Cairo at 6am is actually quiet

View down Talaat Harb

We're still not in the apartment, although it's looking more imminent now there is air conditioning in the main bedroom and the lounge. We also have a fridge and a washing machine apparently. We might even be moving today. In the meantime, we're still in the hostel. Being a chronic insomniac, I was awake at 6am this morning, which gave me the opportunity to see Cairo start to come alive. I think Talaat Harb was the quietest I've ever seen it, it was weird. I could feel the heat building up every minute I stood there.

 
In other news, I've got a meeting tomorrow with an NGO for voluntary work. I can't do paid work at the moment as I don't have a work permit, so I'm really pleased about this. Although I actually applied for an English teaching position, it seems my HR and general business experience might also be useful. I'll keep you posted on developments.

And the other thing I've done is found an Arabic tutor. I debated about finding a class as this would give me more "authentic practice" to use foreign language teacher parlance, but in fact as I'm now in the country, practice isn't going to be hard to come by. As it happens I've also found a weekly Arabic conversation class that starts in September so I'm going to go to that too. I reckon there's no such thing as too much practice in a new language.

These language developments are really important, because every day that goes by makes me realise how vital it is to learn Arabic. I went to the baker yesterday to buy some croissants. I was reminded of an experience I had in Romania many years ago, where we just couldn't work out how the shops worked. It's the same here. I had to stand there like a lemon watching what other people were doing to work out what was going on. It turns out you go to the counter, say what you want, pay for it, you get a ticket and then go to another counter to pick up what you bought. This presents a problem when you haven't got a clue what to ask for, so I ended up buying the thing that was closest to me (i.e. pointing distance) and buying that - which was chocolate croissants. Now I'm certainly not averse to a good chocolate croissant, but the problem in 42 degree heat is that by the time you've walked the 3 minutes back to the hostel, all the chocolate has melted. It was absolutely gorgeous but oh my god what a mess! Chocolate sauce EVERYWHERE. I probably looked like a toddler. Thankfully, no-one with a camera was around at the time.

Just to confuse matters, apparently not all shops work like this, so the lesson is, it will all be much easier when I can ask for what I want!