Land of the Pharaohs, here we come!: We made it!

View of the sunset and moon
from airplane window.

So much has happened in such a small amount of time. It's hard to know where to start!

The first thing we noticed about Egypt is that it gets dark here much earlier than in Ontario. We watched the sun set out the airplane window. By 7pm it was dark.

We were met at the airport by the friendly CISE staff (Jan, Melanie and Wendy). It was suggested that we take advantage of our 4 bottles allowance at the duty free. When we got in there, the baileys and the beer were all gone. We did get 3 bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka. We were told that if we get to the Duty Free shop in Maadi within 48 hours we could get more, but only 3, not 4. Mike decided to take his chances that the store in Maadi would have beer. We were hoping that when Brianna comes to visit at Christmas time that she’d be able to pick up another 4 bottles but, unfortunately, you have to be 21 to purchase.

CISE had school busses waiting to take us to the Maadi hotel. The busses are very nice and have air conditioning. Mike has to sit sideways – not enough leg room.

The Canadian International School of Egypt Bus

On our way to the hotel we were reminded that August 21^st is the Eid of Ramadan and the Egyptians were celebrating – just like Christmas. The banks of the Nile and the streets were filled with people. The traffic was crazy – but that’s normal. We saw a family on a motorcycle. Husband driving, wife riding side saddle with a baby on her lap. No helmets of course. I hope to get a photo of this for you soon.

The Maadi Hotel has a view of the Pyramids and the Nile River!

Our room had 3 single beds and no hot water. There is a lovely pool area on the roof. We arrived at the hotel at 11pm and went right to sleep.

We were told not to drink the tap water but that it’s ok for showering and brushing your teeth. We have boiled some to water and put it in the fridge. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t make us sick. Becca has tried it already so time will tell...

Becca in the Maadi Hotel lobby.

The first time we heard the Egyptian call to prayer, it was at 4am from our hotel room. We were expecting bells – but it was a man’s voice chanting in Arabic over a very loud speaker. It goes on for about 2 minutes and then there is silence for 15 minutes and then more chanting for about 30 seconds. This happens 5 times a day. Our first night, Becca was so tired that she didn’t wake up but it woke her up for sure on the second night. The Friday 12pm call to prayer is more like a church service with a sermon after the call. Most stores close on Fridays from 12 – 1pm.

Mike with his first can of Egyptian beer - Stella.

Apartment Hunting started on Wednesday morning. A group of us (2 busses full) all went together. I wasn’t able to get photos of the apartments because of all the people. We decided to pick an apartment quickly and took the 6^th one we saw. We were about to take the 4^th one but another couple (Amanda and Jason) beat us to it – which is fine because we now have great neighbours! (And can see their balcony from ours) We choose Flat 42 on the 4^th floor of building 5/4 on road 221. (No elevator. Suitcases were damaged in the move. Sorry Mom, your blue suitcase didn’t make it. The wheels are going to fall off any second now. We’ll find you a new one before we come home. The wheel on my black suitcase did fall off.)

The door of building 5/4 on road 221.

Our balcony, top right.

Cleaning!

We like our flat and once it’s cleaned properly I’m sure we’ll be very comfortable here – and fit too (75 stairs to climb to get to the flat door). Negotiating the contract for our flat was very interesting. The man from the school prefers a 10 month contract for the 1^st year and then a 12 month contract for the second year. Our landlord (John) was insisting on an 11 month contract. We accepted his terms and the CISE guy thought we were crazy. But for 3500LE ($583 Canadian) a month, we didn’t want to pass on it over one month’s rent that the school might end up paying anyway if we decide to stay in this flat next year. What we didn’t ask is how much utilities are! We discovered if you put your garbage outside your door, it magically disappears in a few hours; which we think means there is a bowab looking after the building but we haven’t met him. We have a few things to figure out still. One beautiful thing about this apartment location – Sarah and Becca didn’t hear the call to prayer at 4am and Mike barely heard it. This apartment is going to work out just fine.

This is the view from our balcony.

On first sight of Maadi, it appeared bigger than we imagined. There are actually 5 entries. But we discovered that it feels longer on a bus because of all the one way streets. You can walk faster than driving. We have seen lots of guards, a few rifles, and can’t believe how safe we feel here.

The streets of Maadi are lined with trees, littered with garbage, stray cats and dogs. It’s very hard for Mike to walk by a stray animal. The backdrop is a desert with mounds of sand everywhere.

We have seen where the Mubarek family is now incarcerated. It’s not far from where some of the teachers are living.

For those of you with allergies, here’s a reason to come visit – our friend Amanda has allergies in Canada from Spring to Fall and here in Egypt, she has not taken one allergy pill. Cool eh? We also haven’t put on sunscreen. No one’s skin has burnt – yet.

We made it to the duty free shop before our time was up to get Mike’s allotted 3 bottles – we found the wine that we loved from Boston, and Mike found MGD! Can you believe it? He can’t find MGD at half the bars in Belleville and nowhere but the beer store in Picton but he found it here in Egypt. Total cost, $35 US for 2 bottles and a case of beer.

We brought our cell phones in hopes that we could just get a new sim card to make them work. After some thought and a bit of a hard time about getting our phones unlocked, we decided to just get new phones. We were there with another couple and for the 5 of us to get a cell phone set up it took 2 hours. We went back the next night to buy an internet stick because it might just be easier than figuring out how to set up our internet with a wireless router – but that only took 20 minutes.

What have we eaten so far? We’ve eaten at an Italian restaurant (where a meal was $6 Canadian and Beer was $2.50 for a tall boy can), Subway and went to a party at the principal’s house (she served hamburgers and pasta salad). We had two different kinds of Pitas on the Felucca ride. Turns out, you can get any food you want delivered right to your door by a man on a motorcycle.

KFC Delivery! We've been told that KFC is the biggest franchise here.

Snapped from the bus window.
Apartment buildings on the right, desert on the left.

On the banks of the Nile.

Apparently this was a sign of a wedding - a bunch of people in about 5 different pick-up trucks drove by.
They had furniture, appliances and musical instruments. Later in the evening we saw a bride and groom.

Egyptian women carrying something on their heads.

What is a Felucca? It’s like a sail boat and house boat all in one. We had a beautiful relaxing 90 minute ride in a Felucca on the Nile River on August 24th. We will definitely be doing that again. No misquotes or no funky smells, it was beautiful.