Adventures at the Mall or The FlipFlop Debacle

About 3 months ago, when my mother said she was sending a box to us, I asked for some flip flops for the girls. Last summer, they practically lived in them and I expect this summer to be the same way. She agreed, the only hiccup was sizing.

Savannah was easy, I found an old pair of her shoes that were size 7 and asked for size 8s. Emily, however, had worn all the sizing off every pair of shoes she had brought with her from the States. So Mom measured flip flops and I measured Emily's feet and a box was sent across the ocean.

Amid much rejoicing and excitement, it arrived at our door, we paid the fees and brought it inside. There were cute flip flips for Emily, cute flip flops for me and cute flip flops for Savannah. Much to my surprise and dismay, Savannah's were about 2 sizes too small. When I compared them to last year's pair, they were even small then those.

Poor Savannah. I promised to find some here, knowing I would pay way more than I would in the States and that they would be hard to find, but I couldn't just let her not have some.

 A week later, we went to Carrefour and found an adorable pair of flip flops for about $3. I was ecstatic and laughed about how cheap they were and how easy they were to find with my mother on Skype.

The very next day, they broke.

Today, (about a month later) the three girls and I ventured to a Mall not too far away from our house. We arrived at about 10:30 and I was slightly dismayed to find that most of the stores in the mall were closed. Oh, right, it is Friday. Of course.

"No problem", I thought, "I can never find my way around here anyway. By the time we go to the bathroom and actually find the shoe stores, they will be open." That was a bit optimistic of me.

An hour later, we stopped by a chipsy store and bought snacks, then found the seating area to eat. We sat close to the escalators and while we were eating we chatted and watched people go up and down.

One lady caught my eye. She was lugging a baby that looked to be just over a year old with a 2.5 year right behind her. She put the baby on a ledge about 3.5 feet off the floor, handed her bottle to her and walked off. The man sitting two tables away from her, called her back, apparently not liking the baby being left on the ledge. They exchanged words and I saw the woman look around her for another solution. Then she walked over and put the baby in the chair next to the man. At this point, I assumed they were husband and wife and then she walked off. Three minutes later she came back down the escalator, this time with a stroller. She said "Salaam ah'laquim" to the man as she picked up the baby, put her in the stroller and went off to do her shopping.

Such is life in a community based society.

We ate our snickers and chips, drank our juice, washed our hands and because activity around me had picked up, I hoped stores would be opening soon, so we started walking again.

We found the shoe stores. They were not open.
We sat on a ledge and played "I Spy."
I spilled my coke.
They were not open.

We walked around again, this time letting Sophie walk instead of sitting in the stroller.
Still not open.

I chased Sophie through a computer store.
Emily knocked over a trash can.
Still not open.

I asked Savannah if we could go home and come back another today. She said, Yes, after we bought some flip flops.

We walked some more.
Oh, my goodness! They were finally starting to open!

We started looking at flip flops. However, Egyptians consider flip flops low class foot wear and the only ones I could find were cheap plastic ones. Not something comfortable for her to wear every day all day long. And I was worried about the plastic between her toes causing blisters.

So we settled for a pair of sandals that she says she likes "the bery, bery, best."

Considering she wore them for 5 minutes before she took them off. I don't think I believe her. 

We shopped for at least 15 minutes before we came home.

So good to be home.

Spring Family Pictures

Things You Don't See in America: Part 6

This is a rolling vegetable market. One of many that frequently roll up and down my street tended by men and boys that look barely old enough to count, let alone drive a horse or donkey. 

2 Point Paragraphs

In English, Emily has learned how to write a 2 point paragraph. We thought we would share one with you!

My Two Favorite Foods
    I have two favorite foods. My two favorite foods are crab and shrimp. My first favorite food is crab. I like it because it has meat. My second favorite food is shrimp. My Daddy makes the best shrimp. My two favorite foods make me happy.

The MRI

If there is anything uncomfortable about undressing and wearing a paper hospital gown in the States, imagine wearing one in an Arab world. Where only the hands, eyes, nose, chin and mouth can been seen of the woman handing you this gown of humiliation.

This particular gown felt transparent and very small, although in reality, it was quite adequate as far as paper hospital gowns go. I was dreadfully concerned with the paper belt coming undone and my womanliness being shown to the whole Arab world.

And that was the worst portion of the MRI. I made an appointment for 4:30 in the afternoon. I showed up at 4:30 and signed in. By 4:40 I was in the dressing room, changing into my paper gown. And by 5:15 I was back on the street, looking for a taxi to go home.

There are some perks to making appointments here. My experience with the neurologist has been the rarity. All of my other assorted Doctor's visits have been much more punctual and the whole visit would cover your average sit-in-the-waiting-room time in the States.

Tonight, I picked up the scans and read the report from the technician. There are no abnormalities in my brain.


I'm gonna live!
I'm not gonna go bald! Yay!

Brian and I have decided that based on the information from the neurologist, most likely these head tingles are related to fatigue. And after getting some extra sleep over the past couple of days, I have noticed a marked decrease in the feelings.

I now have a medical reason to request sleeping in on the weekends. Yes!

The Neurologist

Every once in a while, I have an experience that is just too good not to blog about. Most of these experiences never make it to the blog due to the length of time it would take to create the post. However, tonight nothing else is begging for my attention and I must write this down for posterity's sake, if nothing else.

For the past month I've been having head aches. Well, not exactly head aches, but a numbing, tingling feeling behind my left ear. Not enough to hamper anything going on in my daily life nor to even take an Ibuprofen over. However, as the weeks progressed, the feelings continued, seemed to get worse and also were lingering longer and Brian and I began to get concerned.

There was no rhyme or reason to them. They started at different times of day and lasted different periods of time. Intensity varied greatly. Sometimes I could sleep them off, but most times I would wake up with the feelings still there. I asked one of my American friends, Brooke, and she got in contact with some of her friends, who recommended a neurologist across town.

However, they did not have his contact information, just the name of the referring doctor. When we contacted the referring doctor, he gave us the name of the neurologist, Dr. Magid and his address, but also told us that he wasn't currently answering his phone and that we should just show up at 6 pm Saturday night.

Of course. Seems reasonable, even to me.

Because Brooke's Arabic is miles ahead of mine, she is familiar with that area of town and because it was easier to leave my three busy little people with Brian, we decided she and I would go together. On Friday, we went to a clothing store in that area and we also drove by the Doctor's office to see what we could find out.

When we arrived, I jumped out of the car and spoke with the doorman who spoke Arabic rather quickly, but I understood enough to know that this was the right building, that Dr. Magid did indeed have an office there and that I should come back around 10:30 at night on Saturday.

Brooke and I decided to go with 6 pm instead.

At 6 pm, Saturday night, Brooke and I arrived at Dr. Magid's office. There was no light in the hallway and the door was closed. There were several signs in the vicinity and after puzzling over the Arabic, we realized that the office didn't open until 7 pm.

We took a walk down the street stopping at Starbucks and walking through Toy's R Us before heading back to the office. We spoke with the receptionist, well, she spoke with the receptionist while I caught a word every now and then. He told us to wait for a few minutes until he could speak with the Doctor.

After sitting in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, we were called back to the desk and asked to make an appointment for Sunday night, between 7 pm and 12 pm. We chose 8pm. He asked for my name, telephone number and 200 pounds.

Sunday night we drove back and arrived around 7:55, but the lights were on and the door was open, so we were initially excited. When we walked in, one of the receptionists was doing his prayers on a mat on the floor and no one else was in the room, so we took a seat to wait. He finished his prayers around the same time the receptionist we had spoken to on Saturday night came back in the room.

No one said anything to us, so we just chatted for a few moments. But then the receptionist broke in and asked if we spoke Arabic and so we chatted for about 10 minutes before Brooke asked him where all the people were. "Oh, they will come at 9:00," he said. "But the Doctor, he is here." She said. "No, he is coming at 9:00." "But we made an appointment with you for 8:00." "No," he insisted, and so we asked to see where he had written our names down.

Turns out, we were on a list of people to be seen at 9:00. Sixth from the top. "But don't worry," he said, "you will be moved up because these people aren't coming," as he pointed to a few names crossed out.

So we left to walk down the street again to wait for our "8:00 appointment."

Five minutes until 9:00 we were back in our seats in the waiting room along with a few other people. We felt very lucky indeed when about 10 minutes later we were called back to meet the Doctor.

And here, my loyal friends, is where it gets interesting.

 Brooke and I met Dr. Magid and we first settled on a language to converse in. He spoke beautiful English, so that was a plus for me. He asked the basic questions, if I had had any recent head trauma, if I had migraines, etc, etc. I explained the problem to him.

He asked me to sit on a table/couch type thing where he proceeded to give me what seemed to me a very odd examination. Granted, my examinations by doctors typically have a pregnancy test involved, so I don't exactly know what a neurologist is supposed to do. But this seemed... random to me.

He held my hands and had me push, pull and push side to side against his hands.  He told me to stretch my hands in front of me and open and close my fingers. Then he told me to close my eyes and touch my finger to my nose, twice with each hand.

Then he checked reflex's (which made sense), but by the time he told me to take point my toes and take the heel of my right foot and touch my left knee and then run my heel down the length of my calf to my left foot and then do the same left to right... I was barely keeping my amusement inside. And then, my friend Brooke, whom I was steadfastly avoiding making eye contact with in order to control my desire to giggle, snickered. Excuse me, she let out a smothered giggle. Thankfully, for me, the doctor was by this time, running a metal rod up the bottom of my foot and her "smothered giggle" combined with my ticklesh feet, allowed me to somewhat gracefully (I dearly hope) let out a nervous giggle.

He then turned the lights out and used a small light to check my eyes. Which made good sense to me.

But when the lights were back on, he asked me to go stand against the wall, facing him. Then he directed me to tiptoe towards him. Yes, he said tiptoe. Actually, looked at him, wondering if we were having a communication barrier and asked, "tiptoe?" Yes, I had heard correctly.

So I tiptoed.

Then he asked me to turn around and walk on my heels away from him.
Then he had me walk a straight line. Just like a sobriety test in the States.
I passed.

After the examination, he said that it seemed that everything was fine and that my feelings in my head were "tension headaches". His recommendation was that I take a vacation to American and that would cure me.

He also ordered an MRI to be done on my brain.

But that will have to wait for another post.... because this one is long enough :)

Super Market

Savannah and I, with Sophie in the stroller, walked to the local super market today. As we also did yesterday. But today was different than yesterday.

Today, we were greeted by one of my favorite checkers, who took Sophie from me and began playing with her. After about 5-8 minutes of standing around waiting for her to finish playing, so I could do my shopping, the manager came out and told me to go shop and that Mary would play with Sophie. Since the Supermarket is only a little bigger than my living room and dining room, I accepted.

Halfway through my shopping, I spotted Sophie running down each isle of the store, Mary in pursuit... My first instinct was to save Mary and put Sophie back in the shopping cart. But Mary looked like she was having more fun than Sophie was and when she saw me, she smiled and said that "Sophie is shopping!"

Of course.

I spoke with the men at the meat counter. We exchanged pleasantries.

Sophie held a photo shoot in the middle of the store with about 6 of the other workers. Camera phones everywhere, while everyone had a turn holding Sophie and having their picture taken.

Savannah and I chatted as we finished checking things off our list. We even bought sour cream!

When we got to the check-out counter, Sophie was returned to me for about 1.5 seconds. Then she was whisked away to meet yet another worker who had just arrived.

Because of her celebrity status, it took me about 20 minutes longer to check out than normal. And even I was asked to have my picture taken, both with Sophie and two of the women.

When we left, we passed our "lemon and mint man". Savannah has developed a love affair with fresh mint, so I bought some and she carried it all the way home. Nose buried in it as she made up songs about how wonderful mint smells.

My children keep my life happy.
And interesting.

An Egg Truck

Yep, driving down the highway is a truck full of eggs... gotta love Egypt!