Because I have nothing more culturally enlightening to share than the fact that Cynthia and I discovered tonight that the Yemeni restaurant in Doqqi delivers to our downtown doorstep, I am going to regale you with some of the latest AUC news as covered by the student-produced campus newspaper, the Caravan.
First we have this choice comic strip wherein Americans are portrayed as green-eyed frat boys in pink polos ("dude bros", if you will), busty blonde valley girls, and hip hop-garbed black kids who speak only monosyllabically. These three archetypal Americans are shaming an Egyptian for being able to speak Arabic and enjoying Egyptian cinema. While there's a whole lot wrong with the comic, the irony is that most AUC students don't know Americans like this. The Americans that study abroad or come here for grad school exemplify a whole set of stereotypes on our own. You have the noble types who are seeking to better understand the Arab world or Islam, the know-it-alls who are here to study Arabic and treat you with the utmost scorn if you're not smoking shisha with old men in an ahwa and deploying your best colloquial Egyptian Arabic phrases by your second week here, the wanderers who are "finding" themselves in a foreign land, the go-getters who're adding studying in Egypt to résumés already replete with internships at various government agencies—they inevitably all want to work for the CIA or the FBI, the bleeding hearts who have come here to volunteer among the poor and refugees, the embittered ones that hate it here and become alcoholics, etc. etc. Most of us are some mix of most of those categories (though I assure you, I'm not an alcoholic and my Egyptian Arabic is nothing to hold over the heads of others). Only among the undergraduate study-abroaders do you find anyone approaching the stereotypes in the comic and even then, they're a rarity. The people on campus who most closely fit those caricatures? Egyptians! Upper class, popped-collared, designer brand-donning, gigantic sunglasses-sporting Egyptian kids. I swear, AUC's undergrads are more "American" than me, at least superficially. They haven't quite caught on to the idea that you're not entitled to throw trash on the ground just because some man* in a uniform following you around with a broom and cleaning your every mess. (*Or child—AUC's food contractors hired children in an move embarrassing for a university that has published research on the phenomenon.) Anyway, I'd wager their Western ways and styles come more from movies and other media than from real live Americans and other Westerners. The comic strip appearing in the latest print version of the Caravan was even worse, depicting a terribly inappropriate rendering of a Chinese man that looked like something out of a racist propaganda leaflet from a mercifully bygone era.
The actual articles in the student paper range from the informative (like the one about AUC's new connections with Columbia and Sciences Po) to the ridiculous: AUC, despite being an American liberal arts university, is too prudish to allow nude figure drawing. I guess that's par for the course, though, when there are worries about Beyoncé's scandalousness is apparently a threat to the Muslim Brotherhood. Another article, was accompanied by a photo of a bunch of bored looking AUC students protesting Israeli actions in East Jerusalem (Al-Quds), one of whom had a creative little sign with a blurry, crossed-out Israeli flag. She was, no doubt, showing her commitment to a commitment for a two-state solution. The protest, according to the article, featured a Jewish kid from New York who "surprised the crowd with his condemnation of Israel’s actions". I can hear the gasps now and the excited whispers, "Ya salaam, he doesn't even have horns!" Meanwhile, their more spirited compatriots at other universities were busy burning Israeli flags.
Anyway, that's about enough fun for today, onto (more) news.

News & Issues

Egypt

• Transport minister steps down in wake of deadly train accident
• Ministry of Endowments rents mausolea to the living
• Another story about the 'Black Cloud' for good measure
• France seeks to keep Sudanese president away from Egypt during February Africa-France summit in Sharm
• 'Egypt needs more women in power' from The Guardian
• With as much as I get frustrated with racism and intolerance in Egypt, I feel like maybe this Egyptian blogger's thoughts on racism in the US deserves to be linked to. Some points she's gets wrong, to be sure, but it's interesting to get an Egyptian take on us that's a little more serious than the comic strip I rambled on about above.

Migration and Refugees

• UN to text message food vouchers to refugees
• Fear and uncertainty for internally displaced in Pakistan

Carnivore and Caterpillar

I had the pleasure last night of visiting "Africa's greatest dining experience"...on a riverboat in Giza. Carnivore is a theme restaurant whose theme, as you might imagine, is meat. The interior of the restaurant is meant to recall the original location in Nairobi, Kenya. Though Egypt's English-language restaurant review site, Yallabina, assures you that you can ingest "every type of meat imaginable", pork products are glaringly absent. Furthermore, you can't get zebra or crocodile like you can in Nairobi; about the only thing beyond the usual lamb and beef that you'll find is ostrich. But why am I complaining? I am a vegetarian (or rather a pescetarian who eats the occasional entrecôte or steak tartare when my convictions about the social and environmental impacts of meat fail me once every year or two). On that level, I wasn't bothered by the "Masai swords" and skewers full of animal flesh in various forms, it was rather the bizarre spectacle of pseudo-African culture that didn't sit well with me. Living in this land of re-created "Pharaonic" villages and ancient Egypt-inspired kitsch, I understand the idea of trying to get the bang for one's buck by caricaturing one's storied heritage. And yet, I could only cringe watching a bunch of Egyptians sing a song whose most prominent lyrics were "happy bersday" and "hakuna matata" (apparently Carnivore is the birthday destination: they sang to nearly every table in the joint at one point or another). Watching one set of former British colonial subjects dress up as another to perform for upper class Egyptians and Western expats and tourists made me feel like I should've been wearing a pith helmet and a monocle, smoking a pipe, and making derisive observations about "the natives".

In an entirely unrelated vein, I followed a link a CMRS colleague of mine posted to a site purporting to reveal connections that various multinational corporations have to Israel's occupation of Palestine. Remembering that I'd heard Caterpillar had been in the wrong for their dealings in the Middle East, I typed the company's name into the search box and found this. Seeing the name of my hometown on the sidebar of such a webpage was disheartening. Like many Peorians, I have many friends and relatives that work for Cat. As a Bradley alum I realize the direct and positive impact Cat has both on Bradley and the rest of the community and I really want to believe Cat is an upstanding corporate citizen. According to an old Salon.com article, when confronted with the realities of what its earth-moving and demolition equipment was being used for, Caterpillar responded essentially with a "guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument. You can find both sides of the debate over a shareholder proposal in 2005 to reassess Cat's dealings with Israel on their website (pages 28-29). I can understand that policing the sales of equipment can be difficult, but clearly given the effectiveness of divestment campaigns in South Africa it's not impossible. And furthermore, when I read that D-9s and D-10s are "specially modified", I'd like to know by whom. If it's by Caterpillar, then that's active participation in the goals of the Israeli occupation.
With all of the groups calling for a boycott of Cat, it's funny that countries like Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, to name a few, continue to import and use Caterpillar equipment. According to the Wall Street Journal, even Iran is happy to import Caterpillar equipment via a European subsidiary.
It's a complex situation and I'm conflicted about it, but I think that at the very least, Caterpillar should look more seriously into the matter in a public and transparent way.

News:

• BBC News examines Egypt's ongoing niqab row. A veild employee in one of Talat Harb's ubiquitous clothing stores is quoted as saying "The Sheikh won't affect my decision to wear it. I feel more relaxed in this. Men aren't looking at me. I feel closer to God." Many women beg to differ, some even suggesting that veiling has fueled an increase in harassment.
• CNN offers the Egyptian response to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award.
• A 23-year-old woman from Giza became the third H1N1 fatality in Egypt this week.
• The Louvre has given in to Zahi Hawass's demands that allegedly stolen artifacts be returned to Egypt where, if they're exposed to the kinds of conditions that exist the Egyptian Museum, they'll be degraded worn down by the hands of curious foreign and Egyptian visitors.

At this stage in the game, needing more of my words-per-minute to line the many still-blank pages of my thesis, I'll be spending fewer minutes blogging. So, without further ado, straight to the news and issues:

Strange bedfellows, the US and Egypt, have gotten a resolution on free speech passed at the UN Human Rights Council. Egyptian ambassador Hisham Badr made clear what Egypt's aims were: "“the joint US-Egypt resolution is key to achieving balance on the issue of incitement that erupted in the world after September 11." To me it seems like free speech advocates are trying to use an anti-incitement, anti-defamation resolution to further free speech in the Muslim world while others hope to use a free speech resolution to restrict free speech when they find it offensive to their religious sensibilities. Free expression group Article 19 is nervous that the resolution seems to defend religions rather than believers.

Protesters at Al-Azhar demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinian protesters barred from entering Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) following a riot last week.

The Muslim Brotherhood is finding itself pulled in several directions ideologically even as the Egyptian government cracks down and the press lashes out. Friday morning, 15 members of the MB were arrested.

Mubarak urges Israel to rethink its Middle East strategy.

Trash heaps crowd out fears of swine flu in working class Cairo neighborhoods.

Human rights group pressure Egyptian government to intervene on behalf of its citizens in Saudi Arabia.

Factions in Egypt's Christian community trade barbs. The Coptic Orthodox Church apparently fears Evangelical missionary efforts, while Evangelicals are saying members are leaving Orthodox churches because of stagnancy and unresponsiveness to changing times.

Cairo Comeback

Last night was the easiest and most pleasant of my arrivals at Cairo International Airport. The combination of knowing the system, arriving at the most modern terminal, having my bags be among the first to roll out onto the carousel, and having two great friends waiting on the other side of customs to pick me up made returning a whole lot easier and more fun.
I flew EgyptAir which, while not the most glamorous airline, managed to accomodate me with a vegetarian meal. Their in-flight magazine, Horus, was distinctly Egyptian, obsessively providing titles with every name mentioned-CEO Pilot such and such, etc. And then, there was the laughably bombastic article by Zahi Hawass, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities who spent pages name-dropping, talking about palling around with Obama, and then reliving in detail his personal battle against an Exxon-Mobil exec. So the literature wasn't inspiration, the cabin wasn't especially luxurious nor was the service exceptionally attentive, but the view out my window as we made our final descent was magical. The green lights of the mosques and minarets twinkled brightly within the otherwise orangey-yellow glow of the city whose contours were shaped by the complete darkness of the desert.
From the airport, Marise and Phil spirited me off to the Trianon on the Nile Dragon riverboat where the French music and tasty food at our Nileside table eased even more my transition from Europe back to Egypt. It being Ramadan and me being a glutton, I ordered an entire konafa, having a piece there and bringing the rest of it back home.
Speaking of home, my apartment has a new shine. During my absence, my friend, classmate, and travel companion, Phil moved in with Cynthia and has been conscientious about getting our friend Erin's cleaning lady over. The internet, the water, and the electricity are all functioning as well as the washing machine. Most of these, at some time or another, had gone out over the summer. My AC worked last night but seems only moments ago to have broken again. At least it's not August, I suppose.
I woke up relatively early this morning after spending the early morning hours catching up with Cynthia and Phil. The reality of my being back is upon me--I already got a call from the human rights law department confirming my enrollment in one of their classes and had a little rudimentary Arabic conversation with the gas man whom I had the pleasure of paying. I have class tonight out on the new campus...from 8 - 10:30 PM. The Ramadan schedule is en rigueur for the next couple of weeks and I'm not especially keen on it. Ma3lesh. I'm sure Palestinian Refugee Issues will be a great course. It's with the same professor I had for International Refugee Law and Comparative Migration Law, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I don't start my fellowship duties for a while yet, so I'm not sure of my hours or the details on that.
In less egocentric news:

As the US condemns continued Israeli settlement in Palestine, the Palestinians are calling for other Arab nations to stand in solidarity with them against the illegal move. The next steps Israeli PM Netanyahu will have to be careful ones as he balances pressure from the right-wing with internal and international pushes for peace.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian government's renovations of Jewish historical sites have caused some Egyptians to reconsider the role Jews have played in Egyptian history.

  I polished off my Migration and Development reaction paper today, only to move on to the final draft of my thesis proposal.  The latter is actually quite enjoyable since a thesis is so much more a personal thing.  

  All over the news are reports of the swine flu and its pandemic potential.  Some nations are even issuing travel warnings to not only Mexico, but the States as well.  It's strange to feel so unaffected by virtue of being in Egypt.  Usually it's the other way around: "Oh good, another case of bird flu?  Parasites in the water?  Bilharzia in the Nile? Pollution so thick you can taste? Wish I were in America."  For now, I'm glad the pigs are so far away.

News:

  An entry in a Discover Magazine blog discusses bird flu in Egypt and swine flu in the Americas and peoples' reactions to them.

  Factional violence continues to threaten unity in Palestine (video) :  Muslim Brotherhood distances itself from Hizbullah terror cell

A clip from Al-Jazeera English on the most recent Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Change is (up) in the air

Strangely, since I've gotten back it's hit me that Egypt, of all places, and AUC and my group of friends have come to represent stability. Over the last seven years, I haven't spent more than a couple of years in one place and each of the past three academic years has been on a different continent. Making new friends, starting new academic programs, and adapting and re-adapting to cultures is invigorating, but also exhausting. Taking this into account and understanding the value of having a Master's degree as competition increases with the decrease in job availability, remaining in Egypt for another semester (ideally) or two (if necessary) seems the most prudent course of action academically and professionally at this point.
Last night my thoughts were racing as I prepared mentally to go to the new campus to argue to be able to change classes (it may technically beyond the add deadline, though not the drop). I got up early and headed to the Greek Campus just to see one more time if Eman might be able to help me. Lo and behold, she called up the associate registrar who said that there was no problem and that I could bring in the appropriate forms next week. Now, if there's one thing I've learned attending AUC it's not to get my hopes up. As it stands, though, I am positioned to be able to switch into a much more pertinent class and into the Master's program early next week.
I won't know until next month whether or not I've been accepted to the language program for the summer in Cairo, so when exactly I'll do my thesis is still up in the air. At any rate, I will be in America at some point during the summer to give speeches to Rotary clubs in central Illinois. I'll admit that the idea of doing so originally terrified me, but the desire to share the richness of my experience here and the things I've learned far trumps my fear of public speaking and I am more than ready and very excited.
Law class yesterday was pretty interesting, at least for me. We sat outside (whoever is responsible for unlocking classrooms must've taken the day off) in the courtyard in the late afternoon sun, birds chirping, learning about consular protection. A bit dry for some, but because of my interest in the State Department, I was all ears.
Immediately after our course, a sizeable number of us went directly to the CMRS Seminar which, last night, consisted of Philip Rizk showing his film, This Palestinian Life, and answering questions. The film was fantastic. It showed a part of Palestine-rural areas of Gaza and the West Bank-whose inhabitants rarely get to be heard. The people interviewed range from the poetic to the candid to the humorous, but all are extraordinarily resilient in the face of manmade tragedy. There was no anti-Israeli vitriole and no call for violence. Hopefully the film will be made available on YouTube so that I can share it on the blog sometime soon. Philip himself was well-spoken, radiating an aura of calm, and about ten feet tall. Out of respect for that fact that he wants emphasis not to be placed on his detention, but on the ongoing hardships of the Palestinian people, only an occasional indirect mention was made about his ordeal by questioners. Needing to speak to Ray, who was moderating, about my course switch, and then to leave with a group headed for the Greek Club, I didn't get a chance to ask more about Diaa Gad afterward, but have since sent Philip a note to see what he has to say.
One of the questioners, a rather effervescent native of Southern California who had lived in Gaza for sometime, went on a mini-tirade against Evangelical Christians and their categorical support for Israel. Derisive, smug laughter at various comments bubbled of from the crowd of students, expats, academics, and NGO workers. Many of them, I'd guess, would like to paint themselves as more worldly or more righteous, but I think they're missing a far more complex reality and writing Evangelicals off too quickly. Needless to say, I wasn't as amused as much of the crowd. Philip himself went to Wheaton College and, though I am not sure about the details of his faith and religious beliefs, I suspect he knows the situation is more nuanced than Christians simply being irrational fundamentalists. For me, my Christianity is what drives me to be so deeply aggrieved by the gross mistreatment of the Palestinian people not only by Israel, but by the rest of Arab world and the international community as a whole. Though I consider myself simply Christian, my immediate family has for over ten years attended Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, a part of the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches. I don't recall ever hearing a message there offering an explicit position on Israel or Palestine, but I've heard quite a few about loving one's neighbors and one's enemies. Given conversations I've had at home and comments like these replying to an opinion published in the Peoria Journal Star, I know there are a great many in the States that are misinformed or underinformed about the conflict. And, I'll admit that many in the Christian community have found spurious Biblical claims to back up their blind support of Israel action, whatever it may be, but by and large, I think that many Christians are open-minded and desire to understand what's really going on. They suffer from the same lack of good information that most other Americans do. So, khelas (enough!) with the overgeneralizing of American Christians and, at the same time, enough with the ignorance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Links on Palestine:
Economist article on American-Israeli relations vis-à-vis Palestine
B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

News:
Nour, former candidate for Egyptian presidency, unexpectedly released from prison yesterday
US Senator Kerry visits Gaza, American school destroyed by Israeli offensive
Egypt not keen on having Shalit release linked to truce between Israelis and Hamas

Carlsday Eve

I've never thought of Valentine's Day as a particular exciting holiday-gone are the fun days of primary school Valentine parties, so I've long since decide to consider the 14th February Carlsday Eve in honor of, well, myself. Tomorrow's my 23rd birthday and I spent the run up to it in style-doing nothing. Well, I did laundry, read for class, and a little genealogy. Ross and I got koshary for dinner and juice with Phil afterwards. Another day in downtown Cairo. I'm thinking tomorrow I might wander into Islamic Cairo or somewhere remotely more historic than my living room.
Philip Rizk's blog was deactivated by State Security and so he's opened a new one here. You can also find it in my blogroll. He's been very clear about his desire that the focus now shift from him to the fact that there is another blogger and Gaza activist who is still being detained, but who does not enjoy the crossborder connections and dual nationality that ostensibly protected Philip from physical harm and an even more protracted detention; and of course, more largely, the conflict in Gaza. Because I only support non-violent activism and protest, I am doing some fact-checking before including more information on the other bloggers and activists that were detained.

Links:
Daily News Egypt article on Rizk, Gaza
Israel presses for truce to be contingent on prisoner release
"Egypt says Obama team understands Israel must stop settlements"
Perceived stalemate not a reason for American inaction in Israeli-Palestinian conflict

February birthdays and Arab-Israeli conflict

Tonight my friend and classmate Cara and I are having a joint birthday party at Sequoia, an outdoor Nileside lounge, restaurant, and bar. She turned 24 on the 8th and I will be 23 on the 15th. February's a big birthday month in my family-my dad's on the 25th, my cousin, the 18th, my aunt, the 16th and so on. It's hard to know that thousands of miles away in the States my family are going about their lives: working, going to school, having parties of their own, going to sports games, dealing with challenges that come their way, etc., while I am living my own life here. Despite all that, it's worth it. I am feeling more acclimated and more and more like coming here was an excellent and wise decision despite the sacrifices. I'm thankful that my family is so supportive as well.
Another February birthday was yesterday, Philip Rizk's. Since his abduction and subsequent release, my mind has again returned to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the situation in Gaza. In this vein, I hope that the regular readers of my blog were able to watch the video clip I posted yesterday. Knowing that the conflict is a hugely touchy subject, I assure you that my approach is one of balance and an attempt at understanding the conflict from both sides. But with that said, I have opinions and convictions about the matter and won't apologize for it. The conclusions I have come to are not necessarily fixed–a closed mind is inimical to progress, but I believe I am informed enough to hold them defensibly as they are now. Like many Americans, I have friends and acquaintances on both sides of the conflict and am torn in my sympathies. What it comes down to though is that the current siege on Gaza is inhuman and cruel. The video clip I posted in my previous entry was produced by a UN agency that receives US funding, not by a fringe group or ideological extremists. When I get more time, I hope to craft a more coherent and comprehensive entry on the history of the conflict for those who may be unfamiliar with it.

News:
Rizk's account of his detention
Possible truce between Hamas and Israel:

Conversion from Islam to Christianity in Egypt brings instability and fear of reprisal
International watchdog group criticizes Mideast states' repression of press

Gaza

Update on Philip Rizk

I just came back from AUC where I spoke with a friend who was at the High Court yesterday where the director of our program and, later, another faculty member were trying to assist in Philip's release. While there, they were made to stand inside a pen surrounded by riot police.
While one report said that he was being held at police headquarters downtown, another said Philip was at Lazoghli Prison. Apparently, the German Embassy had initially been notified that he was out of police custody (he had been "officially" released and then subsequently was adbucted), but is now up to speed and acting on his behalf. Complicating matters was AUC's grand (late) inauguration attended by the First Lady, Suzane Mubarak and many other high profile dignitaries. Because of this, cell phones were prohibited leaving the German ambassador out of contact.
Following are more articles and updates including the description of Philip's abduction by a blogger who was present:

"The Kidnapping of Philip Rizk"
"Christian blogger held in Egypt" from Christianity Today
"Rizk’s family file case against Banha police, faculty to demand AUC intervention" from the AUC student publication, The Caravan

I cannot begin to understand the logic behind jailing a non-violent activist. If anything, the government is going to motivate other pro-Palestinian supporters to more vigorous activism. I wish there were something I could do, but I'm not sure another naïve Westerner in a keffiyah would be of much use at this point. Phil, a legitimate activist acquainted with the complexities of the Palestinian situation has a network of family members, journalists, bloggers, and other activists and friends going to bat for him. Insha'Allah, all will pan out in the end.
Though it seems selfish to catalog the rest of my day when this poor kid's in prison, I need to keep up the blog. The weather is gorgeous, in the 70s. I went out to mail a thank you letter to my friend in Paris, to get correspondence that had been waiting for me in the Migration & Refugee Studies office for weeks, and to get koshary. I also ended up being useful to at least two people today: On my way back from koshary, passing a shop in which Valentine's Day anticipation had exploded all over everything in the form of fuzzy red hearts, fake flowers, and the cheesiest tokens and signs of "love", I saw a Western woman peering puzzledly at a guidebook. Initially I walked passed without a second thought; this is, at least for this year, my neighborhood and running up to chat with other non-Egyptians here simply because they're non-Egyptians has absolutely no appeal. This poor woman looked quite lost, though, so I went and asked where she'd hoped to go. She turned out to be Brazilian but lives in Houston, Texas and was visiting while her husband, an oil company employee, was in meetings. She'd gotten far off course, so I walked her to a road that went straight north to the square she was looking for. I figured with no turns, it was more than likely she'd arrive eventually. I felt good being able to help someone and having a sense enough of Cairo to be able to accurately direct her.
I came back to my apartment in hopes of cleaning up my living room in preparation for having people over to watch Walz with Bashir, but got a call from Erin who was at her AUC office and need computer help. Luckily, I was able to figure out how to be of assistance. It was there that she filled me in on the goings-on with Philip Rizk. It's really disconcerting that the Egyptian government is holding an AUC graduate student, activist, blogger without charge. Egyptian prisons are notorious for mistreatment and I hope and pray Philip isn't subjected to that. He was supposed to be our CMRS lecturer during the Wednesday night lecture series; despite not knowing him firsthand, it hits close to home.

Egyptian Police Holding AUC Graduate Student, Blogger

An Egyptian/German dual national who is a graduate student at the American University in Cairo has been arrested, apparently without charge, and is being held at police headquarters here in downtown Cairo. An advocate of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Philip keeps a blog called Tabula Gaza.
The following are articles covering both his arrest and his previous activism:

"Egypt police detain Egyptian-German activist"
"Activists Begin 'March to Gaza'"
"'We Will Stay on Our Land'"

Presenting Palestine

As I mentioned, the most notable event of my day was attending the first of six parts of a documentary called Chronicles of a Refugee that deals with the Nakba and the subsequent hardships of the Palestinians. The film itself was fairly well-done and provided a human face for the tragedies of the late 1940s, but the speakers afterward were inappropriate in much of what they had to say. As someone in search of the most balanced view of the Arab-Israeli conflict, I was offended at remarks aimed at minimizing the gravity of the Shoah and those suggesting that the economic downturn and any ill effects it had for America would somehow benefit the Palestinians. While I realize that for these speakers, all three Palestinian, the issue is particularly salient and emotionally charged, the only way to solve anything will be through compromise and the acceptance that the other side is indeed human as well.
I chatted with my neighbor Catherine and some of our Egyptian friends about the event before heading to get koshary and then to my apartment. Maged called me while I was sitting down to type up an entry and I joined him and his friends (who, together with a dozen or so others comprise a Christian worship band who perform on Egyptian television, or so I gather). Most of the conversation was in Arabic, so I spent time trying to pick out words I knew and trying to read the Arabic on ketchup packets and signs in the street.
Most of my pre-documentary hours were spent retooling my paper for my intro class. I'm now writing about the relationship between the evolution of the nation-state and immigration and refugees. It already seems like a pretty interest subject to delve into.

News:
Egypt beefs up police presence on border with Gaza
US State Dep't to encourage online youth movements (including one in Egypt) to fight terrorism, political oppression
Sectarian clash in Ain Shams (the neighborhood where I teach English)