Philae

The Philae Temple does not seem to garner much fanfare. I could be wrong about its popularity as a tourist site, but the temple (in Aswan) is far more remarkable than anyone had related to me. It is on a small Nile island all on its own, and when we went to the site where the ferries depart from, we were the only people there (the ferry drivers seemed to having a good time, despite the lack of actual ferrying). We arrived at the dock on the Philae island, and disembarked, immediately encountering enormous pylons marking the entrance to the temple. 

This seems like a good time to talk about the incredible carvings in and around all of these Ancient Egyptian ruins. It is important to note that the Ancient Egyptians were not interested in decorating their temples with "art", per se. All of these carvings, which were once painted, were created for representational purposes only. However, their artistic value is tremendous. Using a mix of hieroglyphs and vivid images, they convey stories of pharaohs and gods alike that a modern day tourist could very easily understand. Furthermore, the temples are all grand in their own way, but their grandeur is not for grandeur's sake. Every wall, column, obelisk, and pylon has symbolic meaning, and where they are placed in the temples, as well as their orientation, is just as important. 

Philae is unique, because it is one of the few temples that was not built using exact geometric proportions, and its layout does not follow a straight axis, or use only right angles. A temple honoring the goddess Isis, and for some unknown reason geometrically unusual, it is a "later" Ancient Egyptian temple, began by Ptolemy II (a greek Pharaoh, who ruled a few generations after Alexander the Great), and completed by the Romans. Along with the Egyptian carvings and 19th century graffiti, you can see Christian carvings as well, including several crosses. The sprawling temple was clearly the project of several men spanning many generations. Off to one side is a music stand built by the Roman Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98-117 AD. 

Like Abu Simbel, the Philae Temple was relocated after the Nile was dammed. It lies between the smaller British dam, which was built first, and the larger "high dam". For some years, it was halfway flooded, and tourists visited it by boat, floating in and around the higher portions of the temple. It is very visible on the walls and columns of the temple where the water level was. It was finally moved to an island about 550 meters from its original site, after they raised the water level for a third time between 1972 and 1980. The original site is now a few wooden pilings sticking out from the placid water. 

After some reflection, I think that the temple at Philae is my favorite of the Ancient Egyptian temples. Aswan is a beautiful city with plenty of sights, but do not make the mistake of somehow missing this gorgeous ruin. 

Abu Simbel

On a cloudless breezy day overlooking Lake Nasser in southern (upper) Egypt, I saw the magnificent temple of Abu Simbel. Our tour guide got us seats in the front of the plane, hustled us through the airport and onto the bus, and floored it to the temple. Since there isn't much else in the city besides the temple and the airport, people pretty much see the temples by the planeload (there are two at the same site). As a result, our guide's shenanigans, which we thought were kind of annoying at first, got us to the temple so that we had it completely to ourselves for a solid 20 minutes. So besides being awestruck by the majestic physical aspects of the temple, we got to appreciate its solemn nobility.

The temple comes with an amazing story. It was constructed in the 13th century BC, carved into a mountainside by the great (and very egotistical) pharaoh Ramesses II. Meant to acknowledge the unification of upper and lower Egypt, commemorate his great victory at the Battle of Kadesh, intimidate the Nubians to the South, and become a lasting monument to himself and to most his beloved wife Nefertari, Abu Simbel took around 20 years to build, and features four statues of the pharaoh, each sitting over 20 meters high. Directly inside the temple sits a striking hypostyle with towering statues and columns, and exploring the several side chambers, particularly in the dusty peace and in contrast to the towering regal facade, produced unbelievable feelings of tranquility. 

Over time, the temples fell into disuse, and eventually became covered by sand dunes. It lay un-rediscovered and buried until 1813, when a Swiss orientalist happened upon the upper frieze. He told an Italian explorer about it, who found it as well, but did not succeed in digging out the entrance until 1817. The story says that it is named "Abu Simbel" after a local boy who showed the explorers where he believed a temple to be, since it had been covered and partially uncovered by the shifting dunes for centuries.

As the high dam in Aswan neared its completion in the late 1950's, an international fund to save Nubian Monuments from being flooded was founded, and from 1964 to 1968, at the cost of nearly 40 million U.S. dollars, the entire site was moved to higher ground, just above the bank of what is modern-day Lake Nasser. In one of the greatest feats of archeological engineering of all time, the two temples (one dedicated to Ramesses himself, and the other to Nefertari), look untouched and unmoved to the untrained eye. Apparently they were moved block by block, but it is difficult to tell that this ever occurred. 

Before I saw Abu Simbel, I had a hard time believing that an hour at any ancient temple would be worth a flight in and an immediate flight out, but the sights of the temples of Ramesses the Great proved their worth tenfold. It left me mystified and curious about the story of Ramesses II, and made a lasting impression of the remarkable feats of the Ancient Egyptians. They had to know that their place in history would be known forever. 

Return

To my thousands of readers who have been clamoring for a new post (O.K. only one noticed that it had been 10 days), be patient, they are coming. I have spent the past week traveling and seeing the sights of Upper Egypt, but I have returned to Cairo, so everyone should expect a flurry of travel related posts in the next few days. 

Also this past week, my family celebrated my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary in Cabo. Sadly, I was unable to travel across the globe to help celebrate, but I wanted to Congratulate Grandma and Grandpa on 50 inspiring years!! (Hi Grandma...I know you're reading this...Wish I could have been there!!)

And finally, my roommate and frequent Magic Shwarma subject Theodore has been engaging with an organization called Planet Forward. Planet Forward is a website that encourages citizens to submit any type of reaction (writing, video, poem, song, etc) to a question posed by the site's editors. Leading submissions will be discussed in a PBS special set to air in April. The issue that is currently being posed involves America's attempt at a shift away from fossil fuels. I quote Theo:

"I made a video about the smuggling tunnels that run under the Egypt-Gaza border, bringing fuel across illegally to meet Gazans' energy needs. My purpose was to illustrate that as the U.S. plots a course away from fossil fuels, much of the planet will still go to great lengths to acquire them. If a leading reason to get away from fossil fuels is to curb global warming, then the U.S. must not limit its efforts to domestic projects; it must work to affect a global cultural shift." 

Audience response is one of the factors they use to determine which submissions will air, so I encourage everyone to visit this site, watch Theo's video, and give it a 5-star rating (or, to save time, you can take my word for it and just give it a 5-star rating). 

Check back here later today for fun-filled travel posts!! 

Alexandria

The day did not start out quite as planned. After sleeping through a few alarms, we ran out of the apartment 16 minutes before our train was scheduled to depart. Hoping that the dependably tardy trains wouldn't let us down this time, we ran across a pedestrian overpass and into Ramsis station at 9:01, only to see the train beginning to move. We started to run, and with the encouragement of Egyptian police officers, caught up to the back of the accelerating train. The back door of the last car was closed, so we kept running, hoping to catch up to the next car. With the romantic vision of hopping onto a moving train in our minds, the train kept getting faster, and we reached the end of the platform several yards short. 

While it was supposed to be a sightseeing day trip for me, Theo had a press conference to cover, so we went with plan B. Lining the curbs outside of Ramsis are dozens of "microbuses", and with the hundreds of other hawkers, the drivers of these vans aggressively hawk passages to Alexandria. So, with fifteen other Egyptians (many looked as though they were dressed to be going out, including one teenage boy who was in metro bar-hopping clothes--and about a pint of lip gloss...it was 9:15 am), we piled into the back of this cramped and sweaty microbus, and set off onto the desert highway. 

Three hours and forty Egyptian Pounds later, we pulled up outside the train station in Alexandria. We got in a cab and drove directly to the library (where the press conference was), which looks like some kind of spaceship. The main part is shaped sort of like a large oblong dome, and its glass and silver exterior stands out from the rest of the grimy Egyptian buildings. I walked for about a mile east along the corniche, exploring a quiet neighborhood filled with walk-up apartments and street vendors. It doesn't really feel like Cairo; the cars don't honk as much, people are more laid back, and everyone is very helpful and nice. 

After a nice walk, I found a beautiful seaside cafe with palm frond umbrellas, and within a spit's distance to the ocean. On this cloudless day where the temperature was in the mid-70's and I was getting surf spray on my face, I could not have asked for more. After a tea and a shwarma, Theo's press conference got out (it started an hour and a half late, lasted fifteen minutes, and was largely in Italian... meanwhile most of the Egyptian reporters spent the night before in Alexandria... it seems like the standard for organization here is pretty low), and we went and found a street-front seafood cafe. 

At this cafe, you walk into this little room with piles of different kinds of fish, shrimp, and squid. You point to what you want, they put it in a basket and weigh it, take it back, and fry it up. We went and sat at a table on the sidewalk while they brought us this massive seafood feast, complete with veggies, seafood soup, hummos, whole fish, shrimp, and wonderfully crispy and fresh fried calimari. Best meal so far, and I don't really even like seafood. 

After a few beers in the Softel as the sun set, looking over the corniche and onto the Mediterranean Sea, we set off back to the train station. The train, even though we couldn't catch it by running after it, is still a colonial experience. The forty-five pound (8 dollar) first-class tickets bought us seats in a cabin that was at least sixty years old. The rickety train, which in comparison to some of the other commuter trains in and out of Cairo is state-of-the-art, was not great to look at, and the ride was at times harrowing. It was, however, comfortable, and included beverage service. Besides the teacart man begging us incessantly for help in attaining an American visa, the two hour train ride back to Cairo was overall a pleasant experience. I just wish we had caught it on the way up, as I missed some of the more picturesque countryside in the darkness. 

Alexandria is a beautiful and pleasant city. It is similar to Cairo in ways, but the streets are wide, the air is clean, and the constant bustle seems to have drifted off to sea. In a city dominated by its proximity to the Mediterranean, none of these things come as a shock. Not counting our little adventure to start the day, Alexandria is a perfect day trip from Cairo, one that I plan to take several more times during my stay in Egypt. 

Acceptance

I have always thought that I would like to go through the college process again, but instead of blindly sending applications, being unappreciative of the gravity of the situation, and not feeling the stress of whether or not I would get admitted, I would like to go through it with the knowledge and experience that I have acquired since then. In my high-school senior naivete, I applied to a mixed bunch of schools without really knowing what I wanted in a school and why. I ended up somewhere that I didn't know much about and for reasons lost to me by the end of my senior spring, and although it worked out great and I loved Lehigh (for different reasons than I originally thought), I always wondered what the college process would have been like with greater depth to my worldly knowledge a greater enchantment in my goals. 

The good news is, I got my chance, and the process is largely complete. Armed with solid motivations for wanting to go to law school in the first place, I researched schools, made a list, visited them all, gathered all my information, went through the daunting process of reducing everything I bring to the table to a file of papers, made my connections, made my pitches, and started to hear back, and here I am, alive. Unlike the way I approached it in high school, the waiting was the worst part, which I guess is how it is supposed to be (although I still hated writing those personal statements). The idea that some people are sitting around, evaluating you, and trying to come up with an accurate picture of a person is terrifying. This is an idea that was somehow lost on me five years ago. 

And unlike five years ago, I am able to adequately evaluate my success in the process. Out of high school, I got in somewhere, and that was fine with me. Because I didn't know what I was looking for or looking at, I just went where I went. There was no "top choice". There was no excitement and pleasure in being accepted. Even though I have been reluctant to make a "vertical list" of schools, you better believe that I am taking pleasure in this feeling. With the pressure of not knowing went the pressure of the future, and being admitted into Vermont is a feeling that I have never really felt. Maybe it's that I have never really wanted something that badly, but you better believe that I'm chasing this feeling. 

Hearing from my top choice first is wonderful, because as I said to my mother, everything else is gravy. Technically, I am still being evaluated and assessed, but as far as I'm concerned, the process is over. I made it, and I'm really glad I did it, because it was a lot more enjoyable this time around. I know because I can't stop smiling. 

The Works

Without going into graphic details, there have been some things that were not "agreeing" with me digestively, and I was forced to spend the last four days lying on my back in a dark room. (apparently this is common with travelers and back-country explorers...) What was still a slightly jet-lagged sleep schedule has become a completely whacked pattern of sleep, what was a voracious appetite for everything delicious has dried up to nothing (since Friday I have had half a pita and some chicken-and-rice soup, seriously, I'm not even hungry right now), and I am pretty sure I have listened to every podcast iTunes has to offer. Sadly, I was also unable to post to The Magic Shwarma, but to make it up, I have decided to write one large all-topics-covered post. In no particular order, I present to you The Works:

It turns out that I have been misled about the names of certain inspirational eateries. I didn't explain this in my food post so I suppose I should explain it here. The Magic Shwarma is the name of a Shwarma stand in Dokki, a neighborhood of Cairo. They cut greasy chicken off of a huge spit, and put it with pickles and yogurt into without-a-doubt the best pita in the world. It's the next step that sets them apart, though, as they dab the sandwich in the grease that has collected under the spit and then grill it under this large stone slab (almost like a medieval panini machine). Heavenly. And, I was led to believe by my friend Theo that this stand was called The Magic Shwarma, and that name provided inspiration for my Sam-is-in-Egypt blog. However, I found out that the stand is actually called Abu Ramis, which is Arabic for "Father of Ramses." Oh well. 

From the files of: "Cairo is strange", I found this gem on the website for the Four Seasons First Residence, one of the newest and nicest luxury hotels in Cairo: "Services provided by the Hotel: Transportation to and from the airport is available using the limousine services provided by the Hotel. Charges are determined based on distance." Distance to where? Do you think many people land in Cairo after a long flight and request to go sightseeing? I have been here for almost two weeks, and I am 99% sure that neither the Four Seasons First Residence nor the Cairo International Airport can move. Do you think you can request to go "The Long Way"??? 

Also, Daylight Saving began in the States two nights ago. Daylight Saving begins here in the end of April. Apparently, Daylight Saving begins and ends at all different times around the world, but it presents for a strange situation when communicating across time zones, as a seven hour difference to the east coast has turned into a much more manageable six hours for the next six weeks, when it will change back to seven. 

The football team Zamalek has played two matches since my last postings!! Apparently, the standings I listed for the football post were for all of Africa, when the standings that really matter are the Egyptian League Standings, in which Zamalek is in 9th and hated Al-Alhy is in 1st. Clearly, they have been struggling this year, so much so that in the last few weeks, they hired a new coach. Zamalek won last Tuesday night for the first time under Michel De Castel, who is Swiss. Featuring a new-look lineup, they won 1-0 over ENNPI. Then, on Saturday night, they played the Al-Haras Club in Alexandria, and although they outperformed the "Border Guards" for most of the game, they came out on the bottom, after a 2-1 defeat. Haras scored their two goals on the only two scoring opportunities that they saw the entire game. It was a disappointing result for the White Knights, but their efforts against the 4th and 5th ranked club in Egypt show promise as they near an end to their Egyptian Premier League season. 

I am watching Zamalek play Gaish (I think) right now in all Arabic. Someone is winning 3-0. I have no idea what is going on, I hope that someone who can translate comes home soon so I can know what is happening in this game!!!

I went to the pharmacy last night, and although I am pretty sure you could get OxyContin for only a few pounds, there is no discreetness whatsoever. You must announce to the cashier what you are looking for, he tells his assistant (and everyone else in the tiny store), and he goes and finds it. No browsing. Thank God I was only getting Imodium and not something more embarrassing... 

Egyptian pop music is god awful. It is very strange to see the bits and pieces of Western Culture that the young people here pick up and run with, and I'm sure there is whole post on this later, but the most amazing thing to me is how bad the pop music is. Imagine if Britney Spears and Moby did an album together, except instead of a normal album, the "album" is one long song, Moby has lost that creative skill that he had that made the same song sound different, Britney is ugly, and it is sped up so its both higher pitched, and more exhausting. Now imagine the music video is our "Britney" dancing, except that it's not, because she's not dancing, there is tons of really tacky gold and pink everywhere, and her backup dancers are scrawny metro-sexual eleven year-old Egyptian boys. It's ten times worse than late 90's Ricky Martin-style pop. And, instead of nice quiet music, cafes, bars, and restaurants insist of having these music videos be the backdrop for their ambiance. I actually felt relieved when Beyonce's "Single Ladies" came on in a cafe last week. That is a bad song.

Do you think that Tiger and Roger refused to film this ad, or do you think some producer went on a power trip and wanted to make their CGI guys suffer? Did Tiger and Roger do the grunting voice overs?? Why is Jeter real?? Why is it so creepy? So many questions...

Theo has posted his video of our experience with the vendors at the pyramids. Sadly, he cut me out of it. Just kidding, but actually, a lot of the best footage of vendors was ruined because it was really very windy. It's still a good bit, and there are some other good pieces on his Global Post Blog. Check it Out. 

I guess that's it....if anyone is still reading at this point.

Air

The air quality in Cairo is not good. My gym is on a houseboat on the Nile, and I run on the treadmill looking at a smokestack billowing thick black smoke. The sky is not blue, but gray. The air smells of filth, and while on crowded roadways with buses and diesel cars, it is tough to breathe at all. Problems range from industrial pollution and lots and lots of old cars to many tall buildings causing a bowl effect, and its hot arid climate. 

One of the biggest problems with evaluating Cairo's air quality is the lack of solid data. The existing data are sketchy to begin with, as they measure pollutants with only forty-odd stations in and around the city. In addition to being unreliable, the data are too recent to be in any way helpful. The systems were set up in the late 90's (with help from a Japanese advisory council), and air quality data begin becoming available around 2001. There is no way to create policy, let alone evaluate its effectiveness with 8 years of sketchy data. Preliminary studies place Cairo's air as some of the dirtiest in the world, comparable with that of Mexico City, Sao Paolo, and Bangkok, all three of which are more than twice as dirty as Los Angeles or Pittsburgh (which consistently pitch battle for the title for "American City with the Dirtiest Air"). 

The main pollutants are hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and lead, all of which can cause cancer, the particulate matter because of the solid and liquid carcinogens it can carry. I suspect that there is a lot of natural particulate matter (sand, dust, etc), which because of poor dispersion due to its climate, would be tough to regulate down. The primary issues associated with particulate matter are breathing problems such as asthma and decreased lung function. Lead, which has been regulated down to extra-cautious levels throughout the United States with the requirement of unleaded gasoline, can cause cancer and fatal neurological problems. Again, this is just a suspicion, but I would be willing to bet that with an overhaul of the automobile fleet, this problem would be largely alleviated, much like it was in the States. Hydrocarbons are a little tougher to track down, and the United States has had varied success trying to keep its hydrocarbon levels down in industrial areas. 

The United States only had success in cleaning its air (and for those unfamiliar with it, the Clean Air Act is the best example of successful environmental legislation) not just because of government action, but because it became socially unacceptable to pollute air in any way (where else in the world can you NOT smoke inside??) People cite the old cars and the desert as factors in Cairo's dirty air, but I have to consider the political influence of the rich and unclean. The socio-economic system here caters to the rich, and I can't imagine that industry polluting everyone's air for a pretty penny is any different. 

Some sources cite the air quality in Cairo as 100 times higher than acceptable world standards. This makes the health risks for its citizens high and dire, with numbers being thrown around such as 1 in 30 people experiencing serious adverse health affects (as a general rule of thumb, the EPA looks to regulate when the risk is any higher than 1 in 1,000,000). Cairo's filth is going to be detrimental to its citizens, if it's not already, but dirty air is the kind of problem that is alleviated only with social cooperation and a wider reform. I don't know what the future of Cairo's air is, and from a broad environmental regulatory standpoint, they are 30 years behind the United States. In order for the future of Cairo to include blue sky, they need more ways to evaluate the problems, better ways to regulate the pollution, more stringent requirements that are followed by everybody, and a general social desire for clean air. 

Taxis

Traffic in Cairo, and in particular taxis in Cairo, are absurd. The downright ridiculousness of the commuting situation is tough to describe, you probably have to see it for yourself. I am going to try anyway because it is so remarkable. I haven't seen the subway yet (I'm not looking forward to it), but all above ground transport is beyond anything you would EVER see in America. 

Cairo redefines any standard idea of distance between cars. Today I walked out of an office building, and to get where I was going next, took a right. The two cars parked on the sidewalk were so close to the building, each other, and the cars on the street, which were in turn parallel parked so close to each other, that I had to retrace my path fifty or sixty yards the other direction past the door of the office building. I am not exaggerating, every car was within an inch of something else, making this wall of cars impassible without climbing on hoods. This phenomenon is not unique to parked cars either. If a truck is in the left side of the left lane, and a car is in the middle to right side of the right lane, lane-line be damned, you have to drive through. Furthermore, if the two cars in front of you are not on the outside of their respective lanes, you honk at them so you can pass between them. I can't tell you the number of times I have been close enough to slap the driver of the car next to me in the face.

The commuting is just silly. People hop in and out of moving buses. Dozens of people wait around on the side of the highway, I'm not entirely sure for what or whom. Every now and then a fifteen passenger van crammed with twenty five people pulls over and picks a few up. The urban sprawl ends abruptly at the desert, which means there is no suburbia, and therefore no logical commuting patterns, which means that there can be a stopped dead traffic jam anytime, anywhere (and there are, always, everywhere). The cars are small, which is good, but old, which is bad. Everything is one of those tiny Peugeots or Renaults or Fiats from 1970's. People drive like maniacs, and there are literally neither stoplights nor crosswalks. Crossing the street is like a game of frogger (including the cars not slowing down), which is terrifying for pedestrians, as well as automobile passengers, and gets especially hairy because the distance between lanes is just a few inches. The only reason it (sort of) works is because cars don't drive faster than 30 mph. Sadly, the reason for the slow speed is because most of the cars cannot go any faster, because they are too old. 

Taxis are another story in and of themselves. They recently passed a law saying that in two years, all taxis over 20 years old need to be off the roads. By my count, this will affect 95% of cabs. You tell the driver where you want to go, and then the journey is harrowing. The driver honks his horn constantly (literally every six seconds), which is annoying, but at the same time is crucial for narrowly avoiding fender-benders. The horn thing is a little weird, though. Everyone does it, often when there is no one around. They use it with the "hey look at me so I don't have to slow down or change direction" mentality. Then comes the fare. There is no meter, and it is not pre-decided. You can haggle, but mostly you throw whatever you think the driver deserves at him, he acts mad, and you get out of the car. Absurd. 

This whole traffic scenario is pretty indicative of the Egyptian way of life. Human health and public safety are not taken into account, and mostly everything is informal, if not half-assed. It is strange, but no one here seems to think it as being odd. It's just another vast cultural difference that makes Cairo unique. 

Pigeon

Anyone who knows me well knows that I would not be visiting in Egypt unless I was sure that I was going to love Egyptian food. And guess what? I do! It is just as greasy, salty, meaty and hearty as I thought it was going to be. I haven't put a single bite in my mouth that I did not savor. 

To be clear, there is American food everywhere. On my small residential block alone, there is a Cinnabon, a Pizza Hut, a McDonalds, a Hardee's, and what looks like a higher class of American-style restaurant. There are also several shisha joints which serve more traditional Egyptian fare, and a couple of stands that are more for a lunch-time crowd, and are fast food, but are decidedly Egyptian (but you can get a burger if you want). American food is fine, and I have had an acceptable burger, and a pizza from Pizza Hut. I also love hummos, but hummos is not traditionally Egyptian. It still is delicious; it is better than any hummos I have had in the states. They make it with olive oil and mix in a few veggies. Mixed with some warm and soft pitas, the hummos alone is worth the trip.

A more traditional dish that I have enjoyed several times is the shish tawook. It is marinated chicken, grilled on a kabab, then either served with rice and veggies, or in a sandwich with peppers and onions. The meat tastes fresh and juicy, and the bread or the rice always seems to be high quality. It is already one of my favorites. Another traditional Egyptian dish is kofta. Kofta is delicious dry sausage. The first night I was here I attended a reception to celebrate the opening of the Dominican embassy, and a man I met that evening told me that it was beef mixed with camel meat. It is a little less salty than real beef, but the camel gives it a nicer texture, and holds the beef together. Dipped in some real tahini sauce, the kofta is a treat.

The highlight of my Egyptian dining experience thus far, though, has been the pigeon. We went shopping in a bazaar in the downtown area, and stopped in what is apparently the best place for stuffed pigeon in Cairo. It is pretty much a nook in the side of an alley. There are a few tables inside and a few outside. Stray cats are all around, and there is no menu. To start with, they bring you a bottle of water to drink, and glasses of pigeon soup. With a little salt and some lemon, it tastes tart and gamey, and its warmth spreads through the whole body. Then they bring you a salad, some pita and tahini, and a plate of kofta, and finally, we each got a stuffed pigeon. The cooked bird looks about like you would think a stuffed pigeon would look like. I stuck my fork in to try and pick it apart, and it is immediately clear that there really isn't any meat on the bird. The skin is tight and the meat is stringy, but as I pulled it apart, I saw that it's cavities were filled with brown rice. There is a lot of rice, and it is savory, juicy, and delicious. The more adventurous among us went for the skin, meat, and even organs of the bird, but I stopped with the rice. However gross it may sound, the meal was very satisfying, and very delicious. 

I look forward to exploring Egyptian cuisine, and even trying my hand at cooking. However, I don't think I will ever replicate the shock when I saw a stuffed pigeon placed in front of my on a dinner table, and the surprise and happiness that ensued when I consumed it.