The Start of Egypt

I just realized that I may not have explained why we are ending our Ireland sabbatical in Egypt.  It's because one of Sam's siblings lives in Egypt and we are finally getting to visit them (we figured Ireland was practically next door, and winter is definitely the right season to visit a desert)! So we are going to explore Cairo, Aswan, and Luxor before flying back to DUB and GR. 

Just for fun, I made a more detailed, informal table comparing our recent locations.  Note, all of this is just intended to be our impression of our experience, and it is intended to be educational but lighthearted.  None of this is social judgment.

	GR/Michigan/US	Clonmel/Ireland	Cairo/Aswan/Egypt
Language	English	Accented English (minimal Gaelic)	Written Arabic +       Oral Arabic
Current Temperature	Cold (30s)	Cool (50s)	Comfortable (70s)
How Sam Feels	Cold	Cold	Cold
Humidity	Snowy	Rainy	Driest city on Earth
Time Zone	Eastern	E + 5 hours	E + 7 hours
Unit System	US	Metric	Metric
Setting	Suburban	Rural	Urban
Local Population	500,000	20,000	22,000,000 Cairo (#7) 2,000,000 Aswan
National Population	MI: 10M, US: 340M	5M	120M
Racial Majority	65% White	95% White	95% Egyptian (Arabic/Nubian)
Religious Majority	70% Christian, feels lower, 2:1 Protestant	75% Christian, feels higher, 2:1 Catholic	90% Sunni Muslim, feels higher
Politics/Culture	Polarized	Liberal	Conservative
Cuisine	US Mix	US Mix	Middle Eastern
“Exciting” Driving	No	Yes	YES
Driving Side	Right	Left	Right officially, depends on mood
Voltage	120V	240V	240V
Outlet Type	US (B)	UK (G)	EU (C)
Outlets in Bathrooms	Yes	No	Yes
Gas/Petrol Price	$3/gal	$9/gal	$1.50/gal
Roundabouts	Few	Everywhere	Soon
Currency	Dollars	Euros  (=120 cents)	Egyptian Pounds       (=2 cents)
Getting Around	Our Cars	Rental Cars	Hired Drivers
Rental Car	$40/day	$0.10/day	No data
1 GB Phone Data	$15	$1	$3
Haggling	No	No	Yes
Tipping	Sit-down Dining	None	Everything
Tapwater Potability	High	Medium	Low
Shower Curtains	Yes	Partial	No
Toilets	TP	TP	Bidet
Safety	High	High	High
Body of Water	Great Lakes	Atlantic Ocean	Nile River
National History	~400 years	~1200 years	~5000 years
Official Statehood	250 years	75 years	100 years
Unofficial Independence	250 years	100 years	200 years
Weekends	Sat-Sun	Sat-Sun	Fri-Sat
When the city slows	10 pm	9 pm	Maybe 3 am?
Straws	Plastic	Paper	Plastic
IKEA	Yes (Detroit)	Yes (Dublin)	Yes (Cairo)
Food Prices	Mid	High	Low
Milk and Egg Storage	Fridge	Room Temp	Room Temp
Alcohol	Yes	Guinness	No
Can Deposit	Established	Recent	No
Our Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐