Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Thursday, February 17, 2005
I've started working at Al-Ahram Weekly once again, now only eight to ten hours a week. I need the money to save up for this summer and do some more travelling in Egypt: I've pretty much got a homestay arranged in Damascus from June 15 to August 15, for $120 a month rent and food. After this Hariri affair I'm worried that it'll be harder for Americans to travel to Syria, plus after the US raised the price of its visa requests here a couple years ago to $100 a pop, Syria replied in kind, and there's no guarantee I could get a visa. I would take private lessons in Arabic, but mostly just travel around the country and Damascus.
In Cairo, I've been enjoying my newfound wealth upgrading my mode of transportation, taking more shared taxis and fewer service taxis--since the Khan al-Khalili metro stop is still years off, I usually take:
1) (a) a service taxi from in front of Al-Azhar Mosque to Ataba Square on the ground for nine cents, or (b) a shared private taxi the same location to Ataba but over the bridge, thus being faster, for seventeen cents per person.
2) (a) walk 15 minutes from Ataba to AUC (b) take the Metro two stops (eight minutes) from Ataba to AUC for thirteen cents.
3) Or there's the luxury option, a taxi from Al-Azhar to AUC, but that's a good 55 to 90 cents, being overpriced since Al-Azhar's right by the touristy Khan al-Khalili. I only due this when late, and it takes about seven minutes.
4) Or the budget option, a bus from Gamaliyya to AUC for only nine cents, but which takes about 35 minutes.
So I haven't started moving up to Option 3 yet, but I'm favoring 1(b) over 1(a) now.
In Cairo, I've been enjoying my newfound wealth upgrading my mode of transportation, taking more shared taxis and fewer service taxis--since the Khan al-Khalili metro stop is still years off, I usually take:
1) (a) a service taxi from in front of Al-Azhar Mosque to Ataba Square on the ground for nine cents, or (b) a shared private taxi the same location to Ataba but over the bridge, thus being faster, for seventeen cents per person.
2) (a) walk 15 minutes from Ataba to AUC (b) take the Metro two stops (eight minutes) from Ataba to AUC for thirteen cents.
3) Or there's the luxury option, a taxi from Al-Azhar to AUC, but that's a good 55 to 90 cents, being overpriced since Al-Azhar's right by the touristy Khan al-Khalili. I only due this when late, and it takes about seven minutes.
4) Or the budget option, a bus from Gamaliyya to AUC for only nine cents, but which takes about 35 minutes.
So I haven't started moving up to Option 3 yet, but I'm favoring 1(b) over 1(a) now.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Just got back from a trip to Bahriyya, Farafra, Dakhla, and Kharga, the oases of the Western Desert. Too much to bite off for a three day weekend, for one thing. We spent 22 hours in the bus going from place to place, making for little time outside of the bus and various (really nice) hotels. And then the selection of sites was questionable. In Bahriyya (near the White Desert) we spent four hours visiting a bunch of uninteresting tombs and a completely destroyed Temple of Alexander, and since we were running behind schedule, only had time for 20 minutes each in the Agabat and the White Desert. I had been there a few times before, so it didn't matter quite as much, but the other students defintely preferred the desert to more museum tours, to no avail. The trip was organized by the Arabic Language Unit, which is for all levels of Arabic and doesn't really aim for the immersion experience, so everything was in English, which always puts me in a bad mood too. On the way there I had trouble focussing on my reading as there were two separate very loud monologues about the last World Series a couple seats behind me. Wonderful.
