Rome Holidazzle

Rome for Christmas!

I took off last Wednesday. After two great flights (I'm beginning to love everything about flying), I landed in Fiumincino Airport, took a train to Termini, where I waited for Lisa to pick me up. Lisa is a friend I was staying with in Rome. She's getting her master's there and will be there for another year or so. It's great to visit people who are in similar situations as yourself, although I can say her situation is a lot cleaner.

I get back to her apartment and take a nap, because, well, I take naps often. Our first night was great, we headed to Piazza Navoli for dinner (Gnocchi in Pomodoro sauce...yummmm.) The Piazza is beautiful, full of street vendors, fountains and a giant carousel in the center. I especially enjoyed the plush toy vendors which were packed so tight they looked like the window of a butcher shop:




Here are some more pictures of the Piazza and that fantastic first night:




**I would like to take this time to note that a cat just screeched so loud in my hallway that I jumped out of my seat. There it goes again.

So that night we meet some other travelers. A couple, him being from Chicago, and her from Poland. He was an oddball, and as we found out later, very annoying. She however, was a wonderful Pole (I know, a rarity) and we became fast friends:




We went to a bar with them in Campo di Fiori and I had my first good beer in many months, it was a Moretti La Rossa. I believe I didn't give this beer much credit when I was in the states. However, it has been a long time since I have tasted anything other than shitty, horribly shitty Egyptian beer:
The next day, walking on the streets near the Piazza di Espagna and I saw this sign for sushi:
Freaking out, because I was forced to give up my ever-present habit when I moved from the states, I immediately persuaded Lisa to buy some very expensive sushi. It was delicious.

The rest of my time there was basically sight seeing, sleeping and eating. Yup, you heard it here first gang, Italians make great food. They sure do. The only downside is when I accidentally ordered anchovies on my pizza. Pick all you want, that salty fish taste is not going anywhere. Disgusting. Here are some more pictures of Rome:

So, the night before Christmas Eve, we get locked out of the apartment. After much brew-ha-ha, we end up staying at Lisa's landlord's sister-in-law's house (follow me?). It was very nice of them. So, that's how I spent Christmas Eve. It wasn't too bad. We made dinner and played with the cat.

The next day (Christmas) I left for Egypt. As I left late in the day and had a few hours layover in Hungary (where I got to see some Christmas snow and I swear I caught a glimpse of Devendra Benhart), I didn't get back to my apartment until 7 am the next morning.

And now:

My list of presents (given to me) for Christmas:

1. I met the first, and I'm presuming the last, cat I have ever liked. Her name was Tara, and I'm still not sure if she liked me very much:

2. This chocolate provided by the fine people of Malev Hungarian Airlines.

3. The year-long visa given to me by my school, which allowed me to avoid the 6:00 am harassment at the Cairo Airport suffered by many of my co-travelers.

4. During the taxi ride back into Cairo, realizing I have more love for this city than previously thought and how I would miss it when I leave in June.

5. Returning to school this morning and finding out that one of my kids, Haytham, had been a pain in the ass all week because he missed me.


I hereby promise to keep up with this blog...it's a promise. I have been lazy, I admit. It's frustrating to wait 40 minutes for a picture to upload, though I could always go to a coffee shop I suppose.

If you're going to tie the knot...

....why not make it a total sausage fest?

So, last weekend (and by now this was about a month ago, sorry!) Sara and I met up with our friends Tim and Marco (real name Mohamed, but who needs another Mohamed?) and went to a wedding. From what I understand Marco knows everyone in Dar Al Ahkbar, an area close to downtown. This is the second wedding I've been to with him and if the last one was any indication, there will be many more to come.

After meeting up with Marco, his (very attractive) brother Ahmed, and (my personal favorite) Said at a coffee shop, we headed off to the wedding. We walked in to a tented area with about 300 Egyptian men. I tried to look around for any women. I did find some. Here they are:
sorry for the poor quality, I've got shaky hands.
The bride and her posse


The party was in full swing when we arrived. We took our seats, hoping not to be noticed by EVERYONE attending the party. This, however, was not possible, for two girls walking through a crowd of hundreds of men will never go unnoticed. After we were ushered to our table, we are gifted with two large baskets of fruit, endless amounts of pumpkin seeds and boatloads of beer. It was a good first impression. Then came the {{controversial substance}} ~~sorry lisa!. Lots of it. First a box of sheesha tops was placed on our table. Next a great big block of said substance came, and the party was truly underway.
The cameraman partaking

The music was amazing. Traditional Arabic music, turned up too loud and the MC was shouting names over and over and throwing money in the air. No other way to celebrate a marriage, in my opinion.


Said with the pipe Tim and um...that guy

It is difficult to explain, these Egyptian Festivities. Thankfully, Tim's job is to go to different areas around the globe and tape happenings for others to see. He has some great footage of the wedding, and other stuff around Cairo. Please visit his blog to watch the video.

you can't have your camel and eat it too

It's been a few weeks since my last blog, so I'll try to make this good.

So, Sara is on the couch surfing site which is basically a network for travelers and to stay with people all over the world for a short period of time. We will use this service much when we start traveling, I feel. So far, we've had two surfers:

Mary: we love Mary. As I write this she is picking at the birthday cake she made for Sara and I. She's a Canadian whose been traveling for a few months. She's in Egypt waiting for a new passport, and then she will be off to India for six months. She's actually a fashion designer. I happen to love all of her clothes too. Her website has some great stuff on it, you should check it out.

Mary was here for a few days a couple weekends ago, but then left for Dahab on the Sinai. She had some great things to say about it. She's back now, which is great because when she stays here she has a habit of randomly making things like apple crisp and chocolate cake. So, we basically never want her to leave.

--a digression:
Dahab sounds pretty sweet. Everyone I find interesting here loves it. It has just come to my attention that Sara's family is sending her home for Christmas. Although this is an extremely loving and kind gesture, it means I will be alone for Christmas. This bummed me out a bit until I decided that I will be going to Dahab for Christmas alone and hiking and snorkeling and the like. Now I'm quite excited. Of course, it would be better if Sara could come too, but I'm looking forward to traveling alone too.

Ok, so there was Mary and

Tommy: Tommy is from Northern Ireland. Thus, Tommy likes to drink. A lot. I know, stereotypes are harmful, but sometimes they do work out. We liked Tommy because you can sit there for hours talking to him about the politics and his childhood in N. Irealand, and his stories are never boring. I learned the origins of the Shankill Butchers. Not the most uplifting drunk talk, but interesting still. We drank with Tommy his first night in town, but sadly could not keep up the rest of the weekend. Some of you may find it odd that after one night of drinking, I can't have another drink for at least a week, mostly longer. Maybe that wouldn't be true if the beer here didn't suck.

So, last Saturday Tommy, Sara and I went to the pyramids. We only got there about a half an hour before they were going to close, so we ended up paying half price and only saw the first 3 out of nine, but the biggest and most impressive ones nonetheless. The sphinx certainly lived up to it's reputation. As did the pyramids themselves. They're pretty much what you'd expect, but they're amazing. If you can handle the camel vendors and their constant advertisement, the pyramids stand to be a truly worthwhile visit.


I'm happy to say I've finally made it to the pyramids, after only two months of living here. After the actual seeing of the pyramids, we went to eat and Tommy inadvertently ordered camel meat, and thus the title of this blog was born.

After the pyramids was pretty much school, school, exam week, stressful school, and then our birthdays!! Well, before that was halloween, which was fun. I woke up not knowing what to wear, so I picked up every article of clothing with color and put them on, then painted my face with stars and a sun and went as some kind of rainbow combustion. Only later, after I had played games and danced with ninety 7 year olds, I realized I actually looked like a 16 year old raver. All I needed was a pacifier and some ecstasy. The kids were cute, they mostly dressed up as superheros and princesses.


We celebrated our birthdays one night early, on Thursday. We had a party at our friend's Sarah and Imy's house. They all dressed up like us and we ordered pizza and got really drunk, danced to Michael Jackson and Prince, and made some new Egyptian friends. Some pictures:
top left: the Sara's and our hot boss, Mohamed.
top right: all of the fake Sara and Abby's
left: our first Egyptian cell phone!!

It was a fun night. I got pretty drunk, which I hadn't done for a while.

The next night, my actual birthday, was awesome. Nursing a hangover, we went out for lunch , lounged around for a few hours and then went to a concert. Our friend Lacey's husband, Mohamed, is part of the group called Palestinian Rappers. It was a great show. We met up with a friend, Michael, who brought along his friend who was studying at the American University of Cairo. So, I get to talking to this kid, Scott, who was actually studying abroad from Georgetown. As soon as we started talking about DC, he says "What I miss is the Brickskeller." I then replied "Uh, I worked there for a long time." We talked about DC and beer, it was a little taste of home. Both Scott and Michael are great people and I'm glad I met them. The show was really good, also, the whole crowd sang happy birthday to Sara and I.

You guys should check out the Palestinian Rappers myspace if you want to learn more about it. Most of the songs are in Arabic, but its still good stuff, I thought.


After the concert, we went to the to a diner which was much needed and then hung out at home telling really disgusting jokes, which lifted my spirits. I had finally found people with a similar sickening sense of humor as I.

So, yesterday was Sara's birthday, which we spend laying around, making chocolate on chocolate cake, making dinner and eating all of it. We really had great birthdays. I miss all of you at home though and hope next year I can celebrate with more familiar faces (with the exception of Sara).

Today, I had the strongest urge to daydream all day, so I changed my lesson plan so the kids did a half an hour of writing, giving me time to daydream. I am an awful teacher.

I leave you with some random pictures from the last few weeks:

Mohamed and friends

The Red Sea, Hurgada

the name of our school...and a shitty beer

You can also see these photos. More will be added soon, I promise!

So, Ive just finished watching an episode of Grey' s Anatomy and I'm now switching between Bull Durham and Girl With a Pearl Earring. I am just soaking in this culture. Eh...the truth is I'm sick...I've got many layers of sickness...though my liver does not hurt (thank god).


I've got a lot to write. So...here goes:

Went to the desert a few weekends ago. Its was ok, you know, kinda dry....Uh...it was fucking incredible. Driving out there, the only thing I was thinking of was of how great the stars would be. We began our tour in the black desert, which is black from volcanic ash. We first climbed a sand dune which nearly burnt the skin on my feet clear off, but I fought tooth and nail and made it to the top, whereupon it became clear to me that I needed to get in shape. The dune:
















...from the top

From the dune we went to a volcano. And we climbed it. Now, I understand in our generation there are many "adventure-types" who climb things like volcanoes every day but, I climbed a freaking volcano, and I will bask. It was amazing. Some pictures:




so, yeah, it was awesome.

We also climbed another hill. I was large, but not very distinct and thus not worthy of pictures. Not to mention the dial-up I'm using takes about 10 minutes to upload one photo. So, we'll leave those to the imagination.

After the black desert we knew we were going to the white desert. First, however, we stopped off for some lunch and a dip in a small pool in the middle of the desert. The water wreaked of sulfur but it felt so good to swim in cold water.

Ok, the white desert was about a thousand times cooler than the black. The sand just looked so, clean, I guess. And the rocks were so soft you could crumble them in your hand. In fact, I spent most of the night and morning finding rocks and destroying them slowly by hand. Some pictures:


and, the sunset...
...oh the sunset, we ran for it. Just to see it from this beautiful rock.

We camped amongst some white rocks. It was beautiful. We had an amazing barbecue dinner and I saw the stars. It was probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. Corny, I know, but beautiful.

That was pretty much our desert trip. My favorite day since I've been here.

Last weekend we went to Hurgada, on the Red Sea. We stayed on a this decadent resort and laid on the beach all day. Eating, drinking, sunbathing and sleeping (and getting sick)...my weekend. It was great. Sara and I woke up to see the sun rise on the Red Sea. Again, beautiful. Also beautiful, the 60 mosquito bites I had by the time of checkout.

The next few weeks are review week for the October exams. Very busy, but not too much brain work for me. It should be nice. We're thinking of going to Kenya for Christmas? Any ideas for our other vacations?

Talk to you guys later.

sometimes I wake up screaming

School started this week, this Sunday to be precise. It was going smoothly all week until today, Wednesday. One day before the weekend and I was exhausted. It’s so hard trying to teach a bunch of noisy, chatty 7 year olds when all you want to do is fall asleep on your desk.

My schedule is as follows:
Sara wakes me up at 6:30 each morning, to which I immediately reply “wake me up in 10 minutes.” So I’m up at 6:40 and ready to go at 7, when the van picks us up. This is when my quiet morning ride is interrupted by the previously mentioned co-workers. Although our relations have definitely improved since my last blog, it’s very hard to remain in like with them when they are coming between me and my pretend sleep on the ride to work.
At work, every morning, without fail, the other teachers instantly begin with a chorus of complaints. “I swear, I am not doing any more work until the Internet is turned on as soon as we arrive,” or “Where is the photocopy lady? How am I supposed to get my grammar sheets out to my first class if she isn’t willing to arrive here at 7:30 AM!”... Okay, enough ranting, the truth is, after the hell of the morning with the other teachers is over, they are really not that bad.
The kids (and teachers) have morning assembly outside every morning at 8. This is where they do a few “exercises” (a basic upper body half-assed stretch), then shout out the national chant and song. It is always very hot, but it doesn’t take too long. I bring my first class up to their room and begin my upward battle of teaching, which I prefer to call “finding enough crap to keep thirty brats occupied and quiet for an hour and ten minutes.” The kids aren’t really that bad. Keep in mind that I was particularly tired today and a good teacher I did not make.
One thing I do well is remembering these kid’s names, close to all 90 of them. This is a particularly difficult feat as, for instance, I have 5 Youssef’s in one class. Thankfully, many of them have distinct features, like the albino-looking one (thank God comedy still exists in Egypt). A few of my favorites:

Kareem: who is one of the smallest boys in any of my classes, with a very mousy voice and an adorable face. I call on him more than anyone, I admit, simply because I love hearing his voice.
Mohamed: You have to see this kid to know how much I love him. He never talks out of turn, he is smart without being a suck up and he is the most patient kid I’ve ever met. I love him.
Laiyla: Her eyes fold when she smiles, which is all the time. Smart kid, and so sweet.
Mahmoud: Very old for his age, has a twin sister in the class who does slightly better on paper, but I know he is the intelligent one. A real good kid.

All of the kids are smart, really. The school is very good, as the parents pay a lot of money to send them there. They surprise me every day. There are a few kids who are behind the rest of them. Thankfully, I have an assistant, so I think I’m going to begin to set aside a little in-class time for them to meet with her in a smaller setting so they can catch up and get the individual attention they need.

After school, we usually come home and take a nap. I wish I wasn’t so tired when I got home so I could go to bed early and wake up refreshed and blah blah blah…but it’s just not working out that way. When we wake up from our naps, we either go for a walk, do some work or watch several t.v. programs to which we have become addicted. These include and are limited to (as there are all of 6 English-speaking channels): the Biggest Loser, Wings, and Seinfeld. If you think its lame to like the Biggest Loser, I ask you to watch one episode and not to cry at the “dramatic transformations” taking place each time. It’s our favorite show.

I promise you all that we will actually do something exciting this weekend and you will have pictures. I am just too tired to do anything real during the week. I better get used to this job soon or I won’t have much energy for anything shortly. Well, I will write again soon and I hope everyone is well. Please write back if you feel so inclined. I love getting emails from you all.

abigailbullen@gmail.com

sarahendo@gmail.com

can't seem to get along

Haven’t written in a while. I know this. I’ve started work, but not teaching, that comes on Sunday. I’ve spent this entire week planning my whole year out, doing lesson plans for the next two weeks and making decorations for my classroom. Some days have been nice, full of busy work that made them go by fast. Other days have been slow, dragged on by my insecurities about teaching and cramming all of the material into a semester. But it is the end of the planning week and I feel confident that I will be able to get through to June alive, even if I have to bullshit a few days.

But, my god, being in a room with 7 girls from god-knows-where all day really takes its toll. A rift seems to have been created between Sara and I and the rest of the girls. There are a few we do not care for, for many reasons (one very small one being an extremely annoying Wisconsin accent), and we’re not too good at hiding our feelings. Recently I’ve attempted some damage control but I’m just not sure how well its working. The good news is that, starting Sunday, we will no longer have to spend all day with them, only a measly 2 hours a day on our breaks.

Ramadan starts today. There are a lot less people on the streets and during the day things are much quieter. However, everyone is ridiculously nice. It’s much like Christmas in America, where everyone feels a certain goodwill and the spiritual penalty for any malicious action seems to be three-fold. It’s really nice. What’s nicer is that during Ramadan, we get out of school an hour and a half earlier than usual. A couple of our fellow teachers are attempting to fast. Sara and I have opted not to, respectfully ;). Fortunately, the kids I will be teaching are too young to fast (they start at around 8) so I won’t have to put up with hungry, frustrated children all day long.

We haven’t done much outside of class. We figure to save money and our sanity, we will fit in all of our exploring on the weekends. This means no eating out, going into Cairo downtown, or anywhere that would require a taxi. This does not include the occasional sheesha bar. There is a very nice one right down our street we have been to a couple times. The décor and feel of the place is great, but all of the waitstaff stares at us the whole time. This is especially odd because we are never the only Americans in there, the place is full of them. I guess people stare here, it’s what they do. The advice we have gotten is to ignore it and we will eventually be ignored as well.

A few days ago we wanted to go grocery shopping, so we didn’t have to eat out all the time and go broke by October. After walking in every direction for about an hour and a half, we found a sufficient market, oh, about 5 minutes from us. What’s funny about food and money here is that it can be really cheap, but certain things are surprisingly (relatively) expensive. For instance, a box of Honey Nut Cheerios can cost as much as a dinner and desert at a nice restaurant. The Arabic brands are pretty cheap, however. The only thing we decided we needed regardless of price was Jif peanut butter. Delicious.

Well, today was the last day of work for this week, so I will have more things to report on Saturday night. We are going to go into Cairo, see the pyramids, maybe visit Islamic Cairo and explore the downtown nightlife. The bars may not be as packed as usual as many people do not drink during Ramadan. I have to wake up at 6:00 on Sunday for school, so I don’t want to be too exhausted. I miss everyone and please write me back if you feel so inclined.

Talk to you later,

Abby (and Sara)

I give you necklace for 200% discount!

I should have some pictures up today as I took a few when we went to Hussein, a part of Cairo with the bazaar and the cafes.

Today we woke up and went into Cairo with the rest of the teachers to have lunch. The other teachers are interesting (for the most part). There’s one girl from Scotland and one from New Zealand, but the rest are American. A couple have been either in Alexandria or Cairo for some time. One girl, Lacy, has a Palestinian husband who came out with us and was very nice, he helped us get around and didn’t seem to mind all the annoying questions we asked (how do you say “excuse me”?). I like a few of them, others…eh, we’ll see.

So after lunch we went out tooling around Cairo for a while and we all wanted to go to a sheesha place, so Mohammad (the Palestinian husband) took us to Hussein, the big café/shop area of Cairo. We sat at the Fishaway, which is the oldest café in Cairo. It’s open all day everyday and it’s pretty famous because it hasn’t closed in something like a couple hundred years, not even for an hour.

We smoked sheesha for a few hours there. So long, in fact, that it was too late for us to go see the pyramids, as we had planned. Oh well, there will be plenty of time for us to catch all the sights while we’re here. The Fishaway was really great. It’s basically an alley outside where people sit and smoke hookah while vendors come by and try to sell you useless crap for way too much. (no, I do not need a turquoise necklace, I believe you’re looking for 1991).

After, we walked the streets and perused the collection of cheap jewelry, pyramid statues, stuffed camels, brightly colored fabrics, slipper-looking sandals (which I kind of liked) and hookah’s (don’t worry Emily, I didn’t forget you). Along the way, I think Sara and I received a total of 5 marriage proposals and many random compliments, the best probably being “beautiful breasts” aimed at Sara (they’re real, and they’re fantastic).

It’s hard for me to get around because I really don’t remember much Arabic, but I just keep telling myself that that will change in time and to be patient. The other girls seem either clueless or sloppy with the language too, so I am not alone.

The taxi on the way home took us to Ma’adi by way of the Nile, which was beautiful. Our driver was really funny and didn’t try to cheat us just because we’re foreign. He also had to put up with my poor Arabic as I told him we lived on street “Two hundred thirteen and three” instead of “two hundred thirty three.” We eventually made it home then went out for dinner.

I have my first day of work tomorrow, where I will get my books and lessons. I am teaching primary 2, basically second graders. We teach one book a semester and I am pretty excited to see what books I get to teach. Sara is teaching The Jungle Book and King Solomon’s Mines for Primary 6. I will have a lot more with which to fill up my free time. This is good as the floor puzzle is getting pretty annoying because most of the pieces are broken and we’re pretty sure some of them have been lost.

I’ll talk to you all soon and I will hopefully have some interesting things to say about work.

number two

So, third day here and I'm getting along pretty well. My days still mainly consist of sleep, but we have ventured out a few times to check things out.

So, if you look at a map of our area, Ma’adi, we live on the southeast corner, and if we took a long walk west, we would eventually hit the Nile. The river is the western border of the town. I thought that was pretty cool. We haven’t been out there yet, but plan to soon and will have many pictures.

Our neighborhood is a little shabby, a lot of loose trash, but if you take the street right next to ours and go a little north, the roads become clean and you see a lot more green. There are so many plant and flower shops around, and some of them are quite beautiful. We found a small coffee shop/bakery right by our building that has wifi, as we do not have it in our apartment.

Everywhere here delivers apparently. You can get a pair of shoes delivered to your house from the store if you want. Its weird, but will probably come in handy. We met another teacher today who spent the last few months in Alexandria and she said she would take us up there and show us around. It’s only about a 2 and ½ hour train from Cairo to Alexandria, and about an hour less to the Red Sea, which we will be visiting soon. The train costs about $8. Things are pretty cheap here, as earlier today we had a lunch for 4 people for 86 LE (about $14). But, you know, its all relative to wages and such.

I am going to be teaching second graders, which makes me happy. I’ve already met my supervisor and she is great. I get my material tomorrow and the kids come back next Sunday.

I guess all of the teachers have expressed interest in learning Arabic. So what I think we are going to do is split off into two groups. The people who have never studied Egyptian Arabic before will take proper classes and for the people who have, like me, I believe we all want to start some sort of group for Egyptians who wish to learn English and English-speakers who want to learn Arabic. I think that will be the best way for me to learn, I don’t think a classroom setting will do me much good at this point when I’m right in Cairo.

Ramadan begins, I believe, next Thursday, and the Muslims here fast from Sunrise (around 4am) until sundown (about 6:30 pm). They can’t even drink water but they break the fast every night with a huge feast to which everyone is invited. I’m really looking forward to going to a few of these, they sound really fun…a lot of celebrating, dancing and music.

Sorry for the general lack of pictures, I could take pictures of my neighborhood, but they would all look pretty much the same and aren’t very exciting. We all want to go into Cairo this weekend and do some tourist-y stuff, i.e. pyramids, sphinx, etc. So you can bet I will be taking many many pictures. I miss you all and I hope you are doing well.

Talk to you all soon.

airplanes and stray cats

…my first blog. Not sure how this will go as I don’t necessarily have a talent for writing. That said, I would like to apologize to anyone bored while reading this… just stop reading dummy!

So, I left for Cairo yesterday (the 4th) at 4:30 and arrived today at 2:00 Cairo time. I know I told most of you that I would write you on my layover in Frankfurt, but a few things impeded my doing so:
a. The search for an outlet in the airport in which to plug my computer proved futile. I had but a few precious moments left as I had used up all it’s “juice” watching episodes of Roseanne and the Office on the trip.
b. Having gotten no sleep on the flight, and although it was technically 11:00 pm for me…the clock said 5:00 am and it affected my brain, I pulled up a few chairs and laid facing the window so I could see the German sunrise. The German sunrise is much like its American counterpart, though a little more yellow and with a more steadfast hatred of the Jews. (I kid, I kid, it hates Slavs too).

So, Having survived an incredibly irate and miserable German Airport hostess (is hostess the right term? Im using it anyway), I boarded my second plane. I attempted to sleep but could not shake the feeling that someone was going to ask something of me, and kept startling awake.

Ok, enough of the boring flight…I got through customs, immigrations, and got my visa no problem. A young teacher, Mohammed met me and he took me to the duty free shop where I bought some alcohol (woohoo) that is to last me my entire stay. The driver took me home, Mohammed took a separate car, so I decided to see what I could remember of my Arabic lessons as the driver spoke no English. Turns out I don’t remember much. I asked his name, said I spoke little Arabic and remarked on the weather. So there, I know how to make small talk, very small.

To everyone who has driven in the States recently and a driver cut you off and you yelled or honked at them…you have no idea what aggressive driving is. Holy crap…there are about a thousand cars on the road (peppered with the occasional donkey cart) and I think I figured out their mentality. Im pretty sure they feel that if you go fast enough and force your way through traffic, people just have to slow down and let you in. Its not courteous, its this crazy common knowledge that is not built on defensive driving, as I had been told to adhere to, but aggressive. The speedometers go up to 220 and Im pretty sure that if my driver, Ahmed, had some open rode, he would get close to that limit.

As this is my first day here and I spend most of the late afternoon sleeping, Sara and I (who are living together, thank god) ventured out only at night to find some food. At first all we could find were shoe and jewelry stores. Adding to our impatience caused by hunger was this annoying jeep with two Egyptian guys following us down every street until I just said in Arabic “No”…and they went away. As irritating it was to be followed, I though it was pretty interesting that all I had to say was no and they were no longer a problem. Finally, we found an Italian place to eat. I was disappointed that it wasn’t Egyptian food, but we were really hungry and the food was decent, although a little awkward because we were the only ones in there and got a lot of attention from the two waiters who served us. There are stray cats everywhere here...just like rats in dc or ny. at first i was relieved that there are no rats, but now im beginning to fear that I will become deathly afraid of cats.

We are now drinking some duty-free gin as I write this and Sara works on solving the rubix cube with the formula I just taught her (thanks em). I haven’t taken many pictures yet, but there are a few of our apartment. More will follow. We go to work tomorrow at 10 unless I’m too tired which may be the case. Either way, I will check in when there are interesting things to report.

Talk to you all soon.