AT-T3LUM 3N AL-QAHIRA, AL-JAZ' ATH-THAANII (learning about cairo, part two)

The Egyptian Pound (also called the guinea).  When it was first introduced it was equal in value to the British Pound.  Now it's worth about 20 cents American.  A ride on the subsidized subway, the only subway in the Middle East, is one pound.  A kilo (2.2lbs) of mangos is about 5 pounds.  If you want a taxi, insist on a meter-- or negotiate a price beforehand.  When they see white skin they think they can push you around and overcharge you because you have too much money and you don't know what's going on, but that cab ride shouldn't cost you more than 15 pounds.

Two of the worst swindlings I've heard: An easily-pushed-around girl paid 200 pounds for a camel ride at the pyramids (she should have paid 20).  An upper-crust dashing white boy paid $50 american (SO MUCH MONEY) for a worthless piece of "authentic" papyrus and when I told him he got swindled he said, "Well, it was only fifty dollars."  Christ.  And I thought I got had paying 15 pounds for a horribly-frayed scarf that the 14-year-old merchant expertly grasped in such a way to cover the holes.

My meal of choice, koshari, is a giant tub of noodles and rice and lentils and chickpeas and crispy onions and tomato sauce, with an optional super-spicy sauce, for 8 pounds.  I have one for lunch and one for dinner.  Fuul, a sort of refried fava bean, is a close second favorite for about 2 pounds.  There's a cart down the street run by a guy named Haameda, and he was one of the few guys with Egyptian food and with reasonably-priced food open during Ramadan.

Jack and Mike and I at one of the many little koshari stops.  As common as Coney Islands.

If you ask for hummus you get chickpeas.  If you want falafel you have to ask for t3miyya, which is very close to just the word for "food."  Getting fresh vegetables is expensive.  Getting protein is expensive.  Getting non-meat protein is virtually impossible.  Beans or nuts.  Haven't found cheap beans and I don't have a stove so I can't cook.

The big grocery stores nearby are the Metro Market (just food) and the Alpha Mart (more like target).  Prices are weird.  I paid 55 pounds (about $10 for a bottle of Listerine (imported good) and it's about 6 pounds ($1) for a can of tuna, but a bottle of water is about 2 pounds.  I shelled out a whopping 180 pounds for a Christmas present for Matthew after some intense negotiation in a souk (a bazaar).  I expect to spend about 60 pounds on the perfect Christmas gift for Vincent. Clothes can range rapidly-- anywhere from 5 to 100 pounds for a scarf, depending on the quality and how easily taken you are by a merchant.  You can get the long gender-neutral Arab robes, the galabiyya, or about 60 pounds-- ten bucks.

Egyptians love Obama.  They don't like Bush because he's "majnuun"-- crazy.  I've heard this more than once.

Egyptians do NOT understand running.  It is literally a foreign concept to them.  It's a few things, I think: Cairo has a ton of smog, Cairo is very crowded, and heads turn if you eve show too much arm on the streets of Cairo.  So when I cruised through a busy neighborhood in shorts and a wifebeater, I got honked at, I got a lot of funny looks, I got hollered at by guys and even the occasional girl in both English and Arabic, I got a lot of thumbs-ups and "Good!" or "Good job!" or "Good job, guy!" and and I got the occasional person running alongside me waving his arms and laughing.

When I returned to the dorms I talked with one of the guards--Mohammad Sayyid-- again.  "Why do you run?" he asked in Arabic.  "Why?  Uh...  I run because I like to run," I replied, with a lot of stuttering, in Arabic.  Then I thought for a second and added, "wa li siHHa," "and for health."  He seemed confused.