The Nutcracker Ballet at the Cairo Opera House

So pretty much since I arrived, I'd been talking about wanting to go to see a performance at the Cairo Opera House. The fact that people still dress up for the Opera here is enough of a reason for me, but in addition to that, the tickets are pretty cheap, and that is encouraging.

After spending the week at the Opera House's grounds for the Cairo International Film Festival, I was determined to return! There are operas, ballets, orchestras, dance performances, etc., happening all year round. But when I learned that there would be the Nutcracker ballet, I immediately purchased tickets to go. Who doesn't love Tchaikovsky or the Nutcracker?

It was great. We got dressed up, we had fantastic seats for 75 LE, or $12, and the orchestra was outstanding. The dancers however, were a mix of mediocrity. While most dancers were Egyptian, and the best of all of them being the Egyptian male lead, the female leads were Eastern European, and let's face it: if they were great, they'd be dancing in Europe. I have to admit that I did feel a little disappointment in the fact that like most things in Egypt, the performances, costumes, and set were all just average. But then again, this isn't Paris or the New York Ballet, I kind-of knew to expect that. Although, I was shocked that they didn't even give a nutcracker toy to Clara; she received a doll instead. The Nutcracker didn't even have a nutcracker!! I can bet that they probably thought, 'ehh, just use this doll with a red coat, that's good enough.'

Even at the Opera House, theatre goers never knew when to shut the hell up, and several people were chatting, yawning, or worse, a 10-ish year old child was snoring his way through the second act. It was distracting and annoying, especially when loads of expat kids were there on their best behavior.

But really, despite all my criticisms, we really did have a fantastic time and I'm so happy that we went. As I mentioned, the orchestra was excellent, so the music alone made the experience well worth it. I appreciated that so many (not just Christian) families came to see the Nutcracker, and that so many men were wearing suits and ties. The fact that so many people value culture and the arts is always impressive wherever you are. The whole evening was one of the best experiences I've had in Cairo yet.

I can't wait to return! I already have my eye on several upcoming opportunities to get dressed up, I mean, see some more performances at the Opera House. And Swan Lake is coming soon!!

The Roof Dwellers

Every day that I teach, I spend my breaks on the 6th floor balcony of our office building looking out onto Dokki St.

The "view" of the "architecture" is like that you see in news broadcasts of third world nations. This part of the city looks so run down, so exhausted. Buildings are unfinished. Their facades composed of exposed CMU, or concrete masonry unit walls. These walls are dirty, beige-grey, and crumbling. Shoddy patchwork is evidence of relocated AC units, windows, or enclosed balconies. Rooftops are littered with satellite dishes and debris. The buildings all look like the same kind of cheap concrete design that haven't been maintained since the day they were erected. The view is of identical ugliness.

The only parts of these buildings that I find even remotely interesting are their rooftops. Inhabited by satellite dishes, tenants, and rubbish, they are proof that space is so precious in this city, very little of it goes to waste. In fact, finding a home on a building is as demanding as finding an apartment in a building. Once home to chickens and livestock, roof tops are now housing entire families, and their living conditions are not much improved than those of their previous, what's for dinner?, tenants.

These homes are simply made from scraps of plywood and block. Some manage to string power lines for lights. Meals are made on a single burner, fueled by a gas tank. While they do have plumbing, their bathrooms are not much more than outhouses. Laundry is strewn in a rainbow array of colors. There is rubbish and debris accumulating in all corners. I sometimes wonder why they don't tidy up and live in a cleaner space, but I highly doubt that if I were living in those conditions on top of a building, it would make a fraction of a difference to me.

I watch the families that live there, trying to understand their way of life. The children run around their "yard" barefoot, chasing balls between the satellites, playing hide and seek between the clothes and sheets hanging out to dry, and playing with buckets or whatever other rubbish is left lying around. The baby takes his first barefoot steps as his parents clap and cheer him on. The mother chats with her neighbors while she hangs the laundry. The father smokes a cigarette as he watches his children play. They're just normal families, living in incredibly humble circumstances.

Homesick for Wool

I never imagined that Cairo would be so cold in the winter. Trust me when I say that I did plenty of research on this when I was packing back in October. I checked the weather websites, I asked my friends and family, I spent a week pre-packing. But, holy freezing!

On the way over here, I had to sacrifice all my winter clothes at the airport. The warmest thing that I brought is my leather jacket, which I have been delaying to wear, because once that isn't warm enough, I'm screwed. The plan was that my parents would mail the rest of my clothes over to me, since the cost of shipping and the import tax would still be cheaper than buying 1 sweater at any of the stores at the mall. (I've discussed previously that the taxes here have caused clothes to cost about 3x what we'd pay for them back home.) Except.....they never really got around to doing that.

So now here we are approaching Christmas, and although there may not be any snow here, it is still cold enough to make me feel at home. Despite the temperature being in the mid 60s during the day and the 50s at night, the cool, dry air makes it feel much colder. Layering no longer cuts it.

So I finally went to the mall over the weekend to find some sweaters. I was determined to stick within my uber tight budget, and successfully purchased 2 sweaters, in addition to the knock-off sweatshirt I bought last weekend to wear at home. I was so excited to wear one of them to work yesterday underneath my wool blazer, but I was a little worried that I'd be overdoing it, and that I'd get overheated in class. Not even a worry. I was cold and shivering all damn day long.

All I have to say is that these sweaters are going to get a work out and give me a run for my money. And I'm about to run around Cairo looking like a homeless person, wearing every layer of warm clothing that I brought.

If only some friends could come visit and bring along my beloved winter wardrobe!!!

Koshari and shopping

Two of my favorite things in life are eating and shopping, let's be real.

On Saturday, I spent the day as a tourist with a new friend from DC by way of Ohio, and a visitor from Seattle whom I met at the film festival last week. We started at Abu Tarek, the self-named Best Koshari Place in Downtown Cairo. Anthony bourdain ate here when he came to Cairo, and it is pretty delicious.

So what is koshari? A carb lover's dream, or Atkins' nightmare. It's an Egyptian staple of pasta, chickpeas, lentils, fried crispy onions, and tomato sauce. There are no options, this is the only way it comes, but you can customize it with hot sauce and vinegar provided at the table. It's delicious, and filling and super cheap.

Loaded up with carbs, we then went to walk off the calories at Khan al Khalili, Cairo's amazing souq. As many times as I've been there, it's impossible for me not to get lost. There are so many shops and alleys, markets within the market, merchants, tourists, and people passing through the narrow alleys, it's all a whirlwind experience. This is where you come to buy souvenirs or handicrafts from: in laid furniture and decor, to brass and cooper work, to gold and silver, fabrics, spices, you name it.

I bought some hair and massage oils that I customized with fragrances of lavender and sandalwood, and lots, I mean lots, of jewelry. We didn't even find everything we were looking for, despite spending about 5 hours wandering through. All the walking required some rest at the touristy cafe, Fishawy, where my friends enjoyed some sahlab, a hot, thick milk drink with raisins, nuts and coconut. We opted to sit outside and were constantly being nagged by vendors, but it added to the experience.

And at the end of it all, we went to Farahat for some wonderful stuffed pigeon. For anyone who is an adventurous eater, this must be tried. It's another Egyptian specialty that is too good to be missed.

On our way home we got stuck in traffic on Talaat Harb St downtown, so my friend and I decided to get out of our taxi and walk instead. We found ourselves in the midst of yet another market. At night, Talaat Harb street becomes an outdoor market of its own, with the street lined with racks of knock off clothing from "Nike," "Adidas," "Ralph Lauren," and even "Burberry." We were both talking about how our cardigans are the warmest things we brought with us to Egypt- and have been freezing at night lately, so we bought ourselves some knock-off sweatshirts to bum around the house in.

I got home late and exhausted, but overall it was one of the best days yet.

From Tahrir to the Palace

I have to admit that I'm a little jealous that the protests have left Tahrir and have shifted over to the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis. Tahrir is just a quick taxi ride over the bridge from where I work and live, but Heliopolis is a good hour with traffic. So since they've moved, I haven't been able to attend any of the protests and I feel like I'm missing out on all the action!

On the one hand, I really want to go over there and check it out, but on the other, I'm afraid to. And at the same time, I'm enjoying being able to walk through downtown again, although it has a really exciting energy when protests are happening in Tahrir.

Last week things got ugly when Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood bussed in "supporters" aka, thugs, that they allegedly paid to confront the protestors outside the palace. A lot of the articles and coverage misrepresented what happened and who started it, blaming the protestors for attacking the supporters. But considering the fact that the protestors had been there for days without so much as storming the palace or clashing with the police, and then suddenly the thugs arrived with pipes, sticks, and people started fighting, what is there to be misunderstood?

Several ultimatums were issued on both sides, but protestors never left the palace. Finally yesterday, after a few lousy, weak speeches, Morsi claimed to be easing up, but I still don't trust him or what the future outcome will be. On my way to work yesterday morning, I saw and heard jets roaring over central Cairo. What was that about? Was that a scare tactic? Was that exercise? And today Morsi recalled his proposal for a tax hike. It's all very silly political tactics if you ask me. He's probably just trying to find ways to cool everyone down so that ultimately, he can still get what he's after.

It's been a very confusing week of a lot of activity not making much sense to me. It is kind of exhausting to keep up because everyone has an opinion, and there's so much happening that it's hard to keep track of it all. There's plenty of misinformation, tons of stupidity, and everyone is bias. And to be quite honest, I'm exhausted of it all. This has far surpassed exciting, and has swung right over to the extremely annoying and stupid side. Too many secret agendas, but a better Egypt isn't the one being pursued...

But still, as I've mentioned several times before, the rest of Cairo is operating normally. In fact, you could almost not even know that anything was going on if you just avoided those areas and went about your business. The exception to that is that on Tuesdays, when the huge protests are "scheduled," the streets are empty because many people opt to stay home from work and school.

On a side note, the weather in Cairo remains perfect. It is sunny and the sky is blue, and everyday is a nice, cool 65 F. There is absolutely no Christmas spirit here whatsoever, so I've been relying on photos from friends back home to feel the cold weather and the holiday spirit that I love so much about New York at this time of year. It doesn't stop me from playing my Christmas mix and singing to it at the top of my lungs, however. The first real taste of the holiday spirit was felt when I called my credit card customer service, and the woman ended the call by saying, "Well if that's all I can help you with, I'd like to wish you Happy Holidays."

So there, Happy Holidays.

The Cairo International Film Festival

I was very happy to learn that there's a film festival taking place here in Cairo. I try to see as many films as I can at the TriBeCa Film Fest every year, so it's nice to be able to enjoy this here, too.

I've been a longtime fan of foreign and independent films and documentaries. One summer during college, I stayed home and watched all these serious, but sad, foreign documentaries, and my friends couldn't stand how depressed they made me feel. We'd go out and try to have fun- college kids, summertime, you know, and I'd go on about how much the documentary about Romanian street kids sniffing paint, made me cry. (It was really heartbreaking, I'll never forget it: Children Underground.) We made a deal: no more sad documentaries. But I still sneak them in on days when I don't have any social obligations and can spend the whole day crying in my pjs.

There's a broad selection of films here from every continent, and luckily they all have subtitles, so it caters to all audiences as well. The best part is that the tickets are only 5 or 10 LE, about $.80 or $1.50, which is 1/3 of the price of a ticket at the movie theatres here, so it nicely encourages people to see several of the films.

The setting couldn't be better, as it is entirely located at the Cairo Opera House. It is a quiet and isolated place in Gezira, just south of where I live in Zamalek. This is where I have been for most of the week, a convenient hideaway from all the brewing chaos in Tahrir Square (5 minutes east of me) and the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis (30 minutes northeast of Tahrir Square). There's a nice outdoor cafe with free wifi to relax in, in between films. One of the films I viewed was held in the open air theatre on a massive screen. It was called "Winter of Discontent," a fantastic movie about last year's revolution. Another was in the opera's main theatre, so I was also able to get into the museum displaying costumes from operas like Aida and La Boheme. It was wonderful! The Opera House is so beautiful!

However, like most things, there has been some controversy associated with the festival. For one, there have been protests against it for lack of support of the organizers who were appointed by the government, and with this political climate, that's to be expected. In addition, some artists feel that it doesn't include enough films from independent artists, which should otherwise provide them a great opportunity for exposure. Sadly, one of the films I was most looking forward to seeing, boycotted the festival after Morsi made his decree. It is called "In Search of Oil and Sand." The trailer looked amazing and I somehow still have to see it.

The only criticism I have about the festival is that it could be better organized. The festival is running a day behind schedule, because the first day was cancelled thanks to the protests, so all the printed programs are inaccurate. That and when you purchase your ticket, you must know the name of the film and what theatre it is playing in, and not only do the ticket sellers not have this information available for you, but they do not speak English either. I had to translate for a few foreigners, which was fortunate for them at that moment, but otherwise discouraging for non-Arabic speaking guests.

Then again, we are in Cairo, so these kinds of things should generally be expected... But all in all, it's been a good week and I saw some interesting films and some not so interesting films.