Very Nice, Khigh Five

I'm nearing the end of my time here in Cairo. I dont actually know when my flight is, but its sometime later this month. Egypt has become a place I really do not want to leave and if it were not for graduate school I believe I would seriously consider staying for some time.
My ability to share stories with a fun and interesting twist is running dry, and I apologize. Nevertheless, I can share some good stuff. This week as I was riding the metro to school, I saw a guy wearing a University of Tennessee sweatshirt, it was very strange. That day last week I also went to eat some kosheri and play some good old dominoes again. I ripped through my first competitor as usual, and was called out by the "champion" of the coffee shop. I dont really know what this means, but I will say that a good crowd of people watched our game pretty intently. Again I must reiterate that dominoes is 90% luck, but alas I was able to defeat this guy and it was pretty fun. This guy from Sudan talked to me a lot and he thought it was hilarious my name was Blake and it sounds like "black". I think I mentioned this before, but most of the time when I tell someone my name, they respond by saying "you're not black".
Lets see, I played some 1 vs 1 bball with my friend Sherif the other night and as soon as we started he slipped and hit his arm on the ground pretty hard. It didnt really phase him then, but a few hours later when we were eating with some guys he started complaining about his arm. He ended up going to the hospital and found out he had fractured his arm. This really stinks because we had an "Egyptian Roast" a few days later and he was the chef. The bbq was a lot of fun and it was a party for my friend Eslam getting engaged the next day. We went to this park by a university and had some great food. Eslam spent most of the night decorating his car with hearts. It was really funny because you could tell he was nervous about the next day, and he kept asking me if I thought it looked good and where else he should put hearts. I think he did a good job, and inshallah she loved it. We had chicken, spaghetti, shwerma I think, and chips. It was a great night and I am really gonna miss these guys.
Other than that, I played basketball as usual this week, but some guys were pretty upset I didnt show up one day the week before. They said they had come just to play with me, so I felt kinda bad. I learned how to play a strange variant of backgammon this week, and had some awesome conversation with a friend that night. So that was really cool, and I have also had some other great opportunities to chat recently.
Mashi, I got some information on coming back here next summer so hopefully it works out. Alhamduillah

Ya Ragel, Maalak

Well I only have a few weeks left here. I am coming back a little earlier than I would like to, which really stinks. I dont have enough money to take another course and to pay for rent. I am still really enjoying Egypt, I wish I could stay much longer.
Lets see, what stories should I share... I have begun exploring quite a bit recently. I have found several interesting places in this city, but a lot of times I wander around and don't find anything cool. Last week I went exploring and stumbled upon an underground ping pong "club". It was very strange, but a lot of fun. When I first walked in, everyone stopped playing and looked to me like I was going to tell them something awesome. Granted there were only about 7 guys in there, but it was still odd. After some greetings and answering questions of why I was in Egypt, I got to play with the "coach". Now for some reason I thought I was pretty skilled at ping pong, it must be from beating Andrew Johnson so many times. This coach had to be at least 70 years old and he absolutely destroyed me in ping pong. He didn't move his feet once, and hit the ball back and forth to each corner so I would literally have to run to hit the ball. I immediately started sweating and having the whole club watch my demise didn't help. Either way it was fun, and I actually learned a lot.
This week I am going to the American University of Cairo to meet with someone in the Law Department. I found out that you can take some law courses here at AUC for study abroad credit and I really want to do that next summer. That is some time away, but I am going to miss this place and thats a really great reason to come back soon.
Now to the best story of the week, well I think so it least. Thursday I was playing basketball as usual and a few things were a little different. The night started off a little strange when I basically was punched in the mouth by an Egyptian guy trying to stop me from making a lay up. This guy was new and was a little over aggressive from the get go. I was so confused when it happened and a lot of guys went over to the guy and started yelling "maalak, maalak" which is just "whats your problem". It hurt pretty bad, but the guy apologized after awhile and left so I didnt let it bother me too much. Anyways it gets better, later on when we I was running full speed down the court to catch someone a random ball flies in and nails me on the side of the head. Instantly my head started buzzing and I couldn't hear hardly at all. It was so weird I didn't understand where this ball came from and why I had lost my hearing. As I was leaving, this huge wedding procession was entering the "neighborhood activity center". I was moved to the wall as a huge crowd of people pushed by me and the whole time my jaw is dropped and I am trying to hear the music/people talking to me. I guess just try and picture me looking like a goofball - confused look on my face, sweating, and snapping my fingers by my ear to test my hearing all while nicely dressed people are all around me trying to get into a wedding reception. Ilhamduillah about 5 hours later I could hear alright, but its still a little muffled.
Today after class I went down to Coptic Cairo with some people and we saw Oswald Chambers grave. I didnt know he was buried here, but I saw his grave so I guess he is. That was neat and someone said he didn't even write most of his books, but that his wife put them together. We also went to the first Mosque built in Africa and to a really old Jewish synagogue.
I am finally getting to play the head guy at my school in tennis. We are supposed to play on Tuesday and I am pretty excited about that. I think we will get to play on clay courts, which is something I have really wanted to try.
Two of my good Egyptian friends broke up with their girlfriends recently, it was pretty funny hearing their reasoning. I wont get into that too much, but they are hilarious dudes and that night I got about 20 low fives, so it was considered a good one.
Well thats enough, life's good and Egypt is really cool. I want to stay longer, inshaallah I will come back next summer.

Dominoes, really?

Alright well February went by fast. I think I have come to the point where I kind of accept this culture. My life is very different here, and I am past the stage of looking at this as a vacation. I have become pretty annoyed with my 7 am alarm clock recently. As I have become closer with my Egyptian friends they want to hang out more and more. I dont know if I have talked about this before, but Cairo is a major night life city. You can order food 24/7 and the city literally never sleeps. There are car honks and people yelling outside during all hours of the night. Anyways my core group of four Egyptian friends love to stay up till about 2am every night, which usually as most of you know I would love, but when I have to be at class at 9 am its kinda tough. I have to wake up at around 730 and make it to the metro by about 815. I then ride the good ole metro for half an hour then walk/sprint to make it to class on time. Its pretty hard to get my brain "thinking" in Arabic when I am really tired, but its fun learning new stuff each day.
So lately our 2 am nights have revolved around hanging out at coffee shops while playing boards games and just chatting. Last week I played about 6 hours of dominoes. Dominoes is honestly the most boring game I have ever played, except maybe Apples to Apples, that one is pretty boring. They stinking love dominoes here. The funny thing is that I beat all of my friends the first night we played, and I didnt really know what I was doing. Well I take that back, its extremely easy and 90 % luck. I don't understand why everyone likes this game here, they play backgammon a lot too.
Mashi, lets see my Arabic level has grown a whole lot over the last month. I feel pretty confident in a lot of basic conversations, and I am finally getting over the transition from Modern Standard Arabic to the Egyptian dialect. This language is so strange, I dont understand a lot of grammar, so I may shift my focus away from reading and writing.
Basketball was cool this week, we played some full court and one guy bent one of the rims pretty bad while dunking. It was totally worth it though because we were all really pumped up that he dunked! I learned a cool phrase recently, "ya basha" . It means like king or captain, but you say to your friends " ya basha izzayak?". So its pretty fun to say, and its basically like saying "Hey captain, whats up? "
You may have heard about the recent bomb the went off here in Cairo. It happened at a really famous market named Khan el Khalili. I have been there a few times and to the cafes where it happened. I probably wont go back though, the security there never seemed all that great anyways in my opinion. The people here despise terrorism, I honestly think they have been more outspoken against it than many in the States. A top Muslim leader in Egypt came out and said the attackers were "cowards and traitors to their religion and country." I think the media has done a perplexingly poor job of representing the majority of Muslims in the world.
Alright well I am about to head out with some friends, hopefully not to play more dominoes.
Oh I made scrambled eggs for the first time this morning, I know its kinda embarrassing I have never done that. My roommate has a Betty Crocker cookbook and it taught me how to scramble em pretty well. Food is something I haven't mentioned much, but I get by on a lot of tuna and peanut butter&jelly sandwiches. I do get kosheri quite a bit which is sort of like pasta, but its got a weird Middle East twist to it.
Mashi, keep me in your prayers, I am not hanging out with people for no reason. I am learning a lot, I know thats cliche to say but I do mean it.
Tayyib , kifaya m3assalama.

This is Masr

Well I have been here about a month now and I am still really enjoying it. I went through a few days of being irritated with this city, but it was mainly because I sprained my ankle and got pretty sick last week. I am much better now though, and have gotten to spend a lot of time playing bball and making friends at this playground near my apartment. I have done a lot since my last "posting", but I dont really know what information would be the best to share. So I will just ramble for a bit. Earlier this week I went to play basketball and slowly some better athletes have started showing up to play with us. Tuesday four new guys came and they were all about 6' 2" and very athletic. We had a great time, but when I first got there I went to this wall to take off my pants, because my shorts were on underneath, and to take off my longsleeve shirt. As I was taking off the longsleeve it caused my undershirt to rise to my chin exposing my very chiseled chest to a bunch of girls I did not see. It was a pretty awkward situation, and although no eye contact was made and no one mentioned it to me, I still felt like a big idiot. The culture here is obviously very different and dealing with Muslim girls is something I have no grasp on yet. Anyways we actually had a few girls play basketball with us last night, and I seemed to be the only one noticing they were even on the court. I was also the only one who would ever pass it to them, and the few times a girl scored I was the only one clapping or saying "nice shot". This is another point of humor here in Egypt. Whenever someone scores everyone says "nice shot" in English, its weird, but they arent just saying it because I am there. They also say "nice pass" in English, and I dont understand why. It must just be one of those things they learned when playing basketball. One more story about bball, last night I bought a 3 EGP bottle of water at the courts, and after taking a few sips I placed the water next to the bench and went back to play some more. When I returned for some water later, I noticed a teammate picking up my water and just having at it. I walked over and noticed there was nothing left. This thoroughly confused me, but just showed that I guess whats mine is theirs once you become "friends" and I wont be buying bottled water there anymore.
High fives, well low fives to be precise are very popular. If you say anything funny or clever a low five is heading your way. These also work if you are talking about something and the other party in the conversation agrees. For example, yesterday my friend Hussein was talking to me about Will Smith movies, and when I said "have you seen Men In Black", I was given a low five. This does not really highlight every facet of a low five, but hopefully you get the idea. I really want to bring this aspect of Egyptian culture back home with me, so be prepared. Also the kissing on the side of both cheeks has become pretty normal for me and happens daily. I get it a lot at the basketball courts and I think I will try this when I get home, too.
Lets see, I think I am going to my first soccer match next weekend, one of my friends asked me to go with him so that should be cool. I also had to get my visa renewed this week, and ilhamduillah it was much easier than I thought. I was told it would take a full day, and I probably spent a total of 20 minutes in this building. I did have to drop off the application and pick it up 2 hours later, but it was pretty easy.
My Arabic teacher is pretty cool, she gets a lot of sarcasm and we have a lot of fun in class. She is only 24, but is very bright. She reads some English newspapers and after class we sit down and she asks me a few questions about it. She wanted me to explain what "tit for tat" meant and I did a pretty bad job. First of all I have heard "tit for tat" maybe a total of 5 times in my entire life and so I had to rely on context clues to not sound like a total goof when explaining a sentence to her. Hopefully she doesn't ask me about scapegoats, I dont know why but that popped into my head as something that would be hard to explain to someone who doesnt speak great English.
I have a stalker who calls me about 20 times a day. This guy must have got my number from someone at the basketball courts, but he just calls and calls and calls. My roommate has a stalker to, and holds the record for 38 calls on one day. Its pretty strange to call someone that many times, but I have come to say as most expats here do that "This is Egypt".

3rd Week

I have only been here 16 days and it feels like a lot more. I am getting "comfortable" here now, but I dont really know what I mean by that. I dont sleep comfortably or have HDTV, wireless internet, or any familiar faces around me. Its good though, my roommates are really cool dudes, and I am getting to know them pretty well. I have my schedule figured out and the metro routes that I need to take each day. The weekend here is Friday and Saturday so thats kind of different. Anyways on Thursday night which is the start of the weekend me and my roommate, we will call him Zach, went to this sports bar/restaurant to watch Egypt play some team from Tunisia for the African Cup. It was really cool and we got to sit with some Egyptian dudes who gave us a plethora of high fives and hugs as we left. On Friday me and Zach, who speaks Arabic really well, went to these soccer/basketball fields near our apartment and played basketball with a lot of 12 years olds for like 2 hours. It was basically like 15 on 15, so it was pretty crazy. They never play basketball and it shows, they constantly yelled out my name which comes out of their mouths something like "Blakeey". Anytime a kid on my team got the ball he instantly looked to pass it to me, I guess they figure I know what I am doing with a basketball. I had to force them to shoot it, and they collectively shot about 3% on the day for field goals. It was a great time and the little kids were a blast. I think it will be good to practice my Arabic with them. Anyways that night me and Zach met three Egyptian dudes while we were longboarding in the streets. We posted up by their car and drank Pepsi while listening to Kayne West for about an hour. They took us home after that, and invited us to some concert this Friday, saying we would be VIPs with them and wouldnt have to pay.

One last story, last night I went by myself to the basketball court and found some people my age who knew what they were doing. Turns out they are a club team and were going to have practice. They scratched practice and their coach insisted we just play 4 on 4 for about 2 hours. It was extremely slick on the court, but luckily I was able to hit some shots and gain their respect. I am a pretty good bball player over here, so if Eric Sampson ever came to Egypt he would be thought of as an NBA player. I had a lot of fun and their coach kept wanting to guard me, I guess he thought he was the only one who could stop my barrage of three pointer's. I am joking about the barrage, but I did well enough to where the coach asked me to join their club team and play in their league. I dont really know what that means, and as he was speaking Arabic I didnt get all the details. I am supposed to go tomorrow night though for "practice" and he said he would ask the league coordinator if I could join their team. Well other than that Arabic is still really hard, but I am enjoying it. I am kind of sick today, hopefully its not from all the tap water I drank last night after basketball. My school is planning a fishing trip to the Red Sea, so that should be neat.
Uhm, I got rejected at George Mason...so unless someone gives me $20k to go to American University, I will be at UT-Knoxville this fall.

Well I hope everyone is doing well, continue to pray for me. People here are amazingly nice and hospitable, its such a joy to talk with Egyptians and show them love.

Week 2 begins

Hey so I'm still here. I started my Arabic course this morning at 8am. There are only three of us in my class, a girl from Australia and a guy from France. The teacher speaks pretty good English, and I think she may like me the best. This is probably just because I smile and nod my head a lot. I am the only one who can read and write well at all, so that makes me feel good, except speaking is all that I really care about. I met a pretty Japanese girl, thats different right? I still don't have an apartment, I have just been staying with a guy I met at a book fair. Thats weird, but I think tonight I am moving in with some American dudes, insha allah. Today I had two fish sandwiches and a coke for 6 EGP, which is like $1.10, so thats pretty sweet. Then this Egyptian guy asked me and Frenchy from class to go to a coffee shop. French guy doesnt speak much English and the Egyptian dude couldnt say much, so it was an interesting two hours. Lets see, my beard is still growing, I havent shaved all year. I have a pretty nasty mustache, I think I will trim it soon. If Ben is reading this, I am sorry, but I can not go by your advice of just "letting it go". Lets see, when I do move into my apartment tonight, inshaAllah, I will have to take the metro for 30 minutes to get to the metro strop close to my school. That will kinda stink, but maybe I can just attempt to chat with people on the ride down. So the book fair I mentioned earlier, that was interesting. The head guy at my school his name is Ahmed, he may just be the nicest man I have ever met sans Hu Morris of course. Anyways Ahmed has been more than helpful, and yesterday he took a lot of us to this international book fair downtown. Well 99 percent of the stuff was in Arabic, but its so strange to just see people behaving exactly as they would in America. I just pictured the fair grounds, wherever that is in Nashville, and people going to a huge book expo. It was the same thing, except a majority of the books had President Bush's face alongside a flag of Israel and pictures of explosions or dead people. Oh and they had a lot of Dr. Phil books, how weird is that? Dr. Phil, but no Oprah. Other than that, I dont know whats worth writing down, uhm people really want my money here, it gets pretty annoying after awhile. I sometimes say la aarif Inglezee in response to the heckling which is just "I dont know English". Then they ask where I am from and I have replied with such places as Lichtenstein, Narnia, Sweden, and Chechnya. Most people get confused for a little while, but then leave me alone because they dont know what language I would know.
Well I have written too much. I hope America is doing well, I am sure Obama will have all our problems fixed by the time I return. I can not wait for the free gas vouchers. I am sure you are all already feeling the positive effects of the most recent stimulus package.
AlhamduAllah- Blake
-Sorry for the rambling, but its kinda hard to focus here.

Made it to Cairo

I am here alive and well. Me and Nate landed Saturday morning Cairo time and have seen a lot so far. Today we did a tour of the Pyramids (of course), the Citadel, which is a huge fortress type structure way up on a hill overlooking the entire city. We also spent a few hours in the Egyptian Museum checking out mummies and their tombs, you know stuff like that. They mummified animals which I thought was funny. You could see thousand year old alligators and dogs that used to be some Kings pet or favorite animal. Well its 3 am here and I can not sleep, I slept 10 hours last night and my body is still confused. In 4 hours I am leaving for Alexandria to see the Mediterranean, huge Alex. Library, and thousand year old ruins.

I had to cross the street a lot today, and its basically like playing Frogger. I almost got hit a few times tonight, its actually kinda fun...

Ok I am going to sleep, I will put some pictures up next weekend. Send me an email, it will be a nice reminder of home.