Sunday, May 30, 2010

مصر

The best way I can possibly convey the craziness of Egypt is through a listing of unrelated, completely separate instances, so here I go:

On the plane to Cairo: The safety video featured a Jimmy-Neutron-like animated character with a unibrow.  He announced that electronic devices were to be switched off during take-off and landing, with the unusual exceptions of handheld electric shavers and small handheld calculators, which apparently are normal items to use during take-off and landing and do not interfere with the navigational equipment on the plane.

In the Al Azhar Gardens: A boy ran up to his family with two flowers.  I assumed one was for his mother and one was for his sister.  Instead, he gave one to his brother and ran away with the other one for himself.

On the street: A man approached, and got closer and closer very slowly and deliberately, and when he was breathing down my neck, said in the creepiest voice possible: "Welcome to Egypt".

Outside Amr ibn al-As Mosque after Friday prayer: A man selling watermelon on a cart.  He has opened up several watermelons and is holding a piece in each hand.  He is holding them above his head, and screaming at the top of his lungs as the juices run down his arms.  He sticks one of the pieces into a woman's mouth, forcing her to take a bite.  I have never seen someone so excited about watermelon in my entire life.


At the airport in Cairo: The guard decides that Justin cannot bring glass of any kind onto the plane, even without liquid inside.  I try to ask him why glass is not allowed on the plane, but instead of responding to the question, he then takes all of Justin's Egyptian pounds as baksheesh and says there is no problem.


Every man on the street: "You're a lucky man." (to Justin)  "Are you Egyptian?" (in English)


Marriage proposals: "200 camels."  "Five million thousand camel."  "You.  You and me.  Right here.  Right now.  Do you want babies?"


In Luxor: A man tried to sell a normal size bottle of Gatorade to me for 35 LE, which is the equivalent of over six dollars.  He tried to tell me it cost more than American Gatorade because it comes from Italy, which doesn't make sense since that is less than half the distance to America.

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