Carl in Cairo

Again my busyness is delaying my writing in a timely fashion. After a good Comparative Migration Law class yesterday, I attended a seminar during which the discussants, Nancy Baron, showed a film called Finding Courage. An education adaptation of a longer film, Echoes of War, that has made the rounds at film festivals, this edition was tailored by Nancy herself based on feedback from audiences in refugee camps and elsewhere around the world. Follow the link to check it out.
I grabbed Egyptian food after class with Marise and Phil. We found ourselves surrounded by a sea of tourists and attended to by a very eager-to-please waiter as we noshed on eggplants in various forms, ta3mayya, mashi, and the like. We stopped at Abd al-Hadi's where Philip purchased another kilo of baklawa and a toothy old man made eyes at Marise and told her a story about his college days. The rest of the evening and early morning was spent chatting with Ablavi who's leaving for France and then Belgium in a couple of weeks.
Today I trekked out to the new campus, using both of my bus tickets, to meet with Dr Martina Rieker who gave me some great possible ideas for directions to take my thesis. I hung around the library for a bit, but my computer went dead so I couldn't be very productive having left my adapter downtown. I came back via Zamalek where I did some grocery shopoping and then had a meeting with my groupmates from law class. Nothing else too exciting.

News:
"Arab Diplomacy and the Palestinians" in the Economist
Hamas condemns rocket fire
Delicate balancing act with US aid and Palestinian unity
Wife of recently freed former presidential candidate eyeing possible 2011 run for Egypt's presidency