I departed the Metro Detroit Airport at roughly 3:50pm, August 21 (another sign that this trip was meant to be, that's my half birthday), and landed in Frankfurt at roughly 12:30/1:00 am (6am Frankfurt time). During the two hour layover in Frankfurt, I frantically ran around the Airport in search of the "left-behind baggage counter", having realized 20 minutes after landing that I had left my most valuable carry-on in the overhead compartment. (Yes, I forgot my camera. So at the moment, I cannot capture the awesomeness of Cairo. But that will be remedied shortly.) As my life would have it, the timing was ever so slightly off. I had realized my terrible lapse of thinking in just enough time that the crew had already made a sweep of the cabin and gone on their way, and the "left-behind baggage counter" was not yet open. I waited about half an hour and finally got a hold of someone on the convenience phone at the counter, gave them a description of the precious parcel, and darted off to board my flight to Cairo. After all that excitement, and not sleeping much on the previous flight, I pretty much passed out for the four-something hour flight to Cairo. That's ok though, I didn't want my first glimpse on the pyramids to be from an airplane anyway.
The flight from Frankfurt to Cairo had a good number of kids who will be studying at AUC this year. As we got through customs to baggage claim, a very enthusiastic man herded every one of us together under a big AUC sign. We all got our bags and were quickly ushered off to three waiting buses, then uncomfortably crammed inside. I had the luck/joy of sitting in the very back row, where a 1000lb tower of luggage threatened to use me as a landing pad with every bump in the road (the roads are quite bumpy in Cairo too). The four of us in the back seat held on for dear life as passangers were slowly dropped off at their respective dorms.
I'll spare you the traumatic details as to why, but Olivia (the other girl from Kalamazoo) and I are living in an apartment in Cairo. Well, as everyone was loading the buses according to dorm, the drivers and coordinators were trying to figure out where the hell Olivia's and my apartment was located. Eventually, it was figured out, and the horrid bus adventure described above took place. When we arrived at our apartment building, Olivia and I looked at each other in disbelief. It did not look the way we expected it would. On top of that, an old woman, who spoke only Arabic, immediately rushed forward and started grabbing our bags. It turned out that she was helping us, but imagine our surprise given the circumstances. We were crammed into a small elevator- all three of us and our luggage - and were led to our apartment. A tall black Egyptian man (Arabic speaking only) was there to meet us. He spoke to us some, but alas, we did not understand. I can only assume that he was welcoming us and offering to help settle us in. Olivia and I stared, probably looking quite confused and frightened. He left shortly and we were alone in the strange, new apartment. We roamed around, trying to feel it out, not sure how to respond. A little while later, our landlord, Hossam, and a lady we had made contact with, Stacey, showed up to welcome us. Hossam told us that the black Egyptian man who had met us was named Mahmoud, and he was very friendly and willing to help. Hossam himself has turned out to be most accomodating and very willing to help us with anything.
We talked with Hossam and Stacey a while, just trying to calm our nerves a little. I think it helped. After a while, Hossam and Stacey took us to exchange money, buy cell phones, and show us around the neighbohrhood some. They even took us out to dinner. Being exhausted and very nervous about our new situation, Olivia and I retired to the apartment, and restlessly slept our first night in Egypt.
