times a changin

Well I must say that my first three days in Cairo have been...interesting, full of highs and lows.

Saying bye to everyone was tough to say the least. Luckily I was able to get a hold of many of my closest friends, from friends at school, to friends at home, to AIESEC comrads, to family and most importantly my brother Greg. The last three days before leaving for Cairo were spent in NYC living at my Aunt's, a 44th floor corner apartment with a kickin' porch. A number of awesome conversations were had sipping beers and taking in all of sparkling mid-town. Going out with Art (our latest latin import) and bones McBurney was great, especially hanging with them at Trent and Andrew's on Saturday. It was the first time Greg and my friend Pete had ever met any of my AIESEC friends. Both of them took me aside telling me they truly enjoyed the people they talked with. Says a little something about this crazy organization. The weekend was so fun I didn't have a chance to realize what was about to happen. Waking up Sunday morning, seeing Greg off, it started to hit me what I was doing, where I was going, how everything was going to change. I felt like vomiting (Saturday night's activities may have contributed).

The plane ride itself was nothing special, delayed out of JFK two hours, running from gate to gate in Keiv (comment about this later), arriving in Cairo 14 hours later, jet lagged but happy. Customs went smoothly, bought my visa, and went to get my luggage. Alas, after 30 minutes of waiting, there were four of us left, all starting our journeys in JFK. We had a collective "oh shit" realizing the consequences of the two hour delay. Filling my claim with a full list of "useful" phone numbers I could call, I met the awaiting AIESECers, and took off into Cairo.

The three AIESECers that picked me up were absolutely great. Stop one was a burger place, famous for its huge cheeseburgers. And by huge, they mean like Glenwood Pine's Tully burger huge (for those of you who don't know, the Pines is a burger place in Ithaca with f'in huge burgers). Stop two was to another famous stand known for its Oreo Milk shakes. At this point I started wondering why the U.S. is the only country known for its weight problem. Stop three was a concert that they decided to take me to.

The concert itself was bad ass. It took place at the Citadel, an ancient fortress that overlooks all of Cairo. The band, Osmatly from L.A., played some reggae/rock/latin joints. Listening to the jams while looking out over the lights of Cairo was pretty sweet. It marked the first point since leaving NYC that I had a chance to reflect on where I was.

After the concert the AIESECers dropped me off at my future abode, complete with open doored elevators and no a.c. The two dudes I'm living with, Kent Babin (crazy Vancouveran) and ChrisP (crazy Brit), took me in showing me my bed - the couch (once my baggage arrives I'll be uploading pictures showing the apartment etc.). Sleeping was interesting. Chris and Kent both had fans in their rooms, placed 2 feet from their sleeping bodies. I had an open window, in hopes the breeze would lull me to sleep. While I did fall asleep with the open window and nice breeze, it was more the sun blasting me the face around 6:30 that contributed to the interesting part. With the sun came the flies insisting that landing on my face was the cool thing to do regardless of my swearing and attempts to kill them. After vowing to destroy every last fly, I decided to read Arthur's gift, Lonely Planet's guide to the Middle East. To say the least, I didn't get much sleep. But, in all honesty, the apartment is sweet. Its right in downtown Cairo, close to everything. I've since bought my own fan, and with it has come wonderful sleep.

The first day of work at SilverKey was exciting. I'm Kent's replacement, meaning by the time he leaves in mid-August, everything in his brain regarding NG must move to my brain. On top of that, I need to learn how to create specs, work with Adam B (my boss), meet and work with all the Egyptian developers, understand how to use four or five other software programs and be able order my lunch from the cafe around the corner. The internship is a lot more than I thought, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. SilverKey is a great place to work. We come in around 11 and leave around 9, perfect for a night-owl like me trying to avoid the hot Egyptian sun. Everyone is incredibly nice, easy to work with and very dedicated. Its 9:20 p.m. right now on Thursday (the Egyptian Friday) and there are still 4 other developers working away. All in all, very excited about the internship.

Other major accomplishments so far have including buying my new cell phone, participating in the infamous scrabble night, and buying a pair of boxers (in anticipating of my baggage arriving). Moving into my first weekend and feeling good.

Be back with more updates and pictures soon.

Thanks everyone for everything. Looking forward to the correspondence.

luke