"Nice, quiet girl"

After writing a paragraph or two about myself and my family for some additional Arabic placement (Brothers- you are now both very interested in sports, especially soccer, and Emory likes to explore the world while Gregory is excellent at chess : )) I came to the computer lab to tell you a little bit about my apartment and the joys of waking up in a bed that will be mine for four more months.

The apartment-hunting process.

1) You have decided you do not wish to live in the AUC dorm. Maybe it is because you would like more freedom or a kitchen or space away from Americans.... or maybe it is because you aren't fond of things being clean all the time or having good high-speed internet or a garden with fresh air or a shuttle to campus every 15 or so minutes... Regardless, an apartment might be for you.

At most apartments there are several important people. You already know of the landlord and the owner, but the boab is also very important. The boab is essentially the doorman, though he is there at all hours of the day and night (well, this varies) and can be of great assistance providing security and helping with luggage and every matter under the sun and can also know more about your social life than you wish and create many problems. (We happen to have what looks to be an excellent and friendly boab, who I keep having basic communication problems with when I say goodbye before I say Good Morning or become flustered when trying to say Asalamu- alaikum)

When looking for an apartment you can go from place to place asking the boab if there are any spots open and try to get an appointment to see them, etc., or look for fliers announcing openings. Jayanthi tried going door-to-door for one day but found it was a painstaking and difficult process, so we employed a simsar, who is essentially a real-estate agent and takes you to apartments and helps you negotiate the contract in return for about 15 percent of the first month's rent. Our simsar was very nice and professional and had dealt with quite a few Americans (which gave us a particular problem I'll share in a minute) and showed us some ok apartments that were all a bit expensive for us and often very ugly ( I know, I know, this shouldn't matter! If I could only find the words to describe the particular over-the-top and extremely frou-frou style of some Egyptians I think you would understand. IKEA needs to come to Egypt. )

On the day we went to the apartment in which we are now living, we had requested to find a third roomate in order to bring the costs down. He agreed to find us a "nice, quiet girl, like you" to live with us and bring her to that meeting. So here Jayanthi and I are standing in front of "Omar Effendi," an upscale deparment store, waiting for our simsar and the "nice, quiet girl" to arrive when we notice a young foreign guy a few display windows down, and we joke about our simsar bringing us a guy to live with, because, in Egypt, this is an absolute no-no. Women and men do not live together outside of marriage, do not even "date" outside of engagement. (For the most part) There is no way that our simsar, who is Egyptian, would promote this. Our simsar arrives, and to our horror, a German student named Jakob, was brought for consideration to be our roomate. We quickly explain that we could never have expected this, that we find it extremely inappropriate to live with a male, especially in Egypt, particularly one we have never met, that our families would be horrified, that we are horrified, that we do not want Egyptians to automatically discount our respectibility and that we had expected a "nice, quiet girl." It seems that, though as an Egyptian we/he would not have expected it, dealing with scores of Americans and Europeans who are untroubled to live with members of the opposite sex, he acted upon an assumption that was certainly misguided. If that apartment had not been the apartment, I doubt his services would have been required again : )
It was such a bizarre experience, particularly because we are so used to Egyptians having a much different and much stricter idea of the code of conduct for ladies and their interactions with gentlemen. Worlds collide! Sigh. I'm exhausted just thinking about that process! We had difficulties in negotiating when we discovered there was no hot water in the kitchen, something we considered necessary for cleanliness and good hygiene, but something "no one else has asked for" before us and something that will only be included when we find a third roomate and our rent goes up. Trying to sort out the differences of opinion on landlord responsibility were a little overwhelming to me - I needed my Aunt Diane to help sort things out : )

After all of that, Jayanthi and I are just moved in to our 2 bedroom aparment on the bottom floor (i.e. loud floor : ) ) of an apartment building right around the corner from the British Council in Agouza. It is relatively simple, with only a few knickknacks strewn about, and is mostly clean and homey. We are excited to have a place to live, and if you know of a "nice, quiet girl, like us" in Cairo looking for an apartment, send her our way!