Saturday 16

Laila and I got up late. I was still feeling lazy. Actually I woke up early and wasted my battery then did some yoga. Once we got moving we went off to visit family I had never met before.

Laila is my first cousin once removed. For those of you who aren't clear what that means it is that she is my father's cousin--that's where the once removed comes from. The people I met were her first cousins and my second cousins (her first cousins kids) on my grandmothers side of the family. They also happened to be from her ex-husbands family (the first cousins were his brother and sister). It was interesting to meet new distant family. My father never saw them or would answer questions about them. Apparently, though, there is a rather large extended family and my uncle Ahmed (religious uncle) seems to be planning to try to effect some sort of get together this summer. I learned this by accident.

So that ate up most of the afternoon and evening. I enjoyed it although it was hard for me to keep up with what was going on all the time and nearly impossible to join in. But it improved some. It was also interesting to see different parts of Cairo. The second apartment was where her ex had grown up (now occupied by his brother). It was tiny!! And whoever the architect was...not well planned out. And 10 people lived there. The kitchen is bisected by a wall so you enter between the stove and fridge, then run into the counter which has cupboards beneath it after 3 steps and have to make a 360 degree turn to get to the sink which is behind the stove, awkwardly. And the whole thing is probably 8 ft by 5 ft wide.

We came home, ordered in dinner (pizza...), and watched 2 movies, which put us in bed by 3 am. (!) Laila lives in Zamalek which is one of the wealthier areas of Cairo. It also houses a lot of expats and embassies so it also has a wider variety of food, more trendy shops and some bars. Friday night we went to an "English" pub...neat place, way crowded and very loud and smoky. It was about half and half expat and Egyptian. It's also where most of the art galleries are and I intend to see them all!