Islamic Cairo

Today we went on a walking tour of Islamic Cairo. As my friend Ralph said "what do you mean? Isn't all of Cairo Islamic??" Well, sort of...the area where we were today refers more to "Old Cairo" in terms of architecture and culture. So there are many markets and street vendors. Our tour guide from the university is amazing. It's the same woman who took us to the pyramids and she is just so full of knowledge and information. She felt that in order for us to get a true sense of the different types of architecture, we should visit many different types of buildings. We went to a Al-Azhar Mosque, Madrassa and Mausoleum of Barquq (school), an old merchant hotel, a sabil-kuttab (public drinking fountian and Quranic school) , and Beit el-Suhayami which was a traditional family mansion. They were all lovely and everyone kept remarking how much the new campus has been modeled after this type of architecture. It was another hot day, and we were pooped by the end for sure, but it was a great outing. As usual, I think the pictures speak for themselves...

We're headed back out there tomorrow night since it's our last chance to experience Islamic Cairo at night during Ramadan. It ends on Tuesday and we'll be in Turkey!

Domestic Diva-wannabe

Before I tell you about my domestic divaness, I'll give you a recap of the past few days...We had a meeting for The Breathing Room to talk about the October schedule and also about what we are going to charge the students now that the "introductory" month is over. As I mentioned before, my schedule was really wiping me out. So I was hoping to get an all evening schedule and I did! I will now be teaching sun-wed night. I think it's going to be so much better for me as well as my students who are trying to learn Primary Series and need to do it as much as they can. Amanda and I had our usual "Knitting Knight", but it took a downward spiral and we ended up drinking beer and watching SNL videos on the NBC site. Oh! That's the other big news! Ira, in his infinite wisdom, spent an entire afternoon setting up some thing that makes our computer think that it's in the U.S. and lets us watch all our shows!! Yay!! Up until now, we would get a message saying that "this is only available to viewers in the U.S." or something dumb like that. So this morning I watched the season premiere of the Office and Grey's Anatomy! Which also means I'll be able to watch the debate. Well, that is, unless SOMEONE chickens out! haha So, anyway, after Amanda and I hung out, Ira and I went upstairs for a Sohour. This is the meal that is typically eaten before dawn during Ramadan, but most people now eat it before bed because it's less disruptive. So we went upstairs at 10:30 and probably didn't eat until about 11:30. It was so much fun! And there was SO much food! Everything was delicious and we got to chat with a lot of nice people. We didn't get to bed til about 2:30. So yesterday I slept in knowing that I had a busy day of domesticity ahead of me. I shopped, cleaned, and cooked my way to our first dinner party and happy hour here in Cairo. Actually, I think it was the first dinner party and happy hour we've ever hosted as a couple! Anyway, Ira was on campus all day yesterday so I went to Seoudi and picked up some last minute ingredients and then came home to sweep the patio. This may sound like a quick and easy task, but it took me an hour and the dust pan was FULL of a lovely black silt, which I can only assume is not only coating our patio but also our lungs and nasal passages. Sigh. It looks great out there now though! Anyway, I made these awesome lentil burgers http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/vegetarian-lentil-burgers-recipe.html topped with feta cheese and some orzo with tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives. Ira also made his soon to be famous rice pudding with coconut, pistachios, and raisins. We had Amy and Aras over to tell us what to do in Turkey (Aras is Turkish) we got enough info to stay for at least a month! They brought a good Turkish wine (who knew such a thing existed?!) And now I'm excited to bring some back to Cairo, and home if I can wait to drink it til then. : ) After dinner, we had the Maadi crew come over for happy hour. We decided that we would all take turns hosting happy hour on Thursday nights and Ira and I volunteered to host first. It was so much fun! We had lots of good snacks and everyone brought beer and wine. It was great. I slept in late today and I've been doing laundry ever since, with our new washing machine! (See Ira's blog for a picture and more gushing) Ira is going to a concert tonight, but I'm going to pass because I'm wiped out from yesterday and we have a walking tour of Islamic Cairo in the morning. I'm also trying to get things in order before we leave for Turkey on Monday. I'll try to get another entry in before we leave because it'll be another week before I'm on again!