City Stars, Part 2

Despite my vows to the contrary, I returned to City Stars Mall last night.

I went only to go to Spinney's, the Target-y-est establishment I've found so far, and the most reliable place to purchase soy milk. They also had another food essential I'd had trouble finding anywhere else: sweet potatoes!

But City Starts (many call it Shitty Stars) is not the most convenient, and is overwhelmingly gigantic and crowded. The place is way out of town and takes about 45 minutes to reach - 45 minutes in a cab on these streets is terrifying. On the way out, either the car was overheating or the heat was on, but that was better than the drive home. That driver, despite the stop-and-go traffic, decided it would be fun to accelerate at every opportunity. As a result, he was forced to slam on his breaks when the car in front had the audacity to stop. He broke (can you say this for breaks?) so hard that the car shook and he almost lost control as it moved slightly out of our lane. Even worse, the car in front had a back seat full of kids.

But we made it, unscathed (not a person on the street batted an eyelash) and I now am the proud owner of three soy milks! I had also wanted tee-shirts for working out, but this proved far too difficult.

I found the tee-shirts at Spinney's, but buying them was an entirely different matter. Every (two) times I've been there, there have been at least two items that the registers don't recognize and so lengthy price checks are required. Very lengthy. When I was there the first time, with Roommate 1, we waited at least half an hour for the price of soy milk.

This time, when the lady scanned my one tee-shirt, the LCD screen called it "Pack of 2 tee-shirts" and charged for this. I objected, and so a brave stock boy was sent into the bowels of the store to dig up the accurate price, or maybe to take a nap and eat some biscuits. Either way, he wasn't back in time and the lady wanted me to pay since the line had grown exponentially.

But she still hadn't taken the overpriced and erroneous tee-shirt out of the price! It took some doing to communicate what I wanted her to do (thanks dude in line behind me for your charming English translation!), and then she had to summon a manager. Finally, we got out of there and into the aforementioned Cab of Imminent Death.

The city looked beautiful from the Cab of Imminent Death, however. This is definitely a night city. Yesterday night/morning, for instance, walking home at 3.30 am revealed a whole new city: breezy, not un- but less crowded, and temperate. The real Cairenes obviously know that the night is the best because, at 2 am, the streets were so packed that it was nearly impossible to navigate.

The mall is like an American mall in every way but: there are no smoking signs all over, but you can imagine how well this is enforced. There are also no photography signs.

Also not enforced, as these images attest.

And here we have a direction giving sign which guides you to ATM, bathroom, phone, escalator, elevator and prayer room.

Maybe I will return to Shitty Stars someday, but it will take me at least a month to get over this trip. I'd better not drink the soy milk too fast!