first week at work! it's been ages since i've had a 9-5... actually, never - my office jobs were always 10-6, and the last one ended in january 2009. at my last magazine i made my own hours and then taught private and group lessons that i scheduled myself. it feels good to be on a full-time schedule, but it feels even better when i get in a taxi headed home on Sharl de Gool Street (french -> arabic -> transliterated english) and get to relax and look at all the funny things i can see out the window, like a cat happily skipping down the street with a plastic bag of food in its mouth.
my office is in dokki, just across the river from our apartment in zamalek. dokki is a typical cairo neighborhood: narrow, crowded streets, trash strewn everywhere, small shops and kiosks and lots of students marauding around, the occasional sweet potato vender. the office is on the eighth floor and is relatively modern (no toilet paper in the tiny, wet bathroom though), with views of the nile. my boss explains his vision of the magazine we're to create together, leaving me wondering how we're ever going to get enough content. a week later, he's MIA and i still haven't met either of the 1.5 writers who are allegedly working for us. it makes me wonder how long the whole venture will last and if i should stay in touch with the other contacts i made during my job search. my coworkers are friendly, most of the girls are veiled but all are stylish.
i know i should be calling all the ad agencies and creative boutiques in cairo to introduce the magazine and ask them to send us information on their latest campaigns, but i've been putting it off... i hate making phone calls. i'm surprised to have found myself in a position that requires actual reporting. so far i've done one interview and was pleasantly surprised by how low-stress it was. now i've got to transcribe it, but my recorder insists on playing back a high-speed version of the interview! i need to get an engineer on the case.
as it was the week before christmas, we had several nights out drinking with friends in seedy downtown bars before they left to visit their families. on tuesday evening alex and spontaneously decided to get a tree and found some for sale a couple of blocks away. real christmas trees were astronomically expensive (LE 2000, or ~400 dollars) but we got a pretty decent lookalike for about $16. The only letdown is when I burrow my face in it - it's not a fir, so no smell of piney needles and hazy colored lights from up-close bulbs. Alex slings it over his shoulder and haul it back home. There, he magically summons ornaments and we decorate while listening to christmas music. We are just about finished when our roommate Nico get home, and the three of us settle down in the living room, next to the tree, for a feast of foie gras and white wine and a french cult classic film, la cite de la peur.
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