getting started

So today I:

1. Successfully had an entire conversation with a taxi driver in Arabic. This involved him taking me exactly where I wanted to go in a neighborhood I'd never been for exactly the price I wanted to pay and him telling me I spoke arabic very well and he thought I was German, but I informed him of the awful truth of my Americanness. Yay.

2. ate a delicious schwerma sandwich and the salad that went with it, although it was most likely a hepatitis breeding ground, mmmm.

3. successfully found the school I'm working at, negotiated my teaching contract for exactly the salary and amount of hours I was looking for, and arranged my training (starting tomorrow). My bosses seem extremely nice, particularly the woman, and she tells me that teaching is "too easy."

4. helped find Alissa ear medicine at a pharmacy

5. had some guy follow me for a half hour claiming to be Iraqi and wanting to help me while I was attempting to call my boss from a payphone. However, after intense efforts at ignoring I finally told him in my meanest voice possible (which evidently worked), "I don't need help. Please go away."

6. Went back to visit our old neighborhood of Agouza and buy our dinner at the Sheik shop (where we always shopped), and walk past where our classes and apartments were.

7. sat in KFC in Cairo with Alissa and her host sister Nesma while Nesma told the man she was with that she didn't like him, didn't want to marry him, and was taking his number out of her phone right now. Right in front of us! In Cairo! In KFC! Hilarious and great bonding experience, I must say. We are now invited to visit her house as soon as possible and she's finding us an apartment, excellent.

So I'm starting to feel more and more integrated into society here, although I'm still kind of in vacation mode, staying in a hotel downtown, not much to do yet. I do feel so much like I belong here though. It seems so different coming back here than it did coming the first time, I notice everything opposite almost, and everything seems so much less foreign than I remember it feeling before. I feel more than ever that I am meant to be here and belong here, at least for now. I can't even begin to describe this place and its ridiculous amazingness, so come visit!!!