Yesterday

last night was pretty fun.

my roommate and i went out to dinner at this italian place-- i felt kind of guilty, like i was caving to my own familiar tastes in food. but, quite honestly, there are not a lot of quality egyptian style restaurants in this neighborhood. on the other hand, there is a bunch of italian, american (mcdonald's, kfc), and even asian restaurants. after that, when we were hanging out outside the dorm for a couple minutes, one of his friends from his arabic class, along with this girl she had met a couple of hours before, showed up, and invited us along in their search for some sort of bar. so, we ended up going to a place about half a mile away. after staying about half an hour, we searched for the 'sandbar' (what a clever name), but without success. instead, we stumbled upon a wealthy, upscale type place, where drinks were really expensive. after this, we caught a taxi to a place across the nile, and about two miles away, that ryan's friend had heard about. this and a place about three blocks away proved too expensive.

after this, we spent about 40 minutes searching for the restaurant/bar in the hotel odean, which, according to a guidebook, was cheaper. finally, we happened upon our original taxi driver, who gave us directions to the place, without even taking a tip (though i tried offering him one). i don't know what the chances are of encountering the same cab driver, in two different parts of cairo, on the same night, but i have a feeling that they are on the low side. after 10 minutes we got to this place, thought for a moment that the elevator was jammed, and made our way to a pretty sweet open air restaurant. there wasn't a great view, but the few buildings we could see, along with the breeze, and especially the hard time finding the place, made it worth it.

so, that's the story. we took a cab back to zamalek, where the dorm is, after about forty minutes, getting back at probably around 3:30am.

it was a pretty uneventful day besides for this, but this part was great-- meeting new people, wandering through the city by foot. it's unreal how awake the city is, even at 1:30am or later (earlier?). all sorts of vendors are out doing business, people are walking around, some with their children in hand. then again it was the weekend.

and traffic. traffic here is crazy. i think to get a ticket you would have to drive into the river or something. it's the complete opposite of the rigid, structured traffic that is aimed for in the states. this is something very organic. people often disregard lane markings, carving their own, and vehicles merge there way into the flow on major streets like they would if they were walking-- they just push their way along, and the other cars have to make way. i haven't really seen any accidents or anything. i guess when everyone follows the same rules, and accepts that other people will weave infront of or behind them seamlessly and without warning, the system holds itself up. it's just so foreign to me. crazy.

that's my theory for now at least.

love