Carnies in the living room...Almost

I have been checking out apartments on Craigslist…yes, Cairo has a thriving Craigslist community…because the school semester is starting here next week (i.e. Sunday, which is the Muslim Monday) so many of the apartments are getting snatched up quickly. And, let’s face it, I cannot stand living in a hotel much longer. I hate the impermanence of not knowing what is going to happen next week, much less next month. I can’t even buy normal sized shampoo because only the travel size will fit back in my suitcase if I need to pack up and leave soon.

Which I think I may not have to do, as I got unofficial word from my supervisor today that I got the program development officer job at the human rights NGO where I am currently interning. I still have not had an official offer and if the salary is too low, I may have to turn it down.

On the off chance that I do officially get offered this job, I went to see a potential apartment a couple days ago. I liked it well enough. It was clean, with a huge main room (most apartments here are built for several families so the living rooms contain at least two full sets of furniture, dividing the room into two sections. There was AC, satellite TV, wireless internet, and a bowab, or doorman, for security and quick fixes when things break down in the middle of the night (kind of like a "super").

The one drawback to the place is that my potential roommates were EXTREMELY weird looking. I mean really, really funny looking. One girl was very thin, and short, maybe like 5'3" with stringy red-orange hair and a hunchback that I didn’t notice but that Angelica, my friend who came with me to help me find the place, says was pretty obvious. The other girl had absolutely no facial features except slightly buggy eyes. She had no chin and all her other features are so flat as to be invisible. She looks almost exactly like one of those round little stress dolls that you squeeze and their eyes and ears pop out...only without the ears that pop out. But you know how those are faces that don't really look like faces? She was like that only with a Tinkerbelle blonde haircut.

Unfortunately, or, maybe fortunately, a girl came by to look at their place yesterday and wanted it on the spot so I missed out. Honestly, I am a little relieved. It would be a lot of pressure to be the hot roommate!

After seeing the place, I rewarded Angelica for coming with me by going with her to a casino in a fancy schmancy hotel nearby. All the machines are American and both the machines and the table games take only American dollars. They serve alcoholic drinks and there are some big money players there with slicked back oiled down hair who smoke like chimneys. Angelica, who is from New Jersey and plays at Atlantic City with her family all the time, lost $60 at the slot machines in less than an hour, and then made it all back plus about $20 at roulette and blackjack over the next two hours. I sipped my gin and tonic and earned my keep by holding on to her last $100 bill (so she'd forget about it in case she lost everything she'd at least walk out of there with $100) and reminding her to STAY ON 16!!!

Last night, Angelica and I went to see Transformers 2. It was actually pretty awesome, with great action and special effects. I was a little distracted by this article that I read about how Megan Fox has a slight deformity of her thumbs so that they are very, very short and the top knuckle is very wide and round with a very short, wide nail. Unsurprisingly, with all the rapidly folding and unfolding cars and exploding pyramids (yes, much of the movie takes place in Egypt), the mysterious thumbs get absolutely no screen time.

All right, it is time for the hideously melodramatic Arab soap opera with English subtitles they play every night for Ramadan. As always, I will keep you all posted on the job and apartment situation as I learn more.