onilecraM | Marcelino

So John and I made our way over to the AUC campus at 8:45 am. That’s way early, For the record, my “vacation” has been filled with days where I’m getting up really early, which after a night of shooting/partying, is really fun, I must say.

So we get over to AUC to meet with the students. We jump in three separate cars and head over to the outskirts of Heliopolis. The plan is really simple: we head to a meeting point where we will meet with Norhan’s dad, who will then lead the way over to the construction site. If only simple things could remain simple in Egypt.

So we get to our meeting point to wait for Norhan’s dad. He gets there, and we begin to follow him. Four cars. Norhan’s dad is leading the way. Well, our driver (an AUC provided driver) decides to pass Norhan’s dad. Why? I have no idea. Another AUC driver does the same. Now, John and I are riding in the back seat, talking with Jan, who is riding up front. We’re not really paying attention to what’s going on – we’re assuming that our driver can do is prescribed job of following the car in front of him.

So about 25 minutes later, the other AUC driver zips up next to us and flags us down, letting us know that we’ve passed the exit. (Mighty considerate of him, to do so – otherwise we might end up all the way in Sharm.) So we need to make a U-turn, which is not as simple as it seems because the highways in Egypt aren’t designed like they are back in the states. The next exit/U-turn is like 10 miles down the road. So we make the U-turn and come back to another exit about another 5 miles beyond the exit that we missed so we can make another U-turn. We do so, get off on the exit, and then stop. We don’t see anybody. So we ask the other driver if he saw where everyone went. He didn’t. He just saw the exit that he “knew” we were supposed to get off on, so he flagged us down. This led to about an hour’s worth of confusion. We call Norhan, who is with her dad, to see if she can give us directions. She can’t, because she has no idea where we are. (Oh yeah, did I mention that streets in certain parts of Egypt don’t have names? That makes it way easy to figure out where you are.) So we jumped back on the highway, looking for another exit. We literally drove back and forth (in 10 and 5 mile increments) making u-turn after u-turn, trying to get off on the right exit. So it turns out that after we passed everybody, they passed us again and kept going. So we never passed an exit where they had gotten off. We finally made it to the construction site about and hour later (after one of the girls jumped back on the highway, found us and led us back to the site.) Needless to say, Jan was less than pleased with this whole incident, but John and I (partially because of sleep deprivation) thought it was hysterical.

Filming on the construction site was fun. Let’s just say that construction standards in Egypt are just a little different than in the US. The girls had a fun time climbing up an inclined plank (not attached to anything) that led from the ground level to the second floor, where the workers were building part of the second floor foundation. Fortunately, a nice breeze kept us relatively cool – it was probably only 100 degrees, but the wind made it feel a little cooler. The lack of humidity helps. I think by this point, I have grown so completely comfortable with sweating profusely that I don’t even notice it. We got some really good shots at the site that I think will help show the girls’ personality. They really have fun in almost any situation. They don’t really complain about anything – they just joke about it.

Afterwards, we went over to a café/restaurant to get some lunch. I ordered a virgin pina colada in the hopes that it would cool me off. It wasn’t too good, but it did cool me off. John and I picked up the lunch tab for the class – we figured it was the least we could do for them for letting us follow them around nonstop for two weeks.

John and I came back to the apartment, where we crashed for a bit. Even though it wasn’t sweltering at the job site, the sun does have a way of just draining all your energy. Slept just enough to barely refresh ourselves and then headed back to AUC to film a dance performance by Selma. AUC is hosting a Model Arab League and their opening ceremony features some introductory speeches as well as some performances. Selma danced with two other girls to a traditional Egyptian dance track. Out of the three, she was definitely the best dancer – mainly because her on-stage presence was really strong. She really enjoyed the dance. Afterwards I asked her about it, and she explained that she had been dancing for years, but had to quit because AUC stopped offering dance classes and because she couldn’t pursue it professionally.

I had wanted to go to the pyramids by night w/ Nahla, but she cancelled. So I stayed in for a bit, then headed out to Cairo Jazz (where at this point I am definitely a regular) to meet up with Yasmin and her mother for some drinks. We bumped into Shirine from Campus over there – she was hangin’ out with Ammar, one of the owners. There was a live jazz band playing tonight at Cairo Jazz (obvious, you might think, but it is only the second time I’ve heard a jazz act here.) The drummer was absolutely incredible. He had a solo pretty much every song, and he totally deserved it. Really solid performance. John and Yasmin know both the lead guitarist/singer and the bassist, and we chat with them a little bit during one of their breaks. It’s really true what everyone’s told me about Cairo – in the upper class circle, everyone knows each other. This has its benefits and its disadvantages. In a society where external pressure and judgment are ever present, I can see how it can be totally annoying to see the same group of people when you go out. At the same time, I think it’s pretty cool that you can go anywhere, see someone you know on some level and pick up a conversation from where you left it off last week, last month or even last year.