Earlier this week, Nadia and I travelled to Cairo, Egypt, for a transition visit to help us with the move to our positions next year at our new school. It was my second visit and Nadia’s first. The school was very gracious and showed us great hospitality. I am more excited about the move more than ever!
Expatriates live such strange lives. Very few generations of humans have had the opportunity to move around the globe every few years. We experience vastly different cultures, languages, topography, biomes, colleagues, friends, etc. with each new posting. Nadia and I have done this together five times previously, and the move from Uzbekistan to Egypt will be our sixth. I love it and embrace the new context, Nadia takes awhile to warm up to her new surroundings.
I have not seen much of the city and country in my limited time in the country. My two visits have been mostly focused on learning about the school. I have not seen the pyramids or the Nile River yet, spending all of my time about an hour’s drive east of the famous cradle of civilization. New Cairo is a part of Cairo, carved out of the vast Eastern Desert. Up until very recently, Egyptians only lived in the relatively narrow band on both sides of the Nile and across the Nile Delta leading to the Mediterranean Sea. It is hard to come to conclusions or make insightful observations on Egyptian culture or live in Cairo at this time.
We went to dinner with the School Leadership Team at a delicious Lebanese Restaurant in the beautiful Cairo Festival City Mall. Al-Futtiam Real Estate developers from the UAE, built the 3-million square meter mixed-use development in 2013. There are 81 restaurants and cafés and we visited “The Village” a section of the mall built in the style of a desert oasis with 50 cafés and restaurants. The mall is also known for being home to the only IKEA in Egypt. It is very close to the school and where we will be living.
New Cairo, outside of the housing and retail developments, is not a picturesque city. Landing back in Tashkent on Wednesday morning, the explosion of green leafed trees and lawns near the airport surprised us after a few days in the Sahara Desert. On our second night, we went to a mixed Asian restaurant called Tao. The cuisine choices are vast in Cairo, and I am looking forward to exploring more of the city.
We will be back permanently in early August. It was a long overnight flight back to Tashkent on Tuesday evening. The connection through Istanbul was particularly brutal. Erdogan’s monster Istanbul Airport is huge and most transits, whether from the plane to the gate or through security checks to the gates, involves long distances. We had to jog/run to make the last call of boarding to our flight to Tashkent. It is enjoyable to run at 1:00 AM with an almost 60-year-old body. Ah yes, the thrills of a globally nomadic, cosmopolitan lifestyle. 🙂 Nadia and I were in the middle two seats in the penultimate row of a capacity flight, to top off the experience. We both made it to school on Wednesday, showing our dedication to our students.
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