I am an American considering and offer to teach near Cairo

Maadi

Hi jcaldw6160,

Welcome to Expat.com!

I invite you to view other topics on the Cairo forum as well.

All the best,
Christine

No body can totally tell you whether it's going to be suitable for you or not, simply because good differs from one another. anyways, if you have a good offer money wise you probably won't have any trouble doing stuff ..
""Will I have a social life? Will I have troubling meeting people, friends, dating etc..?""
that really depends on you ,,,
1- most of egyptians are religious, it won't be easy to be an atheist or an agnostic for example and still find friends.
2- are you willing to get out of your comfort zone ? if you're not willing to be friends with Egyptians it might take some time to make American friends
3- Can you speak any arabic ? speaking arabic would help a lot when you go shopping for grocery .. I think you won't need it else where ..
4- Dating : it could be hard to date an egyptian here the same way you would in the U.S.  because as I mentioned people here are religious and there are lots of boundaries and restrictions when it comes to dating, esp. on women . most people here live with their parents until married and that makes them under parental control most of the time . this is a big obstacle in the dating area, it's just difficult for a woman here to go out for a long time without telling here parents where she's going, most girls can't spend a night out alone and so on ...
Because of everything I mentioned before, when you date in Egypt, women would like to think that the question would pop up after a little while "would you marry me?" and that she is not wasting time playing as dating here without a marriage is considered most of the time a waste of time 
Dating a guy here is a different issue ...

Feel free to ask about any details ..

hi,
living in Cairo would be ok for you if you get a good salary. you would need to earn about 10,000 EGP to pay your rent (3000-4000) and rest goes for living and car expenses.
sure you can have a social life, why not. you only need to socilize with those around you and things will go bit by bit. dating is quiet different than USA & Europe. eventually you could find what you are looking for. just be aware of the society's differences. nothing scary, just usual cultural differences :-)

good luck in your choice
Hebba

Good you tell me a few cultural differences you mentioned. 10.000 a month is that living comfortably ? Nice appartment , internet., cell, eating out ect....
Thanks
Jeff

Hey there,.
I am Tracy,,,  British ex pat living in Cairo .
If you have already applied to teach here, they won't do anything until you move here. I know as I had this experience. Also, unless you are employed by one of the big international schools or Universities, the salaries are rubbish and I don't advise that you work in any centres or colleges. There are many, but again, they pay bad salaries and never appreciate your hard efforts. Private teaching is the best option,,,,cash in hand and you set your own price.

As far as a social life, depending where you live. There are 2 large ex pat communities here, 1 in Zamalek and 1 in Maadi....but they are expensive to live there so unless you have money to burn then you can find some ex pats in nearby communities and at a lower cost.
Hope thats helps you.

Tracy

Great to know that 10.000 Egyptian pounds would be enough a month to live Egypt. Specially if you own an Apartment the three thousand you spend on rent each month, you can use that money for school.

Thanks you

hi Jeff
yes the amount i mentioned should be enough for comfortable living and it is much anyway. if you rent a flat between 3-4 k, rest should be enough for you to live nicely with what you need.
like Tracy said, if you dont have a contract with one of the big schools or universities, then dont think about it.

cultural differences like for example:
- not everybody on street knows English. especially if u dont live in one of both expat communities Tracy mentioned. so you might need to gather some few aarbic words to communicate.
- in cinemas you'd find some movies in english, however theatres don't offer plays in english. Opera as well. performances mostly in arabic.
- the complex of dating: dating here is a kind of wide-spread yet hidden aspect. the accepted way is the legal engagement and marriage. Dating as in Europe/USA you might find a little hard to find someone suitable.
- socializing with colleagues would be a good option for you to start having some friends around until you explore everything around.
- public romantic gestures are not appreciated here. if you have a partner and decided to kiss, you might get arrested for kissing in public. it is a kind of violating social rules here. less damages would be thousands of eyes gazing at you :-). so take care of that.
- people here are friendly- mostly- and accepting of foreigners, you wont face any difficulties dealing with them.
- sometimes- sorry for that- you might have to pay more money for a serivce or for purchasing in local shops. unfortunately this is a big disadvantage of being an expat here. but you can easily avoid that and just shop in supermarket chains.
- your knowledge of arabic lnaguage might be abused. sorry :-(
- Flirting here is unaccepted as well. you have to be very careful :-). not scaring you off, but want you to know what to avoid.

this is for now. if i remember anything else i will let you know.
whatever your decision is, good luck
Hebba