Lessonades

When life gives you lessons, you make lessonades. 

Everyone has an opinion. It could be as insignificant as: the whale emoji is the sassiest of all emojis. It could be big and complicated, like: the death penalty is morally okay and should be used to discourage crimes like murder. 

Everyone has an opinion and everyone has the right to have their opinion. They're important. They shape who we are and what we stand for. 

Today in ASMUN, they revealed to us that the reason they chose the theme of the sessions, was to have us learn how to formulate opinions and be brave enough to share them. 

In tv shows, the external conflicts in the episode often reflect on the internal conflicts for the main character of that time and they learn a lesson in the external conflict to help them with the internal conflict. 

So the external conflict in the tv show that is my life is we learn to express opinions in ASMUN. The internal conflict is this: I didn't like the Insurgent movie. 

The two friends I went to see Insurgent with loved it. A friend that already saw it also loved it. I didn't. I found myself thinking that I must be a pretentious bookworm because I didn't like this movie. (I might be, but that isn't the point). Then I found myself thinking that maybe I did like it. Maybe the environment ruined the movie for me (3D in Egypt is awful and the other movie goers were annoying). But that wasn't it. I just didn't like the movie. And that's okay. 

This happens to me a lot. I will find myself liking or disliking something. Then when someone disagrees with me, I start to second guess my own opinion. It's hard to stand firm with something when everyone else disagrees with you. 

I have now learned, thanks to ASMUN and Insurgent, that I can't do this to myself. I like what I like and that's perfectly okay. If you love Twilight or hate Beyoncé, that's perfectly okay. 

I keep saying that going abroad has "changed my views on things". I knew this was true, but I couldn't think of a specific example. Now I have one:

I've always had this preconceived notion about people who think homosexuality and the works are wrong, or a sin, or whatever. I thought they were terrible, stupid people. 

I was wrong. My host family and new friends hold these beliefs, but they aren't terrible or stupid. They aren't even a little bit bad. They're wonderful and awesome and smart and lovely. We just disagree on things. 

You see, my weak opinions were never on controversial topics, but on the people who hold views I think are wrong. 

Most the time, people's opinions don't make their personality. I disagree with people here on really big topics like religion and homosexuality, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends or family even. It's okay to disagree with people, that's what makes humans so unique. If everyone agreed on everything, life would be boring. 

So here's the lessonade: Trust your judgement and opinions. Just because you like something people hate or you hate something people like, does not mean there's something wrong with you. Also, don't judge people based on their beliefs. Don't let disagreements stop you from befriending someone. Just act like adults and agree to disagree. 

Thank you all for reading this post. I am really proud of it. I would love to know some unpopular opinions you guys might have. If you're brave enough, let me know what that opinion is. 

I hope you all are having a great day and I'll talk to you next time. 

Learn something today. 

Byeeee

Corie. 

Let's Have A Drink: Cadbury Creme Eggs

Hey guys! I thought for today's post we could just sit and have a drink. I'll be drinking 7-up, but you can drink whatever your heart desires. Life has been happening, so let's just chat... about life. 

Work hard, play hard. 

Health

Last week, my school went on a trip to Ain Sokhna. Between the getting in and out of the pool many times and the lack of dry clothes and just generally being wet and cold, I got sick. 

Last time I got sick it was really bad. This time it wasn't quite as bad, but still. So Friday I was fine and then around like 1 in the afternoon I got really tired and cold so I just stayed in bed. I went to sleep early (like 8 pm) and woke up around 10 am Saturday. After being awake for like half an hour I slept again until 2 pm. The rest of Saturday was not fun. I was weak and cold and tired. And just no. I ended up missing a wedding in Suez that my family went to. I stayed home. 

By Monday, I was good and ready to go to school. The only problem was my stuffed nose and sore throat. 

My throat got better Tuesday. And I'm in the very last stage of stuffy nose right now. Like I can breathe through my nose again, which is good. 

World Health Organization

The conference room before the madness. 

Every year the World Health Organization has a World Health Day where they pick a health topic to focus on. Last year it was like insect transmitted diseases or something like that. This year it's food safety. 

For World Health Day they hold an art competition for kids ages 8-18 all over the world. All the Arab/Middle East countries' entries were sent to this office in Cairo. Two other kids (Egyptian returnee and Belgian exchange student) and I sorted the art work, went through it, and organized it for the judges. 

While the task itself was tedious and boring, the pay is really good and the food was really good and I love the UN so the experience was really good. 

Also, one of the people who works in communications, who helped organize this, wants us to do more work later on for the WHO. (The guy was from New Orleans, btw.) I, as well as the other two, might be working (and paid) at the WHO. He said we'd be running a Facebook page or working with the media or stuff like that. Stuff in communications. 

If you're nodding to yourself like "hmm, that's cool" let me say this. This is beyond cool. By now, you might know that I want to work for the UN when I grow up. Also, I've looked at public relations and communications areas of study before. Finally, running a Facebook page? Who's more qualified to run a Facebook page than a 16-year-old world traveller who runs a blog and... a Facebook page? No one. Except like maybe someone who works at Buzzfeed. And how cool would that look on a resume or college app. This job possibility came from the heavens. 

If it doesn't end up working out, malesh. But it's still cool to think about. 

AFS video

AFS came over yesterday to film my host family. It was super fun. They filmed me attempting to read a children's book in Arabic and failing. 

Also, they are coming to my school to film on Monday. (Psst. NRC students: look extra awesome on Monday you may be being filmed). 

I'm so excited to see this video come together. 

ASMUN

A candid photo I actually look happy in. It's a miracle. 

Yesterday at ASMUN I had a debate. I debated taking off the religion section on ID cards. I was against it (so I was arguing to keep the section on the card). 

My team won. I don't know how. I pulled all my arguments from my butt and I'm 16, against college students. 

I am trying my best to stay humble, but I think I'm getting pretty good at this organized arguing thing. 

The Mall

My week would not be complete without a trip to City Stars (which I now say in an Egyptian accent). 

I went to buy my host mom a gift for Egypt Mothers Day. I got her a lotion from Bath and Body Works. They had a Buy Two Get Two Free sale. I got lotion, Boosy got lotion, Nadia got lotion. Everyone got lotion! (I got Cashmere Glow because my sister loves that scent and it reminds me of her.)

While I was in City Stars, we passed a candy stand and out of the corner of my eye, I saw CADBURY CREME EGGS. Cadbury Creme Eggs are my life. I am so glad Jesus died on the cross and went to heaven because Easter=Cadbury Creme Eggs. (I'm a terrible Christian, I'm sorry.) 

I didn't think Cadbury Creme eggs would be in Egypt, I'm glad they are. I bought two without even pausing. They are double the price but worth it and OH MY GOODNESS YOU GUYS CADBURY CREME EGGS ARE LIFE. I CANNOT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT. 

I hope you all haven't finished your drinks because I am going to propose a toast:

To mothers everywhere. To mothers in Egypt. To my Egyptian Mom. Thank you for all you do. For feeding me and taking care of me when I'm sick. And for making sure I don't die. 

To good health and Cadbury Creme eggs for all. Cheers. 

I hope you all had a fantastic week. Thanks for stopping by and having a drink with me. I might make this a monthly thing. I did one last month called "The Bags Under My Eyes Are Gucci". 

Don't forget to check out my last post if you haven't already. I take you on a hot mess of a tour of Christian Cairo. 

As always, stay awesome and learn something today. 

Byeeee

Corie. 

Warning: This Post is a Hot Mess

This post is so long overdue it's not even funny. 

Three or four weeks ago, my host dad and his friend took me on a church tour of Cairo. We went to two different areas. In each area, there were several churches. 

I wrote a story version of this trip, but things got complicated. I finally got a chance to get the pictures from my camera to the computer but it took almost an hour to get the pictures loaded onto the blog. 

After several frustrating complications, I decided to just put up the pictures with captions.

Saint Saman Church

(A mountain with six or so churches built from caverns.)

To get here we had to go trough "trash village" or "garbage village". This is wherever garbage collectors live and sort the trash. The picture I uploaded was accidentally deleted.

Most churches had a little book behind and curtain like this. I went back there to see what it was and I was kicked out because "women weren't allowed". 

This church looks like what I'd imagine a hobbit hole to look like. 

Somewhere, there was a fire and the only thing to survive the fire was this picture of the Jesus Christ Superstar. 

This is the doorway to the Hobbit church of Jesus. 

This is a carving on the side of the mountain of a verse about Jesus going to heaven, accompanied by a picture of Jesus going to heaven. 

This is a sculpture/carving of the angel telling Mary and the other chick that Jesus isn't in his tomb. 

Can you guess what this carving is? It's t the Ten Commandments (not the movie)

"I was thirsty and you gave me drink"

[There was a picture of "if your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out" but it disappeared.]

I can't read what it say, but I liked how the artist incorporated chains. 

This is the altar-pulpit area of the biggest church in the Carholic Monastery. 

Egyptians like to brag about how their kaza is the biggest kaza in the world. And this is the biggest church in the Monastery. Not all the pews are pictured. (I'm sorry.) but it really is big. 

Something something something, something something. Something:52

An illustration of the passage about the Holy Spirit coming and they all started talking in different languages. (Aka one of my favorite bible stories). 

"...the son of man comingin the clouds with great power and glory."

In one of the churches there were windows leading out onto the side of the mountain. We went out there and I took this picture and I love it. 

[There was a picture of a column shaped like a cross, but it too disappeared because my blogging skills are a hot mess.]

Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Jesus walks on water. 

The Nativity Scene

The Hanging Church

This is a hanging church. It sits on top of two columns. Like:

Like this, except the columns are the same height, so the church (represented by the bible) would be level. 

In the more modern Coptic churches, they have pictures of different saints. You can light candles (seen here). The Coptic Christians also walk around, kiss there hand and then touch the pictures. This one is the Virgin Mary. 

There was a synagogue in this area of churches, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. It was really pretty though. 

So there once was a guy. He was a martyr. He was captured and tortured with these devices. He would not denounce his faith in Jesus Christ Superstar, so they killed him. 

He is one of the Saints they have a picture of in many of the churches. This is the picture they use of him:

Slay. 

Jesus on the ceiling of St. George's Church(?)

St. George's Church

Back on the 4th and 5th centuries, there was a very large population of Coptics in Egypt. This Coptic museum housed many artifacts from their civilization. Carvings, artwork, tapestries, clothes, pottery (they wrote like receipts and letters on pottery before paper), paper, books, tools, toys, and the oldest known copy of Psalms. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but hey, it's for the blog. 

In the churches, there are examples of Coptic art such as:

This was very frustrating to post because things kept getting deleted or not working the way I thought it would. I really didn't want to wait any longer to post this so here it is. 

This was a really fun and interesting trip to go on. I hope you enjoyed the pictures I did manage to put on here.

That's all I have today, thank you for coming. I'll talk to you next time. 

Learn something today. 

Byeeee

Corie. 

P.S. Why is the text centered? I don't like it. Ugh. 

The Red Sea is Blue

Today was another fun, adventurous, exhausting day. I had a school trip to a hotel in Sokhna. 

I went to school as normal, except I didn't walk up two flights of stairs and I didn't wear beige, orange, or greenish-blue. Instead, I had a swimsuit in my backpack and I boarded a bus to the sea. 

In between cities in Egypt, it's desert. Leave Cairo it's all sand until you reach Sokhna or Suez or any other city.

Once we got to Sokhna though, holy crap. The view. 

This is the Red Sea. Obviously, it's not red. Bummer, I know. Also, I couldn't part it. I tried, and failed. But if I had a staff, maybe that would help. 

We got a room to put all our stuff in and changed. I was a competitive swimmer in California, and it's been about six months since I've been swimming. Needless to say, I miss it and love it as if it were a person, bacon, or my pets. 

After playing in the pool and taking pictures and looking out into the vast ombré sea of beauty, we ate. It was normal Egyptian buffet type stuff. Rice, chicken, kofta, fries, pasta, salad, soup, bread, dessert. Nothing special except everyone told me it was going to be terrible, but I thought it was pretty good. 

After that we took more pictures and played some more and had a grand old time. 

We took a long bus ride home and now I'm in bed writing this post. 

There's not much to say about what we did today, but it was really fun hanging out with my school friends outside of a school environment because I don't get to do that often. 

Contrary to popular belief, Egyptians do wear shorts, tank tops and two piece bathing suits. 

The view and the off-season peacefulness of the area was really nice. And a great way to spend the day. Especially since I had my last monthly exam yesterday. 

*This is my English teacher who gives me Arabic lessons. She's lovely and amazing*

Props to Corie for posting about something on the actual day it happened. I am winning this blogging thing. 

That's all I have for this post. Thanks for stopping by. I'll talk to you next time. 

Learn something today. 

Byeeee

Corie.