dormir debout

Today we found a flat. (!!) After waking up, Hunter and Elliott taxied over to my hotel for breakfast. Unfortunately, the paid too much for the ride – we’ve gotta learn how to pay like Egyptians, i.e. cheap. We then walked around Sahafieen for a bit before meeting our landlady-to-be. She showed us a 3 bedroom flat, with 2 bathrooms and a wraparound porch. The porch has an amazing view: several more housing high-rises, the street, and the community drinking station. Also, a guy sitting in his chair down the street (he didn’t move for an hour, so I figure he’s part of the scenery). The flat is about two blocks away from Ahmed ‘Orabi street, the crossing of which is like playing Frogger. We agreed on the spot to rent the flat, paying only 3000 L.E. per month for the three of us, plus 300 L.E. more in utilities. A pretty good bargain. We even get a kitchen fully equipped with a clothes-washer, and around 500 Arabic channels on the tv. The best part though, is that we have Wifi! Definitely was not expecting that. Also have a couple corner food stands and a pharmacy, which our landlady owns, on street level (we’re on the 3rd floor). Sahafieen is a fairly quiet area, not as many shops as Zamalek, and is the same district our school is in. Uncle Mohamed lives in Mouhandseen, which is the neighboring district. Have yet to get in contact with him though, as his cell phone doesn’t seem to be working – hope he checks his email.

After moving in, we took a cab over to Zamalek and walked around for a bit. We popped in to a Quickie’s and got ripped off for some juice, paying 7 L.E. for around 12oz. That’s only equivalent to a little more than a dollar, but one can’t think like that here, where taxi rides to and from the island cost less than 5 pounds, and a filling dinner is about 10. Elliott bought some dates at a corner fruit stand which was being mobbed after the Friday prayer – forgot to mention that everything closes super early on Fridays. We paid 5 pounds for the dates, and were pretty sure we got jacked again, but our landlady (who is very friendly and has admirable English) confirmed that we actually got a decent deal.

I just woke up from the traditional afternoon nap. Later tonight, I’ll go find a Vodafone store and get a local cell phone – have heard that about 20 L.E. will pay for a month or so. Also need to eat – I bought some pineapple juice from Ahmed’s corner store for our apartment warming earlier. Also need to wake up Hunter, but its hard, he looks so adorable sleeping.
Edit: that comment isn’t intended to be read by Hunter. By the way, the landlady says his name “Honda,” and her brother asked Elliott if he was called “Toyota” (laughs, etc) – our first poster for the walls is the note to “Honda” she left earlier.
Edit Edit: he is hard to wake up.