A bit about Cairo now

I've been in Cairo a week now, and I think I am finally ready to update about this crazy & confusing city. I avoided posting any first impressions of the city right away because a) I wanted to get my Sudan updates up (which still aren't all up... ) and b) this is the Middle East--- a place I could easily apply Western stereotypes and call them "first impressions", which I didn't want to do.

So, like I said, I've been here one week. Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week were spent exploring some parts of the city--mainly Heliopolis (the area I'm staying in), and some places in downtown Cairo. My friend, Sara, took a couple weeks off from her job in Tanzania to come up and visit Cairo while I'm here, so we did a few of the weekend things together! It was great to have a friend my age around to spend time with. She is staying in a different part of Cairo, and I haven't seen her much this week since I've been working. Nonetheless, it was fun to explore some of Cairo with her.

Heliopolis, where I'm staying, is a suburb outside of Cairo. It started as an area where British councilmen built their villas in the '50s and was quite the luxurious place back in the day. It still is considered a very nice area of town, but it's developed so that it looks much more like the rest of Cairo, and newer neighborhoods like New Cairo have all the villas now. The streets are lined with concrete-block high-rises with storefronts along the street. The great thing about Heliopolis' high-rises, though, is that when you stop and really look at them, they all have their own unique detailing that gives them their own character. As a designer, these are the things I notice the most in cities and Heliopolis gives me endless opportunities to enjoy these details.

I've been riding the bus to work everyday and that's been a whole new experience as well. A bus fare is 1.50 l.e., which is about $0.25 per ride--pretty good deal. The first difference about buses here is that people get on and off wherever--as long as you can flag down the bus in a noticeable way, it will slow down enough for you to jump on (and I mean literally, run and jump). The bus usually slows down enough to let women on  nicely but most of the time my second foot has just entered the bus when the vehicle starts moving again. The door stays open so people can jump out when the bus slows down at an intersection. I've seen many men ride halfway out the door of the bus when they're only on it for a quick jaunt. When a lot of people enter at once, they find their spots and then pass the money for the ticket forward. The driver proceeds to divvy up change, get the tickets, and maneuver his large bus through the hectic Cairo traffic all at the same time. Today was the first time I experienced a ticket check. Two men jumped on the bus with paper in their hands and stood right in the doorway. The bus continued to let people on and off (these men clearly in the way) while the men looked at each person's ticket and ripped it. Then a few stops later, they got off.

A roundabout in Cairo. 

The bus description reminds me to talk about the traffic in Cairo. A mere description in words really won't do it justice, so I might have to secret-spylike take a video of it sometime and post it. Basically, there aren't any controlled intersections, so you just honk your horn when you are coming to an intersection. Whether you slow down as well or just barrel through it is up to you, but you run the risk of the other people coming the other way choosing the same option of you and causing a collision if you barrel through. usually, a chunk of traffic one way will go until someone leading the pack the other way gets enough guts to interrupt that flow and starts driving. Round-abouts have zero organization (not that they've ever seemed organized to me, but that's because I'm not European). Most vehicles are small here, and that means there is very little visibility past a row of parked cars along the street. This requires most drivers to pull out into traffic to get a good look at when they can merge, and ultimately one merges whenever they want to hoping the car coming will slow down. Crossing the street as a pedestrian is basically the same. So, the only real danger to me here is being hit by a car. Not mugging or rape or kidnapping, but just a simple love-tap from a car.

This is a pretty good video I was shown when I got here about Egypt, and it's definitely true!

Europe vs. Egypt