Another week...

Hey dudes...
Weekly update time!! Really not much to report... we had a pretty easy going weekend here, I slept a lot. Sleeping is good. :)

Last Wednesday, I went salsa dancing with a friend from the university. It was so fun - I had totally forgotten how much I love salsa dancing! There were some very good dancers - it was really fun to watch them, as well as dance myself. I can't help but think how random it is that I came to Egypt and am now salsa dancing again of all things. Hopefully I'll be going pretty regularly and practicing new moves and styling! funnnn!

Friday night, Christina and I successfully navigated the Cairo metro system to go to TGI Friday's along the Nile, in an area called Maadi. It was a fun roomie adventure - and definitely the best branch of this restaurant I've been to, especially since they had an awesome patio and shisha! Not to mention that we finally got our Mexican food fix - yay for fajitas!! We only got slightly lost twice - once in a cab when we were trying to get back to the metro station and the driver instead took us to a market called Metro Market. We had to call one of our friends and have him explain to the driver in Arabic where we actually wanted to go. The second time we got lost was while we were trying to get home from the metro station in Zamalek. Eventually we came up with the brilliant conclusion that since Zamalek is an island, and our apartment is on one edge of the island, that if we just stayed along the Nile, we would eventually reach home. This may have taken us slightly out of the way, but hey, it worked!

(photo credit - Christina's camera and our waiter)

The next day, Saturday, we went to the Khan el Khalili marketplace to do some shoppin!! One of our Egyptian friends came with us and helped us get good deals on scarves. I now have a lifetime supply... We also went to Mahmoud's 4 story bellydance shop, where I set up a fitting for the first of many custom made costumes I plan to get while I'm here!! YAYYYY!!!! The first is a pharaonic style costume - turquoise, red, gold, Egyptiany... It's going to be amazing. I have my fitting tonight :D

School is finally becoming more routine and sorting itself out a bit - I am taking two Arabic classes, one modern standard Arabic and one Egyptian colloquial Arabic, and a developmental biology class. It is a less than full-time schedule, so I should have plenty of time for dancing, exploring, and having fun. I like all the classes, and am meeting nice people in all of them. blah blah blah. k. moving on.


I hope you guys are all doing well... Shoot me an email or a facebook message if you get bored!
Love,
~Kerry

Random Adventures/First week of school

Good afternoon from Cairo!! Here is a long-overdue lengthy entry for you all!

The school update:
This past week has gone by very quickly.... AUC classes started about a week ago, and I have been in this confused whirl of studying and running around crazy ever since. My schedule has shuffled around like 3 times at least and is going to change again *hopefully* tomorrow. The Arabic program that I am signed up with is very intense. They expect me to be doing 4-5 hours of studying every night, which is kind of not what I had in mind. I am having no time to dance which is one of the top priority reasons I came to Cairo in the first place... not to mention that if I am constantly studying, I am definitely not going to have tome to explore here much at all. Soooo... I just talked to the director of the program and I am meeting with the international student office tomorrow to adjust things. I am going to try to just take a couple of regular Arabic classes, through the regular study abroad program, so that my life will be more sane.

Some pics of campus (photo credit to Katie, my roomie who left :( during the revolution):

The life update:
I love my life here... It's so easy going, and I love not having too many responsibilities. Now is the time for me to live it up and do everything I've dreamed of. I'm enjoying an intoxicating dose of freedom.
Friday after the prayers there was a big march thing to try to get tourists to come back to Egypt. Christina and I went with a friend from the university and it was really fun. We were quite late, so missed the actual march, but ended up wandering around for a while, then randomly getting into a horse-drawn carriage and riding around Zamalek. So funnn!!! The carriage had speakers, and our friends were playing patriotic Egyptian music and singing along. It was amazing. Christina kept comparing it to the parade float scene in Ferris Buehler. haha!!
Here are some pictures (photo credits to Christina... I'm lazy about taking my own pictures!):

That's me in the flag! :D (and my friend Hassan, who put the flag on me)

Our Carriage in the traffic!

Come to Egypt people!! Seriously. It's awesome and things are super cool now:

Finally, a picture that I meant to upload earlier, from the night Mubarak stepped down, in Tahrir:

The apartment update:
Seriously. F*** the internet here. It keeps magically appearing and making me really happy... then disappearing again and breaking my heart. WTF. rawr.
Anyways... on a happier note, here is a picture of Janet, our apartment "mascot" that I mentioned in my last blog entry. I honestly have no idea what her problem is or why she is apparently eating her foot or why she is such a whore... but oh well. Some things in life are better left as mysteries:

Christina and I after a successful cooking endeavor in our Cairo kitchen:

Sketchy "corner couches" - we have vowed to never sit in them. Note the build-in stereo system... Maybe someday we will see if it actually works!

The living room (it's actually bigger than it looks):

The view from my bedroom:




The cravings update:

Aaaaaghgah. I miss salad so much!!!!! I would pay so so so much money to go to mad greens right now and get the following: spring mix lettuce and spinach, mandarin oranges, croutons, citrus chicken, almonds, avocado, blue cheese, tomato, balsamic vinaigrette. YUMMMMMMMM!!
There is a pretty decent salad bar on campus, but it just isn't the same......

Also, I really miss smooth organization and punctuality. I'm pretty good at being easy going and just going with things... but I swear.... If the internet guy tells me 6pm and shows at 10:30pm asking for money one more time, I'm seriously going to go crazy!!!!!!!

Mexican food.

Clarity.

A more varied wardrobe from which to choose my outfits everyday.

Yes, these things would be very nice to have here.


Other thoughts:
I have never been in such a constant state of confusion before in my life. If I tried to imagine the most random, ridiculous, and unpredictable things that could possibly happen to me in the next 24 hours, I guarantee that they would pale in comparison with reality. My life here changes so quickly - often it's like I'm hanging on for the ride - with a huge grin on my face of course. I don't know what causes this feeling, but I think it's likely a consequence of Egypt and my mind both going through crazy revolutions.

I miss you guys all so much.... Come visit me. Pwease??

Things move quickly in Cairo...

Hi everybody!!!

There is so so so much to write about I don't even know where to start!!!

Sorry I've been a bit bad about updating my blog in the past week or so... The main reason I haven't been responding to anything is that my friend Christina (a graduate student at AUC) and I have moved into an apartment near the dorms on Zamalek and don't have internet set up yet - we keep coming back to the dorms to bum internet access... Hopefully within the next couple of days, we will figure out how to get wireless service. :P

Our apartment is totally awesome!! I guess you could say it has a lot of character... It has a huge living area, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two sort of sketchy washing machines, a kitchen with various random old dishes and an oven that you have to light with a match, and some very *interesting* paintings hanging on the wall that I will post pictures of at a later time. We named one of the subjects of the paintings Janet Jackson.
The process of getting the apartment was especially interesting.... We first tried to find someone who could actually speak Arabic to go with us, but nobody wanted to come. So, basically we walked over to some towers where we knew a lot of students had been living (before the revolution scared everyone away), and told the door man that we were looking for an apartment. As expected, he spoke a total of about two words in English - a great complement to my ~20 actually useful words of Arabic. I ended up calling one of my Egyptian friends and passing the phone back and forth with the doorman. We saw three apartments - the first was pretty run down and crappy, the second (which we ended up taking) was much nicer, and the third was in a different building and was filthy (not to mention the fact that there was a family living in it already - Grandma was in the bed...) haha. It was a memorable search, and like most aspects of life in Cairo, there is no way to do things other than just jumping in and committing fully to the experience.

Anyways.... on the note of the political situation here in Egypt:

As most of you hopefully heard, the Egyptian president stepped down last night!!!!! It is hard to describe the infectious amazing amounts of joy that filled the streets. My friends and I went downtown to Tahrir Square to join the celebrations, and it was one of the most exceptional things I have ever experienced. Everyone was there - men, women, children, rich, poor, etc. We actually ended up randomly running into some of our other friends in the middle of the square - what are the chances... It was so packed full of happy people that we were holding onto each other in order to not fall over! There was singing, dancing, chanting, honking, zagareeting, etc! I got some video footage, I'm not sure how great it was, but I might try to post it later if it's worth it.
As far as I know, the military is now in control of things, and is working to facilitate the people's wishes to create a better government for themselves.

Today, walking around Zamalek, things were festive... shops that haven't been open in weeks were re-opening... The fruit stands were all fully stocked with delicious produce, boys were back to their usual cat calls at us blond ladies, traffic was full of its beautiful chorus of honks.... I love love love love love it here so incredibly much!!

Please hear this, dear world.... dream of the good and the impossible, because if you have the guts and perseverance, it might just become possible!

Christina and I on our rooftop terrace, above ~17 stories of apartments and up some sketchy rusty ladders:

Perspective

Hey everyone, I have been emailing the people at CU, and wanted to share with you all what I have told them, as it might help you all to understand why I am still in Cairo:


I understand that my decision to wait things out in Cairo is having consequences, and that the situation in Egypt is very unpredictable right now. Studying abroad for me this semester was less about the academics and more about having an experience in a culture that is nothing like the United States - the life I am currently living here certainly falls under that category, and I do not regret my decision to stay. I am learning so much about myself and the world right now, and feel that I am witnessing something truly amazing through the Egyptian people. I am so inspired by their passion.

It was my dream throughout high school to have an experience like this - I wanted to spend my life working with people in developing countries *especially* around Africa and the Middle East. Although my dreams have changed since then, this experience is unfolding in a way that really touches my passions. I feel the need to see it through.

On an academic note, I know that it may seem that I am having blatant disregard for my academic career, but the truth is quite the opposite. I have spoken with the president of AUC and also the international student office lady (I have forgotten her official title, but her name is Kim), and they are going to work with me so that I can hopefully still take classes at AUC if/when the semester here begins. Currently classes are scheduled to start on Feb. 13th. I am in a slightly different position from most college students in that the classes I was intending on taking this semester were not going to count towards my degree except as electives (which I will already have enough of anyway). This experience was already pushing my graduation back a semester, so I'm not worried about things in that regard. As I said - coming here was more about having a new experience and expanding my world perspective.

When I come back to Colorado, most likely this fall, I plan to continue with my evolutionary biology degree at CU if this is possible. I am an ambitious and highly motivated student, but I need this semester to explore the world a bit.

Sorry for the long email... I wanted to let you all know where I am coming from. Thank you for your support and understanding, and please let me know if there is anything you need from me or questions you would like to ask.

~Kerry Manley


And on another note... here is a beautiful picture of the Nile I took yesterday morning:

Cairo update

Dear amazing friends and family:

The news reports have really been blowing things WAY out of proportion. It hasn't been scary since friday/saturday, and even then the scary things weren't anywhere close to my dorm (I am on an island on the Nile). PLEASE do not panic when you hear things on TV. I have been talking to friends who are at the protests, watching the news, looking out the window. It is very civil here.
My roommate is also in contact with someone high up in the US embassy here who is giving us advice on the situation.

From my perspective, Cairo is going back to normal today, internet is up, grocery stores are being re-stocked, people are going about their business, and the curfews are expected to be backing off a bit.

Egypt is a beautiful amazing place full of passionate, kind people. I FEEL MORE THAN LUCKY TO BE HERE!!

I am very safe here right now, and do not intend on leaving unless I start feeling unsafe. I really appreciate all of your concern, and am taking things on a day to day basis - I have a suitcase of essentials packed in case of an emergency departure, but do not anticipate that happening at this point.

I love you all,
~Kerry