the good and the bad

So Saturday night was the epitome of my taxi riding experiences here in Cairo. For the first time ever, my cabbie refused to take payment from me!

It all started with him asking me where I was from. Then he asked what I was doing here in Cairo. (Oh and amazingly, I have no idea how you ask these in Arabic, but you start recognizing these questions when you hear them like a billion times)…and since I am queen paranoia, I decided to use my newfound bank of useful Arabic phrases...

So I told him I was married. To an Egyptian.

You should’ve seen him after that. He just wouldn’t stop talking! He kept proclaiming things, showing me the thumbs up, and telling me at one point that my face was full of ‘noor’ (pointing to the car lights to make sure I understood). I didn’t understand 95% of what he said, but I did get when he asked me whether I was going to stay in Egypt, to which I replied, “La! Me and my Egyptian husband are moving to Canada”. Don’t ask. Lol. I actually kinda enjoyed my make-believe story, and felt happy that I had married a man from a country of nice cab drivers. Oh and by the way, he’s super hot too. And has a nice car.

Before stepping out of my cab, mr nice cabby man kept saying something, but I had no idea what it was…... At times like this, I wish I knew Arabic, because he seemed like a nice man trying to say genuinely nice things to me :)