"Itchy" Gitchy Ya Ya Yah

Blood seems to be a theme this week. Right now though I'm talking about my own; I seem to be the sole source of sustenance for some colony of mosquitoes, or fleas or something around here. My legs are all chewed up from the knees down. And the itching!!! Oh. My. God. It's terrible. Thankfuly we have a doctor on set- Dr. Khaled got me some antihistamine cream and some claratin, but still, the itch!! Arrrgh!! I can't stop!
Let's think about something else, shall we, or I'll start considering amputating my legs...
Speaking of the focus of unwanted attention, Chris and I feel lately like we're walking in a constant spotlight. As we walk down the street, taxis are constantly stopping (in fact, impeding traffic around them) to see if we need a ride. My feelings regarding this are very much the same as those regarding telemarketers: if I need something, I'll go out and find it- don't hound me. This goes for taxis. While I appreciate the willingness to help us, go away please! See these? These are legs- they work fantastic! We enjoy walking!!! We like exploring!! We'll flag you down if we need you.
In regards to driving in Cairo, I beleive that everyone here is a stunt driver in training. It's nuts how close the cars pass to each other! Inches. And not even a graze. Sometimes there's head-on traffic facing off in a one-way street (most of the sidestreets are like that) and it's like a game of Tetris as cars pull off into a few feet of space to let the other go by, all while pedestrians thread their way through. There seems to be an unspoken understanding between drivers too. Nobody yells, or gets really upset. There's a lot of courtesy, with driver's signaling to each other with a series of flashing blinkers and 'peeps' of their horns. I'm assuming that if no one gets upset, or tries to force their right-of-way, then there's less accidents. Just a theory.