Ok, so. I have to go to bed. But! I was thinking, about London and about Egypt, as I apparently do a lot these days, and I decided that my time would be well spent investing in some typing of thoughts. I do not know why I think this. That is not important! This might be, though:
Things In London That Make Me Really Miss Egypt:
-No one smokes in London. Ever. At all.
-Traffic...not quite the same graceful, elegant, deadly dance between ghetto 80s car and crazy pedestrian.
-I have found one place that sells koshery. It was 5 BRITISH pounds.
-Shisha???!!
-I would do many, many things, some of them perhaps quite unseemly, for a fresh ta'amiyya sandwich from felfela. This 'falafel' that they have here is just not the same.
-Mango/strawberry juice???
-I don't like experiencing Egyptian/Middle Eastern culture from outside the Middle East. I don't want 'Middle Eastern' food, I want to go to Cairo and get some koshery.
-Hummus is great, really, but I was fine with tahina.
-I miss the call to prayer.
-Extreme napping? Not societally acceptable in London!
-I see women from the Gulf, occasionally, here. I try furiously to think of some covert sign to give them, some sign that conveys that I feel differently about them than they might imagine the majority of random London people do. Then after thinking this, I feel weird about assuming my superiority in some way over others just because I was in Egypt once. And then I just feel nostalgic, and I stare. I'm like those people that stare at foreigners. Or the people who are a minority who stare at others in the same minority, like all the Indian frats and sororities at UT? I'm like those people, except worse somehow in a way that I do not understand!
I really don't know why I'm doing this to myself. I really, really loved Egypt, for some strange reason. I mean, on a certain level, I am very appreciative of the fact that I am not there, and that I do not have to deal with the hassles associated with being there, and I am endlessly appreciative of the luxuries here that are not there. But, on the other hand, I really gave myself totally over to the idea of being a person who lived in Cairo, and it's hard to come back from that.
Some dude called me out the other day for claiming that life is simpler in Cairo. He told me that I was imposing my Western concepts or something, I can't remember what he said but I knew what he meant. I tried to explain that it wasn't that, I didn't mean it that way. And I don't, but it is hard to say what I do mean. I guess it was simpler because what I had to deal with on a day to day basis was complicated in a very predictable, familiar way. Everything was relaxed, things took a lot longer, places were a lot warmer.
I'm getting used to London, again. I've been going out a bit, to clubs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I think that helps. I'm developing a very difficult relationship with the Waterloo bridge, which every day collaborates with the horrible weather to form some sort of psychotic partnership and attempts to throw me bodily into the river. It's pretty weird. The wind, it is like some sort of thing that is alive. It rushes around like an excited dog, knocking people stupidly in every direction, against the bridge railings, against each other, pushing and pushing and then letting up, so the person stumbles sideways. It rushes around you and then practically rips off your coat, blows your scarf off to one side, so you are walking along looking decidedly un-stylish, hoping that all the other people on the street know that you honestly did not set out this morning intending to look like this. The other day, a bus drove past me, and the wind blew my scarf up in the air, in front of me, and then covered my face with it. It was ridiculous.
Also, a dude got hit by a bus today! I think it hit him in the backpack, I don't know why he was hanging out in the road where it was painted red and said 'BUS LANE' in really big letters, but whatever. He was fine. My friend was probably the most shocked of the entire group of observers. She thought it was a very serious thing, a dude getting hit by a bus. She refused to cross the street, afterwards, at a zebra crossing (pedestrians have the right of way, there). I decided not to tell her about the taxi in Cairo that hit those schoolgirls that one time.
OMG OMG BED TIME!!!! It is time for bed. I hope you all have lovely dreams about adventures or something, and that you all have lovely, delightful, fulfilling Fridays tomorrow. Oh, also? If you get the chance, read the book 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman.
It is so good.
Kisses!
