Digging the New Digs!

Bottom line, we love our new apartment! It’s in a great location. Ron’s commute to work has gone from 45 minutes to 7 minutes by car. It’s only 35 minutes by foot, though that can open all sorts of “experiences” that you may not want to have each and every day (I’ve never had so many offers to help me cross busy streets, and amazingly we cross right in front of the person’s own store… I had to be a little firmer than I liked the other day as I felt I was practically being dragged into an art store). Ron summed up our location by exclaiming his delight at being able to pop out our front door (of the walled compound, that is) and walk down the street to get a newspaper. His NYC-gene has been re-activated and is mighty happy.

Our apartment is on the first floor, above the ground floor, as I think I’ve said before. It has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, a nice-sized kitchen (bright yellow), a huge living/dining room (Ron said we’ll finally be able to practice our Foxtrot in our own home – the apartment in Silver Spring was only big enough for us to do two steps forward before having to turn so we often opted to go outside by the recycling bins in the back to practice before the wedding – ahh, happy memories). The third bedroom has essentially its own wing at the other end of the house with a bathroom (the biggest one, actually), so once we get everything put away it will be set up and ready for guests – although you may have to share the bathroom with the cats as their litterbox is in it right now. But we can work that out later.

We did address the un-grounded electrical issues immediately after we moved in, and I will say that when they came to switch out all the plugs, there was none of that stick-a-screwdriver-in-it testing method. They were great. I did get tired of chasing after Chuckles every time someone went through the front door though – unfortunately he’s been trained by the doorbell in Maadi to come running to see who’s there. I finally opted to shut the cats in the spare bedroom while the guys finished the work. At one point a supervisor, who spoke more English, stopped by to check on things and pointed out a little spot where the paint needed touch-up, so one of the guys ran off to get our matching wall paint. I greatly appreciated that, although it was merely a small area and I had noticed that they were around most of the new wallplates. I was bemused, however, when the guy returned with the paint, diligently painted the area the super pointed out, then left and took the paint away. I figured it wasn’t worth pointing out the other 30 spots – I’d just cover them with furniture.

There are windows all along one side of the apartment, however they all look out into trees. So, we could bemoan the fact that we get very little direct sunlight and that it’s often dark in here, or we can pretend we’re living in a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, but with running water, electricity (grounded, of course), and eventually, American cable. Sun does sneak through and dapples our walls and floors through the branches in the afternoon. I do wish we had a little more sun, but in lieu of doing some midnight pruning, I can delight in the up-close bird-watching activities. Oh, and we also have geckos in the compound. Luckily we haven’t seen any inside the apartment (don’t want to have to save them from fat pouncing felines) but we have seen a little one outside and a neighbor says he gets them on the window screens sometimes, which would be great fun! The other local wildlife is the family of well-fed feral cats that are maintained by our resident crazy cat lady. And I mean she’s a true CCL – slightly crazed frizzy hair, large mu-mu housedress which enables her to carry cat food bags and kittens in all pockets. Ron has seen her on the shuttle a few times so I’ve asked him to casually verify that the family she’s feeding here have all been spayed and neutered at least, and she’s not just fattening them up so they can be better breeders for Cairo’s street-kitten quota. We do tend to see the same faces hanging around – one orange boy with a chopped tail is quite friendly and while we were calling him Bob initially, the guards told us his name was Stubby. Fair enough. I will say that I have never once seen a rat anywhere in Cairo (and I’ve seen them all over NYC, DC and Baltimore), but I still hate seeing the hoards of skinny dirty stray cats around.

The one other “wildlife” presence we’ve noticed here is Rodney, at least that’s what we’re calling him. He’s our resident neighbor rooster who apparently has a lot to say. Once in a while I’ve heard some of his hens clucking about, but mostly we just hear Rodney. I’m fine with him, he’s muffled with the windows for the most part and I’ve lived with roosters before, at an animal sanctuary (Clyde in particular was very memorable as a beautiful small bantam rooster who I would have to outwit in order to race to the front door without being attacked by him, what a charmer), but the happy NYC-gene in Ron is obviously perplexed by Rodney and I think it may take a while for the crowing to blend into the background for him.

The other adjustment we’ve had to make is living in the Arctic zone. For some reason, our A/C is very determined (we keep it around 70, but it can get quite cold) and the vents are placed to blow right onto our bed and the couch. Luckily I brought a very thick wonderful comforter that we are using nightly. And while we await delivery of our “deflectors” (clear plastic magnetic device to deflect the vent flow) from Amazon, I’ve jury rigged some cardboard and duct tape that works temporarily, albeit is unsightly.

Once we get our furniture swapped out, and maybe some art on the walls, I’ll post some before and after pics. But you know when something just feels right? Well, Ron and I both agree that this apartment feels very right. It was worth the wait and we look forward to our years here. Now you all just have to come and see it yourselves!

Pack-in, Pack-out, That’s What it’s all About

Well, we are officially habitating in our “permanent housing” in Zamalek. We’ve been here just over a week, have all our shipped items unpacked (for the most part, just a few “Misc. Ron” boxes which most likely hold the oh-so-necessary 549 electrical cords for any possible device invented), had all (and I do mean all) of our electrical plugs re-wired so they’re actually grounded (the fact that we have to keep doing this in each apartment makes me wonder if, after moving out, the plugs are reverted back to non-grounded for the next tenant), and are awaiting a minor swap-out next week of our dining set and bedroom set (we prefer the style that we had in Maadi and have been told that it’s possible to switch them, so we are). Whew!

The move-in day went relatively smoothly. We had scheduled the movers to be at Zamalek at 6:30am, knowing that they had to get there before 7:00am because of the no-trucks-on-the- road-during-the-day law. At 5:30am we got a call in Maadi from the guards here telling us our truck had arrived. We told them great, and we’d be there in an hour, as scheduled. When we arrived, one guard said to us, “Oh, they’ve been waiting a long time for you.” Snide. I’m no morning person anyway, so this inappropriate comment did not endear this guard to me (and subsequent behavior has kept him on the not-endeared list).

The movers were great! Probably some of the best we’ve had so far, and that’s basically because they brought a lot of men (quantity helps). They unloaded all the crates in the main courtyard then brought the stuff up via the elevators. Since Cairo is technically “furnished” housing, we didn’t have to bring anything in terms of furniture. However, we opted to bring our own bed (and thank goodness we did – the “furnished” one we had in Maadi was like sleeping on a spongy life raft – every time one of us moved, the other had an equal and opposite reaction and I often found myself being hurled about when Ron got into or out of bed), and we brought Ron’s sleeper sofa and a big reading chair, Ron’s desk and a whole slew of bookcases. Ron had heard that we were only allotted two bookcases, and considering the 10,000 pounds of books we had to have with us, he felt we should bring bookcases. Once arriving we realized that while we are initially given two bookcases, we can request more. Oh well, learning continues.

I sat at the dining table, out of the way as the movers piled things up in the apartment. (As you can see, Ron was, as always, a big help – what is it with the ability to recognize fort-potential in any pile of boxes?) Once it was all in, they then proceeded to unpack and unwrap things, put the bed, desk and some bookcases together (the pack-out team had packed the hardware for some of the bookcases in miscellaneous boxes, so it took a few days to find it all) and overall be amazingly helpful. But it did get to the point where they kept asking me where I wanted them to put something they had just unpacked and I truly had no idea. I had to start asking them to NOT unpack boxes, especially in the kitchen, as I hadn’t had time to mentally organize things yet. Plus, we knew we were going to be swapping some furniture, so we really couldn’t put anything away in dressers, the sideboard or hutch. We were delighted to see that our boxes of "loot" had arrived safely, but we were completely perplexed by a box marked, "Head wear and bow rats." It wasn't until I unpacked it that I realized it was a box of hair bows, hair bands and barrettes. Gotta love it.

We continued unpacking a bit until we just pooped out and drove back to Maadi. The plan was to have porters help us the following morning move our stuff from Maadi, and we’d take the cats. Good plan, however at 3:30am we received a phone call from the Zamalek guard (I believe he was the same snide-comment guard from yesterday) asking us if it was okay to release the empty cardboard boxes that were stacked outside our apartment to the moving company who was back to retrieve them. Ron stammered yes, and went back to sleep. I barely remembered the conversation happening at all and had to ask if it was all a dream the following morning.

The portering of our Maadi stuff to Zamalek went without a hitch and while the guys unloaded the big heavy things, Ron and I unloaded the odd loose items from our car, including felines, a free plant I’d acquired, hanging clothes and food. At one point I found myself riding the elevator carrying a cat in a carrier and a bowl of apples and bananas (and maybe an expired mango at the bottom). With everything moved in and cats exploring, Ron and I dove into the task of seeing exactly what we had deemed oh-so-necessary to live with three months ago that we now had forgotten we’d owned.

Permanency is in Sight

Our move-in date to our permanent apartment in Zamalek of July 24th didn't really come to fruition. Although we did get our keys on that day and were able to confirm the finished paint job (love the bright yellow kitchen, the coffee-color works for the main room and halls creating a cozy cave-like feel, and the green in the bedrooms is ... very green. Not quite what I was envisioning, but that's my fault for being unable to picture the 2" square of color on a life-size room -- another skill to develop). In addition, Ron was able to confirm that very few, if any, of our electrical plugs are grounded. A work-order shall be submitted and we'll see what fun ensues with the electricians in Zamalek.

Our HHE shipment (large, big, everything sans cupcake wrappers) is scheduled for delivery tomorrow at 6:30am, so we will bound up the Corniche and meet them with joy and happiness (well, we'll be there at least to unlock the door). Then Tuesday we'll see if we can get the rest of our stuff from Maadi to Zamalek, including felines. Then it's unpack, organize, nest, settle, (get DSL) and enjoy our permanent home in Zamalek. (Pictures and tales to follow.)

Elusive bread-bicycle captured, at last!

After multiple attempts, I was finally able to capture a photo of a bread-bicycle in action. So exciting (and astounding)!

Shopping Tales: Overview

I’ve been amassing shopping tales for a while now and have been trying to figure out how best to present them. Shopping here seems to fall into two main categories: necessity shopping, which includes commissary (food) shopping, clothing and household item shopping; and non-necessity-but-really-pretty/fun/unusual shopping, which basically includes chach-ka and local artistry (tapestries, woodwork, alabaster, silver, gold, etc.). Could one argue that the latter shopping category is never needed? I guess so, but then what fun would it be 50 years from now to tell people, “I could have bought a hand-made _____ (fill in with desired item) when we lived in Cairo, but I knew it wasn’t really necessary.” I mean, how silly. And some items, such as a unique metal desk lamp, can happily reside in both shopping categories, as can alabaster candle holders, though I would assume when you reach a certain quantity of said alabaster candle holders, they may tip into the non-necessity category. The bottom line is, there are thousands of shops, the prices are usually very very good, and it can be a lot of fun.

I will admit that Ron and I have also made great use of the online shopping options as well, in huge thanks to having the use of an APO, but that has been primarily for electronics (I swear we already had one of everything, but I have been told I’m wrong, very very wrong), some books, clothing, shoes (I found my need for varied mock-crocs was increasing), and initially some vegan food goods before I found that our commissary stocks, among other things, tofu pups (I can probably assume that I am the only one who did a little happy-dance when I saw them there the first time).

While we do have some Target-like shopping options here, in Alfa Market and CarreFour, they are limited and I find that by embarking on an expedition to find a cutlery tray, compost bin, or red pen, my explorations of Maadi have gone much farther than they would have had I relied on the limited selections at Alfa Market and CarreFour. So I opt for the hunt and discover method often.

There are a few commonalities that have arisen during my shopping trips. Shopkeepers are typically very nice and friendly, sometimes bordering on clingy or overly-eager – unlike in the states where you’re followed around a store because they fear you’re going to pinch something, here they want to be nearby in case you need absolutely anything. Prices are rarely listed, and it seems that upon inquiring a price is randomly selected from the air (this is even true in non-chach-ka stores). Bargaining can be attempted, but may or may not be successful, so depending on how much you want the compost bin, red pen or alabaster piece, you may just have to pay the air-picked price. Other than larger grocery stores, no one has much change – sometimes just getting five pounds back involves sending a runner to another store. Stores often appear closed but I’ve found it’s beneficial to actually attempt entry as many of them just don’t turn on lights until there’s a customer. Upon customer’s entry they happily turn on all the lights and start the A/C or fans running (I often feel guilty when I’m just window shopping and want to tell them they don’t have to bother, I’ll just poke around in the dark). And practically without exception, everything you buy needs to be thoroughly washed off when you get home.

We recently decided to purchase a wicker-like-straw-woven cat basket from the Road 9 basket seller (we had hopes that Chuckles would find it an adequate scratching-post, as opposed to the government furniture which we discourage with great hoots and hollers and arm waving). This man displays his baskets on the street corner every day. I’ve also seen the same baskets hung from carts elsewhere in Maadi, but due to our proximity we see this basket-seller more often. We stood there asking the prices of this basket and that basket, while he pulled them from the piles and tried to lure us into buying larger ones. He feigned misunderstanding when he was piling up a cat-basket and a laundry-type one, thinking we wanted both. He suddenly grabbed a third basket, threw it in the bottom and announced it was a free one. He kept dropping the price and we finally gave in and bought all three. Ron attempted to carry the towering stack of baskets (which are surprisingly heavy), only to have the cat-basket topple off and knock over a bicycle leaning against a tree. I jumped over, handed the cat-basket to Ron and attempted to right the bicycle. Having received a beautiful Cannondale road bike a few years ago, which I can carry with one hand due to its titanium frame, I found this ancient relic of a bike outlandishly heavy. You’d have thought it was a baby Harley. I actually could barely stand it up, let alone get it to lean against the tree. During this struggle, I refused to look around to see how many of the reams of men who are always sitting or wandering around, were watching the crazy blond expat wrestle with a bike (I’ve recently embraced my differences and have started wearing a safari-like hat outside as well, merely furthering the entertainment factor, I’m sure). Ron came and helped me and we managed to get the bike stable and upright, then gathered up our purchases and huffed it home. Once home, I took all three baskets straight to the bathtub and proceeded to wash them all off. The dark brown water that drained out was actually a bit startling. Since then, I have taken to washing everything, including the plastic compost bin which I thought was a light gray and sage, but after cleaning found it was actually white and green. This is no comment on the cleanliness of shops or shopkeepers. This is life in Cairo – where the dusty dirt filters through every crack and settles regardless of how much you try to fight it. And often the way shopkeepers fight it is by attempting to wipe the dust off with a rag only upon purchase. Why bother otherwise? So I’ve just begun the practice of washing/wiping everything purchased once we get home, as well as carrying travel wet-wipes with me always. I guess it’s either this or adopt the overly-packaged, excessively-wrapped methods back home, and considering that this country does not need any more excess garbage (not to mention the planet as a whole), I’ll gladly rinse off everything after purchase.

Pictures of Ricky enjoying his two new baskets (Chuckles has yet to display any interest what-so-ever -- typical feline.)