eid al-shukr

On 3 December, we finally celebrated Thanksgiving here in Egypt, or in the colloquial, 3id al-shukr (the Holiday of Thanks/Gratitude). A bunch of students from our program cooked a turkey and the other assorted requirements for such a meal feast, including sweet potatoes with marshmallows, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, apple sauce (and apple cider!), and pumpkin and apple pies. It was a marvelous banquet, but since my culinary ability stops at quesadillas (poor ones, at that) I merely sat back and became the Useless Couch Asshole. I also have no money left, so I was unable to pay M for the groceries used for the food, to which I received a dirty look. But he never paid me for my efforts a month ago, either, so while I actually will fork over the ten guinea I doubt he ever will pay me back, and I'm out fifty over his ten.

We blasted the Christmas music and a rap song recently created by some students back at our college (about our college) and reminisced in Arabic about Ye Olde Days. We also hosted some of the Egyptian boys for dinner, and it was interesting (and funny) to hear about how they thought Thanksgiving was a religious holiday for Americans (because all Americans are Christians). More than once I've had to dispel the notion that this Day of Glorious Overeating has much to do with religion, at least anymore. The original story is hard to tell in Arabic, though, because I don't know how to form the term "Native American" without using a weird grammatical construction that amounts basically to "the Americans who lived in America originally," which still makes no sense if they didn't know the history of the continent and o hai I'm babbling now.

And that's about it. No news is good news, right? This weekend is the beginning of finals period, and while I have a shitload of homework to do I have no time and even less motivation, so we'll see how it all turns out.

another truckstop on the way another game that I can play another word I learn to say

another blasted customs post another bloody foreign coast another set of scars to boast

WE ARE THE ROAD CREW