Ana a'eesh hina -- I live here!

I awoke dreaming of faraway landscapes - Alaska's epic Chugach Mountains, Australia's tropical Lizard Island, and Charlottesville's trees in spring - but I found comfort in rising to make a fancy breakfast with Ryan and Noelle in our new home. We absolutely love our high-ceilinged apartment with countless windows, wooden floors, a marble countertop kitchen and an enormous bathtub. We live in Garden City, an old neighborhood with quiet winding tree-lined streets behind the bustling main road, Qasr El Aini. Our apartment is within a 5-minute walk to Downtown Cairo, a couple metro stations, and the River Nile. A couple nights ago we watched the sunset over the Nile from a felucca (sailboat) with our friend Anthony, who lives nearby and just graduated from American University in D.C. For the most part, Garden City seems to be more of an Egyptian neighborhood than a Western one, although Qasr El Aini is never short of stores with American brand shampoos and appliances. We've been window shopping for blenders but can't bring ourselves to spend 500 Egyptian pounds (about $100) on a single appliance.



Now that we feel slightly settled into our apartment, Ryan and I are trying to focus on job hunting as Noelle takes off to the U.K. for a 2-week family vacation. She has instructed us to learn Arabic and explore more of Cairo while she's away, but we swear to be bed-ridden the whole 14 days, only rising to take baths in our own tears. Actually I'm looking forward to locating Ultimate Frisbee teams, karaoke bars and other unexpected treasures in this vast city.

Cairo proves to be surprising on a daily basis, even when we don't leave Garden City. There are a few reliable constants, such as shop owners' warm smiles at our feeble attempts at Arabic, and strangers' insistence on helping us find our way or telling us "Inti min Amrika? Obama kwayyis!" (You're from America? Obama, good!) Then there's the frequent hissing to get our attention and uttering "You are beautiful" or "Where did you get those magic eyes".



Last night we went to a performance in Khan El Khalili (a famous colorful bazaar full of pushy vendors, ancient buildings and overwhelming tourist groups) that had
Sufi dancing, an Islamic sect's traditional means of getting closer to God through song and dance. We marveled at the drums, trumpets and colorful twirling for a head-spinning 75 minutes, then strolled narrow paths between vendors' tents in search of blankets and other homey items for our apartment. All I got was a pair of house slippers and many scoffs at my cheap price proposals for expensive "handmade" bedspreads. Malesh, mumkin badain. Oh well, maybe next time...



My Arabic hasn't made much progress in the last few days because we've been busy moving into our place, so Noelle, Ryan and I just keep reviewing our last session of "feelings" - consequently we randomly say to each other "Are you depressed?" "I'm correct!" "Do you want to sleep?" It really humbles me for moments like now in the sheesha bar-internet cafe when our waiter keeps coming up and saying "Have a nice day!" We're not sure how to respond after the 5th time. But I know I haven't mastered that phrase in Arabic so it's Tori: 0, waiter: 1. Count it.



The cat running through our legs under the table has dark brown stripes down its back like a discolored skunk. Maybe it's an omen to take off and head home with Noelle and Ryan. We're going to grab some of that famous Egyptian take-out cousine called koshary - lentils, pasta and spicy tomato sauce. Maybe it'll be a movie night with an Egyptian friend who's visiting from Dahab. I could use more chill time - It's ironic how stressful unemployment can be, when I don't even have a job to eat up my energy and daylight hours! Wish me luck!