The first weekend

(Written February 1st, 2011)

After the museum trip I had to go back to the office to meet my boss and head up to the north coast.  After speaking to only Egyptians for the past couple days it was great to finally speak to another American.  We didn’t get out of the office until late so we decided to stay one more night in Cairo.  That night we went out to eat with two other expats from a European consulting company.  One was from England the other was from Scotland, and both are great guys.  

For those of you that don’t know I lived in Australia for about a half a year and traveled Fiji and New Zealand in 2005.  What you learn when you live/travel abroad is that it’s really easy to meet people and make friends.  In my current situation every expat that I meet is a friendly one.  Most are in the same situation as me and looking to have some kind of social network.  Age, gender, and country of origin make no difference just as long as you speak the same language.  A common question I get asked is if I am meeting people and making friends.  The answer is yes but if you think about it I already have a lot in common with other expats that are here.  Now I will say that out of all the expats I have met I am the youngest by a few years.  The closest person to my age is probably 6 years older than me, and most are more than 10 years older than me.  Although there are expats closer to my age somewhere in Egypt I just haven’t met them yet.

The next day my boss and I headed up to Alexandria.  Alexandria (Alex) is located about 3-4 hours north of Cairo.  Alex is a beautiful coastal city right along the Mediterrain Sea.  The first stop we made was a the City Centre which is just one gigantic mall.  Once I stepped into the mall I felt like I was back in the USA.  It was very clean inside (unlike most of Egypt) and they had a lot of American stores.  I was told they have larger malls in Cairo that I haven’t experienced yet but this one was plenty big for me.  We then proceeded to go to my new favorite store Carrafore (sp?).  Carrafore is similar to a Super Target.  This is where I have been doing all my grocery and supply shopping.  Also at the food court they had McDonalds, Fuddruckers, Hardees, KFC and Pizza Hut.  So the big USA chains are doing well even though they are on the expensive side for a typical meal in Egypt.  

After the mall we made our way to a birthday party.  There is an English couple that lives in Alexandria. The husband works on the same project as I do and his wife lives with him in Egypt.  He works for the same European consulting company as the two gentlemen I met the previous night.  We had dinner and a few drinks and it was a really good night.  I could listen to the English talk for days.  I enjoy hearing and learning their ‘slang‘ especially after a few drinks.........