Where to begin...been here a week and one day, it feels like months! starting to get my bearings in Maadi but not ventured further yet, with the exception of a trip to Giza pyramids.
The pyramids - well I was a little disappointed to be honest. We didnt have time to go inside which would have been more exciting i think! we just wandered round, took pictures, ignored the vendors and got back in the bus. The pyramids looked a little disheveled, a result of the Romans pilfering half the stones to build big temples and villas. The sphinx was kind of cool but much smaller than i imagined. I think i'll go back and explore more when the weather is cooler.
The afternoon of the pyramids i decided to brave my first taxi trip to Carrefour. I decided to use Abdella, not an official taxi driver, but he was recommended by other teachers. It was great! he drove me to the mall in a nice air-conditioned car and then waited for 2hrs while i did my shopping and drove me home again. all for the princely sum of 70 LE (7 quid)! excellent! The mall was great, it has Monsoon, the Body Shop, Zara and much more! I was excited!
I have visited a few expat clubs here. Maadi House is nice but you have to be American to join! Kind of racist really. CAC teachers can go in free on Tuesdays though. BAC was nice but very quiet. My favourite place so far is the Ace Club. Its just across the road from my flat and is super chilled out. A pool table upstairs, food downstairs and in the garden. The garden is lovely and shady and they play loads of cheesy pop music :-) there have been reports (one or two) of malaria and so i find it expedient to partake of a cool gin and tonic for medicinal purposes when im there.
Maadi is very green, its lovely to see flowering trees everywhere. Have been out on random walks a few times this week. There are no pavements so everyone walks on the roads which can be a wee bit scary at times, but the drivers seem to know where they are on the roads to within an inch! Just now its Ramadan so in the evenings, just after sunset, the roads are empty. Everyone goes home for food. That means its a lovely time to go exploring. Last night a bunch of us wandered up to the Nile and watched the feluccas sailing in the sunset, very pretty. we cut back to central maadi skirting past the souk. thats where i want to explore. shiny lanterns dangling and sparkling in the lights, random food stalls, gorgeous fabrics....and i kept smelling eritrea as we wandered, that musky sweet smell of ripe, warm fruit mingled with dust and sweaty bodies! there was something strangely comforting about it!
today's excitement was collecting my shipment from the cargo airport. it took 5 hours! if you've ever lived abroad you kind of get used to the first few weeks being filled with bureaucracy that seems totally illogical! im sure its the same in the uk for people going to live there, but im also sure if Scotland was independent then we would have a super slick set-up :-) well Egypt is no different from the norm, we (me and random helper man that appeared from nowhere when my driver pulled up at shipping office) went from the shipping office to the police where i had to get a pass for the cargo office. then we went to about 5 different places and up and down and back and forward....each place issued a bit of paper that had to be signed by everyone and their granny, and everyone had to get a little sweetner - 5LE here, 10 LE there. It was hot, and smelly! also, as its Ramadan, its considered hugely inappropriate for non-Muslims to drink or eat in public. I was super thirsty, my helper man said he could get me a drink but i figured it was best to avoid upsetting people, it might take even longer then. just when i thought we were finishing (i had seen my cases and the customs man had had a good rummage) my helper man said we had to go somewhere else entirely. they had found a physics textbook and someone had to check it to make sure it wasnt political! pesky physics! finally they decided it was just a boring book and i could get my stuff and go! result! on the drive home i relaxed watching the drivers. some people say the driving here is scary, i find it strangely hypnotic. the road may have 3 lanes but there can be up to 5 lanes of traffic at any one time. the cars glide magically in and out of spaces around each other. gaps just appear and the cars slip through. its just how i imagine it would be on the knight bus in harry potter!
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