pre-ramadan musings

The end of August is coming up, which means one thing in Egypt: time to prepare for Ramadan. Much the same way that Labor Day signals the end of the summer in the U.S., the start of Ramadan coincides with back to school, autumn, and hopefully temperatures below 100 degrees. A girl can dream.

And so, welcome to what the first of what I am sure will be many posts about Ramadan. The Muslim calendar is lunar, like the Jewish one, so Ramadan is slightly different on the Gregorian calendar every year, and this year it will be starting in the beginning of September (Sept. 1, I think). The grocery store we usually go to, Metro, has a huge Ramadan section now with dried fruit and nuts, honey, these kinds of cookies usually eaten during iftar (the daily break fast at sundown), and other holiday food. I have not quite figured out while I will be doing for the month; most people at my office and both flatmates will be observing the holiday, and I don't want to be offending people. Of course, it's not like I'm the only one -- Egypt, with a population of 80 million people, is also home to about 8 million Coptic Christians who will also want to eat during the daytime, so I am sure I will figure something out. Probably I will eat a really big breakfast/brunch at like 11 before I leave for work and then wait for iftar with everyone else.

Most (all?) liquor stores will close for the month, so anyone who wants to have a beer in September will have to stock up ahead of time, and also many bars and clubs shut down for the month. Tuesday night a large group of us went to a club called Latex at the Nile Hilton for their last hip hop night before Ramadan starts, so that was a lot of fun. We don't usually go clubbing when we all have to wake up for work the next morning, but it was worth it because we won't really be going again until October.

Actually, I am excited for Ramadan to start. When I went to Morocco from Spain for four days (I did Morocco Exchange in fall of 2006, when I was studying abroad in Madrid) it was Ramadan, and I thought it was cool. The whole city (then it was Rabat, now it will be Cairo) flips its schedule so people can sleep during the day and go out get things done after sundown when they have had something to eat. I am very much a night person, so I think it will be cool. In any event, they say people are much less productive (which in itself is something of a feat in a country already plagued by inefficiency) because the work day is shortened. Should be interesting.

I saw Wanted, by the way, and I thought it was only so-so (I love action movies with flimsy, vaguely supernatural premises, but Wanted is no Constantine). Still, I definitely got a kick out of seeing that the movie took place in Chicago. They showed the El, Lake Shore Drive, Sears Tower... made me all nostalgic. Oh, Chicago.

One last thing: notice anything different? I re-decorated the blog with a new color scheme and template, your feedback welcome. I can't decide if the photo on top is too much or not, so feel free to throw in your two cents. I like that it's all bright and fun now, so this is hopefully an improvement. And if it looks ridiculous, also let me know because I probably would not figure that out on my own.