Tomorrow

This post must be brief because getting ready to go on a six month trip is, as I'm figuring out, quite time consuming! After a farewell dinner tonight with my parents and Thorn, I will have to do a marathon session to get ready. My flight leaves tomorrow at 5:20pm, en-route to Zurich. In Zurich I change planes and will be on the ground in Cairo by 2:30pm Tuesday. I'm staying at a hotel in the middle of the city and will have only several days to find an apartment for myself. I've decided to spend my first full day (Wednesday) in the city just walking around and soaking it all in. I will look at neighborhoods that I'm interested in living in. I am meeting with several real estate agents on Thursday, and I hope to move into my new pad a few days later. I'm only scratching the surface here describing to you of all the planning I've done for my first few days there. I think that's the excitement kicking in. As of now, I have pretty much every moment of my first 72 hours covered. But I know the beauty of such a trip is that I have had the pleasure of planning out each moment, but all the plans will likely dissolve into the chaos that 11 million Cairoans have to offer from the moment I set foot on the ground. As I write, the dog sleeps at my feet, CNN is flashing the day's news, and my room is fairly clean. This is a scene out of any normal day at home for me. In 38 hours, I will take my first steps on the continent of Africa, and the dog, CNN, and my bedroom will seem as foreign to me as the banks of the Nile do now.
Next post: Wednesday from Cairo!