NOTE: BLOGGER IS BEING ANNOYING AND NOT LETTING ME POST PICTURES. boo.
So adventures in Tahrir square...AGAIN.
For some reason, my school decides to herd the staff in small groups 3-4 times a year to the passport/immigration office smack dab in the middle of sadat tahrir to renew our passport tourist visas.
While it may be considerred a welcome break from the classroom, I can ASSURE you, there is not ONE teacher who looks forward to this journey.
Not only is it in mid-morning rush-hour traffic (stretching a 20 minute ride into downtown into 2 hours), we are confined to a small van which i'm pretty sure has no shocks. So this, combined with the rush-hour traffic, downtown smog and the lack of..well...EVERYTHING related to safety (no traffic signals, lines on the road, speed limits, seatbelts) one can only imagine what could happen in the event of a collision...(which, miraculously- doesn't happen very often from what i have seen)
Anyway, tahrir square was quiet as usual with the exception of a few tents set up. No one really could expect that 2 days later the entire square would be littered with tear gas and egyptians in protests of the football riot tragedy that occured a year ago. (Then, the week after that, the anniversery of the revolution, which brought even more protesting to the square.)
Anyway, we get shuffled into this building that is STUFFED with people. I'm not even kidding you. People of all races, ages, shapes, colors and sizes are crammed into this huge building. We get herded into a smaller crowded room and wait in line here. Then we are shuffled to a hallway and told to wait there. Then sit down. Then stand up. We wait for awhile longer. The school lawyer who brought us asks us to stand in front of a counter for a bit. We wait here for about 45 minutes. (This is so the passport people can see us and confirm it is us in our passport pictures.) Smoking is allowed. I am standing next to someone puffing a smoke next to a small infant being cradled by a woman. It is loud and there are papers (confidential and not-so-confidential) scattered everywhere.
The system they have in place to record immigrants, visas, passports and the like is the same hard-copy paper system they have been using since the building opened (1920s?) Whatever works, i guess..
On the way home we grab some lunch at the local tahrir KFC and look at the creepy toys you can buy. All in all, a good morning in tahrir square.
So adventures in Tahrir square...AGAIN.
For some reason, my school decides to herd the staff in small groups 3-4 times a year to the passport/immigration office smack dab in the middle of sadat tahrir to renew our passport tourist visas.
While it may be considerred a welcome break from the classroom, I can ASSURE you, there is not ONE teacher who looks forward to this journey.
Not only is it in mid-morning rush-hour traffic (stretching a 20 minute ride into downtown into 2 hours), we are confined to a small van which i'm pretty sure has no shocks. So this, combined with the rush-hour traffic, downtown smog and the lack of..well...EVERYTHING related to safety (no traffic signals, lines on the road, speed limits, seatbelts) one can only imagine what could happen in the event of a collision...(which, miraculously- doesn't happen very often from what i have seen)
Anyway, tahrir square was quiet as usual with the exception of a few tents set up. No one really could expect that 2 days later the entire square would be littered with tear gas and egyptians in protests of the football riot tragedy that occured a year ago. (Then, the week after that, the anniversery of the revolution, which brought even more protesting to the square.)
The system they have in place to record immigrants, visas, passports and the like is the same hard-copy paper system they have been using since the building opened (1920s?) Whatever works, i guess..
On the way home we grab some lunch at the local tahrir KFC and look at the creepy toys you can buy. All in all, a good morning in tahrir square.
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