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.