Egyptian Escape pt 1
Finally after long silent, the whole naked truth is out.
Basically, this is a small little extraction of the total portion. Somethings are best to be forgotten but the highlights are here. Enjoy reading it!
"Concerning Egypt I will now speak at length, because nowhere are there so many marvellous things, nor in the world besides are there to be seen so many things of unspeakable greatness...." - Herodotus
Masr, or more popularly known as Egypt, kingdom of the pharaohs, is a land of pitiless deserts and cool oases, glorious richness of history and exotic cultures, where extraordinary wealth and sophistication exist side by side with their decidedly primitive lifestyles, and its monument on earth. It is a diverse place located in northern Africa but is thought by many to be located in the Middle East. I was the lucky ones among 65 others who successfully participated in a student exchange program organized by AntaraBudaya Malaysia (AFS-American Field Service) out of hundreds of application submitted. I am certainly proud to be one of the first two Malaysians to be in the first batch to travel to Egypt on a student exchange programme. We were like the little ambassadors of Malaysia to Egypt, and what fun we had fulfilling our roles!
One thing I can say however is that it was surprisingly chilly. I would never have expected the weather to be so terribly cold at night. Before that day, had someone mentioned the name "Egypt", I would envision magnificent pyramids (little did I know then how understated the word magnificent could be!) and small ancient houses amidly dry and humid weather. Amazingly, for a such secluded place with desert conditions, there are 4 seasons in Egypt. I was surprised to glimpse so many cubical apartment buildings all over the city and was admittedly shocked at the huge numbers of cars honking constantly due to severe traffic congestions (yes believe it or not, it is worse than it is here!) Believe it or not, crossing the road was a matter of life and death because Cairo is inhabited by almost 17 million people.
We were told that men and women stuck faithfully to the rule of limited physical contact between the different genders, which is only greeting others by the conservative and respectable medium of hand-shaking during out culture exposure orientation. We were also briefed about the several other things in preparation of us receiving a bit of cultural shock. I was very amazed the way Egyptian greetings could differ in various ways. For example, it is an Egyptian tradition that guys and girls only shake hands in greeting upon meeting each pther, whereas pecks on the cheeks (muah! muah!) are acceptable among close relations or friends of the same gender. Frankly, I found it all very odd and different at first, but like I did for everything else, I soon adapted and got used to this unique way of meet-and-greet when U received a peck on the cheek from Tony, a close friend from school.
To be continued...
More to come!
Credits to
-Catherine Chan for editing it
-Nigel Aw for re-editing it
-Wendell Tan for being such a lousy editor and future YES participant + flight mate
Basically, this is a small little extraction of the total portion. Somethings are best to be forgotten but the highlights are here. Enjoy reading it!
"Concerning Egypt I will now speak at length, because nowhere are there so many marvellous things, nor in the world besides are there to be seen so many things of unspeakable greatness...." - Herodotus
Masr, or more popularly known as Egypt, kingdom of the pharaohs, is a land of pitiless deserts and cool oases, glorious richness of history and exotic cultures, where extraordinary wealth and sophistication exist side by side with their decidedly primitive lifestyles, and its monument on earth. It is a diverse place located in northern Africa but is thought by many to be located in the Middle East. I was the lucky ones among 65 others who successfully participated in a student exchange program organized by AntaraBudaya Malaysia (AFS-American Field Service) out of hundreds of application submitted. I am certainly proud to be one of the first two Malaysians to be in the first batch to travel to Egypt on a student exchange programme. We were like the little ambassadors of Malaysia to Egypt, and what fun we had fulfilling our roles!
One thing I can say however is that it was surprisingly chilly. I would never have expected the weather to be so terribly cold at night. Before that day, had someone mentioned the name "Egypt", I would envision magnificent pyramids (little did I know then how understated the word magnificent could be!) and small ancient houses amidly dry and humid weather. Amazingly, for a such secluded place with desert conditions, there are 4 seasons in Egypt. I was surprised to glimpse so many cubical apartment buildings all over the city and was admittedly shocked at the huge numbers of cars honking constantly due to severe traffic congestions (yes believe it or not, it is worse than it is here!) Believe it or not, crossing the road was a matter of life and death because Cairo is inhabited by almost 17 million people.
We were told that men and women stuck faithfully to the rule of limited physical contact between the different genders, which is only greeting others by the conservative and respectable medium of hand-shaking during out culture exposure orientation. We were also briefed about the several other things in preparation of us receiving a bit of cultural shock. I was very amazed the way Egyptian greetings could differ in various ways. For example, it is an Egyptian tradition that guys and girls only shake hands in greeting upon meeting each pther, whereas pecks on the cheeks (muah! muah!) are acceptable among close relations or friends of the same gender. Frankly, I found it all very odd and different at first, but like I did for everything else, I soon adapted and got used to this unique way of meet-and-greet when U received a peck on the cheek from Tony, a close friend from school.
To be continued...
More to come!
- Host family
- More of family
- Fattening food
- Language barrier
- Name confusion
- and many more to go!
Credits to
-Catherine Chan for editing it
-Nigel Aw for re-editing it
-Wendell Tan for being such a lousy editor and future YES participant + flight mate
posted by ikanbilis at 1:44 AM
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