Real World: Cairo

Sometimes I wish that MTV would expand their internationalism and bring a season of The Real World – its highly successful reality television show – to Cairo because in just one weekend, a group of twenty year olds can experience quite a lot, without spending a lot, in one of the most incredible cities in all the world.

My weekend began, as it usually does, on Wednesday night. After a long day of classes, I was quite content on relaxing and eating some cheap Italian food for under $2 and hanging out with people around the dorms. Not much excitement, since most people have classes on Thursdays. However, I did have good catchup time with my friends from home.

Thursdays are normally a day of rest and relaxation, in my preparation for the actual weekend. I woke up late and went to campus to grab a few books on a paper for my Political Economy course and I ended up eating the equivalence of Wagshal’s Deli at American University in the form of Felfela. It’s a fast-food chain with an amazing array of Egyptian & Middle Eastern food, from falafels and foul, to shwerma and yogurt. For under a dollar, you can get some of the best shwerma in all of Cairo. And its made fresh before your eyes. That night proved to be fun, heading out to our usual hangout, Pub 28, for a few pitchers of Sangria, followed by a late-night run to The Odeon Palace downtown for further escapades and Shisha. Returning after 4am is very Real World-esque, I’d say.

Friday: Of course I slept in. Very late. Like 2pm late. I ended up heading over to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, a local coffee establishment (one of several) where I sat around with Abby and her roommate for awhile, talking about how much we loved Washington DC. Her roommate is a graduate student at AUC and she did her undergrad work at GW, so clearly I didn’t get any work done. Near sundown, we walked back to Abby’s apartment; grabbing pita, grapes, drinks and cheese, all the while watching two bus drivers get into a massive brawl on the 26th of July Street in Downtown Zamalek. Since my hair was getting kinda long and I decided that the whole swipey thing was never really going to work, Abby cut my hair! Not too short, but short enough that I really don’t have to do much with it. We ended up having the Iftar meal at sundown with her roommate, consisting of frozen grapes, pita with cheese and diet coke, and watched some Friends reruns on television.

Earlier that week, we had planned to go bowling on the Nile. So were off to a bowling alley overlooking the Nile River! Well not really… the bowling alley was located right along the Corniche, along the water, but there was only one window actually looking out over the water. The terrace, as we learned quickly, was a cafe with a ten pound minimum. Scratch that. So after bowling a heinously awful score (for reasons known to AUCians… thanks Abby) we went to TGI Fridays! Yes, they have that here too, but also what makes it 13394138049140 times better than American TGI Fridays… none other than Shisha. Yes, I had Shisha Nana (mint) while drinking free refills of Pepsi, and enjoying a mouth-watering burger, cooked medium well. What more could I ask for?

Saturday was just another day in Cairo. I had a book report to do so I sat with Meghan for much of the afternoon at Euro Deli reading Miramar, a book about the intersecting lives of several members of Egyptian society at the time of the Revolution in 1952. The book represents societal norms and how they have changed and will change with the coming revolution. In the late afternoon, a group of us headed to the Pyramids, our second trip. This time, however, we planned on riding camels into the sunset at the only remaining ancient wonder of the world. Upon arrival (after getting harassed by tour guides that literally opened our car doors – kinda scary), we found a few camel guides and “bargained” our way to an acceptable price. We took our camels down the back alleys into the “back door” of the Pyramids, where we probably didn’t even have to pay to get into the desert. And (see earlier post), I fell off my camel. The saddle came lose and I tumbled off. Yes, it was fun. Yes, it is something to remember. Let’s just leave it at that.

Afterwards, we ate at Pizza Hut, directly across the street from the Pyramids.

Here is a great example of globalization for you. After eating, we sat on the roof and watched the lightshow on the pyramids, which plays 3 different times a night, rotating between five languages I believe. We lucked out and got to “hear” the English version. So, it was spoken in Old, British English; we heard the Muslim prayer-call in Arabic; Spanish tourists yapped away for twenty minutes straight; Japanese tourists snapped photos; us American students did our thing; at a Pizza Hut; in front of the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids. Weird? I’d say so.

Sunday was a study day, mainly. I sat and did a lot of work in preparation for none other than… a FOOTBALL GAME! No – not the American football – the real football. We had to buy tickets from a scalper since all tickets were sold out. We took an evening cab (after a delicious meal at my favorite Italian restaurant) to Cairo International Stadium, located about twenty minutes away. After arriving, we took in all the madness that was Egyptian football… and there wasn’t even Alcohol!

The way Northern African Football works is several clubs from all different countries compete; some countries have multiple teams and some only have one. Egypt has Al Ahly, the prized national team and last night, we played Libya in the semi-finals. Every seat was filled in the Ahly Sections and in the Libya sections, they were maybe 1% full, with riot police forming a complete circle around them. I kid you not – look at the photo album. Anyways… we arrived two hours early, with barely any seating downstairs because of the sheer craziness that was occurring. Every fan was sporting a red jersey, red shirt, or something red on and cheers were going on for the previous two hours before the start of the game. Once the game actually began at 21:30, AHLY came out on top with a victory to advance to the finals against a team from Tunisia. It was a great experience that, despite warnings from Egyptians and other Middle Easterners, was incredible and one of the defining moments of living here in Cairo. Despite being the only foreigners in our entire area, I still felt at home and the locals were very welcome and receiving (as long as we weren’t Libyan spies, which we weren’t since I was sporting as many Ahly items as possible). Not once was I scared. Ahly won 1-0 over Libya!