I have finally made it to the beach (which isn’t much of an achievement for someone who has lived 5minutes walk away from it for almost a week now). The sea is rather rough as its winter ( winter my foot am walking around with a mere two layers compared to the Egyptians daily wear of gloves, hats, scarves must make them think I have a certain fondness for cold related illness.
You have to buy a minimum of a cup of tea to sit on the seats strategically placed around the beach which is no hardship as sipping a cup of tea by the sea with my mp3 is ideal (I have to date brought 6varieties of tea). The sun was causing the water to shimmer and the crashing waters of blue to sooth my slightly home sick soul.
Before I left all I heard was keep safe, not come back married, no catching taxi’s on your own, don’t loose track of time and so forth. So with all that in mind it’s safe to say I have been more cautious then I would normally be, I have chosen to venture out in groups only But as nothing happens here and its incredibly safe I have decided to enjoy my time here and go discover Alexandria.
So I went on a long walk on and around Shari Khalid bin waleed ( nicked named the street that never sleeps) I wondered around looking,taking in the sights and scents, sharing smiles with woman and children, window shopping and now again stopping to make sure I was aware of the way back home. This included several u-turns and talking to myself just to confirm where I had come from when I realised I was headed into some uncharted area (am doing this systematically). I had a lovely conversation with an elderly Egyptian who reminded me of my daddy. He spoke in gestures and I murmured phrases from my phrase book and tried to use what I have learnt so far but there is only so far a few verbs (which am not yet able to conjugate) along with a list of nouns and a variety of sentences involving those nouns and verbs can aid you in a conversation.
I think we charmed each other equally and in the end he made me a chicken sandwich set me of on my travels with a long dua, very sweet mashallah. All is honky dory here and since getting my Egyptian sim I feel rather settled.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
wonderings
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2 comments:
A chicken sandwich is so mmuch easier than ason in marriage. I like him too NM. He sounds but don't be talking to strange men even if they look like your Dad.
I have not had aconverstaion with a male person (other than my uncle) since I got here over three weeks ago. Place is realy strange that way. Totaly segregated. I like it tho as some weirdos have tried to talk to me in the most funny English you could imagine NM...
LOL! You can clearly understand why i choice the sandwich :) He is not strange anymore (besides i could push me over with one hand if the need arose)
Total segregation, i know what you mean you don't actually realise how much contact with we have with males untill you come to a place like this, there just isn't a need.
Try to remember what they said and how they said it, then you can reenact it for me.
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