Living in Cairo

I love my apartment, it is beautiful and very spacious. I am happy we have a bath tub, but there is no shower curtain or rods to put one on. The entire floor gets wet anyway. Also there is usually no water during the day. We have to shower in the evening and save water in bottles so that we can brush our teeth and wash up in the morning. There is no hot water ever, but that is o.k. since our apartment is so hot. Diana has an air conditionerin her room but I don't. When I wake up I am soaked and I have to take a bath with the bottles of water we save. The landlord came over and left us plenty of water to use in these huge plastic containers. At first we didn't know why he did that, but of course now we realize why.

Diana and I are the only Americans living in this Arabic neighborhood, and everyone stares at us all of the time. We get stared at a lot no matter where we go. People in the neighborhood have been very nice to us and I am sure they wonder what we are doing here. The first time we moved in the super and his wife had to help us with our luggage since the elevator did not work. Diana gave them a very nice tip and now the woman will not leave us alone. She keeps ringing our bell and pushing her way into our apartment. She wants to do our laundry, take out our garbage and clean our apartment. She is very desperate to work for us. I would love to help her, but Diana says it is not a good idea, because she will be here all the time bothering us. Wow, was Diana right! The woman rings the bell at all hours pushes her way in and is constantly trying to get money from us. We really need our sleep and this woman keeps on and on. She even went into our kitchen did our dishes took our garbage out and then demanded 15 pounds. She started becoming very aggressive and pushy. We started sneaking into our building afraid she would hear us. Eventually we had to talk to the landlord, because it really got out of hand. I would have loved to help her, but I like my privacy and especially my sleep! After we spoke to the landlord she still did not give up, but things did get better. We still come into the building very quietly.

There are so many homeless animals here. It breaks my heart! I now walk around with chicken in my bag. I have candy for the kids in one pocket and little pieces of chicken wrapped in aluminum foil for the cats in the other pocket. Cats are everywhere and they are so skinny. I have to hold my tears back. When we go to a restaurant that is out doors so many cats are just passing by under the tables looking for food. I thought about taking a cat home with me, but it is just a lot of work. They have lots of diseases and I can't risk that. The cat may not be completely healthy. I would also have to get permission to take the cat to New York, and the cat will have to get certain shots etc. I don't know we'll see. The street cats are really afraid of people anyway,and I can't have a cat that will not let me pet him.

Diana and I went to this Bazar and stopped when we saw this man selling rabbits. Oh my god they were sooooo cute! So what do we do? Well we decide to buy a rabbit for a pet while we are here. I would love a cat, but they are impossible to catch. The rabbit is clean and healthy. When Diana gave me the idea I agreed instantly. There was a professor that teaches French for the university showing us around the bazaar. He thought we were both nuts! So here we are shopping in the festival now holding a box with a cute little black rabbit. We decide to name him Alli Baba. He loves the apartment! He hops all over the place and he even lets me pet him. We are having so much fun with our new pet Alli. We have taken a bunch of pictures of him and hopefully we will find a good home for him. Every one wants to eat him, and that really makes me angry. We are just trying to save his life. Well I just might be coming to New York with a cat and a rabbit.

Taking a taxi here is driving me crazy. All of the taxi drivers want to charge so much money. They know we are not from here and want to take advantage of us. Today I had to buy an extra suit case to take home with me. Diana decides to stay at the market and I go home alone with the suite case. While I am in the cab the driver negotiates a price with me. I already know all of the prices. I told him I only have 15 pounds and I know that is how much it costs, he agrees. I gave him my note book which has my address written in Arabic. The huge suite case is on top of the car. We arrive to my apartment and he demands more money. I had just spent all of my money and in reality 15 pounds was all I had. So I got out of the car and struggled to get my suitcase out of the top of the car, while he is screaming and cursing at me. I don't know why he got like this we made an agreement and now all of a sudden he changes his mind. I ran into my building. He starts to chase me into my building. This is the second time this has happened to me. But this guy was a little more aggressive than the last one. Just like out of a movie I ran into the elevator with this huge suitcase and the elevator door closes just before he gets there. Whew!!!! He is still yelling and screaming. The super of the building comes up to talk to me with the money from the driver in his hand. I can't really communicate with him because he does not speak English, but I try to tell him as best as I can that the cab driver is wrong. I am completely shaken up by this cab driver that chased me into my building. The super understands and brings the money back to the driver. I am safe behind my locked door and I am happy. Then the door bell rings again. Now it is the supers wife asking for garbage, ofcourse I will never give her my garbage again, it will cost me 15 pounds and a head ache of her ringing my bell 6 times a day at all hours.

I can finally relax and play with my little black bunny rabbit Alli. I decide to take a nap, since I am so exhausted. As I lay down, I realize that I left my little book in the taxi cab. In that little book was my address and phone number to my apartment which I can get. All of my New York phone numbers. All of the choreographies that I had learned in my dance workshops were written in that book. Everything that I learned here was all in that little black notebook. I put hours, and hours of steps and ideas from 13 workshops that I took. HOURS of work! There is no way that I can remember everything that I learned here and I took so much time and have so many pages of ideas that I poured in that book! I took that book with me to each and every workshop and wrote everything down! I sat and cried for two hours, I am at the computer right now and I am still crying! I will never see that little book again. Today is a very sad day for me. What I have to look forward to is going home and running away from another cab driver. It really does not matter how much money you give them they will still yell at you and sometimes even chase you. I can't believe I left my note book in his cab.