Desserts and camels are cool but I can't drink the water

Well. Hello from Cairo. I'll try to make this a little less painfully long than the last one.

I have been in Cairo for a little more than two days now and I am pretty sure I am in love. I mean... I am pretty much covered at all times in a layer of sweat and general grime... but kind of like when you are at camp... it doesn't seem to matter.... because so is everyone else.

I arrived at the airport a little after 11 am on Wednesday and was a little terrified about going through customs. In San Antonio, when I checked in at the airport the little check in man told me that I would never be allowed into the country without a return ticket. He printed a fake return itenerary for me and told me "good luck" about purchasing my visa once I got into the city. PERFECT.

As it turned out.... the customs man took a liking to me and gave me a visa without even looking at my passport. You've got to love being a girl sometimes.

When I got out of the airport (which took a total of about 10 minutes) I met up with two Arabic men (who spoke no English) and one South African/Kiwi/English/French/Spanish/married-to-an-Egyptian-man woman named Boni (she had a hard time sticking to a nationality) who all worked for the school. They took me out to the car that we would be taking to my apartment. After strapping all of my luggage to the top of it with a slightly shanty-looking orange rope, we realized that other cars had parked in front of, behind, and on both sides of the car. Tricky. Luckily, our driver was a magician. Or the car was a harry potter car. Or something. I don't know. All I know is that the only place another car was not parked was in the caddy-corner diagonal spot in front and to the right of us... and somehow.... our driver fit through the three foot hole that was open between all of the other cars and got us out of there without hitting anything. I think that was when I knew I was in love.

We drove throughout New Cairo, and New New Cairo and Boni told me about the history of certain deserty spots and highways and such. It was amazing to me that the whole city is about the same height.... which is tall. There aren't really sky scrapers.... but everything is about 7 stories. And every roof has about 25 satellites on top. And it just goes on and on FOREVER. Like.... significantly larger than any US city in terms of scope.... and then add in the fact that every building is 7 stories high. And then in the middle of all of the buildings will be a dessert field. Or a plateau. And on any given street you'll see a donkey. In the middle of down town. It is pretty freaking awesome. Oh. Wow. Actually.... as I write this I am listening to the Muslim Call to Worship that rings out throughout the city.

My apartment is actually pretty nice. It has a kitchen, bathroom, large living room (with a TV and phone) as well as three large bedrooms. I found it a little comical that no one prepared it for us until we got there..... the moment we arrived... the two men from the school and my new door man came up and proceded to replace light bulbs.... and fix the hot water... and put a peep hole in the door.... hang curtains.... etc. It was so great that they helped with all of that.... but I just kept thinking.... why didn't you do this BEFORE I got here? Apparently this is how things are done in Egypt.

My roommate, who I met the next day, is a 25 year old Australian girl named Sarah. She came to Egypt a few years ago and fell in love with Egypt and the Islamic faith. She is a recent convert and will participating in her first Ramadan starting on September 1st. I am sure that this will be an incredible learning experience for me.... so.... I guess I am looking forward to that.

I have already met more incredible people than I think I can handle. Honestly... I cannot believe how many young, fun people there are that live here that want the exact same things I do out of life. Last night I went out with the McIntoshes (my parent's best friends who I will be refering to from this point out as my family) and their friends and two young guys, Zach, who was one of the McIntoshes oldest son's best friends and who will be a Freshman at Uni this year, and his cousin, Mike, who just graduated from Uni and has been visiting Cairo for a little over a week and will leave in a few days. We ordered a pizza, brought some wine, and then took a sail boat down the Nile for dinner. No big deal.

Later that night I went with the boys to their friend's house (a 24 year old guy who graduated from GW in '07 and works for Coke here in Egypt doing CSR related relations...). We had martinis and beer and I smoked my first crazy Egyptian hooka pipe thing. Apparently it is the cool thing to do. It was delightful. Afterwards I tried to go home to my apartment and found that I could not get into the building... I do not have a key to the outer door and I do not yet know what time they lock up at night... kind of tricky. I ended up waking up the McIntoshes (I felt horrible.... they thought it was hillarious) and spent the night at their house.

This morning I walked home, got ready, and walked back from my apartment to the McIntoshes house (about a five minute walk) and we went to church for my first time at the Maadi Community Church and worshipped in the blazing 103 degree Egyptian heat under a tent with people from over 50 different countries.

Tonight Sheryl is hosting a party for every 20-something person that she knows so that we can all get to know one another. The party has grown to who-knows-how-many. 20? I don't even know. Canadian? Egyptian? American? But I am excited. I am so blessed to have her here.

Really.... with the exception of the fact that I live in constant fear that I will slip up and drink the tap water.... everything has been perfect.

Ok. I know this is more than you wanted to know. I promise these will get shorter... there is just a lot right now.... because... you know.... everything I do is new.