Friday, April 22

I wrote an entire blog last night and then it wouldn't upload, so here goes again. It has been really weird here. We woke up yesterday morning to a rainstorm with actual thunder and lightning. This is the first time we've seen lightning or heard thunder in Egypt. Since then, it has rained like that a few more times. It's a really nice change of pace.

We had a good day yesterday. The first thing we did was go and check out a piano. There are a few places where you can rent out a piano. It was amazing; we went down to Maadi, chose a piano, and had it delivered all in the same day. Nothing like that happens here. Nothing happens in one day. Needless to say, I was thrilled. The movers hiked it up to our fifth floor apartment, and I was playing by the afternoon. Of course, I am thrilled.

Joe had a big accomplishment yesterday too. :) He said his first whole sentence in Arabic without even thinking about it. He said, "ana biraf feyn genina mall dilwate" meaning "I know where Genina Mall is now." I'm sure the taxi driver was as impressed as I was. Although, I don't think either of us was as impressed as Joe was with himself. j/k We're always so proud of ourselves when we can actually communicate with people. We aren't very good at Arabic, but we've come along way since the first day we arrived.

And, Cairo continues to amaze us. Yesterday, when we were out and about, we stopped for lunch at Hardees. We were sitting there, eating massively -proportioned American-style meals. I had about two months worth of our salaries in my purse in cash, and then we saw someone ride by on their donkey. There are too many discrepancies here between the classes. It's really in your face all the time. The doorman who lives in our garage. The men who live in a homemade shack in the abandoned lot. Then, you have people like our students who live in nice apartments with servants, expensive clothes, and private tutors. Hmmm... I'm no better though. I could have gone yesterday with out student council to drop off a donation at a local orphanage. Instead, I went to get myself a piano.

On that positive note, I'm off to be a lazy bum. We'll see how long I can stay in my pajamas today!