Neither my husband and I are big shoppers, but we had heard a lot about City Stars and were interested to see it. We planned to see the Hobbit and then maybe do some shopping for new clothes. The movie theater was great! Very comfortable seats, large screens, and it even offered 3-D movies. I'm not sure 3-D was a necessary enhancement for the Hobbit, but we enjoyed it all the same. Since we hadn't yet tried it here, after the movie we had McDonalds for lunch at the food court. What can I say? McDonalds is McDonalds no matter where you go. There were a few interesting Egyptian variations to the menu, however. We could have gotten a Big Mac in either the original beef, or with chicken patties instead. Additionally, you could get a quarter pounder hamburger meal OR a kofta burger meal. Kofta is a spicy sausage-like meat usually served grilled.
The clothes shopping was a big disappointment. Although the mall advertised that they had stores like Gap and Tommy Hilfiger, the Gap store was still under construction and the Tommy Hilfiger store, although stocked with Western clothes, had such high prices we couldn't even consider buying anything. The other stores in the mall were more typical Egyptian stores: lots of galabaya shops, headscarf shops, and fancy party dress shops. On the ground floor of the mall was a grocery store, which is an intriguing addition to a shopping mall! So after a drink at Starbucks we made our way home.
I went to Khan al Khalili with three other American diplomat wives. One of the ladies wanted to find a Christmas gift for her husband at an antique store she had seen once before. The rest of us were just along for the adventure. Since the market is so old, the shops are very small and very close together. Nowadays the stores cater more to the tourist shopper rather than the Egyptians themselves, however.
One of the ladies in our group was from Kazakhstan. She was married to an American diplomat that had been posted there, but before that she spent two years learning Chinese in China. Apparently learning to bargain in the market is a skill she acquired there in addition to Mandarin. And she was truly a tenacious bargainer! We spent over half an hour waiting for her to talk down a shop keeper on the price of a leather purse. She had decided that she was only going to pay 100 LE (Egyptian pounds) for the purse, about $17. The shop keeper wanted 200 LE. Since we clearly looked like tourists he expected an easy sell. Our friend drove such a hard bargain that he shopkeeper yelled at us as we left, 'Never come back!' I found all this highly uncomfortable, but I have since discovered that she did exactly what any Egyptian would have done. I'm still not sure I will ever have the gumption to do the same!
My last shopping adventure was right here in our neighborhood of Maadi. Although Maadi is considered a high class suburb, there are parts of it that are more truly middle class. My Arabic teacher, Gigi, is from one of those areas and she kindly offered to take me to an herbal shop near her house to find something for a persistent skin rash I've had. When we arrived the shop wasn't yet open. While we were waiting Gigi showed me around and had me try some Egyptian treats. I had fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice from one shop (not as sweet as you might think) and fresh roasted Aswan peanuts (exactly the same as American peanuts as far as I could tell.) We took a tok-tok back to the herb shop. Tok-toks are an Indian import and are as dangerous as they look!
Gigi wanted to get me pumpkin seed oil (the best for rashes, as confirmed by the Koran) but the guy in the shop didn't have it. After inspecting my arms he determined that I was allergic to bananas and strawberries, neither of which I had eaten in several months. He gave me two different kinds of oil and told me to to mix them together at home before applying. As it turns out, I am allergic to one or both of the oils themselves and my rash doubled in size overnight! No one can tell me what the oils are from so Egyptian herbology is now off my list of skin remedies.
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