mobbing for food

I have kept up the college tradition of watching a lot of movies here just like at home except they aren't nearly as good because I can't go and rent them myself. We kind of watch whatever is on; such as two days ago I watched White Water Summer (a really bad kevin bacon movie), Barbershop 2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (over the top corny 80s movie, but its about vampires), From Hell (disturbing movie about jack the ripper). Of course this is also at the expense of my homework as it is back home.

School has definitely settled into routine and I feel like I am wasting away my weekends by not doing anything. So I think this weekend will maybe be the Egyptian museum and next will try for the pyramids. There is a lot to see and do, I just need to do it.

Yesterday I experienced the madness that is brought on by not having lines in this country. I went to Al Tahrir for dinner; I walked in and went to order my food and the guy said wait five minutes. There was no one else inside really. Then I saw why I was waiting, there was no food to serve and when it arrived so did the people like locusts descending on a crop. even when we were waiting because he wouldn't take our orders yet, people would stand there kind of half heartedly saying stuff in Arabic and feebly pushing their money at him. He ignored everyone and twidled his thumbs waiting for the food servers to be ready. And when he did, the hounds were loosed.

To get served in this situation you must yell and wave your money practically in the face of the person to get noticed. Meanwhile, you are competing with seven other people who seem way more obnoxious than you, but who get served. Once, I received my order ticket, I swam through the masses and waited with a bunch of people at the serving table. The system for koshari is to have two people working: one to put noodles and rice into plastic bowl and the other to put sauce and onions and package said bowl into bag with spoon and sauces. The crowd around them continued to grow and these guys worked fast. Even doing this they wre swamped with people, it looked as if these people had not eaten for days they were so insistent on trying to get their order. Think hands reaching above and other the counter, sometimes grabbing sometimes waving their tickets, all yelling. I just kept repeating "talata guinea!" over and over. Once i got to the counter i planted myself against it using my backpack to keep others at a distance: one of the few advantages of having a backpack in cairo. One of the serving men started yelling about freedom I think. I am not sure because my arabic is not so good but everyone was laughing and having a good time. Then one of the servers asked for anyone who had talata guinea. My infant arabic ears caught this and I waved my ticket yelling 'talata guinea'. He took it I received my food within seconds and then forced my way out into the open air where I could breath freely...the city air.

It was a lot of fun, and probably is something I will never experience in the US except if there are bread shortages or something. One thing I must point out is that there was not anger in this mob. It was just SOP for Egyptians and they throw humor into everything.

I really miss nature and I miss my school and home. In fact I even miss the disgustingly unhealthy pizzas at late night, though I don't miss the price.

Today's arabic class was incomprehensible, I feel as if I have reached a wall. I have been doing studying and maybe I am learning so little at a time that I can't see the progress I am making if any. We will see though.