First Impressions of Our New Home

I thought it would be a good idea to post about our first impressions from the first few hours we spent in Cairo. I wanted to do this now, before we have had more time to think about things.

Miranda's First Impressions....in no particular order

--The Cairo airport sucks. We were dropped off on the runway and bused over to the terminal. I felt like it took forever for us to get over to the terminal and I felt thankful that I wasn't transferring at this airport. Once we go to the terminal...about 30min after our plane landed....we had to then wait for our bags....which took..for.ev.er. We sat and waited, in our exhausted, sleep deprived state, for close to an hour for all of our bags to arrive. We realized it was probably because they had to drive separate loads from our plane all the way around to the terminal. When our bags finally spit out, I literally jumped up and cheered. Which is saying a lot if you knew how exhausted I was...All I can say is that I am very glad that all of our flying is over.

--I am going to have to learn how to be assertive to get by in this country. As we were trying to walk out of the door after going through customs, we were greeted by thrones of people trying to get us to use their taxi. The customs people had to go to the door and push them all back and away from the door. They were literally blocking the door. Taxi, you need a taxi? You need help with your bags? Taxi? Use my taxi?! Here let me take your bags! ....Of course, we already had someone waiting for us, so we just had to tell them, no, we don't need your taxi and don't need your help. Then, when we met with Ms. Dalia, the woman from my school, and our driver, we started to walk to our bus. The driver was pushing our luggage cart. When we got to the bus, I noticed another man was with us. I was surprised because I didn't notice him before, but figured I just overlooked him. He helped the driver load the bus with our bags. Then when he was done, he tried to get a tip from Mike? He didn't speak English, but he was attempting to get money for helping us. Thankfully, Ms. Dalia, pushed him out the door. Haha. It wasn't a scary situation by any means, but it will definitely take some assertion on my part to firmly tell these people no, I don't need your help! But I think this is a great thing! I really wish I was more assertive.

--I can definitely see how people think it is dirty here. But I don't think it is terrible. The airport was a little dirty....there was some trash littered around, but it wasn't excessive. I noticed on the way from the airport that certain areas on the freeway had piles of trash. But, I knew this coming in, so it wasn't really a surprise to me.

--The driving is definitely scary, but also a little entertaining. On the way to our hotel from the airport we saw: -loads of people in the backs of trucks (which you used to see in the 90s, but not anymore) -people riding bikes/scooters seriously fast with no helmets and some riding sideways - a donkey cart trekking along down the freeway - a big dump like truck with a whole load in the back (hay maybe?) and a man standing up on top of the load looking through the hay-type substance.....that was definitely entertaining!

--The people here are definitely super nice and very accommodating! I had a lady in the bathroom at the airport assist me in washing my hands....and then tried to get money from me, but that's beside the point. I would have given her something if I hadn't just got off the plane and if Mike didn't have all our money. As soon as we met with Dalia, we no longer had to carry our luggage. The driver pushed our five 50lb bags to the bus. When we go to the airport, I tried to get our bags off, and Dalia told me not to. So the driver and the hotel people got our luggage (ok, i know that happens a lot at hotels with bellmen, but still). We were escorted to our room by a man who showed us around and showed us everything about the room. Again, I know this happens at hotels, but really, everyone we interacted with was genuine and truly helpful.

--I am grateful to have a representative from the school being my representative and translator. I have no idea where we would be if we did not have Ms. Dalia. It sank in to us, in Chicago, when we got on our flight to Germany, that we are now officially the foreigners. We do not know what the people around us are saying and some of them don't know what we are saying. On our flights, all announcements were either made in German or Arabic depending on the flight and then followed by an English translation. But everywhere else does not give us an English translation. I am so thankful to have Ms. Dalia with us to hash everything out in Arabic for us. She seemed to have a lengthy conversation with the hotel front desk when checking us in. I have no idea what they said, but whatever was the problem, she handled it for us. She is going to be a lifesaver when we go out to rent our apartment!

--The nights are definitely humid. I will see today how the days are.  When we got out of our air conditioned bus last night, into the hot air, my glasses instantly fogged up. However, it wasn't unbearable at all. I didn't mind it.

--The pyramids are huge!

--Lastly, my school is amazing. Our bus that will we be riding every day is big and air conditioned! When we got on the bus and started going, Dalia brought me kind of like a welcome packet. The school purchased a cell phone for me, complimentary! Dalia even offered to put credits on it for me to call back home to the states, but I told her it was not necessary since we have our Magic Jack. The welcome packet also had my settling in allowance in Egyptian Pounds, and our shipping allowance, in USD. Dalia has seriously been a lifesaver. She has gone out of her way for each of us. I am sure that my experience with this school is only going to get better!