Thank you for 2007

2007 was an amazing year for me. Thank you to everyone who made it that way. (Also people who are not on the pictures, but just as important)

I wish everyone a very happy year 2008! I'm excited to see what it brings!

Half Time

6 month ago I came here to Egypt, was greeted by searing heat (45 degrees) and was generally amazed about this huge city. 6 month later I'm still here, now with blankets over my legs and cursing the absence of central heating and still amazed about the huge city.

I have experienced fasting in Ramadan, I have sand boarded in the great sand sea, I swam and nearly drowned on the north cost, I played some ping pong, I met wonderful people and became close to them, I made a fondue with Gruyere, I came across a dead kitty in the office kitchen, I dived in the red sea and saw a turtle and an octopus, I was confused about the look of Coptic churches, I saw the sunrise on Mount Sinai, I did lots of cart wheels in the sand, I created a 3 days conference for 250 people, I received an awesome package from my sister, I cooked Mexican food with Annika, I ate about half a ton of pita bread and egg plant, I smoked around 100 sheeshas, I saw the burning bush (or what is left of it... maybe), I saw a lot of Nemos, I rode a camel, I saw the pyramids, I saw a mummified crocodile, I had a break in at my apartment, I spoke to the first lady Suzan Mubarak, I discovered some really good Arabic music, I heard a lot about Islam, I started a lot of questions with "but why...", I had a lot of discussions on how to get rid of corruption and how to adopt democracy, I watched a lot of "Sex and the City", I was in a city that was dead, I was introduced to Sweet Potatoes, I stood in a buffet line with Adolf Ogi (and also spoke to him), I biked in Siwa and rode on a donkey chart, I rode a falluka, I ate a lot of Sushi and Koshari, I discussed masturbation and sex before marriage, I designed recruitment materials, I went to Greece, I jumped very high on a huge trampoline, I had an awesome thanksgiving dinner with the Americans, I caught a cold and was barely able to get rid of the coughing, I danced salsa, I sang karaoke and I had my cousin David and his fried Liliane for a visit.

Lots of things I started getting used to, like paying everything in cash, even the rent, or the crazy driving. And I have also gotten dangerously used to some cool things, like that I can have anything home delivered, even a bottle of milk in the early morning or having free wireless internet in every corner of the city. And I have started wondering how many things of my Swiss everyday life I forgot.

I'm still happy, I'm still having an amazing experience and I still don't regret the decision of coming here. Things have normalized, sometimes comes a day that's boring, but overall, things are still cool and exciting.

And in 4 days I will make my way home. I'm looking forward for it. I'm also a bit anxious somehow... How will it be to be back and what will I be confronted with? Will my friends have time for me?
Anyway, I'm excited to come home and I have been counting down the days since the past 2 weeks.

Half the time is up. It's time for a break.

the questions of a metro ride

I take the metro from mohandesseen to maadi and back about 5 days a week. I'm here in Cairo for something more than 365 days. That makes me ride the metro on 260 days in this year. The distance travelled by metro from my station to the one at the office is 14 kilometers. Take that twice, makes 24 kilometers per day.

Conclusion: during my year in Cairo, i will travel about 7300 kilometers in the metro which is equal to the distance between Cairo and Cape Town: exactly all they way through the African continent.

Each way takes me (total time on the metro train itself, excluding all the switching train, etc) 30 minutes. After adding this up over the whole year leaves me with 240 hours, which is 10 days.

In other words: plenty of time to look around in my women's compartment at the people around me and I can not help but wonder...


- How often do women poke themselves in the head with those needles that keep their head scarfs so tightly wrapped?

- Where are all those people going? To work? To university? To visit relatives? To hang out with friends?

- Wow many girls wearing hijab (headscarf) dye their hair or spend too much money on hairdressers just like we do?

- What are the fully veiled women wearing underneath the huge bundle of black fabric? baggy pants and "I love NY" shirts? Shorts or minis? tank tops? :)
Or in general: do fully veiled women maintain a clothing style under their veils just like other women?

- Is there a significant positive correlation between weight and the degree of "veildness"? That would be an interesting field study... interesting when you think of how one would go about this? :)

- How many of the women sitting and standing around me are circumcised? (Actually I already know, if the newspapers and magazines are right: about 75-85 %) But still, it always makes me wonder.

- How can it be, that Egyptian women are always 100% color coordinated in every single piece of their appearance? Do they just have so many clothes, purses, shoes and accessories that they have countless ways of combining things or do they just have 2-3 sets that they always wear together?

- How much do those people earn who come into the metro and sell more or less useful items (like tissues, socks, make up, balloons, stickers or barbie wallets?)

- And why does it always seem that the people selling the more useful things (tissues) are in a far worse condition than people selling the less useful things (barbie wallets)?

This world I love