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... :)