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
Friday, March 13, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
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.
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.
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