Ahlan wisahlan

15 minutes ago, I was sleeping, taking a little mid-morning snooze with my guy. Then, I was awoken by a loudly-braying seemingly distressed donkey outside my window. Usually we wake up to the gas man on a bicycle clanking a wrench against his gas canisters as he sells them throughout our neighborhood to households who do not have a hook-up to a gas line. Welcome to Cairo.

I'm no longer allowed to walk home alone with Amir at night because apparently EVERY Egyptian man wants to rape me. Welcome to Cairo, BYU-style.

My three friends were forced to disrobe in front of Maadi Club security men. Afterwards, they told me they wished I was with them because I would have just flat out refused. I do that a lot here. I just pretend not to understand and say no and walk away. No one at the pool messes with me anymore because I'm such a mean American woman (I learned the art of aggressive independence from my dear mom).

'Ahlan wisahlan.