Greetings from Egypt, Number 1
8 Sep 2005, 11:39
Hello Everyone! Greetings from Egypt!
This is my first message to this list. I have assembled this list of friends, family, and colleagues who were interested in hearing about our adventures in Egypt. Most of you told me that you wanted to be on this list. But several of you were added by me without asking, usually because I thought that you would be interested, but didn’t have a chance to ask you before our departure. (I’ve thought of and added at least half a dozen people since we left home, and I’m sure I’ll think of more as we go along.) So, if you don’t want to be on the list, just send me an email and I’ll promptly remove your name…
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I’ll provide further background on why I’m here and what I’m doing in a later email. For now, though, I should provide a brief disclaimer: I am an “ugly American” who hasn’t traveled much outside of the USA. I will try to report on what I have seen without prejudice and without too much comparison to my own experience, but some comparison is inevitable.
It has been quite an exciting few days!
On Sunday, we left Blacksburg for Frederick, Maryland, where we spent the night with Becky’s parents.
On Monday morning, we ran a few errands before our departure from the airport. Our last errand, on our way out of town, was a stop at the mall to pick up a couple of items. (Most notably, a charger for my camera batteries, as I had left my charger in Blacksburg.) When we got back out of the mall, the van wouldn’t start. It would turn over, but wouldn’t start, as if the battery, which had started the van twice in the last hour, had suddenly decided to quit. As luck would have it, we were in the parking lot of Sears. So, my father-in-law went inside, bought a battery and a set of wrenches, and installed the battery. So, we were on our way, albeit a half-hour later than planned.
When we arrived at Dulles, it was a complete madhouse. This was the result of traveling on Labor Day, I suppose, but the security line was actually snaked around in front of the ticket counters, making it impossible to access the ticket counters without ducking under the ropes and cutting through the security lines. We checked in, waited through the longest security line I have ever experienced, and arrived at our gate as general boarding began.
Our flight left the gate 30 minutes late on account of the fact that someone checked in a bag but didn’t show up at the gate. I’d guess that he or she was still standing in the security line… Then we sat on the tarmac for 30 more minutes, presumably because we had missed our takeoff slot. Finally, an hour after scheduled departure, we were on our way.
After an uneventful flight, we arrived in Frankfurt early Tuesday morning, and we made our connection for Cairo. The flight followed the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and then crossed the Mediterranean. As we approached Cairo, we could see the Great Pyramids from the airplane. I was astounded by the geography, too – unbelievably green, fertile land, teeming with plant life in the vicinity of the Nile and then unending miles of dessert. I suppose this is what one should expect in Egypt, but seeing it is much more vivid than reading about it.
We were met at the airport by a gentleman holding a sign that said, “Virginia Tech – Alain Mcinsay.” (Actually, I think the spelling of my last name was even worse than that, but I can’t remember exactly what it was.) I’m not sure I would have recognized it as my name if the sign hadn’t also said, “Virginia Tech.” With extreme efficiency, he got us our visas, escorted us through Passport Control, and on to baggage claim. We waited quite a while for our bags, which were quite beaten up, but pretty much everything survived the trip. Then, our escort whisked us through customs with hardly a word. He then spoke for a few minutes with a man from a shuttle service, took us out to a van, loaded up our luggage, and said goodbye.
The van driver got in, and we were off. All of the guidebooks talk about how crazy the traffic is in Cairo. It was crazy, but not quite up to my expectations. There was certainly a rhythm to it… Hand and horn signals, unmarked traffic lanes (Did you know that there is actually an extra lane between any two marked lanes of traffic? Try that trick in the USA…), and so on. Oh, and the pedestrians are just as crazy as the drivers, running across multiple lanes of fast moving traffic. According to one of the guidebooks, Egypt does have a very high rate of traffic accidents. That having been said, though, I dare say that the average driver in Egypt is much more skilled than the average American driver. A much greater level of situational and spatial awareness are obviously required to avoid an accident. We got into quite a traffic jam in Alexandria, and I was astounded that through it all we didn’t bump or scrape (or even touch) another vehicle. Due to the traffic jam, it was just after dark when we reached the Arab Academy of Science and Technology.
We were met by Yasser Hanafy, who is the Dean of the College of Computing at AAST and is our host. He paid our driver, got someone to handle our luggage, arranged for our dinner, and showed us to our room. We are staying in a women’s dorm at AAST. It is a large dorm room, with its own bathroom and shower, two desks, a small fridge, a sitting area, and a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. (I’ll post pictures of the room and our view of the Mediterranean to the web as soon as I get better Internet access…)
So, we had dinner, prepared for us in the dining room at the dorm, and then went to bed.
Today (Wednesday), we took it easy in the morning, with breakfast and lunch again prepared in the dorm. This afternoon, Yasser showed me around the campus, including showing me the probable location of my office, which will hopefully be ready tomorrow. Then, before dinner, Yasser drove Becky and I around Alexandria, along the Corniche. School has not yet started in Egypt, and there are still thousands and thousands of tourists from around Egypt and the Middle East packing the Mediterranean beach along the Corniche. It doesn’t look all that relaxing to me – sitting in a chair among hundreds of people on a crowded beach… But most of the tourists will be gone soon, and Yasser promises that late September and October are the best times of year to be in Alexandria.
Today was also election day in Egypt, but almost no one that I met had voted. It seems that academics in Egypt are completely disenchanted with the political process. I mentioned that this election – apparently the first contested election in Egypt in decades – had gotten quite a bit of coverage in the US press, and I was told that it was no different than previous elections (which were uncontested), but that it was only made to appear different.
Some observations, before I close this message, which is already entirely too long.
First, there are advertisements everywhere. Lots of billboards, but even things that would serve a civic purpose in the US often contain advertising. For instance, on the dessert road between Cairo and Alexandria the mile markers, counting down the miles to Alexandria, advertise a cell phone company! And there are flags on the street lamps, which might carry a season or civic message in the US, but here carry advertising. Quite a bit of the advertising is in English, too.
Second, there is an astounding amount of poverty. This was especially true in Cairo, where we passed mile after mile of what appeared to be slums. These were mostly brick buildings with cement columns. Most of the time the columns extended beyond the tops of the buildings with rebar extending further beyond the tops of the columns, as if to suggest that at any time the buildings could “grow,” should the slums require expansion. This contrasted most sharply to various buildings built by Western companies; I especially remember a beautiful, modern building bearing the name of “Microsoft” on the outskirts of Cairo, but there were certainly others as well.
Third, the guidebooks carry various warnings about the treatment of Western women in Egypt. Becky was subject to quite a bit of ogling from men on the street as we rode from the airport to Alexandria yesterday, and some of the men are clearly uncomfortable interacting with Western women. (The worst, although in retrospect amusing, instance was an 11 or 12 year old boy who called his friends over, pointing and laughing, as we were stopped in traffic.) Since we have arrived at the Academy, though, everyone has been wonderful. The men on the staff here are clearly accustomed to dealing with foreigners.
Finally, in general we have been treated like a king and queen here at the Arab Academy. Most people in the culture seem to be extremely hospitable and generous, I believe, and they are eager to fulfill our every wish with regards to food, making us comfortable, and so on. It is both very pleasant and occasionally a bit unnerving for those of us used to taking care of our own needs.
As I said, this has gone on far longer than I intended. But there was much to report. As we get settled in, and I get busy teaching my courses, I expect that my messages will be much shorter. Hopefully, future messages will also replace many of these words with pictures, which I will post to the web and link. For now, though, that is all.
I am pressing “Send” on Wednesday night, Egypt time, but I won’t have internet until at least tomorrow. So, I don’t know when it might reach you. We shall see!
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