Dream, Plan, Travel, Repeat.

•    I’m beginning to suspect that at least 90% of the men here are named Mohammed. In my cell phone, I have the numbers for three Mohammeds, whom I have re-named “Mohammed,” “Mo,” and “Hammed” so that I can keep them straight. And it’s not just difficult for me—the ubiquitous name seems to cause problems for Egyptians as well. More than once, when I’ve asked for a Mohammed, the response is “Which Mohammed?” But, despite the complications that arise, the name remains, for obvious reasons, extremely popular. On a film set recently, I met a young Egyptian extra whose character was pregnant. I touched her stuffed belly and jokingly asked, “What will his name be?” She thought about it for a moment, and then smiled and said, “Mohammed.” Being a fan of originality, I protested, and she budged a bit: “Ok, Yusef Mohammed.” Then I asked her what her last name was, so we could try out the baby’s full name. Her last name? Mohammed.•    At my hotel, I saw a guy (whose name is Mohammed, incidentally) playing the “Arab” version of Mario Bros. It looks about the same as the one we play in the US, except Mario is dressed like a Saudi, with a long white robe and red-and-white checked head-covering.•    Renters in Cairo enjoy the most unbelievable rights. (For once, I actually pity landlords.) As I understand it, until recently, a landlord was unable to evict an Egyptian family once they moved into a residence and also could not raise the rent. Ever. As a result, some people are renting apartments in posh Cairene neighborhoods for ridiculously low prices. For example, I met a man who pays 60 pounds a month (about $11) for his 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom apartment. Moreover, he claims that he only recently started paying 60 pounds after lengthy negotiations with his landlord– his family’s contract (signed years ago) says rent is 15 pounds a month.•    Egyptians don’t distinguish between the sounds “P” and “B”– for instance, “pounds” is sometimes pronounced as “bounds.” This makes for entertaining English language menus that include dishes like “grilled lamp.”•    Recently, at a shoe store, I was introduced to “Fulla,” a type of “Muslim Barbie” made by a Syrian toy company called NewBoy Toys. (Why don’t they ever test these English names with native speakers?) The store’s walls were covered with glittery pink and purple backpacks decorated with flowers, butterflies, hearts, and everything else that little girls love. And in the center of each was Barbie…no wait, make that Fulla in a black hijab. Pretty awesome. (Here’s a photo of Barbie and Fulla side by side. Seriously, does Barbie really need lingerie?) I wanted to buy the backpacks for my cousins in the US, but decided that their 2nd and 3rd grade classmates (or their teachers, for that matter) probably wouldn’t appreciate Fulla as much as I do. Shame.

I turned 24 yesterday. It’s been five years since I’ve celebrated my birthday with my family in California, so I always feel a little homesick on those days, but I’ve also learned to embrace the adventure of beginning a new year in a different environment. On my 20th birthday, I spent a day at a beach in Accra, Ghana with friends. On my 21st, I arrived in London following a biking trip with Matteo through the Cotswolds, and then, despite my sore legs, danced the night away at a nightclub. For my 22nd birthday, I went sightseeing in Washington, DC. On my 23rd, I wandered around New York, one of my favorite cities in the world. And now I’ve celebrated a birthday in Cairo.Thanks to some relatives’ disinterest in the concept of time zones, my birthday began around 6:30AM with a phone call from the States. (I love you all, but– really– I’m going to have to place some conditions on that love.) Then I dozed off for another four hours until I dressed and headed over to my new workplace for an orientation. (Update: I’m going to teach English part-time to Egyptian adults! Stories of my [mis]adventures in teaching for the first time ever will be coming soon!) Afterward, with work out of the way, I moved on to the fun stuff.First, Matteo and I headed over to Khan-e-Khalili, a neighborhood in Islamic Cairo that features a sprawling bazaar filled with merchants selling gold jewelry, sheesha pipes, carved silver platters, belly-dancing costumes, and tons of other goods. The streets were wide and pleasantly dotted with leafy, green trees. The neighborhood is also filled with lots of beautiful, medieval mosques; hilariously, one’s stately air was tempered by its creative muezzin, whose jazzy rendition of the afternoon call to prayer — beginning with Allah u Akbar, or “God is Great”– reminded both Matteo and I of someone in a black turtleneck reciting beatnik poetry.Next, we headed off to a dock in Garden City, a neighborhood south of downtown Cairo, to rent a felucca for an hour-long sunset cruise on the Nile. The cruise was fun, but also a bit of a hassle. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been a tourist, and I had quickly forgotten what a pain it can be to do touristy things. Bargaining the price down to a decent rate took about a half an hour (one man brought his price down to our range before saying that the rate was “for the boat only– captain is extra”) and then, once we were on the boat, we had to remind the captain halfway during the ride that we paid for a one hour cruise, not a half hour cruise with another half hour “rest period” in front of the dock. Annoying. Nonetheless, the moments that we watched the setting sun while being carried along by the breeze were wonderful.For dinner, we went to Sabaya, a Lebanese restaurant at the Intercontinental Hotel that was so, so good. The service was without fault, the decor was beautiful (white walls, dark carved wood screens, plush pillows in reds and golds with arabesque designs, romantic candlelight), and the food was incredible. We started with some mezze — pastries filled with goat cheese and herbs; a cucumber, tomato, and onion salad with pomegranate sauce; and freshly made, still-warm pita bread — and then, for the main course, I had the best, most tender grilled lamb of my life. (God. My mouth is watering at the thought of it.)I just realized that I talked about dinner before dessert. That is the normal order of things, isn’t it? But, being that I have a huge sweet tooth and it was my birthday, we had dessert first (and, well, afterward too) — a platter of bite-sized Egyptian pastries from a downtown bakery called El Abd. I had been eyeing these pastries for the last few weeks, but didn’t know what to choose from the bakery’s extensive displays. On my birthday, the choice was easy– I tried one of (almost) everything. My favorites included a rectangular, flaky pastry filled with a kind of sweet cheese (I’m going back for more tonight), and another type of sugary, crusty candy roll filled with pistachios and drizzled with honey.After dinner, we planned to go to Palmyra, the supposedly “top end” of the cheap and “delightfully seedy” bellydancing clubs in Cairo. But, once we arrived, I quickly realized that Wednesday night is a fairly dead night to see bellydancers and that the empty club made a “delightfully seedy” atmosphere feel more like “10AM at the strip club.” So we crossed that one off our list for another time, and went to go see an un-subtitled Egyptian movie, Kar Kar, in a language that neither of us can understand, instead. The movie had tons of physical comedy, though, that made it absolutely hilarious (Egyptian men are the best dancers ever— women aren’t the only bellydancers!) and totally enjoyable.And that was my memorable and very happy birthday. I think my 24th year is off to a great start.

A few weeks ago, shortly after I arrived in Cairo, I went to dinner with an American student who referred me to a casting agent for the Egyptian film and television industry. Thinking that it would be amusing to finally ... [Continue reading this entry]

Yesterday, Matteo and I ate dinner at a popular Cairene restaurant. We were seated directly across from a middle-aged Egyptian couple, who were served their dinner shortly after we ordered our own.After some shy smiles, the four of us launched ... [Continue reading this entry]

I've been feeling a bit blogged out lately. Too many countries, too many experiences. Is there such a thing as blogger fatigue?But, for all those interested, here's a brief note that will hopefully be supplemented by a larger post soon. ... [Continue reading this entry]

At 5PM today—after four long days of watching cheesy instructional videos, reading a textbook, completing four quizzes and one final exam, scaring hotel guests as I sat in full scuba gear at the bottom of their pool, and going on ... [Continue reading this entry]