another day in the world of parking in cairo...

...had another "incident" with parking this morning at work. as most of you probably know, parking in cairo is very difficult and extremely difficult near my work in the mornings. so, its no surprise that i have at least one parking "incident" each weekly :)

so, this morning...it wasn't like a wreck or bump or anything (this time!). rather it was a total lost in translation, have no idea what you are saying, street arabic moment.

we have these guys on the streets that are the "parkers" of the streets...meaning that they kind of claim areas and then "help" you park and then expect a tip for parking in their territory (which of course is not really their's, but i've decided not to mess with the parker's mafia these days).

there was a great spot right in front of my work (which is never open), so i was so excited to park there. so, i told the guy i wanted to and he proceeded to "help" me park (wave his hands, yell in arabic, and move around a lot). i have learned to interpret their "help" and actually use it to help me park, but in this case, it was a total loss.

the guy kept saying tons of stuff in arabic, but i had no idea what he was trying to tell me and it was weird the way he was telling me to park. i can't really explain, but i kept telling him in arabic that i didn't understand and that i was sorry...he just kept talking. so, i tried to say forget it and leave, but he really wanted me to park there (probably because yesterday i gave him a big tip). after several minutes of this (which felt like an eternity), i gave up fully and told him i couldn't understand him, that i was sorry, and just drove off.

luckily i found another spot quickly (rare again), but i walked in to work thinking about how funny the situation was and how after 2 years of living in this place and parking at the same work, i can still have experiences where i look back and still don't know what in the world was going on and how that even happened.

hehe...that's Egypt...unpredicatable, always changing, and a place where you should never try to understand how or why anything happens!

a little observation from the states...

being in the states this summer was great. it was wonderful to relax and feel easy being in my own culture and surroundings that i grew up with. of course, that didn't come without some adjustments the first couple of weeks. and needless to say, i definitely noticed some things about the american culture, "my" culture, that weren't so pretty.

one thing that absolutely drove me crazy, and one i tried to tolerate nicely and patiently with my family and friends around me...was how "specific" everyone is. i am using the word "specific" to sound a bit nicer and to not imply that it is wrong...it is simply a part of the american culture.

almost everyone i was around was not necessarily picky, saying no to things they didn't want. actually, i didn't hear no very often...but what i did hear were added specifications virtually everything, especially food of course.  here are some of the things i heard, just to give examples:

"Can I have the round glass to drink from?"

"Do you have caffeine-free diet pepsi, not regular coke?"

"I would like to have finner at 6pm, not 6:30pm."

"I prefer french bread, not regular rolls."

well, it seems that I can only come up with memories and examples revolving around eating and drinking! so maybe that's really what it boils down to.

what I have figured out from thinking about this is that a lot of it is truly a blessing...that americans have been given so many choices by companies producing so many products that really market to a very specific preference and group. and that really its part of also being in a very organized and orderly culture that these are so freely accepted by the general public (and friends and family of course).

in egypt, you get what you get. the most variety you have is with chips and really its just the basic chip (no baked, no tortilla chips, nothing else) in just about 6 different flavors or so. and when you eat at someone's house, you accept whatever they put in front of you and no one really asks how would you like ____. the food goes on the table and then its your own decision as to what you put on your plate. and as far as times goes, it doesn't really matter what someone prefers, you just have to stay laid back and go with the flow!

i don't think that one is better than the other, but I do appreciate that egypt has made me think a bit more about how to make things easy by not getting specific and how to stay laid back in general.  however, my american side will always have my own secret preferences and specifics for virtually everything, even if they remain a secret in my mind here in cairo.