Blogging Bonanza: Random Bits

Argh…whenever I start my blogging bonanza I have no idea where to start. Paul and I have been adventuring around the winding alley’s of Cairo the past few weekends, and we’ve seen so much stuff it’s making things difficult…in a good way of course.

School has been the usual. It’s still terribly scattered and unorganized, but I’m feeling much better about my teaching abilities. It’s funny though, I thought that once we started working out of the workbook I’d like it better since the pressure would be off me. Wrong. Many of the kids are still grasping how to hold a pencil and they really don’t get the concept of following directions. This is probably partially due to the fact that they don’t understand a word I’m saying. I’m pretty sure I’ve become the grand master of charades.

So about the workbook thing…my classes keep getting larger; I have about 25 in each. Once I start to pass out the workbooks the kids start opening up and tearing up each others books. Then come the pencils, I get about halfway around the room before they start beating or poking each other with them. Then once I give them an idea of what they’re supposed to be doing (like writing the letter ‘B’) they do one little thing and all start crying “mees, mees, mees” (“miss, miss, miss”). If I hear one more “mees” I think I might explode. I’ve tried to make it like a follow the leader game by drawing the book stuff on the board and having them copy me, but I’m still not having much luck. They do seem to really like the sound effects I’ve given them for the letters though. ‘B’ for example, I’ll start at the top and say “DOWN, Down, down, down, down….STOP! Woosh, Woosh.”

On the weekends, I have a routine that’s working quite well for me. Thursday (which is like Friday for the rest of you) everyone gets all dolled up and we head over to a friends house, and then out to whatever new club we've decided to go to. I mentioned Mojito already, which we’ve been continually frequenting, but we recently went to another place called Absolute which sits right on the Nile. It has a beautiful garden and inside they play loud Latin music. Upstairs is another bar called Sangria which is supposed to be pretty classy as well, but we haven’t made it there yet. I miss the dive bars though. Music isn’t my fave. Lots of house/trance/techno stuff. Good news is my roommates and I have invested in a pretty decent set of speakers, and with Paul’s dance selection we’re set for a real party. Then on Friday we spend the day recovering, maybe going out to an ahwa to smoke sheesha, and on Saturday we get up, hail a cab to Midan Tahrir and start stumbling about the windy bustling alleyways of downtown.

Midan Tahrir is basically a central square downtown. The Egyptian Museum is only a few blocks away and there are shops everywhere. Awhile ago we went to the museum, but it was excruciatingly hot and there is so much to see we’ll definitely have to make another trip. The experience itself is different from other museum experiences I’ve had in the States. It’s basically a giant building with rooms and rooms of stuff. There aren’t many signs for anything, so Paul and I were smart enough to invest in a Lonely Planet Egypt which has a section that helps guide you through the rooms giving you an idea what things are and where they’re from. Things are displayed in a kind of haphazard way in big wood and glass boxes protected only by the tiniest of padlocks. Often they are dusty and covered with fingerprints. I was also surprised by the complete lack of security. I feel like whenever I’ve been to a museum in the States there’s always a guard in every one of the rooms. As for what’s in it…everything! I’ve seen more mummies now than you would believe. I’ve even seen a crockadile mummy!

One of the most amazing things I got to see though was the infamous King Tut mummy mask. They also have oodles and oodles of the most beautiful jewelry you’ve ever seen. Unfortunately photographs are forbidden. Well they say forbidden, but what they should say, is for a price. Faye decided to sneak a few pics since security is pretty lax. Busted! A guard simply walked up and took her camera…oops. She followed him around apologizing until the guy turned around and said “don’t you know how we do it here…Baksheesh!” so she gave him a few pounds and successfully retrieved her camera. They have a scanner when you get in and supposedly check for cameras in your bag, but didn’t happen to find any of ours. Our theory is that they let you in with the camera so you’ll take pictures and they can collect when they catch you. So tip: when in the Egyptian Museum, feel free to take pictures, just be prepared to pay.

Once you’re back on the square, if you cross the street people start accosting you with “what are you looking for, I know the best ________. Don’t worry I’m not a guide.” So, they may not be a guide, but they work for whatever store they’re taking you to. Paul and I humored these guys twice. Basically they talk to you and tell you about themselves and ask what you’re doing here, and then once you’re in the shop, they disappear to the back so the guy up front can sell you stuff. In our case it was perfume. Perfume is quite popular here; it’s basically essential oils that you can use in a bunch of different ways and they sell beautiful glass bottles to store it in. The first guy that stopped us took us to his family’s perfume shop which has apparently been around for more than 130 years. Typically I’d think it was a load of bull, but the store itself and the furniture inside looked more like artifacts than stuff you should actually sit on. We were offered tea and cigarettes which is all part of Egyptian hospitality (you really wouldn’t believe the absolute genuine generosity you experience here). The next guy that snaked us in took us into a less enticing shop, but the guy was entertaining. He made sure we were anti-Bush, and was really excited to show us his Obama sticker on the store front. He also had some fun pictures of him hanging out with Mohammad Ali (Cassius Clay) in his shop. Paul and I smelled like a conglomeration of every scent you could imagine with ancient names like Cleopatra, Papyrus, Lotus, and Amber.

After that we made our way through the windy back alleys all the way to Attaba. Each area is sectioned into districts. There’s an entire street dedicated to shoes, one for car supplies, another for chandeliers, and another for carpets, watches, clothes and so-on. It’s less about displaying items in an aesthetically pleasing way, and more about “how much stuff can we cram in one place.” It’s difficult to shop though since it’s sensory overload. There’s colors everywhere, tons of people, people shouting and going “tssssssk, tssssssk”, along with carts with donkeys, bicycles, taxi’s, trucks, scooters, and people carrying large baskets of stuff on their heads. When we were tired of walking we stopped at an outside ahwa (café) to “people watch” and recoup. While we were sitting there, I had to chuckle when two shepherds wearing traditional galibayas walked by herding a flock of about 20 sheep.

After a lot more walking and gawking we hailed a cab and I handed him the address for Abu Tarek which the gentleman at the perfume shop had given me. Abu Tarek is a famous Koshary place that claims to serve the best Koshary in Cairo. It also has a sign on the front that declares it has “no other branches” which I thought was funny. We ate on the fourth flour in an entirely too ornate room. They only serve Koshary so your waiter simply asks you what size you want. I don’t want to go into entirely too much detail as to what Koshary is because I’m planning on dedicating an entire post to Egyptian street food, so for now I’ll just tell you it’s really cheap and really tasty!

That's all for now. Salam Alaikum!