Things You Don't See in America: Part 3

We see this all the time here. Someday I will be in a position to get a really good picture of this...

Internet...

Our internet has been down for 8 days... finally, yesterday, the technician came and replaced our modem! It was a mixture of good and bad, actually. I missed being in contact with people. But at the same time, it was a nice reprieve from all things internet. And that had its high points!

Life here continues. Everything is becoming familiar and we are settling in to our routines... its nice.

Savannah is bitten by the "school" bug. Last night she was so frustrated because she couldn't write anyone's name without help... So I promised her we would start learning her letters soon.

Emily has started talking about going to college. Yes. College. Several times she has come to us and asked when she could go to college and that she was ready to go. Sad.

Yesterday morning we went to have physicals done so that Brian and I can get our driver's license. More for identification purposes than actual driving... so that we have a form of id rather than carrying our passports around with us. Anyway, the physician basically listened to our heart beat... and our lungs and then signed off on us. Basically, if you are breathing and your heart is beating... you can drive here! Hmmm...

Anyway, he also told me that I "should just let Mister Brian do the driving." He said that women didn't have the skills to drive here and it would take me at least a year to get skills required to drive here... humph.

Today we were in the bathroom and Emily asked me:
"Mommy, is the story of Adam and Eve true?"
"Yes, honey, it is true."
"Well, part of it might be true... but snakes can't talk. So that part isn't true."

At least critical thinking skills will come in handy when she goes to college.

Things You Don't See in America: Part 2

In the middle of the city, a small patch of trees shades a little fruit and vegetable market.

Things You Don't See in America: Part 1

This little van seems to be having an identity crisis...

Stuff

I apologize for my long absence, to try to help make up for it I'm going to do a quick catch-up on the past couple of weeks.

We have officially moved out of our "Survival" phase of Arabic lessons. I'm excited about our next phase. It feels that we are learning more things in context of daily life, instead of random bits of vocabulary. I am pretty happy about where we are after being here two short months. We can pick up words here and there and have very short, specific conversations with people. But we are hearing and understanding more and more words.

We tried incorporating the girls into our lessons yesterday. I want them to learn Arabic as well, they are at the perfect age for it. Two problems arose:
          Emily doesn't want to be wrong, if she is sure of a word, she will interact with our teacher. But if she isn't 100% sure, she won't even try.
          Savannah doesn't really "get" the activities, but she enthusiastically joins in responding to commands. However, she doesn't like to sit and listen to the words being said initially, so she doesn't know what pictures to point at. Then, when we laugh at her, because she is trying so hard and she is just so funny about it, but she got it wrong, she pouts.
          However, I like them being involved and it gives me more practice hearing the words.

We had our first "all tile floor" casualty just this morning. Sadly, it was my jar of expensive American pickles. There is not a dill pickle Egyptian equivalent and for the 4th of July we splurged and bought a six dollar tiny jar of real dill pickles. What was left of them was smashed. Now I have to smell the scent of amazing dill pickles and I can't actually taste it. Sad.

Sophie is now 6 months old. She has eaten applesauce, mashed bananas and baby cereal. She can roll over and sit up fairly well. Although she topples easily and with these hard floors we keep pillows or arms around her at all times. She is still the most pleasant and happiest baby I've ever met. And if you are wearing a hijab, she expects you to smile at her and kiss her and tell her what a beautiful baby she is.

We eat a lot of eggs. Especially compared to when we lived in the States. In 2 days we went through 18 eggs. But lunch meat is crazy expensive and peanut butter gets boring. There are no quick meals here. You can cook a whole meal or you can eat nothing. There isn’t “instant” food, well, there is, but it is crazy expensive imports.

We have found some yummy, yummy cheese and Brian made about 5 gallons of tomato sauce out of fresh tomatoes and fresh herbs. Fresh fruit and vegetables are here in abundance and they are remarkably cheap.

We also eat a lot of cookies. The best cookies to make here are out of cake mixes. Homemade, from scratch, cookies turn into little hockey pucks or they are crispy on the outside and raw in the middle. Plus, no matter how good the recipe was in the States, it just tastes a little “off” here and leave you a bit disgruntled. But cake mix cookies turn out fabulously. Perfectly chewy and yummy.

We just finished a language lesson. My brain hurts. Therefore, this is all the update I have left in me :)

Family Picture

Sayings from the Souk

This morning we went downtown to the big street market (souk) with our language helper. I think this was one of my favorite experiences so far here in Egypt. I'm not exactly sure why. But we laughed and laughed over some of the things the shop keepers would call out to us to entice us into their store. 

"For you, everything in my store is free!"

"Whatever you need, I have it in my store!"

"Come! Let me take your money!"

"Small sizes t-shirt, 1 pound."
     Me, to our language helper, "And when he says, "1 pound"?" She replied, "He is a liar!"

"Today, everything in my store, 99% discount. You know why?"
       Brian, "Why?"
       "Today is my mother's birthday!"

"I don't know what you want... but I have what you need!"

"I want to make a deal with you. Because you are beautiful woman and you have a beautiful baby."

"Don't break my bleeding heart."

"That price is impossible."

We bought three alabaster candle holders. I absolutely love them. When I get some tea lights to go in them, I will take a picture and show you. They glow gorgeously.

And we got them for the "impossible price" too. 'Cause we are awesome.