Last night I had to cut short my attempts at catching up with emails, as my two dorm-mates went to bed early. Therefore, I got up relatively early today.
The better part of the day I spent checking online which cell phone company to choose... There are three major companies in Egypt that offer prepaid plans. The difficulty o deciding for one of them results from the fact that each company is some mulit-national corporation with all its disgusting practices. In the case of Vodafone it is tax-exemption and in the case of Orange their connectedness to cases of suicides among France Telekom employees... What a choice! If you want to live a life "in peace" on this planet, it is quite a challenge if you don't want to retreat completey.
I decided to postpone my decision and by a mapof Cairo first. After I noted some bookstores in my agenda, I tried to find one in English and Arabic, which is small and handy. But this, also, appeared to be rather difficult. So, I skipped that too in order to be in time for my first appointment. I met with a German expat, who was of great help in connecting me to other activities on the ground and turned out to be a like-minded person that reminded me of a friend and former classmate from college.
We met in a relatively pricy location in Zamalek, the expats' Nile island, so I waited with dinner until my return to cheap downtown. Continuing my search for a bookstore and a SIM card, I ended up only with some eggplant and tehina in a pita and a Seven Up in my hand...
Back home, I am quite tired and won't do anything else tonight. Same procedure tomorrow, I guess!
The better part of the day I spent checking online which cell phone company to choose... There are three major companies in Egypt that offer prepaid plans. The difficulty o deciding for one of them results from the fact that each company is some mulit-national corporation with all its disgusting practices. In the case of Vodafone it is tax-exemption and in the case of Orange their connectedness to cases of suicides among France Telekom employees... What a choice! If you want to live a life "in peace" on this planet, it is quite a challenge if you don't want to retreat completey.
I decided to postpone my decision and by a mapof Cairo first. After I noted some bookstores in my agenda, I tried to find one in English and Arabic, which is small and handy. But this, also, appeared to be rather difficult. So, I skipped that too in order to be in time for my first appointment. I met with a German expat, who was of great help in connecting me to other activities on the ground and turned out to be a like-minded person that reminded me of a friend and former classmate from college.
We met in a relatively pricy location in Zamalek, the expats' Nile island, so I waited with dinner until my return to cheap downtown. Continuing my search for a bookstore and a SIM card, I ended up only with some eggplant and tehina in a pita and a Seven Up in my hand...
Back home, I am quite tired and won't do anything else tonight. Same procedure tomorrow, I guess!
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