So, as I said before, we were given some time off recently which I think everyone really needed. For better or for worse, so far we've spent most of that time in a pretty Western manner. After ordering in breakfast yesterday (for me - a bagel, something I hadn't had in months) and relaxing around the house on our computers, we all went off in assigned pairs to do some reflecting. Maheen and I went to a really nice cafe nearby, where we split a cheesecake and a Twix tart and I had a cappuccino as we talked about our time in Cairo so far and just life in general.
Most of the group then reconvened at City Stars, a beyond-description gigantic mall about 45 minutes from here in Heliopolis. It's 7 stories tall, with hundreds of stores, restaurants, a cinema, 2 entertainment/theme park areas - like omg extravagent. We ate at Fuddruckers, where I had my first salad since coming here (which was delicious), and then wandered vaguely upwards and around. We had gone to the mall to see a movie, but almost reconsidered even going to see it in lieu of just wandering around. But we went and saw Toy Story 3 (not before grabbing some snacks at Cinnabon) in English with Arabic subtitles, which was an amazing movie.
The whole movie experience was extremely Egyptian though. We had heard that the movie started at 9, our ticket said it started at 9:30, and the movie actually started at 10. The movie was in 3-D, so naturally we had to buy 3-D glasses - why would they be included in the ticket? And, half-way through the movie it completely stopped - there was an intermission/smoke break for the viewers. But it was fun and, like I said, the movie was great.
But I guess the question is, is this how we should be spending our day off? Yeah, we all had fun, and it was nice to be somewhere that felt so much like every mall in America (except 5 times the size). And the mall was definitely not for Westerners, it was for rich Egyptians - we saw surprisingly few decidedly Western-looking people. But it's so weird that we really hang out with the richest and poorest segments of the Egyptian population. We go straight from teaching refugees in a building down a back alley to a fancy hotel where we order expensive food and are pampered as we watch football. I don't think it's bad, but I wonder if it's the immersion experience I think that DukeEngage really wants us to be having. But some of the more extravagant places and activities we've done have been with our coordinators as our official DukeEngage group.
I don't really know what I'm getting at with all this, but it's a little weird. It's not that I think we're not immersing into the culture to some degree, or that we're on vacation. I think we've all worked really hard and have all had some great experiences, and definitely exposed ourselves to different ways of life and types of people. But I wonder what would be different if we were here for longer, or lived in a different area of Cairo, or knew more people to hang out with who weren't from the upper socio-economic segments of the population.
Anyway, later today we're off to Islamic Cairo and I think Al-Azhar park again to do some touristing and hang out, so I'm excited for that! Pictures to come.
Most of the group then reconvened at City Stars, a beyond-description gigantic mall about 45 minutes from here in Heliopolis. It's 7 stories tall, with hundreds of stores, restaurants, a cinema, 2 entertainment/theme park areas - like omg extravagent. We ate at Fuddruckers, where I had my first salad since coming here (which was delicious), and then wandered vaguely upwards and around. We had gone to the mall to see a movie, but almost reconsidered even going to see it in lieu of just wandering around. But we went and saw Toy Story 3 (not before grabbing some snacks at Cinnabon) in English with Arabic subtitles, which was an amazing movie.
The whole movie experience was extremely Egyptian though. We had heard that the movie started at 9, our ticket said it started at 9:30, and the movie actually started at 10. The movie was in 3-D, so naturally we had to buy 3-D glasses - why would they be included in the ticket? And, half-way through the movie it completely stopped - there was an intermission/smoke break for the viewers. But it was fun and, like I said, the movie was great.
But I guess the question is, is this how we should be spending our day off? Yeah, we all had fun, and it was nice to be somewhere that felt so much like every mall in America (except 5 times the size). And the mall was definitely not for Westerners, it was for rich Egyptians - we saw surprisingly few decidedly Western-looking people. But it's so weird that we really hang out with the richest and poorest segments of the Egyptian population. We go straight from teaching refugees in a building down a back alley to a fancy hotel where we order expensive food and are pampered as we watch football. I don't think it's bad, but I wonder if it's the immersion experience I think that DukeEngage really wants us to be having. But some of the more extravagant places and activities we've done have been with our coordinators as our official DukeEngage group.
I don't really know what I'm getting at with all this, but it's a little weird. It's not that I think we're not immersing into the culture to some degree, or that we're on vacation. I think we've all worked really hard and have all had some great experiences, and definitely exposed ourselves to different ways of life and types of people. But I wonder what would be different if we were here for longer, or lived in a different area of Cairo, or knew more people to hang out with who weren't from the upper socio-economic segments of the population.
Anyway, later today we're off to Islamic Cairo and I think Al-Azhar park again to do some touristing and hang out, so I'm excited for that! Pictures to come.
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