Hello all!
I've been living with my host sister Yara, my host mum Basant, and my host dad Bahaa in Heliopolis, Cairo for one week today. This is the view from our kitchen window:
The first thing that struck me about Cairo was the driving. Where there are lanes they seem to be a fluid concept, and I have yet to meet a traffic light. Drivers communicate with a combination of emergency lights, headlights, and horn honking (a short beep is thank you, two is you're welcome, etc.), and pedestrians weave their way across streets while cars swerve around them. It's quite exciting, which helps make up for the fact that the traffic is so bad, it can make a six minute drive into an hour long ordeal. Everyone walks in the street too because the sidewalks are broken up, parked on, and generally less than pleasant.
I've been super busy meeting new people and driving around the city. Yesterday I met my host mum's siblings, their children, her parents, and her grandmother and great aunt at a crowded family breakfast. One of my host cousins (is that a real phrase?) who's eleven gave me an Arabic lesson from my Arabic children's book and told me all about the Egyptian educational system. I've also met a number of Yara's friends. Everything's really confusing because everyone speaks in Arabic and I can't understand any of it, but it's too interesting for it to bother me.
I start school tomorrow. My classes are going to be taught in English but hopefully I'll have a good Arabic class as well. I'm wearing a school uniform for the first time ever, which is gray pants and a blue polo shirt. A school bus takes me there and back home, which should be interesting because school buses in Cairo are notorious for taking forever.
Okay, going to study some Arabic now! Bye-bye. (That's actually how people say goodbye here a lot.)
I've been living with my host sister Yara, my host mum Basant, and my host dad Bahaa in Heliopolis, Cairo for one week today. This is the view from our kitchen window:
The first thing that struck me about Cairo was the driving. Where there are lanes they seem to be a fluid concept, and I have yet to meet a traffic light. Drivers communicate with a combination of emergency lights, headlights, and horn honking (a short beep is thank you, two is you're welcome, etc.), and pedestrians weave their way across streets while cars swerve around them. It's quite exciting, which helps make up for the fact that the traffic is so bad, it can make a six minute drive into an hour long ordeal. Everyone walks in the street too because the sidewalks are broken up, parked on, and generally less than pleasant.
I've been super busy meeting new people and driving around the city. Yesterday I met my host mum's siblings, their children, her parents, and her grandmother and great aunt at a crowded family breakfast. One of my host cousins (is that a real phrase?) who's eleven gave me an Arabic lesson from my Arabic children's book and told me all about the Egyptian educational system. I've also met a number of Yara's friends. Everything's really confusing because everyone speaks in Arabic and I can't understand any of it, but it's too interesting for it to bother me.
I start school tomorrow. My classes are going to be taught in English but hopefully I'll have a good Arabic class as well. I'm wearing a school uniform for the first time ever, which is gray pants and a blue polo shirt. A school bus takes me there and back home, which should be interesting because school buses in Cairo are notorious for taking forever.
Okay, going to study some Arabic now! Bye-bye. (That's actually how people say goodbye here a lot.)
