It should come as no surprise that my traveling misfortune kicked in already and I didn’t make it to Cairo as planned; instead, Hurricane Irene stole my power for 24 hours and granted me an extra four days in New Jersey, something I wasn’t thrilled with originally but came to be incredibly grateful for.

My flight to Cairo was smooth. On the flight from Frankfurt to Cairo, I somehow landed a seat in the bulkhead, meaning extra leg room. I was thrilled about this until, shortly after takeoff, an unattended feral German child flung himself at the emergency exit, peering out the window and leaning precariously on the handle. His parents were too busy studying the patterns of the seat cushion to notice, and when a flight attendant panicked and reprimanded them, the mother simply shot her a wary smile. The child continued to behave like a lunatic and eyed the door from beneath the seats – yes, he was crawling about – and I continued to fight images of Arnold Swarzenneger in Total Recall when he’s totally oxygen deprived. Watch your child, dammit!

Cairo smells like India. My roommie Susannah scored us a fabulous apartment that looks more like a penthouse suite or an ornate Victorian-style mansion than an apartment. Ashley and Shannon, whose apartment is under renovations, are crashing with us for the next two weeks, which makes the whole place that much warmer.

Tomorrow I plan on sleeping in and then we’re checking out the school. I have pictures of Egypt and of Hurricane Irene, but we’re stealing internet right now and it’s even slower than it was in Argentina. Wireless router is on its way via camel. Or something like that.

Updates to come.