New Beginnings...

I guess a lot has happened since I last posted. I hadn't even realized that I haven't posted in a while. Where do I begin…

Well about two weeks ago my roomie went back home to Czech Republic. I was actually in Alex the weekend that she left - the first time in almost a month. The day she left was one of the best I had in Alex. We woke up relatively early and headed to breakfast at the Shakespeare Cafe with Mustafa, Bahaa, Ahmed and his brother. Went bowling and played pool afterwards. Bowling was fun. It was the Americans against the Jackasses against the “Couple.” Any guesses who was on what team? I played pool for the first time and validated my suspicion that I suck at the game.

After all the games we headed to a mall to play more games. There had been talk of getting Cinnabon and we totally lucked out that the mall we went to had one. It’s become one of my indulgences to treat myself to Cinnabon. A little artery clogging taste of home! After stuffing our faces with the delicious cinnamon rolls we headed to an arcade (don’t think I’ve truly played in one since I was either in high school or a freshmen in college) and later got to witness a motivated monkey make attempts at getting a straw from Mustafa as all the other guys cheered the monkey on.

Later I said my goodbyes to Jana as she headed off to the airport – a task she’d been trying to make happen much early. The next morning I woke up to realize “Hey, you live by yourself!” I never expected to come to Egypt to have my first experience of living completely on my own. My own apartment, my own bills, working and living all alone, all without the help of parents…what a crazy concept right?! I think I kinda freaked out about living by myself. A step I had no desire to take at this point in my life. No worries…I tackled that problem really quick!

After discussing my desire to move out of my apartment to a fellow co-worker, she thought of someone I might room with. What a life saver because that conversation totally changed things for me. I’ll admit, living in my current apartment was totally depressing me and making me very agitated towards anything here. So it was for the sanity of myself and those around me that I decided that the apartment MUST go! So after living by myself for all of a week or so, which part of it was spent in Cairo, I found my new home.

It’s about a ten minutes walk from where I used. It’s further from my job but closer than when I lived in Ibrahimeya. It’s on the same street as the Tram and in front of one of the stops so an easy commute to work. 7th floor but there’s an elevator. My new roomie, Claudia, has been in this apartment for the last two years and it’s really nice. We actually went to the same middle school back in West Windsor-Plainsboro, NJ, though not at the same time. I swear it’s a small world.

The place has Showtime (a satellite provider here), a Microwave (haven’t even seen one of those in a home yet), a new refrigerator, a new washing machine, a shower with a tub (can’t explain how happy I am about this), a DVD player and two cats. Now, if you know me well at all, you know me and animals aren’t really close pals. So the fact that I could over look such a detail as living with two cats lets you know how much I felt I needed to move. They aren’t that bad. Though I know my mom couldn’t deal :) She’s always told me that if I wanted to keep her from visiting all I have to do is buy a cat!

This place is a definite upgrade from a place where everything leaks, the walls are peeling, pieces of ceiling randomly fall, t.v. networks change channels weekly and the washing machine is basically unidentifiable.

So I moved in Monday night with help from some AAST Alex AIESECers. I was totally shocked because not only did they arrive before I expected them to, they arrived an hour earlier! This is such a rarity. I swear if you run on CP time, you’d be right at home here!

Three apartments in three months…and there’s the possibility of a fourth!

Besides this new apartment development, I’ve found out that I’ll be heading to Luxor at the end of October. I’m really looking forward to going. I’ll be going along with Megan and her family for about 3 days. Will get the chance to go to my first international AIESEC conference – NLDS – the second weekend of the month.

My time in Cairo this past weekend was great. I actually didn’t do much compared to my other visits but it was a fun weekend. Since Ramadan is going on right now I decided to take part and have been fasting. Upon arriving in Cairo, I headed to Michaels place for Iftar (the meal which the fast is broken). Here’s another example of it being a small world: Michael was actually the DJ at my first national AIESEC U.S. conference. I didn’t have a chance to get to know him then, but met him in Egypt. And…he lives in Chicago! I just doesn’t get better than that. Afterwards I headed to Rhea’s for another gathering. I love Cairo cause there is always something going on…or is that just when I come? During this gathering I got the opportunity to really sit down and chat with Rhea. We have a lot in common. The girl is awesome. She’s another trainee’s best friend’s cousin and I’m glad that we got a chance to meet and get to know one another.

The rest of the nights I was in Cairo, Nisrin and I cooked each Iftar we ate. It was great. I was really the first time I’d cooked an actual meal here. And although we didn’t leave the apartment that much I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations we had. I always learn something new when I talk with Nis. I guess since Ramadan is going on, a good portion of the convos were focused on religion. And a point was brought up about women in Islam being veiled and how much Westerners in particular make such a big deal about this. “Women who are veiled are oppressed, blah blah blah…” Well has anyone noticed that nuns are veiled? The minute Nisrin told me how her aunt (?) brought this to her attention it took me a second to realize this is true. I don’t think I’ve ever really realized the way nuns dress. Do they not wear something to cover the majority of their bodies? So if it’s generally accepted that nuns dress this way, why can’t people accept that some Islamic women also choose to dress in a way that covers the majority of their bodies? Just some food for thought…