Cara and Justin

Cruising Down the Nile

Cara — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:47:39 +0000

Our friend Maryclaire’s boyfriend Mostapha arranged a surprise birthday cruise for her this last weekend. I took a break from writing papers and we headed out to see Cairo from a different perspective: from the Nile. Jose Cuervo + Apple Juice? We always laugh: only in Cairo does it make sense to mix apple juice [...]

National Geographic

Justin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:57:52 +0000

When I was young, I used to collect National Geographic magazines. When my mom and grandmother would go hunting for bargains at garage sales, I would aim straight for the boxes of old magazines, digging for National Geographics. The best collection of National Geographics were at the Pflugerville Public Library… at the time, it was [...]

Where are you from?

Justin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:32:35 +0000

Where are you from? Its a pretty common question foreigners get here. From cabbies, from the barber, from the touts. From other expats over a beer at Horreya. From the hoards of school children on field trips to Luxor Temple, more interested in getting photos with the white guy with freckles and the goofy hat [...]

Wandering around Islamic Cairo

Cara — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 16:52:46 +0000

There’s a section of Cairo called Islamic Cairo that’s absolutely fabulous to wander around in. Built over the course of a few hundred years by various rulers, it’s layers upon layers of history, mosques, schools and Amir palaces from over a 1000 years ago. All subsumed in the current bustling insanity that is Cairo of [...]

I think Magnoun is really cute

Cara — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:50:20 +0000

I think Justin is really cute, too. But in a different way, of course.

Cairo Jazz Festival

Cara — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:46:25 +0000

Lusenda’s visit coincided with the Cairo Jazz Festival! And my favorite band, Wust el Balad, was the closing act of the weekend. We attended the opening and closing concerts, although didn’t make any in the between. I was super happy to get to see our friend Nada at the opening Riff Band concert. That’s the [...]

Welcome to Siwa

Cara — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:19:34 +0000

Justin and I joined a Fulbright group trip to Siwa Oasis a few weekends ago. It was WONDERFUL. Siwa is one of my favorite places in Egypt, I think. It’s extremely isolated – a paved road was only added in the early 1980s and before then it was a 524km (326 miles) dirt road for [...]

Magnoun Part 2

Cara — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:07:34 +0000

Magnoun is growing so fast, it’s incredible to us. I’ve only ever really watched one other creature, day-to-day, growing from infancy to adulthood — Sadie my familie’s basset hound. I swear, though, that Magnoun is growing faster than she did. Either that or I just didn’t appreciate how fast Sadie was growing since I was [...]

Hussein Mosque

Justin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:17:29 +0000

We were having dinner with some friends last night when Tim called to share the news, “Did you hear? A bomb went off in the Khan.” By “the Khan” he was referring to Khan al-Khalili, the touristy/historic market. Its one of the places you “have to go” when you visit Cairo. The narrow streets are [...]

…pieces of my Cairo

Cara — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:31:22 +0000

First off, we’re all a bit shaken – Cairo is shaken – by the bomb explosion at Khan el Khalili earlier tonight. A woman was killed, several were injured. Anyone who has visited Cairo has been to Khan el Khalili, it’s one of my favorite places in Cairo, particularly the back areas leading into Islamic [...]