Our first two days in Cairo

This morning was the first morning in I-can’t-even-remember-how-long that I woke up by myself – no alarm, no kids; nothing woke me up but my own self – and I felt well rested and great. This day, our third day in Cairo, we hung out, had showers, a big breakfast and then a fresh salad for lunch (the vegetables here are amazing!), hung out with our downstairs neighbors (they have a boy William's age), went clothes shopping, ordered dinner and went for a walk in the evening to a market and a toy store. It was a relaxing day, well needed considering how busy the past few weeks have been, and how busy the upcoming week will be. Today was quite the contrast to yesterday, our second day in Cairo, on which we:

*took a taxi to the university campus and registered our residency. It was only our second time in a vehicle on a road in Cairo, but to my own amazement I had already accepted that neither seat belts, nor traffic rules when driving – not even red lights or stop signs - are acknowledged;

*walked, after our visit to the university campus, one block through streets full of vendors, business men, rushing women and children, shoe polishers, antique shops, fast food restaurants, coffee shops crowded with shisha smoking men in ankle-long shirts, airline offices, cars, taxis, bicycles and a lot of other things I was too overwhelmed to even notice. Clasping our children’s hands, Courtney & I, though fearfully, quite got the hang of walking through Cairo traffic;

*visited the Egyptian museum and saw, among other things, thousands of tourists from all over the world, 11 mummies and Tutankhamun’s death mask. “I have never seen anything like this before!” August exclaimed in that excited high pitch voice that signifies his extreme appreciation for something;

*survived another taxi ride back to Maadi and learned the Arabic numerals by studying licence plates;

*bought a washer. I paid LB 2400 in cash (LB 100 = $ 17,60), and got LB 360 back: “discount only for you madam” – I think I had been expected to bargain, but in assuming the price tag actually contained the price, I failed to grasp the opportunity, so he did it himself;

*had some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever experienced. They brought us the starters one by one, and then the three main courses together: spicy sweet and sour cabbage, spring rolls, fried wontons, sweet and sour chicken, lemon chicken and spicy kun pao chicken with steamed rice, lemon juice for the boys and 2 large bottles of water.

*decided that walking around in 40 degrees Celsius heat was something one gets used to. At least this is what Courtney thinks. I’m not so sure yet;

*rearranged our apartment to make it look more like our home and less like a hotel. I can’t wait for our stuff to arrive. According to the shipping company it should be here next week, but according to our neighbors it could take a month. We are hoping this only applies to things shipped from the United States, but then again, our things were shipped from Belgium…;

*went grocery shopping at the store one block away and had the store deliver our stuff (for free) to our house 15 minutes after we got home. This is simply amazing;

*tried some of the cool fruits and other odd foods we had purchased. I was never a mango person, but now I've found a new passion: sun ripe mangoes - they're simply delicious;

*listened to Muslim prayers being broadcast through speakers on a minaret outside our balcony. We explained to the boys that this is how people in this country speak to God; the almighty they believe bring all the good to the world, and August said that he too believes in God;

*had an Egyptian beer our neighbor got for us by calling an alcoholic beverages 24-hour free delivery service. Today we got the number; and finally

*went to bed and read about the history of Egypt until I fell asleep.

Hence the kids slept in this morning, and I got to wake up by myself. Yesterday was busy and fun, today slow and nice. We are having a good time.