phenomenal cosmic powers, itty-bitty living space

This has been quite the busy week for me, in a good way. My first freelance article was published this week. It's not available online (yet?), but I'll post it when/if it goes live...eventually. I like the freelancing work and I am excited for my next story.

On Tuesday night I went to an AIESEC meeting at Cairo University, and it was weird to be back on a college campus with other students but not have it be my college campus. Everyone was really nice, and I got to meet some other new interns and see all the other AIESECers I have been spending time with this summer. But still, this is back-to-school time, and it is my first year not going back to school, which is a little sad. Anyway, after that I headed over to the British Club for round 2 of the expat meet-and-greet, and this time actually succeeded in meeting people. Very exciting! Apparently they have these events once a month, so maybe last time was just an off-night since it was the summer.

Last night I had several fun Egyptian cultural experiences. I had iftar with some friends at Abu el-Seid, a really delicious restaurant in Zamalek. I had koshary, which is a kind of Egyptian peasant food. It has rice, lentils, pasta, fried onions, tomatoes, and this delicious garlicky sauce. So good. Then we all went to Khan el-Khaleli, which is a big bazaar/market/souk in downtown Cairo. In a previous post I mentioned that around Cairo there is a lot of special entertainment for Ramadan, so last night we went to one such concert; it was free, and featured Sufi music from Upper Egypt (Upper Egypt is actually the south, and it is home to Aswan, Luxor, and all these cool Pharonic sites) and whirling dervishes, an Egyptian style of dance that has men in these awesome spinny skirts twirling on stage for like 40 minutes (I would have been seriously dizzy) while doing all kinds of cool tricks. Photos below!

We also wandered around Khan el-Khaleli for a bit. We stopped and had tea and juice at El Fishawy, one of the oldest 'ahwas in Cairo. Egypt has the freshest, most delicious juices -- I have mango juice like several times a week. A particularly exciting point (for me) was a really cool antiques store where I found... an oil lamp! Like the one from Aladdin! Actually, they had a few. I tested them all, but no genies. Yet. Or maybe I'm just not a diamond in the rough?

After all that, we met up with some more people, and a group of like 12 of us went on a short felluca ride on the Nile to enjoy the breeze, then headed to Tahrir for sohour before heading home. Sometimes living in this city can be very frustrating, but other times I just look around and think, "This is so cool! I can't believe I get to live here!"

Khan el-Khaleli at night during Ramadan

Men playing traditional Sufi music at the free concert

Whirling dervishes!

YESS!! I found a lamp! Sadly it is genie-less, but don't worry, I'll keep checking.