Things of Note

Interesting things always seem to happen in clusters, buffeted by long stretches of nothing on either side. Three episodes of note occurred/will occur; thanksgiving, my building not having water, and an election.

Thanksgiving in Egypt exists. Granted, its only among Americans, but still all the Americans got together and had a big Thanksgiving meal. Few people outside the US really understand what we do on Thanksgiving, as demonstrated by my roommate Jenny's British coworkers, who repeatedly hugged her throughout the day. I also spent a good amount of time explaining to Hisham why the day before Thanksgiving is the biggest travel day of the year. He thought it would be Christmas, but I explained that most people only get the day before Thanksgiving off, whereas winter/Christmas break starts whenever the prior week ends, so people usually have more time to get home.

My Thanksgiving was alright. The food was decent- we had chicken instead of turkey (its all bird to me!), but the company was... weird. We went to my friend Valentina's, and while SHE is super-cool, there was a group of people who were in Cairo for a day as a stop on their Mediterannean cruise who happened to know her roommate. One of them, whose name I'm not sure I ever got, made it quite clear that he was from Alaska and that he loved America. I knowingly made the potentially unwise decision of asking him about the Miller/Murkowski situation, but he's only the 2nd Alaskan I've ever met and I could not let the opportunity escape me. He declared that Murkowski had stolen- STOLEN- the election from Miller. Because, you know, winning the Primary means you should win the election. Then he started talking about how much he loved America- and let it be known that I was sufficiently dumbstruck by this point. You just don't meet die-hard America lovers and Conservatives in general in Cairo. At least not amongst the people who are here long term. Anyway, then he asked Jenny and I if we were patriots. We just looked at him, looked at each other, and then I said, "I have NO idea how to answer that question." "Well, do you love America more than 90%?" Again. Dumbstruck. After a little bit, I told him that I could not quantify my love. Afterwards, Jenny and I avoided him.

Coming up soon are the Egyptian general elections. I'm not going to write anything specific, other than that the choices are terrible and more terrible. And not in the way in the States where the not-as-terrible choice is actually pretty good. The choices are terrible. On the one hand there is an autocratic regime that has been in power for decades, and on the other are Islamists, who, at the end of the day, are a potentially worse choice, regardless of the fact that they're the "opposition." Should they get more seats, I have no doubt Egypt would be looking more like Saudi in no time. Anywho, the US embassy has advised people to stay away from crowded areas, areas with traffic, municipal building (especially schools), and that we should probably just not leave our houses. I actually had to reschedule a group project meeting that I had on Sunday downtown because we're not sure what Tahrir Square is going to look like. Also, on my way to Thanksgiving JEnny and I saw a political demonstration. At first we thought it was a wedding because they were drumming and singing and doing things that Egyptians do on weddings. Then we thought it might be a riot of some sorts, because it was all smoky and we saw flashing lights. As we got closer, however, we realized it was just a bunch of guys on a pickup truck holding up signs of one of the candidates faces. It was interesting because political demonstrations 'round these here parts can get pretty nasty, if you know what I mean. A couple demonstrators were killed in Giza the other day, and opposition candidates have a nasty habit of dying mysteriously or pulling out of races suddenly.

When Jenny and I returned from Thanksgiving, we arrived to find out that we had no water. Today, we found out that it was because our entire building has not paid a water bill in 4 months. Since everything in Egypt is done in cash, bills are usually paid by going to the office of the company. For example, every month we need to go pay our internet bill at the TE Data store, since there may as well not be addresses here, SENDING bills is generally useless. For things like utilities, we just pay our Boab (the doorman), and the collections guy from the water and electric companies comes to him and collects the money. However, they don't come every month; they come when they feel like it. So its been 4 months since we last paid, and the guy could come again in 3 weeks for all we know. Utilities here though are SO cheap. We just paid our electric bill for the first time since Jenny has been here, and it was only 140. Thats less than $25. For 6 months of electricity. Our 4 months of water that we have yet to pay will be 250LE which is less than $50.

Anyway, on to more general updatey things. I only have 1 class that I'm really worried about/invested in at this point; Human Rights in the Middle East. This week we have a moot court, and then I need to really get started on the term paper for it. I found a great new coffee shop too. I'm excited to be going home, I'm excited for my road trip, and I'm happy in general. I have also decided to take a leave of absence for the semester, and not withdraw (not sure I made that clear before), so that in the event I DO want to return to this program, I can. That is all.