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| Monday, Sept. 23, 2002 I moved in 3 weeks ago and still have not unpacked everything. Pathetic. Anyway, still 2 suitcases and half a box of shoes. The suitcases are mainly winter clothes and pants. I just unpacked one of them. And then I counted – I now have 18 pairs of trousers hanging in my wardrobe plus another pair in my laundry basket. Just a bit over the top? I mean, really, who needs that many pants? And I just realised that I have two pairs of almost identical beige corduroy pants. Didn’t remember I had some already and bought another pair when I was home. 2 pairs of denim blue jeans. 2 pairs of black jeans. Beige jeans. 3 pairs of beige slacks….Brown corduroy pants. Grey wool pants, black wool pants, beige wool pants, navy blue pants with stripes, khaki combat pants, green slacks. And then some. Sheesh. Another letter at class, now we’ve done a total of 10 letters. Getting there. Ji and Les are coming to Cairo on Thursday night – Les will be at a golf tournament. Ji will bring a new teacher along. We’ll meet for brunch at the Marriott coffee shop in Zamalek and then see what we feel like. Perhaps we’ll show her Khan el Khalili. Sunday, Sept. 22, 2002 Learnt two more letters tonight….approaching the possibility of modest reading skills in Arabic…. General election in Germany still undecided…… Watching telly nonstop…..the entertainment vacuum is over at last…..watched “The Bone Collector” last night on the movie channel, that was a really good movie! Just a shame you couldn’t see Denzel Washington’s cute ass…. Anyway, gobbled down a tomato salad before class, still really hungry, have to go and raid the fridge…..Oh, did I mention….(I know I did….), the local supermarket sells PORK!!!!! Yes, PORK…..right next to the shelf with the BEER!!!!!! Oh, hell, lets open that bottle of BEER right away and eat a sandwich with PORK cabanossi on it…….if I had a web cam, you could see the mad flicker in my eyes and the saliva dribbling over my chin…….BEER!!!!!! Must be genetic……. Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 Went to the Sonesta last night to listen to some live Jazz. The guy is called Yehya Khalil and is supposedly one of the best Jazz musicians in Egypt. He was really good. And he played together with a really excellent singer. David even got me an autograph. Showtime is finally installed. Obviously it did not work out the first time they tried. Apparently the dishes up on the roof don’t work with Showtime. O-tone of my landlady: “Oh no, you do not need a dish, there are others in the house with Showtime….”. I am in Egypt, no doubt! Anyway, they came back this morning, put a dish on the roof, drilled a whole through my bedroom wall to insert a cable and voila, I am fully entertained. No class till Sunday. Thank god. It’s really good and I already learned a lot in those first 8 hours, but I needed a break and some free time. Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002 Class: Learnt 2 more letters and 10 more numbers and so on….Getting there…. Went to the telly shop and bought the “Showtime Movie Package”. Did the whole thing almost exclusively in Arabic and they even understood me. Was dead impressed with myself. Tomorrow night someone comes round to install it. From then on will have 4 movie channels, CNN, MTV, TV Land, Entertainment Channel, Discovery Channel, Discovery Civilisation Channel and and and…..Yeah! I will be glued to that box night and day…. On the way to the language school did a little detour and afterwards went to the little supermarket around the corner to buy some milk. I think on those 2 little walks I saw more cafes, bars and restaurants than there are in the whole city of Alexandria together. Bloody hell, I am sooooo glad I moved here! Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002 Learned another letter tonight. So it’s now 5 letters. 3 versions of each letter – beginning, middle or end of word – so that’s 15 squiggles with dots. How I am ever going to be able to read that language is a mystery to me. But it’s really satisfying to use those little sentences at work and see how pleased everybody is, even if my pronunciation sucks. I might think that I am saying “Excuse me, I have to go to the toilet”! And actually I just said “My mother has pink hair on her nose”. Who knows? But anyway, I’ll struggle on…. God, it’s so hot…..Working in an air-conditioned factory is doing me now favours, when it’s 40 degrees outside. I have to take a shower and then it’s off to bed, I am absolutely knackered….Can’t wait for Friday! Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 I started an intensive Arabic course last night. I figured that it was about time after living in Alex for 2 years and barely being capable to count and say about 10 words. It’s 4 nights a week, 2 hours each, for 4 weeks. The first night I thought – oh my god, how am I going to last 4 weeks? – but tonight I actually started enjoying myself. After leaving school/college, the brain seems to shrink exponentially with the amount of years you’re ageing. Mine is about the size of a golf ball by now, I need to flex that muscle a bit. We started learning the alphabet. Something I am not really interested in. I want to be able to talk to people, I don’t really care about reading and writing. On top of that the script is a bitch. Each letter has 3 different forms, depending on its position in the word – beginning, middle or end. Well, so far we’ve done 4 of them. 24 to go. Writing from right to left is another weird complication. The good thing is, we are only 4 people taking the intensive course. Besides me there’s a Russian girl, Marina, and 2 Irish, guy and gal. The guy’s name is Sean. Now the girl’s name is special. I had her spell it out for me, because I could not come to grips with it and it is always easier for me to remember things after I have seen them in writing. The name is pronounced Dervla. But it is spelled Dearbhla. Go figure. Some Gaelic Celtic thing….. The other night at the British Club I met a Welsh guy called Dowie. At least that’s my interpretation of it. I have to ask him how his name is written. The Welsh are masters in complicated spelling. It’s probably something like Doughlewellyn or some such weird version of it……. Anyway, so much for that. Work is going ok. It’s slowly starting to get more interesting. I need to get some photos done for a work permit and this weekend I also want to go and get the decoder for Showtime – the Movie Package. Yep. For now I stick with my miniscule telly. If I am still here around Christmas, pending the onset of WW III in the Middle East, I will invest in a bigger one. Talking of which, I discussed the matter with my big boss. Apparently our biggest customer has had a risk assessment done on Egypt. Supposedly, whatever happens, it is more dangerous to be in Turkey than here. Good for me, bad for Turkey…. My boss didn’t seem overly concerned. Considering that he is an Israeli living in Egypt, I guess he knows what he is talking about. Or perhaps he has a different understanding of the word ‘dangerous’ than I have……Que sera, sera…..Whatever will be, will be……Insha’allah! Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 I celebrated my German-ness today. I cleaned. Excessively. With an exorbitant amount of scouring powder. I attacked both bath tubs. Had to have a shower afterwards, I was drenched in sweat. But now they are clean, they shine……yeah. Death to dirt. The phone guy finally came round today to collect the deposit. Already called my mum. Otherwise a normal Friday. Couch potato. Played on the computer way too long. Wrote e-mails. Made some phone calls. Stood on the balcony and admired Cairo. Cooked. If I’m lucky they’ll show a decent movie tonight on the Egyptian channel. That’s all the excitement I had today. Work again tomorrow. 6-day-weeks are really not my idea of fun. Thursday, Sept. 12, 2002 The other night went round to Liz & David for dinner. It was bizarre, there was me and 6 Scots. And all of them had different accents. I caught about 50% of the night’s conversations. And to top it all, David played a video of Tony Scott. Imagine music for 60 year olds with bagpipes. Urgh. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good night. Just bizarre. I might start an intensive Arabic class. Not sure, not many people enrolled so far, it might get cancelled. 4 nights a week, 2 hours each lesson, for 4 weeks. Sounds intense. That’s why they call it an intensive course, I guess….. Found out where that German bakery is. In Maadi, which is pretty far off when you’re living in Heliopolis. Probably a bit too much hassle just to pick up a rye bread made with German flour? The phone lines are still not fixed, will get done on Saturday, until then it’s "unpluck the phone, pluck in the modem, forget to pluck the phone back in and wonder why nobody calls you……". On the plus side found out that there is a dish on the roof already, so I only need to get a decoder. The only English language thing I’m currently getting on telly is ‘Due South’. And you can only watch that for so long. I’m only commuting for half an hour now. Quite happy about that. Big improvement to before, where it was 1 hour 15 minutes. Just don’t get so much reading done. Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 Well, 1 year has passed. Bush has had his war and is trying to start another one. Still total disbelief at what has happened a year ago. A colleague of mine is flying back to the UK today. She felt a bit funny about it. No wonder. I do wish I had already fixed my satellite. At the moment all I have is 10 channels in Arabic. Doesn’t do much for me. Would love to watch the news. Malesh. Last day of the week tomorrow. Weekend. There’s a welcome-back party at the British club tomorrow night. Life music and special prices for drinks. Sounds like a major piss-up. If any of the others from work go, I might go along. It’s only 5 minutes from here, staggering distance. I’m amazed anyway! There is a distinctive difference to Alex. Not only the feel of being in a big city. It also looks more prosperous in some spots. Busier, I don’t get hassled so much in the streets, lots of other European/Western faces around, which gives me a little more cherished anonymity. But – the best bit yet – the local supermarket has a meat counter with PORK!!! Ha! I already tried the sausages and they are not bad at all. And last night I went to a shop where they actually sold hard liqueur out in the open. Brandy, vodka, the lot, all just sitting on an open shelf. No fiddling about under counters and hiding away of bottles. No wrapping in 5 layers of newspapers and all that. Still in a black plastic bag, but that’s it. I’m dead impressed. You can see people in the streets actually wearing fashionable clothes. And no jucky food from the canteen at work, we actually order take-away from a variety of shops and it gets delivered. Chinese, KFC, sandwich bar, Pizza hut, whatever your heart desires. Never again sludgy okra in a weird sauce, thank god! Things are improving. I am soooo glad I moved to Cairo! Never mind living at the med, I much prefer this. Monday, Sept. 09, 2002 Hatte heute den ersten Schluckauf mit dem Laptop. Habe ihn angemacht, er hat angefangen zu laden, hat mir das HP-Logo gezeigt und dann nix mehr. War an, hat sich aber nicht gemuckst. Habe alle Tasten gedrueckt, alle Tasten-Kombinationen probiert, nix. Die Ein-Taste gedrueckt, nix. Das blaue Licht hat stur weiter geleuchtet. Habe das Teil aus gestoepselt, um darauf zu warten, dass das Akku leer laeuft. Bin dann schliesslich beim Aufraeumen in der Kueche darauf gekommen, das ich ja ein Handbuch habe! Und da gab es dann eine Seite fuer die Fehlerbehebung, die mich zum Reset-Knopf gefuehrt hat. Voila! Auf der Unterseite ist ein winziges Loechlein, in das man mit einem Kugelschreiber reindrueckt. Gesagt, getan, alles Paletti. Jetzt kann ich beruhigt Pilze putzen gehen...... Habe im Magazin des Britischen Clubs eine Nummer fuer Internationale Telefonate gefunden, habe da gerade mal angerufen. Am Mittwoch kommen sie vorbei, um eine Kaution einzusammeln. Und dann kann ich mit meiner Ma telefonieren. Friday, Sept. 06, 2002 Came back on the 1st of September and had to knock the boab out of bed at 4 am. Was too wound up to sleep, so I played on my new laptop all night. Finally slept for 2 hours, then finished packing my stuff. The car picked me up at 1 pm and we took the desert road to Cairo – at 80 km/hour. It took us for bloody ever. And although I had told them where to go in Cairo, we ended up at the opposite end. Typical Egyptian phenomenon. They will never tell you if they don’t know the way, they rather get lost. Stupid buggers. Anyway, we then went all across Cairo at rush hour. Finally arrived at 7pm. I was fuming! I just dumped all my stuff, unpacked just the things that needed to go into the fridge and some other bits and bobs that I needed right away. Cleaning and unpacking can wait a little…… What you dream the first night in your new bed is supposed to come true. Right. According to that I am David Suchet, I am a paediatrician and I am recovering from a heart attack….. Went to the embassy last Monday. It will take a month to get a new passport. They have to send it all the way to Germany to get sorted. The Brits do it in 3 days. Typical. I love German bureaucracy. I changed my address, so they know where to evacuate me from, should Bush decide to ignore the opinions of the rest of the world. And I will not vote in the general election. The election is only on the 22nd of September. I thought I just go to the embassy and vote. Nope. I have to register in an election list for Germans living abroad. I have to enlist in Germany!? Hello? And then I can vote by mail. But the mail had to be in Germany by the 3rd. Sugar. Jeez, this really winds me up. Why does everything involving the government have to be so difficult? The USA has about 4 times more inhabitants than Germany, but Germany has about 3x as many representatives in its parliament that the USA. I think that says it all….. Have done my first 3 days at work now. Was supposed to do an induction period. Spent a day with Keith from Yorkshire, who is the production manager for the leisure wear department. He works with Liz from Scotland, who is dealing with samples and quality. She was not there the first 2 days, but I met her before, when I was up here to look for a flat. We got on very well. Anyway, on the second day Keith told me the induction is cancelled and he wants me for his department. Apparently he spoke with Liz by phone, who also said that she wants me, as the other new expats are all older and very senior and she needs someone who is hands-on and willing to help. Works for me. More on the new area, shops, social life and so on in the next instalments. Keith managed to make me really paranoid – he and his wife have a pre-packed bag for a quick exit in a crisis. Should I do that as well? He told me they have had armed guards with them on the way to work twice already in the last month, due to the company being Israeli. Great. American sounding name, last name could be interpreted as Jewish, working for an Israeli company – if Bush attacks Iraq, I should probably shoot myself as preventive action……Seriously, there’s 4 more expats coming over from the Uk in the next weeks. If I wasn’t here already, no amount of money would make me move to the Middle East at the moment. Let’s see if they really show up. Here is what we think – Bush won’t attack during Ramadan. So if we make it to the end of November, we are ok. Then it’s Christmas – he won’t attack then either, looks bad on CNN in the holiday season. That gets us to January….Mmmmmh. I am really glad that Clinton has spoken out against Bush’s plans. And Colin Powell. I really like that guy. He’s got my vote. Blair I could just strangle. George Michael got it perfectly right in his last video. Ok, who needs others, I can wind myself up just as easily…. |
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| Ever wondered if I am the only non-Egyptian person living here that thinks this country is strange? Go and have a look at Walters' World, that's the site of my colleague Steve - he actually left Egypt now, but hey....it's worth a look, although he is actually funnier live! |
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