working girl

It is the end of my first day at work in Cairo....and I've been given a laptop to take home! I even get a mobile phone! Woo-hoo!

So this has been a totally new experience. I have never worked for a multi-national company, never worked in a typical 'office', never really done 9-5pm and never got lost in a sea of nameless, faceless employees that make up the immense companies of today. For the first time, I have a job which can't be summed up with one word, like 'Teacher' or 'Journalist'. Good God, I am Chandler, with a job where nobody really knows what I do!!

My building (yes I have an entire one) is situated quite far out of downtown Cairo, and its a minimum 30 minute commute by car. Sometimes, I am told, it can take 2hours with traffic. Eek. I am currently catching rides with people, Luli drove me to work this morning. She is a former AIESECer too, now working full-time in my company. We are in this huge corporate neighbourhood, surrounded by loads of other big companies like Microsoft and Vodafone. Its pretty cool though, there are alot of AIESEC people who have worked, or currently work in my company. My colleagues are all really friendly, and the work enviornment seems chilled out thankfully. I can wear denim to work, which I am so grateful for because I have only one pair of black trousers and 1 work shirt!

I don't have my own desk at work as yet, so this makes me homeless AND deskless. lol. Perfect!

Another great thing, I found out that quite a few other trainees, such as Kent and Tom, aspire to be journalists. That just made me feel so much better (even though I am feeling pretty damn great anyway about being in Cairo regardless) about being here, doing this traineeship with Ericsson, even though it is not completely relevant to my journalism career.

My dad tells me there is no point being a "jack of all trades" (lol, his words) but I dont see it that way. I don't blame his scepticism, because I know where it comes from: I've always tried so many different things, gone in so many directions, and am always changing my mind about what I am going to do with my life, and so on. When I was younger, I went into gymnastics, drama, choir in school. I never stuck to any of them long term. I started piano lessons for 6 months, and quit. I then took 6 months of organ playing, and quit that too. And all this was before I turned 12!! I've done the whole TEFL thing, now I am doing a management traineeship, and ultimately, I hope to pursue journalism, but I have never regretted anything I've done, career/work wise. My TEFL certificate may have cost me 800 quid, but the job it got me, paid me like 5 times that amount, so I never lost anything. I only gained more skills and professional experience.

So, yes, I think it's in my nature to just try out everything, and I like that. Goddamnit, I can't even stick to one country!! Life is too short to stick to one hobby, one profession and one calling ALL your life. I'm very serious about journalism, definitely, but I think one of the biggest draws of journalism is also because it is so flexible and ever-changing. So it suits me perfectly. I am only 22, and I will never get a chance to experience an AIESEC traineeship ever again, since commitments pile up, so yes I feel really really happy I made the decision to come to Cairo..... :)

Lastly, a small note about my flight here:
Qatar Airways is a little wierd. My 8 hour flight from Singapore to Doha, had no personal televisions, only those big mains screen hanging on the top of every 50 seats....yet my 4 hour flight from Doha to Cairo was amazingly fitted out with great screens, and plenty of viewing choices. I felt a bit peed off about that. Although i did manage to sleep the entire 8 hours, but its the principle that counts. I must have 200 films at my disposal!!

apartment hunting

Last night we went apartment hunting. One of the AIESEC members, Omar, hooked up with a broker who took us around to view the various flats. We were laughing because he first told us there were only 2 apartments to view, but when we had seen them, found them dismal and rejected them, he suddenly materialized with like another 6 apartments! Only about 2 were actually liveable, but also extremely expensive. They seem to hike up prices when they see foreigners, naturally, but what they don’t realize is that we are very poor foreigners! We’re AIESEC trainees! Anyway, our search continues tomorrow....

So I went for a walk in the afternoon, and I have to admit, it was a little intimidating. It’s dusty, there are men everywhere staring or whispering things to you, I don’t know the language and I really don’t know my way around. I’m not sure why I’m finding it harder to imagine going out alone here, it’s not like I’ve never traveled or been to a completely new city/country or wandered unknown neighborhoods on my own abroad. Of course, compared to my other trips abroad, I have probably done the least research into getting around here, I suppose because I’ve slipped into the comfort zone of knowing I’m here for 2-3 months and that there are so many people here who will take me around. Perhaps it’s the same as being in Dhaka, we don’t usually go out for walks to ‘explore’. You just don’t do that in Dhaka. But obviously I want to in Cairo, hopefully I will become more comfortable/independent with maneuvering the Cairean streets.

One thing: I would never drive in this city. I would get smashed to a pulp within 15mins. It’s crazy on the streets here! You have to be so aware, because somebody could bump into you at any minute, people don’t really follow lanes, cars stop randomly on the side of the road and man this city is jam packed with cars. I think I must’ve silently shrieked in the car like 5 times last night!

I had my first Egyptian meal yesterday! We went to El-Omda, a local fastfood chain, and I had Koshary which is a meatless dish with various layers of beans, rice, lentils and pasta with a tomato-cinnamon flavored sauce. Nice!

I’m meant to do a country presentation, sort of like an introduction of where I am from etc, and frankly, I am a little confused about what country to represent! I’m officially representing the UK here because my AIESEC local community is UCL/SOAS, Uni of London….but to be honest, when it comes to cultural exchange between the UK and Egypt, I’m not sure I would be that helpful! And I did grow up in Singapore, but I don’t have any idea of what life is like in Singapore today, I don’t even know the AIESEC there. It’s funny because when I chat to others here, I naturally compare my life or how things are in my country compared to here, and I find myself rotating information about London, Singapore and Dhaka. It must be confusing for those I speak to! Culturally I find myself mentioning Bangladesh the most naturally….so maybe I will do a Bangladesh presentation. Or maybe I’ll just do a bit about all 3 countries!

Welcome to Egypt

Location: Cairo!

I was looking out the window as we drove into town from the airport, and it just felt so surreal. I cant believe I am in Cairo. My first time on the continent of Africa! Also the first time in 10 years exactly, that I am back in the Middle East – and of course – my first time in Egypt! :D

I am currently crashing with some of the other trainees, as I haven’t got a place of my own yet, so last night I slept in the living room of a Mexican, a Canadian and a Pakistani, all AIESEC trainees, sharing a flat in Mohie El Din. Ive already met loads of people, especially other trainees (which there are so many of!) and everyone is really friendly and trying to settle me in as much as possible.

I haven’t seen much of Cairo as yet, yesterday was spent in a half comatose state, May picked me up from the airport, took me back to her home where I met her mum, then we went and dropped my bags off at the flat, and then I was whisked off to spend the evening chilling in the apartment of one of the trainees, eating pizza (apparently you can get ANYTHING delivered here, in any quantity, even 1 small aubergine if need be!), watching the Producers and just chatting to everyone.

I do however have my very own Cairo mobile number. Yay!

First impressions: funnily enough, Cairo reminds me of Dhaka. Besides the odd ancient-ruin-esque sites we drove past on the way back from the airport, so far I am drawing plenty of parallels between life in Dhaka and Cairo. I got out of May’s car and it even smelt like Dhaka (not in the bad sense)! Of course I shouldn’t be speaking too soon, it hasn’t even been 24 hours since I arrived, but I spent some time talking to May about our cultures and the intricacies of being Bengali and Egyptian, and we found many a similarity.

Oh and I just found like 10mins ago, that where I am crashing at the mo, is in Giza, which puts us 20mins away from the Pyramids! I find that so thrilling! I am so tempted to run out of the flat now, and leg it there and have a look, but I shall control myself. A little at a time. Plus, if I did that, I would most likely get immensely lost!

Right now everyone is either working or in uni, and as I haven’t started work yet, I am chilling in the flat on my own. I might go for a walk later, check out the neighbourhood. Later tonight we are going to go apartment-hunting, and I am going to meet my future flat mates.

Bye-bye Singapore, Hello Cairo!!!

Right. So where do I begin? This has all happened so bloody fast!!

On Monday, I got an email from AIESEC in Cairo, saying there was a TRAINEESHIP on offer, for 2 months, web-designing for a huge international telecommunications company in Cairo [yeah I dont think its wise to display what company I am with!] ............. and would I be able to fly down for it asap? I did the phone interview on Wednesday, got accepted that very night and today I confirmed my flight for Monday morning!!!!!!!!!

I cant believe it, I'm actually going to Cairo!!! I haven't even managed to get over my jet lag since arriving in Singapore and I am already leaving! lol! Sorry, Singapore, looks like job-hunting here will have to be put off for now! .....All these months, searching and waiting for the right traineeship, and hoping it would be in Cairo.....and it's all worked out all so suddenly!! I am really all so very overwhelmed!

Right so I have a billion different things to do at the moment, so can't write a long, rambling blog entry about how bloody excited and ecstatic I am about going. But! I will try to keep everyone updated as much as possible.

ALL, and I mean, ALL of you have to come visit me! We'll go camping in the desert! We'll go play hide and seek around the pyramids! We'll do everything! Yaaaaaay!!!! :D

What's that behind you?

Location: Singapore

The other night, Xeina came over and we got rented out some DVDs to watch. The first one was The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Watched it till the end.....and now I am totally creeped out.

Our house is kinda big. It's spread out over 3 floors, and my bedrooms on the 3rd floor. And it's just me, mum and dad living here. Mum and Dad go to sleep at like some ungodly hour of 11pm every night, and I stay up all alone until 6am every night, due to a lethal combination of regular insomnia, jet lag and a generally nocturnal disposition. Leaving me all.alone.in.the.middle.of.the.deadly.night.

I also have an unusually unhealthy imagination. Combined with a sadistic desire to scare myself silly, and subsequently regret the consequences, my every turn in this house is filled with dread, espeically since watching Emily Rose.

Why am I even admitting this to the world, I do not know. I'm 22 years old admitting that sometimes, I'm still a little scared of the dark. Isn't that just ridiculously mind-blowingly stupid?

I know though, that, after a few days, when the images from this movie have slowly ebbed away out of my mind, I will resume normal activity in our house, without constantly staring too deeply into every dark corner, and imagining that the hairs on the back of my neck are standing.

But I really sincerely believe sometimes, there are things to be afraid of. Perhaps, not in my own house, but in this world, definitely.

I liked the film, Emily Rose. It handled the concept of the spiritual world in an interesting manner, for a spook film. It displayed the debate between scientific and spiritual explanations of the occult, which, instead of deadening the world of spirits to the viewer, made it seem all the more scary. And the ending was most fascinating. The girl who eventually dies, believes that her death will result in a positive ending, which is that if, because of her, some people start believing in the devil, how can they not believe in God? Which is so true. Apparently, it is a true story, and many now revere this young lady's grave like that of a saint's.

This movie portrayed the possession of Emily Rose by something truly and purely evil. Not a human evil. Not the kind of evil that kills hundreds in a country during a genocide, because of something like racism. But a pure evil, an evil existing in mere opposition to goodness. And the thing is, I got even more spooked when I recalled an event that occurred in the home of my mother's bestfriend. And scarily enough, the details of this real life event mirror the movie a bit too similarly.

Basically, my mum's bestfriend, Aunty Jasmine had just hired a new maid from Bangladesh to live and work in their family apartment. One day, she started acting really crazy, threatening them, saying she had poisoned their dinner and so on. They got totally freaked out, and called a bomoh (a Malay priest who specialises in Exorcisms), and the next day he was told to come to their flat. Apparently, when he tried doing so the next day, he kept getting lost trying to find the flat. They lived in a HDB block of apartments, which btw, are the most common form of housing here in Singapore. You just dont get lost. You'd have to be stupid. In the film, as well, the Father who was meant to do the exorcism the next day, kept getting spooked out the night before, as though 'they' were attempting to stop him from doing the exorcism the next day. Anyway, the bomoh came, did the exorcism, and aparrently, found that there were 3 jinns posessing her. (Jinns are what Muslims believe in, instead of ghosts, spirits etc). In the film, Emily Rose had 6 demons inside her.

This is my mum's bestfriend's story. So it's quite close to home. But at the same time, I always think, heck I've never seen anything myself...so why act like such a scaredy cat? Or am I speaking too soon? [Nevermind that we grew up in Singapore reading a healthy dose of 'Singapore Ghost Stories', and I spent all summer last year listening to Javed Bhai's Jinn stories when he was visiting us here, my imagination is running to Timbuktu......]

[I think....when you are also bored, and sitting at home, waiting to find a job.....your imagination runs wilder than it normally would! (I shall take solace in that!)]

watch this and you will never ever need a man in your life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GWPOPSXGYI