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. 

In Conclusion, Egypt Rocks

When I was applying to all things year abroad, my family found a video on AFS Egypt's website about a boy named Nicholas (Nico) and his life in Egypt as an exchange student. I thought it was really cool. At that point I was already planning on going to Egypt, but this video made me more excited to go.

Recently, AFS contacted me asking for me to make a video like this one. The video is to promote hosting in Egypt and show that it's safe. We filmed some shots and an interview in Azhar Park. A really pretty park I was in, but never took any pictures. The video isn't complete yet, but I thought I'd share with you what I had written out to say on camera. 

Some of the things I ended up leaving out or reworded and I added because I wasn't reading directly from it. When the video is completely I will definitely share it with you all. Some of the things may sound a bit repetitive. A lot of the things I have already talked about on this blog, but I don't think I've written about all of it. 

Introducing myself

Me on my sandboarding trip.

Hello. My name is Corie. I'm sixteen years old, a sophomore in high school from Northern California.

I live in Cairo here in Egypt as a high school exchange student. 

Why I chose to come to Egypt 

When I first met my host family in the Cairo Airport.

I chose Egypt because I wanted to improve my Arabic. Egypt is the only Arabic speaking country AFS offers Americans. The more I looked into it, the more excited I became. I am the only exchange student that came from the US. During orientations before I left, they would ask us "what are you most looking forward to?" I would always say, "the pyramids!" I also had no idea about anything in Egypt. I didn't know anything about the culture or the people or anything. The only thing you hear about modern Egypt is the revolution which I'll talk about later. 

Experience in general and culture

My experience in general has been very positive. I've learned a lot about the Egyptian culture and people. I've learned Arabic. I've learned a little bit of history. I've also learned a lot about myself, what I care about. I've learned to be carefree and independent while still being considerate and responsible. Even though I have a host family, I'm still responsible for a lot of things I haven't been responsible for before, like money. 

I came here with basically no expectations. The thing that surprised me the most was how similar Egypt and the US are. Teenagers are basically the same, we like the same movies, music, and tv shows. They sell the same junk food. They had my brand of shampoo. I expected it to be not as westernized as it is. I didn't really have a culture shock. Instead of having all the cultural differences presented to me at once, I collected differences over time. Like a cultural scavenger hunt. I still find differences every so often. The easiest way to sum up the Egyptian culture is loud. I mean basically everything is loud. The people, the streets, home, school. 

Street noise takes a little time to get used to. There are barely any rules when it comes to driving in Egypt. They have lanes, but nobody uses them. Missed your turn? That's okay, you can just drive in reverse down the road. No more parking? Don't worry, you can park on the side walk. It's insane. Plus, I've never heard horns being used so much. Even if there's no reason to, they will honk their horns. Especially after weddings. There's a tradition after the wedding reception where they drive to the newlywed's home and all the while they shoot fireworks and honk their horns and it's loud. You will hear the call to prayer 4 or 5 times a day. You will hear stray dogs barking while your trying to sleep. It takes some time, but you get used to it. 

Sometimes my friends or someone will say something kind of strange. And it's not like bad or offensive, it's just surprising. Every culture has a different set of "taboo topics". Like in America we tread lightly with things like religion and weight as not to offend anyone but here they're very direct like "are you Christian or Muslim?" They'll say "did you lose weight?" But it's harmless, just different. 

Host family

(From left to right): Sarah (my host brother's wife), Nadia (my host mom), Boosy (my host cousin), and me.

My host family is awesome. I really love them. Towards the beginning, the language barrier was prevalent and at times it was kind of frustrating, but just like everything else, it gets better with time. Now I know more Arabic and I can communicate more easily. 

A big part of the Egyptian culture is hospitality. Egyptians are very welcoming and nice. If you ever have people visit you or if you go visit people, the first few minutes will be offering food and/or drinks. And no matter how many times you say "no, thanks", they will keep offering. Like "are you sure you don't want anything?" And no matter how much you eat, they will always ask if you're hungry. It's sweet. 

In my host family, I help cook and clean. Cleaning is the least I can do considering all my host family does for me. But I really love helping with cooking. Egyptian food is really really good. And I like learning the recipes so I can make it when I get back to America. Me and my host mom have a list of food on the fridge in Arabic and English so we can both learn. 

A lot of my time at home is spent relaxing or eating or both. We go out as a family sometimes, but it is nice just to sit and talk or read or watch tv or whatever. I enjoy talking with my host brothers who are basically fluent in English. Once I actually sat for a few hours while my host brother taught me about Islam, which was nice learning about. I watch movies with my host cousin. It's funny because sometimes she'll forget I don't read the subtitles and have the volume very low. Now that the weather is warmer, we can sit out on the balcony again which we haven't done because it's cold. 

I love my host family. They're so great. 

School

Class Secondary 1B

I go to a British school. Some classes are taught in English, some in Arabic. I don't take the classes taught in Arabic. I take English, math, science, and French. I also take art and computer science. During the classes I don't take, I either take Arabic lessons from my English teacher or I sit in class and work on anything. 

My school is very different from schools in America. You sit in the same room with the same people all day. Each day you have a different schedule. There's two periods, then a short break for breakfast, then four periods, then a longer break, then three periods. My school doesn't serve or sell food, so you have to bring food from home. 

The uniforms aren't as bad as I thought they'd be. There are definitely pros and cons. Some days, I'm glad I have it. Some days, I hate it. My school has primary, preparatory, secondary, and "IG"  students each with their respective uniform colors. In theory you have plain shoes, tied hair, no jewelry, etc as well, but they aren't as strict for the secondary students. 

The teachers are louder than I'm used to. They yell sometimes, but that's when the students are really bad or disrespectful. For the most part the teachers and staff at the school is really nice and welcoming, especially for exchange students. If I ever need anything or have any questions regarding school and the works, there are plenty of people to help. 

I take a bus to and from school, provided by the school. It takes a half hour to get to school and an hour to get home because of the traffic. 

Friends

Left to right: Me, Merna, and Myrna ringing in the New Year

I have many friends in and out of school. In school, it's really easy to make friends because you are with the same people all day everyday. And there's no lunch so there's no "who am I going to sit with" worries. 

Like I've been saying most people are really welcoming. All of my friends speak really good English which is good for making friends but bad for learning Arabic.

Most of my school friends live kind of far away, so I don't really see them outside school. But I have made friends outside school. 

In my neighborhood there are some girls that I met through my host sister and those are the people I hang out with outside school. On the weekends, we do the same things I do with my friends in America. Go to the cinema, the mall, go out and eat, chill at home and watch movies and eat, talking about stuff. Teenagers are basically the same all over the world. 

My birthday was a really weird day because it was my birthday, but it didn't feel like it at all. I'm really lucky I have such good friends and a great host family though. So at school, no one said anything to me all morning, then during the breakfast time they had cupcakes and a candle and they all sang and it was so great. Then at home, we didn't like have any plans and I was wondering like what am I gonna do. But my host family got me a rainbow cake and invited my non school friends and we had a little party. It was awesome. 

I also joined a Model UN through Ain Shams University. We meet on Fridays and I've made some great friends through that too. 

I'm kind of an introvert and I hate awkward silences, but I still managed to make friends. Anyone can make friends anywhere as long as they try. 

Revolution and security

Falling during sandboarding.

So the revolution. That happened... twice. Of course when you think Egypt you either think revolution or pyramids. From what I've seen, the revolution is a thing of the past. It comes up in conversation, but it doesn't effect my life at all really. I've seen a couple demonstrations. But I saw them in the street from my bedroom window or from the balcony and nothing happened except people were loud and blocking cars. 

Violent events do occur, but normally I don't hear about them. My mom signed me up for a Safe Traveler program through the US government, and sometimes I get emails saying to be extra careful or something. But as long as you don't do anything stupid, you'll be fine. 

And of course AFS Egypt is on top of everything. If there was a bombing or something, they call to make sure I'm okay even if if wasn't anywhere near me. 

Do things happen? Yes. Does that make Egypt unsafe? Not at all. Bad things can happen all over the world in every country. Safety is definitely something to be aware of, I mean better be safe than sorry. But the only time I feel unsafe is crossing the street because there are no cross walks and it's like I'm playing a real life game of frogger. 

Conclusion

Straight cheesin'

Egypt is wonderful. I absolutely love it here. Come to Egypt. It's safe, and you won't regret it. 

For more information about my experience in Egypt, check out my blog: abroad-outlook.blogspot.com

^But of course. You already knew that. 

That's all I have for this post. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and I'll talk you next time. 

Learn something today. 

Byeeeee

Corie. 

Egypt Escapades

Yesterday, I got sand everywhere, I got dragged behind a moving car in the desert, and a girl fainted, but it was one of the best days ever. I went on a trip with ASMUN to a place called El Fayoum to go sandboarding! For those of you who read my posts in like August, you know sandboarding is one of the things I've wanted to do since before I got here and it was amazing. The past week or so, I've been a little stressed about this trip, but it was worth all the stress and everything. Oh my gosh. 

So the day started out at 5 AM. My host dad drove me to Ain Shams to meet the group at 6. In proper Egyptian fashion, we didn't end up leaving until about 8. I wasn't expecting it to be as far away as it was, it was three hours outside the city. We were deep in the desert and that's all you could see for miles. It was nice and quiet. 

We had a breakfast of bread, black honey, and a cheese called "mesh". It was really good. Also for dinner we had a classic Egyptian barbecue. 

Rice, chicken, kofta, and bread. 

I didn't know anyone who went, but I made a really cool friend named Yara, who you will see in the pictures. We actually found out at the end of the day that we live in the same building. I still can't believe it. 

After eating we spent some time on the beach near the lake. Sitting in the sun and in the sand. 

Then we walked around near a waterfall, which ended up being four waterfalls. They were nice to look at but they smelt so weird. I don't know why. 

We took a bunch of pictures. 

After climbing up and down sandy slopes and sweating profusely, we went on a boat trip. It wasn't very long, but it was nice and peaceful. 

Then came the best part. Sandboarding. 

On the bus to the sand dunes, the guy said "girls are advised to sit on the board." Obviously, girls could do whatever they wanted, and stood on the board anyway. Which I did. I did both. I started with sitting and then tried standing. I never got all the way down standing without falling, but it was fun. Sitting was easier and faster, but standing was outside my comfort zone. Sandboarding is basically sledding in sand not snow. 

Wheee!

Landed safely. 

Starts out okay...

Then I lost my balance...

Then I fell. 

Didn't break anything, though. 

So being an exchange student is all about leaving your comfort zone. If I'm going to be honest, going down the sand dune was scary. I'm actual scared of lots of things, but that doesn't stop me from doing those things. As Veroncia Roth puts it, "I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." And that's why I went parasailing. 

That's me FYI. 

The whole time I was on the ground between paying for it and actually doing it, I was scared crapless. I saw people going up and coming down and I was terrified. But I already paid so I had to do it. 

Smiling, but scared. 

I put on the lovely, colorful harness and got strapped onto the parachute with the wonderful Yara. The car started going and we started running, still scared. But once you're in the air, flying above everything else with no protection, it's liberating. You're flying. So obviously, I did the only logical thing I could think of which is flap my wings, I mean arms, and sing Breaking Free from High School Musical. 

"We're soaring, flying. There's not a star in heaven that we can't reach."

Then the car slows down and you descend to the earth. One second you're floating in the air, the next your feet are on the ground and you think you're okay, the second after you're on the ground being dragged through the desert because the car hasn't stopped. 

Yup, once we were on the ground, the car hadn't stopped moving. So attached to the harness attached to the parachute stretched to the car, we kept moving. They stopped el7amdulallah. After something like that happens you have two options, you could be scared or mad because you were dragged behind a car, or you could laugh because you were dragged behind a car. I chose the latter. I wasn't hurt, and it honestly was amazingly fun. Besides, how many people can say that they were dragged behind a car through the desert like in an action movie? Me, because I've said it five times in this post. And I will continue saying it for the rest of my life because that's what being an exchange student is about. 

After that, we went and sandboarded some more. The sun was on the verge of setting and the lighting was beautiful. And we live in the year 2015, so when there's good lighting you take pictures. 

I went home very very sandy, slightly dehydrated, and exhausted. But I also went home happy and adventurous and 200x cooler than when I left home at 5:45 that morning. 

Gosh, it was so fun. 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope your weekend has been awesome. Have a great day. :)

You're awesome and learn something today. 

Byeeeee

Corie.