Wednesday, July 6, 2011

You Know You've Lived Through an Egyptian Revolution When...

1. You've slept with any piece of furniture pushed up against the door and/or a can of Pyrosol next to you.

2. Baltageya (thug) horror stories begin to sound more like jokes. So a baltagi walks into a bar...

3. Your cleaning lady is ready to quit her day job since she's sure she'll be rich once Mubarak's money is distributed.

4. You're convinced those fireworks in the distance are actually gunshots...But you don't really care.

5. You own any/all of the following revolution paraphernalia: key chain, January 25 license plate bumper sticker, bracelet, hat, t-shirt, mug, Egyptian flag (special edition, of course).



6. You've prayed for things to calm down but secretly hoped it wouldn't end before you got a picture standing on/next to a tank.

7. Your seven-year-old child has a hard time naming kinds of fruits but can easily recall, in both Arabic and English, the terms for revolution, protest, thug, rifle, dagger, and tank.

8. The aforementioned seven-year-old has engaged in protests at school with his friends, chanting "El shaab yureed BREAK!"

9. The day after voting on constitutional changes, you've shunned anyone at work who didn't have a pink finger.

10. You or anyone in your family actually went to Tahrir and now truly know what it means to walk and talk like an Egyptian.

11. What pyramids? You forgot that Egypt used to be famous for anything other than protests and politics.

12. You use the revolution as an excuse for just about anything, which made sense in the first couple of weeks but is starting to wear thin six months later. I would've picked up your dry cleaning. Really, I wanted to. It's just, with the revolution and everything...you know.

13. The saying "Masr om el donya" suddenly makes sense.