And Moses Said...

Let me preface this by stating that I am supposed to be in Alexandria. There was a train that had my theoretical ticket, and a theoretical seat, where theoretically I should have been sitting drink my theoretical drink and reading a theoretical book. But that didn’t happen. Mainly because I was supposed to go with my roommate who was going to come with me because this girl lives in Alexandria but she goes to school at AUC and she told me to come visit sometime because she goes up there for the weekends a lot. But noooo… He had a book report to write, so we didn’t leave.

As it turns out, that was a really good move. See, one of my roommate’s parents are in town so they are out on a Nile Cruise, and so if we had left there would have been no one in the apartment to stop the flood. Yup, thats right, the flood. See, because there are so many bad pipes in Cairo, there is a great invention in many of the bathrooms of a drain. The idea goes as follows: pipes will clog, and water will get everywhere, and therefore every bathroom should have a “master drain” that has an opening somewhere in the bathroom floor so that if anything ever clogs the water has a place to drain, instead of going all over your apartment. Quite a stellar idea which has come in damn handy when the door to the washing machine popped open and water flooded everywhere.

So you can imagine my surprise yesterday morning when I walked into the bathroom to find a mini-lake sitting in the bathroom. I thought to myself “this isn’t good”. However, there is a precursor to this story, because a few days ago, the same thing had happened. The lake was a tiny puddle, and at the time I thought nothing of it. Without my glasses on early in the morning I dismissed it as nothing more than water that dripped off my roommate after he got out of the shower. Well, I got a text from Andrew later that day asking if the bathroom was flooded when I got up. I found this strange, but I said not really. He said that it just sort of magically went away after a bit. So this was good news. I thought perhaps it was our continually troublesome toilet. Maybe the tank that held the clean water didn’t stop filling and started flowing everywhere. Thanks random internet for the pic of drains in Egypt (this one isn't flooded).

So back to the story story thingy. I had to piss, so I got up and went into the bathroom. Naturally I was still groggy, and not fully with it, but was surprised to find my foot in about 3 inches of water. The only good news is that our bathroom isn’t quiet level, so the water was mainly only covering about half the bathroom.

Well, I turned off the water to the sink and the toilet. Or I tried. The problem is that our sink leaks 100% of the time, all day, everyday. The knobs underneith to turn the water off are stripped on the cold water, and doesn’t shut all the way on the hot water pipe, so there is no stopping the flow of water. Well, I didn’t think anything of it because I thought it was the toilet. There was no sign of water leakage from the sink, so it couldn’t be from there. I decided the best course of action was to start to scoop the water off the floor and then get a fan to dry off the floor. So I got a pot lid and started scooping into the shower. Well, after a good 20 minutes I realized that the water level wasn’t decreasing. This was strange. So then I decided to check that drain that was “supposed” to make the water go away. It obviously was clogged (otherwise the water would have drained). And thats when it clicked -- all the water lines in the bathroom go to a central pipe (perhaps except for the toilet)! I did a little test, and sure enough, when I dumped a bunch of water in the bathtub, I could see the ripples of water come up OUT of the drainage ditch. This is a bad thing. I didn’t think much of it, perhaps it would drain by itself like it did with Andrew. The bowab was no where to be found (it was Friday morning, when everyone is at prayer, Friday is the holy day) so I though I’d go get some milk from the one store that was open and just wait until I could get my hands on a plumber.

I get back maybe 15 minutes later, and I see there is a problem. The water had started spreading. It was clearly advancing up towards the carpet of the hallway. In fact, it was only about 6 inches away, and getting closer. Something had to be done. The good news is now with the exasterbaited problem, I could detect the cause. There was a good 2 inches of water ABOVE the shower drain, and this was the clue I needed. The way the piping system worked under the tile floor came to my brain in diagram form. The only question was… where was it draining? Or supposed to be draining? In retrospect, its quite obvious that there was only a partial clog, so it clogged and filled up a little, but then that morning when I went out to get milk it entirely clogged, and the never ending flow of water from the sink came out of the drainage pipe into the bathroom. Regardless, I didn’t put that piece of the puzzle together until later. I got our big plastic garbage can out of the kitchen, woke up my roommate, handed him the pot lid, and told him to get scooping. The water was beginning to move into the carpet, not good.

I then followed the pipes. There is an interesting central shaft that is just open without a roof. It is there that the vents for the gas appliances and the water pipes run. You can get into this space by crawling through a window. Luckily we live on the 1st floor, so getting to our pipe was relatively easy. It was quite obvious there was a problem because water was seeping everywhere in this little space. Just as I was about to go investigate further, a guy came up, and I said I needed help, so we went into the bathroom, and started to use a mop to try and plunge the main drain in our bathroom. After some searching, we managed to find a plunger under the kitchen sink. After that there was progress. The clog partially dissipated, and the threat of apartment flooding was averted. It wasn’t draining great though, so it required someone to wade out to where our master pipe came out on the other side of the bathroom wall in the small space for all the apartment pipes. The pipe has an “oh shit” opening, basically so that if there is a clog downhole, you can plunge something, and theoretically the water has a place to drain out of (which it was partially draining). After some motivated plunging work, the clog was gone. The man asked for money. At the time I thought he was the bowab, who we pay to handle this kind of stuff, so I didn’t pay him much, but in retrospect, I think he might not have been, which means I was a real mean bastard for being a cheep ass, so I’m sure. Feel a little bad about that. Oh well.

Later I had to mop the floor to get the “dirty” water from a backed up drain off our floor. The smell wasn’t great, but after some good mopping, and the use of a fan for a few hours to evaporate the rest of the water, I think the bathroom is probably cleaner than it was prior to the incident.

And that my friends is why going to Alexandria would have been really really really really really really really really bad. Whew. Dodged a bullet.

Family Time

Let me preface this by stating that we are three grown men. Sitting around, watching a love story. About a man dying from cancer young. It was terribly tragic and sad. So we got to talking about families, and I decided I wanted to find out about some of the history of my family's past. I'd heard some fun stories and I decided to use the new tool of the internet to see if they were true.

The first is about my great-uncle: a Mr. Fritz Weinschenk. The story goes as follows -- after being born in Germany the family escapes from the Nazi's in the 1930's. He goes on to fight in WWII and made it into Life Magazine! He had a special talent that he was able to seal himself INSIDE his own dufflebag. Well, such an amazing skill couldn't help but make it into Time Mag. It has been family legend for years, but the article in question had been lost to the sands of time.

Enter the internet. Google is doing this cool thang where they archive all the old publications they can get their hands on. One perk of this is that they have some great software that automatically transcribes the print on the page from bits to meaningful letters and text. This means that time Mag is now searchable. So I pulled up my handy google books search engine, and typed in fritz weinschenk, and guess what?

http://books.google.com/books?id=3E0EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA94&dq=fritz%20weinschenk&pg=PA94#v=onepage&q=fritz%20weinschenk&f=false

Check Page 94 on the bottom for my Great Uncle.

There is my great uncle staring back at me! I must say, I was quite impressed. It was very cool to be able to dig up a relic of the past. He of course fought in WWII, and in fact was a feature charictor in a documentary about Jews in WWII. The website for the documentary has a nice little snippet about him.

http://www.aboutfacefilm.com/soldiers_weinschenk.htm

He moved from Mainz, Germany in... I think it was 1935. Anyways, thats just some interesting family history. I've always wanted to visit Germany, and now I think I'll have to take a visit to Mainz when I go.

I wish I knew a bit more about my mom's side of the family. Her maiden name is a bit more common so its harder to search for her side. Also, both her parents died when she was younger, so I never met them, and there is just a lack of "family stories" simply because there aren't many people around to tell them. My grandfather (from who I believe I take my middle name -- Miles) I believe (if I remember correctly) also fought in the war as a medic. Invasion of France, and all that fun stuff.

Anyways, I just think its cute.

Dream Team?

Let me preface this with a question -- what would your dream team be?

The reason is this -- I've just realized that if the US leaders were to play any sort of competitive sport against the "enemies of america", America would just own. They'd slam down. If we pick basketball, for example, lets see how the lineup looks. Lets look at the "dream team".

USA political basketball team:

Center: First, I gotta go with my main man Abe Lincoln. 6'4", mean beard, crazy top-hat, ghetto (he got shot), but not a ballhog (emancipation proclamation). Good post move. Has a tendency to sacrifice to keep the team together. Also, will go all "Burnin' Sherman" on yo' ass if you try and secede from the team.

Small Forward: Easy, oh so easy, I'm going with Kobe Hussain Obama baby! Err... Thats Barack. Seriously, have you seen this guy's moves? If he gets a foul, he's awesome at talking his way out of anything, and getting the refs to change the call. Good stroke from outside the arch.

Small Forward: Clarence Thomas. NBA star turned supreme court judge? Sounds like a match made in Heaven. Quick to the boards and quick to the gavel. Used to taking whatever Justice Scalia dishes out, but a good coach could get him out of his funk.

Point Guard: Rob Emanual. This guy is a leader. If you can orchestrate a presidential election, orchestrating a 2-1-2 zone is easy. Good play at the top of the key. He's quick and plays smart.  Good vision downcourt. Has a strong drive to win. Works well with Barack, so there is a great driv'in dish out to Barack who can hit the three.

Shooting Guard: Ralph Nader. Experience Experience Experience. He's see failure his entire life, so he's not afraid to fail, but is a solid player. He doesn't get discouraged which makes him a great shooting guard. If he misses a few threes he doesn't get in a funk. He just keeps shooting with that beautiful stroke of his until one rattles in. He's not your go to guy at the buzzer though, I'd give it to Barack if time was winding down. He'll give you solid minutes, and can probably average maybe 8-12 points a game, but don't expect a superstar.

Sixth Man: Westly Clark. Overall good athlete, will give you 100% all the time. Used to having a good tryout but always failing to make the A team. Good sport though. Defensive specialist (from his army training). If you think he's going to give up the baseline to the enemy you're crazy.

Crazy Man: I gotta go with Theodore Roosevelt. Every team has one of these players. Think of them as the Ben Wallace of the world. No skills, won't really give you points, but provides a great spark, and OK defense. Teddy was a roughrider so we know he's crazy and not afraid to foul hard. Gives some personality to the team, even though he lacks some ball skills. 

Coach: FDR. He led us through the Great Depression and WWII, therefore, a run to the world playoffs will be easy in comparison. Levelheaded, but never satisfied. He'll make you work hard even if he has to hire 2 million americans to dig ditches to do so. Plus, he's iconic. Coach in a wheel chain. Common...

List of American Enemies:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Notoriously short. Maybe he's quick, and maybe on the football (soccer) pitch he could be a decent player, but not basketball.

Kim Jong Il II: Seriously? By far, easily the worst basketball player ever on the history of the planet.

Adolf Hitler: Painter who was crazy and un-athletic. Not tall either.

Stalin: Maybe... Maybe... Doesn't seem quick but that mustache intimidates.

Osama Bin Ladin: Ok, he'd def. be a decent center. Probably no endurance because of the dialysis but he's tall, mean, probably has a good post move or two, and undoubtably has motive. Probably if we could shut him downwe'd be OK.

Hugo Chavez: Probably would spend too much time getting rid of all the photos taken by the press of him to have his head in the game, that, and if his team wasn't red he'd flip a shit nut.

Putin: Ok, intimating, and probably has a pretty good 15 footer from the baseline, but lets be honest, kinda a ball hog. Instead of getting it to Osama who has a good high percentage shot, he's gonna shoot fadaways from 15 feet out every time, and they are going to clank off the front of the rime more times than not. So potential? Yes, but I'd have a Clarence over Putin any day.




I can't think of a single team who could ever beat up on the US. We're just too good at basketball. What would your dream team be? Let me know!

World Cup Final Match U20 Ghana vs. Brazil

Let me preface this by stating that I had zero inclination that I was going to a football match (kurra in arabic, which means ball -- technically the full name is Kura al-kaadim, literally, ball of the foot, but people just use kura, since there is only one sport with a ball in Egypt). Just to make a little more sense of everything, I will be referring to AMERICAN FOOTBALL as american football, and “soccer” as football/kura. I’ve found this is the easiest way to avoid confusion. Often when you’re dealing with Americans and other world people, complications do arise.

But Katie from the University of Wisconsin showed up to review the AUC program for UW. She was nice enough to have dinner with the Study abroad kids and we just talked about life and Cairo and Madison. While I was there, Liz mentioned that “she knew a guy” and we could get free tickets to the FINAL of the U-20 football tournament that has been taking place in Egypt. The final was the next day between Brazil and Ghana. Not only that, she said she knew some other people, and we could get in the Brazil Cheering section.

So thats what happened. We took the subway to the old AUC campus, where we took a pretty long taxi ride (but it was only 15 pounds -- we’re getting good at negotiating fares) to the stadium. We got through security, the girls got their faces painted, and then we made our way to the “first class” entrance. It was really really bad. They’d only let in white people/forgieners. It was the most blaitenly racist thing I’ve every seen by far. We managed to get in 3 egyptian friends by saying they were “Mexican”. We taught them some “spanish” really fast and they got in. It was horrible.

Plus we were with two hot girls, so that helped. Somehow we managed to squeeze our way through some crazy crowds into the “first class” section for foreigners. Liz knew some Brazilians from somewhere who live in Egypt, so we got into the Brazilian section! It was so awesome, right down near the field. It did make me wonder why I didn’t go to Brazil to study abroad -- those ladies are FINE.

The atmosphere was crazy. Most of the fans were Egyptian (obviously), and so they were kinda cheering for whomever, but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a good showing for the Brazilians. It was ok. The cheers were great. Lots of people, lots of cheering. When the match starts, the millions of police officers make everyone sit down, so during halftime shit gets crazy because people can stand up and yell and cheer.

The game was all going Brazil's way. They had so many chances to score. It didn't help that Ghana got a red card, so they were playing down a player the entire second half. The Brazilians had a great way of ball control. They basically dominated Ghana in terms of the game, but in terms of physical endurance, and playing hard, the Ghana's played better. In the end, it was 0-0 after 90 minutes. So the game went into OT. The way it works is two fifteen minute halfs. It was really close, but after another 30 minutes -- still tied. Finally, it goes to penalty kicks. They tie that! Then its sudden death penalty kicks, and Ghana manages to capitalize after Brazil misses. Crazy game.

Ballin'

Let me preface this by stating that I have been getting into basketball recently. As some of you may, or may not know, I decided to try out for the AUC University Basketball team. It went down like this. So one of the nice things about the new AUC campus is it has a really nice gym, its really nice, and of course, really empty. So there are hoops, racquetball, a big huge track and soccer stadium, handball, weight room, carteo room, the works. So thats super nice. During some free time I had over break, I was bored, and so I’d go to work out. I ended up strolling down to the gym and renting out a basketball. I used to be really bad at basketball. I still am, but I used to be really, pretty terrible. However, I remember my days in basketball at school. I love playing the game, especially if its pickup. That “team” feeling is nice. So I had all day, and as the white stripes would say “I just don’t know what to do with myself”.

I worked on post moves, I worked on free throws, I took my shot apart and rebuilt it. Drive and Penetrate. Pick and Roll. My skills aren’t as shabby anymore. The good news is that as people came back from break, there were more and more pickup games. I made some good buddies. The thing was, I wasn’t really that good, but I was OK. OK enough to try out for the AUC basketball team. Now, to be perfectly clear, I didn’t have much of a big intention of getting on. Basketball isn’t that big in Egypt, but its probably the third largest sport, or at least the third most popular after football, and football (again). Its mostly a one sport country, but to put it in perspective, the government built a HUGE sports complex outside of the city. It has Cairo Stadium (which I’ll talk about later), the bowling centre, but also a HUGE venue for Basketball. Probably seats 50,000-60,000. So its not like American Football where no one plays. I’m guessing a little over 100 guys tried out for 16 spots on the team.

We had three tryouts, and there were some really quality players. Apparently there is this one guy who plays for the Egypt National team, he’s really good. A dick, but a good basketball player (though those usually go hand in hand). Regardless, the tryouts are kinda a joke. You get split into teams of 5, then its just a big tournament. If he sees you do something athletic, or you’re tall, you “sign the list”. Apparently (I have a friend who made it on), there were 21 guys who got “signed” but then 5 got cut. The point is, you play one five minute game, so if you happen to not hit that 3, you don’t make it. W/e, its his team, I don’t want to complain. The fact of the matter is that I didn’t make it on. The scary thing though, is that I was close. I wasn’t as good as the good guys, so if I made it on the team, I would not have started or anything, but on a great day, I’d say I was about as good as the worst 4 who got “signed”.

Please note -- there are some really horrible egyptian players. They just never got coached, so they just see NBA play, which is really bad ugly basketball. Most egyptians are not team players because they just don’t understand how to be a team player. Most don’t box out, or set picks. They take a lot of misguided 3’s. Basically a team of Americans would destroy an equal athletic and talented Egyptian basketball team just because Americans understand the game better, and how to WIN at basketball.

Regardless, the pick-up games are really fun. Especially since the talent level varies a lot, so its a good feeling to be on the average to better player scale. Obviously I’m short, but I do OK. Thanks to the internet for the pictures. They aren't mine.

I’ve made some good friends on the court. Unfortunately I have class so I can’t ball all day. Ha.

Bonding

Let me preface this by stating that I’ve started meeting new people at AUC. Its very nice. I decided that in order to truly mend into a more regular Egyptian mode, I still need to meet some people. Basically, since we don’t live in the dorms, we have a lot of perks. There are no rules about gender mixing, noise, I get a bedroom, and a kitchen, and I can come back whenever I want. Oh, and its cheaper. The only problem is that the big perk of the dorms is all of the students in a very confined space. If you want to meet lots of cool people, the dorm is the place to live.

So. Living in Maadi, especially, there is a tendency for people to be unable to find each other since most students live in the downtown or Zamalak. Basically its rather lonely over in Maadi. Nice, quiet, but rather lonely. So its hard to meet new people. IDK what people in Cairo do to meet new people, but there aren’t shows, so IDK how it works. So I’ve decided to join basically every student club I think I can possibly enjoy even a little. That way I can meet people, both Egyptian and Western, and make some new friends.

The first club I joined was the Arab American Bond group. Basically there is a problem at the University where the American kids tend to hang out around other American kids, and the Egyptian kids hang out with themselves. Its hard, because although the classes are all in English, during the lunch break all the kids speak with themselves in Arabic. It makes it hard to make friends at school because its really intimidating to just walk up to to a group of much better looking women speaking in a different language. So they started this group to make it easier to facilitate the conversation that was lacking. We took a great trip to Khana Khalili.

While I had already been there, we still saw some new stuff, and I got to go to some new Mosques, and we actually got to go in this time (because it wasn’t Ramadan).

There was this one Mosque that was HUGE. Maybe the size of two super walmarts. It was huge. The inside had these huge columns arches that never ended. Remember the underground city in the Lord of the Rings under the Mountain? That huge old Dwarf city that got taken over by the goblins and the Balroug. It looked like that. In the middle there was a never ending marble floor. Maybe 200 yards long and 200 wide. Nothing but the night sky above it. Then more of the never ending columns.

I made some friends, and I got some numbers that I lost when they took my phone.

Crazzy Night

Let me preface this by stating that last night was a crazy ass night. Super super super random. So to start out, it was a Friday, which is the holy day for Muslims, but also means no class, open stores, etc... Like Sunday in America.

Anyways, we hung around the apartment all day, with not much to do. Then, we decided to go out at about 9:00. We took a cab to the Metro, and then the Metro up to Naser Station (one north of Tahrir Square). We had found this cafe that apparently was on a rooftop somewhere. So we have one of our friends who is part russian. And we are about to leave the subway, but the guy next to us has a shirt that has a bunch of russian letters on it, so naturally we strike up a convo. Apparently he's an Egyptian but his girlfriend is from Russia, or is Russian, or something. Well, he's a nice guy, and talks to some street vendors after we exit the subway to get some decent directions. We know the place is in the neighborhood, but we aren't exactly sure which way. One thing you have to understand is that every building has an address, and every street has a name, but that doesn't mean that there are signs. So that makes finding addresses difficult.

This place was called the carlton rooftop, and my first instinct was it was a "carlton hotel", so we walk a while, and sure enough, there is a big building that says "Carlton Hotel". So we walk in, and instantly I'm hit with this huge Deja Vu. Which as it turns out, is quiet justified. The first week we were in cairo, we were wandering this part of town with Alison, and and we were looking for a place to eat. We walked by this cafe, but it happened to be closed, so we kept walking until we found a schwarma place (which was bad because at the time, it was still ramadan, and we totally forgot about the not eating thing but w/e, we were new). But thats on the first floor. So we invite the Egyptian guy to come hang out with us for a while, so we go up to the top floor, and there is a really nice place. Great view of the neighborhood, and its just got a good atmosphere.

We chill for a bit, and then the Egyptian guy says he's going to meet some friends of his, and we should come along. Well... we got to the Rooftop at probably 10... and we left at 11:30... and the metro stops running at one. Anyways, we say, sure, why not? And we all pile into a taxi, and meet up with some of this guys friends at this random sidewalk cafe in the middle of somewhere/nowhere. So there are about 10 of us just chilling. We talk the shit a bit. The russian guy speaks enough English to do a good job translating what we can't pick out. We talk a bit with our Arabic, they try some bad english, its a good job. The big thing is Obama and his Peace Prize. So we just sit around and smoke some sheesha, watch the chess and backgammon and card players. We make fun of lots of things. The best thing is there are these random baskets that just decend from the roofs of these appartments. Like... You're just sitting around, and all of a sudden there is this basket just sitting in front of your face. As it turns out, if you want something, you just put money in a basket, with what you want, and use a rope to drop it over the side, and it'll get put in. Like newspapers, which apparently get delivered at like 1 in the morning.




Finally, its... IDK... maybe one in the morning, the place closes down. Thanks to http://images.starpulse.com for the pic.

We shoot the shit in the street for a while, and they ask us if we want some food. We're like, sure! So we find this Egyptian Fast Food joint, and get three falafal sandwiches for 5 pounds. By now its two in the morning, and the Egyptians haggle a great price for a taxi for us to get back to Maadi. So we get out of the cab back in Maadi, and I manage to realize that my phone has fallen out of my pocket in the cab.

So I sprint after. I can see it driving down the street. I probably sprinted about a half mile behind it, but then it turned a corner and I lost where it went. I couldn't catch the attention of the cab driver. I was so pissed. So we've called it a bunch of times. We might get it back, maybe not.

I'm walking back after chasing this cab, and I'm exhausted. As I'm walking back home, these two security guards and a little shop owner call me over. We get to talking (in arabic) about stuff. We talk about the Obama Peace Prize. I manage to convey that I left my phone in a cab. There was some communication going on. It wasn't great. So finally I gave it up and got home at three, and went to bed.

So random nights meeting random people on subways in cairo = fun.

Peace and love folks.

Is life really that Different?

Let me preface this by stating that I've been thinking. I've been thinking about life here in Cairo. And life in the States. And honestly? I don't see what the big hububub is.

Here is my thought. First, if you're really poor, like... really poor, of which there are many poor people in cairo, then your life isn't going to be as fun as if you're in the US. Of course being poor in the states isn't all fun and games, but at least you probably have clean drinking water around. So lets not look at the bottom quintile, because they, I think, are a special case. BUT yet, I think that 80% of the time, whenever anyone ever compares countries, they are always taking a sample from the abject poor, or the extremely rich. I want to compare the life of the average middle class egyptian to that of the average class American family.

I'm looking at a guy like Makhmood. He runs one of the many local Mobile shops that litter the city. He sells cell phones, prepaid plans, and DSL. Basically, the things in his life are kinda the same as people in the states. He lives in a modest appartment above the shop with his family. Its obviously smaller than the suburban homes that american middle class live in. So there is that. Maybe he lives with his brother, or other siblings. Maybe its like 3 small bedrooms and maybe a big living room, a big bathroom with a shower and toilet, and a kitchen. He wakes up early in the morning and goes and sells mobile phones during the day. If he's very religious he'll pray a few times, and then at night he closes up, goes to his apartment above the shop and watches TV with his family. He has fresh running water, good food, probably a washing machine. How is his life so radically different from life in the USA? Sure he doesn't spend nearly as much but by no means is he living in a sewer ditch somewhere, and he has the same basic joys in life that we in the states do (with the exception of booze, but there are always cigs so it evens out). He watches sports on TV, and plays games with the family. His kids go to school, he went to school, probably speaks some english even, etc...

Like I said, obviously this is just for the middle class, not the radically poor. They have a different situation, but there is a bad misconception that just because a country is in the "developing" side of things, somehow life in that country is actually somehow radically different from the US is just not that true.

Thanks,
Guthrie

Trip up to Cairo Tower

Let me preface this by stating that.... errrmmm... I don't have anything whity. Sorry.

So, let me tell you about something that happened to me over break! As many of you know, school was "halted" due to "swine flu" which of course no one has. W/e. So I had some time to do something interesting. Many of my more interesting friends went galavanting off to Jordan, or France, Greece, maybe Turkey, even Kenya. Well... I didn't have $2000 to spend on airfare, so I decided to save it for my UK trip! A well worth exchange. Should I have gone somewhere more interesting? Probably, but I'll go other weekends. I'm in no rush. So what did I do?

I explored Cairo some more, and read a lot. Lets see... I read the entire hitch hikers guide to the galaxy series, as well as "Wired for War" by P.J. Slinger. Its an awesome book. He was on the dailyshowcolbertreport and is really cool. I'm telling you, go get that book and read it. Very well thought out, cool topic, interesting. Yeah. I also read half of "Brave New World" and... umm... there was another book but I can't remember it for the life of it, w/e.

Also, a very nice girl from AUC by the name of Yohna was kind enough to go and take me to some cool places in Cairo. This one day we took a trip to Cairo Tower, and ate some food at a nice restaurant. Honestly... I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. It just works better that way.

Check out the FLAT chicken.

This is brilliant. Just take chicken, cut it

and lay it flat to grill it.

Weird Dreams

Let me preface this by stating that I still don't have internet in my apartment, so sorry the blog posts are slacking, I shall try to keep going. Its hard though, lol.

So I've been having weird dreams of late. I've been all by myself recently. I still haven't gone back to classes as they are still canceled. My roommate is galavanting around Europe these last two weeks, and everyone else is either running around the world or busy. So I've kinda been a loner the past few days.

That doesn't mean there haven't been highlights.

But strangely enough I've started to have really weird dreams. Its strange. I apparently am re-living my life slowly but surely. I basically started sophomore year of high school, and I've made it up to freshman summer of college. Its just my dreams, is really weird. In fact most of my dreams have been with my high school friends. Or I suppose ex-friends? IDK... I haven't seen a lot of the kids I chilled with in high school for a long long time now. So its double odd that I'd be thinking about those old days. Days when I was in Basketball, days when I was in Jazz Band. Its weird.

A lot of basketball actually. This one is easy, since I don't have internet, and nothing to do, I've been taking the bus into AUC (the campus is open and everything, just no one around) to lift, get some internets, and shoot some hoops. I've been shooting a lot of hoops. I decided to break my shot down, and build it back up again, like King James did. He's still better than me, lol. I'm still too short to be good at basketball, but w/e.

But last night I had this strange ass dream where I was in the old Edgar High School Gym, and we were playing a basketball game. An interesting point, that the dream people/psychologists might note, is that my team's jerseys were not green and gold (my old high school colors) but instead red and white, the colors of UW. So thats interesting. And then of course it just gets stupid. There were maybe 15 players on my team, but no one ever subbed in, so IDK why they were on the bench. They were all like 30 years old too. So on the court were these two anon. guys, myself, Kobe Bryant, and Danny Devito. That was the weird one. He was really bad too.

I knew it had to be a dream because Kobe passed the ball to other people (OHHHHH... BURN...)

Anyways, I did pretty good, I had a bunch of steals. And rebounds too, which is weird, because I shouldn't get any rebounds. I scored the last basket too, and the final score was 58-50, we won, so that was nice.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what my dreams mean?

Peace brothers.