More pictures of Sayed

Sayed had never really been to Cairo. Well, he did go once, 15 years ago. He hadn't been back since. But when he came with me he quickly became an expert. He had the metro system memorized after the first ride and now he advises people in his village about how to get to places in Cairo :)
Here we are on one of the bridges over the Nile. At a restaurant on a rooftop at the King Hotel in Dokki, and here is Sayed in our cheap but pretty hotel with a view of the museum behind the square.

Around Cairo with Sayed and friends

These are from different places over the summer. My friend Lindsey met me in Cairo and stayed with me there while we both worked at the museum. She has been to Egypt several times, but has always lived a bit higher on the hog than I have. Because of this, I was able to show her a few things that rich tourists usually don't see. Mostly things you wouldn't want to see, heh heh, but here are a couple of pictures from Al Azhar Park. It was Sayed's first visit to the park too and everybody LOVED it!
I am also including a picture of me, Sayed, and Barkat from a hooker bar in Cairo that Barakat insisted on going to. He wanted to drink beer and smoke sheesha and see women. So we went to this hole in the wall that I am SURE had never seen a female tourist before. I was surprised at how the prostitutes fawned over Sayed :)

Cairo Flat

Sayed found me a flat in Abdeen for the summer. It was a 20 minute walk from the museum and next to Abdeen Palace, in an "Egyptian" neighborhood - no foreigners living around there. So there were no western-style supermarkets and we were close to a nice street market. The rent was 2500LE (about $500) per month and had two bedrooms and one bathroom.

I'm such a slacker

I can't believe I haven't updated this in FOREVER! I spent this past summer in Egypt, working at the Museum and hanging with Sayed. I took him to Alexandria where he walked in the sea for the first time ever in his life and he ate seafood for the first time ever. We couldn't stay in the same hotel room because the marriage papers we got in Aswan at the lawyer's office weren't legal. But it was so cool showing him Alexandria! We went to the library there :)

Funnies

My friend Laura did this and it totally cracks me up. I love the Thoth character.

Sick of FaceBook

I would much rather just keep this little blog with nobody reading it than deal with facebook crap.
Here I am in Mobile, AL. I went to see Ginger and Mommy. Ginger and her friend Amy ran in the Azalea Trail Run, a 10k thingy. It was fun. Unfortunately, Mommy's dog was dying - we thought- and I missed seeing Ginger fly across the finish line.
The dog lived.
But it was a very good trip away from the horrors of thesis writing here.
I finished my thesis, btw, and passed my defense and now am just waiting to get it back from the grad school so I can make the necessary corrections. Blah blah blah. Everything seems blah today.

Talkin to Sayed

So how sweet is this, Sayed goes into Aswan to use the internet cafes to talk to me. This morning he surprised me because I thought he would wait till Friday. It was really cool to have morning coffee with him. He's really the best. And I'm not biased at all, no.
In other news I will not be able to drink green beer for St. Patrick's Day because of thesis work. I have not been posting because of thesis work. I have not been doing anything because of thesis work. Why, again, did I put myself through this?!?!?! I don't know. But I must get back to work.