A New Friend

We've been eating a lot of cereal and sandwiches lately. It's too hot to cook. I did it yesterday and had to take extra showers because it was so hot in the kitchen. Anyway, yesterday I read the back of the cereal box. Here's what it said.

Mind & Body
Feel light and healthy - inside and out!

Why is fibre important?
Without fibre, your insides are never properly cleaned. You end up feeling bloated and heavy - in mind and body. But a simple bowl of All-Bran changes everything. One serving of such high fibre every day regulates and improves your digestive system, eliminating toxins and cleansing your insides.

And, as the saying goes, a healthy body is a healthy mind. When you feel light, and clean, your state of mind improves drastically. You can literally feel the difference.

A new companion
When you see the results it can have on your mind and body, you'll realise t hat fibre really is your friend.

So try a little All-Bran every morning. Or any time of the day, for that matter. One bowl of any of the tasty All-Bran range acts as a healthy, nutritious snack throughout the day.

Celebration!

Today was my last day of class, and I turned in my last assignments. Hurray!! I have completed my MA program. I am now the most educated member of my family, which is weird to say because I don't really feel any different than before.

Tonight after the sun went down, Jeff and I went out for a celebration dinner. We were both craving American food, so we decided to splurge and go to Chilli's for the first time. We walked to where we thought it was along the Nile... and were wrong. So we grabbed a taxi going back the other way, and realized that we had turned right when we should have turned left to find the restaurant. Turns out the restaurant was TGIF and not Chilli's, but we didn't really care at that point - just hungry!

We had a great meal. They had a promotion going that we both got - soup, steak with veggies and mashed potatoes, and dessert for only 70 pounds, or approximately $15. I had iced tea, Jeff had several frozen strawberry lemonades, and we indulged. That was the first steak I've had in a loooong time, and it was much better than the steaks at similar establishments back home. The meal was spoiled for about 5 minutes, when after a Santana song, a hip hop song filled with every obscenity played over the sound system. We had to just stop the conversation and let it finish demanding, "Who the **** you talking to," because it was so distracting. I understand that they don't understand what is inappropriate language in English, but it was still weird to be sitting in a family-friendly restaurant and hear such things.

Overall, it was a good meal. And the weather had cooled enough to make the walk back home quite pleasant.

Flowers

I've been pondering flowers. I love them. They're pretty, they smell good, and they don't do much more. On the way to the university, the median in the main road has pansies lining the edge of the sidewalk, with hedges of hibiscus and some other red flower in the center. It makes me happy to see them.

I also see flowers in areas filled with debris and trash. Bare, uncared for plants surrounded by traffic and pollution. Yet flowers persist in being pretty, always happily smiling at the sun. God just created them to do that. Despite their circumstances, they are always true to their nature. It makes me think that sometimes I need to stop working so hard to be something that I have in my head, and just be, as God created me, and constantly look up to him with a smile.

The Four Seasons

Tonight Jeff and I were invited out to dinner by a friend that Jeff has made. This man is a former diplomat from the Gulf. He and his wife took us to the Four Seasons, one of their favorite places in Cairo. I guess when they were first assigned to Cairo they lived there until they were able to buy and set up an apartment. I was feeling self-conscious; the only clothes I have that fit are not very dressy! I ended up wearing a long-sleeve blouse/sweater that is NOT in season... 104 degrees today did not match my attire. Nonetheless, I felt more comfortable than in a t-shirt :-) And a good thing, too. The season decided upon in the restaurant was winter, with the AC set at a cool 69 degrees.

Being with this couple was very interesting. They have lived in Cairo off an on for years, and really like it here. They wear wealth casually - like comfortable slippers. Watching the wife interact with the wait staff, the driver, the store personnel we interacted with, was so revealing. The restaurant was in an atrium of a shopping mall that reminded me of the Venetian in Vegas. I went with the wife to check on a purchase at one of the stores. I sat there, and while she was on the phone, the owner had his two assistants display his handmade carpets for me. It was a little surreal. Anyway, the wife easily commanded everyone she interacted with, but was never unkind or demeaning to them. The deference she was shown by everyone was clear, all the niceties, special attention and so on was fun to watch. As her tagalong, I was shown some as well. I felt a little dowdy compared to her brand label purse, coat, shoes, giant gemstone and diamond rings, and so on, but it was fun.

And dinner was fabulous. The salad they served as a "starter" was big enough for a whole meal. I was glad I ordered the Thai spring rolls instead of a proper salad. Jeff didn't have a chance to finish his! Mint lemonade and sea bass with mushroom/butter mashed potatoes and steamed spinach. Yum!! I've been craving a nice meal, and this was perfect. I refused dessert... no more room next to the baby!

Dreams

Being pregnant has led to some strange dreams. I've had quite a few dreams about having food in front of me an not being able or allowed to eat it. For some real-life context, I tend to eat every few hours. But pregnancy has also made me more tired, so I've been sleeping about 10 hours a night. You can see how I might get hungry in my sleep.

The first dream I remember was a bunch of people, including me, preparing for a giant potluck. We spent a lot of time hauling food from the entrance of a building through a complicated system of elevators, stairs, hallways and doors before arriving at the potluck room. We had to do this route several times, and it changed! Finally, it was time to eat. I spent a long time piling my plate high with fantastic pastry creations. Then I woke up.

Another time I dreamed I was part of a large caravan of vehicles traveling somewhere. My dad was driving the van I was in. We pulled into a gas station, and I jumped out to go to Wendy's. I ordered a single patty burger with french fries, a soda, and a side salad. As I was leaving the restaurant to return to the van, the van had disappeared. After looking around, I saw the group of vehicles on the other side of the truck stop parking lot. I headed across the lot, but on the way was almost hit by a bus and my food fell out of my hands. It disappeared.

Last night I dreamed about pancakes. We had them for breakfast yesterday, so that's not such a stretch. But I did make them for breakfast today.

Back to it...

So it's been a while since my last post. I find I don't have a lot to say these days, and I've been kind of busy, too.

Today Jeff and I went on a date. We had breakfast at Lucille's; a nice, big American breakfast with eggs and pancakes. Yum! We didn't get hungry again until 5 hours later, which is quite a feat for me these days.

After breakfast, we walked around Maadi taking pictures of flowers. It's Spring, and things are in full bloom!

Pictures are posted on Facebook, send me an email or leave a comment and I'll send the link.

Adventures in Cooking

We had a friend over yesterday, which was a perfect opportunity for me to try a new recipe. I made Italian Wedding Soup. One great thing about living here is all the fresh produce. The picture is what I started with: spinach, carrots, basil, parsley, green onions. Those, along with ground beef, orzo pasta, and chicken broth were all the ingredients. But the recipe didn't call for carrots, so now we have extra. Oops. The unfortunate thing about the fresh produce is that it takes a lot of prep, particularly the herbs. But fresh basil and parsley is super cheap, and tastes so much better than dried!

I was thinking about my sister-in-law as I made this. She's a big fan of Italian food, and I wish she could have been here to share it with us. The friend who got to enjoy it with us is not feeling well, so I sent him home with leftovers, some banana bread, and some carrots, green onions, spinach and herbs. There was way too much for us to eat before they spoil!

Kitty Update

The kittens Jeff and I are watching are growing up. We hear them outside the window and like to watch their antics. Unfortunately, one of them is growing bigger and faster than the other. The big guy gets off the roof and plays under mama's supervision while the little guy crouches on the corner of the building and cries. It's really sad. The other night Jeff and I threw some food on the roof and he gobbled it up.

Some Recent Conversations

I am about to record some conversations I've had in the last week. These are all with people who speak English. I know that as a guest in this country I should not be critical of people's language ability when they go out of their way to communicate to me in my language, and that is not my intent. Rather, I wish to share with people what it is like living here, and all the little daily things that happen that make life stressful in a very different way than stress at home. And for the sake of privacy, I will not use my real last name.

Convo #1
Phone rings at home
Me: Hello?
silence
Me: Hello?
Caller (male): Yes, I'd like the fax number for the petroleum company.
Me: You have the wrong number.
Caller: The fax number please!
Me: This is a house.
Caller: I need to send the fax!!
Me: I am at home. You have the wrong number. This is a house.
Caller: This is a house? Sorry.
Caller hangs up

Convo #2
I am calling an office at the university bus company with a question regarding how to get a bus pass.
Me: Hi, I need to know how to get a bus pass for the Spring semester. I can't seem to register online.
Bus Rep: You need to go online and register.
Me: I tried that, and it won't let me.
Bus Rep: Just go online and complete your schedule.
Me: I can't! I already tried and it only shows me last semester's schedule.
Bus Rep: Oh, you already registered last semester?
Me: Yes.
Bus Rep: You don't have to go online, you just need to go to the Student Services Center and get a receipt that shows you paid, and then go to the transportation office for your new pass.
Me: Where is the Student Services Center?
Bus Rep: It is by Gate 1.
Me: Which gate is Gate 1, is that the one where visitors go?
Bus Rep: I don't know about that, but it is by Gate 1.
Me: Where is Gate 1?! I don't know where that is.
Bus Rep: It's by the Student Services Center.
Me: Thank you, bye.
Commentary: I gave up on this conversation. I was so frustrated. I spent maybe a 1/2 hour trying to follow this lady's directions, when all I needed to do was go to the bus help desk by the gate where the bus drops us off and exchange my old ID for a new one.

Convo #3
I called the mail office to check if a package from my mother-in-law arrived.
Mail Office: Hello.
Me: Hi, my name is Sarah Smith, and I want to check if any packages have arrived for me.
Mail Office: Doris Smith? Just a minute.
Me: No, my name is Sarah.
Some conversation happens off the phone in the mail office.
Mail Office: Mrs. Doris picked up her package.
Me: My name is Sarah Smith, not Doris.
Mail Office: Oh, you're not Mrs. Doris? Just a minute.
Mail Office: Which department?
Me: The ELI.
Mail Office: What?
Me: The ELI - English Language Institute.
Mail Office: Are you a student or professor?
Me: I'm a teaching fellow.
Mail Office: Oh.... well when it arrives we will deliver it to your department.
Me: Okay. Thank you. Bye.
Mail Office: Bye.
He didn't sound like he knows what the ELI is, so I'll keep checking!

One Last Hurrah

Last week, Jeff and I went to Alexandria for a night. We were celebrating Jeff's birthday and we realized between Jeff's work, office hours of other businesses, and so on, we could only spare one night before I returned to work. So we went on Tuesday morning and returned on Wednesday night. We ate okay Chinese food that was somewhat overpriced, enjoyed lots of coffee shops, and watched a movie on our satellite TV in the hotel room. The only touristy thing we did was visit the Mahmoud Said Museum. Mahmoud Said was an artist during the early to mid-20th century, who, according to the guide book helped form Egypt's artistic identity. He was a judge by day.

We stayed at the Union Hotel, which was great. I've tried to stay there several times before, but it's always been full. For $20, we got a clean room with a private bathroom and breakfast. Compare this experience with Michelle from last April.

Feeding the Critters

Last night as we were trying to fall asleep, Jeff and I were kept awake by pitiful meows coming from outside. There is a one-story structure right next to our apartment. We're on the 3rd floor, so we can see the roof quite clearly from most of our windows. On the roof of that structure lives a family of cats. We've seen the mother and her kittens a few times.

After lying there for a while, we started feeling sad for the little guys. Maybe mom got killed that day and wasn't coming back to feed them! Finally, we got up to go look at them. Jeff saw three, but I couldn't see any. Filled with compassion, we soaked a few pieces of bread in chicken broth and threw them on the roof. They were in hiding by this point, not making a peep!

We went back to bed, our minds at ease. And the kitties had stopped meowing.

Inauguration in Primetime

Jeff and I had an Inauguration Party last night. It was just the two of us, but we figured it would be fun, and it was. We bought some sweets, a cable to connect the computer to the stereo for sound, and planned to order BBQ sandwiches. While McDelivery would have been the most "American" choice, we just couldn't do it. And yes, they call McDonald's delivery "McDelivery."

Anyway, the inauguration stuff was scheduled to start around 6 pm for us. We started searching for a way to watch it streamed, and found C-SPAN was pretty good. I was getting restless, waiting for some action, and Jeff fell asleep on the couch. Streaming video from TV networks isn't very good - we only get a few seconds at a time before it stops to buffer, and sometimes it never starts again. Hm. Then C-SPAN switched to covering some House proceeding. Boring! So I started looking for a better stream. Turns out Facebook and CNN.com teamed up to broadcast the event. Cool! It was perfect! Very few glitches, and the ones that did happen were smooth and they somehow managed to not miss any words.

I have to say, the best part of the whole thing was watching TV in English. We had my computer connected to the TV and the stereo, and it was like we were getting regular TV, but much clearer and without commercials. Even the silly repetitions by the anchors were amusing (at least the first 3 times they told us why Cheney was in a wheelchair).

In all, we had a good time. After, we were able to talk to some family members about it. Then we watched a movie. I have to say, having the inauguration not during work was quite nice. They should reconsider the time of day so people can watch at home in the evening!

Thoughts on Cooking

I've been enjoying cooking during the loooong holiday I have until school starts on February 1. It's fun, and I think Jeff may have gained a few pounds! I thought I'd share some quirks that I've learned while cooking here - most of these things are what I'm really enjoying not having to deal with when I go home!

First, is the measuring involved with cooking and baking. I priced out measuring spoons, and they were REALLY expensive. Maybe it's just the shop I went to, but after seeing the price, Jeff said I seem to do fine with guessing and it's not really worth it. I agreed. So now I do everything by hand for small amounts. It's kind of fun, not knowing exactly how something will turn out, particularly with things like baking powder. For larger quantities, I have one glass that is exactly 1 cup (I measured using the ounces on my Nalgene bottle). From there, I can guesstimate fractions of a cup. Of course, the glass is narrower at the bottom and wider at the top, so those fractions are rarely the same twice. The butter here comes in grams. The recipes I get from http://www.allrecipes.com/ (my new favorite site) can be converted to metric, which is good. However, I bought butter in bulk (a 2 kilo block) and it doesn't come with the handy little lines marking the grams.

Second is the cooking temperature. My range is gas, which I used to like. However, the burners each have their own personalities. The main one is an overachiever. Even at low, things burn and sometimes I hold the pan in the air above it. The other front burner is smaller, and gets to low quite nicely for simmering things (unless I have a big pan, then the middle burns and the outside doesn't cook). However, when I turn it to low, which is all the way left, the flame goes out. Gas is still on, but apparently the low setting is so low that there isn't enough to burn. The back two burners have two settings: high and flame-thrower. All they're good for is boiling pasta and steaming veggies. The oven is a different matter altogether. The dial is in Celcius, and I've become pretty good at remembering the two main conversions for 350 and 425 (180 and 220, respectively). But it doesn't matter, because the lower temperatures on the dial don't heat up the oven enough to cook everything. So almost everything I do has the dial between 220 and 240, but I have no idea how hot it actually is. The shortcake I baked today was supposed to take 15-20 minutes, but it took 55 minutes in my oven. Additionally, the oven doesn't seem to have good insulation. Within minutes of turning it on, the kitchen is roasting hot.

Finally we have the issue of ingredients. While I love my new favorite website, it seems that all the recipes call for one of the following:

• salad dressing seasoning packet
• dried onion soup mix
• tomatoes in a can (any variety)
• condensed cream of mushroom soup
• cheddar cheese
• sour cream
• baking soda.

I've figured out substitutions for the soup and sour cream, but everything else is either unavailable or prohibitively expensive. And baking soda (aka soda bicarbonate) is nowhere be found. Granted, I haven't gone on a mission to find it, but it's not at the stores I regularly patron. For the tomatoes, anything other than tomato paste is rare and expensive. As a side note, mushrooms are very expensive and not always available fresh. I have a big can in my cupboard I bought on sale and I'm waiting for an irresistable recipe to use them. A lot of recipes call for mushrooms, too. Oh, last complaint: I can't find vanilla extract. They sell vanillin, which is a powder mixed with sugar. I use it and it seems to work, but it's frustrating not to have the real thing.

There are some really nice things about cooking here. All the local ingredients are fresh and the produce is all vine-ripened. Strawberry season has lasted for over a month. Some things that are expensive at home are quite reasonable here, like capers. My new favorite dinner is chicken piccatta. And things rarely burn in my oven, even if I forget about them (which I usually do).

Jeff and I were talking about how weird it will be to go home and have supermarkets. How will we handle more than choosing between crunchy and creamy peanut butter? Here, we're lucky if the store has even one brand! (Currently it's Peter Pan and before that it was Skippy). We have two choices of oil: corn and sunflower. It's like that with lots of items. It will be interesting to adjust back to a U.S. lifestyle.

Embassy Adventure

The title to this post is somewhat misleading, as the outing this morning was not terribly adventurous. I had to go to the embassy to change my name from my maiden name to my married name. Since my passport is 9 years old, somewhat worn, and without too many pages left, I decided to just get a new one.

I've been here for a year and a half, and this is the first time I've been to the embassy. I had all my paperwork and documents ready, so I was pretty sure things would go smoothly. My only exposure to US embassies is from movies and novels. I expected to feel a little bit more like I was in the US. That was not the case! It never felt like I left Cairo, except everything was clean and quiet.

I waited half an hour after taking a number and found out I completed the wrong form. So the guy behind the window gave me the form I needed and sent me to the cashier to pay the fee. I went back to him with everything completed, and he said to come back in two weeks and they'll have my new passport. Pretty smooth.

Jeff groaned when he found out how easy it was for me. He had a very difficult time getting his a couple years ago!

Khan al-Khalili

We went to the big open-air market called the Khan al-Khalili on Sunday. Turns out that's the day most vendors take off. Oh well, we got a little glimpse of what it's like, and much less hassle than when they're all open.

I was admiring an alabaster pyramid in a shop where Christine bought something. The guy said it was 225 LE, but for me, because I'm nice to him, will only charge 185 LE. That was WAY out of my price range, and I wasn't really interested in buying anyway. I said thank you and started walking away. He came after me, asking how much I would pay for it. I said 40 LE, thinking that was low enough for him to go away and leave me alone. He thought for about 2 seconds, and said, "Okay." I was surprised, but I felt obliged to purchase after he agreed to my price.

So here's my new pyramid: