At first I thought this country was a lot different from the craziness of Cairo but now I see it's the same country except the facades on the buildings are a little different, there's no pyramids, hardly any western style restaurants and the total population is lower so there's less pollution and traffic and other things ugly. Generally the people here are very friendly but then there's also people that stare in a way that sometimes make me wonder if they hate me or if they're wary that I'm an American. At times I wonder if it would help if I told them I'm actually an Australia, I hate George Bush and I'm proudly half Lebanese but then I think, why should I have to say all that to get respect. Some of the younger boys enjoy yelling and getting your attention like your a monkey in a cage that they're poking with a stick. "Whatisyourname?" "Whereyoufrom?" "~Watch me cut you off in the street to show you I'm a tough guy~".. I wonder if I would be enjoying my time much more if I was in Syria or Lebanon. I feel I have quite a lot in common with the Italians and I think that is from the easy going, non-too obnoxious Australian culture and from my exposure to the Lebanese side of my family. Italians and Lebanese both enjoy delicious, healthy meals high in olive oil and with big salads and there's more Christian influence. I feel I have much more in common with Italians than I do with the Americans here. I can't believe how obnoxious and oblivious to other people they can be. The other night at the Sheraton the group I was with were so loud and vocally disrespectful of so many things about Yemen and the Arab world and other people in the restaurant were offended and staring at them and the Americans did not notice. I think it's a genuine risk to my own safety when I hang out with them. During the taxi ride home from the Sheraton some of the Americans constantly demanded that the taxi driver play Nancy (an Arab singer) over and over and I could see the driver was annoyed and probably felt content in his conscience about the inflated price he was charging us.
I guess I'm just having a whinge at the moment and things will pick up again for me. I'm contemplating continuing Arabic in Egypt and living with my parents there or giving Syria a go but my savings are limited. It could be a grass is always greener thing but I've been missing the engineering work I did back at home. We got to buy, fix and play around with some pretty interesting stuff. We got to make stuff work and find out how it worked and I loved that. I miss the efficiency and high standard of work and the principle of always spending money where necessary to make things work reliablely. Much of what I deal with here is half arsed and there's a current to swim against.
I really miss my girlfriend. I left under the premise that if we were meant to work out then we'll be able to spend two lots of six months apart with a fantasic holiday in the middle. Now I'm not sure putting a strain on a relationship is a wise thing. I miss food at home, being able to buy for my cravings. And I miss my motorbike. I traded it into a bike store and they gave me $7600 after one of the Y.C.s tried to tell me they could only resell my bike for $8000. Now they have it for sale for $10,990. Obviously I feel a bit ripped off by that, even though the resale price is what I expected, but leaving the bike with a friend to sell and do the fairing repair work which was necessary would have been a big headache. Before my departure I only got one interested person in the bike and he offered to pay me more than the bike store would offer me for a trade. So I put the bike store's offer to the guy and he only offered to improve on it by $100. So I told him I'll trade it and save the headache. Then following my departure 4 interested buyers called. A similar story happened with my car - I got less than market value for it but that's the price you pay when you don't have time to wait for the best price.
Here's a picture of my bike
