Monday we experienced our second dialogue at the Fulbright Commission. I have to say, I enjoyed it much more this time. We were grouped with the same people as last week, and I can only guess that the dynamic in our room changed because the conference table was taken away- it’s amazing how much better the conversation flowed once that symbol of formality was gone. We ranged from religion (again) to drugs in both societies, but spending the majority of time comparing the school systems in both countries…it honestly sounds like the Egyptian system might be better. Tuition here is only 300 pounds a year...this translates to $60 American. Insane. After our dialogue session, everyone had dinner together. Then the majority of us, both Americans and Egyptians, headed down to the Nile for a nighttime felucca ride. I definitely lucked out on boat choice; we were on the party boat. The Egyptian guys had brought a tabla, a type of drum, and we were all singing and dancing out on the Nile. It was such a relaxed setting and it made it easy to get to know people. One of the girls is a dancer, and she does a lot of Latin-Arabic fusion stuff, so Rebecca and I are excited about going out with her some weekend here.
The excitement didn’t end there. A few of us went with the guys to ride horsese to the pyramids at midnight. The few glimpses that we saw of the pyramids indicated that it would have been a beautiful sight…if we weren’t riding the craziest horses in the world. Less than 5 minutes into our ride, Katharine’s horse attacked mine, and they were both bucking around for a while. (Note- Don’t wear flip-slops (shibshib, in Arabic) to ride horses…). Our guide said our horses didn’t like each other. So when we calmed down, we tried to continue. Only a few seconds later, a bunch of the horses started going crazy and biting each other, bucking around, and generally scaring the shit out of me. A few of us lost our nerve at that point, and we ended up walking back to the stables in defeat. Still worth the experience, and I was glad that the guys with us were so understanding about everything.
I’ve been in classes since then, and tonight we spiced it up by going to see a performance by the Whirling Dervishes. The Dervishes are a sect of Sufi Muslims, and the whole idea is that their dancing brings them closer to Allah. Gotta say, I’m a fan of any religion that involves dancing to experience union with the divine, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. It was an incredible show that we saw tonight, and I would recommend it to anyone. The musical accompaniment was equally as stunning as the dancing itself. Since it’s now going on 1:30 AM, I’ll leave you with this video to enjoy!
The excitement didn’t end there. A few of us went with the guys to ride horsese to the pyramids at midnight. The few glimpses that we saw of the pyramids indicated that it would have been a beautiful sight…if we weren’t riding the craziest horses in the world. Less than 5 minutes into our ride, Katharine’s horse attacked mine, and they were both bucking around for a while. (Note- Don’t wear flip-slops (shibshib, in Arabic) to ride horses…). Our guide said our horses didn’t like each other. So when we calmed down, we tried to continue. Only a few seconds later, a bunch of the horses started going crazy and biting each other, bucking around, and generally scaring the shit out of me. A few of us lost our nerve at that point, and we ended up walking back to the stables in defeat. Still worth the experience, and I was glad that the guys with us were so understanding about everything.
I’ve been in classes since then, and tonight we spiced it up by going to see a performance by the Whirling Dervishes. The Dervishes are a sect of Sufi Muslims, and the whole idea is that their dancing brings them closer to Allah. Gotta say, I’m a fan of any religion that involves dancing to experience union with the divine, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. It was an incredible show that we saw tonight, and I would recommend it to anyone. The musical accompaniment was equally as stunning as the dancing itself. Since it’s now going on 1:30 AM, I’ll leave you with this video to enjoy!
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