What I Won’t Miss
After my last posting, quite a few people seemed concerned that I was upset about leaving Cairo. While there are plenty of things I’ll miss, there are quite a few things I won’t. Here are a couple of them:
These are giant, winged ants. We are being overrun by them. The more of them we kill, the stronger they come back. There were hundreds of them outside the other night. I’ve abandoned the barbecue. I won’t be sad to leave these behind.
This is the gargantuan spider probably still crawling around my house somewhere. I posted a picture of it on Facebook a while back and a friend told me it was very. very. poisonous. I know there are spiders in Paris, but hopefully I won’t be sharing a house with one as big as a quarter.
And speaking of Paris….I’ve been stressed about finding a place to live. Not that I’ve done much about it. I wanted an apartment to fall out of the sky. Today one did, a lovely little place that is, fittingly, near the Place de la Concorde, so we will have an obelisk to remind us of Egypt. And it’s on a direct subway line to the boys’ school. It’s not a permanent solution, but we will spend the first month or so there while we look for long-term digs near the Canal Saint Martin. And if anyone knows of a great apartment for rent near the Canal, I’m all ears.
I had a fascinating day last week visiting Garbage City that I will write about shortly. It’s been a busy time with work, end-of-year school events and going-away parties. The pace doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon. And we’re in the middle of a brutal heat wave. But relief is in sight. I’m going to a conference on Russian-Egyptian trade tomorrow, and then the Tunisian and I are escaping to the beach for a few days, More to come from there.
Children of the Pharaohs 
The flying ant and the spider (which my daughter fears) are two things I am not showing her before we leave for Cairo! She might not get on the plane!!
And I didn’t mention the big black ants or the tiny ones that swarm any food left out for more than five seconds. We even found them in a brand new box of granola the other day. My son is totally phobic. Everything goes in Tupperware or in the fridge. The good news is they’re seasonal.
So Tupperware and our fridge will be our new best friends then. My daughter is totally phobic and freaks about the spiders and flies etc. here in Canada!!
It’s worse because we’re in a villa and have a garden. Live on a higher floor and you’ll be able to escape the worst of it.
Ok. Good to know. I thought a lower floor would be better for when the power goes out and fewer steps to climb!!! Maybe I should rethink this.
That’s a fair point. We’re already having multiple outages every day. Maybe split the difference and go for a second or third floor?
Thanks. A good idea.
I have the flying ants too. Can’t figure out where they are coming from. We have shoved play doh into most of the holes in the baseboards, but still coming in somehow. Oh and the wingless ones have decided to spend the night in our toilet and surprise us in the morning! Haha
Play doh is a great idea. But we have one door that doesn’t meet the ground and it may as well have a sign saying “Ants, enter here.” Ants in the toilet is a new trick. Hope the ones living in our house don’t figure it out.
Place de la Concorde, memories of my 10th floor walkup at 244 rue de Rivoli . How did you find it? What rue? How many BR’s?
You know….the usual way: the realtor of a friend of a friend. I think it’s 250 rue de Rivoli. It’s tiny–we’ll only be there until we find a long-term lease, but it’s on a direct subway line to school, so it’ll be convenient. And it’s lovely, and I can have the cats there. So I’m feeling pretty lucky. It’s a weight off, even if only temporarily. x