eudaimonia & anagnorisis

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)