First day in Cairo!

8-17-2008

First day in Cairo! I survived! I’m in another world so different than my own. We got into Cairo airport around 4 am. I had my visa already, and baba had to get one. Never the less, I was questioned if I were really American because of my name and of my family’s name. I’m not quite sure what I would do if my dad wasn’t there with me…

From what I can see, Egyptians have a complete lack of caring for any bureaucracy, my kind of people. If you know someone, or speak like you do, you can usually get what you want. This extends from bargaining, to getting a table at a restaurant, to getting by customs, to traffic – which is crazy! No one pays the slightest bit of attention to road signs or traffic lines, I just keep my head down and not look at where we are driving till we get there or else I’ll just have a heart attack.

My dad and I are staying in a 3 room flat in Cairo, it has all of these very old school touches to it, which you will see in the slide show below. The owner of the building, Mahmoud, is retired from the Egyptian Armed Forces. Most of his family occupies the complex, and also an English family, and a French family. The doorman, Mohammed, is a very sweet man and very diligent about getting things for us. Our driver, another Mahmoud, has been extremely helpful. He gets us wherever we want to go, and gives us inside info about everything. Tonight we’re going to a hafla where there will be a folk troupe performing Debke, Khaleeji, Shaabi, and Saidi styles. Can’t wait to see this, and I will post pictures! Tomorrow we will be going to one of the five star hotels to see a full oriental dance show, Mahmoud is going to see if he can find out where Dina is performing…if she’s even in the country right now!