Hani, the professional futbol player

Salam.
Working in the Wadi Degla sports clubs has been great so far. I have my certain anxieties but I like everyone I work with and I don't have a shortage of friends. I live in a pretty safe area and the club is filled with mostly decent people. Everyone at work is great, but about a week ago I was walking to work and I ignored and walked by a guy who was standing outside his car, asking me to come talk to him (in English). I waved him off and about 3 minutes later he came down the street and drove right into my path and got out to introduce himself. freakyyyyy. I stepped away from his car thinking he might throw me in, but we ended up talking about the club because he's a member and comes to do training at the pool. Here they call exercise or practice "training." So I ended the conversation with "ok i'll see you there then. bye!" The great part was that he was befuddled by the fact that I didn't know who he was. He told me he is a famous soccer player here in Egypt. "You dont know me? i'm famous!" is what he said. haha, this guy was for REAL. and yes, he IS a professional but there's nothing else going on in that head of his. He gained just a tad of my trust as the days went on and we conversed every now and then. So 2 nights ago we went bowling and I beat "the hani" with a score of 133 (Carl, why didnt i bowl that when i was trash-talking back in utah??). He conjured up all sorts of excuses for his loss then picked a shabby flower off a bush for me on our way to his car. He then showed me a long video compilation of all his famed futbol moments, which he put together himself. Here's a picture of our "serious faces" although I think that's how he always takes pictures.


Eventually, we took our group (we were with one of his teammates) to watch an Arabic movie called "Ibrahim elAbyad" or "White Ibrahim." Sadly, I understood almost nothing and Hani & co. couldn't speak english well enough to explain anything. Later I found out the storyline later, and it turns out that the movie is based on a true story about a guy who was really called White Ibrahim and lived in a certain neighborhood of cairo (i forget the name). Anyway, his parents were murdered when he was a boy and spent the rest of his life full of revenge against pretty much anyone living/breathing. He was never found without a knife and no one could ever catch him or stop his violence. His name comes from the name for knife in Arabic. Knife is "sakina" but it's also known as the "white weapon." The actor who played him is the main actor in pretty much every other egyptian film. Ahmed ElSaka. He's got a bit of a belly but everyone LOVES him regardless.

Last night I went to a Khatuba, or engagement party, for michael, the guy who works in the cashier office two doors down from the swim office. I dressed as nicely as possible and it turned out that i overdressed because the party was held on the roof of a building in the same neighborhood that Ibrahim elAbyad lived in. It was the first time i'd put on my little heels, and then I arrived and could barely walk on the crumbled cement, pieces of wood, trash, and dirt. I was so close to just wearing flip-flopts dangit. The party was a happy event and everyone was having a good time though. I was with my fellow office employees Ayman + ahmed. We congratulated the couple then left to go eat Kufta and rice with liver. I really like the liver rice, but the kufta is basically beef sausage, and that's too much meat for me. We also had tameya, which is like hummus but less solid/more oily. We then sat outside in the nice breezy weather while they smoked 3argila, or hooka. Those smells bring me right back home to saudi. i told them about hani and they do indeed know who he is. Too bad I'd rather not hang out with Hani ever again. blech.

I suppose I'll conclude here. my closing note: no more egotistical professional futbol players. yay bowling and liver. I'll put up the kufta dinner pictures later, as if you were interested.

Oh, sorry, speaking of food, here are pictures from
1. a traditional dinner of Egyptian muzzas (appetizers or tapas). I had sugarcane juice that night too. Its ok.

2. The one thing we dont have on our MdD's menu. It was pretty good.

3. My first piece of seafood pizza at pizza hut (see the shrimp? There was other chewy stuff on there too that I can only assume was...i dunno).

Now I have to stop my friends from taking me to places like McD's and pizzahut, despite their exotic menus :)