all things go, all things go

Well everyone, this is it: the farewell post. I wanted to take this time to write some things that I love -- and am going to miss -- about Egypt, and the Middle East in general. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Street food. Many people complain about the food in Egypt, but I don't agree. True, it's far from gourmet; if that's what you wanted, you'd be better off in Morocco or Lebanon. But for cheap, delicious, and occasionally greasy local street food on the go, you can't beat Egypt. My favorites: tall glass of mango or guava juice, or banana with milk (sounds weird, but it is so good!), or as'hab, a juice made of sugar cane; fuul, aka stewed fava beans with tahina and salad and sometimes hot peppers, especially from Mah'roos, aka Biblical fuul, aka the fuul place in Garden City; koshari, the classic Egyptian vegetarian peasant dish made from rice, noodles, chick peas, fried onions, lentils, spicy red sauce and some of that garlicky/vinegary stuff on top; fiteer, a kind of fried dough eaten with honey as a dessert or with veggies and cheese or meat as a meal; and of course fatta, which is rice, fried pieces of bread, chicken schwarma, and taamayya (garlic sauce) on top. So good. All of it. Now I just have to find a decent Egyptian restaurant in New York.

2. The call to prayer. When it comes to speaking Arabic in Cairo, Egyptian Ameyya has been much more useful to me than the classic fus'ha I learned at Northwestern. But there is something so beautiful about classical Arabic: when it's written, I love the calligraphy, the flowing script, whether its the inticate designs on Islamic buildings or sprawled across a store front or on the cover of a book. And I love the sound of it, the allahu akbar echoing around me five times a day, marking time and filling the streets and alleys. Hear it at 4 am? Stayed out too late. Hear it at 9 am? Woke up too early. Hear it at 6 pm? Time to start wrapping up work and head home. Though I am not going to be joining anyone at a mosque to pray, I really like hearing the call to prayer sound around me; it reminds me that this city, my home, is filled with people coming together to share something special every day.

3. Chilling. I don't think I can emphasize the relaxed, chilled out nature of this country. Egyptians have a flexible concept of time, and are often late; I respond well to this. Everything is late: buses, scheduled performances, parties, people. I don't think I could live in a country where everyone places such a high premium on time. Everyone is very relaxed about everything; one of my favorite Egyptian words is malesh, meaning: it's OK, no worries. Bus is late? Malesh. Air conditioner broken? Malesh. I seem to be locked out of my house? Malesh! And one of the things I have learned to do here is stop worrying about time so much. I am not usually in a rush, and it's been pretty great. It makes some people anxious, and I will admit that I have moments of wishing things could run more efficiently. But it's worth it for the laid-back atmosphere all around the country. I have chilled all over Egypt: by the Red Sea, by the Mediterrean Sea, in Upper Egypt, on the Nile, in several types of desert, in Siwa, in tents, in Mosques, with Bedouins, and more. In Basata, I took off my watch for four days, and it was heaven. The most popular set-up I see in Egypt is incredibly conducive to chilling: mats and rugs and oversized pillows on the floor, a long, low table, some shishas and trays of tea, all shoes left by the entrance. You can lay out, you can lay back, you can nap or read a book or play a game of tawla/shataranj, you can forget that you were ever supposed to be doing anything else. And if you're late to whatever you were supposed to be doing next? Malesh.

4. Cairo, in all its faded glory. (Get ready, this is a long one!) In the days before Nasser took over, Cairo was a international city. There were gilded buildings and chic pastry shops, and a dignified sort of feeling to the city. Now, many of the streets have been renamed and the facades are cracked and all that grandeur has begun to crumble. Going to have a beer on the rooftop of the Odean, or passing by Groppi's in downtown, or sitting in of the Farouk-era, Victorian-style chairs in my apartment: these are reminders and relics of a more glamorous time. It's true that Cairo is not a beautiful city. But it's intriguing and interesting, and never boring.

I love the Nile, especially at night. During the day you can see the garbage washing up along the shore if you look too closely, but at night it whispers past, just a few buildings away from my Zamalek apartment. In Upper Egypt, down in Aswan, you can take a small boat back and forth across the Nile, where it's wide and quiet and sparkling blue. For three days on the Nile cruise, you can gaze off the side and see quiet fishing villages on either side, and animals, and it's beautiful. But my favorite thing of all is to get on a felluca with a group of friends, whether it's three people or twenty, and just sail and talk and chill. Some of the best conversations I've had in Egypt have been contemplative ones on the Nile. I love, whether sailing or walking along the corniche or on someone's balcony, to watch the Nile at night, gently reflecting the neon lights of the billboards and hotels, silently and eternally flowing north to the Mediterranean.

I love the minarets of mosques piercing the skyline, I love walking in the streets because there are no sidewalks (or because the sidewalks are not passable), I love the way things are built on other things so that in the same city there can be a building from medieval times across the square from an Ottoman one, I love the noise and chaos and energy of the city. They say New York is the city that never sleeps; in Madrid, they said "Ellos que dicen que Nueva York es la ciudad que nunque duerma no conocen los madrilenos" (those who say New York is the city that never sleeps don't know people from Madrid), and now I can safely say that Cairo is truly a city that functions on its own inner clock and rhythm. Everything is open past midnight, everything delivers, it is not unusual to find traffic even when it's 3 am, and the streets are crowded no matter the hour. When I first got here I considered it is the most overwhelming place I have ever lived, and now that assault on the senses is both familiar and welcome; I would not have it any other way.

5. The people. I don't even know how to put into words exactly how awesomely amazing the people I have met here are. They are from all over the world, they speak a dozen different languages, they are fun and silly and fascinating. They shared their cultures and opened their homes; they have opened my mind, as I can only hope I have opened theirs. Some I saw every day, some only once a month, but I always felt welcomed and supported. They are my Cairo family, they are such a big part of what made my year so great, and I will miss them more than I can say.

Cairo is not a perfect place, and neither is Egypt. But I'd rather think about the things I love instead of dwelling on the negative. So with that, I will say goodbye to you. I hope you enjoyed reading about my life in Egypt this year as much as I enjoyed writing. Thanks!

just like raiders of the lost ark

In part of my quest to go explore something new in Cairo each weekend, I have recently become very closely acquainted with my Lonely Planet Egypt. In perusing, N and I discovered that in addition to Cairo, there are things we both want to see in Alexandria as well. We have both been to Alex before (N multiple time, me just in September ), but had not seen the catacombs of Kom al-Shuqqafa, which we both wanted to see. So on Saturday, the two of us caught the 9 am train from Cairo to Alex, and our Egyptian friend S3 (who is also N's roommate) picked us up at the train station. She is from Alex and goes home some weekends, so it's always nice to have a knowledgable friend on hand to show you around. After a quick lunch, we went to the catacombs (no cameras inside so I only have pictures of the outside, check below!), which were really cool. Apparently they were discovered by accident in 1900 when a donkey feel through the ceiling, and our tour guide then proceeded to give us a full history of "things discovered in Egypt when a horse or donkey fell through a ceiling." FYI, this happens more than you think. I guess if you really want to find some ancient Pharonic treasures, bring along a horse and hope they take care of the hard part for you.

Inside the catacombs, there was this huge hole through the center of the ceiling that they used to lower the bodies through, plus all these side passageways with tons of tombs. There was also this area that apparently used to be the tomb for a private (and wealthy) Roman family, and it included this stone archway and entrance. The whole thing looked like a booby-trapped scene from Indiana Jones, so you kind of got the impression that when you tried to enter you might be bowled over by a large stone ball, or that some wooden spears would suddenly come flying out of the sides. We decided to brave it anyway, and it was fine. Which was both a relief and slightly disappointing at the same time.

Also, the last time we went we saw the outside of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, but it was already closed (because it was Ramadan), so this time we were able to go inside. They had a really cool exhibit called "Impressions of Alexandria" that featured maps, drawings and photos of Alexandria going back hundreds of years, and N and I also took the time to select a book and sit down and read for 15 minutes, so we could say we read books at the library of Alexandria (OK, it's not the fabled great library anymore, but it's still pretty cool). I read from Macbeth (I've always loved that play, at least partially due to the witches), and the complete works of T.S. Eliot (not for Cats! It's because his poem "The Hollow Men" is one my favorites), and N read from a collection of English literature from Ceylon (this is the old name for Sri Lanka, where N's family is from).

After all that, we went back to S3's house for lunch/dinner, which included some deliciously prepared seafood, which we don't get all that often in Cairo. In Alexandrian fashion, the fish were served whole on the bone, and N and I didn't really have any idea how to go about eating it. But S3 and her mom helped us, and I think we were at least pretty entertaining trying to figure it out -- so at least the ridiculous foreigners can be the dinner theater. Her family is great, and I enjoy spending time there when in Alex. We also went for a sunset stroll by the sea -- S3's family lives about a block away from the beach, and I think if I lived that close I would never get any work done at all.

N, me and S3 outside the tombs of Kom al-Shuqqafa

My arm being devoured by the stone lion, S3 freaking out in the background

Not inside one of the catacombs, but a separate tomb. Still, a cool drawing I think.

Inside the library...look at all those books! It goes so far down. A reader's paradise...

Me, jumping for joy to be near a beach

adventures in baking

This weekend is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and one of the traditions of this particular holiday is the eating of dairy foods, especially cheese blintzes and cheesecake. Another Jewish friend of mine, SK (I can't even remember how many S friends I have written about on the blog or which numbers are which ones, so I am just going with initials at this point), is a good baker and asked if I wanted to help make a cheesecake for Shavuot, which I absolutely did.

Now, I will just say that with proper planning and foresight, we probably could have obtained most of the items we needed to make a proper cheesecake. But we did not do this. Instead, we decided at 3 pm yesterday (Wednesday) to make a cheesecake, both worked late, and finally met up around 10 pm in Maadi to start cooking. A supermarket chain called Alfa Market usually has imported foods, like cream cheese (the main ingredient in most cheesecakes, by the way), but there are none by SK's house and I didn't think to check the one by me on my way to Maadi. So instead we went to a local market by her house, where they had several varieties of Egyptian "cream" cheeses, none of which were actual cream cheese. Let's just say we improvised on many ingredients.

Soon enough we were in the kitchen of SK's neighbor -- which was, by the way, the nicest kitchen I have seen yet in Egypt. He had a microwave! It was so nice and shiny... But I digress. Anyway, we opted for an Oreo cheesecake, though we had to go with Egyptian generic brand Borio (once we mashed them up you couldn't even tell the difference), which we put in the crust and also crumbled into the filling. No graham crackers, so we made a crust out of crumbled Borios and McVities Hob-Nob biscuits, plus flour/eggs/sugar/butter/baking powder, etc. While that was baking, we improvised a filling out of...many things. Our independent taste-tests confirmed that it tastes mostly like cheesecake (and vaguely looks like it too) and smells really good, but the consistency is not quite right. It is sitting in my fridge right now, doing some thinking (and some hardening, inshallah), and we will eat it tonight.

To my friends in Egypt: come have some! To friends and family reading at home: chag sameach!

january is boring

For some reason, Egypt has the best fruits and vegetables in the winter. You can't really find things out of season like you can in the US, so sometimes you just can't get certain produce. Metro (the market we go to) has a small but mostly reliable section, so things like onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples and bananas are available year-round. But ever since I got back from traveling in January, they have magical things like avocados, strawberries (we have been buying these by the kilo), mandarins/clementines, and more.

This might not sound all that exciting to you, but this comes from shopping at a supermarket where finding tortillas, refrigerated milk or basil are causes for celebration. Normally when someone cooks they make enough for multiple people, operating under the assumption that someone else will show up to help eat. Or that if you are too tired/lazy/etc. to cook you can show up at someone else's place and be fed. Or sometimes just make plans to cook together. So we all tend to buy more or less similar things, just because there is not a huge selection. Anyway, there's not a whole lot of opportunity to branch out, which is why more choices make me happy. Also, they had tortillas, which I don't think I have seen since I got here (please see earlier complaints about finding Mexican food), so that was pretty exciting also.

In other news, this past weekend, A1, A2 and I finally inaugurated (see what I did there?) our apartment with a belated housewarming party. We had a fun theme of Hollywood/Bollywood (Cairo loves a good themed party), and overall had a good time being good host/esses. It was a good excuse to have everyone over because, let's face it... January is boring.

i wasn't supposed to put beef in the trifle

I wish I had some wacky Thanksgiving-abroad stories to share, but my Turkey Day was pretty low-key (and lack of Black Friday made me sad, though I am sure my wallet and bank account rejoiced). On Thursday I went into work and finished up the editing for our December issue (should be out any day now), ending a rather long work week (thus the reason for my lack of posting last week... sorry about that).

So, Thanksgiving! I know I have mentioned here on the blog before that my group of friends here is really great, but it bears repeating because in a way, they are my Cairo family. We had a nice (though rather informal) dinner at the British Club, with other friends arriving a bit later for the drinks portion of the evening. Thoughtfully, the British Club paired Thanksgiving with Disco Night, which resulted in some truly excellent background music. Otherwise a fun weekend that also included a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe Cairo and plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers.

On Saturday, I went with N and A1 to the AUC bookstore, which was having a 20 percent off holiday sale. Most English-language bookstores are pretty expensive, so this was a good opportunity to stock up (especially given that I have some upcoming vacation time when I will have a lot of time to read). In college I always felt guilty for reading for fun when I had school books piling up, so it's been nice to find the time to read for fun again.

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.

ramadan party: shisha yes, beer no

It's been an interesting first week of Ramadan, and I am sorry I have not had a chance to write about it until now. I have not posted for a few days because of my shorter work hours (still have things to get done, less hours to do them). Still, I am really enjoying the schedule.

After iftar at around 6:30 p.m., people generally stay up reeeeaaally late (or take a short nap), and then eat again for sohour, the meal before fasting again that can take place anytime between midnight-4 a.m. After this meal, some people go directly to the mosques for prayer (mosques have a call at around 4 telling people to stop eating and come pray). Work is from around 9-2, then home for a nap. Most of the people I work with are Muslim, so even though I am not fasting for Ramadan I still want to be respectful and not eat or drink in front of them when I know they can't.

Since people tend to be up late, there is a lot of special entertainment around the city -- tents of traditional Egyptian music, all kinds of special food for sale, etc. This is seen as a time to be generous, so we often see big tables set up outdoors where people have donated food for the less fortunate to be able to have iftar as well. The atmosphere all around the city is quite festive; I was walking around downtown with some friends on Friday night and everything around Tahrir Square in downtown was all lit up. People go to 'ahwas (kind of like baladi coffee shops) and sit drinking tea and smoking shisha in the streets, stores and restaurants are open late, and there are many people out walking after iftar. It might seem odd to have much of the daytime pass and the nighttime so vibrant, but I think it's kind of fun; it's part of the reason the month feels so special, I guess. I certainly enjoy the shorter working hours, though I am sad that I have to wake up earlier and then can't have coffee. Do you see the inherent problem?

My company recently entered into a partnership with a large corporation in Egypt, and that bigger company invited us to attend a large sohour party they were throwing for their employees. It was at this gorgeous place a little outside the city called the Arabella Country Club, and they had the whole outdoor courtyard all done up so that different areas of the party were decorated like the different cities of Egypt, each with its own theme and food. You could eat shawerma, koshary or fiteer in the Cairo and Giza section, have mango juice in Luxor, or get bowls of nuts and dates in Sinai. I have not had the opportunity to visit a lot of these places yet, but I am certainly looking forward to it. The party also had dance performances, belly-dancing puppets (yes, they were awesome), live sufi music from Upper Egypt, plenty of shisha, and lots of areas to sit and lounge. But since it was Ramadan, no alcohol.

I have spent most of the week doing wholesome things to pass the evening hours until sohour, including shisha on a rooftop bar (foreigners could buy alcohol but not Egyptians, and yes they checked IDs), poker night (won a few hands, ultimately lost...luckily no actual money was gambled away), many movies, etc. A1, N and I cooked an iftar together one night (we did the legit fast for the day and then called it girls iftar), which was good, and my flatmates have made sobya, a sweet Ramadan drink that looks like milk. H, who is quite the prankster, told me it was goat's milk. I am so gullible that I actually believed this (I know, I know... gullible is written on the ceiling, hardy har har), decided to try it anyway (I figured I like goat cheese, so why not), and then promptly realized that it was not, in fact, milk of any kind. So H and M had a good laugh, but at least I got to enjoy plenty of sobya.

So that's been my Cairene Ramadan so far, I will try to post more updates this week. Hopefully with photos!

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.

cocktails and couch potato enablement

I found out this week that my company is moving to a new building soon, like in 1-2 months, which I have mixed feelings about. First off, the timing is going to be weird because that means that just as I am getting adjusted, it will be time to move again (sorry I'm grouchy about that). Besides, everything around here runs on what I (affectionately) refer to as Egyptian time; they might tell me two months, but I would not be at all surprised to find out that it will actually be closer to four. When asked how long something will take, most people respond with how long they want it to take, which is not realistic at all. Basically, I have some reservations because I don't know where the new one will be and I like this location (it's close to where I live and near a well-known mosque, which makes it difficult to get lost), but will welcome newer office supplies and furniture, as well as the possibility of some office space to call my own.

But on a more exciting note, the August issue will be going to print at the end of next week, which I'm excited about. I wrote several pieces for this issue, including restaurant and bar reviews, my attempts at drink mixing, and then I will be doing lots of editing next week. I have a gotten a good sense of the magazine by now I think, and it will be cool to see the first issue I worked on all over Cairo. In other news: come visit! I will know all the good places to go!

Anyway, I know I have praised the order-out nature of Cairo dining, but I thought I would show just how easy (and fun!) it is. There's this Web site called Otlob that lists all the restaurants (with menus!) that deliver to any given neighborhood. You can have the site remember your address and phone number, order your food online (bonus because then I don't have to worry about ordering the wrong thing in Arabic), and then just sit back and wait for delivery. Perfect. It's like a much cooler version of the ASG Restaurant Guide, on a bigger scale.

This weekend I will be attending an AIESEC conference, which I am excited about. Some of the people there will Egyptian AIESECers to ensure we're getting something out of our traineeships and teach us a bit about Egyptian culture; the rest will be the international trainees like me (I have met some from Canada, the U.S., China, Poland, etc.), so that will be a good opportunity to make friends and enjoy a weekend out of the city. We will be staying at Arabian Nights, a classy resort about an hour outside Cairo with a pool and horseback riding. I am supposed to bring some examples of American culture -- suggestions welcome. I want to represent NJ and Chicago, so I think I'm going to go with Bruce Springsteen and a Cubs t-shirt. Thoughts?