"Welcome to Egypt" is to be said in a deep arabic voice. I actually haven't heard it from an Egyptian yet, but several North American students here have said it to me...the most I have heard, about 7 times from Egyptians is "Welcome"

Okay, I know this makes sense, but until you see it out your plane window, it doesn't register. Flying from Abu Dhabi to is all desert. You look out your window is all you see is brown for miles and miles and miles. First it was flat, rolling dunes, then a bit more hilly, and finally, flying over the Sinai, mountains of sand. Even once I got to Cairo, I could see the Nile, brown/grey buildings, and sand in between them. It's kinda like flying over Canadian cities, when you see the roads and the building with greenspace in the middle, except this greenspace is sand. On top of that, the city is spread out all over the place, it's amazing thinking the amount of history exists under what I was seeing.

Ok, so I arrive at the airport (a little early actually) and line up to get my passport stamped. The when I get to the front of the line the guy tells me I need to buy a stamp (they are actual stamps) from one of the banks as a visa and then I can enter. Problem, all my $$ are in card form, don't have enough cash on me to pay for a visa. There are about 5 banks there, but none of them have an ATM...the ATM as it so happens is on the other side of immigration in the airport. So, I have to leave my passport at customs, and walk across a crowded airport, unescorted, to the ATM. They apparently have a lot of trust that I will return (for obvious reasons, the biggest one being they have my passport, I do).

Em and two of her American University of Cairo companions, Beth and Lynn, are waiting for me, and help find a taxi to get back to the city center. It's a good thing too, because unlike everywhere else I have traveled, half the taxi drivers here don't speak English. They tell me about some of their adventures here, and also about how Western women tend to get groped a lot in crowded public areas, specifically at the zoo...

Now, people must have an innate sense that can tell that I am new here, because as soon as I arrive I am just hounded by all sorts of people. Now, I have been traveling for a while, so I am used to the people coming up to me, and am pretty good at ignoring it and getting them to stop. But, I guess cause I am new to Egypt they can tell... and it is true, after a little while of being in a place, you have a new look and they can tell you are not new anymore and hassle you less (I get less even after 4 days). Anyway, in the first night I was there, I had a small child tugging on my arm for about a block or so, a girl jump and hang on to the side of a moving taxi for two blocks and subsequently kiss her fingers and then plant them on my cheek and try to sell me something, as well as a couple others (one is describe below).

So, Egypt just has a totally different feel to it than SE Asia, not sure if I can describe it, but I just have a whole different atmosphere. First off, you can't get around everywhere with just English (well you can, but it can be kinda hard). Also it is a noticably Muslim country, and even though Indonesia is 90% Muslim it didn't feel so (probably cause I was in rather touristy areas). You notice it a lot more here, prayers are said 5 times a day and there are a lot of covered women (some partially and others completely). I really like it, it's just has a totally different feel than anywhere I have been....oh, and there are cats all over the place...

So we go out for dinner and then head to a bazaar downtown. It's mainly clothing, and it's the ones that the locals prodominantly shop at so there isn't as much touristy craft. The girls all bought scarves, but I was a little tired and not so much in the shopping mood, so I just looked...probably go back next week. After, we went out for Shisha, which is flavoured Egyptian tobacco smoked out of these giant contraptions. They are quite delicious and come in many flavours, quite tasty. Anyway, as I mentioned before I seem to attract people selling things, so this guy comes up to me and is showing me this postcard with Egyptian coins on the back. Unwittingly, I decide I am gonna try to sell him something, a Malaysian Ringgit (as it was all I have on me). I pull it out and ask "how much you give me for this" completely joking. Well, this guy gets obsessed with it and asks everyone around the table how much it is worth. After getting shoed off twice by management, the guy comes back a third time and just won't leave. Finally, to get him to leave I trade him the bill (worth about 30 cents Canadian) for the postcard and coins (which by them selves are worth about 60 cents Canadian). After that I decided not to play that game anymore...

To end the night, we went to a party at Christian's (an AUC student's) house. There were a fair number of people there, and I got to meet a number of students attending AUC (from all over the place), and talk to some Americans about the election among other things (haven't met many Americans traveling, so it was nice to chat with some people who are also upto date on it). All in all, it was a fun first night in Cairo...