Last Tuesday night I headed off to Boston. Thanks to Jeremy and Emily for the ride to the airport. Wednesday was pretty low key, but I got to see Mike, Laura, Max and Alex for the first time in quite a while.
While I was in Boston I stayed at Alice's place (thanks Max and Alice). Short tangent: I was reading this daily beast article where they rank the smartest cities in America. Boston came in number 3 and one of the comments about the city is "When you go into somebody’s office or you go into their home, one of the things you case out is their bookshelf" and the room I stayed in contains a bookshelf I am declaring the winner.
Thursday I was still adjusting to the time zone and got up rather late. After some lunch at the miracle of science and an unfruitful search for a glass for Mike to step on we headed out for the bachelor party. First stop was india quality. I'm so glad that in college we picked a restaurant that's actually really good so we can now do the combo of nostalgia and good food (nud pob and burrito max were good and all, but even if one of those was the Sunday post clean up place I couldn't see either being the aepi alumni meet up spot). (Yes I just explained that I'm glad that we liked a place I like).
After IQ we headed to Fenway where we watched the Red Sox beat the Indians. Well really we watched the backs of the Sox beat the backs of the Indians, but at least we were close to the field. Then off to Jillian's for some pool playing.
Friday after I took a little nostalgia walk through MIT while reading the Tech, Jeremy, Emily and I made our way down to the cape (and found a good glass for stepping on). We hung out at Laura's place and did the rehearsal. Afterwards we headed to a nice restaurant and had the rehearsal dinner where I won the over-under bet on the number of toasts (total coincidence the toast I made gave me the win - yeah, coincidence that's the ticket). (I also won the over - under for the wedding night, not that I'm competitive or anything).
Up to this point both in Boston and on the cape the weather had been really nice. So the day of the wedding it starts raining. A school bus picked us all up and drove us around for the wedding pictures. There was a spot on the beach with a covered area so we took pictures there for a while. Then the rain stopped for a bit so we headed out to the beach for some pictures. When we got back a group of us were given the assignment to greet people arriving and the assignment to empty beer cans to string to the back of the bus. This turned out to be an interesting combination.
The wedding itself was very nice. The party afterwards was a great time. Some good Russian food and a handle of vodka on every table makes for a good time. I think that was the first time I took part in the chair raising for the horah. I was quite surprised both how easy it was at first and how hard it was by the end of the song.
The next morning after the group breakfast Max and Alice gave me a ride back to the city where I took a little walk through the Commons and headed to China Town for lunch before heading off to the airport. Thanks Julie and Saeed for the ride back from the airport.
Overall a very good time! Congratulations Mike and Laura!
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tahoe
The week leading up to the 4th of July my parents, brother and I headed out to Tahoe. My family was nice enough to work around the shutdown week at the company I work for and to head somewhere in driving distance for me. We stayed at a huge house with a great view of the lake in south lake Tahoe just on the Nevada side.
The trip could be described as short hike + work out video, 8 mile bike ride, longer hike, drive around the lake, 20 mile bike ride, kayaking. In addition to the outdoor activities we (well, mostly the other three) spent some time cooking up healthy meals. And generally hanging out as a family. Oh, and can't forget Tiger Wood's golf on the Wii and especially can't forget the frisbee golf section of the game since that was the one part I dominated - my dad clearly had the lead on the normal golf part. The last night we watched the fireworks over the lake from the house. There was a show across the lake we could see clearly and there was a closer one partially blocked by the hill. Oddly the partial blocking of the hill created a cool effect and made the fireworks a bit more interesting.
The second hike was at Emerald Bay which is a bit hilly and next to a little bay (weird to think of a lake having a bay) with an island in the middle. So great place to hike. Oh and I'm purposefully just telling my stories from the trip since I'm publishing this online. The 8 mile bike ride was a fun ride through a historical area. The 20 mile ride was a bit taxing, I'm going to blame a piece of that on the altitude. We rode from North Lake Tahoe to Squaw Valley where we biked around for a bit and got some food then biked back. It was a good ride. The only downside was it was the 3rd so Tahoe had filled up and pedestrians had taken over portions of the bike path. Up by Squaw was great since almost no one else was on the paths. On the 4th we headed to a cove near the house. They only had tandem kayaks left so Eric and I shared one. After we had covered the whole area where we were supposed to go we headed off for a ways. Apparently my estimating the time based on the position of the sun skills need some work since what I thought was about 1 hour turned out to be 2. Oddly the only muscle soreness I felt was some shoulder pain, but the next day my whole back let me know what it thought about those 2 hours. While we were at the cove we watched all the college students roll in and fill up the beach in preparation for the fireworks.
One final thought. It may be tempting to think - oh a biggest loser exercise tape - I should be able to do what a bunch of overweight people can do. However, there are several flaws to that thought. First, this is post competition so they're no longer overweight. Not only are they not overweight, they've been doing so much exercise they were able to lose a ton of weight so they're actually in great shape and very strong. On top of that, they are mostly the ones who did well so they are indirectly selected for a willingness to exercise really hard.
The trip could be described as short hike + work out video, 8 mile bike ride, longer hike, drive around the lake, 20 mile bike ride, kayaking. In addition to the outdoor activities we (well, mostly the other three) spent some time cooking up healthy meals. And generally hanging out as a family. Oh, and can't forget Tiger Wood's golf on the Wii and especially can't forget the frisbee golf section of the game since that was the one part I dominated - my dad clearly had the lead on the normal golf part. The last night we watched the fireworks over the lake from the house. There was a show across the lake we could see clearly and there was a closer one partially blocked by the hill. Oddly the partial blocking of the hill created a cool effect and made the fireworks a bit more interesting.
The second hike was at Emerald Bay which is a bit hilly and next to a little bay (weird to think of a lake having a bay) with an island in the middle. So great place to hike. Oh and I'm purposefully just telling my stories from the trip since I'm publishing this online. The 8 mile bike ride was a fun ride through a historical area. The 20 mile ride was a bit taxing, I'm going to blame a piece of that on the altitude. We rode from North Lake Tahoe to Squaw Valley where we biked around for a bit and got some food then biked back. It was a good ride. The only downside was it was the 3rd so Tahoe had filled up and pedestrians had taken over portions of the bike path. Up by Squaw was great since almost no one else was on the paths. On the 4th we headed to a cove near the house. They only had tandem kayaks left so Eric and I shared one. After we had covered the whole area where we were supposed to go we headed off for a ways. Apparently my estimating the time based on the position of the sun skills need some work since what I thought was about 1 hour turned out to be 2. Oddly the only muscle soreness I felt was some shoulder pain, but the next day my whole back let me know what it thought about those 2 hours. While we were at the cove we watched all the college students roll in and fill up the beach in preparation for the fireworks.
One final thought. It may be tempting to think - oh a biggest loser exercise tape - I should be able to do what a bunch of overweight people can do. However, there are several flaws to that thought. First, this is post competition so they're no longer overweight. Not only are they not overweight, they've been doing so much exercise they were able to lose a ton of weight so they're actually in great shape and very strong. On top of that, they are mostly the ones who did well so they are indirectly selected for a willingness to exercise really hard.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Naples
Two weekends ago I headed to Naples for Julie and Saeed's wedding (congratulations!). The wedding was very nice. It was great to see some of my MIT friends. Somehow I went the whole time without getting to the beach. But I did get to see Edison's Fort Myers home.
KC
Three weekends ago I headed to KC. It was great to see the family. Got in some biking and Wii fitness. Also got to be there for mother's day and my grandma's birthday (well at least close). Also got to meet my KC friends' many children.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Egypt
Well to start off the big post vacation post here is the short list of photos with captions.
Let's cover the obvious highlights of the trip. The Pyramids were very cool to actually see. As I've mentioned before they are a bit old. It was cool to have been inside the great pyramid, but I'll admit there wasn't much inside there to see. It was a bit surprising how the city has grown right up to the Pyramids - a bit less of a middle of the desert experience than you might expect. The Valley of Kings in Luxor is an area with a bunch of tombs where later Pharaohs were buried, they figured out that if you don't want your grave which is filled with jewels and gold to be looted, putting the world's tallest building over it isn't the best approach. The cool part of the tombs is the original paintings are well preserved. In Luxor I talked everyone into seeing the Temple of Hatshepsut because I think the building as part of a mountain thing is so cool looking. In Luxor we also saw Karnak which was impressively large. I found the other sites really cool because I had never seen anything like them, but Karnak was similar enough to Greek ruins that it didn't grab me as much. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo was a bit funny - they had items that I think an American museum would build an entire room to display just sitting somewhere at random with no label. There was a giant wall with stacks of unlabeled sarcophaguses. This is also where they have most of the items from King Tut's tomb. In Luxor we also tried to go on a sail boat, but there wasn't enough wind so instead we talked to a guy who told us about how Jews control the world (that was one of a small number of comments about Jews and Israel).
In Aswan we went to a Nubian village where we danced with a preschool class (we were standing outside and a teacher waved us in and then got all the kids and put on some music - and of course at the end pointed at their donation box) and had tea at a house we were passing by when they invited us in. We also found a place with a nice view of the river and city (we were going to eat there, but apparently the cook stayed up too late and wouldn't be in till dinner). And we went to the souq (bazaar) for a bit.
One odd note for the Vegas fans - Luxor and the Pyramids are both in Egypt, but there are no Pyramids in (or near) Luxor.
In addition to seeing ancient stuff we also visited some Mosques in Cairo. I already described the most interesting Mosque visit. We also saw the Mosque on the 1 LE bill. We saw a bunch of other Mosques, but given how little I know about them I had trouble really distinguishing many differences between them (anyone interested in architecture is probably wondering if I'm blind). In Cairo there was a loud speaker system so everyone could hear the call to prayer three times a day. Cairo is secular enough that most people we saw did not react to the call to prayer and I imagine anyone serious about it had made their way to a Mosque, but I did see a few people put down mats at the appropriate time. There was a decent portion of men who had marks on their forehead from touching the ground while praying. The oddest part was some old stone Mosques had neon green signs saying Allah (in arabic), as shown here. We also saw a few Coptic Churches and two Synagogues (neither are in use - one had cops outside who wouldn't let us go near or take pictures).
One of the most interesting experiences was purely thanks to Angie's adventurous spirit. In Luxor Angie was having a conversation with one of the cab drivers and after a while he invited us to his home to have tea. I was going to say no way, but as a group of 4 it didn't seem too crazy. We went to his house where his mother, most of the 11 siblings and most of the siblings' kids live. Everyone (men and women) greeted us and shook our hands. We had tea outside while they prepared for their nightly gathering around the fire and TV. He also showed us around outside his house where they raise pigeons, chickens and cows, where he is slowly building a restaurant, and the neighbor's wheat (or corn?) field (their field is a bit further away). At the end he took us to our destination. Angie wrote a bit in his taxi journal - many of the cab drivers in Luxor had these - they would ask what language you speak and then show you a comment from someone who had written in that language and they could cover just about any language, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising since Luxor was like a tour boat parking lot.
If you are in Luxor and want someone to drive you around give Hussein Ali Keliey a call 0020124133207.
The one thing I'll say about the train rides is - if you are ever going to a developing country - bring Cipro!
Some various other observations. Crossing the street in Cairo was the most intense street crossing I've ever done. It beat China largely because in China there was at least some respect for street lights - in Cairo it was like they didn't exist (and many places they didn't). Lots of places the ground was the trash can which led to trash fires and goats roaming around. In some of the less busy parts of Cairo (a city of 20 million) there were goats wandering around on the street. This trip was the first time I've ever tipped a cop (they were not shy about asking). Cheapest meal was $0.30 falafel near the Pyramids which was reasonably good - most meals were $5 to $10. In touristy areas the hassling was rather intense - there was even a place I went to that advertised no hassling and someone immediately walked up to explain over and over how he wasn't hassling me. Outside the tourist areas people were generally very helpful - got very confusing when tipping was expected. Since hospitality seems to be valued highly in the culture (such as inviting people over for tea) it made it extra hard to tell if someone was being nice or looking for a tip or setting up a scam. Basically all prices were negotiable. Cabs don't even have meters - you negotiate a fixed price based on the destination before you get in. Almost all women wore headscarves, but often with typical western clothing. Some women wore full burkhas. Most men wore typical western dress, but plenty wore robes. Some people performed some amazing acts of balancing stuff on their head. Anything from people with too many grocery bags for their hands to a guy on a bike with a wooden board the length of the bike with bread on it. The bread was very good - especially the whole wheat pita - which was far better than the US attempt at it. And of course shawarma is always good. In parks there were teenage boys and girls hanging out as couples and holding hands, but we were told that's as far as they go. Many times when we told people we're from American the immediate response would be - Bush is bad, Obama is good. And a few people wanted to know what we thought of the sandal throwing incident.
Thanks to Max, Alice and Angie for going with me. I had a great time on the trip!
Let's cover the obvious highlights of the trip. The Pyramids were very cool to actually see. As I've mentioned before they are a bit old. It was cool to have been inside the great pyramid, but I'll admit there wasn't much inside there to see. It was a bit surprising how the city has grown right up to the Pyramids - a bit less of a middle of the desert experience than you might expect. The Valley of Kings in Luxor is an area with a bunch of tombs where later Pharaohs were buried, they figured out that if you don't want your grave which is filled with jewels and gold to be looted, putting the world's tallest building over it isn't the best approach. The cool part of the tombs is the original paintings are well preserved. In Luxor I talked everyone into seeing the Temple of Hatshepsut because I think the building as part of a mountain thing is so cool looking. In Luxor we also saw Karnak which was impressively large. I found the other sites really cool because I had never seen anything like them, but Karnak was similar enough to Greek ruins that it didn't grab me as much. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo was a bit funny - they had items that I think an American museum would build an entire room to display just sitting somewhere at random with no label. There was a giant wall with stacks of unlabeled sarcophaguses. This is also where they have most of the items from King Tut's tomb. In Luxor we also tried to go on a sail boat, but there wasn't enough wind so instead we talked to a guy who told us about how Jews control the world (that was one of a small number of comments about Jews and Israel).
In Aswan we went to a Nubian village where we danced with a preschool class (we were standing outside and a teacher waved us in and then got all the kids and put on some music - and of course at the end pointed at their donation box) and had tea at a house we were passing by when they invited us in. We also found a place with a nice view of the river and city (we were going to eat there, but apparently the cook stayed up too late and wouldn't be in till dinner). And we went to the souq (bazaar) for a bit.
One odd note for the Vegas fans - Luxor and the Pyramids are both in Egypt, but there are no Pyramids in (or near) Luxor.
In addition to seeing ancient stuff we also visited some Mosques in Cairo. I already described the most interesting Mosque visit. We also saw the Mosque on the 1 LE bill. We saw a bunch of other Mosques, but given how little I know about them I had trouble really distinguishing many differences between them (anyone interested in architecture is probably wondering if I'm blind). In Cairo there was a loud speaker system so everyone could hear the call to prayer three times a day. Cairo is secular enough that most people we saw did not react to the call to prayer and I imagine anyone serious about it had made their way to a Mosque, but I did see a few people put down mats at the appropriate time. There was a decent portion of men who had marks on their forehead from touching the ground while praying. The oddest part was some old stone Mosques had neon green signs saying Allah (in arabic), as shown here. We also saw a few Coptic Churches and two Synagogues (neither are in use - one had cops outside who wouldn't let us go near or take pictures).
One of the most interesting experiences was purely thanks to Angie's adventurous spirit. In Luxor Angie was having a conversation with one of the cab drivers and after a while he invited us to his home to have tea. I was going to say no way, but as a group of 4 it didn't seem too crazy. We went to his house where his mother, most of the 11 siblings and most of the siblings' kids live. Everyone (men and women) greeted us and shook our hands. We had tea outside while they prepared for their nightly gathering around the fire and TV. He also showed us around outside his house where they raise pigeons, chickens and cows, where he is slowly building a restaurant, and the neighbor's wheat (or corn?) field (their field is a bit further away). At the end he took us to our destination. Angie wrote a bit in his taxi journal - many of the cab drivers in Luxor had these - they would ask what language you speak and then show you a comment from someone who had written in that language and they could cover just about any language, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising since Luxor was like a tour boat parking lot.
If you are in Luxor and want someone to drive you around give Hussein Ali Keliey a call 0020124133207.
The one thing I'll say about the train rides is - if you are ever going to a developing country - bring Cipro!
Some various other observations. Crossing the street in Cairo was the most intense street crossing I've ever done. It beat China largely because in China there was at least some respect for street lights - in Cairo it was like they didn't exist (and many places they didn't). Lots of places the ground was the trash can which led to trash fires and goats roaming around. In some of the less busy parts of Cairo (a city of 20 million) there were goats wandering around on the street. This trip was the first time I've ever tipped a cop (they were not shy about asking). Cheapest meal was $0.30 falafel near the Pyramids which was reasonably good - most meals were $5 to $10. In touristy areas the hassling was rather intense - there was even a place I went to that advertised no hassling and someone immediately walked up to explain over and over how he wasn't hassling me. Outside the tourist areas people were generally very helpful - got very confusing when tipping was expected. Since hospitality seems to be valued highly in the culture (such as inviting people over for tea) it made it extra hard to tell if someone was being nice or looking for a tip or setting up a scam. Basically all prices were negotiable. Cabs don't even have meters - you negotiate a fixed price based on the destination before you get in. Almost all women wore headscarves, but often with typical western clothing. Some women wore full burkhas. Most men wore typical western dress, but plenty wore robes. Some people performed some amazing acts of balancing stuff on their head. Anything from people with too many grocery bags for their hands to a guy on a bike with a wooden board the length of the bike with bread on it. The bread was very good - especially the whole wheat pita - which was far better than the US attempt at it. And of course shawarma is always good. In parks there were teenage boys and girls hanging out as couples and holding hands, but we were told that's as far as they go. Many times when we told people we're from American the immediate response would be - Bush is bad, Obama is good. And a few people wanted to know what we thought of the sandal throwing incident.
Thanks to Max, Alice and Angie for going with me. I had a great time on the trip!
Monday, January 05, 2009
Egypt Pictures
My intention is to label the pictures from the trip and to pick out something like 20 to 40 of the best. But so far I've just taken Angie's and my pictures and done a first round of elimination and cropping/touch up. So if you are up for 214 unlabeled pictures then you can take a look here. Otherwise, if you wait a few days you can see a more reasonable number of labeled pictures. And by then Max's pictures may have been added in. If you have opinions on which pictures should or should not make the short list let me know.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
The Harafish
During the trip to Egypt (hm, have I mentioned that I went to Egypt?), I finally finished The Harafish. The book tells the story of 10 generations of a family (each chapter covers a generation) living in Islamic Cairo at some point in history (I never figured out exactly when). The stories are somewhat interesting, although not interesting enough to recommend the book to someone who isn't headed to Egypt. The book became far more interesting once I got to Egypt and saw Islamic Cairo. The idea of each alleyway being a community with a clan chief suddenly made a lot more sense. And we had tea (twice) where the author used to hang out (as mentioned in a previous post). So if you are going to Cairo I would recommend picking up something by Naguib Mahfouz (and if you forget to before you go, there will be plenty of opportunities once you are there).
Friday, January 02, 2009
Boston Post-Egypt
After leaving Cairo there was less easy access to WiFi which is why the posting stopped. We saw a bunch more cool stuff which I will write about when I get back to CA and most of the pictures will have to wait till I get some time with iPhoto to sort/label/touch up.
Now I'm in Boston, and hopefully sometime soon my stuff will meet me here (Alitalia decided to send half the bags headed for Boston on a plane headed to Chicago, or so they claim). You might ask why I checked my bag that easily fits in the overhead compartment - well we got the check in lady who decided our bags weight too much and had to be checked, then you might ask what weight has to do with it and that's where my ability to provide answers ends.
I'm staying at Mike and Laura's very nice home and spending most of the time worrying about if I'm going to starve to death because Laura is so stingy with the food.
This picture was taken by two "Tourism and Antiquity" cops holding large weapons who then hit us up for baksheesh afterward. Handing money to cops really messed with my list of things you should never do.
Now I'm in Boston, and hopefully sometime soon my stuff will meet me here (Alitalia decided to send half the bags headed for Boston on a plane headed to Chicago, or so they claim). You might ask why I checked my bag that easily fits in the overhead compartment - well we got the check in lady who decided our bags weight too much and had to be checked, then you might ask what weight has to do with it and that's where my ability to provide answers ends.
I'm staying at Mike and Laura's very nice home and spending most of the time worrying about if I'm going to starve to death because Laura is so stingy with the food.
This picture was taken by two "Tourism and Antiquity" cops holding large weapons who then hit us up for baksheesh afterward. Handing money to cops really messed with my list of things you should never do.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Egypt
Went to Egypt museum.
Went inside Mosque of Sayyidna al-Hussein. At the time thought it was just a random Mosque but went in to see people actually praying (guy at door waved me in and of corse asked for money as I left by pointing at a drawer with money in it). In addition to praying some people were taking pictures of some box looking thing surrounded by a silver cage. This was the most out of place I have ever felt. Later at the hotel found it on the map in tour book. Turns out it is supposedly the burial place of the prophet's grandson's head and as one of the most sacred Islamic sites in Egypt non-Muslims are not allowed inside. It is amazing how many rules can be broken for a one dollar tip!
Will write about other events of the day when I get back.
Went inside Mosque of Sayyidna al-Hussein. At the time thought it was just a random Mosque but went in to see people actually praying (guy at door waved me in and of corse asked for money as I left by pointing at a drawer with money in it). In addition to praying some people were taking pictures of some box looking thing surrounded by a silver cage. This was the most out of place I have ever felt. Later at the hotel found it on the map in tour book. Turns out it is supposedly the burial place of the prophet's grandson's head and as one of the most sacred Islamic sites in Egypt non-Muslims are not allowed inside. It is amazing how many rules can be broken for a one dollar tip!
Will write about other events of the day when I get back.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Egypt
Not only have I seen the only remaining wonder of the ancient world, I've been inside it!
Angie arrived last night so we are now the full traveling crew.
Angie arrived last night so we are now the full traveling crew.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Egypt
Posting from phone so won't type much.
Traveled for 48 hours straight (add Dublin to the last post) but got to Cairo only one hour late.
Slept for 15 hours.
Went to khan al-khalili, very cool (sorry, no links when posting from phone).
Had tea at place mahfouz (author of book I am reading) liked to go and where his novels are set.
Ate shwarma and Turkish food.
Sidewalks are questionable so lots of walking in street and assuming cars will stop when crossing in front of them.
Traveled for 48 hours straight (add Dublin to the last post) but got to Cairo only one hour late.
Slept for 15 hours.
Went to khan al-khalili, very cool (sorry, no links when posting from phone).
Had tea at place mahfouz (author of book I am reading) liked to go and where his novels are set.
Ate shwarma and Turkish food.
Sidewalks are questionable so lots of walking in street and assuming cars will stop when crossing in front of them.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Questions
Which is more painful my sore shoulder or the embarrassment of a ping-pong injury? I would say my shoulder because it is really sore, but the more it hurts the more embarrassing it is.
When is the security line for all gates not for your gate? When your flight to the east coast is in the international terminal.
When is the security line for all gates not for your gate? When your flight to the east coast is in the international terminal.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Egyptians
Well, the title sounded appropriate and there are lots of pictures so I picked up The Egyptians at the used book store. It covers ancient egypt from about 5000 BC to 600 BC in 200 pages which is a bit ambitious. Also when I was reading it, I kept getting the feeling that the author expected me to know a lot of stuff I don't know. Unfortunately I was also reminded that I find straight history a bit boring.
But there were a few things I got out of the book. The main thing was some info about the great pyramid and it also helped me realize just how old it is. So around the 27th century the first step pyramid was built in Egypt. After that step pyramids were built for a while. Then the Pharaoh Snoferu added to a step pyramid to give it straight sides. Then he had a pyramid with straight sides built, but it was a bit off so the angle had to change near the top, it is called The Bent Pyramid. Well that was no good so he had another one built, and this time they got the straight sides right, it is called The Red Pyramid. Then his son Kheops came along and built The Great Pyramid in 2560 BC which remained the tallest man made structure in the world for 3,800 years. After that Pharoahs backed off on the size of the pyramids and eventually switched to rectangular buildings for their burial locations.
So let's put 2560 BC in perspective. When the Western Wall (as part of the second temple) was built, the Great Pyramid was older than the Western Wall is now. When the first segment of the Great Wall of China was built, the Great Pyramid was 2000 years old. Stonehenge, which is cool and mysterious, but is really just some big rocks in a circle was built within about +/- 100 years of the Great Pyramid.
Way back around 5000 to 3500 BC before farming along the Nile had really been figured out, people lived out in the desert and looked to rainmakers to get it to rain. As farming was figured out people moved close to the Nile and the Nile delta area. There they depended more on how much water the Nile brought each year rather than how much it rained. The position of Pharaoh had its origins in being the guy who could control the flow of the Nile. Pharaohs who ruled during droughts didn't stick around for long. Early on the Pharaoh was considered a God himself. As time went on the position transitioned into someone who had more direct contact with the Gods and eventually became more of a warrior king kind of position. Measurements of time, including both lunar and solar calendars, were figured out to know when the Nile floods would come, when to plant food, and when to harvest. Figuring out writing and mathematics did a lot to allow the centralization of power. One major task was figuring out property rights each year after the Nile flooded and knocked down walls and other indicators. There is a significant division between North and South (or Upper and Lower Egypt) and the Pharaoh had two crowns to represent ruling the two areas. Nubians are the people who live on the southern end of Egypt. They live in the area around what is now called Aswan which has Elephantine Island. The borders of Egypt moved around some over several thousands years, but the southern border was generally around Elephantine Island which had a fort.
I'm getting some mixed messages from the book and what I've seen online. Because there definitely were slaves in Egypt, but at the same time it sounds like it wasn't slaves who built the pyramids, but rather paid workers. And it sounds like those workers had lives that were just as good if not better than those of farmers.
But there were a few things I got out of the book. The main thing was some info about the great pyramid and it also helped me realize just how old it is. So around the 27th century the first step pyramid was built in Egypt. After that step pyramids were built for a while. Then the Pharaoh Snoferu added to a step pyramid to give it straight sides. Then he had a pyramid with straight sides built, but it was a bit off so the angle had to change near the top, it is called The Bent Pyramid. Well that was no good so he had another one built, and this time they got the straight sides right, it is called The Red Pyramid. Then his son Kheops came along and built The Great Pyramid in 2560 BC which remained the tallest man made structure in the world for 3,800 years. After that Pharoahs backed off on the size of the pyramids and eventually switched to rectangular buildings for their burial locations.
So let's put 2560 BC in perspective. When the Western Wall (as part of the second temple) was built, the Great Pyramid was older than the Western Wall is now. When the first segment of the Great Wall of China was built, the Great Pyramid was 2000 years old. Stonehenge, which is cool and mysterious, but is really just some big rocks in a circle was built within about +/- 100 years of the Great Pyramid.
Way back around 5000 to 3500 BC before farming along the Nile had really been figured out, people lived out in the desert and looked to rainmakers to get it to rain. As farming was figured out people moved close to the Nile and the Nile delta area. There they depended more on how much water the Nile brought each year rather than how much it rained. The position of Pharaoh had its origins in being the guy who could control the flow of the Nile. Pharaohs who ruled during droughts didn't stick around for long. Early on the Pharaoh was considered a God himself. As time went on the position transitioned into someone who had more direct contact with the Gods and eventually became more of a warrior king kind of position. Measurements of time, including both lunar and solar calendars, were figured out to know when the Nile floods would come, when to plant food, and when to harvest. Figuring out writing and mathematics did a lot to allow the centralization of power. One major task was figuring out property rights each year after the Nile flooded and knocked down walls and other indicators. There is a significant division between North and South (or Upper and Lower Egypt) and the Pharaoh had two crowns to represent ruling the two areas. Nubians are the people who live on the southern end of Egypt. They live in the area around what is now called Aswan which has Elephantine Island. The borders of Egypt moved around some over several thousands years, but the southern border was generally around Elephantine Island which had a fort.
I'm getting some mixed messages from the book and what I've seen online. Because there definitely were slaves in Egypt, but at the same time it sounds like it wasn't slaves who built the pyramids, but rather paid workers. And it sounds like those workers had lives that were just as good if not better than those of farmers.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
No God but God
No, this post isn't about the book No god but God, I already covered that. It is about the book No God but God - notice the difference?
I picked this up somewhat by chance at the library, but it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It discusses the rise of Islam in Egypt from about 1970 to the late 1990s. It was released in 2000 so it doesn't cover the last eight years. But I tend not to trust anything written about Islam that came out from 2002 to around 2005 (I figure anything in that time period is going to be too reactionary) so it is hard to do better than a release date of 2000.
If you're not going to be in Egypt in a couple months not sure how interesting it would be, but I found it interesting so this post will probably end up way too long. The one downside of the book is it seems like the chapters were written separately so there is a bit of repetition of facts.
The main thing I learned is that the relationship between religion and the state in Egypt is in many ways inverted from other countries in the Middle East. The government is secular and has been fighting against the rising power of Islamist, such as banning niqabs and hijabs for students at various times as opposed to forcing women to wear them.
The other big message I took away is that there's not a clear good guy or bad guy (well, the militants are bad guys). The government is secular, "democratic", made peace with Israel and generally tries for good relations with the West. However, there is some serious corruption and obvious vote rigging. Since 1956 when Nasser took over the presidency (partially by putting the previous president under house arrest), there have been three presidents. Sadat took over when Nasser died of a heart attack and Mubarak took over after Sadat was killed by Islamic militants (notice how no one was ever voted out). The government also occasionally rounds up suspected Islamic militants, jails them, and often tortures them. It also some times passes laws to prevent Islamist from getting elected to lead unions and student groups. While the Islamic movement pushes for censorship that doesn't fit its morals, the secular government also uses censorship to protect itself. The government also works hard to look good in the West partially because America provides 10% of the Egyptian GDP in aid money. This can lead to over reactions and getting the wrong people to confess to crimes in order to maintain that image. And passing laws against female circumcision, but not enforcing them. It also helps to explain why the government is so protective of tourists (other than tourism being a major industry).
There is a militant portion of the Islamic movement. Although the majority of the movement has been peaceful for several decades. There is a push for women wearing a veil and for female circumcision. Although many women, even rich and well educated women, volunteer to wear the veil, even against the wishes of their husbands. The female circumcision is a bit odd because it is actually an African tradition, not Islamic, but has been incorporated into Islam in Egypt - well female circumcision is horrible, not odd, but its introduction to Islam is one of the odd things about it. Along the same lines, the requirement of women wearing a veil is also questionable. In the Koran it was only the Prophet's wives who had to have a sheet separating them from men, but since then has been interpreted as a requirement for all women to wear a veil. But on the other side, members of the Islamic movement who have been elected in unions and student groups have broad support, even among secularists and Coptic Christians, because they work hard to look after their member's economic and social situations, which the government has largely failed to do. Unlike in the US, the unions are also for middle class professions like engineers, doctors and lawyers. Many people in these middle class professions are displeased with the government because Nasser pushed to educate the country to fuel its economic growth (seems like a good idea), but when people came out of school with advanced degrees there were no jobs and they were making less money than taxi drivers.
The other pattern that was interesting is that when the government tried to suppress the Islamic movement, the movement got stronger and when Sadat supported the movement for a while it got stronger and eventually assassinated him. Although through all of this the militant side slowly lost support. And the militant side's last major act, the Luxor attack in 1997, caused it to lose almost all of its popular support.
The book also confirmed a lot of The Yacoubian Building and the Golden Chariot as realistic stories.
I guess the biggest message for me is in addition to avoiding taking a Menorah, I should also avoid taking a Qur'an on the trip (not that I was planning to take either, but you get the idea).
My last comment is - if a young man supports a movement, especially one that is uptight about sex, torturing him in jail and humiliating him sexually - probably is not the best policy for steering him away from violence. Just a guess.
I picked this up somewhat by chance at the library, but it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It discusses the rise of Islam in Egypt from about 1970 to the late 1990s. It was released in 2000 so it doesn't cover the last eight years. But I tend not to trust anything written about Islam that came out from 2002 to around 2005 (I figure anything in that time period is going to be too reactionary) so it is hard to do better than a release date of 2000.
If you're not going to be in Egypt in a couple months not sure how interesting it would be, but I found it interesting so this post will probably end up way too long. The one downside of the book is it seems like the chapters were written separately so there is a bit of repetition of facts.
The main thing I learned is that the relationship between religion and the state in Egypt is in many ways inverted from other countries in the Middle East. The government is secular and has been fighting against the rising power of Islamist, such as banning niqabs and hijabs for students at various times as opposed to forcing women to wear them.
The other big message I took away is that there's not a clear good guy or bad guy (well, the militants are bad guys). The government is secular, "democratic", made peace with Israel and generally tries for good relations with the West. However, there is some serious corruption and obvious vote rigging. Since 1956 when Nasser took over the presidency (partially by putting the previous president under house arrest), there have been three presidents. Sadat took over when Nasser died of a heart attack and Mubarak took over after Sadat was killed by Islamic militants (notice how no one was ever voted out). The government also occasionally rounds up suspected Islamic militants, jails them, and often tortures them. It also some times passes laws to prevent Islamist from getting elected to lead unions and student groups. While the Islamic movement pushes for censorship that doesn't fit its morals, the secular government also uses censorship to protect itself. The government also works hard to look good in the West partially because America provides 10% of the Egyptian GDP in aid money. This can lead to over reactions and getting the wrong people to confess to crimes in order to maintain that image. And passing laws against female circumcision, but not enforcing them. It also helps to explain why the government is so protective of tourists (other than tourism being a major industry).
There is a militant portion of the Islamic movement. Although the majority of the movement has been peaceful for several decades. There is a push for women wearing a veil and for female circumcision. Although many women, even rich and well educated women, volunteer to wear the veil, even against the wishes of their husbands. The female circumcision is a bit odd because it is actually an African tradition, not Islamic, but has been incorporated into Islam in Egypt - well female circumcision is horrible, not odd, but its introduction to Islam is one of the odd things about it. Along the same lines, the requirement of women wearing a veil is also questionable. In the Koran it was only the Prophet's wives who had to have a sheet separating them from men, but since then has been interpreted as a requirement for all women to wear a veil. But on the other side, members of the Islamic movement who have been elected in unions and student groups have broad support, even among secularists and Coptic Christians, because they work hard to look after their member's economic and social situations, which the government has largely failed to do. Unlike in the US, the unions are also for middle class professions like engineers, doctors and lawyers. Many people in these middle class professions are displeased with the government because Nasser pushed to educate the country to fuel its economic growth (seems like a good idea), but when people came out of school with advanced degrees there were no jobs and they were making less money than taxi drivers.
The other pattern that was interesting is that when the government tried to suppress the Islamic movement, the movement got stronger and when Sadat supported the movement for a while it got stronger and eventually assassinated him. Although through all of this the militant side slowly lost support. And the militant side's last major act, the Luxor attack in 1997, caused it to lose almost all of its popular support.
The book also confirmed a lot of The Yacoubian Building and the Golden Chariot as realistic stories.
I guess the biggest message for me is in addition to avoiding taking a Menorah, I should also avoid taking a Qur'an on the trip (not that I was planning to take either, but you get the idea).
My last comment is - if a young man supports a movement, especially one that is uptight about sex, torturing him in jail and humiliating him sexually - probably is not the best policy for steering him away from violence. Just a guess.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Election
Yay Obama!!!
I want to be super excited about Obama, but being happy about that win was dampened a bit by prop 8 passing (making same sex marriage unconstitutional in California). While same sex marriage is far from my top voting issue, it does amaze me that at the same time the first non-white president was elected that the California constitution was changed to specifically deny a group of people a right. Of the group I hang out with at work, the one other person who can vote in the US felt the same way so the mood wasn't a cheery as it could have been otherwise. Although last night it was interesting as people gathered in each other's cubes to watch the map change colors (favorite map moment was when NYT had colored Texas blue). Favorite (paraphrased) line of the night was when two Americans and two Iranians were in my cube:
American: "Do you think they'll re-elect Ahmadinejad next year"
Iranian: "Not sure, they might"
American: "But don't they think he's crazy"
Iranian: "Well, some do... but Bush got re-elected"
The CA ballot measures (other than 8) lined up basically how I was hoping - including funding for a fast train from SF to LA (I don't know if it is good for the state or not, but I voted for it because I want one!) And the abortion bill was defeated (although just barely).
Both of the crazy San Francisco measures were defeated (unfortunately I'm in a different county so I didn't get to vote on them). One was to legalize prostitution. Not in a controlled way like in Amsterdam, but cops would just stop arresting them. And the San Francisco sewage treatment plant was not named after George W Bush (largely because the workers did not want to work at a place named after him), but I think it is awesome that they tried.
I thought this Joy of Tech comic was only ok, until I got to the bottom left - HA!
And just in case you want to know how to say hello and thank you in Egypt (at least according to the tour book):
Hello: sa-lam'a-lay-kum
Thank you: shu-kran
I want to be super excited about Obama, but being happy about that win was dampened a bit by prop 8 passing (making same sex marriage unconstitutional in California). While same sex marriage is far from my top voting issue, it does amaze me that at the same time the first non-white president was elected that the California constitution was changed to specifically deny a group of people a right. Of the group I hang out with at work, the one other person who can vote in the US felt the same way so the mood wasn't a cheery as it could have been otherwise. Although last night it was interesting as people gathered in each other's cubes to watch the map change colors (favorite map moment was when NYT had colored Texas blue). Favorite (paraphrased) line of the night was when two Americans and two Iranians were in my cube:
American: "Do you think they'll re-elect Ahmadinejad next year"
Iranian: "Not sure, they might"
American: "But don't they think he's crazy"
Iranian: "Well, some do... but Bush got re-elected"
The CA ballot measures (other than 8) lined up basically how I was hoping - including funding for a fast train from SF to LA (I don't know if it is good for the state or not, but I voted for it because I want one!) And the abortion bill was defeated (although just barely).
Both of the crazy San Francisco measures were defeated (unfortunately I'm in a different county so I didn't get to vote on them). One was to legalize prostitution. Not in a controlled way like in Amsterdam, but cops would just stop arresting them. And the San Francisco sewage treatment plant was not named after George W Bush (largely because the workers did not want to work at a place named after him), but I think it is awesome that they tried.
I thought this Joy of Tech comic was only ok, until I got to the bottom left - HA!
And just in case you want to know how to say hello and thank you in Egypt (at least according to the tour book):
Hello: sa-lam'a-lay-kum
Thank you: shu-kran
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Golden Chariot
Along the same line of reasoning as the last book, I read The Golden Chariot. This book is about a woman in a women's prison who learns the stories of the other prisoners and decides if they should join her on her ride in a Golden Chariot to heaven. This provides framing for telling the stories of several women dealing with various aspects of life in Egypt.
The idea behind this and the last book is to get a bit of a feel for the culture, although I worry that it might be like watching The Wire before a trip to the US. Although really what has happened is not that I've gotten a feel for the culture, but that I've started to erase what I thought I knew about it.
This may by kind of obvious, but here it goes. First of all, I think that most of my knowledge of the Arab world and of Islam is some ultra-simplified stereotypes. Such as, I get the feeling a lot of Americans, including myself, are proud of knowing Islam is split into Sunni and Shi'ite. Wow - good job. That's like knowing Christianity has Catholics and non-Catholics. Way to really dig in and learn about the countries we are occupying. Next thing you know, I will have learned the name of a few cities in Afghanistan! For Iraq I already know Baghdad and Fallujah - go me!
Another example is marriage - I'm not sure exactly what my previous conception of marriage in the Arab world was, but what I'm figuring out is it is really complicated. I'm not saying it is good or bad, largely because I don't understand it well enough. But even if Islam has some simple rules, there are many variations on how to apply those rules and varying degrees of following them. I think my previous thoughts were equivalent to looking at a small subset of abstinence only groups and calling that American/Judeo-Christian marriage.
Ok time for me to get off the soap box. I'll just end that rant (which was mostly aimed at myself) by wondering when I'll catch on that all other cultures and religions are large, complicated topics rather than needing to figure that out one by one.
Anyway, the book was ok - not as interesting as the previous one. But it does describe some fairly messed up situations (I'm sure by anyone's standards - not just me judging other cultures) so that keeps things interesting.
And, yes, I'm still dealing with that in my head all the characters are white issue.
The idea behind this and the last book is to get a bit of a feel for the culture, although I worry that it might be like watching The Wire before a trip to the US. Although really what has happened is not that I've gotten a feel for the culture, but that I've started to erase what I thought I knew about it.
This may by kind of obvious, but here it goes. First of all, I think that most of my knowledge of the Arab world and of Islam is some ultra-simplified stereotypes. Such as, I get the feeling a lot of Americans, including myself, are proud of knowing Islam is split into Sunni and Shi'ite. Wow - good job. That's like knowing Christianity has Catholics and non-Catholics. Way to really dig in and learn about the countries we are occupying. Next thing you know, I will have learned the name of a few cities in Afghanistan! For Iraq I already know Baghdad and Fallujah - go me!
Another example is marriage - I'm not sure exactly what my previous conception of marriage in the Arab world was, but what I'm figuring out is it is really complicated. I'm not saying it is good or bad, largely because I don't understand it well enough. But even if Islam has some simple rules, there are many variations on how to apply those rules and varying degrees of following them. I think my previous thoughts were equivalent to looking at a small subset of abstinence only groups and calling that American/Judeo-Christian marriage.
Ok time for me to get off the soap box. I'll just end that rant (which was mostly aimed at myself) by wondering when I'll catch on that all other cultures and religions are large, complicated topics rather than needing to figure that out one by one.
Anyway, the book was ok - not as interesting as the previous one. But it does describe some fairly messed up situations (I'm sure by anyone's standards - not just me judging other cultures) so that keeps things interesting.
And, yes, I'm still dealing with that in my head all the characters are white issue.
The Said
The Saïd is a name for "Upper Egypt". "Upper Egypt" is the region SOUTH of "Lower Egypt". Ok, the upper and lower parts actually make sense if you think in terms of the flow of the Nile rather than North/South.
I want to go off on a rant about how translators should take the liberty of picking words and terms that don't conflict with existing words and that make sense in the language being translated to, but I worry that would come off a bit too ignorant so I'll settle for this meta-rant.
Update: After writing this I remembered that in general I dislike how languages are constructed (which helps explain the poorly formed sentences you have to get through to read this blog), so it doesn't make sense for me to single out translations.
I want to go off on a rant about how translators should take the liberty of picking words and terms that don't conflict with existing words and that make sense in the language being translated to, but I worry that would come off a bit too ignorant so I'll settle for this meta-rant.
Update: After writing this I remembered that in general I dislike how languages are constructed (which helps explain the poorly formed sentences you have to get through to read this blog), so it doesn't make sense for me to single out translations.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
The Yacoubian Building
I guess the last post helps explain why I read The Yacoubian Building. It is about the residents of a building in Cairo and was the best selling Arabic novel in 2002 and 2003.
On the one hand reading the book seemed like a good way to get a bit of a feel for Egypt. On the other hand, the book is meant as a harsh criticism of the government and society so I imagine it is fairly exaggerated. The big message I got from it was how people lived their lives getting around the restrictions of religion and the government, and how those two push people's lives. Other than just trying to get a feel for the country, I think it is a good book on its own. A lot of it is about sex (married, homosexual, unmarried, paid, forced, pedophillia), religion, secret second marriages, greed, violence, politics, corruption, forced abortion, torture, terrorism (and for completeness, a tortured terrorist having sex because of religion) - topics that help to keep the pages turning and as you can imagine caused a bit of controversy in the Arab world. The building he picks has rich residents in the main building and poor residents living on the roof so he is able to cover a large number of perspectives and stories. The downside is that, like the show heros, it has so many characters and story lines I feel like there isn't as much of any one story line as I'd like.
One thing I learned about myself is that when I read, in my head all the characters are white by default, even if the book is set in Egypt.
On the one hand reading the book seemed like a good way to get a bit of a feel for Egypt. On the other hand, the book is meant as a harsh criticism of the government and society so I imagine it is fairly exaggerated. The big message I got from it was how people lived their lives getting around the restrictions of religion and the government, and how those two push people's lives. Other than just trying to get a feel for the country, I think it is a good book on its own. A lot of it is about sex (married, homosexual, unmarried, paid, forced, pedophillia), religion, secret second marriages, greed, violence, politics, corruption, forced abortion, torture, terrorism (and for completeness, a tortured terrorist having sex because of religion) - topics that help to keep the pages turning and as you can imagine caused a bit of controversy in the Arab world. The building he picks has rich residents in the main building and poor residents living on the roof so he is able to cover a large number of perspectives and stories. The downside is that, like the show heros, it has so many characters and story lines I feel like there isn't as much of any one story line as I'd like.
One thing I learned about myself is that when I read, in my head all the characters are white by default, even if the book is set in Egypt.
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