How many camels?

Walking down the street in Egypt is a lot different from back home. First, there's all the people. Then there's the traffic that doesn't ever seem to stop, making it necessary to step in front of five lanes of speeding cars to cross the street. And sometimes there's the men, making comments when I walk by. Next to my husband.

One of my good friends has been in Cairo for almost two years now, and used to blog a lot about her culture shock, so I sort of knew what to expect. But it's still a little surprising. The first few comments/whistles/noises came from one side of me while S was walking along on the other side. I had assumed I would be fairly safe from harassment while in the company of a man and wearing a wedding ring, but apparently not. S even missed the first few times it happened (though he swears he believed me, I'm pretty sure he thought I was exaggerating). Then he started to hear it too. He even saw a guard at the Cairo museum take my ticket and watch me walk away, while S, who was clearly accompanying me, waited for him to turn back around and take his ticket.

Today made it all a bit more laughable though - walking through a market, every other vendor would yell "Lucky guy! Nice eyes! How many camels?" It became pretty clear that this is a line they break out for every couple, along with "What country? Canada? Canada Dry!" Our Cairo-based friend says they know Westerners have stereotypes so they play up to them - trading livestock for women has never been a part of Egyptian culture.

S is still on the deck to guest-blog, and promises to work on his post on Thursday. Fingers crossed.