Ahh, finally here
January 15, 2010
Musa’ ilxneer. Good Evening. Well, everyone, I made it fine. The flight was rough, as expected, but safe. I have been here for three days, and I got to tell you it wasn’t quite like I expected – I guess that’s to be expected though. First of all, the people here are really friendly, quite accommodating really. Many go through great pains to make sure that we feel welcome. Sure some probably aren’t really interested in us being here, but I cannot tell you how many people I have seen light up the moment we have said hi. And the children are hilarious. I was worried about my stuff getting stolen since I was staying in a flat near the college site. Interestingly enough, theft is really low around here, even for foreigners. I have no fear about leaving anything lying around in my room.
I’m still in the orientation week, so classes haven’t officially started yet, but there is no wasting time with learning Arabic. That’s the nice part about living here, I get the first-hand experience. Although, the one thing that is not safe is the driving…or walking for that matter. Here in Egypt, the driver has the ride away. That means that we pedestrians watch every angle and side street because there is no telling where the cars will come from. The bicyclists are the real daredevils. The kids around here do what every mother in the states would absolutely forbid. The people on bikes ride recklessly in and around the crazy traffic with what seems like little though to safety. We almost saw a kid on a bike hit today. Luckily enough the driver saw him as they turned the corner. The kid merely continued out onto the local main street, again, in and out of traffic. Wow, is all I could say. I will get into that later.
Now, I got to go back to eat dinner. We get fed a lot here. There is breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then there are all the snacks in between. Talk to you soon.
