zippy

The Cairo metro. It's surprisingly clean.

96% desert

Laura on the crest of a sand dune in Baharia. The stars at night were amazing.

ohmygod i love your phone

It seems like everyone in Egypt is obsessed with mobile phones. Here's mine, a Nokia 1110 or something. It's the cheapest one that they had at Radio Shack. Triple-banded GSM goodness. Mm hmm.

m.i.a.

This has nothing to do with anything, but I love M.I.A. and especially love this video.

apartment (again)

The sitting room again (view from the door).

apartment

The sitting room of our flat.

loveliness

It was Christal's and Nisreen's birthdays this week. We had baklawa cake! OK it wasn't a a cake, but really a tray of baklawa with some candles stuck in it. Still delicious though.

tart il-frawla

Strawberry tart yoghurt. Delicious.

fanouseen

We got Ramadan lanterns (called a fanous) to hang from our balconies. They're very pretty.

ramadan mubarak!

Door to a mosque somewhere in Islamic Cairo.

ugh

The building that AMERA is in is shared but several other offices. The other main tenant is a certain French bank which occupies maybe three or four apartment/units. Recently, they’ve been complaining about AMERA’s refugee clients using the elevator. According to them, “Africans don’t know how to use elevators and will break it.” Effing racist assholes.

mugamma-rama

I had to get my visa renewed at the Mugamma again today and of course it took three-times as long as it should have. But at least they didn't lose my passport. The Egyptian visa itself is rather pretty.

delicious and nutritious

All of these vegetables cost about US$0.75. Also, Egypt is apparently the third largest producer (or maybe exporter?) of tomatoes in the world.

nanu

DHAKA. I was in Bangladesh last month for my cousin's wedding, so I got to see my grandmother.

useless trivia

Everyone else read this years ago, but I didn't get around to it until now. I now know more than I ever wanted to about the subject. Good stuff to know if I'm ever on Jeopardy, though.

ben plays the oud

Roommate Ben is back! He was in India for the entire month of August, but finally returned last night. I missed him like whoa.

politically incorrect fun with scarves

Roommate Max is back! He was in the states for the entire month of August, but finally returned last night. I missed him like whoa.

a snickerdoodle of sorts

There are some things that you can't get or are hard to find in Cairo, like Snickers Ice Cream Bars. As its incredibly hot in Egypt right now, I've really been craving them. Mmmm.

knick knacks

Egyptian cabbies tend to decorate the dashboards of their taxis with crazy stuff. This is by far my favorite. Just to give you a better sense of the creepiness, the doll's dress covers the entire dash... I fear it may have formed a symbiotic relationship with the car and one day will engulf the entire thing. Also, the doll's eyes move, but they mostly just stare at the person in the passenger seat. Creepy.

inaugural post

Ok, I know I said that I would start this blog months ago, but better late than never, no? The goal is to post something every day... most posts will probably end up being pictures, but there’ll be the occasional humorous anecdote or rant, and maybe even a few doodles here and there. I can't promise it'll be interesting, but I'll try my best. Yayaya!