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.