I Wish I Had a Spy Camera

There are so many things I want to take a picture of but can't because of inconvenience or embarrassment or hissing suit wearing officials. If I had a spy camera in my glasses, I would snap shots all day long of all the little things that entertain me as I walk the streets. Like:

The woman with her cell phone tucked in her head scarf so that she could have her hands free.

The man tucking in his shirt by taking down his pants in the middle of the street, to which no one reacted.

Teenage girls with flesh-colored turtlenecks and long pants under trendy spaghetti-strap mini dresses.

The McDonald's delivery guys spinning through traffic on their motorbikes, or the pita bread men who write bicycles through the streets with gigantic crates of bread balanced on their heads.

The prayer mats stashed in random places so the guards and police that are all over can use them. Under the stairs near my classroom, for instance.

Heck, I'd like to have a picture of pedestrians navigating across 12 lanes of traffic. It's hard to describe the sight and impossible to describe the feeling.

And, of course, I wish I could document the expressions of the men on the street when they stare at me. I wish I could capture their faces and have more time to interpret them, to work out the nuances. It's not as if they haven't seen an American before (especially around campus), but they look as if that were the case. Is it because I'm tall? Or because I'm white? Or both? Or maybe my head's on backwards and I haven't noticed yet?

That sounds like something out of a Garcia Marquez story.

Oh well. As my roommate so sagely says, they're just eyes.

Today I managed to get an ID card. First I had to get a stamped receipt to prove that I had paid in full. Then I was directed by the very helpful international graduate student center assistant to go over to Greek Campus and visit the ID center there. Logical enough. The ID center was very testy, however, in insisting that I couldn't get my ID there but had to go to the Student Services Center and that I also needed more than just the receipt, I had to provide my letter of acceptance and passport. So I went home to get those things, went back to SSC and waited half an hour before getting into the little ID cubicle. There's only one ID dude for everyone, so far as I can tell. Once inside ID ground zero it was revealed that I have bad computer mojo because the system crashed and had to be restarted while the line grew longer and longer behind be and the students more and more disgruntled.

Those study abroad students sure are complainey. I just sat and read through the course catalog.

Eventually the machine worked and, as a thank you for being patient, the kindly ID dude let me retake my picture. The first was just atrocious, the second mediocre. I am very yellow. Look:

The other ID that you see here is the one given me when I was picked up at the airport. That picture I provided and I wish I could have used it for all IDs as proof that I am capable of not looking like a Peeps with hair. Or maybe I look more like a pumpkin?

Under my two IDs, you can see the very much plus exciting purchase of the day: a Cairo map! The bookstore was finally open this morning. I could have actually gone somewhere new had I not been trekking hither and yon trying to get my errands done.

I only finished half of them. Things are much more difficult when it's hot. (Except sweating, of course)

One important errand was eating at my new favorite lunch place discovered by a roommate of mine. Today I lunched with another gal in my program and this nice guy from Morocco at a place who's name I don't know. I do know that they serve a dish called kushry that I want to marry. It's rice, noodles, lentils, garbanzos and tomato sauce. Onions too, if you don't pick them out as some people are want to do. And all of that for 3 pounds! That's half as much as this other cafe charged me for a Pepsi.

I don't even like Pepsi.