Saturday, September 27, 2008

Cairo day 25 Zaterdag D-1

Today, I'm not doing much. So I'm just going to post something I wrote to a Spanish teacher of mine. It is a short summary of Cairo and it's high time I post something like this.

Cajera (Cairo, right?) is... maybe, bustling? Maybe that would be a word to describe it.
It's very busy during the day, people don't respect traffic signals, taxi drivers always want more money from you, its very polluted and noisy although this doesn't bother me so much.

It's dirty, there are cats running around everywhere, but no dogs.

There are really cheap vegetable stands on street corners that can supply you with 6 people's worth of food for 2 USD.

There are really wealthy people and there are more really poor people.

But Cairo has its charms. There are lots of things that grow on you. Such has how friendly people can be here, how generous they are, how easy it can be to have ANYTHING you want delivered to your home. It also has many backward aspects, many closed eyes towards things which are considered 'bad' (such as homosexuality or prostitution or alcohol) but which take place in huge amounts anyway.

One thing is for sure, Cairo is not dangerous for Western foreigners. If anything, it's safer than the average Chicago neighborhood. People here may disagree with your opinions, but they will not harm you because of it. Mostly, they are looking for a nice debate, or just looking to talk with someone. Cairo=safe. Even girls I've talked to (e.g. my roommate) have said they feel safe walking around at night. Safe, in a physical sense, not in a staring at you, whistle at you kind of way. Physically, not emotionally, harmless.

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