"Ahlan wa sahlan" (Welcome)

After about 14 hours of travel, my co-hort and I safely arrived in Cairo! can already tell this group has a lot of different personalities and we are going to gel well. When we arrived we were welcomed by the staff and then went to our Villa, had a little orientation then went to our flats. Hopefully eventually I can post pictures of where I live. because the area is great and the pad I live in is awesome. We have some ancient style furniture and definitely some interesting toilets. It's gonna be a fun time living in this flat with the 6 other guys I live with.

Today we did a basic arabic introduction for words/phrases to get us around and then did a bus tour around Cairo. I love the architecture of this place and am excited to see them up close and personal. Mosques, citadels, the homes all have a beautiful ancient beauty to them. Even seeing the pyramids from the bus windows. This place is amazing.

One downside so far:
This place is also HOT. Walking around in the 100+ dry heat is definitely crazy. Being a California guy (the only Californian doing this program), I am used to wearing shorts in pretty much every season. In Cairo, we are only allowed to wear pants so it's a crazy adjustment having to wear pants in such heat. Luckily our flats and classroom have air conditioning.

Being here for such a short while and already being entranced by the area is such a new feeling for me. When in Nepal, it was hard to be in love with the area for me. Even this last trip I had found it hard to be back and was happy to be leaving in the end. Here, it is day 2 and I am so excited to explore everything, to learn the language and meet people. It is doesn't matter that it is hotter than blazes here, I just feel at great peace being here.

Sorry if this post is a little glib on the descriptions of the place. I have just a short time at this internet cafe. Also these posts will be more spread out as I don't think I'll always being walking over to here in order to use the internet. Hopefully our laptops can get into unprotected wi-fi networks near our flat :]

Love you all!