December 2002

This is simply well said. Take a look for yourself. I shamelessly took this from The D Train. I promise next time I’ll ask for permission

This article from CNN.com was the most e-mailed article for December 24, 2002. It even beat out articles about Iraq and North Korea. Apparently teens aren’t the only ones being more emotional around the holiday season, Bush seems to be acting up as well.

And for those of us who pay far too much tuition, I think this is awesome. See, lawyers (and in this case law students) aren’t all bad…

And to top it all off, see if you can beat this little game.

All right, I’m going to stop adding things to this post now and really go to bed! Merry Christmas everyone

So everything around my house is quiet right now. My parents went to bed early, my sister decided to go out with some friends, my cats have had dinner and are sleeping, and I’m left here by myself once more to update my LJ.

We spent a good portion of the day baking cookies. The building we live in has guards who keep out those who shouldn’t be here. They aren’t paid much, and sometimes I think the people that live in the building treat them poorly. Anyway, my family made tons of cookies to give to them, our neighbors, and a few friends. It was actually a good time! It has been a few years since we’ve made so many cookies on Christmas. The cookies were simple: chocolate chip, sugar, and Russian teacakes. I have some pictures I might post sometime.

So it’s time for bed. Don’t wanna sleep through Christmas morning!! Merry Christmas, everyone

I just heard on TV that Troy is supposed to get around 20 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow!! I remember a few days ago when the weathermen were promising a dry Christmas. Apparently they were wrong

Too bad I won’t be in Troy or the States for that matter to enjoy it I haven’t had a white Christmas in 6-8 years. It never snows in the desert, and I’ve been here for every Christmas for the past 5 years!

I think this article is absolutely halarious. Remember to leave your video games in the hotel when travelling to Greece!

Today was great: did almost nothing constructive, got a lot of sleep last night, sent some e-mail and holiday cards to a few people. My dad called it our “lazy day.”

We went to Fuddruckers for breakfast. I know that sounds kind of weird, but they do serve breakfast food in the mornings. I must admit that I was leery about trying a hamburger, because the last Fuddruckers hamburger I had was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia several years ago. Their burgers are huge (from 1/3 pound to a whole pound), so when I tried it several years ago they were unable to cook the meat all the way through. I like my beef completely dead with no pink in the middle. The Fuddruckers in Jeddah served it in dripping blood… ewwww gross!

However the restaurant here cooked it perfectly. I got the 1/2 pound version which was still more than I could eat. They served it with Fudd fries, reminiscent of potato wedges with a nice seasoning. I was very impressed with their food!

I went with my dad to his office to collect the mail (APO mail goes there and he brings it home everyday). Since he wasn’t working today, he wanted to go in and see if a package came from my Aunt. Christmas is tomorrow, and apparently they are expecting a few more gifts to arrive. My dad also ordered some camera accessories (a case, spare battery, etc).

I took his digital camera along to take some pictures from his office balcony. The office is on the 17th floor overlooking the Nile River and pyramids on one side and the Citadel and downtown Cairo on the other. Of course the air quality was horrible, so my pictures of the pyramids didn’t really turn out. I did take a nice picture of downtown Cairo, pictured on the left. This isn’t even the downtown — think of this as the urban sprawl.

We came home and relaxed for a while. I started taking pictures of the cats. I have lots of pictures of them, but none as cute as the one I took here. Max, who is about 8 years old, has an interesting way of sitting so he can wash his stomach. He props himself up in a chair like this and bathes. He’s so strange that he sleeps on his back, too. As you can see, he is on the large side meaning it might actually be easy for him to lay on his back and let his flab flow down to his sides to keep him upright. Anyway, this is Max’s first appearance on the net, what do you think?

I talked to Josh tonight also. We’re probably going to do something for New Year’s Eve, but we’re not quite sure what yet. The popular Cairo destinations are restaurants, namely Hard Rock Cafe, Applebee’s, TGIF, etc. We did Applebee’s a few years ago which was a good time. Last year we went to this Chinese restaurant which was amazing. So the question is do we stick to what we know works, or try something new. Any suggestions? We were thinking Hard Rock, but they will be packed.

Ok, that’s about all of the excitement for tonight. I’m headed to bed so I can get up and enjoy Christmas Eve. Have a good night all!

So my day went mostly as scheduled. Josh called me today around 1 PM!! We chatted for a few minutes, then I went to pick he and Lara up at his house and we had lunch at the Roastery (it’s an interesting little cafe-style restaurant here in Maadi). So after almost a year of only chatting online, I finally got to meet Lara! She’s awesome, even being nice when I continued to butcher her name (the “ar” in Lara is pronounced like the “ar” in “car”).

We went to see Cairo American College (CAC), my old high school. They have replaced the front gate with a prison-like metal turnstile, and enclosed the guard booth in a bulletproof Plexiglass room. I felt like I was entering an Embassy or something. The guard remembered me and stuck his hand through the small opening in the bottom of the glass to shake my hand. That helped calm me down a bit.

The new superintendent (who came the year after I graduated) always talks about making CAC an inviting place that welcomes all cultures blah blah blah. I have to say that I didn’t feel very welcomed there, greeted by a harsh and intimidating entrance. They could have spent the money on so many other things that they need (like computers or newer text books, for example). I don’t think the security problem is big enough to warrant such gates. And it’s not just the front gate that was converted, it was also the back gate.

Imagine yourself a kindergartner, about 3 feet tall, trying to push your way through the huge turnstile. It must be pretty scary. I know that I was kinda scared, like I said, it felt like entering a prison.

After the CAC visit, we went to Road 9 (shopping central here in Maadi) to pick up a few things. I got a few cards, and Josh dropped off some film for developing. We bumped into Maya and Rachna in Cafe Greco, and chatted with them for a few minutes.

Tonight we went to Tornado for some sheesha. They have some of the best sheesha I’ve ever had (although the award for best sheesha goes to Pit Stop in Damascus, Syria). It was a really good time! It was also really cool that Lara tried sheesha… most people never get past the thought of having smoke in their lungs. Yay, Lara!

Now I’m back home, ready for bed. I’ve felt really tired all day, I’m hoping that this feeling will eventually disappear and the headache I have will vanish. Only 2 shopping days until Christmas! Have you finished your shopping yet???

I woke up this morning to the sound of somebody stomping around upstairs on the roof of the building. Maybe I’m being an old scrooge, but can’t people find something better to do at 10 AM?? I think I stayed up way too late last night, because I feel like I only got 6 hours of sleep… wait a second, I did only get 6 hours of sleep. But if I go back to sleep, then jet lag rears its ugly head and I’ll be really messed up!

My tentative schedule today consists of seeing a few old friends, typing a long overdue e-mail to Michelle (I sent her a short note a few nights ago letting her know I arrived and promising a longer e-mail soon, but nothing since), sending Christmas cheer to , and wrapping Christmas gifts. Both of my parents decided to go to work today, and my sister is a true socialite nowadays, so today is a perfect day for wrapping gifts.

By the way, I posted several entries in my journal last night that I typed this past week but was unable to post. I backdated them all, so they won’t appear on any friends views (because LJ messes up if you backdate stuff and try to not select “backdate entry”). So you will have to look at my recent entries to read some good stuff about my trip!!

So today was my first day back, and it really flew by. I went grocery shopping with my folks this morning, which you could call a family outing. It reminds me of the Brady Bunch and their Sunday trips to Sears… “Put on your Sunday bests, kids. We’re going to Sears!”

My parents got each other a digital camera for Christmas. They decided not to wrap it and put it under the tree. Instead, they got it out and played with it! It’s actually a very good camera for its price range. I might post a friends only post about that.

I’m trying to get to bed early tonight so the jet lag doesn’t catch up and kill me. Right now I feel wide awake, but I feel drained at the same time. If I just put my head on the pillow, I know I’ll fall right asleep. I just have to motivate myself to separate from my computer for a few minutes!

Tomorrow I might be reuniting with some old Cairo friends, then I need to wrap lots of Christmas presents that I brought with me! I also have tons of Union-related work to catch up on. Ugh, so much to do! I’ll keep you posted!

For those interesting in what happened to Josh and Lara from my trip, when we got home my mom called Josh’s mom, and apparently their flight never left North Carolina due to mechanical problems. But I was assured they are coming in tomorrow tonight. We’ll see if they come!

This may be a short post being that I just arrived a few hours ago and haven’t had much sleep in the past few days. I was met in the airport by the US Embassy expeditor whose job is to get me through immigration and customs quickly. Honestly, I know how to clear immigration pretty quickly without help, but the service is free and it’s kinda fun to watch the guy who knows all of the passport control people. I’m sure he walked up to the guy and said something along the lines of “Hey Abdul, how are the wife and kids? Oh yeah, just put that cool stamp in this kids passport and we’ll get him outta here.”

Luckily I received all of my luggage, even though one of my bags was the last one off the plane. But the suitcase with all the Christmas presents and most of my clothes was one of the first off, so it wouldn’t have been all bad if the second one hadn’t shown up.

My cats actually remembered me! It’s been a year since we’ve all seen each other, so it took a few minutes for them to get over the shock. Now they’re all fighting over who gets to sleep on the bed!

That’s about it. I’m going to go to bed, then set up the mini-network in my house and post this sometime tomorrow. Just like I did last year when I came, I will post them at the time it is here. If that messes up anyone’s friends views, let me know and I’ll come up with a different solution.