This ain't Monopoly money...

Yesterday was the Big Day, the day Shannon and I signed the lease for the summer apartment (if you're just jumping in at this point, no, I am not living in sin, I am renting an apartment with 2 other ND kids for the summer). In addition to signing the lease, we'd be paying rent for the first month, a deposit, and a 25% commission fee to the realtor who helped us find the place. In total, it was just over 10,000 LE, and I was responsible for half of it (about $1,000). This was easily the single biggest transaction I've personally made in my young life.

In preparation for the deal that was about to go down, I had been withdrawing money from an ATM every day for about five days. Due to the single day limit my bank has on my account, I couldn't just take out all the needed cash at one time. Instead, I had several transactions' worth of small bills.

Before we headed down to Maadi to sign the lease, I laid all the money out on a table. There was A LOT of it. Stacks of 100, 50, 20, and 10 LE bills. Even though the money is colored funny and only has a fifth of the value its American counterpart, seeing it all before me was still pretty surreal.

We left to meet the realtor, each with over 5,000 LE in our pocket. My wallet wouldn't shut. Even though theft in Egypt, especially pickpocketing, is extremely rare, I still felt a little uneasy with all that cash on me.

We got to Maadi and met the real estate agent, Monzer, out front. Unfortunately, there had been a little mix-up between him and the owner, and the apartment that we had looked at and wanted wasn't going to be available until June 3rd. There was another flat in the same building that we could stay at until then, but I was still pretty disappointed that we wouldn't be able to move in right away. I was really looking forward to making the apartment "mine," so to speak. Oh well, waiting will only make me appreciate it even more (or something like that).

We took a look at the temporary place we'd be staying in and then sat out at a table to finalize the deal. It turns out that I didn't even need to sign, so so much for that climactic experience. Even so, it was good to know that things were taken care of. The only thing left to do is move on in.

Mission Accomplished

So, I made some purchases I was pretty happy with today.

I (finally) bought a pair of sunglasses, for only 15 LE (<$3). They'll probably break in about a week, but getting a pair was long overdue. I'll especially need them as things start to heat up this summer.

I also enjoyed  a nice, big bottle of water for 2 LE, a delicious shwarma sandwich for 6 LE, and transportation on one of the world's best metros for only 1 LE each way.

Oh yah, and I also bought an apartment!

Well, not quite. I sign the lease this Friday. But everything should be good to go.

The apartment is a three bedroom, two bathroom flat in Maadi. I'll be sharing it this summer with Shannon, a fellow ND student who's been out here since January as well, and Conner, another Domer who'll be joining us in June. Shannon and I are both really excited. The apartment really appears to have everything we want: a huge, open living room with lots of natural light; three, spacious bedrooms; and an excellent location, mere feet away from a metro stop. The total cost is 4,500 LE a month and we'll be leasing it for three months, so I'll probably end up paying just under $800 when it's all said and done. I suppose it's not the cheapest place in the world, but hey, that's what grant money is for, right?

Just as I'm excited to get out of the dorm and into new living quarters, I'm also really excited to live in Maadi. It's not that I don't like Zamalek, it's just that I'm ready for a change of scenery, and I can't think of one better than Maadi. Maadi is any many ways like Zamalek, in that it has a plethora of Western amenities at your disposal (I saw an amazing Playmobil store today), but there's also a little more going on there than there is on "the island." I'd say it's a perfect blend between the calmness and classiness of Zamalek and the action and excitement of downtown. Within a few blocks of the new apartment are several supermarkets, restaurants, and other neat little shops that I can't wait to explore. Another significant plus is that the aparment is only a few miles away from the Hedayet Institute, where I'll be taking classes 5 days a week this summer, so I have the option to walk for twenty minutes or to take a two minute, twenty cent metro ride.

As I said, Shannon and I will be returning to Maadi on Friday to sign the lease. We should be able to move in as early as May 18th if we want to. Whenever we do, I'll be sure to provide you with a virtual tour of sorts.