Full week of class completed : Nap earned
Here is the promised second post of the day…..a day later than promised. Apologies are in order again…I most likely napped the time away that I should have been blogging. The first week of school is over – it was only 4 days short, but still it seemed like a regular 5 day week. Was quite good though: the teachers are enthusiastic and nearly all of them receive rave reports from their students. My Egyptian Colloquial teacher is an excitable man from Alexandria. His name is Amir, but he introduced himself the first day as ‘Prince’ (that’s what Amir means in Arabic). The ECA class is fun and very useful…we learn phrases that will come in handy wandering Cairo, and other practical things like numbers. Nobody speaks Fushaa (Standard Arabic) anyway, so this class is really the most useful. For Standard Arabic (MSA), the first day I had a very boring old man who was nevertheless a good teacher, but it seemed like his class dragged on for 10 hours instead of two and a half. That class was split into two sections because of its large size, and I was fortunately assigned to the section taught by Amir (!). So now I have him 5 hours a day, which is just fine. In MSA we’ve learned the entire alphabet, and how to use various vowel markings to write words. The class is useful, but less cool and practical (for the time being) than the Egyptian class. Nobody even writes in Standard Arabic anyway; I had thought that newspapers used it, but the language of the Mass Media is practically another language entirely.
School runs from 8:30-11 (ECA) and 11:30 to 2 (MSA). Usually we walk over to a ful shop down the street during the lunch break, as lunch at ILI is too expensive (something like 20 L.E. per plate; instead we can get 2 ful bi-bayd sandwiches for 2 pounds). At 2, Hunter and I get home as fast as possible in order to get as much time as we can from our afternoon nap, which can’t go past 5pm. Usually we get about 2.5 hours, which really isn’t even enough. But there is so much to do around here, so we try to be disciplined with our sleeping habits. They got rather out of hand the first few days in the flat, when sometimes we wouldn’t wake up for 6 or 8 hours….
Anyways, I’ve plenty of homework for the weekend: twenty something new vocab words, and some practice with the alphabet. Today is Uncle Omar’s birthday….I called him to say happy birthday a few minutes ago. We might see him tonight; right now he and Mohammed are in Alexandria visiting a sick friend. Elliott went there for the weekend with some friends from school (a Swedish guy and a German girl), so Hunter and I are going to steal his bug spray. It used to be a hotter commodity, but I think the bugs (like all 3000 of them) have tasted my skin and decided that its not good, so I haven’t been getting too many new bites. Not that I want more bites or anything.
Hunter and I are fixing to head downtown for the evening, so I’ll be back later. A lot of people have been mistaking me for an Egyptian lately, so I think I’ll just go pretend I actually am one for a while. Too bad my Arabic isn’t good enough for me to fake it for long. I’ll work on that.
Pharoah’s Revenge
Let me first begin with apologies for the lack of blogging in the past few days. The Cairene schedule has hit us in the flat in full force – early mornings, late nights, and plenty of napping. The other thing that hit us was the revenge of pharoah. That’s the tourists term for acclimation to the Egyptian diet….usually takes about a week. Let’s just say that we ran out of toilet paper very quickly…..
Anyways, I’ll commence with the first of two entries for today….many things to blog about, only so much blog. We’ve adjusted to apartment living, it seems. Made the first REAL trip to the grocery store yesterday, stocking up on white vinegar (for washing and disinfecting vegetables and fruits here), rice, curry, milk and cereal, bleach (for disinfecting our un-dis-infected apartment), and toilet paper (our most treasured possesion). The toilet paper was only 4.5 L.E. for 8 rolls……imagine our joy when we saw this deal!!!!! After finishing shopping (we had gone to the Metro supermarket at Sphinx Square), Hunter and I decided to search for a famous juicer, said to be on Game’at al-Dewan. Unfortunately, the day was 40 degrees C (~104 F), and a sandstorm was beginning. No matter. We walked for a few kilometers, asking several Egyptians along the way (great chance to practice Arabic) until we found the juicer, name Farghaly Fruits. Its a shop on a corner, with workers at several counters feverishly cutting and juicing fresh fruits. It smelled amazing. Hunter and I had brought two empty 1.5 litre bottles to put juice in, and we paid for mango and orange juices. It was pricey, by Cairo standards, about 30 L.E. to fill both bottles. We also ordered to cups of mango for ourselves.
I didn’t say ‘cups of mango juice‘ for a reason. It was so thick that we could even chew on it. Freshly squeezed mangoes……It was the best “juice” we’d ever tasted!!! A very satisfying experience, needless to say. We watched them pouring the mango juice into our bottle….so thick that it could not even go down the funnel without the push of a rod. As I write, I’m enjoying some of the orange juice…..I cannot lie, it is the perfect drink to enjoy after a walk through the streets.
Before our afternoon nap, Hunter and I performed a little apartment cleaning. Finally got ALL of our dishes washed and put away. Washed the counters and sink with bleach, and then washed the bathroom with bleach also. There’s plenty of black algae sitting around. That combined with the pollution here and second-hand smoke us sure to kill us in a few years. If those years are in Cairo though, then I don’t mind. The subject of nap though brings me to the subject of our new daily schedule. My uncles are baffled as to why classes start so early (8:30 am). The typical Cairene doesn’t wake up until the pm, and doesn’t sleep earlier than 3-4am. Most don’t sleep until after the dawn prayer (~ 5 am). Usually we wake up around 7:15am, shower, get cereal, and then walk to school (less than a kilometer away, across Shari’ Ahmed ‘Orabi). After school gets finished, we’ll grab some ful with eggs at the shop nearby….about 2-3 L.E. for 3 sandwiches….amazing! Then come back home, nap for 2-3 hours, and do homework. I must be honest though, that part of the schedule hasn’t been accurate of late; its more like nap 4-5 hours, no homework. Anyways, around 9-10 we might go over to uncle Mohamed’s a block away, then eat around 11 or 12. That’s still a fairly early dinner by Cairo standards….most Cairenes eat around 12 or 1…yesterday we ate with uncle Omar and Shokri (a Libyan friend of the family, as well as relative) at 2:30am. All restaurants without exception are open until 3 or 4 am, while most coffee shops and juice bars are open 24 hours. Most of the hours at night though, are spent at Trianon, a danish coffee shop down on Game’at al-Duwan. Uncle Mohammed goes there every single day, and everyone there knows him, and now they know us. Hunter and I have been there the past 5 of 6 nights, while Elliott has been nearly as frequently. It seems that Mohammed is tight with everybody anywhere we go. Its good to have gonnegtions. I think my body has gotten used to the late night coffee as well…I’ve been able to hit the sack almost immediately when we get home. Leaving from Trianon is quite a task though….usually takes around 45 minutes to 1 hour to make proper goodbyes. So we get around 4 hours of sleep each night, then nap it up during the day. Avoids the heat too. This city is amazing.
I’ll continue with the second blog of the day shortly….gotta meet some friends from school for dinner. Right now I’m jammin to some Jay Chou….a little out of place I think. I’ll turn it off.
manual 1 – using a taxi
Always you must choose the taxi. Never let the taxi choose you. There are tens of thousands of black-and-white taxis in Cairo – which don’t have working meters and therefore can be paid any amount – and they are constantly on the lookout for tourists to which they offer a ride. Don’t accept their offer, because then they will be very hard to bargain with. Instead just wave your arm toward the street. A passing taxi will immediately see you and pull over, and you jump in as fast as possible. In Cairo, there is no such thing as waiting for a taxi, because there are so many on every single street. Much better system than the US…just have lots of everything. Embarrassing to be from a country with such poor transportation methods. Anyways, once you get to the taxi, just tell the driver your destination and go. The drivers are usually very friendly; they’ve helped us with Arabic words many times.
The first night, we had a crazy taxi driver – good thing Hunter was in the front seat to take all of the heat. At least we learned from him not to say “na’m,” the Modern Standard Arabic equivalent of “yes.” Preferred is the Egyptian Colloquial “ei oua.” What’s interesting to see is that every taxi driver is different – as are their taxis. They all look the same from the outside, but the insides are different by driver. Some have nice tape decks (yes…tapes) and extra speakers, some have decorations like prayer beads, stuffed animals, or fur, and almost all have a Qur’an on the dashboard. Most taxi drivers don’t know street names – in fact, if you ask someone where a street is, they’ll have to ask several other people before they get to someone who knows. Even uncle Mohamed didn’t know the names of some of the streets we drove on. But of course, the driver will know if you tell him “Midan al-Tahrir” (Tahrir Square), or Korbi al-Sett Uctober (6th October bridge) – which is the longest bridge in Cairo at around 20 km.
The great thing is that taxi rides are very cheap – about 10 L.E. gets the three of us across the Nile to Tahrir Square, a distance of about 2km. For reference, the exchange rate is 5.7 L.E. to the dollar.
First day of class tomorrow – crossing of fingers, etceteras. I’m looking forward to learning some Arabic in a formal setting.
Caire – la ville qui ne dort jamais
As for sleeping, I don’t do much either…last night gave me only about an hour of actual sleep – at 6am I just gave up and got out of bed. Last night’s festivities sure wiped me out, though. (Interjection – There were more people out on the main streets of Mohandseen, our district, at 1am than there were at any daylight hour). ‘Honda,’ Elliott and I went to the Vodafone store at Midan Sfinkis (Sphinx Square) around 8pm, ended up buying a 70-day SIM card for myself, and a £10 phone card. Since the phones there weren’t too cheap, we walked back down Ahmed Orabi to a smaller, very shady looking phone shop, where Hunter purchased a cell phone for £250. Our first attempt at bargaining failed, by the way: the guy wanted £280 for the phone plus SIM, but Hunter only wanted to give him £275. I used his phone + my SIM to call my uncle Mohamed, finally getting his number right after some confusion (ahem, Dad). He and I met up down the street while Hunter and Elliott went back to Vodafone for a card. First time seeing Mohamed in 15 years…! Was a very exciting moment. We took his car down shari’ Gami’at al Duwal al Arabia, parked, and walked back to Midan Sfinkis to meet H and E. Then we grabbed some Lebanese food, got coffee at his favorite hangout, a Danish place called Trionon, then he took us on a driving tour of the city. We drove for about an hour, through Zamalek, Old Cairo, Madinet al-Diyan (Religions Community) and some other places. After all that, he mentioned that we had probably only seen less than 10% of Cairo.
After we finished driving, we went to Mohamed’s apartment: what coincidence that in a city of 20 million, the flat that we rent is less than two blocks away from his!! Mohamed’s place is literally around the corner and across Shari’ El Rashid. Very convenient. My other uncle Omar will be arriving in town Sunday, staying with Mohamed. I’ll get to visit with him for a week or two as well.
Today we’ll take a taxi over to Midan at-Tahrir (Tahrir Square), which is across the Nile. From what we saw on the drive last night, it seems to be quite the kickin part of town. Maybe Elliott and I will do some shopping to embarrass Hunter. This evening Mohamed might take us to Khan Khalili, which is apparently a famous bazaar and market.
Interesting to note that a beverage store chain named “Drinkie’s” stocks possibly 90% Heineken. I think that’s the beer of choice in this area; the doorman at my hotel the first night offered to sell me some Heineken, cheap and under the table.
I’m planning on a sizeable siesta later.
A flat is moved into.
Today we found a flat. (!!) After waking up, Hunter and Elliott taxied over to my hotel for breakfast. Unfortunately, the paid too much for the ride – we’ve gotta learn how to pay like Egyptians, i.e. cheap. We then walked around Sahafieen for a bit before meeting our landlady-to-be. She showed us a 3 bedroom flat, with 2 bathrooms and a wraparound porch. The porch has an amazing view: several more housing high-rises, the street, and the community drinking station. Also, a guy sitting in his chair down the street (he didn’t move for an hour, so I figure he’s part of the scenery). The flat is about two blocks away from Ahmed ‘Orabi street, the crossing of which is like playing Frogger. We agreed on the spot to rent the flat, paying only 3000 L.E. per month for the three of us, plus 300 L.E. more in utilities. A pretty good bargain. We even get a kitchen fully equipped with a clothes-washer, and around 500 Arabic channels on the tv. The best part though, is that we have Wifi! Definitely was not expecting that. Also have a couple corner food stands and a pharmacy, which our landlady owns, on street level (we’re on the 3rd floor). Sahafieen is a fairly quiet area, not as many shops as Zamalek, and is the same district our school is in. Uncle Mohamed lives in Mouhandseen, which is the neighboring district. Have yet to get in contact with him though, as his cell phone doesn’t seem to be working – hope he checks his email.
After moving in, we took a cab over to Zamalek and walked around for a bit. We popped in to a Quickie’s and got ripped off for some juice, paying 7 L.E. for around 12oz. That’s only equivalent to a little more than a dollar, but one can’t think like that here, where taxi rides to and from the island cost less than 5 pounds, and a filling dinner is about 10. Elliott bought some dates at a corner fruit stand which was being mobbed after the Friday prayer – forgot to mention that everything closes super early on Fridays. We paid 5 pounds for the dates, and were pretty sure we got jacked again, but our landlady (who is very friendly and has admirable English) confirmed that we actually got a decent deal.
I just woke up from the traditional afternoon nap. Later tonight, I’ll go find a Vodafone store and get a local cell phone – have heard that about 20 L.E. will pay for a month or so. Also need to eat – I bought some pineapple juice from Ahmed’s corner store for our apartment warming earlier. Also need to wake up Hunter, but its hard, he looks so adorable sleeping.
Edit: that comment isn’t intended to be read by Hunter. By the way, the landlady says his name “Honda,” and her brother asked Elliott if he was called “Toyota” (laughs, etc) – our first poster for the walls is the note to “Honda” she left earlier.
Edit Edit: he is hard to wake up.
