quickly 1

i have so munch to blog about and several drafts running, but i have to post this before i forget. last night, i accompanied TheJay and TheRachel to the train station. they booked an overnight sleeper car on the giza-luxor-aswan train. they are going to spend all of today in luxor, and then take the return trip back, arriving early tomorrow morning. after consulting our lonely planet egypt guide, and talking with TheDriver, i found out that they have to pick up the train at the "giza" station on the green line. i live in maadi on the red line, so we hopped a train at out local stop, took it to the first transfer point near tahir square called "mohotit sadat" (sadat station), where we got on the green train to giza station. the ride was easy enough, taking about 45 minutes and only costing $0.18/person. at the giza station, we were lucky enough to find a guy who pointed us to the train station which, strangely enough, runs under the metro at this junction. i left TheJay and TheRachel at the top of the stairs that head down to the station. there, a security guard blocked the way with a park bench and only allowed people down with tickets. i bid them farewell and a good time, then went back into the station to make the roundtrip back to my apartment.

something you need to know about the cairo metro is that there are 1-2 "female only" cars. the common concensus is that they are the first 1 or 2 cars, but from what i've seen they are usually the two middle cars, one with a red sticker on the outside, and the one behind it with a green sticker. from what i read, one car is ALWAYS "female only", and one car is "female only" except at rush-hour. it was rush-hour-ish when i jumped on the green-stickered train. there were 2-3 guys on the train and maybe 30 ladies. i sat down and started reading, while one of the ladies sat down next to me. as we started toward our next stop, several of the ladies started getting a bit loud, raising their voices and spewing something in arabic at the male egyptians on the train. at the next stop, ALL of the egyptian men left that car and got into the neighboring car. i was a bit befuddled, but continued reading my book. then the girl next to me spoke up...

nice egyptian lady: where are you from?
ME: ana amreekee (i'm american)
NEL: oh, you know arabic?
ME: shwiya (a little).
NEL: so, you heard the argument? did you understand what it was about?
ME: no
NEL: this is a ladies' car. men aren't supposed to ride it.
ME: oh, i'm very sorry, i thought at rush hour the green car changed to co-ed, i know about the red car. i'll change cars at the next stop.
NEL: no, that's OK. you are a foreigner and don't know any better. just remember next time.
ME: thanks, and again, i'm very sorry.

i then buried my nose in my book afraid to look up and make eye contact with any of the women in the car for fear of offending them or something. i looked up once to count how many stations i had until my transfer, then counted the stops and bailed at the right station. while i was not making eye contact, i was able to hear whispers and giggling from the ladies who were getting on at subsequent stops. i'm a tard.

so that's me, international cultural offender guy. fun, fun.