Where am I?

Where am I?

Why does Google suddenly think I'm in Mauritius?

A Normal Life

A Normal Life

I cannot say this enough times: I love Fridays in Cairo. Today I got up very early (for a Friday) - 8am, doing last night's dishes, going to pick up groceries at Alfa Market. The weather seemed to cool off last night and it was still early enough that I could reach Alfa relatively dry and comfortable.

Fridays are days for doing absolutely nothing after dragging yourself out of bed for a pancake breakfast at noon. We had our obligatory pancakes a bit earlier today, and in a digitally updated version of Sunday mornings back home, I sat at my desk and idly browsed the NY Times.

Blake and I talked about cars. What kind of car would you get back home? Two-door or four-door? What about a hybrid?

It was such a weirdly normal conversation. Usually, we sit around and talk about the latest news in Iraq, or who got chucked out of the Egyptian government and/or thrown into prison today, or what pundit published what diatribe in what newspaper/magazine/blog. Television watching has been reduced to a double dose of Daily Show/Colbert Report downloaded from iTunes.

I wonder if our conversation will be any different once we're back in the states. Will they still be overshadowed by politics and war at every turn? Or will I, at least, be able to go back to talking about television, celebrity gossip and what's on a sale at the supermarket, comfortable and relatively unbothered by things happening out of sight?

I'm guessing not, but sometimes it would be nice to just enjoy a lazy Friday/Sunday morning feeling like everything in the world is ok.