Arrival
I have been in Egypt now for almost 24 hours now and can't really believe it. The time has gone by so quickly. Here's a little snap shot of my first 48 hours out of the country. It's going to be pretty detailed b/c I know certain people that want to know everything. The headings should help out with the info you truly wanna know about. (Sorry no pics yet)
Flight #1:
The flight from Chicago to Amsterdam wasn't bad. I didn't really become annoyed at being on the flight until about 6.5 hours into it. The movie was 16 Blocks and some random shows from America and I think the UK.
Amsterdam Airport:
I arrived in Amersterdam at about 7am and didn't leave until about 10pm. My flight to Cairo got delayed about an hour because the air conditioning wasn't working. I basically slept the entire time I was in the airport. The first 5ish hours that I slept were completely uncomfortable and ended up finding one of these areas the call comfort zones. This is where I spent the rest of my time before I went to check in at the gate. No I didn't leave the airport to go exploring. I was too tired to do anything really since I hadn't slept on the flight at all.
Flight #2:
Flying from Amsterdam to Cairo wasn't all that much fun. I think by that time of not having too much sleep and being annoyed at the delayed flight I was anxious to get somewhere. We watched Ice Age 2 (which made me think of one of my sibs cause she loves animal movies) and of course I was exhausted but once again couldn't sleep on the plane. Once we landed, It took about 45 minutes or so to get out of the airport. Getting my visa and then my passport stamped wasn't bad at all besides the waiting in lines. Both transactions were surprisingly quick. I got help with my luggage (which were two 50 pound bags w/ rollers and a carry one and heavy purse) and went looking for the people who would pick me up.
Egypt!!!:
I was so excited to see that my friend Nisrin and two other AIESECers came to pick me up. I was hoping that Nisrin would come to the airport. She was my president when I joined the org and was actually the one who interviewed me to get into the org. It's crazy how we both ended up in the same country. I'm actually do the same traineeship she did last year just for a longer duration.
The ride from the airport was fun. I don't know exactly how fast we were going on the road, but New Yorkers have nothing on a driver from Cairo! It was awesome too cause we drove over the Nile. It was too dark tho' to really see anything.
Before we went to Nisrin's apartment, we stopped to get some food (it's about 4am at this point). It was interesting because we drove up to a curb and as I thought we were about to get out to go inside some restaurant, there was a mad at the window of the driver's side giving us menus. It was kinda like Bruno's on High St in Oxford but without having to get out of your car if that makes anysense. I had some kind of beef wrap; I'm not really sure what it was called.
As we are driving to Nisrin's, she informs us that she lives on the sixth floor and there is no elevator! So we have to take all of my stuff up all these flights of stairs. That's when I realized that I would have to transport all of this heavy stuff on a train to Alex. I'm interested to see how that turns out. Being the wonderful gentlemen that Egyptian men are known for, the two male AIESECers carry all three of my bags to Nisrin's apartment. If they hadn't been there I don't think those bags would have ever made it.
It's about 5am when we get into the apartment. Nisrin and I ended up hanging out on her balcony talking until almost 8:30am. We had so much catching up to do since we hadn't seen each other in well over a year. It was great. I got to see the sun rise in Egypt for the first time.
I went to sleep until about 4pm. It was soooo hot and for some reason I didn't change out of the clothes that I had worn while traveling. So I was sleepin in sweats and burning up. (I really have to work on my laziness). After I got dressed, we went around the neighborhood. We were out an about until about 9pm.
During out time out, I got to go to a different markets and made my first purchase...bottled water! We went to a computer mall in order to get some burnable CDs and then ate at a restaurant called Chicken Tikka. It has Mediterrean food. It was really good. My entire meal -chicken, rice, veggies and a pepsi came to about 22 Egyptian pounds which is less than $5.
After the meal we headed to the Silverkey office. There I got to see 3 people that I know from the states. One was a Salaam trainee who came to Chicago about two years ago. Another is the person that helped me out with the reception of another Salaam trainee in Chicago and a alumni. And the third was a Aiesecer from the Bay Area and a former member of the the US National Staff of AIESEC. All of them work for Silverkey, which is the company that runs this site.
After visiting the office, we came back to the apartment (9pm) to have dinner. Nisrin's room mate made an authentic Egyptian meal (she's from Alex). And there there about 10 of us, one of which was another Salaam trainee that I had met during my trip to DC in May. We all ended up sitting out of the balcony until 1:30 am. Which is when I came inside to start checking my emails and writing this post.
Thoughts:
It's crazy how fast everything went by today. I can't believe I've been here for a day. There were times when I didn't even feel like I was in another country. I'm already starting recognize some Arabic. I can read 0-10, know the letter b and recognize the word Pepsi. I can already tell that I am going to have a great time here. I was good to see the other trainee I had met in DC who has been here for a little over a month and how well she's doing.
Everyone keeps telling me that I'm going to love Alex and how wonderful it is. I know there's at least one new trainee coming to Alex; actually she's being picked up at the airport right now.
Coming up:
I'll be in Cairo until Sunday. I know I'll be doing something everyday but it probably won't be any of the touristy stuff. I actually get to see how people live and go about their daily lives. I'll be taking a train to Alex and then finding my way around. I'm already getting peer pressure talks about taking scuba lessons; we'll see.
That's really it for now. Just wanted to post what my first day was like here. I'm sure within the next week I'll have plenty to share. I mean, it's only been 24 hours! Alright it's 3am and I got a long day tomorrow. Night!
Flight #1:
The flight from Chicago to Amsterdam wasn't bad. I didn't really become annoyed at being on the flight until about 6.5 hours into it. The movie was 16 Blocks and some random shows from America and I think the UK.
Amsterdam Airport:
I arrived in Amersterdam at about 7am and didn't leave until about 10pm. My flight to Cairo got delayed about an hour because the air conditioning wasn't working. I basically slept the entire time I was in the airport. The first 5ish hours that I slept were completely uncomfortable and ended up finding one of these areas the call comfort zones. This is where I spent the rest of my time before I went to check in at the gate. No I didn't leave the airport to go exploring. I was too tired to do anything really since I hadn't slept on the flight at all.
Flight #2:
Flying from Amsterdam to Cairo wasn't all that much fun. I think by that time of not having too much sleep and being annoyed at the delayed flight I was anxious to get somewhere. We watched Ice Age 2 (which made me think of one of my sibs cause she loves animal movies) and of course I was exhausted but once again couldn't sleep on the plane. Once we landed, It took about 45 minutes or so to get out of the airport. Getting my visa and then my passport stamped wasn't bad at all besides the waiting in lines. Both transactions were surprisingly quick. I got help with my luggage (which were two 50 pound bags w/ rollers and a carry one and heavy purse) and went looking for the people who would pick me up.
Egypt!!!:
I was so excited to see that my friend Nisrin and two other AIESECers came to pick me up. I was hoping that Nisrin would come to the airport. She was my president when I joined the org and was actually the one who interviewed me to get into the org. It's crazy how we both ended up in the same country. I'm actually do the same traineeship she did last year just for a longer duration.
The ride from the airport was fun. I don't know exactly how fast we were going on the road, but New Yorkers have nothing on a driver from Cairo! It was awesome too cause we drove over the Nile. It was too dark tho' to really see anything.
Before we went to Nisrin's apartment, we stopped to get some food (it's about 4am at this point). It was interesting because we drove up to a curb and as I thought we were about to get out to go inside some restaurant, there was a mad at the window of the driver's side giving us menus. It was kinda like Bruno's on High St in Oxford but without having to get out of your car if that makes anysense. I had some kind of beef wrap; I'm not really sure what it was called.
As we are driving to Nisrin's, she informs us that she lives on the sixth floor and there is no elevator! So we have to take all of my stuff up all these flights of stairs. That's when I realized that I would have to transport all of this heavy stuff on a train to Alex. I'm interested to see how that turns out. Being the wonderful gentlemen that Egyptian men are known for, the two male AIESECers carry all three of my bags to Nisrin's apartment. If they hadn't been there I don't think those bags would have ever made it.
It's about 5am when we get into the apartment. Nisrin and I ended up hanging out on her balcony talking until almost 8:30am. We had so much catching up to do since we hadn't seen each other in well over a year. It was great. I got to see the sun rise in Egypt for the first time.
I went to sleep until about 4pm. It was soooo hot and for some reason I didn't change out of the clothes that I had worn while traveling. So I was sleepin in sweats and burning up. (I really have to work on my laziness). After I got dressed, we went around the neighborhood. We were out an about until about 9pm.
During out time out, I got to go to a different markets and made my first purchase...bottled water! We went to a computer mall in order to get some burnable CDs and then ate at a restaurant called Chicken Tikka. It has Mediterrean food. It was really good. My entire meal -chicken, rice, veggies and a pepsi came to about 22 Egyptian pounds which is less than $5.
After the meal we headed to the Silverkey office. There I got to see 3 people that I know from the states. One was a Salaam trainee who came to Chicago about two years ago. Another is the person that helped me out with the reception of another Salaam trainee in Chicago and a alumni. And the third was a Aiesecer from the Bay Area and a former member of the the US National Staff of AIESEC. All of them work for Silverkey, which is the company that runs this site.
After visiting the office, we came back to the apartment (9pm) to have dinner. Nisrin's room mate made an authentic Egyptian meal (she's from Alex). And there there about 10 of us, one of which was another Salaam trainee that I had met during my trip to DC in May. We all ended up sitting out of the balcony until 1:30 am. Which is when I came inside to start checking my emails and writing this post.
Thoughts:
It's crazy how fast everything went by today. I can't believe I've been here for a day. There were times when I didn't even feel like I was in another country. I'm already starting recognize some Arabic. I can read 0-10, know the letter b and recognize the word Pepsi. I can already tell that I am going to have a great time here. I was good to see the other trainee I had met in DC who has been here for a little over a month and how well she's doing.
Everyone keeps telling me that I'm going to love Alex and how wonderful it is. I know there's at least one new trainee coming to Alex; actually she's being picked up at the airport right now.
Coming up:
I'll be in Cairo until Sunday. I know I'll be doing something everyday but it probably won't be any of the touristy stuff. I actually get to see how people live and go about their daily lives. I'll be taking a train to Alex and then finding my way around. I'm already getting peer pressure talks about taking scuba lessons; we'll see.
That's really it for now. Just wanted to post what my first day was like here. I'm sure within the next week I'll have plenty to share. I mean, it's only been 24 hours! Alright it's 3am and I got a long day tomorrow. Night!
posted by Nay-Nay at
6:16 PM
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