May through June = CRAZY

My oh my the fun times I have had recently. Sorry for no posts since forever, but this is how life goes.

First we should start with Suzie's crazy, whirlwind, non-stop three day visit to Cairo. She is crazy and I love her for it. What an honor to have someone come all the way here for only three days! She was picked up from the airport in the most amazing fashion ever with new friends and old. From then on it was non-stop. Highlights include a one day trip to Alexandria, delicious quail dinner/lunch at Andrea's (new to me), riding a camel for the first time by the Pyramids, plenty of girl chat, dominating Khan el Khalili and Suzie being her fantastic sunny self!

Our camels

After Suzie's departure I had about a week to prepare for my first trip back to America in nearly two years. The entire Ehrich family gathered in New York for the wedding of Nate and Vicky on Saturday June 12th in Bryant Park. They hosted a truly beautiful, thoughtfully planned, and delicious weekend. Outings included the most outrageous burger I have ever eaten, jazz, William's graduation luncheon, a trip up the Empire State Building, a very tasteful rehearsal dinner with drinks after and plenty of walking around. The wedding was gorgeous, bride and groom were impeccable, my champagne glass was never empty, the steak was perfectly pink, everyone danced all night, and they had a Polaroid photo booth. Please everyone who is getting married copy the photo booth idea. 

Stepping foot on American soil was not quite the shock I thought it would be. Still, chilling in Brooklyn with Ana and mom, plus friends was a good break. I also got some much needed daddy daughter time, mommy daughter time, sister time, a haircut, and over all family time.The weather was rainy (nice break really), I could wear shorts in the streets, caught a football match with Dad, had the option of an alcoholic drink at every meal, quality window shopping, phone to calls to the girls around the country (it has been years since I have talked on the phone with some of these ladies) and pork products!

Can't complain about the trip at all. Then back to Cairo where I was immediately taken to the beach for an amazing weekend. Then back to work and the beach every weekend since. Think I am sticking around Cairo this weekend, but who really knows. In the meantime I am planning a trip back in the fall to Seattle and life will move forward from there. What the past almost two months have taught me is that just when you really think you can't stand a place someone or something will flip it on its head and make you love it all over again if you are open to this action. Being open and receptive to new opportunities and people is the biggest lesson I learned while away from America. I have finely tuned my douche bag radar, which aids in knowing who and what to be open with. So, while I could see happily going back to the states anytime, I can't really see leaving Cairo just yet. Conundrum I know. Cairo has a momentum I like right now, I feel like jumping and and saying hello to all of it.

We went to the Empire State Building, such a touristy activity, but actually pretty cool. 

Note the shorts in a very public place, so awesome.

Here are some facts about Cairo and Egypt

Egypt has 81,527,172 people as of 2008.

Cairo has over 20,000,000 residents, I would say it is safe to add on another 2-5 million to that number.

Donkey carts have been outlawed in downtown Cairo in an effort to improve traffic.

The new "Ring Road" is 100 kilometers (62 miles) and as the name implies goes around the Cairo/Giza metropolis.

Cairo is considered a "Mega City," joining the likes of Mumbai, Mexico City, New York, Tokyo, and others.

One half of all hospital beds are found in Cairo

One half of all university desks are found in Cairo




If Cairo were a sovereign nation it would be the 5th largest Arab country

Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt, in only 30 percent the size of Cairo.

Cairo is home to Al Azhar University, the world's oldest surviving degree granting university.

There are over 2,000,000 cars in the streets of Cairo, 60 percent of which are over ten years old.

The Great Pyramids of Giza, sort of Cairo, are the only remaining  monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

An estimated 9,351 under-age marriages take place in Egypt, with the vast majority of them taking place in Cairo.

A Greek papyrus from 163 B.C. mentions girls in Egypt undergoing female circumcision and the practice is widely accepted to have originated in Egypt and the Nile valley at the time of the Pharaohs. Although both Al Azhar religious officials and Coptic Pope state it has no basis in religious scripture, practice, or law and it should be not practiced.

The average Egyptian spends 110 Egyptian pounds on cigarettes, that's about 20 dollars, a month.

Mohsen Reda, an Egyptian Member of Parliament, was asked about the prevalence of sexual harassment against women in Egypt and was quoted as as saying that women should be dressed more modestly as “a lot of our youth can’t afford marriage so it is only normal for some harassment to take place.”

The minimum monthly salary of an Egyptian government employee is just LE 289 (53 US dollars).

Other people's blogs, which may or may not be about Egypt.

One of the most useful and annoying tools I have found in Cairo is a list serve called Cairo Scholars. With over 2,000 members who can email the entire group at any time you can imagine the absolute stupidity and absolute usefulness of the group.

I asked for a collection of blogs because when I was traveling here I found it very hard to find up to date information about living in modern Cairo. The guide books are for tourists and most Google searches turn up information about all the old stone stuff.

Here are the blogs if you are interested in what some other ex-pat type people living in Cairo get up to. I don't know these people and the blogs were not vetted. Many of them are more political, have way better photos, and not nearly as snarky as mine.

www.omraneya.net

Aggregation of blogs on Egypt/by Egyptians in English and Arabic.

http://equivocus.livejournal.com

Written in Armenian or  Russian.

Have you ever seen Armenian written? It looks so cool. There are also English posts.

www.ericincairo.blogspot.com 

Chronicles adventures both in and outside of Egypt.

http://transhumancity.wordpress.com/

http://whazzupegypt.blogspot.com

www.theshepherdsguild.blogspot.com

www.adewegypt.wordpress.com

http://bloggingegypt.blogspot.com

http://www.IncendiaryImage.com

PS. I'm starting a new blog, in the near future. Stay tuned.

PPS This article is funny, click here.

Apartment peek

This is my balcony. 

If you keep walking forward the balcony wraps around the side of the building. 

One of the best things about the building is none of our neighbors are more than one story taller than us. One of the worst things about the building is the horribly loud mosque directly behind our balcony and the other mosque somewhere close. They cannot get their call to prayer times together, seriously it is supposed to all happen at one time and not 30 minutes apart.

Looking out from the living room. 
We are not responsible for the curtains or furniture. If either Jasmin or I were planning on being here more than 1-2 years we might change something, but this is not the case.

The Egyptian version of The Onion

Let is be said that the vast majority of Egyptians have truly wonderful sense of humor. The proof, if you doubt, can be found in the website El Koshary.

The actual dish Koshary is the delicious carbohydrate filled street food made out two types of pasta, brown lentils, rice, chickpeas, fried onions, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, and a really hot sauce. Koshary is incredibly cheap and comes in massive servings.

I once got in a friendly argument about the root of the name Koshary. My friend held that it was derived from the Jewish/Hebrew tradition/word "Kosher." I claimed it was derived from the Arabic word meaning "random" or something similar to "grab bag."  Like most people do these days we Googled it and my claim had the greater number of Google hits. If we had been betting money I would have walked away richer. We were not betting money and no one in Egypt I have met can give me a 100 percent translation. The recipe is said to have been created by ancient followers of the Coptic faith (Egyptian Orthodox Christians) to eat during their fasts, when they do not eat dairy, meat, or animal products.I don't think Koshary is Kosher. Not many Rabbi's on the street corners selling food in Cairo.

The actual food is not the point, but knowing Koshary means roughly "a jumble" and that it is dirt cheap street food gives the website's title a little more depth. Read and laugh.
 

Crossing the street

This video is really accurate, thanks CNN. Although I never find it that dangerous. If you are curious this is also what many of the veiled women in Cairo look like, the anchor speaks really bad Arabic, and the streets are filled with crappy cars.

To watch the CNN video on Cairo Street Crossing click here please.

Jesus was reborn and the Jews fled Egypt so I....

...went to the Sinai.

Which, if you think about it, is a pretty holy stomping ground. Moses hung out here, found the commandments on a "mountain" top (I use quotes because I walked up it and it is barely a mountain), he also parted the Red Sea (I am guessing near the Taba Hilton, its the thinnest part), and various other holy figures spent who knows how much time here.

But, what really matters is that I chilled on the beach for a nice long weekend. Our small group went to Kumkum 3 aka Bakraj 3 aka Three Tea pots in Hebrew and Arabic. The days were hot and sunny, the nights were breezy and filled with random guitars and songs, and the sea was calm and cool. There are more adjectives to use and better ways to describe it, but ass usual I am at a loss. I was lazy about photos too because...
a) I tried really hard to use film 
b) I have been to Kumkum 3  before, pictorial evidence here

The whole Sinai was full. Every camp was booked with Israelis, Egyptians, and a random spattering of Western and European foreigners. America was horribly underrepresented! Come on USA get it together and get to the Sinai. Its like Mexico only slightly more awesome (this is my personal and uninformed opinion I have only been to Mexico once and speak no Spanish). I was trying to celebrate the re-birthday of Jesus, wrong crowd for that humor I guess. Not my fault few people have a religious sense of humor.

The completely ironic thing is that I spent the weekend chilling, serious chilling, deep deep sea chilling, with all kinds of people. Then I wake up to go to work on Tuesday, flip on BBC news (mistake maybe?) and see that Israeli is blowing up Gaza, Palestine is thinking about declaring a state, more floods are happening, Egypt is cracking down on hash (everyone in the city is a little on edge-seriously), and generally the world is falling apart.

Ahh, I whine, I complain, I say the same stuff over and over. But man, the same problems keep happening and no solutions. Maybe the time is ripe for new chat about it all. Specifically, I am looking for people who want to chat about investing in a submarine You think I am joking. I am not. Dead serious. I believe in all 2012 hype. I can't tell you why or the logic behind it all. I like to think that I don't seem like a wacko up in the mountains who is scared of cell phones and sees green men, but to much stuff is happening and not far enough apart for something to not be going on.

Call if you want to build a submarine.