Luxor/Aswan/Abu Simbel Pics

Before Egypt began its anti-Mubarak rampage, I did manage to travel to Upper (Southern) Egypt with another ETA and a couple of his friends from home. It's really too bad that Luxor and Aswan are so far away from Cairo. I think all of the monuments down south make the Pyramids look like a Sunday afternoon project with Lego's. I was way more impressed with the hall of columns in Karnak than anything in Cairo. But I guess I'll stop trying to influence everyone's opinion and let you all decide for yourselves. I'd also recommend a quick Wiki search for some general info on the areas.

Luxor/Aswan
Karnak Temple (in Luxor)
Abu Simbel  (surrounded by Lake Nasser, a completely man-made lake that crosses into Sudan)

Next post will be about the good stuff: the revolution. Promise.

April 6 Youth Movement

This video was brought to my attention by another Fulbrighter, and I think it's worth sharing. I'm sure everyone is on Egypt information overload, but the piece does a great job showing the mindset and efforts of one of Egypt's most organized youth movements.  

On Jordan

For those of you who may not have heard, I have indeed been evacuated from Egypt. I'll speak more on my experiences later, but needless to say I'm once again enjoying some Americana. And by that I mean macaroni-and-cheese and trashy TV. I missed you, Jersey Shore.

I finally uploaded pictures from my trip to Jordan. I'm way behind on uploading posts, but I'll go ahead and join the bandwagon in blaming Mubarak. After all, he did flip the internet switch to 'off.'

In my 8 days in Jordan, I managed to see quite a bit of the country. I spent 3 days in the capital Amman for a Fulbright-sponsored ETA conference and the rest of the time moseying around the Hashemite Kingdom. Here are the links to the albums:

Dead Sea / Jordan River (Now featuring the site of Jesus' baptism)
Petra Day One / Petra Day Two (Rocks are, in fact, not just for jocks)
Wadi Rum (AKA where Transformers 2 was filmed)
Jerash and Ajloun (Castle-mania!)

More to come later, including maybe the only existing video of protests in Zagazig. 

On Amr Diab

Last night I was fortunate enough to check my American citizenship at the door. To be specific, the door of an Amr Diab concert at Future University outside of Cairo. For those of you not up on local culture, Amr Diab is the Egyptian equivalent of Michael Jackson—but on steroids. I can’t imagine that there’s a single Egyptian who doesn’t know the life and times of Amr, and I’m also quite confident that babies come out of the womb humming his tunes. If there ever was a god of pop in Egypt, it’s Mr. Diab. So who could say no to being amongst the 50,000 people to see him live at FU?! (Side note: someone clearly did not give enough thought to the university’s name). Not this guy.

Yesterday at 4:00 in the afternoon Carl and I strolled to the microbus station with a couple of Egyptian friends and headed to Cairo. We arrived a couple hours later and began our hunt for tickets. (No, TicketMaster does not service Egypt). One of our Egyptian friends (Ahmed) told us to chill by the entrance while he tracked some down. After 45 minutes without any luck, Carl and I decided to take matters into our own hands. In about 20 minutes, we managed to find two tickets for ourselves. American efficiency to the max. Despite the lack of cell connection, we then found Ahmed, who had by that time also managed to buy tickets for the group. Carl, former Best Buy employee extraordinaire, then kicked in to salesman-on-commission mode and within 10 minutes had sold the two extra tickets back for the prices we originally paid. All this and we hadn’t even entered yet.

We followed the masses to an area behind the stadium. This would be the first of three checkpoints that I would pass before I actually entered the concert area. (I say ‘I’ because Carl and Ahmed took a different route. But more on that later.) Now, 50,000 people without a doubt constitute a crowd. But there are larger venues in the U.S. Ohio Stadium, for example, holds over 100,000 people. Knowing this, I figured there would be a measure of organization for filtering fans into the stadium. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. The first “fun zone” went something like this:

Everyone pushes and shoves and then shoves and pushes. If it were simply shoulder-to-shoulder it would be more bearable. Not so here. The crowd dictates when and how you move. You trip, but you cannot fall because everyone is packed in so tightly. All of a sudden, a huge push back. Yelling. Screaming. Swearing. But no fighting—not enough room. Then a huge surge forward. Some are escaping the human blob. Rinse and repeat. Our turn finally comes at the front. A line of police are shoving people back, doing their best to control the crowds. Carl and Ahmed break free in the confusion. I attempt to escape as well but am met with resistance. A young security guard backs up and then lunges forward to push back the masses. I step to the left to avoid getting the full brunt of his force. He misses me, trips and falls to the ground. Two other police officers instantly look at me, possible wondering if I pushed him down. People still escaping the chaos. I get tangled up between a row of people and a row of security. We all fall. Crowds still rushing. My glasses have been knocked off my face. People running. Immediate thought: “Forget the glasses. New concern: Don’t get trampled.” I pop up and run off to the side. One down and two to go.

Side note: While the security establishment was operating at just a step below “crack some skulls,” I can’t blame them too much. People were acting horrendously. I cannot for the life of me figure out why the concept of a “line” is so foreign. At the risk of sounding like a concerned parent, there was absolutely no need for the pushing and shoving. If people would have just stood in line, the police could have released a couple dozen people at a time and no one would get hurt. Simple.

In the U.S., the line system is ingrained from elementary school. You walk in a line everywhere you go. Being the line leader is pretty much the coolest thing ever for a 7 year-old. And God help the guy who cuts the line. Even 3rd graders will organize themselves against this helpless individual, publicly shaming him until he takes his rightful place at the back of the line.

Then again, it’s easy to see in Egypt how the “every man for himself” mentality overtakes any affinity for justice and order. With limited resources, high unemployment, and widespread poverty, if you’re not first, you’re probably last. Lines just don’t make sense if this environment.

To return:

At this point, I was pretty pissed off. My clothes were dirty, my knees were most likely bloody, and I couldn’t see much in the distance. I also had no idea where Carl and Ahmed were. Great start to the evening.

“Crowd control” gate #2 was now in front of me. A couple of police officers were roaming about near a different direct entrance to the venue. I (maybe shamefully) tried to play the American card to see if I could get in that way and avoid a second round of whatever it was I had just endured. Unfortunately, they either didn’t care or couldn’t understand me, because they simply pointed to the next gate. FML.

Luckily, I happened to walk up to the gate just as security let a bunch of people pass, including myself. Easy breezy. I was pleasantly surprised. Two down and one to go.

After quickly passing through the gate, I finally found the main entrance. My first sight was a security officer the size of a Mack truck waving a taser in the air. And he let everyone know it worked. I could see the blue electrical connection and hear the buzzing noise every time he waived it in the air. And of course there were the standard baton-wielding goons to complement the array of force projections.

While I was waiting in line, I continued to try calling Carl. I was surprised to not see him and Ahmed waiting in line, as my tussle with the police had not taken that long. After several failed attempts to talk to each other over the noise, I was able to tell him I was in line and to meet me by the entrance. I made it through security without getting tased (but with a full body and bag search), but when I finally entered the stadium, Carl and Ahmed weren’t there.

Why? Well . . . they were waiting by the entrance for me. But it wasn’t the normal entrance. They were standing near the special entrance that I had previously tried and failed to enter. Carl, like me, played the American card with the guards. And it worked for him, so he and Ahmed managed to bypass not one but two lines. I wasn’t sure whether it was a compliment or not that the guards didn’t let ME pass. I guess I don’t look overtly American, so maybe they just thought I was pullin’ their chain. I’ll stick with that explanation—I looked too Egyptian.

I think it was about 9:00 by this point. Amr Diab was supposed to go on at 9:30, but the opening act hadn’t even started yet. So I guess everything was pretty normal in terms of Egyptian time. We pushed our way to the front of the general admission section, which in this case meant we were closer to the stage but still couldn’t see much. While waiting for the music, I noticed a dude rub up against me, put his hand below my front pocket, and push my phone up out of my pocket. It was actually pretty smooth, but I caught him red-handed. He managed to get my phone out, but there was no room for him to run. I grabbed his hand, said a few pleasantries, and after shooting me a look of terror, he dropped my phone. I pushed him out of the way, and he slipped back into the crowd, probably to look for another innocent bystander. A couple other times throughout the night, dudes would stroll up behind me and half grab my ass to see if there was a wallet there. Instead of turning around and yelling, I discovered that attempting to hold their hand while winking usually diffused the situation the fastest.

By about 11:00, Amr Diab finally came on stage to 50,000 screaming fans. I couldn’t have been more thankful, as the crowd focused its attention on the stage and not fighting/shoving/stealing. The concert itself was pretty on point. Diab can definitely blast out the notes. I was, however, more impressed by the band. There was essentially a mini-orchestra on the stage. The music was a great fusion of East and West—thumping beats mixed with traditional string instruments. Good stuff.

In the end, it was great to see Egyptians happy and smiling. Regardless of the chaos that ensued getting to/into the concert, the entire event was a microcosm of Egyptian life: disorganization and confusion wedded to general camaraderie and living in the moment. I didn’t know many of the songs (nor could I understand much), but everyone was singing all the words at the top of their lungs.

If nothing else, it was a 3-hour vacation from the stresses of daily life. And in this regard, I was just as Egyptian as everyone else.

Fayoum and the Valley of the Whales

Pictures from my trip to Fayoum can be found here. And here's some info about the Valley of the Whales. Highlights include whale skeletons in the middle of the desert, great landscapes, and the largest waterfall in Egypt (complete with kids jumping off it).

To get ya'll started, here's a picture of ship passing through the Suez Canal. Looks like it's floating on desert. While this ship was large, it was one of the smaller vessels I saw on the Canal.

Spain Pictures Part Dos

Here's a link to the rest of the pictures. Highlights include the Royal Palace and its neighboring cathedral, an Egyptian temple in the heart of Madrid, and Plaza Mayor. Plus some generally great views of the city and its architecture.