The Metro

The Metro and I have a love-hate relationship. It is my time to think and process what will happen and has happened during my day. 1 Egyptian pound to get to work every day, and almost anywhere else I need to go. It is my time to people watch, my window into Egyptian society. I can stand still and yet be speeding past palm trees and old buildings, open windows and marketplaces. It is an hour of being squished between sweaty, grumpy, shuffling fat women and sitting across from teenage girls who love to come up with oh so original ways to gossip and laugh about the foreigner. It is my time to relax in public in usually completely female company, reassured that most likely that hand that brushed up against my ass didn't mean anything, and if I accidentally am smiling it does not constitute a sexual invitation. And when a man does show up in the car, I get the satisfaction of seeing him publicly shamed by shouting, angry women defending their estrogen-saturated transportation. Ah the empowerment of women.

I now feel like I truly live in Cairo. This is in large part because I'm actually able to answer people's questions about the metro. I have now, in Arabic, successfully given a family directions to the metro and discussed with people the coming stops on the metro and when I and they are getting off.

I've met a new friend on the metro (she was reading a book in English and asked me about the meaning of some words). I've met a woman that had supposedly seen me before on the other side of town like two months ago, who kissed me and gave me a ring off her finger from her friends in Libya (which my roommate promptly made me return). I've been adopted by a massive family during the metro ride who shielded me with their bodies and then shoved me off the train.

I've given water to countless thirsty women and children who have no qualms about asking for water from a stranger. I've run into people I know in the metro, exchanging the customary kisses on the cheek (although I still haven't quite figured out when what number of kisses is appropriate, it seems to depend on the person). And now in shah Allah, this weekend I will have a metro pass! Good for unlimited rides for three months on the entire metro line that I ride. I am a local, it is settled, haha.

I love it and I hate it, but its the life blood of Cairo. The days when it breaks down, the commute triples in length, like that day that the I5 was shut down in San Diego. Anyone remember that? O the Metro.