Life in our neighborhood

We have really enjoyed living in our new neighbourhood, which is much more family friendly than our previous neighborhood closer to downtown. My daily commute is about 30-40 minutes, compared to 10-40 minutes previously (due to traffic the commute was unpredictable). So the commute is a bit of a drag but our life is terrific.

First of all, Maya's preschool is literally a 2-minute walk from our place. Literally, we walk to the corner, turn right, then walk to next corner and turn left and we're basically there. So I've been walking her to preschool two mornings a week before work, which we have both really enjoyed. Mike is coming with most days too. I wish we could pick her up from school too, as I think we could have more opportunity to talk to the teachers about her day. But so far so good.

Our club, with a playground, restaurant and super nice pool, is about a 10-minute walk in the opposite direction. So we spend our weekends swimming in the pool, then lounging at the outdoor restaurant at the club and hanging with our friends while Maya plays on the playground. Sometimes, people rent bouncy castles for the club for birthday parties and Maya gets to jump on them. Fortunately, most people seem to have an open door policy that since they're having the party in a semi-public place all the kids present are allowed to use the bouncy, and not just the kids at the party.

Maya has also finally started taking swimming lessons at the club, which is fantastic. They are private lessons as they don't seem to offer group lessons anywhere in Egypt. But I don't mind as she's still pretty young and the lessons are not really that expensive. I think she'll basically take lessons twice a week all summer long. So she'll have a pretty nice schedule of half-day preschool twice a week and swimming lessons twice a week, and the rest of the time with Tibby.

In the fall, we're planning to sign her up for "pre ballet" classes to replace swimming, or at least some kind of dance and movement classes that are on offer at a local expat community center that is about a 7-minute walk from our house (right near our club). And right next door to the comunity center is a place that offers art/movement/play classes on a drop-in basis. So basically we are just living it up in Little Amreeka, as none of this type of high quality kid stuff was available in Zamalek. Well, we did have some classes that Maya took, but they were like a 25-30 minute walk in the heat so it was not as nice. And there was the Gazeera Club, with a huge playground, but that will not let kids do any type of classes until they are 3-1/2 or 4. So we are happy, happy, happy here!

We also discovered that there is a neighbourhood nearby that we think is basically the Asian equivalent of Little Amreeka. Some of our friends live there. There is a fabulous Korean restaurant there that we ate in once, and a terrific Chinese restaurant. I mean, normally the kind of Chinese food you get in Cairo is not that great and not that authentic. But this place is fabulous. Totally non-pretentious and with really good food. Anyway, there is also a Chinese hair salon there and basically lots of stuff catering to Asian expats, and a handful of restaurants. We are definitely going to have to explore that area more!! It's so nice to discover new things in Cairo, and it's so strange how you can live in a city for so long and have no idea that a place exists because it's outside your realm. This happens a lot in Cairo, and so much stuff is just found on word of mouth. Like I know there is an Ethiopian store somewhere near where we live, but I'm not sure precisely where.

Back to other stuff. Since we are now in a neighbourhood with more American expats, as opposed to Zamalek which had more Europeans, products that I craved and thought were non-existent in Egypt have started appearing. For example, we found marshmallows, Craisins, Fig Newtons, microwaveable burritos, kool-aid freezy pops, and one package of chocolate chips -- wow!!! We are in American food heaven! And all this is available at several little grocery stores that dot our neighborhood and are just minutes from our house by foot. Oh yeah, in Zamalek we had to drive to the store...

We also found a store that sells overstock clothes products destined for American stores like Gap and Old Navy that are produced in Egyptian textile factories. The selection was pretty slim, but I did find a striped Old Navy T-shirt for Maya for about $2, and a pair of stretchy shorts. We have been having a problem finding clothes for Maya this season as it seems that people either put their preschool daughters in long pants or miniskirts -- two ends of the cultural extreme I guess. Personally, I don't see the logic of putting a kid in pants during a hot Egyptian summer, even lightweight ones. But at the same time, a miniskirt -- no way! Plus it seems that even though Egypt is world renowned for its high quality cotton, most of the clothes made for sale here are cheap synthetics. So it was cool to find the overstock store, even if we only found one pair of shorts to buy there.

So basically, we are happy in our new little neighborhood. Our life is comfortable and easy here. Maya is happy. Our friends are nearby. What could be better!