Moving Day in Egypt: Katameya Bound!

Today was moving day in Egypt.

Well, for us, at least.

We got up at about 5am to send Katie off at the airport. The poor girl had my luck – I had a feeling she would. She ended up getting super sick on the plane, so they bumped her up to first class. Then she missed her connecting flight by about 5 minutes in London, so she was delayed by about a day in getting home. She arrived safe and sound (and with her luggage, I might add). I’m starting to think that our family shouldn’t be let into airports haha.

Afterwards, we packed up all of our stuff – which is much easier here since we have been renting furnished apartments (or ‘flats’ as they call them here). We were quite the spectacle with all of our stuff out on the curb waiting for the minivan to move us.

As soon as our driver arrived, we loaded the van up – on the roof and inside – and my Mom said goodbye to her Bowab, who is kind of like the doorman and fix-it-all. Cutest man ever, will definitely miss his smiling face!

My mom and her Bowab, the doorman

We made the  trip to Katameya, unloaded all of our stuff, and then went back for Sherri’s stuff. Somehow she had more stuff than we did combined (although, granted, she did have a lot of plants…). It was an adventure, but somehow we managed to get it all stuffed in the van minus one palm tree.

Momsters new place 

That night, we set up the Christmas lights and enjoyed the new balcony. We’re all a bit pooped, but ready to get to know a new area!

Katie’s Last Day in Egypt

It was Katie’s last day in Egypt.

Le sad face.

I am going to miss her times a thousand. She has been my main partner in crime here.

Now I’ll just have to rely on rat #2 ;)

Juuuust kidding, love you Emsies!

Lunch at Grand Café on the Nile River

We have already done all of the big things that there are to do in and around Cairo: we’ve seen the pyramids, gone on a felucca ride, been to the markets and a couple different areas in old Cairo, so we decided to just kind of take it easy for Katie’s last day here.

We went to Corniche, the road that runs along the Nile River, and ended up going for lunch and Grand Café which overlooks the Nile.

We had a delicious lunch – we are a bit obsessed with the Greek salads here – and enjoyed some shisha as the felucca’s drifted by. The perfect way to spend the afternoon :)

Referendum on the New Constitution

Today also happened to be the first day of voting on the new constitution in Egypt. There is a bit of controversy around the vote since it is essentially voting on whether or not people agree with the military removing Morsi from power and naming the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

The entire country has been bombarded with media supporting the ‘YES!’ to the referendum on the New Constitution. I have heard a lot of people talk about the referendum, and it seem like no two people think the same way: some are avid supporters of the YES vote, mostly people who just  want their lives to go back to ‘normal’ or how it was pre-revolution, others said they obstained from voting since they didn’t think that their vote would make a difference or because they didn’t think that it was a fair referendum, and barely anyone would vote NO – I heard that military had been given ‘shoot when needed’ orders, since a NO vote was associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Anyway, like ridiculous tourists, we decided to go out for a nice dinner with a bunch of people in order to send Katie off in style. Our taxi driver had no idea where he was going, and ended up dropping us off at one of the polling stations in Ma’adi. We got out of the taxi and thought that there was a lot of commotion going on and then I spotted the polling station. We started moving pretty quickly in the opposite direction, just in case anything started to happen.

We found someone who spoke English and asked what was going on, and whether it was okay for us to be walking around. The lady said “You know, its election night in Egypt, so there is just a lot of commotion today. It is not safe to be on the street.” We kind of freaked out a bit and asked her if we should just give up our search for the restaurant and grab a taxi home, and whether she thought it was safe for us. “Pfft this is Ma’adi. No worries”

That made us feel much better ;)

Dinner at Bau Khao

After a couple of wrong turns, we ended up finding our destination: Bau Khao, arguably one of the best Korean restaurants in Ma’adi.

I had the spicy ginger chicken with rice. So delicious.

Definitely check it out if you are in the area!

Grocery Shopping on Road 7 in Maadi, New Cairo

Hi friends! 

Hope you're all having a wunderbar Thursday so far :) 

We had an awesome day today. We lazed around this morning - it felt so good to make my own breakfast of yogurt, strawberries and banana with muesli - and then headed over to Road 7 to meet up with my Mom's friend Sherri, her son Ryan and her roommate Curtis, who also works as a teacher with my Momster. 

All of the roads here are numbered. For example, my Mom's apartment is on Road 199. 

My Mom and Sherri love going to Road 7 to get their groceries - with a stop on Road 9 at their fav nut shop, obvi ;) 

We were the only Caucasian people to be seen. Lots of the vendors thought it was hilarious that a whole pack of white people were wandering around trying to haggle them. 

But they were good sports about it and actually have us the Egyptian price most of the time. 

Well, as far as we could tell ;) 

You can find anything that you could ever want and more - this is the fish guy, who insisted on shoving a fresh fish in my face every time I walked by. La! No! 

We made sure to stop by my little sister Emily's fav cupcake shop on the way home - I would suggest the red velvet, not the chocolate...

Overall, a successful grocery excursion! Only took us a couple of hours ;) 

Everything is a bit of an ordeal here, but I'm loving every minute of it so far! 

We're just heading out to Sherri's place for a big homemade dinner and sheesha. 

We had to stop by our place first to wash off our feet an drop off our goods - it rained off and on all day, and Cairo is def not made for rain. It usually only rains twice a year, although Emily swears that it has rained about ten times now. 

Hope you are all having a dryer day than us ;)