That about sums up my past week. Well, except for the lions and tigers bit. The only lions and tigers I deal with are the shows on Animal Planet that seem to be on a continuous loop, as they repeat every two hours.

But the diplomat, well, yes, I did encounter one of those. It all started one day when I was complaining about hanging yet another load of scratchy laundry out on the line. I guess Mark got tired of hearing me complain about this chore and decided it was high time for me to get a real job. So he snuck on to my computer and stole my resume and sent it to the English newspaper here. Next thing you know, they are asking me to write a few articles a month for them.

Well, my first assignment was to interview a man from the Egyptian Embassy. His official title was Second Secretary something something. So when I met him I asked, “What exactly do you do at the embassy?” He responded, “Well, I’m a diplomat there”. Ummmmm, yeah, so I was feeling really smart and cool at that point. I instantly realized that I should have worn nicer clothes and maybe done a little more research on the job of a diplomat.

But this was no time for freaking out! I carried on as if I was an expert in international politics, conducted my interview and discussed some world issues with him just for fun. Well, turns out, this week is Egyptian Cultural Week here, and he invited me to all the festivities. He also wants to meet Mark so they can play tennis together, but that will have to wait until after Ramadan–the Muslim Holy Month.

Tonight we went to the Folklore Dance Program at the National Opera and Ballet. It was really interesting and colorful. Of course, I did not take my camera, thinking that I would not be allowed to take pictures of people performing. That is usually the rule. But alas, everyone else was taking pictures, and with flash!! Oh well!

It’s hard to describe the dances to you in words, but mostly, the men leaped around the stage while the women did a belly dance kind of thing. The costumes were super colorful and beautiful. This is similar to what it looked like:

folk-dance.jpg

Our favorite part was this one guy who kept spinning in circles with this bright colored skirt on, like those parachutes you use at P.E., and he did all these tricks with it, like pull out flags and spin it over his head. It looked really amazing. And even more fascinating was the fact that after spinning in circles for 10 solid minutes, he didn’t throw up!
So that was my week, more or less. The article I wrote will be published on Friday, and I hope the diplomat likes it…As for the lions and tigers, well, those will have to wait, I’m just too tired to tame them!