All right, before you judge I need to get this out of the way up front: when I travel I try to avoid American franchise food outlets AT ALL COSTS. But there is a serious (SERIOUS) difference between traveling to a place and living there. For four months. Living somewhere you don’t speak the language and feel constantly overwhelmed by things for four months. One can be driven to extremes, you know? You might just be desperate for something that feels like home. Okay? Okay.
0 Comments
Americans in Egypt are not a common sight, unless you are at the Pyramids or some tourist attraction. The most uncommon sight here is a blond haired, fair skinned American (which I am). Some Egyptians are polite and attempt to hide their stares, but others don't hide their stares as well. This makes for uncomfortable feelings for us Americans. No one likes to be stared at and I'm definitely still learning how to deal with it. I know eventually I’ll get used to it, but for the moment it’s rather unpleasant.
If you are out on your balcony for an hour you may see an American walk by. In the part of the city where we live there are more Americans, but in different parts of the city you will see fewer Americans and get more stares. Despite the staring Egyptians, are very hospitable people and I don't really blame them for staring. - Emily If you ever saw the movie “L.A. Story” with Steve Martin, you might recall a scene where a British newcomer suggests going for a walk. Martin’s character guffaws and says, “A Walk in L.A.!” as if this is a ridiculous proposition. It is this scene that plays in my head every time we decide to walk somewhere. So, every day. I don’t yet know the Arabic word for sidewalk, but I am guessing it is loosely translated as “18 ways to sprain an ankle.” Many sidewalks consist of really lovely paver stones, lightly dusted with the Sands of Time (aka Sahara) and pocked every few feet with holes and giant cracks and such. It’s the sort of thing that looks charming in photos, save for the odd piece of rebar or iron piping sticking up. It’s not a sidewalk so much as an obstacle course. I like to make fun of the heat here. I know I make it sound like this is the hottest place on Earth, but in truth it probably only ranks second. I thought I could handle this, being a native Floridian. Yet within hours of arriving I realized something critical: It takes all of one Colorado winter to destroy 43 years of learned heat tolerance. Seriously. As soon as it tops 80 degrees F I think my hair is melting. I would definitely not say that Egyptian Arabic is easy. This is my first time learning a new language, and I’ve found it’s not easy. Arabic is very different from English. The words do not sound alike. I have good memory, but a new language is a lot to take in. Also I’m learning French for our trip to Paris, France on our way back. We will be in Paris for 8 days, and will be there for Christmas. When we first arrived here and were settling into our borrowed flat, I took special note of all the yummy offerings on the bookshelves. There is a delicious selection of literature centered in the Arab world, including several titles I already had on my “must read” list. And since the flat is owned by English speakers, we found several books to help us learn Arabic. As part of the Eid week, most people were still off work yesterday, including Kevin. We decided in the late part of the day to go check out a park that we were told is really lovely and a great spot to watch the sunset. It was all that, but a little more than what we bargained for. I am in a nice car with two lady friends and a tour guide named Ramez, cruising back to Cairo from Alexandria, a city that has been on my bucket list ever since some history teacher long ago said something about a huge library. The oud music is playing, the air conditioning is fine, and there is almost no traffic because it’s the first day of Eid al Adhar. Ramez: “Can you dig out a new CD? Maybe Abba?” Me: *sucking all the air out the car* “You have Abba?!?” “Dancing Queen” for me is the musical equivalent of a really nice Pinot Grigio, second only to “Word up” by Cameo, (which is like Dr. Pepper and Cheetos). And Ramez has a pretty sweet set of speakers in his nice car. He actually said to me, “Great music can really make Cairo better, am I right?” We also listened to “Dust in the Wind,” “Shape of My Heart,” and some Adele covers featuring traditional Middle Eastern instruments. Sidebar: Abba was in concert here on September 15. True story. No, not Christmas. It’s Eid al Adhar, a very important Islamic holiday. This is when they kill rams and cows to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his own son. It officially began yesterday (Sunday), but the first day is for preparation. The sacrifices happened this morning. For the last several weeks we have noticed a few things:
I am sitting here, fruitlessly attempting to describe a day viewing an indescribable thing. I don't even know how to start. I've seen some really crazy cool stuff and I've even blogged about it, so I am tempted to go back to those posts and see how I started them. Probably with a few bad puns. And there are really no good puns for this stuff either. |