And now for a Christmas completely different...

I have just returned from my alternative Christmas vacation in Ras Shittan -راس شتان . All I can say is that everyone should try a festive celebration with a difference once in a while!

Ras Shittan is a secluded area located on the Red Sea coast, just outside of Nuweiba. When I say secluded, I of course mean desolate, as are most places in the Red Sea at the moment, due to the  crippling lack of tourism across the country.

Our trip began late on Thursday 22^nd December at a sleepy coach depot in Cairo. For those of you who have studied your Arabic numbers and can read signs,  the Turgamon bus station is a place where you can see the variation in costs  that I talked about in my previous blog –  with coach tickets for foreigners being  10LE more expensive than those for Egyptians. Although it irks me a little, for most visitors to the country the prices are still very manageable. For a one way, 7 hour coach trip to the Red Sea it costs in the region of 80LE or approximately£8 (prices may vary according to the company, or the station you pick the coach up from).

So we descended the stairs to await our coach, not before I almost suffered again for my foreignness. On deciding that I wanted to try avoiding the coaches facilities at all costs (whether planes, trains, automobiles I am not a fan in general of toilets in moving vehicles) I thought I would check out the depot’s lavatories. Big mistake. Ladies, if you have any care for your health try to avoid such places as service station toilets here! Follow your mother’s advice and go before you leave! I crept into what felt like the mouth of hell, to stare in horror and disgust at the broken, dirty mess of plumbing before me, only to retreat almost straight away; needless to say, without having relieved myself! On exiting the scene of the crime against hygiene I was immediately collared by the toilet guard- a terrifying woman sat at a desk outside the toilet to shrewdly monitor everyone who passes her threshold. She demanded 1LE for the privilege of looking at her facilities, to which I was thrilled to be able to piece together an answer in Arabic- telling her that ‘I was not making a toilet because they were not good’. Ok, so it’s not Shakespeare, but one month ago I certainly would not have been able to argue my case in Arabic at a public toilet! Massive thanks go to IH Cairo ILI for giving me the language to survive the most unexpected of situations! In my opinion, apart from the obvious emergency and everyday survival situations which may arise, irritating circumstances like this really emphasise the need for basic language skills when living abroad. My guess is that the lady was so shocked that I even knew how to make myself understood in Arabic that she probably would have let me leave without paying even if I told her I liked her handbag!

Once on the coach there was just a long haul overnight journey between us and pure repose. I snuggled down for a kip but the journey is not one that favours sleeping. Along the route there are check points, including a highly inconvenient stop where you have to offload the whole coach and let an army sniffer dog check your luggage. I can but guess that this is because although the Red Sea is still technically in Egypt, it is an area which has had its fair share of troubles (not least due to its geographical links to Israel/Palestine) and therefore this proximity brings with it high levels of security. For this reason I hereby give you two words of warning when making this trip, which should not at any cost be ignored…

One absolute necessity when crossing the Cairo threshold, and vice versa, is to take your passport. Although it is the same country, Cairo needs VISA evidence to enter (whereas Sharm El Sheik doesn’t). I would advise buying one beforehand (for example at the airport) although you can buy them on the coach if necessary. Prices for the same visa vary drastically from £15 English to 15LE depending on where and when you buy it. The best thing to do is just accept the inconsistency and roll with it. VISA or not, there could be big trouble if you don’t take your passport at all- I have not yet been witness to what happens to those who forget their passport but I would say don’t test the system!

The other warning goes without saying- For your own safety do not try and smuggle any form of illegal substance onto the coach. For that matter, do not indulge in any form of illegal substance consumption at all whilst in Egypt.  (I would like to openly state that I have never touched any drugs and never will!) Drug abuse, as in the UK and most other countries, is not legally permitted in Egypt. I have not borne witness to someone being found in possession of narcotics however I cannot imagine it would be too pleasant for them. My advice would be just don’t even think about taking the risk, unless you want to end up in prison for the rest of your trip.

So with my strong words of warning over I will introduce you to Bedouin life. It is beautiful! In fact the Bedouins are interesting people and I may write more about them one day.

We arrived just after dawn at our camp ‘Beduoin Home’. The coach dropped us off right at the end of the lane and we were greeted by the owner of the camp, one of my boyfriend’s friends. I have decided that it is about time now to introduce my boyfriend by name – I am sure he won’t mind. After all, he is quite an integral part of most of these blogs, being my ‘partner in crime’ and my fellow traveller for most of the trips I take.  So Rami and I wearily alighted the coach, and waved goodbye to it before he realised that we were also waving goodbye to an unopened, oversized bag of marshmallows that he had brought for us to snack on! As the coach became a dot over the horizon and the marshmallows made their way to Sharm El Sheikh it taught us a valuable lesson to make sure we check the luggage rack before we leave! Thankfully all our valuables were safely about our persons, however I do wonder which lucky child ended up having a rather excessive treat that night when Dad got home from work!

One thing I realised as soon as the sun rose higher was that this place was hot! Although the winter nights were chilly, in the days we basked in glorious sunshine, made stronger by the fact that we were not on open ocean: Saudia Arabia and Jordan are just a few kilometres away across the water from Nuweiba, maybe 20 minutes maximum by speed boat, which meant that the sun was caught and contained in what was effectively a mountainous bowl from the moment it rose to the moment it set. Eating a wonderful fresh breakfast that first morning on the beach in the sunshine, staring at a clear view of the shores of foreign lands was an experience I will never forget!

Whilst we were there, it was Rami and my decision to expend as little energy as possible. So we enjoyed snorkelling, walking along the beach and some moderate mountain trekking, but we did not bother to book onto any trips or excursions – choosing instead to save the adventures for when I have family or friends visiting. However, we were presented with many different options and there is definitely enough to keep the average adventurer busy even in the most secluded of spots. From scuba to desert safari, our campsite manager had all the contacts necessary to arrange these trips, as I think most reputable campsites should. If you are only in this part of the world for a short time, unlike myself, I would definitely recommend that you explore your options.

When approaching the camp and taking in the environment I was overcome with the same mixed views of beauty versus desolation that I have about a vast amount of Cairo. I was left breathless at the stunning landscape that we had landed in. In front of us lay ocean that sparkled like crystal and behind us the austere mountains guarded the tranquillity of the beach.  The camp was made up of around 10 adorable bamboo beach huts called ‘kosh’, positioned just metres from the ocean; minimal in design, with just a bed and a table and some cushions, but perfect for our camping needs. The rest of the campsite was made up of Beduoin style communal areas like bamboo canopies sheltering floors covered in rugs and cushions and with low tables dotted around. At night we were covered in a blanket of stars while the calming sound of the waves lapping the shore lulled us to sleep.

Nonetheless, all around the camp and right on our doorstep it looked like the end of the world. The beach was strewn with litter and as far as the eye could see there were the eerie remains of abandoned building projects and half-finished or deserted holiday resorts, left open to the elements after tourism failed and brought a whole country, relying on this industry, to its knees. There was barely another soul in a radius of about 10K except resident Bedouins living in the empty buildings, the owner of the place and a handful of his friends... and a camel.

I would sincerely like to return to this area when the tourism in Cairo is improved. Although I was able to look past the desolation I could not help but be heartbroken at how badly the whole country has been affected by the lack of tourists, frightened from coming because of political turbulence occuring many, many kilometres away. This will be a recurring feeling I believe, until the situation improves. The small area of shops that we visited on the second day looked like a town out of an apocalyptic thriller. Us and three Italians, who made a speedy departure as soon as they arrived, were the only foreign visitors that week. Unfortunately for a group of people who have learned to rely on foreign money as their only income, the situation is fast becoming desperate. After having spoken to someone here at the college who made the same trip as me, but to a different camp, I am reassured, if not more saddened, to know it was not exclusively our area that was badly in need of maintenance and an injection of cash and people.

One other criticism that I have of the place we were staying is the lack of evening entertainment of any kind. The darkness drew in early, around 6pm, and the evenings were long and oppressive. Without mental stimulation we were both incredibly sleepy very early. Actually, we revelled in the chance to sleep however if we had been hoping for something to keep us occupied into the night, this would definitely not have been the best place to stay! Maybe this again will change when the camp comes alive with people. I will have to report back if ever I find out.

For now, I will just say that we were able to block out the slightly unnerving surrounds and the lack of evening amusement and focus instead on the incredible natural backdrop and the chance for fresh air and exposure to some nature. We revelled in the chance to eat fresh food in copious amounts on the beach and I spent Christmas day paddling and swimming in the ocean, watching a comical crab scuttling along the beach and tasting freshly caught oyster that I had actually witnessed being fished through my snorkel mask. If you are able to open your mind look past the after effects of a country in political turmoil and economic trouble you can instead start to appreciate the holiday for what it can give you: sun, sea, sand and the chance to escape the hum drum of everyday life for a short while.

Trips such as these desert stays can be booked through the IH Cairo ILI student services. Our stay at Beduoin Home was found privately as it was an invitation from a friend – This venue is owned by a young company, and the place was taken over from another owner, so the facilities need to be spruced up a little bit before I feel it is ready for wider publicity and personal recommendation. If you are not at the college studying then I am sure that you can find many such resorts on google or tripadvisor, although I will not be held responsible for any bad experiences as a result of this advice! However you book, during your time in Egypt I would thoroughly recommend a trip to the middle of nowhere for a few days rest and repose and a camping experience like none other.

The Camp over-looking the sea 

The camp over-looked by the mountains

 Sunrise on Christmas morning

The British Community Association of Cairo

As promised, here is a short filler blog to bridge the slightly longer time gap than usual before my next blog which will be after the Western Christmas.

Last weekend  I spent time exploring the city with my boyfriend. Specifically, we were on a mission to find out where all the resident Brits are hiding!

Our journey took us to City Stars Shopping Mall in Nasr City, where we met up with my boyfriend’s British friend, who was staying in the Intercontinental Hotel. This blog cannot do justice to the splendor of either the shopping centre or the hotel, so I will save this for another week. Suffice to say both places are worth checking out if you have some cash to spare!

With that in mind I will turn my focus to the British Community Association of Cairo or the BCA. The idea behind this organisation is to provide a social network for expatriates of all nationalities, although primarily British, and give them somewhere to meet up and socialise. Of course, seasoned travellers who doth protest that reverting to spending time with those of your own nationality (or at least those fluent in your language) when in new country defeats the object of moving abroad, may find the BCA a little too much like home.  I,however, utterly believe that the two ways of living when abroad can be enjoyed simultaneously.

Anyone who has moved away from where they were brought up and tried to start a new life elsewhere can testify that it is often an emotional process and it can be quite daunting and quite lonely. Couple this with a move abroad to a foreign land where the culture and language are very different and one soon realises the need for home comforts and a few friends who speak your lingo.

Studying and interning at IH Cairo ILI, a primarily British company, has helped me settle in tremendously as the whole place is a hub of diversity and I can talk to English speakers on a daily basis. This provides a healthy balance with my social life outside of work because it allows me to happily spend time with my boyfriend’s circle of friends who are all Egyptian with varying levels of English fluency. However, I am fully aware that not everyone has the privilege of instant contact with other foreigners and so I figured it was time to set out and try to make a few friends of my own outside of work so I can blog about how easy it is to do!

There are three main venues for the BCA. El Mohadeseen, Helipolis and El Maadi. Over the weekend we set out to try El Mohadeseen and El Maadi.

El Mohadeseen was, unfortunately, a let-down. After almost an hour of trudging around the back-streets of the area and after many failed attempts to call the telephone  number that was on the website, we had to admit defeat and leave before we even found the building, as it was simply nowhere to be seen and even the locals had never heard of it. I had read online that it was hard to find and in a quiet area, but this was simply ludicrous! What we were expecting I am not sure- possibly at the very least a Union Jack hanging outside, but there was nothing. On further enquiry (we ended up calling the El Maadi branch for help) we found out that the Mohandiseen clubhouse was relocating and within two months the current building will no longer be used. I will try the new venue when it is open and keep you all updated on its progress.

The BCA El Maadi was totally opposite. It was full of life and the atmosphere resembled that of an English pub garden on a sunny afternoon. We were able to talk to the senior barman, an Egyptian by the name of Simon, who welcomed us and explained everything we needed to know. There is a bar and a restaurant which serves all the British favourites. I treated my boyfriend to his first ever roast dinner. The food was tasty, with the exception of the ‘mash’ which could definitely not be defined by its name – resembling more a porridge - like slop than the fluffy and light consistency that mashed potato should have!

The venue has darts, a pool table and a big TV. Although a little far from my current residence in El Harram, I will probably become a member there because if you join El Maadi you automatically gain free membership to the other two places as well. All nationalities, including Egyptians and Brits, need a passport to enter. The club costs 800 LE (about £80) per annum to join and all the forms can be found online www.bcaegypt.com. The address is 18 Port Said Street, El Maadi. Do not expect the taxi driver to know the way, he will more than likely stop to ask directions a number of times! The club is not immediately obvious from the road but it is a terracotta mansion house on a corner of the street in a residential area, with a black gate that has a security guard by it. Directions are online and you can also give them a call +20 2 23580889.

For a little piece of home I would really recommend this club. In continuation it is used by all sorts of different groups and organisations as a meeting point and there are flyers for everything you may need from dentists to dance classes so you should never be lost for contacts. Whilst we were there, there was a charity bazaar raising money for children’s charities and encouraging people to donate or get involved. There was also a church barbeque taking place, which suggests that there is an active Christian community in El Maadi. Of course for those who are this way inclined a perfect way to meet new people who will ensure your comfort and happiness is to visit a church and get to know the congregation – a visit to the BCA and a chat to some the staff or the other punters can ensure you are pointed in the right direction.

So all in all this was a useful investigation of a centre-point for anyone who, like me, sometimes feel lost and a little daunted in their new, exotic environment!

This just leaves me time to once again wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Eat well and be healthy and happy, and may all your Christmas wishes come true.

The BCA El Maadi from the front 

 The BCA in Al Maadi at night

Inside the BCA El Maadi

Patience is a Virtue!

Before my main blog I just want to take a minute to express my sadness at the continued clashes in Tahrir over the weekend. Although I must stress that the rest of Cairo remains peaceful, here at the college we all feel very deeply for those who have been caught up in the violence and we hope and pray that the situation stabilises again soon. 

Now, to continue

I can say with complete confidence that I have never in my life known traffic as bad as Cairo's. On Wednesday and Thursday last week the second phase of elections was held for residents of the metropolitan area of Giza, during which time my 11 Kilometre commute home from work took no less than 4 hours each night! To put it into perspective, I could have flow to England for the night and come back again the next day in the time I spent sat in the car. 

Of course, the democratic elections brought with them extenuating circumstances as people made their way to voting stations en masse and roads were closed to allow the safe transit of the voting slips. Hopefully the 4 hour commute doesn't become a regular occurrence! 

All of this mention of the traffic jams brings to the forefront of my mind one of the most irksome factors of Cairo life; the roads.  Everyone, at some point in their time here, will experience the sheer insanity of Egyptian roads. It is virtually impossible to escape it whether you are a driver, a passenger or even a pedestrian. 

Angry bellowing and unrelenting horn blowing seem to be part of the package with Cairo road travel! Where the roads are free of traffic, motorists miraculously morph into Lewis Hamilton and you have to hold on to your hats as the pedal hits the metal. There is never a mid-way point; it is always either high speeds or total gridlock. Road markings have a purely decorative purpose and seatbelts are optional, and often ignored. If there was a green cross code* for Caironean pedestrians it would have just two instructions: Number one – step off the pavement. Number two – pray. 

Nonetheless, I have come to realise that it is pointless harbouring any road-related fear or stress because if you want to get around and explore the city, taxis and tour buses are one of the only available options and one of the best. The key to overcoming any potential anxiety is to just to accept your experience of the roads as a rite of passage to surviving the city and just for goodness sake take care when out and about. When crossing the road, wherever possible, do what as one very famous travel guide suggests and buffer yourself behind some more experienced locals!

In heavy traffic, short of getting out and walking (if you know the way), there is nothing that can be done except waiting. Take a puzzle book or an ipod, and treat it like a short-haul plane flight. When sightseeing during big events in the Cairo calendar such as Eid, the trick is to be realistic with how much you plan into each day; that way you will not get disappointed if you don’t achieve everything on your ‘to do’ list. To give you an indication of time, a 20 minute journey seems to take around 40 minutes on average as you will inevitable get stuck somewhere. When the speedometer tips 100 it can be scary, but again, there is nothing to be done expect just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Small tip: As much as is possible, try and get the taxi driver to use air con when in traffic (the word in Arabic is “takif”). A lot of the vehicles here seem to be run until they fall apart; and then they are stuck back together with sticky tape and used some more! As a result, there are a lot of old engines running in this city and the fumes are unlike anything I have ever experienced. On the odd occasion when I have been too slow to shut my window, giant exhaust clouds have made their way straight into the car and onto my face. Needless to say, if you are particularly concerned by environmental issues, enough to be affected by very overt evidence of pollution, then a long-term stay in a place such as Cairo may not be the right move for you.

Egypt Time

Whether this phenomenon came around because traffic is just so appalling that people lose half their lives stuck in cars, or whether it is because most of the year it is simply too hot to do much, I am not sure. Whatever the cause, you will find that in Cairo you quickly begin to live on what I call ‘Egypt time’.  Egypt time is something that one must get used to quite quickly when dealing with Egyptian tradesmen and making appointments.  The populous generally seems to have a very laid-back attitude towards punctuality; when an Egyptian says 15 minutes they usually mean 5 hours; when they say they will ‘try and come today’ it is likely that they won’t.

In continuation, most things happen at night here. As a ‘night person’ myself, it is wonderful to be able to wander across to the supermarket to pick something up as late as 1am! Of course, the downside of this is that if you are a ‘morning person’ you may not find as much open in the small hours of the morning!

Mix Egypt time with a visit to one of the local stores mentioned in last week’s blog and you do not always have a recipe for success. A story that jumps to mind straight away is that of my new bed. When I first arrived here I needed to furnish my flat so I ordered an inexpensive bed from a friendly vendor that my boyfriend’s father knew. It arrived in pieces but when trying to fix it together it transpired that this kit was not one bed packaged and ready, but 3 bits of 3 different beds – none of which fitted together! To make matters worse the guy who dropped it off left and then tried to tell my boyfriend he wouldn’t be back to fix the problem until two days later! At this point I was still sleeping in my boyfriend’s parents’ apartment and I was unable to get used to my very traditional, hard cotton mattress. I was desperate to settle into my flat and this was not the first hiccup I had experienced, so you can imagine that the news about the delay was not borne with any great dignity! I turned into a crazed banshee, possibly causing seismic damage to my boyfriend’s hearing, after which he miraculously (out of desperation I imagine) managed to drag the poor fellow back the same evening, when they continued sawing and hammering my bed until 2.30am! To my delight (and warranting sincere thanks to my boyfriend and the furniture man) it is now a neat little job with some rather odd additions to the frame that certainly weren’t built into the design! I think he is now secretly a little jealous of my very comfy and reasonably priced bed!  

The biggest and quite possibly one of the hardest lessons that I have learnt over the past few weeks is ‘patience is a virtue’. Now, I expect delays and I expect everything to go wrong first time or to break after just a couple of uses; this way when things go right first time I am pleasantly surprised! To put it bluntly, Cairo’s infrastructure is not yet as well developed as that which we may be used to in big European or American cities and as a result familiar standards will be a long time coming. For example I never, until moving here, fully appreciated the beauty of the traffic light until seeing the mayhem at a crossroads during rush hour!

This time next week is Christmas Day! I have decided not to go back to England, so for the first time in my 27 year history I am spending Christmas away from my family, opting instead to experience Christmas Day in the desert! For this reason my blog will be a little late next week and so to compensate I will submit a second, brief blog at the end of this week (bringing you the promised feedback from my weekend of exploring the Ex-pat clubs.) Prepare yourself after Christmas for a review of my winter holiday in Nuwiba!

Season’s Greetings for a wonderful Christmas wherever you may be!

* Green Cross Code: An instruction book for British children telling them how to cross the road safely.

Relocating to Cairo and wondering what it's like for those who have gone before you?

So how did I react to moving thousands of miles away and starting a new life in an entirely different culture? Well, put it this way, my boyfriend is a Saint for coping with what has been an emotional rollercoaster!  

Obviously students here at IH Cairo ILI come from far and wide to study Arabic with us; institutions like these ones are veritable melting pots of culture. However, the majority of our students are European, British or American, so chances are that this new and exotic world, with its rich cultural history and different social norms, is likely to pose some challenges and bring a shock to the system. That being said, with a little bit of effort and some determination, Cairo can change from being an unknown metropolis into a home away from home.

I am living in a local area of the city, almost as close as you can get to the pyramids, where there are far fewer foreigners than in other parts.  The benefit of this is that I have been immersed in true Egyptian living from day one.   Stepping out of the taxi it was hard not to feel like ‘A Legal Alien’ to coin Sting’s famous phrase!  My flat is down the road from unfinished construction and dilapidated buildings, not to mention the overflowing skip teeming with stray cats and the outdoor butchers, which at the time was packed with live sheep about to be sacrificed for Eid.I realised very quickly that settling in would require more than just a quick stroll around the area to orientate myself. Feeling ‘at home’ has involved acclimatisation on a large scale; turning a blind eye to things that would not be comprehendible  in England and learning to appreciate the area I am living in and understand the way of life of my neighbours.  

I have in fact discovered that there exists in my local area a warmth and a community spirit, and a lifestyle that feels comfortingly rural, despite the city rising up all around. Everyone knows each other; children play football in the street and neighbours stop to chat to one another. There is always a ‘friend of a friend’ on hand to help with anything, from plumbing to banking and as one of the only foreigners in the area, I am met with kindness on a daily basis. 

Shopping for my flat 

Wandering down to the local stalls you can pick up everything you need: Fish, meat, eggs, vegetables and bread and all at a reasonable price. Many people in England, at least, have forgotten what real food is like as a result of a lifestyle of convenience. In this country, however, good wholesome food, cooked from scratch, is the norm.  It is this step to shopping from local vendors which makes you known to the area that you move into, and so I would urge anyone coming to Cairo to not rely solely on large supermarkets as, in doing so, you'd miss out on forging relationships with those working within your local area.  

Buying household goods like furniture and kitchenware is a totally different experience in the back-streets of Cairo as well; and well worth experiencing if you get the chance. The shops are more like small bazaars, where the stock consists of whatever the owner can get hold of at the time (from where I couldn’t even begin to imagine!) but if you are willing to settle for what they have, you can pick up a bargain. The picture below is of the stunning Turkish pot set I brought for just 200LE, which is about £20! I am also currently waiting for a furniture seller in my area to acquire a sofa-bed that he will sell me for as little as 400LE, or £40. This way of shopping suits someone who is extremely indecisive as the element of choice is removed completely, providing far less of a headache and making shopping infinitely less time-consuming.  As with all bargains, you do sometimes have to accept a slightly lower quality than the expensive stuff- things don’t always work quite as well as they should perhaps… but for someone like me who doesn’t have lots of money to spare and wants the basics at a good price, it’s a steal. 

Don’t despair, if the thought of 'Walking like an Egyptian' through the local areas does not have the same romantic appeal to you that it does to me. Should you want to spend a little more then, of course, there are larger shops which might well have more options.  Spinneys, Metro and Carrefour are amongst the collection and are a taxi ride away from anywhere. They have all the necessary frozen and pre-prepared and or packaged foods like any other supermarket. The bigger-out-of-town stores are much like Tesco (or Walmart if you are American), where you can find almost everything under one roof.  

Another key advantage of living in an area where there are fewer foreigners is that you get to practice Arabic on a daily basis.  Usually when I head into my neighbourhood to 'buy local' I am met with, initially, shock – the vendors are not used to seeing a foreigner and, even more shocking, a foreigner speaking Arabic!  But with a little language effort you will notice the development of a feeling of camaraderie. I am proud to say that I have recently and on more than one occasion, been told "Araby Kowaiyesa" which means "Your Arabic is good". They were proud moments!

Despite this, there is always the potential that you may get overcharged for some of the produce so, prior to heading out just check what the average prices should be.  The potential for being subjected to inflated prices is, unfortunately, constant and I am gradually realising that it’s often one price for Egyptians and one price for tourists (usually one that has a number of extra zeros after it!)
 
To avoid any awkward moments it can be useful to maintain an appropriate distance with men you may interact with in the streets (and anywhere, for that matter) and it is good to just be aware that being in a local area can invite some stares which can be a little discomforting.  I paid many trips to these small shops with my boyfriend first before going solo but if you do not have a boyfriend to take you around your new neighbourhood, don't be overly friendly.  Keep interactions professional and you will be fine!  Of course, you can always don a ring and just pretend you are married!    

So I hope you have enjoyed this, the  first installment!  I hope to keep you all updated with stories from my life settling into Cairo.  There will, surely, be many tales to be told along the way.   On that note,  my next blog will explain the concept of ‘Egypt time’(as I have affectionately labelled it) and describe what happens when you mix it with purchasing goods from the local stalls…..Intrigued?!   I will also bring the blog to the present as it is finally time, after many weeks of procrastinating, to explore the world of British ex-pats, with a trip to the British Community Association of Cairo, in El Maadi.

The view from the end of my street!

 My Beautiful Turkish Pots!

Welcome to IH Cairo ILI's new Marketing Exec's blog!

The intention of this blog is to give the rest of the world just a little insight into life as an ex-pat in Cairo. Primarily I am aiming it at people who have a vested interest in life and times in Egypt and at International House Cairo, ILI (like prospective students and our affiliated third parties!). However, I am hoping that it can also be enjoyed by anyone who likes a good yarn - even if they never intend to set foot in the country. There may even be some Egyptians who are interested in how a slightly crazy, very verbose, twenty-something English girl views their homeland!

Firstly, I should just explain briefly why I am here. Why Cairo? Well, the very short version is that I met an Egyptian man in February whilst in Sharm El Sheikh. 8 months, a visit to Egypt in June and a lot of Skype hours later and I was sitting on a plane wondering if I was losing my mind! I wasn’t. I found my fabulous internship at IH Cairo ILI and have started to learn Arabic. Things are going fantastically with my man and I’m settling into life in the shadow of the Pyramids; taking the ups with the inevitable downs and knowing it is all part of the experience in this unique chapter of my life.

When I was planning ‘the big move’ it was very hard to find any up to date opinions and information about life in Egypt. I wanted mundane information that not even my boyfriend would know (because he cannot possibly imagine things from the perspective of a girl who is new to a city poles apart from her leafy home in the English suburbs).  There was so much I wasn’t prepared for when I arrived. For example, despite my boyfriend’s protestations, I simply couldn’t believe that I would feel cold in Cairo and I only packed one long-sleeved top. How wrong I was! Winter is pretty chilly; and I am currently borrowing a lot of his jumpers and some of his mother’s pyjamas to keep warm at night! Something tells me a shopping trip is well overdue...

How much it costs to furnish a flat, where I could work and what VISA I needed, what the most effective mosquito sprays are and what customs I needed to know about were just some of the many every-day subjects I was researching before I travelled. All this and more I will explore in the blog so that it becomes an honest and current account of Cairo, not just from my fairly limited perspective but also utilising the viewpoints and documenting the experiences of the people I meet and interact with every day. As Marketing Exec at the college it will sway very much towards college life, but will not exclusively revolve around it.

As I find out new things so you, the reader, will hear about them. And if you have a specific question or concern about Egypt or IH Cairo ILI or anything else relevant (please note I don’t give relationship advice and I can’t predict the lottery!) then by all means get in touch and I will do my best to have a solution in my next blog. I want to help allay some fears and rest the minds of those who are, or will be, in the same situation as me (and the families they leave at home!) Of course, I also hope to entertain you all a little in the process!

So that’s all from me for now. There is just time to welcome in all of the new students for the December round at IH Cairo ILI; they are lucky enough to be here for a Cairo-ho-ho Christmas!

Next week’s blog will be an account of my first month in the city and some of the challenges and successes I had.

For now stay safe and happy travels!

Debbie Hickman - Marketing Executive, IH Cairo ILI