Birthday maddness

Omar turned three yesterday! We had a party for him on Saturday with all his friends at a Ceramic Cafe near our house. Omar loves this place, and he was very excited! The party was pretty low key, very different than the parties we have in the US, but nonetheless, it was nice!

We were there for about 4 hours. Exhausted and happy Omar fell asleep on the way home. He didn't open his presents until the next morning.

Then on his actual birthday, we didn't do much, had birthday lunch, got calls and emails from family and friends and had birthday cake.

While I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready, Omar was climbing all over the couch in the living room being all silly, when all of a sudden I heard a huge bang followed by loud screaming. Right then I knew it was bad, I came flying out of the kitchen and saw Omar had fallen off the back of the couch flat on his face on the marble floor. Blood was everywhere and I tried to stay as calm as possible but after I looked at his face I knew he needed to be taken to the hospital. I called Ramy who came right away and we hopped into a taxi. Traffic was terrible that time of day and it took us a good thirty minutes. Luckily Omar's face stopped bleeding but it was extremely swollen. At the ER we were seen right away, and the good news is that nothing was broken and no teeth were loose. We got some medicine for the swelling and we were on our way back home.

But during the time I was in the kitchen I was starting to feel ill, and it got worse and worse. Back home I realized it must've been something I had eaten that day.

The next morning Omar was sick too, it looks we got food poisoning from the lunch we ordered on his birthday. What a mess! Poor Omar!

Now for some  good news, Ramy met with the realtor, and signed the contract, so we are moving on December 1! Will keep you posted.

Proud mama

I always cut Omar's hair since he was a baby, but decided to get him to a hair dresser at age one. I have blogged about it before, his first hair dresser experiences have been rather traumatic so I resorted back to cutting it myself. Omar would get so hysterical that I would always cut his hair while he was sleeping. But the last couple of hair cuts I have tried to do them while he was awake. He needs to get over this fear of getting his hair cut and realize I am not going to cut him. So after procrastinating it for about a week, I decided to do it. I told him for two days I was going to cut it so he knew it was coming. Lots of protests and that mommy should get it cut instead as my hair was longer than his.

The clippers came out and Omar went into hysterics. Then he stopped crying, got out his little chair, picked up the clippers and told me to sit down and he would cut my hair. It was quite cute but it wasn't going to work!
I told him that if he was to sit down he would get a bowl of m&m's. He threw another major fit and then realized he was never going to get those m&m's without getting his hair cut.
So he came and got me and told me he was ready. He sat down on his little chair, held the bowl of m&m's and I started cutting. Not a single cry, a bit of complaining and twitching around but that was it, he even offered me some m&m's! Now why didn't I think of candy bribary before? Besides the whole bribe part I am super proud of him for not crying, it's like a whole new milestone for me!

His best little friend from Germany, Sami, is back in town for three weeks. We met up with him at the club the other day, and Omar was super excited to see him and played with him for hours. The last time he was here was back in May. The great thing about Sami being here at this time is that he is able to attend Omar's birthday which is on the 17th of November and we are able to attend Sami's which is on the 28th of November.

Omar is super excited about his birthday. Yesterday we went out to a little french bakery and he picked out his birthday cake. Of course it has a huge train on it! Then we went to the toy store to get his birthday present. Normally I would go out and get it while Omar is at home with Ramy but things are a bit different here so I had to take him along. What a nightmare! Shopping for a kid that is with you is not a very good idea.
All Omar is talking about is his birthday, his train cake, the party and the presents. It must be so hard for him to wait!

Lovely

Yesterday we met up with the realtor who showed us all the apartments in Maadi. We had spoken to him several times over the past week and decided to look at the ground floor apartment once more before signing the deal.

The owner of the apartment was there and we discussed everything with him before heading out. As we were about to commit to this apartment, our realtor said, you do know we are talking dollars here don't you? Ramy and I were shocked as we had clearly stated we were looking for an apartment in the range of 4000 Egyptian pounds. This apartment was renting for $4000 a month. I mean, $4000 for an apartment? Our house in America which is more than 3 times the size of this apartment costs half per month!

We were both in a state of shock and I felt rather foolish, embarrassed and angry at the same time. 

For the past two weeks we have been discussing in  Egyptian pounds and then all of a sudden it has become dollars? Very un classy.

Apparently, because Maadi houses mostly ex pats, the companies that bring them over pay for the apartments, so landlords have no problem charging a ridiculous amount of money as they know they will get it.

After returning home, I was just so depressed, and then when Omar asked me 'Mom, when  are we moving to the house with the garden, I want to play outside', I just lost it.

All the feelings I had when we first moved to Egypt, how much I hated it here, how lonely and depressed I was all came back at once.

But after a good two hours of moping around I decided to not give up and keep looking. 

So now there are still options available in Maadi, but for the money we can afford, I have a feeling it will be like a one bedroom apartment or something small like that. 

After searching the internet all night long, I found villa's and huge duplexes in our price range in the 5th settlement. Not knowing where that was I asked Ramy and that is where his company has a huge project going on called Hyde Park. Reading up on this place, I found it is located in New Cairo, the air is not polluted and it seems really nice. 

So now Ramy called them today and we have an appointment on Thursday to go look. I made sure Ramy called this time so we don't get swindled with me being a foreigner.

Yesterday, after getting back, I called a ton of realtors here in Cairo, and all of a sudden I was receiving a lot of calls. I never get any calls, so it was weird, but hey, I thought all these people are calling me back!

The phone calls were from Egyptian men who did not speak English, and from the little Arabic I know, they were making fun of me speaking English. I decided not to answer the phone anymore but around 11pm, this number was calling me non stop. So I answered it in a very angry voice in Arabic, but I didn't understand the replies I was getting until he started talking to me in very dirty English. Words that can not be repeated. I was furious and called Ramy's father who called the man back, threatened him not to ever bother me again, and then called the police on him who then went and arrested him.

I am very happy as I believe he gave my number out to his friends, and that is why I was being bombarded with calls.

I am so extremely sick of the mentality of the majority of Egyptian men here, the sexual innuendo, the constant, yet subtle harassment I have to endure because I am foreign and a woman. Even when  Ramy is with me, they have no shame, they will stare, whistle, follow me, or honk if we are driving. Ramy has gotten into quite a few arguments with them over it, which almost led into fist fights but in the end they were too scared.

Another reason I am so sad of us possibly not moving to Maadi, is that I finally felt I belonged somewhere and I fit in. Not feeling anxious about going out and ordering a taxi, or simply walking on the street as most people there are foreign like me.

I don't know, will I ever be really happy here?

Maadi

On Tuesday we met with a realtor in Maadi. 

Stepping  out of the car I noticed right away the air was cleaner and the streets were cleaner too. It was also quiet and I heard birds chirping. There were lots of trees, and I saw villa's with gardens and Europeans walking  around.

The first apartment was a ground floor with a garden and patio. It was very big, four bedrooms. I loved it and couldn't stop smiling. Finally something looked right! But it didn't stop there, we saw maybe about 12 more and all of them were very big and very nice.

 The realtor was very helpful and had brought us a map where he numbered each apartment we had seen. It was interesting taking Omar as he certainly had an opinion on each of them. Our least favorite was his least favorite as well. When I asked him if he liked to live here, he said no, this one is bad!

So at the end of the day, we had picked a top 5 where the ground floor was number one, and a duplex (two floors) was number two. The reason the duplex didn't make number one is because its on the first floor and on a busy main street with not much parking. The ground floor one sits on a quiet and secured street where Omar could actually ride his bike!

So now we are in the process of negotiating. If it was up to me I would be moving yesterday, but we have a few obstacles, the main one being that when we gave our notice, it had to be for three months. Now if our current land lord sells this apartment before the three months notice is up, which is before January 1st, we could leave sooner. If we do leave sooner before he sells the place we will lose our deposit. 

I am keeping my fingers crossed someone will buy this place real soon! I am ready to move!!!

Here is a map of Cairo:

The blue streak running through the middle

is obviously the Nile river.

Then when you look at the right, you see El Nozha, which is where we live now. Heliopolis is where Ramy currently works. Nasr City is where we first lived. 6th of October is not on this map (it's our second apartment), so you can imagine how far it was from the center. Zamalek is where the club is, Maadi is where we are looking to move and Giza is where the pyramids are. So now you might have a better feel for what I am talking about!

Besides Maadi being cleaner and not as dense as some of the other places, Ramy's work will be moving there by next month, and it will be walking distance away. Omar's school is there and on the same street is the community center which is only for foreigners living in Egypt. I checked out their website and they have a lot going on! 

Do I sound a little excited? Just a bit! 

Although I am not looking forward to packing it all up AGAIN, I am confident we will stay put here for a little while.

This will be our fourth move in less than a year!

Moving around in Cairo

It has been months since my last post, which means lots has happened since May.

We finally moved out of Nasr City in June to Sheikh Zayed, which is in the outskirts of Cairo. A beautiful area, quiet, clean air but completely secluded if you don't have a car. 

We only stayed there for one month as the commute to Ramy's work in Heliopolis (two hours each way by taxi) was taking a toll on all of us. While there we had three visitors from the United States which made the time go by quickly and made me feel less home sick.

Then in July we moved into an apartment close to the airport in Nozha el Gedida, which is basically 5 minutes from Ramy's office. Our furniture arrived at the same time, so it was a very busy time with getting the apartment set up and trying to resume a normal life after months of living on borrowed stuff.

The apartment itself is very nice and roomy, but only one third of our old home in the US which forced us to put half of our belongings in storage.

Omar was very happy to have a room of his own again, he was also ecstatic to have most of his toys and to sleep in his own bed.

But Cairo is Cairo, and with living in a overcrowded city like this comes pollution and lots of dirt.

It keeps me busy, cleaning every day. My husband tells me to just get a maid, but why should I? I am home at the moment, taking care of a two year old, I can manage this!

In September Omar and I took a month long trip back to the US. It was a fantastic trip, and the month flew by. Omar and I tried to visit as many friends as possible, and Ramy managed to join us for two weeks as well. 

For our seven year anniversary we took a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas which was absolutely fantastic and would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of taking a cruise with kids. Omar had a blast and so did we. We all needed the much needed vacation and relaxation.

Afterwards we stayed in Orlando for three days and visited Disney World. Coming back to Maryland after our little vacation gave us only a couple of more days before we had to take the plane back to Egypt. It was a crazy hectic few days which flew by and before we knew it we were in the air on our way back. 

Mixed feelings of happiness and sadness engulfed Omar and I, but the fun wasn't quite over as we had a long lay over in Amsterdam.

We got there pretty early and Omar and I took the train to my grandma's house, where my brother, fiance with newborn baby and my dad and his wife were all there waiting for us.

Omar was very happy again, and did not sleep at all as he was too excited.

Later that evening we took the train back to the airport and finished our trip to Egypt.

Surprisingly enough it felt good to be back in the apartment. Ramy came and picked us up as he had gone back ahead of us. 

It looks like Egypt is starting to grow on me, well Cairo is. I still dislike it but don't hate it anymore.

While we were gone on our trip, our upstairs neighbors flooded our apartment, which they failed to mention to us, and luckily Ramy's dad happened to stop by and found the mess and was able to save our things.

Due to the nasty mentality of our neighbors and it not be the first time they did some nasty stuff to us, we decided to give our notice and move out.

At the same time Ramy told me he is being moved to an office in Maadi, which is where I wanted to live all along. So it seems things are falling into place, and I am very excited!

The apartment search is on again, hopefully we find something nice with some green around us.

After 8 months I am finally feeling a bit happy and I am trying my hardest to keep this feeling going!