Back too soon..

I'm back! and in case you didn't get the title, I'm back a little too soon.
To tell you the truth, I had no idea that Egypt had such beautiful places like that, not to mention the amazingly beautiful coral reefs (i couldn't get enough of those!). The only downside was the looooooong 12 hour ride back!

Other than the fact that I realized that Italians are alot more conservative than most other Europian nationalities, two things really stood out.

First, while sitting peacefully on the sand sun-bathing (or rather shade-bathing, because my skin is pretty sensitive to the sun) I noticed a group of Egyptian teens of about 17 like myself sitting a few feet away from me. Beer and cigarettes in hand(as long as you have money, being underage doesn't matter), talking trash about every woman who passes by. I know, since I'm their age and know what they think, that they're merely trying (very hard I might add) to westernize. I think that the difference between westerners and us is that the former live what the Egyptians try to imitate on a daily basis, so they know their own limits, but when we try it, we take it to a whole new level. The three Egyptian teens looked wasted at only 2 PM and were coughing like crazy after all those cigarettes (30 pounds a pack too!).
As for their stares and comments about the girls passing by, I found that to be pretty ordinary behavior - they don't need to be drunk to do that, although I would have liked them to do it with local girls instead of the fireigners; it gives them a really bad impression.

Another group of people sitting close to me, only older, was also interesting to watch. There was nothing wrong with them per say, but it was just my first time to see something of the sort. Three woman, all local, were approached by three local men, strangers, I assumed. Within 15 minutes they were getting drunk and playfully cuddling. All I could think of at the time was: "Someone's getting lucky tonight!" - which they probably did.
Of course, to each his/her own; and I'm not one to stick my nose into other people's business, but I found it appalling that people could get so close without even knowing each other at all. Or am I thinking too much?

One last thing I noticed was that I was a lot more comfortable around the foreigners. Everyone was minding thir own business and I didn't have to think twice before doing anything because of the things that people might say. The foreigners didn't seem to care about what the teenagers were doing, and simply walked by without a second thought. However, the Egyptian women seemed intent on hiding from me; looking or moving away, hiding the beers bottles, etc... which is what people around here do on a daily basis. I wonder why people can't just mind their own business? (It's pretty hard to do that when the people around you are so loud about their business, so sometimes I can't help but at least eavesdrop.)

Anyway, sorry about the long post. Hope you find it interesting...

I've never been fond of statistics, beause you an never know how accurately a given sample can represent a population. But today I was proven wrong. I didn't read about a statistic, but watched three people from a distance who represented every other person I had ever met.

Two women dressed in what could have been considered provocative clothes (tight jeans and sleeveless shirts, etc...) were walking in the street - I'd just like to add that they were basically asking for a verbal harrassing by walking in the street they had chosen. To walk in front of a coffee shop filled with unemployed, middle aged, sexually frustrated men wearing tight jeans is like signing your own deathcertificate - Anyway, the whole street began to verbally abuse them, whistle, hiss at them, all them whores, prostitutes, etc...which left them cursing at the men and then crying by the time they had passed that street. Not long after, an old woman, who seemed to have grown up during a better time, screamed at the men at the top of whatever was left of her lungs about how what they were doing was wrong and unsophisticated.

Here's my conclusion from all this. The two girls represent the inredibly naive part of society, who sould know where to be and where to avoid at all costs. The men, of course, need no further explanation. And the old woman, who despite her good intentions, couldn't just keep her nose out of other people's business.

As impossible as this may sound, if everyone just minded their own business (letting people wear whatthey want without making a huge scene, etc...) we wouldn't have all these problems. I suppose a person could express disapproval of something, as is his/her right, but not by making everyone stare at someone for it, or make a scene by shouting for the whole world to hear about it. But I also think thatthissort of behavior is second nature to most people, and it would be naive to think thatthey would be willing to do otherwise. After all, who doesn't enjoy a nice big scene.