Last Law Class

Today, International Refugee Law began an hour early to compensate for the canceling of a post-Eid class. Only when the professor mentioned it in passing did I realize it was our last official session of that course. We're having a mini-class on Thursday dealing with Palestinian refugee issues, but otherwise, it's just the paper and the final left. I've really enjoyed the class by and large and have stuck with my assertion that it's my favorite of the three I've had this semester. We ended by discussing whether refugee law was even a viable field and that morphed into a discussion of refugee studies as a distinct field from migration studies.
My stomach is still on the fritz and I'm eating less so as not to anger it. I'm hoping to keep dodging the doctor and that it will resolve itself. My family will have to fatten me up again while I'm home for Christmas.

News:
Egypt "favors quiet diplomacy with Saudis" over abuse of doctors
Human rights committee spot-checking police stations
Egypt tackles AIDS stigma

Long Days of Essays

Yesterday and today were spent nearly entirely in the apartment, though I've had Ross to keep me company as he too has been obliged to buckle down and write, write, write. Last night, I went to a part in Zamalek and most of the people there were Egyptian, which is much better for benefiting from Egyptian culture (obviously). My stomach is still behaving in a most unfriendly fashion, but I don't think it's severe enough that I'll end up going to a doctor (at least I hope it's not).
I'm meant to hang out with the French kids I met at the part the other night sometime this week, and have plans to get a meal here and there with this or that classmate or friend, but other than that, I hope to be wildly productive in hacking away at the thousands of words I have left to write. Ross and I began to get loopy from cabin fever and microwaved Christmas Peeps that mysteriously appeared in our apartment thus making them balloon up to ten times their original size. Already, behaving like overgrown children, we played some pranks on our Togolese neighbor who was quick to reciprocate. Don't judge! If you were cooped up writing all day in an apartment in downtown Cairo, you'd succumb to a bit of craziness too. Ha. Catherine is moving out tomorrow (much to our landlord's pleasure, I'm sure) and we're meant to be getting a German neighbor in her place as of Monday. It's quite the multinational floor we have.
Though I'm really beginning to find my niche here, I'm excited to be coming home for the holidays to see friends and family. I'm sure my visit will be a busy one, but a lot of fun. I just have to make sure I find time to get all my Christmas gifts and souvenirs to bring back with me amidst my essay-writing.

News:
Egyptian physicist who worked in America for years returns to Egypt after having security clearance revoked
Egypt criticizes Hamas's preventing Muslims from Gaza making the pilgrimage to Mecca
Israel planning incursion into Gaza Strip

Thanksgiving

Despite my wistfulness at not spending this traditionally family holiday with my family, I ended up having a great Thanksgiving with friends and classmates and friends of classmates. At Brandy and Mary-Anne's flat in Zamalek, we had a pot-luck dinner complete with standards like stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salads, pumpkin pie (even if it was a bit Egyptian), and even, to my utter euphoria, a tiny bit of cranberry sauce. Chickens stood in for turkeys for the carnivores. Brandy also served delicious stuffed dates and hummus and veggies for appetizers, adding a little local flavor into the mix. As planned, I brought beet and arugula salad and Tunisian wine. The latter wasn't stellar, but certainly better than anything I've had in Egypt thus far, which is all one can really ask for. I only had a taste though because I've been popping pills left and right for sleeping, for shrinking mosquito bites (Claritin), and to deal with recently arisen stomach aches--oh Egypt, you've caught up with me! As to the last issue, I can only hope I don't have to go to a doctor. Anway, because the world is a very small place, I ended up meeting a Bretonne (a girl from Brittany, the area in France where I studied) who works in Alsace (the area in France where I visited relatives and where a bunch of my mom's ancestors came from) and is a Rotaractor. She'd lived in Egypt some ten or years ago while her father was working here and in Madagascar (where my former supervisor from my State internship is working currently). We yammered on in French about Egypt and Thanksgiving and Rotary all over delicious food. After dinner, a handful of us migrated to a friend's birthday party elsewhere in Zamalek and, though the party overall wasn't my scene, I ran into a French acquaintance I'd met a while back and met a few of his friends. One of them actually goes to school in Rennes (the city where I studied in the aforementioned region of Bretagne) but is from Paris. Of course, more gabbing in French ensued. After the party, Amanda and I had a nice walk through the quiet, mostly-empty neighborhood and ended up at Metro market where I did some spontaneous early-morning grocery-shopping. I caught a cab with one of the best cab-drivers I've had yet. I gave him the same amount I usually give cabdrivers when taxiing from Zamalek to Bab al-Luq, but he seemed genuinely polite and thankful when I handed him the money. Maybe he knew that's what Thanksgiving's all about. Ha. Anyway, it was refreshing, especially since I continually overpay and get sneered at anyway for not lavishing my apparently millions upon the cabbies. Anyway, I got a brief phone call from my dad and his wife while in the cab. They wished me happy Thanksgiving and, when I logged into my email before going to bed, I found out that my host counselor had too. She took the time to send me a Thanksgiving e-card. I got one from my mom too earlier in the day. So much Thanksgiving thoughtfulness!
Today, I'm getting back to work on my paper and treating my stomach with suspicion. When I'd begun to again become disheartened by the magnitude of the paper-writing left to do, I thought of my walk to Zamalek the other day. If I had thought when I was at my apartment of how long the walk was going to be and nothing else, I might've just hopped in a cab. Instead, I enjoyed each step along the way, allowing myself the possibility of taking a cab after each errand. I ended up walking the whole way and not thinking about how much time left or what the distance left was. I enjoyed each place I found myself for what it was. Now, this is obviously more applicable to how I view my time remaining in Cairo, but as far as my papers go, I can only take them step by step. I ought to forget obsessively clicking on the "word count" in Word to see how much academic torture remains and just get on with it. Nose to the grindstone!

News:
Story of a muezzin or prayer-caller in Cairo
Head of Cairo International Film Festival weighs in on future of Egyptian cinema
Moves toward reform in treatment of the mentally ill

Cabin Fever

Today has felt a lot like a day spent home sick only I wasn't sitting around guzzling Pepto Bismol and watching The World of David the Gnome. Instead, I spent six or seven mind-numbing hours writing about the integration of Somalis in Minnesota. I didn't leave the apartment AT ALL. So this is what all the complaining of grad school was about! After my brain turned to mush, I realized that I still have some 6000 words left in this paper alone and another 9000 looming over my head in the form of papers I have not yet begun.
To be nice to myself, I made a delicious dinner of stir-fried broccoli and mushrooms and penne in tomato and garlic sauce which I gobbled up while watching The Seventh Seal which turned out to be an excellent film.
Apart from talking to Ross when he got home, my human interaction today was limited to a couple of brief chats and then : one with Ablavi, my Togolese neighbor, in French--her electricity was out again and we managed to figure out how to push some wires together to make it work; and the other with the man that "cleans" the floors. He tried to rip me off, which just ticked me off (but not half as much as his previously-described doorbell-ringing antics). Dishonesty whether it comes from a landlord or a floor-cleaner seems to be the norm in this building.
Tomorrow, of course (or rather today since midnight has just come and gone), is Thanksgiving. I'm going to be joining some classmates for dinner in Zamalek. I'll be taking along some arugula and beet salad, some bread, and a bottle of non-Egyptian wine (a highly sought-after commodity since Egypt's wines are about as drinkable as vinegar).

News:
Israeli Defense Ministry official makes secret visit to Egypt to discuss Gaza
More anti-Christian violence in Ain Shams as thousands protest the construction of a church
Police beat Cairo University students protesting against Gaza blockade

Reading, Writing, and Christmas Shopping

Soon after I rolled out of bed this (early) afternoon, I decided that there was to be no belly-fattening lazing about the apartment. I gobbled up my muesli and yogurt and was out the door. The accumulation of dust on a car that hadn't been outside of my building for more than a day reminding me of snow piling up on vehicles in Minnesota, though I find snow much nicer and the prospect that there was already that much dust a bit disconcerting. Anyway, my first stop was the Greek Campus, where I picked up an encouraging letter from my friend Amy back in Minnesota. Sadly, there is still no trace of the package my mother sent me that I left behind in my errant end-of-class flightyness.
Next, I dropped by a Mobaco shop (of which there are a few in Paris in the neighborhood where I spent my summer a year and a half ago). They sell clothing made from Egyptian cotton at prices moderate in tourist terms but exorbitant in Egyptian terms. I got one article of clothing as a Christmas gift and then, because, wallahi, it's CHILLY at night here now I bought myself a zip-up hoody. As a hearty Minnesotan-born fellow, I am ashamed to say that my teeth now chatter when it gets into the low 60s. Following my shopping spree (so-defined because I spent more than $50--which, for a cheap-o like me is world-ending,) I remembered again how flabby I've been feeling and so skipped the cab ride and walked to Alfa Market in Zamalek to do my grocery shopping. Along my walk, I saw a man in the driver's seat of a car with his seat reclined, sleeping. Next to him, what I mistook from affair for a sleeping woman in a fancy galabaya was actually a Christmas tree which also appeared to be sleeping. I should've snapped a photo. I did managed to get a couple of fun photos at the grocery store where tacky Christmas décor seems to have been ralphed all over the rear display sections where Ramadan goodies once were hawked.
I derived a terrible sense of smug self-contentment when I saw some tourists scampering across the road and trying to dodge traffic. I love putting on my "jaded expat" face and stepping out in front of buses and taxis, though I think after only a quarter of a year here, my credibility is still quite low. Furthermore, I'll have to admit that every once in a while, I too am still a scamperer. Microbuses can be scary things! All this led me to reflect, though, about how much has changed about how I view Egypt since I've arrived. Despite my complaining and moments of misery, I've arrived at a sort of modus vivendi that helps me navigate life here while maintaing some level of sanity and event comfort. I've begun to be able to appreciate aspects of Egypt and even identify places, habits, and people that I'll sorely miss when I leave here. No, it's not home and not it's not France, but neither are the States or France Egypt (which is probably best for everyone involved.)

News:
Some in the Red Sea region see international efforts to stem piracy as Zionist conspiracy
Story on a sewing machine-repairman in Cairo
Nearly half of Egyptian wives have been abused by their husbands

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)

"And a pleasant, light breeze across much of Iraq," forecasts BBC World's weather service. I just watched the news over koshary after returning from watching the first installment in a six-part documentary on Palestine. I'll comment more on that later. Now, I'm off to meet Maged and some other Egyptians on Tahrir Sq. I've just gotten comfy on the sofa, but I figure interacting with real-live Egyptians is time better spent than half-heartedly researching and surfing the web.