21 December 2006

Apparently, "preparing the apartment for the arrival of my parents" really meant rearranging the crap piled under my mattress to make it a bit less...well...a bit more... how it's supposed to be.

17 December 2006

this is not actual update, for there are many things worth updating about and the inconvienence of final exams to tend to first. but my newest roomate just started this list and it was simply too funny to not post immediately. enjoy.

you know you have adjusted to living in cairo when...
1. you stop converting to US dollars, and therefore find a 25LE meal wicked expensive.
2. all the places that deliver food have you in their database.
3. you stop noticing the heaping piles of garbage on the sides of the street.
4. the Costa Coffee staff knows you name and what you want before you order.
5. you start thinking American cops are puny because they don't have AK47s.
6. you stop being picky about cleanliness of your food and choice of resteraunt.
7. 5LE (1 dollar) seems like an unjustifiable expense for koshary when there is felafel for 50piasters (50cents) on the next corner.
8. you blow your nose and the kleenex is black.
9. you feel like the videogame Frogger while crossing the street.
10. you say "laa" (no) and "iowa" (yes) and "inshaAllah" and "bes" (but) when you are speaking English.
11. you become nonchalant about flies and fruit.
12. young people of different sexes holding hands in the street seems kind of scandelous.
13. rain seems to inhibit life from running normally.
14. you stop being suprised when your "tan" washes off in the shower.
15. you wake up, or are simply alarmed, when cars STOP honking their horns.
16. you start wondering which headscarf would look best on you.
17, you see a dollar in your drawer and think, "what's that?"
18. you're suprised when the sky is blue.
19. you become deeply excited when you find a star or two in the night sky.
20. you want to cover "half-naked" tourists walking down the street.
21. stray cats, bats, beetles, and rats are considered local wild life.
22. you're confused when you walk into a grochery store with aisles.
23. you see a rooftop without trash piled high or impromtu shacks or tons of dusty satelite dishes and wonder what's wrong with the building.
24. you are suprised by freshly-painted, and therefore clean, buildings.
25. you think the US is mean for limiting how many employees can work in any giving business.
26. you see a political protest and wonder why the police haven't arrive yet.
27. you see a political protest of approximately 50 people and aren't suprised to see three times as many police officers.
28. you start recognizing the random people on the street, like men at the makeshift tama3a breakfast stands, the kleenex women, and the other "usual street folk" who share your daily routes.
29. you stop using a watch because the daily calls to prayer let you know what time it is.
30. you're no longer concerned about you're hair falling out.
31. you laugh and ask 'why?' when people tell you not to drink the tap water.
32. you're suprised when electronics work, or a probem is fixed within an hour, or something happens on time.
33. having a bigMac or mochaLatte delivered to your door no longer seems lazy or exotic.

and some personal additions...

34. when "fi aie?" and "aie da?" rolls off your tongue quickly and without thinking if you encounter reckless drivers, tempestuous metro riders, or perverted men on the street.
35. "yanni" finds its way into your daily lexicon.
36. when a problem arises, you scan your cellphone for relevant "contacts"
37. sleeping in on a sunday seems weird.
38. you stop asking what the cost is and just give the the taksi driver or store clerk your money with a pleasant 'ma3salama'
39. waking up before 8a or sleeping before midnight seems absurdly early.
40. the tinyest discrepancy becomes a community controvery or passionate argument.
41. western music is a treat to your ears and makes you feel rebellious.
42. you wonder when you can buy a najar or burqua.
43. people washing "their concrete" no longer seems weird.
44. the phrase "non-smoking section" provokes thoughts like, "impossible - really?"
45. you can bargain the vendors at theKhan down by 100s.

12 December 2006

scrutinizing the difference between 'western human interaction' and its arab counterpart has been a trend in my time here, and ruminating about the limited facility to express the whole idea of love in the arabic language has been the hot topic of late. today i encountered the best example. my parents got me a 12-language pocket translator for christmas (thanks!) and while avoiding studying today i was browsing thru the italian phrases for my upcoming adventure. i found one catergory deep in the 'emotions' subcatergory of the 'conversational phases' section called "expressions of love". i continued to scroll past phrases like (i kid you not), "shall we dance together?" "you're eyes are very beautiful", "shall we go to the resteraunt together?", "shall we go to the hotel together?", to "i have never seen a girl as sexy as you" in italian. finding this absolutely hysterical that someone could actually use this little device to get laid while travelling, i switched over to the french mode to test the machine's accuracy. much to my suprise, the phrases translated almost perfectly, save the use of formal pronouns. out of curiousity, i switch to the arabic mode and i found:
"it is really nice to meet you".
one, single, poorly-translated phrase in place of the dozen or so available in the romance languages (perhaps i understand this name better now). hahahahahaah. priceless.

11 December 2006

Life (not just for me, but for everyone around me) lately has been like a sinusoidal graph with lots of complicated variables. Everything is making positive progression, but it seems lots of problematic outliers are decorating our domain.

Our flat got broken into and while nothing of importance was taken and there was no genuine risk at hand, it is still uncomfortable to know that our safety was second guessed. Ali and Amanda had an even more alarming encounter in their building and we agree that there is a BIG difference between questionable safety on the streets or while traveling and questionable safety in your own home. In retrospect, the story is kind of funny: One of the roof-dwelling children managed to remove the steel bar on the inside of our kitchen door (how I still have NO idea) and proceeded to take a bottle of Sasha’s perfume and her broken cell phone, and leave a cat in our living room. After several hours of detective-style hypothesizing, the assistance of Mai, our landlord, and Sameh, and several sharp conversations in Arabic that were lost in translation and coated with incompatible social norms, we now have a lovely padlock on our kitchen door and a returned - albeit critical - sense of security.Unfortunately, the mini-robbery ordeal will simply be added to the subconcious collection of antiEgypt thoughts that we pile in the back of our minds.

When I first got to Egypt I met with an AUC friend who studied at AU last year and I asked her to give me advice. She said DEFINITELY stay for a year. Her explaination was that Fall semester students arrive and right when they start to adjust, Ramandan comes and unroots their fragile sense of normalcy, then once they've become accustomed to Ramandan schedule, it ends and they are thrust into a different scedule, and once they readjust to that it seems the stress of midterms final exams and the inevitable homesickness from western hoildays magnifiy moments of helplessness or frustration with Cairo, either based on language or gender or trival details. So, they are stoked to get home and leave Egypt on a bad note. Whereas full-year students follow the same pattern, but have four more months to decipher their frustrations and overcome helplessness, ultimately leaving Egypt with a bit more appreciation to be American but tons of happy memories and plans to return to masr gameela when possible. I thank her now for her advice that has proven to be impeccably true. While we - including myself! - are all irrationally excited for visits home or at least Europe - we will miss our humble cairene abodes and happily return to our quirky little lifestyles in february.

And on a similar tangent of advice... Over tea with Madison in our kitchen the other night, I came up with a brilliantly simple but really rewarding idea. I realized most of the study abroad students have hiLARious stories - some bizzarre, some unbeilivable, some distrubing, some that simply epitomize the 'clash of cultures', and it's a shame to let this stories linger between small groups of friends or hidden in blogs. SO! I am going to create (with the help, inshaallah, of other study abroad folk) an anthropology of anecdotes about living in Cairo. Since I am taking a Creative Writing course (in rebellion of traditional requirements and much to the chagrin of my advisors, i'm sure) i will have time to play with it and it won't be considered procrastination anymore! The chapters thus far include...

upon arrival. hijinks of living in a cairene apartment. traffic and taxis. how many times a week it is possible to eat koshary. getting to Upper Egypt. Khan alKhalili and other misadventures in bargaining. having tits in cairo. Ramadan 101. Lost in translation. you know you miss the US, when... Being Smitten in Egypt. Somewhere between tourist and local. and... Only in Egypt.


Who knows what will come out of it, but I'm stoked.

Annnnd - of course! - there are the impending travel plans that dance along the not-so-far-away horizon. Boast not about tomorrow, for we never know what a day may bring... But, inshaAllah, an adventure to Upper Egypt to the Sinai and then to Alexandria awaits my parents and I, but only after 10 days in Italy and New Year's Eve in Paris with my ro7i gameel! I am too lucky, alhamdulila.

ali: did you just go to the bathroom?
me: yep. there is toilet paper.
ali: awesome
(you know you have grown accustomed to living in cairo when the prescence of toilet paper in public bathroom suprises you slightly, but also brings you joy)

sasha: you know, we've got mohammed at the register and ahmed on the phone and the christian guy in the back trying to find the box...
(one brief moment in a hysterical diatriable about the inefficacy of stores in Cairo, lol)

05 December 2006

Ahlan ya December, and the pre-finals blog paralysis that comes with it...

@Costa:
me: why did you chose to study in Cairo?
sash: to study Islam in a traditional environment, ironically.
me: hah. ooh the things we wish for.
sash: yea but this isn't traditional. this is hyperpsychotic gender, race, and class stratification.

@Ali's Image Pharmacy:
man: thilatha wa nus
me: mashy. lazem...bank... (proceed to explain that i'll be right back in broken arabish)
man: (understands but seems confused) mashy.
(several minutes later, i return and hand the man 350 pounds, which is like $60, to which he responded with a huuuuuuge fit of laughter and said)
man: thilatha wa nus. mish thitha mia wa nus!
me: laa-aa!
man: iowa. three and half pounds.
me: fil mish mish!
man: haha, you were going to pay 350 pounds?
me: min amrika, da grali awi...
man: hahaha.... good bye, come again...haha.
me: masalama (feeling like such an idiot)