Heating Up

99° isn’t so bad

The weather has been surprisingly agreeable, with 99° being the highest until today. It was still getting into the low 70s, even the high 60s, at night, which made it bearable to sleep without the a/c. We had been joking that this wouldn’t last, but we didn’t realize how soon it would be before the real heat of Cairo summers kicked in.  Today is supposed to be between 108° and 114°. It barely got below 80° last night, so we all piled into the one bedroom with the good a/c. I slept pretty solidly until about 7 a.m. when I would normally wake up, not to mention Edwin had started snoring. The only reason I didn’t want to wake up was because we hadn’t gotten to sleep until after 1 a.m. last night.

Visitors

We had a late night because Andy, who recently graduated from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, came over to visit. He didn’t arrive until after 9 p.m. because he had been tutoring a student in English. He then stayed very late because he’s a chatter and we happened to have another guest who really interests him. Razan, Josh’s friend from Syria who has been in Cairo for several months, helped us find the apartment, so we are hosting her fiancé while he is in Cairo. He works in SaudiArabia, and he is on his way back to the UK for some R&R before starting his new position with some British agency that provides English training to young Saudis. Andy was very interested in what Alex had to say, so he stayed later than he intended.

Coffee and Sheesha

Razan came all the way from the 6^th of October to visit with us today, so we went out to the Syrian restaurant Josh had found the day before. We had a pretty delicious lunch, and then we caught a taxi to Khan el-Khalili. The Khan el-Khalili Bazaar is part of Islamic Cairo, and we were going to Fishawy, the oldest coffee shop in Cairo, which is surprisingly small and unassuming. Josh, Edwin, and Rong walked around a bit when we got there because they’d never been. I sat with Razan and Alex and made small talk. It was enjoyable, but Alex prefers listening to his own ideas rather than having a genuine engagement or discussion about topics. Razan and Alex had sheesha and drinks while we talked, and when Josh got back he partook of Razan’s lemon sheesha. It took Rong and Edwin a lot more time to get back to Fishawy. They apparently walked along the road and the outside of the bazaar, which is probably a good thing since wandering into the interior can get you lost quickly.

Winding down

We came back later in the evening around 6 p.m. We basically sat around the rest of the evening because it was still quite hot. We decided to pile into the a/c room again for the night. Josh and I have the toughest time staying asleep in the morning, but we usually get solid enough ours until it gets a little light outside.