What the hell is wrong with Britney Spears?
September 20, 2004
I'm a bundle of nerves lately. Izz like I'm hopped up on caffeine in the worst way. It's really not doing much for me. I spent much of Thursday night crying, and most of Saturday vomiting. All is not great in newgyptian land. But enough about that. Let's not talk about feelings. Let's talk about what I did today.
This morning I went to the Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in the Giza area of Cairo. My Aunt does some work with the Ministry of Culture, and she's helped set up these English courses for museum curators which are held in a lecture hall just outside of the museum proper. I got to check out the small, but not modest museum before attending the English lesson.
So, apparently Mahmoud Khalil Bey (old title of respect) was quite the art collector. He married a lovely French girl after finishing law school at the Sorbonne, and gallivanted around the world collecting all manner of art while the Egyptian peasant majority was still somewhere between serfdom and revolution. But, he managed to gather a pretty interesting collection. I saw a couple of Gaugins, Pisarros, some Delacroix (ooo�I love Delacroix. There's something naughty about his work). There was some Rodin bronze casts (woot), and like one Van Gogh that got it's own room and everything, except that it wasn't his best work. And it was in a horrible, horrible frame. Anyway, this is actually a decent site for the museum and shows a lot of the works there. I saw some things I hadn't seen before ever. Artists that I'm going to have to look into. There was also a lot, I mean TONS of Chinese art work�you know, those huggable dragon statues, some nice pottery pieces, stuff like that. (Jing, you may jump in and give a lesson anytime�)
It was a nice way to spend part of my morning before having to rush into work (got the late shift today, which was fine). My aunt was also proudly showing me off to her co-workers introducing me *cringe* as the American niece. Somehow this is a point of pride for everyone in my extended family except for me. Anyway, so my aunt had led me to believe that the class I was going to be attending was basically going to be teaching museum curators and tour guides how to maximize their English skills in explaining various works of art. I had (wrongly) assumed that most of these people knew English fairly well. Well, it turns out that I had to sit through a two-hour English lesson. I mean, these people were even using the same text books I used in the classes I was teaching a couple months ago at the American University. It wasn't a complete bust. Today's lesson was on how to describe emotions you might go through in visiting a different country, and there were some interesting conversations going on there. Not surprisingly, a lot of these artsy folks wanted to/had already visited Italy and France. Interestingly enough, all the people who said they would like to visit America said that they were most looking forward to going to Disney World. Most of these people are over the age of 40, but they really want to go to Disney World. Many people snickered when someone suggested going to see museums in America. Only one woman said she would like to go to America "for freedom."
All this talk led to an interesting discussion about whether or not these people were happy in Egypt. Many of the men said or suggested they were not, while a few women were very adamant about never wanting to leave Egypt. The instructor wanted to know why the men so wanted to leave Egypt, and they generally told her it's because they're not able to live within the system. They said that as museum curators elsewhere they'd be all set, but in Egypt they got little or no respect. Which is understandable. Egyptian art appreciation is not exactly on the rise. But the whole discussion boiled down to the men saying that they felt they were victims of an inefficient system, and the women, especially the ones who said they would never leave Egypt, saying that it's very hard to live in the system but you just have to work hard and be patient and what you want will come your way.
Interesting. I can't really think on it much more than that right now.
So that was my morning. The rest of the day just dragged on. And now I'm listening to the CD I made for my bro as part of his going to college gift. One of my favorite Blind Melon songs is currently on the play list. It seems oddly fitting today:
I don�t feel the suns comin� out today/ It's staying in, it�s gonna find another way./ As I sit here in this misery, I don�t/ Think I�ll ever see the sun from here./ And oh as I fade away,/ They�ll all look at me and say, and they�ll say,/ Hey look at him! I�ll never live that way./ But that�s okay/ They�re just afraid to change./ When you feel your life ain�t worth living/ You�ve got to stand up and/ Take a look around you then a look way up to the sky./ And when your deepest thoughts are broken,/ Keep on dreaming boy, cause when you stop dreamin� it�s time to die./ And as we all play parts of tomorrow/ Some ways will work and other ways we�ll play./ But I know we all can�t stay here forever,/ So I want to write my words on the face of today / And then they�ll paint it/ And oh as I fade away,/ They�ll all look at me and they�ll say,/ Hey look at him and where he is these days./ When life is hard, you have to change.