A Recap

Since I haven't been blogging in a while I thought I'd give a quick recap of what we've been up to.

My Mom is visting us, she has been here two weeks and leaves in two weeks. So far she has adjusted fine. She does like some things about Cairo but she also has many dislikes. I think she'll be happy to be back in Texas again!

We visited the Khan al Khalili twice and saw the Al-tannoura dance troup with a coworker of Ariel's and some of their friends from Mexico.

We celebrated a mini-Thanksgiving here at home with my Mom. We were missing a few favorite dishes but overall very happy about the way it turned out.

The girls had long vacations but are now back in school. They have about three more weeks before Christmas break begins.

The five of us will be heading to Vienna right after Christmas for 5 days. I am very excited and looking forward to having a little break from Cairo. :-)

Pictures from the Playground

Warm days. Little hands. Infectious giggles. Pure innocence. Happy kids. The sweet smell of honey shampoo on my kids hair. These are the days I want to remember forever.

M.I.A.

I have been a bad blogger lately. I've meaning to post at least 5 times in the past week but always something comes up. Right now the kids are on Eid holidays and next week they are off for Thanksgiving. Also, my Mom just arrived in Cairo two days ago for her month long stay. Add to that some colds and we have had a busy past few days.

We are trying to decide where we will go while my Mom is here (she offered to stay with the kids while we go on a mini holiday). We have narrowed our choices down to Barcelona or Vienna.

Next post: some cute pics!

A Quickie...

I have a few things to blog about and some pictures to upload but it has been a crazy week and I'm usually too exhausted to write anything by the end of the day. A new blog post is coming soon though, I promise!

Terrible Two's

I think both my girls went through a rough stage at about 2 years old. They were so stubborn and willful and emotional at that age. I was glad when they grew out of it. Now, they are at a good age where they mostly listen and behave and reason. Jacob on the other hand is driving me CRAZY.

Here is a boy who barely started sleeping through the night maybe two or three months ago (he still wakes up from time to time), has horrible tantrums, and fights with his sisters as much as possible.

He is also a boy who is very cute, cuddly, and hilarious. He cracks me up with his extensive vocabulary (my faves are when he says bah-mazin' for amazing, paperade for parade, and marmanade for lemonade) and funny expressions.

You're cute kid, but man are you tough!

And The Things I Don't Like About Cairo...

-The air quality. The smog is stifling and there is so much pollution, dirt, and sand in the air. On top of that is the frequent burning tire smell we often wake up to. No fun.

-The garbage and lack of sidewalks. It's no fun walking with two small children and pushing a third in a stroller when there are no sidewalks and garbage littering the streets.

-The driving. One word: CRAZY. That is all.

-The food. While I do like some Egyptian staples (see post below), I feel like as a whole Egyptian cuisine isn't as diverse as I'd like it to be.

Little Things I Love About Cairo

-fresh squeezed lemonade, the produce here is wonderful! So cheap and good and the little lemons are to die for! And they taste so much like my beloved Valley lemons!

-cheap & yummy food like hummus, falafel, baba ghanoush, koshari

-the fact that housekeepers are affordable!

-the people- The majority of Egyptians I have met have been very friendly and kind even when my arabic sucks!! HA!

-new friends- many of the expats have been so nice and helpful and very, very friendly.

-A Tex-Mex restaurant in walking distance. I had to give a shout out to La Sombra because I love being able to eat some decent mexican food once in a while. The owner's menu may be limited but we've liked the food every time we've had it and he's from San Benito, a hop and a skip away from McAllen! Us Valley Mexicans are everywhere! :-)

Some Pictures...

I wanted to post a few pics of our new home and a few of Maadi. As you may know or not know, we live in Maadi, a kind of suburb of Cairo (I say kind of because I don't know if its actually considered a suburb or neighborhood or area- you get the gist!) that is popular with the expats and home to the American school and other international schools and embassies and westernized markets, etc etc.

A glimpse at our apartment in Cairo

The walk to the CAC, on the right corner is our neighborhood market

One of the many roundabout intersections here, Maadi is also known for being realtively green especially compared to the rest of Cairo

The sidewalk right outside of the CAC, which is surrounded by the brick wall you see in the picture