Pimpinos and the Bussy Cat Cafe

Hey everyone, sorry for the shortage of posts recently. I would have written last night, but last night we were taking a little vacation in Alexandria, or in Arabic, Al-Iskandria. Our professor said as we were departing Cairo that the trip was just intended for us to relax and escape the city, which was exactly what all of us needed. Upon arriving in Alexandria, however, we found out that the seaside city is actually very similar to Cairo. Both are busy and crowded, with the same faded early 1900s architecture, and in both, foreigners attract a lot of attention. As we were walking out to get a good view of the Mediterranean (such views aren't hard to come by, the entire coastal edge of the city is gorgeous, but we were heading towards a particularly choice area with much crashing and splashing of the waves), a man came up to me and asked me 5 times if I would pose for a picture with his children - really awkward. The major difference between the two cities is weather - the sea air makes Alexandria much cooler and cleaner than Cairo. It was actually a bit chilly in the wind last night as we walked along the coast. Another difference: in Alexandria, there was a road that we were advised not to attempt to cross under any circumstances. I've written about this before, but as a reminder: there aren't really crosswalks in Egypt; people just cross the street wherever they can/want, a la Frogger. However, as we drove on the main highway that borders the sea, called the Corniche, our project adviser told us that people get in accidents and die every day on the Corniche, so we should just use the tunnels that run underneath the road. All driving/street-crossing/traffic interactions in Cairo kind of scare me, so when I heard that this road was forbidden to cross, I was slightly terrified. Of course, when we actually tried to find a tunnel, we were told that there were none for long ways down the road. Luckily (like in Cairo), we found a police man to stop traffic for us so we could make it across.

One thing that holds true for all of Egypt is their confusion over the English letters "b" and "p." In Arabic, there is no "p" sound ("Egypt" isn't actually the name of the country in Arabic, it's "Misr"), so the letter "b" is substituted into any English words written in Arabic characters. However, this can lead to some confusion when the word is re-translated into English. For example, last Wednesday I watched a soccer game with my class at the "Bussy Cat Cafe" in Cairo, and today as we were walking around Alexandria, we spotted a children's clothing store called "Pimpino" (no, I'm not making this up), instead of "bambino," meaning baby in Italian. As if the name weren't ridiculous enough, most children's stores in Egypt use oversized versions of those creepy blinky-eye dolls as mannequins, so the combined effect made me laugh so hard I couldn't walk for about five minutes.

Despite this entertaining find, the highlights of Alexandria for me were the sea views and the library. Although the collection at the Great Library of Alexandria is still in the building phase (I think they have around 1 million volumes now), there was something incredible about standing in the library of Alexandria. The building itself is very modern and gorgeous, with incredible technology that keeps the huge reading room quiet. The main building is meant to represent the sun, while the spherical planetarium represents the earth. We took a tour of the exhibits, but to me the best part by far was just walking up and down the aisles of books, and occasionally reading a few pages. Alexandria was truly a wonderful vacation and getaway from the grind of our lives in Cairo, but I feel energized and ready to get back to it (at least I will after some more sleep). Masa al-khair!