How Do You Say Nose in Arabic?

I opened my bag in class today and what do you think I found? Ants! My bag was crawling with ants! At first I thought there were just one or two, but when I looked closer: hundreds! Ok, maybe more like dozens, but DOZENS! I shook them out on the balcony, but still, I was surrounded by ants all day. One or two stayed with me! :-)

After the ants incident, we had a sort of lecture about Cairo society. Which meant an intro to Islam. Which was nothing new. I think the Dutch folks were somewhat surprised by life in a religious society: the separation of public (no alcohol, for example) and private (wine with dinner, say) life, the omnipresence (no pun intended) of God, etc. No shock for me, but I can understand that it might take a bit of getting used to. (If the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise!)

Then we went to "Islamic Cairo", the oldest part of the city. Really amazing trip! We got to see the old city gates and a few gorgeous mosques. Pictures will be up on Facebook by tomorrow (inshallah) so you can see how beautiful some of them were. We wandered through a more touristy area than we're used to, so we got a bit more heckled than usual. Nothing bad, of course, just "Hey Mr., Hey Doctor (everyone Western is called Doctor) come to my shop." "Special price for you" (you think this is a stereotype, it's not!) Though I did get hit on. Not for the first time, but in the most original way. None of this Kiss Kiss, Hello Beautiful junk.

"Hey, Egyptian girl," the man yelled to me, "I like your smile! I like your nose!" :-p Or should I say, :0)

A group of children saw us, and ran up to us cheering. One played a drum, and the others danced around us, laughing.

A woman in a niqab smiled her eyes at me and waved a shy wave. She giggled when I waved back.

A cat followed us through the marble courtyards of the buildings where the Sufis dance, begging for attention (and getting it.)

Plastic statues of Nefertiti on sale underneath grand minarets and arabesques. The modern buildings crumbling, the ancient ones restored. An amazing city.

After the tour, Cathelijn and Kenny went home to check on Steffie who is still not entirely recovered from the ick. Kaz, Sandra, Brenda and Quentin (whose name I can now almost pronounce) and I went for dinner (mushroom and cheese ravioli with tomato sauce: not typically Egyptian, but tasty) and then back to the Belgians' place for some chilling.

Did I mention Quentin lives in a palace? I'll have to find pictures for Facebook, his bedroom is HILARIOUS.

Tomorrow: Rare Book Collection of the American University.