Saturday & Sunday, 2/7-8

2/7-8

Saturday and Sunday

I have thought about a blog rather than try and email everyone the same events. Halla has a blog, as does Annieck, so I guess it is time to join the younger generation! I get suggestions of sites from Halla, my sister Tracey whose daughter had one while in France, and my son Rob who has one. Bolg spot here I come!

 

Though it takes a lot of time, it is really fairly simple. It makes it much easier that I have the journal to cut and paste from. I have a new Mac laptop, and because I am not quite used to the differences between it and my PC, I fumble my way through to get the blog up. It also takes me a lot of time to figure out how to add photos because I can’t figure out how to downsize them. I finally figure a way to email them to myself at another email address, but what worked on Saturday now doesn’t work on Sunday. Go figure! The blog and studying does take up most of my weekend.

 

Saturday the landlord’s assistant arrives to show us how the stove works. This guy is their “everything” man. We don’t know his name and he speaks not a word of English and with our limited Arabic/Egyptian almost all conversation is in hand gestures and actions. To our joy, and disappointment, he puts the stove back together and shows us how to operate it. Well, we now can cook, but there goes the chance for a newer model! You don’t upgrade to upgrade here, so as long as the thing works, it will be here.

 

He also brings us a few more kitchen items- plates and silverware, but we still lack basics like a kettle, a skillet, and cooking utensils- spoon, spatula etc. But, off we go to the grocery store to see what we can find with visions of our first home cooked meal in our heads!

 

After another adventure at the grocery store – what brands to buy, who likes what, and what can we cook without stocking up on too many staples that we will never be able to use...(I make mental note to pack herbs and spices on my next trip!), we’re back at the flat seeing what three of us can concoct for dinner with the supplies at hand. Elated with our handiwork in the kitchen, we sit down to a meal of rice, mixed vegetables, and chicken!

 

I seems that there is a lot of what we need within a block or two. We have 3-4 small pharmacies, a small grocer, a small household supply shop, and a small office supply shop. When I say small, I do mean small- each shop is about 20’ by 15’ and packed with items. If you have 5 customers in it at once it is packed! We also have 2 coffee-internet cafes. (I have now eaten lunch at one and dinner at the other). Within several blocks we also have a “Chili’s” – yes the American franchise is within easy walking distance from my flat -- so is McDonalds and Hardees! To me, an American, this is “too close to home” and not what I came to Cairo for. For Halla and Annieck, Chili’s is a break form Egyptian food. They haven’t seen it on every corner in every town like I have. They are more anxious to eat there than I am, but that may change as after a while a salad sounds really good. Here we have to be careful of the fresh foods we eat and make sure they are well washed. At the school they told us that they wash it first in water with a very small bit of dish soap, rinse it, and then soak it in water with vinegar. The girls and I haven been that adventurous yet, and stick to the prepackaged foods. The store wrapped veggies and fruit are supposed to be pre-washed, but that doesn’t include lettuce.

 

Sunday afternoon the TV repair man arrives and after plugging in a few cables and playing with the remote we now have TV to watch- no more “snow”. We did have a laugh for a bit as we had 3 TVs in one spot and none of them worked. There is the old one in it’s console that is the support for the one that now works, and the one on the floor that was brought up by the landlord’s assistant to replace the one on the console, but it didn’t work either and remains on the floor. We are moving up in the world from 3 that don’t work to 1 of thee that does!

 

Sunday night I take a taxi to The Semiramis Hotel to meet Nicole and her friend Lilly. As we are all coming from different parts of the city, it makes a good rendezvous spot and from there we all take a taxi to Khan el-Khalili – the famous old souk in Cairo—where there is a Lebanese restaurant that is supposed to be very good. We head straight for the restaurant and enjoy a leisurely meal of tahbouli, hummus, stuffed grape leaves, yogurt and cucumber salad, kafta, and an eggplant casserole. We stay quite a long time talking after the meal, too. A small band starts up and plays many of the older classical songs of Um Kalthum and others. They aren’t bad, but they aren’t great either. It is interesting sitting with 2 musicians, Nicole a wonderful drummer and Lilly a violinist, and hearing the side comments when the band doesn’t quite measure up on a piece. Lilly, like Nicole, is a Fulbright Scholar spending year in Cairo to study Arabic violin. I just know that I love the old songs, but that they aren’t good enough to make me want to dance. When it is OK music, I can listen to it as background, when it is good music, tie me down! I really want to dance!!! After dinner we do wander the Khan a bit, but most of the shops are closing, we are tired and not really in the mood to fight off the shopkeepers’ salesmen, so we agree to call it a night. We share a taxi back to Dokki where Lilly lives, then Nicole and I take different taxis. Cairo has several Neighborhoods- Dokki, Zamlek, Downtown, Garden City…my flat is in Mohandiseen and so is the school. Nicole lives out near Giza.