In the interim

With all of the moving out and in confusion, I couldn't make it to Cairo for my weekly Church experience.

So I took this quiz instead.

Home Sweet Home

Tammam and I moved out yesterday. The night before we talked to our landlady, and things got a little heated. By that, I mean that she personally insulted Tammam several times, started yelling, demanded a raise in our rent above what she previously demanded, and wanted more for a security deposit. It was a very uncomfortable hour-long talk. It ended with, "Pay up or get out" as the conveyed message.

So we packed up, canceled classes, and moved out. All that really means is that we looked at apartments while all of our stuff was sitting in our friends' houses in our same building. And we did this secretly, so that we could leave at any time should our landlady try to go nuts on us again.

Well, I wanted John to leave here feeling the best he could about a bad situation, and he wanted to talk to her, so we went. In the most unpredictable turn of events, she reversed every single decision that she had made the night before and couldn't have been more reasonable with us. It was unbelievable. And she offered us chocolates, too.

And so now we're back. Home sweet home.

What a crazy 24 hours.

Microbuses

What is the plural of microbus?

Yesterday I saw a taxi zooming along next to a microbus and the passengers were making change through the windows. It was amazing. And probably really dangerous, and a pretty common occurrence.

I get down on Egypt sometimes but one thing I do like is the feeling of community here. Kind of reminds me of the Latter-day Saints sometimes. In a microbus this morning a lady got on with two children, and the man next to me picked up one of the children and held her while the mom was trying to get her other child and her bag situated. Makes me think of a Latter-day Saint family moving in to a new neighborhood and the ward comes over to help out.

"Who is that driving away with your kids?"

"I don't know, someone from the Relief Society I guess."

An Unexpected Poem

My friend Hayley wrote a poem, and I was pleasantly surprised by it.

The Academic Partner Chronicles

If you'll remember my last post about Aya, she knows when I'm not paying attention.

So sometimes she asks me questions about what she just explained, while I sit there and try to think of the dim recollection of words that were just spoken to me.

Today she gave me a piece of candy, and we started the lesson. After a while I started exhibiting signs of sleepiness, and she asked, "Do I need to give you another piece of candy?"

She did need to.

Amazing

So I just read Dan's e-mail about what we accomplished in only three days, and he mentioned that we visited: 3 countries, 2 continents, and 8 border points.

In three days.

That's nuts.

My Academic Partner, the Psychic

I have a new academic partner, Aya, and she's a psychic. She knows exactly when I'm thinking, "Hmm, this is boring, I think I'll try nodding off". Or, "Hmm, this is boring, I'll try to sneak a glance at the clock".

And then she calls me out on it.

Maybe it's not ESP. Maybe she's one of those people that can tell you're lying by looking at you, like the guys in Blink, or that TV show that I've never seen and can't remember the name of. Maybe all she has to do is look at you and what you are thinking is evident all over your face.

Or as Tammam would say, YA FACE! Like Dave Chappelle.

Welcome in... Jordan?

I went to Jordan the other day, saw Wadi Rum and Petra, stayed a night in the desert and in Aqaba.

We were held for several hours at the Israeli/Egyptian border, and most of us were questioned and our passports were taken for a while. Luckily for me, they didn't stamp mine. Unluckily for pretty much everyone else, theirs were stamped. Poor Dan had his stamped after he filled out all of the appropriate paperwork, too. Simone's was the only other that wasn't stamped, so two out of seven isn't bad, right?

On the way back, my bag was searched at the Israeli/Jordanian border. They found Harry Potter 3 in Arabic, and that necessitated a questioning. Suspicious reading, Harry Potter.

Honestly, though, that wasn't so bad and I feel like it's just part of the experience. The real thing was the scam in Egypt. Our friend had to pay 200LE to get through because some scammers were working with the police that were stamping passports. Scammers and police are synonymous in Egypt. I'm not joking. The guy went and told the cop not to stamp her passport, and she had to pay for them to write her a letter of permission to enter the country.

What a joke. I mean, really. I enjoyed the border tax scam, because I didn't have any stamps, so I didn't have to pay the tax. The guy wasn't too happy about that, especially since I was being obnoxious about it. He knew I had stamped another piece of paper, but couldn't prove it. That was fun. Dan told me that he crossed with Simone a time before and they didn't have stamps, so while she was eating Israeli brand chips the Egyptians were fuming because they couldn't prove anything and thus couldn't scam them this time.

Seeing Jordan only reinforced my views that Egypt is a blight on the Arab world.