Cosmopolitan Cairo

we got into Cairo at 6:30 A.M. on Sunday, we still woke up at 6:00 before the sun, and our driver took us to our hotel, the Cosmopolitan Hotel, it is only a 3 star but it is cute, clean, and has a lot of character. our guide from when we were in Cairo in the beginning of our trip to Egypt, Machmud, picked us up at 8:45 with the same driver. First we went to the Egyptian Museum, which has over 170,000 items. it is so cool inside! we saw a replica of the Rosetta Stone (the real one is in London...

The City of 1000 Minarets, the Jewel of the Orient, the Melting Pot of Civilizations; al-Qahira, the Victorious City, was founded by invading Arab armies on the East bank of the Nile during a siege of the Fortress of Babylon. Al-Fustat (Arabic for "camp" or "tent"), Cairo's first and oldest quarter, was built on the site where the Arabs camped during the siege. I stayed in the Cosmopolitan Hotel near Talat Harb square in downtown Cairo. The hotel has seen better days, but the room prices are ...

I have been here for two full days now at the hotel Hameed originally recommended. It is not much better than The President, but at least it's closer to my school. Hameed called me the morning after my arrival and wondered where I had been at the airport. He told me someone was waiting for me there for three hours. Were they really? Who knows? Oh well ... it all worked out. Hameed is as nice as he sounded on the phone and couldn't be more helpful. He introduces me to Angy, who will be my Arab...

Yesterday was great! I had my first Arabic lesson and learned new vocabulary and was introduced to the Arabic alphabet. J My teacher is lots of fun. Hameed also introduced me to a friend of his who has been living in Spain for fifteen years but is Nubian, from Aswan, and we went out with other friends of his to a restaurant on the Nile. It was beautiful, and I enjoyed my first good meal. After our three-hour dinner (from 10pm to 1am) we walked for about twenty minutes through the lively stree...

Driving today was crazy. I learned that the signs for the exit off-ramps are positioned after the exit, so unless you're familiar with the streets you're inevitably going to miss your exit, perhaps several times. I was told that one of the most famous driving sayings here is, "Son-of-a-*****!" - usually uttered right after you've passed your exit ramp. Crossing the street feels as if you're caught in the middle of a video game! It's a true Egyptian baptism by fire - once you make it across in...

Today on my walk to Arabic class, a shop merchant pleaded with me to stop (which is typical - with every ten steps another person is always calling for you). I usually stay focused on my task of "walking to school" because I learned by experience (a little over a week now) that once you look anyone in the eye or engage them you're screwed, unless you want to waste fifteen minutes on a sales pitch or story. You're either stuck listening or forced to be rude. This particular salesman said, "My ...

I'm sitting at breakfast enjoying my very average breakfast when I see a waiter carrying a plate of pita bread to a table with four Arab men. When the waiter has almost reached their table, three feet away, he trips on the carpet and drops the plate of bread on the filthy carpet - blackened and frayed from probably two decades of use - and the waiter picks up the fallen pitas and places them back on the plate and continues to the jovial group enjoying their coffee, who saw what happened, and ...

Today I went to the Cemetery of the Dead, which oddly enough has become home to thousands of very much alive locals. They are a mix of low income families and the homeless who first took up residency here more than five centuries ago. It is also a place many families choose to live so they can be close to their dead relatives' graves. My friend Amuda and his friend Mahmood (an archeologist and a tour guide for the cemetery) gave me a full-day tour, which included everything from a visit to th...