It's been a slow/fast few weeks

Been busy as all hell these past few weeks with apartment hunting and work, so not much to report on....or, it's been too long since amusing things happened, and I up and forgot them all. Slow regarding time to post/download things in my head, but quite fast regarding how quickly the time has passed. Luckily, I've gotten used to using my camera to create external memory pointers, allowing me to remember strings of events based on snapshots during the events. At least, that's my excuse for some of my crappier photographs.

And now, random memory hour!

This rather creepy drawing was hanging on the wall of one of the apartment buildings I visited. It was the only decoration.....big white wall, crying-little-girl art smack in the middle of the wall, slightly above (my) head height. I sat on a couch opposite this painting for about 20 minutes waiting for the simsar (real estate agent) find the landlord, so really had nothing to look at but this painting. It may have been some sort of psychological ploy to make me so sad that when I saw the apartment, I'd feel better no matter how bad it was, since I just stared at a little girl crying for 20 minutes. Instead, passerby just wondered why I was snickering to myself for 20 minutes. Ah, the joy of children in emotional distress, who aren't seated near me on a plane. Like veal, lobster, and schadenfreude, nothing beats the flavor of suffering. Mmmmm, boy.



On the way back from a meeting with one of the government ministries, I passed by a series of apartment buildings in various stages of construction. I noticed after passing a dozen or so buildings that something looked a little weird......if you look the buildings above, you'll notice a scarcity of windows. Some of the apartments appear to have no windows at all. I wasn't sure if they just knock out bricks for windows later, or whether some of the apartments just don't have windows, but either way, it seemed even worse than institutional housing. At least in prisons, there are windows with metal bars over them. My mild distaste looking at these buildings was tempered by my total ignorance of construction processes, as I hoped that there was just some cost-saving or logistical measure that explained the lack of windows. It's not just the lack of sunlight, it's the ability to let fresh(ish) air in from outside; after seeing some older inhabited and fully-constructed apartment buildings, I noticed that many of the windows were completely covered in sand/dust/brown anyways. Even dirty windows can be opened for ventilation, though.

Found this little gem at a book sale that one of the hashers had, getting rid of old literature and collecting some cash. You can almost hear the voice of that severe man who narrates old 60's documentaries, talking about "the homosexual" as a plural/species. Believe it or not, I think this was actually FOR education about gay rights, and not some sort of hate manual. But man, check out those angry homosexuals on the cover. They sure are pissed about the law.

No trip to a foreign country would be complete without deformed Disney characters. The resolution here might suck too hard to see clearly, but there's Goofy lounging and the left, Donald and Daisy sharing a drink (probably dairy-based, not sure why) in the center, and the immediate aftermath of something hurling Mickey out of a window, on the right.

Biggest freakin stack/pillar/tower of shawerma meat I have ever seen. While I am sure there are larger in existence, I snapped a photo of this to remind myself of the shock/wonder/delicious feeling I got when seeing that much greasy tastiness, ready to be sliced, packed into bread, and then given to you by the same hands that just handled your money and scratched his butt. I wanted to combine the word shawerma with something implying "large mass", but am too tired to be witty right now. Hell, that's why this entry is so photo-heavy. Oh wait....shawermassive? That sounds like a name I'd give my group of friends if I lived in the UK and loved shawerma and drum and bass. London shawermassive, represent!

Hee hee hee. Next time I feel like ending a meal very awkwardly, I'm going to order this. Note that "F.F" is french fries, on the side, not to be confused with a french-fry sandwich, which also exists here. French fries stuffed in a sub roll or pita bread are a common fast-food item, which would make any Atkins-freak shrivel and then explode with fear and longing. Also, misspelling "dessert" as "desert", a common error even in the States, takes on new hilarity in Egypt. Especially when the first item is a bottle of water, hehe.