No Man Bags In Egypt

News Flash - Egyptian men do not carry man bags. They may walk arm in arm, hold hands, kiss hello, but never take a bag. Before entering the new library in Alexandria, you have to check bags. When I went to get mine back, the guard asked me "where is the owner (feminine) of this bag?" I told him it was me, he watched me as I put it over my shoulder and walked away, then I realized what had just happened.

This week in Egypt

Sunday, we went to the pyramids. Dusty, old. The tomb interior looked new and spooky. Monday and Tuesday we were in Alexandria. Cool breezes, an amazing cathedral, and delicious and fresh calamari. We went out to Montaza, which was the king's palace on the water. The new Alexandria Library was a great sight to visit too, alot smaller than I imagined. Our aunt hooked us up with someone who took us around the city. whopee

Wednesday we went to monasteries in the deserts outside of Cairo, the monks were nice and they served us a great lunch. I was preparing myself for a gross plate of beans but they brought out chicken, rice, potatoes, and fresh cheese. Mm Mm good.

Yesterday and today are chill out days in Cairo, visited my mom's old friend, went to a going away party for one of Mark's coworkers. They had karaoke. I wanted to sing Ziggy Stardust but no go. Too bad. We take the night train to Aswan tonight. We're going to check out the valley of the Kings, then cap off the trip at a resort on the Red Sea.

Dusty

The pyramids are dusty. And big and stuff. The top of the middle one still has some limestone at the top which must've looked awesome back in the day. They say it was ripped off to make mosques. What the hell? People are still quarrying limestone today. There's enough to go around without taking things off wonders of the world. Egyptian people are giving me a headache.

We climbed up inside the tomb of the great pyramid. There wasn't as many people as I expected inside, which was great. After a while two Egyptian kids came in, we tried to scare someone coming up but he didn't go for it. WOOOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOO. The tomb had a cool echo effect.

The guys around the pyramids are the most annoying ever. Saying no is worse than ignoring them. Threats with rocks don't work either.

crossing the streets is an adventure

We recorded ourselves crossing the street in Egypt. It's like playing frogger. Nobody stops, they honk to let you know they're not stopping, so you play it by ear, wocka wocka....Cairo is crowded and the pollution sticks to your lungs but insanely cheap and its fun just walking around. I had the tastiest tahmiyea ever. EVEERRR. We spent the afternoon in the big museum, the place is stuffed with sarcofigi and what nots, king Tut's treasures were pretty awesome. He has three beds, each with its own magical use in the afterlife.
We haggled a faluka guy down to 40 pounds, 8 usd for an hour ride on the nile, the boat to ourselves. Sunset on the Nile, very relaxing. Groppi is cafe my parents used to hang out at, which isn't as posh as it was back then, but was cool to check out nonetheless.

Planning trips to Luxor, Alexandria, and the Red Sea....whopeeeeeeeeeee

This is taking twice as long to write because Mark's laptop keeps throwing the cursor around while I type and spell check doesn't work so there are probably tons of typos I don't see....

misr

howdy from the land of the Egypt. I got in late last night, we went to a shawirma stand called Baraka (that's BA-ra-kah), walked on the streets because apparently walking on the sidewalks is for rookies....
Half a day in london was ok. It was very gray, I walked over to the Serpentine pavillion at the end of Hyde Park to find it was still under construction, Gehry's turn. Saw the gerhkin, the tate modern, lots of very expensive bad sandwich shops. I spent 50 bucks on a coffee, two train tickes, and a couple sandwiches. I walked so much, plus I hadn't slept, that I fell asleep at the airport and almost missed my flight!

OK gotta meet Mark downtown.....
PEEZ!

John McCain rips off Prometric

I was watching the news last night and realized that John McCain steals his artwork from Prometric, the place you go to take exams....Now his image torments me that I'm not taking my licensing exams fast enough. Jerk.

mneh

This is what today feels like.

somewhere between this....


and this...


blekh

Saudis are not Egyptians you ignorant moron

This is why certain people have no sense. This is why certain people use Indian accents to make fun of Arabs. Idiots.

Nobody in Egypt dresses like this. I've never met an Egyptian who dresses like this. My brother in Cairo never sees anyone dressed like this. SAUDI ARABIA IS AS FAR FROM EGYPT AS ENGLAND IS FROM FRANCE. Do you see anybody confusing England with France? No. You don't.

subsidization , tracy chapman, and badu

Going to the subway today I saw this guy lurking by the fare gates. After I paid he got really close to me and tried to sneak in behind me, since the Boston gates stay open for about half an hour after you walk through. I stopped so he couldn't go through, turned around, and told him I'm not subsidizing his trip. He had this stupid look on his face and mumbled, "stubuizide?". What an idiot. I made the train, he didn't. That was very satisfying. Next time I will yell it really loud.

While I was having coffee with the ass bandit on Boylston this afternoon, we saw the Tracy Chapman lookalike from The Roots walking around with his guitar. He must've been lost because he walked by us 3x.

Later I got a call that someone bailed on their ticket to the Roots/Erykah Badu concert tonight....So I got to see more tracy chapman, dancing and singing it up. the roots are the best opening band ever, the only hiphop/jam band......questlove gained a ton of weight, weird weight too, he looked like a cartoon...badu was aweesomee, very sexy, even when she pulled the wig off...she was doing alot of experimental goofy stuff, just to fool around I think....one of the backup singers is her sister, looks just like her except with breasteses...and what have you.

decisions decisions.........

I've been sleeping on the stiffest twin bed on earth for the past couple days. Home sweet home. Came home for Easter weekend, and I've been doing research on the job scene and condos in New York and Philly. Pretty much I'm giving up on staying in Boston. This is me officially getting off the pot. New York has it going on, but for the price of a dumpy studio in Queens, I could have a luxurious big loft in a nice part of Philly. But then again the pay in Philly is much lower....vicious cycle. I'm not going to make up my mind anytime soon. This might mean a prolonged period of crashing on this stiff bed once my lease is up in July.....


Mark is supposed to call me with his schedule tomorrow so I can book a ticket to Egypt. All my frequent flier miles means I have a free ticket to the motherland. MARK, What the crap is the deal? I want to see pyramids and what not. Email me before the airline changes its mind.

Pujols

I had a dream this morning where I clung onto a hairless otter that gave me a lift up to a shelf, then proceeded to feed me Ikea-like ottomans. This is what is referred to as a "Pujols". I overheard people in the dream talking about getting a "pujols" as if it was a bad thing, but it didn't seem so. He was pretty unrelenting with the ottomans though.

Greek Architecture

My friend Franky's new architectural practice in Athens....Dig it.


http://www.mabarchitects.com/

Spillage

On my bike ride to work this morning the Harvard Science building was taped off....cops, fire trucks, and ambulances everywhere...there was a chemical leak so they say. Don't drink the water this week. Then this pauncy guy with a beard in a BMW convertible with the top down passed me while playing some bad pop music....I reached in the car and yelled, "get ass cancer you molester!" OK no I didn't. But the drop top reminded me that this is the weekend. This is the weekend where the weather breaks for real and all the clothes come off. Enjoy.

I gotta put on the marshmallow pants and hit the boo hoo button, cuz I don't know where the cranberries are!

I watched this 20x today. I keep having the urge to throw coffee mugs in someone's face a la the cop in the Big Lebwski, Suria does a good job too......enjoy

testing....testing......

I'm testing color palettes....what do you think?

homestar

I just found this on my computer and had to share.........a couple years ago I was homestar runner for halloween....This is the only photo I have in costume. I made a big paper mache head and walked through the streets of Philly like this. It took about 30 seconds for people to start calling out "Homestaw!"

Hot Dawg!

Say no more.
http://www.20x200.com/art/2008/04/hot-dog-and-i.html

This is a message from my phone

The Message could not be adapted to your terminal

Turkey or Singapore

Turkey as in home cooking.....I was planning on going home for Easter and now people are asking me to go to Singapore that week.....hmmmmmm city I'm sick of where everyone people make an art of making no sense at all or home where I get free home cooking and can space out for a couple days.......

sorry Singapore, you smell funny.

New Museum

by Sanaa.....I want to check this out next time in NYC....white boxes kind of on top of each other!