First Impressions

I arrived in Cairo on Wednesday night with little hassle. The plane flights were rather long, but quite comfortable due to a mysterious upgrade on the way to Heathrow and a whole row to myself on the Cairo leg. After just two days, I'm beginning to see a few themes for this trip emerge: driving and bathrooms. I'll spare you the details of the latter, suffice to say I've seen some new things (better than squatters). As for the former, the drivers here are completely nuts. They drive on the right side of the road, but also pass on the right, which seems strange--especially given many of the cars don't have passenger-side mirrors. Honking seems to substitute for actually looking to see if anyone's in the way. Fun.

I'm staying in the neighborhood of Zamalek, which is on the island of Gezira, right in the middle of the Nile. (Think of Ile Saint Louis... minus Notre Dame and plus a whole lot of mosques.) I've spent the past two days wandering around and feeling rather out of place most of the time. This is compounded by the fact that there seem to be many more men than women on the streets, making me wonder if I'm somewhere I shouldn't be. I don't actually think this is the case, but rather more a function how society operates.

Communication is frustrating in that I hate not being able to talk with people. Whatever Arabic I once had seems to have left me completely. I'm struggling to sound out street signs and remember greetings. Classes start Monday though, and I have testing and orientation on Sunday.