Egyptian Efficiency

In case you were wondering, here's how you go about buying a pillow case in Egypt:

1. Walk over to your local government run general store.
2. Tell the salesman what color pillow case you want
3. Tell him that you don't want one with flowers on it, you just want a plain blue one
4. Sit tight while he writes out a full page ticket explaining that you are buying a plain, blue pillow case
5. Take the ticket over to the cashier two floors below and pay for your item with the exact change because they do not have any change in the store
6. Take your ticket to a different salesman who has put the pillow case in an over-sized bag for you.

A model of Egyptian efficiency, beautiful.