So today, at the Fulbright in-country orientation, I received grand news. There are, in fact, two Mexican food restaurants and Cairo...and they're maybe pretty good? I was so excited! One of them is called On the Border so I was curious if the American On the Border food chain has expanded internationally so typed "on the border cairo" into google search engine. The top result? "Report: Egypt uncovers 3 tunnels on Gaza border - Israel News ..." Sigh. The orientation and the following Iftar up at the citadel complete with a puppet performance, traditional sufi dancing and live music was fun. Justin took some cool pictures of the dancers lit by show lights so he'll have to post those soon.

People keep asking us (well, me, at least) about our adventures. For the most part, we haven't had many. Cara saw almost all of the tourist sights when she lived here before (and I've seen the big ones), so there seems to be little need to head for the pyramids again until we have visitors to show around. It'll probably be a while before we have another adventure like our excursion to St. Catherine's Monastery in 2005. Yet, in many ways, every walk down the street is a little adventure. Of the little adventures we've had, here is a quick list of some highlights:

• Having the bowab's little boys insist on helping us carry groceries the last 20 feet of the walk from the store.
• Watching a concert of "American Pop Music," which consisted of Sinatra-style love songs, accompanied by piano.
• Got shafted out of some money by people who came to "clean bugs" out of our drains. We should've known better and it could've been worse.
• Spending 45 minutes figuring out how to use a match to light a gas oven with temperature gauges. No, there is no pilot light.

For the friends and family: We are quite safe. Yesterday morning, a cliff fell onto a bunch of multi-story homes in Cairo. The English-language news has described the area as variations of "shanty towns," "squatter towns," and "informal communities." Basically, Cairo is dense and there is a vast differences between the rich and the poor, and of the latter, there are around 2 million people who live in homes which have been built on its outskirts. They don't officially own the land (it is not officially Cairo), there is no running water or utilities, no formal governing structure. This happened on a weekend morning during Ramadan, when entire families would have been home together, enjoying the holiday.

As Cara's last post indicated, I've had to fix a few things since we moved in. The list so far:

• reconnect to WiFi & DSL
• busted coaxial wire for satellite
• rewired plug for a lamp
• toilet tank wouldn't fill

Regarding the toilet, all of the basic mechanisms are the same as in the US, but it was quite a chore figuring out how to fix it. Since the flusher is on the top of the toilet, I had to disconnect it before I could take off the lid to really get into it. It must have taken me 20 minutes to figure it out. I now know a bit about the subtle differences between US & Euro styled toilet mechanisms. But was it worth it? Shouldn't I have been out-and-about, "experiencing" Cairo? I dunno. But I do know that we didn't have to pay someone to come and fix it.

Currently waiting for Cara to take care of business at the university. Flights were awfully long. United Airlines sucks. The only reason I got free wine is because our flight was 5 hours delayed. "Its on us this time" the flight attendant said. "Its on British Airways every time," I thought. They had to fly the part all the way in from Chicago. Since we got bumped to the next Cairo > Frankfurt flight, Cara missed the "mandatory" grad student orientation at AUC. Still, we got to our hotel safely. I felt like we were dignitaries or something... instead of having to haggle cab fares from the airport, the Fulbright office sent someone to the airport to help us negotiate our visa, luggage, and to give us a ride to our hotel. Not too shabby. Its exciting to be back in Cairo. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we'll be living here. Cara has done it once, but my brain is having trouble conceptualizing our stay past 3.5 weeks. Next steps for us: get Cara set up with AUC, get a SIM card for my phone & unlock it, check in with Fulbright office, start apartment hunting.