Laundry and Stopping to Smell the Palm Fronds

And another thing! We do the laundry in a little laundry room on the second floor of the main house and there is a little balcony where we hang the laundry. All my laundry-hanging friends will be glad to know that in Egypt the laundry line has no socioeconomic boundaries and that you see them at all balconies. Ours of course, is not visible from the street. It is surreal to be standing there and leaning out to hang a t-shirt and realize that a loooong palm frond needs to be pushed aside. Or, that the only evidence of the slight breeze is that the HUGE leaves of a tree (banana?) below us are doing the screw-in-the-lightbulb-princess wave (in other words they are not bobbing up and down but dancing). These leaves are 2-3 feet wide and 6,7,or8 feet tall. HUGE! I am sure they would have been the types used to fan the Pharaohs! And of course, between the heat and the flies ( not so bad at all) all that fanning is really making sense to me now! Anyway, just wanted to let you know that all parts of this experience even, especially?, the mundane are exotic and make me stop and take notice.