in which jess guestblogs

This is Jessica (Aliza's youngest sister), guestblogging as we await our flight to Italy.

We just came back from the Nile Cruise. There were many hyroglyphic-filled temples in Upper Egypt, as well as many donkeys and camels, which made me very happy. The Nile Cruise was nice, although our room was in the third class- had it been the Titanic, we would have died. We toured with another American family from Boston. They were very nice, even if they did have a very small, squeaky child who seemed to know a lot about Egyptian mythology.

Cairo was a lot of fun. Cairo traffic, however, was not. The pyramids were very cool and large. Oddly, even though they are pretty gigantic, when the Cairo Smog was particularly prominent, you couldn't see them. I enjoy Egyptian food quite a bit- koshari, faoul, felafil, yum! And now we will go to Italy, where there will also be delicious food.

In other news. I rode a camel. It was wonderful.

-- Jessica (p.s. I also chose the tags for this post.)

the early shift

More Ramadan news: I am going to have excellent work hours. At my company, everyone will work 5 hours a day in one of three shifts: either 8-1, 9-2, or 10-3. I know it seems obscenely early (or maybe just to me, who has been arriving at work at 11:00 for the last two months), but this is so people can wake up and eat breakfast before sunrise, do some work, and then go take a nice long nap before iftar at sundown. That also takes care of the lunch question -- I will just wait until I leave work.

At first I optimistically thought I would take the 9-2 shift and then be productive, but I think we all know that neither one will happen. I will oversleep and arrive for the late shift, and then when I am done I will take a nap instead of doing something productive. But hey, at least it's a culturally appropriate nap. Woo!

Anyway, this week... well, a new girl, C, arrived from the U.S., so I am no longer the newbie in my group of friends. Yay, now I feel very officially integrated. It's kind of cool that I am now in a position to be giving advice on Cairo when I still feel like I could use some. But then, I don't know that that feeling ever goes away when you live in a foreign country. I have been here for two months now, so that's something. Otherwise it was mostly a chill week, though last night I went with my friend N to see Cronicas, a Spanish movie. I heard that the Cervantes Institute was having Ecuadorian film week with free screenings and N also speaks a little Spanish, so that was cool. The movie was good, though a bit depressing.

As many of you may recall, the apartment I live in now is meant to be temporary since apartment prices in Zamalek went up for the summer. Well, my flatmates and I are hoping to move sometime in the next month, so we have started to look for a new place. Of course, nothing is ever that easy in Cairo; generally, apartments come with a simsar, a kind of real estate broker. They help you find an apartment, then ask for a percentage of the rent as a "tip". But if you find an apartment on your own, the simsar attached to that apartment often still demands a cut because they don't want to be left out of the deal. So we are trying to find an apartment as well as a simsar who won't screw us over. M knows someone trustworthy and we know which building we want to be in, so hopefully that will work out soon-ish. The apartment I live in now isn't so bad -- it's huge, in a great location, fully furnished, air conditioned, new-ish washing machine -- and I have definitely seen much worse. Still, there have been some problems with it (namely, it is also a bit rundown and not particularly well cared-for), and I am looking forward to the move.

In a moment of weakness, I went to Diwan, my favorite overpriced English-language bookstore, to see about buying Eclipse. And they didn't have it. Gah! Will beg parents to buy me a copy in the U.S. and ship it to Egypt. BTW, if you want my address to ship packages, they will be greatly welcomed! I don't want to post it on the blog, but let me know and I will e-mail it to you.

in which i admit to liking twilight

My lobby is under construction. They have knocked down many walls and there are sacks of dirt and concrete and piles of bricks all over the place. The workers seem to take frequent cigarette and tea breaks, but at least they are making visible progress (as opposed to the giant pipeline holes in front of my apartment on Sherman Ave. which they kept digging and re-filling at 7 a.m. for several months with no discernible difference AT ALL). On the bright side, the building could definitely use the a little help in the classiness department, and hopefully a shiny new lobby will help.

So...weekend! Thursday after work my friend N and I went looking for a place in Zamalek to get our eyebrows done (sorry men who are reading this). But because this is Egypt, where many women wear hijabs, salons are often separated by gender. Most are either men-only or women-only; if they are unisex, the women are often in a separate section that is either in the back or has blacked-out windows so people walking by won't be able to see them with uncovered hair. So we went for a walk and ultimately found a non-shady women's salon, which was also pretty cheap. Yay affordability! Plus A1 has said she knows of a good place that has cheap manicures, so that's something else I can look forward to.

Anyway, Thursday night we went to Harry's Pub for karaoke (this week's songs included various members of our large group singing "Piano Man," "Like a Prayer," and a rendition of "Twist and Shout" that everyone joined in on and felt very Ferris Bueller-esque. I pictured myself singing on a parade float in front of Daley Plaza).

Friday was supposed to be my day to run errands and do laundry and get things done...but instead I read Twilight. I know, I know, it's cheesy and a bit trashy and definitely written for 13-year-olds. But it's so good. Like so bad it's good. I have been describing it as both fantastically horrible and horribly fantastic. I meant to just read a few chapters, but instead I read the entire book, and now I am halfway through New Moon. So addictive. English bookstores here can be a bit limited, but if none of them have Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, I might pitch a fit. Spoil the endings and I will fly back to the U.S. and kill you.

After my extremely entertaining read of Twilight, I went over to J's and had Shabbat dinner again (I know, two weeks in a row in Cairo -- very exciting). I ended up over at my friend H's later that night under the impression that people wanted to play poker, but it never really materialized, and instead a group of us just hung out. Saturday we went back to the Mohammed Ali Club for the last pool day before Ramadan starts. If it seems like we go there a lot... well, that's because we do. It's hot, the beach is far, and this place is in Cairo and has a cheap pool. Done. Saturday night it was our friend T's birthday, so we went back to Latex for her birthday party. But we all have work on Sunday (our weekends are Fri-Sat), so we didn't stay too late.

Now I am watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, and I think I am actually going to miss it. I am not usually (...or ever) a big sports fan, but there is something I really liked about watching politics go out the window in the name of international cooperation and good sportsmanship. On Thursday I spent like a good three hours at the office watching the games -- there is a big TV in the newsroom, and everyone has been into it. Throughout the whole thing I have felt rather patriotic (i.e. Michael Phelps is awesome), which is understandable considering I am watching China from Egypt and rooting for America. Egypt, meanwhile, won one medal (a bronze in judo), though everyone in the office was rooting for anyone competing from the Middle East (some weightlifters from Syria were extremely popular but didn't win). Fingers crossed for Chicago 2016!

Also: Obama/Biden '08! I'm feeling pretty positive about this choice, and am extremely excited for my absentee ballot. I feel certain that coverage of the Democratic convention in Denver will enable me to procrastinate at least as well as the coverage of the Olympics.