Spoofy Randomness

Character: Joe

  • Miss or Not, Part 2

    Miss or Not, Part 2

    Ref: Weather Underground

    And that, my friends, is a wrap on Not on a Camel! This is the last comic of the series. It’s been a good run, but my contract is up and I’m back in America now so it’s time to end it. Thank you to everyone who read my silly little comic.

    Josh gets a cameo here for the sole reason of I needed someone taller than me because of the panel design. And panel two is true in two senses: sometimes, especially with foreign languages, what is meant as a good-natured joke doesn’t always land and I was being cautious, and there was so much stuff at that school that was completely ridiculous/sometimes edging on the illegal side that it would not present well…

    I did get the worst food poisoning of the entire two years the weekend before I was due to come home, hence the lateness of this comic. Not fun when needing to pack.

    The final panel obviously does not include everyone I met, but I just didn’t have room/skill to draw everyone. I tried to stick to people who had appeared previously, but Rhonda did get to appear for the first time. She is a teacher at Schutz that I got to be good friends with and would have likely appeared in the comic had my update schedule been better this year.

    And yes, that is a picture of my visa with ‘WORK IS NOT PERMITTYED’ circled (I did not add the circling). That was a thing that caused much frustration, including (as I later discovered) some of the issues with getting into Turkey. One of the requirements for me to stay at this job was to go to the visa office every few months and lie to a government official, claiming I’m a tourist. That is an experience I will never do again and I absolutely hated it, to the point that I almost left multiple times and probably should have (note: this was not revealed to me until I was already in the country, one of many omissions I encountered). The only thing that kept me from doing so was my life outside of work; I didn’t want to jump ship without completing what I set out to do.

    That being said, overall the last two years was a very positive experience and I’m glad I did it. To my friends in Egypt, I miss you already! To everyone else, Egypt is a wonderful and safe place and I hope you get the chance to go sometime!

  • Dr Pepper

    Dr Pepper

    First of all, let me make one thing clear: if you are not Muslim, DO NOT TRY THIS JOKE.  Alcohol is harām in Muslim faith, meaning that it is forbidden to drink it.  Moustafa and Aya were also drinking Dr Pepper when they pulled this one on Alaa (and obviously the Dr Pepper was not spiked).  It resulted in much hilarity.  It also led to the discovery that Dr Pepper is available at one grocery store!  We then had a hard time convincing Moustafa that root beer doesn’t have alcohol despite having beer in its name.

    Because Egypt is approximately 90% Muslim, this also means that it is difficult–but not impossible–to find alcohol here.  Most upper-class hotels do allow foreigners to come in for a drink, and there is one chain of stores (appropriately called Drinkies) allowed to sell it, but apparently not corkscrews to open the wine, oops.  I don’t drink much so it’s not a big inconvenience, but if you’re the type to enjoy a good brew with your dinner, you’re gonna be severely limited in your restaurant choices.  But hey, drunk driving isn’t really an issue here!  You just have to watch out for all of the normal drivers…

    Lots more people showing up in the comic!  I tried to show everyone who was at Thanksgiving.  I thought I had everyone, then I realized I didn’t draw myself.  Oh well.  Oddly, I have not shown many Egyptians in the comic.  That should be changing as I make more friends and attempt to learn more Arabic.  Emphasis on ‘attempt’.

  • Mysteeerious…!

    Mysteeerious…!

    It’s kind of Halloween-themed this week!

    Shout out to Bamboo! The sweetest little Indonesian lady runs it, and they have the best spring rolls ANYWHERE. And yes, they have a little Christmas tree up. I don’t know why. Coincidentally, two more months until Christmas. Didn’t plan it that way, but cool.

    Cameos of Joe, who has helped me figure out a lot of tricks to living here, and my boab Saheed (a boab is like a doorman, but also looks after the building, runs errands, etc).

    I don’t know if not meeting your landlord/lady is normally a thing; I’ve only rented one apartment before, and the school handles most of this one, so…  I just find it a little odd.  I’m sure she is a wonderful lady and not planning on taking over Kafr Abdo…I think…

    Everyone seems to keep their shutters closed on their windows.  I mean, yeah, it blocks sunlight to reduce AC usage during the hot months, and I close mine when I’m gone and at night because I’m on the ground floor (while I’m in a good part of town, I still don’t want to invite thieves), but I love daylight and this just blows my mind.

    The water heater thing may come up in a later comic, so I’ll hold off on that story for now.  If you’re following my Twitter feed, you’ve seen a bit of it. It is now day five since I’ve had a hot shower. @#$%&. Here’s hoping there’s not a similar post next week.

    Edit: fixed speech bubble in panel 1