Picture Day: Castle by The Sea

Today is Picture Day. Every Monday I am supposed to look into all the pictures that I have taken, select some and post them in this blog.

Today we see some old pictures, taken during one of my school trips. It's been something like a decade and a half! This was in a very nice city on the Mediterranean sea, Alexandria. Those pictures were taken in Qaitbay citadel, which was built in the exact location of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

From Cairo

I know I haven't been writing much in this blog. I am trying to revive all my three blogs, but so far I probably succeeded with my Arabic blog only, which is a good start. Nothing happens overnight, especially changing our habits, or creating new ones. It's interesting how little control we have over our own selves, it's so easy for humans to be trapped in their very own habits, no matter how much they want to change and how well they know they should!

Anyway, to get myself going and committed, I designated a day every week to post pictures in my Arabic blog, so every Tuesday I remember that it's Pictures Day and I look into my collection (of only the pictures that I have taken myself) and post some. It's working well so far.

Today I am posting two pictures I have taken many years ago in Saladin Castle in Cairo, Egypt. It must have been more than 13 years now, they were taken during a school trip. The reason I didn't think of posting pictures regularly in this blog is that I don't have many pictures from Egypt, since this is an Egyptian Mind blog! I only have many pictures available from the time I had my digital camera. You know, it's easier. You take the pictures, download them to your computer, and no need to go print them. You also don't have to pay to take pictures, because when you took 'em before you had a digital, you had to buy prints, otherwise they'll be locked forever in the film!

However, I thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to do the same here, even if most of the pictures won't be Egyptian, until I go to Egypt with my digital camera! Well, truth is, they will still be Egyptian pictures, even if taken in America. You can say it's American places seen through an Egyptian Eye! So I guess my American pictures will have this very same label: Egyptian Eye!

Even though today is Tuesday, Pictures Day in this blog will be Monday of every week, insha'Allah (God willing). It's an attempt to save a blog from silence!

Best selling Egyptian singer

Here is a music clip of a very famous Egyptian singer, who is now "one of the highest selling Middle Eastern artists of all time" (Wikipedia).

I didn't chose one of his latest music videos. Instead, I have selected one that features many scenes from the heart of Egypt, mainly from the Nile river and Upper (southern) Egypt. I intend for this post to be the start of posting about and introducing Egyptian music to non-Arabs. The reason I say non-Arabs and not "non-Egyptians" is that Egyptian art-especially music, cinema and television-is very well known all over the Arab World. This is the main reason why the Egyptian dialect of the spoken Arabic is the most widely understood among all Arabs.

Here is the music video of the song Awedony, by Amr Diab.

Cairo

A picture I have taken in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, some years ago. This is one of the bridges connecting the Jazirah island to Giza. I didn't bring all my albums from Egypt, but I promise to take many more pictures the next time I go to Egypt and post them all here :)

Arabic Nobel

It was really nice to find some (a pretty limited number) Arabic books in Tompkins County Public Library. Yesterday I have finished a novel I borrowed for the Egyptian Nobel laureat Naguib Mahfouz, one of the greatest novelists of all times and languages. As with most Mahfouz work I have read, the novel has two levels: the story and all its events, extremely realist, and parallely the philosophical insights behind the story as a whole and behind various apparantly "innocent" phrases throughout the book. If you don't read Arabic, try one of Mahfouz translated novels, and let me know what you find in and out of the experience.