Carl in Cairo

Full of Korean food and trying to muster up the will to finish my reaction papers for methods and for law, I thought I'd take a break and catch my blog up. Last evening, after Phil, Ross, and I hit the juice place (I got peach for a change-not bad), we headed to the Abd el-Hadi pastry shop where we received a warm welcome and were plied with samples of the treats that are being prepared for the week of Mohammad's birthday (which falls on Monday this year). Hadi, as he introduced himself, seemed to be on top of all the goings-on in his shop. He used to be an equestrian champion of some sort and at one point even produced an aged photo of himself atop a steed leaping through the air. Phil left with a kilo of baklawa (which he has apparently since consumed in its entirety), while Ross and I settled for some of the holiday goods–peanut bars surrounded with coconut and coconut bars with pistachios in the center, surrounded by apricot. Urging us to return often to help him with his English, Hadi bade us farewell. We headed back to the apartment and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Ablavi from next door and a French coworker of hers.
Today I spent reading and writing and avoiding the increasing heat and sand outside. You can't call it hot yet, but I had to throw off my comforter last night because of how warm it got in my room. Later on, I joined Marise and Phil for Korean which was followed by juice with Ross. Further inquiring as to the mysterious pile of rubble and the hole inside of the building across the street where the butcher used to be, we were told cryptically that "they" didn't want the store anymore and that that's how the system works. God knows what that means. Seems like a drastic way to shut down a butcher shop.
I also found out that I'll be able to work on my thesis research this summer which probably be done at least in some part back in the States, maybe also in Europe. It'd be nice to find a job concurrently with the research for a month or two, but with this economy, that's probably impossible.

News:
Egypt sees its first female mayor
Resignation of Palestian PMs signal progress toward reconciliation
British parliamentarian joins aid convoy bound for Gaza
Pullitzer-prize winning author to travel to Gaza on International Women's Day (tomorrow)