I've been shirking my writing duties again, my apologies. I spent the rest of St Patrick's Day in a decidely un-Irish fashion: eating sushi in Doqqi with Michelle, Marise, Phil, and Marise's mom. The place, called "Bob's Sushi", is tiny but suprisingly has a leg up on all of the sushi joints in Central Illinois. The quality is inversely proportionate to the size of the restaurant itself which only has two tables. I think they're primarily a delivery venture. The menu is uninentionally witty, offering "Pisces" of sushi rather than pieces. Clever, clever.
Following our repast, we had tea at Marise's. In French, Marise's mom and I discussed religion, French authors from Albert Camus to Victoire Hugo, existentialism, Egyptian history, and more while I snacked on a Turkish delight leftover from Moulid an-Nabi.
Yesterday, after law class, we went to an eventful seminar on the provision of psycho-social services to the refugee community. The presence of a disturbed man who claims to have been a lawyer, but is now disabled did more to hit home the bleak situation for refugees in Egypt than anything the panel described. Afterward, a bunch of us went to the Italian club (alas without Italians, finding ourselves subject to the 10 LE cover charge). I invited Ablavi, my neighbor, and her colleague from CEDEJ. Afterward, we strolled leisurely back through downtown to our building. Speaking of our building, in the process of trying to shorten the length of my contract, I received an email from my landlord telling me he would no longer be "in the business" as of the 1st of April and that his brother and a couple of female relatives would be handling things from then on. I'm not sure what that means or whether our good ol' landlord's in the country, but I think that overall, it's an excellent development.
I receive another email, this one from local Rotarians, inviting me to join a medical caravan to aid people with limited access to medical care here in Cairo. I'll be doing that on the 27th if all goes as planned.

News:
Egypt wants US, Europe to recognize and engage Palestinian government even if Hamas plays a major role
Call to prayer migrates from Cairo to Berlin in the form of a play
Israel to investigate war crimes claims

Notre Musique

Yesterday evening, I attended the CMRS seminar on protection and the roles of refugees in the humanitarian aid process. The lecturer, Anne Cubilié, also talked a bit about her experiences in Afghanistan and her interviews with woman and how their perceptions of themselves as people who simply aren't witnesses has shaped how they remember events and the narratives they construct to understand their experiences. I sat with my friend journalist friend, Liam, and chatted about with him, Anne, Maysa from the CMRS office, and another woman (Alana, might've been her name?) who's originally Palestinian. We then headed to Zamalek, where we were going to get coffee, but that turned into dinner and I already had plans, so I had to duck out, unfortunately.
At my friend Ewelina's apartment, a bunch of us gathered to watch Notre Musique over pizza from Maison Thomas (with their special Argentine sauce, of course). I really enjoyed the movie but, as others pointed out, it demands a second-watching to catch all of the symbolism. Every other line was as something from a book. So many different languages were used and conflicts touched upon, tying the human community together in a unique way. In one scene, a French-Israeli woman is interviewing a Palestinian author and they are speaking Hebrew and Arabic, respectively, without a translator.
Following the film, Andrea, who lives in my neighborhood and at whose place we watched the last Godard flick, headed to Metro Market in order for me to grab some long-awaited groceries (yogurt!) quickly before we hopped in a cab back to Bab al-Luq.
Not being able to fall asleep (quelle surprise) I listened to some NPR Talk of the Nation podcasts that were really interesting. One discussed whether or not it would be wise to bail out the auto industry, another the forgery of religious artifacts in the Middle East, and another tried to show that not all government lobbyists were bad people.
Tomorrow, my new host counselor, Omaima has graciously invited me to her house for lunch in Ma'adi. Setting the time at 3, she's a woman after my own time schedule! It should be fun.

News:
Article on Barbara Harrell-Bond, refugee advocate and former AUC professor
Emergency meeting on Somali piracy held in Cairo
Che Guevara's daughter comes to Egypt