Begrudgingly rolled out of bed today and got ready. Got to the bus and was the last one on… good thing I didn’t hit snooze this morning.
Went over some riot related articles in media. It’s crazy some of the stuff people riot over (like soccer games). Afterwards, we had writing where we again focused on the definite construction. However, we did also talk about the indefinite as well.
During our 15 minute break Max and I ran over to the food court and grabbed some food. I also stopped by the student union booth and picked up tickets for this Fridays Edward Maya concert. We made it back to class just in time and did an exercise where we wrote the definition of a word in Arabic and had the rest of the class guess what it is.
Another short break later and we were in our conversation class. Today we were retelling stories about a restaurant we ate at this past week. I told about the pizza place, and my teacher has requested I go get directions so she can go there… hahaha.
Anyways after class I took the bus home and started to do homework in preparation for the next day. I had a rather small workload, which seems to be the theme of this week. It’s really nice to not have as much busy work so we can focus on our vocab.
I got a call from Max at around seven inviting me to a poker night they were hosting at their apartment in Zamalek. Since I had already finished my homework I decided to head over to Zamalek and partake.
My cab driver over was one of the coolest I had ever had. He seemed really lost at first, but instead took me on a super secret back way that avoided all the crazy Zamalek traffic… it also turns out he spoke fluent English and is a Professor at Cairo University. Apparently, he picked up the taxi job just to have a larger income. Had some really interesting conversation on politics and trade.
Got to Metro towers and climbed the 16 flights of stairs (the elevator is broken) to Max’s apartment. There were ten people playing poker and the original buy in was 50 pounds. I ended up buying in three times. The first two I got knocked out on what I considered good hands (Ace Queen suited and an Ace King off suit) then again I am no pro. However, on the third buy in I played a bit more conservatively and waited for a good opportunity to pounce. That opportunity came in the form of pocket kings… I ended up taking a rather large pot. After this I was able to bet on the original ante more often thus allowing me to see the flop and decide whether to stay of fold.
I used my superior chip count to lean on people and eventually cleaned out most of the table. By the end of the night I had more than made up what I had early lost, in fact I ended up chip leader and one of three who made a profit on the night.
Afterwards I took a cab back with one of the guys from the game. Patrick lived in Tahriir which was on the way back. After dropping him off the taxi driver started to ask me questions about how much I was going to pay him… I immediately knew this was going to be bad. I told him I intended to pay him 10. This is 3 more than I would typically pay for a ride from Zamalek to my apartment.
He immediately started to throw a fit and insist that a ride from Zamalek to Tahriir was typically ten and to Garden city is an extra five. I just laughed and told him ten or he could drop me off and I’d walk the rest of the way. He immediately stopped complaining and drove… I hate when people try to take advantage of me because I’m a foreigner.
Got back to my place and paid ten to the very unhappy cab driver. Went up to my apartment and made a quick call to Sara before going to bed.
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