The week that was

With all this time off, I've taken to being a rather lazy tourist. We venture somewhere every day, but sometimes it's not far, and it is almost always followed by a rest, a meal with friends, and a nap or a long time reading a book. Not to mention the sleeping in ! I'm on holidays, something I did not really do this summer when I was in Canada.

Having said that, we've done some fun stuff. Wednesday was probably the most interesting. We began our day with a visit to the National Museum of Egypt, which is a glorified PINK warehouse, with tombs and old stuff everywhere - none of it is labeled.

After our siesta, about 7 of us took a taxi (my favourite taxi ride so far - he drove so fast, and the whole time kept reminding us that he was a coptic Christian, and not a muslim, and that since we were white we must be Christian as well - all this in VERY broken English!)

We arrived at the markets to see Sufi dancing, but were so early that we decided to give ourselves a walking tour. Because it is Ramadan some of the Mosques have relaxed their rules about tours, and we were able to enter a mosque (in bare feet!) and climb a Minaret to see much of the outdoor markets and all the lights at night. It was spectacular. Upon arriving at the top of the Minaret I realized we were looking directly into the Mosque - it had no roof! I guess when you get 7mm of rain a year (if you're lucky) you don't worry about extra construction.

We took some time to tour part of the Kahn (market) before heading in to watch Sufi dancing. I'm not too familiar with what's behind it, but according to Marsha, one man spun for over 40 minutes without stopping. It was full of bright colours and the music was loud, after 1.5 hours I felt completely over stimulated. I learned something about Egyptian culture during the performance, as explained by Janet, who has worked in Egypt for many years: they will not stop talking! And I've been warned that this happens in a movie theatre too - they will talk on their cell phones through an entire film, and shout at people near them. I wonder what this will look like in a Middle school classroom?

I will eventually get pictures on here, but the Internet connection I'm "borrowing" tonite will not allow this to happen. Our internet is arriving, inshallah, soon. ARG.