Brian Cassels

Sorry that it is difficult at times to keep a regular update, especially when we are constantly on the move. I will just start where I left off and try to catch you up with some of what I’ve been up too.

Loved the rest of the time in Istanbul! Our free day most everyone took a ferry to some islands in the Marmara Sea which is located just south of the Black Sea. Some of us rented bikes and we all kinda split up to dominate this island. My little group ended up riding around the perimeter of the island until we found a sign pointing to a beach. We hid our bikes and climbed down the cliffs to the perfect spot. It was how I’ve always imagined a little Mediterranean paradise, nice forest on the island and then rocky craggy cliffs, crystal clear water, and islands off in the distance. It was so awesome that we swam and chilled too long and I missed my ferry back to Istanbul for the soccer match. Well worth it!

We went to Ankara, which is the capital of Turkey to hear the most prominent human rights legal scholar in turkey and see Anit Kaber (the burial place of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk-Father of the Turkish nation). Although it the capital, Ankara is not near as impressive as Istanbul which was possibly the nicest city I’ve ever been too as far as charm goes. But it was a good time to goof off and relax in a nicer hotel that we were used to. After a couple days in Ankara we drove back to Istanbul to catch a midnight flight to Aleppo, Syria.

We got in and did our usual custom of passing in all our passports for immigration. After about a half hour of waiting, some of the guards came out calling for Barret, the program intern. He has been to Israel a few times since he has been living in the Egypt for over a year total now. Some Arab countries will not allow you in if you have been to Israel before, so he has two passports. However, they saw that he had some Egypt stamps in his passport that were at an Israeli border and would not let him enter the country. So he had to fly back to Turkey at 2:00AM and then the next day catch a flight to Amman Jordan to meet us in 5 days.

It was a bad introduction back into the Arab Middle East. We got a few hours of sleep before catching a bus to go to Damascus. At breakfast in the hotel I was able to use my Spanish with some tourists visiting from Spain, which was pretty fun. Our first stop was the Krak de Chevaliers, which is the best standing Crusader castle in the region. It was so vast! I could have explored in there for half a day, but used my hour to run through as much as possible. It’s situated on top of a hill that overlooks a ton of the country. You can see Mount Lebanon from it. We had the best lunch I’ve had in my life. Some typical Lebanese food where they just brought out some flat bread and all sorts of spreads to eat it with. Not to mention the most flamboyant waiter I have ever interacted with in my life, which made the experience that much more memorable.

We arrived in Damascus and after settling into our place walked down to the old city. We walked through baab ish sharqi (the Eastern gate) onto Shaara il Mustaqiim (Straight Street). This is the same straight street where Saul was after Christ appeared to him on the Road to Damascus. The time spent in Syria was the freest time I have had the whole semester. We had 2 speakers scheduled, but 1 cancelled and the other was a visit to our Embassy to talk to one of our diplomats. The rest of the time was spent exploring Damascus, which has to have the cheapest goods in the world. Cairo is a very cheap city, but Damascus is even more so. The markets there go on forever, so we had lots of good times. Everyone became obsessed with buying movies when we found out that they were only 50 cents. One student bought 66 movies as of yesterday, but I think he bought more on our way out of town (final confirmed # is 71)! One other awesome experience in Damascus was the hamaam, or bathhouse. It was one of the manliest experiences I’ve ever had. We go in and they have a big room with marble basins under spigots lining the walls. Everyone gets a sponge and soap and shampoo. You can spend time in there cleansing yourself, or cruise into the side room for a blast of steam in the sauna. Meanwhile there are 2 guys coming around and taking turns violating us. The first guy makes you lay on the tile and he has a sponge…actually, come to think of it, it was steel wool…and SCRAPES you down, when he’s ready for you to roll over he gives you a good hard slap. Man number two gives you the most aggressive massage of your life, which actually felt really nice. A favorite move was when he takes his fist behind your knee and then slams your leg over it.

Now I am sitting in the bus road tripping down to Jordan. We should get into Amman in a few hours. There is not too much going on there, we have a speaker in the morning and we are going to the Dead Sea. But we should be in Jerusalem in a couple days. Unbelievably I have just over 4 weeks left here; it has really flown by for me.

…Amended since I had no chance to update in Jordan…

Jordan was a very quick trip and we did not have time to see the legendary Petra, where Indiana Jones went to find the Holy Grail. But swimming in the Dead Sea was amazing, the lowest place on earth at 1300ft below sea level. You feel like a buoy floating in the water! It SUCKS to get that water in your mouth or eyes, it is 33% minerals.

Today we came to Jerusalem. We sat at the border forever while they checked our passports. I think I may have been a major reason it took hours because I have been to a lot of places and my passport went through the wash, so most of my stamps are really sketchy looking. When I went through my passport after they were done, I saw little notes and “approved” stamps on all my pages that they didn’t trust. The security here is pretty ridiculous. We are staying in the Arab section of the Old City. The location is unbelievable! We are about a 2 minute walk from the Wailing Wall and Dome of the Rock and the view from our roof is a tourist destination. We will be staying here for the next two weeks, so I am anticipating lots of time spent chilling on the roof with the amazing view. We went on a little walking tour to get our bearings of the neighborhood. After we checked out the Wailing Wall, we headed up the hill to a Jewish shop and the owner talked to us about his worldview. After he finished, I heard a random voice call out, “Brian Cassels?!” I saw a familiar looking girl, but had no idea how I knew her. So I walked up and tried to ascertain through small talk who she was, it was failing miserable so I swallowed my pride and asked who she was. It was a girl from Wheaton who is doing a study abroad with students from Westmont College. There are actually 2 girls from Wheaton who are there, so I may meet up with them sometime this week.

I am really excited about being here in Jerusalem but also overwhelmed. There is so much historical and spiritual significance to this place and I want to let it affect and change me. At the same time I am going to be struggling a lot through the political issues related to the conflict that has been plaguing the region since the beginning of the Zionist movement. I know the next two weeks will be extremely intense, so I appreciate all your prayers. Love and miss you, and it would be great to hear from you.

Luxor-the ancient city of Thebes. Home of the ancient pharaohs, think Exodus. It was a 12 hour ride by train at night. Relatively uneventful except for my window getting shattered by a thrown rock at 2:00AM, a great welcome to Upper Egypt. We went straight to the Temple at Karnak. You may have seen this in “The Mummy”. Just think enormous obelisks and a large columned temple. Amazing how they built this stuff back then. Apparently they would lay the stones and then fill it with sand and drag stones up to the next level. Continue these steps until you build a 100ft temple, then remove all the sand. No wonder they took 1000 years to construct. In the following days we visited other amazing temples, but they were pretty similar. Another treat was our visit to the valley of the kings, where they discovered the pharaohs underground tombs. These were amazing and vast. Carved into limestone, they went deep into mountains, like in some cases probably 100 yards, with all the walls covered in painted and carved hieroglyphics that still have vivid coloring.

Our accommodations were amazing in my opinion, mainly because we had a pool and lounge chairs on the roof where I spend half the time. I went swimming 7 times the last full day we spent there, with the rest of the time dedicated to soaking up the sun. One problem is that it is a very touristy place and the locals there are just aggressive. Ultra rude and expect us to be idiots who don’t know the prices like we were on day one. But by now we’ve got it wired. They were also a little more pestering to the girls in our group which was infuriating. Egyptian men have no respect for women, that’s a pretty sweeping statement-in a normal situation I’d avoid using it, but it’s true.

Since coming back to Cairo we are in our last week of class before our travel component. This means finals and papers. I just finished my last paper for a while-8 pages on the effects of Western influence on the Middle East-politically, economically, and ideologically (fun fun fun). Also had an Islam paper and final, so done with that class, and my Arabic final is on Monday.

I spent some time with Muhammad from the Muslim homestay family. Went with him and his friend before they went to work in Suez. We went out to a traditional Egyptian café where his friend smoked shisha and we battled it out on the chess board. People in the café kept coming over and giving Muhammad some Egyptian support since international chess games don’t happen to often at that place I guess. He didn’t need much moral support, because he handed me my king pretty swiftly and has forced me to play a game of chess titans on my laptop every night in preparation for our next meeting.

Yesterday we threw a big birthday bash for a girl in the program. We went on a boat in the Nile and had some dinner. I was able to bargain the faluca (boat) from 600LE to 125LE, which was nice. Then we went to the world famous (?) Cairo Circus in Agouza, walking distance from where we live. I will say, for 4 dollars I got my money’s worth. While waiting for the circus to start I was able to pet a LION! The show was awesome, with classic acts such as knife throwing, the token chick who uses a whip to extinguish flames from a candle, and a lion/tiger show with 9 of the beasts jumping over one another and the trainer in the most rickety cage I have ever seen. I could have broken through it if I rammed it I think. All in all, glorious.

This Wednesday we are leaving Cairo and heading to Turkey by plane. We won’t be back for a month. I should still get internet every once in a while. We are going from Turkey, to Syria, then Jordan, and finally Israel before returning. Road trip by bus throughout the Middle East. Sorry about my laziness in pictures. My new policy is that I don’t even bring my camera places because everyone else brings theirs and they have better cameras and like to use them. So, there are a bunch on facebook by kids on the program and Joel’s site, again, is a good resource for LOTS of pictures. Lighayit il mara tenya! Until next time!