In Cairo

I'm writing this from an empty computer room in my hotel. I can't breathe through my nose.

I COULD breathe, but I would inhale the cigarette smoke, left over from the attendant who was here before, lighting up a storm.

I'm tense. From negotiating the cab ride to the hotel, to the fact that our hotel doesn't recognize the tour company that booked our reservation and we could very well have to pay, to not being able to work the phones correctly (M has magically figured this out.), to the fact that it's just plain scary outside. Cars honk every three seconds. Cairenes argued heatedly in the middle of the street. The air is smoggy. And I still can't breathe through my nose. Tomorrow we see the Pyramids. We plan to have dinner on the Nile River. I don't want to leave the hotel. But I need to eat.

I have never been so equally thrilled and terrified to be in one place.