Dancing and the Mediterranean

The city of Alexandria is definitely not what I expected. Although it's on the coast of the Mediterranean and harbors (no pun intended) some amazing relics and ruins from the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian eras among others, we have yet to really explore and visit most of these sites. There is, of course, the Lighthouse of Alexandria which is now mostly in the sea, as well as the ancient Library of Alexandria. Although the ancient library does not exist here anymore, Alexandria has recently built a new library that is quite a tourist attraction in and of itself. Additionally, the city was the focal point of the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, for whom the city is named after. There are palaces of old rulers, a Roman amphitheater, and catacombs, necropolises amid a host of other ancient monuments spanning many periods in history. And of course, there is the lovely coast, which we see every day on our way to class. Despite its antiquity and historical significance, however, the city is extremely conservative, at least the sector that the university lies in. Almost all women are covered and dress extremely conservatively. A mosque is right down the street, and there are a few native Egyptian girls who have come up to our floor with the explicit purpose of proselytizing us. It is said that Alexandria was not always like this. In the 1940s the population numbered around 300,000 with 40% of that being foreigners, however, today there are almost 4 million residents in the city, most of them Egyptians, and many of them having emigrated from the country. Walking in the streets is difficult- since women do not "hang out" in the streets like men do, the Egyptian males stare at you as you walk by, and you are usually verbally harassed and called to as you walk to your destination. I have seriously considered wearing Hijaab or Niqaab just so that I could stroll more peacefully down the street. But it is a learning experience as well as a great excuse to go shopping for more "stylistic" or shall we say "modest" clothing.
In spite of these difficulties, we have had the opportunities to experience some Egyptian culture outside of the conservative areas. Last week we attended an event for National Environment Day. We went to a public garden in the middle of the city and attended a big festival/concert, in which groups from all over performed skits and dances that dealt with the theme of the environment. There were groups of little children performing cute little dances, and some young men (shebaab) danced some songs as well. There was also live music and some skits. It was great to see the city come together and put on something themed around such an important global issue. Some of the dances were very interesting, and made me wonder about the relationship between religion and culture as expressed through dancing. Some of the dances were quite sexually-charged, even to us Americans, and involved belly dancing and rather revealing outfits. However, when the dancers came out after the show, many of them had their heads covered. It made us wonder how such externally religious girls could be willing to dance so suggestively, especially in front of a public audience. I suppose this dynamic is just another facet of Egyptian culture that I need to ponder and explore more during my time here.
A few days later, the girls in the program were invited by one of the Arabic teachers to come to her "beach house" in Montazah, a private beach which lies next to the palace and luxury gardens of Khedive Abbas Hilmy who defined this region as his summer palace. The evening was great- we dipped our feet and bodies in the waters of the Mediterranean and then experienced one of the best meals we've had in Egypt yet. Of course there were tons of people around. The professor is married and has two children, and other relatives and friends of the family were around, as well as tons of kids. After eating, we sat around telling jokes in Arabic and talking. Later the adults called for a game, and so, at the suggestion of the Egyptians, we played a table game, in which everyone puts their hands face-down on the table and tap the table successively with the hands, until people get disqualifies by not going in the right order (I know i've played this back home....). After we played and sat around a bit, the masters of the house ordered FaTeer, which is by far the tastiest thing I've eaten in Egypt to date. They kind of remind me of crepes and can come in sweet as well as normal variety. "Savory" faTeer have cheese and vegetables and sometimes meat as well, but the sweet FaTeer is amazing- it's covered in butter and oil and sugar and is ridiculously bad for you. After eating we sat around and chatted a bit more until it was time to go, where we were driven by the men to the gates of the palace gardens. On the way, we stopped to see the beautiful palace, which by now has been converted into a hotel. Hopefully we can make it back there at some point. We experienced such warmth, generosity, and hospitality at Montazah and the family that hosted us, and we finally had the opportunity to just be ourselves among a typical Egyptian family- in short it was a true breath of fresh air and an experience I will cherish always.