Status update

I think I am overdue for a status update, so here we go. The last two weekends have been very hot! Over 100 degF and dusty. There are two weather patterns so far: hot, dusty wind from the desert and cooler, clear, more humid 85 degF air from the Mediterranean. You can guess which one is better. The weekends have been hot and the weekdays cooler. The hot weekend weather has made our zoo trips and other outings a bit more difficult because we have a hard time with the heat. The forecast for this weekend looks good, however.

Joe and I bought the Rosetta Stone Arabic language software before moving here, and we have been good about doing at least 30 minutes per day. I can't say much yet, but I can recognize words that are spoken or written which is an improvement. BP also provides language classes, so we will sign up for those too. The software teaches 'classic' Arabic, and the Egyptian dialect is slightly different.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but Joe officially signed the rental lease for the villa that we like. I'll try to take some pictures this weekend. The landlady has many people over at the villa everyday working on things like painting, installing new air conditioning units, replacing sink faucets, repairing loose steps, etc. They are making good progress so I hope we can move in soon. It is normal for people to negotiate a wish list of things to be done to a place before signing the lease and moving in.

We still don't have our car yet. BP security had to drive it to Alexandria to get the duty free title transferred into Joe's name. It should be done soon, but it's not a big deal since we still have a rental car.

Last weekend we met and interviewed a lady, Lyn, who cleans and babysits for another BP family that are moving back to the UK. We like her a lot and have hired her to work for us starting in July. We also hired the gardener/security man who worked for the people who lived in the villa before us. His name is Mustafa. So we have assembled a staff of two people so far.

All four of us are getting rabies vaccinations which is a series of three shots. We have had two so far and get the final one next week. Apparently the risk of rabies is higher here than most places because of all the stray cats and dogs. So we will be protected just in case. Henry and Nathan now think there are two new species of animals in the world: Egypt cats and Egypt dogs which we never, never go near.

Finally, I signed up for some gym classes to keep me balanced: Pilates and Spinning. So far Spinning is my favorite. The Pilates is OK but I loved my core class in Alaska more. That's it for now!