Jason woke up on the 19th with a splitting headache. All our medicine was sealed up in the bottom of one of the tubs, so he decided to go outside the hotel and find some medicine. Yes, he’s crazy. His first morning in Cairo he went out on his own. He said he saw his first guard with a gun and wild dogs running the streets. I think the dogs scared him more than the gun! He asked someone to direct him to a pharmacy, which turned out to be closed. He approached a man at a little stand that sold drinks, candy, and newspapers, and gestured to the man to explain that he had a headache and needed medicine. The man opened a box of ibuprofen on his shelf and gave Jason one pill. He would not let Jason pay for the medicine.
We all went down to breakfast at the hotel. It was interesting—there was some funny runny oatmeal, sticky buns, and various cheeses and slices of meat, as well as a few Egyptian dishes to try. (I didn’t try them!) There was also some orange juice, which turned out to be Tang! At breakfast we met most of the new teachers who would be living in Maadi (the section of Cairo we chose to live in) and several returning teachers who would be guiding us in our apartment searches. Luke began the process of winning all these people over that morning at breakfast!
After breakfast, we were divided into groups and sent out with different real estate agents to look for apartments in Maadi. Each agent worked for a different company, and each was very anxious to make sure “his” apartments were shown. Our group consisted of our family, a couple who are near retirement age, a single mom with a teenage daughter, and another couple in their 30s. Our agent’s name was Mustafa. Mustafa started out by showing us several apartments in the 4000-5000 LE (Egyptian pounds) range. They were nice apartments, but out of our budget. After seeing four of these, we started talking among ourselves. We found out that all of us were looking for apartments in the 3,000-3,500 LE range, except for the older couple, who wanted nothing cheaper than 5,000 LE! We told Mustafa this information, but he still took us to a few more places that were no good for any of us. At about noon he began showing us the apartments that fit our budget better. We found two that we liked. One was quoted to us as being “three thousand seventy five”. I asked, “Three-zero-seven-five?” and was told “yes.” We got out the contract, began the process of signing the lease, and Jason wrote down 3075 LE as the rent price. The landlord disagreed, and said the whole time he had quoted us 3750. It was very frustrating, as this was much more than we wanted to pay. We walked away from that apartment. I was embarrassed because the other couples had sat and waited on us the whole time (30 minutes?) we negotiated and talked, all for nothing.
At last Mustafa took us to an area of Maadi called Nerco. It seemed really quiet, cleaner than some of the other areas that we’d seen, and much more in our price range. We saw one apartment I liked pretty well. The whole thing was painted PEACH (ick!), but it was really big, with a dishwasher and a dryer (both luxuries here). There were two bathrooms (one of them had a picture of Daisy Duck in the tiles!) and two bedrooms. We did not choose that one, though, because it was up six flights of stairs with no elevator, and the furniture in Luke’s room was impossibly girly.
We had our first “intercultural experience” at the peach apartment, though. There were two very sweet Egyptian ladies who were currently living in the apartment. They were wearing robes and scarves covered their hair. They immediately gravitated to Luke, clucking and cooing at him. (He is not used to being cooed at, so he wasn’t sure what to think!) One of the ladies took him from me to try to hold them. The other kissed the tips of her fingers and then touched them to Luke’s cheeks. Luke was very apprehensive about these girls, until one of them approached him later, when Jason was holding him. She handed him his first piece of bubble gum. (So much for the “No gum till you’re 3!” rule.) Jason allowed him to eat it, and of course, Luke promptly swallowed it. It was a really sweet interaction, though, and so far this has been the reception we’ve been given here in Cairo.
We arrived back at the hotel for lunch, late, at 12:45. We had Quizno’s for lunch (yay!). Luke had fallen asleep on the bus ride and slept in my lap the whole time we were at the hotel for lunch. While we were at the hotel, Jason made our budget needs clear to the returning teachers, who reorganized the groups accordingly and prepared to send us out again. Many of the new teachers had already found apartments, though, so we did not need all four real estate agents for the afternoon. The one who was sent home got very angry. He argued very loudly that he was supposed to be included in the afternoon, to show apartments to couples. Elyse told him she was just following instructions, and that he could come back the following morning to help anyone who hadn’t found an apartment in the afternoon. This did not satisfy him, though. He set a stack of business cards on the table, said to those in the lobby that we could call him individually if we would like to see some very nice apartments, and walked across the room toward the door. He was joined by two or three other men, with whom he began talking loudly and gesturing broadly. The scene lasted 15-20 minutes, and we all tried to ignore it. This type of confrontation, which becomes increasingly public, is supposed to be very typical here in Egypt.
We got back on the bus with the other couple our age, Noel and Rachella, and our new agent, Mohamed Ali. (He’s the greatest of all TIME.) We quickly told Mohamed what we were looking for, and he told Jason, “I have the apartment for you.” We loved the first apartment he showed us. Noel and Rachella loved the second apartment. Mohamed Ali truly was the greatest.
Negotiation on our apartment was interesting. Mohamed quoted us $4000, but told us he thought the landlady would agree to $3500. He called her, arguing back and forth, and hung up. He told us she’d gone down to $3750, and that he’d call her back later. Within an hour, he had gotten her to agree to $3500 and putting an air conditioner in Luke’s room. Amazing. However, when we arrived that evening at 6:30 to sign our lease, her husband disagreed about the air conditioner and we had to haggle a lot to get them to agree to install it at their expense. We didn’t leave there until 9:00.
Once the lease was signed, we were pleased and felt much more relaxed about things here. We really like our apartment—it’s smaller than we’d hoped for, but plenty big for our needs. More description later.
We ordered dinner at the hotel at about 9:30, because we’d missed the school-planned dinner at a restaurant on the Nile. After we ate, we all fell into bed at around 10:30 and slept until 10:30 the next morning!
We all went down to breakfast at the hotel. It was interesting—there was some funny runny oatmeal, sticky buns, and various cheeses and slices of meat, as well as a few Egyptian dishes to try. (I didn’t try them!) There was also some orange juice, which turned out to be Tang! At breakfast we met most of the new teachers who would be living in Maadi (the section of Cairo we chose to live in) and several returning teachers who would be guiding us in our apartment searches. Luke began the process of winning all these people over that morning at breakfast!
After breakfast, we were divided into groups and sent out with different real estate agents to look for apartments in Maadi. Each agent worked for a different company, and each was very anxious to make sure “his” apartments were shown. Our group consisted of our family, a couple who are near retirement age, a single mom with a teenage daughter, and another couple in their 30s. Our agent’s name was Mustafa. Mustafa started out by showing us several apartments in the 4000-5000 LE (Egyptian pounds) range. They were nice apartments, but out of our budget. After seeing four of these, we started talking among ourselves. We found out that all of us were looking for apartments in the 3,000-3,500 LE range, except for the older couple, who wanted nothing cheaper than 5,000 LE! We told Mustafa this information, but he still took us to a few more places that were no good for any of us. At about noon he began showing us the apartments that fit our budget better. We found two that we liked. One was quoted to us as being “three thousand seventy five”. I asked, “Three-zero-seven-five?” and was told “yes.” We got out the contract, began the process of signing the lease, and Jason wrote down 3075 LE as the rent price. The landlord disagreed, and said the whole time he had quoted us 3750. It was very frustrating, as this was much more than we wanted to pay. We walked away from that apartment. I was embarrassed because the other couples had sat and waited on us the whole time (30 minutes?) we negotiated and talked, all for nothing.
At last Mustafa took us to an area of Maadi called Nerco. It seemed really quiet, cleaner than some of the other areas that we’d seen, and much more in our price range. We saw one apartment I liked pretty well. The whole thing was painted PEACH (ick!), but it was really big, with a dishwasher and a dryer (both luxuries here). There were two bathrooms (one of them had a picture of Daisy Duck in the tiles!) and two bedrooms. We did not choose that one, though, because it was up six flights of stairs with no elevator, and the furniture in Luke’s room was impossibly girly.
We had our first “intercultural experience” at the peach apartment, though. There were two very sweet Egyptian ladies who were currently living in the apartment. They were wearing robes and scarves covered their hair. They immediately gravitated to Luke, clucking and cooing at him. (He is not used to being cooed at, so he wasn’t sure what to think!) One of the ladies took him from me to try to hold them. The other kissed the tips of her fingers and then touched them to Luke’s cheeks. Luke was very apprehensive about these girls, until one of them approached him later, when Jason was holding him. She handed him his first piece of bubble gum. (So much for the “No gum till you’re 3!” rule.) Jason allowed him to eat it, and of course, Luke promptly swallowed it. It was a really sweet interaction, though, and so far this has been the reception we’ve been given here in Cairo.
We arrived back at the hotel for lunch, late, at 12:45. We had Quizno’s for lunch (yay!). Luke had fallen asleep on the bus ride and slept in my lap the whole time we were at the hotel for lunch. While we were at the hotel, Jason made our budget needs clear to the returning teachers, who reorganized the groups accordingly and prepared to send us out again. Many of the new teachers had already found apartments, though, so we did not need all four real estate agents for the afternoon. The one who was sent home got very angry. He argued very loudly that he was supposed to be included in the afternoon, to show apartments to couples. Elyse told him she was just following instructions, and that he could come back the following morning to help anyone who hadn’t found an apartment in the afternoon. This did not satisfy him, though. He set a stack of business cards on the table, said to those in the lobby that we could call him individually if we would like to see some very nice apartments, and walked across the room toward the door. He was joined by two or three other men, with whom he began talking loudly and gesturing broadly. The scene lasted 15-20 minutes, and we all tried to ignore it. This type of confrontation, which becomes increasingly public, is supposed to be very typical here in Egypt.
We got back on the bus with the other couple our age, Noel and Rachella, and our new agent, Mohamed Ali. (He’s the greatest of all TIME.) We quickly told Mohamed what we were looking for, and he told Jason, “I have the apartment for you.” We loved the first apartment he showed us. Noel and Rachella loved the second apartment. Mohamed Ali truly was the greatest.
Negotiation on our apartment was interesting. Mohamed quoted us $4000, but told us he thought the landlady would agree to $3500. He called her, arguing back and forth, and hung up. He told us she’d gone down to $3750, and that he’d call her back later. Within an hour, he had gotten her to agree to $3500 and putting an air conditioner in Luke’s room. Amazing. However, when we arrived that evening at 6:30 to sign our lease, her husband disagreed about the air conditioner and we had to haggle a lot to get them to agree to install it at their expense. We didn’t leave there until 9:00.
Once the lease was signed, we were pleased and felt much more relaxed about things here. We really like our apartment—it’s smaller than we’d hoped for, but plenty big for our needs. More description later.
We ordered dinner at the hotel at about 9:30, because we’d missed the school-planned dinner at a restaurant on the Nile. After we ate, we all fell into bed at around 10:30 and slept until 10:30 the next morning!
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