my new home

Slowly but surely I have become comfortable in this new yet strange setting. The idea of aimlessly walking down the street no longer brings both fear and excitement, but a hefty dose of the latter. With rest and good food in me, I have been able to explore vast parts of the city over the past few days since the previous posting. Thursday I headed west to the pyramids, where I was led to a small tour guide in an alley that my driver knew. Before I could really grasp everything, I was on a horse with my guide heading to the "entrance" to the pyramids. The city of Giza is literally right next to الاهرام as they are called, and would engulf all the ancient monuments if the government had not stepped in and blocked off the area. The heat was immense, and I poured on as much sunscreen as I could manage. We flanked right after hiking up a small sand dune and arrived at the pyramids a short time later. "Bedouins" were everywhere, asking for money in return for a picture on a camel with a headscarf. I relented, but just once :) Just over an hour really did me in, however, and I passed out in exhaustion after returning to the apartment. Three hours later, Ian and I ventured out to a local Italian restaurant, which had shitty service and too much cheese on their pasta, but it was a nice reminder of home. Friday (yesterday), I ventured out to the Egyptian museum, which holds over 100,000 pieces of Egyptian history (with the rest still housed in the British museum, which will not return a thing). It was almost too much to take in, and I strolled through the hallways trying to soak up as much as I could. BBC and al-jazeera back at the apartment brought comfort in a place where everything seems to be new. Egyptians have access to more than 500 satellite channels, from sports of the gulf to state television of Oman and Sudan, which are particularly interesting when contasted with the political situations in each country. Knight Rider was on at one point, which was just too funny to not watch. Later that night, Ian held a party for all his fulbright friends, which was incredibly interesting. I talked to folks from everything about growing up in Kentucky with a jockey father, to the tribulations of being young in Egypt and wanting to travel outside the country. I was amazed at one point, when we were walking back to the apartment, and two security guards and another man stopped us while they were eating on the side of the road, enjoying the food they could not have during the day. They nearly were forcing us to eat, and after repeated no's, I couldn't help but smile and think that nothing like that would ever happen in the states. With awful beer in me, I awoke this afternoon at 1:45 and ran down to the local Hardie's to get something in me. Mosques were on my mind, and I then hopped in a cab to the masjid al-heussein, dedicated to the grandson of the prophet. It was quite touristy and so I decided to just walk in a random direction, which took me to a highway, splitting the neighborhood up between ritsy and poor. On the other side lay the slums of Egypt, too often ignored in a country that prides itself on all it can offer through tourism. Many of the homes had no roofs and were transformed into makeshift graves. It was a very sobering reminder of the large gap in lifestyle and income that seems to divide all countries. Yet the mood was of celebration, and as I took a cab back home, men were passing out water to all the cars passing by. "I don't want to become sick," I told my driver. "No no, no worries." All I could do is say "الحمدالله", or praise be to god, and swig it down as we barreled back to Zamalek.