Pigs On Ice!

Pigs On Ice!

I love it.

I Should Have Studied Chinese

I Should Have Studied Chinese

My sister, Mary, just sent me this article about a single Mormon mom who moved to China and ended up starting a highly successful financials news and information services company. Her five percent stake in the company is worth over $40 million.

Cao!

Happy Birthday, Stinker

Happy Birthday, Stinker

No, not you, Mom. Although it is your birthday, too (Happy Birthday, Mom!). My dog, Rocket, turned eight years old today. Can you believe it? For a cockapoo, that makes him officially middle-aged now. Weird to think seven years have passed since I graduated from MIT and began this strange, twisty road that's led me to Cairo. Who would have ever thought?

All We Need is Love

All We Need is Love

On a lighter note, I took this picture of a street vendor's wares near the Lawyers Syndicate. Lots and lots of furry heart pillows with sweethearts' names on them: Nahid, Gamal, Iman, Leila, etc etc...

Art Imitates Life?

Art Imitates Life?

Yesterday I attempted to meet Blake at an obscure cafe downtown so we could attend a screening of "The Yacoubian Building" and a press conference with some of its stars at the Journalists Syndicate. As usual, his directions weren't clear and my sense of direction was totally off, so after I threw a hissy fit we ended up meeting at the Syndicate (conveniently located across the street from Fatahallah Arms).

Just around the corner, the Lawyers Syndicate was decked in protest of the events in Lebanon with posters of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, that read "Our Hearts Are With You" and banners denouncing the US and its Zionist allies. It came as no surprise when Blake told me that the Brotherhood has a bit of a foothold at the syndicate.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get into the screening, so we went home and watched "As-Safara f'il 3amara," a recent film starring Adel Imam as a disgraced paramour who returns to his Cairo apartment after a twenty-five year absence, only to find that the Israeli Embassy has moved in next door. Wacky hijinks and soul-searching redemption ensue.

A lot of the scenes featured in the movie happened to be the very same places where we were wandering about that afternoon: the High Court, the Journalists Syndicate, etc. Popular places of protest these days, be it against the government, against Israel, against the American occupation in (Fill in the Blank)...It's funny to think sometimes how despite being a city of roughly 20 million, you still always recognize the same places on screen.

I'm Starting to Dread Checking My E-Mail

I'm Starting to Dread Checking My E-Mail

(Thirty-six messages this morning) - (Two e-mails from travel web sites) - (One e-mail about loan consolidation) - (One change of address e-mail) = Thirty-two e-mails related to the steady destruction of Lebanon and the effects it is having around the world.

I feel like I'm suffering the opposite problem of my friends in the states: while they are blissfully ignorant of the situation, I'm starting to feel way too focused on it. I hate this.

Resistance and Art

Resistance and Art

There are many sites, thankfully, that have come up this past week with lots of up-to-date coverage of the situation in Lebanon. Electronic Lebanon being just one.

Today they had an article about Mazen Kerbaj, a Beiruti comic author, painter and musician who has been documenting his experiences through drawings posted on his blog. His images form a poignant, powerful and utterly heartbreaking narrative of what's happening right now.

If anyone's reading this, please check it out and feel free, per the artist's request, to re-post and re-distribute his incredible images. As he writes: "PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE IS NO COPYRIGHT ON ANY OF THE DRAWINGS OF THIS BLOG. PLEASE DO PUBLISH, PHOTOCOPY, PRINT, DISTRIBUTE EVERYWHERE ALL THE DRAWINGS IF YOU CAN."

Especially those of you in the states: Please! Pay attention! Don't let our government and the mainstream media blind you to what's happening. Look for yourself with your own eyes.

Creepy

Creepy

Last night I went to a going away dinner for my friend, Terry. Now Terry is quite a character, a clever entrepreneurial businessman with connections all over the place that you would never expect if you saw him padding about in his sun hat, Hawaiian shirt and goofy Crocs on the street.

The cast was certainly not part of our typical scene, which was part of the fun: Egyptian businessmen, Israeli scientists, the British ambasssador, the German biz dev director of an Egyptian luxury bedding company. But despite my reservations, we had a great time, mostly thanks to the Israeli scientist seated near us, who has been the director of the Israeli Academic Center in Cairo for the past three years.

Sariel embodies everything I love about scientists. He was funny, down-to-earth, passionate about his work and passionate about enjoying life to the fullest. He pulled no punches and definitely spared no one's ego, including one Oxford tutor whom he referred to as "a pompous ass." Did I mention that tutor is the one supervising the ambassador's daughter's thesis?

In the back of my mind, I spent much of the evening trying to avoid the slimy advances of a certain businessman that I had met previously at Terry's birthday. Thankfully he mostly behaved himself, but then I got thrown a left-hook by an Egyptian tutor who decided to tell me in the middle of a tirade about the culture of fear in Egypt that I had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen in 45 years.

Huh?

Where Am I?

Where Am I?

Yesterday I went out to Nasr City to pay a visit to a family friend, Najla, who is the editor of a big magazine here. My friend, Koteiba, was on assignment to shoot some cheese for their cover story ("the dark side of gibna," we called it), and I was hoping to perhaps pick up some freelance copyediting or writing work. Unfortunately no go on the work part. But, Koteiba and I decided to walk over to City Stars, the mythical mega-mall, which was just up the street from CT's office, for some lunch and people watching.

City Stars is massive. I've never been to the Mall of America, but I imagine it being something like this, though maybe with less hijabs and niqabs. There's a Guess? jeans store, Miss Sixty, KFC, Pizza Hut, Cinnabon (mmm....Cinnabon...)...Tiffany & Co. should be opening sometime soon. What really amazed me was how packed the place was on a Monday afternoon. Lunch time crowd is one thing, but where on earth did all these people come from? It's not like Nasr City is centrally located, relative to Cairo proper. I guess a lot of them were Xaleeji tourists (that would explain the niqab fest), but seriously, is this how you'd want to spend your summer vacation? In a mall?

Last night Blake and I stayed in and watched "Rain Main." I'd never seen it before because it just never struck me as something I really wanted to sit down and watch. I felt bad not being more touched by the emotional moments in the film. I just wanted Tom Cruise to accidentally drive off the side of a cliff and stop being such an asshole. Is that so wrong?

In Limbo

In Limbo

So, it finally happened: I lost my AUC ID. Fuck. There's the end of my air-conditioned, wi-fi office! So now I have no (un)official AUC affiliation and, technically, no valid visa to be in Egypt. Awesome.

Every Time I Flip to CNN I Want to Punch Someone

Every Time I Flip to CNN I Want to Punch Someone

There once was a time when I didn't understand why anyone in Chicago (i.e. my older, more worldly sister, Anna, for example) would ever want or need to read a paper that was not the Chicago Tribune. What did the New York Times have to offer anyways? Then, as I got older and collected more clues, I started to realize that there was a whole world of newspapers out there with different types of coverage, different perspectives, different voices. Then there was also the rather speedy realization that CNN is a piece of shit. But then also came the realization that all news networks have their own shitty issues. So, in the end, you just have to accept that your choices are (1) Read and watch as much as you can of everything and then sift through all the shit to get some vague idea of what's happening somewhere in the world, or (2) Just ignore everything.

Some days, I really want to choose option (2), but I never am able to block out the world for too long.

My friend, Steve, is stuck in Lebanon right now, and he is none too pleased about the tragic destruction all around him. He loves Beirut and was looking forward to a summer of finishing his MA thesis before moving on to who knows where. And then this happened. He just sent an e-mail to friends in the states, begging them to get their news from any non-American sources they can find, because as he said, "Every time I flip to CNN I want to punch someone." And believe me, Steve is a pretty chill guy.

I have to agree with him, though. Every time I check the latest headlines on the NYT website, I think, "Is this for real?" Their coverage is so biased, it defies logic. I can't even imagine what CNN has to say. It makes me sad, too, that none of my friends in the states have made any mention of what's going on to me. They don't seem interested or maybe it just doesn't even register in their minds. I can't blame them, when they are so far removed from the situation (and have such bad information trickling down to them), but it terrifies me. What in the world is America thinking right now? I really have no idea.

Abandoned

Abandoned

The situation in Lebanon/Palestine/Israel right now defies all words. I just do not understand how no one, really *no one* in the world has the balls to step forward and speak out against the insane destruction that Israel in raining down upon innocent people right now. What will it take? How many more people have to die or be displaced from their homes in order for anyone to stop this rampage?

I'm wholeheartedly ashamed to see how my own government is single-handedly blocking any movement by the UN Security Council to demand that Israel stop its campaign of senseless violence. The whole thing is a disgrace.