(Do you speak english?) هل تتكلم الانجليزيه؟

I am managing to make progress, but at a snails pace.  I am greatly hindered by the language barrier, more than within any previous journeys through foreign lands.  In the past, I could still manage to function when no one spoke english, such as within Northern Thailand, but here it is different.  When I walk into a cafe or restaurant, no matter how much I point or gesture, people simply tend to stare at me like they are waiting for me to speak their language.  Of course if I'm living here, it is respectful that I learn the language, but that is really asking quite a bit - Egyptian Arabic isn't the easiest.  No matter how much I study, I just can't get it to stick in my mind as it doesn't have the same consistency as spanish or japanese.  In someways, it seems more similar to English than any other language I've studied because there are so many exceptions to the rules.  As a newbie, it seems more likely that there are no rules.  Good thing that I never had to learn English as a second language, arabic is frustrating enough.  On the positive side, I can at least read the language, and the written text is the same dialect that I know how to speak.  Also, my roommates are helpful whenever possible.

Really the only way to make progress is to just dive in, but for the first time ever, I'm really wading more than diving.   I decided to stay in my current apartment until December - it isn't terrible, but is exactly like living in Camp Washington again and for only a small increase in rent I could stay in a much nicer place.  I'm now starting to eat a little better, and I found a western style grocery store called Metro a couple blocks from my place. 

I also have a pohone number now, 016 844 9768.  To call from the US, you will probably need to dial 011 20 2 before the number, but I'm not exactly certain on the process.  Basically, 011 is to make an international call, 20 is Egypt code, and 2 is Cairo area code.  If you have difficulty, try googling 'call cairo from US' and look for some advice.

I will soon also send an email and post on the blog an update on ways to contact me.  However, until I have a stable internet connection, it will be difficult to make those arrangements.  We had internet when I arrived, but I could not log on because my roommates did not know the password.  So yesterday I reset the connection and reconfigured the modem for a new password etc, but now the house will not receive internet service at all!  I swear, everything I touch in this house seems to fall apart - the sink was stopped, the towel rack fell off the wall in the bathroom, the internet is now down, I fried my new computer speakers on the 220 current,  and the only working air conditioner in the house is the one in my bedroom.  And that is only within the last 48 hours!

I'll try to write more about Cairo and Egypt itself in the near future.  At the moment I'm too busy focusing on navigation.  I don't want to give the impression that things are bad, just complicated.  I'm surprised that a country that attracts so many western tourists can be so difficult.  Although it is more 'developed' than India in terms of all the usual economic indicators such as GNP, physical infrastructure, transportation etc,  I am finding that India was actually a much easier place.  Generally its a matter of language, and I also suspect, that the tourist infrastructure in India was much more reflective of my own demographic.  I suspect that the tourism industry here has created a very suppliant landscape to foreigners, yet it caters to an upscale crowd and is therefore generally inconsistent with my own interests.  I avoid tour buses, McDonalds, and fancy hotels like the plague, and I suspect that in Egypt, those are the elements that define the Cairien experience among most westerners.

Not that I want to be a tourists, but usually there is an overlap between the tourists sector and the local, where a person can point a food on a table and the owner/proprietor/cook will understand.  Places like that are usually a great place to start... so I guess will simply need to move on to phase two.