Pre-return jitters

As of today, seeing as I'm leaving Egypt on June 28, I have seventeen days left in this country.
Seventeen.

Saying that seems incredibly and utterly unreal. I remember when I was beyond exited that I had five months to go before my departure, and now this experience that I've looked forward to for a quarter of my life is going to be over in seventeen days.

There are, admittedly, things that I will be happy to be leaving behind. The verbal battles that people of different political views have with each other. The problems happening as a result of the ongoing recovery from the effects of the revolution (i.e. inadequate garbage pickup, very wide socioeconomic gaps, the unstable politics and the people's dissatisfaction with the government, etc).  The heat. Language barriers. The population density. Some people's conservatism. And other things of this nature.
And there are many things that I've missed about home. My family. My friends. Snow. Christmas. Frozen yogurt, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, and Indian food (which are all difficult to find here), plus my mom's cooking. Feeling 100% confident in my surroundings and being able to express myself without any linguistic inhibitions whatsoever. The quality of the American educational system, as stressful as it can be at times. The wide open landscapes and abundance of green spaces, that are difficult to find in urban Egypt. The lovely lakes and forests that abound in my home state of Michigan. And other things like that.

But at the same time, there are things that I am going to miss so much about this country and will be heartbroken to be leaving behind. Alexandria itself (i.e. the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the good weather, having the Mediterranean Sea be a fifteen minute walk from my home, etc). The adaan (call to prayer). Speaking Arabic. Being in a constant state of learning and discovery, gathering knowledge about the local culture and history. The perfect balance between having a home and a family, and freedom, that I've built up in my time here. Egyptian food. All the places that I love to visit. Some of my teachers. My home. My neighborhood. My friends.
And most of all, my host family. I love my host family so much; in my time here, they have gone from being a group of complete strangers to being my second family. They treat me like a son and a brother, and after more than nine months of living in their home, I feel like one of them.
And I'm going to miss them so much.
Saying goodbye to them is going to tear me to pieces inside. There's no two ways about it.

And moreover, in spite of the fact that my departure has been on my mind a lot lately, simply put, it doesn't feel real that it's about to happen.
A few days ago, when I was Skyping with my family back in Michigan, and I saw the house, the backyard, the living room, they all looked so familiar and yet so foreign to me after over nine months of being away. And the fact that I will be in that house in almost two weeks simply feels unreal.
I liken this to how I felt in the months leading up to my departure from home when I was coming here. I thought about my departure and my upcoming exchange constantly, but, in a way, it didn't really feel real that I was leaving until maybe the last week or two, and I didn't actually get the feeling of "OH MY GOD, THIS IS REAL! I'M DOING IT!" until I said goodbye to my dad when he dropped me off at the gateway orientation back in New York City, all those months ago.
I think that this time around, it will work similarly.

A few months back, the idea of leaving this place used to utterly and completely terrify me every time I thought of it. I developed this paranoia of it that was temporarily fueled by the arrival of my return flight information back in March. Then that randomly vanished about a month or two ago. For a while I couldn't tell if it was because I had begun to lose my fear of returning to the United States, for whatever reason, or if I was just becoming numb to it in a way, not realizing that it was going to happen. And I now think that the latter is true. It simply doesn't feel real that it's happening.

One thing that I was feeling so paranoid about before was, apart from the idea of leaving this place, the process of readjusting into my life back home. Many returnees had stories to tell of reverse culture shock and feeling out of place in their own homes that worried me greatly. I wondered if I would experience similar feelings after the end of my experience.
But now, I'm simply not sure what will happen. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel after I get home. I just don't know, whether or not I will feel out of place or have reverse culture shock. I just don't know.
What I do know, is that it will certainly be a strange transition at first. There are things that it will probably take quite a while to get used to. For example, the absence of the background sounds of traffic and the adnaan will probably be very strange, and make it feel very quiet at first. Also, I'm getting the feeling that it will be very strange for me at first to be speaking English all the time. Despite the fact that I speak, write, use, and think in English a lot here, I speak Arabic most of the time, especially when I'm with my family. And I'm so used to leaving my home and using Arabic to get from place to place and buy things that the idea of communicating in English in order to do these things seems almost strange.
Simply speaking English twenty-four/seven is probably going to be very strange at first, and I can tell that there are Arabic words that I will be subconsciously wanting to say, that have no direct translation into English. This has already happened to me a lot while Skyping with family and friends back in the States.

And besides reverse culture shock and feeling out of place, another factor which fueled my paranoia of leaving, which still is a very real concern for me, is that this experience is almost over.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, I've been wanting to go on this experience for a quarter of my life. For four years, since I was twelve, this has been something to look forward to, to work towards, to be proactive for, to aspire to.
And now it's almost over. And I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with myself after it is.

Moreover, I also have to deal with the fact that, although my host family will always be my other family, and this city will always be my other home, and this country, in many ways, will always be my other country, my life here as I've known it throughout my exchange will end when I step onto that plane in the Cairo International Airport in seventeen days.
Meaning, I can always come back here and visit my family and friends, and I will, of course. But it will never be quite the same as it is now.
And I guess that that is one of the main things that worries me about my rapidly approaching departure date.

Additionally, I've undeniably changed in a number of ways since I came here. I've grown up a lot mentally and emotionally. I've become much more mature and independent. I feel much more confident in my decisions, opinions, choices, and tastes. I feel like I understand how the world works so much better, if that makes sense. I've learned an incredible amount of things about Egypt, about people, and about life in general. And I've gained so much knowledge, respect, and love for another country, Egypt, another religion, Islam, another family, another culture, and another way of life, while at the same time gaining a new love for and appreciation of my own country, faith, culture, traditions, and family.
I think back to the guy who boarded the plane back in the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on September 1, 2012, and I find it astounding to think about who he's become.
And that time feels so far away, so far in the past. Even my first days in this country are very distant, almost dreamlike memories that feel like they happened eons ago. And the days leading up to my departure from home before I came here feel even longer ago, as though they happened in another life. It's so strange.
And part of me already knows that I'm going to have trouble explaining just how these kinds of changes feel to people back home.

Up until this point, whenever I've thought about things that I want to see or do, I've always thought about them at least relatively calmly, because "there's so much time left; I'll be able to do everything I want to without any trouble!"
But the truth in that statement is very quickly fading.
In fact, I'd say it's just about gone at this point.

With seventeen days left, I need to take advantage of the time I have left to the fullest. Do and see everything that I want to. And enjoy everything that I'm going to miss after I have to leave.

After seventeen days.

That's all for now. I'll leave you all with a short blurb that I found circulating in one of the AFS Facebook groups about pre-departure sentiments. Although I didn't write it, I certainly think it sums up these tremulous feelings quite well.

"A year has passed and now we stand on the brink, of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything and yet nothing being the same. In a couple of weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears,we will say goodbye to people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before we ever left.We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends.

We will go back to the places we came from, and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even though it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday. As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand.

Who will you call first? What will you do your first weekend home with your friends? Where are you going to work? Who will be at the party Saturday night? What has everyone been up to in the past few months? Who from school will you keep in touch with? How long before you actually start missing people barging in without calling or knocking? Then you start to realize how much things have changed, and you realize the hardest part of being an exchange student is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind.

We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know who we have kept in touch with over the past year and who we hold dearest to our hearts. We've left our worlds to deal with the real world. We've had our hearts broken, we've fallen in love, we've helped our best friends overcome eating disorders, depression, stress, and death. We've lit candles at the grotto and we've stayed up all night on the phone just to talk to a friend in need. There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we know our families or friends needed us the most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.

Just weeks from now we will leave. Just weeks from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose random e-mails and phone calls will bring us to laughter and tears this summer, and hopefully years to come. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to this world.

Just weeks from now we will arrive. Just weeks from now we will unpack our bags and have dinner with our families. We will drive over to our best friend's house and do nothing for hours on end. We will return to the same friends whose random emails and phone calls have brought us to laughter and tears over the year. We will unpack old dreams and memories that have been put away for the past year. In just weeks we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, in some way, we will find our place between these two worlds.

In just weeks."

The month of May and my Egyptian birthday

*I have become a worse blogger than I had ever expected to. xD This post has been sitting around as an empty draft under the title "Shem el-Naseem vacation and updates" for nearly three weeks. My bad.*

{And NOW this has been sitting under the new title "The month of May," almost completely edited, for another week or so. Therefore I have edited the title even further. Sorry my blogging skills have officially gone south.} 

Well, since I last left off with my update about Carson and Annika's visit to Alexandria, which took place in the final two days of April, I figured that it would be appropriate to call this post "The month of May," and update you all on everything that happened in it.

The first thing worth talking about was that, for the first two weeks of this month, I was on vacation for an important holiday called Shem el-Naseem.
Some background info: The holiday's name translates to "the sniffing of the breeze," which is a holiday that dates back to Pharaonic times and is meant to be a little celebration of the beginning of spring. Its name is derived from the name of the Harvest Season in ancient Egypt - Shemu - which means a day of creation. Ancient historians wrote that the Egyptians once offered salted fish, lettuce, and onions to their deities on this day. When Egypt became Christianized during Roman rule, this holiday eventually morphed into its current date (Orthodox Easter) and form, and even after the Islamic conquest of Egypt, this holiday remained. It is celebrated as more of a national holiday, by Egyptians regardless of their religion, than as a religious one, even though Coptic Easter does fall on the same day. In modern times, it is typically celebrated by picnicking outside in parks or public gardens, eating feseekh (salted grey mullet, which I tried and admittedly did not like so much xD), lettuce, and scallions, and younger children often color and decorate eggs.
It fell on the 6th of this month, and although my host family and I didn't really do much to celebrate it other than eating some lettuce and feseekh with our lunch, I did have the opportunity to go to an Easter celebration in a Coptic church with my kind neighbor and friend Youssef, who took me to his church with two of his friends, named Abanoub and Mina, and I got to meet lots of very nice people and get a look at how Copts celebrate Easter. It was a great experience. :)
After that we ended up hanging out together for a few more hours before going home. I'm very glad that I had the chance to see and learn about all of these unique Egyptian celebrations.

Me and Youssef :) 

From left to right: Youssef, Abanoub, me. :)

The lovely chocolate egg that Youssef brought me. It was delicious. :3

The rest of the Shem el-Naseem vacation was fairly uneventful, and I went back to school on 12th.  Their scheduling of the vacation had been pretty inefficient - we essentially had two weeks of vacation right before the end of the year, and then came back with only two weeks to go - and one of them reserved exclusively for the fourth quarter exams. So we only had a week to cram in all of our lost lessons before testing, which, of course, ended up being extremely chaotic.
But, in any case, we somehow managed it, and then the following week we took our exams, and then it was over for me on May 22.
On that day, when I stepped out of the room in which I took my final exams, I was finished. Finished with school for the summer. The end of my time in Taymour English School was fairly unceremonious, and at first it didn't really feel real that I was done. But, as I've said before, although I've made some very good friends from my school that I'm very happy to have met, school has definitely not been the best part of my experience here, so in many ways I was relieved to be done. That, and the fact that my desire to study pretty much died during the Shem el-Naseem vacation, contributed to my relief. xD

In any case, I've been finished with school for ten days now, and it feels very nice to be on summer break. Although many of my friends are still not done with their exams and are not free to hang out with me, I've still been able to do some pretty great things since I finished school.

On the 24th, my host brother Loay took me to a resort on the Mediterranean coast about 20 kilometers outside of Alexandria, called Sidi Krier, with a group of his friends. First we swam in the large, connected system of swimming pools, which was refreshing. Afterwards, we headed to a nearby mall to grab a bite to eat, and then headed to a place inside Sidi Krier called Amoun Cafe, which is right beside the sea. Loay and I ended up running straight to the water's edge together. :) And oddly enough, as soon as I saw the place, I realized that I had been there before! I went there, with the same people, all the way back in September, in my first week here. So I subsequently kept flashing back to that whole evening to that night.
That was a fabulous day. :)

A few days later, my host father's brother and his family came over for a little while, and since there was a power outage at the time, I ended up chatting with them for a long time and we actually hit it off quite well. I remember thinking at the time that it was quite comical - bonding with people I had only just met, in the dim candle light of a power outage. xD

Then, on the 29th of May, to celebrate their final day of school (since all the grades bellow high school finished on that day), I went out to an open air mall within walking distance of where I live, called Green Plaza, with my Egyptian American friends from school, Youssef and Hashem. We saw Iron Man 3, ate at a Pizza Hut for dinner, and then made use of the large trampolines in a part of Green Plaza called Karamantas. It was a great day out with two great friends, in spite of the intense heat that day.

Then, June 2nd was my 17th birthday! In order to celebrate, Youssef and Hashem took me out to San Stefano, another large mall that I've mentioned before, and we kind of just walked around, talked, and had fun. And in the middle of our time there, my AFS returnee friend Adham surprised me and showed up with his brother Ahmed and a friend of his named Salah. It sounds pretty simple, but it really was a good day. :)
Although I must say that I really feel no different yet, now that I'm seventeen. I guess it just has yet to sink in? Perhaps...
In any case, I had a very simple but very fun Egyptian birthday. :)

That's all the news that there is to report at this point...I'd say that I'm doing pretty darn well in general. I have been sick on and off a bit these past few days, but hopefully that will pass. And today I guess the universe decided to make up for the scorching heat on my birthday yesterday ( the high temp was 107 Fahrenheit -.-) and offer a much more pleasant 82. :)

Sorry I've been seriously slacking lately when it comes to blogging. I will try {note the word try} to be better about it in the near future, starting with writing a couple of posts from that list of ideas I had back in March.

Thanks for reading!
-Nico

Carson and Annika's visit to Alexandria!

So, here's my next bit of notable news: Carson and Annika came to visit Alexandria for a few days at the end of last month, right at the beginning of the two-week vacation I just got off of. :D

They arrived on April 28th, accompanied by Carson's host sister Yara and several friends of hers (Who are really quite mean. xD Just kidding....Sorta...), but I didn't meet up with them until the next day.

On the 29th, I went to school because I thought that we were going to be in school that week, but instead it turned out that my classmates had governmental Arabic exams, and that we would be leaving after two hours, so I had no reason to go until after the vacation.
So, a few hours later, we met up at the Sheraton Hotel located in front of the Montazah Palace, which I've mentioned here several times before, and then Carson, Annika, and I headed to the nearby, large mall complex of San Stefano to have some Starbucks, walk around together, talk, and just catch up.
Afterwards, we headed back to the Montazah to rejoin Yara and her friends, and go swimming on the beach located inside the Montazah complex. We split ourselves up into two groups, and each group got on a paddle boat. We headed to the opposite end of the enclosed beach located beside the Montazah, in which we swam, and then dove into the icy cold water. :D
It was a crazy, hilarious, and incredible way to end a day which had started off pretty so-so: swimming in the sea with some of my dearest friends. :)
Later that evening, we met up in a neighborhood called Mansheya to have dinner in a seafood restaurant (understandably, due to its location on the Mediterranean Sea, Alexandria is famous in Egypt for its seafood), and then headed to a nearby area called Bahary for some dessert.
It was an amazing day, and I'm so glad that we were able to spend time together and do all this fun stuff. :)

The next day we weren't able to really meet up for very long, but I came to the Sidi Gaber train station to say goodbye to them, since it's within a pretty harmless walking distance of my house.

In any case, I'm really happy that we were able to meet up. :) I had loads of fun with them, and hope that we'll be able to get together again at some point in the near future.

If either of you read this, Carson or Annika, I'm missing you guys! You're both wonderful. Take care and stay awesome! :D

From the seafood restaurant in Mansheya. 

The three of us in Sidi Gaber before they left! From left to right: Carson, me, Annika.

Again. :)

My lovely trip to Cairo last month :)

Well, I'm finally getting down to posting about my trip to Cairo to visit my friend Hady at the end of April.
I will divide it up day by day to be organized as I go over all that which transpired.
Here it goes!

April 24, 2013
On April 24, I didn't go to school, and headed to the bus station in Moharram Bey along with the AFS Alexandria chapter leader, Nagwa, where we met up with two other ladies from the chapter on their way with Nagwa to an AFS training in a hotel in Cairo.
Shortly afterwards, we boarded our bus from a company called West and Middle Delta, and made decent time - having left at noon, we arrived in Cairo just after three.
Hady came to pick me up at the stop where we got off, and then took me to his {beautiful} home, which is located on a really neat little neighborhood called Manial, which is situated on an island in the middle of the Nile, where I met his mother Hoda and his two sisters Haidy and Hadeel.
Shortly thereafter, we went out to dinner with an awesome group of Hady's friends to a restaurant called Spectra in a neighborhood of Cairo called Dokki.
Two of them - a guy named Yehia, and a girl named Reem, study at the American University in Cairo. One, named Mohammed, studies at the German University in Cairo. Two of them - two girls named Liza and Hoda, will be studying in American universities starting next year, at Tufts and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, respectively. And one named Janan, who is an American student adviser at the AUC.
And it must be said that everyone present spoke beautiful English - many of them, despite the fact that they had never gone to the United States or any Anglophone country, had an incredibly sophisticated vocabulary, and a surprising knowledge of colloquial expressions. I was thoroughly impressed.
Before we went there, Hady had joked that we were going to meet Egyptians that spoke better English than him and me. I laughed at it beforehand, but meeting these guys sure set me straight! xD
In any case, it was a very fun evening out. I got to meet these incredible people, and we talked endlessly about all kinds of things imaginable. On top of everything, the food at Spectra was delicious.
I remember thinking very contentedly to myself several times that evening, "these nights are the kind of memories that I wanted to do this for." :)
So, that evening is a very cool memory for me, and a lovely start to my three days in Cairo.

April 25, 2013 
This day was a school holiday - Sinai Liberation Day, celebrating the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied Sinai Peninsula in 1982 - which meant both that I didn't have to take it off from school since there wasn't any school, and that there was considerably less traffic than usual, because lots of people left the city for day trips in the early morning.
In the morning, Hady took me to see something that I have hoped to see for many years: the Egyptian Museum.
This was truly an incredible experience for me. As I've made clear several times in the past, I have been interested in ancient Egypt for many years (which was one of the factors that resulted in my desire to come here for my exchange), so seeing this iconic museum was a little dream come true for me.
This museum has just about everything an Egyptology junkie could be happy with and more - a total of 120,000 items overall, 11 mummies on display, papyrus scrolls, jewelry, sarcophagi, hieroglyphic inscriptions, statues, amulets, entire columns and sections from temples, animal mummies, historical records, and just about anything else one could think of.
My two favorite spots that we saw were the Jewelry Room, which has some really lovely pieces of jewelry that have been recovered, and the Tutankhamon Room, which exhibits the artifacts recovered from the legendary tomb of none other than King Tut himself.
Seeing his beautiful, signature golden mask gave me goosebumps - it was so mesmerizing to look at.
I unfortunately have no pictures to show you, because it was forbidden to take pictures inside the museum. But hopefully the words I've written (and the multitudes of pictures of the Museum that you can find on Google and Wikipedia :P) will be enough to paint a picture in your heads, so to speak.
Later that night, I went out again, this time with Hady, his sisters, and a friend of theirs named Mahmoud, and we went to a cupcake bakery called Nola in a lovely, somewhat upscale neighborhood of Cairo called Maadi, for a quick, late-night dessert, which ended up being quite fun. :)

April 27, 2013
Although this was the last day of my trip, it was certainly the busiest by far.
In the morning, Hady and I went to a neighborhood of Cairo called Heliopolis, to have breakfast with Carson, my American AFSer friend from Oregon, at a Starbucks in a large Heliopolis food court called Tivoli Dome.
I'd hoped that our fellow AFSer in Egypt, Annika from Germany, would be able to come as well, but she was on vacation outside of Cairo.
In any case, Hady, Carson, and I spent some nice time together chitchatting calmly over breakfast, which was very fun and relaxed. :)
After that, we said goodbye to Carson and then went to the Old City of Cairo to visit two very fascinating places of worship: The first was the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
This synagogue is fabled to be built on the spot where the baby Moses was found.
And it was, honestly, very beautiful. It was very elegant, colorful, and in spite of its unmistakable structure, menorahs, and Hebrew inscriptions, looked as though it had a bit of Islamic influence in its design.
It also had a feeling to it as though it were sort of frozen in time - the Jewish community in Egypt, while once quite large, has dwindled to less than 200 individuals, and so the Ben Ezra Synagogue isn't really used for religious services anymore.
After that, we headed to the Hanging Church (also known as the Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church, which is a Coptic church that dates back to the 3rd Century C.E. It also has 110 icons, the oldest of which dates back to the 8th century.
It had many paintings, and the distinct Coptic art style, in my opinion, is interestingly reminiscent of the art style of the ancient Egyptians.
And, as I've mentioned before, I have a thing for Coptic churches for some reason, so I couldn't help but feel in awe a little bit.
After that, we took a quick peak in a small church nearby, and then headed back to Manial so we could meet up with my friend Ahmed Nada, who stayed in my hometown of Ann Arbor last year.
Since I've only been able to meet up with him once since I got to Egypt - and it was all the way back in November - I was delighted to have an opportunity to catch up with him. :)
We sat together in a cafe for a little while, had something to drink, and then headed back to Hady's home, because at that point I had to eat lunch, pack up, and get ready to head back to Alexandria.
After I said goodbye to Hoda, Haidy, and Hadeel, and had eaten lunch and packed up, Hady, Ahmed, and a friend of Hady's gave me a ride to the hotel where the people from the AFS Alex chapter were staying.
I very reluctantly said goodbye to my two good friends, and then headed back home to Alexandria with the other people from the chapter. We got back just after 10:00 pm.

In the following days, I suffered from some melancholy feelings reminiscent of those that I felt in the first days when we had just gotten back from our trip to Aswan and Luxor back in January. I really wanted to go back, and was sad that I had had to leave so soon since the trip had been so much fun.
But other fun things have happened lately which greatly brightened my mood (more posts about them to come).
Thanks for reading about my amazing trip!
Hope you all enjoyed.
Nico

A picture from the night we ate at Spectra:
Left row, starting from the end: Reem, Janan, Huda, Liza.
Right row, starting from the inside: Me, Mohammed, Hady, and Yehia. 

PS: I forgot to mention - today marks exactly eight months since the day that I arrived in Egypt.

April update

Like I said in my last post, sorry I haven't been posting so much lately.
I guess it's just been a mixture of writer's block, lack of note-worthy activity, laziness, and just plain procrastination on my part.
I will try to post more regularly in my remaining months here.

In any case, I will now update you all on all the things I've done since April 7, the last time that I made a legitimate blog post.
Soon after my April 7th post, I finished my third quarter exams, and I've since gotten my report card back. I'd say I did a pretty good job, thankfully. :)

My report card, ladies and gentlemen. As usual, please disregard computer, music, and art. 

On April 12, I went with my host mother and some colleagues of hers to a park that's actually quite close to where I live, called Qariet el-Asad, which means something like "the Park of the Lion." It was a nice place with some wide fields, a restaurant area, and some animal enclosures containing an eagle, a vulture, porcupines, dogs, pigeons, monkeys, ostriches, camels, and (in a separate enclosure) lions.
We sat around chatting for quite a while, had something to eat, and then headed to a place where there was a sort of small circus, in which the lions were featured.
Overall, it was a nice place and a very fun day. The only thing that I didn't feel so good about was that the animals didn't have a whole lot of space in their enclosures, but other than that, I had fun.

                                     *No pictures from this one, unfortunately. Sorry!*

On the 17th, I went with a group of people from my school to an event at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The group and event were created for the people with the highest chemistry grades.
Initially, I was quite confused, as I had understood that we were going to the library in order to hear a well-known Egyptian scientist speak. But instead, when we arrived, we found a kind of science fair comprised of people from various schools and a few faculties of the University of Alexandria. Even so, it was interesting to see, as some people made some very interesting projects and were very clever presenters, and I had fun with the people from my school that I went with.

*No pictures from this one either, because, although there were pictures taken, one of the people there requested that they not be uploaded anywhere because they value their privacy, so I will respect that request. Please imagine a picture of me in front of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina with a group of classmates. :P*

On the 18th, I went out to the movies in a very upscale mall complex called San Stefano with a group of my Egyptian American friends from my school - Youssef, Hashem, Hashem's little brother Fares, and Fares's friend Adam. We saw an American action flick called "Olympus Has Fallen." In my opinion it wasn't particularly original, but it was very suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good movie.
Afterwards, we all pitched in to buy some pizza from the food court, and enjoyed it together, laughing it up and having a great time. :)
I waited with them as they caught their trams to head back to their respective neighborhoods, and then hopped on a taxi and headed back to my home in Smouha.

From left to right: Me, Youssef, Hashem, and Fares (Adam had to leave earlier than the rest of us, so he's not pictured).

And again. :) 

Then on the 21st I went with my AFS returnee-volunteer/schoolmate/good friend Adham, who went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with AFS last year, to a play practice for a play that he's in to meet some of his friends.
Overall, in spite of the fact that I found the parts of the play itself that they practiced very hard to understand (it was in Standard Arabic), I had a good time, and I was able to catch a glimpse of something that I've very frequently seen in events at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina - a very energetic, creative, dynamic youth that create and enrich culturally, and give back to the community. It's something that I love to see, and something that really gives me home for the reformation and regeneration of this country after the Revolution and all.
I also met a few people who I really liked and was glad to have met.

                                                *No pics again. Sorry.*

Then the 22nd at school, there was a kind of celebration of Earth Day for the little kids (if I've failed to mention it before, Taymour is a K-12 school) that mostly consisted of playing games, painting, and just relaxing and having fun. Since my close friend Nehal, who I've surely mentioned before, was a volunteer, and I was free for most of that day since my class had Arabic subjects, she invited me to come along and see what was going on, and we helped the present teachers and volunteers keep the little kids in check and play games with them.
That was quite fun, a cool little memory, like many others I have of my time here. C:
                   
          *No pictures of this since it was a school day and I hadn't thought to bring my camera.*

Other than that, same old-same old.
School. Having lots of fun with my friends there. Forming ever-closer bonds with my lovely host family. Learning more Arabic day by day. Skyping family and friends back in the USA. Going for walks in the lovely not-too-hot-and-not-too-cold Egyptian April, wandering aimlessly around the pretty little residential neighborhood of Smouha that I have come to love and call my second home. Going to calligraphy lessons, having interesting discussions in Arabic with my friendly and wise teacher, watching Turkish soap operas dubbed into Lebanese Arabic that he keeps on in the background, sipping a kind of instant coffee made by Nestle called Nescafe, all while writing rare and beautiful styles of Arabic calligraphy, gradually improving my abilities regarding that.
In other words, living my new life.
My Egyptian life.
Although after almost eight months, I suppose it's not really new anymore. It's almost become...simply life. Except life exactly 5825 miles and 9374 kilometers from the town where I was born and grew up.

My three day trip to Cairo merits another post all for itself, so I will make one for that soon and then after that, finally get cracking on that list of post ideas that I wrote in my March 10th post, and such.
Thanks for reading everybody!
And sorry again for my prolonged period of silence.
Bye for now,
Nico

PS: I'll leave you all with a song, one that I like a lot. I've been listening to it quite a bit lately, and I feel that it embodies my experience at this point pretty well. :)

أنا آسف

Or, in other words, I'm sorry.
More specifically, I'm sorry for not keeping you guys updated so much recently.

I'm headed off to Cairo for three days tomorrow! I promise that when I return from that trip I will update you all about my adventures here since the last time I wrote.

Sorry again.
Be back soon,
Nico

Delays, delays, nothing but delays...

I've been experiencing some delays in blogging lately, mostly from the fact that I'm taking my third quarter exams this week, so I've had to continuously delay blogging. So I guess that this time I at least have something to blame for my lack of blogging other than my own procrastination.

Now, I have some time today to write that I will most definitely take advantage of, and I will do my best to sum up everything that has been going on in my life and experience here in Egypt since I last wrote, on the day of the bazaar.

One of the most notable things that has happened since that day, was that I went to Cairo to visit my host grandparents!
On the 22nd of March, my host mom and I headed to the same bus station in the neighborhood called Moharram Bey, where Regina and I boarded our bus to the Cairo Airport back in January, and we met up there with her aunt Karima, who I've mentioned before. After waiting a while and deciding to board the 11:00 o'clock bus instead of the 10:30 bus, we were on our way to Cairo.
Karima and my host mom sat together, and I sat in a different seat right next to them that no one ended up sitting in, so I fortunately had some extra room. :)
We made very good time, and were in Cairo just before 2:00 o'clock. We got off at a stop in the center of the city, near to Tahrir Square, and then took a taxi to my host grandparents' home.
They were waiting for us inside with open arms and smiles. :) I really like both of my host grandparents, and I feel like they have very different personalities that at the same time kind of complete each other:
My host grandfather Mansur is very noble, a little bit serious, and a real gentleman, while my host grandmother Ayda is very friendly, loves to laugh, and is hilariously funny.

On the first day, we didn't do much; we just stayed in and talked, getting to know each other, and were eventually joined by my host uncle Nabil, my host mom's brother. He is an English teacher and speaks English very well, and was also delighted to have an opportunity to have a person with which to speak English fluently. We ended up talking a lot about my experience in Egypt and the differences between the cultures of the Arab and Anglophone worlds.
After some delightfully deep and hilarious conversations over dinner and, subsequently, tea, we all headed off to bed and woke up metakhar giddan (really late xD) the next morning.

The next day, the 23rd, we were joined by Nabil's wife Abeer, and their little son Ehad. We all had some wonderful conversations over lunch together, and then that evening we were joined by Nabil and Abeer's daughter Lama and two sons, Adham and Nadim. Gathered together in their living room, we talked and laughed together for hours, especially when my host mother showed everyone something that made me laugh to no end when she showed it to me a few months ago: her (somewhat exaggerated) impressions of me, my host father, and both of my host brothers when we're coming home from work or school. XD That induced some laughter that didn't die out for a long time.
Another awesome moment in that evening was when we were watching a comedic video of someone singing exaggeratedly badly, and I jokingly said "Begad ana ba'raf aghanny ahla men keda!" (Really, I know how to sing better than this), and so they challenged me to. And I took them up on it, singing first a little piece of one of my favorite Italian songs, "A te (To you)" by Jovanotti, and then a piece of one of my favorite songs in general, "Two is better than one" by Boys Like Girls.
That was definitely a very special moment and a very special evening, one that stands out as one of the best nights of my entire exchange so far. I definitely think this also goes on the list of days in my exchange that I will never forget.

The next day, the 24th, was the day that we originally intended to leave. Loay, my host cousin Adham, and I went out together for a walk around the city, which, incidentally, ended up taking us very near to the Egyptian Museum and Tahrir Square. We tried to get into the Egyptian Museum, but unfortunately it had closed only an hour before and we weren't able to. :( As for Tahrir, not a lot seemed to be going on in it. That's not to say, of course, that I would have gone there alone - some of the people there looked pretty sketchy, and the facade of the former headquarters of the political party which dominated the government during the Mubarak years which faced the square was quite ominously defaced and charred, which Loay told me was a result of grenades thrown at it by protesters during the revolution back in 2011.
Afterwards, we moved away from that whole area and tried to get ourselves onto a felucca, but we ended up running out of time and decided to forgo that. The three of us then continued walking and went passed the Cairo Opera, then we got pretty lost for a while trying to find a metro stop to take back home, and after we finally found the stop, took the metro, and found ourselves at home, we still had to eat and pack our things. In the end, we decided that it was too late to go home to Alexandria that night, because if we had, we might have ended up there as late as 4:00 am. So, Loay went home since he had work the next day, and my host mother and I decided to take that day off from her work and my school.

The next day, the 24th, was spent mostly packing and preparing to go back to Alexandria. But in typical Egyptian fashion, we ended up getting down to business much later than we'd planned. xD
After lunch, we said goodbye to Teita and Giddu ("Grandma" and "Grandpa" in Arabic, respectively), Karima, my host mother, and I made our way to the nearest bus station, and immediately boarded the 6 o'clock SuperJet bus back to Alexandria.
It ended up taking a painstakingly long time to get out of Cairo, because for the longest time, we were caught in INFURIATINGLY AWFUL bumper-to-bumper traffic, which Cairo is notorious for (what do you expect in a city of almost 20 million?). We didn't make it out of the city limits of Cairo until 8 o'clock. Thankfully, from there on out it was mostly smooth sailing, and we arrived at the bus station in Moharram Bey at 10 o'clock, and were back at home at about 10:30.
Here are some pictures:

The sunset from Teita and Giddu's balcony 

A mosque that I saw during my walk with Loay and Adham

An Armenian Catholic church that I saw on that same walk - not very far away at all from the mosque above.

We got inside a felucca, but ended up leaving early without actually moving from the dock because we were running out of time. 

A zoomed in view of Cairo Tower. 

Then in the next days, not a lot happened.
A couple of regular school days that consisted of fun times with friends, but were also contained much higher quantities of make-up work than I would have liked, not much more.

That is, until the 29th -
The always awesome former AFSer in Alexandria from Germany, Lisa Wolleschensky, was visiting Egypt again recently for her host sister's wedding, and so we decided to meet up again!
This time, I was invited for a day of sightseeing with Lisa and her parents, Gunter and Claudia, and her sister Lara. We started off our day at Qaitbey, and I was quite late due to the fact that, in true Egyptian fashion, I overslept. xP So we basically just met up at Qaitbey, and since they had already been inside, and I'd seen it before aslan (anyway), we decided to continue on to our next destination: the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
We first stopped for some lunch at Cilantro, a nearby cafe, and then went inside the library itself, which was something that I really enjoyed seeing, as I myself have only been inside the library itself twice. I even got to assist Lisa in her role as "tour-guide" for her family since I had a bit of prior knowledge of the place too. :)
Afterwards, we met up with a volunteer in the local chapter, named Bahaa (or as he is often nicknamed, "Boo") and then headed off to our next destination: the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia page so you can get some additional information about the catacombs, but I will say that this site consists of a series of tombs, statues, and other important archaeological objects that were discovered inside of an underground complex in 1900 by a donkey falling through the access shaft. According to tradition, the complex was built to bury the remains of humans and animals massacred by the order of the Roman Emperor Caracalla in 215 AD.
Visiting this place was definitely a very surreal experience. Like many of the places I visited in Luxor back in January, the history inside was tangible.
There were lots of wall paintings and statues that were unmistakably ancient Egyptian, and others that were very much Greco-Roman. It was an interesting blend. Moreover from that, it was just odd to see all of the spaces in the wall that were once the final resting place of multitudes of people. And that all of this was quite literally inside the Earth - it was a little creepy at times, but amazing, and I'm definitely glad that I saw this monument.
I also had a really good time with the Wolleschenskys - as usual I had a great time talking with Lisa, and I also was very happy that I got to meet and befriend her very sweet family. :)
All in all, it was a lovely day.

Then, in the week after that, there's not much else to report.
However, on the 5th of April, this past Friday, I attended an AFS event in Cairo for the day called "El-Leila El-Kebira (The Big Night)," which was essentially a gathering organized by AFS alumni as both a get-together for AFS alumni and participants, and as a kind of venue for youth involved in non-profit projects or organizations to spread the word about whatever they're involved in.
I went with many people from the AFS Alex chapter, including: My host mom, Adham, Youssef, Hanya (the daughter of my counselor Gina), Fatma, three future AFS participants that will hopefully travel to the USA in the fall named Maram, Rowan, and Nada, Nagwa (the chapter president), and a few other miscellaneous people. We all met up in the meeting point, which was a particular street in Ibrahmeya, a neighborhood very near to Smouha, and then took the microbus that we had rented to Cairo.
The drive over was actually really fun. Everyone was ready for a great day, and there was a lot of energy. A large part of the drive was spent singing - Adham, who can carry a tune, I must say, sang a lot of old Arabic music, and then I also sang an Italian song called "E tu (And you)" by one of my favorite Italian singers, Lucio Battista, and another song that I'm a big fan of, "Say you like me" by We the Kings. Maram, who goes to a French school, also sang a piece of a French song for us.
Apart from singing, lots of talking and laughing happened as well - I guess that's one thing that's inevitable when you put lots of like-minded teenagers together, no matter what country you're in. :)
However, the drive did end up being quite long, as it took two hours to get from the Alexandria city limits to the Cairo city limits, and then we had to put up with nearly three hours stuck in the infamous, excruciatingly slow Cairo traffic, since El-Leila El-Kebira was located very deep inside the city.
After that, we finally arrived at the event just over an hour late, and then dived right in.
Lucie and her friend Hannah who was visiting her from England came to the event briefly, and I was very happy to be able to see them and say hi again.
I also was able to see some alumni who I met in Luxor and Aswan who study in Cairo, and also meet some new Cairene alumni who I hadn't met before.
The people that I definitely spent the most time with and had the most fun with, however, were definitely Carson and Annika.
We spent hours together, talking and laughing hysterically about our shared experiences as exchange students in this beguiling but amazing country, and reminiscing of all the other fun times we've had together since we arrived here.
I really do wish that lots of people would come to Egypt on exchange again and not be afraid to do so, as I've said many times. But, honestly, it's kind of nice that we're such a small, tight-knit little group; we've become very close friends and it feels so nice that we're so close and comfortable with each other now. I had such a good time with them, and miss them already. :)
At about seven, we decided to get an early move-on and head back to Alex. At the beginning of the drive, our energy was not yet dead, so we started to play some games: Movies (Arabic style), and telephone in both English and Arabic, both of which ended up producing some hilarious results and lots and LOTS of laughter. :D It was crazy and amazing and so much fun; one of the most special moments (and the day in general was one of the most special days) of my whole exchange.
We then stopped in a large mall on the outskirts of Cairo to grab a quick bite to eat - I, like most of those present, opted for my culinary love, koshary. To my delight, I also caught sight of a PinkBerry inside the mall (I love frozen yogurt and have missed it quite a bit) - I immediately seized my chance and purchased a delicious cup of frozen yogurt (and then awkwardly realized that I didn't have enough money to pay it...Ma'lish...:| ). :D
Then we continued on to Alexandria, and I think it's fair to say that our energy almost finally gave way, but we were able to keep it alive for quite a while.
We finally arrived at the city limits at approximately midnight, and then my host mother and I were back at home at 10 minutes to 1 am.

The next days have been devoid of newsworthy things.
Apart from the fact that I've been taking my quarter tests this week and last week. I feel like I've done fairly well on most of the ones that I've taken so far. And I sincerely hope that this trend continues.

One last thing: I would like to apologize for the considerable lack of photos in this post. Although, I think that there is one positive spin that it's possible to put on this fact:
In the beginning I felt a need to document every last little thing in great detail, and include photos and explanations of everything I was doing and seeing. But now, I don't feel the same need or drive to do so anymore, because life here feels normal, it's something that in some odd way, I've become accustomed to.
I don't mean to say that I take being here for granted; I never ceased to be amazed or in awe of the things that I'm able to see and experience by living here.
But after living here for exactly seven months (I arrived in Egypt seven months ago today, as it turns out), many things that used to seem so exotic and eye-popping to me when I got here - the wide spectrum of dress and political/religious beliefs, the palm trees, the call to prayer, the crowded streets, all the contrasts that I mentioned in my one-month post, and stuff like that, hardly make me blink anymore. They're still amazing, of course, but just not astounding and new like they were in the first days. I'm taking this - and the lack of pictures for most of what I've written about in this post - to be good signs, as they display a successful adjustment. :)

Well, that's all.
Hope you enjoyed my overdue ramblings.
Love from Egypt as usual,
Nico