A couple of busy days; shopping tour and orientation days

Yesterday was an unproductive day; the kind of day you will have at the beginning of your stay in a foreign country trying to arrange things while people rarely speak English, everything is unfamiliar and, simply foreign. We went on a 4-hour bus shopping tour around Maadi. A woman native to the area pointed out the local shops that carry the best cake or the most excellent fresh fish, the bookstores where one would find literature in English, as well as the movie theater and other places we might want to find one day. The tour was nice but because of the traffic and all other distractions, I still don’t know where anything is. We then spent a very long time trying to purchase a SIM card for our cell phone, a task in which we failed miserably. One woman we asked who first assured us that she speaks English, encouraged us, after not having been able to give us any directions in English at all, to get into a taxi, and then she would tell the driver where to take us. Needless to say, we declined her offer but gave her LB 2,50 for her effort, something she seemed content about. It was a long, arduous but perhaps not futile day, since we learned that friendliness or money alone will not get us around this place; we’re going to have to learn the language.

Today was the first day of the orientation week arranged for the new faculty members and their spouses. The boys went to the university daycare center on campus, located next to the building in which our sessions were held, while we attended welcoming speeches and talks on various aspects of our presence in Cairo. We had already received most of the information in our welcoming packages or via e-mail, but the lunch was great and it was nice to meet the management and the administrators we have been in contact with in the past couple of months, as well as other members of the faculty (and their spouses). The boys were not that thrilled about the daycare, but didn't mind too much knowing it was a temporary solution. We plan on getting a part-time arrangement set up for them, that will allow me to attend classes; a lot of people have already started sending their kids to a preschool just around the corner from our house, or some others have hired a nanny, but we have not been here long enough to get all this sorted. In the meantime, the boys get to come to the university with us.

In the evening we went to the grocery store, and then walked around to find a basket shop our neighbor Eden had showed me. We didn’t find that specific shop, but we did run into an electrical shop, which was good because we needed extension cords. The man did not immediately have any simple extension cords, but told us he could make a couple – just pick your length! – which he proceeded to do in front of the boys’ astonished faces. He then produced a nightlight, something we had not been able to find anywhere, so we gave him 2 extra pounds (that he quickly hid in his pocket as not to show his boss) for his effort. People are really very, very friendly here.