Day 76

Friday, April 4th

Today I decided to go to the Harriers Hash. This is apparently a global running club that I found out through my contacts in the DDC. The Harriers go out to the desert and run around for awhile following trails that you have to find and after they get done they celebrate their success with drinks and rituals. It almost seemed like something out of a fraternity except most of the people were aging oil tycoons and ex-pat's. I didn't get a lot of what was going down, but it was fun running through the desert. I also got to meet a lot of English speaking people who lived about the world and got to find about what they do with their lives. It was a pretty rowdy group and many were willing to share with me their views of Egypt. Apparently not many people like living in this country as they can't handle the inefficiencies, the way people constantly try and rip you off, and the dirtiness of the city. I can't say I blame them, but I definitely don't hate it here like they do.

One of the more enjoyable things I got to do was walk by myself to the Metro Station. This is about a 45 minute walk and I got to soak in the beautiful sunny afternoon. Also with all this walking and running around Zamalek I finally feel as if I am starting to get a feel for my surrounding, which is actually quite tough in a city as big and crowded as this. I also got to ride the metro by myself which was a welcome rest from always having to be with people. Now it was just me figuring stuff out and I like that. A strange experience occurred on the bus when a bunch of kids got on the metro after me and showed me their nice phone and the videos on it. Some of them were of a guy dancing around with a bear and then the other was a porn video. These kids were like 8 and shouldn't know what that is in America, much less in a Muslim country.

I stayed after the run and got to get dinner with a bunch of the ex-pats. I ate next to a professor at the German University in Cairo and we talked about politics and Egyptian culture. He has lived her for 3 and 1/2 years and it was nice getting his perspective on things. I also got to ride back with another crazy ex-pat to Zamalek from Maadi. Maadi is so different from anyplace else in Cairo because it is European particularly American central, so you see a bunch of white people walking around in Short and it totally blows your mind. On the way back a officer confused me for being an Egyptian. Those two incidents made me feel like I was finally becoming a native here.