Egypt is Arab country, located in North Africa. You would probably recognize it from the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Egypt is filled with deep history and remarkable landmarks.
My experiences in Egypt are different from the normal tourists. When I arrive in Egypt I’m usually greeted my uncle and at least one of my many cousins. We hop into my uncle’s baby blue car, that I’m pretty sure is from the seventies, and roll down the busy streets of Cairo to my Grandma’s small, comfy apartment. Where I’m immediately greeted my loud, slightly crazy but loving family. Egyptian culture is a very loud and vibrant one. People that you meet for the first time, will invite you over for dinner. The people are sarcastic, but they use it without any intentions of hurting you and are generally kind people.
The Pyramids are just outside of Cairo, located in the small village of Giza. The entrance to actually get to the Pyramids is cluttered with people selling little artifacts that are marked up way too high, to tourist that are stupid enough to buy them. During the day, you’re able to ride horses or camels around the Pyramids, which is truly a great experience. If you visit them at night, you’re able to see a beautiful light show. Which to be honest use to scare me to death as a child. One of my favorite historical places to visit is the National Museum, mostly because you get to mummies. I’m talking about real, mummies just wrapped in cloth, of course they’re under a glass case. If King Tut isn’t on tour, you’ll be able to see him inside his solid gold case.
Cairo is a very busy city with a population of over six million people. So you can guess that the traffic is a nightmare. I firmly believe that Egyptians have a deep passion for their car horns as they seem to think of it as complete separate form of communication. Without a doubt you’ll be able to hear car horns, till very late at night, only giving you a couple hours of silence. Which is quickly replaced by a man with a very loud microphone on his donkey, calling out to people, that he’s buying and selling used items.
Food is of an abundance in Egypt. This is one country, where the people make sure that their neighbors are not going to bed hungry. It’s usually my cousin’s and my job to go downstairs in the morning and buy fresh warm beard from the bakery. It’s literally an unwritten law that you can’t turn down food, even if you’re not hungry. But with choices from literally anything you could imagine and more, you find the room in your stomach to eat.
It’s amazing as you can go from seeing the Pyramids in the morning, to having lunch in one of the high end malls, to sitting at a coffee house playing card while sipping on soothing mint tea at night, all in one day. People seem to never sleep in Egypt. During the warm summers in Alexandria, a city where most of my aunts and uncles live, families literally go out at 9pm and stay out to the early hours of the morning. These are only a couple of the reasons why I personaly think Egypt is one of the most exciting and cultured countries I have visited and I genuinely think it should be on your lists of places to visit.
Graduating from high school was such an odd feeling. For eleven years of my very short life I’ve been focusing on one thing, to finish school. Most people say that high school is the best time of your life, when you look back. But I hope that isn’t true, as I still expect a lot out of life. Now that I’ve started college, it’s a whole new playing field with new players and I’m still trying to figure out my position.
Education has always been top priority for my family. Being that my gradfather in Egypt was the Secretary of education. So college has always been in my plans. Not that I’m saying it was forced on me, but college is something that I view as very important, for me at least. College is just the beginning or foundation of what I want to achieve.
Starting classes at Taylors, I honestly had no idea what to expect. But one of the biggest surprises was the how student orientated college is. There’s so many activities, social clubs and workshops available to the students. Which I feel, helps gives a sense of belonging and that’s very comforting as a newbie. I wasn’t expecting college to be like that at all. Unlike school though, in college everything you choose to do is based on what you want to do. No one is there to spoon feed you the information. You’re responsible for your own actions and decisions. Your parents are no longer around to tie-up your loose ends.
Coming from a small, private Islamic school, it was interesting to start at Taylors. Which has so many students all with coming from different backgrounds, religions and cultures. Every person has different story to tell or lesson to teach. That’s what I was looking forward to the most, meeting new people. Of course, I was nervous about how people might view me or not get along with me. But so far my experience with the people I have met has been great.
Assignments in college, is way different than high school. While in high school all assignments or homework, give no room for much creativity or personal thoughts. A lot of times when you think of college, you think of parties and having a bunch of fun all of the time. But from what I’ve noticed lectures move pretty quickly, if you slack ever so slightly, before you know it you have so many notes and projects to catch up on. But of course I don’t mean that you should give up you social life, but this is the time in life where you realize how important time management is necessary.
Since I’m only in my freshman year, I look forward to the many years I have left to study. I hope I’m able to make the most out of it. Also, college gives so many opportunities to students. Until then, I suppose I just have to wait and find out the outcomes and the other mysteries I have yet to discover of college.
OFWGKTA, also known as Odd Future, which is a rap/skateboard group from LA. It started off as an idea from a simple 15 year old kid, that simply loved music and liked to skateboard. When my boyfriend first told me about Odd Future, I was immediately puzzled how anyone could like to listen to such graphic music.
A couple months after I heard about them, another friend of mine told me to check them out. Then, being that I LOVE google, I intensely did research on them. I realized that even though they seem, as many critics call them “dark, underground kids that rap about taboo subjects”, that they were merely just kids, showing that when you take a explicit words or phrases and use them, that it gives the words no power. The people themselves that say or that get offended by it are the ones that give the words power. But in reality they’re are just words.
The group consists of Tyler The Creator, Hodgy Beat, Syd the Kyd, Taco Bennet, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo, Left Brain, Jasper Dolphin, Frank Ocean and Mike G. Since the head of Odd Future Tyler, The Creator won last years VMAs Best new artist award, they have climbed their way to the top. They have a huge following on the internet, a new store, countless different mixtapes and albums, started their own label and even a book titled ‘Wolf Gang.’ They just finished a sold-out spring tour in America and in England. Just last month, four of the members premiered their show called ‘Loiter Squad’ on a channel in America.
You most likely won’t hear any of their songs on the radio due to their explicit lyrics and racial slurs. However despite the way they project themselves many of the members live a straight-edge lifestyle or in other words, they don’t take drugs or drink. Also even though many rumors have stated that they were satanist, they have made it clear that they are atheist. Which let’s be honest, if a person doesn’t believe in a God or a religion then clearly they wouldn’t believe in Satan. But usually just to poke fun at media and mess about with them, they claim that they are in fact satanist and use the term “666”, just to make people mad. Last winter during their tour in New Zealand, they were apparently dropped from the list of a music festival because they were claimed to be “homophobic”, which in fact is quite the opposite since their DJ, Syd the Kyd, is in fact a lesbian. Even though Odd Future didn’t preform at the festival they planned their own show, which surprisingly sold more tickets than the music festival. In other words the took their ‘hard feelings’ all the way to the bank.
They keep in in touch with their fans through Formspring, Tumblr, Twitter and they always put videos on their YouTube channel to update their fans on tour life and just everyday things. I suppose that’s why so many kids like them. They feel like they can relate on a personal level because Odd Future members are merely kids themselves. I’m not saying that I think that they’re great role models but they are without a doubt very successful and talented. That’s pretty much why I like them, they’re not afraid to be themselves or feel the need to change just to get on the radio. They could careless what others think of them, they just want to be themselves. Wolf Gang.
Sarah
