Seasonal greetings from Cairo: "Happy Thanksgiving" to those Americans amongst you (yes yes, for yesterday I know), "Eid Mubarak" to my Muslim readers, and a mixture of the two for those who are lucky enough to be both!
This year Thanksgiving and Eid al-Adha have fallen in the same week, so there are plenty of festivities and a nice couple of days off work. I have to confess to being something of a novice at the Thanksgiving part of the holiday, but I was given a great introduction by the CASA fellows at Rebecca's Zamalek apartment last night. A veritable feast, turkey and cranberry sauce included, was provided by the 35 or so attendees and the hosts and a good time was had by all! Andrea was particularly pleased that her stuffing was so well received (real pork, that's the trick), and we even managed to come away with some leftovers, which will be breakfast for the foreseeable future.
I plan to write about Eid in more depth later today or tomorrow, but right now, there is a LOT of washing up to do, so I'll leave you with two excellent articles:
Thanksgiving: a displaced Brit writes... - Funny and accurate, a Brit who has moved to the US gives thanks for things in his new country.
Gobble Gobble: Thanksgiving in Egypt - ETC and Bikya colleague Andrew Cornetta writes about Thanksgiving in Egypt and the shared celebration with Eid.
After spending a few quiet days outside Nuweiba on a beautiful sandy beach (Softbeach, last post), we decided that it was really getting a little too warm to be sleeping without AC and headed to Dahab - Sharm's slightly less tacky and quiter little sister an hour or so up the coast. Dahab is a wonderful little town. Yes it's touristy and yes some things are a little more expensive than they would be elsewhere in Egypt, but generally it's an excellent place to lie down next to the sea in an open air cafe and enjoy some good sea food and sheesha and not really do very much. So, for the last couple of days that is all we've done (along with a touch of obligatory snorkelling of course). Tonight I'm hoping to catch the Spurs match and then it's back on the road, and we have a 9 hour overnight bus ride back to Cairo to look forward to, followed by a Meedan shift and teaching at the Coptic Cathedral tomorrow. This last week has been just what the doctor ordered though, definitley worth the horrible bus rides.
For the first time since arriving in Egypt, I now have reliable access to wireless in my place of residence. Gone are the days of sharing a cable so worn that it has to be combined with a screwdriver to connect to my laptop. Andrea and I have, after much to-ing and fro-ing over the decision, moved to a new apartment. Charming as the old place was, the noise from the "samkaree" on the street below as he vainly pounded at already-battered old cars was starting to send us both slightly crazy, and after a minor brawl on the street outside we decided it was time to go. Thankfully the landlord, a true gentleman, was happy to return our deposit to us, allowing us to look for another place. A couple of days and a quick flat search later we moved into the new place, which is considerably larger, with WiFi and a washing machine for the same price. All in all a good deal I'm sure you'll agree. The flat itself is looking good, decorated with Egyptian movie posters (some classy, some not-so) I'm rushing a little at the moment so no pics as yet, but soon I promise.
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