Masr Gadida

View from our apartment
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I'll be living in Cairo for a month this summer, at the time which is defined as "the worst season of the year to visit Egypt" but I really don't care.  Yes, IT.IS.HOT.  And my air conditioner broke the other day, but that's a different story....so anyways yeah, I moved in a week and a half ago.  I am living in Masr Gadida "new Egypt" which is a nice neighborhood.  I have an apartment with my friend Shelbi, who just graduated from Binghamton.  She has a friend here in Cairo, Islam (he's really nice) and he set up the apartment for us, and has been giving us a lot of great advice about how to get around, etc.  I really love the neighborhood our apartment is in.  No one speaks english, and we're actually probably the only white people around for miles.  Of course, a lot of staring goes on, but I'm kind of used to it, thanks to Morocco...     We spent our first week here just getting settled in.  We went to Khan al Khaleeli, which is "the oldest market in the world."  Honestly, I am starting to feel at home among the hustle & bustle, noise & crowding of these madinas.  The crappy souvenirs, the Gallabiyyas (traditional clothes) the smell of Shisha, mixed with exotice spices (Saffron is my favorite!), mixed with...garbage?  The constant harassment of Arab men, Arabic being spoken all around (They are always amazeddd to hear me speak arabic) the bargaining...to some people, this sounds awful, but I really enjoy and feel comfortable among it.  Shelbi, on the other hand, had never experienced anything like it...she fell in love as well!  Kind of like my first time in the Madina of Fez...     What else did we do the first week?  Following Shelbi's trusty guide book, we decided to check out the Citadel of Salah-al-din, or Saladin...the Turk Killer.  There was a Museum of the History of the Egyptian Military (ehh) as well as a couple of mosques...honestly...BoRiNg!  And I usually enjoy these types of things, maybe I have been spoiled by all the amazing things I have seen in the past 5 months.  But it was interesting to note the parallels between the Islamic architecture here in Egypt and the architecture in Al Maghrib...here there's much more of an Ottoman influence.  The mosques have more than one minaret, and they're usually thin and round, not square...

Double parking in Cairo. Typical.
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Oh yeah, at the market, Shelbi and I were told that our hands in marriage would fetch 1000s of camels.  Rad.

Oh yeah, Shelbi and I were told that our hands in marriage would fetch 1000 camels. Rad.