Maadi, a different version of Cairo

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Here I am, back in Cairo after visiting a year ago! However, this time I am in a much different part of the city - Maadi, a very Westernized part of the city.
Our flight over was okay - almost no sleep, but overall a good flight. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and were brought to our apartment hotel - 3- bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a kitchen, large living room, and a balcony. Then we were told that many of the apartments we would be looking at for ourselves would be similar - WOW!
Yesterday, we started to hunt for apartments with the husband of the VP at our school and the real estate agent - we saw many apartments, most of them quite nice. Prices ranged from 1700-4700 Egyptian pounds (for all you Canadians, divide these prices by 4 to get the approx. Canadian equivalent). All are furnished, too. Later that day I was shown an apartment that the school had kept paying the rent for because apparently it was good. I saw it, loved it, and will hopefully be moving in tomorrow. It is fully furnished, with 2 bedrooms (my spare has 2 beds, all you friends and relative who said they would visit me!). The school provides some of the rent (for me, about 75% of it); basically, I will be paying just a bit over $1000 Canadian for my year's rent on my own! I could never get this back home, with furnishings and everything. A word of advice when looking for apartments here - check the air conditioning, and never judge a building by the outside - they all look sort of crummy outside, but many are great inside. That being said, Maadi is a nice place to walk around - very different from other parts of the city (certainly a little cleaner).
I have not yet walked around alone yet, but another girl from the school I will be teaching at and I went shopping today on the street and were fine. You just have to make sure you make no eye contact with the men around and ignore any comments, and things seemed to go smoothly. For anyone looking to move to Cairo, Maadi is the place to go, as everything we can find back home in Canada can pretty much be found here (although electronics are expensive). In fact, I have felt quite comfortable here - there are police and army people everywhere, so if you get lost or need help, there is usually someone around.
So, all of us who are newly arrived here have to keep reminding ourselves "Oh yeah, we ARE here to work, aren't we?" In about a week and a half, we get to see our new school and start to set up. I hope the school and students are as pleasantly surprising as everything else has been so far. Until next time, "ma'as salama" (peace unto you - commonly said to say goodbye).

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Comments

[Jen]

WOW!!!
Sounds great Madame! I am soooooo jealous! I may just have to come visit. In relation to some of the places we visited last March where is Maadi? Post pictures soon-stop keeping us in suspense!

[Lady Gwen (sarah)]

Wow!
Its sounds like an absolutly increadible experience. I cant believe that your actually over there, maybe someday I will be brave enough to travel. Hope all remains well with you..... I will check back often to read updates, Cheers!

[Shaun H]

WOW
Sounds like your having great time Melissa..Im happy for you, though worried about the "not looking at the men" thing...its the social worker/bouncer/good friend thing ;) Hope to hear more from you soon.