A bowab is a doorman, handyman, trashman, etc. in this culture. My bowab is named 'Gad.' I met a girl that used to live in the same apartment as I do. Apparently Gad tried to stop a fight a couple years ago and somehow 'accidentally' killed a man. The problem came when it was found out that the man that he killed was from the same village in upper Egypt and was from the opposing side in a long standing feud. She said the door was always locked and there were plenty of times when she had to wake him up to open the front door, only to find him sleeping with a sword.
oh, and apparently he likes to play this game where you chase each other around and grab at each others balls. these are true stories and this man is the security of my building.
life is good
Every single day I see something that is so amazing that my brain gets flooded and I can't think straight. So in an effort to appreciate each thing to its fullest I decided to start blogging about things I see in cairo each day. Today I noticed that Egyptians must think 78 degrees is quite cold as 1 in 5 seem to be wearing jackets, scarves, etc. I was sweating by the time I got to the bus station, but everyone else around me appeared to be cold. I ate my granola bar and yogurt drink and even 'cheers'd' a guy that was staring at me from 6 feet away.
as a side note, I like saying oddly offensive things in public situations in which there are no native english speakers. nothing says funny like ordering 'cocknipples' at a restaurant.
anyway, the guy that sat next to me on the bus was wearing a canadian tuxedo and felt the need to read the koran and sing his prayers. This is one of those things that gets old really fast but you can't do anything about it. All you can really do is pray about it and hope that your god is stronger, cooler, or has more of a respect for people around him than this guys god.
Last weekend I got into a cab for an expected 40 minute ride (this costs ~$5). The driver had no cassette player or radio so he did what anyone would do in this situation...he selected a ringtone, let it play, chose another one, let it play, etc etc. occasionally he'd come back to one he liked but i think he had a bit of a playlist in mind. Keep in mind he is doing this while driving a 30+ yr old fiat with manual transmission through some crazy traffic. Also, he did not have a nice phone at all, it was one that you could get in the US for free 6 years ago so it was all midi tones.
The weather in Cairo is amazing right now. It's in the upper 70's all day and at night it drops down to the mid 60's. It's just enough to feel like fall, only it's egypt so it never rains...or does it?
I was able to see rain for the first time since having to ride motorcycles through monsoons in July. I have a friend who lives on the 34th floor of an apartment building. You can easily see the pyramids from the windows, it's amazing. Anyway, it got really windy so we had to shut the windows and then you could see this massive dust storm coming across the dessert into the city. It was just like in the movie The Mummy, giant face and all. Then just as the dust storm passed it started to rain, but not like rain in the states, this rain was so light that it floated around like snow. I ended up just staying at my friends house and watching My name is Earl on dvd because I was afraid the next thing was a plague of locusts or frogs dropping from the sky.
Sorry I've been lax about the posting. The job has been keeping me increasingly busy and I had another bout of sickness. I'll be better, I promise.
Last night I ventured out to an exhibit opening at the Goethe Institute. It was a graffiti exhibit in which the artists we allowed to put up big pieces on the side of the former East Germany embassy. Some pieces were amazing, some mediocre, but the standout part was the fact that there was a rap group and a break dancing group. It was all in arabic so I have no idea if they were any good, but their name was 'Arabian Nights' although i never saw it written down so it could be 'Arabian Knights.' It was fun, beers were cheap and there were a lot of kids I hadn't seen at the normal foreigner hangout spots.
This all happened just a few days after I saw an upper egyptian man in traditional dress with stainless steel fronts.
Then I saw two pairs of twins in one morning and ate curly fries at hardees.
Also, Hardees does not serve the '5th meal' here, they don't even open til 11am. I guess there's no old people here that enjoy biscuits and gravy.
so i forgot to say what the pizza egg was...
basically it was flat bread, like a pita type thing and on top, in the middle was some cheese and olives. inside it was seriously some combination of tomatoes and hotdogs i think. i had to throw it away.
as a side note, you should know - hot dog pizza is something that is on every menu that involves pizzas. i think they thought 'what do americans like? pizza. hot dogs. done.'
i'm not sure where the 'egg' bit came into this pizza egg thing, but i'm sure they scrambled an egg in there somewhere.
When you call my phone it now plays Bootylicious.
This is made funnier by a few things:
1. I'm in Egypt
2. There were only a few English options and one of them was Bootylicious
3. I'm in a position of responsibility and I have to use this phone for work
4. Everytime someone calls me it plays a dated song about how you're not ready for my jelly.
5. It only cost 1 dollar to have this done
6. My body truly is too Bootylicious for you baby
7. Since I am probably the first website in a long time to have the word 'Bootylicious' typed so many times, if you google 'bootylicious' Hamburger Hotdog will probably be on the first page.
I am ordering something called a 'Pizza Egg' from a delivery place by work. No one here knows what it is because the Arabic is just the words 'Pizza Egg' written again. I'm so excited. I always thought of pizzas as mammals.
I have a new goal: Socotra. It is located pretty close to here, but there are no available flights at this time and when there are they only go to the island once, maybe twice, a week and there are monsoons for half the year. I will travel there. It will be mine.
In July, I sold most of my my belongings and moved to Cairo. My goal was to work in the field of journalism without any real experience or anything lined up beforehand.
Last month I started doing freelance writing. Then I basically just kept showing up to the magazine where I saw the most potential. I became a staff writer within a couple of weeks, and yesterday I officially became Senior Editor of an international design magazine.
Apparently my corporate background came in handy, as they really needed someone to come in and organize the entire editorial staff. It's the first time in my life I don't mind working long days. I never look at the clock until the end of the day, and that's only to wish I had a few more hours to complete necessary tasks. I officially have a career, not a job.
The magazine needs a lot of work, and I'm just the man who is grossly unqualified to turn it around.
Well...my internet has been out at my house for a minute, I'm being promoted at work on a consistent basis, and I went to Dahab for Eid (post Ramadan feast/week long party).
As you can tell from the photos i'm still telling stories/jokes and wearing the same shirts i've owned for 10+ years.
Quick story, then I have to get to work -
The guy in the middle of the picture is an Iraqi refugee named Hassan. He loves America. His family is still in Iraq and he is being relocated to DC pretty soon. You seriously couldn't meet a sweeter guy. But...one time during our trip we had planned on going to the dessert with Bedouins and watch the sunset, see the stars, etc. The cars that were supposed to pick us up were over an hour late, so our friend Danny called and complained to the drivers and then called off the trip (after much yelling) and demanded the deposit back. This was not going to happen -ever- according to the drivers. Hassan grabs the phone and tells the driver "I don't care about the deposit, just tell me where you are right now. Why? Because I'm going to take my thumbs and pull out your eyes." We ended up getting our deposit back and had a huge group dinner with the money. I'll put up the pictures on facebook and flickr today.
So while doing research on artists for this 'anti-pixar' movement in animation, I came across a great video. Its nothing new, but the animation is really fun and I promise it will make your day a little bit better.
music by Mika
Yesterday was a bad day. I woke up at 730 am and realized that the power had gone out in the apartment. It got hot pretty quickly with no fan and I couldn't go back to sleep, giving me 3 hours of sleep to go to work with. When I took a shower the drain in the bathroom was doing the opposite of what its supposed to and flooded the bathroom with dirty water. Gross.
I still wasn't feeling well, which was simply a result of trying to have too much fun over the weekend. I knew I had a meeting with the owner of the magazine which would decide my future in the company. I was not fully prepared for this meeting which caused a lot of unnecessary stress. Then I received an email that my family dog was going to be put to sleep due to an inoperable disease. That would leave Ethan without a lil partner in crime. Apparently, when 'jack' was sick he couldn't even walk and so Ethan just pulled up a chair next to him outside, sat down and just talked to him. A big difference from the memories I have of them running around the backyard together.
Then I received an extremely disturbing email from someone I thought was an old, dear friend. I'm not going to go into the details, but it just came out of nowhere and was terribly hurtful. I seriously thought someone had gotten into his account and sent it out as a weird joke, but that was not the case. It really bothered me all day and its something I'll never forget.
The lack of sleep and poor physical state did not help my situation.
Then we were really busy at work trying to decide and agree on the cover design for the next issue and I have to finish an article and a book review by tomorrow, so the important meeting did not happen.
As I walked home I decided to just walk along a bridge above the nile. It was beautiful. I was fortunate enough to cross right at iftar (break fast), so I could look down and see all the people along the shore sharing a meal with each other. The food smelled amazing, I had a great view of the city at dusk, and it was the first cool evening I've experienced so far. That's when I realized I wasn't experiencing the wrath of Allah, simply a bad day among many great days. I live in one of the craziest, weirdest, busiest cities in the world. I want for nothing. I work at a great magazine with the cutest Egyptian couple (my surrogate Tony and Eva) . I am learning so much and I can already see the personal progress I've made here. I wish I was better at Arabic and the metric system, made a living wage, and had a sassy, tattooed hairdresser, but these are all problems that will solve themselves. I just have to focus on living simply, having fun, being nice and producing quality work for everything to work out.
"When you see things in the world like banana peels that have no value to you, then you're free to walk without being moved, bothered, or hurt in any way by all the things that come and pass -both pleasant or unpleasant." -Ajahn Chah
As I typed that my coworker just gave me some banana milk in a little juice box. Then I looked over at his computer and realized that has spent the last 15 minutes quietly looking at pictures of cute cats. Today is already better than yesterday.
For all the visitors from Egypt - there's a new cairoscholars site that promises to fix all the problems that plague the current cairoscholars.
http://groups.google.com/group/cairoscholars
Pass it along to all your expat friends and help it out.
For all you US visitors - it's like craigslist, but more important.
I started typing something meaningful about life but I was sidetracked by the music playlist. Phantom Planet, California
I remember really enjoying this modern pop sensation in college and it has maintained a place in my 'guilty pleasures' category. I remember the OC parties. Both DC and Norfolk friends had weekly parties around the show. I never really enjoyed the show as everyone else seemed to, but I love hype and I love it when friends get excited about anything that spurs them into pro social events, like DC's OC/Taco night. In Norfolk, there was always a loud chorus of people screaming the intro song and who could forget the time atht Chuck and company drank a bottle of 1800 and made drunken 19th century jokes. It was even during an OC episode that I got my tattoo and consequently stained my carpet.
It's strange how random things become such important parts of your life and how a terrible show could bring such great people together. Everyone has a soft spot for escapism and whose problems could ever compare to any of those on the OC?
I never watched the last season, I hear it was just recycled story lines and rushed production. I can't say that it's a shame that happened, sometimes things in life just 'jump the shark' and you have to understand that and move on. For every OC, there's a Project Runway or Gossip Girl waiting for you around the corner. Then again, maybe you should get out of the house more.
The newest addition to the blog list on the right is Ambrose Manor. It's by an adorable and recently married couple that I met through dc friends years ago. They are now honeymooning around the country for one year in their 1976 Trillium camper and writing all about it. They would love to hear about your favorite cannot-miss things and places about the grand u.s. of a. so go visit. They have delightful and well written stories about their travels. The idea of riding bikes around a small, quiet town in the middle of nowhere sounds so good right now. Thanks to Jenny's Hecks Kitchen for directing me to their site.
It's always nice when nice things happen, that's why they're called nice things. In the same way, it's nice when you say nice things to people. I received an email from the person who introduced me to Renn Fest in the first place. This meant a lot to me so I'm posting it in hopes that you will go and email something nice to someone, at random. I'm not telling you to do anything nice, simply email a kind word or two to someone.
I am really enjoying your blog, it is on my daily rotation; nothing has gotten me more excited than your Renn Faire post, though. I forwarded that Steak on a Stake eye-disaster story to everyone I know. Keep up the good work!
Be safe and take good care...
Sarah
I live in a world where I stir soup with a knife. It's the only utensil in the kitchen. I wash it with a bar of soap that I found. I step outside while the soup heats up and look at the city. It seems clearer than normal, different somehow. I think that it might be a result of Ramadan, maybe since business' are closed and people aren't traveling to work as much, maybe the pollution is taking a break. Nope, I'm just wearing sunglasses. Why did I start cooking with sunglasses on? Hung over. I remember a snapshot of a really nice bed in a well lit room with a bowl of Doritos on the table next to it and 1 single Dorito on the pillow. I wonder if someone ever ate it.
Sitting here eating the soup, I swat flies away treat myself to a White Rock ginger ale. In a country full of interesting sodas no one appreciates a good ginger ale. I only know of one foreigner grocery store that even carries it. I can't get too many because they're expensive and we only have two college style refrigerators for an apartment of 6 people. Having always had the luxury of nice refrigerators I've always taken for granted the 'no frost' feature. We have to empty them out each week and let the ice melt from the freezer portion otherwise it threatens to overtake the limited space we have.
Sitting in the main room, I fulfill my need for space. The chairs are all broken somehow, the couches are not comfortable and the straw is falling out and it jabs at you when you sit. One entire wall is floor to ceiling windows. Thankfully it is the 8th floor so I have a great view. Directly across the street is a beautiful Coptic church surrounded by giant trees. Beyond that is the Cairo tower, which is covered in fancy Christmas lights that change colors very slowly. It would be tacky anywhere else but Egypt. Here it is a welcomed break from the beige landscape.
Sometimes you love food because it tastes good and sometimes you love food because it's good for you...
On American movies - "This is what I don't like about American movies, in every movie you must have a toilet exploding"
On my sunglasses - "Did these come with a magazine?"
I received this email from my mother today:
Ethan's vocabulary is really improving. Yesterday they had a bird show at school. When I asked him about the birds he said there were 2 of them. When I asked if he petted them he said yes. this is the rest of the conversation in the car: Oh no, I burned my hand. How did you burn your hand? When I petted the birds. The birds burned your hand, can I see? No, it's too late to fix it now. Of course there was nothing on his hand. Now when you ask his name he says Ethan Foster like it's all one word.
So I read Barb's latest post about centering her life around this 'really nice condo' that she can't afford. I immediately became depressed on 4 levels and needed something to cheer me up. So I googled the renn fest. Things that I found:
Boy sticks skewer in his eye at festival
A 10-year-old Anne Arundel County boy suffered a serious eye injury yesterday at the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville when he accidentally stuck a wooden skewer in his eye, a county Fire Department spokesman said.The boy, whose name was not released, was with his father at a food concession called "Steak on a Stake" about 5 p.m. when he pulled the wooden skewer from his mouth and accidentally stuck it in his eye, Lt. Frank Fennell said.
Besides the obvious, it was 5pm. This most likely was not this child's dinner. Steak on a Stake was a snack and somehow this kid confused himself as to which hand had the 'steak' and which hand had the 'stake' -which is obvious to us, because we can see it written out, but to him they sounded identical in his head. What I don't understand is how he then confused his 'eye' with his 'steak hole' which don't sound anything alike.
There is also a website devoted to the sufferers of MRWS
Thank you internet for all of your lovely gems of happiness.
