'please don't let me have a blood clot' and other topics

I went to see Student Health services this morning, just to see if they could tell me what is going on with my leg. It hasn't stopped hurting for very long at all since it started Thursday* morning.The pain hasn't gotten worse either, which I guess is probably good.I don't really know what I expected from a doctor's office in Egypt, but I wasn't really surprised at what went on. I was sent back by the front desk to consult with a nurse about which doctor to see. When I talked to the nurse, she told me that her daughter gets cramps too, because she doesn't walk around enough. On a campus as big as this, with no means of transportation around the dorms either, somehow, I don't think that's it. If it were, I think I would probably be happier.
She seemed like she was about to tell me to leave when another nurse came in and asked if she'd taken my blood pressure. The first nurse said no, not yet, but then when the second nurse left, just asked me if I was having headaches or 'blood pressure complaints' and since I wasn't, didn't bother taking it. That was comforting.
Then I sat in a chair that the second nurse pointed me to to wait to see a doctor. It didn't take very long, and he was a pretty nice guy. I told him what had been going on, and then he poked my calf for a while, asking if it hurt (which it did), and then told me it was probably just a cramp.
Hello? I know it's a cramp! I told you it was a cramp! It's just a cramp that has lasted for FOUR WHOLE DAYS. What are you going to do about it?
Basically, nothing. I mean, I don't know if there's really anything to do at all, I was just expecting a little more than what I got. He did give me a prescription for pain, which I guess is nice, but I don't really know if I need it. I'd rather have it hurt and know that something is still wrong than not feel it at all. Does that make any sense?
He also gave me a recommendation to go to the hospital where AUC international students have insurance to get an ultrasound, to make sure I don't have a blood clot. From what he told me of the symptoms of a blood clot (swelling, warmth, discoloration, and pain), I don't have one, just pain. But, since the insurance does cover it, I'll make an appointment and go, just in case. There goes my fun Tuesday.
Anyway, classes went well, even if I was falling asleep a lot of the time. In Egyptian Literature, we read the story of the shipwrecked sailor, which I highly recommend. It involves a sailor, a shipwreck, a snake, and a shooting star. It's not as alliterative as my description makes it sound.
Arabic was funny today, because we played Memory, trying to match Arabic words with their English definitions. I didn't do very well, but that's okay because I still learned the vocab. I also learned a bit of Japanese vocab too, because one of my classmates (who went to a British high school in Cairo) asked my friend Satomi (who is studying at AUC from Japan) for a 'rubber', which really surprised me until I realized she meant an eraser. I'm not sure if Satomi knew either, but it all worked out in the end. It got me thinking though, and so I asked Satomi later what the word for a whiteboard eraser was in Japanese, because it couldn't be the same as a normal eraser, since part of that word means rubber. It turns out it's 'kokuban-keshi', while a normal eraser is 'keshi-gomu'. So, I learned a new Japanese word today, and also really surprised the other girl when I started speaking nihongo to Satomi. It was fun.
Most of my day post-classes has been spent studying for a map quiz that I may or may not have tomorrow in Art and Architecture. If it is tomorrow, it'll serve me right for not studying earlier, but I really hope it's not until Thursday! I will get a much better grade then, and not worry about it so much.
Here's the map I've been working on filling in:

there are 102 places to be put on this map, and i'm still missing about 15

zoom in on lower egypt!

Also, post doctor's visit and classes, I was having a fairly crappy day today. When I got off the bus in Zamalek, I was totally prepared to go up to my room and crash, but instead I decided to walk around the block, do my grocery shopping, and get some dinner from the really good taamiyya (falafel) place that Emily showed me a while back. By the time I got back to the dorms, my day was looking so much better, that I might just have to walk around every day from now on. Even though I got hissed at (that'll teach me to wear a semi-low cut but completely modest shirt!), it seriously improved my mood.

Even better, my friend Jen and I spent about an hour watching Amanda Palmer videos and hanging out, which was really fun, and I'm sad that she's going home in just a few days, even though I know it's the right thing.

So, classes tomorrow, and keep your fingers crossed that I don't have to take this map quiz! I don't want to fail the first test I take in Egypt...

lazy tuesday

Well, today was just as fun as a barrel of monkeys, after the monkeys have been in there for a while and got bored. (How fun can a barrel of monkeys be, anyway?)
I woke up this morning around 10 am, after falling asleep almost immediately after I posted my blog last night. It was nice to just wake up, not be jolted out of sleep by a cell phone alarm.
I had plenty of homework to do today, but ended up putting it off like any good college student. Don't worry, it did get done, just not while there was still daylight.
My goals for the day (besides homework), were to call housekeeping to get my room cleaned for the first time in three weeks, and to do my laundry. Originally I planned to seek out the dorm's laundry service and pay for them to do it, but we had some Arabic/English confusion, so I wound up just doing it myself.
Getting housekeeping to come to my room turned out to be easy, since my neighbors called them up, and I just took advantage and asked them to clean my room when they were done. They were kind of scarily efficient, and it took less than ten minutes to strip my bed, put on new sheets, polish all the wooden surfaces that weren't cluttered with my stuff, clean the mirror, and mop the floor. Four ladies worked at one time, and their supervisor (I guess?) stood out in the hall and made me sign papers saying that I had called housekeeping for the first time and that the room had everything that I was promised. (I didn't check 'lampshade', though, because my overhead light is still just a bare bulb. It doesn't really bother me, though.)
My floor proved to be dirtier than I had ever thought possible, with dirt tracked in from the Cairo streets, and lots of long hair. Wait, long hair? Whose long hair? My invisible roommate's? Creepy... Anyway, I was really glad to check housekeeping off my list of things to do, and I rewarded myself by watching a few episodes of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I am eternally grateful to Mr. Stewart and his associate Mr. Colbert for ensuring that their shows are viewable all around the world, not just in the United States. (I'm looking at you, Hulu and Netflix. Make it happen.)
I met my friend Emily for lunch, which was really nice, since we hadn't seen each other in a while. We walked a few blocks to a street food place which she had heard sold really good falafel. Both of us have kind of fallen in love with falafel since we've been here, so it was a really good choice. The way the shop was set up was a bit confusing, since we had to pay a man who then wrote our orders on a slip of paper for us to give to the cooks, but we figured it out eventually. The falafel was delicious, and I definitely plan on going back there soon.
After lunch, I decided to be productive again and do my laundry. The third floor washer was busy, so I made my way up to the fourth, then the fifth, where I finally found an empty washer. Of course, right after closing the door and starting it, I realized that this was the demon washer that had no handle to open the door again. When my laundry was done, I had to call Emily to ask for her fifth floor resident expertise to get my clothes out again. Luckily, we succeeded, and I went back down to the fourth floor to find an empty dryer. This dryer actually worked, unlike the third floor one, and my clothes were clean and dry and warm and the process only took three hours. Whoopee!
Unfortunately, there were some casualties. Since the washers are small here, and I had a lot of dirty clothes, I washed all my pants, and a few shirts that I knew I'd want to wear again soon. I don't know why, but somehow this ended up with my two lightest shirts in the wash with a new pair of jeans. All things considered, it could have been much worse, but it still makes me a little mad. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

top and left are my newly light blue shirts.
bottom right corner is a very white pillowcase.

At some point after my laundry was completed, I realized that I was no longer in possession of my cell phone. I think I left it on a washer or dryer somewhere, and after checking with the front desk and finding out that housekeeping found a phone earlier today, I'm pretty sure it's safe. Unfortunately, housekeeping is gone for the day, and has taken my phone with them. Apparently that's how lost and found works in Cairo. It's not so much a place as a state of mind.
Eventually I got all my homework done, including reading The Libation Bearers (again), the most boring and plot-empty Greek tragedy ever written. I managed not to fall asleep, though, so I'll at least have something to talk about in class tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, it is going to be busy. Not only do I have class for five hours, I also have tons of business to take care of, like buying textbooks and switching into (and out of) classes. Should be fun. I'll let you know how it went tomorrow, and I'll post another Luxor and Aswan blog too. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Oh, and edit to add: I've had this song stuck in my head for the last four days. You're welcome.

tomato, tomahto

In Egypt, you never want to mistake a tomato for a cat. According to my survival Arabic teacher, this is an easy mistake to make, so she took the time to make sure we were safe. Today we learned our fruits and vegetables, and the long lists of produce were so overwhelming that no one in the class, not even me, bothered to say anything when a tomato was listed as a vegetable. But I digress.
In Arabic, tomato is oo-tah. Cat, on the other hand, is o-tah. They're very close, only spelled one letter differently, and sound almost identical to a non-native speaker. This is, I guess, the reason why one of my teacher's former students once told her that in America, we eat cat all the time. She was surprised, and luckily asked for clarification before assuming that all Americans went around eating their pets. After hearing this story, no one asked whether cats were eaten in Egypt. No one wanted to know.
Also in Arabic class today, we learned of a small miracle of Egyptian cooking. In Egypt, there is no vegetable that cannot be stuffed. 'What about carrots?' I asked. 'Can you stuff those?' 'Yes,' she replied. 'In Egypt, we can stuff everything. Except okra. It is too small.' That answer was fine with me, though. Why would anyone want to stuff okra?
An hour later, we were discussing the abundance of juice stands in Egypt. They can be found on almost every street at night, once the fast has been broken, and the juice is made fresh, served in a glass cup, and is drunk while standing on the street. I have yet to try it, but my teacher gave it such a glowing review that I'm sure I will. 'What kinds of fruit juices are there?' 'All kinds,' she answered. 'Even batikh (watermelon) ? Even moz (banana)? Wouldn't it be lumpy?' 'Yes, all these. Any kind of fruit. Even sugar cane.' I was impressed. Maybe next time I'm out on the street I'll buy an asiir moz and find out for myself.
During my break from class today, I reserved my spot on the school-sponsored trip to Luxor and Aswan. At 2000 Egyptian pounds (about 300 dollars), I had originally thought it was too expensive and not worth my while. However, I talked to my teacher, and she was shocked at how low the cost was for the trip, especially during Eid al-Fitr, the coming holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. She encouraged me to reserve my space, and I did. Hopefully I won't be disappointed, although since I'll definitely get to see monuments in Karnak and Luxor that I've dreamed about seeing my entire life, how bad could it be?
Tonight, my friends and I ventured into the city by taxi for the first time. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, although the traffic was horrible. We were heading to Khan el-Khalili, a famous bazaar that stood as the entrance to Cairo hundreds of years ago. Now it is in the middle of the city, surrounded on all sides by tall buildings and freeways, but it still seems magical. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post, since the entire experience was completely overwhelming, but I will take some next time I visit.
This trip, we mainly stuck to one row, and were constantly accosted on both sides by people selling their tourist trap wares. If we had ventured farther, I think we would have hit upon the main market where more quality wares are sold for realistic prices.
I didn't end up buying anything, but I have plenty of time. My friends, who are all here for only a semester, went ahead and haggled their way into some pretty nice souvenirs for fairly good prices. No one we dealt with was too insistent, and the only people making us feel uncomfortable were ourselves, and we got over that pretty quickly.
We were quick to find a place to eat, and bought our first street food - pita and falafel sandwiches, which were delicious. I surprised myself by stepping up and being the speaker for the group, although my Arabic was far from fluent. Literally, I think I asked for 'One that. One that please? How much?'
Our biggest problem was guaranteeing that the food didn't contain sesame seeds, since one of my friends is highly allergic. We crossed that hurdle though, and everything turned out fine. (And as a side note, our dinners cost four pounds each - less than one dollar for a filling meal.)
After our shopping was complete, our total haul consisting of an inlaid box, two sets of pyramids, an Anubis figurine, a cat figurine, and a set of four canopic jars, nothing of which was mine, we caught a cab back to Zamalek.
Our cabbie was very confident up until a certain point, when we reached the island, and he started asking us for directions, and then began pulling over periodically to shout the address at passers-by with very little luck. We found it eventually, though, once we recognized the Harley-Davidson shop, and he dropped us off right by the front steps of the beit-toliba (dorms).
All in all, it was a satisfactory, if very long, day. Hopefully, tomorrow will be even better. After all, how wrong can a trip to the pyramids go?