Daily News

So today, the day before school starts, I got my class list and a syllabus with a lot of persistence. I basically asked the same three people for stuff all day over and over again until they just couldn’t ignore me anymore.

I’m almost a hundred percent sure tomorrow will be a disaster. Everyone keeps saying “God be with you”. The students are apparently going to spend the whole day crying, and it’s my job to make them comfortable…

One of the things I didn’t get today is a schedule. I have two classrooms, and I have no idea exactly where I’m supposed to be in the morning (ahhh!). I asked Mrs. Jane, the principal, where I should be, but she just said “whatever room you want”…does that confuse anyone else? Good new is, the kids are only going to be at school for a few hours so they can get the feel for the whole thing. This way I'll get to kind of ease into it. The staff has designated a whole 2 hours to get them all on the right buses which I think is hilarious.

Other than school, things we’ve been doing pretty much consist of café, café, café, and so on. Apparently it’s the only thing to do during Ramadan. I don’t mind so much, sheesha and good company is always fun.

Anyway, café’s are everywhere…take a step in any direction and ta-dah! Café! Café’s always serve sheesha, coffee, and juices. Paul’s favorite drink is mango. He’s been drinking so much of it he’ll probably turn orange. I’m pretty sure they make the juices by simply pulverizing the fruit; the drinks are really thick and scrumptious. Sheesha is delicious too, and since it’s everywhere, the streets are perfumed with the smell of it.

Getting around is relatively easy. Everybody drives it seems and usually whoever we’re with at the time is happy to tote us around. Cabs are everywhere. There are two kinds, the yellow cabs, which are new and air conditioned and come complete with a working meter. Tourists usually take these since you don’t have to haggle over a price. Paul and I have never ridden in one. We prefer the black and white cabs. These are usually really, really old cars often decked out with flashing lights and a furry dashboard. They have meters, but they’re just for show in case they get pulled over, so this makes prices negotiable. Paul and I have discovered that you should never ask how much, simply get out of the cab and hand them whatever is reasonable. It's easy to be taken advantage of as a foreigner. Sometimes they’ll tell you “more”, but you just have to be firm. Fortunately a majority of the cabbies haven’t given us any problems.

Also, although Cairo is one of the biggest cities in Africa, it’s also one of the safest. It has a lower crime rate than the US and the UK. Everyone walks around really late at night. As a female you have to be a little more careful. As a foreigner you get a lot of attention anyway, and guys like to make kissy sounds at you constantly, its obnoxious, and all the other guys we’ve met apologize for it constantly. But everything is tolerable. In a conversation with a Russian teacher at school, she was telling me that if you get even in the slightest bit of trouble, you just holler and hundreds of people will come out of nowhere to help you…cool right! I haven’t seen a single cop car. Apparently they only hang out at the tourist spots.

Paul and I are going to try cooking at my place tonight. It'll be an experiment; our appliances are pretty finicky. Our apartment kept blowing a fuse for no apparent reason today. It’s only pasta so we’ll manage.