Weekend Update: Four Stella Bottles, Three Roasted Sparrows, Two Hours of the Most Boring Football Game Ever and a Great Leader in a Jumpsuit
So this past weekend was one of the more action-packed ones in recent history. Friday was the African Cup final, so a huge pack of us headed to the Windsor, a former British officers' club that now serves as a musty hotel and bar featuring quaint colonialist decorating touches like furniture made out of barrels and antlers covering every inch of wall space. The final was quite possibly the dullest football match I've ever had the displeasure of watching, and my group was an hour late showing up. However, seeing as Egypt managed to win on penalty kicks, it was a grand excuse to get wasted and party with the people in the streets.
We embarked on a Baladi Bar Crawl that took us through some of the most character-ful local dive bars in all of downtown Cairo, from the Swiss Bar in the New Arizona Night Club to Coq d'Or to the Port Tawfik to the rooftop of the Odeon. Granted, some of those spots are more dive-y than others, but it's the price of the Stella that counts. And after watching Joe eat three crunchy whole roasted sparrows at the Swiss Bar like they were jalapeno poppers, we were ready to follow him anywhere.
The streets were only occasionally overrun with joyful flag-waving revellers who stopped traffic to sing, dance and shoot aerosol hairspray fireballs into the air before continuing on their way. It was great to feel so much celebratory cheer let loose in the smoggy Cairo air.
* * * * *
So yesterday evening was another one of those Cairo moments...I dragged Abeba out to what I thought would be "a presentation of photo exhibit and Korean documentary film" according to the flyer outside the Egyptian Cross-Cultural Cooperation Center in Zamalek, thinking it could an interesting and fun opportunity to meet new people.
I should have known something was up when we walked in the front entrance and all the photos were of (1) Kim Jong Il and (2) the DPRK army in various triumphant formations. But no, I thought, "I guess this must be some sort of photojournalist thing." It wasn't until I realized that I was the only Korean *not* wearing a suit and a little red lapel pin that it dawned on me that we had walked into a propaganda fun fest sponsored by the North Korean Embassy.
Not wanting to be noticed, but curious to see the "documentary film," I hid behind my free copy of "Pyongyang Today" only to be promptly discovered by at least three embassy employees who were all very curious (in Arabic, no less) to know who I was, what I was doing in Cairo, etc. It was all very friendly conversation, but I was uncomfortable to say the least. Especially with all those wee North Korean in the film constantly doing what I like to call "the Kim Jong," whereby one jumps up and down frantically, arms raised and hand flapping at the wrists like half-severed chicken heads, screaming or preferably crying deliriously, kind of like you might imagine someone might do if they were repeatedly being jabbed in the ass with a red-hot poker. But it was impressive to see all of the many gifts and accolades the "Great Leader" has received over the years from such venerable governments and institutions as those found in bastions of freedom and democracy such as Nigeria, Guyana and Colombia.
Totally creepy.
I have to admit, there was part of me that wanted to stay after the film and talk to the embassy goons, er, guys some more. Who knows, that could have been my golden ticket to a fabulous career in double espionage. But honestly, I just couldn't ignore the bigger part of me that was so completely nauseated by the propagandist schlock that I just had to walk out there as quickly as possible and not look back.
We embarked on a Baladi Bar Crawl that took us through some of the most character-ful local dive bars in all of downtown Cairo, from the Swiss Bar in the New Arizona Night Club to Coq d'Or to the Port Tawfik to the rooftop of the Odeon. Granted, some of those spots are more dive-y than others, but it's the price of the Stella that counts. And after watching Joe eat three crunchy whole roasted sparrows at the Swiss Bar like they were jalapeno poppers, we were ready to follow him anywhere.
The streets were only occasionally overrun with joyful flag-waving revellers who stopped traffic to sing, dance and shoot aerosol hairspray fireballs into the air before continuing on their way. It was great to feel so much celebratory cheer let loose in the smoggy Cairo air.
* * * * *
So yesterday evening was another one of those Cairo moments...I dragged Abeba out to what I thought would be "a presentation of photo exhibit and Korean documentary film" according to the flyer outside the Egyptian Cross-Cultural Cooperation Center in Zamalek, thinking it could an interesting and fun opportunity to meet new people.
I should have known something was up when we walked in the front entrance and all the photos were of (1) Kim Jong Il and (2) the DPRK army in various triumphant formations. But no, I thought, "I guess this must be some sort of photojournalist thing." It wasn't until I realized that I was the only Korean *not* wearing a suit and a little red lapel pin that it dawned on me that we had walked into a propaganda fun fest sponsored by the North Korean Embassy.
Not wanting to be noticed, but curious to see the "documentary film," I hid behind my free copy of "Pyongyang Today" only to be promptly discovered by at least three embassy employees who were all very curious (in Arabic, no less) to know who I was, what I was doing in Cairo, etc. It was all very friendly conversation, but I was uncomfortable to say the least. Especially with all those wee North Korean in the film constantly doing what I like to call "the Kim Jong," whereby one jumps up and down frantically, arms raised and hand flapping at the wrists like half-severed chicken heads, screaming or preferably crying deliriously, kind of like you might imagine someone might do if they were repeatedly being jabbed in the ass with a red-hot poker. But it was impressive to see all of the many gifts and accolades the "Great Leader" has received over the years from such venerable governments and institutions as those found in bastions of freedom and democracy such as Nigeria, Guyana and Colombia.
Totally creepy.
I have to admit, there was part of me that wanted to stay after the film and talk to the embassy goons, er, guys some more. Who knows, that could have been my golden ticket to a fabulous career in double espionage. But honestly, I just couldn't ignore the bigger part of me that was so completely nauseated by the propagandist schlock that I just had to walk out there as quickly as possible and not look back.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home