Two Weeks in Egypt in Twelve Objects

I figured it was time for a more quintessentially Study Abroad post, so I took this picture of some things that I use a lot--hopefully some things that you haven't seen before, even if you were one of the people who watched me pack. 

The news has been hard to read the past few days for so many reasons; I know it's much easier for me to say being here, but I promise, the last thing that you should worry about in terms of Egypt's situation right now is me being safe. I'm part of a hyper-vigilant university apparatus, I know enough of the limitations of my street-smarts to avoid doing anything silly, and I am never at a loss for safety advice by the various people that I meet. I think about you all every day, and I very much hope not to worry you too much.

But anyway, the things: 

1) My journal with pictures and letters and a few rambling entries that are far less eloquent than the letters. It lives right next to my bed along with Orientalism. 

2) Egyptian snack cakes for only one pound (about eighteen cents)! This particular cake is a central part of my afternoon plans.

3) My AUC ID card, which also doubles as a bus pas. Product of two very long days of wandering cluelessly around the AUC campus and standing in various lines. As you can't quite see in this photo, the smile in my ID photo is somewhat strained. But it gets me on my 45-minute to 2-hour commute through downtown to campus every day, for which I am very thankful.

4) A cross from Mexico in 2006--when you put your eye really close, you can see a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe inside. I remember the program leaders saying when they gave them to us that they were a very Catholic gift for a bunch of Lutherans, but it reminds me of travel (and also of liberation theology, which is always a good thing!).

5) Approximately one-dollar boxes of off-brand corn flakes and frosted flakes, which are actually quite good! Also, I can feel somewhat morally superior in choosing them over Cheerios for eight times the price.

6) Apple juice. I don't know how to explain it, but all juice is better here. There's a kind at campus that is literally called "Best Juice"--I'll try to take a picture of mango nectar next time.

7) The program from Aida at the Cairo Opera House. 35 pounds (almost seven dollars) for center seats within the first few rows to hear an Italian opera with Arabic lyrics on the side-screens (before going home to read Edward Said). Fascinating.

8) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Arabic, which I bought from a used book stand at the Cairo Book Fair yesterday. The fulfillment of a long dream...

9) Fig bars, the Egyptian fig newtons, which has made me regret mocking our consumption of fig newtons on every family trip in the history of time.

10) My Arabic book, Al Kitaab (literally, "The Book") 3. I really like being in a place where having the third Arabic textbook is a status symbol. The big swoop on the cover is the number 3.

11) Egyptian money--a five pound bill, two one pound coins, and a half-pound coin. A basic conversion is six pounds to the dollar, though it's easier to just divide by five (also, it makes me thriftier in purchasing decisions). Exceptions to that rule include bragging about thriftiness, when one should always divide by six.

12) My four pound ($0.67--see?) shower gel. "Lemon and mint," it smells a whole lot like Lemon Pledge and helps me wake up when I smell it!

Good afternoon!