Grocery Shopping and More

With all the traveling Hubby and I have done in the past, I have seen every type of grocery store and market around.  I have seen little huts on the side of the road and I have seen typical western style grocery stores and everything else in between.  For those that know me really well you know how much I struggle to grocery shop for more than a couple days at a time.  This largely has to do with the fact that when I lived in the Czech Republic you could not shop for more than a couple days at a time because the food spoiled quickly.  I was hoping that grocery shopping here would be similar to the Czech Republic.  I loved going from one place to another to get my fruit, then to get my bread and meat.  Of course in the Czech Republic I could always go to a western style supermarket if I wanted, but I always enjoyed stopping at the specific shops on my way home.

I had no idea what to expect when I went grocery shopping today.  Since we are in Africa I was leaning more towards specific shops or an outdoor bazaar...but I was completely shocked when our driver pulled up to a store called Spinney’s that was inside of a giant mall.  We grabbed a cart (also a surprise for me) and walked inside.  The store was huge.  I could not believe it.  It was like Superstore to the extreme.  The store is only a couple months old and is top of the line.  The floors were marble and the aisles were immaculate.  There was triple the staff available and working in the store then at home.  Although I had originally hoped for the individual shops, I was glad that we were at that store.  Even though it was completely overwhelming it was nice to be in one spot because I could compare and contrast a little better.  The store actually reminded me a lot of a store I shopped at in the Czech Republic – Interspar and Globus were both huge supercenters that had everything from groceries to books, cell phones and clothes. 

We forgot what the exchange rate between CDN dollars and Egytian LE was so we went with our gut and got what we wanted.  The selection was incredible.  The store had more options than any grocery store at home.  There was local Egyptian product, European product and Western product.  I was thrilled when I encountered various items that I had all the time in the Czech and could not get in Canada.  You can be sure that those items ended up in our cart.  As much as possible we tried to purchase things that were locally made because it was way cheaper.  However, in some instances we bought brands that were familiar to us, at least to start off with.  The thing I was most thankful for was that pricing labels were all in English and Arabic and the numbers were all English numbers.  If the numbers had been in Arabic we would have had no idea what we were paying for anything.  It was a great experience and I am sure that is where we will be going for the first little while that we are here because it is familiar to us and the prices are reasonable. 

Produce will prove to be the problem for us because it seems to spoil quickly and needs to be washed and cleaned thoroughly.  Also, it needs to be inspected for dead bugs because it is very common.  But, the produce has more flavour than we are used to and the cantaloupe is green inside...not orange.  That was a surprise and I had to twist Princess’ arm that it was actually cantaloupe.  It did taste slightly different, but it was still juicy and sweet and she at almost the whole thing. 

Cooking here also takes much longer than at home.  Although the rice cooked more quickly, the meat took longer.  Our stove is fuelled with butane and needs to be lit with matches.  But, my first meal turned out well and although I did not have any seasonings to make it taste really good, most of it was eaten.  I wish that I could have spent more time to actually look around at the store, but with Princess and Dimples with me it was not really an option. 

The transition for the kids has been interesting.  There have been moments where they have meltdowns for no apparent reason, but we know it is because they are tired and everything is different.  Princess says she likes her new home and her room.  She slept past 9 AM and has not taken a nap today, so she seems to be adjusting really well to the new time zone.  Hubby and I are also doing pretty well with the jetlag as we slept all night without getting up to eat.  Dimples has kept to his normal schedule with his two naps and sleeping through the night.  That is a blessing.

Dropped in the Middle of Nowhere

When we first arrived in Cairo, we were taken directly to our apartment.  We met our landlady and her nanny who are completely awesome.  We are one of the only new teachers to have an apartment already and for that we are completely grateful.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to go apartment hunting with our two kids in a different environment.  We are living in a different part of the city than all the other teachers too.  There are many good things about living close to the school.  One thing that we have noticed however is that since we were dropped off we have had no contact with anyone from the school.   We do not know how to get to the school from our apartment and we are feeling completely isolated in our apartment by ourselves.  We knew there was supposed to be a meeting at the school today.  We did not know what time it was at, where the school was and if the meeting was still happening.  This is the disadvantage to being far away from the other new teachers and all the other teachers that currently reside in the same area as the new teachers.  Another downside is that we have not been to a bank yet because we do not know where they are and we have  no cell phones or internet access.  If we had access to the internet we may be able to find out some more information but since that is not an option we resorted to something more traditional. 

We packed up the kids and went for a walk.  The school was supposed to be a 10-15 minute walk.  We had to guess which direction to go.  All the buildings here start looking the same despite the architectural differences because they are all pretty well some sort of beige.  There are no real sidewalks so we walked on the street.  There were very few people out and the people that were out were sitting in the shade because it was hot out.  After about 20 minutes of guessing where to go we stopped and asked people where the school was and they gave us directions.  They were being polite though because the directions they gave us were not accurate.  After about 40 minutes of walking aimlessly we turned around and went back home.  Thankfully we kept track of where we had made our turns by certain landmarks like the water tower and the dumpster because we may not have found our way home!  The walk back took about 20 minutes because we knew where we were going.

We did gather some information on our walk that will be useful.  We found a pharmacy, a bank, and a cafe.  We located the local mosque which was really close by.  Most importantly however, we realized that no matter how short our walk is going to be, we need to bring water.  We did not do that today and we should have.  After about 15 minutes of walking I was drenched in sweat, but I did not feel hot or tired until we walked up three flights of stairs back to our apartment.  I have never seen our kids drink water so quickly!  The second thing I realized was that we should have brought the address of the school with us.  That may have helped the people that we were asking directions from...and at the very least we could have asked the dozens of cabs that drove past us where it was. 

When we arrived back at our apartment we ran into a couple of drivers and our doorman as well as our landlady’s nanny.  The nanny speaks very good English and gave us directions to the school.  Turns out that once we made our first turn we were going completely the wrong way to get to the school.  If only we had turned LEFT!  We would have found it if we had turned left.  She was on her way out with one of the drivers and Hubby went along and they were going to drive him to the school.  So, the good news is that we will now know how to get there and hopefully he will gain some access to the internet.  We feel very disconnected from home right now and hope that our families are not too worried because they have not heard from us yet. 

I am thankful for our experiences overseas at this point because I do not feel uncomfortable with the unknown and the component of not knowing what is happening.  Although our walk did not accomplish what we set out for, we did learn something.  The people here are very helpful and we are thankful for that.  I just wish we had contact with the school!  We really need to get some phones so we can contact whoever we want, when we need to.  But until that happens I will be content in my home with my kids.  I am sure that things will get very busy in the coming days. 

The weekend here is on Friday and Saturday, so tomorrow is a “day off” for us.  I am not sure what is in store, but our landlady wants to take us to her other home to take the kids swimming which will be excellent for them.  The climate is certainly conducive to that type of activity and I know that the kids will love it.  So, have an excellent weekend everyone!