Today, a friend and I headed to the mall where we had lunch and caught an afternoon "cinema" at Cairo's "City Stars" Mall. City Stars is the largest mall in Cairo, spanning 7 levels high and housing over 500 stores. I was surprised to see a lot of American stores and restaurants there (i.e. Guess, Gap, Calvin Klein, Levis, Fuddruckers, Ruby Tuesday, Chilis, TGIF, Cinnabon, Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, etc.), and was amazed by its enormity. I took several pics before mall security almost confiscated my camera. Yikes! I apologized profusely and played the ignorant tourist with dramatic flair until he waved me along, deeply relieved to rid himself of the irritating Asian. LoL. But I got to keep my pics! I should've known better. I was in a local supermarket last week, and their security made me erase my pics. Sheeesssh. I was only taking pics of fresh produce.... but I guess they didn't want any leaks on how they arrange their veggies. LoL. Ahhhhh, the differences I discover daily here. Let's take my movie experience today for example: When you buy your tickets you have to pre-select your seats. Yes, you read this correctly. You have ASSIGNED seating. Nevermind if the theater is practically empty and you want to move to better seats. You must remain in the seats that you pre-selected. They show you a seating chart, and your tickets will have the seating numbers you selected. Another thing is that when you enter your theater room, you give your tickets to a cinema guide and he will escort you to your assigned seats with a flashlight. Our movie was in English and subtitled in Arabic. We saw "Valkyrie". Sigggggggh. I know. I know. I broke down. Like most of you, I banned Tom Cruise movies when he pulled a series of asinine stunts: jumping up and down on Oprah's couch 'cuz he was in love with "Joey Potter" from "Dawson's Creek" (a.k.a. Katie Holmes); and telling Matt Lauer on the "Today Show" that Brooke Shields' post-partum depression didn't exist; and lastly declaring anti-depressants were a waste based on the teachings of Scientology. [tsk-tsk, Tommy. You used to be so kewl.] Annyhoo, I caught a National Geographic Channel segment on "Valkyrie" the other night on tv, which I found very interesting; hence, spurring my desire to see Hollywood's version. Plus, I had to get my movie fix. We movie addicts can only go so long before we start going into detox. LoL. Anyways, I enjoyed the movie, although it was turned off halfway through for a 10 min. intermission (which is the norm here), and have I mentioned that none of the seats have cup holders? Regardless, it was a good outing and another lesson learned in cultural differences.
