Kaddee’s Cairo Chronicles

Well - we continue to be very busy.  Our house now has… da da DUM … ALL NEW WINDOWS.  Holy crap are windows expensive!  However, I’ve gotta say, they look great!  Our old windows were aluminum double panes that had popped their seals, and were COMPLETELY fogged between the panes.  The new ones are CLEAR!  What a concept.  And we got wood lining and casings for all the windows, so we now have finished looking windows with frames and sills.  It is AMAZING what a difference it makes!

We have also managed to get 2 armoires - one for gozi’s closet and one for a linen closet.  The house is beginning to look like we actually LIVE in it, as opposed to simply squatting amongst the boxes.

Life also rolls along.  We’ve been busy.  Work (as always) takes up way too much of both of our time.  However, along with work we’ve managed a few fun things.  Last weekend we went to a (very) short concert at the Triple Door by Phoenix.  I have to admit - I’d never heard of the band before, but we are KEXP  members, and it was a special event for the members - so we went.  It was really good.  It was unfortunate that the show was only about 4 or 5 songs long - but the band was running off to a sound check for their evening concert at the SoDo Showbox in Seattle.  After the concert and some sustenance, we went to the SAM (Seattle Art Museum) for the Michelangelo:Public and Private and Calder exhibits.  Both were excellent - I’m really glad that we didn’t miss them.

This weekend has been a little less cultural.  Yesterday was a great class for me on pruning fruit trees.  Yes, I’m trying to learn to take care of gozi’s plum tree!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to HIRE someone to come and try to fix nearly 10 years of “letting nature take its course”.  AFTER THAT, I’ll try taking over to maintain the tree.  I learned a LOT in a quick 2 hour class.  I’m quite excited about the whole thing.  I’m also looking at a few other classes about gardening etc. just to try to maintain my sanity and make the property look good!

The culmination of this weekend…

Yup - we are the proud season ticket holders for the Rat City RollerGirls!  Goin’ to the Derby this afternoon!  Too much culture is not good for one - a little red-neck strikes a good balance.  At least that is what I’m telling myself.

And so the saga goes - still missing Cairo (in some ways), still trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to be doing here (although  my student evals from last quarter were pretty good - only REALLY pissed off one student), and wondering what I want to be when I grow up.

SNAFU.

One of the things that I commented on LONGLONGLONG ago in the blog was that, in Cairo, and in association with the University, we had incredible opportunities to see music and lectures and theatre.

Life has been so crazy since coming home.  This seems counter-intuitive.  We CAME HOME.  It should be easy and familiar.  And yet many of the cultural and social interactions - beyond Happy Hour or Third Tuesday - have been elusive since coming back.  I don’t know if they were any easier in Cairo, but we certainly partook of them FAR more frequently than in Seattle.

In the fall, we “missed” an opportunity to go to a fancy multi-course, Tom Douglas food event with beer pairing.  We just never got around to getting the tickets.  And then it was too late.  We justified our frustration and disappointment by saying that the tickets were TOO expensivo.  Then, after the fact, we consoled ourselves because  we heard that it really wasn’t that good.  Saved by the critiques of others!

Friends have recently been discussing the joy of going to see the Seattle Symphony.  It is relatively inexpensive, not that many people go, Benaroya Hall is beautiful, and the symphony is actually pretty good!  All of this sounds really promising, but……………..it still doesn’t happen.

Somehow the planning becomes too onerous, the tickets too expensive, our time too short.

Well, recently we decided, “What the hell…” and got tickets to a Seattle Arts and Lectures event.  A community dinner on Monday and a lecture on Tuesday.  The dinner was catered by, none other than, Tom Douglas at the Palace Ballroom in downtown Seattle.  The event and lecture were by Jane and Michael Stern - of “Road Food” fame.

The dinner was… yup… road-type food.  Chicken fried steak finger sandwiches on buttermilk biscuits with onion gravy, deep fried pickles, pickled okra and a BBQ’d pig with 3 kinds of sauce.  There were not all that many people at the dinner - it was kinda pricey - but we REALLY enjoyed it.  AND, with all our recent whinging about being tired of being viewed as “fascinating”, we were in a social situation where we knew NOBODY and pretty much everyone had a story to tell.  It was fun to be anonymous for a while.

The lecture was an ex-temporaneous, hilarious, rambling discussion by Jane and Michael Stern about their food travels throughout the United States.  They covered myriad subjects, decades, vehicles and misinterpretations (”Jewish tea”).  We laughed until we hurt.

The odd thing, for me, was the familiarity of many of the situations, stories and faux pas’ that they described.  In the last 3 years, we have had many of the same - only in another country.  It gives me pause, and makes me think that, perhaps, our stories are worth telling - but alas, we’ve no writer between us.  The blog will have to do.

This event has spurred me to start looking at other lectures, events and generally fun things that are NOT our daily (or worse yet, work related) lives.  We don’t need to move half way around the globe to find great culture, we just need to open our eyes.

Yessir, that is me!

I am now the proud owner of a BRAND NEW (not even new-to-me) LEATHER chair for the living room!!!
HEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEE

I had a chair that I loved before Cairo.  It was called a “chair-and-a-half” and was big enough for me to snooze comfortably in.  I also had the hassock that went with it, so there was ample room to spread out.  AFAIK, our friends who bought it are still getting great, comfy use out of it.  But so far, I had not found a suitable (in comfort) replacement.

Since arriving Stateside, gozi and I had settled for the quick and easy Ikea solution

Cheap, mostly comfy and easily obtainable.  However  not a “hanging out reading for hours” sort of chair.  We’ve been looking on Craigs list, at used furniture stores etc for the right chair for each of us.  A few weeks ago, gozi found a leather wingback recliner at a consignment shop.  Nice looking, leather and a good price.  Only down side: babyshitbrown.  He is very happy with it.

Today I brokedown and spent more than I wanted to (I am VERY cheap since returning to the States!) and got the chair that I (not-so-secretly) knew I wanted.

Mine is dark, espresso brown and really comfy.
Gotta go now, already falling asleep in my awesome, leather chair.
I’m so grown up now!  HEEHEE

For those who have been to Cairo, the traffic is… utterly indescribable.

Between the pedestrians, the blackandwhite taxis, the other drivers, myriad delivery scooters, the police “directing traffic” (often while sleeping), the occasional donkey carts and bread boys (who carry pallets of bread on their heads while riding bicycles) and complete lack of or, at least, lack of attention to anything that resembles “rules of the road” it makes Cairo a very interesting place.

It is not unusual to see 4 or 5 cars abreast on a (nominally) 3 lane road.  Some of them may be driving in reverse, to get back to the exit or side street that they missed.  And even MORE interesting is how NORMAL all of this seems after having been there for a  while.

Seattle’s “traffic” is laughable after Cairo.  And, more to the point, it is difficult to understand or navigate.  People stay in lanes.  People stop for pedestrians.  Jay walking is a ticketable offense.  No-one uses reverse on the highway.  Sidewalks are not for parking, and pedestrians in the street confuse Seattlites.  One would think that these rules would make it easier - but, in my view, they prevent actual forward progress from happening.

When I see Seattle “traffic” I see this:

whereas when I see Cairo traffic, I see this:

We are modified by experience, and you can never TRULY go home.  I think my views of traffic may reflect this.

Kullu zahma. Ana mabsoota, awy!

Seattle is still a bit of an oddity to me, but, only5+ months since returning, I am attempting to get things figured out again.

My job is going fine.  I haven’t seen my evaluations from last quarter, but I felt the whole thing went pretty well.  Only real issues: a LOT of students dropped the class or did VERY poorly.  Then again, I also had a substantial number of 4.0 grades - so perhaps it balances out.  The quarter system is REALLY FAST compared to the semester system.  And the breaks are so short!

Besides that, classes and students are much the same.  Upper class Egyptian kids or community college students, the problems are just about the same.  Language issues - both spoken and written.  Lack of study skills.  Outside time demands (my CC students are frequently raising families and have full time jobs - kinda different from my Egyptian students!).  Reticent attitudes about engaging in INQUIRY.

The last is the one that pains me the most.  The idea that people don’t want to find out the answer seems unfathomable.  Student attitudes of “Just tell me the answer/what is on the test” without an interest in the HOW or WHY is, literally, hard to imagine.  And yet, every term, there are a few students whose small epiphanies are sufficient to keep me at the job.

Then there is the personal readjustment.  I am dealing much better with getting out in “this culture” than a few months ago.  I’ve FINALLY gotten back to regular swimming at the Y and yoga - both are as much for sanity as for fitness - although I am certainly in need of the fitness.  We have been slowly refurnishing our house after purging nearly everything in the move.

Sunday knitting at our local is starting again and there is decent beer and wine here - so life is not too bad.  I still miss Cairo and the friends we left there.  Insha’allah I’ll get to go back soon for a visit, but in the meantime, Seattle is feeling a lot better (and wetter) than when we first got home.

We got back in August. I’ve made very few posts since then. This was, in part, due to the overwhelming craziness of the move, the readjustment, going back to my former job, blahblahblah.

I was also not sure if we were going to “retire” Cairo Chronicles.

Well… it seems we are keeping it. So I’m going to start posting stuff, thoughts, experiences again.

Stay tuned.

In that whole “Crap, I’m not dealing with this readjustment thing very well”, here’s my day.

We’ve been home for a month - OY, has it been that long? - during which I have been blissfully not required to go to work.  Jobs in education have a FEW advantages (June, July, August!).

Since our return, I have been the “stay-at-home” one.  This is a 180° change  from Cairo.  There, Jack stayed home and Kaddee went out daily to go to her job.  Now, I’m the one at home (temporarily).

I frequently prodded Jack to “get out more”, not to huddle in the flat for days at a time, without any social contact.

Today, HE prodded ME in the same way!

Since we got back, I’ve been avoiding the “real world” of life in the States - sometimes simply by getting TONS of stuff done in the house, sometimes by actively avoiding all contact with the outside world (except via the internet!).  The idea of going out into THIS country and THIS culture was becoming as unsettling as Cairo had been in the early days.

It is not that I am unhappy to be “home”, I’m just not sure anymore where “home” is.  I grew up with the saying, “Home is where you lay your hat.”  Meaning no matter where you go, there you are (Buckaroo Banzai).

Now, I am conflicted.  I had a good home in Seattle - a house, friends, routines and preferred haunts, with all the benefits and drawbacks of such a situation.  I left that  and went to Cairo.

I had a good home in Cairo - a nice flat (rent-free), friends, routines, and preferred haunts, with all the benefits and drawbacks of such a situation.  I left that and came back to Seattle.

Do you see some turmoil?  Both places have/had their shining moments and their dismal downsides.

Today, knowing that TOMORROW, I have to begin the REAL reintegration - at work - I felt more tumultuous than usual.  Anxiety was beginning to creep up when I decided to follow gozi’s advice and forced myself out of the house.  And onto the only registered motorcycle in our garage.  And around the small surface streets in my neighborhood, along my  commute and home again.

Seems pretty minor, but I have not donned gear or helmet in 3 years and I have not gone to campus in the same amount of time.  I had boogey men - I rode them away!!!

The bike, incidentally, used to belong to me, so getting back on it was SOOOOO familiar.  My brain and body were at odds with each other - brain picking early lines, body wanting to wait for the late apex and the SWISH feeling of the curve.

I laughed, I fretted, I waved at the construction workers.

I began to let go of my apprehensions and anxieties and enjoy the new adventure.

NSTIW - we had been home for 4 days.  During that time, I’d freaked out numerous times because of the HUGE, shiny and expen$ive shopping experiences that were necessary.

On the day in question, I’d decided it was time to COOK AT HOME.  (For Cairenes you know how strange and impressive an idea this was!)  I’d found a marinade I wanted for our steaks and set out to QFC (large, chain grocery) to get the necessary stuff.  Which was EVERYTHING.

Soy sauce, garlic, ginger, beef broth, hoisin sauce and sherry.

OK - armed with a list (all y’all who know me can stop snickering about the list!), loins girded for the big market syndrome, I headed out.

On the way to QFC, I realized, “Oh Crap!  I’m going to have to go to the State Liquor Store to get the sherry!!  Damn - now where is the SLS?  I think there is one…..”

Miffed that I had to make ANOTHER trip to ANOTHER shop to get the ingredients, I soldiered on.

Still miffed, I got my cart and walked into the QFC.  As I did, what to my wondering eyes should appear?????  A display, as tall as my shoulder and, perhaps, 2 meters wide, of………………..

You guessed it………………..

WINE!!!!

OMG - I can buy WINE (and thusly, sherry) AT MY LOCAL GROCERY STORE!!??

I got misty-eyed with the realization.

Welcome in America!

Our shipment arrived.  The boxes were a tad beat up, but nothing was falling out or OBVIOUSLY damaged from the outside (unlike our boxes from Namibia - but that is another story).

Nineteen boxes take up most of our living room - full or empty.

When they arrived - full - there was a mere path through the center of the room.  It has gotten no better since unpacking 15 of them!  As a matter of fact, I think it has gotten WORSE.  Before, all the haget was CONTAINED, now it is piled in every room of the house - mostly in my “office”.

We have no shelves or other horizontal surfaces to pile things on, so all piles are on the floor, making navigation difficult.

So far, only  one casualty of the trip!  One of my alabaster plates split and crumbled along a lovely translucent vein in the stone - oh well, could be worse.  My alabaster lamp made it!!!  As did all the ceramics and the mashrabiyya screen.  Mabsoota awy.

In attempting to “settle in” we bought chairs!!!  We can sit down comfortably in the livingroom (surrounded by boxes and stuff).  YIPPEE

With most of the boxes (not the plastic totes) empty, we have a GIANORMOUS pile of cardboard (from the boxes and wrapping of stuffs), a HUGE box of paper (from wrappings) and another IMMENSE box of bubble wrap to deal with.  I think the dump will take the boxes and paper as recycling, but what to do with the bubblewrap??  Where is TypO when you  REALLY need her??

It is true - we are back Stateside.

I’ve been relatively quiet lately due to lack of internet in some of our cool vacation destinations, only having one computer for both gozi and me (sharing is HARD), being busy just enjoying the vacation, and getting home to no communications opportunities in the house (no landline phone, no internet, no TV, no….).

So  now (still no internet - using the wifi at the Seattle Public Library - GO LIBRARY SYSTEM!!) we are ?home? - back in Seattle, in our (empty) house - reacclimating to ?normal? life.  I think not.

• Our totally cool vacation adventures make the “mundane”  return to Seattle disappointing.  Although there IS the Space Needle, it doesn’t really compare to Angkor Wat.
• Not surprisingly, my shipment from AUC has turned into a total CF!  The office that takes care of these things says that there is nothing wrong, however:
  • My shipment arrived in Seattle BEFORE I did.  Only by a few hours, but by the time we got to our messages, there was already one from Lufthansa Cargo.
  • The cargo company was calling because my shipment arrived with no paperwork.
    • For those who don’t know - that means that all the pain and agony we went thru to make a detailed (kinda) inventory of each box, the multiple customs forms and power of attorney forms etc. were simply not sent.  My shipment arrived in the States as 19 boxes/630kg of “Personal Effects”.
    • This has caused  no end of problems - including my having to go to the cargo office to print out my inventory and then to customs to get the boxes released from AGRICULTURAL hold.  Apparently the US customs officials are MOST worried about plant/animal importation problems so if there are no papers, it gets held in agriculture.  Joy of Joys.
  • Lack of modes of communication (see above) has made the sorting of these problems more… exciting.  We have mobiles (Thanks Pat!!) and Skype,  but no internet at home to check Skype for messages.  Getting this worked out.
  • We can’t take delivery  of the shipment (should it be ultimately released to the forwarding company to be delivered) until next week due to scheduling issues at the house.
• We (I guess I should say, I) made the mistake of suggesting to stop into our favorite watering-hold for “just one or two” the day after we got back.  OOPS.  We stayed a LONG time.  Friends kept insisting on buying us drinks.  I wasted most of the next day with a hangover - my own doing….
• Shopping here is TOTALLY WEIRD.  Everything is BIG and BRIGHT.  There is TOO MUCH of everything and it is all TOO EXPENSIVE.  The shops DON’T ALLOW hagg^H^H^H negotiating on the prices!!!  Who do they think they are!?
  • Not news to anyone who has moved recently, but we’ve spent EXCESSIVE amounts of money on NOTHING lately.  Stupid stuff like cleaning supplies, paper towels and toothpaste.  It is mind-boggling.
• Also not surprising, but frustrating, is that I don’t fit in a lot of the clothes that I left here!  That severely limits my clothing options until the shipment arrives (see above), which is not likely to be soon enough.

Ahh, welcome home!  Change is hard.  Life is an adventure.

I guess I live in interesting times.