Grabbing some Tea

Another lovely memory from Friday 4 July. During my long way I ended up at a little roadside cafe right across the street from a huge mosque. People were pouring in by the hundreds for Friday public prayer. I sat there for over an hour, had a tea, and watched the world go by. There was a well-dressed older gentleman who kept walking up and down pitching a watch, to very little success. The inner-city train also ran in front of the cafe, along with cars and buses and men pulling carts full of water melon and women in abayas pulling children along behind them.

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

One of my favorite memories of Alexandria was walking out to the far end of the corinche by the Qaitbey Fortress on Friday 4 July. I didn't end up going into the fortress itself because, one, I've seen lots of fortresses, but also, secondly, because as soon as I got there a big busload of Americans came up. Instead, I just sat out on the dock for around an hour and watched the families walking by and especially the fishermen. There was one guy there in a blue policeman-like uniform who was in a constant argument with the fishermen - I suspect he would have had more influence if he had not been in his stocking feet. Later I went over and got an ice cream cone and a bottle of water - the shop-keeper made sure that I got the coldest water possible. A little kid asked me where I was from and seemed generally happy that I was from the US. It's amazing what a few shukrons, salaams and insh'allahs can do to spread good cheer. I just sat there for an hour and no one bothered me and I was quite content - I probaby would have stayed longer except that it was brutally hot (although the breeze helped a lot).

Fourth of July

It was a little bit more quiet of a 4th of July here because it was Friday, the holy day. There were throngs of people out the night before - I went for a late walk and it was a great night to be out. There were a lot of families out getting ice cream and going for a stroll and enjoying the cooler sea breezes. It started much quieter on the 4th - and you could even cross the street with a modicum of safety. The beaches were crowded with little kids playing - some of the women were wearing somewhat western attire but there were also a lot of women under beach umbrellas while wearing full dark abayas. I also saw a teenage girl wearing a t-shirt that, beneath a smiling cupcake, featured the words: "freskly baked - eat me hot". Somehow I don't think her mom knew the true meaning of the English words. Beyond GM-related meetings with representatives from five different universities, I am also thinking about the Faculty Internationalization Initiative (the program that is sending me overseas this summer) -inspired Core class I would like to create based on this experience. Essentially, I would like to teach a course on Islam and Islamic diversity. So, I've been asking, gently, as many of my Islamic acquaintances as possible what faith means to them. I ask it in that clumsy way because I want to witness their response. You can ask an American that question because of the division between the secular and sacred worlds - so it is possible to step back and "consider" the other. This is a much tougher task for many Muslims because their faith is such a foundation of their lives. Their answers have been fascinating and very helpful. Being a Friday I've also had the chance to walk around the city during the public prayers. The sermons were blaring through loudspeakers all over town. I went for a walk through the narrow streets of the old Ottoman section and it was common for groups of men to be gathered on sidewalks, shoes off, listening to the broadcast prayers and kneeling in prayer. They paid me no mind as I - as well as many Muslims, for that matter - simply walked past. Could you imagine an example of such public religious devotion in the US? I think what makes it so interesting is that it is very devout and public and common place. The two pictures are of a tiny little mosque - the city is dotted with them - and a picture I snuck of some men praying in the middle of the street during Friday prayers.

Alexandria

On Thursday, 3 July, I made my way from Amman to Alexandria. Although I had to get up at 3:30 a.m. for a 4:30 a.m. taxi pick-up for a 7:00 a.m. (the four straight hours of sleep that night was my best effort in Amman) the flight itself was uneventful. Arriving in Alexandria was a little bit more of a challenge. The Alexandria airport is smaller than you might imagine, but packs a lot of chaos into a small space. I ran into one of those classic Catch-22 situations where I couldn't get my passport stamped because I didn't have my visa - so they waved me over to the "bank" to exchange currency and get my visa, but I couldn't pass over to that area of the terminal (a good forty feet) because I didn't have my passport (still with the passport agent). Luckily it was a problem that a lot of yelling across the terminal could settled so that I had my visa and my passport and was out the door in a couple minutes. Finding a taxi was a little more of a challenge and I broke one of my personal rules by getting into a taxi with a driver who, in response to a query about the cost, replied, "sure, no problem, whatever." Disaster always follows. Actually, the taxi driver was pretty charming and shared his hot tea with me while driving. He overcharged me magnificently, but such is life.

I stayed at the Sofitel Cecil, mainly for literary reasons. It is one of W. Somerset Maugham's old haunts. It has a lovely faded splendor about it, which matches the city itself pretty well. Actually, the city that it reminded me the most of was not an Arabic city at all, but rather Mumbai, India. Part of it was doubtless the curving coastline, but part of it was also the weathered magnificence of it. I'd definitely stay there again, they have a great terrace for breakfast in the morning and a wonderful roof-top Chinese restaurant. The front desk folks were pretty good and, although they were in my pocket a lot (typical for Egypt), they were also pretty helpful. One of them even ran out to go track down a train ticket for me.

The city, the little I saw of it, was pretty interesting. It hasn't been invaded too much by the U.S., although I saw McDonald's and Baskin-Robbins and even a T.G.I. Friday's, but mostly it was Arabic establishments. There was a lot of diversity in the city and I even ate at a Greek restaurant one night called Alexander Athianos - I had the "Alexander Rice" which was a pile of rice with a sea food hat on top.

Amman to Alexandria to Cairo

Sorry I've been so quiet. I had some internet issues in Alexandria and fell behind. I'm also writing a blog for school this trip and I was able, slowly and painfully, to post to it from my Blackberry, but couldn't make it work for this site. I'm now safely settled in the Hotel Longchamp in the quiet (?) suburbs of Cairo and I'm hoping to take the opportunity to get caught up, insh'allah.

Sleepless in Amman

I've had trouble sleeping in trips before - I remember coming back from Australia and waking up every night at 1:30 for a week straight and then would be awake the entire day until late at night, and then up at 1:30 again. However, I'm usually pretty fortunate in that regards. That said, this trip has been brutal. I got about five wretched hours on the plane, and then about four hours the next night (all starting around 5:00 a.m.), and tonight I've managed to sleep for one hour. I had the alarm set for 5:00 a.m. because the driver for Petra is coming at 6:00 so I just gave up in frustration a little after 4:00 (which is why I'm sitting in the computer room at ACOR in the wee small hours of the morning). Boy, this is going to be a long day.

Travelling around Amman

Today was an exhilarating day, and also an exhausting one. Per usual I didn't get much sleep last night so I had to brute my way through (years of fighting sleep apnea has apparently taught my system to accept little or no sleep). We had a very successful meeting at the University of Jordan with their Global Modules team. Betsy Beaulieu (my Dean from the Core division), her best friend Lee and my friend and colleague Al Capone (who I have decided to give the more Arabic name of al-Capone) were there for the beginning of the meeting, and then they went off on a tour of the campus while I continued on with the fine-tuning portion of the GM discussions. After that we ate lunch at the University of Jordan cafeteria which was very good. The conversation centered around the similarities and differences of teaching university students in Jordan and the US. The Jordanian professors had an interest discussion on the books they would love to teach if they were allowed. Rula Quawas, Inas Ababneh and Lazaward Sughayer have all run GMs with Champlain faculty so they are big supporters of the program, but also provided some great insight on ways that we can improve the project. UJ is essentially in the same place Champlain was a couple years ago - making that transition from teaching an occasional GM to trying to decide what courses to choose to act as "host" courses for GMs.

After that we went back to our respective rooms and worked on projects until we met up again to head downtown Amman for some shopping ("wasta balad tarajaad romanee" is close enough to Arabic for taxi drivers to know to take you to the old shopping area next to the Roman amphitheater). al-Capone and Betsy loaded up on souvenirs while I acted as tour guide - we have some great shots of Al dressed up on the street in his Arabic garb and also of him buying a dagger in a shop by the amphitheater (over the last couple years I've bought a few daggers from him and Bob Mayer has essentially bought him a new house - he was very glad to see me). We ate at the Al-Quds Restaurant (Al-Quds is Arabic for Jerusalem), which is a little mom and pop place downtown - and had primed ourselves for shopping by taking a sugary treat break at a Habiba sweet shop (Bob Mayer and I have done some serious damage at this sweet shop).

What I think many first time visitors to Amman would probably find surprising is how absolutely safe it feels downtown - in most ways you are a lot safer in an Arabic town like Amman than in just about any town in North America. It's a strange balancing act for women - they might both feel more indirect societal constraints (although not nearly as much as is commonly believed) but would also be a lot safer personally. Tomorrow is a very early start - the taxi driver for the ride to Petra shows up at 6:00. Then it's three hours through the desert (probably traveling around a 160 kmh) to Petra. I've been lucky enough to have seen Petra twice before so I'll mainly be shepherding the crew around, but I'm always excited to go back.