Chris is in Egypt

Taking off from Cairo

schmutt — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:56:57 +0000

Florence, Italy

schmutt — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:26:11 +0000

Spent a day in Florence. Rachel and I decided to hop on the train and take the 1.5hr trip North to this Renaissance city.

Internet Works in Italy So Here’s A lot of Information

schmutt — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:11:39 +0000

Whirlwind trip to Rome. It was a really fun trip.I met up with my friend Rachel and spent the time visiting all the sites in Rome and Florence over my 5 day Eid break. Taking advantage of the fast internet here in Italy, I will try and post a few updates.

Castel Sant Angelo ^

schmutt — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:12:42 +0000

I volunteered to teach English at an NGO called Better World yesterday. I had my first class today. It was a rush to say the least. I walked into the office of the NGO, the secretary pointed to a door in the right and said it was my classroom and the students were waiting for me. I walked in with one sheet of paper and no clue about what to talk about. Given how poorly they prepared me, I was able to hash (what I thought was a decent lesson). I had them work in groups writing complex and adjective sentences and had volunteers come up to the board and write their sentences out. The students seem to be motivated and happy to learn English. I am teaching an intermediate level class, so most of the students have at least 5 years of English already. In Egypt, English is a chance to obtain a job with a decent wage.

On another note, I bought my plane ticket to Italy. I will spend a week there seeing the sites and relaxing over Thanksgiving Break. More on that trip itinerary to come later. Right now I have to study for an Arabic quiz.

More From Dahab

schmutt — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:10:36 +0000

Our group ^

Action shot…of me sitting ^

Atif and myself were exploring the top of the mountain, when we came across this structure. We were talking amongst ourselves saying it was a religious structure…the guy in the yellow walked by and simply said it was a bathroom…

Sick photo I took of Atif and Jenny.

Awkward pose next to my ATV ^

My incredibly tiny helmet!! At least only 95% of my face would be maimed if I had an accident. Similarly, the girl in front of me was talking about how she failed her drivers test. She proceeded to crash into every ATV which came within 30 feet of her. She blamed it on the brakes…

At our hotel a large extended Palestinian family was staying there. They were really nice and every time we saw them around town they always yelled out and said hi. Here we all are playing ping-pong at the hotel. Some intense games went down between Atif and Mahmood and every one was spectating. Little things like that made this trip special.

Dahab Trip

schmutt — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:53:11 +0000

A group of AUC students went to Dahab for the past few days. It is a resort town on the Sinai peninsula, about an 8 hour drive from Cairo. We put the extra week of vacation to good use by snorkeling, swimming, riding atv’s in the desert, and relaxing. From our hotel room you could look out across the Red Sea and see Saudi Arabia. On our second to last day we hiked up Mount Sinai-the place where Moses got the Ten Commandments-and watched the Sun rise. Overall this was probably my favorite trip so far.

Our hotel ^ The Dahab Plaza

The restaurant we ate a lot at ^ Same Same…But Different

58 degrees in Cary…94 degrees and Sunny in Dahab.

Standing on top of Mount Sinai. ^

Our group ^ From left -Bridget, Uzi, Jenny, Atif, me, and Anem.

A boy leading camels down Mount Sinai. I think he was talking to me about koshery, which is like a pasta dish. I am not sure my Arabic is pretty bad.

Goodbye from Mount Sinai

Luxor and Aswan Trip

schmutt — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:14:52 +0000

I just got back from a Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan. We flew from Cairo to Luxor about 230 km to the south. Average temperature was 105 degrees. All in all it was an amazing trip. We visited a number of ancient Egyptian sites and relaxed on the boat.

Boarding our boat ^

Outside of our boat ^

Shaheed is a character. He is the #3 beatboxer in all of Los Angeles. You may also see him in a number of Target and Walmart commercials. He goes to U. of Southern California and is in the college of Theater.

The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut ^

Heavy security presence ^

People seek out the shade ^

Our group en route to another temple, this time on a boat ^

I am hungry and want to go get food, more to come later.

Alexandria

schmutt — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:53:47 +0000

I got back from Alexandria yesterday. We visited the Roman catacombs, the Library of Alexandria, and a Roman amphitheater. Alexandria is situated on the Mediterranean and is the largest port in Egypt. Alexandria definitely feels like a Mediterranean city. The city has a rich Greco-Roman history which is not found in Cairo.

Alexandria coastline^

The Citadel^

The amphitheater^

Sphinx recreation ^

schmutt — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:45:58 +0000

School started this week, so I won’t be posting all that often. There are two trips which are coming up. This weekend we will be going up to Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city. The following week we will be taking a 4 night trip to Luxor and Aswan. There we will visit the Temple of Philae, the Temples of Sobek and Haroeris, the Temple of Horus, the Valley of the Kings, the Colossi of Memnon, and more.

Pyramids

schmutt — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:12:23 +0000