Intro to Cairo

First, a note about the title of this blog. Although "Yomummysofat" came in a close second, I picked Misree Loves Company because of its cute pun (Misree is the Arabic word for "Egyptian") and I thought the play on "misery" was appropriate because many of the events I narrate in my letters home are about all the bad things that happen to me when I travel. I tend to be a bit of a crap magnet and those stories always turn out to be the funniest anyway.

I realize looking at my watch that I have been in Cairo less than two full days, though it already feels like I've been here for weeks. Perhaps because I have developed the following bizarre sleep schedule:

I arrived in the afternoon of the 4th, having slept for about 3 hours on the plane. I pushed myself to stay awake for the rest of that day by reading in my room and then going to a mall all evening with my new friend, Angelica. I went to bed around midnight, slept like a freaking corpse for two hours and then snapped awake at 2:30 a.m. I stayed awake for about seven hours, ate breakfast, then finally fell back to sleep around 9:30. I then proceeded to sleep the ENTIRE DAY of the 5th. I woke up at noon when the maid came to clean my hotel room just long enough to tell her to come back tomorrow (which I cleverly described in Arabic as "the day which is not today"), then crashed again until 5pm. This obviously wrought havoc on last night's sleep as well, which also ended at 2:30 a.m., resumed at 6:30 a.m., and was rudely interrupted by my alarm at 9:30.

I blame the very tall Egyptian-American jerk who sat in my row on the plane. We both had aisle seats with 2 empty seats between us and agreed to split the middle row, each taking 1 extra seat. But of course he pushed his size 14 foot into my space within ten minutes of lying down (he was like 6'3", how did he think he could sleep lying down in 2 seats anyway?). At 5'2", I actually can fit lying down in two seats, but not without nudging uncomfortably against his massive foot so after tossing and turning uncomfortably for three hours in a semi-sitting position, I lay down on the floor. Where he stepped on me. To his credit, he then apologized. Then stepped on me again an hour later.

I was most concerned about covering the distance from the door of the plane to the door of my hotel without being robbed or kidnapped. This small victory I did accomplish but it took about three times longer than it should have (an hour and a half for a 30 minute taxi ride) because my driver and I could NOT find my hotel to save our lives. We passed the same shops, the same hotels, the same stretch of the Nile something like NINE times before we finally found a ten year old boy who had heard of the street we were looking for. I totally could have adopted that boy.

My first "day" of work was today, though I was only there for about 45 minutes. My "boss" is a researcher around my age with excellent English and American slang named Dina. I wasn't there ten minutes before she suggested I apply for a paid position in the fundraising department. Within fifteen minutes, she'd arranged for a formal interview for me this week. So we'll see how that goes.

Tonight, another walk along the Nile with Angelica (we're both trying to stay in shape the cheap way, since a gym membership at the nearby Hyatt Hotel costs $5000 per year, yes, I said FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR. However, the cheap way also involves near constant sexual harassment (the dopey kind, not the threatening kind) by every Egyptian boy out on the prowl along the riverfront. Can't wait.