Oh hell no!

Cultural Notes

Egyptians, once they befriend you, will not stop calling you. They call each other way more than Americans. Like way more. Just to say hi, or if you are ok, or if you need anything. Usually the calls are short, but they are frequent. Today, well today is the start of this experience.

I've had 5 different phone numbers call me at least 3 times each today. I don't pick up because I have no idea who it is. I don't have them saved.

This kid I met at a cafe who goes to school in Cairo wanted me and a couple of his friends to go to Dahab this coming weekend. I find that odd. There's just some things that Americans are not accustom to, and warning bells start to go off. Will something bad happen if I were to go? No, but I would feel awkward.

It's amazing how much you notice about your culture when you're out of it.

This afternoon, on my way to lunch, the crowd of hundreds of Egyptians were lined up by were the stairs are for me to get lunch. I waded through the crowd, saying excuse me, trying not to push too hard. They wouldn't budge. I started to panic because I realized I didn't understand why they wouldn't move. Was it because I was a foreigner? I didn't know really what to say except excuse me. They stared at me as I tried to squeeze past. Still, no movement. I became angry. The crowd knew what I wanted, and I was being polite. I started to push harder, and I became angrier. I began to sweat. Why aren't they moving? They started to smile, others pushed back. One said "Welcome to Egypt." I stopped walking. I couldn't move. Then an Egyptian at the stairs grabbed my arm and tugged me to the stairs. I was free. I was irritated. I was trying to figure out what just happened.

Egyptians are nice, welcoming people. But college students, I've noticed, when they are in groups, have the bullying mentality of middle schoolers. This phenomenon of crowd dynamics is not native to Egypt, but I feel that the degree to which this interaction carried on like this, the I was blocked in, and the degree to which I felt alienated, is.

People in the street don't move either, especially when there is nowhere for you to walk. They will run into you if you don't move. I've stopped moving. The other day, I accidentally body checked a woman wearing a headscarf because she would meet me halfway and move a bit when I moved a bit. At the mall, it happened again, this time the woman cornered me in a way that I couldn't pass without hitting her, and I touched her butt. I turned red because her husband was standing right there. I pretended I didn't notice anything. I was so angry.

I've taken up the obnoxious foreigner voice whenever people do things that are impolite, especially in public. I say "excuse me!" really loud. When people stare (because they always stare at me because it's the "public" sphere), I stare back. They stare more. I give them a face. They give me a face. I keep staring. Some punk teenagers call me "asshole" when I get off the train. I call them "sharmuta" (whores) before I step on the platform.

Gay:
we were talking with some of the language partners the other day about Shakespeare. The comment came up by an Egyptian that he was gay. She made an awful face. We're like "yeah, but no one really knows for sure, he wrote a lot of sonnets to men, but who knows." She replies, "but he was gay." Her friends made faces. The same criticism was raised when someone mentioned Socrates. We tried to explain that homosexuality wasn't seen as such back then, and that it was just Greek society. But again, the response was "no, he was GAY." These men, who contributed so much to literature, politics, and science, were not worthy of recognition.

I think the problem is that Egyptian society is so homogeneous ethnically, linguistically, and religiously, that they don't accept or appreciate differences as much as Americans. I'm used to seeing every race, ethnicity, religion...whatever, in Ann Arbor. It doesn't surprise me, and I'm staring at them, making sure that the odd looking creature doesn't make an odd move or does something threatening.  People are not exposed to ideas that challenge their own. It's like living in the friggen Matrix, or in the book "1984" by Orwell. Public conformity of ideas. Anything out of place will be noticed, critiqued, and put down. There is no "other opinion" in the cases I've seen so far. It's all black in white. No broadening of topics, no counterpoint, no appreciating others views. One girl had a book of pictures to show her roommate. Her roommate went through them saying "ah, cute". But whenever she came to one of the girl and her boyfriend kissing on the cheek or something common to us like that, she would say "inappropriate" and toss it in a separate pile. People don't date here. You are friends, or you get engaged. That's it.


I will continue to stare. I will continue to push. I will no longer let people pass, because they don't let me pass. I also feel like being bullheaded back to them. You don't think what I'm doing is appropriate? Well "Yes it is appropriate. Just not here. You're wrong. That's that." Then I'm going to turn to someone next to me and judge you in whispers, while you are listening. I want to make you feel uncomfortable, too.

Such an approach would make me feel better, justified even. But it wouldn't solve anything. Just make me like them. I would lose the appreciation that my Western education and experiences have taught me.

Stage two of culture shock is awful. I don't want to call it culture shock anymore. I prefer "culture clash."