sucking at pop culture.

It seems to me that it might be better to be completely cut off from the outside world--Peace Corps hut-in-Africa style--or completely immersed in it. To have limited access, as I do in Cairo, always makes you feel inadequate on the home front, but it doesn't push you hard enough to go ahead and simply embrace the popular culture around you, either.

As a result, I am left downloading sporadic Daily Show episodes (one 20 minute episode=8-9 hours to download, thanks to my tease of an internet connection), occasional podcasts, and reading NY Times movie reviews--charting out all of the films I'm missing, but will probably never get around to watching.

At the same time, I never watch Arab TV, rarely turn on Middle Eastern pop, and haven't yet put down the $4 to see an Egyptian movie in the theaters. The latter is a particular travesty--Egypt is the Hollywood of the Middle East. Like Hollywood, most of the films are formulaic or feel-good, but no matter. They're well-done and would be great Arabic practice--to say nothing of increasing my ability to relate better to my Egyptian friends. I mean, the Cairo International Film Festival is going on right now, with a bizarre smattering of foreign actresses, like Susan Sarandon and Alicia Silverstone, in attendance. But many of the films showing right now will likely be appearing as Oscar entries for foreign film.
So why am I not sitting in the audience? Or attending the Egyptian opera or watching Sufi demonstrations or even just watching heartthrobs like Amr Diab or Tamer Hosni croon to the swooning upper classes at pop concerts?

There's that word again: inadequate. Ex-pats, nearly by definition, suck at straddling two cultures. We dabble in one, we're disconnected from the other, and in the end, hope that we have somehow been transformed through it all.

But in trying to eck out a sustainable daily life here, we inevitably fall into the same trap that exists in America, too: daily life. I have to work. I have to budget. I have friends to visit and adopted "family members" to see. Sometimes we're too busy, too strapped for cash, have other responsibilities, and so we pick our battles.
But will I ever get to see Baz Luhrmann's "Australia" or Sean Penn in "Milk"? Will I become conversant in the hottest Egyptian sitcoms or see the Egyptian film "Sorry 4 the disturbance"--whose billboards have been tempting me for months?

Probably not. It may be that this year in Egypt adds up to one big black hole of pop culture. And that's alright. I'm not sure why it's suddenly irritating me today, but I think it was finding out that there's a Baz Luhrmann film lurking out there that I can't watch. I <3 Baz Luhrmann. Yup--fierce, independent woman--and completely cheesy sentimentalist, all in one. Humans are complicated creatures.

Happily, however, feelings of inadequacy and disconnect don't extend to Thanksgiving this year. Though we'll be Turkey-less, we've got the mashed potatoes and green beans and sweet potato casserole to make up for it. And with friends and our Egyptian host family scheduled to be in attendance, it will absolutely capture the spirit of the holiday and the sense of "home" that we've created here.

On the other hand--Thanksgiving does involve me venturing into the kitchen. I'm crossing my fingers, but you can probably expect to hear another post in the coming days about how all of the kitchen appliances in my apartment are conspiring against me. I still have a small scar on my hip from my last run in with the iron.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, dear readers. I'm certainly thankful for all you've been in my life.