Yikes!

The ice at the geographic North Pole could entirely melt this summer. Could melt. Not will melt. But if it does, it'd be pretty darn weird. The National Snow and Ice Data Center has some interesting maps.

Mount Sinai: A religious experience

"The" Burning Bush. Funny story about the burning bush--no one knows where the original one was. This picture is of a bush of a related genus or species of the supposed actual burning bush. So, like the sheep we tourists are, we all took pictures of this bush inside Saint Katherine's monastery. So, I give you The Burning Bush!


Chapel at the summit of Sinai ("Mount Moses"). Sadly, it was boarded up. I hoped for some religious experience at the top of the holy mountain, but the monks of St. Katherine's didn't provide it (although I'm sure they could've. They missed an opportunity here). Instead, a Muslim classmate of mine sang the morning prayer (I'm glad he did it--he gave a beautiful call), and about a half hour later a group of Colombian Christians sang some prayers in Spanish. Listening to people pubicly express their different faiths amidst groups of complete strangers, who were of different faiths, was actually kind of inspiring.


Sunrise at Sinai. I waited almost 2 hours at the top for this picture, but those 2 hours were actually better than sunrise. You're at the top of your own world, the stars and the moon bright and clear in the pitch black sky. There is no light at the top of Sinai, and nothing around but other mountains, but you still have plenty of light. There is no sound at the top. No wind, no noise from planes, no birds chirping. No sound at all. You can hear yourself think, and there's enough space at the top (if you're the first of the night to summit, as we were) to go off on your own and think. I definitely said a quick prayer of thanks for the opportunity to have this experience. The best part of the hike was the contrast between the sparklingly bright stars and the moon and the clarity of the night sky, and the emptiness (and darkness) of the rest of the nightscape as we hiked (and waited at the summit).

(Increased global demand) + (oil production at full capacity) + (slumping stock markets) + (saber-rattling) = Skyrocketing gas prices

Prices rise in response to Libyan threat to cut production (Libya is responsible for 2% of world production) in response to US law.

$143 per barrel of oil.

Israel's dry run against Iran drove prices higher.

Way to help push the Middle East towards to the brink of war, Greece.

This graph kind of puts today's prices in perspective. The graph is denominated in 2006 US Dollars. On 9/11, the median world price was $26.90. Today, oil is trading at $143 per barrel. Simply amazing.

Uh-oh, January can't come fast enough....

Another foreign policy gem from Crazy Uncle Dick Cheney.

An AMAZING weekend!

Just got back from an incredible weekend. This post won't be long, but I'll blog more tomorrow. Just wanted to quickly say that hiking Mount Sinai at 2AM was incredible. 5 of us summited in 1 hour 45 minutes, then spent the next hour and a half waiting for sunrise. Sunrise was gorgeous! Sharm El Sheik was wonderful--right now any description I could give would do it justice. i snorkeled, rode ATVs in the desert, gorged myself at the breakfast buffet, and generally just relaxed. 48 hours in sharm recharged my batteries. now i'm ready to push on through finals, which start for me next wednesday (july 9).

more to come tomorrow

Funny phrases I heard today at Khan El Khalili

Today, Nabil, Nazia & I skipped classes and went to Khan El Khalili, the famous bazaar in Cairo. Relax Dad, I'm allowed to skip 4 sessions of each class this summer and these were the first (and probably the only, especially since next week is the final week of classes) classes I've skipped. This was my first trip to the bazaar, but I'd been told to go in small groups if you want to survive the constant pressure from vendors. So our group was perfect--small, fun and efficient.

The vendors will say anything to lure you into their stores. This is a collection of the funniest & most clever phrases I heard today:

"Hey, lucky guy, come here and take a look!" (said because I was walking with Nazia)
"Hey, Arafat!" (said because I was wearing a keffieya like Yassir Arafat's)
"What can I do to get you to spend your money?"
"I don't know what you're looking for, but I have it!"
"Everything's free!"
"You make me very happy if you take a look!"
"Hey, Rambo, come take a look!"

Breaking news

Proof that a Gourlis graduated from an Ivy League school is up on Snapfish.

Congrats again, Beth!

For the Conservatives on this trip (there are a few)

Pictures...

...of Alexandria and Luxor are now up. I still need to develop 4 rolls from Luxor, which I'll try to do before we leave Thursday at 2AM, but I make no promises. Otherwise, I'm caught up!

Sharm El Sheikh (a.k.a. Paradise)

The majority of our group leaves Cairo Thursday morning at 2AM for St. Catherine's Monastery, Mt. Sinai, and Sharm El Sheikh until Sunday afternoon. This weekend will likely be the highlight of the trip for me.

We're getting to St. Catherine's Monastery by a 7 hour bus ride. We'll arrive around 9am, tour the monastery and maybe some of the town, and then rest up during the afternoon/evening. At 2AM, we leave our hotel to hike Mount Sinai (elevation 7,500 feet), which we'll summit at sunrise. We're apparently doing a Bedouin tent experience afterwards. The combination of the hike and tent experience is supposed to make for a spiritually-moving experience. Which is good, because who can't use more of the Holy Spirit?

Friday afternoon it's off to the luxury resort of Sharm El Sheikh (where Dubya Bush was recently for a world economic (I think) summit). Check out the Photo Gallery on our hotel's website (click "Photo Gallery on the left side, in the middle of the page). The Sofitel hotel chain is apparently uber-luxurious. On tap for me in Sharm are a desert ATV tour and scuba diving off a boat into a coral reef (they'll certify me before I dive, so don't worry Elena). Apparently Sharm has the world's #1 dive site (which I obviously won't dive because it's for advanced divers).

Oddly enough, all the prices are denominated in Euros. Egyptian law was recently changed to require foreign travellers to pay for all hotel and some other travel expenses in foreign currency. The fact that all the prices are listed in Euros may show the prevalence of European travellers (there is talk that Sharm has topless beaches), or it may show how weak the Dollar is. Or maybe it's just a weird quirk.

Anyway, I'm pumped about this weekend, even though I could easily spend $500!

Suggested reading...and yes, there will be a quiz later

Thanks to Tatiana for bringing up this article in the Economist. You might be interested in reading it. I will be reading it later today. Thanks Tatiana!

Thanks, Egypt! (I think)

I've lost an inch off my waist, because I can now comfortably use the next hole in my belt, which is an inch from the hole I was using in May. I guess I should be grateful, but given how I've lost the weight, I'm not sure it was a good tradeoff for me.

Apologies for my negligence

I downloaded Adobe Photoshop Express, and hoped to edit some of my Alexandria pictures before uploading them to Snapfish. Obviously, that hasn't happened yet. So I'm posting Alexandria pictures, along with Luxor pictures today. Luxor pics are already up. I'll try to edit them for clarity soon, but you'll get the basic picture (hahaha, pun intended).

Apologies for the delay.

A weather comparison

7 day Boston forecast
Tuesday's high: 82

7 day DC forecast
Tuesday's high: 87

5 day Cairo forecast
Tuesday's high: 96

Pictures from Luxor

Beautiful picture/hieroglyphics

Tombs


Colossi of Memnon


Our faluka couldn't sail upstream because of a lack of wind, so our boat, and about 7others, tied to a small tug which brought us all upstream. The white tourists on the other boats looked so uncomfortable/nervous as they tied to the tug.


"Banana Island," the destination of our evening Nile faluka cruise, where we disembarked and ate bananas/bought souvenirs/saw & heard the most bizarre bird.

Staples of the Egyptian diet

My usual breakfast here: PB&J and chocolate milk. Yum!

Another shameless plug for an expensive digital camera

On Saturday in Luxor I paid 135 EGP for an "air-conditioned" minibus (the AC sucked...it was cooler outside...yup 110 degrees was cooler), a tour guide, and admission fees to 3 sites. I also paid 130 EGP for 2 rolls (36 exposures each) of Kodak 400 speed color film at the Valley of the Kings. The vendor started our negotiation by asking for 500 EGP for the 2 rolls. That's about $100 USD for 2 rolls of film. Because I "was such a hard man," the vendor sold them to me for 130 EGP. On Friday at Karnak Temple I paid 30 EGP per roll. Film here seems to be hard to find for less than about $3-5 USD per roll. In Zamalek the Kodak store hasn't always stocked it. But I can count on finding it at tourist destinations, at ridiculous prices.

So feel free to "donate" a nice digital camera!

48 hours in Luxor....amazing!

This weekend, 10 of us flew to Luxor, Egypt and stayed in the Sheraton for 2 nights. Flight: $113 roundtrip. Hotel: $67 (since 2 of us are sharing a room for 2 nights, we each pay $67). Total cost: $180. Which is incredibly, especially since we booked the trip on Monday and left Thursday.

Luxor is the site of many Pharaonic ruins, including the Temple of Luxor, the Karnak Temple, and the Valley of the Kings.

Luxor straddles the Nile. Most of the tourist attractions are on the West Bank. We stayed in the Sheraton on the East Bank. As we approached the Luxor International Airport after 50 minutes in the air, we noticed that the city lights on either side of the Nile extended only a few blocks. Luxor is small town Egypt. The entire town is devoted to tourism and farming. Since it's the offseason for tourists, we were essentially the only game in town this weekend. Which meant that every taxi and horse-drawn carriage driver, and every faluka (sailboat) captain, and every street vendor, harassed us to patronize them. So even making our way a few blocks from our sisha cafe to the Sheraton was painful. But then again, being harassed by street vendors isn't the worst thing in the world.

Luxor was beautiful. It was the most beautiful and most amazing place I've been to in Egypt. I loved the small town feel. What I wasn't prepared for, and what turned out to be the most alluring part of Luxor was the marked contrast between Luxor's desert and Luxor's farmland. I hope my pictures do this contrast justice, because I could literally stand on high ground in the desert part of Luxor and see the farmland part of Luxor a quarter mile away. And we're talking fertile farmland--small parcels of land farmed the traditional way by families living in 1 room shacks. After we crossed the only bridge in Luxor (built in 2002 by the way) by car/minibus each day, we drove through the farmland to reach the desert. Seeing the farmers in action was humbling because they used very labor-intensive procedures and not many tools you'd expect to see in the States (i.e. i saw many pipes leading from the irrigation canals to a water pump which irrigated the crops, and many farmers doing back-breaking work. I'm sure Dad could appreciate these scenes.) If I could recommend any city in Egypt, I'd recommend a few days in Luxor. Coming from the craziness and pollution in Cairo, 48 hours in Luxor did wonders for my peace of mind (and my lungs). At some of the sites we visited, I could actually hear myself think.

Luxor was about 110 degrees both days, and we toured sites from about 9-3 each day. The heat wasn't that bad because Luxor is in the desert, which obviously is quite dry. The most detrimental effect the heat had was that it repeatedly turned my cold 1.5L of water into shower-hot water in about 30 minutes.

To wrap up this post, I had a wonderful weekend. I skipped Sunday's tour of the Suez Canal (which apparently was a disappointment because it wasn't as advertised) to sleep, but the tradeoff was well worth it. Until next time, salaamu aleykum!

Dinner in al-Azhar Park Thursday & Imperial Boat (again)

I think this post catches me up on last week's events. Sorry that my recent posts are out of chronological order, but that's how my mind works these days. Thursday night we went to dinner inside al-Azhar Park (named after the mosque we visited that morning). The Park was built on a former dump site thanks to several grants from Islamic charities, and is easily the most beautiful place I've been to in Cairo (when I say "beautiful," I mean in the American sense of crisp design and neatly manicured lawns and graceful waterfalls, etc. The pyramids were of course beautiful too, but in an entirely different sense.)

We arrived just in time to see the sun set over Cairo. We were high enough up to have great vistas on 2 sides, including one over the City of the Dead. We could also see the nearby Citadel. Watching sunset over the City of the Dead, and beyond that, over downtown Cairo, was gorgeous (I actually wanted to use the word "breathtaking" but I knew I'd get too much grief for using that word).

The Park


The Citadel


Dinner was fancy, but the food was just okay (it's getting very hard for me to get excited about any food in Egypt).

Cairo at night. When I turn off the flash on my digital camera at night, the shutter has to stay open longer to let enough light in to take the picture. Because I can't hold the camera perfectly still, I end up with pictures like this. The streaks I guess show how much, and in what pattern, my hands moved while I was pressing the button to take the picture.


A fun picture from Imperial Boat/ Club Purple later that night:

al-Azhar Mosque

Will and Mohammad Ali outside the mosque in their distasha (or abaya)


The al-Azhar mosque is the oldest university in the world. We visited on Thursday morning, and while it isn't the most ornate or the most beautiful mosque in Egypt, I was in awe, probably because it's the first mosque I've ever been to. I won't say much about the mosque because I don't have very much to add to the link above. But I enjoyed spending about an hour there, and I'm planning to visit some of Cairo's other mosques to take pictures and absorb the atmosphere.

Not what one might expect to see in a mosque:


This place was awe-inspiring. The rest of the pictures are up on Snapfish in the al- Azhar album.

USMC: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

After dinner at the Citadel View restaurant on Thursday, 10 of us went with our USMC classmate to the US Embassy in Cairo where we drank a few American beers, socialized and danced with the Marine detachment assigned to the Embassy. It was a badass night. While we were inside the walls for only an hour, being admitted through security and walking through the compound into the Marine residence was pretty amazing. Plenty of Egyptians who "knew everyone inside" weren't allowed inside. So actually being inside the US compound was a privilege in itself. While I don't remember what the inside of the compound looked like (probably because I kept thinking, "Holy shit, I'm inside a US Embassy in another country!"), I do remember the feeling of awe I had just walking inside the walls. It was a really fun party--on an open-air roof deck no less.

Also, not having any military background, or any recent exposure to military personnel now that I've stopped doing construction work, it was a departure from the norm for me to be partying with Marines.

At the risk of sounding opportunistic, here's a big thank you to the Marines for all you do for our country! (And thanks for throwing a fun party!)

Boutros-Boutros who?

Thursday, the American Society of International Law and the European Society of International Law are having a meeting at AUC, and somehow, the 52 American study abroad students are right in the middle of things. We're having lunch & a networking session with the group. Boutros Boutros Ghali, the 6th UN Secretary General and a native Egyptian, was supposed to talk to us privately over dinner, but he cancelled. Rumor around the Program is that he agreed to have dinner with us, but cancelled when he learned that we were students.

Whatever. I'm so over Boutros Boutros Ghali.

Lunch at "Taverna" in Alex

3 of us ordered pies (also called Egyptian pancakes, and feteers. Otherwise known as calzones). A man named Samir made our pies, and he put on a little show doing so. A modest tribute to Samir; my (sausage, cheese, green & red pepper) pie was one of the most delicious things I've eaten here.

Our room in Alex was ridiculous

On the Alex trip, Nabil and I were fortunate enough to get a corner room, which was enormous. The 2 rooms next to ours were miniscule by comparison. Even though the room was huge, our beds were almost on top of each other, which made for awkward good night moments.



Our balcony was sweet. Even though our room was on the side of the hotel (i.e. it didn't face the street and the sea), we still had a partial Mediterranean Sea view. Sitting out on the balcony on Saturday night was amazing--there was a breeze off the sea, which filled our nostrils with the smell of the sea; the night was cool, which was a welcome change from a day on the beach.

US gives Palestinians Fulbright Awards; Israel won't let the Palestinians leave

The timeline:
1. US awards 7 Palestinians from Gaza Fulbrights. State Dept. conducts extensive security reviews of the students, finds each student not to be a threat.
2. Israel won't let the Palestinians leave, citing "security threats."
3. US State Dept. cancels all 7 students' Fulbrights.
4. US State Dept. reinstates all 7 students' Fulbrights.
5. Israel still won't let 3 students leave Gaza.

Israel is our "staunchest ally in the Middle East," and yet even when we conduct our own security investigations on these students, it's still not good enough for Israel. Somehow Israel knows something about these 3 students that the US, the global superpower, doesn't. Then our "ally" tells us what to do (i.e. cancel the Fulbrights). Condi Rice said it best: “If you cannot engage young people and give complete horizons to their expectations and their dreams, I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine."

One of the 7 students, who wanted to get an MBA in the US, said: "If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society...I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?"

It's time Israel end its practice of collective punishment of innocent Palestinians.

News coverage:
Rice Says Houses Hurt Mideast Talks. NYT 6/16/08
The Lesson of the Fulbright Seven. NYT 6/8/08
Israel to Loosen Limits on Gaza Scholars. NYT 6/6/08
State Dept. Reinstates Gaza Fulbright Grants. NYT 6/2/08
US Withdraws Fulbright Grants to Gaza. NYT 5/30/08

Alexandria was phenomenal/Kodak employees are retarded

This past weekend, we went to Alexandria. Alexandria is northern Egypt's premier summer vacation destination. The city was named after Alexander the Great, and was briefly the capital of Greco-Roman Egypt. Today, the city has a very Mediterranean (as opposed to Egyptian) feel to it--architecturally and culturally. Alexandria is more socially conservative than Cairo due to the influx of rich Saudis who vacation there (isn't it interesting that Saudi vactioners could actually make the city more conservative just by their presence?)

We left Friday at 3pm and arrived in Alex (as Egyptians call it) around 6pm. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel 2 lanes from the Mediterranean Sea, where Nabil & I had a balcony view of the Sea. We spent Saturday on a private beach, relaxing and playing beach soccer. An unflattering shirtless picture of me playing soccer is making the rounds on Facebook. Sunday we toured the Roman Catacombs (which nobody seemed to know existed outside Rome), the Alexandria Library (President Mubarak can build a library, but he can't feed his people...), and my favorite site, Fort Qait Bay. The weekend was really busy, so I didn't get much of a chance to take the city in properly, but walking along the corniche next to the Mediterranean was peaceful and beautiful. The smell of the sea was so invigorating, and was a great contrast to the smell of car exhaust and dirt that I've gotten used to in Cairo.

I gave Kodak 4 rolls of film to develop and create CDs full of pictures. Kodak gave me 2 CDs back, and 2 rolls of blank film. I know I shot 4 rolls, which means that Kodak screwed up developing 2 rolls. So I'm never going back to this Kodak. If anyone wants to buy me a sweet $800 digital camera, Christmas is coming...

Pictures will be up soon.

PDA haters would love AUC

Do you hate public displays of affection (PDA)? Do you hate being subjected to watching a couple hug, or even hold hands, in public? Does the sight of a couple making out make you throw up in your mouth a little bit? Then move to Egypt, where PDA is prohibited by religious edict! During Orientation, one of the RAs told us that AUC strictly enforced a "no PDA" policy. I initially skoffed at that, thinking that the dorm staff had better things to do than stop American kids from holding hands in the courtyard. But when we came home from a club at 4am and were greeted by 12 idle security guards, I knew I was wrong. Last night I heard that the Director's Assistant, who's staying in the dorm with us, got yelled at for hugging his girlfriend (or special lady, or lady friend, or whatever she is) for too long. A dorm worker actually watched this guy hug his girl and determined that the hug lasted too long. Like the worker timed the hug and found its duration to be excessive. Incidentally, the dorm was built with USAID funding. If you hate PDA, get your Visa for Egypt.

Culture shock (or culture fatigue)

I've been mulling over writing this post for about a week now, and I think I've sorted through my thoughts enough to write a comprehensible post. For about the first 10 days in Cairo, I didn't have culture shock because I was too focused on just fitting in in this new culture. I dutifully greeted people in Arabic, boldly crossed streets by cutting off as many speeding cars as possible, and adventurously ate the local cuisine. About Day 10, that started to wear off. It's difficult to explain just how alien Cairo is from Woburn, or from DC, but I'll try.
1. The status of women. Women get catcalls and other sundry harassment here. Period. It's not an Islamic thing, or an Arab thing; the same behavior is probably tolerated from Italy to Afghanistan. But it's a reality nonetheless here, and it's one that really, really pisses me off. Women are expected to tolerate men accosting them on the street and telling them that they want to have sex with them. And they're supposed to tolerate men trying to rub their bodies against theirs. And women are supposed to tolerate cabbies trying to grope them as they exit cabs. This kind of "culture" isn't culture anywhere in the world. But what kills me is when I hear our guides tell women in our program to ignore the behavior, not to fight back because then the perverts will only escalate their behavior. And so our group of women has been cowed by the half-assed attitude towards sexual perversion that dominates in this country. Shame on our guides for giving such "advice." It seems like women here suffer death by a thousand indignities. It doesn't matter what women do to attempt to avoid the harassment. I've heard women in the program say things like, "I wore a headscarf and I still got harassed." As long as Egyptian women put up with this behavior, it will continue. As long as tourist guides tell women not to stand up for their dignity, the behavior will continue.
2. Nobody here actually works. The Egyptian government says that the unemployment rate is about 10%; academics put the figure much higher. To bring this point home, the first Friday I was here, a bunch of us went out to a club. When we came home at 4am, we were greeted by about 12 men sitting around or sleeping in our lobby. They were all security guards charged with a.) keeping the building secure, and; 2.) preventing men from sneaking into the women's side of the dorm, and vice versa. 12 men, most of whom were doing nothing. They were getting paid to sit around and do nothing! I could provide many more examples of people (read: men) being paid to "work," but they'd get repetitive pretty quickly. For about a week, I had been feeling almost suffocated by amount of people on the street, regardless of the time of day. After some reflection, I'm pretty sure that a big reason I feel like I never get a quiet moment in Cairo because there are 3 or 4 times the amount of workers just sitting on stools on the sidewalk watching me as I walk by. There are just too many people here for too few jobs, but rather than create new jobs, President Hosni Mubarak just pays people to essentially do nothing.
3. The food is terrible. If you were newly arrived in Cairo from the US, and you sat down on a bench in a busy square and just looked at the people around you, you'd probably notice how skinny the men are, and how overweight the women are. This obviously isn't true universally, but it's broadly true that most men I've seen are skinny, and that many women are overweight. I'd be willing to bet that the food is the prime factor that explains this trend. Lack of exercise would be my second guess. The diet here, like probably a lot of other developing world (read: poor) countries, consists mainly of carbohydrates. According to an article I read before I left, the average Egyptian family of 4 earns 400 EGP per month. At the current exchange rate of 5.34 USD, that means that the average Egyptian family subsists on $75 US dollars per month. $75 a month means that most Egyptians don't eat meat very often, and indeed an article in a magazine I read while waiting for my BBQ Burger in a trendy cafe in Zamalek tonight used the term "the average, non-meat-eating Egyptians." Anyway, the point is that Egyptians can probably pick out American students & tourists because, well, we just look different. And not just in a "we're white people" kind of way. We look healthy.

To wrap up this mammoth post, I thought you should know that this trip has shown me that Egypt is so much more than classes and weekend touring. Egypt is a developing world (formerly called 3rd world) country, and if you walked the streets of Cairo, you'd quickly figure that out. So, if you had been romanticizing Cairo as being a place you "have to visit," temper your romantic notions with 3rd world reality a little bit. Definitely visit for the pyramids, Alexandria and Luxor, but be prepared for what Egypt looks like on the days you're not touring.

The dessert table at dinner tonight!

Oil & Gas

At this point, I have no idea what we're discussing. I've done most of the reading, but we seem not to actually discuss it. Instead, our professor asks the most obscure questions to which we often have no answer because we're law students, not practitioners with lots of experience.

Bathrooms in Cairo are generally filthy,

finding one with multiple stalls is difficult, and finding a stall that still has toilet paper in it at mid-afternoon is nearly impossible. I can't count the number of times I've gone to 2 or 3 different bathrooms on campus (or in the dorm) just to find a stall with toilet paper. And with all these "employed" men sitting around, you'd think Egypt could manage to keep the bathrooms stocked with TP. But then you'd be wrong.

"If you like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain,

If you're not into yoga,
If you have half a brain,
If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the Cape
I'm the love that you've looked for
Write to me and escape."

One of my favorites, and a must for an iPod playlist for summer on the Cape.

Why am I blogging about this song? Because I just sang along to it at dinner at Crave in Zamalek, Egypt. Weird. Although Egypt also has dunes...

What to avoid when visiting the pyramids

Being invited to "take a picture in front of my camel" for 5 pounds by a man riding a camel and his non-camel-riding friend. Next thing you know, the two men have taken your camera to take a picture, and have put you on top of the camel. Then they lead you away from your group and charge you 50 pounds to get off the camel. Camels are probably too tall to just hop off without risking injury, especially with so many large rocks around the are where they lead you to rip you off. Camels must be forced to kneel down to let riders get on and off. Nabil smartly avoided this on Saturday, but I did get a couple of cool shots of him riding the camel.




The sweetheart who tried to rip Nabil off right after he got in the shot I was trying to get of the side of the pyramid.

An impressive picture

At Nabil's request, I'm posting a picture in which "he's doing something normal." Like standing in front of the Great Pyramid. With yours truly. We do this kind of thing everyday it seems.

ambulance chasers might have a chance here

i'm sitting here enjoying a 16 oz coffee (my first 16 oz coffee here; the rest have been tiny) and a warm cinnamon bun from cinnabon and the first thing that struck me when i left the store was how damn hot the coffee was. not just hot, or super hot, but skin-damagingly-hot (think: mcdonald's lawsuit in the '90s hot). as i carried it home on the 5 minute walk, i kept hoping it wouldn't spill and give my hand 3rd degree burns. maybe personal injury law is an undeveloped field in egypt?

8 EGP for sisha?! You're crazy!

a huge part of adjusting to life in Cairo is learning how much things cost. fortunately for us americans, the dollar is exchanging for about 5.34 EGP, so our money goes a lot further here than in the States. Beyond that, everything is cheap here! when we go to a cafe to have tea and smoke sisha, for example, a cup of loose tea and mint costs 8 EGP, and a hookah with flavored tobacco costs 3 EGP. since 2 or 3 people share a hookah, the cost of a hookah pipe can be as low as 30 cents per person. since we moved to Zamalek, the prices are higher, but not unbearably so. sisha now costs 8 EGP, but the cafe is much nicer and the hookahs are much cleaner. and we can go to a cafe across the street from the banks of the Nile.

strangely, i paid $5 USD for a 32 ounce Gatorade at a grocery the other day. as expensive as the Gatorade was, i think it's offset by the $12 USD a filet mignon on the menu at a really nice restaurant we went to Saturday. we're starting to adjust, complaining about falafel that costs more than 3 EGP, nice dinners that cost more than 40 EGP, and cab rides for more than 10 EGP. when you take a step back and reflect on where you come from, and how much these items would cost in your (real) life back home, it's amazingly humbling that you can come to this country full of so much history, and that has so much potential, and pay so very little for everyone.

One constant sickness

everday someone gets sick. it's a constant here. no one can pinpoint what causes it, except Wright, who swears that since he stopped brushing his teeth with tap water, he's felt fine. a couple of us have been wondering whether we're going to have upset stomachs and the like from now until we leave. even when the sickness isn't bad, being sick wears on you, especially when you're trying to tour & enjoy a new country. let's hope we figure this out soon so we can enjoy the next 5 weeks

Pictures are up

I've posted my pictures to Snapfish.com.
Username: cgourlis@gmail.com
Password: cairo.
I'll be posting all of my pictures here. Cheers!

I live with this guy...

From the other night's dance-off. Nabil thinks he's the Palestinian/Lebanese John Travolta from Grease. The pictures kind of speak for themselves, don't they?

Evil Charlie

Can't believe I forgot to mention this earlier, but there is another Charlie here! Charlie Wilkes, a rising 2nd year at Seton Hall. He's a funny guy, despite being an r-e-p-u-b-l-i-c-a-n, but I'm going to call him Eviil Charlie because there can only be one Charlie. Except at holidays at Elena's house.

Imperial Boat/ "Club Purple"

One of my friends here is an Egyptian from the northern coastal city of Alexandria (where we're spending next weekend at a resort), but she knows an awful lot about Cairo, and her fluency in Egyptian Arabic (known for its many colloquialisms) is a huge asset to our group. She finds out about events and places we should eat or visit just by talking to our waiters, hotel managers, dorm RAs.

Thursday night she helped us (read: translated for us) get into a dance club on a boat (on Zamalek Island, where most of the Westerners live, many of the nicest clubs and restaurants are located on boats anchored in the Nile). Around 15 of us went, and didn't have to pay the 150 EGP (Egyptian pound; about $30 USD) cover. We partied with lots of monied Egyptians, many of whom were drinking. A few of us were shocked by the bottles of Johnny Walker Black Label being shared by young men and women at tables, and at the bar.

We had fun drinking and dancing, but if the night had a downside, it was the willingness of the Egyptian bartenders to take advantage of inability to speak Arabic. The first person from our group to order a drink was charged 70 EGP (divide by 5.34, so about $12 USD) for a Heineken. After our friend called the bartender on how ridiculously expensive it was, the price quickly returned to its normal price of $35 EGP ($7 USD). The prices on my gin & tonics rose each time I ordered them: $38, $55, $70 EGP. who knows how much they really cost?!

The night's highlight was our dance-off contest, in which yours truly did not participate because of an old injury that just happened to strike at the exact moment it became my turn to jump into the dance circle. i really don't know what happened, but i feel fine today, ilhamdu lillaah (thank god)

What keeps me up at night

the bathrooms here, um, leave something to be desired. the shower is about 36 inches wide, with a little changing room between the curtain and the shower itself. i'm 5'9 and i have a hard time moving around in there; i have no idea how the bigger guys and girls get it done.

but the craziest thing i've seen here in Cairo is the, um, "added bonus" one gets with each toilet. in the Victoria Hotel, where we stayed last week, our toilet had a spray hose (think: the hose often attached to a kitchen sink) attached to it for washing off one's underside before using toilet paper. that was because one could use the hose if one wanted. here, some of the toilets have a hose, but some of them have something even more terrifying. it's also optional, but it's placement is... unsettling.