3 exams down and one to go, I'm back at Porto to use the internet and in a desperate and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to watch Spurs vs. United in the cup - BBC says 1-1 at half time.
The first 3 exams all went fairly well although they were much harder than the last set, I'm confident about the Egyptian oral tomorrow though and then we have a week off (odd only two weeks after our winter break?) so a few of us are off to visit Ismailia, one of the cities on the Suez Canal.
It's been a good couple of weeks back, and although it's been tough, I've enjoyed getting back into the swing of things at the TAFL centre which is noticeably quieter now the Germans have left...... Going out with and catching up with all the people who fled Egypt for Christmas has been excellent as has going back to the various glamorous drinking establishments of Alexandria. It has, therefore, been a fairly sleepless few weeks, hence the title (also the title of an excellent book I'm reading at the moment). At the moment, for those of you who are less sportingly aware than myself, the African Cup of Nations is taking place in Ghana. Egypt is a completely football mad country, and they're the defending champions. We've been to watch a few games - they take it VERY seriously, screaming at every chance and half chance. Happily, they've won both games so far and are looking good for the later stages. I'd love to be at the party should they somehow win it again.
Last week also saw the latest in our series of matches against Cairo, and I was part of an under-strength team that was on the receiving end of a thrashing. At the moment we're the second best team in Egypt. In the clubhouse afterwards, though, we managed to organise what could well be the first match of something resembling an Egyptian National Rugby team, vs. a team of expats which I will hopefully be part of in Alex on Valentine's Day. Should be an interesting one, there's already a fair amount of banter flying around at training!
All for now, I'll try and write from Ismailia, I'm there for three days before a weekend in Cairo and then back to Alex to start the new term proper.
Txx
Yes, the long awaited, eagerly anticipated visit of my family has drawn to a close. They arrived on the 20th of last month in the ever hectic madness of Cairo where I waited with open arms and a big taxi to transport them to the understated luxury of the Delta Pyramids Hotel. So understated was the luxury, in fact, that to the less observant of us the hotel may have appeared somewhat shabby and dilapidated. The saving grace of the DPH was its views of the Giza pyramids which never ceased to amaze my family, dad in particular. Thus the rooftop bar provided us with a stunning backdrop for our family’s first Christmas abroad, with presents and sheesha abounding. After a few chaotic days on the tourist circuit we jumped on board the express to Alex and three hours later arrived home. The last few days we were in Cairo was the first time I feel I’ve properly missed Alexandria and the Mediterranean; a sign of how settled I feel here perhaps.
On arrival we transferred straight to the Helnan Palestine hotel at the very eastern end of the city in the pleasant greenery of Montazah gardens. Thankfully the hotel and its stunningly picturesque setting – the views of Farouk’s palace from the balcony being a particular highlight – provided a perfect sanctuary for my family to relax after an excellent but stressful few days in the capital. Far happier in the relative calm of Alexandria, and with me feeling more confident in a city I know so well, we visited most of my regular haunts as well as going on enjoyable visits to the library and the catacombs. We also had a day out to the memorials and museum at Al-Alamein; a visit poignantly echoing memorable family holidays spent in Normandy. The contrast in scenery between the rolling green bocage of Normandy and the bleak, desolate desert of Al-Alamein couldn’t be starker but the cemeteries mirroring one another provide moving reminders of the truly global scale of the disaster that was the Second World War. The memories of long journeys to remote French museums with my family gave the day special meaning. The last 10 days have been the first family holiday and the longest time I’ve spent with them perhaps since those summers in France, and after four months of absence it’s been really special having them around again and being able to share my life in Egypt with them.
Once again I’m sat by the Red Sea enjoying the winter sun with Michael, the apparently now internationally renowned blogger. We’re here in what is really a very upmarket Russian-filled Butlin’s, but there is sun and sea and a few decent restaurants, and it’s nice just to be able to sit and read and chat and relax. Michael’s many stories of Pakistan are also making me particularly excited for my visit at the end of March; as Michael often says “if those bickering politicians mean I can’t stay, never mind one another, they’ll have me to deal with”. Sharm, unlike Dahab, is really a fairly soulless place that the people here tell me has changed and improved since my last visit, but it’s clean and quiet and everything Cairo and Alex aren’t – whether for better or worse. Michael leaves on Sunday and then I’m in Cairo for a little while before heading back to Alex to get cracking with all the translation that I’ve thus far put off; 2 sides of A4 into Arabic never seems to get any more appealing.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Tom xxx توم
PS. Pictures to follow - Inshallah
There is a new update imminent, I have it all typed out and perfectly ready however the computers in this internet cafe (Cyber as they're known here) are not as high tech and up-to-date as mine and can therefore not read my beautifully crafted prose. Good things come to those who wait.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, watch this space!
Tx
Painfully aware that I have long since lost my routine of blogging and that I have broken promises of news written for all to see only a few paragraphs below, I have decided to return to the fold with an end-of-term Christmas cracker. Sadly the drama will be neither thrilling nor intense, it’s just going to be a longer than usual episode.
I don’t really have an good excuses as to why it’s been so long, I tried several times to sit and write an update, and drafted several that didn’t pass quality control (not that quality is abundant on this blog, I just wasn’t happy). Things have been busy as ever, perhaps more so with my First Visitor and my new flat, but I suppose once you get out of any habit it takes an enhanced effort to start again. I fully intend to keep writing more regularly, as much for my sake as yours – this blog will be a lasting and important record of my time here (see episode 1) - but won’t make any promises I can’t keep.
Where did I leave you.... Bonfire Night with an extra-special video blog. Nice. Let’s start with my studies. After my move up a class following my midterm results, I enjoyed a week in Upper Intermediate before I was hauled out of class and marched to the office of the director, where I was moved up again into the Advanced class. Thus endeth my easy come, easy go attitude to my studies in Alex – the new level is way above anything I’ve done before and a real challenge as I have to put in a fair amount of effort just to keep up with the other students. The new test is a welcome one, and the fact that the teachers expect a lot will keep me on my toes. I just hope I can perform well enough in the January exam session to warrant my remaining in the class, although some serious grammar revision will have to take place between now and then if I’m going to even come close.
Life outside the centre is still good, my friends from the centre and rugby are a great bunch and whilst I love Egypt, I think I would struggle here without them. At various stages almost all of us have gone through a rough spell but I reckon we’re fairly good at watching out for one another. For any first-year Arabic students reading this; I think you’ll have an excellent time next year and I’m very jealous that you get to come. At the same time I’m very excited to come back to Manchester. Recently I’ve been feeling somewhat homesick, which is strange for me. I’ve been privileged enough to have travelled a lot from a young age, often without my family, and although I’ve missed people and things I’ve never really felt miserable not to be at home. Perhaps it’s the season, perhaps it’s the fact that all the Brits are excitedly talking about going home and are slightly fed up with things here after four months, perhaps it’s just that I miss my family and friends a lot, but last weekend things were really getting to me and I wasn’t sure how to shake it off. After chatting to a few people and spending some time gathering my thoughts I’m now fine and am very excited to see my family and Michael, who are arriving next week some time (that reminds me, I should get some flight numbers etc.. :P ). Christmas here will be a very different experience, but before we can get anywhere near mangers and stars my family and I will have Eid Al-Adha, or Big Eid, to contend with. This is one of the most important dates of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims remember Abraham’s obedience to God’s command to sacrifice Ismael (or Isaac depending on which book you read). “Eid Al-Adha” literally translates as “Celebration of Sacrifice” and my friends who’ve witnessed Eid here before assure me sacrifice is the key word. An update and my own thoughts on Eid will hopefully follow soon after - I’ll try and remember some of the things my family have to say!
In other news, the new place has made a big difference – clean, modern and avec le cable (more sports channels than I’ve ever had). I’ll try and get some photos up, it suffices to say the flat is a massive improvement, even if it does feel like we’re living in the ghetto. No more consulates and views of the stadium, the new district is more reminiscent of East Berlin with high rise concrete aplenty. The people are friendly though, and I feel much more at home here – maybe to do with my tough Oldham upbringing ;)
This week I’ll mainly be sleeping and making last minute arrangements for the imminent arrival of the family, and at the end of a long term it will be a welcome rest. All for now, more soon!
Tom x
Today, after many weeks of making little effort to see the few sights Alexandria has to offer, a few of us ventured out to Kom Ashuqafa to see the Roman catacombs (discovered, incidentally, by a donkey which fell through the land above into them) which were built in the second century AD. The landmark is located in one of the poorest areas of Alexandria, and perhaps the poorest area of Egypt I have seen thus far. A glance up any of the side streets running off the main roads shows the Egypt most tourists would not see, an Egypt a world away from that of Sharm or Zamalek or Luxor. The people, however, are extremely friendly. Literally every child I saw on the street gave me a grin and a welcoming "Ha-lo" and the men sat in the ahwas (cafes) smoking waved and gave us an ever comforting "Welcome in Egypt". We arrived and having paid the Egyptian Student entry price (25 times less than the full adult tourist fare) we descended into the catacombs, which were pleasantly fairly free of tourists, and worked our way through the chambers in true Indiana Jones style. Sadly no pictures were allowed but if you click here you should see some along with more info. The main tomb featured in the picture is really spectacular and has a weird mix of Greco-Roman and Pharonic Egyptian decoration that I think you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
After our underground adventure we thought we'd head to Pompey's Pillar, another touristy monumenty style site close by. Buoyed by our earlier success at getting Egyptian prices, we asked to be charged the same rate to see the pillar, at which the woman behind the desk balked and pointed out that we weren't Egyptian and would therefore have to pay 15LE as oppose to 1LE. Angrily we left, knowing that there must be another vantage point to see said pillar, which really is just a bloody tall, well, pillar. We wondered up the hill to see what we could find, unaware of the adventure awaiting us. In order to protect there precious pillar the authorities have built fairly high walls around it, making seeing it without paying annoyingly difficult, however after our encounter with unfriendly Coptic lady we were fairly determined. As we reached the top of the hill a kind group of locals offered us the roof of their one room house as a vantage point, which we happily agreed to. Sadly, as you can see from the photo below, the view of the pillar was still fairly obscured by the annoyingly high wall probably built by the hands of the annoyingly stubborn woman who tried to charge the extortionate tourist price.
Tomayn (2 Toms) on aforementioned roofAfter our brief and unsuccessful excursion onto the roof we descended to find something of a small crowd gathered around the house. Various people had understood what we were trying to do and pointed us in the direction of a nearby apartment building so we, determined as ever, made our way to the bottom of the stairs being followed by an ever growing crowd of locals. As we went up the stairs and through the building, women and children seemed to be coming out of the walls and forming a hive surrounding us laughing and shouting.
One of the smaller children showing us their buildingThe situation was both terrifying and fascinating - the people were curious and delighted to see us in their building and were so proud that we were going to see the pillar from their building. By the time we reached the second floor of the most colourful and social housing building I've seen in Egypt, everyone in the building was either in the crowd surrounding us or looking on from their doorways.
Tom with his new best friendsMy words cannot really do the ensuing 10 mins of chanting and singing and dancing justice, I hope the video gives a glimpse of the wonderful and yet ridiculous scene!
Tom led the crowd in the chanting and dancing and even at one stage had his name chanted by the hundred or so children surrounding and amongst us. For just that short time everyone seemed so happy. I can't think of a time when I've laughed so much for such a long time, it was just one of those moments that no-one can plan nor predict nor expect, and more than once on our way leaving the building we were thankful for the stubborn lady at Pompey's Pillar. How often things turn out to be blessings in disguise. We did get a look at the pillar - a view far better than any from the ground - but the day was no longer about sightseeing; what we had experienced in the poorest of buildings will for a long time be the richest of memories.
Back from Dahab after a long and uncomfortable journey on a minibus with a shouty policeman and a driver who had never been to and had no idea where Alex was. 9 hours of unadulterated fun. Once again I feel I must apologise for the lack of photos. I'm all too aware that I'm getting textually heavy and after some criticism about my style (mainly from my own dearest mother) I would have liked to break up the blog with some nice visuals but the internet is still lacking here and, in fairness, I've not taken too many pictures of late. There's always room for improvement!
Back into university on Monday I got my results from the mid-term exams I sat before my oh-so-strenuous week on the Red Sea. I'm very pleased and have been moved up a level, although I'm not too sure what this means as quite a few of us have moved up and most of the group above has moved down: along with many other things Egypt may need to work on it's concept of streaming. Tomorrow will be my first day in my new(ish) class, so I'll have more idea about what the new level is going to involve and maybe, just maybe, I'll let y'all know in the next week or so.
Last night I started back at training and was somewhat rusty, once again I'm blaming Dahab. No matter, I'm in the team to play in Cairo on Friday. Prayer would be much appreciated!
In other news, my housemate Tom and I have decided to solve the problems we've been having with the flat (see earlier posts re: irate neighbour, floods and droughts) by moving out. Alas to where we do not yet know, but there are some enormously helpful people looking around for us and hopefully we'll be sorted before the end of the week, although this may be an optimistic estimate. Really we'd just like to live somewhere that works, as although what we're paying here is cheap by UK standards, it certainly isn't by Egyptian standards. I wouldn't mind this if we had everything functioning as it should, but after a visit to one of the Germans very swish pad for a party last week I reckon we could do much better for the money! هنشوف - We'll see!
More soon - providing I still have both arms intact after Friday and am thus still able to type - hopefully avec photos.
توم xxx
NB. For the Arabic speaking literati amongst you, you may have noticed that after much pressure and yet more chastisement I have replaced the apparently offensive "توم في المصر " with "توم في مصر ". Yes I knew it was there it's just taken a while to get around to changing it. Tsk, there's no pleasing some people!
Thursday afternoon saw the end of our first real set of exams, which passed without event. Seeing as we had a whopping 10 day break, a group of 8 (it's always 8, but never the same 8) decided the destination of our next jaunt would be the hippy backpacker town of Dahab on the eastern coast of Sinai, and 'tis from there that I write the latest update to the TomInEgypt saga.
10 hours overnight on the bus here wasn't the most fun you can have but I seem to have developed an excellent ability to fall asleep anywhere I'm sat for longer than about 20mins or so, so the journey was all too easy. This is actually the second time I've been to Dahab, I was here the summer before I started Uni for a day with Michael my godfather (MichaelInPakistan.blogspot.com) and my memory of Dahab is a little hazy but I'm fairly sure that it's quite a lot more developed than it was 2 years ago. It's fairly touristy here, but unlike Sharm, it still manages to retain some of it's small-town charm. The views over the sea to Saudi are amazing, and it's enormously relaxing to watch the sunset (or sunrise if you're still up from the night before ;) over Sinai sat by the Red Sea with a sheesha and a beer. It's also really nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Alex and to not really have anything to do apart from sit on a beach or go snorkeling, which is really unbelievable here. I'm fairly easily pleased when it comes to snorkeling - if I see a fish I'm happy. But here the colours and the movement and the shapes and the sizes....unreal, an absolute wonder of creation. I don't think I could ever get tired of swimming over the drop-off and seeing a new world open up underneath you.
Sadly, my living the high life on the Red Sea Riviera has once again cost me my place in the Alexandria rugby team for the game in Cairo on Friday, although I have my sights set on the return in Alex in a couple of weeks. We watched the big match last night in a bar shaped like a boat with a name that means something very rude in Mexican Spanish, and I have to say "we was robbed". Even the American girls we were watching with knew that it was a try. What a travesty. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday we're off to Mount Sinai and St.Catherine's monastery, which is something I'm very much looking forward to. For now though, I'm off for the aforementioned sheesha and a beer although it looks like I've missed sunset. Adios amigos I hope the weather back home isn't too depressingly wet and rainy, life the 30 degree heat here is tough, but someone has to be here.
txx
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