My first impressions started by just the landing. Coming into Cairo the first thing I noticed was the amount of dust in the air and it was hard to see the ground at the sunset. This made me start to think "Great, this is gonna be fun to breathe here." After landing we learned that we were not going to be dropped of at the terminal, we were going to be dropped off about a mile away from the terminal on the tarmac. When I got off the plane, I was surprised to find out that my first thought was wrong. Although it was warm, the air was fine, had a somewhat of a different smell than the states. But that is no different than when you go to someone's house and it smells different than yours.
The fun truly began on our way to the terminal where I saw how they get our baggage to the terminal, they do it in truckloads. By what I saw they don't have many baggage cars. As we were driving over we saw a truck fully loaded of bags that was unstable. As soon as we rounded a corner I saw him pulled over because a bag had fallen out of his truck. Going through the visa and customs was a wlalk in the park!! It was actually waiting for our bag that was insane!! We sat and waited for our bags to show up.... and we waited...... and we waited. Finally after about a little over an hour our bags finally showing up.
After the assistant from Miranda's school met us and the driver took our bags, whew thank goodness because i was tired of caring around all of the bags. Even the bag carts were free here, rather than every other airport it cost $5 for a baggage cart. This made it much easier to manage bags. A random man helped load our bags when we got to the schools bus. This seems to be a trend here. Strangers helping you do things, and if you them even a dollar they are excited seeing the exchange rate is so big here for a USD.
Driving to our hotel is when you really start to notice the massive differences between Egypt and the US. First of all, all the talks of the driving are totally true. The driving here is very crazy. They have 4 different speed limits for cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles. So a car will go flying by while we are just putting along. They come within inches of each others bumpers when changing lanes, and the lanes are there more for guidance rather than control...lol. On the way to the hotel is when I got my first laugh if the roads here, when not once, but twice we saw a carriage on the highway here being towed not by a truck but by donkeys!! This was a shock because that is one thing that I hadn't prepared for. The next thing is the motorcycles here, I saw one that had 4 people on it. The rules here are obviously quite different. The woman sit sideways on a bike here instead of straddling the driver. They also don't wear helmets, including the kids that I saw on the bikes. The other thing I saw was something that I used to see all the time growing up. People driving in the back of trucks. There was one truck that had 7 people in the back of it. The one thing that is different is that they are also standing in the back of the truck, I even saw one man walking on top of a truck load of dirt.
The road conditions here are dirty and the roads are full of potholes and mini speed bumps from wear. There is a lot of dust and debris on the side of the road along with people walking along the highways. When we crossed over the Nile River on the highway the bridge was littered with people sitting at tables and fishing enjoying the night. It was really cool to see this. I can't remember the last time I saw a person fishing from a bridge back home. When we got to the hotel we were greeted by 2 bellhops and they got our baggage for us and brought it up to our rooms for us. The assistant from Miranda's school helped us get checked in and left at the hotel to finally relax!!
The hotel room is amazing. King size bed, modern bathroom with two types of shower heads, nice flat screen TV and internet. Back home this would easily be a $150 a night hotel room. The school paid for it so I have no idea what it cost. We had Chicken Shawarma for dinner and it was amazing!! It basically a chicken wrap with onions, pepper and a tahini sauce. Pizza was an option but I decided lets try some local cuisine :-). Miranda was happy about this.
So after my first impressions it seems to be so far so good. I am very excited about being here and a lot of my concerns have already been dismissed. I'm excited to go out and find our new home today but first thing is first...... BREAKFAST!!
The fun truly began on our way to the terminal where I saw how they get our baggage to the terminal, they do it in truckloads. By what I saw they don't have many baggage cars. As we were driving over we saw a truck fully loaded of bags that was unstable. As soon as we rounded a corner I saw him pulled over because a bag had fallen out of his truck. Going through the visa and customs was a wlalk in the park!! It was actually waiting for our bag that was insane!! We sat and waited for our bags to show up.... and we waited...... and we waited. Finally after about a little over an hour our bags finally showing up.
After the assistant from Miranda's school met us and the driver took our bags, whew thank goodness because i was tired of caring around all of the bags. Even the bag carts were free here, rather than every other airport it cost $5 for a baggage cart. This made it much easier to manage bags. A random man helped load our bags when we got to the schools bus. This seems to be a trend here. Strangers helping you do things, and if you them even a dollar they are excited seeing the exchange rate is so big here for a USD.
Driving to our hotel is when you really start to notice the massive differences between Egypt and the US. First of all, all the talks of the driving are totally true. The driving here is very crazy. They have 4 different speed limits for cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles. So a car will go flying by while we are just putting along. They come within inches of each others bumpers when changing lanes, and the lanes are there more for guidance rather than control...lol. On the way to the hotel is when I got my first laugh if the roads here, when not once, but twice we saw a carriage on the highway here being towed not by a truck but by donkeys!! This was a shock because that is one thing that I hadn't prepared for. The next thing is the motorcycles here, I saw one that had 4 people on it. The rules here are obviously quite different. The woman sit sideways on a bike here instead of straddling the driver. They also don't wear helmets, including the kids that I saw on the bikes. The other thing I saw was something that I used to see all the time growing up. People driving in the back of trucks. There was one truck that had 7 people in the back of it. The one thing that is different is that they are also standing in the back of the truck, I even saw one man walking on top of a truck load of dirt.
The road conditions here are dirty and the roads are full of potholes and mini speed bumps from wear. There is a lot of dust and debris on the side of the road along with people walking along the highways. When we crossed over the Nile River on the highway the bridge was littered with people sitting at tables and fishing enjoying the night. It was really cool to see this. I can't remember the last time I saw a person fishing from a bridge back home. When we got to the hotel we were greeted by 2 bellhops and they got our baggage for us and brought it up to our rooms for us. The assistant from Miranda's school helped us get checked in and left at the hotel to finally relax!!
The hotel room is amazing. King size bed, modern bathroom with two types of shower heads, nice flat screen TV and internet. Back home this would easily be a $150 a night hotel room. The school paid for it so I have no idea what it cost. We had Chicken Shawarma for dinner and it was amazing!! It basically a chicken wrap with onions, pepper and a tahini sauce. Pizza was an option but I decided lets try some local cuisine :-). Miranda was happy about this.
So after my first impressions it seems to be so far so good. I am very excited about being here and a lot of my concerns have already been dismissed. I'm excited to go out and find our new home today but first thing is first...... BREAKFAST!!
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