downtown

Today I met up with a friend for coffee in the morning, and more friends for museum/downtown adventures in the afternoon. It was a pretty satisfactory day, except for one thing: the smog.
I don't think I can honestly say that today was the worst I'd ever seen the smog in Cairo, but it was up there. Also, I'm not usually walking around outside in really smoggy areas like I did today. Honestly, my lungs hurt by the time we got back to the dorms, and my contacts were foggy.
I had to go to the Egyptian Museum today to complete my sketch for my Art and Architecture essay, which was hard. I am not an artist. I did meet a little boy who liked to draw, though, and who wanted to see my picture. I showed it to him, but I was embarrassed. He wasn't bothering me, not really, but his dad apparently thought he was, and took him away. Maybe I should have asked him to draw the statue for me...
After I was finished sketching, we wandered the museum for a bit, but the lack of explanations for anything was more frustrating than usual, so we detoured to Tutankhamum and then left.
The three of us wandered downtown for a few hours, getting lost and finding our way repeatedly. Unfortunately, we didn't find any of the kind of shops we were looking for, but I think we still had a good time. My favorite parts of the afternoon both involved food. We found a bakery where we bought fluffy roll things and some date (I think) cookies for two pounds total, and then had a late lunch/early dinner at Felfela, which was delicious and also cheap. We washed that down with fresh juice, pineapple and fig. I'd never had fig juice before, but I was pleasantly surprised.
After we got back, I relaxed in my room, watched some tv and read my book. I honestly didn't have any work that needed to be done. Well, I hope I didn't. That would be a nasty surprise tomorrow. I suppose I could have spent the time studying, but it felt so good to not have any work to do that I didn't bother. Study later, sleep now.

grey over cairo

Well. I had my map quiz today. It went pretty well, I thought, except for me forgetting where Meir was. That's alright though. Who cares about Meir anyway?
Most of today seemed to be made up of people asking various professors about class on Thursday, and whether or not it could be cancelled. This week, tons of people are going out of town, for a 4 day weekend. We have Tuesday off like normal and have Wednesday off because of Armed Forces Day, so most students are just planning to skip Thursday. I know some people who are going to Luxor and Aswan, some who are going to Jordan (and renting a car - scary!), and even one girl who is going to Istanbul. I'm actually a little jealous of her, because I've been to Luxor, and I have a trip to Jordan planned later this semester, but I don't have any plans about Istanbul. Maybe if I have any money left after winter break I'll figure it out and pay Turkey a visit. It's Istanbul, not Constantinople now...
I did research in the library today for both my essays, one of which is due on Sunday. I hope I'll actually make myself write it tomorrow or Wednesday, but I might not. I do have almost a whole week, after all!
Wow, today was boring, looking back on it. Geez. Maybe I should have made plans for this weekend just to have something to spice up my blog with.
I guess tomorrow I am going to the Egyptian museum, though. It should be pretty interesting to have Professor Ikram there to explain things. From what I've heard the museum is not organized in any way that is conducive to easy understanding, unless one knows what to look for. Lucky for me, I'll have a professional Egyptologist as a tour guide!
The bus ride home today was a long one as well, almost an hour and a half. For some reason, I woke up halfway through, which was odd, because I'm normally asleep right up until the bus parks at the curb and it's time to get out.
When I woke up on the bus this time, we were just climbing an onramp to merge with the ring road, Cairo's main highway. Every minute or so, the bus would be able to crawl forward another ten or twenty feet, but not before it rolled back a few when the driver took his foot off the brake. I tried to ignore the little lurches, and looked out the window.
As far as I could see across the city, in all directions, the light was the same. It was around sunset, but I couldn't see the sun. Instead, it was like a giant grey bowl had been turned upside down and placed over the city, cutting off everything else. The sky was absolutely uniform, with no individual clouds or rays of light to break through the silent grey. At first, I thought for a moment that it might be rain clouds. Then I realized that the clouds were made of smog, hung so low over the city they covered the sky.