Ends

In the past week, I defended my MRS thesis - which turned out great because I passed. For some reason I could hardly do much after that, and have since then been in a state of quagmire - more like slack. It’s been a hard rough road and oh! how am glad it’s getting to the end yet the end is only the beginning. For now am smiling and trying to get some more work done, never stops. In fact it’s getting addictive.

My teaching assistant work came to an end today, wonderful experience. Last week I had to be a judge for a moot court class which was a final exam for the International Dispute settlement class. The students had amazing confidence, what’s even more interesting is that I took this class two years ago and I never had that much confidence.With the tables changing so much in life, I recalled that I was once standing there being judged and there I was being a judge - things do get modified. 

Yesterday some of my friends and I went to Shoubra - interesting neighborhood in Cairo, what were we there for? In search of a baladi bar. We got off two metro stops before the bar and walked about 60 blocks to find the place - apart from wearing me out, the walk turned out to be interesting, we experienced  different dynamics being in a majorly Coptic part of Cairo than what we experience in other parts. A little bit of cat calling, however people seemed to generally ignore us. In part I felt slightly invisible to what I feel being in downtown Cairo. Well, well, the baladi bar was something else. There is no bathroom for women; the norm is that it’s only men who hit the bar in this zone. We also got served a huge amount of vegetables with Stella beers which I found rather boring. Why do I think animal and bird flesh accompanies the activity of drinking alcohol? Am not sure why this is my argument considering the fact that I am still a beer virgin. I resorted to the dear  Ol'Sprite which did pay off when my bill turned out to be 5le for two sprite bottles and my friends bills were three times what I paid for the same number. One lesson am learning from watching consumers of alcohol is that if I want to save up for the finer things in life - which Ida and I would agree revolve around getting around this  big wide world I might have to be an alcohol virgin for a long time.

Baladi bars appear to be the best places to have interactions with local Egyptians. This I must admit is something that we miss out on being at an American institution especially in the Gradate program. For one several of the tudents who attend grad school here are generally widely traveled or most of them in my program are from abroad. Because of this we tend to assume that we are having amazing mufti-cultural interactions, when in essence we miss out on the local Egyptian experience. So last night we got to interact with some interesting men at the bar, of course not I in particular. I have developed a concept of men in Egypt that stops me from desiring any kind of contact with them on any level. The old men sitting next to my table seemed pretty respectful, they insisted I follow my friend to the bathroom when she went to use it because there were men using the loo and it would be quite unsafe for her to be there by herself. They also said good night on their way out. This is the most interaction I appreciate.

One of us in the group got into a long conversation with the men across from the table told us we were the 'light of Cairo' basically meaning: We were welcome to Cairo. There is something about Arabic, the poetry of the language and the depth of it that sometimes makes me want to spend years learning it. I want to grasp Arabic, French and Portuguese and these I know I will learn before am 50 years old. If I can dedicate two years to each language starting January 2012 I will achieve this goal, sa?

  

We had a very long and in-depth conversation last night on culture, love, race and life. In two languages, French and English, it was stimulating and intense; we left the bar at about 12:30am. I want to have more of these; I wish I was here for much longer with the same crowd of people :). There were ideas thrown out by everyone about intrigues and concepts that I found deeply insightful. In so many ways it’s a wonderful way to end an era, sharing what we have learned over the years and from being together as well. We have been shaped by each other and experiences. I hope that I can go away a much better person than I was when I first came to Cairo.

I feel like this week is going to be the end of an era, we are having a farewell party for one of my friend's who is leaving Cairo for good. It’s going to be sad, yet I am never sure what leaving Cairo for good means seeing as everyone always seems to return at some point. What matters most is that we are having a party tonight and we are going to have fun!! - of this am sure.