Carl in Cairo

  Cynthia and I and the rest of my Nigerian migrant survey group made it through our presentation (and those of four other groups) alive.  The class drug on for five hours in freezing temperatures because of the unregulatable air conditioning and the window that was bolted shut.  To be freezing in Cairo in May is truly absurd.  

  After we were dong presenting and shivering and the like, the majority of the class went to Shabrawi, the Egyptian restaurant on the corner of Nubar and Mohammad Mahmoud on the way back to my place from campus.  Dr Jureidini treated us to dinner, which was quite kind of him.  The proprietor of the restaurant tried to show his kindness to us in a slightly more bizarre way, writing "USA" in ketchup on our orders of baba ghanoug.  Let me tell you, sweet Egyptian ketchup isn't a pleasant accent for any eggplant dish.

  Now I'm working on finishing my section of the mock convention that my other group has to submit on Wednesday.  I'll be relieved when the semester is over, though I am glad it's not as hectic as the last one.

News:

A bomb exploded near St Mary's Church in Zaytoun, a district in Cairo.  This is a place that Marise's mother and I discussed before; it's famous for an alleged apparition of Mary that happened in the late 1960s.  The bomb was placed under a car near the Coptic church and went off during a wedding, but no one was injured.

Egypt's ill-advised slaughter of pigs in response to the spread of H1N1 will likely impact the residents of Garbage City most severely.

Opposition groups are organizing protests for Obama's visit.