Things that make me laugh

So here I am, one month into my stay here in Egypt, and I must say, there have been some HILARIOUS moments thus far. I just thought I'd recap a few things that made me laugh, frustrated me or in general just make me shake my head and remember I am an visitor in a country that is being nice enough to host me!

1. What are those? For those of you who don't know this story, freckles are not too plentiful here in Egypt (surprise!). I went to the Kahn and was told that Nefertiti oil would take away all of "my marks" (meaning my freckles). Then a few egyptian kids in my classes asked what was on my arms and face. I asked my Egyptian friend about this and was told that freckles are not looked upon as a thing of unique beauty (as they should be) but instead as marks that mar otherwise lovely skin. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

2. I am from IOWA. Some english speaking Egyptians here are interested in knowing where I am from. Some speak english better than others. My friend Regina was talking to a storeowner about his postcard collection (we were in a stationary store, this is not totally random!). She told him she was from New York. I walked up and and he asked me if I was also from New York. I said no, I was from Iowa. He shook his head and said yes, New York. I repeated no, Iowa. He again said yes, New York. And then I remembered that the arabic word for yes is aiwa, which basically sounds exactly like Iowa when you say it. WOW! I just laughed, shrugged and said "Aiwa, I'm from New York!"

3. Ordering delivery from restaurants: Yes, everyone does deliver, and yes, it is magical. However, ordering off of an indian menu when speaking to an Egyptian who doesn't understand english or indian is a bit challenging. Also, when they say "repeat your order", what they really mean is "I am going to repeat your order" this caused a bit of confusion between me and the poor dude taking my order, but after a while and some groans of frustration, we got it sorted. And lets face it, all the orders that we have received thus far have been complete, which is more than I can say for the states!

4. The ‘culturally sensitive farmers tan’ (that’s my personal adjective usage) that I now have. Here in Egypt, to be respectful of the culture, we cover our shoulders and knees. For me, this means a tee shirt when I am out and about running around and exploring. Egypt is a sunny place, all the time. So when I am traipsing around in my tee shirt, the sun is beating down on my pale little arms, creating the coolest farmers tan ever! I don’t mind too much though, because I got my farmers tan in Egypt, how about you?

5. The process of getting Internet for my home. HAHAHAHAHA! Just had to get that out of the way. We have been here a month, and we are ALMOST close to getting Internet. We signed up with a company, but when we hadn’t heard from them about our router and a friend who signed up with us had, we called them. The Internet company informed us that our flat still had an active account with another company, so they couldn’t do anything until it was cancelled. So we call the former tenant (luckily, she still teaches at CAC, she just changed flats) and were informed that she had indeed cancelled the internet and would call her old company for a cancellation number. We explained this to our company and they said they could not move forward until all accounts were settled. We were unable to get a real cancellation number, because the old company NEVER ACTUALLY CANCELED THE SERVICE! I mean, why would you? How silly to cancel a service that someone is no longer using or paying for, right? So the old company tells us that if we sign up with them, they will waive all the fees and get us set up right away (to which I want to say, define ‘right away’). So now we have to go back to the new company, get our money back and retract our order and then go to the new company and place a new account… but we still have to have school authorized lease papers to do this to prove we actually will pay the bill and do live there. FUN! Hopefully we will soon have DSL at the flat though, inshalla!

6. The Sleeping fruit stand man. This makes me smile every time I walk downstairs in the early morning to swim. I leave the flat at about 4:45 am and every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday I see they guy who sells fruit outside our market sleeping next to his wares. He sleeps there every night, or several nights a week to protect his stuff. Apparently this is easier than packing it up every night. I cannot imagine sleeping on the street here, especially by choice, but whatever makes you feel like your fruits protected I guess.

7. What's your name? When you say the name Mohammed, 3/5 look your direction. This seems like a gross over exaggeration, but it’s really not. There is at least one Mohammed in every class I work in, if not more.

8. Umm...I think it says... Buying products written in various languages at the grocery stores. I make a rule of trying one new thing every time that I go to the store. Most times it’s not exactly by choice, but because I can’t really read the label. There are lots of different languages on packaging here, because it comes from all over the world, in its regional packaging. I have indeed walked out of the store with French, Japanese, Arabic (duh), and Spanish packaging on my food. It sure makes for some fun food experimentation, let me tell you!

9. Welcome to Cairo A lot of the younger men who see us walking alone at night will use a wanna be creeper voice and say "welcome to Cairo" They won't come near you, or say anything more. Once I was a bit annoyed at this when it was the 3rd time it happened in about two blocks, so I turned to the guys (who probably about 15 years old, maybe) and said "Why thank you! Ya'll are just so sweet!" and started to walk towards them. They looked scared an stared to walk, then run, away. This is what happens if you confront men for getting too close or talking to you. They know that it's against the rules, and If you call them on it, they panic. It amuses me. What can I say, I like a cheap laugh now and again!

So that's the stuff that I have either laugh at or have learned to laugh at in my brief stay here in Cairo. I know the list will grow, I will just have to keep adding to it as the time passes!