Monday 18

Want to develop nerves of steel? I recommend a course in traffic in Egypt. That includes walking anywhere, being a passenger in a car, and, for the graduate course, a driver. Walking includes hazards such as broken up sidewalks, and sidewalks that change heights without warning, as well as many obstructions from trash to sleeping people. Then, crossing the streets is exciting. There are no crosswalks. People cross at any given time and in any given place, weaving between the cars which rarely stop for you. Everyone is doing this. Being in a car is also super fun. They drive anywhere and everywhere, as fast as possible, weaving in and out of lanes (which are not marked). Street lights are usually considered suggestions. There's this street, it's called the Kornishe en-Nil. It runs along the Nile from Tahrir Square on south. The bridge to my aunt's house is from there. It used to be one way, about 5 lanes. Now parts of it are two ways, without any street markings. The first time I was on it, it was a pretty freaky experience to see cars driving right at you at what seems like extremely high speed. Doing nothing at all is something I used to love to do and have kind of given up. I've had some time to do nothing at all recently and discovered that I lost something important. The floating, unengaged time is refreshing. When I say do nothing, I mean literally just sitting or lying and doing nothing at all, not even thinking. Just let thoughts float through the mind. Maybe this is a form of meditation. It is much easier to do when there is nowhere to be and no one wanting something from you. Maybe that's why I haven't done it for awhile. Galleries: Well, there are several very sweet little galleries in Zamalek. Most of them are quite tiny, but the work they show is varied in style and subject matter. Most of what I saw is very contemporary/modern/post-modern and abstract. I didn't see any landscapes...or paintings of monuments, which I found interesting. I think most of them were more about identity. Another thing I found interesting was that there were lots of female figures. I don't know why, but I took no pictures of the galleries, so I guess I'll try to remedy that in the next few days. One in particular was in an old building, with pointed arch openings, all dark wood and the mashrabiya style carving (those were the carved shutters that kept women from sight). Tonight we talked late into the night exchanging family stories. Laila and I are going to try to develop a family tree. The family is scattered, but large.