Pamplemousse?!

So. I feel like I'm kind of on a discovering good dance music kick recently, but what can you do. I made the fortuitous discovery of this earlier tonight, and it is close to the most perfect. This is why I love the French.

All the people

You guys. This song is fantastic. For serious.


It's sunny outside, and I can feel the seasons changing in the air. I can't wait for Spring.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

So. This made me really mad. Read the story. Read the other stories listed on the side. Read the background info. I am not just mad because I lived in the Middle East for a little once. The whole situation is just ridiculous. All the analysis in the world and all the theorizing and coming up with solutions doesn't do any good, because it is the people on the ground that matter, and in the end there is always someone who disagrees, for a very good reason. Peoples' images of reality is what is important, and I wish there was some way to make everyone see the same reality. Or, I don't know. I wish there was a way to broadcast the same information to everyone, into their minds, while they were asleep, and have them all remember it. This part was the worst:

"Israel will not intervene in demonstrations inside the Gaza Strip but it will ensure the defence of its territory and prevent any violation of its sovereign borders," said a joint statement released by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

I don't even know what to say.

Somewhere beyond the sea

So I am having a really horrible time focusing. I just can't do it. I know I shouldn't say that, I shouldn't say "can't", because that just ensures that I am in the mindset that I can't, but come on. What the heck, body. I feel really restless and I just want to be moving and being entertained and doing SOMETHING that isn't my essay. This is such bad news. Well, since I've procrastinated a great deal of time away recently, and am exhausted as a result (it is a vicious cycle!!!), I have decided that it is time to post some pictures! What a good idea!!! Ugh. I am like 500 words into a 3,000 word essay. I have another one to write, too, before Thursday. I just want to pause time, get on a plane, miraculously have loads of money, and go to a beach somewhere.

Anyway. Pictures!!!



I'm in London!!! And I went to the beach this one time!!!


It was really pretty.



That is all I feel like talking about right now! I feel crazy. I really, really want to eat hummus and other such things that can be devoured with pita bread, and drink wine or beer, and smoke shisha, and wear pretty clothing, and be faux intellectual, and go out to artsy movies, and discuss with my trendy friends, and get drunk in cinemas, and have lots of cuddles. And I do not want to have to write essays. But that is life.

At least I'm going to Brussels next weekend! Hooray beer and waffles!!!

xoxo

We need some more Jews

I have been having the best day! I just really have. Yesterday was alright, too! Yesterday I woke up and had coffee with Harper and Nick, and we laughed a lot. Then I got something accomplished! THEN I went to the library, and read a book and even took notes! After that I walked home and felt very alive.

Today I woke up early and had breakfast and watched the newest episode of Lost, and did some exercising. I got all my messing around out of my system (or so I thought) and attempted to get some work done. I sort of succeeded? And THEN I went to meet my friends to get tickets for Spamalot! I was early, but they got there eventually and we all got tickets! Stall tickets! Those are like the best ones! And they were only 20 pounds!!! We went and sat at a pub called 'Pillars of Hercules' and talked travel for the hour between then and the show, and I decided that I really like my friends. They're good people. Our Easter breaks all sound so fun, and I really hope we get to meet up at some point. Becca and Anna are coming to Egypt (hopefully!), and Harper (maybe Nick) is going to Istanbul and then maybe Egypt. So yay travel! This is going to be so much fun.

THEN we went to the play, and Poppa Becca bought the ladies drinks. The show was really good! I mean, it was nothing spectacular or anything, but it was just absurd. Seriously. Lancelot turns out to be gay, and there is this whole song and dance number about Jews. It's really something. And then I said no, I wasn't going out to dinner, because I had to go home and do work (as much as I wish I really didn't). I walked and took the train, and felt very happy and was smiling at strangers. I went to Sainsbury's, didn't buy what I intended to buy, but instead bought a fruit smoothie drink, some Belgian Chocolate ice cream, and some yogurt. OH! And some love hearts! From back in the day! Oh man, life is the best. And tomorrow I'm going to Brighton!

(......who wants to take bets on whether or not I actually do anything work-related tonight??? Maybe I'll just eat dinner, watch a movie and go to bed.......)

Related to this, is the fact that it is Lent and I have sort of decided what I'm giving up. I've always veered away from the concept of 'giving up' something, flat out, but instead I prefer having discipline. So, I am not giving up candy or sweets in general, because where do you draw the boundaries? I am allowed dark chocolate (because you cannot eat too much of that in one sitting anyway), and the occasional situational candy (such as love hearts). But I am NOT allowed too much sugar (so super sugary things, such as the cadbury's mini eggs sold here, or gummy things, are totally out), and I am NOT allowed to lack discipline. It's more of an adoption of an attitude than a giving up of anything. For example, I did not buy crisps on the way home, but I did get some Belgian Chocolate ice cream. It was a sort of trade. And I am going to try and not mess around so much! And I am giving up not going to class.

Oh! Also, I gave change to one of the homeless guys who sits by my building. I always want to talk to them, but I never have change or I lose my nerve or they don't ask for change. But I had one pound, so I gave it to him.

I think that is all, in terms of lately. I'm going to go eat the rest of the pasta I made yesterday, because I'm super hungry. OH! I almost forgot! I bought frozen peas the other day! PETIT POIS!!!! Delicious.

Kisses!

Words of Wisdom on Why I Miss Egypt: vol. 1

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!

Perfect.

You guys.

Best thing ever? My favorite part is at the end when they dive into the water and then start having a big dance party, all together. To me, right now, this song is perfection.