An Egyptian shortcut...

Yesterday as I was leaving work I got a traffic report from a friend's driver. He said the road was hideous and that it took him an hour and a half to get to the school...
He said that the side going back was much worse!
So, we all decide to take a different route home. We called it a shortcut!
This "shortcut" was 30 km out of our way!
Sadly, this really was a shortcut and we got home faster than we normally do....

Only in Egypt does driving 30 km out of your way still define a shortcut!

Typically Egypt..

Yes, it is normal to see 2 pharohs on the back of a pickup!!!

:o)

This is another reason why I love driving in this country!

Traffic Deux...

Yesterday I make my daily drive from Heliopolis to Zamalek.
I have my ipod playing. I am singing along at the top of my lungs.
I am happy.
I am enjoying driving....

I drive up the on ramp to the 6th of October bridge... and I am blinded by the sea of red lights.
It felt like all 80 million Egyptians were on the bridge at the same moment...
The cars were not moving...

I curse.. I curse again at the top of my lungs....

And then I do what any Egyptian would do....

I reverse down the on ramp of the bridge. I back up all the way down the ramp and back onto Salah Salem Street.

I am in shock that I did that.

I am proud that I did that....

Today, I consider myself a true Egyptian driver!!!

Traffic...

Traffic is Egypt is one of the main evils that ruin my life.

It bothers me mainly because I do not understand it.

Egyptians are excellent drivers.... until there are choices.
Until there are intersections or exits or whatever.

These options fuck traffic up.
These options confuse people.
These options can hold the country at a stand still...

I have decided that when I am that important person who is in charge of organizing the traffic in this country I will rid us of lanes. I will not paint white lines on the streets. I will have cement fucking lane dividers!
I think that if the whole country were forced to drive in straight lines life would be great!!!

No options means no traffic!

Egypt this year is better than last year...

Egypt has been the last thing on my mind lately. I have not been analyzing why things are like that like I would last year.
This year I feel like I couldn't care less. I think I just ahve a lot on my mind lately.
I also think that this year things are better than last year. I am not being harrassed as much as last year. Cars rarely follow me to my building anymore. People don't touch me in the streets anymore.
I do not know why things have changed, but I am grateful. I have a lot to deal with and I really don't think I could handle that on top of everything else.

I am still a teacher. I enjoy it. The school I am at this year is so much better than the one I was at last year. The parents of most of the kids are a lot better than last year. It is a refreshing thought to know that there are some good parents out there.
I still have a student whose parents seem to not care. She is so neglected it makes me want to cry. I guess the world over has parents who don't care. I guess that only one kid is better than the whole class like last year. I guess that I will always be hurt when I meet kids I feel are neglected. I guess I will always care.

Flying Egypt Air

A while back I promised an ex of mine that when something positive happened in Egypt I would write about it here. So, today I am finally able to honor that promise. Finally, something good happened!

I flew back from New York a few days ago. I was dreading the flight because I just had back surgery and also because every interaction I had with Egypt Air customer service led me to one conclusion; Egypt Air has a strict "idoits only" hiring criteria. I had horrible imagies of what the flight will be like.
So, very uneagerly I arrive at JFK. I get in line to check in. This line is long. The longest line I have ever been in at an airport. I am in line for about 2 hours. Of course when I get to the counter he wants to charge me a penalty for changing my ticket. (Note: Egypt Air already over charged me for changing my ticket). It takes a while but I convince them I paid and they hand over the boarding pass without recharging me.
I spend about another hour in lines to pass the security checks.
So, by now I have been in lines for 3 hours. I was in a car for 2 hours before that and I did not sleep well the night before.
By the time I get on the plane I am dying. The pain was horrible.
One of the flight attendants asked me what was wrong. When i told him my story he told em to ask him if I need anything. He walked away. ABout 20 minutes later he comes back and asks me to move to the middle of the plane because he has rearranged some passengers to give me 4 free chairs so that I can lay down instead of sitting for the 12 hours.
I was grateful, touched, and impressed.
This man decided to help me even though I did not ask him. He was very caring and compassionate.
I do not think I would have been able to handle the flight had he not done so.
The passengers around me were also very kind and helpful. Everyone kept asking me if I needed anything. Everyone was so willing to try to make my life a little easier.
I was really surprised and touched by everything that they did.

So, I said before that I will not fly Egypt Air again.. but I think I changed my mind.

The flight attendants and the passengers definitely made my flight perfect...

Thank you

Egypt Air

I have been with my family in the states for a while. That is why I had nothing to write here. I was not dealing or interacting with Egyptians.. and therefore I had nothing to bitch about... but that was before I had to call Egypt Air.
I used to actually like the airline. That was until I had to deal with their customer service!
So, I call to change the date of my departure. I was supposed to leave August 7th, but I couldn't because I had back surgery. I thought it was a pretty easy concept to change the date of departure. all you have to do is find a seat and tell me how much I have to pay...
Every person that I spoke to told me a different amount of money that I had to pay. Everybody told me different days that I could leave on....
When I asked the "supposed" manager why everyone is telling me something different... her reply was.... why are you calling and asking different people? So, I was now the bitch because I spoke to more than one person.
I asked her why they do not have standard procedures and standard information. She said that they do. I guess she does not understand that if they really did have anything standard that I would have heard the same information from each representative that I spoke to.
I told her that I want to talk to the manager to understand why everybody is pulling useless bullshit information out of their asses!!
She told me that I could not talk to the manager because every manager in the Egypt Air headquarters was out for the day. (hmmm, for some reason I don't really believe that one)!
so, she told me how much the fine was and found an empty seat on the day that I wanted to leave.
I told her to go ahead and charge the amount she told me to my credit card....

I hang up and I feel relieved that I finally handled my ticket....

Then I got the receipt in my e-mail.....

The bitch charged me double what we agreed on!!!!

I do not know how a company could charge more than what we agreed on. It makes me wonder what kind of bullshit practices and bullshit employees they have working at the New York office of Egypt Air!

(Sadly, all the employees that I spoke to were Egyptians...)

Now, I do not know whether I should call the office again and bitch about being charged more than what they told me I have to pay.. or if I should just accept it and not deal with them again.

Note to self: Never fly on Egypt Air again!