The Home Stretch Part III: Khalas

My last week here was spent in something of a finals/Christmas fervor.  It’s mostly all a blur but I remember that, among other things, I went to see the Cairo Choral Society’s performance of Handel’s Messiah in its entirety. The Soprano soloist was phenomenal (and the only one other than the concertmaster to get a bio in the program haha).

They had three child soloists do “And Suddenly..” and it was... cute.. but they cracked and I would have preferred to hear it on the Soprano, which is, to the best of my knowledge, who it was originally written for.

The kids

 Later in the week (or earlier?) I was presented with the singular opportunity to buy... a Christmas tree!!!

 

The snazzy establishment

It’s so amazing and I love it. To date its decorations include: A Charlie Brown Star made from yellow paper off my legal pad..

Making the Charlie Brown star

... an Easter bunny angel, a long broken necklace (trim!), a short unbroken necklace (more trim), beautiful pink and silver ornaments that I bought with the tree (the lone legitimate decorations) aaand my red scarf as the tree skirt thing (complements of Rohit and Anisha).

 

It feels so Christmas-y in the apartment now!! 

Thank you Mido for your excellent bargaining skills and for telling everyone I’m Egyptian.

Success! 

 Poor timing though it was, last Monday I was blessed with the presence of two of my very own Hopkins colleagues, Dylan Cowart and Christine Fiedler. Unfortunately I’m super lame and was desperately trying to write one of those last minute papers of mine so I couldn’t exactly devote my full attention to them. We were able to share a few beverages together though and all in all it was just lovely to see some familiar faces again.

And finals came, and finals went.

In celebration of them going, on Saturday evening I ended up at the German bakery in Zamalek (we're regular customer there for the purchase of German pretzels) which was decked out for Christmas.

I then continued on to relaxing at khan al-khalili with some tea, shisha and friends. Which provides a pretty appropriate segue into the truly final leg of my Cairo adventures: Christmas shopping in the Khan al-Khalili. It inadvertently began that night. I just meant to be looking around and before I knew it I was in a scary back room full of merchandise (reminiscent of that one time on Canal street....) I can’t actually spill too much because then you all will know what I got you for Christmas, but just know that most of the shopping involved me being a quiet Egyptian girl pointing at what I wanted while I let (a) real Egyptian(s) do all the heavy bargaining on my behalf.  You can buy A LOT with $200 using this method. I went back the next day to get whatever I hadn’t already got, and khalas.

On Monday I took my last final, made a few last Christmas stops on my way home from University, showered and packed my stuff and was chauffeured in style to the Airport. Predictably it was something of a hellish experience and, even more predictably, I was the only standby denied entry to the flight. Well second trys the charm when it comes to this trip, so tonight I should finally be headed home. Expect a full run down in my epilogue, to be written upon my arrival in 76137.