Wahlkomm... to za MUHSSHEEEN!!

Cairo's hottest new band.

Yo yo yo everybody. Here's a quick update, but don't expect too much, cause the last week has been kinda slow. Here are the highlights (and some other stuff I added just for fun!):

The minaret at Ibn Tulun.

Last weekend, my room- mates Stoo and Ross, our friends Matt and Sam, and I all went to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. It's the oldest mosque (9th century, I think) in Cairo and the biggest as well. It's definitely one of the most impressive things I've seen so far here. The architecture is very simple, and the central open area (there's probably some proper term, but I don't know it) feels like a desert with the sun (and the smog?) beating down from above. The spiral minaret is another highpoint (no pun intended!). Allegedly, Ibn Tulun, the man for whom the mosque was made, was idly spinning a piece of paper around his finger when someone caught him. To disguise his time wasting, when asked what he was doing, he replied, "designing my minaret!" It worked out pretty well, cause it's a sweet minaret, and it has great views of the city. But it would've been nice if Ibn Tulun had designed some guard rails as well. Being at the top is a little terrifying. Meh.. who needs 'em!?

Me putting the "Tul" back in Ibn Tulun.

Later that day we decided to check out the City of the Dead. A good portion of east- ern Cairo is covered by graveyards and tombs. In a city with a housing prob- lem like Cairo's, it's no surprise that those graveyards serve a dual purpose. About half a million homeless Cairenes sleep in the City of the Dead each night. In the day they leave and wander the city, but they return every night. It's a pretty creepy thought, to live and sleep by your

A tomb in the City of the Dead.

ancestors. It's nothing like I imagined it. Of course, hearing that people lived in cemeteries, I imagined the traditional expansive and green American cemetary. The Egyptian style is totally different. It's a maze of mausoleums and above-ground tombs, mostly. The cemeteries stretch for miles, with a mosque thrown in here, a mound of garbage there. Wandering around the area was pretty surreal. We went in the day, so none of the homeless were there yet, but nevertheless, it felt a lot like voyeurism. Not just of the living, but of the dead too. Many of the mausoleums, while they're dark inside, have large windows through which you can look. You can't see much without additional light, but I took a few pictures with my flash on, and I half expected to see a ghost or something in the exposure, silly as it may sound.

A "satellite city" of a different color! HA!

That was prob- ably the big- gest event of the last week or so. Other than that, we've been hanging around mostly. Matt's friend Dave and his girlfriend Jen just left after spending a little over a week here. They were both very nice and it was fun to have some visitors, even if they weren't mine. A lot of the roommates are getting visitors soon, so the apartment is going to be a little crazier than normal. This weekend Stoo has a good friend coming. Ross' parents are coming in around the same time. I think next weekend Jay's parents are coming. I don't even know after that. My mom bought her ticket though, so she's coming for sure! She's going to meet us in Israel in May and hang out there for a

Ibn Tulun.

few days, then take the bus with us to Cairo. The last weekend she's here we're gonna hit up Alexandria. I'm really excited to see her. I miss people, especially my parents, a lot more here for some reason. It probably has something to do with dist- ance and security and whatnot. Whatever. Oh, and speaking of Israel and visitors, the only other people who I thought were gonna visit me bailed out a little while ago. Losers. Sari from Oberlin and her boyfriend Casey are studying in Jerusalem, and they were going to come sometime in April, but because they don't want to take the bus and they couldn't find a satisfactory flight, they've decided not to. Personally, I don't think they looked hard enough for the flights, especially since my friend Hannah just got visited by a friend of hers studying in Israel who flew direct for the price Sari and Casey wanted. Oh well. Their loss. And Peter and I will still see them when we're in Israel, so there's that.

OH! Last Wednesday we went to see... get this, an Egyptian Pink Floyd cover band! It was hilarious! But only a little. It was actually quite good. They had the arrangements perfect, and one of the guys did the most amazing David Gilmour. The other guy had a wicked thick accent, which I thought added to the experience. "Hay! Taichur! Leave zose kidz aloaan!" Peter plans to include something about them in his forthcoming entry, which has gone from being a quick discussion of the symphony to encompassing everything there is about music in Africa's biggest city, judging from the amount of time it's been kicking around in his head anyway. "Hey Peter. When are you gonna write your next entry?" "Oh, I wanted to wait until we'd gone to [insert concert here] so I could include it." Oh, and then I throttle him, usually.

More Ibn Tulun.

This past weekend was pretty low-key. Thursday night, Jay, Peter, and I decided we wanted to eat something other than Egyptian cuisine and American fast food, so we went on a long sojourn to track down a Chinese place. We didn't find one, but we did happen upon a very good Korean restaurant. I'd missed the taste of MSG. The next day was laid back as well. Peter had a big test to study for, so he was out of commission. I discovered that Phil enjoys cribbage, and we had maybe the closest, most intense game I've ever played. He won by one peg. ONE PEG! After bumming around the apartment for a while, Stoo, Sharif, Phil, and I all went out with Hannah and her aforementioned friend (Michelle) from Israel. We went to Sequoia, an upscale restaurant in Zamalek. My god... it was one of the nicest places I've ever been in my life. It's right on the Nile, and the atmosphere is perfect. Even the music isn't too loud. The food is excellent as well, not to mention the shisha. Really, it's like the Cheesecake Factory of shisha. They bring out a giant tray with probably forty different flavors. I went for cola, which wasn't the best. Sharif's rose was quite nice.

Our Felucca coming in to port.

After that, we went back to Hannah's apartment and got into one of the biggest, most intense debates I've wit- nessed in a while. I say witnessed because I wasn't as much a part of it as the others. It was over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and I just don't know as much about it as my friends here do, nor am I quite as invested in it, I don't think. Sharif and Stoo are both Arabs, and Hannah and her friend Michelle are both Jewish, so their interest needs no explanation. Phil just knows his shit, but it was mostly an argument between those first four. Finally, at 4AM, we left and came home... and stayed up until 6 doing absolutely nothing. On Saturday, after Peter finished his exam, we hung out for a little while before going on a felucca ride with Matt, Dave, Jen, Martha, Hannah, and Michelle. It was a really beautiful night, and even though we didn't get on the boat until just after sunset, it was still a great time. The next day was once again pretty lackadaisical. We'd been craving some good old fashioned steak and taters, so Martha and Sarah, one of Martha's friends from Maadi, came over and we had ourselves a nice little dinner. Unfortunately, I started feeling really sick afterwards, and I wound up going to bed around 9:30. I didn't fall asleep for several hours, however. I was freezing at first, but after pumping the heat for a while, I started to get really hot and sweaty. At some point I entered a half-dream,

Peter and Martha relax on the felucca.

half-awake state in which I believed that I had discovered an alternate method of sleeping which somehow involved flying all around the world at absurd speeds. I was legitimately convinced of this until I had been awake for about an hour or so the next day. When I woke up, I felt good enough to go to class, but after sitting there for twenty minutes or so, I started feeling pretty sick again. I went home early, bought some Advil, and took a long nap. After I woke up, I felt a little better, but I was still a little off, which was too bad. My St. Patty's Day was, consequently, not too exciting. The good news is I felt right as rain this morning when I woke up. I'm still a little funky... stuffy nose and whatnot, but other than that, I feel great. I think it might have been food poisoning or something. Or AIDS, if I wanna believe WebMD. Hypochondriac's nightmare.

In other news, I got a house for next year back at Oberlin! I'm living with Liz Segroves, Eric Gibbs, and Big Rachel. We got a place on Pleasant St, which is over by the Art Museum. Not the best location necessarily, but with a bike it won't be a big deal. Plus it's sweet just to have a house! All of us have terrible, and I mean terrible lottery numbers, so we were praying for an okay apartment on Union St at best. It was nevertheless a pleasant surprise to get our own house. You can see a picture of it here.

So we're off to Europe tomorrow morning, bright and early. We are of course wicked excited, though we didn't anticipate quite the level of SNAFU that skipping a few days of class might elicit. I have a paper due the day I get back; Peter has a final. Also, two days after we get back, we leave Cairo again to go to the Sinai for a weekend with some friends. Crazy! Hopefully we'll get a chance to post something about our trip to Europe before then. Hope all is well.

The call to prayer at Ibn Tulun. We hear this all over the city, from our apartment (less so) and from classes (oh yeah), five times a day, every day.

Houston, We Have a Light

From left to right: Peter, Sharif, and Phil in the living room.

In short, the apartment ex- ceeded all of our wildest dreams, which isn't actually all that impress- ive, since I didn't really have any preconceptions and Peter was intentionally imagining it as a dingy and undersized piece of shit. But yeah, it's pretty incredible. We don't even have to lug shit up the stairs! There's this sweet old-timey elevator that we can take to our floor. On the ride over, we met two other students who were to be living in the same apartment, which meant we didn't in fact have a double. No big deal though. One of our fears was having everything at our fingertips and therein becoming homebodies, so we were excited about living with others. We arrived and found that there were to be eight guys in all, which sounds like a lot, but, as you can see from the pictures, it doesn't matter, 'cause the place is effin' huge! Eight roommates and five bedrooms: that's three doubles and two singles. As you enter the apartment, you come to a large dining/living room with a couch, some chairs, a big dining table, some bookcases and closets. Off to the left is Peter's and my double, which is also pretty big. It has a nice window overlooking a busy street. The next room belongs to Stoo and Matt. It's probably a little bigger than ours, and it has a balcony, which is excusable since it's a double. The following room belongs to just Ross. He definitely got the best deal, since he's got a balcony, a couch, and his own room. Sheesha! After that is Phil's and Sharif's double, and finally comes Jay, with another single. Everyone is American, though Stoo's parents are both Iranian and Sharif's father is from Alexandria. They all seem cool and nice and pretty agreeable. Matt is from Long Island and is reserved but very friendly. Stoo hails from Needham

Our third toilet.

, Mass., and he's incredibly outgoing and funny. Ross comes from Woodstock, NY (right near Bard!), and he's quite down-to- earth and easy- going. Jay, we've decided, is John Carr meets Jon Hyman, which, in case you don't know those two, means he's approachable and happy-go- lucky. Both he and Phil are from the Detroit area. Phil is a nice presence, as his appearance is a real throwback to Oberlin. He has long hair and a big beard and always wears a bandana (I guess it might be a little early to say "always"), and he's incredibly laid back. Last but not least, Sharif is from Chicago and he's the eldest. He's wicked helpful and expressive. Maybe it's because I know he's older, and also since he's already spent a semester here, but he seems like the most mature of the group. Anyway, there's the apartment in a nutshell. Oh yeah, and there's a kitchen, two bathrooms, two showers, three toilets, a washer, a drier, and we can climb some stairs to hang out on the roof, which is also amazing.

Peter's nut card. It translates literally to something like "An allergy is belonging to me regarding almonds and hazelnuts and pinenuts and pistachios and walnuts."

When we showed up there were already five of us here. Two more showed up within an hour or so (everyone but Sharif), and after a little unpacking and unrestrained disbelief at the awesomeness of the apart- ment, we headed down- town to get some dinner. We passed AUC, and it is indeed quite close to where we live. There are tons of shops and restaurants around. It really is a great location. After getting lost a little, we found a little place recommended by one of my travel guides. We walked in and were immediately welcomed and ushered to seats. The place only serves one meal: kushari, which is pretty much Egypt's national dish. It's macaroni, rice, chick peas,

Meaty Petey in our room. Of course, it's already a mess.

lentils, fried onions, and hot sauce. That might sound weird and maybe even gross, but it's pretty damned good actually, not to mention filling. I imagine it's fairly nutri- tious as well. Unfortunately, we didn't know how to say that Peter had a nut allergy, so he was pretty nervous about eating it. He went over and asked a man, and despite some communication difficulties, the fellow managed to understand him enough to let him know there were no nuts involved. Plus, he was superbly friendly, which is really the way to be here, apparently. Everyone we meet or ask for help or encounter in anyway is just so happy to be of help. It's pretty awesome. So anyway, the dinner was great, and for the seven of us with food and drink, the bill ran to LE60, or a little over ten dollars. Pretty freaking incredible, eh? After that, we walked around some more, getting lost again and being dragged around by helpful Cairenes, though a few of them were surely just trying to get some money out of us tourist types. It was only 10 when we got back to the apartment (which was just as amazing as we had left it), but after being awake for about thirty-five hours, we were very ready for bed.

Cairo skyline across the Nile.

After ten hours of weird-dream- filled sleep, we got up around 8:30, and thanks to jetlag, I still felt very tired. It's affected Peter a lot less so, but I felt tired pretty much all day. After laying around until noon, we walked downtown, to get some food ostensibly, but we were sidetracked by a friendly man who somehow got us to buy perfume from him, despite our best efforts. We have of course sworn to avoid that at all costs for the rest of our time here. But he had a picture of himself with Mohammed Ali! How could we not give him our money?.

Feluccas on the Nile.

We had a traditional Egyptian meal of Sbarro since Peter was still a little hesi- tant about his allergy. But fear not: using a phrasebook we prepared him a card stating in no uncertain terms that he cannot eat them. After lunch, we trekked down to the Nile for a cool dip... er, walk, I mean. It was pretty whacky to see that water which had flowed thousands of miles from the lakes of Rwanda and the mountains of Tanzania and the deserts of the Sudan, only to empty out a hundred or so miles north in the Mediterranean. That's right, I waxed poetic. Deal with it.

The Cairo Tower.

Then we came back to the dorm to finish unpack- ing and setting every- thing up. It was quite a shitshow. Within an hour, we had broken three fuses, two transformers, a circuit breaker, a power adapt- er, and a chair (Peter's fault). Needless to say, we sat down and worked out exactly what would be required to get our electronics up and running properly. After a surprisingly successful jaunt around Cairo's electronics district (which is, like everything else in this town, conveniently located!), we came back and got everything working fine and dandy... except for the speakers. That's where the power adapter blew, and the universal adapter we bought to replace it turned out to be the wrong kind of current. But nevertheless, a pretty good save.

The rest of the night we spent hanging out with the roommates, playing a little poker, talking politics, and then wasting time on the computer. The other guys went out on the town, but we were exhausted and, personally, if I'm starting over, I don't want to develop a terrible sleep schedule too early.

Our humble little kitchen.

Of course we wound up staying up until 3 AM anyway and not getting up until 3 PM. As a result, today got cut a little short. We basically got up, farted around for a bit, went to Pizza Hut (I don't know why... please don't think we're already missing shitty American food, but I guess we figured that with four months, we'll wind up getting plenty of local stuff), and bought cell phones ($40 each! see sidebar for numbers).

Anyway, everything has been incredible so far. Sorry I'm so long-winded, but you'll all just have to wait.

Cairo from our roof.