"Shakira Shakira"

So, we went on a cruise on the Nile for iftar last night. It was beautiful. Then, while we were seated for dinner, a Sufi dancer came out (Tabha would have been happy!) He did his twirls with his many layers. It was awesome.

Later that night, we took a cab out to the Khan-el-Khalili market again. I just love that place. It reminds me so much of haggling in Karachi (Tariq Road!). I was trying to bargain, but was profoundly failing at it. As soon as we open our mouths, they knew we were American. Any facial expressions gave it away. Some guy called out to me, "Shakira, Shakira". I was confused because I didn't hear any Shakira songs playing and looked around. My friend told me, he just called you Shakira because of your hair. I have never gotten that before; it was the funniest thing ever. There was another guy that I didn't want to buy any items from because he was ripping me off, but all he said when I said, "La, la" was "I like your hair". These random things that locals tell us are indeed funny.

Getting annoyed with how many vendors were ripping us off, I called an Egyptian friend of mine (whom I met through Language Mixer at Dickinson). He thought I got mugged, but all I said was, I'm getting ripped off and need your help. He came in 30 minutes with a friend of his. They both did all the bargaining and haggling for us. All we did was tell them what we liked. It was very cool. They were super sweet. I'm very thankful I got to meet him. I got the chance to buy some arm bands, hip scarves, and prayer rugs. I spent $30 in total. I love shopping there!

We met some of the other international students there. They were having dinner. It was already 1:30am when we took a cab back to our dorms in Zamalek. My friend and I stayed up until 4:30am talking. I stayed up a little longer for Sahour, so got the chance to pray Fajr. I then woke up at 2pm, which made fasting today super easy! Going out in the desert just makes it so much more difficult. I don't know how construction workers can work out in the desert and keep their fasts! I admire that.

Today, for iftar we took a cab out to 26 July Road. It's just 5 minutes away. We were looking for a restaurant and couldn't really find one on the main road. I asked a guard in whatever Arabic I could muster up. I asked him what's any good restaurant around here. He told us to walk over 3 blocks and make a right. We went there, and couldn't find any restaurants. Then we asked another person in the area where he sent us. He pointed in the same direction the previous guard told us about. We were standing in front of these huge wooden doors, which looked like some church or building. We were just waiting around in front of these doors and looking for some windows that would let us see inside people sitting at tables and eating. We couldn't find anything like that. My friend who studied abroad here told us about a place with huge wooden doors. So we decided to just push open these doors. I opened it very slowly, just in case it was some creepy place where it seemed like things would start falling from the ceiling. All of a sudden, we entered another world. It seemed like a scene from the 1920's, with decorations and lighting done very dim and classic. It was smoky and dark. I was waiting for some flappers to come out or something. They seated us and we had such great Egyptian food that we haven't had since we've been here. Our secret discovery!