inside. I anticipated a yes but I just wanted to be certain because there really were no women in the courtyard with us. As i suspected, the man said it was fine and we took off our shoes and entered the interior. Inside was like a big carpeted living room with no furniture and there were four more men inside. Three were talking and one was still praying. Gillian and I walked all the way in and started reading the plaques on the wall. I heard footsteps approaching us pretty quickly and I looked over my shoulder to see who was coming. A man was running towards us holding two large pieces of fabric in his arms. I couldn't discern what the garments were but I assumed it was some sort of head covering because Gillian and I both had on pants and our arms/cleavage were covered. I told him Shukran and then immediately attempted wrap the fabric around my head. Why I didn't take the time to open up the garment and look at it, I don't know but boy was I embarrassed when I finished my wrap and looked up to see Gillian with her arms in a sleeved robe. It was awful. I was silently dying of laughter because of how foolish I looked and I couldn't unwrap myself fast enough to avoid the stares of the few people within the mosque. We made a mad dash to the door after that because we were laughing too hard and wanted to avoid disturbing the people who were still worshiping. That was ALMOST as bad as when a brown skinned maintenance man came to my apartment in Cyprus and I said "Hola!" Not even going to go into detail about my reasoning because I don't want to be seen as politically incorrect but you definitely get the drift. Those are my two stereotypical American moments, don't judge. It happens to the best of us.
After the mosque we walked past Famagusta Gate again on our way up to the remaining Churchs and I noticed a very small door in wall and two people were posted outside smoking. I told Gilly that the door was probably open and she didn't believe me so I went over to find out for myself. Sure enough the door was open and inside of the gate is a beautiful art gallery! I was so surprised because I didn't know there were any rooms within the gate. I googled it and it says that the passageway served as workshops and stores during ancient times. Now the rooms have been restored and the South Hall (where I was) is used for art exhibits and presentations. There had been a presentation by the European Union bank earlier that day and I tried to ask the man at the front desk a few questions about it but he didn't speak any English.
After this we went to two more church's before we made our way back to the GLS headquarters. Andreas was pleased with out progress and he reimbursed for our cab fare.
Lol. Far from being fired, I actually got HIRED. I just think it's funny that I came all the way to Cyprus and got an internship. Who gets internships while there studying abroad? Tracy does.
I started to feel extremely restless about 3 weeks ago. Though Cyprus is a beautiful island, the laid back lifestyle was beginning to take a toll on my fast paced city girl emotions. In search of a cure for my mental distress, I visited the offices of Student Affairs and the Global Learning Semesters.
The Student Affairs office proved to be venue for a resolution to my problem. After meeting with the Director of Clubs and Campus Activities I signed up for the Wine Tasting Club, the Dance Club and the Volunteer Club. According to her, those are the top three to be in based on popularity among students and amount of scheduled events. My personal fave is the Wine Tasting club (DO NOT JUDGE!) because the Saturday after I (and the entire GLS program -_-) joined, we went on a wine tasting trip to visit the vineyards in the mountains. I'll tell you about that in another post.
The GLS office was also of superb assistance. I explained to my adviser, Thanos, that I was getting bored and had too much free time on my hands. He pointed at Andreas, another GLD employee, and told me that he had more than enough tasks to keep me occupied. Thanos was not lying. I am now an official Social and Marketing Officer of Kypros.com, which simply means I have to figure out how to encourage people to use the site and then get them to do it.
Kypros.com is the brain child of Andreas and the President of the GLS Cyprus headquarters. Similar to how Zagat works for the NYC restaurant industry, Kypros serves as a directory for businesses of all types in Cyprus. The major difference between the two sites is Kypros allows anyone to create a user account and begin adding content to the site. The duties of the Social Marketing Officer are essential to the success of the site because it relies so heavily on user contribution. I'm stoked about adding this to my resume! I spend 8hrs in the office Mon-Thurs and 6 hrs in the field on Fridays. Originally, it was supposed to be 10-12 hrs of office work for the week but Gillian (my roomie and the Assistant Content Manager) and I realized we wouldn't be able to add content to the site if most of our time was being spent at school/in the office. We negotiated with the boss and now we get field hrs and transportation money! Woop Woop!
Yesterday was our first day in the field and it definitely was not what Gilly or I expected btu it was still an interesting experience. In my heart of hearts... I take that back. In my stomach of stomachs, I wholeheartedly believed that my field work would involve going downtown and grabbing bites to eat at all the yummy restaurants! For the sake of my love handles it's probably a good thing that Andreas had us visit tourist sites and attractions but my stomach definitely let out a sigh of disappointment when he pulled out the map and started circling churches and monuments. All the sites were places I had visited previously on a tour during GLS orientation week but I didn't mind visiting them again if it meant salvation from a couch or an office chair.
We took a cab to Famagusta gate because it's smack dab in the middle of all the points we had to cover. There was construction equipment outside when we pulled up which ruined any chances of Gilly getting any good pictures but I reminded her that she had good pictures from the first visit. There are no signs, plaques or brochures outside explaining the historical significance of the gate but to the best of my knowledge the gate served as one of the entries into the city during the Byzantine era a gabillion years ago. For security purposes, it only opened at dawn and closed promptly at dusk. Those who arrived too late were forced to wait outside of the gate until it reopened in the morning.
Gilly put me on map duty because she feared looking like a corny American tourist. With no one to impress on this island, I had no issue navigating with the 2ftx2ft map but I warned her that my sense of direction is seasonal and it might not be working at this particular time of year. I did my best to channel my Kristopher Columbus abilities and told Gilly we should head due west in search of the Cypriot Statue of Liberty. Okay, I'm lying about the due west but it sounded cooler than to the right of the gate. We found the Aqueduct before we arrived at the statue. I was only able to recognize it because Andreas told us to look out for a series of archways, had he not said that I would have never noticed it. Not because I'm not good at finding things but Aqueducts typically have something to do with water and there was nothing even remotely moist about these archways. And once again, there were NO SIGNS. Not even one in Greek. Gilly took pictures anyway but I don't know what type of review either of us will be able to write on that attraction. The statue is across the street and a few feet ahead of the waterless Aqueduct and when we got there we saw other tourists taking pictures which made Gilly feel better. They offered to take pics of us posing with the statue which was nice. Unlike the first two monuments, the Statue of Liberty has a plaque but it was written entirely in Greek. All I can gather is that something happened between 1955-1959.
Next stop on the list of Old City must see's is the Archbishop's Palace. The street perpendicular to the Statue of Liberty leads straight to the Palace so I didn't have to call on Kristopher for help with that one. Again, there were no signs explaining the historical significance of the building but from the title I am almost certain that the Archbishop of Cyprus lives there. We walked into a courtyard adjacent to the courtyard and I immediately noticed a thick rope tied to a hook and hanging 20 feet from a bell tower. Typically, I am not a mischievous person but I can't tell you how bad I wanted to ring that bell and run! I tugged lightly but the yank it was going to take to actually make the bell ring would have caused too much drastic movement and I didn't want to get caught before I even finished hearing the "Bong." For fear of getting into massive trouble I decided to scope out the area instead and chanced upon the Museum of Folk Art. It looked interesting but there was a 7euro entry fee and that was not in the budget for the day. Gillian chose not to violate the no photography rule and there were no brochures so if you ever make it in there please feel free to tell me what you saw! It's not over for me and the bell, though. I plan on finding out what it means when the bell sounds and then if it doesn't mean anything too drastic it then I promise to ring it before I leave. Overly cautious thug life, sue me.
My inner Kristopher was napping so I asked a local for directions to Agnos Antonios Church. The language barrier made the directions choppy but after stumbling to the right for a bit, we found the church. There were a bunch of cute old ladies inside tidying up which means we missed Good Friday Service. I tried to express my disappointment to the women but my limited Greek vocabulary paired with their non-existent knowledge of English made it impossible. There was a counter at the front of the church filled with brochures, I took a few in hopes that Andreas could translate for me. When we got back to the office I found out that my efforts were futile because the brochure ended up being about Women's Health Awareness. We stopped on a side street to find out next destination and I discovered that the Omeriyeh Mosque and the Ethnological museum were close by. The Ethnological museum is SUPER non-descript and we actually walked past it on the way to the church. Gilly took pictures outside but the building was closed so I can't show you any of the contents. Hope the picture is worth a thousand words!
The Omeriye Mosque was the most interesting place I visited. We arrived shortly after one of the evening prayers so there were several clusters of men in the courtyard. Gillian wanted to take pictures and leave but I was determined to go inside. After reading Malcolm X's biography I am very interested in the teachings of Allah and the practices of the Muslim world. No intentions of converting, just curious as to how they worship. I told Gilly she could wait outside but she gave in and headed to the entrance with me. There were mats extending from the door into the courtyard with a few pairs of shoes on them. When we got close enough to the mats, I asked one of the many men if we could go inside. I anticipated a yes but I just wanted to be certain because there really were no women in the courtyard with us. As i suspected, the man said it was fine and we took off our shoes and entered the interior. Inside was like a big carpeted living room with no furniture and there were four more men inside. Three were talking and one was still praying. Gillian and I walked all the way in and started reading the plaques on the wall. I heard footsteps approaching us pretty quickly and I looked over my shoulder to see who was coming. A man was running towards us holding two large pieces of fabric in his arms. I couldn't discern what the garments were but I assumed it was some sort of head covering because Gillian and I both had on pants and our arms/cleavage were covered. I told him Shukran and then immediately attempted wrap the fabric around my head. Why I didn't take the time to open up the garment and look at it, I don't know but boy was I embarrassed when I finished my wrap and looked up to see Gillian with her arms in a sleeved robe. It was awful. I was silently dying of laughter because of how foolish I looked and I couldn't unwrap myself fast enough to avoid the stares of the few people within the mosque. We made a mad dash to the door after that because we were laughing too hard and wanted to avoid disturbing the people who were still worshiping. That was ALMOST as bad as when a brown skinned maintenance man came to my apartment in Cyprus and I said "Hola!" Not even going to go into detail about my reasoning because I don't want to be seen as politically incorrect but you definitely get the drift. Those are my two stereotypical American moments, don't judge. It happens to the best of us.
After the mosque we walked past Famagusta Gate again on our way up to the remaining Churchs and I noticed a very small door in wall and two people were posted outside smoking. I told Gilly that the door was probably open and she didn't believe me so I went over to find out for myself. Sure enough the door was open and inside of the gate is a beautiful art gallery! I was so surprised because I didn't know there were any rooms within the gate. I googled it and it says that the passageway served as workshops and stores during ancient times. Now the rooms have been restored and the South Hall (where I was) is used for art exhibits and presentations. There had been a presentation by the European Union bank earlier that day and I tried to ask the man at the front desk a few questions about it but he didn't speak any English.
After this we went to two more church's before we made our way back to the GLS headquarters. Andreas was pleased with out progress and he reimbursed for our cab fare.
>>>FAST FORWARD>>>
At GLS's graduation ceremony, Gillian Rowley, Kayla Mark and I were awarded for being top contributors to Kypros. We won 25 euros towards dinner at a traditional Greek restaurant called Plaka Tavern not too far from our apartment. You pay 20 euro per person and the waiter brings 5 courses of food out. It is imperative that you eat with moderation because the yummy treat you gobble down in course 2 might hinder you from sampling the next treat in course 4. We were so stuffed after dinner that we walked back to the apartment after dinner to burn off all the calories.
So yeah, getting an internship abroad wasn't such a bad idea after all!
So yeah, getting an internship abroad wasn't such a bad idea after all!
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Maybe I need a new prescription...
Photograph by Leslie AlsheimerWhen you look at this picture what do you see?
I'm taking a photography class and this week's assignment was to bring in two pictures that are somehow related and then discuss the visual symbolism in both of the shots. The picture above was brought in by one of my classmates. As soon as the picture projected onto the screen Tone and I both began gushing about how much we loved the picture. Tone even went as far as to say if he has a daughter he would frame the picture and put it in her room. Strangely, no more than three sentences into her description, the student who was presenting said, "You can clearly see the poverty in this picture."
Clearly?
At first glance all I can see is two girls sharing a moment of uncontrollable laughter. Second glance, I'm loving the freedom of the older girls movements. It's like the laughter is making her dance. Third glance, I notice the embrace of the younger girl and it reminds me of how a little sister would cling to a big sister. Fourth glance, their dresses make me think of summer and crisp cotton. Fifth glance, the palm trees and the shack remind me of Jamaica. I know it can be anywhere tropical but that's what came to my mind first. Last glance, I see the building in the far left. Could be a house, or a school, or a church but there aren't enough details for me to know. There is NOTHING in this picture that blatantly or even subliminally suggests poverty. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but her statement was much too strong.
No sooner than she finished her sentence I blurted out "Where in the picture do you see poverty ?" Several students in the class chimed in with similar questions and it felt good to know that I wasn't the only one baffled by that remark. The presenter attempted to say that the shack in the background and the little girl not wearing shoes were examples of poverty but the class quickly refuted those statements. One girl from Jersey said "You can see shacks like that ANYWHERE. I see them all over Jersey..." and someone else said it's not unusual for children to play outside barefoot. All valid points but the presenter was insistent on telling us why there is indeed poverty in the picture, claiming that in the caption on National Geographic's website the photographer said it was taken in Uganda, "A nation known for its impoverished conditions." Forgive my ignorance but I don't know anything about Uganda and caption or no caption, the picture still only evokes positive feelings within me. I took it upon myself to Google the caption.
The caption CLEARLY states that these girls have not been exposed to poverty. Granted the writer said they have not been exposed as yet but the point is the picture was appropriately titled "Girls Laughing, Uganda" because that is all you can see. I was and still am so thoroughly offended by my classmate attempting to force a vision of poverty on me. Another person in the class used the same picture for her presentation and compared it to a photo of a close up of a dutch girl laughing backstage before a festival performance. In the class discussion of her two photos one young lady said "You can tell that this girl [the dutch girl] is from a more advanced civilization because of the doors." No joke. She said this with a straight face and the presenter actually nodded and made comments that supported that ridiculous statement. The girls in Uganda are CLEARLY outside. How can you compare the inside of this building in god knows where to the palm trees of Uganda? Palm trees now symbolize societies that are less advanced in their development? All I could do was shake my head.
Maybe I'm biased. Maybe I'm upset because the people who chose these pictures took a beautiful moment and attempted to make it ugly. Maybe I'm subconsciously pulling a race card. Or maybe they just couldn't see this picture for what it really is.
What do YOU think?
No sooner than she finished her sentence I blurted out "Where in the picture do you see poverty ?" Several students in the class chimed in with similar questions and it felt good to know that I wasn't the only one baffled by that remark. The presenter attempted to say that the shack in the background and the little girl not wearing shoes were examples of poverty but the class quickly refuted those statements. One girl from Jersey said "You can see shacks like that ANYWHERE. I see them all over Jersey..." and someone else said it's not unusual for children to play outside barefoot. All valid points but the presenter was insistent on telling us why there is indeed poverty in the picture, claiming that in the caption on National Geographic's website the photographer said it was taken in Uganda, "A nation known for its impoverished conditions." Forgive my ignorance but I don't know anything about Uganda and caption or no caption, the picture still only evokes positive feelings within me. I took it upon myself to Google the caption.
"It is the light, it is the curl in the corners of the mouth, the sparkle in the eyes, and the unedited and untainted laughter. It is a child that does not yet understand the meaning of poverty. It is the child that has not yet seen the violence and destruction so prevalent in the world. It is the child that lost their mother to AIDS or child birthing complications, yet remains joyous and youthful despite the suffering. Dignity: The quality or state of being worthy of esteem or respect."
The caption CLEARLY states that these girls have not been exposed to poverty. Granted the writer said they have not been exposed as yet but the point is the picture was appropriately titled "Girls Laughing, Uganda" because that is all you can see. I was and still am so thoroughly offended by my classmate attempting to force a vision of poverty on me. Another person in the class used the same picture for her presentation and compared it to a photo of a close up of a dutch girl laughing backstage before a festival performance. In the class discussion of her two photos one young lady said "You can tell that this girl [the dutch girl] is from a more advanced civilization because of the doors." No joke. She said this with a straight face and the presenter actually nodded and made comments that supported that ridiculous statement. The girls in Uganda are CLEARLY outside. How can you compare the inside of this building in god knows where to the palm trees of Uganda? Palm trees now symbolize societies that are less advanced in their development? All I could do was shake my head.
Maybe I'm biased. Maybe I'm upset because the people who chose these pictures took a beautiful moment and attempted to make it ugly. Maybe I'm subconsciously pulling a race card. Or maybe they just couldn't see this picture for what it really is.
What do YOU think?
Friday, 5 March 2010
Egyptian Excursion - Pt. 2
Friday
When we were browsing through hostels, Arabian Nights stood out to us because they serve complimentary breakfast every morning in the lobby. Abraham and one of the many Mohammed's we met while we were their prepared fresh crepes for us (Abraham learned how to make them from
his French wife) and they were served with banana's, honey and I opted to put cheese on mine. They had this amazing bread too! I put some apricot jelly and cheese on that bad boy and I was in heaven. Washed all of that down with at least three cups of tea and then we began our journey to the pyramids.
The drive through Cairo was less than scenic to say the most. As we were driving I saw a body of water that looked very much like the Hudson and I asked out loud to no one in particular "Is that the Nile?" Lauren was quick to tell me no but much to our surprise the tour guide Wasif said it was indeed the Nile and we
even got out to take pictures. In retrospect, I have no clue why I thought the water would still be blue and there would be palm trees towering over the river banks. It's hard to accept that images in textbooks are not the same in real life, even if it's 5,000 years later. As we were driving I observed that the natives do not have much appreciation for the Nile. In certain areas there was trash piled up alongside the banks, spilling into the water. I actually saw two women who appeared to be walking from their homes dump two big trash bags into the water and it looked like it was apart of their daily routine. Honestly, there was garbage every where. I guess 
the government isn't concerned with the cleanliness of the city because there were no garbage cans/dumpsters in sight which of course leads to people disposing of their trash any where. When I get famous, I'm going to donate a considerable amount of money towards a Cairo clean up project.
As we got closer to the pyramids the surrounding neighborhoods became more rural. We drove along side several carts of vegetables being tugged slowly to their destination by donkeys and a woman carrying fresh veggies on her head. It was pretty funny the way they fit right in with the flow of traffic. No one was disturbed by the presence of the other. Before we entered the part of the desert where the pyramids
were, we had to stop at a rest-stop/check point to purchase $12 Visas. Abraham neglected to tell us that our entry to the many sites we were seeing for the day was not included in the amount we paid him the night before. I forgive him but a heads up would have been less frustrating because when you find out at the entrance you feel like you no longer have a choice.
Our first stop on the pyramid tour was the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. Wasif, our tour guide, is an archaeologist and he gave us an intense history lesson before our physical tour of the pyramids (Click the link for more information). He also told us to steer clear of the men selling trinkets and warned us about how persistent they would be. You know I'm a sucker and and I ended up spending
al
most $30 before I left. It's cool though, 20 post cards for $2 and 3 necklaces for $25 wasn't a bad deal if ya ask me.
Next we visited a Papyrus shop where we learned how to make papyrus and learned the story behind some pieces of Ancient Art work. Check out the video footage! (It's uncut.)
When we were browsing through hostels, Arabian Nights stood out to us because they serve complimentary breakfast every morning in the lobby. Abraham and one of the many Mohammed's we met while we were their prepared fresh crepes for us (Abraham learned how to make them from
his French wife) and they were served with banana's, honey and I opted to put cheese on mine. They had this amazing bread too! I put some apricot jelly and cheese on that bad boy and I was in heaven. Washed all of that down with at least three cups of tea and then we began our journey to the pyramids.The drive through Cairo was less than scenic to say the most. As we were driving I saw a body of water that looked very much like the Hudson and I asked out loud to no one in particular "Is that the Nile?" Lauren was quick to tell me no but much to our surprise the tour guide Wasif said it was indeed the Nile and we
even got out to take pictures. In retrospect, I have no clue why I thought the water would still be blue and there would be palm trees towering over the river banks. It's hard to accept that images in textbooks are not the same in real life, even if it's 5,000 years later. As we were driving I observed that the natives do not have much appreciation for the Nile. In certain areas there was trash piled up alongside the banks, spilling into the water. I actually saw two women who appeared to be walking from their homes dump two big trash bags into the water and it looked like it was apart of their daily routine. Honestly, there was garbage every where. I guess 
the government isn't concerned with the cleanliness of the city because there were no garbage cans/dumpsters in sight which of course leads to people disposing of their trash any where. When I get famous, I'm going to donate a considerable amount of money towards a Cairo clean up project.As we got closer to the pyramids the surrounding neighborhoods became more rural. We drove along side several carts of vegetables being tugged slowly to their destination by donkeys and a woman carrying fresh veggies on her head. It was pretty funny the way they fit right in with the flow of traffic. No one was disturbed by the presence of the other. Before we entered the part of the desert where the pyramids
were, we had to stop at a rest-stop/check point to purchase $12 Visas. Abraham neglected to tell us that our entry to the many sites we were seeing for the day was not included in the amount we paid him the night before. I forgive him but a heads up would have been less frustrating because when you find out at the entrance you feel like you no longer have a choice.Our first stop on the pyramid tour was the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. Wasif, our tour guide, is an archaeologist and he gave us an intense history lesson before our physical tour of the pyramids (Click the link for more information). He also told us to steer clear of the men selling trinkets and warned us about how persistent they would be. You know I'm a sucker and and I ended up spending
al
most $30 before I left. It's cool though, 20 post cards for $2 and 3 necklaces for $25 wasn't a bad deal if ya ask me.Next we visited a Papyrus shop where we learned how to make papyrus and learned the story behind some pieces of Ancient Art work. Check out the video footage! (It's uncut.)
The whole group was starving when we left so we went to have lunch at the Cleopatra Restaurant which overlooked the pyramids. The food was good but I didn't take the time to savor the flavor because I was so anxious to get to the pyramids and the Sphinx! (Don't fret my pets, i did indulge in traditional Egyptian cooking and i will tell u about it later.)
When we got to Giza, Tone, Gillian, Kam and I decided we wanted to ride camels up to the pyramids. If I remember correctly it was $30 per person and we got to ride for an hour. My camel's name was Mickey Mouse and he was very well behaved. I'm only saying this because he didn't throw me off. I feel like that's the only thing that can make a camel bad, lol. We split up from the rest of the group and had a guide named Alex who accompanied us on horseback but he/she (still not sure of his/her gender) was not historically informative. We talked way more about camel rearing and eating than anything else. Apparently camels make really good dinner when their no longer good for riding. I almost forgot to tell ya'll how me and Tone got caught up!
Knowing that such a monument still exists after so many centuries is one thing but to actually SEE it still standing and not just as an image in a book is like... so crazy, man. It was smaller than I imagined it to be but amazing nonetheless. And there were a ton of people there! The entire Giza complex was teeming with tourists from all over the world as if it was peak season. I'd hate to see the crowd during the summer months! After the Sphinx we trooped it all the way up the hill to the pyramids but it was such a task between the souvenir sellers and dodging the mounds of camel poop. These men were crafty I tell you! One of them offered to take a picture for Kam, set up the shot and took it with Kam's camera and then tried to charge him 60 pounds. We literally had to play tug-a-war to get the camera back. When they weren't haggling us to buy presents they were busy trying to figure out who Tone and I were to each other. We decided to say we were siblings because the term "Best Friend" went in one ear and out the other.
We had this conversation ten million times...
Native: Sir, is that your Wife?
Tone: Nah, that's my sister.
Native: Well your sister is beautiful. May I have her?
Tone: You can have her! I don't want her!
Me: TONE! -_-
Overall, everyone was in LOVE with our brown-ness that day. So many people stopped us to compliment us on our skin tone and gush about how much they love Obama. My favorite was a little pre-teen boy who saw us and gushed "I love my complexion! We are beautiful people!" Being Black in Egypt really made me appreciate my brown skin more. Coming from America where there are a million people that look like me I guess I've grown to take it for granted but Egypt made me remember that before I'm an American, and before I'm Jamaican or Haitian, I'm an African Queen. Though Egypt has some people of a darker hue, the majority of Egyptians are extremely fair skinned and European looking due to the years of Greek and Roman influence. Wasif, the tour guide, said to Tone that his skin was pure and he should be happy that his blood has not been diluted. That, my friends, was a BIG statement. All my readers give yourself a quick kiss and rejoice in your melanin!
Okay fast forward a bit ...
It's like two hours later, its the evening and a big group of us decided to go to the market near our hostel to look around before the dinner cruise on the Nile. The market is a street filled with shops that have outside displays. Same kind of haggling techniques but the merchandise is on the table to the men's hands are free to drag you back over while they pitch the sale. We started off all together but I stopped at a table for a little too long and poof! Everyone disappeared except for Tone. No biggie, we're used to making moves together anyway. I strike up a conversation with the owner of the table, another Ahmad, and I explain to him that I need to have a name plate with hieroglyphics made. He tells me he sells them but I need to walk with him to the factory where they handcraft the jewelry. Naturally, I ask him if it's close and he says yeah yeah of course we'll be there in 5 minutes! So I ask Tone if he minds walking with me and he says "No problem" so we begin walking through the market with Ahmad. We got to the end of the market place and then the street turned into more of an alley way but there were still a lot of people, lots of shops and it was well lit. Smooth, no need to panic. We walked for five minutes and things started to look quite sketchy. The lighting got dim, there were less shops and more creepy entrances to buildings with not so nice looking people hanging out in front of them and the floor was GROSS. I had on some suede loafers and I couldn't even look up for long because I had to make sure my foot didn't get sloshed by some foolishness. I'm getting nervous at this point because it's just me and Tone. No one has any idea where we've gone and we had no means of getting in touch with anybody. Tone asked Ahmad if we were almost there and he says "Yeah, Yeah! Soon be there." But after 10minutes of walking when he assured us it was only 5minutes away before we left, I was convinced Tone and I were about to be dismembered and our organs were going to be on the black market before sunrise. Just when I had given up, Ahmad busted two quick turns and motioned for us to follow him up some stairs. Upstairs, Jafar reincarnate was seated at a metal desk smoking a cigarette and there were 7 men ranging from age 15-50 in a back room eating dinner and carrying on. I almost didn't bother ordering the name plate because I had ran out of all kinds of currency and I was scared to find out where the ATM was but luckily I had 10 Euro in my pocket and that was sufficient funds. They made the name plate in front of my face and I made it back to the hostel in one piece. Was it worth it? Yup! The person I got it for would give me their right foot if I asked to borrow a toe. Would I do it again? Absolutely not, I'm not crazy! Lol. I'm sorry I don't have pics but my camera died while we were at the pyramids. It was too skeevy to share visually anyways.
Can I breeze through the Nile dinner cruise? Thanks. It's 5am and I'm about to crash.
The first Ahmad was our guide for the evening of dinner and dancing on the Nile. When we pulled up to the dock there was a crowd of people outside and in very high spirits. Turns out it was a wedding party and they were getting on the boat with us! Legit Wedding Crashing in Egypt. Every traveler's dream come true! Lol. The marriage had clearly been arranged, the first song they danced to as newlywed's was "Hello" by Lionel Richie and they were asking each other questions the entire time. Not to mention they weren't even touching tummy to tummy.
The food was really good but not traditional Egyptian cuisine so I'm not telling you about it. In addition to the live singing, there was also a Belly Dancer and a human kaleidoscope for additional entertainment. During each set of performances people were drawn fr
om the audience to participate and I got to be the human kaleidoscope too! The pictures have yet to surface. After the dinner we went back to the hostel where there was a 
party in the lobby for Mohammed number two's birthday. I hung out with Abraham and took pics on his camera phone for a few and then I called it a night.
Keep in mind that I have yet to tell you about Saturday and Sunday. Told you it was a crazy weekend!!
When we got to Giza, Tone, Gillian, Kam and I decided we wanted to ride camels up to the pyramids. If I remember correctly it was $30 per person and we got to ride for an hour. My camel's name was Mickey Mouse and he was very well behaved. I'm only saying this because he didn't throw me off. I feel like that's the only thing that can make a camel bad, lol. We split up from the rest of the group and had a guide named Alex who accompanied us on horseback but he/she (still not sure of his/her gender) was not historically informative. We talked way more about camel rearing and eating than anything else. Apparently camels make really good dinner when their no longer good for riding. I almost forgot to tell ya'll how me and Tone got caught up!
So we're riding through the streets of Giza on our way up to the pyramids and a group of men run up along side Mickey Mouse and tell us to lean over. They were all smiles so Tone and I both leaned over and two of the men proceeded to put traditional protective desert head wear on us. We were so excited because we thought the head wear came as a complimentary gift with the camel ride. Sike! After the man gassed us entirely by grabbing my camera and snapping pics of
us posing like natives, he begins asking us for 25 Egyptian pounds. I did the math in my head really quickly and realized it was only $5 so I paid it but golly! I swear I met some of the most persuasive/manipulative salesman ever in life on this trip. Our camel riding time ran out before we actually got up to the pyramids so we sent Alex back and hoofed it on our own. We stopped at the Sphinx first for a few pictures. It was unreal to be looking at the Sphinx with my own eyes.
us posing like natives, he begins asking us for 25 Egyptian pounds. I did the math in my head really quickly and realized it was only $5 so I paid it but golly! I swear I met some of the most persuasive/manipulative salesman ever in life on this trip. Our camel riding time ran out before we actually got up to the pyramids so we sent Alex back and hoofed it on our own. We stopped at the Sphinx first for a few pictures. It was unreal to be looking at the Sphinx with my own eyes.
We had this conversation ten million times...
Native: Sir, is that your Wife?
Tone: Nah, that's my sister.
Native: Well your sister is beautiful. May I have her?
Tone: You can have her! I don't want her!
Me: TONE! -_-
Overall, everyone was in LOVE with our brown-ness that day. So many people stopped us to compliment us on our skin tone and gush about how much they love Obama. My favorite was a little pre-teen boy who saw us and gushed "I love my complexion! We are beautiful people!" Being Black in Egypt really made me appreciate my brown skin more. Coming from America where there are a million people that look like me I guess I've grown to take it for granted but Egypt made me remember that before I'm an American, and before I'm Jamaican or Haitian, I'm an African Queen. Though Egypt has some people of a darker hue, the majority of Egyptians are extremely fair skinned and European looking due to the years of Greek and Roman influence. Wasif, the tour guide, said to Tone that his skin was pure and he should be happy that his blood has not been diluted. That, my friends, was a BIG statement. All my readers give yourself a quick kiss and rejoice in your melanin!
Okay fast forward a bit ...
It's like two hours later, its the evening and a big group of us decided to go to the market near our hostel to look around before the dinner cruise on the Nile. The market is a street filled with shops that have outside displays. Same kind of haggling techniques but the merchandise is on the table to the men's hands are free to drag you back over while they pitch the sale. We started off all together but I stopped at a table for a little too long and poof! Everyone disappeared except for Tone. No biggie, we're used to making moves together anyway. I strike up a conversation with the owner of the table, another Ahmad, and I explain to him that I need to have a name plate with hieroglyphics made. He tells me he sells them but I need to walk with him to the factory where they handcraft the jewelry. Naturally, I ask him if it's close and he says yeah yeah of course we'll be there in 5 minutes! So I ask Tone if he minds walking with me and he says "No problem" so we begin walking through the market with Ahmad. We got to the end of the market place and then the street turned into more of an alley way but there were still a lot of people, lots of shops and it was well lit. Smooth, no need to panic. We walked for five minutes and things started to look quite sketchy. The lighting got dim, there were less shops and more creepy entrances to buildings with not so nice looking people hanging out in front of them and the floor was GROSS. I had on some suede loafers and I couldn't even look up for long because I had to make sure my foot didn't get sloshed by some foolishness. I'm getting nervous at this point because it's just me and Tone. No one has any idea where we've gone and we had no means of getting in touch with anybody. Tone asked Ahmad if we were almost there and he says "Yeah, Yeah! Soon be there." But after 10minutes of walking when he assured us it was only 5minutes away before we left, I was convinced Tone and I were about to be dismembered and our organs were going to be on the black market before sunrise. Just when I had given up, Ahmad busted two quick turns and motioned for us to follow him up some stairs. Upstairs, Jafar reincarnate was seated at a metal desk smoking a cigarette and there were 7 men ranging from age 15-50 in a back room eating dinner and carrying on. I almost didn't bother ordering the name plate because I had ran out of all kinds of currency and I was scared to find out where the ATM was but luckily I had 10 Euro in my pocket and that was sufficient funds. They made the name plate in front of my face and I made it back to the hostel in one piece. Was it worth it? Yup! The person I got it for would give me their right foot if I asked to borrow a toe. Would I do it again? Absolutely not, I'm not crazy! Lol. I'm sorry I don't have pics but my camera died while we were at the pyramids. It was too skeevy to share visually anyways.
Can I breeze through the Nile dinner cruise? Thanks. It's 5am and I'm about to crash.
The first Ahmad was our guide for the evening of dinner and dancing on the Nile. When we pulled up to the dock there was a crowd of people outside and in very high spirits. Turns out it was a wedding party and they were getting on the boat with us! Legit Wedding Crashing in Egypt. Every traveler's dream come true! Lol. The marriage had clearly been arranged, the first song they danced to as newlywed's was "Hello" by Lionel Richie and they were asking each other questions the entire time. Not to mention they weren't even touching tummy to tummy.The food was really good but not traditional Egyptian cuisine so I'm not telling you about it. In addition to the live singing, there was also a Belly Dancer and a human kaleidoscope for additional entertainment. During each set of performances people were drawn fr
om the audience to participate and I got to be the human kaleidoscope too! The pictures have yet to surface. After the dinner we went back to the hostel where there was a 
party in the lobby for Mohammed number two's birthday. I hung out with Abraham and took pics on his camera phone for a few and then I called it a night.Keep in mind that I have yet to tell you about Saturday and Sunday. Told you it was a crazy weekend!!
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
So. I haven't been able to blog about Egypt because so much happened over the span of those three days and I didn't know where to start. Honestly, I still don't but I figure if I start at the top and work my way down then I'll be able to cover everything. I have A LOT to say so please go get a snack, a blankie, throw your feet up and get comfortable as I take you on a magic carpet ride to the motherland.
(Sidenote: My jewish roomie gets so frustrated when instead of saying Egypt I say I went to Africa or the Motherland. I suppose because we weren't Sub-Saharan she thinks it doesn't count as a genuine African experience? But last time I checked Egypt is located on the continent of Africa and I feel like the impact of saying Africa is way more striking than just saying Egypt. Pray that I get to visit the Sub-Saharan before I leave so she can stop throwing shade! lol)
Touching down was so exciting. Our group of eleven could not contain ourselves and we were gushing throughout the entire descent "We're going to Africa!" "I can't believe we're actually doing this!" "We're making history!" "I hope there's a welcome party at the gate with drums and dancers..." Lol, yeah we were corny but it felt so surreal. We decided to go and booked our tickets in less than two days without much consideration of the magnitude of what we were doing and without doing any research into what we'd be doing when we got there. This was both a blessing and a curse but I'll explain that later.
We didn't land at the terminal so we had to deboard the plane by going down steps and after Tone and I made it down we were like Waittt! We need a picture! So we had to wait for the entire plane to exit and then we ran back up so someone could snap shots of our first steps into Africa. One of the flight attendants jokingly said to Tone, "Welcome Mr. President!" and our friends were making fun of us asking if we thought we were celebrities but c'mon son! Everybody needs a pic like that at some point in their life. I gotta get it off my roomies camera so I can share it with you guys. Anywho, we get into the airport, stood on the line for customs for like 10minutes and I guess security smelled the oblivious American scent on us and told us we had to purchase Visas in order to pass through customs. The Visa was only $15 but I was blown that I had to pay toll to get into Egypt. Like if I entered the country with lint in my pockets and had intentions of winging it the entire time I was there, would they have excused me from the Visa purchase process? Or would they shipped me back to my place of origin free of charge? This was the first of many unavoidable hidden fees to come.
The hostel we booked had arranged for free airport pick-up and our escort Ah'mad looked quite nice in comparison to all the other old men standing outside holding up name tags. He had on a nicely tailored shiny gray suit with black patent leather shoes and his S-curl was fresh too! And our mini-bus was super cute. The exterior was orange and yellow and the headrests all said "Welcome to Egypt" in the same font that Disney used for Aladdin. Between Ah'mad's Diddy suit and the cute bus I was convinced that our hostel was going to be even CUTER. And that was precisely the gaffle. The ride to the hostel was so misleading! The buildings we rode past along the way were beautifully designed. The Mosques were huge and we passed by one where a wedding was taking place, which we thought was super strange because it was 11pm but Ah'mad said that late weddings are commonplace within the Muslim community. Unlike Cyprus, at 11pm the main road was jam packed with traffic, all the stores were open with and the sidewalks were crowded with people. Similar to how busy Times Square is minus the bright lights. Wait, lets talk about traffic before I tell you about the hostel.
Egyptians have absolutely NO REGARD for traffic laws. I actually think people there are ticketed when they do follow the rules. A 4 lane highway is treated like a 7 lane on a regular basis. The lines mean nothing and if there's space for a car to fit then the driver will maneuver their way in at all costs. I saw no signs with the speed limit and when the highway was clear people would pull off at 120 kpm which is 75mph. And the craziest part for me was that children are not required to be in car seats. I saw so many people with infants chillin' in the passenger seats or toddlers standing up in the back of the car holding onto head rests. I even saw a child riding in the trunk of a car. Not a hatchback or a truck but the REAL trunk!! The American in me that was so angry at first "Oh my gosh, these people don't care about their kids! How could they be so reckless?" blah blah blah bu
t then I realized that the children must not be getting injured at an alarming rate if the government allowed people to continue driving without 'proper' seats for children. I'm sorry I don't have pics of all this but my camera isn't that good and the ones I tried to take came out too dark and blurry.
Okay so back to the beautiful drive. Amidst all the beauty and obviously modern architecture there were also long stretches of ruin. Crumbling buildings of Islamic architecture that looked straight out of Aladdin (you must forgive all my references to Aladdin but that's REALLY what it looked like and i'm sure my comparisons are accurate because i watched Aladdin on YouTube the might before we left!) Imagine the United Nations being across the street from a row of burnt down brownstones. Yes, it was that drastic. But yeah so we are cruising and Ah'mad is telling us how we're going ot be doing all these WONDERFUL activities. Visiting Alexandria, taking the train to Luxor, sleeping in the desert, having dinner on the Nile, going to the mueseum, hitting the clubs etc. etc. And i'm like "Wow! That sounds great! How much does it cost?" And he goes "We'll discuss that when we arrive at the hostel." Red Flag. Why can't he tell me how much it costs right now? Does the price change from the van to the hostel? Whatever! I decide not to push the issue and go back to sight seeing. The driver made two right turns and all of a sudden its all ruin and no modern anything in sight. Which is fine, it's always good to see a city in its entirety. You can't say you've seen it all unless you've been to the hood. But we kept driving deeper and deeper in. Things g
ot a little quiter in the van and Tone says to me "I'm so happy we got to see this part of the city, I feel like this is the real Cairo," and I swear to Jesus Mary and Joseph that no sooner than he said this did our van come to a stop. -_____- So in my best optimistic voice I asked "Are we stopping here to pick something up?" And Ah'mad replied with the biggest grin on his face "No silly! Welcome to Arabian Nights!"
So after twenty deep breaths and a woo-sah I convinced myself to get out of the car and go inside. The owner of the hostel, a lovely older Egyptian man named Abraham, was waiting in the lobby to greet us and brief us on what events/sites they had lined up for us to visit. Ah'mad was under the impression that we were staying longer than three days so almost half of the things he mentioned to us in the van were actually impossible within our short stay. According to Abraham we would only be able to see the Pyramids, have dinner on the Nile, and spend a night in the desert. The group grew frustrated with this set-up because Abraham made it seem like we didn't have any other options. The main issue was sleeping in the desert, we all weren't to keen on the idea because it was going to take Saturday entirely and half of Sunday. We opted to pay for Friday's events first and then see how we were feeling on Friday evening before we finalized the move to sleep in the desert. The trip to the pyramids plus dinner on the Nile was 240 Egyptian pounds which is only $44. Sweet deal, right?
While we were lolly-gagging in the lobby I overheard my roommate Lauren say in conversation "...Oh you mean the black girl over there?" Seeing as I was the only person she could possibly be referring to my ears instantly perked up and I jokingly replied "Why I gotta be the black girl, though?" Realistically, she could have identified me two dozen other ways. I had on an orange scarf, a green jacket, I had on my glasses, I was holding a zebra suitcase but I wasn't offended by her choice. Abraham on the other hand got defensive immediately. "Why did you call her black like it was a bad thing? You don't like black people?" I didn't want there to
be a problem so I jumped in to clear it up and tried to explain to Abraham that everything was okay but he put up his hand gesturing for me to stop and explained to Lauren that his father is a black man and he loves people of all races but he has a special place in his heart for all black people and she is not to refer to me like that ever again. Then he told me to come sit by him and started telling me how I'm such a lovely brown girl and we ended up talking for quite some time about his family and how he got into the hostel business.
Having Abraham be so adamant to defend my brown skin left me bewildered. In a good way. It felt great to know that my skin was appreciated and valued enough for him to admonish her on the spot. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW and APPRECIATE my brown skin. I've just never been in a racially charged situation where someone felt the need to defend it for me. I don't think she deserved admonishing but Abraham has experienced his share of racism so he felt it necessary to put Lauren in her place. And just for the record, we've been home for two weeks and she has yet to call me "the black girl," since Abraham's talk.
Now as much as I enjoyed Abraham and Ah'mad, I was still highly disturbed by the hostel and its location. It was down a dark alley one block away from the main road and there had to be thirty stray cats in the surrounding area. I couldn't see all of 'em but I could smell and hear 'em. I shared a three bedroom with three other people and when we got upstairs I immediately went into princess mode. It was involuntary I swear but likeeeeeee on the way up the stairs we bumped into mad sketchy folks who looked like they were too old to be staying in hostels and too comfortable to look like it was a short stay. I'm talking about half naked old men in bedroom slippers carrying newspapers on the way to the bathroom. Then when we made it upstairs the room just looked frowsy. Maybe it was the dim/crackhead lighting but it just did not feel fresh. And then the bathroom?! Lawd God. It was about 6x10 ft and there was no shower stall. There was just a shower head protruding from the wall and then a 5in. wide hole in the floor which served as a drain. Seriously, all my issues with my Cyprus shower conditions went out the flippin window. A proper bathroom that only has running water 3 days a week is nothing in comparison to the primitiveness I was dealing with. When I showered the entire bathroom floor got soaked and the dirt from under my shower shoes made it muddy. It was such a mess. God blessed the feet of my friends who forgot to bring flip-flops and they managed to make it home without any fungus.
Forgive me for not taking pictures but I was traumatized/in disbelief because the pictures on the internet looked SO NICE in comparison to what was in front of my face. I'm actually kind of happy I opted not to take pictures because I wouldn't want to post anything that would hinder Abraham from bringing in new customers. His staff is really amazing and their good spirits plus hospitality totally made up for the living conditions. Secretly though, I kept wishing that one of my girls had been on the trip with me because I knew they would of had the exact same sentiments and we would have been hopping in a cab and splitting the cost of a hotel for the rest of the stay. Shoo playa, if I was a splurger I would have went ahead and got the hotel by myself but $500 for a night at the Hilton was just a bit ridiculous in comparison to my $11 a night at Arabian Nights.
A big part of why we
opted to go with Arabian Nights was the pictures of the rooftop we found online. We ran up there after we checked the room out and once again we were disappointed because what we saw on-line was definitely not what we got. It looked JUST like where Aladdin and Jasmine hung out for the first time. Same view and everything. Directly behind the hostel was an empty lot full of garbage and some kids who decided the friendly thing to do was give us 
the finger as my friends were taking pictures of the lovely scenery. You can imagine I was less than thrilled. Everyone stayed on the roof to smoke shisha, a flavored tobacco that you smoke out of a hookah, but I went to bed early. I couldn't deal. I probably only slept for one solid hour. Between the cats and dogs fighting outside the window directly above my bed, combined with my general paranoia, I was up for a greater part of the night. At 5am I was brutally awoken out of one of my cat naps by the first of the Muslim's daily prayers, Salat-ul-Fajr, being broadcasted on a loudspeaker for the entire Islamic district to hear. There is no way you can neglect to say your morning prayers if you live within earshot of the mosque with the loud speaker.
I'll stop here because this entry is already quite lengthy and it's only the FIRST night. I'll break the trip down into three entries to make it easier for the readers. Stay tuned for more of Tracy's Travels!
P.S. For the record, at the end of the trip I was really happy that I decided to stick it through and stay at Arabian Nights. I strongly recommend that hostel to anyone traveling to Egypt but that is based SOLELY on the staff. The environment of the hostel was extremely family oriented and the staff will bend over backwards to make you feel at home. If you can look past the bathroom and the less than scenic surroundings you will totally enjoy your stay. I promise.
(Sidenote: My jewish roomie gets so frustrated when instead of saying Egypt I say I went to Africa or the Motherland. I suppose because we weren't Sub-Saharan she thinks it doesn't count as a genuine African experience? But last time I checked Egypt is located on the continent of Africa and I feel like the impact of saying Africa is way more striking than just saying Egypt. Pray that I get to visit the Sub-Saharan before I leave so she can stop throwing shade! lol)
Touching down was so exciting. Our group of eleven could not contain ourselves and we were gushing throughout the entire descent "We're going to Africa!" "I can't believe we're actually doing this!" "We're making history!" "I hope there's a welcome party at the gate with drums and dancers..." Lol, yeah we were corny but it felt so surreal. We decided to go and booked our tickets in less than two days without much consideration of the magnitude of what we were doing and without doing any research into what we'd be doing when we got there. This was both a blessing and a curse but I'll explain that later.We didn't land at the terminal so we had to deboard the plane by going down steps and after Tone and I made it down we were like Waittt! We need a picture! So we had to wait for the entire plane to exit and then we ran back up so someone could snap shots of our first steps into Africa. One of the flight attendants jokingly said to Tone, "Welcome Mr. President!" and our friends were making fun of us asking if we thought we were celebrities but c'mon son! Everybody needs a pic like that at some point in their life. I gotta get it off my roomies camera so I can share it with you guys. Anywho, we get into the airport, stood on the line for customs for like 10minutes and I guess security smelled the oblivious American scent on us and told us we had to purchase Visas in order to pass through customs. The Visa was only $15 but I was blown that I had to pay toll to get into Egypt. Like if I entered the country with lint in my pockets and had intentions of winging it the entire time I was there, would they have excused me from the Visa purchase process? Or would they shipped me back to my place of origin free of charge? This was the first of many unavoidable hidden fees to come.
The hostel we booked had arranged for free airport pick-up and our escort Ah'mad looked quite nice in comparison to all the other old men standing outside holding up name tags. He had on a nicely tailored shiny gray suit with black patent leather shoes and his S-curl was fresh too! And our mini-bus was super cute. The exterior was orange and yellow and the headrests all said "Welcome to Egypt" in the same font that Disney used for Aladdin. Between Ah'mad's Diddy suit and the cute bus I was convinced that our hostel was going to be even CUTER. And that was precisely the gaffle. The ride to the hostel was so misleading! The buildings we rode past along the way were beautifully designed. The Mosques were huge and we passed by one where a wedding was taking place, which we thought was super strange because it was 11pm but Ah'mad said that late weddings are commonplace within the Muslim community. Unlike Cyprus, at 11pm the main road was jam packed with traffic, all the stores were open with and the sidewalks were crowded with people. Similar to how busy Times Square is minus the bright lights. Wait, lets talk about traffic before I tell you about the hostel.
Egyptians have absolutely NO REGARD for traffic laws. I actually think people there are ticketed when they do follow the rules. A 4 lane highway is treated like a 7 lane on a regular basis. The lines mean nothing and if there's space for a car to fit then the driver will maneuver their way in at all costs. I saw no signs with the speed limit and when the highway was clear people would pull off at 120 kpm which is 75mph. And the craziest part for me was that children are not required to be in car seats. I saw so many people with infants chillin' in the passenger seats or toddlers standing up in the back of the car holding onto head rests. I even saw a child riding in the trunk of a car. Not a hatchback or a truck but the REAL trunk!! The American in me that was so angry at first "Oh my gosh, these people don't care about their kids! How could they be so reckless?" blah blah blah bu
t then I realized that the children must not be getting injured at an alarming rate if the government allowed people to continue driving without 'proper' seats for children. I'm sorry I don't have pics of all this but my camera isn't that good and the ones I tried to take came out too dark and blurry.Okay so back to the beautiful drive. Amidst all the beauty and obviously modern architecture there were also long stretches of ruin. Crumbling buildings of Islamic architecture that looked straight out of Aladdin (you must forgive all my references to Aladdin but that's REALLY what it looked like and i'm sure my comparisons are accurate because i watched Aladdin on YouTube the might before we left!) Imagine the United Nations being across the street from a row of burnt down brownstones. Yes, it was that drastic. But yeah so we are cruising and Ah'mad is telling us how we're going ot be doing all these WONDERFUL activities. Visiting Alexandria, taking the train to Luxor, sleeping in the desert, having dinner on the Nile, going to the mueseum, hitting the clubs etc. etc. And i'm like "Wow! That sounds great! How much does it cost?" And he goes "We'll discuss that when we arrive at the hostel." Red Flag. Why can't he tell me how much it costs right now? Does the price change from the van to the hostel? Whatever! I decide not to push the issue and go back to sight seeing. The driver made two right turns and all of a sudden its all ruin and no modern anything in sight. Which is fine, it's always good to see a city in its entirety. You can't say you've seen it all unless you've been to the hood. But we kept driving deeper and deeper in. Things g
ot a little quiter in the van and Tone says to me "I'm so happy we got to see this part of the city, I feel like this is the real Cairo," and I swear to Jesus Mary and Joseph that no sooner than he said this did our van come to a stop. -_____- So in my best optimistic voice I asked "Are we stopping here to pick something up?" And Ah'mad replied with the biggest grin on his face "No silly! Welcome to Arabian Nights!"So after twenty deep breaths and a woo-sah I convinced myself to get out of the car and go inside. The owner of the hostel, a lovely older Egyptian man named Abraham, was waiting in the lobby to greet us and brief us on what events/sites they had lined up for us to visit. Ah'mad was under the impression that we were staying longer than three days so almost half of the things he mentioned to us in the van were actually impossible within our short stay. According to Abraham we would only be able to see the Pyramids, have dinner on the Nile, and spend a night in the desert. The group grew frustrated with this set-up because Abraham made it seem like we didn't have any other options. The main issue was sleeping in the desert, we all weren't to keen on the idea because it was going to take Saturday entirely and half of Sunday. We opted to pay for Friday's events first and then see how we were feeling on Friday evening before we finalized the move to sleep in the desert. The trip to the pyramids plus dinner on the Nile was 240 Egyptian pounds which is only $44. Sweet deal, right?
While we were lolly-gagging in the lobby I overheard my roommate Lauren say in conversation "...Oh you mean the black girl over there?" Seeing as I was the only person she could possibly be referring to my ears instantly perked up and I jokingly replied "Why I gotta be the black girl, though?" Realistically, she could have identified me two dozen other ways. I had on an orange scarf, a green jacket, I had on my glasses, I was holding a zebra suitcase but I wasn't offended by her choice. Abraham on the other hand got defensive immediately. "Why did you call her black like it was a bad thing? You don't like black people?" I didn't want there to
be a problem so I jumped in to clear it up and tried to explain to Abraham that everything was okay but he put up his hand gesturing for me to stop and explained to Lauren that his father is a black man and he loves people of all races but he has a special place in his heart for all black people and she is not to refer to me like that ever again. Then he told me to come sit by him and started telling me how I'm such a lovely brown girl and we ended up talking for quite some time about his family and how he got into the hostel business.Having Abraham be so adamant to defend my brown skin left me bewildered. In a good way. It felt great to know that my skin was appreciated and valued enough for him to admonish her on the spot. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW and APPRECIATE my brown skin. I've just never been in a racially charged situation where someone felt the need to defend it for me. I don't think she deserved admonishing but Abraham has experienced his share of racism so he felt it necessary to put Lauren in her place. And just for the record, we've been home for two weeks and she has yet to call me "the black girl," since Abraham's talk.
Now as much as I enjoyed Abraham and Ah'mad, I was still highly disturbed by the hostel and its location. It was down a dark alley one block away from the main road and there had to be thirty stray cats in the surrounding area. I couldn't see all of 'em but I could smell and hear 'em. I shared a three bedroom with three other people and when we got upstairs I immediately went into princess mode. It was involuntary I swear but likeeeeeee on the way up the stairs we bumped into mad sketchy folks who looked like they were too old to be staying in hostels and too comfortable to look like it was a short stay. I'm talking about half naked old men in bedroom slippers carrying newspapers on the way to the bathroom. Then when we made it upstairs the room just looked frowsy. Maybe it was the dim/crackhead lighting but it just did not feel fresh. And then the bathroom?! Lawd God. It was about 6x10 ft and there was no shower stall. There was just a shower head protruding from the wall and then a 5in. wide hole in the floor which served as a drain. Seriously, all my issues with my Cyprus shower conditions went out the flippin window. A proper bathroom that only has running water 3 days a week is nothing in comparison to the primitiveness I was dealing with. When I showered the entire bathroom floor got soaked and the dirt from under my shower shoes made it muddy. It was such a mess. God blessed the feet of my friends who forgot to bring flip-flops and they managed to make it home without any fungus.
Forgive me for not taking pictures but I was traumatized/in disbelief because the pictures on the internet looked SO NICE in comparison to what was in front of my face. I'm actually kind of happy I opted not to take pictures because I wouldn't want to post anything that would hinder Abraham from bringing in new customers. His staff is really amazing and their good spirits plus hospitality totally made up for the living conditions. Secretly though, I kept wishing that one of my girls had been on the trip with me because I knew they would of had the exact same sentiments and we would have been hopping in a cab and splitting the cost of a hotel for the rest of the stay. Shoo playa, if I was a splurger I would have went ahead and got the hotel by myself but $500 for a night at the Hilton was just a bit ridiculous in comparison to my $11 a night at Arabian Nights.
A big part of why we
opted to go with Arabian Nights was the pictures of the rooftop we found online. We ran up there after we checked the room out and once again we were disappointed because what we saw on-line was definitely not what we got. It looked JUST like where Aladdin and Jasmine hung out for the first time. Same view and everything. Directly behind the hostel was an empty lot full of garbage and some kids who decided the friendly thing to do was give us 
the finger as my friends were taking pictures of the lovely scenery. You can imagine I was less than thrilled. Everyone stayed on the roof to smoke shisha, a flavored tobacco that you smoke out of a hookah, but I went to bed early. I couldn't deal. I probably only slept for one solid hour. Between the cats and dogs fighting outside the window directly above my bed, combined with my general paranoia, I was up for a greater part of the night. At 5am I was brutally awoken out of one of my cat naps by the first of the Muslim's daily prayers, Salat-ul-Fajr, being broadcasted on a loudspeaker for the entire Islamic district to hear. There is no way you can neglect to say your morning prayers if you live within earshot of the mosque with the loud speaker.I'll stop here because this entry is already quite lengthy and it's only the FIRST night. I'll break the trip down into three entries to make it easier for the readers. Stay tuned for more of Tracy's Travels!
P.S. For the record, at the end of the trip I was really happy that I decided to stick it through and stay at Arabian Nights. I strongly recommend that hostel to anyone traveling to Egypt but that is based SOLELY on the staff. The environment of the hostel was extremely family oriented and the staff will bend over backwards to make you feel at home. If you can look past the bathroom and the less than scenic surroundings you will totally enjoy your stay. I promise.
Monday, 1 February 2010
How You Livin' Tracy Storm?
"In mansions and Benzs! Sendin' pics to my friends and it feels stupendous!"
Lol, Okay I'm exaggerating with the mansions and Benzs bit but it really is nice out here!
I live in the city of Nicosia and my neighborhood
is pronounced Mah-kay-don-nit-tissa. It's a really cute college town. There are little apartment buildings all over; some are newer than others . For instance, I live in the Intercollege Building. It looks worse than it really is and we have a lovely view of the Turkish occupied mountains as I mentioned in my last entry. The space is tight but the roomies and I make it work. I'll tell you about them and put pics of the apartment in another entry.
There are only three quirky things about living here and the issues are consistent for everyone on the island so I can't take it personal.
Quirks of Cypriot Living
1. Due to a prehisto
ric sewage system, toilet paper cannot be placed in the toilet. Yes, you did read that right, and now I'm sure your wondering where on earth do we put our rubbish after we've done our business. Fear not, I purchased a tiny garbage can for the bathroom and I call it the 'Doo Doo Rag Can.' We take turns removing it daily and we clean it with Lysol after every bag change. It's not as gross as one would imagine but it was definitely an unforseen obstacle.
2. Due to 4 consecutive years of drought Cyprus has developed a Water Conservation plan that regulates the distribution of Water to the neighborhoods. Sounds like a good plan, right? Maybe the U.S.A should think about doing their part in saving the world and enact a similar conservation plan for it's citizens? (All my environmentally readers should be nodding their heads right now, let's see how they feel when I tell them how it works.) In order to save water, neighborhoods only have running water for 12 hours every other day. Mackedonitissa receives running water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sundays, Mondays and Wednesday
s we have to use water that is stored on our roof. Each apartment has their own tank and if somehow you run out of water before it's time for a refill then tough cookies! Environmentally conscience friends are you still interested? It's actually not that bad but that might because most of my roomies only shower once a day. I'll let you know if I ever run out of water.
3. Since the Cypriots work so hard to conserve water, it's only right that they save energy as well. Rather than run water heaters all day, each apartment has a switch that allows them to turn their water heater on. It takes approximately 30-40 minutes to warm up so if you need to shower it is important to factor the warm up time in as well. For instance, last night I drank an entire bottle of water before bed in hopes that I would wake up a while before my alarm to use the bathroom. Just like clock work, I woke up at 6:45am (1 hr before my alarm) and turned on the water heater so that when I really woke up, all I had to do was jump in. Will I be able to pull that off every morning? Doubt it! But i have long breaks between most of my classes so afternoon showers will have to suffice.
If you can look past the aforementioned quality of life issues then you too could survive on the beautiful island of Cyprus.
As far as convenience, I'm located central to everything I might need. And I do mean everything.
All of my classes are 5min away walking. I can actually see my school buildings from my balcony. Theres a 24hr Kiosk across the street from me which is the equivalent to a 7/11. Its stocked with snacks, school supplies, greeting cards etc. You name it and they either have it or know where to send you to get it. The staff speaks minimal English but they pick up on key words and I always thank them profusely in Greek.
(Thank you = Efharisto)
There is also a decent sized mall across the street as well. It's called the Mall of Engomi and they have a Macy's like department store called Debenhams, a clothing store called Oviesse with awesome prices but not so great merchandise in my opinion, a giant Supermarket called Carrefour which is like a super Wal-Mart (groceries on the bottom, electronics on the top) and lastly a Super Home Center which is like a small scale Ikea. All of the things I need to survive are two minutes away from my house. I'm thinking about staying. This beats being across the street from Save-A-Lot BY FAR! Kidding... I think.
Entertainment wise, theres a club called Galelea around the corner that charges 5 euros ($7) for ladies on Saturday nights and it's open bar. I went my first weekend here and it was similar to the club scene in America. Everyone was dressed to the tee and everyone was wearing black. Meanwhile, my touristy self was in there in a cardigan and jeans looking out of the loop. I swore it was an "All Black Everything" themed party but when I walked past this weekend, all the party go-ers looked exactly the same. The meditteranean music was amazing! Seriously, anyone who enjoys belly dancing would have had a blast because people were literally on the bar belly dancing and it wasn't even a big deal.
For the days when I just want to have a drink and enjoy good conversation, I can walk to Brickyard Bar which also happens to be extremely close to my apartment. Friday nights they have Karaoke (I was Beyonce and every rapper on Rapper's Delight my first night in) and on Saturday nights its Old School night (the DJ surprised me and did a 20min reggae set! Yardies get love EVERYWHERE!). They also have a pool table in the back. I plan to
be skilled shooter when I get back. For now, the natives let me cheat =).
I definitely have more to share but I'll save that for another entry. Can't give you all the juice one time! Wish me safe travels to Egypt and I promise to have yummy stories for you when I get back. Literally!
Kalinikta =)
Lol, Okay I'm exaggerating with the mansions and Benzs bit but it really is nice out here!
I live in the city of Nicosia and my neighborhood
is pronounced Mah-kay-don-nit-tissa. It's a really cute college town. There are little apartment buildings all over; some are newer than others . For instance, I live in the Intercollege Building. It looks worse than it really is and we have a lovely view of the Turkish occupied mountains as I mentioned in my last entry. The space is tight but the roomies and I make it work. I'll tell you about them and put pics of the apartment in another entry.There are only three quirky things about living here and the issues are consistent for everyone on the island so I can't take it personal.
Quirks of Cypriot Living
1. Due to a prehisto
ric sewage system, toilet paper cannot be placed in the toilet. Yes, you did read that right, and now I'm sure your wondering where on earth do we put our rubbish after we've done our business. Fear not, I purchased a tiny garbage can for the bathroom and I call it the 'Doo Doo Rag Can.' We take turns removing it daily and we clean it with Lysol after every bag change. It's not as gross as one would imagine but it was definitely an unforseen obstacle.2. Due to 4 consecutive years of drought Cyprus has developed a Water Conservation plan that regulates the distribution of Water to the neighborhoods. Sounds like a good plan, right? Maybe the U.S.A should think about doing their part in saving the world and enact a similar conservation plan for it's citizens? (All my environmentally readers should be nodding their heads right now, let's see how they feel when I tell them how it works.) In order to save water, neighborhoods only have running water for 12 hours every other day. Mackedonitissa receives running water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sundays, Mondays and Wednesday
s we have to use water that is stored on our roof. Each apartment has their own tank and if somehow you run out of water before it's time for a refill then tough cookies! Environmentally conscience friends are you still interested? It's actually not that bad but that might because most of my roomies only shower once a day. I'll let you know if I ever run out of water.3. Since the Cypriots work so hard to conserve water, it's only right that they save energy as well. Rather than run water heaters all day, each apartment has a switch that allows them to turn their water heater on. It takes approximately 30-40 minutes to warm up so if you need to shower it is important to factor the warm up time in as well. For instance, last night I drank an entire bottle of water before bed in hopes that I would wake up a while before my alarm to use the bathroom. Just like clock work, I woke up at 6:45am (1 hr before my alarm) and turned on the water heater so that when I really woke up, all I had to do was jump in. Will I be able to pull that off every morning? Doubt it! But i have long breaks between most of my classes so afternoon showers will have to suffice.
If you can look past the aforementioned quality of life issues then you too could survive on the beautiful island of Cyprus.
As far as convenience, I'm located central to everything I might need. And I do mean everything.
All of my classes are 5min away walking. I can actually see my school buildings from my balcony. Theres a 24hr Kiosk across the street from me which is the equivalent to a 7/11. Its stocked with snacks, school supplies, greeting cards etc. You name it and they either have it or know where to send you to get it. The staff speaks minimal English but they pick up on key words and I always thank them profusely in Greek.
(Thank you = Efharisto)
There is also a decent sized mall across the street as well. It's called the Mall of Engomi and they have a Macy's like department store called Debenhams, a clothing store called Oviesse with awesome prices but not so great merchandise in my opinion, a giant Supermarket called Carrefour which is like a super Wal-Mart (groceries on the bottom, electronics on the top) and lastly a Super Home Center which is like a small scale Ikea. All of the things I need to survive are two minutes away from my house. I'm thinking about staying. This beats being across the street from Save-A-Lot BY FAR! Kidding... I think.
Entertainment wise, theres a club called Galelea around the corner that charges 5 euros ($7) for ladies on Saturday nights and it's open bar. I went my first weekend here and it was similar to the club scene in America. Everyone was dressed to the tee and everyone was wearing black. Meanwhile, my touristy self was in there in a cardigan and jeans looking out of the loop. I swore it was an "All Black Everything" themed party but when I walked past this weekend, all the party go-ers looked exactly the same. The meditteranean music was amazing! Seriously, anyone who enjoys belly dancing would have had a blast because people were literally on the bar belly dancing and it wasn't even a big deal.
For the days when I just want to have a drink and enjoy good conversation, I can walk to Brickyard Bar which also happens to be extremely close to my apartment. Friday nights they have Karaoke (I was Beyonce and every rapper on Rapper's Delight my first night in) and on Saturday nights its Old School night (the DJ surprised me and did a 20min reggae set! Yardies get love EVERYWHERE!). They also have a pool table in the back. I plan to
be skilled shooter when I get back. For now, the natives let me cheat =).I definitely have more to share but I'll save that for another entry. Can't give you all the juice one time! Wish me safe travels to Egypt and I promise to have yummy stories for you when I get back. Literally!
Kalinikta =)
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