First Update!

Hi Friends,

I am settling into my apartment in Maadi. It is different than I expected as I only live with one other person in the same building and most people live on their own. My apartment is Huge! The ceilings are high there are doors everywhere and most of the doors lock using old locks and skeleton keys!!

I live further away from where most teachers live which is too bad, but I have a feeling that when I get to know the area it won’t feel as far. I took my first crazy cab ride last night. The man driving spoke no English and had no idea where to go even once I showed him the map. I’ve also notice that even though all the roads are numbered that no one uses them, not taxis or locals... makes things a little difficult. I am going to explore a little later and try and gain a snese of direction (not always my strongest point) so that at least I know what general direct I need to head... eventually I will know where I am going! The streets here really are nuts... but crossing them isn’t as difficult as I pictured. We’ve mastered a technique of sticking our hand out and crossing... basically most aggressive move wins.... however basically every single car is smashed up a little bit!

People here are so friendly they smile and if we ask for help they try usually to no avail however.

It is a learning experience to say the least and the other teachers I have hung out with so far all seem nice and easy going which seems to be a good attitude to have around here!

Oh and its HOT. And humid for all of you who asked I said no... well it is. Apparently for a couple of weeks in august its humid... it was about 40 degrees here today. But its bearable and the ac in my room works so thats great!

I bought a few cleaning products but I need so much more stuff. Oh and the streets are so dirty. My feet are SO DIRTY all the time. Even after walking in my apartment they are gross... the streets are littered with garbage but also just from the sand. And there are uncovered man holes randomly and when they no longer want a sign posted the cut it off so there is 3 inches of metal sticking out of the side walk randomly, the pay phones are in the middle of the sidewalk as well.

Another interesting thing is the construction. It is just EVERYWHERE. They expect the population of Maadi to go up by a million in the next couple of years so apartment blocks are going up everywhere. I haven’t seen any houses at all.

Tomorrow we will go to the school in 6^th of October City to see the building where we will be teaching and talk with the principal.

That’s all for now, hope you are all doing well!

Kailey