  Met w/ Salma after missing appointment yesterday and her friend Norhan. They both seemed very receptive to our project, and we made plans to get together later in the week. Met with PR woman to procure pass to shoot. We had to write a letter explaining our project in order to receive approval. Turns out this woman's husband, who also studied at Harvard, is world-renown Time photographer Barry Iverson. His photos of Egypt adorn the walls of the PR womans office. Afterwards, we headed over to a cafe in Maadi to meet with two girls who are interested in our project. While there, we stumbled across a magazine called Campus that features Egyptian youth social life and writes about it in a very NY indie style. I suggest to John that we call them and see if we can interview them. Theyre cool with it and set up an appointment for 1 PM tomorrow in Heliopolis, which is like a thirty minute cab ride. The two girls meet with us and they seem really cool. Theyre not too conservative, but moderate. They talk to us at length about the social stigmas of going out in Cairo, and how going out in Sharm (touristy coastal town up north) is much more acceptable.
Came back to apartment to get ready to shoot Konga. After trying to call him several times unsuccessfully, its evident hes sold us out. With our night open, we decide to head over to Khan el Khalili, a market in Old Cairo, to shoot some photos. We take a cab over there. We get out, and John pays the cab. Now the cab driver apparently thinks John underpaid him. So in what has become typical here, we argue to the contrary. We paid him five Egyptian pounds, which less than a dollar, and he wanted ten pounds. John says no, throws down the five, and we leave. The cabbie decides to ditch his car in the middle of the road and get out to argue. Now, here we are, in the middle of an Egyptian market in a really huge argument with this cab driver.
Ive got my camera out because Ive been taking photos along the way, and my hope was to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Thats no longer an option. The fight continues, with the cab driver grabbing Johns arm, which is a huge no-no. So we go to a cop to arbitrate in the hopes that hed rule in favor of the foreigners (they usually do. ) But in this case, he agreed with the cab driver. So the situation got worse. We had a crowd of people now trying to negotiate our paying an extra two pounds.
After about another ten minutes or so, we finally gave in and paid the two pounds. By this time, we had quite a crowd of people yelling at us. Not fun. Khan el Khalili (the letter ks are silent) is a bustling part of town where one sees the old Egypt often portrayed in movies. Merchants selling all sorts of goods - alabaster bowls, silverware, shisas, musical instruments and a variety of handcrafted items form a labyrinth of stores. In some parts, the streets are so narrow that only two people can walk comfortably side by side.
There are small cafes where people sip tea and smoke shisha. The merchants cater to locals as well as to tourists, the former receiving better deals on all their products. Having John as my guide pretty much makes us more local than foreign; his negotiating skills with the merchants are incredible. They even go as far as sometimes asking him if they want to show the good products or the bad products when trying to sell me something. They totally see him as one of their own (which is really cool for getting good deals on things. ) John also knows his way around the market like the back of his hand. He navigates in and out of small alleys to find a store in particular that sells handcrafted products made from camel bone or water buffalo bones.
He knows the best places to get alabaster and other stone products. Its really incredible. I took some pictures here  when I get high speed internet again, Ill upload them. We came back home, showered (again), got dressed, and headed over to Latex to shoot. John's roommate Erin, and art history grad student at Harvard, joined us. Party at Latex was cool. The club is composed of various lounge rooms with mirrors in the background.
The mirrors have green Christmas lights hanging down in front of them, which kinda makes it look like the matrix. The show didn't start till late. One of Ammar's (from Cairo Jazz) groups that he promotes (called Sundial) opened up at midnight. They were much better than the DJ. Heineken sponsored the event, so I tasted my first Cairo brewed Heineken - much better than the stuff in the states I must say. My nose began to run - I think the pollution is finally getting to me. Kristin and her friends joined us later  around 2 am. Hung out till 3 over there  cabbed in back with Erin. John stayed out a little longer. 
