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.