Saturday, October 30, 2010

O, look, it's Americans dressed like animals and devils.

I love Halloween, always have. But here love it even more. As if I wasn't already stared at enough for my whiteness and lack of veil, painting whiskers on my face and bobby pinning cat ears to my head is just a call to oggle. A few even thoguht they were particularly witty and meowed at me.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

A few random things, AKA I'm trying to blog more.

I decided that I don't blog enough. This experience is once in a lifetime and so I think that I should be writing as much of it down as I possibly can. We'll see how long I stick to that. Anyhow, I do have a few things to say:
Since I've been here I feel lie the amount of drama in my life has skyrocketed. I mean, this summer was the first time I had ever had any drama of my own really, and now all of a sudden, my life is full of it. I must say it's kinda entertaining at times. I hope that doesn't make me sound like a complete bitch, but drama is going to happen whether I like it or not so I've decided I might as well try to get a chuckle out of it. I mean some of the shit that's happening is my own, so it's not like I'm simply enjoying other people's misery, I've just decided that I'm going with optimism and (something that shouldn't be a surprise to those of you who know me well) smiling.
Right now I'm on my way to campus to see The Odd Couple, the play, because my old roommate (I don't know if I've mentioned Savannah on here before) is in it. It's supposed to be really funny, I'll write more about it in my next post.
I may have told a few of you that I was thinking of getting a new camera because my old one was literally falling apart. Literally. A few of the screws had come out and a couple of the panels were in great danger of falling off, too. So I went to a camera store on the way back from class thursday (just to investigate/price things out) and I showed the man my camera and what was wrong with it. He (in his limited English (I by no means could have a conversation about cameras in Arabic)) seemed to be informing me that he could fix it, so I figured what the hell, he couldn't possibly charge me too much, and let him see what he could do. five minutes later he's found screws and fixed it (don't get me wrong, I had thought of this, but I couldn't find the right screws anywhere). Now for the part I dreaded "How much?" I ask. "No problem." Made my day. And the day only got better.
Next, on my walk back from the camera store (on 26 July, the main street on the island), I went into this little clothing store that the bus always passes and I've always wanted to look in but I haven't had any money. Well, now that I have my money, I decided to give it a look-see. Glad I did. 45 minutes later I emerged with three tops and a dress for under $50. and I really needed some nice tops and a dress. The dress more urgently than I thought, I'll get to that later.
After the clothing store I made a stop at the Mobinil store (my wireless provider) because I wanted to price out some phones, seeing as I absolutely hate the one I got the beginning of the year. After a half hour or so I decided to not bother, and left. This will come back into play later, also.
That night my friends wanted to go to Cairo Jazz Club. Which is a fancy place. No jeans. Guess what Amanda brought for dressy clothes? Slacks. Good thing I bought that dress! We ended up not being able to get into CJC because one of our guy friends isn't 21, but we ended up at this other club, Stiletto, which I loved. This is the same place my friends went to last weekend and raved about. They were justified in doing so, it was awesome. I got home around 4:30. And slept until 2. It was so nice to sleep in.
Yesterday was a productive day as long as you measure in terms of anything other than homework. First, I woke up and discovered that my phone, which I had plugged in when I got home because it had died, had not charged overnight. Tried a new outlet. Nada. Crap. Well, I guess I'm headed back tot he Mobinil store. In order to have my phone fixed I would have had to go back to the store where I bought it (in Rehab, near New Cairo, where I lived at the beginning of the year, an hour from where I live now). I decided this was a sign. less than twelve hours after I go shopping for a new phone and decide not to get one, my phone dies. I had been talking to my friends and doing some research (before I headed to the Mobinil store, in case I did need a new one) and figured that I would just get a nice phone and jailbreak it before I went home and continue to use it at home. so I got a Blackberry. So far I'm loving it. It's actually nicer than the phone I had at home, but the keyboard layout is a bit different (and has Arabic on it, too (!!)) so I'm getting used to it.
After that adventure I took my roommate to the store I'd gone clothing shopping the day ebfore because she wanted some tops. They didn't have any she wanted/in the right size, so she only bought a couple of cardigans, then we headed back, bought some bananas from the fruit man, and went home. A few hours later we and Cassidy went grocery shopping. Now, I've needed groceries for like a month now. So I was very excited for this. I spent 100LE ($17) and got drinks and snacks that will probably last me a couple weeks. I then proceded to get nothing done. I did talk to a lot of people from back home, though, including my grandmother, who I hadn't talked to since I've been here. Hopefully I'll get some homework done tonight, though, because I have a paper due Monday.

A Great Big THANK YOU

I would like to dedicate this post to everyone who lent me money, let me eat their food, put up with me ranting about my idiotic school, etc. over the last month or so. I am so lucky to have found such amazing friends after being here less than two months, y'all are a lifesaver. To everyone back home who worries about me, you don't need to because I know that my friends here will take care of me no matter what happens, and I hope they all know I would do the same for them. Considering the trouble I've always had meeting people (and having them see past my annoyingness) I'm thoroughly pleased at how easily we all seemed to click. I think that the decision to go to Dahab for the second time was probably the best decision I've made since coming here. So thanks, everyone, for everything.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Elephant in the Room

So, sexual harassment in this country is ridiculous. Just putting it out there. I don't think I know a single woman here who hasn't been harassed in one way or another. Anything from catcalling, staring (somewhat entertainingly blatant staring), and meowing (o yes, meowing) to touching, groping and kissing. I don't know what it is about this country, but sometimes it drives me completely crazy. Don't worry everyone, in general it's completely harmless, but it's frustrating and sometimes downright disturbing, because the cops don't give a shit and won't (and can't) do anything about it. I mean men are /touching/ women (on thighs, butts, breasts) on the streets and in cabs and it doesn't seem to bother people here enough to do anything about it. What the F.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Dahab, Take Two

I didn't think it was possible, but Dahab the second time around was even more fun than the first. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I feel like I fit in better with the people I went with, so I didn't feel awkward ever. We basically got completely plastered every night and went swimming and shopping during the day. We had a bunch of drama, but I feel like I bonded with the people I went with a lot though, which is good because I needed some good female friends. We have already hung out a couple times since we've been back from dahab so I'm hoping were all gonna stay good friends.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Woah something in this country is efficient?

So I'm moving to Zamalek. As of like 8 hours ago. I packed all my things in about 2 hours, finished my classes and then took the next bus to Zamalek with all my crap. It was probably the only thing I have ever had take less than three days in this country. I'll write more after I've gotten settled.