More people I know in Cairo

Same old routine in Cairo. I've been spending a lot of time at the university trying to stay ahead of my students. I've also been downtown quite a bit, and out with my friends Justin, Nate, Casey, Scott.

The Italian girls are back in Italy. Justin and I had a great time with them, but boy! were they bad for our productivity. Justin & I would go work all day at the university, and then the girls would tell us they just ate lunch at about 5PM, and could we meet for dinner at 9:30PM? Italians! So we would end up dragging back to Maadi at 2AM and have to teach the next day. I'm not sure we could have kept that schedule going much longer, but we sure had a great time. The girls were a lot of fun and just really relaxing and nice to be with. They surprised us one evening by picking us up and taking us out on one of those tourist boats in the Nile that serves dinner and  has a belly dancer and a sufi dancer. Of course, the boat left the dock at 10PM, so we got in at 2AM, and poor Justin had 3 classes the next day--but it was worth it. And I think we have excellent tour guides available to us in Italy this summer, en shallah.

I asked two of my students if I could take a picture of them for my blog:

The students are Kristian and Dina. They were in my International Finance class last semester and for some crazy reason signed on for me again this semester are are in my portfolio analysis class. They are both terrific students and I like having them in class.
Kristian is from Sweden and is doing an exchange program here. I think he will return to Sweden after this semester. He is an engineering major (Industrial? Environmental? I don't remember) and I think the business courses are just extra for him. He lived in Maadi last semester, so I used to see him on the bus too, but I think he moved to Zamalak this semester, because Maadi is mostly for us old folks.
Dina's family is from Egypt, but she grew up in France. So she speaks English, French and Arabic fluently. I'm not sure what Dina's plans are after she graduates. She is a finance major, but I don't know if she is going back to France, staying in Egypt, or something else.
I also got a picture this week, at the bus stop, of my friends Varga and Lori:

Varga is a student at AUC working on Middle Eastern studies (I think). Lori is a professor in the linguistics department. They met in Atlanta while Lori was a graduate student at Emory or Georgia Tech. They also spent some time in one of the "stans," Kazakastan, maybe? and learned to speak the language there. Varga is originally from Iran, but his family belongs to one of the minority religions there (B'hai, I think) and things were very difficult for them after the Islamic revolution in the 1970's. So he left Iran (he had to sneak into Turkey) and most of his family has left too. They are a beautiful couple and I always enjoy talking to them.

That's all the pictures I have for now. Now I'm off to meet some friends for dinner downtown, at Sangria, where I have never been but it sounds great. After dinner, there is a housewarming party at a professor's new flat in Zamalak. It should be a nice evening.

Week of Feb 14

Still not a lot of exciting things to blog about. I have been out a lot this week, and had some good times, but nothing unusual.

Hedi stopped by my flat the evening of Valentine’s Day. Hedi lives on the 6^th floor and teaches at the Canadian International School (she works with with Alyssia, the Italian who I watched the soccer game with). Her internet was out, so she used my computer for a little while to buy some airplane tickets. She is meeting her daughter, who lives in Canada, in Portugal for spring break. She managed to route her daughter and a friend through Paris with an 8 hour layover, so they will take a bus tour of Paris before boarding the plane to Portugal. Sounds like a neat trip for Hedi, and those two young ladies.

I remember Hedi coming by because it struck me as the quintessential middle-aged Valentine evening: we ended up sitting around, drinking beers, eating pistachios, listening to Joni Mitchell and commiserating about the difficulties in our romantic lives. En Shallah…

I met some college students from Austria one night this week in downtown Cairo. They are students at The University of Vienna and are here on their mid-year break, which is the entire month of February. I guess that is the coldest month of the year for them, and they figure we might as well make the month a holiday so they can go somewhere warm, like Cairo. It was over 90 degrees F in Cairo this week, and they were telling me they enjoyed the warmth a lot. They are all political science majors. They were going to the pyramids the next day and then over to the Sinai before heading back to Austria. They were great to hang out with.

Here they are, from the left, Anja, Joseph and Tino:

Justine and I also made time this week to join the Italian belly dancers for dinner downtown. We had dinner at Le Bistro, a nice little French Café in Cairo, and then we went out to one of the local hangouts, but I can’t remember the name. It is a famous dive in downtown Cairo. The place is very Spartan, and pretty much just a place to sit and drink beer, but it does have a certain low-key charm to it.

Here we are at the French Café:

If you are new to my blog, I'm the really good looking one!

And here are some pictures of us at the beer hangout:

The girls are leaving to go back to their home in Lecce, Italy, on Monday. Lecce is in the heel of Italy's boot. I'll see them at least one more time before they leave.

Nice week in Cairo

I’ve been a bit down in Cairo of late. I really enjoyed the time in the US for the Christmas break, and when I returned to Cairo it seemed like all the things about living in a 3^rd world country were very obvious to me. 

And I really miss the boys.

So it was nice to have a good week this week. I got out and around the city, had a good time with friends, saw 2 good concerts and met some interesting people.

I had an Arabic lesson at the AUC downtown campus on Wednesday afternoon, and I stayed downtown and ate koshary at Abu Tarek and then just wandered around a bit. I met a tour guide in Abu Tarek and had a nice visit with him. His English was perfect, and he told me he also speaks German, knows enough Italian and Spanish to get by, and is not bad in Japanese. I guess enough languages to cover virtually all of the tourists who come to Cairo. It is hard to think of someone who would speak a language outside of that list, have the wealth to take an Egyptian vacation, and not speak English. Chinese, perhaps.

I left Abu Tarek and headed back toward the university to browse the bookstore. On the way, I noticed this sight:

It is an interesting sight because it is a large Christian Church right next to a large mosque. That’s Cairo… Here is a picture of the marquee (if that is the right word...?) on the Christian Church:

I'm not sure exactly what the Armenian Catholic church is all about, but anyway, they have a nice church in Cairo.


I got back to the campus, looked through the bookstore a bit, and then I was going to sit outside on the downtown campus and study Arabic, but I heard music coming from the concert hall on campus, so I peeked in and saw a string group practicing. I went in a sat down and listened as they played through 3 pieces. The only thing I recognized was one of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. I found out later that is was a group performing that night as part of the Egyptian Philharmonic Society and they were practicing for a concert. I basically heard their entire program for the night, so I felt like I had my own private little concert.

Here is a video I took of their rehearsal.

After that, I headed to my favorite hangout, Café Riche.

I ordered dinner and then noticed two Italian girls enter the cafe and sit at the table next to me. I struck up a conversation, and found out that they were belly dancers who come to Egypt periodically to take dancing lessons and buy belly dancing clothes, and they were spending the evening out in Cairo and would welcome my company. The kind of thing that happens to a guy everyday...

So, believe it or not, I decided I would spend a little extra time with them. We walked down to the Nile and went out on a faluka. Here is a picture of the girls, Mary and Francesca, on the faluka:

A picture of me with our "captain."

Alas! It was Wednesday night and I had to get up early for class on Thursday (and I'm not as young as I once was) so I had to say goodnight to the girls around 11 PM and catch the subway back to Maadi.

The next day, after my grueling work as a professor, I went to a piano concert back at the AUC downtown campus that evening. It featured the works of Chopin. I don't know piano stuff that well but I enjoyed it. I tagged along with 2 AUC students, Faiza and Sue (her name is actually either Suria or Sunia, but I can never get it right):

Yes, and they are really, really smart too. We went out to a cafe afterwards and had a few beers. Sue left with some Egyptian friends for a night club downtown, but Faiza and I were not up for the club scene, so we had another beer and took the Metro back to Maadi. I had the waiter at the cafe get this picture of me and Faiza:

The only problem with hanging out with pretty young students is you realize how quickly you have gotten older.


The next day, (yesterday) I slept late, got coffee at Cafe Greco, and played 2 softball games. On the way to the cafe I saw this little guy:

I almost took him (or her) home. But my rational self prevailed. There are lots of stray animals in Cairo, and some really tug at your heart. The Egyptians don't seem to be affected by them the way westerners are. I guess because they are just more accustomed to the idea of animals on the streets.

Once again, not a whole lot to blog about. The usual: going to campus, dining out in the evening... I do have plans to see a piano performance at the downtown campus this weekend:

and I also have 2 softball games on Friday.

The weather when I went home was quite cold, and it has been what I would call "nippy" (to use the southern term) in Cairo since I got back. This afternoon was warm and sunny, however, and here is the 10 day forecast for Cairo:

Tonight Feb 9 Partly Cloudy N/A 53° 10% High not valid after 2pm Wed Feb 10 Partly Cloudy 79° 63° 0% 79°F Thu Feb 11 Mostly Sunny 84° 60° 0% 84°F Check Flight Delays Fri Feb 12 Mostly Sunny 82° 60° 0% 82°F Sat Feb 13 Sunny 83° 60° 0% 83°F Sun Feb 14 Partly Cloudy 86° 61° 0% 86°F Mon Feb 15 Partly Cloudy 88° 64° 0% 88°F Tue Feb 16 Partly Cloudy 85° 64° 0% 85°F Wed Feb 17 Cloudy 90° 65° 0% 90°F Thu Feb 18 Partly Cloudy 86° 60° 0% 86°F Last Updated Feb 09, 11:35 PM Local Time Printable Forecast Details Video Text Averages Living in the desert has its advantages. I'm looking forward to the nice weather. Speaking of nice weather, here is a picture my friend Ralph, who lives in Washington DC, sent me over the past weekend: Boy, that's a lot of snow! He may be digging for awhile! I have some pictures of other friends here. Today I met 3 of my AUC colleagues, Amanda, Casey and Justin, for a beer after work. We sat outside at the ACE club for about an hour and had a nice afternoon visit. He is a picture of me with Amanda: Amanda is from Atlanta and this is her second year in Cairo. She works in the library, in a pretty important job, but I'm just not sure exactly what. She has traveled a lot (they were all talking today of their times in Barcelona) but I think for once I've got her on the language thing. I think she only speaks English, and she has not studied as much Arabic here as I have.  Amanda is cheerful and fun to be around, and she knows where all the important things are in the city and is great for helping ex-pats navigate Cairo living. I mentioned this afternoon that I ate a lot of Dominoes pizza, and she said "Don't do that! La Rosa's is much better!" So I decided to try La Rosa's tonight, and boy! was it much better! Also at the ACE club with me today were Justin and Casey: Justin (seated) is a marine biologist and teaches at AUC. He is also working on research in the Red Sea. He is from Texas/Florida, and was working in Washington DC before he moved to Cairo. As far as I know, he only speaks English and I'm am a little bit ahead of him in Arabic. Justin also plays on the softball team and is a great softball player. Casey works in the library with Amanda. I'm not sure of his exact title, but he is the guy that helps me with the financial databases when I need it. Casey is from Illinois and has been here for 5 years now. I think he is only fluent in English (do you notice a pattern with the Americans?) but I'm sure his Arabic is pretty good after 5 years, and I'll bet he knows enough Japanese to get by. He has a 2 year old boy and another child (I think it is a girl) who will be here soon! Casey lived in Asia before he moved to Cairo, I think several places, but the last one was Tokyo, Japan. His wife is from Japan (or at least her family is). His brother-in-law is a famous sumo wrestler, Akebono, who is featured in this video: Last Saturday night I joined Faiza, Scott, Mike and his family at Abu Sid (an Egyptian restaurant in Maadi) for dinner. Mike has been here since I arrived, but his wife (Katie) and 2 lovely daughters (Maya and Ivy) stayed in the US last semester, but they are here in Cairo for the spring semester. His girls are going to CAC and they seemed just delightful. Here is a picture of us at the restaurant (Faiza took the picture).

Friends in Cairo

Not too much to blog about. Classes at the university have started and I'm busy teaching and preparing lessons. But I'm determined to have more frequent blog entries for all my adoring fans out there, so here are pictures of some people I have met here, one a friend in Maadi and the other some tourists on who are on their way around the world.

Last night (Friday) I went downtown and ate dinner at Cafe Riche. While I was there I met Jake and Megan:

They were at the table next to me in the cafe, and I saw them perusing through Lonely Planet Egypt, so I leaned over and asked them where they were from. Jake is from Indiana, Megan is from California, and they met while working in Washington, DC. I talked to them for awhile and then we sat at the Cafe behind Cafe Riche (the joke is it is Cafe Poor, being located behind and outside of Cafe Riche) and had tea. They were terrific company, and I enjoyed hearing their story of how their trip got started:

Jake & Megan were both working arduous long hours at jobs they didn't really enjoy while in DC, so they hatched a plan: let's save up for a little bit and then take an around the world trip! If I got the details right, they saved enough money, quit their jobs, and started their trip in London. They continued through Europe to at least France, Germany, Italy and Austria before coming to Cairo. I guess Cairo is about halfway. They are going to Luxor next week, and then to Dahab, and then finish their tour of the Middle east seeing Petra in Jordan.

Gee, those are all places on my list!

After leaving Petra, they are going to India and China, and then they have not determined exactly how they will get home from there. It sounds like a grand adventure, and I enjoyed their company. Bon Voyage!

Here is a picture of my friend Faiza:

Faiza is a student at AUC studying anthropology. She lives in Maadi, and I met her on the bus to AUC. I bumped into her in the neighborhood a few times after that, and we have become good friends. She is originally from Austria, so (here we go with the language thing again) she speaks fluent German and English, her Arabic is pretty good, and I'll bet she knows enough Spanish and/or French to get by. The big news with Faiza lately is the new edition in her family, a little girl born yesterday. It is her brother's child, so she is now "Aunt" Faiza. She recently showed me her pictures of her time home for Christmas in Vienna, and man! that is another place on my list.

I want an around the world trip! Me & my 3 boys. All I need are large quantities of money and time... Actually, I think I'm going to do it, just one leg at a time over the next 20 years, en shallah.