Back on Track

    So it's been a while since I've posted. Too long to be sure. Much has happened since I last posted from Sophia, Bulgaria. I finished my Christmas trip by skiing in Bansko, and then traveling by bus down through Plovdiv and finally through to Istanbul for about five days before having to go back to Kuwait. My stay in Kuwait took a downward turn, but my travels were highlighted by my Spring Break trip to Amsterdam and Barcelona. I was supposed to be teaching at The KAUST school in Saudi Arabia by November, but that job fell through and left me scrambling for something last minute - which is very tough to do. I had a number of possible positions fall through in South Korea, Turkey, and South Africa, but finally got hired by American International School Egypt (AIS). I was hired for two years starting in the 2013-14 school year, but they were able to bring me in early to sub fro the rest of this school year, so here I am. Living in Cairo.

   I arrived here on short notice and the school set me up in a hotel for four days to get acclimated and find an apartment. The apartment hunting was an experience and I saw a number of places that were subpar to say the least. I was lucky enough to have a number of people at the school - one of whom I knew from working in Kuwait, and the rest just friendly and helpful strangers - who were kind enough to step in and offer a hand. I was fortunate to find a place in the Maadi neighborhood, which, I was told, was one of the nicest neighborhoods in Cairo, and one which also has a large expat community. Maadi is indeed nice. The neighborhood is very green with a lot of trees and plants of all kinds. After living in Kuwait, this is a big plus. Cairo is still dirty, with a lot of trash and waste littered everywhere, but I do love having the greenery around to offset that. Maadi also has a lot of markets, grocery stores, shops, and restaurants within easy walking distance, so getting places and finding things is not a problem.

   There is a lot of greenery everywhere you look here like in the picture above. My neighborhood also has many embassies - so far I've seen the Angolan, Ukrainian, South Korean, Swiss, Mexican, and Venezuelan embassies - and some very nice villas. The trees, grass, and bushes are well kept, and though there is a lot of dirt everywhere, you will see people constantly sweeping up garbage. That being said, you also see many scenes like the one on the left. My apartment is right around the corner to the left of the blue car on the left. As far as I can tell, this is where people drop their garbage for collection because this will grow into a healthy sized mound before it suddenly disappears. There are many stray cats and dogs who subsist on these drop sites as well as just the random garbage you will find strewn about. It's a strange mix of green and garbage, but you quickly learn to not notice the latter and appreciate the former.

   The apartment I found turned out to be great. It is a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment on the second floor. Because it has two bedrooms, I have plenty of space available if anyone comes to visit. It has a great balcony that opens up to trees and overlooks a little lawn in front. It came fully (but not exactly nicely) furnished, but I would say it has nicer furniture than most places I saw. I had to buy a new mattress (for which I will be reimbursed), and I will replace the sheets and pots and pans -which are in really bad shape. Other than that, it came with a tv and satellite hookup which has a decent number of English channels. I have a small washing machine, but no dryer, so I have to dry my clothes old-school style by hanging them on a line off a little mini balcony. There is also a decent sized refrigerator and a small, serviceable gas stove. There is no dishwasher. It's great to have a decent size space to live in, and it's hugh upgrade over my place in Kuwait, which was essentially a dorm room where all the teachers lived together. Here we are all separate, but close, so we get the benefit of seeing people when we want without having to constantly share living space. I need to work on getting an internet connection which seems to be an odd process, but until then, I use my phone as a wifi hotspot. It's far from ideal, but it allows me to do some basic things.

   So there you have it for now. Next up will be my trip to see the Sphinx and the pyramids which I saw last weekend. I'll also be off to see as much as I can throughout the city while I can. Until then, I will leave you with this dog who likes to sleep (yes, he is alive) on the roofs of cars in my neighborhood. I'm not sure why he digs the roof, but he does. The car may change, but the he always sleeps in the same spot, regardless of the car there.