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.