I've mentioned the organisation Internations before, kind of LinkedIn for expats. Internations is responsible for several of my happiest achievements since I arrived in Cairo. I joined the writing group and the reading group. The reading group was a bit of a no brainer, being an avid reader as I am. The writing group though was a significant move out of my comfort zone. I know I can write, but the vast majority of my writing has been business related (or letters of complaint that I rarely sent). I knew I had to start writing for the tour company website though so I thought, what the hell? And joined.
The fact that I went to the first meeting at all was because one of the group consuls contacted me before I even got to Cairo. He was so friendly and welcoming that the scary prospect of going to meet a load of new people (proper writers at that) didn't seem quite so scary. By the time I went to the first meeting I had started writing this blog, so I had something I had actually written to read to the group.
There have been so many positive outcomes from that meeting. My blog was well received and gave me confidence to continue writing. Most importantly though, I met a wonderful group of people. Some of them (you know who you are) are becoming not just good friends but close friends. Psychologically, this is a huge step for me in settling into Cairo - to have made some real friends. Through the support and encouragement of this group I have also expanded my writing and have written something that isn't my blog (watch this space). I'm thinking about another writing project too but we'll see how it goes.
Learning Arabic has proved to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated, mainly due to the weird working hours at the school. So although this couldn't be considered one of my biggest achievements, I was thinking the other day how many Arabic words I actually know, and there are more than I realised. Off the the top of my head I know the Arabic for yes, no, thank you, good morning, good evening, ok, right, let's go, tomorrow, now, husband, son, father, mother, sister, brother, house, girl, sun and tea. There are probably more that I've forgotten. It's amazing how far these few words can get you. Learning Arabic properly is still a major objective but I do seem to be acquiring words, even if it is slowly.
As promised in my last blog, I am now sitting here thinking about things that haven't gone so well. I must be in a positive frame of mind, because I can't think of that many, really, and those I can think of are about the transition to a completely different culture and being away from all my family and friends. The things that repeatedly make me want to bang my head off a wall are the quality of the internet here, and the fluid concept of time. I was back in the north of Scotland last week with my parents. While I was briefly living with them before I moved here, I moaned like mad about their crap broadband and actually complained to BT (who, to be fair, did actually respond positively). Now their broadband seems incredibly speedy and reliable in comparison to the dire service here in Egypt. In fact, my students at the school frequently ask me what I think of the internet here (accompanied by a sarcastic laugh).
I have mentioned the fluidity of time before, and I think I'm actually starting to get used to it. For example, apparently my dishwasher is arriving this week. If it actually arrives this week then I'll probably faint with the shock. We have a cable for the land line that will be installed at some unspecified time in the future. We're expecting hand made Egyptian cotton fitted sheets. At some point. Apparently they are actually made, they just haven't been delivered.
Looking back over the last three months, I would say this transition has been about as difficult as I expected, although not necessarily in the ways I was expecting. I realised when I landed back in Cairo after my fleeting visit to the UK that Cairo is definitely becoming home for me. My relationship with A goes from strength to strength. We haven't had the easiest of starts and there have been some real challenges. But we got through these. I'm pretty sure we have many more challenges to come, but at the moment I know I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.
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