First off, every teams needs their own deck of cards to play, preferably ones that can be easily differentiated from each other. You play in teams of two and one person is in control of the 10 deck and the other in control of the 3 deck. There are a set of 4 cards laid out between the two set up in a type of solitare setting. The whole point of the game is to be released of your 10 deck and at that point one person on the team (usually the person who has the 10 deck) will call out NUBBINS! (Or Radio-shecck in this case, which was shortened to Shecck). So the game begins and out of the 4 cards laid out, you can lay one card on top of the other, colors must be alternating, to make space for another card from the 10 deck. The person with the 3 deck is constanting flipping over 3 cards at a time trying to find cards to raise the decks in the center of all of the teams. The piles start with the Ace card and everyone contributes to them trying to get as many cards in as possible to win. Everytime someone comes across an Ace they can put it in the middle and everyone has to compete to get their cards in before the next. The cards must be stacked in numerical order until it reaches the King card which is the highest in this game. You can use cards from the 3 deck to put on one of the cards in the pile of 4 to get rid of some. The team to get rid of all 10 cards in the 10 card deck "wins". I put this in parentheses because the team that gets out first isn't necessarily the winning team. So the teams left at the table have to count the cards left in their 10 deck and for every card that they have left, they have -2 points. After totaling this up, the winning team pools together all of the cards piled up in the center and put them in their own stacks according to deck. Each team gets back their cards and count them. They get 1 point for each card. You then total the number of positive points you have with the negative amount from your 10 deck and that is your total score.
It sounds quite complicated but once you get the hang of it, it can get pretty intense. Kerry and I played on a team together, Shelby and Mae, Kaitlin and Cate, and then since we had an odd number Kayla played by herself. We stayed there for HOOOUURS playing this game it was so intense. Kayla and Cate left early because they had things to do in the morning but the rest of us stayed until about 2:30 am playing until we finally left.
Friday, Kaitlin, Kayla, Shelby and some other girls wanted to go around coptic Cairo to see the different mosques and sites. I wanted to go but was tired and didn't really feel like doing anything so Deb, Kerry and I watched Pineapple Express which was pretty hilarious. By the time we were done watching that it was around 2 pm and Kerry had left for a supper party she was invited to. Mae was with her aunt and uncle spending the day, and we were at a loss of ideas on what to do. Deb and I ended up going to Khan el-Khalili and although crowded and harrassing, we had a great time. Turns out Deb is actually good for something and managed to get us amazing prices on everything, even though it was pretty cheap as it was. I finally got my water boiler so I can make tea in the morning, a scarf, and a handmade dress like the Egyptians wear. Deb got some beautiful handmade earrings, a shirt similar to the dress I got but in pink, and a scarf as well. We spent hours there perusing all of the little shops and stands in the market. When we first got there however, we were approached by this man who apparantly remembered me from about two weeks previous (and by my toe nail color, no less). He wanted to show us his shop, promising that between he and his family we would see some of the greatest things ever made.
We were a little skeptical at first but ended up following him down these little streets where Deb got swatted at by an old woman on the ground and cats running all over the place. He was talking to us all the while, asking us about where we were from and telling us how he had just returned from Tailand or someplace where he was learning how to give massages. Apparantly he was a linguist as well, because he spoke to us in French and Spanish as well. So we get to his shop and he tells us that we have to follow him upstairs. The building looked seedy and run down. He (his name is Mohamed by the way) lead us up flights of stairs that seemed to be neverending with Deb telling me the whole way about how we were about to die.
But we got to the top where his shop is and oh my goodness, you wanna talk about beauty? The walls of the place were covered in paintings done on papyrus and the images that were portrayed were so gorgeous. He said that he wasn't going to try to sell us anything but of course tried to anyway but I must admit he was a very good salesman. I didn't end up buying anything but I might actually go back sometime to do just that. He was very polite and offered us some tea, and he made a point to tell us that is was not the Lipton kind but authentic Egyptian. It was good and we drank while we looked and he told us some of the stories on the papyrus, but in the end we still didn't buy anything from him.
He took us back downstairs after giving us some of his cards, and he told us that if we wanted he would take us to see more of Cairo if we could get together a group of friends that wanted to go or he would just take us. Shady sounding, I know. He even offered to take us to Alexandria and to an Egyptian wedding to see what it's like and how they celebrate. So who knows if he was being genuine or not. He also showed us another shop that his family owns where they handmake those jewelry boxes that you see which were also beautiful. They came in all different shapes and sizes and they were covered in shiny materials that shined when you held them up to the light. Turns out that they use real camel bone in them. Go figure.
So Deb and I decided to leave after hours of shopping and had no problem getting back to Zamalek. We were very proud of ourselves and didn't even get lost on the way back! By the time we came back, everyone who went to coptic Cairo was there and we shared all of our stories with them and showed them what we had bought. We were trying to figure out what we were going to do for the night and ultimately we ended up at this kid Tim's apartment in Zamalek where he was having a little house party. It was pretty fun, we met a lot of different people but a lot we already knew as well. We met this guy Mohamed, Omar, and a few others who were talking to and some of them were practicing Arabic with them and helping them with their English. Omar I believe was from Saudi so we were asking him about that. The apartment that they have is really nice and spacious with two balconies and lots of room. Almost makes me wish I had thought about getting one instead of living in the dorms, but then I thought.... housekeeping...more room...caf underneath me...balcony? And then I remembered that I like the dorm life :)
We didn't back until really late...or early depending on how you look at the time so the next day I didn't wake up until 2 in the afternoon. We usually play volleyball at 3 on Saturdays so I kinda just hung out for that hour not doing much. Deb didn't come because she was still feeling sick so Mae, Callie, my roommate Cate and I went downtown to play and had a great time. The two girls who intensified the game last week weren't there so it was even better because we just got to play a normal intramural game. Towards the end one of them showed up and then it became a two person team and at that time we decided to leave. I picked up some apples at one of the little street vendors for during the week and then we headed back to Zamalek.
Sunday's I have class so that we pretty much the extent of my weekend, and I woke up feeling sore as ever from volleyball. I did make a trip to Metro where I got this package box of chocolate covered "digestive" cookies. I had them once and they were really good so I decided to pick some up....bad, bad idea. I went through the box like nothing and really regretted it the next day. :( So today is a much better day for me, but unfortunately for Shelby she did the same thing I did so today's not such a good day for her either.
I witnessed my first rain in Egypt yesterday too! It was a crummy day from the beginning and in the afternoon it rained for a few minutes but didn't last too long. I suppose it's good for things down here especially since it rains less than 1 cm per year. Of course the architect who built our school that that it was a fabbbbulous idea to put tile inlaid in the ground so the entire campus had slippery blocks on it and on my way to the bus I almost busted my head open. While most would find this embarrassing I started laughing, just imagining it happening to someone else. But still...not safe!
Two days ago, a bomb went off in Khan el-Khalili and a French tourist died and several others were hurt. Thankfully, no one I knew was there and as far as I know, no students from AUC was there at that time, so I hope no one is worrying about us. My sincerest regrets goes out to the family of the tourist and I will definitely be keeping her in my prayers; I hope everyone else does the same. I hope that people don't start to see Egypt as this dangerous place now, because it really isn't and anyone who was thinking of visiting, please still do. You cannot live with terror, for then you'll never know what you're missing out on.
On that note...I hope everyone is safe and do not forget to send your prayers out to the family of the tourist who was killed.
I get pressured by those "enthusiastic" shopkeepers too. Mostly I just talk to them so I can practice a little Arabic and make them think I'll actually buy something.
ReplyDeleteI eat those same cookies too! Luckily they don't make me sick though.