Aren't Globes the Coolest Things?

Yes, it is just a possession. It will not do my homework, serenade a beloved or repair my apartment's washing machine, but this all-Arabic globe is pretty darn nifty anyway. Now I can learn the Arabic names of all the countries. Here are some: Magreb and Misr.

I actually already knew those two, but the point stands.

I can also play my favorite game wherein you spin the globe with a finger pointing at it and wherever the it stops, there you will go. So far I've gotten the ocean, the ocean and the sea.



Apparently the globe is telling me that, in the future, I will be a mermaid.



Here I have helpfully pointed Egypt out to you with my wee dainty finger.













This is an advertisement recommending people break their fasts during Ramadan with a McDonald's meal.

I really hope people don't do as the ad says, despite the enticingly bright colors.

Ramadan, so far, has changed only my class schedule. I haven't been fasting, but have now become very self-conscious about carrying water bottles and eating in public, although I've done both anyway. When I was at the pyramids over the weekend, I was chided by some urchins when I ate my snack of figs. The same boys then tried to bum cigarettes from us naive Americans, until someone told him he couldn't have any during Ramadan. He was smooth, though, and assured us this was for after breaking fast.

He was one of the many kids selling assorted chotzkies, and when I asked his age he swore that he was 17, but I can't believe that he's a day over 12. That's young for smoking. Young for working. Young, even, for running around alone in all this traffic.

One of the nice reasons for Ramadan is that it's meant to cause all people to understand the hardship felt by the poor, although the feast and party aspects don't really mesh with that goal. I can understand the non-eating aspect of this, but why no drinking? There are water fountains around the city and they are free and cold and look very enticing.

Even writing about this is making me thirsty all over again.