Time for school to start tomorrow.

Let me preface this by stating that as I am writing this I am taking a daring chance. Yeah, I’ve decided to eat a salad. We went searching for some internet today, and so we stumbled across a store that is actually a big chain named “cilantro”. They have wi-fi (9 pounds to get on of course). Well, I opted to just wait until tomorrow when I could get it for free. I’ll pay someone a pound and check my schedule or something online. The card works for 2 hours, so I’m in no rush. Anyways, not the point. The point is that I haven’t eaten hardly any raw veggies so far during my trip, so I saw a salad, and I bought it. To be fair, this is not your standard Egyptian joint. Some sort of blues trumpet player is pumping out not so good as Miles Davis Kind of Blue soft café la modé jazzy mellow jazz.

So its not the same as the fruits on the street, thats true. But that doesn’t make the achievement any less of a feat. I’ll keep everyone updated on if I get sick. I hope I don’t, and so far I’ve been feeling good. If I get sick, I get sick.

However, what I really wanted to talk about today is not sickness, or internet but tomatoes.

I have to admit… the tomatoes in Egypt are the best tomatoes I’ve ever had. They are just crazy good. American tomatoes come in many types, but most are acidic. The tomatoes here are super sweet, with plenty of meat on the inside, not watery at all, but the meat isn’t hard like the meaty tomatoes in the US, instead, the meat is very soft. They are just crazy good.

Two more short little stories. Last night I went back to the music store. He had this cheap guitar in, and I played around with it for a while, but eventually I settled on the step above the cheap cheap one (450 pounds). Instead, I opted for the 650 pound one. Its a weird model. It has a fiberglas back and neck, which makes for a bizarre mix. The good news is that the harmonics are “perfect”, and it is a smaller body, very light, and rounder, so when you sit it on your knee it feels nice. You can really feel it vibrate. Of course I can’t say that it sounds the greatest. I haven’t made up my mind yet. One of the nice things about wooden guitars, or wooden instruments in general, is that as you play it, the wood bends, and warps just a tiny tiny bit the more you play it because the energy coming out in waves. Therefore you can “break in” any new instrument by playing it. Its kinda like a living thing, it takes time, and it responds, because each instrument is different.

The thing is, IDK how much this will change because its not wood. Hopefully this fiberglass also bends enough to change. The strings are harder than I’m used to, so my fingers hurt after a good half an hour of playing.

So there I was, playing on our porch, and this little kid, maybe 8 years old, he comes up to me. And I’m there playing guitar and this kid comes up to me with these curious eyes, and says hi. Then he asks me if I need my shirts washed because there is this great place right up a block away -- Makmouds. This kid was obviously delivering clothing for his dad. It was really sad that no matter what I do, most Egyptians just see me as a walking bag of money. Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised.