Friday, December 16, 2005

Said the Gramophone : Helen, I love you!




The pictures aren't too hot because I was racing against terrible batteries that I bought (and lasted me 30 minutes, no joke) HOWEVER. Do you know what you are looking at???????

THERE ARE RECORDS IN CAIRO. THERE ARE GRAMOPHONES IN CAIRO. These are some of the things in Cairo that have made me think in capital letters and exclamation points for the past hour and a half. Lise periodically hits her face as if to wake up and says "Lise! Das Ist Kairo!" - "Lise, this is Cairo!" and right now I feel like doing the same thing.

Today's mission:

* Pick up Lise's film at the Kodak in Zamalek
* While there try to go to 23 Sharia Shereef and see if there really is more special Eritrean shatta for sale.

What actually happened:

Today is Friday, so most everything was closed, including the film place, and apparently Sharia Shereef isn't anywhere near Zamalek, so our mission was completely unfulfilled. We decided to instead just wander around the wide and quiet streets of Zamalek, heavily populated by expatriates and subsequently not as crazy as the rest of Cairo and home to lots of more upscale retail, art galleries, embassies, supermarkets, etc. We passed by an art gallery and looked at the art of Hend Adnan, which was really neat, then we bought batteries and tape, and went into a Moroccan home furnishings store (!) It smelled like Morocco... it had all of the beautiful, beautiful things that I got so used to and bought very little of. Look Lise! I have a bowl with almost this exact design! These are the doors I want in my house! Oh, look at that lamp! Sigh. It was a fantastic trip down nostalgia lane and a reminder that I like the designs and pretty things in Morocco much better than here. We kept walking and went into the supermarket where we bought 20 boxes of Morning Cup tea, the best tea I've ever had and which I subsequently don't want to be without when I come back. While in Metro Lise remembered that one of the German rap groups that had come to Cairo to do things with the Goethe Institute had told her about a place with music upstairs from Metro. I didn't realize exactly what she was saying, and thought it was just a regular music store, but no! We went upstairs and found about three small rooms crammed with gramophones and old records and lamps and pictures and who knows what else. We went into the room with the records and were so overwhelmed. After finding that he charged 10 pounds ($1.80) for 45s and 20 pounds for full-length records we counted up our money and asked for 17 45s. For the next 45 minutes we just sat in chairs as record after record was placed onto the record player and our ears and hearts rejoiced. All of his music is from Cairo, so no Upper Egypt or Nubian music, but wow!!!! I stumbled upon one of the most amazing things in Cairo, yet. I think the trip to the Moroccan store is what did it, because in Morocco it always seemed like 'coincidence' after 'coincidence' was just falling on my head and we called them little "Al Hamdu Lilahs" (Thanks be to God) and today's trip was just a gigantic series of unplanned events that lead into a huge Al Hamdu Lilah. If it weren't for Lise needing to pick up pictures, me feeling too sick this morning to go to Church, her time spent with the German group, our decision not to find Sharia Shereef and to instead wander around, passing by the supermarket... etc. etc. etc.

I can't stop smiling. I told him I would definitely be back. Next semester's radio show just got a thousand times better. Weeeee!

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