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back in Cairoback in Cairo Everyone has been asking me if things feel or look any different here in Cairo after the revolution.  When I left, there were tanks in my neighborhood, a curfew, lots of gunfire, there was no internet, and Mubarak was still president.  Now, Mubarak is gone, the police are back on the streets, the tanks have rolled out,...

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from ancient to medieval in Cairofrom ancient to medieval in Cairo On Tuesday we started our day with a cab ride to Tahrir to see the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. We spent a few hours enjoying the Tutahnkamun exhibit, Akhenaten collection, and other ancient art and artifacts of Egypt. We then took a taxi to the Citadel. The views of the city were stunning. We...

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weddles in luxorweddles in luxor This past week has been a whirlwind!  After seeing some sights around Cairo with Ryan, my parents arrived and we left for Luxor.  We arrived in Luxor around midday and decided to check out Luxor Temple in the afternoon sunlight.  It was incredible.  The city of Luxor creeps right up to the edges of these ancient sites,...

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Mount SinaiMount Sinai Last weekend we went on a faculty trip to Mount Sinai.  After a 9 hour bus ride through barren, empty, desert, along the eastern coast of Egypt and across the Sinai Peninsula, we made it to Dahab where the best thing about our hotel was the coral reef meters from our room.  Another 2 hour bus ride through a forbidding...

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Unfinished ObeliskUnfinished Obelisk Once we got to Aswan and after a crazy taxi experience that entailed some serious driver rivalry, keys stolen from the ignition, a chase involving a tire iron, and a group of tourists, ahem, us, quietly unloading our luggage and finding another cab... (yeah, I know, OH EGYPT!) Anyhow once we got to Aswan, we decided...

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Rain in Cairo

Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt, Scott & Diane's Visit, Welcome in Egypt

In addition to bringing all kinds of great stuff from the States, Brandon’s parents were kind enough to bring along some lovely Oregon weather!  We had lots of cloudy days, fog, and yes, even rain!

It was almost like being back in Oregon!  I love Egypt, but it was a nice weather vacation.  I’ll take gray skies and rain wherever I can get ’em.

Photo by Scott Canfield

Look at the weird look of confusion on my face.

Photo by Scott Canfield

Yep,  it was the real deal.  And it didn’t just stop after a few minutes.  It rained all afternoon and then off and on for a few more days!  It was wonderful!

Photo by Scott Canfield

call for the captain ashore…

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Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

Today we went to Carrefour.  It’s a huge store and it’s usually crowded and loud and crazy.  (Remember Brandon’s video of me looking lost and confused in the maze of shopping carts and families at Carrefour last year?  Click here to see it on his blog.)

Today’s best Carrefour find had to be this game:

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oh, egypt…

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Category : Food, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

In my ongoing effort to not do laundry, I decided to peruse the photos I have snapped on my phone over the past few months.  Here are a few of my favorite gems.

Enjoy!

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a Coke and was pleasantly surprised to see Santa in the 100 degree weather.  Nothing like a little Christmas in May, right?  I was just glad it says “Holiday 2009” and not “Holiday 1999.”  My favorite “food past its prime” moments are when the grocery stores tape together two boxes of expensive food (i.e. cinnamon toast crunch) with packing tape and sell them at a discount.  Judging by the date on these deals, I am guess the cinnamon toast crunch is a little lacking in the crunch department.  Still, it’s charming, right?

This next one is from when we went snorkeling recently and were on a boat.

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the same in the rain or sun

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Category : Family, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt, Uncategorized

Some of you may have heard the story of the Egyptified letterpress print I received manhandled in the mail recently.  I’m not ready to fully comment on it yet (or touch it), although I love it so much.  I really do.  And years from now, I’ll look back on it and think, whoa, I lived in Egypt. Crazy.  So when I am ready to photograph it in all its glory and write about that fateful day, this will all make sense.  So for now, long story short, the mail I have received thus far in Egypt (while thank goodness it makes it all the way from point A to B) isn’t always handled with tender loving care every step of the way.

After a package has been knifed open en route, and it’s contents (i.e. tiny fuzzy Easter chicks) were deemed safe and not of tremendous monetary value, the package is taped back together and sent on its way to my apartment.  It’s not unlikely for things (i.e. an unlucky and now maimed fuzzy chick) to get caught in the web of tape the mail handlers use to reseal the package.

So, when I received something in the mail from my wonderful sister last week, I didn’t notice this little surprise that must have befallen the same fate as the tape-maimed fuzzy chick and gotten stuck to the tape inside the envelope.  Anyhow, I finally got around to some tidying up around the house this afternoon, and as I was getting ready to throw away the envelope from last week’s mail (yeah, I know, it’s been sitting here all week), I found this delightful surprise.

I believe the cupcake pin is by cakespy (a really cute blog about sweets), and the little horseshoe, well, I guess I have that to thank for the intactness of my mail.  Thanks, Mer!

P.S. Mer, we have to get cupcakes and coffee this summer…!!

Catching Up…

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Category : Meredith's Visit, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt, Sightseeing in Cairo

As you may have noticed, I am trying to catch up. I have about two million pictures I want to post, so I am just going to do it. They may be out of order, fair warning.

So here are a few from around Maadi. This is one of my favorites.

tree

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Priceless

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Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

Meredith captured the best picture of the day from our trip to Giza and the Solar Barque Museum.

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E-I-E-I-O

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Category : Family, Meredith's Visit, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

Where do I even begin?  We were in the mood for a good old-fashioned family game night and thought we would see what we could round up.  We found a “De Lux [sic]” version of Scrabble which I think we can all agree lived up to its name… DEEEEEEEE-lux.  Check it out…

delux scrabble

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that’s right.

Category : Meredith's Visit, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

Camels on the freeway. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry. We were probably going like eighty miles an hour, haha. This is the highlight of our cab ride. Good thing since we ended up getting stuck in traffic for another hour.

camel commuters

loving the rain

Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

this is what it usually looks like…
desert

and this is what we have had the last few days. just beautiful!
clouds

priceless moment after priceless moment

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Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

I didn’t have a camera on me today, but this photo captures my confusion pretty adequately.  Completely different situation; totally identical confusion.  I think of this photo often when I have trouble finding the right words to describe how I feel.

trash

In other news, remember that Arabic امتحان (exam) I had?  Well I completely slept through my alarm that day, oh by about two hours or so.  It was beautiful.  I threw some clothes on and ran out the door to catch the bus.  Not A bus, THE last bus that would have the ability to get me all the way out to New Cairo in time, Inshallah!  Long story short, or rather short boring story short, I made it to class just in time.  And since I am sure you are all wondering, I got an A… whew!

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Gelato

Category : Food, My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt

gelato and smokes

I’m going to save my rant on how much I love really, really good high-quality gelato for another day, but here’s a picture of some I had today.  It exceeded my expectations!  Here it is sitting at the register.

What?  Yeah, those are cigarettes at the register.  Sorry if the fetal baby distracts from the picture.  They try to warn people about birth defects, but everyone seems to smoke here.  Not sure how well it goes with gelato.  Bleh.  And people were smoking IN THE MALL.  Coming from a place where smokers can’t smoke indoors anywhere, it was a tad surprising.  I hate smoke.  Hate it.

But gelato… gelato I like!

Just Fine

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Category : Art, Oh, Egypt

just fine

This is a letterpress print Meredith did.  I like to think my home is a little MERrier with all of the prints I have been lucky enough to receive over the last couple of years.  She’s a great artist and I love her aesthetic.

This one is hanging above the desk in the living room and always offers a welcome reminder to look on the sunny side of things.

chain reaction

Category : My Life in Cairo, Oh, Egypt, Travel & Sightseeing

traffic jam

Traffic got slow… really slow.  What was the hold-up?  THIS.  Tomatoes were everywhere.