New start in Egypt

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been crazy busy setting up my new apartment, doing school work, and of course enjoying myself in Cairo!!

I returned to Cairo in February and have been sooo happy ever since! After arriving at the airport, I surprised everyone because I had so much luggage!! haha, I did also buy a lot of stuff for my friends:) I saw Hesham's new car and I was finally able to learn the name of my new street!!

I currently live in Agouza (an area near Mohandiseen and Zamalek) behind the circus (yes a real circus, and we can hear the lion roar...even sometimes see him! so he is our new guardian).

I love my new apartment...haha except in the beginning it was so dusty (no one had lived there for at least 2 months), the toilet had issues, the washer didn't work, and there was no internet. But now, all the problems are solved! And I'm so happy the refrigerator actually works so there is no more food poisoning. I still have problems with the maid, but my Arabic is improving a lot so now I can chew her out in Arabic:) hehe....she is a great cleaner, but doesn't always show up or is 3 hours late. hmmm. Patience is a virtue!! The walls are extremely hard for some reason, so we can't hang anything on the wall:( But luckily I brought duct tape so now we are classy college students with duct tape picture frames. oh well it works:) I'll attach pictures, but the apartment is much bigger than my old one, has a tv, a large balcony, and we have lots of adventures with the sketchy elevators. haha and when they don't work, we get to walk up 10 flights of stairs! so much fun....hah...but good exercise at least. We even have a garden under our building. We can see the Nile river and sometimes a pyramid!! It is much closer to everything in Cairo...so I am much happier here. I can even have people clean my clothes an I can quickly run downstairs to a little corner store and buy anything I need. If they don't have it, then they get it from somewhere else and deliver it. One time they ran out of light plain yogurt, so they found it somewhere else and delivered it...even though it was 1:30 in the morning!:) haha. Now, they know me and my roommate and always have light yogurt in stock. Man I'm so spoiled. There are also no restrictions about people in my apartment...so I have been inviting all my friends. Sometimes they even randomly show up! hahaha. We even know some of our neighbors:) ....I didn't even know my neighbors in Seattle!. One works for a phone company....so if I have any problems he can help...he also works for an NGO in Alexandria that deals with people who have HIV/AIDS and he is willing to invite me to the next meeting:) The other is a Palestinian who is studying at the Canadian University and is sharing his internet with us.....We are friends now and play pool and smoke shisha with his friends:)....so as you can tell....my second semester is much better!!


My new roommate...

Her name is Jessica and she's from Texas (studies at USC) and is the coolest person ever!!!!!!!! We bust a gut everyday, we go everywhere together...get lost, eat babaganoush, an walk home 1 hour from school everyday. She has even gotten used to me running into things and tripping! and I don't scare her anymore when I sleep walk...funny stories. Anyways she always there for me....and its nice to have someone to explore everything and anything!!

new apartment in agouza