Alexandrian Thanksgiving

So maybe it's due to the enormous volume of movies i've been watching while drawing, including "Cleopatra" and "Lawrence of Arabia", or because of the books I've been reading, but really, I was not at all prepared for the Alexandria that awaited me. When I thought of this Mediteranian, sea-side town I did not picture falling down buildings and WWI-era street lights.


It sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm really not. Just want to let you know right up front that if you are thinking, "Ohhhh, Alexaaaaandria" and picturing some romanticized, ideallic vision... well, like me, you would be quite off the mark. Once again I was reminded that expectations can be tricky.





So, after that QUICK realization, I eagerly looked around, ready to enjoy the real Alexandria.

Alexandria is Egypt's second largest city, with mmmm, I think, around 8 million people. In many ways it reminded me of different parts of Cairo. It felt very similar, except a bit less dry --oh, and the taxi's are yellow and black rather than white and black.






Here's a photo taken at while Leah and I waited for the train in Cairo. I don't know if I'll ever get used to the completely veiled women. It strikes a whole range of emotion that I'll save for another entry (this one is long enough already).

These women seemed to be tourists and were taking pictures of each other standing infront of various things, including the two white chicks with blond hair.

Seriously, I kept moving to the side thinking I was ruining the photo, and the woman would change her pose and the camera would end up in my direction again.




Here's Leah walking the wrong way from the bus station.... and proof that the cabs are yellow and black.




Leaving the train was a bit intimidating: strange city, no map or guide book (it was just a quick day trip). That combined with the rubble and the not-very-nice-glances, made us slightly uncomfortable at first. But we soon found the trusty tourist office inside the train station, with a very friendly, helpful lady working inside. She gave us a map and circled the location of the library, the "lighthouse", and where we could have a fresh, seafood dinner.




She said we could walk to our first destination, the Alexandrian Library, so we head out. As you probably know I have an impeccable sense of direction. Just as Leah started to feel guilty (haha) for getting us lost, we hopped in a taxi and in 15 minutes were standing in front of the very modern (and starkly out of place) Library of Alexandria. It really was amazing. Inside the impressively arranged library (all sterile and attractively lit) were a couple of art exhibitions. It was a solo show by some internationally known Egyptian dude whose name i don't remember. I took a photo for yous guys.





























Photos taken from the the Cafe on the second floor, overlooking the entry plaza thing place. I had some turkish coffee. wow.





















Then, we headed to "the lighthouse". Only we never really found one, and I think I remember hearing somewhere that there are major plans to rebuild it? I dunno, but people were talking about a castle that is next to the no longer there lighthouse...









ANYWAY, somehow we found ourselves paying 2 whole pounds (an extra pound for my camera) to go inside a display or exhibition of some sort that one might find along the boardwalk of Coney Island... just look, you'll see what I mean. It was by far my favorite part of the trip. Seriously, I am not kidding.

The use of florescent paint and black lighting was... spectacular.






















please click on this photo to get a better look under the flipper. yikes.



















Leah couldn't believe how real everything looked.


















Well, what did they expect me to do?
Who painted this?



We finally tore ourselves away from the "museum" to go eat.






We saw this brilliantly colored, humongo mosiac on our way to the restaurant. Leah made me pinky swear that I'd mosiac some wall in her imaginery house one day.








The waiter was very sweet and offered to take our photo... he wanted to practice his focusing skills.






Then I messed around with the mirrored ceiling above our table, which was almost as fun as the florescent fish museum.


















The ride home was jam packed.
People crawling all over one another for a seat on that 8pm to Cairo.









Annnnd as a grand finale... a photo of my new most favoritest snack, "Borios!"
Just like Oreos, only with 1/8 of the filling.

Images for Sharing

More random photos.


Arthur is so great. This was taken in JJ's livingroom, on the funkybright couch, in Switzerland. I enjoyed that visit so much. Although Arthur wasn't too keen on the cold weather.

Aren't my students cute ?
These are some of my 6th graders.
I teach 6th, 7th and 8th.
They're holding up paper tubes that they rolled and are now using to construct their abstract, expressive sculptures.

Here are some cookies from the sweet shop on the ground floor of my apt building. They make deeeelicious chocolates too, individually wrapped in fancy foils. They're as pretty as they are tasty. I took a photo, but can't find it.

My dorky self. I think I may have already posted this one? But you guys have been asking for more photos of me, so...


















These beach photographs are from my recent El Eid vacation. I spent several hours one morning, laying in one lounge chair sunning, and taking photos of all the different types of people. I got so into it... snapping unauthorized photos of my fellow vacationers.

I took nearly 200 pictures of all ages, ethnicity, body types, etc. looking oblivious, or painfully aware, awkward, crispy burnt, sexy, trashy, lazy, superbuff, flabby, leathery, etc...

and here's another of Arthur ...

...because i can....

...the end.

Adventures Before Headin' To Hurghada

Bright and early, at 4:30 a.m. Leah and I loaded into a very crowded van and began the 3.5 hour ride to Abu Simbel to see the Ramses and Nefertiti temples. These are spectacular, and it's even more amazing when you think about the fact that they've been moved from there original location. Carefully cut into pieces and then reconstructed here at Abu Simbel.

When the High Dam was built, to prevent the annual Nile overflowing, Lake Nassar was created, putting a bunch of old stuff underwater. These two temples were saved by being relocated to this spot.



Fortunately, I was able to sleep most of the ride, and caught a lovely sunrise just in time to entertain myself with some shadow puppet theater on the inside van wall. Here's one of my better attempts.

When we arrived at the temple compound, we parked in a huge, empty lot. Our driver said we were lucky because that morning there were about a third of the tourists that are usually there. He sent us on our way, to meet back at the van in a couple hours. We had quite a way to walk, past the restroom pavilion, through many stalls selling souveniers and trinkets, and then past a coffee shop (or "cofe" shop as the sign advertised) and finally around to the ticket office. Leah and I excitedly whipped out our "Residence" status passports for our discount price.

Anyway, after another long walk around some very uninteresting mountains of sand, we arrived at this point, were you are able to get a look at both entrances to the temples. The boring sand mounds I mentioned, it turns out, are the man-made constructions that house the relocated temples. A hollow dome of sorts was constructed around the temple, then sand was poured over the top, and the ancient entrance added to the front. I read this from a book that I bought from one of those many stalls I mentioned above. I paid about three times what it was worth, but the guys selling the stuff there seemed like they could use the cash.

As a side note, these past few weeks have me trying to absorb the idea that I am considered wealthy by Egyptain standards. It's not an idea that I am used to, since my entire adult life has been spent living from pay check to pay check, with no savings, and always in debt... And yet here, I have met people that personalize what it means to really squeeze by financially... they work for slave wages, for about 50 dollars a month they are expected to put in over 70 hours a wk. And they are happy to have these jobs. I spend 50 LE on a meal here and it's nothing to me, where as to them, it's probablly enough to feed their family for a week.

Alright, back to the temple tours. They were amazing! Really! The scale is hard to grasp, unless you're standing there in front of the monstrous statues... I was sneaky and broke the only rule on the hand written sign just outside the entrance, no photos inside the temple. I didn't use flash, and I DID buy their horrible postcards, cira 1967, so I figured taking a few pictures wouldn't hurt. Especially when I saw other tourists actually TOUCHING the freakin walls! Morons. Although I guess when you see "John was here 1855" carved next to a heiroglyphic, nothing seems sacred.

Ok, sorry for all the tangencies... I really wanted a few shots of the inside to give a sense of scale. The postcards don't show the people milling about, and that's the images I like to remember.... so here they are for your illegal viewing pleasure.




















Look, there's Leah again!


















and here's one of the inner chambers. It was quite dark, and a bit creepy.... until a group of twenty people with matching yellow hats filed into the room.











This poor dude to the left of the entrance suffered some damage after, i think i remember reading, an earthquake? well, however it happened, his head is now on the ground at his feet. It does help though, to see how big they really are.





















...and then it was back into the van for the rest of our day trip: the Philae Temple, where we had caught the light show the night before, and the Aswan dam, which was quite anti-climatic.

But that's a story for next time.
:) bye for now!

Egyptian Pizza and the Philae Temple Light Show

After our Nile River felucca ride in Aswan, Leah and I went back to the hotel, across from which is this creepy window display, barely noticeable in daylight, but obviously hard to miss by night.








Our next stop was pizza. The "Lonely Planet" guidebook promised a tasty and different treat, with an Egyptian flare. It was all of that and cheap too. Check out the kiln-looking oven where they bake the dough. Pretty cool. Here, a rare occurance, Leah allows me to take a photo of her posing, with the friendly pizza dudes.

We took our freshly baked Egyptian pizza on the road. We ate it in the van...which was taking us to the boat, which would take us to the Philae Temple. :)






The Light Show was beautiful, but since it was presented in "German only" that evening, Leah and I agreed we could have skipped the last 30 minutes. From what I could gather, ancient egyptian gods (speaking german) were having a dialog while different sections of the architecure were spotlighted with various warm and cool colors. Next time we'll catch the English audio.

My favorite part of the evening was the boat ride to and from the island. It felt like we were on the set of a "B" Horror movie. Even though another bus load of tourists had arrived, somehow Leah and I got an entire huge boat to ourselves. Complete darkness, a gazillion stars, the sound of black water rushing away from us... and then the island becomes visible, with the glowing ancient architecture perched on top.

As part of our package deal, the next day we were taken out to this island again. Of course, I took more photos.