back in the city victorious

After a whirlwind tour of Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, and Bulgaria, I'm back in Cairo. Dear readers, many of you have been sending emails asking for more of the daily rod, and I abide.

Cairo is chilly upon my return, but not as cold as Eastern Europe. I welcomed the cold air, clean air in my lungs after two months in dusty Cairo, but it's nice not to bundle up everytime I step outside. At first it was a bit depressing coming back to Cairo. The cities of Eastern Europe are clean and beautiful, the food wonderful, and the girls unbelievable. Cairo was quite a contrast, and I wondered briefly why I decided to focus on studying the Middle East. Stll not too late to become a slavophile, eh? One day later, however, and I regret not a moment of that study. Cairo bustles, it moves, and it lives like no other city I've experienced. There's life here. Walking back from dinner last night at 10pm and the street was busy with shops and kids and men smoking sheesha and drinking tea and talking and staring and playing games and reading newspapers and watching soccer matches. There's a kinship here among people that I didn't feel in Eastern Europe. Those cities have become proper and elegant, but with that almost sterile. And Cairenes are some of the nicest people I've encountered. I can't say the same about strangers on the street in Sofia, who mostly ran when we were just asking for directions. I don't know, perhaps I'm very intimidating.

The Embassy isn't very busy for me at the moment, and I'm gearing up for my next trip. Today I got shot full of Yellow Fever serum, and began taking my anti-malarials. Kenya looks to be a tour of beaches and big game - no hunting of course, just photographing. Hope you enjoy the above pictures.