Category: Uncategorized

Arabic script is a difficult thing for a westerner to pick up later in life. (Well at least for this westerner).

The alphabet looks like a bunch of squiggles with dots. And the only differentiator between some letters and others is how many dots and/or whether the dots are above or below the letter.

So when I write a word during my Arabic lessons, I am never quite sure how many dots to put and where to put them.

And we have all seen the horse that can do arithmetic. Its trainer will say:

• how much is 2+2
• the horse will clop 4 times
• how much is 2 +3
• the horse will clop 5 times.

One theory on this is that the trainer is tense while the horse is clopping and relaxes when the horse reaches the correct number of clops and the horse “senses” this and stops.

I am sure you can see where this is going.

So I write a letter and I know it needs some level of dot-ing. I move my hand to the top of the letter and cast a sideways glance at my tutor…

Nope! not above below!

I move my hand below the letter and I put one dot and look at my tutor..

NOPE! 2 dots.

The trainer, err, tutor relaxes.

I am a very clever horse.

Of course, all I have to do now is find time to write some content…

We are gonna be upgrading servers. This means that cairochronicles.com and jacktavares.com may be MIA for a few days.

We’ll be back as soon as possible.

Cheers

There is a question asked in the ex-pat community here (and I assume elsewhere) that is:

“when did you have/have you had your ‘moment'”.

The “moment” is that instance in time when you realize:

Holy Shit! I LIVE here! This is not a vacation.

For some the moment induces some level of anxiety. For some (many?) this moment of anxiety is brief. Some don’t get over it and have problems.

When we landed in Cairo on our return from Morocco, after going through Immigration and Customs and stepping outside the terminal to meet our driver, I had mine.

It is good to be home.

Well, it is Sunday. The good doctor and I are off to Morocco for a few days. Casablanca and Marrakesh are on the agenda. No real plans.

No network access for the next few days.

There is a comic that while talking about men and women said something to the effect:

If there is more than one way you can take something I said, I meant the way that would make you happiest.

Yesterday we went to the Ibn Tulun Mosque. It is not required, but is considered polite for women to cover their heads with a scarf or something like that.

The term hijab is often interchanged with veil, even though it does not cover the face.

“Taking the veil” does not always mean wearing a veil, it sometimes means wearing a headscarf (or hijab in arabic or hagib in colloquial egyptian arabic)

Anyway, I see many many women wearing headscarves. IMNSHO, a round face can look chubby in a headscarf. A longer, narrower face looks better in a head scarf.

So, back to the mosque.

Kaddee donned a purple headscarf and turned to look at me.

Her beauty in the scarf took my breath away.

I said, without thinking, “You have a perfect face for a veil!”

As SOON as I said it, I realized what I had said.

“NO NO! I mean you have a beautiful face for a head scarf. Look around you, a lot of these women look chubby in them, you look beautiful”

She patted my head and went into the mosque.

I am such an idiot.

The beer is very sad. (unless all you like is fizzy yellow lagers)

The brands here are:

• Stella (not Stella Artois)
• Sakara
• Meister
• Heineken

Except for the Heineken, all the brands have a couple different formulations, though for the most part, they taste identical to me.

The Heineken is brewed here in Egypt under license. It is almost as “good” as Heineken you can get elsewhere.

The other day I met a gentleman from Munich (he lives here now). I asked him what he drank and he replied that he liked the Sakara Gold, but he told me of another beer.

There is a brand called Luxor that has been started by an upstart company here in Egypt. Well, they have a hefe-weizen. Supposedly, they have imported a Bavarian to be their brewmaster.
Found one last night at a restaurant. I hurriedly snatched the (1/2 liter) bottle from the waiter before he did something stupid with it.

I didn’t have the appropriate glass (sigh) so I poured off enough of it so that I could swirl the remainder to get the yeast in suspension. Then I topped off the glass.

It had some nice esters and good (mild) flavor with a clean finish. All in all a pleasant surprise. Now if I could just find in a store. (The major chain of liquor stores is owned by the Al Ahram brewing which is the competor for Luxor, so it isn’t carried there)

What about Oktoberfest?

Well, we were wandering around the other day, doing some clothing shopping to augment our meager supplies of linen and cotton clothing, when I saw a sign at the Sheraton for “An Oktoberfest Celebration”

They advertised “genuine” Bavarian food, beer and music.

Ok, this I gotta see.

So we went back a week later for the kickoff night of Oktoberfest. (Since Ramadan starts on the 22nd, I assume they had it early to avoid that conflict)
Well, they had a fenced off “bier garden” that had food, beer and an egypto-bavarian oompah band. (gack).

Unfortunately to get into the bier garden, you had to pay for the food buffet, which was LE110/person (about $20). We weren’t hungry enough to pay for a buffet.

Oh the Bavarian beer? They had Paulaner crystal and hefe in bottles. (And Sakara Gold on draught). The Paulaner was LE57 (about $10!). An outrageous price for Paulaner, even at the Sheraton.

We had one (at least they had the right glass) and went home.

This country is really starting to get on my nerves….

A few folks have asked us what we miss and could they send things in a care package.

Well, we do miss somethings

• Half-n-Half
• unsweetened, all natural peanut butter
• chicken broth (I am used buying canned broth. here it is either boullion cubes or make your own)
• good beer. that will be another post entirely…

But the problem is that packages to egypt all go through customs and they get opened. Expensive items have a tendency to disappear. Interesting items have a tendency to disappear. (For purposes of this conversation, “interesting” means anything you can’t get here. And since no one would send items that you can get here, just about everything in the package has the potential to disappear)

So, thank you to those that have asked, but the only way to really get anything is to carry it on the plane with you, either in carry-on or checked luggage.

Note: The university has several nice services.

For about LE100 you can have a car and driver pick you up or drop you off at the airport. (Thats about $18).

For an additional LE60 (about $10), you can get “clearance services”

This means a nice man will waiting for you with your name on a sign BEFORE you get to passport control or customs.

He take’s your passport and disappears for a few minutes, then you are whisked through passport control.

Then again with the whisking through customs.

At least that is how it worked for us: we didn’t stand in line, nobody asked us any questions and nobody even looked at our luggage.

We plan on hiring clearance expeditors when folks come to visit.

Note: Our air freight shipment arrived yesterday. These get somewhat special treatment in that the theft is less than average stuff that gets shipped. One of the new faculty had an iPod stolen.

We had something stolen as well: a box of Immodium. 9 boxes, 650lbs, ~$9k in declared value, and we are missing a box of Immodium.

I’ll take that and say Shukran!

Henry David Thoreau was jailed for refusing to pay taxes.

He felt that taxes supported an unjust war (The Mexican-American War) and a government that, at the time, allowed slavery.

While he was in jail, he was visited by a friend who asked:

“Why are you in there?”

Thoreau’s reply was

“Why are you out there?”

With the current situation in this country and the travel restrictions on carry on luggage, and the ban on liquids….
Will people ever say enough is enough?

I wish I had the strength to “be Thoreau” and stop being his friend.

But I don’t. And I am not happy about it.

Everything is packed (and re-packed). Tomorrow we get up, do one last load of laundry so that the sheets will be clean when we return and walk out the door.

With nothing to-do lists to focus on, the reality of this whole adventure is finally sinking in: tomorrow we will be on our way to Egypt.

Anxiety dreams have started. Thank god for Ambien.