Peace Out

If you drink from her Nile, you're always going to return a second time.

Sheheta's Shop

The other night, I went to the movie theater and watched a new Egyptian release called Dokan Sheheta. In one sentence, the film was a drama about a man following his heart and carrying the pride of his family against the selfishness, indifference, and traditions of society. 

It was a crazy movie. But, the craziest part of the movie was the truth behind some of the most awful scenes. From the beginning, Sheheta is in love with this girl. He plans on marrying her, and they have numerous scenes together where they almost kiss, but they never do. Towards, the middle of the movie, they finally just kiss, but the day after his father dies and soon enough the corrupt government along with his jealous siblings (because he was the most loved by their father) sends him to jail. While he's in jail, the girl visits him and tells him she'll always wait. 

Some times goes by and this girl's brother forces her to marry one of Shehata's brothers. She refuses, but she doesn't have a choice in the matter. After her wedding, she refuses to consummate the marriage, so her husband goes outside and gathers his sister and a couple other guys to hold his wife down while he consummates the marriage/rapes her. You don't see the whole scene, but you do see his sister holding his wife arms back while he's on top of his wife. Apart from that scene, there's one other scene that insinuates marital rape. And, apart from those scenes, there were plenty of scenes of domestic violence.

Now, this is a movie. But, here are some statistics from the Egypt DHS 1995 and 2005 surveys. In 1995, about 70% of married women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she refuses sex. In 2005, the percentage dropped, but still 40% of married women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she refuses sex. Furthermore, in 2005, about 25% of women said that a man is justified to beat his wife if she burns the food.

Anyways, Sheheta finally gets out of jail and goes looking for this girl. No one will tell him either where she is or where his family is. By the end of the movie, he finally finds her, but when his brother sees him talking to her, he shoots Sheheta in the back and kills him. 

Oddly enough that's not how the movie ended. An odd side story arised and the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt in an almost comical manner with men in jalabiyas running around with knives looking kind of funny.

امثال شعبية

اللهجة المسرية عندها امثال كثيرة و اريد ان اضع بعضهم علي هذه الموقع. اولا سأقولك الأحسن اعبارة في وجهة تظري.. اللي شربت من نيلها، دائما يرجع تاني.. بمعنى ان تشرب من النيل، ستجع مسر مرة اخرى في حياتك. المثل الثاني جاي من واحد صاحبي في مصر.. ابو حول زبره مش يوقف.. بمعني ابو حول مخصي.. و من الاعلانات المصرية عندنا "استرجل" من شركة البيرة و "اعيش حياتك" من كوكا كولا. ثم في اعبارة عن امريكا و لكن لا اعرف ما معني هذه الاعبارة لكن هحب صوته.. امريكا شيكة بيكة.. و اخر لكن ليس اقل عندنا المعكسات.. اكيد ممتك نهلة علشان تجيب العسل ده كله

North Coast

Holy Moses!!!!!! 

The North Coast is sick. Running around on soft, white sand alongside the bright blue Mediterranean is pretty awesome. The water is pretty warm too... it's not like the Pacific in Northern California at all. In more ways than one too... there were no girls on the beach. But, hey I'm in Egypt... you almost get used to these kinds of things... almost. 

I check out two beaches, one in Marina and one in Ghazela. The Marina beach easily topped the Ghazela beach as the water at Ghazela beach is filled with rocks whereas Marina is pure sand. The only other north coast beach I've been to has been in Marsa Matrouh and that was pretty rocky too. 

Anyways, the north coast draws a certain crowd. It's made up of two hotels and thousands of summer beach houses that are owned by mostly wealthy Egyptians. The guy next door to the house at which I stayed had a Audi TT and a Porshe Cayenne parked next in his drive way. We drove up in a convertible Mini Cooper, and our friends met us in a Focus station wagon. These kind of cars are absolutely absurd (it's all about relativity), when it comes to normal day life. You are extremely lucky if your taxi has a seat belt. 

It's a green revolution on the coast. Everyone has grass in front of their house, and the beach shack was circumscribed by 10 meters of grass on all sides. That's grass right next to the sand. It's the good kind too. Where's all this green grass growing from? Green money. The summer houses are all located within a kilometer of the sea. All you can find past the first kilometer from the sea is desert. These people created a huge strip of beach homes across the coast in the middle of the freakin' desert!!! It's the green revolution... the same color seems to work for so many revolutions. (You have to at least admit that the rhetoric is slightly humorous)

I chilled with 4 guys (one who I had known from nine months ago, and three who I just met). Unlike most Egyptians, these guys like to drink, but they don't do it very often. They bought a bottle of tequila from a friend who got it at a duty free shop, meaning it's foreign and therefore good. The alcohol in Egypt sucks... you don't want to drink any hard liquor here and the beer and wine are terrible... this is coming from a 21-year-old mind you. Anyways, they wanted to take shots of gold tequila with lemons and salt... Well, you don't do that, but whatever. Every shot, they made crazy faces, but they still wanted more. 

After about 6 shots in about an hour, we were good to go out. Now only four of us had drank. The other guy didn't want to drink. And, we get in the car. I am offered the front seat "since I'm the tallest." *People always find a way to make an excuse for you to enter the doorway first or sit in the front seat or whatnot in Egypt. The guy that comes to sit in the driver seat is the smallest of the bunch who had just had six shots. So, I said to him, what are you doing? And, he said I am driving. So, of course I said, are you crazy or what. Now, all my Egyptian friends knew that Americans don't drive drunk (or at least the smart ones don't and all Americans know you shouldn't), so they tried to explain to me that it's ok in Egypt. After a 5 minute discussion, where I spoke in a joking manner, but at the same time wouldn't budge on my position. The drunk kid gave up his seat to the completely sober kid. Needless to say, I am alive to write this post.

That's a taste of Egypt's North Coast.

 

Swine Flu

Common knowledge is not always common. The culling of the Egyptian pigs epitomizes this phenomenon, and I just have to post some updates on the situation. Just as a common understanding is not always common. Human rights in Egypt is a good example, but I'll get political later.

Two cases of pig flu were discovered less than a week ago in Egypt. These two people are actually Americans who planned on attending summer classes at AUC (American University of Cairo).

The Egyptian Ministry of Health responded by quarantining all the students in the Zamalek dorms. All the students in the Zamelek dorms are basically the foreign college students (mostly Americans) coming to study at AUC for the summer. The quarantine is supposed to last for a week for who knows what will happen.

When I go on the subway, which I take to and from work every day, I come across people who hold tissues in front of their face banking on the safety of the tissue to protect them from the evil pig virus. 

When I went to the movie theaters, I saw a guy wearing a face mask.

And, here's an e-mail from a expat e-mail list, Cairo Scholars:

Actually this is aint a joke but something to laugh at. A friend of my sister's from college (AUC) taking a cab, and once the cab driver knew he is an AUCian, he stopped the car and told him to get out!! LOL The kid was laughing so hard he couldn't argue back, he told him "It's not us, the foreigners who are infected" the cab driver answered back saying "and you guys swim with them in the same swimming pool" (I HAVE NO IDEA how did the swimming pool at AUC spread in Egypt that much!) and cabby added " you're rich AND you bringing us diseases!! roo7 ya shiekh 7asby allah we ne3ma el wakeel" hahaha! the kid of course get off the cab.

So the moral of the story, if you're an AUCian, NEVER say you are one...EVER! :)

Funny thing is, we (I don't know what to say, we as rich ppl (and become an ignorant arrogant posh) or we as Cairo people, as infected bird flu people are in the cities around Cairo)  didn't run away from country side people, although until now they don't get hiding birds in their houses spreads diseases!

Anyway, God Bless Egypt and protect us.

-- 
Best Regards,

Hisham ElHifnawi

So, this is just a funny story about how people get crazy about swine flu. If you read between the lines, you can get a little more information on what AUC is all about. 

AUC is made up of mostly Egyptians and foreigners studying abroad. I would not suggest AUC for anyone looking to learn Arabic because I've never met a foreigner from AUC who could speak better than a kid on the Middlebury program.

For Egyptians, AUC is known as the place you go if you're in the Egyptian upper class, but aren't able to attend a university in the U.S., Canada, or Europe. The AUC study abroad students usually describe the Egyptian AUC students as "stuck up, rich kids." And, of course, for Egyptians not attending, they see AUC Egyptian students as the privileged kids who are dumb, but just paying for college. Of course, there's more to it than that, but whenever you have an elitistish school you're going to get stereotypes like that from the outside.

Egyptian Laundromats

@#$%!#$^%

The dry cleaners are great. Less than 2 bucks for three shirts.

But check this out, I want to do a regular load with t-shirts, socks, boxers, pants, and the first price that I'm offered is $24. WTF? I check out another place, and it's $12. WTF? It costs about $3 at a laundromat in the US. It's supposed to be cheaper for this stuff in Egypt. 

So, I sent an e-mail to Cairo Scholars -- an e-mail list for expats living in Cairo, and someone responded: 

Basically, no. The more backstreet you get the better, but it can still get pricey. Try bargaining, or do what most people end up doing and handwash. Especially now that the weather's hot, it's just a lot easier.

WTF? And just another interesting tidbit of information... someone stole my trash can including the trash... so now we just use plastic bags. What is this place?

First Day on the Job

Setting: Offsite in the conference room of the National Council for Women

Moderator and a director of the NCW introduces the expert on domestic violence from the American Bar Association with the following remarks: "You're really going to have to explain the bar thing."

The answer: We go to bars, but it just means a group of lawyers.

Oh god...

An Early Summer Night In Cairo

Eight floors above the ahwa¹

Far away from the street’s dowsha²

No scent of shisha from below³

Am I still in Egypt?

I do not know

Sitting in my boxer briefs

Did I mention, no takeef?⁴

At least I have mango juice in the telaga⁵

I’m not an Egyptian

So that leaves me, khouega⁶

Is this language Englizy?⁷

Or Arabeezy?⁸

And who’s my jemhoor?⁹

Do you understand this scripture?

Would you like some more?

Khali belik from eisegesis¹⁰

And, strive for exegesis¹¹

But when you’re caught in a contradiction

Take a step back

And, ask the question

Are you thinking straight in the desert with no AC speaking a foreign language to an unknown audience or are these just some words strung together? Le fin.

 

1 Café

2 Noise

3 Waterpipe/hooka

4 Air Conditioning

5 Refridgerator

6 Damned foreigner

7 English

8 An Arabic portmanteau meaning a mixture of Arabic and English

9 Audience

10 This is actually an English word… means a subjective interpretation of a text

11 And, so is this… means a objective interpretation of a text… these terms are used for analyzing religious texts 

Detective Korombo

This guy is hilarious... he's like the Sherlock Holmes of Egypt. If you watch tv in Egypt, you're bound to see watch these 2 1/2 minute whodunnit clips all the time. (The clips are in Egyptian Arabic).

مية مية

لا تستطيع ان تترجم هذه المقالة في جوجل بسبب مكتوب بالعمية

١٠٠ ١٠٠ يعني ممتاز

لسة خلصت الدراسة للسنة دي من اسبوع و النهارده هسافر قاهرة عشان هشتغل هناك لشهرين قبل ما ارجع بلدي. كنت عايز اكتب البست ده بالعربي علشان البست ده بست رقم ١٠٠ و مفروض اعمل حاجة خاصة للبست رقم ١٠٠ و اقدر اكتب بالعربي دلوقتي. حاسس زي اشكي كتير في البلوج بتاعي و لا انا بكلم عن الحاجات اللي مش كويس فا البست ده هيبقي بست متفائل علشان اتا شخص متفائل بفعل. ف اه مية مية؟

مية مية:

الجو في الاسكاندرية حلو جدا
برنامج ميدلبري رائع
قهوة لؤلؤة و سلسلة كويسين
مكتبة اسكاندرية فعلا جميلة
عصير مكة عنده كل حاجة اللي اقدر عايز في حياتي
كل الماماس في مدينة حامعية
سواق التاكس
الجرسون في عبو ربيع و لا لؤلؤة و لا ابو ناجي
و الاخر لكن مش الاقل، اصدقائي
اكيد في حاجات كتيرة تانية لكن انا مشغول فمعنديش وقت

و حكية كويسة: جبر البواب اللي بيسلم عليا كل يوم علشان يوريني انني صديقه و احيانا بيكلم عن تقشيرة امريكية



One Hundred One Hundred means awesome in Arabic, and since this is the 100th post, I decided to write about some of the awesome things in Alexandria, but in Arabic just to change up the pace. Here are the translations below:

Beautiful weather in Alex, Middlebury program, two sweet Cafes, Library of Alexandria (it's all a matter of perspective... i.e. it's better than nothing), juice places, all the mamas, taxi drivers, and of course, friends.

And here's a special shout out to Gabir, the doorman, who always stands up and shakes my hand to remind me that I'm his friend. He only sometimes talks about the process of getting a visa.

Two Phrases

Ignorance is bliss

And

It's cultural relativity

Anyways, here's an article on the response to the current "epidemic" in Egypt.

Basically, Egypt's response to "swine influenza" is to kill 300,000 the pigs in Egypt even though there has not been a single reported case yet in Egypt.

Facts are facts. The absence of facts is ignorance. Ignorant decisions can't be justified by cultural relativity. And, everyone would be better off if they really knew what was going on. The clash with the theory of cultural relativity has been the study abroad experience, and this (swine influenza response) is just too easy an example to reveal the absence of logic that goes into some decision making.

Where's Matt

This wouldn't be a bad summer job.

Guys and Dolls

What's in the daily news? I'll tell you what's happening in the daily news. Double standards for pimps and hoes transgress cultures. A girls puts out in America a little too much, and she's a s**t. A guy gets a lot of action, and he's a pimp. A girl goes out with a guy in Egypt, and she's used. A guy goes out with a couple of girls, and well, that's not too odd.

Girls have high expectations to live up to in Egypt. Many guys won't marry a woman who has ever dated a man before. And, when I say dated, I don't mean slept with nor kissed. I mean the literal definition: going out on dates just the two of them. Why would a guy care if a girl he likes dated a boy in high school? Because the guy wants the girl just to himself, he doesn't want her to "know" any other man other than him. A wife is supposed to be the one thing in life that a guy can truly call his own. He won't just be her first kiss, but he'll be her everything, her provider. So, this is what guys want. Or at least, they say that.

Guys have tough lives until they get married. Most of them want to marry the innocent, untouched girl, but until then, they still want to get to "know" girls. A lot of guys don't want to kiss a girl before marrying her, but they wouldn't be opposed to dating a girl. A lot of guys want to actually get action (they rarely get it). And, there are guys that don't want to do anything but marry a girl -- these guys have the worst game and when they meet a new, single girl the first thing that comes to their mind is the possibility of marrying her. It's a rare case for a guy and girl to be anything more than acquaintances unless of course they're together.

Since a girl can't know a guy before marriage, she must try to avoid all guys trying to approach her. If she is seen talking with a random guy, people might talk (I'm using this logic's language). So, it's hard to meet someone when you're always on the defensive. Likewise, it's hard for guys to meet girls because they are always on the defensive.

It's cultural. It's relative. That's just how it is. ?. But is there hypocrisy? Many guys want to sleep with women before marriage, many just want to date before marriage, but the majority doesn't want to marry a girl who has dated before. It looks like people are asking for two contradictory things.

The Corniche in the Spring

Summer is approaching fast

Here's an article on the OLPCorps selection process and what went wrong. My team wasn't chosen. But, why not? I have a feeling that OLPC wasn't looking for projects in any of the 53 African countries, but instead, almost entirely in sub-saharan Africa. And, that's totally understandable, but why did the company say that students "can travel to one of the 53 African countries of their choosing" to implement their project? If they had limited the countries, I wouldn't have wasted 2 weeks writing proposals and talking to NGOs to establish our program. Clearly, this project sounded too good to be true. But, it's just unfortunate for all parties involved that it really was too good to be true.

The link above is an interesting article that sheds some light on why some proposals were accepted and others weren't, since there is nothing on laptop.org or the OLPCorps wiki.

So, I am back on the summer internship hunt.

Where's Joe the Plumber

There's been a big sewage problem in the dorms for the last month and a half. As a result, the street outside the dorms is filled with... well you know. And it smells like that too.

And when I say filled, I really mean that on bad days it looks like a pool filling up the whole road and on good days its just a big puddle on the side of the road.

Subjectivity

Here's a cherry picked translation of a mid-term that I took a couple weeks ago. The test was 42.5 % multiple choice, 37.5% true and false, and 20% long essay.

True or False Portion (with the teacher's answers)

10) الدين الإسلامي يشجع العمليات الإرهابية - The Islamic religion encourages terrorist works. (T)
12) الفراغ الديني مسؤول عن انتشار الإرهاب - The religious emptiness is responsible for the establishment of terrorists (F)
13) الإسلام هو الحل - Islam is the solution (F)
14) التنمية و العلم و الدميقراطية هي الحل Development, science, and democracy are the solutions. (T)

It's hard to teach Islamic Politics without getting too political, but I think you can see the professor's political leanings from these four questions. A more typical Egyptian answer would have been the exact opposite (although most people in Egypt believe that you need a combination of 13 and 14).

It was interesting to see the liberal side of Egyptian culture take on the same mannerisms of the conservative side. Those mannerisms can be summed up in the words wrong (ghalet), forbidden (harem), the not allowed (mumnooa). Just as the previously mentioned true and false questions gave no room for discussion or ambiguity, many ideas are often simply labeled wrong and not given a second consideration.

Here are a few anecdotes:

I wore a funny t-shirt showing a chimpanzee evolving to a human who devolves to a computer geek. The response: Darwin is a donkey. Of course, that's wrong. And then, we watched a video of Adam and Eve as evidence that creationism is how man came to be.

I was debating gay marriage with another American and Egyptian when another one of our hall mates overheard our discussion. He replied, Of course, that's wrong. (the Arabic phrase for of course, that's wrong is only two words, so it sounds a lot more coarse like CLEARLY WRONG).

A taxi driver called an Egyptian girl not wearing a hijab during Ramadan was called haram (forbidden by the Quran).

I want to enter a museum or certain path or some other thing. The response: not allowed. My response: Can you tell me when it's open or how else I can do this etc. The response: not allowed.

There's no idea of political correctness here. Calling someone Indian means idiot. An underdeveloped country is called a retarded country. Egyptians drop the n-bomb all the time when talking about Obama.

These black and white responses rejecting nuance or any tinge of ambiguity are part of the culture. And, it comes from both sides: liberal and conservative. But wait, what is liberal and conservative. Well, that's a subject for another time, but it doesn't mean prius driving, hippy, pro-choice, big government liberals vs. pickup driving, red blooded, pro-death penalty, small government conservatives. The line is cut in a much different way. But the point here is that discourse often starts off in a much more confrontational manner.

So there's some Egyptian culture from a 20-year-old American's point of view. Someone else would probably explain it to you differently, but if they did I would simply say, "clearly wrong."

Now, we might ask, what might lead people to a black and white world view? And, I'll refrain from answering that now because it's what we say is a "loaded" question.

Cyber

What do you do when you don't have a computer, but want to use a computer?

Well, go to a cyber -- not to be mistaken for a net cafe, which is a cafe with internet, but no computers. Each cyber has its own personality (one nearby the university is called Spiderman), but they're generally made up of 8 to 10 computers with headphones and camera, printer, and internet. The crowd is usually little kids playing video games or 18-30 year olds using the computers for yahoo chats and Facebook.

It's super cheap. Only 1.5 Egyptian pounds per hour, and 1/4 of a pound for each page that you print. The downside is that these computers are pretty slow, and that they're filled with viruses.

I don't know why they call the cyber the cyber, but I have seen someone "cyber" in the cyber.

Apple Store in Cairo

Almost nobody uses apple computers in Egypt, and there's no official Apple store in Egypt -- except for authorized Apple retailers that look exactly like an Apple store in the United States.

In case anyone needs information on an Apple store in Cairo, here it is:

Trade Line is an authorized Apple retailer that can fix computers. The address is 35 Sharia Gemeat al-dool al-arabia in the district of al-mohandiseen. Or in Arabic, ٣٥ شراع جامعاة الدول العربية في المهندسين.

According to their business card, they are also located in Citystars (store 50) and Dandymall (store 105A).

Telephone numbers:

(202) 33 37 4041
(202) 33 36 8465
(202) 24 80 0844

In addition, there is another Apple store called Apple Line in Garden City at 75 El Kasr El Einy.

Finding these places wasn't the easiest thing, so I figured this is some good information to hide on a random site that google cannot ping.

p.s. The following is an afterthought, but I could've just spent the whole post on this topic. Bargaining extends to places as formal as an Apple authorized retailer. The price for a new hard drive, os x leopard, and the installation started at 1250 Egyptian pounds, but after a little conversation was lowered to 850 (that's a difference of $75). I didn't even know that bargaining was possible, but I just gave the standard blank look that reads "Oh, it's really that much, I guess I won't be able to afford it." And just wait for the retailer to say something.

Ascenseur in Free Fall

Expect the unexpected and you'll be prepared for the unpreparable in Egypt. Last night as my friends and I were trying to get back to our hotel room in Cairo, we tried to use the elevator (this is normal) instead of climbing up 8 flights of stairs to the roof. After we got up 3 and 1/2 floors our elevator started slowing down and started reversing direction. We were falling slowly, but much faster than an Egyptian elevator should descend. We were able to open the elevator door and stop the elevator in place, but we were in the middle of two floors, so we had to jump out of the elevator onto the floor below us. This was clearly a crazy experience, but it felt abnormally normal.

OLPCorps: Middlebury College

Here's what a couple buddies in Alexandria and I are trying to do this summer.

Student-led teams will:
Travel to one of the 53 African countries of their choosing for 9-10 weeks
Participate in a 10-day orientation in Kigali, Rwanda at OLPC’s office
Receive up to $10,000 (USD) per team to cover operating costs
Deploy 100 XO laptops, including hardware and support
Collaborate with up to 100 other teams as part of a life-long global network empowering a generation of children
Send one representative to MIT/OLPC’s all-expense paid summit from Oct 10th-12th 2009

Below is a rough draft of our proposal... if you have any suggestions or advice, I am not opposed to listening...

OLPCorps: Middlebury College Egypt

Our team has teamed up with the Rotaract Club of Alexandria , Middlebury School in Alexandria and eduWeavers to establish an OLPCorps project in the village of Oreen in the governorate of Beheira, which is located an hour and a half away from Alexandria by car. The project's target start date will be June 28th, immediately after the school year ends in Oreen, and it will last nine weeks until August 27th.

In order to create an environment for complete cultural immersion, Matthew and David will live in the village of Oreen next door to Ahmed. After living in Egypt for nine months, Matthew and David are highly proficient in Egyptian colloquial Arabic, and Ahmed is a native speaker who is also nearly fluent in English. Many of the residents of Oreen have never met a foreigner before, let alone one they can question in their own tongue, so the simple contact between us and the village will be an amazing cultural exchange and opportunity to extend the benefits of our project throughout the community.

The Middlebury School in Alexandria will receive the 250 kg package and provide us with a storage place until the laptops are completely distributed. Monica will handle all the technical aspects of set-up. The principal of the elementary school, Abdal Mohesen Atallah, told us we can use the elementary school. Matthew and David have visited the village, and Ahmed has talked with many of his neighbors within Oreen, and he has gotten very positive responses on the idea of a OLPCorps project there.

The four of us will be teaching full-time -- Sunday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the local elementary school -- along with several members of Rotaract who will rotate teaching to ensure that we always have a minimum staff of five teachers every day. This will allow us to cap each class at 10 children in order to give the students individualized attention. Our lessons will revolve around the computers and consist of three subjects: basic computer skills, basic and computer specific English, and the internet. Our aim is to teach the basics of computers and provide our students with a key to open up the world around them. In addition, we will create a blog to document our daily activities and publish the student's creative works to reveal that the children can also share their experiences with the outside world. The local teachers are very excited about our project, and we plan on working closely with them to exchange ideas on how they can integrate computer based learning into their curriculum.

After we complete our summer work, Rotaract will continue working with the children of Oreen by overseeing the project through bi-weekly visits to Oreen where Rotaract members will give follow-up computer workshops and assist in communication between the school of Oreen and its future "sister school" in the United States. Through our partnership with eduWeavers, we hope to find a sister school for the students to participate in cultural exchanges, which will not only add another aspect of utility to the computers, but also contribute to the continuity of our program. Furthermore, the Middlebury School in Alexandria wants to make Oreen its "sister" village, which would mean students studying abroad from Middlebury would participate in monthly cultural exchanges in Oreen and have the opportunity to join Rotaract for its bi-weekly follow-up sessions. Furthermore, this is Ahmed's village, so, our team has a personal stake in this project's success. Ahmed returns to his village every two weeks to spend the weekend with his family, and he will personally be around in the long-run to ensure that the summer's success multiplies in the coming years.

Through our OLPCorps project, we hope that by giving children a window to the outside world at a young age, we can help them grow up with the idea that their culture is one of many and anything is possible if they put their mind to it.

Good Interview

I still get to watch The Daily Show interviews every now and then.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Istanbul, Not Constantinople

O.k. so we got the name figured out, but the culture is a little more complicated. Other Europeans claim that Turkey is clearly in the Middle East, while people in the Middle East consider Turkey an obvious part of Europe. Istanbul is the city where "they" say, The East meets the West.

So here's a quick overview from what I saw: trees line the streets in Istanbul, there's grass everywhere, and often times there's gardens filled with beautiful flowers. The streets are clean, and the traffic is regulated. Very few women wear the Hijab. The Winter fashion is more provacative than anywhere else in the Middle East: dark-haired women in long, black trench coats with tall, black leather boots exposing the mid-section of their legs -- something you'll never find anywhere else in the Middle East! The city is bustling: helicopters fly overhead, tankers come in and out of the bosphorous, and there's plenty of ferries taking people from Europe to Asia (or vice versa), so they can carry on their everyday lives. The Mosques are majestic and are simply enormous. The highlights are the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (both located within 200 meters of eachother), but the many other Mosques are almost just as massive.

Anyways, my computer sits on my desk lacking any form of consciousness.

Relativity

My Macbook's hard drive just crashed last Friday. When I turn it on a folder with a question mark in the middle just blinks and blinks and continues to blink. I can't just go down to the local fix it shops because 99% of people here have never even heard of an apple computer. Fortunately, there are some places in Cairo that can fix macs, so there is a viable solution to this problem.

That same day. Around the same time that my computer broke, my friend Jalel was returning home to spend the weekend with his family. It had been raining for the past 3 days, so the roads were really slippery and wet. At one moment that the rain was pouring down particularly hard, it just so happens that a mom and her two children were crossing the street. Now, we all know how this story ends. A car hits the three people and they immediately die. The car drives off, and as Jalel witnessed the accident he runs out to help these people. He can't do anything because they are dead, so he helps drag there bodies to the side of the road.

Anyways, I won't be able to update this blog for a while since I don't have a computer, but hey, there are worse things in life that could've happened.

Beginning of a Project

Long story, short... I am working on a development project in a small village (pop. 40,000) outside Alexandria with the Rotoract Club of Alexandria.

On Monday, we showed up to this village without knowing a single thing about it -- not even the directions to the village. Once we got near the village, we had to ask 8 people for directions until we successfully arrived. The village's roads were soaked in mud as it had just been raining for the past two days. Once we got out of the car, everything smelled like sewage. You didn't know if the mud you were stepping in was really mud. We were a site to see for the locals. Two city slicking Egyptians and 3 Americans. One lady thought we were an international police force from the UN, and she started out by saying her family didn't do anything wrong. We talked to a couple people nearby explaining our development project, and just 15 minutes later, we were drinking tea with the heads of the village. One person had called another who had called another who talked to the mayor/sheriff/whatever. 

We sat down with the head of the village and a bunch of his nephews and cousins and began introductions. The head was what you might visualize as the stereotypical leader in a village. He was about 60-something with gray hair and a round belly. His beard was a couple days old and he wore a jalibea. He greeted us with "Hello, how are you" with a chuckle and then reverted into Arabic. It's hard to appreciate the "Hello, how are you" without hearing it from an Egyptian, but the idea is that little kids want to practice there English, and often times, they only know how to say that phrase, so they'll say that phrase to any foreigner passing by. This guy really reminded me of one of the little kids practicing his/her English.

After introductions and an explanation of our project, we agreed to come back on Thursday to talk with the different member of the village to hear how we can help this village. So, we came back today. This time with about 16 people (4 Americans and 12 Egyptians). We sat down in two different rooms, and the locals would enter the rooms 2 at a time to explain to us the general problems of their village and how we can personally help them.

We met with six groups of people. The first two women asked for clothes. And, we realized that we needed to make our projects goals much clearer to the people of this town. We're trying to spark development, not just give a handout. The second two guys were Microbus drivers, and they wanted us to pave roads around the village. This resonated more with our interests: infrastructure building. The next pair of guys were freshmen/sophomores in high school. They wanted to open a Central (a place to sell mobile phones), and they were looking for a loan to start up their business. The following group had the exact same idea. And these ideas are definitely worthy of consideration for the project. The next guy wanted us to help him find a job in Alexandria. Once again, this isn't really what the project is about. The last guy wanted money to start up a bee farm to harvest honey. He said he was a pro, but something wiped out all his bee hives a year ago, and he hasn't had enough money to buy beehives to recreate his bee farm. This is a weird, yet very workable idea. 

We're going back to the village in a week to continue our discussions on development ideas. Once we get some good ideas, we'll write a proposal to the International Rotary Club to obtain a grant for $15,000 to put towards the development of this village.

Reality Check

A bomb just exploded in Khan al-Khalili yesterday. And, I was just there 3 days ago on my 3rd visit to the oldest marketplace turned touristy "souk" in Egypt. (I guess 3 is the lucky number here).

The last terrorist attack in Egypt happened in Dohab 2 1/2 years ago. Another place that I've visited.

It's not an everyday event that a bomb explodes in Egypt, but it happens every now and then. Truthfully, a foreigner has way better chances getting killed in Egypt crossing the street than by a bomb. But nonetheless, the looming possibility of a bomb exploding is scary-- especially when you put it in relative terms, I was in the exact place only 2 days before the explosion.

You never know what to expect in Egypt. Anything can happen. And, this is one of those things. 

I am at a loss of words to express the risks and dangers of living in Egypt, so I'll refer to the Egyptian's own words: Alhamdullah salema -- الحمد الله سلمة -- translated, thank God for our well-being. It's a phrase you'll hear whenever you return from a trip away from home, after a near accident in a taxi, or at those moments when your life flashes before your eyes (which is not too uncommon).

A Not So Uncommon Morning

Wake up. Eat yogurt. Read Friedman's column. Walk to the shower. Turn on the water. And it's freezing. 

The shower is usually too hot and over-pressured, but every now and then, one thing or another goes wrong and the shower gets cold. 

The hot water hasn't been working for the last 2 and 1/2 days, so I figured I'd let the dorm "supervisor" know, so that he might start thinking about solving the problem. As I got out of the shower and entered the common room there was a 40-something-year-old women in our common room talking to one of the supervisors. I begin to walk over to the supervisor to let him know about the hot water problem, but when she sees me she immediately stops her conversation and turns her face away from me. I was just in a towel, it's not like I was naked. 

Because I want to show respect for this culture that I've decided to study, I went straight to my room, changed into a shirt and sweat pants, and then returned to ask the supervisor to fix the hot water. 

I live in an all guy's dorm, and women are not allowed to visit whatsoever. The only women that I see are employees from the girl's dorm down the street who want to talk to the "well-respected" president of the dorms. So, it's not like I'm parading around without a shirt around in the middle of the street, this is a closed environment.

The Egyptians in the dorms wear their clothes to the shower. Undress. Take a shower. Dress. Return to their rooms.

It seems so difficult and uncomfortable to change in the shower, but people are really into covering up.

While I respect the culture, I find it extremely silly that someone would feel uncomfortable with me walking around with my shirt off. Anyways, I enjoy my American freedoms and chill with my shirt off when I want.

A View from the Countryside

Galel and David chilling in the fields in front of Galel's house.

Here's the "reception" room. As you can see the door on the left leads to the outside, and the other door opens to the rest of the house. This is like a family room, room to meet guests, and room to eat meals. 

Billboard in Alexandria

This billboard is all over the place in Alexandria.

A nice little oasis in the background is cool, but I prefer the American razor commercials.

Midan Tahrir

Find the difference

MTM -- Rap Group from Alexandria

A

The Authority of Age

Who should you respect?

A) The 40-something-year-old "president" of the dorms who took 2 months to get the internet connection fixed

B) The 60-something-year-old professor of calligraphy who is obsessed with photographing his female students and their friends and seems like a dirty old man

C) The 20-year-old girl study literature at the University of Alexandria

Of course, this is a trick question. The answer is clearly D) You should respect everyone. We're all human. But, do you respect everyone to the same degree? And, how should you show your respect?

Let's talk about Mr. A. Truthfully, he has failed at providing an American priced service. The dorms are cheap compared to America (around $350 a month), but for less than that price you can get a pretty sweet apartment on the Corniche with a view of the Mediterranean on the top floor. Egypt is full of disorder, but internet is not hard to get. Cafes and apartments all over Alexandria have internet without any problems. 

Additionally, he could never fix the food situation. The food is terrible in the dorms, yet the food is great at restaurants and friends' houses. I can get a good dinner at a restaurant for $5, so I don't know why I can't get a good meal at the cafeteria seeing as we are paying 15x the the Egyptian price to live in the dorms. One of the three tiny washing machines has been broken since August. This is pretty normal, but it's just odd that market forces (the relative wads of cash the dorms are bringing in from the Americans) don't lead to more organized and accountable living conditions.

So, I respect this guy as a human being, but my respect for him is nothing more than any regular person. I tried to enter his office to discuss the progress on solving the internet problem two weeks ago, but one of his secretary-like-people told me I had to change from my sweatpants and t-shirt before I could meet with him. I changed my clothes because I didn't want to cause a problem, and I respect the fact that I'm in another culture and customs are different. Nonetheless, I was very surprised that I had to change into formal clothes to enter an office located 10 meters from my room. I dress up when I meet with someone important, so I felt very odd dressing up for this guy (although it was only jeans and another shirt).

Mr. B is the definition of a dirty old man. I went to one calligraphy lesson, and I noticed that he was odd. He took more photos than the average Egyptian (and that means a lot), and although he took the same amount of pictures of guys and girls, it seemed like he was taking pictures of the guys in order to justify taking pictures of girls. I had a weird feeling about him, but no one else seemed to think he was weird. 

I never returned to the calligraphy class because I was too busy, but I saw Mr. B again at our Thanksgiving party. He brought his camera and asked some of my Egyptian friends, his students, to take pictures of people. Once again, I thought this was odd, but I didn't have any proof to say that this guy was doing anything wrong. Then, he asked Ahmed to ask a particular American girl to sit next to him, so he could take a photo with her. Mr. B had never talked to this girl or seen this girl before in his life.  Ahmed knew this, but Ahmed nonetheless he followed the directions of his elder professor. I stopped Ahmed mid-sentence (she obviously didn't want to take a picture with this old man) and told him that it wasn't going to happen. Ahmed apologized for asking and later explained to me the conflicting forces that pulled him in two directions in the previous situation: the respect for his elder and the respect for the girl... he might as well ask and that way when she said no, he would have done his best to please all parties. 

The inspiration for this post comes from another one of my Egyptian friends. Last night, he told me that he no longer goes to the calligraphy class. I thought that was weird because he loved the class more than anyone else. He told me that the problem was the professor took an obscene amount of photos of his girlfriend, and he got mad. He didn't say anything, but he doesn't want to return. He continues to respects this professor as an elder and artist.

Another Egyptian says that it's o.k. that the professor is a dirty old man because he is old and alone. It's not his fault, it's just the circumstances. The exact phrase directly translated was "He has a disease." Elder men are simply respected and that's the end of the story. The idea of confronting the professor and saying "NO, you cannot take a picture of that girl you don't know" is completely foreign.

Another example of respect for older men comes from the female side of the story. Egyptian girls don't like guys taking too many pictures of them (regular group photos like when we take trips with the program). On the last trip to Siwa, one Egyptian girl made another Egyptian guy delete all his pictures of her. He took a lot of pictures (and I mean a lot), but they were all group shots and nothing even resembling risque. She was willing to say stop, don't take a picture of me to him. But, they won't say this to an older man because then then they would be accusing him of being a pervert and that's rude.

Then, there's Ms. C. Some of these same guys are really nice to her, but one dismissed her as an academic because she attends the slacker college -- the arts and science college (remember stuff's relative). But, in reality, her marks were high enough to enter into the same college as him, the college of medicine. She was just more interested in literature, and that's what she pursued. These guys would say they respected her, and I know they do, but at least one of them is willing to put her down for no reason and not a single one is willing to confront a dirty old man about his misgivings.

We can say we respect everyone, but what does that mean. How do we respect these people. And, how should we gauge how worthy people are of our respect? 

Hospitality

This past weekend, I visited two of my Egyptian friend's in their homes in the country side. And, I have never drank so much tea in my life. Not only did we meet their families, but we met friends and relatives throughout the town. We drank tea with many people, but had to turn down even more offers for tea. Everyone wanted to just sit down in the living room/reception room to sit down and talk. While walking down the street at our friend's, Galel's, hometown, we ran into his middle school math teacher who then invited us to sit in on a math class (see last post). 

The food was great. Everyone was nice. We were kept on our toes with the 1001 greeting expressions -- welcome, welcome, we are honored to have you, you fill us with light, nice meeting you -- because they all have their own specific response (not just a thank you). 

Just like Ahmed's house, the food was amazing. Fresh bread, eggs from their chickens, chicken from their chickens, two huge plates of spaghetti, rice, and everything.

And just a cool tidbit, there were Tuk Tuks at Jalel's too!

Life Inside a Magazine

It felt like I was in a National Geographic magazine today. The class was working on finding the roots of quadratic equations. Instead of x's, there were س's, and the squared signs were found on the left of the variable, but other than that you still can't divide by 0 and factoring still works the same way.

The Country Side

Wake up at 8 AM on a weekend (it's actually Thursday, but hey, weekend can be a relative term) and eat some yogurt while reading the NYTimes and WSJ -- just for some political balance. Head out to "The New Stop" -- direct translation -- to catch a microbus with David, my American friend, to visit our Ahmed's, our Egyptian friend's, house in the country. The closest thing to "The New Stop" is a bus station, but this place is not a bus station at all. Maybe it's more like an amusement park's parking lot. It's filled with microbuses, taxis, private cars (when I say private cars, I mean cars for hire... they are old, worn out cars).Or you might say it's kind of like a state fair because there are plenty of vendors who set up shop in the middle of the road who sell tea or falafel or newspapers or other little things. This place is huge and you can find a microbus going about almost anywhere in Egypt. You find the row of microbuses lined up to go to your destination, you hop in, you wait until your microbus fills up, and then you're off. An hour in the car might cost about 4 LE.

Anyways, we get to the center of my friend's town after an hour. From there, we take a Tuk Tuk -- basically, a motorized rickshaw, see below -- to the next microbus station (more like a real bus station, but for microbuses).

This guy had red and black stickets of Bob Marley, the Bulls, Che Guevara, Muslim prayers and other random stuff including stuffed animals. This is not odd at all. Normal.

The next microbus ride is only twenty minutes, and we get out at the front of town (or more exactly village). As we walk along the main dirt road wide enough for two way traffic and filled with pot holes, we see fields and fields of crops, donkeys on our left, and Ahmed's one building elementary school on our right. On our way to his house, every other person greets Ahmed. It's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. After a little meet and greet with the whole town, we got to his new house. This is the house in which he is going to get married. It's still under construction (a different concept than America), but it's half done. When he gets married he'll live on the ground floor, and his older brother (1 year older) will live on the second floor. They're building a third story, but I don't know what exactly they're going to do with it.

This house is a 30 second walk away from his parent's house. 

Anyways, when he get to his house, his parents greet us with open arms and warm hearts. His mom tells us to make ourselves at home (her house is our house) and told us welcome more times than I could count. His father greeted us with an uncountable amount of welcomes and the typical "Peace be upon you, may God bless and have mercy upon you." We sat down on cushions, and we started talking together. His father's second question was "How is Obama different from Bush?" It was an interesting start, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a rhetorical question, but instead, a genuine inquiry into information regarding policies and characters. After 45 minutes to an hour of conversation, his mom brought us a huge meal. A full duck, a couple chicken breasts, red meat (they just call it meat here... I assumed it came from a cow), duck liver, duck spleen, macaroni, rice, vegetables, soup, beans, and pepsi. It was way more food than we could even imagine eating, but his mom kept apologizing for not making enough. His mom was hilarious because she kept telling us to take more food, and she actually picked up the chicken breasts or liver or whatever and kept handing us more food. Let's back up one moment. We're not at a kitchen table and there are no forks or knives. We're still in the reception room -- a room that you'll find in every house in this town -- that is next to front door. It's kind of like a room locked off from the rest of the house. Anyways, we're sitting down on cushions, and there is a table that is only 6 inches or so off the ground. It's a buffet style meal, and you just grab what you want or take all the food offered to you by Ahmed's mom. You eat with your hands and a spoon. The spoon works better for soup than your hands. Initially, Ahmed was going to give us forks and knives because he knows that's how we eat, but he changed his mind because he wanted to make sure we had the real experience of how he eats everyday. He said that every time he goes home (about every 5 weeks), his mom always cooks up a feast like this. It was pretty cool. His family was super nice and welcoming. His 13-year-old sister was particularly funny because she laughed whenever we spoke... I guess the American accent in Arabic is pretty humorous. His uncle and baby cousin ate with us as well, and we all had a good time just talking, eating, and drinking a lot of tea. A lot of tea. And, the problem is you can't say no.

Afterwards, we met the mayor of the town (another one of his uncles). We chilled with him for a little while, and then he took us to his office where he has a desk, birth records of everyone in the town, a board on the wall with the names of the leaders of the town -- mayor, vice mayor, vice vice, etc., and twelve rifles locked up in case there's any problems in town that require a little extra force. 

We returned to his house, had another round of tea, and bounced to the pharmacy that Ahmed worked in last summer. We said hi to his friends, and the we finally hit up a microbus to Alexandria. 

Dinner.

Engagement party for another one of our friends in Alexandria. Details on engagement parties and wedding parties still has to wait for another day.

Fuul

If you remember from previous posts, fuul is a beany paste. 

You can eat ful for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And everyone loves it. It's cheap, popular, and filled with protein.

If I ask, how are you doing? A common response is "like fuul."

If you eat a lot of fuul, you can go "blackout" -- a term understood better by college kids than grown ups... the term speaks for itself. If you're day dreaming in class, a professor might ask you if you ate some good ful. 

Fuul is "bad ass." Sorry for my French, but that's the best translation.

If you see a strong dude, you might say, wow, he must eat a lot of fuul.

A ful sandwich is 3/4 LE ~ $0.14. 

And, an inspiring story...

Yesterday, I was in a taxi in Giza on a street overflowing with traffic. The cab almost hit two cars (the driver wasn't the best in the business), and on one particularly crowded stretch, I hear a loud CLACK, and I see the side view mirror bent backwards towards the window. The driver had just swiped an old woman dressed carrying her bag of whatever in her dirty robes with his side view mirror. He immediately came to a stop, and we turned our heads around to make sure she was ok. Someone shouted curses at the driver, but the woman seemed fine -- although, the piercing stare she gave to the driver looked like something that might have come out of ancient Egypt. Seeing that she was ok, the driver looked at me and said, "She must eat a lot of ful." I laughed at the absurdity of the situation. He laughed at the fact that a westerner is sharing a joke about beans with him. And, we drove off.

Update: In this NYTimes article, Michael Slackman talks about a band called fuul.

N

I ate Italian pizza for lunch today. Italian as opposed to Middle Eastern. Usually, you hear New York or Chicago, but here you're lucky to get the option between Italian or Middle Eastern. Italian is way better. In absolute terms, Middle Eastern pizza is not great, but everything is relative, so in Egypt, the Middle Eastern pizza is not half bad.

The guy at the pizza joint had the letter N tattooed between his thumb and index finger. It was a thin capital N in blue ink like the ink that Coptic Christians use to tattoo crosses under their wrists. It turns out this guy befriended a Coptic tattoo maniac back in his army days. For whatever reason, the pizza dude decided he wanted a tattoo like his friend. That's a totally normal (or rebellious or whatever you want to call it) decision, but I couldn't understand why he got an N. I asked him why he didn't get a ن -- noon -- the arabic equivalent. He thought I was crazy. Young Egyptians love English letters. They look cool. Of course, he'd rather get an N.

The story sounds crazy, and I have some trouble believing it. But, in reality, Egyptians love English letters. You cannot find one single shirt in Egypt with Arabic writing except in the touristy area of Dohab where you can buy a t shirt that says مش عايز تاكس -- I don't want a taxi. T-shirts with weird non-sensical phrases in English are ubiquitous. 

N or ن. Which is more exotic is based on your point of view. 

Siwa Round Two

You have to admit, this is a very welcoming taxi. And yes, this is a taxi. As I have said before, the city is run by little kids whipping donkeys. 

On another note, the desert is a lot colder in January. Bring a North Face.

Name Recall

Egyptians are amazing at remembering names, but last night was a truly exceptional name recall.

First, I need to give you a little back story.

On a Thursday night last October, I was chilling with my friends Youssef and Shadi (Americans going by Arabic names). We didn't have any plans for the night, so we decided to just go explore Alexandria. One of our American friends, Jeremy, suggested that we go to the tailor and get shirts made for us. We took his suggestion and headed over to Menshea -- a district filled with souqs i.e. markets. We searched around the cloth market for a while, and after talking to shop owners for a good 30 minutes, Shadi finally picked out two sheets of cloth that he wanted to be made into a button down shirt (with a nice pocket on the front left). With the sheets of cloth in hand we headed to the tailor's shop located right in the middle of the souq. The tailor greeted us with the typical اهلان و سهلا مرحبا بك عامل اه الحمد الله الي اخره (translation: Welcome, welcome, welcome, how are you, thanks be to God, etc.). He then started talking to us about our friend Jeremy and asked us how Jeremy was doing. After a good 10 minutes of getting to know each other, we finally got down to business. First, he asks us how much Shadi paid for the sheets, and give Shadi props for getting a good price. Then, he wants to know every detail about the shirt he is about to make: casual or formal collar, one or two buttons on the wrist, what color buttons, tight or regular fit, and then all the regular measurements.

Shadi returned a couple days later to pick up his shirts. They were pretty styling, so I decided to take his lead and get my own personal Egyptian button down. I went through the same routine as I went through with Shadi before. But, like the last time I didn't return after a couple days to pick up my shirt.

I returned yesterday to pick up my shirt -- almost 4 months after I had dropped off my sheet of cloth. When I entered his shop, he greeted me by name, asked me how I was doing, asked how Jeremy, Youssef, and Shadi were doing, and after the 10 minutes of catch up, he went to the corner of his shop and pulled out my shirt from a pile without a single second of searching around for my shirt that has been sitting around for 4 months. The cost for his services 30 Egyptian pounds (less than $6). Pretty sweet stuff.

Picture Story

They say, "A picture is worth more than one thousand words." But, what happens when it's a picture of words. Decide for yourself.

Above: Christian district in the old city of Jerusalem

Below: Security wall in Bethlehem

Here's two pictures I found on another blog.

The Obama imitation is pretty cool.

 

Peak Oil

Is it something to worry about? Yea, eventually.

But what is it?

We all know that oil will run out someday. But, that day will come far after we stop using oil for industry and transportation. More important than when we run out of oil is when maximum oil production starts decreasing. Ever since oil was discovered, world wide oil production has been increasing along what geologists/economists call a Hubbert curve. 

The idea behind this curve is that obviously the world's biggest oil fields were discovered first and companies grew efficient with experience so initially production quickly multiplied. As time went on, smaller and smaller fields were found and growth in production slowed down. There's plenty of untapped oil in the world (although clearly exhaustible), but the amount of easily produced untapped oil shrinks every year. As new oil fields get smaller, growth in production decreased, and at the same time, reserves in the biggest oil fields decrease. This means that at a certain point production hits its max, and then starts to drop. 

The theory goes: a drop in oil production (supply) will lead to higher prices assuming that demand keeps growing at its current rate. In order to avoid the high prices, you want to extend peak oil as far in the future as possible by consuming less oil today, so you can buy some time to figure out how to use less oil tomorrow. 

Peak oil is still considered a theory. And, so is evolution. Furthermore, everyone gives a different date for when they believe that oil production will hit its peak. Some scientists say it has already happened, and some say it won't happen for twenty years. In a Freakonomics blog post, Levitt, points out that there are three questions to Peak Oil: "1) will the cost of supplying oil jump, (2) If it does jump, by how much, and (3) how elastic is demand." According to Hubbert's Peak Oil theory the answer to number 1 is yes. The answer to number 2 goes to someone with data (which no one has because production numbers are all fudged throughout the world due to oligopolistic competition). The answer to number 3 is totally up to us. How quick can we adapt. We want to make that demand as elastic as possible. How do we do that? An energy revolution. How do we do that? Well, there are some good ideas Friedman's new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded about creating energy infrastructures and moving away from fossil fuels. A lot of his solutions involve government action. Fortunately, in America, the politicians are accountable to the people, so as long as an energy revolution is salient among American citizens these solutions can come about to not only protect America or any other country or the world from peak oil, but climate change and less oil dependent politics.

Anyways, here's a funny youtube video on peak oil

He and She

An Egyptian mix between Summer Lovin' and Anything You Can Do

Tennis

It's super easy to get your tennis fix in Alexandria. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out. There are 12 clay courts at Nadi Sporting, and there are always pros and captains on call. Captain is Egyptian for ball boy. That's right, everyone (even noobs) uses ball boys. 

A tennis lesson costs less than $10 for a 45 minutes. And, the best part: you never have to pick up any balls because you have a captain doing it for you. In regards to playing ability, the pros are at a very similar level pros at any tennis club in America. The only problem was the pro kept telling me to swing over my shoulder in English. I can assure you that I was swinging over my shoulder the entire time. 

I am very optimistic about my tennis game this semester. I'll rack up some experience on clay and get some cheap lessons. Now, I just have to find some players to hit with.

Premeds

I woke up freezing at 4 am when I had set my space heater to 19 Celsius (66 Farenheit). I jumped out of bed and ran into the hall, so I could throw up in a trash can without making a mess. Since Egyptians college kids are literally nocturnal, 4 guys came running out of their rooms and asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital. No, I didn't. I finally felt good after throwing up from the food poisoning. Food poisoning is not something new. But, one of the guys in his last year at the college of medicine insisted that I take 2 pills to of streptoquin to kill the settle my stomach by killing the bacteria inside. I refused for five minutes, but I finally took it because I figured if he keeps it with him in his room, so this must be a pretty common cure. I figured it wouldn't do any harm if I just appeased him and there was no harm done. In the morning when the internet was back up and I looked what I had taken, well see for yourself... Google entries 4-8

The next morning, I explained to my friend that he really shouldn't use that medicine. What kind of generic pill only returns 820 results? (The answer: a drug only used in a country that has yet to fully embrace the internet).  The google sites (nothing official) claimed the drug normally costs 1.5 Egyptian Pounds (30 cents) and it is usually misprescribed to unsuspecting foreigners. I told him. He responded, "That's because it treats a special stomach bacteria that only lives in Egypt. They don't have this disease anywhere else in the world, so they don't need this pill anywhere else in the world. You need to keep taking the pills."

Later that day, he told me, "By the way, I have never been sick in my life. I can't get sick. I am very, very strong physically. But, I am very weak emotionally, and I get down on myself really easily, that's why I always have to talk to people about my feelings."

Anyways, here's an insight into one of the many characters whom I've met here.

ABC as easy as 123

The Arabic  version of Sesame Street is teaching us to sing the ABCs

And here's the 123s

A Counter Intuitive Answer

Who thinks sweatshops are a good thing?

The New York Times' columnist Nicholas Kristof.

In his op-ed article yesterday, Kristof argued sweatshop labor is a relative blessing for people in the world's poorest countries. There are many jobs that are more dangerous and hazardous that pay less. Then, of course, there's the jobs in the unemployment pool which pays $0. Sweatshops suck, but we all have to eat.

Why do people campaign against sweatshops? Because to the West, these working conditions are inhumane. What we sometimes forget is that the living conditions in the poorest countries can be even more inhumane. Maybe this is just a crazy thought, but it's an idea to consider, maybe sweatshops are as bad as we think they are, but that can actually be a good thing for certain people in relative terms.

Picking Up Chicks Part III

Let's get deeper into this well regulated market.

First, you can't say "that's what she said" to the previous statement. They simply don't have that type of joke here.

Hooking up is out of the question. But, so is what Americans would call traditional dating. There are no dinner or movie dates, and there's never time to spend alone with someone outside of Egypt's watchful eyes. If you're sneaky, you can sneak in some long walks along the Corniche (right next to the beach), but don't even think about kissing her. Culturally, PDA is --حرام -- literally, forbidden. People love to hold hands and they get pretty touchy down by the beach, but you will never see a kiss in public.

One of my Egyptian professors calls her own culture a "culture of glue." It's a reference to the marriage-centric thinking of Egyptians. When I meet new people, the typical order of questions is "Where are you from?" "What's your name?" "Are you married?" "Well, are you engaged Everyone gets married as soon as possible, and Egyptian guys consider all Egyptian girls mozas (babes). I've been asked, in complete seriousness, if the three girls I was traveling with were my wives. Of course, I said yes and the Egyptians gave me a lot of props.

I'm not going to contradict Harry's advice to Sally on their ride to New York, but Egypt really takes it to the extreme in considering any acquaintanceship between a guy and a girl paramount to eternal love.

A couple 16 year-old boys told me that in Egypt, no one is looking to date, everyone just wants to get married. So be careful when you ask a girl for her number, that's the fast track to marriage or a dearly broken heart.

And, that's the dating scene in Egypt.

Picking Up Chicks Part II

Here's a video on one man's experience with women in Egypt.