Over the past week I have gotten much more comfortable going out in the city on my own. I'm getting to know Jon's neighborhood now, and where things are. Usually, I love to go out and explore a city on my own, enjoying the feeling of not knowing exactly where I am. It is a bit different here though. I find the biggest problem I run into is not only am I unable to speak the language, but I am unable to read it.
Street signs, shop fronts, periodicals...they are all in Arabic script. And why would they be any different? The difference in spoken word is something I thought about a lot before coming go Egypt. The difference in the written word is something which didn't enter my mind near as much. This has big implications to how much of the city is accessible to me. For instance, if I am in a German speaking country and go out to a restaurant by myself I can still order food. More than likely I will destroy the pronunciation of what I am trying to say, but I am familiar with the alphabet. Here, it is a totally different story. The first time I went to get food by myself, there was not a single letter in the place I could read. As a result, I must completely rely on my memory of the Arabic foods I have learned, or hope someone speaks at least some English. There is one place near Jon's apartment that I really like to go, as I love the falafel. The first few days here I was eating a lot of falafel, partly because I enjoy it and partly because it was one of the only foods whose name I could remember (tamaya). Then two days ago I decided to try to order some rice pudding with my meal of falafel. Only knowing the English, I tried to explain what I wanted with my hands. Instead of rice pudding I walked out of the place with a bag of fries. It became obvious after this that I was really going to have to learn some Arabic if I wanted to diversify my meal options. I've set a goal of learning 50 Arabic words by the time I leave Egypt.
Yesterday I went to the Citadel with a friend of Jon's and on the way home was proud of myself for communicating with the cab driver where we wanted to go (in Arabic) and negotiating the price without a problem. The trip to Alexandria didn't happen, but that's no big deal. Tomorrow morning Jon and I will be at the airport as we have decided to go to Turkey for a couple of weeks. Our plan is to spend a few days in Istanbul and then take the bus to the southern coast to hike a trail called the Lycian Way. It is about 300 miles and we are hoping to spend a couple of weeks walking the whole thing. We will be back in Cairo by Dec. 8th.
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