Looks, Costumes, and Tears

Yesterday, Jacob and I went on a Halloween costume hunt for the girls. Jacob has his coustume (skeleton pj's..haha) but stupid me decided it would be a good idea to ship the girls costumes. Surely we'll have our household goods shipment by the end of October, I thought. Wrong! So, now I am on a hunt for two costumes in a city that does not celebrate Halloween. FUN! Many of the other expats bring their costumes from home or have them made, but I have heard there a few places that sell costumes for a hefty price. At this point I don't care the price as long as I find costumes. The girls will FREAK if they don't have anything to wear. We didn't have any luck though, so today we'll venture out again.

While I was out we stopped at the Carrefour Express, which is just like a tiny version of the big Carrefour. I wasn't in a heavily expat area like I live in, so I was a bit surprised by all the looks Jacob and I got by the men and the veiled women. We usually don't get too many stares around the apartment or schools, but here I felt a big difference. I also felt a bit uncomfortable with all my arms showing, but it could have been worse I guess...at least I wasn't wearing a low-cut blouse! As you know, Cairo is heavily Muslim, so most people are veiled here and dress very conservatively. If they aren't wearing a niqab, they make sure to cover all skin, especially the neck, arms, and legs. In Maadi, there are many expats who wear short sleeves shirts, capris, and even shorts without too many strange looks from the locals, but there are parts of Cairo where dressing like that would be unwise. You will definitely get ugly looks, possible harrassment, etc. It's best to just dress very modestly.

The girls are doing ok. Julia is loving school and so is Jackie, but lately she has been crying when we drop her off in the mornings. She doesn't cry during the day and she always has great things to say about her day and her teacher, but in the mornings it is hard! She grabs on to us and tears up and follows us as we're leaving (the kinder kids hang out at the playground until 8:10 am when their whistle blows) so I end up staying until the whistle because I can't stand leaving her like that, which makes Julia late for preK. Sigh. Motherhood is HARD. Seriously hard.