For the first time since arriving in Egypt, I now have reliable access to wireless in my place of residence. Gone are the days of sharing a cable so worn that it has to be combined with a screwdriver to connect to my laptop. Andrea and I have, after much to-ing and fro-ing over the decision, moved to a new apartment. Charming as the old place was, the noise from the "samkaree" on the street below as he vainly pounded at already-battered old cars was starting to send us both slightly crazy, and after a minor brawl on the street outside we decided it was time to go. Thankfully the landlord, a true gentleman, was happy to return our deposit to us, allowing us to look for another place. A couple of days and a quick flat search later we moved into the new place, which is considerably larger, with WiFi and a washing machine for the same price. All in all a good deal I'm sure you'll agree. The flat itself is looking good, decorated with Egyptian movie posters (some classy, some not-so) I'm rushing a little at the moment so no pics as yet, but soon I promise.
Here are some photos of our place, though I'm not sure they really do it justice.
Nouredin = Hero. Two long afternoons trailing round in mid-afternoon heat finally paid off as we found an excellent little flat 10 minutes walk from Andrea’s bus stop that is excellently air conditioned and generally very homely. It’s in a really great part of town that is very Egyptian – we live in front of a subsidised bread stand and above a makeshift coffee shop – but that is also not too far away from the trendy cafés of Tahrir. Everyone we’ve met here has been extremely friendly and welcoming and people are trying to help us with everything from the internet to the washing machine and to the sofa I broke after being in the flat a mere 3 hours. Guinness World Record anyone? I think it may be the result of 2 days of kosharee and one cheesy bites pizza.
This morning we went shopping in the local street market for some groceries and cleaning products, which I then deployed in expert fashion in a revival of my pro-lifeguarding days, “squeejee-ing” the floors with meticulous accuracy and speed. It’s looking good – I’m reluctant to upload pictures just yet as we have some work to do putting up posters, buying throws etc. but I’ll sort it ASAP. We also have plenty of space for people to stay, so Ahlan wa Sahlan!
Right, off to Carrefour to buy towels, bedding and all things nice. More soon!
After taking a couple of days to enjoy Cairo and kosharee the exhausting search for an apartment is now well and truly on. As previously mentioned, the dirty Americans at the AUC have swine flu (although there are now some unconfirmed rumours on Twitter that there has been a first Egyptian infected) and her classes were cancelled until Monday, which means she can help look for a place. We visited Maadi (location of suspected Egyptian swine flu case), which is closest to the AUC after its move from the handily located Downtown campus, and decided that it was very beautiful and would probably be a nice place to live, but that we'd actually prefer to try the Downtown chaos for a while. In that vein we hiked round the areas surrounding Meedan Tahrir led by an energetic and resourceful simsar - the man who finds people a flat. The way the simsars work is amazing, they seem to be able to know someone in every building and a phone number to call to see whether a flat is available. Their local knowledge and networking ability is truly astounding - I have no idea how Nouredin (our simsar) manages this whilst studying for a law MA. Speak of the devil, we're off to meet him now (Nouredin not the devil) and I've killed two laptop batteries in the time it's taken me to check emails and write an update. More soon, love and peace.
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