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Archive: ‘12 of 12’

12 of 12: July 2009 / ١٢ من ١٢: يوليو ٢٠٠٩

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

It’s time once again for 12 of 12! This 12th of July, I’m in Cairo, capitol of the Arab Republic of Egypt. I’ve been out of the US since June 29 — I was in Turkey for 10 days and flew down here on the 9th. (For the record, and if you’re interested, there are photos from Turkey here).

I’ve been in Cairo many times — I studied here for a year in university — and it’s one of my favorite places in the world. This is my first visit since 2006. I’m here on a combined business / vacation trip. Although today is a business day (the work week in Egypt is Sunday through Thursday, since Friday is the communal day of prayer in Islam), I didn’t have any meetings scheduled, so it was kind of a fun day.

7:52 am: Skyping with Ray

I’ve been waking up kind of early since I got here, and I caught Ray up late at home so we talked by Skype for a bit. Mocha was in the picture for a bit, but she never quite looked at the camera. Sorry, Mocha fans, there are no photos of her this month

10:00 am: Errands

After pretending to go back to sleep for a bit, I finally wandered out around 10 o’clock to go pick up my laundry from the place down the street. The laundry is in the same complex as the supermarket, so I stopped in to pick up some water and soda first, and then carried it all back to the hotel. It was warm in Cairo today (102 F/41 C), and unusually humid. This is, lamentably, still cooler than it is at home in Austin. Tomorrow it’s going to be cooler – by Tuesday, it’ll be 91 (36).

1:56 pm: Christian Cairo

I met up today with Tarek, our junior professor in modern Arabic literature, and we went down to the so-called Christian quarter. It’s in the oldest part of the city, which actually predates the city of Cairo by 300 years. A little-known fact: around 10 per cent of Egypt’s population is Christian, belonging to the native Coptic Church. In an area of town called Mar Girgis, there are a number of churches and one of the few synagogues remaining in the country, all clumped together.

Tarek and I first hit the Coptic Museum (no photography allowed), and then wandered through the rest of the complex. Although it’s a tourist draw, most of the people there were Egyptian, which was OK by us.

2:11 pm: St George’s Cemetery

That’s Tarek taking a photo of the mausoleums in the Greek Orthodox cemetery behind St. George’s Church. There are a bunch of mausoleums and family plots back there. I was a bit surprised to find the tomb of someone with the same name as my grandfather — how many Neoklis Triantafillides’s could there have been in the Greek speaking world?

2:16 pm: Water from the Holy Well

Although it’s not spelled out in the Gospels, the Egyptians have an entire itinerary set out for exactly where the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus) traveled during their flight into Egypt. In the cemetery is a crypt built over a cave where the Holy Family is said to have sheltered and drawn water from the well above. As Mary (as Meryem) and Jesus (as ‘Issa) are both revered as prophets in Islam as well as Christianity, you can see adherents of both faiths making pilgrimages at these shrines.

2:51 pm: … you crazy, adorable fool

The oldest known synagogue in Egypt still in existence, the Ben Ezra Synagogue, is in Mar Girgis as well, although, once again, no photography allowed. Tarek and I got the royal tour, and were shown to the ‘Ayn Musa, the spring of Moses, located behind the synagogue. This is said to be the spring where Pharaoh’s daughter drew the baby Moses from the Nile (the synagogue is said to be on the place where Moses pleaded with God to stop the plagues inflicted on Egypt).

3:12 pm: Off to Lunch

OK, by this point in the day it was really hot in the sun and time for lunch. Tarek and I had made plans to meet up with some students who are here for the summer, so we set back off for the area where I’m staying and several of the students live.

I am routinely asked by people if I feel unsafe traveling to Egypt as often as I do. The answer is no – I have been coming to Egypt for 15 years, and I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m American, nor that I’m Christian (I don’t mention the part about being gay, however — that’s one barrier I’m not willing to cross here). I’ve never been greeted with anything but kindness by people here.

The one place I do feel unsafe is on the road, however. Egyptian taxis are built like tanks, but it doesn’t stop me from flinching often when riding in them. Cairo is horrifically congested (by most unofficial estimates there are 20 million people in the Cairo/Giza/Shubra el Khayma metropolitan area) and it can take ages to get anywhere. The Metro, wisely, is more for local use than tourists (it’s also not air conditioned), so we decided to cab it.

3:44 pm: Decisions, Decisions

We met up for lunch at Abu Sid, a local upscale Egyptian restaurant. You can get just about everything they serve on the street, but without the nasty side effects afterwards

5:38 pm: Towel Art

Back on my own, I headed back to the hotel — a small, unassuming place run by a lady who governs with an iron fist. I had forgotten that I’d hung my socks on the towel rack to dry after handwashing them in the sink this morning. Hence, the guy who cleans the rooms at the hotel got a little creative with towel placement and left me a duck!

8:05 pm: Sunset

In my food coma haze, I checked e-mail quickly and read while half watching episodes of the less successful Law and Order franchises (Trial by Jury; Trial by Fire; and Parks and Recreational Petty Crimes Division). I lose track of the time until I hear the call to prayer wafting in through the window, meaning that it’s sunset.

8:45 pm: Evening Traffic in Zamalek

I wander out, mostly from sheer boredom, and it’s traffic as usual in Zamalek on a weeknight. Cars and pedestrians going every which way.

10:06 pm: Dessert before dinner

One of the students calls to see what I’m up to and invite me to tag along to dinner (they eat late here). I’m not that hungry, but first we stop in at a local bakery/sweet shop that I’ve frequented since my student days. They churn out really nice baked goods–baklava, basboussa, kinaffeh–and ice cream as well.

For the record, we didn’t actually eat this stuff until after dinner (the shop was on the way to where we were going). That would have been totally crazy … *innocent look*

And that was my 12. How was yours?

Tags: 12 of 12, art, Austin, baklava, bla, blog, boredom, cairo, cars, cat, christianity, churches, coptic, crime, decisions, dinner, egypt, family, fes, food, Friday, fun, gay, god, greek, Home, ice, islam, khowaga, law, literature, me, meetings, men, Mocha, nile, photography, Photos, Ray, SHE, stuff, summer, taxis, traffic, Travel, turkey, university, vacation, Will, work, zamalek
Posted in 12 of 12 | 13 Comments »

12 of 12: June 2009

Friday, June 12th, 2009

It is time, oh yes it is, for 12 of 12!

7:10 am: My capitol is bigger than your capitol.

I’ve been running a workshop all week, and it’s on the other side of campus, necessitating my taking a different freeway into work in the morning. I forget that the other freeway has splendid views of downtown, including the Texas State Capitol building, which is something like eight feet taller than the US Capitol building in Washington, DC. On purpose.

7:17 am: It’s a religion.

As I approach the building where the workshop is being held, I realize that it’s been overshadowed by the extension to the football stadium (that’s American football, not what the rest of the world calls football). I think at this point that the stadium can now comfortably seat France.

11:50 am: Winding down the last session

It’s been a long week. I was ready for it to be over…

12:20 pm: Stragglers.

Look, I know that I said we needed your evaluation forms, but could you write faster? I want to go home!!

12:46 pm: Homeward bound.

I couldn’t even be bothered to stop by my office and collect my mail and drop off the extras from the workshop. I’ll do it Monday. It’s pretty much traditional at this point (after 11 years) that the last day of the big summer workshop ends at noon, and we all go straight home. We’ve earned the overtime over the past four days.

1:21 pm: Naptime.

“Nap” is Mocha’s second favorite word. Man, I needed it, too.

3:43 pm: Trying to put it all back where it was.

I used my laptop as the presentation machine for the workshop, and trying to put it all back the way it was is annoying. I still can’t find the lovely image that I had as my desktop wallpaper. (For the record, I hadn’t updated the weather widget on my desktop before I shot this – it was actually 97 degrees (37 for those who speak Celsius)).

4:18 pm: Waiting.

Mocha likes to sit on the sofa and stare out the window, waiting for people to go by or, in this case, for Ray to come home from work because she knows that she doesn’t get taken for a walk until we’re both home. It doesn’t stop her from trying to convince one of us to take her anyway.

7:02 pm: Walking Daddy.

“Walk” is Mocha’s favorite word. The concept of “it’s too bloody hot” does not register with her. And so, Ray and I go out in the heat.

7:51 pm: Church.

This is Ray’s temple: Fry’s Electronics. We go to worship there weekly when the weekend sales happen.

This time, I did a little shopping of my own: I discovered a copy of Eros Ramazzotti’s new album Ali e Radici on sale. Since the copy I have wasn’t entirely acquired through legal means, I figured I’d try to go legit …

8:35 pm: Pho.

Technically, this is mi, not pho, but … well, whatever.

8:46 pm: Storm clouds.

Leaving the pho place, we can see tonight’s line of thunderstorms coming. Last night was a pretty intense squall line, complete with hail and threats of tornadoes… Kinda hoping tonight we just get rain.

Happy 12th everyone!

P.S. My self-appointed critic wants me to load up some of the photos that he took today (with my camera). I’m kind of a purist – I feel like I ought to take all my 12 of 12s myself…

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/khowaga/3621288109/[/flickr]

Do I even need to explain why I didn’t use this one??

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/khowaga/3621286523/[/flickr]

Ray didn’t like this photo because I wasn’t smiling. That’s actually why I like it – my “photo smile” doesn’t look anything like my real smile.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/khowaga/3621286135/[/flickr]

Tags: 12 of 12, bla, blog, feet, football, heat, Home, ice, khowaga, love, me, Mocha, Photos, rain, Ray, religion, SHE, shopping, summer, texas, weather, weekend, work
Posted in 12 of 12 | 22 Comments »

12 of 12: May 2009

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

It’s time, once again, for 12 of 12!

This month … the 12th falls once again on a Tuesday. I’ll admit it, fellow 12ers, I’m tapped out. I’m out of ideas on how to make a normal Tuesday in the office seem interesting, so this month I played around with post-processing and making the photos look cool after the fact. Nearly all of these are presets for Lightroom that have been developed by the very cool Matt Kloskowski — if you like them, check out his Web site and download your own.

Anyway …

6:50 am: Tollway to heaven?

On the way to work …

7:47 am: Wasting Water

OK, maybe not. The University does collect all of its wastewater and use it in the campus-wide cooling system. But, damn, do they have to water those stupid ferns every morning? It’s starting to look like Jurassic Park!

7:48 am: Iconic Architecture

The Texas Union and the Tower atop the Main Building. Doesn’t get more picture postcard-y than that! I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: my undergraduate institution looked like something that Stalin might have built to subdue Poland, so I do enjoy the limestone and red clay-tile roofs.

7:51 am: Stephen F. Austin is a Zombie!

OK, I give up. What do you think this mural is saying?

7:53 am: Shadow and Light

The lady at Jamba Juice was taking too long to make my smoothie, so I started making her nervous by taking a picture of the shadow pattern on the floor. That’ll learn ‘er.

8:49 am: Ready to work … ?

We’re getting ready to publish a new edition of the book Year of the Elephant by the Moroccan writer Laila Abouzeid. I offered to fund part of the publication if we can market the books to classrooms, which necessitates writing a study guide. Somehow that wound up being my job. So, I’m sitting here trying to send “go away” vibes while reading the book and taking copious notes. The problem is that this tactic never works — I don’t really have space in my office to spread out while I read, but people interrupt me if I use the conference table. I’ve got to find a better place to work on stuff like this.

10:25 am: Facebook silliness!

Which Middle Eastern Dictator Am I? Turns out I’m Hafez al-Asad from Syria! Armed with this information, I can now safely declare my life complete. (I would have guessed King Hussein of Jordan, but whatevs.)

3:11 pm: Playin’ with Clay

I’m supposed to give a talk in a few weeks on “the Islamic City,” and, unlike other talks, I’ve decided not to wait until the last second to think about what I want to say on the topic. However, there’s a bit of a problem with the ability to work uninterrupted that I previously mentioned.

But, look! This guy who wrote this book made models of the city plans of the 7th century Arab cities with clay, and he published them in his book. That’s so cool! I want to do that. I could … and probably have … drawn maps of medieval Cairo on cocktail napkins.

Why, yes, I am a massive dork. Why do you ask?

5:31 pm: Doggie grin

It’s already too hot to walk Mocha in the afternoons – it’s been in the mid 90s for the past two weeks (mid 30s for those of you who speak Celsius). I’m trying to train her to get used to evening walks, but she still follows me around the second I get home. It’s always me when she wants a walk, and Ray when she wants food.

5:35 pm: Baby Limes

I’m trying not to be the obsessive plant stalker and inspecting my garden every day … just every few days. I’ve got some Hungarian wax peppers almost ready to pick, and the lime tree has little baby limes all over it. They’re about the size of a pistachio right now, but they’ll get there…all at once. And then I’ll have to figure out what to do with dozens of limes.

6:03 pm: Party Planning

Ray’s birthday is coming up, and so there will be a party. I’m trying to make a shopping list so that I can hit the grocery tomorrow because Thursday evening will be spent wrapping jalapeños in bacon. If you haven’t tried it, don’t knock it.

This is the fun kind of homework. Certainly more fun than this:

Yeah, I brought my work home with me. Ray has to study tonight for his macroeconomics final, so I figured I’d make some productive use of the quiet time. And I’d probably better stop posting my 12 of 12 and actually get to it!

Happy 12th everyone!

Tags: 12 of 12, art, Austin, bla, blog, Books, cairo, cat, class, conference, cooking, dog, easter, eating, economics, food, fun, Home, ice, islam, jordan, khowaga, life, maps, me, men, Mocha, models, party, Photos, press, rain, Ray, SHE, shopping, stuff, texas, university, Will, work, writing
Posted in 12 of 12 | 19 Comments »

12 of 12: April 2009

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

Yes, indeedy, it’s time once again for 12 of 12!

9:30 am: Putting it all back together

Friday and Saturday were spent watching someone else put down hardwood laminate in our house. Although it doesn’t carry over the photos, it’s a fairly thick (12 mm) laminate that has a hand scraped look to it. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are all joined together, and we had three different types of flooring down, so we decided to bite the bullet and replace it all in one fell swoop. I like the look, but it’s going to take some getting used to.

We’re also going to be spending months putting everything back the way it was … and we need an area rug or three.

For the insane among you, there are “before” shots here, here, and here; and more “after” shots here, here, and here.

10:27 am: Bougainvillea Break

I recently … once again … acquired a bougainvillea. I think they’re gorgeous, and I would love to live in a climate where they can grow outside year round. Unfortunately, we’re on the wrong side of one of those USDA “hardiness” lines. All I know is that they grow fine in San Antonio (60 mi/100 km south), but here they’re really delicate. It’s been really windy lately, and the flowers keep blowing off. Last night there was a torrential downpour. So … I’m taking photos so that when I invariably kill it, I’ll remember what it looked like. Sigh.

11:27 am: Fixing the FloorMate

We own one of those Hoover FloorMate things that scrub hard surfaces. Now that we have significantly more hard surface to clean, I imagine that we’ll be using it much more often, however, the cleaning solution wasn’t dispensing properly. So, Ray decided to fix it, which he can do …

12:18 pm: 10 Pounds of Love

My folks invited us over for lunch.

Barney lives next door to my parents. He’s such a cute little dog, very sweet. He always runs right over to the fence whenever anyone is in the backyard to say hello.

My parents are starting to look for another dog, and mom says she wants something a little larger than Barney because, well … there’s something alarming about a dog that you could accidentally punt over the fence.

12:44 pm: Mocha

Mocha, as usual, is completely immune to Barney’s charms.

12:45 pm: Backyard chat

It was pouring first thing this morning–just in time to drown out all those sunrise services–but by early afternoon it was beautiful, sunny, 80 degrees. Just perfect!

1:13 pm: Hope Springs Eternal

Mocha knows I won’t feed her from the table. My mother, on the other hand, is an easy mark …

2:08 pm: He is Risen!

I’ve pointed out before that my parents live in a community that’s a little reminiscent of Stepford. A good number of the houses had these plastic crosses in front, given out by the non-denominational church that serves the senior community. Apparently, you’re supposed to put them up on Good Friday, blank side out, and then turn them around on Easter Sunday to reveal that “He is Risen!”

We went by one house where the cross hadn’t been turned around. “They didn’t turn their cross around,” my mother observed.
“Maybe Jesus saw his shadow and decide to sleep for six more weeks,” I suggested.

Yes, I’m going to Hell. No, that’s not why…

6:15 pm: Using the FloorMate

Making a rare appearance in my own 12 of 12, I decide I’ve had enough of the remaining sawdust on the floor and use the FloorMate, since my previous broom-and-dustpan, dustmop, and vacuuming hasn’t quite done the trick.

7:11 pm: Burgers on the grill

Quick-and-simple meal. Because it’s such a lovely day, I decide to grill something in order to spend a little more time outside.

7:34 pm: Making Mocha Miserable

Mocha hates to be picked up and/or held.

7:50 pm: Entourage

A little crap tele to wind down the weekend.

And how was YOUR day?

Tags: 12 of 12, art, bla, blog, cat, dog, easter, flowers, Friday, ice, khowaga, love, me, Mocha, parents, Photos, Ray, san antonio, SHE, weekend
Posted in 12 of 12 | 19 Comments »

12 of 12: March 2009

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

It’s time for this month’s installment of 12 of 12. 12 of 12 was invented by Chad Darnell, who is still very much alive. Chad, that was not funny, man… not at all.

7:29 AM: Too damned dark.

This is a long exposure, which lightened up the office considerably. It doesn’t quite capture the gloom and doom that’s been greeting me since we went on summer time this weekend.

10:01 AM: Garbage Dreams

This is a flier for Garbage Dreams, a documentary about the zabballen, a subclass within the lowest strata of Cairo’s poorest people. It’s premiering at the South by Southwest music festival next week, and they did a screening on campus today that I meant to attend. I didn’t actually make the screening, unfortunately — I’ll wind up owning it when it comes out on DVD anyway

10:51 AM: Editing video

Working on editing video from yesterday’s lecture. Turns out I can’t edit it ‘cos it’s an MPEG-2 and I’m running a Mac and they don’t play nice. Oh, well.

3:31 PM: Hoda Barakat

The past couple of days, we’ve had our highest profile event of the year: a visit by Lebanese author Hoda Barakat. Yesterday, she waxed poetic at her keynote lecture, “This is the first time ever that I’ve been invited to deliver a lecture in Arabic outside the Arab world.” And she went on, and on, and on in praise of our program … and, yeah, we’ve got it on videotape. She’s a very lovely woman. She also made me realize that I kind of need to brush up on my Arabic (although she’s Lebanese, and the dialect is a bit different from the Egyptian that I’m used to … not that that’s really the reason why I need to brush up).

6:01 PM: Jumping for Joy

It got cold and rainy and Mocha’s been pent up in the house for a couple of days. She’s a big ball of energy.

6:02 PM: Eh, it’s cute.

Ray decides to try to take our photo together. The lens isn’t wide-angle enough, but, eh…

6:10 PM: Still admiring …

We’re trying to refinance the house, and as part of the process they needed to come do an appraisal. So, we had to clean … a lot. This is the “after” shot of our pantry/utility room. There is no “before” shot. I couldn’t fit in there with the camera.

6:15 PM: Martinis.