Seized Opportunities

This past week has given me two amazing opportunities, which I am truly grateful I took advantage of despite my constant paranoia of lacking sufficient concentration on my studies. The first was earlier this week. I was invited by a fellow American in the dorms, who was invited by a recently acquired Egyptian friend, to a celebratory concert, featuring the famous Amr Diab, at Cairo Stadium for the recent victors in the African Cup of Nations, Egypt. The Egyptian team (muntakhab Misr) were present and walked around the stadium with the roaring crowd cheering, waving Egyptian flags, dancing, and chanting memorized odes to Egypt and her soccer team. My companions and I quickly realized that this sort of event is not one usually frequented by foreigners. Consequently, we were welcomed at every corner, asked to be focal points in pictures, and forcibly confiscated from our "Little America" community to walk arm in arm with Egyptians who took the opportunity to show off their English skills. I find that they are always astonished to hear even a little Arabic coming out of our mouths and generously compliment our efforts saying, "You speak Arabic beautifully!"

The second was a couple days ago. My dear friends Gabe and Emelia were in town entertaining a friend of theirs, Parker, who was visiting from New York. They were gracious enough to allow me to accompany them and some of our other friends living here in Egypt to the Pyramids. We hired a wonderful man named Samir as our tour guide, and this proved to be more than redemptive, since my last experience visiting the Pyramids was disappointing to say the least. Samir's many degrees, some including Egyptology and History among others, provided extremely useful and entertaining as we observed the baffling engineering of these colossal tombs. I will post some pictures in the near future so you can get an idea, especially, of the size of the Great Pyramid of Khufa. If you come and visit me, I would definitely seek out Samir to take us around. Until then, pictures will have to suffice.