Back in Atl...

At the risk of babbling completely incoherently, I just wanted to let everyone know that I made it safely back to Atlanta early this evening. Everything went fine getting out of Cairo--Tara and I met some friends for one last dinner of mezzas overlooking the Nile, packed until late, and then took at cab to the airport this morning at 4:30am. It's been a loooooong day and it's a little hard to believe I was in Egypt just a few hours ago.

Immediately after leaving the airport, the differences between Cairo and Atlanta were striking. First of all, the meters in the taxis here actually WORK--the driver didn't want to haggle over the price (the price was similar--except it was in dollars and not pounds). Second, I noticed when there were 4 lanes for cars, there were only 4 rows of cars--not 5, 6, or 7. Third, no honking. And there's more...I noticed these round lights that depending on the color, drivers would come to a complete stop--not just slow down, honk, and flash their lights. After a month of not driving, just riding around in Cairo's traffic, tomorrow morning's commute is going to be, um, interesting...I'm sure the rules of the road will come back to me quickly. I took deep breaths outside--the air seemed SO clean--I could see the skyline without any problem!

In order to make the transition to living in Atlanta again, I ordered in Chinese over the internet. Cairo has otlob.com--I tried campusfood.com. not bad...I don't think I can get CVS or McDonald's Jupiter Coffee to deliver, but this is a start.

A link to pictures and maybe some more stories will appear later this week after I get some sleep and fill the fridge with food. Thanks again for reading & keeping in touch while I was gone. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone (and riding!) soon!