more details

So yesterday I was a little rushed.

I want to give you more of a picture of my everyday.

I wake up on my air mattress to the sounds of yelling children and chickens in the alleyway/street drenched in about four layers of sweat, my neck to be particularly itchy (I can't figure out why its always my neck that itches). We have no AC so ceiling fans and open windows are all we get in the way of relief from Cairo heat in August.

If I have work in the morning (this happens ocassionally with last minute notice, I haul myself out of bed to prepare some breakfast - maybe some shot glasses of cinnamon tea with two sugars and eggs with gibna baieda istanbuli (white istanbuli cheese) or egyptian knock off frosted flakes. I then shower - ok so this is fun. I crouch in a tiny green plastic tub under a faucet two feet off the ground and somehow manage to get sort of clean.

I then get dressed, I now have completely dried and regained at least two layers of sweat. I go across the hall, say good morning to our new family and ask them to unlock the building so I can leave (Sabah il Kheer, mumkin il baab? - Good morning, maybe the door?)

I waltz along the blindingly bright Shara'a, hopefully having remembered my sunglasses, now expertly winding between carpenters, cars, motorcycles, running kids, a hundred mothers staring from their balconies, and this is the calm time of day. I make it to the main street (or minibus deathtrap as Alissa calls it), walk past the herd of sheep that daily grazes in the garbage pile in the center divide and the family that grazes with them, walk past the little mosque also in the center divide, past the empty Ahwa (tea, coffee, and hookah shop) also in the center divide among little girls asking me what time it is and young men congratulating themselves on their always clever "welcome to Egypt."

I then wind through several small alleys to the metro station, buy myself a bottle of water, look at all the delicious fruit I wish I didn't have to wash in Clorox to eat, slip the ticket vendor one Egyptian pound, take the small yellow ticket, insert it in the machine, walk through to the train platform, try to find other women to stand near, and wait. The train pulls up, I make sure to make it onto one of the womens' cars (the alternative is not so fun). I sit down, the stares seem not as bad as last time I was here, maybe I blend in more, haha. I watch the women across from me deep in reading and reciting from their mini Qur'ans. I can pick out the Muslims and Christians from their having or lacking head scarves. I guess its gotten to the point where all Muslim women cover their hair, and they look gorgeous too. I feel ridiculously vain with my hair uncovered and down, like I'm half naked or something, especially cause my hair is obviously a pretty unique color here. As my family and bosses say, I look American, haha, I'm glad to be a stereotype.

So I arrive at my stop, I get off, walk down the street past my favorite snack stand, maybe buy a coke or chips or something. I continue through the garden lined street to my school. This place is ridiculous, I have children when I'm there in the morning, and they're all extremely well behaved. I have adult students at night. Conversation classes with adults are the best because we just talk on any topic, and they are all ridiculously smart and well informed. They talk about health care policies, the American elections, Egyptian politics, education, gender stereotypes. SO basically its my excuse to talk about interesting topics with Egyptians in my own language and get paid for it, and they love it.

My bosses / school secretaries though speak some English, flirt shamelessly, although harmlessly, and are ridiculously unorganized, they've told me to come when there's no class, signed me up for two classes at once, made me eat this full feast of bread, cheese, mashed potato egg dish and grapes arranged gorgeously in a class room as a thank you from the marketing guy for looking American (seriously that's what they said), while my students waited for me, lieing to me that I didn't have class.

So ya they need a little help on the organization, which I offered to do, but they didn't really want it. However, this is a little too laid back even for me, although I love that the office is a place to hang out and relax, and has AC... Amazing.

So after work I walk back to the metro station, sometimes go to Midan Tahrir to a coffee shop or take a field trip to see the citadel with freddy or something, but if its at night I have to get home by ten before they lock the building. I power walk back to the metro in a beautiful sunset when everyone begins to come out on the street. I ride to my stop, el Maasara, then navigate my way back through the alleyways which are completely different at night with all the stores open and people everywhere the dodging of children on bikes and on foot as well as the extremely clever young men still saying "Welcome to Egypt." I stop usually to buy something - coke or tomatoes or juice or water, but not that long because I need to be back by ten and there's no knowing what obstacles might be in my way. So back finally past the mosque, usually around time for call to prayer, blasted over the loud speaker right over my head, while men file inside. There's usually a nice cool breeze around this time. I make it back home, extremely tired, hot and sweaty and now the family wants to socialize.

Family social time means I sit on a cushion while the family tells me they love me, I'm their sister I'm very clever and try intently to communicate with me more complex things in arabic, while Marseilles, the two year old climbs all over me (the word for monkey I learned is elda) and they all insist I sing "the Itsy Bitsy spider over and over again". They insist I eat their food, drink their tea, tell them about my life, my friends, my family, my pictures, and all in Arabic. Its quite good practice but also very draining. They then periodically ring our doorbell to check on us, help us clean, cook, ask us to socialize.

When I'm home during the day its either socialize time or cleaning and cooking time, they say I'm very clever in my cooking and cleaning innovations (washing everything with dishsoap and drying it on the ironing board and chairs, cooking pasta with cheese and garlic, etc.) My roommate are home at night after work while I work at night so its strange. Today I did Alissa's bollywood burn work out, it was great, and good to stretch out cause life here makes u pretty tense, always getting honked and yelled at and almost run over.

Anyway, such is life, tomorrow I go to visit my host family from two years ago, I talked to Mohamed my host brother on the phone a few times and my host mama once (we conveyed how are you and I love you). Saturday we look at apartments. So life is busy and consists of a lot of commuting. Eunice and I are about to go to Coptic Cairo to look around cause church plans got too complicated. Love you all, please keep in touch!