channel surfing in the middle east

One of things I like best about Zamalek is how community-like it is. Cairo is such a huge city that it's easy to feel lost or overwhelmed just thinking about going downtown, but on "the island" (as we say), you often get the desire to start humming "It's a Small World After All." It really is its own little world -- people often talk about leaving Zamalek as though it would be exiting the Green Zone in Baghdad.

I guess what I like about it is that I just run into people I know all the time, which wouldn't happen elsewhere in Cairo. Walking home from a shisha place last night I saw a guy I know from AIESEC on 26th of July. Two nights ago I had dinner with my friend A1 (the girl...trying to remain consistent with previous postings), and when we were walking around after dinner, our friends H and N spotted us and called out as they drove by in a taxi on their way back from salsa class.

This has happened a lot, and I think it's cool that I have been here long enough to run into people I know all over the place. It's like walking around on campus and running into friends on Sheridan Rd. Plus, I am now a regular at certain places: there is a Quick 24 (think 7-11 or White Hen) where I buy water all the time, or the cheap sandwich place I sometimes grab dinner at, or the pharmacy where I (finally!) found a good supply of hairspray. (Don't make fun, lack of quality hair products caused me a lot of stress the first few weeks. Plus I was frizzy.) Anyway, they recognize me, know I am a foreigner and speak slowly, it's good times.

Although I will say that my Ameyya (Egyptian dialect of Arabic) is coming along well -- I just have a bunch of basics that I have to re-learn. For example, it is typical to put question words at the end of sentences, so I have been told to practice asking lots of questions so I will get the hang of it. This is not a problem for me, but understanding the responses sometimes is. On the other hand, I am getting really good at is arguing with cab drivers; I can now yell impressive things like, "I want 5 pounds change or I am not leaving the taxi."

Also, exciting discovery of the week: I get MTV Arabia! My apartment gets satellite (most do...every building in Cairo seems to have like 5-10 satellite dishes on top), but there are levels of satellite packages, like cable in the U.S. If my flatmates and I really wanted to get all the amazing cable channels, like Bravo, Discovery, TNT, Animal Planet, A&E, etc., we would have to pay extra. But we are cheap, so we have the basic package instead, which includes about 100 channels, like 10 of which are in English. Sigh...sometimes I miss the DVR. It's not like I am home all the time to be watching TV (I'm really not), but sometimes after a long day, I just want to sit on the couch like a zombie and watch TV. I know, I know: life's so hard, blah blah blah.

Anyway, of those 10ish, some are news (Al Jazeera English, BBC, CNN International), some are Middle Eastern channels that have content in English with Arabic subtitles and Arabic commercials, like Dubai One (love this one -- they have Grey's Anatomy twice a week, plus random re-runs of Gilmore Girls, West Wing, Tyra Banks's talk show, every variation of CSI, etc.) and the MBC family of stations. These include the MBCs 1-4 and MBC Action, which is clearly the best. MBC 2 has movies, MBC 3 has kids programming (odd combinations of Hannah Montana and Tom and Jerry), etc. The only thing is that MBC is broadcast from Saudi Arabia, so all content is blatantly censored. It's especially jarring if it's a movie or TV show you've seen before and suddenly, mid-kiss, they cut away before anything "inappropriate" is shown. Oh, Middle East.

The other day I got home from work and was flipping aimlessly through the other Arabic channels, and I came across MTV Arabia. I was so excited that I immediately watched True Life: I'm a Southern Belle and an episode of Made in which a tragically uncool kid from Texas discovers he is hot on the inside, learns something valuable about himself, gets a date and becomes Prom King, in that order. I can only hope they also plan to air re-runs of The Paper. (Yes, Andi and Dani, you win: I liked that show. Bah.) But don't worry, I don't think my standards will ever be low enough to get me to watch The Hills.