family in egypt

one of the many perks of going to egypt was that i was able to connect with some family that i had not seen in over 14 years. so after scuba and going to luxor in the south, we headed north to cairo and alexandria to see some of my family. most of my family is based in alexandria, but we had to make a stop in cairo so jenny and annette could see the pyramids. i have visited the pyramids before, but each time i go, the beauty and mystery of them of them still astounds me.



jenny and me at the pyramids of giza




with annette

after visitng the pyramids, we were supposed to meet my aunt nahid (my mom's sister) at the egyptian museum. i was quite nervous, seeing as how i had not seen her in 14 years, but more excited than anything else. annette, jenny, and i arrived at the museum about 20 minutes before my aunt was to come. while we were waiting, i couldn't help but to scope the crowd for signs of her. i obviously had an image of her from my childhood, but i was a tad worried that i wouldn't recognize her, or that she wouldn't recognize me. so i waited nervously for a while. and then the nervousness turned into fear, and then eventually into impatience, as time passed and my aunt still had not shown up. i kept calling her cell phone, but got no response. i did a couple of laps around the museum to check if i had just missed her, but still there as no sign of her. i decided to call her one last time before we headed in for lunch, and luckily she finally answered her phone. she sounded completely frazzled, being that she had overslept (hence her tardiness) i am my aunt's niece! i guess sleeping in is in my blood, so i will stop trying to fight it (not that i try all that hard).



my aunt nahid and me



annette, me, aunt nahid, jenny

eventually she came to the museum and we had a warm, lovely meet-up. we walked around the museum, then took a short boat ride on the nile. afterwards we went to my aunt salima's (she is really my aunt's cousin) house for dinner. there i met 2nd cousins that i had not met before, and we had an amazing dinner of all my favorite egyptian foods: stuffed peppers and cabbage, rice, zucchini cooked in tomatoes, macaroni, and chicken. i kept piling the food on my plate because i was so excited to eat it and because my family force fed me. i probably had 6 helpings of food that day and gained about 10 pounds (this was to be a theme the entire time we were with my aunt).



aunt nahid and cousin sara on one side. aunt salima, jenny, annette on the other.



jenny, annette, me with amani (also a once removed cousin?). she is the daughter of my mom's cousin, but i am not sure ho to label our relationship to one another

we stayed awake until 3 in the morning hanging out with the cousins: amani, amir, mohammed, sara, selma, and baby seif. there was a lot of looking at pictures and catching up. jenny and annette french braided hair and watched videos of my family on the computer. it was a grand old time. at around 2 a.m. i started getting ready for bed, when all of the sudden there was more food to be had. my aunt started passing out sandwiches. jenny, annette, and i were absolutely incredulous that after a 10 course meal, followed by a dessert of fruit, that we could possibly eat again. and at 2 a.m.!!! but we reluctantly ate the sandwiches at the insistence of the family.


aunt nahid, me, jenny, and my cousin (once removed, i think), amir drinking sugarcane juice





mohammed with baby sief


the next day we headed up to alexandria where my cousins were coming to meet us. the last time i was in egypt was when i was 16 and at that time my cousin serag was five, my cousin salem was 3, and my cousin sara was 8. seeing them now was a surprise. serag and salem are now 17 and 19 and are in college. sara is 22 and just finished her engineering degree and is engaged to be married. for all intents and puroses, they are grown-ups! i just couldn't believe how quickly time flew and how dramatically things change. hanging out with the cousins was awesome. they are so fun to hang around with and also so kind. they really went out of their way to show us around. i just wish that we had more time to spend with them.



here with my actual cousins, sara, serag, jenny (not a cousin), salem, and me


i also got to see my uncle nohad (my mom's brother), who is now married with 3 kids, and my great uncle mustafa. it was so invigorating to get a chance to see my family, but it made me sad that i couldn't communicate with them. i really regret my decision to stop speaking arabic when i was younger. but i am making a commitment to start classes once i get back to the states.



uncle mustafa, me, aunt nahid in the back. aunt tutu and cousin serag in the front. that is salem peeking out in the background.



my uncle nohad with one of his twin girls, nor (hich means light in arabic)



all the family together