Little Things about Egypt

I wake up every morning and say, "I'm in Egypt!!!" It boggles my mind. Im amazed when i walk down the street that I am in Egypt. Its so surreal, sometimes. I feel like Im still on vacation and its all gonna be gone soon. But then I realize, I'm here for awhile. A long while, if I'm lucky.

There isn't really much to say, but there are little quirky things that happen that make me laugh and are so typically Egypt. I'll just list a few things for your entertainment.

1. Whenever you have a room of foreigners, at least one person, sometimes more, has a story of some taxi driver wanting more money and getting into and argument with them about it.

2. To get my elevator to work, I need to kick the door and then it will begin to move and take me up to my floor.

3. When I walk down the street, men will stare so hard, I've gotten to a point where I just tune everything out around me. It really sucks though when they make comments, but so far I dont know what they are saying so its not as bad.

4. If I say anything in Arabic, like one word, people ask me if I speak Arabic.

5. At least once a day I hear someone say "Welcome," or "Welcome to Egypt." Its kinda random and weird. Especially when just said in passing. They wont talk to you or engage you just walk by and mumble it sometimes.

6. There are cats everywhere, in the streets and in the buildings. My roomate just picked up a little 7 week old stray. So now we have a cat of our own. She is cute, but already a terror.

7. The call to prayer is constant. I think its suppose to be 5 times a day. I live right next to a mosque and I have a general idea of the time when I hear it. At noon, I know its time to eat, at 3:30ish I know the temperature should be getting cooler and at 7 I know its time for dinner. Allhumdulilah, the mosque next door doesn't do the 4am call to prayer. I think they just need to find someone to fill that time slot and then I might hear it everymorning. We'll see.

8. I love eating musa'a (eggplant with garlic and stuff) and baba ganough (eggplant and garlic prepared differently). Oh and you cant forget about fuul, its like refried beans but its made from fava beans. Love the food here.