What We Learned in Egypt

So Jeff and I talked about what we learned while in Egypt. I decided to post these "learnings" to the blog.

• Cairo's day starts about 12pm and ends in the early morning hours. If your car breaks down at 11pm, you can take it to get fixed right then and there. 
• People tip (Baksheesh) for everything....directions, picture taking privileges, toilet paper, for the police to do their jobs, you name it.
• Ladies need to keep tissues in their purse. Not all places have toilet paper (or someone standing there to GIVE you tp for some Baksheesh).
• There is trash...everywhere.
• Zamalek is nice, cleaner, and different from most of Cairo that we saw.
• Bathroom doors open outwards...as they should. 
• W.C. is the "water closet" or more importantly...the potty.
• American's pay more.
• The museum is very different to say the least. Some items were identified by a torn out sheet of paper from a notebook with someone's handwriting saying what the object was. 
• Batteries (even double A's) cannot be carried on the plane.
• They have great cheese with all meals!
• Bottled water is cheap. When it is bought on the street from vendors, we paid 3LE a bottle..which is about $.60 for a liter.
• Halas means finished, In Shah Allah - God Willing, Shokran - Thank you, la Shokran - no thank you
• Most people in this developing nation speak fluent Arabic, pretty decent English and decent French.
• American's are naive.
• Welcome drinks are served when you arrive somewhere...popular drinks are Hibiscus tea and Egyptian Mint Tea
• They have "American Coffee," Nescafe, and Turkish Coffee. Every place we went to had normal coffee so if you've heard that you have to "filter the grounds through your teeth in Egypt" you heard wrong. If you specifically order Turkish coffee, then yes...that is true (Which we recommend trying).
• Koshary is AWESOME...especially from the restaurant Abu Terrak
• Cars do not stop for anything.......other cars, people, etc. Driving there was NUTS. I was holding on tight at first.
• Wearing flip flops is just fine. I ditched my shoes after an hour for my flops. So my feet got dirty...that's why God made water.  They were totally comfortable and just fine.
• Bring your own wash cloth if that is something you like to use in the shower (I do to wash my face).  I ended up using the corner of hand towels the entire trip.
• Driving age is 16, smoking is 18, and drinking is 21.......however, this really means nothing.
• Nobody ever said that only 2 people can fit on a motorcycle or scooter.
• 1875 watt blow dryer DOES NOT work in the outlet with converter (I saw black smoke and sparks).
• We agree that men trying to get you to buy their crap is the single most annoying thing and quite frankly, most annoying thing about Egypt. At every single place, we had to "run the gauntlet."  They don't let up, get in your face, and go straight for the woman.  No matter how many times I said NO THANK YOU (English or Arabic) they continued on.  Had they left us alone, we would have looked at their stuff.  It really ruined the magnificence of many of the places and bummed us out.  They were sneaky and tricky. They'd say "Just one pound" and then you would find out that they mean "100 pounds".  We understand that this is a developing country with many, many poor people. But when they are IN YOUR FACE (literally), it is a huge turn off to buy anything. We bought most of our goods from 2 people that did NOT pressure us. 
• Offer the people pressuring you Pesos, they will say okay  :)
• The Nile River Cruise was amazing. Just opening the sliding door (window), turning the couch and sitting their watching life pass by on the river was one of the highlights of our trip.  I would say we did that for hours.
• Jeff looks like Rambo.
• I was Shakira.
• 6 million camels was the best price offered for me....and a few chickens :)
• I would say that as long as the knees are covered in Cairo, wear what you want. We saw it all.
• Everyone "loves America and America movies."

In my own opinion (and maybe Jeff's too), the most important thing that I learned was just how spoiled and frankly, just how naive and just plain stupid we Americans are. We expect everything to be handed to us on a silver platter.  Most of us speak one language and we don't even speak it that well.  People out there are working hard for pennies and yet they are kind, open, and what I noticed was that many seemed very happy without having a lot of material possessions.  Religion is their life. Family and friends are second. We American's have a lot to learn from the world.