Mariam Elba

12/24/09 – 12/27/09

FINALLY HERE!

After 2 days of waiting in hotel rooms, airports, and 12 hours of flying … I’m in Cairo!

Most people think of Egypt as some desolate, land with nothing but desert in sight, and camels as the only mode of transportation. Well, anyone within 5 minutes of getting here, can tell that it’s the complete opposite. The airport was busier than JFK when I left! The city reminds me of New York. It has the same life and vibrance as Manhattan does during the holiday season. The streets are full of lights and huge crowds, and the stores are always full and busy. The city literally never sleeps! at 4am you can find almost 3/4 of the shops still open, and the main roads still bustling with people as you would find it during the early evening. There’s so much life to this city.  To me, as well as to the millions of people living here, its vibrance overshadows the overwhelming poverty that seems to rule most of the city.However, as much as the city reminds me of New York, there’s a very different dynamic in the way the people interact with each other here. Everyone seems a lot more friendlier with one another here. With all the cab rides we took, my mom had a conversation with all the cab drivers, and other people we would encounter at the pyramids or the bazaars as if they were old friends. They would talk about how the country had changed since my mother was last here, or problems that the country is going through. They were conversations with heart. Something you wouldn’t easily find in New York, or at least for me anyway.

For my first full day here, we saw what any tourist MUST see when they get here, the pyramids. It was a foggy day, so I couldn’t really see the pyramids until we got up really close. Oh. My. God. They’re NOTHING like how they look in the pictures! To me, the biggest one looks almost as tall as the Empire State Building! I didn’t expect them to look so huge! On a clear day you can see them from My brother and I did what any tourist would do at the pyramids … we rode camels!  It’s pretty scary when the camel gets up and sits down … it feels like you’re about to fall off because it leans so far forward and backward when it gets up, but it was a lot of fun. I got a really nice view of everything going on around the pyramids up on the camel (yea … its that tall!). Our next stop that day was the Cairo Citadel. Inside it, is the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, (no not the boxer :p) It’s another one of those places where you feel in awe just by standing there and looking at it. I like to think it’s kinda like Egypt’s hidden gem. Not many tourists have heard about this place, but in my opinion, this is the second must-see tourist stop behind the pyramids and sphinx. It looks absolutely beautiful on the outside and inside. Inside the walls and domes are intricately decorated with several patterns in different shades of green. Muhammad Ali’s tomb inside the mosque, is just as beautifully decorated with the typical geometric patterns you would find in a mosque. Outside the mosque, there’s a great view of the entire city (given there’s no fog :p). One of the nicknames of Cairo (as you can see from the title) is the “city of a thousand minarets.” From the Citadel, you can see that there are literally a thousand minarets in the city! I think it’s what makes this city unique from any other place you would visit in Egypt, or throughout the Middle East. After the Citadel, we stopped by the al-Hussein district of Cairo. Here, there is the Khan el Khalili bazaar, and Masjid al Hussein. Masjid al Hussein, or the Mosque of al Hussein contains the tomb of Hussein, the grandson of Muhammad himself. For that reason it always seems to be crowded with pilgrims wanting to pray for, who is considered by many to be a holy man. I had wanted to do the same, but unfortunately, didn’t get the chance. Right next to it is the Khan el Khalili bazaar, the biggest and most famous bazaar in Cairo, and probably in all of Egypt. The place was packed with tourists, and hundreds vendors literally on your back trying to get you to buy their stuff. When you walk through it you feel like you’re in the story of Aladdin, or a story from 1001 Arabian Nights. The atmosphere has the same kind of “storybook magic” you would feel when reading (or watching) any of those old stories.

One thing I found kind of funny when touring the city was that to the average Cairo citizen, I was a complete foriegner. I have the same thick dark hair, same dark eyes, same skin color as the typical Egyptian would, yet everyone would just speak to me in English! I wasn’t sure what it was, I tried to speak Arabic in an almost-flawless Egyptian accent with the other people, and they would still ask me “where are you from?” in English! I asked my mom about this and she said it was my American demeanor. People there could tell that I wasn’t a native Egyptian, even if I spoke Egyptian Arabic with them. I thought it was interesting.

My time in this city was truly wonderful. After leaving it, I feel like it was a city I saw in a dream, and I woke up.

12/23/2009

Almost there!

Sitting in the business class lounge in Frankfurt (with more free food!). We got a pretty nice upgrade to business class because of the huge flight delay. Maybe the delay wasn’t so bad after all.
We spent a night at a hotel here because of the delay. Everything here is so small! The hotel room for my mom, my brother, and myself was only the size of my bedroom and the bathroom was the size of a closet! The biggest car I’ve probably seen here was the size of a honda civic!
Anyway, we’ll be leaving for Cairo in about an hour. I’ll be seeing family I’ve never seen before once we get there, and we’ll be going sightseeing once get there too. I feel a little nervous. I’m hoping the language/cultural barrier won’t be too big between us, my arabic is exactly up to par, but whatever, I’m just glad I can finally meet them.

I’m so excited for all the sights we’ll be seeing once we get there! Tomorrow we’ll be going on a tour to see everything in Cairo. I can’t wait! ahhhh … I can’t believe I’m going to be there in just a few hours!

Enjoy the few pictures I took around the Frankfurt airport  :p

After years of waiting, and pleading to my mom for this trip, I’m finally going to see what some call “the mother of the world.” Egypt.

So why I am I writing about this trip?

I want to try and preserve my first memories and impressions of visiting the place that my parents called home. I want to express my own point of view of the places I will visit, and the people I will meet. The point of view of a foriegner, yet at the same time, the point of view of a a native Egyptian. I always thought of Egypt as some sort of dreamland. A place that only exists in the stories of my mother and father when they were growing up there, and in the old photos of brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles that my parents brought with them when they came here. I’ve never felt so much anticipation for a trip before. I can only imagine what lies ahead for these next two weeks.

I was actually supposed to leave last night, but given my history of bad luck with air travel, the flight’s been delayed to 3am tomorrow morning. No idea when I’ll get to Egypt being that I’m connecting in Germany, and there’s no available flight to Cairo until Thursday. So yea, maybe this’ll turn into a blog about being stuck in Germany? But there’s a positive side to all this at least … free hotel rooms and free food!

I’m writing in a hotel lobby that’s only 20 minutes from my house. The airline gave us some pretty swanky hotel rooms and LOTS of free food! My only complaint is that they have some pretty obnoxious choices of holiday music playing on repeat in the hotel lobby, the only place that has wifi. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holiday season as much as anyone does, but hearing the chipmunks christmas album being played on repeat all day can kinda get on your nerves after the 30 billionth time. But yea, it’s not all bad. I just hope nothing goes wrong when I get to Germany.

Anyway, I’m hoping for the best, we’ll see what happens.

I remember during the first few weeks of the semester, I felt surprised and almost in awe of all the resources and support centers at Baruch. I was thinking about all these resources that were introduced to us after almost every freshman seminar. The SACC center, library resources, the incredibly easy access to help at any time through either, my peer mentor, or my advisor … really? There wasn’t nearly this many resources in high school!
My group and I are planning on volunteering for Bideawee, which is an animal shelter that focuses on helping animals that have been abandoned, or abused by healing physical wounds, as well as emotional wounds in animals. Our group wouldn’t have been able to find this organization if it weren’t for the library seminar, which gave us several suggestions on search engines for non-profit and charity organizations. Also, if it weren’t for the help of my peer mentor, I wouldn’t have known what direction to take in the community service project.
Adjusting to college life, for me, is hard, and I’m still in the process of adjusting, especially academically. I’ve gone to the SACC center for help with math, and it’s helped me understand concepts that weren’t clear to me before. I’m still struggling with math, but hopefully, with more practice and patience, I’ll improve.
I’ve wanted to join a lot of clubs this semester, but of course, I can’t be active in all of them. I’ve joined American Humanics, and I plan on staying committed to this club simply because it focuses on serving, and helping people, and it’s what I enjoy doing. I’ve wanted to join many others like Model U.N. and Solutions Without Borders, but with all the schoolwork we get, I haven’t been able to commit.
With all the people, and resources that are available to help make our adjustment to college a little easier, it’s made me feel not only less fearful, but very thankful that we have all these resources, and wonderful people more than willing to help us. I honestly don’t know how I would be faring if it weren’t for the help and support of the college resources, my peer mentor, and my advisor. I mean it when I say that I am utterly thankful, especially for John, and Mr. Medina for going out of their way to help us adjust, and make our college transition much easier than others. (I mean it! Thank you so much!)

So what does it mean to serve the community?

The first answer that pops into my head when I think about this question is simply returning the favor.

As Baruch Scholars, we have so much that’s given to us. I feel utterly thankful for all the freebies and opportunities I received over the past few months. During my time here, I want to be involved as much as possible in the clubs and organizations on campus. So far, I’ve joined the American Humanics society, and I hope to become much more active in the community through this club, and maybe joining other clubs that focus on helping other people.

I believe the aim of the Honors program is to help us become better human beings by carrying out community service. For many of us, when we graduate, we won’t see it just as an obligation to stay in the honors program, but as a duty that we would carry out voluntarily. As scholars, I think we need to be giving people. With all the benefits and opportunities that are given to us, it’s necessary to give something back. If we don’t we would be selfish people, and it would be understandable if we were to be dismissed from the honors program. Being an honors student isn’t all about getting those straight A’s, but being a well-rounded, and selfless human being.

The way I see it, becoming involved in the community by helping the surrounding community, or by helping Baruch become a better campus, is a way of giving thanks for all the wonderful things that Baruch has given us for being scholars. I truly do hope to make a difference in the Baruch community, or in the outside community by the time I leave.

This is a difficult question for me to answer; I really don’t know how I came to be the way I am now. Of course, a long series of events and experiences have melded and shaped me to who I am today, but I can’t point out which ones. So as I sit staring at an almost blank screen, thinking of which experiences to write about, and feeling intimidated by some of the really well written blog entries that have already been written, the only thought that comes to mind is growing up in here in a suburban town on Long Island not many have heard of, Levittown.

Growing up in Levittown, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was the only Muslim, Egyptian-American girl with a stutter, poofy hair, and a name not many could pronounce correctly. Sure, it wasn’t the easiest thing to go through, but looking back, I think it was a blessing for me. Being a foreigner, in what was to me, a foreign environment, helped me to overcome the fear of being different.

I used to have the most stringent  fear of speaking, whether it was in front of  one person, a group of people, or on the phone. A thought like “they’re going to think I forgot my name” or “they’ll think I’m a retard” would always pop in my head, and I would retreat into my little shell. It bothered me. Why was I letting something get in the way form carrying out such a simple, everyday task? I took a chance, enrolled in a public speaking class, addressed and spoke about my stutter, and much to my surprise, I found that there was really nothing to fear. So what if I spoke differently from everyone else? Why would it matter if I had a stutter? Addressing my stutter in front of a group of people who I considered different from myself  had helped me gain self-confidence with speaking, and with being myself.

For the road ahead, I want to continue to become a better person, even if it means putting myself out of my comfort zone. Especially for these next few years, I want to become involved in the community as much as I can and of course, do my very best in excelling academically. I know the road will have many bumps, twists, and turns, but whatever is in store for me, I won’t fear it, I’ll face it with confidence.