Twitter

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about something called Twitter, a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as "tweets", which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them. Apparently it’s the new big thing in the world of social networking on the internet. A number of celebrities, and even President Obama, are now “twittering”, according to a program I saw a few nights ago on CNN.

Tonight I decided to look up the website and try to figure out what “twittering” is all about and, while I’m still not sure I really grasp the full concept, I signed up for an account. From what I understand, this means I can now send brief messages either from the internet or my mobile phone to be posted on the internet to let everyone know what I’m doing or what I’m thinking. Although, I have to admit, I doubt anyone is really that interested in my thoughts or actions that they will really want instantaneous updates. That’s not the reason I signed up for Twitter.

I first heard about Twitter last year during the attacks in Mumbai. Apparently some of the people trapped inside the hotels used Twitter to post messages about what was happening as teh attacks were taking place. Although I certainly hope I will never be in such a situation, if something were to ever happen in all of my travels, I think it would be tremendous to be able to send a text message from my phone that would post on the internet to let everyone know I’m ok.

So I’m now “twittering”. Or at least trying to figure out how to “twitter”. One I figure it out, you can see updates in the left column of this blog under "Twitter Updates".

On the road

Herd of sheep on the highway

Fish and Green Eyes

About two weeks ago, I picked up a fish at a pet store in my neighborhood. I've never had much luck with keeping fish alive, so I thought I'd wait a little while before telling anyone. But Fish is alive and well, so here he is...
Just a few days after getting Fish, a furry little critter showed up on my front doorstep. I literally opened the window one Saturday and this little gal was sitting right under it and started meowing at me. I walked outside and pet her for a few minutes and then gave her a little bowl of milk. Since then she's shown up at my house every couple of days. Sometimes, if I leave the screen door open while I'm hanging up laundry or something, she'll even walk into my house and just wander around like she owns the place. Since she's becoming a regular visitor, I decided I should give her a name, so I'm calling her Green Eyes.
So now as long as Green Eyes doesn't decide to eat Fish, we'll all be happy.

Construction update

The construction workers didn't leave my house until 11:00 last night. Thankfully, though, they were really nice and things went a lot more smoothly than they could have. My house is still a bit of a mess but at least they got a good start on the work.

Repairmen

I’ve been a little hesitant to post pictures of my new flat, not that I don’t love it, but certain parts of the walls of my kitchen, bathroom and bedroom have been looking like this:
It's not that I'm exactly ashamed; I just didn’t want anyone to worry about me living in some trashy, run-down flat in the middle of Cairo. Besides, my landlady and her husband promised to have it fixed.

I’ve been waiting for that fix for almost a month and tonight, finally, we scheduled an appointment for the repairman to come. My landlady called and said that her husband would come over while the repairman was here to take care of anything. He arrived at my apartment about fifteen minutes late (which is quite on time by Egyptian standards!) and began looking for the repairman. It wasn’t long before the repairman arrived and walked in my front door, followed by two other repairmen. Apparently the job didn’t just require a repairMAN but actually needed three repairMEN.

They greeted my landlady’s husband in Arabic, completely ignoring me, and walked straight into my bathroom, speaking the whole time in rapid Arabic. I felt invisible. There was clearly a lot to talk about and before long, my shower curtain had been taken down and a man was walking out of the bathroom with a confused look on his face and an armful of American toiletries. Soon the other two were behind him, also with handfuls of bottles and tubes. I wondered what they must be thinking about American women and the effort we take to get ready in the mornings. The comedy continued as two of the men left for a trip to the hardware store (at least that’s where I assume they went; they haven’t returned yet) and I was left to help the other two prepare for the work. By “help”, I mean try to figure out what they were asking me for and then attempt to provide it. Quickly I learned the words for “plastic”, “hammer” and “ladder” (even though I only had the first two). Now I’m sitting here while the men stand outside chain-smoking cigarettes until the other two return from their errand.

Once they finish their work (whenever that may be, since it’s already almost 8:00 p.m. and they still haven't started!), I’ll take some more pictures so I can show off the finished product.