Things we are loving about Egypt

I didn't put these in any specific order due to, well let's be honest here, total laziness.

1. Otlob.com . Everyone here delivers, but a lot of times it's difficult to express either what you want to order or where you live. You play a lot of "Who's on First?" with the poor soul trying to take your order. It's frustrating and amusing. Typical orders goes as follows

I place the order
Restaurant: Road? (he's asking for our address)

Me: 81

Restaurant: Building?

Me: 49

Restaurant: 81?

Me: No, 49

Restaurant: Building 41, Road 89

Me: siiiiiiiiigh, No Building 49 Road 81

Restaurant: Flat? (he's asking what apartment we're in)

Me: 2

Restaurant: 2?

Me: Si, two (because when all else fails, when you're lost in translation, be sure to bring in another
language in the mix to confuse everyone)

Restaurant: Six?

Me: (realizing my mistake and where this conversation is leading) Sara, can you tell this guy where we live?

Sara: (spends a second telling the guy where we live in Arabic. All is well in the world of home delivery)
Ordering from Otlob can make all that go away with the click of a mouse.

2. The fresh produce. It's amazing! I was strawberry spoiled as a child because my Godmother's family had a strawberry field behind their home. Many spring afternoons were spent picking (and mostly eating) the delicious fresh strawberries. Not to forget the flats and flats of strawberries for sale on Airline Highway by my parent's home. So, sorry Houston, since moving to Texas I've been discouraged in having to buy the watery and flavorless strawberries in grocery stores there. Till I moved here! Strawberries are amazing, peaches are awesome, lemons are just picked from the tree and mango's...well, I'm trying to find the good ones. So far it's been trial and error.

3. Our apartment (our flat). It's bigger than our house-hopefully soon to be our former house. We were getting suffocated with all of our newly acquired baby must have and then the boxes when we started to pack. We also didn't have a very open floor plan at our old house. We definitely do here. It is so nice to have space here for Benjamin to walk around.

Benny's play area which is right next to the couch and kitchen, so he can play while we can (sometimes) do our own thing too.

4. Staying at home with Benjamin. He's awesome and a really good side kick, so most of our days are adventure filled. I do miss working and feeling like I'm making a difference in the world (at least outside of my home), but I am really loving my new job in the field of Raising a Good Human Being.

5. The expat community in Cairo. I didn't know what to expect being that this is our first time living overseas. I am so pleased to report that everyone we've met has been nothing but helpful, friendly and giving of their time and input. It's how you wish High School would be like for Freshman. It's like a Freshman year in your 30's when everyone is adult and mature.

Benny playing at the kiddie pool at Maadi House.  We have several awesome friends who are members and are really generous with inviting us to play. 

What a morning of playing on the Maadi House playground and pool leads to...ahhhhh, lovely!

6. Have i mentioned everyone delivers? Grocery stores, produce stands, and even bookshops deliver.


7. The Egyptian attitude to children, especially babies/toddlers. Back home you would maybe get a nod from someone, a smile as you push your child past in the stroller but here is the total opposite. Grown men, teenagers, other kids, etc will stop what they're doing and talk to Benjamin. People working the check out, the garbage collectors, taxi drivers, etc. It doesn't matter what they're doing right before they see Benjamin because they're going to stop everything and talk to him. "Hi, what is your name? what is your name? hi" Sometimes he replies back in his usual "HI!" and they get very excited he answered back.

Benny and Michael our tour guide. 

Seth and Benny at the Pyramids.  Notice the hand reaching out to hold Benny...and how my child is totally willing to go with a total stranger

8. Our house is clean every single day. I'm able to run errands without schlepping a toddler around in 100 deg heat. All thanks to Sara, our awesome housekeeper. Benjamin loves "Ser" and we do too. Benny also says certain words like her such as "wooh-tah" (water) and "mahn-go" (mango). He gets very excited when she's opening the door each morning (Sunday-Thursday) and sad when she leaves. This gives me such piece of mind knowing that I can run to the CSA library or go to a Pilate's class without worry.
Having a lot of help (housekeeper, bawab, driver) is a huge perk here, and we are very grateful to have that opportunity.  A lot of the mom's here talk about going back to the real world one day and how we will miss it so much


9. Exploring our new city. We hit the ground running when we first made it here. Benjamin can add The Giza Pyramids, The Citadel and The Alabaster Mosque to his been there, done that list. We have also been to Ain Soukna (see post directly below). Seth has been to Sakarah with his cycling group. We are so excited to have our good friends and Benny's Godfather Jeremy and Allison come to visit at the end of July because we will also add CopticCairo and Khan el-Khalili to our list.

Family picture at the Giza Pyramids- the big one

Benny and I outside the Alabaster Mosque