The entrance to our apartment.


On the right is the reception area, and on the left is the living room and dining table. The apartment of course came fully furnished, but the Christmas decorations are ours. Those windows face north.


We had cookies, chips, sodas, baklava, and decorations laid out for the party.


Danielle watches Max Wallach turn a chocolate fondant, which the three of us ate in about five minutes flat.


From left to right: Edward, Ellen, Melissa, Crystal, and Sabira. Melissa and Sabira live on the 7th floor of our building, and Ellen isn't really that mad.


Ammit looks pensive and Pradeeb has a nice suit coat. Both are Indian nationals working for their embassy in Egypt, and both are in my Arabic classes. Their wives are both very nice, too. Not pictured: Pradeeb's three-year-old daughter, who was probably crawling under the couch at the time.


This is my room. I bought the pillows and sheets and bedspread because the ones that were left to us were kind of gross. Since my room is in the corner of the apartment, my window looks to the west and north.


I decorated my dresser with pictures and postcards. I'm only holding onto the suit for a friend, though I plan to get one tailored to me in the next month. You can see one of my guitar bags poking out from behind the dresser.


Danielle's room has two beds, each slightly smaller than a full. We bought the rugs (four in my room that were not pictured) to help insulate the place, because it has been very cold, and waking up to a cold floor isn't fun. Danielle's window looks west.


Colin's room has the largest window and also looks west.


All the west views look like this. That's Mohandiseen, one of the many districts of Cairo. Those are houseboats lining the Nile, and a large mosque just to the right of center of the picture. Call to prayer is loud enough to wake up Danielle (she's a light sleeper), so we'll have to get used to that. And even though we're fifteen stories up, we can still hear the honking of Cairo traffic.


The north-western view from my corner window. It seems like every building has a forest of satellite dishes on its roof. Cairo stretches as far as the eye can see, which is admittedly not as far as it sounds due to the pollution in the sky.


Looking north from our living and reception room windows. Those trees you see surround various embassies on the island. In the distance at the top right are Cairo's twin towers, which I believe are rather new and contain a large shopping mall. They are becoming a staple of the city's skyline.


You can see a bit north-east from our main room's windows, too. I'm not sure which embassy that is in the foreground.