Arrival in Cairo...

“He who hath not seen Cairo, hath not seen the world. Her soil is gold; her Nile is a marvel; her women are like the black-eyed virgins of Paradise; her houses are palaces; and her air is soft, sweet as aloeswood, rejoicing the heart. And how can Cairo be otherwise, when she is the mother of the world”

from The Arabian Nights

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad

Made it here. What a trip! 3 countinents in 3 days. I've been in Egypt for about 5 days now. For the most part, the Egyptians are friendly and welcoming. If they are not, it is only because they don't know enough english to communicate with me.

It doesn't take long in Egypt to see the striking contrasts, the most noticable being rich/poor. But there is also old/new, clean/dirty, pious/secular, Arab/Western. All crammed together and going about our days if not oblivious to each other, at least often too busy to notice.

And that is another thing about Egypt: it is a constant frantic rush of activity. Everywhere I go people are running around in a seemingly mad dash to do something! I often feel like I have walked in just after some great event occurred and I am the ONLY one not in on it.

Everything I read about driving here was true. The is one traffic rule in Egypt--there are no rules! An Egyptian's idea of defensive driving is having a good offense. Lanes, yielding, stopping, no passing zones, safe distances--those are all things for weak driving westerners! I ride the bus to campus (about a 40 minute ride) and I just don't look out the window.

Things I have learned:

(1) How to count to 10 in Arabic

(2) How to read Arabic numberals, which surprisingly, are not like ours. 2 is a backwards 7, 4 is a backwards 3, 6 is a seven, and 5 is a zero!

(3) How to say the following in Arabic:

Road 210 - that's my street. Shera miteen ashera

Thank you - shukran

Very good - mia mia

Very little - schwya schwya (as in how much arabic I know)

And some other things. I actually got in a taxi last night, told him where I wanted to go (Road 9, shera tisa), discussed the price, said I was from America, and said thank you at my arrival, all in Arabic.

I went through Amsterdam on the way out, and I had an 8 hour layover. So I took a train from the airport to downtown and had lunch at a wonderful place in Amsterdam. It was a beautiful, sunny, 70 degF day, which was a fantastic change from the summer weather in FL and SC.

Many thanks to the very friendly Dutch citizens who were so helpful in helping me find my way,buy the train tickets, etc. One even paid the 3.50 euros for my first ticket!

Here is a picture of Amsterdam looking up the street from the central train station.

And here is a picture of people lined up to get french fries with mayo. It seemed everyone was eating these:

I arrived at the Cairo airport at 3AM Wednesday. A rep from the university was there to meet me, help me through customs and get my visa, and then put me in a car to my apartment. I have a wonderful 3 BR 2 bath apartment right next to Cairo American College (which is actually a high school here taught in english).

Here are some pictures of my apartment:

My living room:

The master bedroom:

I'm in the Maadi neighborhood of Cairo, which is full of westerners. Here are some pictures of my neighborhood.

This is the view from my balcony. The construction is the new elementary school for Cairo American College:

Another view from my balcony, looking down the street:

Are here is my apartment building from the square just down the street:

More later. I plan to go into downtown sometime this weekend and will have more interesting pictures to post. I am also waiting on a home internet connection. In the meantime, it is often frustratingly hard to get on the internet away from campus.

Glenn

August 25, 2009