Our trip to Siwa could not have come at a better time. Grace and I have been overwhelmed and frustrated beyond belief with work and I am not being patient enough with my ability to learn Arabic (turns out it is not realistic to become fluent within a month of tutoring). We spend a lot of time in utter amazement at indescribable chaos that constantly surrounds us and most nights we take at least 30 minutes to share the most ridiculous moments of our day. (Just for laughs, here are a few that come to mind: A student of mine brought me an herb from her garden; not a flower or an apple, but an herb. What am I supposed to do with that?!?! It wilted before I left campus. Next, Grace has a student named “Sarah Ahmed Ahmed Ahmed Wanass,” but apparently she wasn’t in class today so taking attendance was not nearly as enjoyable. And one more, when asked to list animals that are extinct, a student offered “dragons.” This was not a translation problem; our explanation: she read some medieval novel and assumed the Knights of the Round table really saved damsels from fire-breathing dragons. Dear goodness, SEND REINFORCEMENTS!! We are in need of some serious help at this university!)
Sorry for the tangent, now back to recounting my Siwan Oasis adventure. Grace and I moved our Arabic class to Wednesday (13.10) morning so that we could catch a 3pm train to Cairo. Being in Egypt for two months already has us on Egyptian time, which means we show up “as we like.” This tardiness almost cost us a few hours and $20, plus some serious frustration, but we jumped on, literally, as the train was pulling out of the station. We arrived in Cairo, met up with our friends, enjoyed a delicious meal with Grace's Arabic teacher from Cairo and fiancé. Riham and Abdullah are wonderful people and so much fun to be around. Besides enjoying the coolest restaurants in Cairo and learning slang words I will never be able to pronounce correctly or timely, we got to discuss some Egyptian and regional politics. (FYI: Listening to Egyptians talk about Middle Eastern affairs is one of my favorite things and one of the main reasons I wanted to spend a year over here.)
Thursday morning began early, but I had 2.5, well actually 3, bus seats to myself (I hogged the ½ from Eric most of the trip--we split the last row of five in the back of the bus) to stretch out and sleep. I also brought a gigantic stack of papers I needed to grade, and yes I realize that makes me very lame since I was supposed to be on vacation, but a teacher has to do what a teacher has to do! The two buses (there were around 50 Fulbrighters and their families on the trip) headed towards Siwa around 7:30am, stopping in Alamein World War II cemeteries briefly and then Marsa Matrouh for lunch. We did not spend enough time in either location for me to elaborate, sorry.
After 9+ hours on the road, our yellow polka dotted buses arrived to Siwa, an oasis town. Thankfully, the lizard Megan found in the room was disposed of before I saw it and I did not see the numerous beetles living in the room until the next morning. Other than that, the hotel was perfectly fine, not to mention completely paid for (as with the rest of the trip including the bus and adventurous outings) by the Fulbright Commission, aka your tax dollars.
Friday morning we set out for Shail Fortress, Alexander’s Oracle at Amoun Temple, and the Mountain of the Dead. The fortress was constructed partially from salt, thus part of the fortress is no longer standing. It was built over 700 years ago, but other than that I cannot think of anything else to share about this site. At Amoun’s Temple I learned that an oracle is not a person, but yet supernatural signs from a god that are interpreted by a priest when called upon by an inquiring, soul-searching individual. For example, Alexander the Great traveled to Siwa to ask the oracle at Amoun’s Temple who his father was and the priest informed him (despite the fact that he did not speak the same language as Alexander and apparently no translator was present) that the god Amoun was in fact his father, and thus he was part god himself. Our tour guides hinted that the priests knew how to give soul-searchers exactly what they wanted to hear.
My favorite site of the day, however, was Mountain of the Dead because the tombs contained hieroglyphic paintings from ancient Egypt. Since the tombs are not exposed to the sunlight and wind due to their location in the side of the mountain, the paintings were impressively preserved. I was in complete amazement at the vibrant colors and intricate funeral stories; it looked like something the History Channel covered extensively in its episode on History’s Great Civilizations: Ancient Egypt. I am still blown away by the fact that I am living in among such ancient ruins and artifacts and that I can look out my window on any day at see something that predates the common era.
For lunch we went to “Cleopatra’s Bath,” but this turned out to be the name of the restaurant and the actual bath is located somewhere on the north coast outside Alexandria. The food was good enough, but the swarming flies detracted greatly from enjoying the meal fully. After lunch, we met with some local Siwan men and women. The men discussed basket weaving (and attempted to make some of their own) and the women learned some traditional stitches found in locally made scarves and dresses. I am not one for craft time and was reprimanded for not following directions; no surprise there for those who have met me at least once.
The day’s most comical adventure came after craft time once we mounted donkey carts to watch the sunset over Salt Lake. The ride was a little long and only entertaining for the first ten minutes or so when we thought we were going to get dumped off the back by our energetic donkey named Ali Baba. Once we reached the lake, we realized the journey was for naught because the hazy sky hid the sun, thus creating a sun-“upset.” The pictures turned out decent enough, though.
Speaking of pictures, I am too lazy to post my pictures tonight. Sorry. But, check out this site. These pictures are taken by a professional photographer, and so all accolades and proceeds, should you decide to purchase any one of these highly esteemed masterpieces, should go to Eric. The site has a ton of pics from this past weekend, in addition to other albums from our two months thus far in Egypt. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/109320547873825950657/Siwa?pli=1#
Now that I just looked at the clock and realized I still have lessons to plan and it is 10:40pm, I have decided that I cannot finish telling you about my weekend tonight. I’ll try to finish tomorrow, so try to contain yourself till then.
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