It doesn't take a brain surgeon to notice that I haven't made a post to this blog since I left Egypt. One of the reasons is that I have been extremely busy doing things like, moving back to the US, getting all my crap out of storage, finding an apartment, getting a new job and all the other things required to survive. The other reason is that I have to change my mindset as to what is worthy to write about. In Egypt things were easy. Everyday there was something new happening that I was sure would entertain the casual reader. (sheep in the back of a car for example). However, now that I am back in the U.S. and living in Southern California, things just don't seem to be as important on a day to day basis.

Let's quickly compare shopping in Cairo vs. Los Angeles. In Cairo shopping was a lot of work and a lot of adventure. Everything about the trip would change each time, the price of the cab and the attitude of the driver, the traffic, the dirt, the crowds of the market, and most importantly, the character of people I would interact with. When I would return home after a shopping trip, I would be completely dirty and exhausted, but I would also have a feeling of accomplishment. Each trip had a story to tell.

Shopping in LA on the other hand is relatively uneventful. In fact, I suspect it's no different than shopping anywhere else in the U.S. (let's ignore shopping on Melrose, Rodeo or Downtown for a moment). If I need to buy something the trip entails going to my car, driving about 5 blocks to Target, going to the shelf and buying it. The people in the store don't matter, they are simply employees, indifferent to whether I spend 500 dollars or 5 cents. When I leave the store, nobody cares if I ever return and upon returning home I just feel like I wasted the last 30 minutes of my life shopping for something I probably didn't need in the first place.

So what this means for you, my faithful reader, is that these posts may no longer show you a world you may not know, but will instead remind you of the world you see everyday, perhaps even make you want to escape it for a nice exhausting trip to Cairo.

Typical LA Street