Nepal

holy shit I just wrote a huge ass post and it all got deleted. :(

Basically: I love my homestay family. I am going to Darjeeling tomorrow for a week, when I come back, I am going to my family's village for Dasain (right outside Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha).

MAN I am so mad, that was such a long post. LAME.

Dedicated to Sundes

So, I just finished talking with my Academic Director, Beau. He just wanted to talk to each of us individually to see how we are adjusting, and what are thoughts are about our ISP (independent study projects).



I dedicate this post to Sundes, because if she were here she would be the first to object to my classmates in this:



One of the main things we have been talking about as we adjust to our new Nepali lives is difference and otherness. We, as foreigners, are very much Other to the mainstream Nepali culture, but something that has been bothering me is that in pretty much every conversation, one of my classmates has stood up and said; "well, we all stand out because we are obviously white and therefore Other in Nepal".



Uhm. Hi. My name is Briana and I am not white.



*cough* .....



In fact, multiple locals now have approached me, speaking Nepali and asking me if I am Indian. I say no. Nepali? They ask. No. Not Nepali either.

Hmmm....maybe I am not so obviously other.
Anyway, I was talking to my director Beau about this, and he confirmed my suspitions/fears that I very well may appear to be more of a local at first glance. Why does that affect my stance when my lovely classmates stand and make such generalizations about us as outsiders?
Perhaps when a white friend of mine goes to a shop, they are not expected to know certain things. How much something cost, when its rude to bargain or not bargain, how to interact with different hierarchies of people, men and women -- all of these are excused immediately for my obviously Other friends.
For me, not as obviously, not so quickly. Already a few bus money guys have gotten annoyed at me for staring at them blankly when they try to ask me where I am going or try to get me to pay. When I walk down the street, people I pass may have certain expectations of me that I have no concept of what it might mean.

At this point, I still don't know what it means. My experience here will, perhaps, have a slightly different flavor than that of my other American friends. What that will be -- I guess I will find out.

however, just as a quick disclaimer: my classmates here are all really wonderful, and none of them mean any harm in their statements. But, when I talked to my director, he thought it would be a good idea to bring this perpective up to the others -- awareness is always a good thing :)

Anyway, I love you guys and will give you more experiential updates soon!

looooove

Hello, from Heathrow.

Well my beautiful friends... I just wanted to say a quick Hello from Heathrow!  (Alliteration, yeah??)  I'm feeling that really yucky jet-lag ickyness... but I have some down time until my flight leaves for ROMA and I decided to check out the blog and am absolutely just... speechless... by how incredible all you fabulous loves of mine are.  I just read your posts and am utterly blown away by all of your experiences that it's only making me miss you more, yet simultaneously making me more and more excited about the adventure/journey that awaits.  I'm sorry if I sound like a blubbering drunk person writing this... lack of sleep.  I will write a cool update soon!!!  Just know I love you and that I'm sending HUGE hugs and kisses all over the world.

Later from London.  (TWO alliterations!)  

Bryn Mawr aka Rite Aid

Well, now that you all have written something I feel as though I should update you on my MUCH less interesting/glamorous life.

Right now I'm in Canaday (big surprise) kind of procrastinating on some work I should be doing by writing this post (again, big surprise).

First week of classes are over and I'm taking some really interesting ones. They meet once a week all of them so incidentally I have a four day weekend every weekend which is nice. I'm taking a 300 level anthropology seminar on settler colonialism which I think will be really cool. We're reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad amongst other things. I highly recommend for all you readers out there 'The Poisonwood Bible' by Barbera Kingsolver which I read in Indonesia. Its so hauntingly beautiful and well written and its about the Congo as it transitions from colonial rule into independence. Its fascinating. I'm also taking a class on human rights, activism and development at Haverford and two soc classes, social theory (we get to read Marx, Durkheim, Focault- all dead white guys) but as a nerd I'm actually quite excited to get started.

I don't know if you all have heard but the other night at the Lloyd 'Around the world' party the police came and arrested a bunch of students for underage drinking and serving minors. So thats basically been the biggest thing that happened this weekend. LUCKILY I am lame and was watching a movie/drinking wine with a friend instead so I avoided that little calamity.

I've been catching up with some old friends who I didn't spend as much time with before. Margaret and I have been seeing a lot of eachother and I've been seeing (some) of Yuliya and Isa, my hellee also. Everyone is sweet and I'm not feeling TOO socially isolated but I can't tell you how much I miss you guys! I will acknowledge that I totally took your amazingness for granted, and now that you aren't here with me I realise how you completely define everything I love about Bryn Mawr. But its ok, I will be positive!

My room is completely amazing btw, you guys should really have a death match to get it after I leave in the spring because it is BEAUTIFUL. Lots of light, not too big, not too small. Its perfect. Good thing too, incase I end up spending a lot of time there ;)

As for my spring semester...Well I'm in the midst of trying to figure everything out. I had a telephone interview with the woman who runs the international branch of Ni Putes, Ni Soumises in France, which is actually this huge national feminist lobbying group for immigrant and socially marginalised women. Speaking on the phone in a foreign language is SO HARD!! I was sweating soo much you wouldn't believe it. She spoke so quickly and although I understood about 80% of what she said I had some difficulty understanding whether or not she asked me a question in the whole long flow of things she was saying. Never mind, even if I don't get that internship I'm just proud that I did the interview.

Alternatively, I'm going to apply for funding to go back to Indonesia. I absolutely LOVE the country and I'm so eager to become fluent in Indonesian considering its relatively easy to learn (I don't know if tibetan has tones but Indonesian is very similar gramatically to English and has nothing complicated like tenses). I want to do research on women activists in Indonesia and their relationships with the women they are working with- considering that activism/politics in Indonesia is such a male dominated sphere. While I'm at Bryn Mawr I'm going to get involved with the Indonesian community in South Philly, just because I don't want to forget my experience or let those language classes go to waste!

Anyway, don't forget me here, I love reading about what you guys are doing and I'm blown away by your general amazingness. When we meet together again, in senior year, I predict we will be ready to take on anything.

Love from the rite aid
<3

Nepal!

Wow, Sundes! Cairo sound's like its going to be amazing, I can't wait to see pictures/hear more about your discoveries there.

I've been in Nepal now for... about 10 days now. The first two days were a little weird, because my program hadn't started yet, so I was all alone in Thamel (the super turisty part of Kathmandu). It was kind of good though, to give me time to adjust to the craziness of the city. I just kind of wandered around, too afraid to go into any of the shops because I knew I didn't want to buy anything yet but all the shop keepers are super aggressive about trying to sell you anything. I made a friend on my first day though -- a jeweller guy who noticed my necklace and called me over. We ended up talking for a while over some tea (OMG THE TEA HERE IS AMAZING), and he was pretty cool. He is Muslim & Indian so it was interesting to talk to him about Nepal. Even more interesting now that I actually know alittle about the relationship between India and Nepal. I want to visit him again since he was so kind to me, but now that my program started and we got all our little lectures and introductions about Nepali culture..... heh, I am pretty sure he was hitting on me, and kind of inappropriately. Well, at least, my language teachers (who are AMAZING and adorable and I love them, they were trained by the peace corp & are all Nepalis) said that it is really inapproprate for a guy to ask a girl to be their friend, and he definitey asked me exactly that....which I thought was totally cool, of course I'll be your friend! I love friends! Haha.... well, anyway, he also showed me a really cool hookah bar, and one of our first nights I stayed up with a few of my classmates having intense philosophical debates (though no where near the profundity of our brunch/hallway talks), so we decided to have a weekly philosophy and hookah night.

There are 11 of us in the program, but next week 14 more are coming from the SIT Tibet program, because they can't be in Tibet due to political instablitity.... but our classes will stil be separate and stuff. The program house is awesome, and WE HAVE A DOG!!!! holy shit he is amazing! His name is Singe (sing-gay) which is tibetan for lion. You know how we teach our dogs to shake? Well, here, they teach their dogs to Namaste! SO CUTE!

Our teachers so far are interesting... its mostly like a bunch of guest lecturers, but they are all pretty amazing. Sometimes we get to even have our lectures in the field. Two days ago, for instance, we went to a HUGE amazing ancient temple (Im horrible with names, especially in a different language, but I think it was Pashpavari temple - sound familiar?) ---It was absolutely breathtaking to see all the incredible historic buildings and art and tradition going on all around us as our teacher explained it all to us. Imagine jumping into your text book and actually interacting with everything you read about -- YES. For example, our teacher JUST finished explaining to us the Hindu belief that the best way to die is with one foot in the river and some gold bits put in your mouth. Next thing you know, we look across the river and there is a group of people standing around a dying family member, who is covered in colorful tapastry-like covers, which children running naked, swimming and laughing around the dying body. Just down the river, they are burning another body in the cremation fires, and going through the rituals to prepare a fire for another family's passed. Death, here, is not something horrible or frightening -- it is necessary. The belief in reincarnation, too, helps to ease any fears. ... it was just... I have no words, it was unbelievable.

Before that, on our second day here as a program, we went to Daksan Kali - it was a saturday, the day when many people go to the goddess temples to pay their respects.

Wow.

SO many colors and sounds and scents -- the tradition is to engage every sense when you go to temple, and only taste was missing for me (but those participating did not miss that sense!). The only thing that was a little difficult for me was the animal sacrafices, but I know it is for a good cause to them, and it was just very very interesting. They eat the meat, too, after they offer it (Kali gives it back), so its okay. It was just weird because it was the two animals I've raised (goats and chickens, with the occasional duck). But it was still absolutely mindblowing to see. And to think, this is just everyday life here, for those practicing the Hindu tradition.

Yesterday, we went to the Kumari Jattra, which is the festival of the living goddess. The living goddess, the Kumari, is chosen when she is about 4, and remains a goddess until she gets her period. We didn't actually get to see her, because it rains were a downpour and it was getting too late... but we did see some of the other festivities, and the old Kumari is going to come talk to us for one of our lectures!!!! So excited.

Oh man, I could go on forever about everything I've seen and done here already. I really like everyone in my program, they are all pretty awesome so far, & I am interested to meet the Tibetan students. OH and my family!! My homestay family is so wonderful. I have a baa, an aamaa, a bhaai and a bahini (dad, mom, little brother, little sister -- practicing my nepali! its kind of amazing how much I know already, though still not nearly enough to get around!) My baa and aamaa don't speak very much english at all (like. hardly any), but my bhaai and bahini do, so they have been somewhat of lifesavers, not to mention they are so cute. My bhaai is 14 (he told me, he was like, "14.....a teenager *big smile*" SO CUTE). They are all helping me learn Nepali, and later today we are going shoping for cortaas (the traditional dress). I adore them.

Okay. So, like I said, I could go on forever. I haven't even begun to decribe some of the thing I've been learning in class (basically, Nepal has EVERYTHING i've ever been academically interested in going on here -- from culture to religion to transitional justice to race/caste/class/ethnicity to gender to aaaahhhhhh EVERYTHING. This place is amazing, and so much is going on right now politically [i.e. they are in the process of writing a new constitution for peace] that its so exciting to be here right now!!!]

So, point being, I will write more later! And when I figure out how to get my computer up and running, I will post some pictures (I have a trillion already).

<3 <3 (oh, one last thing, my Nepali name is Barsha (which means monsoon!), and it already feels really weird to introduce myself as Briana, haha. Ridic.)

<3Barsha

First Week in Cairo

I can't believe I've been here for a week already. I also can't believe that classes start the day after tomorrow.

Unfortunately I don't have too many good pictures yet. I've had one tourist-y day, where I visited Coptic Cairo, Ben Ezra Synagogue, the famous old souk (marketplace/bazaar) Khan al Khalili, and very briefly Al-Azhar Mosque. My camera died about seven pictures into Coptic Cairo but I'm here for almost four months so I will definitely have the chance to return.

I guess for a recap/overview: I flew in last Thursday from JFK (accompanied by my lovable but overprotective father) and arrived in Cairo around 4:00 pm local time. The first night I met up with Jesse in Zamalek, the residential area where my dorm is, and we had dinner at a great Egyptian restaurant and then walked around the area a bit. I didn't actually move in until the next day.

Some people have issues with the dorm, but right now at least I'm really enjoying living here. It's much nicer than any room I've had at Bryn Mawr! HUGE closet space, and AIR CONDITIONING. Very nice. Amusingly enough, my assigned roommate was Jesse, but she'd been here for two months this summer and opted for an apartment in the neighborhood instead (an incredible, huge apartment btw but...no air conditioning). AUC apparently didn't remove her from the dorm list so I didn't get a replacement roommate and right now have this huge double to myself.

Speaking of AUC, the actual campus is in an area named (perhaps somewhat optimistically) "New Cairo," which is an hour away from these dorms. The campus used to be in Tahrir Square, downtown Cairo, but a year ago they opened this new campus in the desert since they ran out of space downtown. There will be days where I'll hate the commute, I'm sure, but until then I'm just so excited to be in the city, in the midst of things, especially with Ramadan going on.

My dad was a little annoyed when he found out about the commute and tried to convince me to move to the new campus when we toured it on Sunday. I've seen a bit of the downtown campus which is nice, but the new campus is stunning. Really shiny and new. Someone described it as a modern day Agraba, haha. It's funny though, as we were arguing, we ran into a friend from my Arabic class at home (Stephanie who goes to Haverford), who is living on the new campus and not especially enthused about it.

She described it as living in a gated community: every possible amenity is there, everything is so easy and convenient, but outside of the campus there's nothing. She predicts that in 10 years it will be a great place to live, when New Cairo has expanded to touch the rest of the city, but until then the closest attraction is City Stars Mall.

Which, I am curious to go to. First, I'm from Jersey so I know malls, and second, I've also been to the ridiculous mega malls in Dubai so I wonder how Cairo compares. Also there is a movie theater there and they are currently playing the charming Zac Efron film 17 Again :)

But you can only go to the mall so many times (especially since, as someone explained to me, the prices are the same as in the US/Europe, just in Egyptian pounds. Not the US value in Egyptian pounds, sigh). What's great about Zamalek is its location in proximity to the rest of the city and easy access to transportation. The metro is small here still, and I believe there are plans for a third line to be built, but for 1 pound each ride (about 18 cents) you can explore so much. Sadly there is no metro stop in Zamalek yet, but Tahrir is about a 5 pound cab ride away and I believe Sadat Station is a transfer point so you can get anywhere from there.

It is so easy to find a cab here, though I've had some trouble finding ones with meters. I'm not confident enough in my Arabic to ride an older one w/o a meter and run the risk of being severely overcharged (I've heard that for a trip a local may pay 5 pounds for, an obvious outsider could end up being charged 50).

I'm trying to get more comfortable just walking places also. AUC gave us this great book of maps, but I am just hopeless sometimes at finding places (Washington, DC is probably one of the easiest cities in the world to navigate but don't ask me to lead you around in spite of living there for 2 consecutive summers). I did successfully find the grocery store today, as well as this lovely pastry shop and Jesse's apartment. Which was nice, b/c the other night she had a small (well it started out small) party at her house and I got so lost ("What do you mean you're by Pizza Hut? Okay stay there") she had to come get me.

Random observation about Egypt (sorry if this seems incoherent and poorly organized): I really really REALLY love the fact that my name is not weird here. After years of having it mangled in some very creative ways (I've gotten Sundance more times than I care to remember, as well as the truly ugly sounding Soon-deez), it's such a great feeling to introduce myself and have people recognize the name. "Oh my best friend is named Sundes!" I like how sometimes people will nod approvingly. "Yes, Sundes. Good name."

Other random thought (more like venting, really): At Jesse's party the other day I was introduced to a group of AUC students from the dorms, hadn't met any of them before. I was drinking from a water bottle, most people opted for different beverages, whatever. This guy sits next to me, and, not even a "Hi, hello, Izaik, Salaam" blah blah whatever, says (first thing): "So, are you religious?"

Ummmmmmm why the hell would you ask me that? You would not ask any of the white ladies at the party that, I'm absolutely certain. And he continues, "Yeah I noticed you weren't drinking" but he still asked me that b/c presumably his thought was well she's not drinking but hmm I can see her hair how strange?!? Also it's not a big deal some people don't drink why are you getting so insecure about it GOD

I think I was pleasant enough, I ended up talking to him for a good while and afterwards wondered if I maybe judged him a bit harshly (perhaps he's just awkward) but still why would you ask me that? I get it, I'm ethnic, whatever, but...I dunno, it rubbed me the wrong way (can you tell, haha). Are you religious?!? What the hell.

I'm not especially religious, I often question whether I believe in God. I'm not really sure what I believe or how I feel, although I do know that seeing people in the Hanging Church and Al-Azhar made me feel something...regret, maybe? Like I'm missing out somehow. In the church there were so many paintings and depictions (I even saw a needlepoint one!) of Saint George killing a dragon and people would walk up, press their fingers against it and look so HAPPY and touched and I dunno, made me feel sad. Walking through Ben Ezra Synagogue, stunning but no pictures or video allowed, believed to be near the site where Moses was found among the reeds. Al-Azhar is gorgeous, especially at night... I'm not sure what I'm getting at here. Religion makes me feel sad b/c I'm not a part of any tradition. Felt very much on the outside looking in and there were moments where I deeply wished I was part of it all.

Of course then I start to think about other things related to religion and I get so ANGRY and I condemn it forever so yeah I don't really know.

Anyway, back the point, I was really annoyed when he asked me that. Later, I was further annoyed when I walked back to the dorms with a separate group of people, none of whom I knew, and the conversation turns to where everyone was from. One boy was particularly insistent.

So, where are you from? New Jersey, where are you from? Austin, Texas so were you born in New Jersey? No actually, born in Houston Texas. Hey how about that blah blah we talked about Texas a bit and how in my opinion Houston is a very underrated city (the museum district by Rice University is AWESOME) but Austin is apparently the coolest part of Texas and this was fine, a nice conversation actually until...

So, are your parents from Houston too?

Oh ok, I get it, where are you from means where are you REALLY from blah blah blah obviously not NJ since I'm brown and all anyway my parents are from Pakistan. Oh Pakistan that's great you must be fluent in Arabic no they don't speak Arabic there it's a language called Urdu some similar vocab but not really oh cool do you go there often etc etc etc then we finally got to the dorms and good night.

Where did so many people get the idea that Pakistan is part of the Middle East?? It's pretty distinct culturally so...whatever.

In other news, my parents are still worried as evidenced by the fact that my dad calls every day and my mom sounds overjoyed everytime she hears my voice. Which I personally find very pleasant, I mean she's so excited whenever I call. Makes me feel loved <3

I meant to check out some nearby museums/attractions today (there is a planetarium and modern art museum in Gezira, which is like the lower half of Zamalek--Zamalek is an island on the Nile) but I'm ridiculous so I woke up ~2:30 and ended up just grocery shopping and exploring the neighborhood a bit. Hopefully I can check out the museums tomorrow, since Sunday is our first official day of school. I'm taking 4 classes out of a possible 5 (you're still a full-time student with 4 classes but I think generally people take 5 for a full semester) but I'm still nervous. Didn't practice Arabic *at all* this summer so I hope school doesn't get too stressful.

After all I need to reserve some time for relaxing in cafes and channeling the spirit of Naguib Mahfouz and hopefully write something decent.