low down dirty shame!

there is a joke and it goes like this:

Q: what do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A. bilingual

Q: what do you call someone who speaks 3 languages?
A: trilingual

Q: what do you call someone who speaks one language?
A: AMERICAN

What a pity. What a shame. Tragedy that most of the 365 million Americans can only parlez vous en Englais. Both my parents speak foreign languages. By today's standards they aren't super common or super useful, but they are foreign languages nonetheless. My dad, a son of  Greek immigrants from Chios, Greece and Constantinople, Turkey speaks Greek AND Japanese.  My mother, speaks Norwegian. Pretty good for a white girl from Houston right? Do you think they bothered to teach a word of any of these tongues to my brother and me while growing up? Big fat no. Disadvantage. For years, I've been bitter about this, seeing my comrades growing up bilingual without having to lift a finger.  It wasn't til I became a quasi adult that I realized this among many other things in my life is up to me.  Own your own destiny.  Quit blaming others for your failings.  At the age of 26/27 when your brain is way past that "sponge" stage my brother and I signed up for Greek lessons at the church.  How embarrassing not to be able to speak with your own family???!!!!@#$$%  I love my parents no question.   But I don't love the fact that they didn't share their knowledge.  Basic skills that could make a huge difference later on.  When applying for a job with Sotheby's in London early in March 2010, I was immediately disqualified because I was not fluent in another EU language.  How do I know this? They told me so.  No lie.

My point...listen. observe. fine tune yourself. discipline your  nogen to learn something new even if you don't already know it or it seems hard.  keep your eyes, ears, and brain open.  alert. soak it in.

While in Cairo, I tried to pick up as much Arabic as I could, even if it was just fragmented words. Here is what I learned in three weeks time:

Marhabbah - hello/welcome
Maasalaamah -Goodbye
Sabah al khair - good morning
Inshallah -If Allah wishes
Naam - yes
yammen- right
ala tool- straight
fatouta- slang for little guy
shukrun- thank you
afwan- your welcome
jellah- let's go, come on
maya kabir- large water
laa- no

If you are into Islamic Art or the Arabic Alphabet, this shop on etsy makes some really fun artistic prints. I was thinking about getting one for myself.  I was also thinking about getting one of these great language shower curtains from urban outfitters. You know, so I can "wash and learn"

holy pyramids

mohammed and his peugeot 504 

would you believe it?! mother is finally feeling better, weak from days of being unable to eat, but good enough to tour the giza pyramids with me. mohammed, forever faithful and always on time, is waiting for us in his classic taxi typical of cairo. a vintage station wagon, painted in white and black. no ac but working roll down windows and punch locks, tattered interior, and ornery seatbelts.  most of the dashboards in cairo are also lined with some sort of shag carpeting or other furry substaince that may at one time have belonged to an animal. i noticed mohammed had his secured with push pins and in one particular spot, his bribe money was covertly tucked away.

it has always been fascinating to me to compare in person the objects that i've seen in history books. sometimes, they are epic disappointments. the mona lisa, in my opinion was a huge let down. about the size of a stamp (not really but for exaggeration's sake). not the grandiose picture i dreamed it was. FAIL. on the other hand, leo's "david" was brilliant. truly a masterpiece. a fusion of raw talent and design.  def one of my favorite sculptures. needless to say, i was worried about how the pyramids would stack up. would they live up to the hype?

mom + sphinx + pyramids

indeed they did. imagine driving down I-10 on your way to the office and seeing the pyramids of giza out of your rear view. it was so surreal to be surrounded by 20 million honking cars, sprawling new developments, hoards of civilization all up in your face, and then adjacent, in stark contrast, these ancient wonders of the world.

mohammed slipped some egyptian pounds from under his secret carpet-covered, dashboard stash to a guard dressed in a cool wool uniform and dropped us off. for the next few hours we walked in amazement. these are truly sites to behold. drink it up and drink it in. the hard selling of trinket vendors was terribly annoying however, and really takes away from the experience. you can barely walk a step without someone asking you to buy something, shoving it in your face, begging you to "have a look".  americans are seen as walking cash dispensaries. the school kids also hound you for pictures of themselves and of you. it was endearing at first, but towards the end you just want to look at the sphinx in peace, you know? i was impressed with their english, but after they asked "how you are?", "what your name is?", that was pretty much the extent of the conversation. it seemed like every one of them had a cell phone. they snapped away and loved seeing the playback of their freshly taken photo instantly on our digital camera screen. crazy the stuff we take for granted.

solar boat

we sought refuge from the piercing sun and the "in your personal space" vendors slash school children, at the solar boat (you had to pay to get in here). the solar boat was a funerary boat found in the 4th of 5 boat pits in 1954. The boat is 143 feet long and 19 1/2 feet wide with an estimated displacement of more than 45 tons. Hundreds of pieces of shaped wood comprise the hull which was held together with rope. Since wet wood swells and rope shrinks, the boat would become water tight in water, making caulking unnecessary. The boat had six pairs of long oars, one pair by the stern post serving as rudder oars. pretty fantastic given that it was constructed in approx 2600 BC!

after an exhausting morning of touring, mohammed kindly dropped us at the Mena House, formerly a palace, to have an amazing lunch. this place is grand. opulent gold-colored islamic-inspired mosaics line the ceilings. they have just added a new area complete with a sparkling, gigantor pool. i wanted to jump right in and join the leisure society of the scantily clad. we treated ourselves to gourmet burgers and fries before heading back to maadi to pack and catch our plane for luxor.