We are moving (within Cairo)!

We are moving out of our apartment next month and out of Zamalek. The apartment that we are currently in is the third I have lived in on this little island, and I have also lived in the AUC dorms here. But it has come time for us to leave this place.

The reason we are leaving our apartment is because the owner of the apartment died, and her sons decided to sell it. We technically could have stayed until July, but rents in Egypt tend to go up in the summer months. And also the sons were constantly asking us to let potential buyers see the apartment, which was really causing us a lot of stress, as we were afraid we could get evicted at any moment if the place was sold. So we bit the bullet and decided to leave on our own terms.

We considered staying in Zamalek, and almost decided to stay. I can't beat my current 15-20 minute morning commute, although the trip home can take 40+ minutes due to traffic. But there were many factors in pushing us to leave, including the racism and bullying by the guards at the Gezira club, and the lack of good preschool options for Maya.

So we are moving across town to a big Cairo expat haven (forgive me!!) that is a bit more family friendly. Many of our friends live there, and we have joined a nice club that has many interracial families and where Maya's nanny will not have to wear a stupid "nanny jacket". It also has a nice pool. And in September Maya can take "pre-ballet" classes. And Mike can play softball at a league near our house -- if we can find him a mitt that is.

We went on our first day of househunting today. We saw it as just an exploratory day to see what was out there. But we found a place we couldn't pass up whose asking price was lower than our max. So this evening we put down a deposit and signed the rental contract. The landlord is making some improvements. He is replacing some old windows, and we asked him to have the wood floors waxed and the walls painted. Then we can move in. We will probably move in mid-April.

Our new apartment is very nice. It has three bedrooms and a very large living area. It also has an open kitchen, a serious rarity for Cairo apartments, at least in our price range. And a breakfast nook. And a nice balcony where we can put our grill and our outdoor table. But the real cool thing is that we have part of the rooftop just for us. So we can put out a kiddie pool for Maya, or she can ride a trike around the roof. And we can put up our plastic swing from our roof in Jerusalem that has been attracting dust here in Zamalek because our balcony was not big enough for it. So we are pretty happy with our new place -- or at least we hope we will be.