Mixed Marriages

Marriage is hard.. or so I hear. It is the attempted union of families, paradigms, lives, people, hearts, pasts, and so much more. This seams an impossible feat to pull off...
Failure is guaranted when you add to this equation the element of different cultures and different religions.... or that is how it seems it should be.
I cannot really see any mixed marriages that work. I only see people suffering from the pressures thrown on them by the differences. I only see people struggling so hard to try to meet in the middle. I only see people questioning whether love is in fact all it takes.
One of the few lasting mixed marriages I knew of is coming to an end. It is coming to a bitter end full of resentment and hatred stemming from the bottling up of emotions for years. Negative emotions felt because of how different the people were. Now it is a broken family full of confusion, pain, and hatred.
I have little hope for myself because being a product of a mixed marriage means that any marriage I attempt will in fact be a mixed marriage.
I have lived a unique life... and I think that I will never find someone who is similiar to myself. I do not think that I am willing to fight the fight required to make any marriage work.
I do not see it as being worth it anymore.
I only see the confusion and the pain....

An Egyptian shortcut...

Yesterday as I was leaving work I got a traffic report from a friend's driver. He said the road was hideous and that it took him an hour and a half to get to the school...
He said that the side going back was much worse!
So, we all decide to take a different route home. We called it a shortcut!
This "shortcut" was 30 km out of our way!
Sadly, this really was a shortcut and we got home faster than we normally do....

Only in Egypt does driving 30 km out of your way still define a shortcut!

Typically Egypt..

Yes, it is normal to see 2 pharohs on the back of a pickup!!!

:o)

This is another reason why I love driving in this country!

Traffic Deux...

Yesterday I make my daily drive from Heliopolis to Zamalek.
I have my ipod playing. I am singing along at the top of my lungs.
I am happy.
I am enjoying driving....

I drive up the on ramp to the 6th of October bridge... and I am blinded by the sea of red lights.
It felt like all 80 million Egyptians were on the bridge at the same moment...
The cars were not moving...

I curse.. I curse again at the top of my lungs....

And then I do what any Egyptian would do....

I reverse down the on ramp of the bridge. I back up all the way down the ramp and back onto Salah Salem Street.

I am in shock that I did that.

I am proud that I did that....

Today, I consider myself a true Egyptian driver!!!