Today was surely the most amazing day I've had in Cairo thus far, which isn’t saying much since I've only been here three days. However, I believe it will be one of the best of my year here.

I finally found a hotel room that was affordable and comfortable ($12 per night) - a large corner room with huge French doors opening to my own wrap-around balcony. I will be happy here for a week until I find an apartment. The hotel is more like a home with 10 bedrooms and many brothers and sisters. There is a theater group from Oxford University in England staying here and they certainly bicker as if they were family! They are performing at a few playhouses here in Cairo and at the American University - I will definitely go see one performance.

A Canadian in the house invited me to go swimming with friends and I reluctantly accepted. My only discriminatory thoughts were, "a public pool in Cairo!! It's probably filthy and I'll surely get ill. Furthermore, all I have is a bikini - no way a bikini is acceptable!” Nevertheless, the Canadian's friends were waiting outside. They have a car and that enticed me to attend because my Arabic is not good enough to get around in cabs easily (and I rarely turn down an interesting adventure). The Canadian's friends were Egyptian, which surprised me - the Arabic Language Institute’s handbook warned that Egyptians are very family-oriented and hard to make friendships with. They welcomed me with smiles and perfect English. They are a beautiful young family, man and wife and a lovely little girl. The first thing I noticed was the parents had Christian crosses hanging around their necks and the mother dressed western - Christians in Cairo?

We drove off the island of Zamalek where I live (see map) and entered western Cairo. This was my first time off the island since I've arrived and the city was bustling with working women and speeding cars. We followed the Nile River south and entered into a terrible neighborhood where painful poverty was apparent all around us. Oddly in the midst of this sadness, we turned into a gate that led to property surrounded by high cement gates. My jaw dropped at the beauty before me. The pool was situated on the Nile with a four-story villa designed like a 19th century Moroccan palace. It cost 40 Egyptian pounds or about $8 to enter which told me this was only for wealthier Egyptians. The pool smelled of chlorine (good!), surround by lovely teak wood lounge chairs with women parading in bikinis! What was this new planet I entered? It was a dream world surrounded by the reality of Cairo that was kept at bay behind the high walls decorated with hand-painted tiles. The women's changing room was as nice as any American country club's complete with marble floors and an attendant. While sitting at the pool, one can gaze at the Nile and central Cairo across the river. There was a stone veranda where sheeshas (water pipes or hookahs) were filled with fragrant fruit tobacco and people lounged and conversed, clearly pleased at the beauty of their surroundings.

My mind was filled with questions and I tirelessly pursued answers with my new friends. Why were women in bikinis? Were they Christians, too, or liberal Muslims? Why was alcohol served here - is it more common than I thought in Egypt? How many Christians live in Egypt? How many in Cairo? Are all the people here wealthy Egyptians? Why does the villa look Moroccan - do Egypt and Morocco have similar Islamic-styled architecture?

I found out that there is a sect of Christianity in Egypt that has been here before Islam arrived. The followers are called Coptic Christians and there are ~12 million in Egypt. My friends told me, however, many are emigrating because of the hostile atmosphere towards them here. Many of the people who frequent the pool are in fact Christian and they do not follow the same strict rules of dress as some Muslims. They also allow drinking alcohol. The father of the family I was with is an architect and he explained that the style of the villa was more Islamic than Egyptian, hence the similarity to Moroccan architecture. I learned so much with this family! They have graciously invited me to an oasis east of Cairo in the desert in October. I will surely go. We will camp in the sand and cook a lamb over a fire and look at the stars. Stay tuned!

(For another map of Cairo that shows the island of Zamalek, check out Lonely Planet's Cairo Page and click on the map.)