What a girl needs

It's funny how life changes when you move to a 3rd world country. It's the little things that you take for granted in the States that you start to miss. But after 2 years, you really don't miss them at all. Here's a list of things I don't have here in Cairo. And I just don't need them.

TV- I don't miss this at all. Obviously, we don't have cable either. I feel like I wasted so much of my life sitting in front of the tv watching something mindless. If there's a show or movie that I want to watch, I just download it and watch it on the computer. I haven't seen an English commerical since last summer. (We have tvs on the treadmills at the gym- but the commericials are in Arabic.)

Voicemail- I really don't miss this at all. I hate checking voicemail. Everyone texts which makes things easier. No one has voicemail which is really weird. So when I have to call a parent from school, I can't leave a message. But I can text them. Which is weird.

A cellphone with internet- Ok, that is just ridiculous. Why do you need to have access to facebook from your phone? My phone's most advanced feature is the calculator. It's a great phone- the cheapest one available. And I only pay about $10/month for the minutes.

Fast food- Forget Taco Bell, there's not any fast food here. There is a McDonald's but it's not exactly fast and doesn't taste the same at all. We do have food delivery from any restaurant in town. But it will take a minimum of 45 minutes.

Car- I don't miss driving. It's nice to have one less thing to worry about. No filling up for gas, no insurance, no repairs, no tickets, no worries. I do ride to school with a friend who has a car which is much better than riding the teacher bus.

Microwave- Well, we have one now, but I didn't have one for an entire year. And guess what? I survived! I don't buy frozen food or anything that you really need a microwave for. I rarely use the microwave. Maybe only twice since I've been here.

Walmart/Target- There's no such thing as a store where you can buy everything on your shopping list. Even for groceries I have to stop at 3 different stores. And you aren't guranteed to find everything on your list. I figured this out the hard way when I first got here. But then you realize that you don't actually 'need' everything on your list. If I can't find scotch tape, oh well, life goes on.

Shopping- I'm going to include all my favorite stores like Gap, Banana, Bath and Body Works- none of those are here. The clothes in Cairo are cheap and Euro/Arab styles= not cute. I really think I save so much money here because I don't spend any on clothes, accessories, etc. That's how I afford to travel so much. Which is fine with me.

US Weekly/ Gossip Magazines- I'm so glad I don't know what the latest fashion is and the latest celeb gossip. Who cares? It's nice not feeling like my clothes are very outdated. When you see a widow on the street with 2 small children begging for food, it puts life into perspective.

Radio- I have no idea about the latest music. Itunes tells me what is popular, but I really doubt everyone is listening to a song that says something about brushing your teeth with gin. Please tell me it isn't so! Our radio station here (that we listen to in the car on the way to school) plays English songs. Any English song- so it could be Frank Sinatra or Jay Z. Very wide variety and songs that we haven't heard in years. But most of the time, we just listen to the ipod in the car. This is why I rock out to Miley Cyrus and I'm not embarrassed at all about it.