happy birthday to me

This past weekend I celebrated my 23rd birthday, which was a lot of fun. Some friends and I took some wine and cheese on a felluca on the Nile, and then went over to El Mojito, a bar/lounge we frequent. I got to see many friends, so it was a nice celebration. Weird to have another birthday abroad (I turned 21 in Madrid), but overall a good one.

On Friday night I had Shabbat dinner with some AUC students I met at the last Jewish event, and that was nice. They had brought kosher chicken from Israel (I thought bringing back a challah was an accomplishment, but this is true dedication), and also some Israeli wine. I contributed dessert. A very nice gathering and fun to have a legitimate Shabbat dinner in Cairo. Saturday evening we had another event for the Cairo Jewish Club, as we are now apparently calling ourselves. This one was a get-together at the British Club, and it featured schmoozing, drinking, trivia, and some Israeli dancing. Overall a success, and I had a good time. I think this whole Jewish cultural group is off to a great start so far, and am really glad that I get to be a part of it here.

I also finished and turned in another freelance article this weekend, this one a book review for a design magazine. This is the first piece I wrote for them, but hopefully they will ask me to contribute again. Saturday during the day, A2 and I decided to try and get out and see some more of Cairo. We spend a lot of weekends being low-key and relaxing, but there's a lot in Cairo that I still have not done.

We ended up choosing the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art, close by in Zamalek by the Opera House and only 5 LE (about $1) to get in. It was very non-pretentious; they had lots of interesting work by Egyptian artists in nice building with a big foyer. There were maybe 10 other people in the museum, so we kind of had it to ourselves, which was cool. The types of art varied -- they had some surrealist, some impressionist, some very modern, sculpture, oil paintings, abstract, portaits, etc. A little of everything. None of the artists are particularly famous outside of Egypt, I think, but it was a very nice collection. The Egypt Museum is so famous for all the mummies and antiquities and whatnot, that I think people sometimes overlook the other museums in Cairo. But it's nice to see Egyptians proud of their more modern culture as well.