The apartment! شقة

It turns out that the school overbooked housing, so I'm no longer staying at the Marwa Palace, which is ok. I've learned that "palace" is a name meant to make up for a lack of stars. One boy got stuck in their elevator for twenty minutes. When the elevator finally arrived at a floor, the doorman refused to open it, because it was stuck at the girls floor. Also, their windows are the size of water bottles, and they don't have internet :)

I was out to dinner with Amr and my three friends from Kanzy at a restaurant on a boat on the Nile. Midway through our post-dinner sheesha, we got a call from the housing director, (whom I've been bugging to move us closer to campus). He asked whether we could meet him back at Kanzy. So, we went back and he told us to pack up. We asked if we could see the apartment first, and he said no, because there were girls moving into our rooms. This kinda freaked us out, but we complied. Lesley (my roomie), Erin (our friend next door), and I had to move tonight. Erin's roomie, Selena, our neighbor Eliza, and my friend Sara all came along to help us move.

So we get to the apartment, and walked in. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Spacious. Huge. Tiled floors and we have a full kitchen with some appliances and a bar and a dining room set and a breakfast nook, and satellite tv, and a couch, and chairs, and two bathrooms. And they will be paying a maid to clean the place! And there are three two-person bedrooms for six people. But wait, there are six of us! Uh oh. When Selena, Eliza, and Sara saw the apartment, they were floored. So Lesley said to Alex (Mr. Housing Director), "we all work really well together, and if possible we'd like to stay as a group." And he said yes!! So now I'm living in a fantastic apartment in the middle of the Nile, right across from downtown Cairo, with my five best friends here :) And they allow male visitor here.


Our doorman's name is Mahmood. The neighborhood has cute cafes, pubs, great bookstores, cheap grocery stores, and a small expat community. The one downside to this neighborhood is that we aren't forced to use our Arabic as much as in Dokki. In other ways it's easier to use our Arabic though, because it's not so sketchy, and I'm more comfortable talking to strangers. Also, we're allowed to have boys in our apartment. hehe.

The six of us have started a group blog: www.theeducatedharem.blogspot.com

The video is our sketchy elevator. It has no door!

Lesley's and my room. I have the big bed for now. (the one covered with crap). There are two other bedrooms. (there are also two full bathrooms!


The dining room/kitchen. Notice the bar!


Living room. The breakfast nook!