Holy muffins, Batman! I'm here! (I may have stolen the first two words from a certain Priscilla Ro, so I must give props where props are due.)
So guess what? Egypt has a smell! I didn't realize it until I walked out of the airport, and it hit me like a forgotten memory. And no, I'm not talking about the Garbage City cacophony of odors. I'm talking about the Egypt smell: scented dust and haze with the occasional whiff of exhaust. My heart leapt at the first scent. How it is that one can board a metal tube, pull down the shades, and like the longest magic trick ever, be in another continent when the doors open 15 hours later, still amazes me. We were driving down the chaotic streets (only mildly so at this time, according to Mariam's dad) and I felt it. That 'holy muffins' moment.
Now I'm sitting in my window sill, having just finished off my welcome glass of tea, looking down into the courtyard, watching adorable Egyptian girls run around in princess dresses, and I can't even bring myself to unpack for all the processing going on in my brain. A few things are different about this go round: one, the guesthouse is a different one and apparently this time, the La Cucarachas are quite literally coming out of the closet. The pioneer was a thumb-sized one too. It's a testament to my previous cockroach killing training in Hawaii that I felt kinda bad about killing this one. He was almost cute and just chose the wrong time to come out and explore. But alas, now he is upside down and no longer with us in my trashcan. C'est la vie. I hope his friends don't get similar ideas, or they are going to become overly familiar with the bottom of my flip-flop...
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