Ramadan Karim

Ramadan started today -- that's the month when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk. So Happy Ramadan everyone, or as they would say here, Ramadan Karim.

We are grateful that the hot weather seems to have finally broken this week and it is finally starting to feel like fall in Cairo, meaning we are not sweating like crazy every time we open the door to walk outside.

Ramadan in some ways is a super month, full of evening iftar dinners where local restaurants have special set dinners and everyone breaks their fast simultaneously with a glass of fresh apricot juice. The shops are filled with huge selections of dried fruits and nuts, and special "Ramadan lanterns" are for sale on all the street corners.

In the evenings, stores and cafes host free Ramadan tables where anyone can sit down and break their fast with a simple (and did I mention free) meal. I went to one of these tables a few years ago with a close friend who now lives in Canada and I remember it as a wonderful experience.

Also during Ramadan, I get a free dinner at work -- if I am working a late shift and if I put my name in earlier in the day. It is usually smething simple like kabab with rice or a macaroni-type baked casserole ordered from a local restaurant, but the atmosphere among my Egyptian colleagues is really nice at iftar time.

But Ramadan is also the month of grumpy, nicotine-deprived people. It's definitely nice that people are not smoking as much, but wow can people get grumpy from not being able to smoke, and it seems to hit really early in the day. I have to sneak my diet cokes in the office where my fasting colleagues can't see me, and it is nearly impossible to get a taxi to go home at the end of my working day because the streets are empty. After all, nobody wants to be late to break their fast.

But it is all worth it at the end of the month, because we get a big holiday weekend. We're planning to go to the beach!