"I'm somewhere in Cairo..."

I took a much needed trip to Cairo this weekend. I'm sooo happy I went because it definitely lifted my spirits up. I moved into my new place right after work and then got a ride with one of my roomies co-workers to Cairo. There were five of us in the car for a little over 2 hours. It was my first road trip in Egypt. Thankfully I slept most of the trip because it was a new experience driving on that high way. Imagine being on the highway and not having too many rules that people are following plus add a bumpy road.

So we got into Cairo pretty early. When I got there I went to dinner with the Country Director of the company I work for along with Nisrin, Mustafa, Jana, Mino and some other interns from the company. It was a really nice place. It was located on the Nile and very high class. I was able to have my first glass of wine since I came. That fact alone was worth it. But it was a very enjoyable dinner. I got the chance to get to know the director more plus learned of some opportunities that I'm thinking of pursuing in the upcoming future. More to come on that topic at another date.



After dinner we all went to a social gathering in Downtown Cairo. It was fun. Lots of conversation and games. It was really good to see a lot of the people I like to hang with in Egypt and see how everyone's doing. And of course as tradition has it, Nisrin and I ended up staying out late. I think I got home around 5:30 in the morning. But it definitely beat sitting at home staring at a TV in Alex.

The next morning or rather afternoon :) in a big group/trainee fashion a whole bunch of us meet up at this place with great fatir. Or so I hear cause I had chicken strips! The place was really nice and comfy. A place perfectly designed to accommodate large numbers of people. I think it was almost twenty of us and we all got to sit next to each other on this big couch. It was crazy tho' cause people kept getting phone calls asking where they were. Some how most of us had no clue where exactly in Cairo we were. So everytime someone got asked that question, they'd response, "I dunno; I'm somewhere in Cairo!" Hence the title of the blog. After we finished eating, I meet up with some people at this beautiful park in Cairo. I think the name of it is Azhar Park. We went to see the sun rise on the city. The park has an awesome view of the city.

After the park, Nisrin, Luli and I headed to the movies. We went to see Miami Vice. I'm sooo happy that English speaking movies are starting to come out here. Over the summer the only movies that are typically released are Arabic speaking ones. Going to the movies was a new cultural experience. When you want a pop/soda you get a can instead of a cup. The movie and commercials are played using a DVD player. So when they showed different commercials we had to wait for them to take out the DVD and input another one for the next commercial. Also, since Egypt has such a large population of smokers, the movie has a 5 minute intermission so that people can have a cigarette break. I think that was the topper.

We actually got back to Nisrin and Luli's pretty early at about 3am. It's the earliest I've ever gone back to their place. Which is good because it allowed us to wake up BEFORE noon. I was very proud of us. I had motivation tho'. Nis had told me of this place in Maadi that had American style breakfast. So I made sure that I woke up so that I could get me some grub. I missed out on it last time I was there. It was great. I had pancakes, eggs, beef sausage and toast. I was soo happy and stuffed. It was a nice family style breakfast. Nisrin, Luli, Kaitlin, P and I all made it for the meal. During our trip to the breakfast spot we were discussing being away from home and what you can do when you need to feel a little close to home. And Luli says that when she's away from Egypt she likes to go to a McDonald's to feel like she's back at home. Which sounds kinda odd at first, but then she explained how McD's is the same everywhere so you can think you're in whatever country you want when you're inside. Later we accompanied Kaitlin on her first Metro ride in Cairo. We all ended up downtown. Nisrin and I split from the group and headed to where Megan is staying to hang. Of course we both ended up falling asleep for two hours.

When we woke up Nisrin, Megan, Tom (former MCP of Egypt) and I walked around Cairo. We ended up walking from Pam's all the way to the Great Gates which is near Khan al Khalili. For all of you who know the distance between those points, you know we were walking for a good minute. After walking to the Gates, which I'm told is where people in Egypt meet before making pilgrimage to Mecca, we got semi-lost around the neighborhood. There were some sketchy moments. But we made it safely back to where we started and I had enough time to get back to Nisrin's to pack my bags. I met up with Mustafa and Jana at the train station where we ended up waiting almost 45 minutes for our train. We got back to Alex at about 1:30 in the morning. I was so tired. That night was our first night sleeping in the apartment.

Needless to say, I will be returning to Cairo this upcoming weekend. I'll get to go and visit the Cairo office of my company and hang out with more of the amazing people that I love being around.