Ibrahimiya

Meet Eman Moghazy. Eman is in her last year at Alexandria University studying al-tib, or medicine. She is also my wonderful, beautiful, and kind hearted roommate. Yesterday, to celebrate her finishing her finals (all of her medical tests are in English, by the way. I would fail miserably if any biology tests were in Arabic, but she manages to ace exams on the respiratory system in English. She's the shit). Anyway, to celebrate, we went shopping. We took the tram 2 stops down to a neighborhood called Ibrahamiya. First we went to the supermarket, which is always fun to do in other countries because they always have hilarious things like a giant statue of a Heinz ketchup bottle filled with tiny Heinz ketchup bottles. After that, we went to the suk (market). The suk was great. They were all selling lots of leather purses and shoes and lots of scarves and everyone's yelling at each other, and this suk was right on the street so you almost die every four seconds because a car is whizzing by (Egyptians have a totally different concept of crossing the street than we do. Eman literally held my hand to cross the street with me as if I were a child. The problem is that Egyptians cross the street in front of a car about 5 seconds earlier than any American would feel comfortable doing and walk about 3 feet closer to the cars than we would. The sidewalks are also extremely crowded, so everyone walks in the street, even during rush hour (which by the way, I was told was from 2-7 everyday, so really, all day is rush hour). Eman told me that I have to take control of my fate and trust that the cars arn't going to hit me. I'm completely in control of the situation and if I want to step out right in front of a speeding car, I can. I'm in control. I'm not so sure that's true. So it takes me about 5 minutes longer to cross the street than any Egyptian. And the Egyptians driving in the cars like to play a game with the foreigners and speed up as you're crossing the street to terrify you. It works really well.) Anyway, we hit up all the stores, and this is where Eman's amazing Egyptian hospitality kicked in. She literally would yell at me if I went near my wallet. She bought me a scarf, a necklace, and headband, and wanted me to try all the Egyptian food at the suk, so bought be about a billion food items, including Sugarcane juice (the machine for which is awesome- the have these long stalks of sugarcane and grind it up in this huge machine and juice comes out. I guess that wasn't really helpful at all. I have no idea how it's made but it looks really cool). And she bought me Kushari at the best place in Alexandria, Ana Mushi. Kushari is a mix of everything you can think of. There's rice, 4 different kinds of pasta, lentils, tomatoes, I think I saw a chickpea in there, and then they give you on the side SPICY SPICY sauce and garlic sauce, which you can mix in as you please. Eman also made me drink soda with it (she kept saying "lazem! lazem" which means "you must! you must" and then would shove more food in my face). All in all, a great experience. Then, when we got back, we played with my scarf and she showed me 3 different styles of wearing a Hijab. After that, Eman and her 2 friends Amira and Aaliya went for a walk on the Cornische and it was lovely.
That night, a group of Marylanders went to a new and beautiful coffee and hooka bar right on the beach. We got the VIP treatment (when we walked in, the owner went to a group of Egyptians sitting at the prime table and promptly kicked them out to give us the good table). So after a lovely night of chilling, we got some grilled corn that they grill all day along the Cornische. It tasted like popcorn.



لابراهيمية
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اتقابلوا ايمان مغازي. ايمان في اخر سنة في جامعة الاسكندرية بتدرس الطب. وهي بردو زميلتي الجميلة والطيفة. امبارح، كان عندها امتحانات كثيرة (كل الامتحانات بتاعتها بانجليزية على فكرة- وهي لسة بتنجح!! هي شاطرة قوي). وبعد الامتحانات، كننا عايزين نحتفل شوية وروحنا المحلات وعملنا "شوبينج." ركبنا الترام الى منطقة اسمها ابراهيمية. اولا، روحنا البقالة وكان ممتع قوي عشان البقالات في دول تانية ممتعة جدا العشان فيها حاجات مضحكة زي تمثيل "هاينز كتشوب" كبير فيه عزازات هاينز كتشوب. بعدين، روحنا السوق. الناس كانوا يبيعوا شنط وجزمة وطرحات وكل الناس بيزعقوا، والسوق دا كان في الشارع وانتي قريب من الموت كل ٤ ثنيات العشان في عربيات بيسوقوا بسرعة قريبن مناك. على فكرة، المصريين عندهم تقليد مختلف لما هم بيعبروا الشارع. ايمان كانت بتمسك ايدي زي طفلة لما عبرنا الشارع. المشكلة هي ان المصريين بيعبروا الشارع امام العربية ٥ ثنيات قبل ما يعبروا الامريكان وهم بيمشوا ٣ قدم اقرب من العربية. وفي زحمة كثيرة في الرصيف بردو وعشان كدة، كل الناس بيمشيوا في الشارع، وكمان في اوقات المرور (وايمان قالت لي ان ساعات المرور كل يوم من الساعة ٢ لغاية الساعة ٧، وفي الحقيقة، ساعات المرور طول اليوم!) ايمات كمان قالت لي انني لازم احد السيطرة على حياتي ومصيري واثق في السائقين اننهم مش هيضربني مع عربياتهم. انا عندي السيطرة ولو كنت عايزة امشي قدام عربية- اهلا وسهلا! عندي السيطرة! انا مش متاكدة ان دا صح ولا غلط. وعشان كدة، انا باحد ٥ دقايق زيادة لما باعبر الشارع. والمصريين اللي بيسوقوا بيلعبوا لعبة مع الاجانب وهم بيسوقوا بسرعة لما بيشوفوا اجانب وبيبصوا علينا لما احنا خيفين.
احنا روحنا لكل المحلات وانا شافت الضيافة المصرية عند ايمان. هي كانت بتزعق عليا لما لمست المحفظة بتاعتي. هي اشتريت لي طرحة وسلسلة وكانت عازة انني باجرب كل الاكل المصري في السوق واشتريت لي عصير قصب سكر وكوشاري في احسن مطعم في اسكندرية للكشاري، انا موشي. كوشاري هي خلط من المكرونة، العدس، الطماطم، الحموس، وفي سوس حار قوي وسوس الثوم. وهي كمان اشتريت لي سودة وقالت لي "لازم تشربي سودة مع الكوشاري! لازم!" كانت تجربة ممتازة. ولما رجعنا الي المدينة الجامعية، احنا لعبنا مع الطرحة وهي اورتلي ٣ اساليب من لبس الحجاب. وبعدين، ايمان وصاحبتين بتاعتها، اميرة واليا، وانا مشينا على الكورنيش.
في الليل، مجموع من الطالبة من مريلاند روحنا لقهوة جديدة على البحر وكمان اشترينا تورة وطعمة زي الفشار.