Snotting black

First off, let me clarify what happened yesterday to the best of my knowledge. After a play commemorating the martyrs of the Revolution, armed thugs arrived and started making mischief. No one knows why the thugs came, who they were, or what they wanted. The police remained involved in the struggle, but the army completely withdrew, allowing it to continue for hours into the  morning. No one really understands what happened or why. My teacher today said that it may have just been a play by the army to make people fear chaos and not advocate too strongly for a faster transition. The thugs could have also been ex-policeman or something like that….but it’s not clear. So the moral of the story is: people are confused.

At any rate, we had classes today (unfortunately/fortunately) but we were urged to leave quickly afterwards in stuff started up again. Tomorrow I think there are supposed to be more protests but I’m not sure who/why…a simple google search didn’t yield answers as fast as I wanted them so I’ll just wait till someone more knowledgeable tells me after the fact.

We were riding in lady’s section of the metro today (I, roomie, and friend) and as usual, the air was hot and stuffy and we were doing our best to speak in Arabic with one another. Just before the train stopped at the Tahrir square metro station, two ladies started talking to us since they were surprised and thrilled we were speaking Arabic. “You have lit up Egypt,” one of the women said, using a common expression in Egypt that I could never remember the response to.  I always think it’s “and light to you” or “God give you light,” but those are both wrong. As I searched for the correct answer, she added, laughing, that she had two sons, meaning she was on the hunt for wives for them. Unfortunately, she got off the train and I didn’t get her info or anything so I’m not sure how the engagement process is going to work. I’ll just be sure to ride that line at that specific time in hopes of finding her again. Lord knows all I’m trying to do is get settled down with a husband and kids here in Egypt ASAP, and she seemed like an honorable woman. It would be nice to go ahead and cross that goal off my list right after “try a different kind of hazelnut spread every week.”