party like it's 1899

I went to a party last night. It was a British Imperial party. I wore a suit and a monocle and a bushy mustache and a revolver.

Earlier today I was thinking about how much I wanted to go to the beach. And then I met an Egyptian whose father owns a resort at Hurghada. He asked me if I wanted to visit after midterms. I assume the question was rhetorical.

I met an Egyptian hipster today. He was wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and asked me what I thought about Vampire Weekend.

Sometimes I feel like Egypt is an abusive spouse. This weekend Egypt came to me on its knees with flowers in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other, saying baby i didn't mean to hurt you, won't you please forgive me.

P.S. I tried to upload my sinai & jordan pictures to my computer tonight. There were many more of them and they were much bigger than I realized, so now my harddrive is absolutely full and my computer is barely chugging along and there are still more pictures to go. I fail at blogging.

yeah, it's still not here

I had lots of Arabic tonight, alright?

In other news, I rode in a non-taxi car for the first time since coming to Egypt today.  On my shuttle ride home, I met a Saudi guy who graduated from Ain Shams last year and just started working for the Engineering department here at AUC.  Very entertaining person.  I mentioned that some people back home were scared about me going to Egypt; and he told me that lots of Egyptians are scared of going to America--apparently American crime is bad enough that it's not safe to go out on the streets after dark.  Especially in Chicago.  Chicago is gangland.  Or at least it is in the average Egyptian's mind (why they singled out Chicago in particular, I'm not quite sure...)

Anyway, he offered to give me a ride home after we got off the shuttle.  Compared to riding in a black & white cab, it was the height of luxury.  Didn't make the Cairo traffic seem any more tame, though.  But after an endless day of classes, having a proper air-conditioned car to ride in was basically the greatest thing ever.  Did I mention yet how friendly Egyptians are?

i lied

I'm too tired. Sorry.

blogging is hard

I haven't been keeping up with this very well, have I?  Well, I promise I'll write something about the great Jordanian adventure tomorrow.  There.  I'm typing it, so it must be true.

Also, I'm still shocked by the friendliness of Egyptians.  In the past two days, I've been randomly stopped three times on the street just to chat (it always turns to US politics, and about half the time I'm asked whether I'm voting for "the black guy or the old guy").  And these conversations always end with an exchange of cell numbers.  The Ahmeds and the Mohameds in my phone are now all identified by number, and I still can't keep them straight.  And they always call.  Frequently.  Usually for no particular reason.  Usually when I'm in the middle of class.  Oh, Egypt...