Back Home from Egypt

Alright, I made it back and I'm alive, so that's all good news on this end. Egypt was amazing, I saw the Pyramids and the Sphinx which were unbelievable, I mean you read about this your entire life but seeing them in person (which are a lot bigger than I imagined) is truly breath-taking. We also visited the Arab League, Alexandria, and many different mosques and sites throughout Cairo. Egypt was beautiful and even though we were busy everyday, we spent every night either at a bar, or disco, or just hung out until early in the morning in the hotel. If there's one thing I learned in Egypt, it's that Cairo never sleeps which is just a blast.

Now the real part, I'll compare Cairo with Amman, the city itself, the people and the overall culture. I'm going to say bluntly that Cairo is so much worse than Amman in nearly every way. This mind you is a bias based off of a phenomenal month and a half in Jordan so far and just a week in Egypt which although was beautiful and an amazing experience with the SIT kids, was brought down by the interaction with the people in many ways. Since Egypt is so touristy, especially Cairo, most Egyptians take this opportunity to heckle, harass, and attempt to rip you off in many ways. Taxi drivers try to charge you twice what you should pay, shop owners make up pathetic stories so that you buy more, and certain men there (not all of them, but many) sexually harass and verbally abuse men, women, children beyond anything you could imagine. Two girls in our program were harassed/abused while we were there; one was chased up the stairs until she made it to our room while the other was actually fingered, and then chased down an alley way with a man's penis out. This is not OK. This is the kind of thing that turns you off about Egypt. Everything in Egypt is cheap, the party scene is awesome, and the scenery is amazing but it's certain people that completely turn you off from all of Egypt. It's sad really because I don't want to view Egypt like this but after living in Jordan for this long and experiencing the culture and it's people, seeing Egypt is kind of a shock. I would compare Jordan and Egypt to the United States and the really sketch part of Mexico. Except I could understand a lot of what Egyptians were saying and I can't speak Spanish. Egypt is far more polluted and the people are a lot harsher there than in Jordan; I mean yes, I am biased but I would also completely recommend Egypt to anybody. It's a beautiful country it's just, this email is a warning and an observation of the short time I experienced in Egypt but that shouldn't change your view of the country or scare you away. I hope this email didn't throw you guys off too much, I still had an unbelievable time in Egypt and I definitely hope to go back someday, but I am also very happy to be back in Jordan with my family and the city I'm used to. You may have also noticed there are no pictures in this blog, that is because I have so many I want to show you so I created a Flickr page to help me out; follow this link to view my favorite pictures from Egypt:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48644224@N08/sets/72157623534172141/

All for now guys, let me know about what you think of my post or if you like my pics. Ma salaama.