While I feel a little bit like a 90's sitcom flashback episode where they just recycle old footage, I was thinking about the only other blog that I have had today and thanks to some clever google searches was able to find it. Today's post is from my time spent studying abroad in Egypt. Enjoy!!!
As I write this post, I am laying in the couch of my very own apartment in Cairo. It seems like a minor accomplishment in the grand scheme of things but after you read what I had to do to get to this point, you'll understand.
Last semester, I lived in the student housing for the University where I shared a 3 person room with 4 people. The room we shared was adequate, but Kayvan and I decided that we wanted to find a place for ourselves and move to a different area of the city. Pairing up with Demetri, we felt we had a great group dynamic for an apartment, all we had to do next was find an apartment. The process of finding of an apartment here can be undertaken in a couple ways. You can either go door to door and ask the door man to see if there are any open apartments. While this process sounded inefficient and arduous, we assumed this could very possibly be the most logical, so we pounded the pavement asking around for empty apartments. After 6 hours of waking for two days straight not finding anything, we decided, despite the guide to living in Cairo guide given to us by the University, that this method was terrible. Then next method is to hire a simsar to find you an apartment. This is really where the story gets interesting. A Simsar is a person who hangs out in an area and has a knowledge of the empty apartments in the area. You explain to him what you want and then them find it for you. If you rent the apartment they show you then you pay some portion of the rent to them. The price, as are most things in Egypt, is negotiable. The government registered simsars are supposed to charge 10% of the entire contract, ie all the rent you will ever pay. Other accounts argue that it should be 10% of one months rent, so once again we have no clue how much we are going to get ripped off for, but hey thats half the fun.
Abdu can be found sitting in one of a couple coffee shops in the Abdeen palace area, and if he's not there just ask the coffee shop proprietor, he can find him. We got Abdu's name from asking a couple different people in the area where we could find a simsar and they all pointed us to Abdu. We go to the cafe that Abdu is supposedly going to be at and ask the owner where Abdu the Simsar is, he tells us to wait a second, goes next door and yells Abdu. Eventually, an older gentleman emerges in a soiled sweater and trousers. Time had not treated Abdu fairly, his weathered skin and lazy eye being a testament to that. He saunters up to us, cigarette in hand, and puts his hand out, the one with the cigarette, for a shake. After exchanging names and pleasantries, he pulls up a chair and has us sit. We outline what we want, we give him our phone numbers, and he hands us his business card telling us to come back later in the day to see the apartments. Flash forward in the day, we pull out the buisness card to figure out what time he wants to meet. Located on the card, next to the drawings of picturesque villas homes we find 4 different phone numbers for our beloved simsar. We go one by one calling the number and asking for Abdu, none resulting in success. Deciding that we committed to meeting Abdu, we return to the coffee shop where we met him at. Upon our return, the owner says he is praying and that he'll be back in 15 minutes. We sit down and order a cup of tea waiting for his return. Eventually, he comes back, takes a seat with us and discusses what he has found, and offers to show us them. Before we leave, a phone call from the coffee shops interrupts our departure as the phone call was for Abdu. Consequently, we realize that the phone numbers on the card are merely the phone numbers of all the coffee shops that he frequents. We saw two different apartments with Abdu, the first was decent but a little small and the second seemed like the wrong building for us as we were stared down as we climbed the stairs by the occupants and upon discovering a family of cockroaches the owner responded with "no problem, one day they are all gone". So, we bid farewell to Abdu and try our luck with another simsar.
We got Sanaa's phone number off Cairo Scholars, an email service for American students studying in Cairo to exchange tips, tricks, and other information between each other. A English fluent former AUC student, Sanaa now works in real estate among other endeavors. I explain to her what we are looking for and she says to call back the next day. The next day, we call her and set up a meeting time to see the apartments. I had class, but my faithful companions view the other apartments and report back. Out of the four she showed them, two of them were nice places and we schedule a time to go back for me to look at them for myself and work out the details. I view the two apartments and find only minor flaws in them definitely nothing that would prevent me from living in them. The one thing that seems a miss is the level of what we came to call "Foreigner Friendly" ness. By this euphemism, we mean buildings where the other tenets will not give us trouble if we drink alcohol or have our female friends over. Upon further inquiry, the answer goes from "yes, no problem" to "absolutely not". We thank her for her time, and keep on looking.
Asad, a copt, works out of his small office located behind saloon style doors in the first floor of a large apartment building. Once again we got Asad's name by asking people in the area for a simsar. We enter the office and take a seat on his couch and begin to converse. Once again we outline our dream apartment, while Asad takes puffs from his cigarette in a long holder. He takes it all in, then offers us tea. We accept and drink tea while we watch Asad continually light a new cigarette and place it in his holder while searching through his books for a suitable apartment. He makes some phone calls, and eventually tells us to come back tomorrow to see the apartments. We return the next day and he takes us to the first apartment. It seemed okay, but it was clear that it wasn't really finished yet as all of the tools and supplies still lay on the dining room table. They assure us it can be ready the next day, but some of the major flaws dissuaded us. Next day we come back to see another apartment with Asad which, he says is exactly what we want. He also informs us that his comission is a full months rent. We respond that seems a little high as we have heard half a months rent is what seems standard. After a long puff from his cigarette, he says, okay. The apartment has amazing location a mere 3 blocks from campus and 1 from the Department of the Interior (the most feared in Egypt because of their questionable human rights recored). Despite the strange quasi hanging terrace in the kitchen covered in fake plants, all things seemed to check out in the apartment. We sit down to discuss the price so that we can think it over. First price is 4000 Egyptian Pounds which is around $722 per month for a three bedroom apartment. While far from unreasonable in American prices, this is well over double the value of the apartment. We say this is higher than we are ready to agree to and say we need to discuss it with our parents before we can make any promises. He drops the price to 3750 pounds. We say that a lower price would make it easier, but still say our parents consent is necessary. In this instance we weren't trying to negotiate but rather just have some time to think it over before we commit. He drops to 3500, final price. We stick to our party line and thank him for his time. On our walk home, Asad calls us, 3000 pounds ($541). We thank him and tell him we will get back to him the next day. After discussion, we decide to keep looking because of the feeling of the other tenets and the fact that the apartment, judging by similar in the area, should be around 2000 pounds.
Ahmed comes from a recommendation of a friend of Demetri who found an apartment through him earlier and said he will find us the kind of place we are looking for. We arrange a meeting to see an apartment in Garden City, a part of the city know for lots of trees and where many foreign embassies are located. Waiting outside of out meeting spot, Ahmed drives up and yells "Demetri?". We respond that we are the group looking for the apartment, and he drives us over to the place. A three bedroom apartment, completely furnished. Many brand new appliances, including the washing machine and air conditions. Everything seemed to work out. We, at this point, were skeptical. After sitting and discussing price, everything seems reasonable. Upon further inspection, we find little things here and there that need to be cleaned or fixed. Once again we get the it will be ready tomorrow. We agree on the terms and say that we will give them a down payment to hold the place but want to have everything cleaned and fixed before we sign the lease. Two days later we return, place is completely clean, almost everything fixed. The water heater and come lights don't quite work. After discussion with the landlord, we decided to sign the lease, but not pay the simsar until he has finished fixing everything. And there is was, we finally had an apartment. All of the sudden.
After a couple of days we move in and spend the night. I wake up the next morning refreshed and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. The water is extremely cold, so I decided to turn on the recently fixed warm water. Warm water comes out as expected, but the steam coming from the water heater was not expected. I quickly turn off the water hoping this will solve the problem. It doesn't. Gradually more and more steam starts coming out, and I don't know what to do, so I wake up Demetri. We observe the bathroom filling with steam and debate what to do. Then, BAAAAMMMMM, something explodes and more steam comes billowing out. Startled to say the least, we frantically figure out what to do. We hadn't pay the simsar yet, so he still had to fix things that broke, so we called him. Waking him up at the early hour of 11am, he tells us a plumber will come later to fix it. After a couple days, and a couple different plumbers, the water heater finally gets fixed.
All in all, the apartment search was a daunting task but we completed it with success and found a great apartment despite its eccentricities.
