Intensive studies, moderate nightlife

It is currently Sunday afternoon at about 12:30 p.m. and I just began week 3 of classes here.  Time is going by quickly.  Or is it?  This point could be argued, but I’ll save it for now.  

As far as school is concerned... I am taking classes at an intensive language institute called the Sibawayh Center.  Intensive might be an understatement.  (Might is facetious.)  I have five hours per day of one-on-one instruction Sunday thru Thursday each week.  I have two main teachers - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  My first class is from 9-11:30 in the morning with Amel (translates to “hope” in English), a 24 year old Egyptian woman whom I have come to absolutely adore.  We spend the first 30 minutes or so talking about what we did the day before, what’s going on with our family and friends, the news, books we are reading, and anything else that may be on our minds.  After class with Amel I have a break until my 3 p.m. class with Zanneb.  She is also 24 years old and was born and raised here in Egypt.  Although she is a great teacher, I believe she is in the wrong profession and should leave her current job to take up stand up comedy.  She could be the first prominent female comedian in Egypt!  I don’t even think she tries to be funny most of the time, she just is.  Bottom line, I love both of my teachers and I’m excited about getting to know them better over the next several months and gaining them as lifelong friends.  

This weekend was interesting.  Since our school week is over on Thursdays and we begin on Sundays, Thursday nights are like our Friday nights at home.  We were all happy to have reached the end of the school week and were looking forward to a relaxing night out.  We decided to go to dinner with some friends in Mohandessin, the district in Cairo that accommodates cheaper prices for “the engineers”, (the literal translation of the name) here in Egypt.  The restaurant was a quaint place located on the rooftop of a high rise overlooking the Nile River.  The view was stunning, the company exceptional, and the prices reasonable.  I had lasagna for dinner and a cafe au lait all for 38 LE, about 7 USD.  After dinner we sat at a coffee shop and visited for a few hours and then came home and called it a night... Wild huh?  Although charming, my night life here in Cairo definitely holds a stark contrast from what I am accustomed to at home.  In Texas, I spend 6 days out of the week anticipating girls night which usually consists of dinner, drinks, stories, laughing, and going out dancing, amongst other miscellaneous adventures we wind up embarking on, all of which has led to the creation of an intense sisterhood bond between a group of about 15 girls whom I cherish dearly.  The significance of this creation is not to be taken lightly as it has been the utility of my survival on many occasions.  Given that, my transition into a place where I am largely disconnected from such ties has not been an easy one.  Michelle and I have found it to be extremely uncommon for two women, or men for that matter, to have a cocktail or a glass of wine for an evening out on the weekends.  Alcohol is served in many places around the city, but consumption is looked down upon immensely as it is against Islamic doctrine.  Most people here prefer sheesha (hookah), which I personally choose to refrain from using.  Despite its’ delicious taste and smell, it is the worst kind of smoke you can inhale because it goes straight to your lungs, and unlike the majority of Cairo’s population, I enjoy breathing and would prefer to keep my lungs free from black fumes.  With that being said, most of my nightlife here results in a lot of sitting and visiting with a cup of coffee or tea.  Don’t be mistaken, I enjoy this incredibly.  The problem begins when my anxiety kicks in from too much time sitting still, followed by my thoughts wandering away from table conversations, which in turn presents an attitude of arrogance and disinterest in the group on my part, although that is not the case.  Ultimately, I succumb to explaining my somewhat aggravating tendencies to have a need to be more active in order to maintain my attention, focus, and enthusiasm.  That being said, Michelle and I have decided to go on an adventure next weekend in search of a safe, possibly westernized, getaway destination for times like these when it would just be nice to have a drink and mingle with other young adolescent students and professionals.  The anxiety can be maddening, but minor in hindsight... I digress.       

Apartment 5 and batalii Alaa

Upon our arrival here in Cairo, we stayed in a hotel for a few days until we had time to find a suitable apartment.  (I use the term suitable lightly.)  In fact, when we did finally arrive here, apartment searching was one of the last things on our minds.  We just wanted rest.  To be precise, we were actually searching for soap, hot water, and a bed.  We found that at the Marshall Royal Hotel and were completely satisfied... until the next morning.  We woke up the next day ready to conquer this objective of finding our school, meeting our pen pals from the previous six months, and locating an apartment.  We didn’t want to waste any time finding a place we could call ours and getting situated.  Our first task was to find the Sibawayh Center where we would be attending classes for the next five to six months.  We arrived there and were received with a warm welcome by Muhammed “wa-Had” (one) who is the manager of the center and responsible for conducting our orientation and helping us get set up.  He presented all the necessary info and without any further ado introduced us to the man who would be helping us find an apartment, Muhammed “ith-nain” (two).  Muhammed ith-nain was assigned to the job of showing Michelle and I around the area and taking us to look at different apartments.  Three hours later after walking all around the community, (about five feet behind Muhammed ith-nain because he walks so fast it would be a tight race between him and my mother who is the fastest walker on the planet), we returned to the center to speak with Muhammed wa-Had again.  We had looked at two apartments... Two.  Michelle and I were then supposed to make a decision.  Should we take the extra large apartment which offered a cold feel, uninviting aroma, completely furnished but probably hadn’t been cleaned in several months, and contained dis-functional appliances amongst other things - however these seemed to be the most prevalent?  Or.. we could choose the slightly smaller apartment whose only advantage over the former was its‘ balcony and the huge yellow vintage lamp in the foyer.  Oh and it also had a coat rack like the ones you see in old black and white movies - that was a plus for me.  With much disdain, we chose the first apartment.  We gave Muhammed ith-nain the verdict and he walked us back over to the mid-rise where our flat was located, and he guided us through the process of finalizing the paperwork.  This “paperwork” primarily consisted of about four people going back and forth rapidly in deep Arabic discussion while pausing sporadically to look at Michelle and I before proceeding once again with their debates.  After about thirty minutes Michelle and I signed our names at the bottom of a document printed on blue paper, less than half of which we were actually able to read.  Afterwards, we shook hands with our new landlord, ZouZou, paid our money, and received the keys.  Suddenley the crowd disappeared and Michelle and I stood in utter silence in the middle of our new home.  

We then went through about ten minutes of freaking out, however it didn’t take us long to realize we had work to do and we had better get started.  After moving all of our things here, we hurried to the store to buy cleaning supplies and disinfected the entire apartment from head to toe.  A few days later we met up with a friend of ours who lives here.  His name is Alaa, but we call him batalii (my hero).  We explained all of our struggles to him and he laughed a little and then began therapy.  He has been a huge blessing for Michelle and I.  He came into our apartment and fixed our heaters, provided us with Internet, spoke to our landlord, taught us how to use the microbuses and metro system, helped us figure out how to use our kitchen appliances, took us shopping for housewares, showed us around our part of town, and took us to eat Egyptian food.  Wow.. without him we would probably still be standing in the middle of the living room in apartment 5 on the street whose name we still can’t pronounce correctly, wondering what to do.  Now it is one week and two days later and we are finally somewhat situated thanks to him.  We took today to relax in our new comforters, drink hot tea, and just take a breather.  Now we are prepared to take on these next several months full throttle!  Or so we think... :) 

Cairo 101

My first time to visit Cairo, Egypt, and I choose to stay for 6 months and live in an apartment amongst the locals... Culture shock?  Not exactly.  I’d like to think of it as a blind date.  You never know what to expect.    

The driving is crazy, it feels like we are cheating death every time we get into a cab or try to cross the street.  And speaking of the street, people here seem to be confused on the distinction between a street where a car drives and a pedestrian walkway.  There is no such thing, it is one in the same.  Pedestrian right-of-ways do not exist here.  So good luck getting around because if you are walking, cars will not stop for you unless you just dart out in front of them and hurry up... and that is if you are lucky!  You could be driving along in a cab on the highway and look up and see people walking amongst the cars.  It’s insane.  And there is also no concept of lanes.  They sure do have them painted on the streets, but no one stays in them.  You just drive where you want.  It’s a motorized free-for-all on the pavement where people may also travel by foot.  Survival of the fittest!!  It’s Darwinism at its‘ finest!!  Earlier today we were riding along in a cab on an overcrowded highway when all of a sudden we were taken over by a swarm of motorcycles.  When I say swarm, I mean about 100 - and when I say motorcycles, I mean vespas.  Each of which was carrying 2 to 3 people.  These guys were serious.  Weaving in and out of cars that were simultaneously weaving in and out of the non-lanes.  Suddenly our cab became a speck in the middle of a stampede of raging two-wheelers.  It’s each man for himself here on the streets of Cairo.  You must fight or fail.  Cairo is definitely a different world, and it’s crazy to see it first hand.  I also have Morocco to compare it to which I thought would be pretty relatable, but it’s not at all.  Totally different.  For one, Cairo is filthy.  Mind you, only about 3 million people in this city live above the poverty line.  Most live on less than $2 a day.  So when you think about it in those terms, you can imagine the lack of cleanliness and sanitation here.  One of the apartments Michelle and I looked at was located right by a massive trash pit.  We didn’t realize it however until after viewing the decadent flat and lastly, stepping out on the balcony to see the view.  This was possibly one of the saddest things I have ever seen in my life.  Imagine an area of land about half the size of a football field completely surrounded by buildings in a major metropolitan city, but covered in garbage, sick animals, human feces, and throw up.  In two of the corners adjacent to one other, are shanties.  Yes, they are inhabited.  When I saw this I checked out for a minute, completely forgetting that the owner of the property was still talking to me.  Is someone really LIVING in there?  I ask myself.  And for a few moments I go back to the US picturing my beautiful life there where on any normal day, one of the last things on my mind is the possibility that there is someone somewhere on the other side of the planet living in such conditions.  Don’t get me wrong, I have been completely aware of such facts for a long time now.  International news doesn’t hide these and given that International Development is my field of study and desired line of work for the future, I have read and learned a lot about it over the past several years.  However, there’s just something about seeing it in real life, right before your eyes, that changes you.  It’s impossible to explain the emotions I experienced.  Walking along the streets you will also find that trash dumps are on most corners and are overflowing all around it.  I’m sure the cats appreciate it though because that is how they survive.  There is a surplus of cats roaming the streets.  Apparently they don’t belong to anyone though because most of them are sick, skinny, dirty, and sad.  Cairo is also very smelly.  And I don’t mean smelly as in it stinks (although it gets pretty rank in certain areas of town), but smelly as in pollution.  I’m talking, all of my internal organs are screaming at me with every breath I take in.  Mostly my lungs, but the others are pretty angry too.  There is a lot of smog.  It comes and goes though.  Sometimes I look out my window and it’s only halfway smoggy (whatever that means) and at other times I look out and can’t see my neighbor’s house, but I sure can reach out and touch it.

It’s hard to believe that many of the world’s majestic beauties are hidden in such a place as Cairo.  Of course there is the most well known treasures of this land - the Pyramids of Giza.  But this city is also packed with fascinations most people are completely unaware of.  I have a list going of things to seek out and discover while I am here and cannot wait to share them with you.  I will post again soon, “Insha‘ allah”!  

Welcome to Egypt, Mel!

So far, my travels have gone smoothly.  Other than being completely exhausted due to lack of sleep on the plane - I don’t know whether to blame this on the screaming baby in front of me, the anonymous farter in my vicinity, or the simple fact that my bum kept falling asleep and going numb thus creating extreme discomfort - I can’t complain about a thing.  We landed in Amsterdam safe and sound and took advantage of the 12 hour layover by doing some sight seeing.  And let me just say I have never seen so many bicycles in my entire life.  Not only is the city covered with bikes parked everywhere, most people opt for them as their primary mode of transportation.  The US really could learn a thing or two about economic efficiency, but we’ll save that topic for another day.  

By the time our flight to Cairo took off, I was so worn out I slept almost the entire four hours.  We finally landed here around 2:30 am, and couldn’t wait to get to our hotel rooms and get some rest.  After all, we had been awake for nearly two days straight at this point.  Couldn’t we just get through customs quickly, pick up our bags, find our driver, and head straight for our hotel where we were long awaiting those comfy beds?  Well, that would be nice, but it’s not the Egyptian way.  Things could never be that simple!  It didn’t take too long getting through customs and finding our bags, but once we met with our driver, the chaos began.  He met us in the airport and helped us get our luggage outside to the curb where his sidekick had the car parked.  Come to find out, the car was no longer there.  And before we knew it, there went our guy running around aimlessly through the crowd of people trying to find out what happened, leaving us three girls stranded on the curb with our luggage wondering what was going on.  About 20 minutes later we think the car has been towed but quickly find out otherwise - the other driver got his license taken away...?  We don’t ask questions.  At this point we hussle up a few cabs and get our luggage loaded and off to the hotel we go.  We finally arrived about 30 minutes later and got settled into our rooms, crashing asap without passing go and without collecting $200.  Sleep was no longer a fantasy, but a reality.  (Huge sigh of relief.)  

The next day we had to be at the learning center by noon for orientation.  We decided to wake up at 11 and that hour came much faster than we desired and needless to say, we were all suffering from severe jet lag.  However, we had things to accomplish so off we went.  The entire day was spent going here and going there trying to get our living accommodations finalized.  In Cairo, when you are looking for an apartment, there are typically two ways to go about doing so.  For one, you can walk around the city and when you see an appealing building, you may ask the doorman if there are any vacancies ready for move in, and if so may you take a look.  Or, you could opt to use a boab like we did.  A boab is a man who takes you around the area to show you different apartments (sort of like a rental agent).  When we met with the boab we were under the impression that we would be able to see several different places, but instead, we saw two.  After seeing these, Michelle and I head back to the center where Patrick and Haley were to discuss the options.  Little did we know, our boab took us to see the exact same two places Patrick and Haley saw.  After much confusion, we decide who will take which place, and begin the paperwork.  The landlord tells Michelle and I we can move in the next day, once they have a chance to clean... THANK GOODNESS.  The place was pretty dirty.  We go back to the hotel for one last night, get up early today and head towards the center with all of our luggage, ready to move in to our new digs.  We walk in and the place looks exactly the same as it did yesterday.  Michelle and I were confused.  Cleaning?  What cleaning?  Who cleaned?  Oh yeah... no one did.  Nor were they going to.  We attempted to discuss the issue with the landlord but apparently that was offensive because she thought the place was spotless.  “You want me to clean?  This flat is very clean.  You think it’s dirty?”  Those were her exact words... At this point Michelle and I knew we were going to end up cleaning it ourselves.  Long story short, we finished up the paperwork and took over the keys.  Then we just looked at each other, looked around at the apartment, then looked at each other again and asked what in the world did we just do.  So without wasting any time we set out to the market and got all the necessary supplies to come back to apartment 5 and begin a deep cleaning process from head to toe.  We scrubbed all the floors and countertops with disinfectant, through out the loose trash, took the stained floral curtains down, removed the heinous paintings from the walls that were crooked anyways, and scraped the scum from all the surfaces.  Four hours later we lost steam and decided to shower and wind down.  We got a lot done and our place looks much better than before.  Home sweet home for the next six months!!  Ha.