Not to rub it in or anything...

...but we just filled up a friend's Mitsubishi Montero (they're out of town for the week and letting us use it) that was completely empty. Running-on-fumes empty. Nary-a-drop-of-gas-in-that-thing empty.

We filled it to the top.

$25.57

I guess I misspoke. Totally to rub it in.

A Tale of 2 Shopping Trips

This last week we've been on a few notable shopping excursions. Last Saturday, Kevan, Jess, and I were joined by Shon and Kirsten and a couple of friends from church, and we went to the fabric market in downtown Cairo. What a place! Shop after tiny little shop of nothing but fabric. The narrow streets formed quite a maze (I will neither confirm nor deny that I was the one who led us right out of it, and I will neither confirm nor deny that Kevan had no clue where we were) (I will, however, totally rat out Shon and tell you that he got totally lost, and we had to wait 15 minutes for him to find his way out ;) but we all found some great fabric. In a lot of ways it reminded me of the fabric district in L.A., except dirtier, in that it seemed like the bulk of the fabric for sale was upholstery-type fabric, but truly, we barely scratched the surface; who knows what we would have found if we had delved deeper into the place. We were after fabric to make duvet covers for the girls' room, and found some cute embroidered cotton to use. The man selling it thought Jessica was just the cutest thing. He asked her if she was thirsty, and she told him, "no," but he still went and got her a bottle of cold water, and insisted she take it. He was delighted when she accepted it and started to drink from it. He gave us a pretty good price on the fabric, too. We also got some cute fabric to make Jess a few skirts, and I got to practice my negotiating skills. I had told Kevan that he was supposed to stay by me (what with him speaking the language and me not so much), but he kept getting distracted by, I dunno, shiny things? so I was on my own a few times. I think I did OK though.

When we were waiting by our cab for Shon and Kirsten to make their way out of the market, young boys selling socks kept coming up to us and trying to get us to buy them (as they were all throughout the market). There was also a slightly older boy (maybe 11 or 12) standing at the food cart we were near who was looking at us and who, at one point, asked me the time. After a little while of standing there we realized that this boy had sort of become our protector and was shooing away all the little sock boys and keeping the other vendors away from us. When we were finally leaving, he walked along the side of the car and was blowing kisses at Jessica and Megan (not our Megan, but a friend of Jessie's from church) who were sitting in the back seat. We've been teasing them more than a little bit about that.

This is the only picture we remembered to take. It is at the beginning of the market, but we took it when we were on our way out. My favorite part of it is the guy in blue walking past us. I'm pretty sure his facial expression reads somewhere along the lines of, "Crazy American tourists!"
After we left the market, we went to lunch at the same Lebanese restaurant we went to after our visit to the museum. Jess and I were intrigued by this sign on the street outside it, and are hoping that the fest it is advertising makes a return appearance this year. That is most definitely my kind of fest.
Megan and her mom had the grilled shrimp for lunch, and it was no namby-pamby curled up little shrimp, thank you very much. Those puppers were still in their shells with eyeballs and everything. So, of course, we had some of the obligatory Messing Around with Gross Things. I am only showing you the tamest of the pictures. You are welcome.
Then on Wednesday, Kevan and I took a cab to a local store called Carrefour. I have been once before with some people from church, and it is quite the experience. The first person that told me about it said, "It's kind of like Walmart." And then the person I went with said, "What have you heard about this place? That's it's kind of like Walmart? Because it's nothing like Walmart." As we were wandering through it this time, I realized what it is that it is like. You know how there's Walmart and then there's Super Walmart? And how Super Walmart is bigger, has more stuff, and also food? Well, Carrefour is like a Super All-a-Dollar. Tons of random stuff, no guarantee that it will be the same stuff twice (or in the same place), and also food.

This is a shot of the outside, from our cab:
The building that it's in also has a mall in it, with all the kinds of stores you would expect to find in a mall, but each with a decidedly Arab twist. My favorite part of these stores is the mannequins. Some day I will be brave enough to take some pictures of them for you. It will be worth the wait.

I did manage to snap a couple of shots of come our favorite products that we found inside Carrefour itself.

Holly, I don't care how hard you beg, I am not buying you this for Christmas:
This was really hard not to buy:
These last couple of shots are from the cab on the way home.

We never did see what it was that was pulling this cart:
You can't see it very well, but in that little pick-up truck in front of us, there are about 1o men crammed in the back:

I promise we didn't disappear

We just got buried in boxes.

This is what our apartment looked like on Saturday, early afternoon:

Our bedroom:
The Girls' Dormitory:
Jake's room:
Dining Room:
Living Room/Office (hi Kev!):
Kitchen:
And then this is what it looked like a mere 5 hours later:





There are no original pictures of Sam's room, because he was asleep when I was taking them, and nothing's worth waking him up. Trust me on this one. And then there are no "after" pictures of Jake's room, because the boy only brought Legos. He was unpacked in like 5.4 seconds. We'll be contacting Guinness shortly.

These last pics aren't so much of Sam's room; they're just my attempt at capturing his extreme joy at his new bed. We bought it off of craigslist right before we left, and he never saw it. So the delight of going in to his room and discovering a blue car (both favorite things) was off the charts.

We Finally Did Something Interesting

So, contrary to what you might think, our lives are not all that glamorous. Sure, we've seen and done some pretty cool things, but our days are more likely to be filled with things like, "She's looking at me," "Do not make me tell you one more time," or "Really? You're hot? I can't imagine why."

But last night we got a taxi and went over to the Nile and hired a falucca--a boat--to take us on a ride. We took dinner along and had a picnic while we enjoyed the view. We were out for about an hour, and we seem to have timed it just right because we caught the sunset.

Waiting for the ride to begin:
This is our cap'n, getting the ship ready to go:
Some other boats at the dock:

Leaving the dock:
Oh my but Sam was so excited. He spent the whole hour running back and forth saying, "Bo!" (Boat, in case you couldn't figure that out. It's kinda like code.) This is a new addition to his vocabulary. Or rather, "vocabulary," since all it really consists of is animal noises and identifying forms of transportation. But either way, he was darn happy to be riding on a bo.
Here's another ship. The orange sails are big advertisements for Mobinil, one of the cell phone companies here. It's in English on one side and Arabic on the other. Emma had a lot of fun waving at every boat that came close enough to us that you could see the other passengers. Thus we had a lot of people waving at us. One man called out, "Where are you from?" and Kevan answered, "California!" To which the man said, "Why you not say, 'America?' California is not an independent nation!" And our only answer to that was, "It thinks it is."
Pensive Maggie:
The only picture we could get Sam into with the other kids:

Y'know that picture at the top of the blog? Not an anomaly.
See?
All of us but Kev. Notice that Sam is being held down. Also notice the expression on Megan's face. It is classic Mags. It says, "I'm smiling, I'm doing what you said to do, but I am sooo not paying attention."
And here is where it became clear just how cool our falucca driver was. We thought this was our last glimpse of the sunset:

See? No more light (and also what a falucca looks like with its sail out).
But then, he turned the boat and angled it just right as he was taking us back toward the dock that we were able to get every last bit of sunlight.
Really the only advantage to the pollution is really great sunsets.

Going...
...going...
...gone. This time for good.
Back on land, at the top of the stairs leading down to the dock.
Shortly after this, we were crossing the street to get to our taxi, and Jessica almost got hit by a car. Seriously, if she hadn't frozen the second I yelled out her name, she would have been creamed. The guy was speeding up and everything. So this is what we're realizing Cairo is like--the truly amazing cohabitating with the truly strange/downright scary.

We've also figured out that "Walk like an Egyptian" is really just a handy tip for how to get around the streets while dealing with a complete lack of discernible traffic laws.

On the good news front, we will be getting our household goods delivered on Saturday evening. This is very good. Kids will have toys, I will have things to organize, life will be grand.

I also want to thank everyone for being so kind and supportive of us. You all leave the best comments, and I totally stink at replying to them. I am most impressed with how many of you knew the song reference in the last post title, and Nathan, you did not teach it to me. Robin, I am not even a little surprised that you have it on iTunes. Tamara, I have always been funky ;) No, really. (Nathan, no need to pipe up on that one, thanks.)

Oh, and what's a blog post from me without a quote from Megan? Useless, that's what. We're in the taxi on our way home, and she collapses back into her seat, lets out a huge sigh, and says, "This is the sweatiest day of my WHOLE life!"

Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia

King Tut!
(Can anyone besides Becky Fullmer name that Obscure Pop Culture Reference?)

Today we ventured into downtown Cairo and went to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. Very cool. Except hot. (No air conditioning.) And also kinda confusing--no real organization and very little labeling (and what labeling there is isn't very helpful). But very cool stuff to look at. If we had hired a guide, I'm sure we would have learned a lot more, but we are quite certain that the kids (read: Sam) would not have had the patience for the extra time that would have taken. It worked out just great though, because we just wandered around, saw what we wanted to see, and then left when we (read: Sam) were done.

Thanks again to our Egyptian ID cards, we were able to get in for free. And even better, we were able to get into the Mummy rooms for free. Mummies = cool (and also a wee bit creepy), paying roughly $35 to see them = not so cool. Ok, maybe I would have paid that, but mostly because the Mummy rooms are air conditioned. My cheapness aside, I'm glad we saw them. It's pretty amazing how well-preserved they are. Jessica said she kept expecting them to sit up. Now that would have been creepy. And also? Awesome.

Today's Quote of the Day (a new game we've been playing; usually it's said by Megan) comes from the first Mummy room we went into. Please enjoy:
Jacob: That guy looks exhausted.
Jessica: Yeah, that's probably because he's dead.

Regardless of my everso charming title to this post, we didn't actually see King Tut. His mummy is in his tomb (can you believe it?) somewhere else. I could tell you where else, but then I'd have to look it up and that would take effort, so you can see why that isn't going to happen. But we did get to see a lot of really cool jewelry and other stuff that came from his tomb. The best thing was his death mask (I think that's what it was; again, really bad labeling). You know, this. That was great.

We couldn't take the cameras into the museum, so all of our pictures are from the outside. And also very self-explanatory.




After we had had our fill of all them antiquities, we had lunch at a great Lebanese restaurant by the embassy. Best. Pitas. Ever. And really great garlic sauce. Meatballs? Disgusting. But now we know not to order those bad boys again.

Probably the most fun I've had since we got here happened tonight. Kevan and I went on a date. Sure, some might more appropriately term it a "Donut Run," but we're sticking to our date theory. We took a taxi over to the other side of the neighborhood (hey, it a big neighborhood, traffic's crazy, and I was worn out from the day; I'll thank you not to judge!), got our donuts (and some for the kids, cuz I'm just that nice)(and I'll thank you to stifle you're laughter while you're at it!), and started meandering home. We were going to catch another taxi, but decided to wander through a few shops first. I've been looking for some baskets (I know! You're just shocked, aren't you?!), and Kevan had seen some outside a shop down a little street off the main road. We found the shop, but the baskets weren't what I was wanting, but they were right next to an antique shop, and the owner wanted us to come see. Kevan started talking to him, both of them mixing English and Arabic, and we ended up staying there for over an hour. He was just the sweetest man. His shop was stuffed to the gills with everything you can imagine, most of it really dirty and disorganized (you can't even get to probably 95% of it), but the stuff I poked through while Mounir (the owner) was showing Kevan the grandfather clocks was really neat. (I found a really beautiful silver teapot I think I'm going to have to go back and get.) (Kevan doesn't know that yet.) After we looked through things, and he showed us some of his favorite pieces, he invited us to sit outside with him and had a man in the next shop over bring us all some cold sodas, and we sat and talked for awhile. He was thrilled that we are American, and he loooved Kevan. He kept saying, "You have great personality!" He couldn't believe that we have 5 kids because, he said, "You are always smiling!" He is 75 and has owned his shop since 1960. He told us stories of different friends he has met through the years, stories of some of his best sales, and taught us both a little Arabic. He said several times how the greatest profit he has made over the years is the relationships he has made. When we left, he kissed Kevan on the cheek, shook both of our hands, and said, "You are my friends." He is a gem. I can't wait until we can go back and see him again. I was going to take his picture, but I forgot that I had taken my camera out of my purse when we were at the museum to be checked with our other cameras, and it was still in Kevan's camera bag. I will be sure to take it next time.

Two!

Thursday was spent celebrating the wonderfulness that is Sam. Well, not the whole day. After a whole bunch of sitting around, unpacking a few bags, more sitting, a little napping, and a little more sitting, we had cupcakes! I'm pretty sure it's a time-honored truth that where you have cupcakes, you have a party.

He looks entirely too grown-up, doesn't he?
Here's the birthday boy with the cupcakes. He knows the colors, but the only ones he can say are "boo" and "lellow," hence the frosting color choices.

He went through and named the color of every cupcake--"boo, lellow, boo, lellow..."

Just as cute as can be:
He tried very hard to blow out the candles,
but couldn't quite get it
so we tried turning the platter and bringing it closer to him,
and tried bringing the cupcake with the candles right up to his face, but still no luck,

but with a little help from Mom, he finally succeeded.
We haven't yet gotten our shipments that have his birthday presents in them, and the presents Grandma mailed haven't come yet, but Shon and Kirsten and Steve, another Marine we met here (Emma described him like this, "He's fun like Uncle Dave, but you can't climb on him;" we're just glad she's finally starting to differentiate), came for dinner and brought him a couple of toys. Sam is pretty easy to figure out, so he was of course thrilled with the box of cars from Steve and the giant Pooh Bear from Shon and Kirsten.

Luckily, being two, he neither noticed nor cared that that was all there was and had a grand time playing with them.
Plus once our shipment comes, it will feel like Christmas! Not that he knows what Christmas is, but still.

It was a perfect day. And not just because there were cupcakes.