We're here...Initial Impression...Majestic

Majestic

Hi there-

The Simons-Rudolphs have arrived in Cairo. We have so many things to tell you about so grab a cup of coffee and read at your leisure. It is hard for me to imagine that anyone really wants to know any/all of this but I figure that I am going to write this down for the kids anyway and I might as well share my thoughts if anyone has the time or cares to read it. That said, don’t feel obligated to read it and I won’t feel obligated to keep it short. J Since so much has happened, I will break it down into segments:

Plane Ride

My last post was from Washington Dulles…basically the last moment in that trip that we didn’t all have cabin fever. Actually the travel was rather easy overall. Mom’s presents for the kids helped. Steinem didn’t meow much. The kids slept almost all of the 7 hour flight to Germany. I gave Aedan a full dose of Benadryl and practically had to force his eyes open in Cairo (more on that later). Like mother, like son, I guess. Joe tells me that Virginia was pretty bouncy and mostly flirted with the guy beside her who had the misfortune of offering her some candy from his very large bag of M&Ms. He got little rest until she fell asleep and will likely never be generous again J. Layover in Germany was quick. Despite our best efforts to make a cat pee (our version of “lead a horse to water”), Steinem had an accident and we spent most of Germany trying to clean her up as best as we could. Flight to Cairo from Germany was only 3 ½ hours. Those of you counting will note a much shorter flight than I complained about…45 min to Dulles, 7 hrs to Frankfurt, 3 ½ hrs to Cairo. Like 11 all told….Really hardly more flight time than to most parts of Europe. I was a little confused by the time change I guess but I wasn’t complaining about the shorter flight. Anyway, the flight to Cairo was fast but by then, the Benadryl had worn off me at least and I was READY to get there. Aedan woke up long enough to request a video game from the airline attendant (and they had one which was really cool!). Virginia was drowsy but it was my turn to wrestle the beast so I held her in what was an awkward position for fear of waking her. I seriously couldn’t wait to land.

Arrival in Egypt

Egyptian landscape is beautiful. I can’t believe how much it looks like it does on a globe. I mean, I don’t think the US looks much like it does on the globe but Egypt sure does. Beautiful dark blue water with few waves….then dense forests, like a wetland, then suddenly, NOTHING. Just sand. It was like another planet or something. It was so brown. About 10 minutes from landing we saw the pyramids. You know how you can build something up in you mind and be disappointed when you actually see it? Well, the pyramids are NOT like that. I seriously, no joke, cried when I first saw them. Joe too. They are completely and utterly majestic. And there are so many of them and they are all different. Virginia just gaped…then pointed out the mommy, daddy, and baby pyramids to the Egyptian guy sitting across from us. Aedan, the one of us who has studied and dreamed of nothing but pyramids since December slept. I mean, we tried everything but couldn’t rouse him. Oh well. He’ll get his fill eventually.

As we were told, we were met by a representative from Joe’s school (AUC) and shepherded through security. The Cairo airport is really noisy and pretty clean by Africa standards. Still, I didn’t want to hang out there and it seemed to take a long time. Just when I started wondering if we were supposed to flash some cash, we were led out. Apparently, someone at AUC thought that Joe was travelling alone so they only sent one car (Peugeot) and our luggage was brought in a second car. Having travelled a bit, I advised Joe to take out our more valuable things to keep with us and so Joe chose the Wii (I guess I didn’t specify monetarily valuable since our cash, my computer, and all of our passports and important files were in a different bag).

So, onto our apartment we crawled through the infamous Cairo traffic. The children were lulled to sleep by the infamous Cairo honking. I don’t really get the honking. It isn’t like Boston where honking means “up yours” and a lot of people seem to need proctologists….Instead, it seems to mean “hello”, or “I’m entering the intersection”, or “no, you go first”. It is almost friendly but not quite totally friendly all the time. We’ll have to get used to it. Someone told me that Egypt passed a law against honking but no one seems to have gotten the message. Going through Cairo was an experience for Joe who simultaneously tried not to gape at the more “developing” part of this developing country and count the 3 months salary advance that employees are given (in cash) upon arrival. I don’t know how he did it. All numbers were in Arabic with only tiny numerals on the bottom! We have been told over and over again that Egyptians are incredibly honest. Our cab driver (an AUC employee) was no exception. It was all there.

We were met in our apt by a third AUC employee who greeted us with fresh flowers and showed us around….

Our Apartment

I had heard that Egyptian style was a bit showy by US standards and this was reflected in my initial impression of the apartment. It is big. We have two full-sized couches, 1 love seat, 4 of those big squashy chairs and two coffee tables (1 marble and one wood and glass). The flooring is all in blonde hardwoods except the kitchens and bath which are in ceramic tile. Our apt is 3 bedroom, two and half bath. Initially, I was dismayed. I was told that we would likely get a 4-5 bedroom place and another several bedrooms could easily fit in our palatial living room. However, I soon found out why. We live in a desirable neighborhood. Here is the story as I understand it….AUC is moving from the “old campus” (downtown Cairo) to the “new campus” just outside Cairo. Long-time staff are moving from Zamalek to the closest neighborhood to the new campus (Rahad…not sure of spelling) to minimize the heinous commute. However, Rahad does not have good schools for kids. Maadi is the second closest neighborhood to the new campus and has the best schools. So, many more “old timers” want to move to Maadi and they get dibs. I really advocated for Maadi and I think they knew how much we wanted to live here. Technically, we live in Digla which is like the Apex to Cary if you know NC suburbs. However, I live less than a block from the line with Maadi so for all intents and purposes, we live in Maadi. Yet, I think we have to compromise on the extra bedrooms and I think this is a tradeoff we are willing to make although we are still trying to negotiate a bit.

As I said, the apartment is HUGE. Joe thinks it is about 1500 square ft. It is almost as much space as our Raleigh house. It has a lot of neat things about it too. We have a small ceramic-tiled deck off the living room area and another one off the master bedroom. All three bedrooms have HUGE armoires to store clothes, etc. We have a large kitchen with marble tops and an eat-in table. We have a dining room with famous gawdy gold light fixtures J Beds are big. I think all 3 are queen sized. Aedan and Virginia have decided to sleep in one room. Anyway, there is plenty of room for guests so get your tickets now. J We have a washing machine (no dryer) but this is great since we had been told that we would have to buy both. I did a load today to see if I can get along without a dryer. I’d love to blow the money on travel instead.

Oh and did I mention that yes, you can actually see a pyramid from our deck? I am not kidding. It isn’t a straight-on shot and you have to stand on a stool to see over a building but really and truly, you can see what I was told was the “stair-step pyramid” (formal name later) from our decks.

So, that’s our place. AUC was kind enough to stock it with “a few things for emergencies”. My cousin Lynne would note that for us, it is fully-stocked. Since we hardly eat at home, we hardly have food in the house. Anyway, it was so nice that we had eggs, bread, milk, juice, chicken, pasta, rice, etc for these first couple of days. Of course, all of the writing was in Arabic. We have figured out all but one item. It is kind of like an adventure to see who can come up with the wildest guess. In actuality, I think it is either ammonia or silver polish. I realize these things look completely different but you’d just have to see and smell it to believe J

So, after unpacking (which those of you who have ever lived with me know I had to do immediately), and a tiny bit of walking around, we fell into bed. A bit punchy and completely lost, we noticed that we live right behind an unnamed traffic circle distinguishable only by the patch of shops known as “Mohamed Said” (pronounced “Sa-EEED”). In Arabic, this means “Mohamed is good” (at least, I think this is what it means) but again, being punchy Joe and I thought it funny to look at “Mohamed said flowers” and “Mohamed said news”, “Mohamed said groceries” etc etc Thankfully for the sake of international relations, we soon fell into bed.

Day 1

Our first full day in Cairo was definitely a lifetime highlight. I woke up to 2 kids with a terrific case of cabin fever. They couldn’t run around the apartment fast enough. Joe thought we should wait for the woman who is supposed to orient us to call. We waited until early afternoon when Joe found some information that she was, in fact, on vacation until the beginning of September. The kids and I couldn’t stand it anymore and despite Joe’s objection, he called the university to see if anyone could at least tell us our address so that we could tell a cab driver where to take us home. You see, there are hardly any road signs in Cairo. Everyone operates by landmark and apartments are known by the previous occupant. I’m just not convinced that any old cab driver will know where to take us home if we wander, say, more than a block away. As luck would have it, the outgoing provost lives in our building and his wife Janine, graciously offered to come over and orient us. She spent a good bit of time with us and even walked us around showing us markets where we could expect reasonable prices, a hair cut place, and most importantly, Aedan’s school.

Aedan’s school, Cairo American College (CAC-not to be confused with Joe’s AUC) is huge and awesome. The only thing I can think to compare it to is maybe Cary Academy only huger and more awesome. It is bigger than Ravenscroft for sure. Pretty much, CAC functions as the community center of expat Cairo. They open their pool, grassy fields, workout rooms, studios, playgrounds, etc for family use when school is not in session (all the time now). I just can’t fathom how they keep their grounds so nice when it is so open. I mean, they even have filtered water for refilling your bottles at the playground. I’m totally impressed. Janine took us all over and showed Aedan the kindergarten rooms (about 5 classes per year). They had some sort of summer camp going on so we couldn’t go in but it looked nice. Apparently CAC also has its own bank and travel agency but I didn’t see those. All of this is less than a 10 minute walk from us (probably less once we actually know where we are going). Aedan and I went to the pool today. There are a lot of rules there that we didn’t have in the US so it is an adjustment. For one thing, the pool is serious-business. Not a lot of kids lollygagging the day away. Kids are lapswimming by choice. The swim team (year round-part of the school) workout for 1^st graders includes a 400M warmup…that is 16 laps! No swim floaties allowed and the “training pool” (shallow end) is 3 ½ feet -almost over Aedan’s head. Those swim lessons were a great investment for Aedan and I wish I had insisted on more now. At least he won’t drown on his first day of school but I might spy on him the second and third day….Yikes!

After swimming we went to one of the playgrounds and met some new friends. Maria, is a lawyer cum stay-at-home mom, from Lexington NC (home of great barbecue) and has two kids…one boy year older than Aedan and very into Power Rangers (Aedan in heaven) and another boy Virginia’s age. She was really nice and I think we could be great friends. When we couldn’t find a pencil to exchange telephone numbers she created a tablet from a leaf and stick. I mean, how cool is that? Talk about can-do. Having only been here a year herself, she was in the perfect position to give me the 411 on life in Cairo without too much overwhelming detail. We had a great time together and our kids really got along well. Her husband does some sort of work with refugees and they are here at least another year.

Having run the kids, we came home to make a pasta dinner (well, we thought we would have spaghetti but we misread some labels and ended up instead with something more akin to “pasta dinner”) and bed. Tomorrow I go to Road 9 with Janine. Supposedly it is where all of the shopping is done in Maadi. Of course, there are small corner stores and fruit stands on almost every block (it is like DC that way) but walking around with Janine means that she can introduce me to her people in the hole-in-the-wall places where she and I both like to shop. I am so excited. It is possible that I will find a Starbucks this week but it is unlikely that it will be convenient enough to justify my daily existence. However, change is good (and a small stash is coming in our boxes).

Enough for now. I can’t believe that anyone is still reading this.

More when we can get on internet again. For now, we have only very limited access to internet but expect to have our own line in 2 weeks or so. Will have to wait for regular postings, pictures, and vonage then.

Love to all….

-The S-Rs