day 3 & 4
Yesterday was pretty busy - we got dressed up and went to al-Azhar University, the oldest continuingly opperating university, open for like a thousand years or something, where we met the head sheik of the interfaith department, who basically said that in egypt there are no problems at all between christians and muslims, and that everything was all happy. we got to ask him questions, and he would give either the politically correct answer, or skirt around the issue/not answer the question, but it was still pretty interesting. we also met the head sheik of all of egypt (i think that's what he was at least)which made prof taylor very happy. afterwards we wnt to the al-Azhar mosque, just at noon prayer time, so we hung out in the courtyard till prayers were done. mosques are pretty empty inside - theres a big courtyard, and then a big columed carpeted room, with a pulpit-like thing and a ornated section of the wall facing towards mecca. everyone had to take off our shoes when we entered and all the females had to cover our heads. then we walked across the street and explored the biggest bazaar in Cairo. it has a good sized section that is specifically touristy, selling belly-dancing stuff, pharonic egypt suveniors like small statues and papyrus paintings, sandles, mother of pearl boxes, and tons of other stuff. then there's the jewlery section, selling anything you can think of in gold and silver mainly, and then the clothing section that is more for real egyptians, which i think i want to go back and buy a shirt or dress from - they have some in the touristy section too, but i think the real clothing section is a lot better quality, and probably not quite as outrageously marked up for the starting price, although i'm sure it will still be marked up a lot for me, since i'm obviously not egyptian and will be speaking in english and not arabic. we also wandered through the electronics section on our way out of the bazaar. While there I ate and egyptian version of the pizza - flat bread with any topping you want on it - i had butter and honey, and it was excelent. the only thing i bought in the bazaar was an inlayed box. afterwards we headed back to the hotel by taxi - driving in cairo is a nightmare - tons of cars, and they really dont follow any conventional street rules (following trafic lights, having a designated amount of lanes, turn signals, etc) so it's interesting to drive anywhere, and somewhat crazy to cross streets - you kinda go and hope they stop, working your way across the street carefully, since they dont really have designated stoping times unless there is a police directing traffic, which occurs at big intersections, sometimes. at the hotel we took a short nap and had a group meeting, then broke off for dinner. We ended up at the greek club, where i had beef kababs and french fries that were horribly overpriced for egypt - i had a similar meal with a ton more food for about a fifth of the cost the night before, at a lower-class restaurant. after dinner i just hung out at the hotel for a bit before bed.
today we took a littler bus to the anglican cathedral, on Zammel, a ritzy island in the Nile. There, they showed us their projects to raise income for poor women by making handcrafts - embroitered and cross stitched bags and any other cloth item you can think of, as well as telling us of all the other things they do for the poor - run health clinics, give money, and help with tutoring schoolchildren are the main ones, then we saw their organization for helping sudanese refugees, which helps support the UN HCR organization. they help with food, clothing, finding jobs and teaching skills, teaching english as well as a school for the children, provide health care, and assist with the forms and follow ups on UN refugee aplications. it was really impressive how they used every inch of the grounds. even the balconys were turned into makeshift offices and clothing stores. We then visited their shop, where they sold hand crafted items made by the local women and the refugees. We then went to a ritzy restaurant right on the Nile where we had tons of apetizers as well as grilled chicken and rice pudding. I ordered mango juice there, but it was so thick that trying to drink it was more like eating then drinking. We got back to the hotel about 4 from lunch, and then went out exploring with bobbie and evan. we tried to visit the american embassy, but they wouldn't let us in, since we didnt have a really good reason to visit, then wandered over to the Cairo tower, the tallest building in Cairo, also on the ritzy island. we took the elevator up and walked around the top, taking pictures of cairo at dusk/early evening, and then had coke and cake in the rotating restaurant right below the observation deck. the rotating devises were not very good - it was pretty jerky, which ammused us. only the platform holding up the floor actually rotated, and you could see down to the real floor about a 1 1/2 feet below. it was pretty fun. we also got a guy dressed in pharonic clothing who sold us sheets with our names in hirogliphics and a little personality description written on it, based on our birthday and favorite color. it was funny, cause mine really didn't fit me at all, but oh well. the english was also somewhat amusing, as there were some things that didnt really make sence. we found our way back to the internet cafe on our way back to the hotel. Cairo is cool and i'm deffinity enjoying myself. it's strange how comfortable i can be wandering the city with a couple of friends, none of us speaking more then a couple of phrases of arabic, and we can get around fine
today we took a littler bus to the anglican cathedral, on Zammel, a ritzy island in the Nile. There, they showed us their projects to raise income for poor women by making handcrafts - embroitered and cross stitched bags and any other cloth item you can think of, as well as telling us of all the other things they do for the poor - run health clinics, give money, and help with tutoring schoolchildren are the main ones, then we saw their organization for helping sudanese refugees, which helps support the UN HCR organization. they help with food, clothing, finding jobs and teaching skills, teaching english as well as a school for the children, provide health care, and assist with the forms and follow ups on UN refugee aplications. it was really impressive how they used every inch of the grounds. even the balconys were turned into makeshift offices and clothing stores. We then visited their shop, where they sold hand crafted items made by the local women and the refugees. We then went to a ritzy restaurant right on the Nile where we had tons of apetizers as well as grilled chicken and rice pudding. I ordered mango juice there, but it was so thick that trying to drink it was more like eating then drinking. We got back to the hotel about 4 from lunch, and then went out exploring with bobbie and evan. we tried to visit the american embassy, but they wouldn't let us in, since we didnt have a really good reason to visit, then wandered over to the Cairo tower, the tallest building in Cairo, also on the ritzy island. we took the elevator up and walked around the top, taking pictures of cairo at dusk/early evening, and then had coke and cake in the rotating restaurant right below the observation deck. the rotating devises were not very good - it was pretty jerky, which ammused us. only the platform holding up the floor actually rotated, and you could see down to the real floor about a 1 1/2 feet below. it was pretty fun. we also got a guy dressed in pharonic clothing who sold us sheets with our names in hirogliphics and a little personality description written on it, based on our birthday and favorite color. it was funny, cause mine really didn't fit me at all, but oh well. the english was also somewhat amusing, as there were some things that didnt really make sence. we found our way back to the internet cafe on our way back to the hotel. Cairo is cool and i'm deffinity enjoying myself. it's strange how comfortable i can be wandering the city with a couple of friends, none of us speaking more then a couple of phrases of arabic, and we can get around fine