Time for a Change

(Pictures below!)

I've had about four different posts stewing in my drafts box for the past two weeks, one about Israel, one about feminism in Egypt, one about Middle Eastern food, and one about the recent political changes in the region.  But for whatever reason I just haven't been able to finish any of them up. Frankly, I've been feeling disconnected from Egypt recently.  I went to Tahrir last week, where there was one of the biggest demonstrations since Mubarak fell, but I left feeling sort of nihilistic and nonplussed.  I've been a little more plugged in this past week as Tahrir continues its transformation into 24-hour street protest festival complete with music, snacks, and souvenirs. Regardless, it's been sort of a slow transition back into Egypt since returning from my trip, and I've concluded that my "job" is a big reason behind my ennui.

To summarize my recent existence, I've been pseudo-supporting myself these past weeks in Egypt by writing how-to articles for the internet (putting my college degree to good use!).  But being forced to spend my days at home in front of my computer for most of the day, reading and writing about things that have absolutely nothing to do with anything going on here, just consumes too much of whatever parts of my brain are normally so stimulated by the language and the life around me.  So instead of really savoring this great time in my life, I often am finding myself sort of restless and discontented.

I don't get to go out much, and when I do, it is usually with the small network of English-speaking friends with whom I like to maintain my friendships. That or I am hurrying to take care of some errands quickly, so I can get back home to work.  If it weren't for the shakshouka (if I get around to finishing my food post ever, you'll know more about that), that I regularly order from the sandwich stop near my house, my life would not really be all that different from how it might be in the States.

I could go to cafes and working from there, just for the sake of getting out, but the only ones that have internet tend to attract the crowd I normally am hanging out with anyway, while the more balady (not perfectly translatable, but it means something like "local" and "cheap") ones won't have internet.  Plus, I'm living off of some decidedly low funds, and I can't just go out and get coffee everyday from the nicer cafes with internet, so those Starbucks-like prices don't fit into the budget.  As a result, I stay home, insulated from the world around me.  And so while I can do this for a while, because I knew this is what I was getting myself into with the whole open-ended stay-in-Egypt plan, I know it is not sustainable forever.

What's more, because my day is already dominated by sitting in front of my computer writing, the motivation to sit in front of my computer and write for the blog takes a definite hit.  So, there's no doubt, I have to get myself a better job than this.  Sure, that ever-curious part of me does enjoy learning trivia all day about tonic water, vinyl record technologies, orange-stealing penalties in Florida, and the whole list of other totally unrelated topics that my job has made me learn all about, but I have to take advantage of my time here.  Not "I have to" like "I should."  "I have to" like if I don't, I will lose my shit.

Plus, it would be really be nice to not have to live on such a strict budget.

So basically, I need to get myself a job that connects me to Egypt more, and this is my anxious stand-in post to make up for recent blogging absence.  This past week has been better as I'm finding ways to speak a lot more Arabic during the days, and I'm reading a really neat book of short stories written in a mix of classical and Egyptian Arabic both.  I also played an awesome game called Rahala which was like Trivial Pursuit but exclusively for the Middle East, and I won, even beating a native Egyptian (I actually am putting my college degree to use, hooray!).  I finally have a nice little schedule where I get up, study vocab during breakfast, write an article, eat lunch while watching Arabic news, write some more, and then try and read some of my Arabic book.  It's not school or working with a tutor, but it's ok for now.  Life works its self out.  Now I just need to get out more with a real, substantive job.

To that end, I've got some plans and a few buns in the fire (I know I messed that phrase up, but I've decided to leave it for its comic value) that I don't want to jinx by saying them out loud here, but there are some possibilities that I'm letting myself feel a little excited about.  I'll keep you posted, loyal reader(s).

Aaaaaand here are some more pictures from my time with my parents in Egypt.

Souq on the walk to Khan el-Khalili

Shoppers in front of a tower seen on the same walk.

Graffiti painting being done in the back streets of the Khan.

View of Al-Azhar Mosque from half-way up its minaret...right before my camera died....

The Sounds of Egypt pt. 2: A Lebanese Sound in Egypt

And here's a snazzy video from a great group from Beirut that I saw play a show about a month ago here in Cairo.  Of all the music posted, this one is easily my favorite.  The name of the group, "Mashrou'a Leila" is a bit mysterious, because it has multiple meanings that the band has avoided explaining.  One meaning could be "Nighttime Construction," while another could be "Leila's Project."  I like that.

The Sounds of Egypt

Cairo is a loud city.  A cacophonous city.  Between the requisite perpetual use of car horns and Egyptians' tendency to speak with this kind of full-bellied, forceful volume, it is almost impossible to find quiet in the city. And suffusing it all are the sounds of a million shab's (young guys) phones playing there music out loud.  So here's some music from Egypt to give you a little feeling of the sound of life in Egyptian.  This post was inspired by being reminded of this first video, but then it turned into (as my posts so often do) something much more.

To start with, here's an awesome parody of Kanye West's future classic, "Flashing Lights" (in English).  The lyrics are ridiculously apt for my and many people I know's experience of Cairo.  I find the whole thing pretty hilarious, but it's a lot of inside jokes for Cairenes.  Nonetheless, if you can't find it funny, at least watch for some really great shots of many different parts of Cairo.

Next is a rather beautiful and thoughtful music video that touches on a lot of the nuances of modern marriage dynamics from the wildly popular Lebanese singer, Nancy Ajram.  I include her because she sings in the Egyptian dialect (which reflects how many Arabs--and, more importantly, Arab consumers--speak Egyptian [it helps that Egypt is by far the most populous Arab country]).  

Then we have Amr Diab, the most popular male Arab singer of all time.  You can see his coastal upbringing evident in this music video for my favorite song by him.  His style is shamelessly poppy (like much modern Arab pop music), but it's notable for being among the first (and certainly the most important) of its kind in the Middle East.  Some people call his style "Meditteranean," but this song's backtrack is basically something you could hear anywhere in the world without knowing where it was from until the words came in.  

Now it's not all kitschy crap that the kids are listening to, of course.  There is a thriving alternative/underground music scene here in Cairo, and the undisputed kings of this scene are the men of "Wust El-Balad" which means literally "middle of the country," but in Egyptian dialect is used to mean "downtown."  This band is so popular now, travelling and releasing albums around the region, it's probably not fair to call them underground anymore, but they are a prominent Egyptian band nonetheless.  I really don't care for their music at all, but I had to include them in a list of Egyptian music.

And finally, I can't respectably post about Egyptian music and not mention the all-time most renowned Egyptian singer of all time, Umm Kalthum.  It's practically impossible to overstate her popularity in the Arab world.  When she died, the numbers of people and the immensity of their despair rivaled that of Gamal Abd el-Nasser.  She even influenced some of the West's most iconic musicians.  Bob Dylan claimed in a Playboy interview that "She is great. She really is.  Really great."  She could supposedly sing in 7 different octaves at her peak.  Standing in front of a live a orchestra, she would still hold her mic a foot away from her face.  She still sells about a million albums a year, 36 years after her death.  She is a big deal.

By the way, to say "music" in Arabic, just say "moo-see-qa."  There, see?  You practically already know the whole language.