Reminiscences

Sometimes I, like many others, like to reminiscent about the past. When you have been keeping a diary since the age of twelve that helps with recalling memories and taking yourself to a distant past that gives you joy and makes you smile. This is how I felt today when I read a passage of my diary written on Tuesday June 26, 2007, about my second day in Egypt.

"I am in the land of sand and palm trees. Out of the airplane I could see a couple of white-brownish apartment buildings and sand. No green could be seen our of the airplane. In the plane they told us that it is pretty hot out there. Well, the weather was 104 F which is about 40 C. The highest it has ever been so far this year, Alaa tells me. I land there and my suitcase is not there. I dunno but it did not arrive with Air France as I had expected. It took me awhile to explain to the Arabic person, Reymond is his name, that works with Air France. Although his English was good. That was yesterday at around 7 or 8 pm. This morning I called them and they told me, my bags arrived with Lufthansa and that they will deliver the bags today's. I gave them the addressee to Alaa's parents house. Within about 4 hours the bags arrived at his house. And he went to his parents house to get the bags. I am waiting here for him at our apartment for the summer in New Cairo.

Alaa is so happy that I am here and he is so so sweet. When I came yesterday his parents called to ask him if I came. Then his Dad wanted to speak to me and he was like "Welcome, welcome, welcome to Egypt. I hope you will have a great time and see the beauty of Egypt," he sounds a bit like a travel agent. Then he said "hopefully your parents can come too someday, we would like to invite them." Today we are supposed to go and meet them all, Alaa told me that they had invited a bunch of his family. I am a bit nervous. I rather first just meet his parents and later on I can come and meet the family. Cairo's traffic is a bit crazy...Once we got to the apartment we went out for a bit because I needed to call my parents to let them know I am here and everything is going good. So we went to the market place there was a small shop, there were alot of men and we told them who and where I need to call. Then they gave me a cell phone. Later on they checked the minute usage and charged me .80cents per minute. But Alaa paid for it. The market place was what I would call "pijaca." It was like 10 pm at night. People were buying fruit and vegetables. There were many cafes in which mostly older men sat and smoked shisha and watched music videos on TV monitors that were brought outside. There were some women but mostly men. We walked around a bit. Everything is new to me. I asked Alaa how long everything is open to and he replied that Cairo is a city that never sleeps. The cafes close when there are no more customers. But people are outside always. Alaa came I will continue this later. Thursday we are invited to Zo's birthday and tomorrow me might go to the Pyramids.