1st week back: Dinners, friends in Maadi

First week back and I headed downtown to have dinner at Cafe Riche. The Cafe is downtown and I enjoy going in there because (1) they serve beer, (2) I see a lot of tourists from all over the world in there and (3) the staff in there now recognize me and I enjoy feeling like a regular.

Frankly, though, the food is just OK and the service is only fair, although I'm attended to a little better as a "regular." But I just have a soft spot for the place for some reason, so I'm usually in there about 1 or 2 times a week.

The cafe is famous because it used to be where the well connected Egyptians would hang out. Here is a quote from an online review of the place:

It was from here, for example, that a failed assassination attempt was made in 1919 on the passing motorcade of Prime Minister Pasha, who was accused of being too friendly with the British, who occupied Egypt at the time. Nasser is believed to have planned the1952 plot to overthrow King Farouk in Café Riche. Anybody who was anybody in the Arabic world, political, literary, artistic or revolutionary, has been in Café Riche and has made some history here, including a student Saddam Hussein who was educated at Cairo University and visited Café Riche often.

The cafe has pictures on the wall of lots of famous people who have been in there, but the only one I'm familiar with is Naguib Mahfouz, who won the Nobel prize for literature. I tried to read one of his books, Palace Walk, before I moved to Cairo, but I couldn't get through it. Someday, en shallah.

Here is a picture of one of the waiters in the cafe:

He recognizes me now and has a Stella beer to my table quickly after I come in. His English is perfect, and the staff in the Cafe gets impatient when I try to speak Arabic. They don't say it out loud, but I get the feeling they want to say, "Look, my English is much better than your Arabic, so just speak English, for crying out loud!" So I always talk to him in English. I was in there Monday night, when I took this picture, and he waited on a French couple sitting behind me, and I heard him talking to them in French. And I'll bet he knows enough Spanish and Italian to get around also. I'm always impressed by that.

Tuesday night I was out on Road 9 in Maadi to buy a few things and bumped into Alessia, who is a teacher here at the Canadian International School. So I joined them for dinner at Mermaid, which is a seafood (sort of) place. Alessia is originally from Italy, but has spent time in the US and all over the world (like everybody I meet here). She is another person who seems to master languages; her Arabic is impressive and she speaks English without an accent. Here is a picture of her:

I started my Arabic lessons again this week with the world's best Arabic tutor, Heba:

Heba has been tutoring Arabic for several years now. I believe she got started tutoring when she lived in Canada, near Toronto if I remember right. She lived over there for a number of years, and I think was in the right place at the right time because after 9/11 being able to speak English and Arabic became a valuable skill. She also has a medical degree, but after returning to Egypt chose to keep tutoring instead of practicing medicine. I have learned a lot from her.

Having a private Arabic tutor is a really nice perk to the job. I feel like I'm really starting to make progress with the Arabic, but of course, I still have quite a long way to go. Still, one step at a time, Wahada Wahada, as they say. With a lot of help from Heba, I'm starting to be able to recognize most of the Arabic characters and I can sound out most of the things I read. Of course, my vocabulary is very limited, but still, being able to read the script helps a lot. I also find I can pick up things out of conversations now. Not a lot, but enough that using the key words I know and my handy pocket English/Arabic dictionary, I can get around in most of situations.

I'm having 3 lessons a week this semester instead of two, so en shallah I hope to make a lot of progress.

The other place I'm happy to get back to in Maadi is Cafe Greco. Great coffee, nice atmosphere and nice staff. Another place that is familiar with me now and I hardly have to order anymore. I went in this morning and he looked at me and said "chocolate cake?" and I said yes, and a Cafe Americano, bil leban (with milk). Chocolate cake for breakfast is a wonderful habit I've picked up from my European friends here. They think eggs in the morning are terrible, but chocolate cake is fine.

Here is a picture of the fine staff at Cafe Greco, although my favorite, the only woman on the staff, wasn't there today. I think the man in the far left of the picture is the owner, or at least the manager.

Home for Christmas, lucky trip to NYC

I had a nice visit home to the US and saw family and friends. My Mom's 80th birthday celebration was at my brother's house in Florence, SC during the middle of my visit. Here is a picture of 2 of my boys (Benjamin was in Tampa at a Drum Corp tryout) and three of my nephews at the party.

And a picture of Mom, Dad and two of my nephews:

I spent most of the rest of the time driving I-95 between Florida and Carolina, and seeing the boys in Gainesville, Florida. It was great to see everyone and thanks to Trish, Steph, & Mom for providing excellent accommodations during my visit.

I have driven from Hinesville, Georgia to Gainesville, Florida countless times, and I often pass a sign for "The Smallest Church in America." It is right off Hwy 17 about 30 miles south of Savannah. Follow the link for more details. It is one of those places that I always think "I've got to stop and see that someday" and I finally made time for it. Not much to see (as you can tell by the name) but it was a quaint stop, and I took some pictures.

I was supposed to fly out of NYC on Friday, Jan 21 direct to Cairo. The plane was overbooked, however, so I volunteered to give up my seat and come home the next evening. This meant I got to spend time with my always gracious and entertaining hosts Jen & Jesse, who now live in Manhattan. Jen & Jesse used to live in Gainesville and would often put me up at their place during one of my visits to see the boys. They are coming to Cairo early summer (en shallah) and I certainly am due to return the favor.

I left my hotel in the early in the morning (10 AM) and took a train to the Penn station in Manhattan, and Jen & Jesse met me there. I didn't have a lot of time since I had to catch a flight to Cairo leaving at 6PM, but we walked around, had a terrific lunch in Chinatown, and I got to see the Stature of Liberty, albeit at a distance, for the first time in my life. A really nice day.

Here is a picture of Jen & Jesse that morning:

A picture of the finance professor with the market bull!

And some random shots in the city:

It was rather cold. In fact, it was too damn cold my whole trip! I was in Florida and the temperature was only 35 deg F (that's about 1.5 Celsius) which is downright ridiculous! Anyway, Jesse was generous enough to lend me a hat and gloves, which made the day much more enjoyable.

I got back to Cairo at about noon, and spent the next 2 hours trying to find my luggage that was on the flight I volunteered to get off of. It was eventually located and I took a taxi to Maadi. To fight the jet lag, I did my best to stay awake all afternoon, and I met my friend Scott for dinner.

Scott is a political science professor here and always has interesting comments on both current political events and political history. He has written a soon to be published book about the influence of religion on politics in the US, Middle East and India. As part of his research for the book, he spent time in India, Morocco and Egypt.

We ate at Lucille's, which is a popular restaurant in Maadi that serves American cuisine. Here is an article from Time magazine about Lucille's: Time, July 3, 2007.

As you can see from the article, the burgers are famous, but I still haven't tried them yet. I go to Lucille's a lot for an American egg & pancake breakfast, and I also get the grilled cheese. I eat a lot of Egyptian food, but sometimes it is great to go to a place that serves burgers, grilled cheese, Tex-Mex and has country music on the radio!