Arrival to Cairo

Arrival to Cairo...

After finally making my way from Tucson to London to Amsterdam, I finally landed into the Cairo airport where I will be doing a couple months of biomedical research with the US Navy Medical Research Unit. From the second I landed, I knew that experience would be like none other that I have had while traveling to the developing world...easy!

Immediately after stepping off the plane I was greeted by my "expediter", which is essentially a professional 'get people through the airport' person. Within minutes he had my passport with visa stamps inside and whisked me through the diplomatic entry point to my luggage which was already waiting with the driver by the car...whoa! Granted, it does take away that nervous excitement of landing in an unknown city with nothing but your wits and a lonely planet... but of course I am willing to make some sacrifices in the name of new experiences = )

I was dropped off at the home of my boss where a party was going on. I was handed a mixed drink and a plate of Thai food as soon as I dropped my luggage and met about 20 people in the span of few minutes. Aye yi yi yi!! Oh and I was introduced to everyone by my Puerto Rican boss as Mary Footeeeee. Ahhh, it's good to be me! At the end of the evening, to finish off a lovely first few hours in Cairo, I was driven to my new home for the next month...which happens to be a posh 3 bedroom apt with wrap-around terraces in expat city (Ma'adi) which I am "housesitting" for an officer who is disease hunting in Afghanistan. I went to bed cozy and warm under a hand embroidered Afghan blanket listening to the calls to prayer wafting in through my open window...

At Saqqara Pyramid, the oldest in the world!