Chirp chirp

Well, hubby is now safe and sound in Kuwait, though I wish he was safe and sound here instead.
He left the house at 6:10 this morning.
I tried not to cry but didn't quite make it.
Insha'Allah this trip will be fast and he will be home sooner than ten days!

He was up early (actually he didn't sleep last night) getting ready, and so I was awake, and you can always hear the birds outside the window, even before the sun comes. I took a video so you could hear some of the birds, though I think you can only hear two in the video I uploaded. There was, in addition, a whole tree FULL of little birds chirping, but they were a bit further from the window and I don't think you can hear them in this. I'll try to get them soon.
Anyways, here's a link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR6zQAPXvSQ


mom made some stuffed eggplant yesterday, bur not maashi like would be regular stuffed eggplant. These eggplants had been pickled first, and then she stuffed them with a mixture of crushed garlic, cardamom (or was it cumin?) and red pepper. Way too hot for me to try with the red pepper, and honestly they didn't look that tasty, but I'm sure they tasted good.



She also made koshary the other day. It was my first time to try the dish, despite the fact that it's one of the most popular dishes here in Egypt.
It's lentils in a sauce, which is then put over/mixed with pasta and there are three different sauces you can use for the top of it.
One sauce is vinegar based, one is tomato based and the third is hot pepper.
It tasted pretty good, definitely something I would think would be good, and warming and heavy on a cold winter night.
Unfortunately, my stomach doesn't like lentils as much as my mouth does, so I probably won't eat the dish often, though I suppose I'll need to learn to cook it for hubby.


I also have a picture of the mogamma building where we renewed my visa. It really is a ginormous building. The first floor is just for visa stuff, and the rest of the floors have different ministries on them, as far as I know, and I could be wrong.
lol


The local bakery that the family buys their munchies from turns out to have some very good items that resemble in a small way, a chocolate croissant. They are called bitay (at least that's the way it is pronounced, not sure how to spell it, I think it's a French word). You can get them with no filling, with cheese filling, or how I got them with chocolate. There maybe also be additional fillings I'm unaware of, such as date.
Anyways, they are very good and nice for breakfast. The bread part is buttery and a bit flaky, just not exactly like a croissant. And the shape is more like a rectangle.
Maybe I'll take a picture at breakfast tomorrow morning.

Alright, I did promise some vocabulary words that I had learned, so here we go.
I will try to spell the Egyptian words as you would pronounce them, as it will be slightly different as to how you would normally write the word.

no = leh (though the h is kind of hard and comes to a stop)

yes = Iwuh (with the I being hard)

cheese = gibna (different cheeses would be um, like gibna cheddar, etc)

please/if possible = mumkin (like pumpkin, lol)

what's happening/what's up? = fee haga (like hag with an "uh" on the end)

finished = muhfeesh

not yet = lissa (this one gets confusing as I'm always thinking I'm hearing my name)

bread - Ish (hard I with immediate sh after)

tomorrow = bokra (like okra with a b on the front)

done/finished = khalas (the first a is almost like an uh and the last part is kind of like saying lost, without the t on the end)

That's it for Arabic, or Egyptian Arabic, for now. I'll maybe post some more words later, though I don't know a ton more than that.

Vampires

Well, yesterday was the day that we finally made our marriage "legal" in the country of Egypt and the U.S.
We went down to the ministry of justice around 11:45. It took about an hour and a half to get through the process. There was lots of waiting around in the crowded waiting room out front, which had all sorts of people (another good people watching spot).
There were several other couples there to be married, and you can tell who they are because they have to bring two male witnesses. It isn't that hard to figure out the ones getting married.
But there were also people there for other things, though I'm not sure what. Whatever other things the ministry of justice does I suppose.

The first man we saw was a judge, sitting at a desk. he looked over our passports and ID's and Ahmed gave him our original wedding contract to look at. The judge agreed that we could use our original marriage date as the date for our legal marriage that we went to the ministry to do.
After seeing the judge, we went to another room (all the rooms are pretty small, and all of them are pretty dingy), to get some paperwork looked at and to pay the fee.
Then we went back outside to the waiting room and waited.
Ahmed had mentioned that there were signs that said no cell phones and no cameras allowed. I had wanted to take some pictures while we were there, but hubby explained that this was a sensitive area, and the government didn't want people taking pictures of the buildings.
Well, while we were waiting in the waiting room, I went over to the area by the elevators, which has a wall that is full of huge open windows. I figured if I couldn't take a picture inside, at least I could take a picture of the outside, because we were 4 floors up and the view was great.
Well.... I got the camera out and actually had taken one picture when a guy came over frantically telling me in Egyptian that I shouldn't be taking any pictures, it wasn't allowed. Ahmed translated for me.
Honestly I was pissed off. Who the heck cares if I take a picture of what is *outside*?????
But, whatever.
I didn't tell the guy I had already gotten one picture.
:p
So, after some more waiting in the waiting room, we went back to a third dingy small room and a lady did our final paperwork. This is where my hubby's brother and father came in with us, to be our witnesses.
We had to sign our names about a million times on the contracts, since they make 5 copies and we had to sign in more than one place on each copy.
We also had to put our thumbprint on the 5 copies of the passport sized photos that are attached to the paperwork, so we each had very blue thumbs afterward.

All in all, it was not so much like a marriage, and more like applying for a business license or something. lol
And I was a little sad that it wasn't our first time getting married. I mean, that first time when we got married, we had all the nervousness and excitement, and this time... well... we've been married almost two years now. It just wasn't the same.
And hubby didn't think much of it at all I don't think.

Anyways, we are now legal.
Hurrah!

I had two days with almost no mosquito bites, alhamdulillah, but then last night they really went to town on me. I think I got 5 or 6 bites. Too many whatever the number was. Hubby calls mosquitoes vampires.
Well, that's the nicest thing he calls them.
lol
But, it is an appropriate name, since they do suck your blood.

Hubby is supposed to be buying his tickets for Kuwait today.
He is thinking about going either tomorrow or Saturday, but I won't know until he gets home which day he picked, if either of those.

Still haven't made it to the dentist, and at this point maybe we'll wait til he gets back. I'd like to get it done and over with, but also don't want to go.

My sister in law has been off work for the past month (she decided she wanted a break), but will go back to work on Monday. Of course this coincides with when hubby will be going on his trip.
Boohoo.
At least she will be home in the late afternoon/evening.
My mother in law is getting better at her English, and I'm slowly learning some words in Arabic, but it still isn't easy as pie yet in the communication department.

Maybe tomorrow I'll post some of the words I've learned. I think I mentioned doing that the other day didn't I?
Perhaps I'm becoming more Egyptian than I thought.
lol

Funnily enough....

I'm sure it was just yesterday that I was writing about things not happening when you thought they would here in Egypt.
lol?
Well, hubby got a call at around 8:45 this morning from his clients in Kuwait, and he had to go in to the office to deal with something, so we didn't go today to get the formal marriage done.
He did however get a chance to go get the notarization on the affidavit we got yesterday.

All in all it was a pretty lazy day.
I had a nap this afternoon. Yeah, because I'm so busy all day I just couldn't stay awake another moment. lol

Just censored myself because I wasn't sure if something I was going to write about was okay. Maybe on a bulletin board or something I wouldn't worry, but on a blog... hmmm...
I really should find out what the rules/limits are here for writing or speaking. I know they don't have the same type of free speech that exists in the States.

Anyways, I guess we will try to go down tomorrow to get the marriage done.
Insha'Allah.

Put one foot in front of the other

Well, apologies for not posting yesterday as I had meant to. I was just too tired.

Saturday night we had a walk down to the Kodak store so that I could get some passport sized photos taken. It was a short walk, maybe 10 minutes or so each way, but it was nice. And as it was a bit humid/hot out, waiting inside the air conditioned store for the photos to be done was nice as well.
We looked at some of their products for sale. They have a neat video camera that is sized like a blackberry. Not too expensive, but not on my list of things that I want to buy anytime soon. However they did have some nice digital cameras, and I do want to replace mine. It's possible we'll get one in Kuwait since hubby says they're less expensive there.

When we went out walking the day or two before, I taught Ahmed about "punch buggy".
I remember it from when I was a kid and taking road trips. Whenever you see a VW Bug, you call out "punch buggy" and you get to haul off and punch the person you're with. This is a great excuse to be able to hit your siblings. lol
Hubby was not aware of this game, and though he understood it and we (or at least I) kept a watch out for VW bugs on the rest of that walk, all I could do was call it out. It would NEVER do for me to haul off and punch him, or even lightly punch him, while we are out in public. I would never hit him hard enough to hurt, but even good naturedly, it wouldn't be taken well here, and would make him look very bad.
So, I told him I was saving them up for when we were home. lol
And so it continues now that whenever we're out I call out "punch buggy" when I see a bug.
Somehow I don't think I'll ever get to punching him though.

Yesterday was a very busy walking day as well.
We went to the Mogamma building, which is a ginormous building.
The first floor handles visa processing, all sorts, for anyone who needs a visa in the country. This includes people from all over the world. It is then, as you can imagine, a wonderful place for people watching. I had a field day for sure.
We were there for a couple of reasons. The first being that I had overstayed my initial 30 day visa that I got at the airport when I entered the country.
Which wouldn't be that big of a deal except that in order for me to get the spousal 3 or 5 year visa, we have to be legally married.
And as of this moment, we are only Islamically married. Hubby never took the marriage papers to the court to register them and make the marriage legal with the country of Egypt, and now things have changed some since I was here last and we got married, and there is a different process that has to be gone through.
So, I have to have a valid visa to be able to get "married", even though technically we already are married.
There was a two hour wait for the visa to be processed. We walked across the street from the Mogamma building to visit the mother of hubby's best friend. Rather conveniently located for us since we had a wait and it was hot and I didn't want to walk around for 2 hours in the heat.
There are places to sit inside the building, but it's fairly crowded and we wanted to get out anyways.
So, we went to visit his friend's mother. She was very nice and we sat there and visited with her for close to an hour I guess.
Afterward we walked back to the Mogamma building and sat outside on one of the marble benches for a while, and then went inside and waited for about the last half hour or so.
I really enjoyed people watching there, until I thought about how easy it would be to catch some disease or whatever in a place that crowded and packed with people.
Insha'Allah it's all good. I tend to try to breath out of my nose instead of my mouth anyways, as I figure less crud (smog, dust, anything else) can get in through my nose than my mouth. lol
After we left the Mogamma, we walked a bit and then took a taxi. After a short stop at a small grocery, we went home.
I was beat! I didn't eat breakfast or drink anything before we left, and we didn't get home til close to 2 I think.
After eating a sandwich and being online a bit, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and had to go nap. I really wanted to post yesterday but just couldn't. Too tired.

Soooo.... enter today, and there are 3 things we need to do to get officially married. The first was to go to the US embassy, which we tried going to yesterday, but they were closed because of the memorial holiday.
So we went today. They close at 11 a.m. We got there about 10 minutes til 11.
Which turned out to be good, because otherwise the wait would have been even longer. You have to take a number when you get there. Our number was 912. They were working on number ....well I can't remember and don't agree with hubby's remembrance, but there were over 40 people in front of us. It took a total of 2 and a half hours. Most of it spent standing since the seats were full.
What we had to get there, was an affidavit stating that I was free to marry. I had to bring my passport, my certified divorce papers, and we had to pay the equivalent of 30 dollars to get this form and have it stamped.
There was some good people watching there, and hubby and I had a good time with that.

Tomorrow we will go to get the affidavit certified at a different place, and then after that, we will go to the third place to actually get married. The place they marry you is kind of like having a civil service done. We have to sign some papers and put our fingerprints on the paper and we need to bring two male witnesses. From everything I have read, it's an old dingy office, and not something to dress up for. I'm hoping they'll take our first papers we did when we got married and be able to use those for our marriage date, but if not, we still think of ourselves as having been married on the first date anyways.

I know I've blathered on, and I'm not done yet. Maybe I'll save some of what I had to say for tomorrow.
In any case, time for a picture break.

Yesterday, no, the day before, mom made fish. I declined and she made me chicken instead. First picture is of the fish before being cooked, in a pot on the table with some "lemons". Which are actually limes as we know them in the States.



Next we have a picture of the fish while frying.
I would have taken a picture of them after they were done but I didn't get a chance, and I thought about taking a picture of the bones after the fish were eaten, but I didn't think anyone would want to see that, so I didn't. lol



I haven't gone shopping with my sister in law yet. I've come to understand, in general, that when people talk about a time for doing something, they mean it more of as "at some time in the future", but maybe not exactly when they said. Of course there are some people or businesses that operate with more of a strict time structure, but it seems that most people don't. It takes some getting used to.
It's almost as if people aren't putting intention behind what they're doing, so things have a way of dragging on and dragging out. The part of me that is used to the structure and time constraints in the States doesn't like the way things are done here. And yet, if you can let yourself relax and not worry about things, I guess being open is an easier way to do things. We shall see what happens.

Speaking of when things happen, still not sure about hubby's trip to Kuwait. Maybe Thursday. Remains to be seen and I guess it will change again before he goes. lol

There is a new type of bread I tried yesterday and then had again at breakfast this morning. It kind of looks like a very very large hamburger bun, but flatter and not divided in half, and without any sesame seeds. It has fennel and perhaps anise seeds in it, I can't remember for sure. But it's buttery and flavorful and quite yummy. This will do for breakfast, with some tea, quite well.

I'm picking up some words in Egyptian as time goes on. Not a huge vocabulary, but a few common words. I'll maybe post about those tomorrow.
Still haven't made it to the dentist. My tooth doesn't hurt, but I'd like to get it fixed before it has a chance to start hurting.

There are so many things I wish I could share, but somehow, like when I'm out and doing something, I write things for the blog in my head, but by the time I get home, it's gone. I wish I had a way to really record things and then just copy/paste from my head to the page. lol
Oh well.

The walk

Well, we did have a nice walk last night.

We left around 7. I ended up not taking the camera with me, so no pictures of the walk.
But, there was a lot to see.
Many many many stray cats around. I love cats, they're just too cute, but the strays here tend to be on the mangy side. I feel kind of bad for them. There is no easy life here for stray cats. They fight for food and territory and for who knows what else.
We passed by the Viet Nam embassy on our way to the shopping area of the Mohandiseen district. The embassy is probably 10 minutes or so walk from the in-laws apartment.
They are in the Mohandiseen district, but at the edge I guess, kind of between Mohandiseen and Dokki, which is another district.

Once we got down to the shopping area, and were walking on the main street, and I do mean walking on the street, lol, the wind kicked up and there was sand/dust in the air. Quite irritating when you're wearing contacts and I had some trouble with it off and on for a while.
We passed a Baskin-Robbins ice cream place, and were thinking of stopping by on the way back home, but we ended up going home a different way.

At one point, we passed this corner that had a few trees, and the trees were just filled to capacity with birds flying around and chirping. I mean, there were hundreds of birds. We could hear it from across the busy street. I could have stood there and watched for some time, it was really amazing.

We ended up making our way down to the edge of the Zamalek district, Zamalek having been our original destination, as we were going to walk around there, but instead we ended up walking down a street that bordered a sports club, and wound up at a cafe, which I can't remember the name of.

The walk thus far had taken about an hour and ten minutes. And hubby is not a slow walker! lol
We stayed at the cafe for an equal amount of time.
Hubby had a double espresso and I just had a sprite.
There were a lot of people there smoking shisha. Which is the water pipe with tobacco. They make the tobacco in different flavors, which smell nice for a little bit, but it's also strong smelling. And when someone next to you is smoking it, it isn't so nice to breath in the second hand smoke, mainly because it doesn't taste all that great.

After leaving the cafe, we walked back here to the apartment. It took about half an hour. Busy streets!
We passed by one building that looked like a mini castle. I asked hubby what it was, and apparently, a famous singer had originally built it for his house (why yes, it is strange) but had sold it or something and it is now a restaurant.
There were several furniture stores we passed that looked like they would have neat stuff but we didn't go inside.

We passed so many cafe's. They are just everywhere. Most of them on the main streets are for men / women, but there are some cafe's that are on the smaller streets, that you will only see men at. No Egyptian woman would go there. A tourist might venture in and get away with it, but I guess she would get strange looks.

Anyways, I was feeling slightly ill by the time we got home. Too much walking.
We ordered pizza, which was nice. We finally found a place that will make pizza with white sauce instead of only red sauce. Hurray!

I have some pictures of some cats that were outside yesterday, but I'll wait til tomorrow to post them I guess.
There were three cats, and it looked like they might fight at one point, but I guess they worked things out, because all I saw was some slight stalking.
lol

Nachos

We did get some ice cream last night, and it was indeed quite wonderful.
I had chocolate but there was vanilla as well.
It certainly put a smile on my face.
Aside from the few bites of ice cream I had on our way back from a long walk a few weeks ago, I haven't had any ice cream in years I guess.
I don't plan to make a regular habit of it, but it was really nice.

Current plan for the Kuwait trip is that hubby will leave here on Sunday. I just hope that it won't be a 10 day trip. 5 days is more than enough as far as I'm concerned. Of course, my concerns aren't the same as the concerns of the business. lol

I got a picture of the wardrobe in hubby's room here. The apartment was furnished when they moved in, so it isn't theirs. It's massive. And ornate as is the style here. Which I don't care for at all. But I can see how it would be pretty if you like that sort of thing.
Anyways, they don't have closets here, so wherever you live, you need a wardrobe to hang and put clothes in. I don't understand why there aren't any closets, it would certainly be easier than hauling wardrobes around the small streets here and up the narrow stairwells.
I mean, don't closets make more sense? I think I asked hubby why they didn't have closets here one time but I can't remember his reply. It might have been something along the lines of, that if you have a wardrobe, you can put it wherever you want, and a closet is fixed. Hmmmm.....

I just looked down and there's some weird white stuff all over my foot. No idea what it is. I just had a shower so there shouldn't be anything. Strange. And I'm hoping it's just a mess of soap that somehow made it onto my foot and didn't get washed off.

Anyways, I also took a picture of the window in hubby's bedroom. As you will see, there is the glass itself, which is in a wooden frame, and then on the outside, there is wooden shutters. But no screens in sight.

Here is the wardrobe. Sorry for the lighting, but it's pretty dark in there, even with a light on.



And here is the window.



I have been craving nachos and seven layer dip like crazy for over a week now.
We are in the process of locating corn tortilla chips, which are not common here, but insha'Allah we will be able to find some.
Also need to find some pinto beans. They do not sell refried beans here as a general rule, though I did see some when we went to Carrefour. Not a brand I knew, and I'd just as soon mash my own beans anyways.

Did someone say ice cream?

Well, I managed a miserable night last night.
Even with socks on I was getting mosquito bites.
I had one on my ankle, and I'm pretty sure that mosquito managed to get me right on the vein running over my ankle bone, cos it itched like crazy. Also got one on my toe, which managed to swell up, the poor thing. I think in total I got maybe 5 or 6 bites.

They did spray some bug spray around, which I was entirely un-thrilled about. If there is one thing that I don't like in the house, it is chemicals. However, this is not my house, and I can't dictate how this family will live.
I asked hubby why they use it if we still get bites, and he said that it would be even worse if we didn't use it.

So, yesterday was full of heat, humidity, and itching from bites.
I was kinda very unhappy.
lol
Plus it seems that hubby's trip to Kuwait has gone from a possible 3 or 4 days to a possible 7 to 10 days.
Which I did not so nicely respond to.

Most of my evening was spent moping about, which didn't technically help me any, but....

After doing some more moping around in bed this morning after hubby left for work, I came out of the bedroom and found my spot on the couch.
My sister in law has been very sweet and I guess they can tell that I am not so happy about things at the moment. I've never been one to be able to hide my feelings very well.
She asked her brother (my bro in law) to bring home some chocolate ice cream with him today when he comes from work, so that was very thoughtful of her.
And she said that tomorrow she wants to take me out around this area and we can do some shopping and maybe go to a favorite cafe of hers.

So, feeling a little better today.
Still unhappy about no a/c and about being eaten alive by mosquites for the 2 plus weeks that we will be staying here, but I have had enough moping for now. lol

Hubby is going to try to bring over some old family pictures tonight that are at the other apartment. He tried to show me some of the pictures on cam when I was still living in the States, but it's hard to see pictures on a webcam. So I'm excited about that.

I also need to get to the dentist, as it seems I have a problem with one of my teeth, which seems to have a crack or something on the outside of it. Or rather, the crack is on the side of my tooth that is on the inside of my mouth. I hope it won't be a hard fix and I hate medicine, so I'm really not looking forward to it. I told hubby we needed to get it done before he went on his trip because I want him to go with me, and I don't think it should wait until he is back. So, not sure when we will go, but insha'Allah soon.

I smell dinner cooking and hubby just got home so that is it for today.
I'll try to take some pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

Hot hot hot

Moved back to the in-laws this morning instead of last night.
There is no a/c here.
It's hot.

Watering mosquitoes

Well, looks like we are for sure moving to the in-laws sometime this evening. Hubby got most of our stuff out of the apartment this morning on his way to work.
I packed up my stuff last night and re-arranged the things in my suitcases so that I'm just taking one big bag and a couple smaller ones to mom and dad's, up the 4 flights of stairs, the rest of the bags have gone to the other apartment (the one on the first floor).

I really love the fact that the bathroom floors here are tile/marble and that there are drains in the floors. It means that when you spot a mosquito flying around while you're showering, you can just hose him down.
lol
Of course, you have to squeegee the floor after, but small price to pay for a few less mosquito bites.

On the one hand, I am happy to stay at the in-laws place. They are all very nice and try to make me feel so much at home there. I really appreciate that a lot! I really "lucked out" with my new family here. And mom is too happy to do anything she can for me. I actually wish I could help her out with anything but she won't hear of it. It actually makes me feel a bit guilty and too lazy. She has enough to do and I wouldn't mind helping at all.
On the other hand, as long as hubby and I are there, there isn't much privacy or alone time, unless we hang out in the bedroom. I don't mind the bedroom, and there's a balcony attached, but it's just nice to have your own place ya know?
I asked hubby how long we would be there. He isn't positive of course, but if we do end up moving to Kuwait, the longest we would be there, he thinks, is a month. And it could be much less time. Maybe a week or two.
If we don't move to Kuwait, then it just depends on how quickly we can find an apartment.
So... no idea how long we'll be there.

I think the hardest adjustment here for me has been the food situation.
Because I have some small food issues, it's really inconvenient here. I can't just run down to Raley's or Safeway and get whatever my little heart desires that I find acceptable to eat.
The major grocery stores are very far away and the little stores don't carry the things that I'm used to eating. While we've been at this temp apartment, we've eaten a ton of take out, which is actually okay. It's not *all* totally greasy. But when we are at mom and dad's, I have less choice. I need to eat what mom cooks. I mean, she keeps me and my peculiarities in mind, but overall I find the food extremely heavy. Practically everything is fried or just contains a ton of oil.
After a week I feel crazy with it.
If we move to Kuwait, the groceries will be much more accessible, and they will have more of the foods I'm used to.
If we stay in Egypt, it really depends how close we are to a major market, but I really don't think we'll be able to move anywhere near one. We need to stay somewhat close to hubby's work so he doesn't have to commute so far, so that's the major consideration.
Hmmmm......

It was supposed to be 104 here today (40c) but it only seems to be 100.
Tomorrow's forecast is for 107 (42c).
Hot!

Avast!

Nothing much to speak of yesterday except ants and mosquito bites, so we'll just let that be.

It's hot today and should be a bit over 100 for the next few days it seems. I'm thankful I don't have a job working outside in the heat.
And also thankful for air conditioning.
=)

I think we are moving out of here tomorrow. Maybe. Which means I need to pack stuff up, though mostly it's all still residing in suitcases. However, since hubby's folks live on the 4th floor, and the thought of hauling my heavy suitcases up 4 narrow flights of stairs is not inviting, I will try to pick the essential things, and the rest can be stored at their other apartment, which is mostly empty, and which is on the first floor! Brilliant eh?
And then I guess as of Monday or Tuesday, we will be living with his parents until we either move to Kuwait, or if not moving there, until we find a new apartment in Cairo.
Hmmmm......

Back when I lived in the States, my landlord had remodeled the kitchen. I wish I had a "before" picture handy but I don't and I'm not digging one out right now. They did an excellent job as far as the aesthetics of the new kitchen went, but they took away a whole bunch of storage space, and I was really unhappy about that. Really unhappy.
However, in comparison to the kitchen at this temp apartment, and the kitchens I've seen in general here, it was like a little slice of heaven, reduced space or not. lol

First pic here is the kitchen at my old apartment. I was just a couple days from moving out so things are a bit messy. But, plenty of counter space (a lovely marble), a lovely range and oven, nice big fridge/freezer. It was nice.

And now we move to the kitchen here at our temp apartment.
I'm standing against the wall. The sink is to my right, and the doorway to my left. And you can see the whole rest of the kitchen here. It's hard for both hubby and I to be in it at the same time if we're trying to move around. lol
The stoves here seem to be miniature, and I'm not sure why. Forget ever roasting a turkey in one of these bitty things. I know they sell larger ovens, but I guess people are pressed enough for space that they buy the smaller ones? I dunno. I want the same size oven as I was used to in the States, but I don't think it's going to happen. We shall see.



My mother in law's kitchen is bigger, but... still has the small oven. And not much counter or storage space to speak of.
Things are strange here kitchen wise. Or I should say, "different". It seems when you move into a place, you buy your own major appliances and storage cabinets? I don't quite understand it.
I mean, you can rent apartments that are furnished, but they aren't all that way.

Anyways... looking forward to a bigger kitchen insha'Allah. And buying kitchen stuffs. And baking!

One foot, two foot

We had a nice day today. Took a walk downtown. A long walk. A loooooooooong walk.
By the time we found a place to have lunch (around 6 pm) I'm pretty sure I was close to just sitting down in the street and not moving another inch!
lol
But it was nice walking downtown and looking at all the stores and people watching. We also walked over one of the bridges going across the Nile. It wasn't the 6th October bridge, and it wasn't the University bridge, it was the one inbetween, which happens to have an Arabic name (of course) that I can't remember.
We almost went and saw the new movie Angels and Demons, but I decided after eating that I was too wiped, and I think we both would have slept through the film. lol
On the way back home, we finally stopped at the store Dary. Wow. Six floors full of household goods. They did have some nice things, and whether we stay here in Cairo, or move to Kuwait (they have the same store there in Kuwait), we do plan to buy at least some small items from there insha'Allah. I didn't care much for their furniture, but they had some decent kitchen items and some other odds and ends.
After coming home and changing, I've barely moved off the couch. I think I will be too sore tomorrow!!

First two pictures are of the Nile. I couldn't decide which one was better, so you get both.






Next is hubby and I. Since he's taller than me, his head got a bit cut off. lol
Taken while standing on the bridge over the Nile.



Next two photos were taken inside the store that we went to, Dary.
The first is of a kitchen counter setup and I just couldn't believe the color. It was actually brighter than you can see in the photo. And just so...... green!



Last photo is some lamps that I liked. The covering is some kind of plastic, and it allows a nice ambient light, instead of something bright and glaring. I'm not ecstatic about the green and orange color options, but I'd probably buy them anyways, as I do like them overall.


I also got a short 8 second video clip of the Nile.



I haven't tried to upload files with Blogger before. I actually uploaded it on my youtube account as well if you want to find it there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51lfbITG_WI

Our last day here at the apartment will be Tuesday. I guess we should leave that morning, as that is when the 2nd month is up. Possible we will leave before then but not likely. Hubby should be leaving sometime in the next week for Kuwait. Still not sure when. Still don't want him to go.

piccaloos

Just a few pictures today.

First up, some people fishing off of one of the bridges going across the Nile. Unfortunately, this doesn't exactly show the river. lol
We were moving when I snapped the shot and it snapped a bit too late.




Next we have a shot of our "cute" tub/shower. I really don't understand the design of this at all.





The next two pictures are food pics from when we were at the in-laws. Remember I talked about the cow knees? lol




Last is the rice stuffed intestines. Yum yum!
The first step in these is boiling them in some kind of broth. And then after that they are fried in oil.



We went for a nice long walk down to the bakery, Le Poire last night. Got a couple of dry but tasty croissants, and a couple of cinnamon rolls (though they were without icing and just have some sugar glaze?).
The plan is to go for another walk tonight and maybe go to that one store we were going to go to before, Dary.
We shall see!

Mosquitoes and flies and ants, oh my!

Well, we are finally back at our apartment, as of less than an hour ago.
And I am really very happy to be back here, loud noises and all.
Truly, there is no place like home.
Even though I love hubby's family, and it is quieter at his folks house, and mom does the cooking and everything else, it doesn't really feel like "my" home, and even though I don't love our temporary apartment here, and it's loud and dusty and the kitchen sucks, it still feels like my home here. And I'm happy to be back.

When we were driving on our way back, I was people watching as always, and I wondered if I would get bored if I drove around all day just people watching. I'm sure if I did it for hours on end every day it would get old, but I just haven't gotten to that spot yet.
There is always something interesting and different to see, even though we drive the same streets going back and forth from our place to mom and dad's place.
I would like to walk the streets soon, during the daytime, so I can get some good pictures.
The only problem is, I don't necessarily want to be obvious in my picture taking, and so I'm not sure how to go about that. I can go across the street perhaps for some shots. But my camera is not that great. I mean it works okay and it's not like I'm a professional photographer that I need a super awesome camera, but something a little better would be good.
Anyways, it is on my list of things to do - walking around and getting some good shots.

I was eaten alive by mosquitoes the last few days at the in-law's place. I don't know why since I haven't been bitten so much previously while there, and even the first couple of days we were there this time I wasn't bitten.
I have 9 or 10 bites that I'm aware of.
Yoinks!
Last night I finally lost patience with the bugs.
I had been out on the balcony earlier in the day trying to enjoy the last of the sunshine. I was sitting in a chair and using the computer, and there was a fly that just would not leave me be. And by the time I got frustrated with the fly, I spied a spider crawling around on the ground.
Sooo, I went inside to avoid the bugs.
Later in the evening, I was sitting on the couch. In general, the lights are off in the evening because they leave the balcony doors open and there is no screen, and so if the lights are on, it invites more mosquitoes to come.
Last night, my sister in law was doing her nails and so had the lights on. This had a plus and minus to it.
The balcony doors did not get closed, and so there were quite a few mosquitoes.
That is the minus.
But, the plus is that since the lights were on, I was able to see the ginormous man eating ant that was crawling next to me on the couch!
Gaaaaaaah!!!!!
I hate the large ants here. Seriously.
They must come from outer space or something. They are just huge. I even saw one the other day that was not only huge, but had legs like a daddy long legs spider, so like a cross between the mutant ant from outer space and a spider.
Anyways, suffice it to say that I was NOT happy about sharing a couch with this ant and I promptly got up.
My sister in law came and tried to get rid of the ant by wiping onto the ground, but then we couldn't see where it went. She said she thinks she killed it, but I was not convinced.
I did not end up sitting on the couch the rest of the night.
In fact, at that point, I was quite fed up with bugs and being away from home in general, and stayed the rest of the night in the bedroom.
lol
*sigh*

I also spied that lizard on the bathroom window again last evening. It must be living around the apartment somewhere, but the apartment is on the 4th floor (no elevator, thank you very much), and so I don't know if it's just climbing up the building or maybe lives in a tree next to the building and hops over or what.
I would like to see what he looks like on his topside instead of just his underside.
They also make some kind of sound. I would never have known it if my brother in law had not said something. That first night that I saw the lizard in the bathroom, my brother in law, sister in law, hubby and I were all talking about it, and they were telling me all about this type of lizard. I couldn't believe that it made noise. I never heard of something like that before. But, when we heard a noise later on, they pointed out that it was the lizard making the noise.

Things sometimes seem very strange here.
lol
I mean....
really.

I got terribly homesick last night. I was missing my son so much and missing my usual routine that I had. Being able to drive down to the grocery and get whatever I needed, going to the library, or the theater, or anywhere.
I don't always miss those things so keenly, but just now and then.
I'm sure it will continue, but maybe it will get less with time.
I do like it here and I will continue to adjust and get used to things insha'Allah. I wonder if the day will come that I feel like I truly belong here. That I am one of the people here, that I feel with them and know them.

Alright, this has been a wordy post with no pictures so I'll stop for now.
Maybe I'll post some later, maybe not.
I'll try to find some pictures for tomorrow.
Monkey says hello. He is a little homesick too.

Bathroom lizards

We're still at the in-laws. Funny how it happens this way, that we come to stay for one night and somehow it turns into 4 nights.
Me, of course, I'm only prepared to stay for one night, per hubby's answer when I asked him how long it would be.
lol
Still, nice to be with family instead of being alone at the apartment all day.

Last night for lunch we had grilled chicken and mom made me a nice salad with lettuce, cucumbers and grated carrots. There was also some vermicelli mom made for me with garlic and thyme or something.
Tonight was fried chicken and rice with noodles. Plus mom made me some soup, veggie soup with zucchini, carrots and onion in a broth. She also made some peas and carrots with a red sauce but I didn't have any of it. The rice was very nice, the noodles in it are kind of like vermicelli, only thinner, and they are cut into short pieces and fried first before mixing in with the rice.

Last night I needed to use the restroom. I went in and closed the door and before um, sitting down, I looked at the window and saw that there was a lizard on the outside of it.
The glass on the window is frosted, so I couldn't see it that clearly, but it was unmistakable.
At first I thought maybe someone was playing a joke and put a lizard shaped decal or something on the window but I can't imagine why that came to mind.
The thing about this lizard is that its feet had little grippers at the ends of the fingers, not like regular lizard fingers with nails or whatever.
I took some pictures but I'm guessing there is at least one person (by the name of mom, lol) who would not like to see, so I won't post it. All you can see is his underside anyways.

We went to bed late last night. It was about 2:30 or a bit later.
Ahmed likes to leave the balcony door open and also the shutters on the window are closed, but not the window itself.
There are no screens on either the balcony or the window.
Needless to say, there are mosquitoes.
We usually don't have that bad of a problem, a few here or there.
But last night around 3 I was woken by the buzz of mosquito in my ear. I brushed it away in irritation, and then not a couple of minutes later, was buzzed by my other ear. Again I brushed it away, irritated. This pattern went on for a good 10 minutes before I was able to fall asleep again.
Well, the adhan (call to prayer that is heard on the loudspeakers here) sounded at 4:30 a.m.
I woke up, and my throat was so dry that I couldn't swallow well, so I thought I would take a drink of water. There was a bottle of water on the bedside so that was fine, but what wasn't fine was that I noticed, after taking a couple of sips of water, that I had a very large bump on the inside of my mouth, next to the left corner.
Sakes alive I started to freak out, feeling it with my tongue. I couldn't imagine at first what could have caused it, then realized it must have been one of the stupid mosquitoes.
I had been having very bad acid reflux earlier in the night so I thought at first maybe the bump was from something I ate, but that didn't make as much sense as a mosquito bite.
Well, I got out of bed and walked out onto the balcony. Don't ask me why, I don't know.
lol
I just had to get out of bed because I was totally panicked about the bump. I didn't want to wake Ahmed and so I got back into bed and managed to get back to sleep.
By morning when I woke back up, at 7, the bump had gone down significantly, but I could still feel it.
I managed to get back to sleep some more before finally waking up again with Ahmed's phone ringing.
When he woke, I told him about the bump and he said it was probably just a mosquito and that he has gotten bit on the lips before and it's okay, nothing to worry about.
I don't know why but I just considered that if the bite was inside the mouth, somehow it could cause more harm or get infected or who knows what.
At 4:30 in the morning, or even 7 for that matter, my mind isn't generally thinking that straight.
So, that is my horrible awful mosquito story.
I still have the bump but it's not so big and insha'Allah it will go away soon with no problems.
I do foresee a mosquito net for our bed in the very near future!!!!
:D

My sister in law and I are supposed to do a little shopping in the afternoon or early evening tomorrow. There are some stores near to the apartment here that she wanted to show me. Should be nice and maybe I will find something to buy.
And then, I am told, we are going home tomorrow night. lol
We shall see.
I will be back here anyways when hubby goes on his trip to Kuwait later in the week.

Mums

Well, it is not mother's day here in Egypt, they have theirs in March. Somewhere around the 20th I believe.
However, it is mother's day back in the States, and that is where my mothers are.
lol
How funny does that sound, plural mothers?
But I am very happy for both my moms.
I couldn't be where I am today without either one of them. They have both given me so much, which I can never repay, but only be grateful for.

So, happy mother's day to my moms, and to all of us moms!

A mum for the mums.
I didn't take this picture, but mums are one of my favorite flowers. So pretty.

Soda for breakfast

Still at the in-laws. Hubby has left for work.
I did get a few photos yesterday of mom's cooking, but haven't gotten them ready for posting.
She made two main dishes, neither of which I can remember the names of. I'll ask Ahmed when I see him this evening. One of the dishes was flatbread with rice and a ton of garlic and soup and um, it sounds weird but it ends up being rice with very soft pieces of flatbread in it and very garlic flavored and it was soooooo good. I love garlic. The other dish was sausage casings stuffed with the same kind of spiced rice that is used for stuffing vegetables (or as I call them, intestines with rice).
The rice was a little too spicy for me, and to be perfectly honest I'm not thrilled at eating intestine casings, but... ya know.
Mom also made me some plain rice and some mashed potatoes. There was also some stewed meat and it was so tender and juicy. Just lovely.
There was a last dish, which was... I dunno... like... cow knees or something? lol
You take them and boil them in some kind of broth and I guess they get soft and you can eat them, but you can bet they won't be passing my lips anytime soon. Hubby doesn't eat them either, though he has tried them before. You can be sure that if something does not appeal to my husband (who will eat just about anything), then for sure it's not going to appeal to me!
For dessert, mom made the um, I dunno what they're called, though sugar balls would be an appropriate name. They are sweets that are traditionally made at Ramadan. They are kind of like donut holes, only the glaze is a sugar syrup flavored with vanilla and I'm pretty sure I could eat them all day long! Wow they are so good. Totally unhealthy, but sometimes you just gotta go for it!

It was really nice to see the family that I hadn't seen since last time I was here, and I enjoyed meeting his cousin that I hadn't met before. She is moving back to Kuwait on Friday, so if hubby and I do end up moving to Kuwait, I guess she and I will be able to spend time together.

Hubby is leaving sometime in the next week on his Kuwait trip and I am dreading it. I know that I'll be okay, but....I dunno, I just feel safer with him around than out of the country.
Still not sure how long he'll be gone for. I hope no more than 5 days.
Upside is that my sister in law has taken the whole month of May off from work, so she'll be around during the day while I'm at the parents in law's place. Perhaps we'll find some trouble to get up to.

It's windy and chilly today. Though it should warm up later I guess. Though it's already just past 1 p.m., so I don't know.

Promises, promises

Okay, I said I would share the videos today so here they are!

First up is a donkey and cart going down the street.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDPyCa3siU0

Next we have a short clip of a fire engine and it's loud warbling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npvd_8uzbck

Last we have a horse going down the street.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHANZgbbNlA

These are all normal sights during the day here.
Not exactly like Pleasanton.
lol

The weather has been nice and cool the last couple of days. I don't even mind the overcast today. Almost anything is better than that horrible dust we got earlier in the week.

Tomorrow we should be going to the parents in law's place insha'Allah.
There will be three extra people coming to visit, one of which I've never met before.
One of the visitors is hubby's aunt. And the other two are two of her children, one of which I have met and the other I haven't.
Should be fun and I'm looking forward to being around people and out of the apartment.
Not sure if we're staying overnight or for how long. Last time was an unexpected four day stay there.
We might actually head over tonight, but I won't know til later.
Hubby has a dentist appointment and I suggested it might be easier to go tonight before the appointment.
We shall see.

I might play around some more with the colors on here today. Let's see what I can come up with!

**edited to say, sorry I can't make the links for the videos clickable. Whenever I try to use blogger's tool for it, there's an empty space on the finished page where there should be a link. Just highlight and copy the link and open it in a new browser window.

**edited to further add that I think I figured it out. I need to just compose in the "compose" window and use the link insert thingy and that should do it.

What day is it?

I've been losing track of days here.
I'm not sure that will change unless I either put a calendar up on the wall or I'm working a job every day.
Neither one will be happening any time soon.
lol

The cleaning lady came today. She was here from 11 til about 3 or so.
I couldn't believe how little she got paid. I mean... I was shocked. I know that things cost less here but I couldn't imagine working for that pay.
Anyways, it was um... interesting to see how she cleaned. We mostly stayed in one of the bedrooms while she cleaned but I could see/hear what she was doing sometimes.
To dust, she was taking a rag and beating it against the surfaces that needed dusting. Now, this is certainly a way to get the dust off of the surface, but all your doing is making it fly into the air, and then it will just land somewhere else, possibly even in the place you just removed it from. It's possible there are worse ways to dust, but I can't think of any at the moment.
The area carpets she cleaned with a brush or something, but it didn't do much. They were hanging out on the balcony while she washed the floors, and when hubby put them back down on the floor, there was still tons of dust in them. Waste of cleaning the floors if you ask me. We couldn't beat the dust out of them while they were hanging on the balcony, as there is a store down on the bottom floor of this building, and we couldn't exactly be dropping dust all over anyone possibly coming in or out of the building, not to mention getting the ground marble out in front of the store covered in dust/dirt.
Things sure look cleaner overall, but I would never clean the same way that this lady did. I guess we all have our ways. I just think mine are better!
lol
And cleaner.
*shudder*

Anyways, before she got here this morning, I was out on the balcony and I saw so many amusing things. I swear it hardly takes 10 minutes and I've got just as many stories to tell.
It's great.
So, here are the pictures for today.

First up is a yellow VW beetle. Although the VW micro buses are everywhere, I don't see as many beetles, and this one was just nice as it was so bright. It's unusual to see brightly colored cars here and it was like finding a piece of brightly colored candy in a big pile of dirt. lol



Here's a picture of these cute little cars that I see. I don't know what they're called but they're so tiny. And cute.



These guys were up on ladders, looking very unsafe, and doing something to the front of this sign, though I'm not sure what.
No orange road cones, nothing to block off the area, just up there working away.



Last picture is of some school girls on their way to somewhere after classes.
They attend a school that is across the street, and it seems they have a uniform of either black or dark blue skirt, and pink or white blouse and scarf.
When you see a whole bunch of them coming from school at once it's nice.
Things that match! Yay!
lol



I also got a few short videos. I'll put the links up shortly, after I upload them to my youtube account.
Actually, I think I'll save those links for tomorrow.

I have found a possible source for Jelly Belly's here in Cairo. Not very close to where we live, but we can make a trip and see if we can find them. I'm sure they're expensive as well, but I'm not sure if it would be cheaper to buy them here or have them shipped. Shipping is expensive to Egypt from the States, and the heavier a package is, the more it costs. And Jelly Belly's aren't light.
We shall see!!

I am excited thinking about planting a lemon tree. We just need to get the seeds. Which I might be requesting from the States.
As far as I know they take a few years to mature, but it's worth the effort I guess.
And I'm not sure if there's a variety that's specifically suited to growing in a pot? That's how we would be growing it, so I guess I need to check that out.
Jennifer, I still remember that lemon tree you guys had on Seminole!!
Unless I'm going crazy and you didn't have one.
In which case I don't remember it.
lol

Monkey says hello to everyone!

Clear as a bell

Well, the skies are clear today, alhamdulillah!
I know that the season for dust storms isn't long, but I'd be happy if it just didn't exist at all.
lol

Here's a pic from this morning.



Cleaning lady is coming tomorrow instead of today, because we weren't sure yesterday whether there would still be dust today, and we didn't want her to clean until the dust storm was over.

I've been craving white peaches. I have been told that they do exist here (not sure if imported or grown here), so now the hunt will be on to find some!
Hubby has never had one, and I want him to taste how wonderful they are.
Also on the lookout for some lemons. They have limes here up the kazoo (which they call lemons, which leads to some confusion as you might imagine), but I have yet to see any shiny yellow lemons.

The cucumbers they have here are different from the kind we're used to in the States. Different variety I guess. I'll take a picture when we buy some so you can see. I miss the ones from the states. I'm sure the taste is about the same but the ones here just don't look as nice.

I'm trying to decide about some things I want to buy online and maybe have the items shipped to my parents and then have my parents send a package here.
Just not sure the expense is worth it. Still have some pondering to do, but plenty of time to do it in.
Will need to re-stock on jelly belly's soon in any case, only a few packages left, and they won't last too long with hubby's love for them.
lol
Maybe I should try to hunt around for them here...

Hellooooo dust!

Well, it appears that we are in the middle of a dust storm.
I think the term storm is a little misleading though. The air is for sure filled with dust, and there is wind at times, but when I think of storm I think of something more like a heavy rain storm or tornadoes or other stuff like that.
To add insult to injury, it was about 100 degrees yesterday.
So, dust with a side of heat.
lol
We had the a/c on in the bedroom last night which was nice.
When I woke up I could tell it would be hot again today. It's only 84 at the moment (12:40 pm), though I guess it will get a bit hotter.

I tried to take a picture but it doesn't show that clearly how thick the air is.
The buildings in the background that you can't see well? You should be able to see them clearly.



Woke up earlier than I wanted today and am feeling bored and restless. I think the restless is from feeling like I can't be outside because of the dust.
But, on the upside, I did find some cartoons in English this morning. There is something like the Cartoon Network here, but it seems like whenever I check to see what's playing it's some weird old cartoon that I never heard of.
This morning I saw the Flinstones, Merrie Melodies, Batman, and the Powerpuff Girls.

Tomorrow we are having a lady in to clean. Not sure how long it will take but a couple of hours maybe?
It should be interesting.
Mainly I want to get rid of the dust in here. It drives me crazy.
Insha'Allah when we get our next place the windows will be more airtight.

I was thinking about homesickness this morning.
Compared to last time I was here, I can't say I really feel any homesickness.
In wondering why, I had the idea that since last time I was here I knew that I would be going back home, I was eager to get to the things that I missed?
But this time, since I am living here, there is not that feeling of longing for things that I will be going back to.
That could be totally wrong, who knows.
There are definitely things that I miss, aside from family and friends, but nothing that I can't live without.
I guess it's just a matter of figuring out what's important and what you can live with.
We have a lot of conveniences in the States that I think we all take for granted. I'd say that as a whole, the country is pretty spoiled!
That isn't to say it isn't nice to be spoiled now and then.
lol

Ahmed's aunt from Kuwait is in Cairo visiting. She got here yesterday and will stay for a couple of months I think. She has her own apartment here, so that's convenient to say the least.
I'm looking forward to seeing her. I met her on my trip here back in 2007 and she's really nice.
Insha'Allah we will go to parents in law's place Friday and maybe she will be there too.
We skipped the parents in law last Friday as we went to Carrefour instead.

Time for some Tom and Jerry. See you all later!

** I've edited this to add a more recent picture. You should be able to see the difference in how much worse it is than it was three hours ago.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

Well, I decided to change the colors around a bit here.
Not sure if I'm happy with it or not. Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think.


We went to Carrefour yesterday afternoon. It was about a half hour drive to get there, and that was with very light traffic. I imagine if traffic was heavy it could be 45 minutes to an hour. This particular branch was located in the area called Maadi. This was the first time I had been in this area of Cairo. I really couldn't see much except for the housing along the freeway, though we did pass over the nile and had a view of downtown, which I'll post a picture of.

The store itself, if I remember correctly, is 50k square meters. I'm not sure how many feet that is, but it was pretty HUGE. Maybe something like the size of a Costco (though I'm thinking bigger even?). Definitely bigger than the average Safeway or Raley's.
Also, it was totally packed!
Not only was it packed, but it had that kind of frenzy you get when grocery shopping on a day like the day before Thanksgiving.
I'm not sure why it was like that, but the other large grocery we went to was the same.
Perhaps adding to the whole thing was that it seemed to be a destination for whole families, so there were many many kids around as well.

We made a pass through almost half of the store before heading to the food court that was outside of the grocery, but inside the mall where the grocery was at.
The food court had McDonalds, KFC, Hardee's (like Carls Jr), Pizza Hut, some place with Chinese food and another that had some other kind of Middle Eastern food.
We ordered from Pizza Hut and took a seat to wait while the food was prepared.

The food court was pretty large, and there was hardly an empty seat to be found.
Perfect for people watching, which I love to do.
And full of kids, which is fun, because kids don't think about people watching what they're doing, they just do whatever they think of.

There was a pretty wide range of people there actually. Some women not wearing any head covering, some wearing complete head covering (including face and eyes), girls wearing tight jeans, some wearing loose robe like coverings, a few very small babies, not so many dads, lots of teenagers, almost all of whom wore tight jeans and tight t-shirts (the girls and the boys). I saw a pregnant lady wearing overalls. That was kinda cute.

After getting our food and eating, we headed back to the grocery and made the complete circuit. It took something less than an hour, maybe 45 minutes or a bit longer by the time we got out.

Carrots here are shaped kinda funny. I mean they have the general carrot shape, but I'm used to carrots that are longer and more uniform in diameter, and the carrots here are rather short and stumpy, and VERY large at the top compared to how thin they are at the end.
In general, the fruits and veggies aren't as nice looking as the stuff you get at Raley's or Safeway, and I assume it's because it's coming straight off the farm, no processing or washing or culling or whatever. I could be wrong, I'm just guessing.

We also made a stop in the mall at the Body Shop, which is a store selling scented lotions, soaps, etc.
We actually went in there before we got to the grocery.
I ended up getting two soaps for a ridiculous sum of money. I'm sure it's cheaper at the stores in the States, and that it's probably just more expensive here because of importing.
But, once I said I liked the soaps, hubby insisted on buying them for me.
I found a spray that I liked as well, but it was 100 pounds (roughly 20 bucks) and I just couldn't see spending the money on it (at least not Egyptian pounds), though it really was quite nice.
If we go back, maybe I'll charge it or something.

I was a little frustrated at trying to take pictures. Of course, it's not so easy to do from a moving car to begin with, and I take a lot of shots to end up with a few that I think are decent, but somehow, the driver yesterday was stopping either just short of or just after the shots I was wanting to get and I missed so many that I wanted.
But, insha'Allah, I'll have plenty of opportunities for picture taking.

First picture up was taken on our way back. We had stopped the cab because hubby was trying to get an empty bag from a little street market.
This guy was just totally zoned out on his chair. Apparently, not a care in the world.



Also on the way back, there was an old woman who was hunched over and slowly making her way to whatever her destination was. No clue as to her age, but old.



I got this shot on our way there.
There are many street vendors who have carts loaded with something like pumpkin seeds. The seeds are called leb asmar in Arabic. There is also leb abiad which are like the same except black in color.



I took this one very close to the mall/grocery. There is a lot of construction going on in the area. This actually turned out much nicer than I had been planning. Many of the shots I take are hasty and I'm never sure what's going to get in the frame since the car is usually moving.
This picture actually makes me feel kind of depressed, but I'm not sure why. There's just something that seems sad about it.



Last is a view of Maadi from the bridge on the Nile.
I wish the railing wasn't there but you know what they say about wishing. lol
It's a nice view of the city skyline though.



As a reminder, if you click on any image, you will be taken to a larger version.

Midnight and time for dinner.
Wishing you all well.
=)