Zoos and Dancing and Men in Black Suits

So yesterday, after class, about ten of us had the unique pleasure of visiting the Cairo zoo. The most accurate way to describe the city's official zoo is decrepit and mildly horrifying. All the animals looked emaciated and even the paths we were walking on looked worse than some of the back alleys we've been through, but hey, it's Egypt. We had two of the guards go with us (oh yeah, we have guards go with our group in a lot of places, either to keep us safe or just keep an eye on us for the government) and I got to subtly shake their hands and palm them their bakshish for escorting us when we got back to the hotel. Feeling like a secret agent, check.

Today, we headed back to the giant market area to see some Sufi dancing which was absolutely mesmerizing. These guys managed to spin in circles for half an hour at a time and the music was excellent. Afterwards, we picked some things up for great prices with our mumtaz-tic haggling skills and later managed to end up in the seedy underbelly of Cairo by taking a wrong turn or two before finding a cab. There were fireworks being sold everywhere.

And the interesting-ish story of the day...Caitlin and I were buying rice and pita bread and such for lunch at the Metro mart and had just gotten up to the register. We happened to be at the one with the cashier who looks like she hates everyone and we ended up getting cut in front of by a large Egyptian man in a black suit (this isn't the most unusual occurrence). As we moved to re-enter the line behind him he told us "I pay for this too" and bought our stuff for us, offered no explanation, and peaced. Did we look like poor, penniless waifs? Did he feel bad for cutting in front of us? Are we somehow that charming? The world may never know.