The last twenty four hours have been quite interesting to say the least. My family and I have successfully managed to live through our first full day in Egypt...although not without our fair share of kinks along the way. I'll start from the beginning.
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After our delicious meal the previous night, we all went to bed around 2 or 3 am. We got strict instructions from Tarek that we had to be ready at 8:30am yesterday morning because the Dental Conference were my dad and Tarek were presenting started at 9:00am. In my usual OCD panicky self, I set a million alarms to make sure I would be up and ready on time. What I did not count on, was the fact that every clock in my room and house had a different time than my alarms; In other words, my phone and Itouch were an hour ahead of normal time. Therefore, that translates into a three hours of sleep after 48 hours of traveling. You should also know that I am a very light sleeper, so I hear pretty much anything and everything at night. As I told you yesterday, Egypt is one of the few places were you will see mosques and churches co-existing on the same street. Where we live, there is a mosque directly across the street from my window, and a church facing our apartment a few blocks away. As you also know from yesterday's blog, Muslims have a call to prayer 5 times a day. Tarek explained that this happens at sunrise, at noon, in the afternoon (time unspecified because I'm not exactly sure what time this is), again in the evening, and one at sunset. He told us that if we were lucky, we would hear the call to prayer in the morning when the sun rises. Lucky for me and unlucky for everyone else (or vice versa depending on how you look at it), I have heard the call at 4:00am both mornings. A loud male voice comes over a loud speaker and in a sing-song voice and invites his fellow brothers (and sisters) to join him in the morning prayers to Allah. This usually lasts for 2 minutes, and yesterday, these two minutes joined the category of the two longest minutes of my life. Since I was already sleep deprived, 2 minutes seemed to last an eternity, but it was still really neat to get to experience this moment.
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My bedroom (limited view). The window on the far
left is where I can see and hear everything that is happening on
the streets below |
At promptly 7:30am (real time was actually 6:30am--remember my clocks were an hour fast), I got up and tried to take a shower. We have two showers in the apartment-a normal, tub-tub like shower like the ones we are used to, and a smaller shower in the smaller bathroom which consists of a shower head over a drain in the same close vicinity of a toilet and a sink. Tarek and Carly said that last time they were here, the big bathroom did not have hot water and the water pressure was a little low, so if we had any problems, we should shower in the smaller bathroom. Fearing that I was running out of precious time, I skipped over the trying to figure out the big bathroom shower and headed straight for the small bathroom--besides, I thought, what could possibly go wrong? The answer to that is, as usual, something or everything. Of course, Tarek and Carly had failed to mention that to shower in the small bathroom, one must first lift the cover off of the floor drain so as to avoid a total calamity...which I failed to do. As the story goes, I began my shower rituals. After a few minutes, I realized that the water level on the floor was quickly rising, and it didn't seem to be going anywhere but up. I started to panic. I saw the drain below my feet, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't figure out how to get the drain to open. This means that a total calamity occurred--I flooded the bathroom. In fact, I flooded not only the bathroom, but also the hallway outside of the bathroom. I didn't know the latter at the time, so as to avoid flooding the hallway, I would repeatedly run over to the bathroom door and play a small soccer match with water as I tried my best to kick the water back in the direction of the useless drain. Oh, what I also failed to mention was that yesterday morning also proved to delightful because my tummy was still adjusting to the new foods. I woke up totally and completely nauseous--I smelled the products in my hair from last night and I got nauseous. I smelled my deodorant and got nauseous. The shampoo, conditioner, bar of soap, and body lotion had the same effect on me. I could tell we were off to a wonderful morning!
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| The small bathroom- unflooded at the time |
After this eventful experience, I went to wake my parents with the news that I was not sure what time it was but that they needed to wake up, that bathroom was somewhat flooded, and that I was sick. As you can probably imagine, my parents were oh-so-happy to wake up to this news. All I kept thinking was that I was glad that Nandy was not with us because she would probably already killed me. We proceeded to get ready in a timely fashion, and at promptly 8:30am (real time not Paulina time), we sat waiting for Tarek and Carly who were next door. We waited for about 20 minutes, and then Carly showed up in her pj's explaining that they had overslept. Long story short, we eventually made it to the conference and all was well.
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| Ready and dressed for the conference minus the house shoes! |
I think that the conference went really well! My dad was a total hit with all of the Egyptian and Arab dentists because of his friendly and relaxed confidence and his amazing sense of humor. It is truly amazing to see how even when there are language barriers, my dad's people skills remain in tact! I was really proud of him. While he and Tarek talked to potential clients about their consulting business, Carly, my mom, and I worked at the M-Kenz booth (the name of the company) and answered questions for the interested and curious potential clients. It was a really tough 7 hours because we were all constantly being hit by waves of exhaustion. We had our really great and energized moments, and then we would hit our slums were all we did was sit and try to stay awake. Overall, however, I think that we all did a really great job, and by the end of the event, our booth was one of the most frequented booths in the arena.
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The conference was held at the Hilton Hotel in the Green Plaza/Center
in Alexandria, Egypt. I really wish Andrew, my boyfriend, were here because his
expert camera skills would be so much better than mine and you
would enjoy his pictures much more than you will mine... |
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| Our booth: M-Kenz Management Consulting |
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I was really excited to be a "doctor" for a while haha. My mom went from
"Mr. Grace Saldana"to "Dr. Grace Saldana" in a matter of minutes
with our fun name-tags. |
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My dad and Tarek with a client!
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It was really strange, but while we were at the conference, I got my first real wave of culture shock. Egypt is actually really safe right now contrary to what the news makes us believe, and the society has a wide range of conservatism and liberalism. I saw women wearing long sleeves, loose fitting clothes and uncovered heads, while others wore similar dress with the hijab (the head covering). Still, some women only wore the veil for a fashion statement (as some of the wealthy women in the Arab world do), and others wore the full burkah (the head-to-toe black covering with only a visible slit for the eyes). Arabs are really warm and welcoming, but I couldn't help but feel like the odd one out. When in the bathroom, the girls seemed to be getting ready for a fashion jungle, and I could feel the peering eyes of everyone around me. I got plenty of stares and attention, although none of it was rude or obscene. I was just uncomfortable sometimes because I was constantly being stared at by both men and women. My parents and Tarek say that it was probably because I have Arab features combined with white skin and green eyes, which is something that is not common. I'm not sure what it was, but for the first time in a very long time, I felt odd, left out, and strange and I had no idea how to make it better. We will see how the next few days go.
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My foreigner's attempt at wrapping and wearing the hijab last night when
we went out for ice cream! |
To end our evening, Tarek took us out to eat. I was really excited about this because as most of you know, I live and breath for the sole purpose of eating! Tarek took us to a cute and popular restaurant around the corner of the conference center. As we walked around, I got the chance to witness day-to-day Egyptian life. Everyone speaks Egyptian Arabic, but most (if not all) Egyptians also speak perfect English. I tried my best to use my Arabic throughout the day, and when I did manage to keep up a small conversation with a native client, most of the surrounding people were rather impressed with my language skills. I still have trouble formulating complete sentences, but I seem to retain and recall a lot of the Arabic vocabulary I learned in my three years of language courses! Hopefully, by the end of the summer, I will be somewhat more fluent than I am now. What i do foresee as a challenge are the varying dialects. I speak Fasjah, the formal Arabic. The Egyptian dialect and pronunciations are very different from the ones I learned, and mostly, Egyptians speak in slang. They understand me perfectly when I speak Fasjah, but I think that I am mixing my Fasjah and slang as I try to assimilate into the culture here.
The food was FANTASTIC! I will just let you see for yourself!
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Our delicious appetizers with Tahini sauce on the right and a
yogurt dip on the left. |
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Chicken Shoowerma! Sooooo good!!!
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I just realized I spent all morning pouring over the details of yesterday and I still have to get ready for today's conference. Hopefully I won't flood any bathrooms today, but I will report back later!
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