Carcinogens, Cappucino, Cat Calls, and Kid Parties

I suddenly have tons of blog material so I hope it's not too long or boring.

The air in Cairo has been deeeeeeeesguuuuuuuusting the past few days. You walk out of your apartment and you can see the air. Clouds of dust and pollution just hang there. You feel the slight strain when you breath it in. Good Lord, I cannot wait to get out of the city and breath properly again for a few days.

I almost never find Egyptian men attractive. It's like they wear the big, Sesame Street style letter X over their clothes. There are many factors the go into this lack of interest on my part, which I won't even start on. But why is it that I only seem to run into one I find attractive when I am more than slightly looking like a bum and have just taken a sloppy sip from my take-away cappucino, leaving milk froth on the side of my mouth and cheek which I desparately try to wipe off while juggling the drink and my discman. Why, why, why?

This next bit relates more than a little to why I have some prejudice against Egyptian men. Last night I was walking home from a friends house and, regretably, I did not have my discman to block out the harrassment I would inevitably face. So a random guy calls me a slut repeatedly and then calls out "please, please" when I keep walking, as if him calling me a slut would make me want to stop and chat with him. I came home and vented to Sara about the incident, who immediately made me feel better by sharing this story with me. A friend of ours was out walking somewhere (I don't know where and it doesn't really matter). This guy walked up along side her and started quietly saying "sex, sex, sex" to her. She turned to the guy and boldly demanded, "In the name of Jesus I bind up the spirit of lust in you and I command it to leave." The guy turned and ran away. I howled with laughter for ten minutes. One of these days I will do that.

The last two weekends I have been invited to birthday parties. But not just any birthday parties. . . my students' birthday parties. It did occur to me that it may be slightly odd for a kid to invite their teacher to a party. I certainly never invited any of mine when I was a kid. But there are only 5 kids in my class. We seem to have a bit of the feeling of family sometimes more than of a teacher/student relationship. So I was honored that I was invited to these parties and had a wonderful time just relaxing with the kids instead of constantly have to get them to work and learn. After the second of the two parties I walked home with two of the girls and their dad so that I wouldn't have to cross the scary bridge by myself after dark. So we are walking and the dad turns and asks me why I keep getting invited to all these kid parties. "Well," I respond," I guess because I am their teacher."
"And it doesn't feel like work to you."
"No."
"It's like hanging out with your friends." (As if to ask don't you have friends your own age?)
"Yeah, and it's a good excuse to eat cake and watch Disney movies."

I do actually have friends my own age. . . but do I seem really weird going to a seven-year-old's birthday party? Do parent's think I am just a sad individual who can't form friendships with adults? Oh, well. What do ya do?