people everywhere

three shooting days left (they added one) and tomorrow is a daytime one.

the two nights in a row were exhausting, but great. i really wish that yuri wasn't so frugal a director. he is so confident in his editing that he is usually satisfied with two takes, sometimes just one! but this is all new to me, and i watch the playback, and i know i can do it better. but it's ok, it's his movie! the best part about all this is that i'm finally learning a thing or two about film acting. part of me wishes we could go back and start over now, with what i've learned, but part of me just wants to get it over with and move forward with my life!

we drove into the thick of downtown again and went to... wait for it... yet another mall. (i'm not the social director!) this time a really big mall, called City Stars. and when i say big, i mean big. the atrium in the center opens up to reveal 8 stories of mall rising up, with mirrored escalators and those fancy clear elevators that you see at hotels. we ate where anybody would eat while in egypt, at a tex mex place called cantina laredo. the beef was imported from the US! we had tableside guacamole, queso, fajitas, everything. it was a cruel imitation of real tex mex, but satisfying to partake in anyway.

the traffic was insane. it's already insane in egypt but the people were out in force. at 11pm on a monday night! i think when Ramadan ends, there is a big rebound of social activity. it's an amazing thing about egypt- people, everywhere. the vans are stuffed like sardines and sometimes people are on the roof or standing on the bumper holding on for dear life. many drive with the sliding door open like it's a big window. the cars park two, three deep on the side of the street- i don't know how somebody leaves if they want to! and there's sidewalk cafes on sidewalks that are barely wide enough to walk two abreast. people are hanging out at street corners, on medians, and they even stand around in intersections! the gates to the mall were closed and there were men in suits letting people in single file as if it were a nightclub! the result was a huge throng of people crushing each other against a gate. you'd think britney spears was on the other side!

a week left before home...