So, are you back yet?

I went to a party last night. Probably not the best idea I've ever had, seeing as how a) I'm still recovering from this pesky cold, and b) parties in Cairo usually blow. True to form, it was crowded, smokey, and the music was questionable at best. One friend said it felt like a Sadie Hawkin's dance - complete with ribbons tied around the poles strategically placed around the venue (and the girl dancing up on one of them, but that's neither here nor there). At one point, the DJ played Michael Jackson's Human Nature. Where does one go after hearing that song AT A PARTY?! where other people are there? and it's not in one's bedroom?

Now, at every party I've been to since moving back to Cairo from London three years ago, I've seen the same people and had the same conversations over and over again. When I started wearing glasses the year I was away, I came back and people all of a sudden failed to recognize me. I'm telling you, it was some crazy Clark Kent activity. I'd lift my glasses up, and people would be like, "O! YOU! I DIDN'T RECOGNIZE YOU!" Really? Because it's not like I was wearing these...

For the past two years or so now, the comments are less 'o-you-look-so-different-now' and more 'so-are-you-based-here-now?' I kid you not, I was asked this no less than eight times last night. And all I could think about was, you saw me a few months ago, and I said yes. And a few months before that, my answer was also 'affirmative.' And the few months before that? You guessed it! Yes.

So, Internet, my question is: Have I really been living under a rock or is everyone an idiot? Because this brown skin isn't a result of dirt build-up. I've seen the sun.