All photographs were taken by, and are copyright of, the blogger.
30 September 2010
24 September 2010
Arabic Acquisition
I am proud to report that this week I had the following 
exchanges in Arabic:
- understood a muezzin in Islamic Cairo when he told me who he was, what his job was, asked if I wanted to tour the roof, how much it would cost, and to enjoy the beautiful mosque and when we were done he'd unlock the door and take us upstairs**
- asked my bawab to change my cooking gas canister, responded to his inquiry about whether I had another upstairs, and asked him to get me a new canister to replace the empty
- ordered Koshary, explained where I was from, and got extra hot sauce for my friend's koshary, as well as declined a bag
hooray for language learning!
**btw, I'll post a pic soon; but climbing up to the 'roof' of the mosque was ACTUALLY climbing up a multi-storied turret in the ancient wall that surrounds Islamic Cairo to the roof of it, well above the roof of the 1 story mosque. Some of the steps were likely 1000 - 1500 years old. The climb was tricky, precarious, and magical; and the view from the top was one I will likely never see again.
exchanges in Arabic:- understood a muezzin in Islamic Cairo when he told me who he was, what his job was, asked if I wanted to tour the roof, how much it would cost, and to enjoy the beautiful mosque and when we were done he'd unlock the door and take us upstairs**
- asked my bawab to change my cooking gas canister, responded to his inquiry about whether I had another upstairs, and asked him to get me a new canister to replace the empty
- ordered Koshary, explained where I was from, and got extra hot sauce for my friend's koshary, as well as declined a bag
hooray for language learning!
**btw, I'll post a pic soon; but climbing up to the 'roof' of the mosque was ACTUALLY climbing up a multi-storied turret in the ancient wall that surrounds Islamic Cairo to the roof of it, well above the roof of the 1 story mosque. Some of the steps were likely 1000 - 1500 years old. The climb was tricky, precarious, and magical; and the view from the top was one I will likely never see again.
19 September 2010
So where did I leave off?
Oh yes, that's right! I left off with my slide in to third base...or rather the Nile.
So, for the Eid we ended up getting another surprisingly long holiday, and a friend and I decided to head to Aswan for some relaxation before the kiddies were to arrive in the classrooms.
Aswan is not much further "up" the Nile from Luxor, but it is very very different. For one, you have crossed in to Nubia. The Arabic accent is different, the architecture is a bit different...
But best of all, the landscape is so different. The topography of Aswan is hilly: the town on the East bank rising gently away from the water like a Mediterranean village. The tombs of the nobles on the West bank rising sharply above the Nile. In the water, large grey stones, smoothed over milennia from the rising and falling of the Nile tide provide a beautiful contrast to the orange desert to the West, and green islands dotting the center of the island.
There is a museum in Aswan that is somewhat neglected, but also is so unique and unusual. It is perched on the archaeological site at the south point of Elephantine Island. They actually looked startled at our arrival by felucca (almost the only way to reach the museum) just a few days before the Eid. At the museum, handwritten labels themselves are as much antiquities as the "Head of a Man Mummy" and "Group of Red Polished Pottery - OK" that they described.
People in Egypt are generally nice and friendly, but in Aswan
it is taken to a whole new level. A few stuttered words of Arabic and goods were half price, felucca rides were half price, and we were welcomed with smiles, but very little harassment or difficulty in the bazaar.
The bazaar, on a Friday morning (my favorite time to go to souks in Egypt) was nearly empty, no hassle (REALLY!), and I came away with some lovely trinkets. As with any language, bartering is one of the first things I learned, but now I've gotten good at my numbers and, well...I only bought one thing that I didn't get for at least half off the quoted price.
But that's not why you're reading, you want to know about how I fell in the Nile.
Well, I'll say it's better told in person but, thankfully for my health, only my right foot got wet; though I am still a bit scraped up and bruised from the two, yes TWO slides and falls while trying to board a felucca that was not docked, but instead about two feet away from the concrete shore.
I'll likely never be back to Aswan, but it was lovely.
** a note about the pictures. Yes, I did take these. I'm quite proud of them. I had permission from the man at the Aswan museum to take pictures, or I wouldn't have. I did not use a flash as I am pro-preservation :)
So, for the Eid we ended up getting another surprisingly long holiday, and a friend and I decided to head to Aswan for some relaxation before the kiddies were to arrive in the classrooms.
Aswan is not much further "up" the Nile from Luxor, but it is very very different. For one, you have crossed in to Nubia. The Arabic accent is different, the architecture is a bit different...
But best of all, the landscape is so different. The topography of Aswan is hilly: the town on the East bank rising gently away from the water like a Mediterranean village. The tombs of the nobles on the West bank rising sharply above the Nile. In the water, large grey stones, smoothed over milennia from the rising and falling of the Nile tide provide a beautiful contrast to the orange desert to the West, and green islands dotting the center of the island.
There is a museum in Aswan that is somewhat neglected, but also is so unique and unusual. It is perched on the archaeological site at the south point of Elephantine Island. They actually looked startled at our arrival by felucca (almost the only way to reach the museum) just a few days before the Eid. At the museum, handwritten labels themselves are as much antiquities as the "Head of a Man Mummy" and "Group of Red Polished Pottery - OK" that they described.People in Egypt are generally nice and friendly, but in Aswan
it is taken to a whole new level. A few stuttered words of Arabic and goods were half price, felucca rides were half price, and we were welcomed with smiles, but very little harassment or difficulty in the bazaar.The bazaar, on a Friday morning (my favorite time to go to souks in Egypt) was nearly empty, no hassle (REALLY!), and I came away with some lovely trinkets. As with any language, bartering is one of the first things I learned, but now I've gotten good at my numbers and, well...I only bought one thing that I didn't get for at least half off the quoted price.
But that's not why you're reading, you want to know about how I fell in the Nile.
Well, I'll say it's better told in person but, thankfully for my health, only my right foot got wet; though I am still a bit scraped up and bruised from the two, yes TWO slides and falls while trying to board a felucca that was not docked, but instead about two feet away from the concrete shore.
I'll likely never be back to Aswan, but it was lovely.
** a note about the pictures. Yes, I did take these. I'm quite proud of them. I had permission from the man at the Aswan museum to take pictures, or I wouldn't have. I did not use a flash as I am pro-preservation :)
10 September 2010
Aswan Day 1 Teaser
So kids, did I ever tell you the story of how I ended up in the Nile....?**
*stories to follow when pictures are uploaded
*stories to follow when pictures are uploaded
03 September 2010
Cooking and Cars
In leaving the expat-comfort of central Maadi and moving a few miles closer to downtown, my life has taken on quite a few changes.
First of all, my diet has changed. In Maadi, every restaurant under the sun delivers - from about noon until midnight. You can order American style nachos from Lucille's, sushi from Makani, or chicken from KFC. From the high end Egyptian Delicacies of Abou el Sid to the relatively inexpensive McDonald's - everyone will be at your door in generally an hour or less. While this made life easy (there is even an English language website that you can order through), it also made life pretty expensive as items such as sushi and nachos are not locally grown or acquired. Still, about 4 days a week (7 if it was a rough week) I was having one of the 50 or so restaurants in my neighborhood deliver dinner; I even knew a few of the delivery guys by name.
I'm not sure these places deliver to my new neighborhood; and even if they did, there is the unfortunate flavor decline of food that has been in a metal box on the back of a scooter for 30 minutes or more while it would sit in traffic instead of my belly.
On top of that, every morning in Maadi I used to walk 10 - 15 minutes down to Road 9 to get a cappuccino before walking another 5 - 10 minutes back towards my apartment to reach the bus stop. I am a miserable, horrible, no-goodnick wretch without my morning dose of espresso. (You now may ask "why not just drink the coffee at work? the regular coffee, like everyone else??" - simple: to make it taste good without the addition of foamy milk I need to add sugar, sugar leads to a sugar high, which leads to a sugar crash, which leads to me being a miserable, horrible, no-goodnick wretch again; all of which makes it a bit pointless.) Anyway, there were a few places I went and, power and water outages aside, I could easily get a pre-or-post school cappuccino with little effort or having to go too far out of the way.
So the new neighborhood has changed my life pretty drastically. First, my morning begins with a 15 minute coffee routine with my new cappuccino maker. It pulls beautiful espresso shots with a full inch of crema, but the steaming wand needs coaxing to heat up enough to produce a good foam. Still though, my skills from as a part-time barista are coming in super-handy. Additionally, I've worked out that I am saving roughly $20 USD a week - yippee!
Because the delivery guys don't get out this far, and even if they
did I'd fear the condition of the food on arrival, I've been cooking every meal. This, again, has lead to a major cost savings, easily in the $50 - $100 a week range, and is introducing me to the joys of cooking. So far I've turned salmon belly into delectable fillets, created a sorry-excuse for moussaka, and really explored the range of the cheap 'cheddar' cheese available at the grocery store here. I try to expand my cookery skills by deviating from my standards at least once a week (but also stick to serious comfort food at least once a week, hence Tuesday's Chicken in Campbell's Cream of Mushroom over white rice). At right is left-over steak I pan seared in leftover red-wine reduction with goat cheese, shrimp and asparagus that I made last Spring in my Julia-Child-is-God phase. I'm hosting a roast dinner for some friends tomorrow night and will be attempting roasted veg and chicken livers for the first time (not in the same pan) to accompany roast chicken, which I'm usually pretty successful with - esp with the liberal application of butter, rosemary, and Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Seasoning.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Another major change that's come with the move is driving.
I'll give you a second to get over your shock. . . especially if you've ever been on the roads in Cairo.
It's much faster to get home from work with a car, and easier to get groceries and supplies back and forth from Maadi and the mall; but oh...my...god! the roads.
So far I've driven twice, on weekend mornings, when there is no traffic. I simply don't have the skills/patience/desire to combat the crowded traffic situation here (this coming from someone who used to commute daily on the Washington beltway); but it does shave 40 minutes off the afternoon commute and is great for running errands after school or those days when I'm running late and would never make the bus, but could easily still make it to school on time. Fortunately, my roommate is gung-ho to drive here and generally enjoys the rush-hour game of 'dodgems'; so I get home faster with half the hassle.
So that's life on the Nile right now, cooking and cars. As Ramadan approaches it's end, I'm planning upcoming trips to Aswan and Athens (again, hopefully for more than 2 days this time) and can't wait to give my new camera a proper work out! I'm also hoping to tack-on a few days on a Greek Island, so if you have a favorite I should not miss, please let me know!
First of all, my diet has changed. In Maadi, every restaurant under the sun delivers - from about noon until midnight. You can order American style nachos from Lucille's, sushi from Makani, or chicken from KFC. From the high end Egyptian Delicacies of Abou el Sid to the relatively inexpensive McDonald's - everyone will be at your door in generally an hour or less. While this made life easy (there is even an English language website that you can order through), it also made life pretty expensive as items such as sushi and nachos are not locally grown or acquired. Still, about 4 days a week (7 if it was a rough week) I was having one of the 50 or so restaurants in my neighborhood deliver dinner; I even knew a few of the delivery guys by name.
I'm not sure these places deliver to my new neighborhood; and even if they did, there is the unfortunate flavor decline of food that has been in a metal box on the back of a scooter for 30 minutes or more while it would sit in traffic instead of my belly.
On top of that, every morning in Maadi I used to walk 10 - 15 minutes down to Road 9 to get a cappuccino before walking another 5 - 10 minutes back towards my apartment to reach the bus stop. I am a miserable, horrible, no-goodnick wretch without my morning dose of espresso. (You now may ask "why not just drink the coffee at work? the regular coffee, like everyone else??" - simple: to make it taste good without the addition of foamy milk I need to add sugar, sugar leads to a sugar high, which leads to a sugar crash, which leads to me being a miserable, horrible, no-goodnick wretch again; all of which makes it a bit pointless.) Anyway, there were a few places I went and, power and water outages aside, I could easily get a pre-or-post school cappuccino with little effort or having to go too far out of the way.
So the new neighborhood has changed my life pretty drastically. First, my morning begins with a 15 minute coffee routine with my new cappuccino maker. It pulls beautiful espresso shots with a full inch of crema, but the steaming wand needs coaxing to heat up enough to produce a good foam. Still though, my skills from as a part-time barista are coming in super-handy. Additionally, I've worked out that I am saving roughly $20 USD a week - yippee!
Because the delivery guys don't get out this far, and even if they
did I'd fear the condition of the food on arrival, I've been cooking every meal. This, again, has lead to a major cost savings, easily in the $50 - $100 a week range, and is introducing me to the joys of cooking. So far I've turned salmon belly into delectable fillets, created a sorry-excuse for moussaka, and really explored the range of the cheap 'cheddar' cheese available at the grocery store here. I try to expand my cookery skills by deviating from my standards at least once a week (but also stick to serious comfort food at least once a week, hence Tuesday's Chicken in Campbell's Cream of Mushroom over white rice). At right is left-over steak I pan seared in leftover red-wine reduction with goat cheese, shrimp and asparagus that I made last Spring in my Julia-Child-is-God phase. I'm hosting a roast dinner for some friends tomorrow night and will be attempting roasted veg and chicken livers for the first time (not in the same pan) to accompany roast chicken, which I'm usually pretty successful with - esp with the liberal application of butter, rosemary, and Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Seasoning.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Another major change that's come with the move is driving.
I'll give you a second to get over your shock. . . especially if you've ever been on the roads in Cairo.
It's much faster to get home from work with a car, and easier to get groceries and supplies back and forth from Maadi and the mall; but oh...my...god! the roads.
So far I've driven twice, on weekend mornings, when there is no traffic. I simply don't have the skills/patience/desire to combat the crowded traffic situation here (this coming from someone who used to commute daily on the Washington beltway); but it does shave 40 minutes off the afternoon commute and is great for running errands after school or those days when I'm running late and would never make the bus, but could easily still make it to school on time. Fortunately, my roommate is gung-ho to drive here and generally enjoys the rush-hour game of 'dodgems'; so I get home faster with half the hassle.
So that's life on the Nile right now, cooking and cars. As Ramadan approaches it's end, I'm planning upcoming trips to Aswan and Athens (again, hopefully for more than 2 days this time) and can't wait to give my new camera a proper work out! I'm also hoping to tack-on a few days on a Greek Island, so if you have a favorite I should not miss, please let me know!
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