Ok, so I have not been blogging as diligently as I’d hoped before we left.
To be honest, the transition has been difficult and I’ve been feeling down, so I haven’t had all that much to say. I got sick right after we moved into our apartment, probably because the weather on the day of our move looked like this:
The air quality was bad. Our government-issued air filters hadn’t been running before we moved in and we found a few windows cracked open, which means all that icky outside air was, in fact, inside. I felt pretty terrible for a couple days, and basically didn’t go out or do anything for about 72 hours after arriving in our new neighborhood. This did not help with feeling settled.
That said, I think we’re starting to turn a corner. Nick and I have been doing as much sightseeing as possible, so we’ve already been to the pyramids and on a tour of Coptic Cairo. The pyramids were awesome, as expected, but we didn’t know all that much about the Coptic section of the city before going. It was fascinating and we even had nice weather that day, which was a treat.
We’ve also finally started to make some social connections. The Embassy community is very neighborly, so if you are willing to put yourself out there, it’s easy to find someone to hang with. That said, we are some of only a handful of couples here without children and where one spouse doesn’t work. So I expect that I’ll mostly be spending my days alone and seeing friends in the evening, but that’s ok. I can occupy my days—I just started a pilates class and have been enjoying having some time to knit and decorate the apartment. When I find myself in situations where I’m spending lots of time alone, I like to learn a new skill. I haven’t settled on what skill it will be this time, but I’m thinking possibly photography so that I can share interesting Cairo sights.
Until then, here are some shots from my iPhone.
