The Wisdom of A Four Year Old

Yesterday morning Julia threw up. Her vomit consisted mostly of mucous, but she was gagging and coughing so I suggested she stay home from preschool. She reluctantly agreed but by mid morning she was totally fine and totally bored out of her mind. I put her to work doing her favorite thing- spelling worksheets. She can do those things forever. She loves to write, especially with markers, so she was content to do worksheet after worksheet all morning long.

Later, while Julia was busy with her worksheets, the meat delivery guy called to ask for directions to our building. In butchered, broken arabic I tried in vain to explain where are building was located, the color of it, the number of the building, and so on. Our conversation grew louder and more confusing and by the time we hung up we were pretty much yelling in broken english/broken arabic to one another.

When I hung up the phone, Julia rolled her eyes and said, "Mommy you REALLY need to learn arabic." She gave an exasperated sigh and added, "Especially your numbers and letters." Julia is learning arabic at school and is much more fluent in the language than I am.

Next time I think I'll have her give directions to the delivery guy, but in my defense he did show up at my door 10 minutes later.

Merry Christmas Eve!

The kids are all tucked into bed, the gifts are lined up nicely under the tree, and the Christmas cookies have all been eaten on this warm Christmas Eve in Cairo. Tomorrow the kids will open presents, we'll have a nice Christmas lunch, and then we'll start packing for Vienna. I really never knew how much I loved the hustle and bustle of Christmas until I moved to a nearly Christmas-less place. Next time we are in America I'm doing it up BIG for Christmas. Really, you don't know what you have until it's gone. :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I look forward to what 2011 has in store for us.

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. :-)

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

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun time celebrating Halloween Cairo-style. The school festival was a hit, with good food, games, and trick or treating to be had. Overall, it was a great day!

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.

Our Weekend

We had a fun, eventful couple of days. First, on Friday night the family and I ordered a few pizzas and sodas and set out on a felucca ride with a Ariel's co-worker and his family. The felucca is a sail boat which cruises the Nile for about 60 LE an hour (about $12 US). The felucca is best taken at sunset and you can bring food and drinks for a nice, relaxing dinner. It was very nice, the breeze was fantastic, and the kids loved it. It was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of Cairo and sail peacefully on the Nile. We will definitely do it again!

Today we attended a birthday party of one of Julia's classmates at the Maadi House. They had a huge bouncy house, a popcorn and cotton candy machine, face painting, pizza and punch. I saw a lot of familiar faces from the girl's schools and the kids had a great time playing with their new friends.

This week promises to be a busy one...I will update soon!

Thursday Already?

Wow, this week really did fly by. I can't believe we are already coming up on the weekend. It's funny how when the girls are in school and Jacob and I are at home, somedays go by so slowly, while other days time seems to be in fast forward.

So here we are, another week has gone by for us in Cairo. We are still adjusting, but definetely over any culture shock. Homesickness has set in a little bit (mostly for me and Jackie- but we are much more nostalgic than the rest of the family) and we are finally getting into a routine. Our apartment feels much more like a home, and any fears of Cairo (language barriers, finding our way, etc) have subsided. Jackie was emotional today, she shed a few tears at the playground before school started, but her classmates cheered her up and she was doing better by the time the bell rang. I think she is ready for the weekend.

Julia has a birthday party on Saturday and the CAC's Halloween carnival is next weekend as well as a planned trip on a felucca with some of Ariel's co-workers. I am slowly getting to know people and the girls have very successfully made many new friends.

Even after a bit of a rough week emotionally for me, we are happy to be here and trying to enjoy this new adventure. We have planned to see Barcelona in November and Venice in December, so I am getting really excited about that. Also, my Mom is visiting us in November, the kids are thrilled! I wonder how she'll do in Cairo!

Tidbits

Jackie started school yesterday. So far she loves it. Julia started preschool today. She was in a great mood when I dropped her off, so I'm hoping she has a good day. Jacob cried when we left, but I know he's not quite ready for preschool yet. He is way too clingy.

The driver dropped the kids and I off at Jackie's school in the morning, then he took Ariel to work. After I got Jackie to class I walked about 500 yards to Julia's preschool and dropped her off. Then Jacob and I walked to Miriam Market for a few snacks and juice and walked the rest of the way home. Considering the fact that there are NO sidewalks and crazy drivers, we only almost got hit by a car once...that's a good day in Cairo. Ha!

Our housekeeper started today. She will be coming 3 days a week and she babysits! I hope she works out and the kids get used to her quickly. Right now Jacob is following her around, so that's a good sign!

Little Things

It's funny the quirks you notice when you travel to another country. Things are just a little bit different, it doesn't mean it's bad, just different.

Case in point- to turn a wall light on in a room you must flip the switch down instead of up. Also, our toilets don't have handles just buttons on top you press when you want to flush. Our washer is also quite small, and it takes forever to do a load and we don't have a dryer. Most apartments here don't come with dryers or even a place to put a dryer since you need proper ventilation in the wall to do so. That has probably been our biggest challenge. That and the amount of sand and dirt that infiltrate the apartment daily. If you want to have a clean floor you have to sweep and mop every.single.day. That's why a lot of people have housekeepers here, because they're cheap and the amount of housecleaning to be done is probably double what I do in the States.

On a fun note, everything delivers, which I love. If you run out of bread and water you can call the closest market and they will deliver straight to your door. Or if you go to the market to buy groceries they will kindly deliver the groceries to your home as soon as you leave so you don't have to carry them. Then they will bring them all the way up to your apartment and put them right in your kitchen. It is very easy to get used to!

The First Few Days in Cairo

We moved from the hotel to our apartment 3 days ago, currently our internet is down so I haven’t been able to call my Mom yet (we have a Texas based Vonage number through the internet) or check my emails, pay bills, etc. I feel so disconnected. The kids are glued to the TV right now watching Playhouse Disney so I decided to write a post on Word to copy on my blog when the internet is working again.
Jackie had her Kindergarten assessment yesterday at the American school. We were told they would email us soon with their decision. Decision? Jeez. I would think the bar would be pretty low for acceptance into Kindergarten. So we shall see if Miss Jackie is accepted or not. If she isn’t I don’t know what Plan B is yet, since we were pretty much counting on her getting into this school.
Cairo has definitely been an eye opening experience thus far. It is a gritty, loud, old city. Oh, and the humanity! How can I not mention the sheer humanity of this place. Wow. There are a lot of people who live here. I think I read somewhere the city is home to 20 million people*. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it sure does feel like a city of 20 million.
The kids are adjusting ok. They do miss home and their friends, but I think mostly they miss the routine and conveniences of Texas. They are creatures of comfort and ask for things like popcorn from Target and hot dogs and Chick-Fil-A. There is a McDonald’s here and a Pizza Hut, so they like that and the food tastes virtually the same as back home. I think the biggest adjustment for them is going to be food-wise. They are picky to begin with so grocery shopping here has been a bit of challenge. So far they have found they like the yogurt, and fruit, and they seem fine with the bread and cheeses and juices. They haven’t tried any meat except the nuggets from McDonald’s.
We miss home a lot, but we are still adjusting and haven’t quite settled in yet. I think once our shipment arrives we will feel more ‘at home’. Until then we are staying upbeat and trying to enjoy this crazy ride!

*According to Wikipedia the current population of Cairo is about 17 million. I was kind of close!

Now that we have the internet up and running I will post pics soon, I promise!

Bittersweet

My oldest, Jackie, should be starting Kindergarten tomorrow at the great elementary school down the street from us. Instead, she is staying home waiting two weeks before she starts Kindergarten in Cairo.

It's bittersweet for me.

The bitter- her best friend is starting Kindergarten tomorrow, along with her other friends, and all the familiar that Jackie is used to will no longer be.

The sweet- we are going on a once in a lifetime adventure and Jackie will experience things many kids will never experience and she'll make new friends and hopefully love her new school.

Such is the life of an expat kid.

The West Nile Life

And here's the link if you can't view the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iIuqPqv1uQ

Apartment FAIL.

So, Ariel met with the owner of the aforementioned gorgeous apartment I found available in Maadi. Unfortunately, even though the apartment was great, the owner was not thrilled with the fact that we have three small children and was worried about his furniture and decor be broken or trashed by our little monsters. Hmph.

Anyway, I was bummed for about three seconds, but am moving on to our next choices. Whatever, right?

Apartment Hunting

As Ariel begins his job in Cairo I have sent him a few links to apartments I would like for him to look at. On the top of my list is a brand new, fantastically furnished apartment located in Maadi Degla (an expat friendly suburb of Cairo). He is to tour the apartment tomorrow morning with the owner. I am hopeful this apartment will work for us, but know that not everything is what it seems in pictures, especially when house hunting in Cairo.

If this apartment does not work out there are a few others I've found, but to be honest I have not been overwhelmed with the available selection. The budget we are working with provided by Ariel's employer is very good (in Texas it would be freakin' AWESOME to have that much to spend on housing), but in the expat bubble of Maadi it is the norm. I figured I'd have found a huge list of great apartments, but no, I've only found about 4 or 5 that fit my criteria and of course that is via the Internet, so I'm sure that list will be whittled down a bit.

So, I'm hoping Ariel will find a good apartment before we move so we can have that crossed of our huge, daunting to-do-list. I'll keep you updated!