Boy, Interrupted

Morale is low. Internet has been down for around six days now. When I say that internet is down, I don’t mean it’s not working in the dorm. I mean internet is down in all of Egypt. I heard it made BBC news, so some of you may have already heard. Fortunately, I managed to register for classes before this happened, but just barely. Wild rumors flew around for a while at the beginning about the cause, but here’s what seems to be the consensus. Apparently, there are three fiber optic cables running under the Mediterranean connecting Egyptian servers to the rest of the world. Last week, a ship dropped anchor and damaged two of the three, obliterating seventy percent of the internet in Egypt and the surrounding areas.

This makes little to no sense to me. First of all, how could there only be three cables running under the ocean connecting Egypt to the rest of the internet? That’s the stupidest, most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Secondly, if the system really was set up in such a ludicrous way, you’d think the cables would be encased in titanium or something. With bioengineered giant squid guarding them, or at least a few tiger sharks and electric eels. I could understand if a massive earthquake caused a temporary disruption, but an anchor? You’ve got to be kidding me.

The estimates for when the problem will be fixed are running around a week from now, so I’d say it will probably be around three weeks before things are back to normal (that’s a useful conversion metric for any estimate regarding time given in Egypt or by Egyptians; if someone says they’ll be by for tea in half an hour, you don’t need to put the kettle on for another 90 minutes or so). The internet still works sometimes, albeit painfully slowly (think slower than dial-up), so I’ve managed to post this blog update. Due to the outage, I have a bit of a backlog of fantastical adventures to share, but I’ll just send one along for now.

One night last week, we went to Fakhfakhina, a university sponsored “cultural event.” That type of thing doesn’t usually appeal to me, so I thought it would be lame and attempted to find a way to avoid going. But everyone else wanted to see what it was, so I ended up tagging along. I’m glad I did, because it was awesome. In essence, the event was a massive party held in a palace with fantastic food and some traditional Arab dancing thrown in to boot. We took a bus across town early in the evening and arrived at a massive walled compound. The inside was like a miniature jungle, with crazy shaped trees lining the paths and vines hanging everywhere. Upon first arriving, we headed to the ballroom where the action was going down. Words cannot adequately describe that place, so I’ll have to include some pictures when I can. Suffice it to say that most of the room was decorated in ornate golden designs, and a huge 10 or 12 foot chandelier hung from the ceiling.

When we first arrived, I immediately headed for the food buffet, the first all-you-can-eat I had experienced since leaving home. Having gorged myself, I started paying more attention to my surroundings. A DJ was blaring loud Arab pop music, and the Middle Eastern students were dancing in the middle of the room. It was kind of goofy. I couldn’t really detect the rhythm that I assume was somehow involved in their dancing, and there was a lot of jumping around. The students were wearing Western dress, although most of the girls wore the hijab, or veil. Guys and dolls were segregated into two separate circles of dance. There were some questionable interactions occurring in the men's circle, such as one guy putting his scarf around another guy’s neck and pulling it back and forth. Apparently, this is fairly normal for Egyptians.

As this dancing occurred, some of the Western students sort of hovered around near the edges of the room, while others sat on couches and ate. The Egyptian students seemed to be having a really good time, and during a particularly popular song the circles started to combine and one larger group formed. A couple of minutes later, an Egyptian danced his way out of the cluster to one of the more Middle Eastern-looking female international students (whom he clearly knew) and brought her half-reluctantly into the group. A chain reaction began, and the circle started growing at an alarming rate. Panic spread as we Americans realized what was happening and scrambled frantically to stay outside the grasp of the rapidly expanding horde of dancers, selfishly pushing our comrades into the line of fire. Spooked, we stood awkwardly observing the dance from a safe distance around the perimeter of the room. A few of the braver among us joined in, but these were the exception to the rule.

A while later, the cultural performances began. The first one was by far my favorite, and well worth going for. A group of eight or so men dressed in white robes and turbans danced out of a side door beating rhythmically on hand drums resembling large tambourines without bells. They were Nubians, from the southern part of Egypt. The men made their way to the center of the room, where a large crowd formed around them. The music they played was produced entirely by beating the drums, clapping, and singing. Audience participation was huge, and almost everyone clapped along or even danced. Periodically, the performers would grasp hands and start to move in a circle around two men singing in the center. Egyptian students quickly joined in the circle, and then a few Americans after a bit longer. I was all for getting on board the gravy train, and I thrust my way in with Mike at an opportune moment. We trotted in circles around the singers and instruments, and then did a sort of conga line around the room, singing together in an odd language that resembled Arabic, but wasn’t. After an encore, the performance finally ended, and everyone resumed their former places dancing in the middle or conversing awkwardly at the sides.

About an hour later, the campus Folklore Society came on, doing a traditional dancing act. This was alright, but not worth going into detail about. More interesting was the compound itself, which Mike and I explored briefly during the interval between the performances. It had the feel of an old Arabian palace like something out of Indiana Jones, and I wanted to poke around some of the pathways a little more before we left. Sadly, guards barred our way when we tried to return at the end of the program, and I couldn’t persuade anyone to sneak around another way. Stubbornly determined, I spent about ten minutes stalking around in the darkness by myself, but I discovered little worth mentioning before I had to head back or risk missing the bus home. I’m convinced that Aladdin’s cave of wonders is located somewhere nearby, however, and I plan to return with proper archaeological equipment at a later date.