Checking in from Cairo

[eshe]

I've been keeping a journal, but it might take a few days more to post. I have to steathly pull out the computer from the wall to plug in my removable memory stick.

I've been to Mme. Hassan's everyday and was filmed today for Asian Business News or something (I'm sure I look horrible-I was freaking out.)

[beafarhana]

Will we get to read the journal, or is it for your eyes only?

PS jellus jellus jellus

[tattood1]

ohh more jellousness here !! tina

[ejaghana]

Am so jealous! Can't wait to hear more!!!

[zumarrad]

Jellusser.

[wigglewhiz]

Jellusest.

[rakgirl]

Oooh I want to go back. Have some hookah for me.

[HubicRuzz]

Are you blogging on myspace?

[ozma]

We love you and miss you Eshe.

-Japan

P.S. Smoke a hookah for me and I'll be nice and not gloat about how much the 60's themed Mother Earth Cabaret ROCKED!

[eshe]

9/5

We arrived in Cairo at almost 11 at night. We went down about 3 flights of stairs to passport control. Just before passport control, there are about 7 offices that exchange money and provide entrance visas. The exchange rate was 5.64LE for a US dollar. We read that there was a restriction about how much Egyptian money you could bring in so we only exchanged 2000LE (but no one ended up checking) The visas were $15 US. There were no applications, we just paid our money and got the sticker. It took about 40 minutes to pass through immigration even though it was only one flight that had landed. There weren’t separate lines for Egyptians and non-Egyptians.

As soon as we exited passport control, the baggage carrousels were a few feet away-and so were the “department of tourism officials.” We avoided almost all of them but while I wasn’t looking and my partner was grabbing baggage one of them started pulling our bags off of our cart and rearranging them. He then said to my partner “Welcome to Egypt. Money.” We gave him a little money, but 2 of the other “officials” came over to yell at him about the English people.

We exited the airport and found our hotel guy with a sign with our hotel name and the name with our reservation on it (as our hotel had said). We hoped on a bus and got off at the parking area with him. As he was walking us to the car, 2 men ran over and tried to “help” with our bags. It seemed like he was telling them to go away but he wasn’t very forceful. As we were loading up the car (the taxi driver didn’t secure our bags on the roof, which made me nervous) they started grabbing baggage again-even though we told them we didn’t want help and my partner and the driver obviously had it covered. I got in the car and asked my partner to get in and shut the door. We didn’t give them any money.

We got out of the airport, paid the parking fee and started driving. Almost immediately when we were in a deserted area, the taxi driver pulled over to the side of the road. I was nervous about what he was doing because we didn’t know where we were or where we were going really. He opened the trunk and pulled out a cord-he was now going to secure the luggage for the highway! He told us lots of tidbits about the area as we were driving by and was very friendly.

[eshe]

We finally arrived at the Luna Hotel which is right downtown. We picked it for it’s location and also because we got a 10% discount for booking over 15 days and a 10% discount for paying in cash up front. They let us check our room before we checked in which I thought was great. It was voted the 3rd best hostel in all of Africa in 2004 (we are used to 3rd world conditions, this is pretty nice). Our room had 3 single beds (we paid extra for a private room), a chair, a closet with a big mirror, 2 nighttables, a private bathroom with a shower and an air conditioner. I think they threw in a “quiet” room for free because we are staying so long. Our total was $408 for 26 nights (88LE a night) plus 15LE for airport parking fees. They asked to keep our passports overnight so they could photocopy them (and while I hate handing over my passport I’ve done it before in other hotels, so I thought it was ok) When we tried to pay after seeing the room of course, they didn’t know anything about the discount and told us just to go to sleep and talk to the manager in the morning. We bought some water to brush our teeth and went to sleep.

9/6

The next morning our plan was just to familiarize ourselves with the area, exchange some money and get some food. We were still pretty jetlagged with the time difference (we’d been living in Japan for 3 years, it’s a 5 hour difference, and emotionally I’d just left all my dance sisters). We got up and went out to check in with the hotel officially. The staff was super friendly, like they were the night we arrived. We asked if we could pay all the money we had on us (because our limit was restricted at the airport) and pay the difference later-they said no problem. They also told us to be careful on the street. They gave us a mini-currency lesson-don’t confuse the 50s!! And they reminded my partner that on the street I was his wife, not his girlfriend. They told us not to talk to anyone who spoke to us because they are all street hustlers “if you give them 1 word, they will give you 10.” They reminded us we didn’t have to be kind to everyone.

[eshe]

I wore a long sleeved shirt, long, loose pants and I tied my hair up and put on a hat that hid my eyes. Still, there were lots of leerers. Only one man walked up to us to try and talk to us and he just asked if my partner was Egyptian. We walked around for a bit and found a bank that was open with currency rates posted. We exchanged another $1000 and then walked for a bit. The first restaurant we came upon was McDonalds so we went in (our first eating experience in Japan was also McDs, maybe it’s good luck for us). Everyone we’ve encountered in the service industry here speaks super good English (which is different from Japan where it’s sporadic). We ate our lunch and walked around for a bit. We bought some shampoo and headed back to the hotel to drop it off.

After a long nap that was meant to be a short one, we decided we’d better check in with our parents and let them know we were ok. Internet is 6LE and hour (you can buy smaller increments). Our hotel had 2 computers with connections that were about what we expected (10 seconds to open a page).

Then, we headed out to see the Nile. I decided to take off my hat, as it was hindering my view and probably wasn’t stopping that many leerers-I was right. Most of the women here do cover their hair, few cover everything and few cover nothing. In a restaurant that night on the non-smoking floor, of about 20 women, 1 had no cover (well, plus me), 1 had full-coverage and the rest just covered their hair.

Around the Nile there were a lot more “hustlers” with all kinds of different ways to get you to stop and talk to them. (“Hey, you two walk like Egyptians.” Hahaha I’m not joking) They weren’t as dedicated as South East Asians are and once you ignored them they left you alone. So far, we’d noticed a lack of payphones and convenience-type stores. So we were keeping our eyes open for those. We found 1 payphone for our hours of walking (perhaps we weren’t being very observant).

We walked around the Nile Hilton, just to see how the other half lives and also walked around their shopping mall (lot of t-shirts “A camel can go 14 days without a drink, I can’t” and “I came to see the Pyramids, leave me alone” seemed to be in every shop). Lots and lots of cheap bellydance costumes, lots of sequins and nipple barf (although I thought the kids’ sized ones like that were a little sweet).

We walked around some more and ended up at Pizza Hut for dinner. I love me some pizza. Our friend recommended Bon Appetit which is just down the road but it’s about the same price as Pizza Hut. I think the most expensive pizza on the menu was $8. Most were $4-5 for a large size. The salad bar was about $2 as was the pasta. Our waiter again spoke great English and stopped by a few minutes after he delivered everything to ask how it was. There was a towel man in the bathroom working for tips, my partner reported, so I didn’t go into the ladies.

[eshe]

After that we were pretty tired so we just walked home. Along the way a man walked over and told us what street we were on (we cut out our Lonely Planet map and were using that). Later he came over and asked us if we wanted to come by his perfume shop. We politely declined.

9/7

I was really afraid to call all the famous dancers here and book lessons. Really afraid. And then my partner said “Why did we come to Cairo? We took a month off. We could be on a beach. We came here for you, so you could study.” So he went to the front desk to ask if there was a local pay phone we could use (since we hadn’t seen any near our hotel) and they said we could use their cell phone for local calls (2LE/minute). We had to bring back the phone to the front desk between calls so they could see the minute counter.

First up was Keti Sharif. I was really upset she had a workshop on the day we got here, that I missed (because we arrived so late at night). But I knew she was hosting Aida Nour on Sunday for a 3 hour workshop. When I wrote her, as I wrote everyone I got the standard “Call me when you’re in Cairo.” I really like to have things planned out, so I was a bit nervous about this approach. I wanted to book in for the workshop straight away but I couldn’t get through.

Next up, Madame Raqia Hassan. She was actually first on my list but I called KS first because I’d read it would be about a week before I got in with Madame Hassan and I think I also wanted a warm-up call to (as Lonely Planet calls her) “the most famous belly dance teacher in Cairo.” I called, it rang, I asked for her---it was her!! And she said I could come today. I wasn’t sure if I could find her studio in time and was a bit nervous about making plans for that day and she also offered class on the 8th, so that’s what I took. She gave me directions and then I hung up. I wasn’t prepared to get a class with her so soon, so I stopped booking lessons with other teachers until I met with her (because I’d also read that she’d give me the low-down on the Cairo dance scene).

[eshe]

After the phone was returned we set off for the Museum. After passing through 4 security barriers we paid 50LE to get in the door to see most of the museum and 100LE to see the Royal Mummy Room. The antiquities were really beautiful. It was an interesting way to pass the morning. I’d pay again to get into the museum, but not again to see the mummies (although they were very interesting to see once). We hadn’t seen many foreigners up until this point and I was disappointed to see so many of the women in tube tops, miniskirts, hot pants and low-cut tanktops. The men weren’t much better in shorts and tanks either. I was also disappointed that in the Mummy room although there was signage asking for silence people chatted away over the dead. It was super, super hot inside the museum (except in King Tut’s room and the Mummy room) so after about 4 hours we left to go to the gift shop for some water. Even when you get ripped-off in Egypt, it’s not so bad. We paid 10LE for a 2L water here (on the street it was 2LE, at the hotel 3LE).

It was even hotter outside so we decided to go back to the hotel for a nap. Later when we got up we decided to buy some of the fruit everyone talks so much about. We picked a fruit stand that had ignored us as we walked past to buy our fruit at (it also had one of the better displays). I was so hungry I didn’t feel like bartering. We bought 6 apples, 3 pears, 6 bananas and he threw in some surprise fruit for 30LE. I was happy to pay it to have some fruit in our room to snack on. I was disappointed when we got home and I took a big bite of my red delicious and it was completely brown inside half of it. The pears were fine. The bananas were a little rotten too.

9/8
I got up at 8 and had a cold shower. Even though I read the Luna has hot water day and night, I think it runs out pretty fast. There usually isn’t any in the mornings. We asked at the front desk how much a taxi would be to the Cairo Sheraton (which is near the studio) and reception said “6LE and this guy is a driver. He’ll take you.” My appointment was at 11 and we left the hotel around 9:45 just to make sure we had enough time to find the place. Cairo is much easier to get around than Tokyo, but I wanted to be sure that I wouldn’t be late. From the Sheraton, we found her place really easily. At 10:00 there was nothing left to do but wait until 11, so we just walked around until 10:55. We also weren’t sure how early to be. In Japan you usually show up 10-15 minutes before the lesson, but I was pretty sure that would be too early here.

[eshe]

At 10:55 she was waiting out front, I went upstairs with her and she let me into her apartment and offered me a drink. Then she took me into her studio. We wore our shoes right in. She left me alone for a few minutes to change, I also used the time to wipe off my feet-I brought baby wipes for the Cairo dirt.

She came back and we started the class. She put on some music and for about a minute and a half we did follow-the-bouncing-butt stuff. She said my technique was good (YAY!!!) and asked if I wanted to do something harder. I said I did and we started working on her Sheherazade choreography. Choreographies are my absolute weakest point. I was scared. She danced the first 40 seconds (from about 0:26 to 1:06). She asked me if I wanted to see it again. I said yes as many times as she asked me (I think this was about 10 minutes) and then she left me to work it out on my own (perhaps another 10 minutes). Then she came back with one of her student/assistants who watched for a bit while we went over it again (maybe 10 minutes again). Then some visitors came and she left me again to work on it (again maybe 10 minutes). Her assistant came back and told me to show her what I had so far. She said she didn’t know the choreography but could tell me if anything I was doing was wrong. She did correct me and then we started repeating it with her. As far as I could tell, Mme Hassan went R, L, R, L but her assistant was going R, L, L, R and doing different turns, which confused me a little. I was watching the clock and told her it had been over an hour, so we stopped. I asked her if I paid her and she said “no, no, no.” So she left, I changed and then came out of the studio looking for them. A man (I’m not sure who) told me they were in the next flat. I went over there and sat down for a minute. Mme Hassan asked me if I would like to take the music to practice at home and if I was coming back tomorrow. I said “yes please” to both and made an appointment for 10, which she said was a better time for her. We sat and talked for a little while and then I excused myself because I knew my partner was waiting downstairs.

[eshe]

I met him and told him about the lesson as we walked to Cairo Zoo. It was 5LE (or something like that) to get into the Zoo. As soon as we walked in, someone tried to tell us the zoo was closing for lunch in 20 minutes and we’d better go with him to the lions quick. We ignored him and kept walking. Every employee who wasn’t engaged feeding the animals offered to take us to the lions. Apparently, you can hold a baby lion there because they all kept saying “My friend, my friend, you want to hold Simba?” We ignored them and just walked around. It was so nice to see animals with enough room to really move in natural surroundings (so many of the zoos in Japan make me sad because the animals are in tiny concrete cages). The zoo was huge, but because it was so cheap we didn’t worry about seeing everything in one day. We walked around for about 3 hours I think and then went back near Mme. Hassan’s place because my partner had seen an American style grocery store there. We got some bread and peanut butter and granola bars to have some snacks in the room (for upcoming Ramadan-although we are going to try to fast) and also to save money during the week.

We got back to the room around 4. I put the music on my Ipod and I started rehearsing. We were going to watch Sufi dancing in the Citadel at 7, but my partner said I’d better rehearse. So that’s what I did all night long.

9/9
I throughout the night to keep rehearsing because I was so nervous I couldn’t sleep. I woke up for good at 6AM and rehearsed until I was ready for another cold shower and then had some breakfast. At 9 I rehearsed some more and killed some time until 9:45 when I went downstairs to catch a cab. I got to Mme. Hassan’s house at 10AM and rang the bell. All the lights were off in the house still when someone answered the door and told me to have a seat.

[eshe]

Mme. Hassan tried to open up the studio but it was locked from the inside I think, so we went to a different room in her apartment and she asked me to show her what I had worked on. I showed it to her, she corrected me and I worked on it until she thought it was good. Then she taught me the next 11 seconds. She’d caught on to my horrible choreography memory and was teaching at a slower pace. She kept coming and going and checking my progress. Then she taught me the next 10 seconds, again coming and going and finally the next 5. I was up to 1:30 in the song now and we decided that was a good place to stop so that I could rehearse. She told me I was welcome to use the studio, so I did for about the next hour alone.

When I finished I let myself into her main room. She had 2 other guests. In between chatting with them, she’d chat with me. After about an hour we had tea and then later we had lunch. We sat around together and she showed me the flyers she’d just received for an upcoming workshop she’s teaching in Paris. Then I excused myself because I’d been there for about 3.5 hours and I thought my partner might be getting worried. She asked me if I wanted to meet at the same time tomorrow and I said “yes” and then she told me that daylight savings time had started yesterday and both days I had arrived an hour early (YIKES!!), so please change my clock. I apologized, of course and said I would.

The traffic had been bad during the morning, so bad that almost twice I had asked to be let out of the cab. It was much worse when I left the studio, around 12:30. It was so bad that I kept passing the same bus driving down the street, so I decided just to walk home. I was a little worried because it was my first time walking anywhere alone. I did pretty well ignoring everyone and only had 1 man follow me. He said he worked at the Cairo Sheraton and any time I wanted to go swimming it was on him and he’d also take me to the pyramids if I wanted. When I told him I was on my way to my room to meet my husband though, he said “goodbye.”

I got back to the room and had some lunch and a nap and then a nice, hot shower. Around 4:30, I got up and we decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art. It was 10LE to get in and was one of the best galleries I’ve ever been in. Although on the 2nd floor we thought that one of the guards was following us a bit too much and a bit too close.

Then we grabbed a bite to eat and went home. I kept trying the water but it was still cold.

9/10

I was didn’t rehearse this morning. I felt like I was possibly getting sick of the music by listening to it all of the time. I called Mme. Hassan at what I thought was 9:45 to confirm the time and see if 10 was still ok. She asked if we could move it to 12. I said ok.

[eshe]

I got there at 12 and the woman who let me in (I’m not sure if she is a maid/cook or family member) told me Mme. Hassan was getting a “coif” and she gestured to her hair. Her brother was there. He got me some water and asked if I had the music because he would open the studio for me if I wanted to rehearse. I said I did.

I think Mme. Hassan got there at about 12:30. She looked at what I was doing, made a few corrections and left. She came back after 30 minutes or so with a man and he watched her showing me the moves. He took turns with her coming and checking up on me. I wasn’t sure if he was a family member or what. I waited 50 minutes and didn’t hear anything from her (she leaves me time to work independently after the lesson, but doesn’t always tell me the lesson is done). So I changed and went to her apartment.

The day before she’d mentioned going to look at costumes, but because I’d had plans with my partner, I declined and said we could go the next day (as she offered). So when I walked into the apartment, she asked if I’d like to go and look at costumes with another dancer who she had just finished giving a lesson to. I said yes and we drove over to the shop.

The other dancer was having a costume custom-made and was picking out the jewels and design for the costume. The ladies from the shop picked out a bunch of costumes for me to try on. I was a little timid. I didn’t know where to start, there were so many costumes. And every costume I tried on was my colour, elegant, a good fit, etc.

I finally choose a tan glitter one with big brown and orange beads. I was sweating bullets waiting to ask the price. I ate lunch and watched some more of the design process and then at 6 decided I should probably head back to the hotel. I finally asked Mme. Hassan the price. It was 2000LE. We made plans to meet the next day at 10.

I went back to the hotel and basically crashed.

9/11

Somehow the alarm clock I bought for our hotel room got misplaced. I’m always worried that I will wake up late, so I often wake up in the middle of the night. I woke up at 2 and decided to try the water to see if it was hot. It wasn’t. My partner went out to the front desk to ask why our water was always cold. They said let the tap run. I did and it finally became luke-warm.

I got to Mme. Hassan’s a bit early this day because I was nervous about traffic being bad. Sometimes the trip takes 4 minutes, but sometimes (and lately) it takes 20-25. I was about 5 minutes early. When I got there everybody was awake.

[eshe]

The man who’d watched me for a bit yesterday let me into the studio. He’s actually a dance teacher and he and his wife have a school in Taiwan. I started rehearsing. About 20 minutes later, Mme. Hassan came in and checked on me. She taught me and new step, left and came back and left again.

The next person who opened the door was a camera man. A two-man crew from Business News Asia (or something like that) had come to film a profile on Mme. Hassan. So I was dancing some of her choreography (and messing up like crazy) while they filmed. I also turned on a cassette on film (even though we were using a CD). And filmed some footage of Mme. Hassan instructing me. We also did a shot where she watched me and crossed her arms L

I’d told my partner I’d only be 2 hours today and that we could do something after, so as soon as the shooting wrapped up, I booked out of the building. We had found a good grocery store near her home so we went back there and stocked up on a few essentials (PB&J) and went to the aquarium.

It’s in a nice park and we were having a good time until one of the park employees started waving at us not to go into the aquarium at a certain entrance. Then he told us we had to go left. Then we had to follow him right. He was pushing us along and ignoring all of the Egyptian couples. There were a lot of couples out (as usual). Egypt is so love, love (as the Japanese say). It’s really beautiful to see all of the hand-holding and hugging-especially with the older couples. Anyways, we got sick of the employee and just left the park.

Then we decided to check out Arkadia. The 500+ shop mall. Yawn. Not much there. A lot of the same stuff over and over again. And honestly, a bit of a depressing vibe. We caught a taxi home and watched some TV episodes we’d downloaded to our laptop to entertain us.

9/12

Traffic was super light this morning and I was about 15 minutes early for my class. I went up to the apartment anyway because there aren’t places to hang out in Cairo really (like Tokyo) and I was alone so ignoring all the “welcome to Egypt” guys makes it harder when you are stationary. About 15 minutes later, her brother arrived and let me into the apartment. He offered me some water and let me into the studio to practice.

I was on my own for about an hour and a half then Mme. Hassan’s assistant arrived and I went over the choreography with her. She said it was beautiful but I needed more strength in my hips (which is why I came to Cairo). Mme. Hassan often tells me what I’m doing wrong but not always how to perform the move correctly. I was really happy her assistant showed up because she explained so much to me about Egyptian dance (for example that my camels were coming too high into my chest).

[eshe]

Mme. Hassan appeared at around 12 with my new costume. I was in the middle of the choreo so she pointed to me and said “you keep working” and showed the assistant my costume. She liked the improvements and gave me one of the best compliments when she was talking about me to her assistant. She doesn’t throw around compliments, so I think she meant it.

I was supposed to meet my partner around 12:30 at our hotel, but I ended up getting there an hour late. Mme. Hassan said I could come again the next day at 10 and that she wouldn’t be late tomorrow.

I had a quick lunch in our room and we went out to catch a taxi to the Citadel and then we were going to hang out there after it closed to watch Sufi dancing. The cabs that stopped either didn’t understand Citadel or were asking for 20LE to take us there. While 20LE is less than $4US, I hate being treated like an idiot. We’re in the downtown core, it’s 3KM from us and our book says 5LE is being very generous. Finally we met a guy walked over who was initially annoying but ended up telling us t