Bill's Blog

Settling into a new life can be difficult and in the megacity of Cairo, it is even more challenging. The transition ranges from small things like opening a bank account, getting a local e-SIM to larger things like finding a house and driving a car. You are also doing this while being a bit jet lagged and starting your new job. We are finally starting to get on our feet a bit after three weeks in country. It is getting tiring living in hotels and AirBNBs though we finally signed a contract on our new home. We hopefully will move in soon after September 1. I also drove across the city from school to our current AirBNB rental!

Thankfully my Uncle Jack is here to help us with the logistics of the move. He takes a lot of the burden of me so I can focus on leading the school. He and Nadia have been champions, searching for and eventually furnishing an entire home!

We are currently staying until September 3 in the boutique compound of Silver Palm in New Cairo’s North Investor Area, tucked behind the 01 Mall. The apartments are beautiful and the grounds are full of gardens and pools. I sense most of the places are short-term rentals as the lobby of our building had advertisements for rental cars, take-out food delivery, etc. We are near the Mohammed Nagib Axis, an extremely busy road that is a bit noisy, even through the night. The 01 Mall restaurants come alive at night with many patrons. We found a good Lebanese Restaurant, Besh, and Nadia went for a comfort meal at McDonald’s.

I’ve been walking Obi outside the compound and found a beautiful local mosque, Awleyaa El-Galil. Although near the mosque is a construction site and the other night I encountered a pack of Cairo street dogs. They are large dogs with tags on the ears indicating they are vaccinated and neutered by the city. They were not agressive but extremely curious so I needed to pick up Obi and carry him. They followed me for a few blocks and then faded back to the construction site.

The apartment is large and comfortable but is lacking a balcony. The grounds are lovely and I think I might sneak into one of the pools that is reserved for ground floor apartments. We tried to rent one but they were taken on the weekends. I noticed one in front of a newer building in the compound without tenants yet, so perhaps we’ll try that. I’ve been exhausted in the evenings from the work schedule and the newness of the job. Hopefully I’ll get my bearings and get into a morning exercise routine that will help.

Driving in Cairo is different from Tashkent. The metropolitan area is probably 6x bigger with many more cars. One nice aspect are the wide roads, many of the main arteries are 12-15 lanes wide. I am getting used to the flow as cars slowly weave in and out of lanes. There many speedbumps that are a hassle but keep cars moving slower and safer. In the photo below you can see a monorail station. We are looking forward to exploring that system to get into the center of Cairo. You can also see the ubiquitous housing development ads along the wide boulevards.

We’ve been following Oliver and Ocean as they are also settling into their dormitories at Northern Michigan University. Ollie has been sleeping in Ocean’s dorm because her roommate didn’t show up. Many American universities are facing a demographic cliff with people having less children and the Class of 2026 being the start of a steep drop in eligible 18 year olds. That combined with Trump’s anti-immigration policies means less student visas are being issued which is compounding the problem. Anyway, Ocean shared the photo of her dorm on Instagram of her dorm room.

In the flights over from Tashkent to Cairo and fighting jet lag and stress from a big move, I read books in two of my favorite genres, natural history and thriller to help put me asleep.

“Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World’s Most Amazing and Mysterious Fish” by James Prosek was about him travelling around the world, learning about freshwater eels from the genus Anguilla. I didn’t know they were the only fish that spawns in the open ocean but lives its entire life in freshwater rivers and lakes. This lifestyle is called catadromous , a new word for me. It is the opposite of the more famous salmon that spend their lives in the oceans and then swim upstream in freshwater rivers to spawn. I didn’t know it was such a mystery exactly where the different species and populations of Anguilla spawn. It is incredible to think that they start as microscopic eggs and larvae and make their way from the Sargasso Sea, in the case of the North American Eel and find rivers and lakes in the interior of the continent. Due to the degradation of rivers (dams, wetland destruction, urban sprawl), climate change (changing currents), and over fishing, the numbers and range of eels is shrinking.

I ate eel often in Japan where it is regarded as a delicacy. My favorite was the Daggertooth Pike Conger,not a freshwater eel, but a species found in the depths of the ocean. The book gave me a new appreciation of the eel.

I love expat books having lived most of my life as an expatriate. Pavone worked in the publishing world for many years before he became an author. His wife got a job in Luxembourg, where The Expats is set in, and I see that he understands the expatriate lifestyle. It resonated with me that expats are like university students, you can reinvent yourself with every new posting. We live a strange life, moving around the world, changing locations every few years. The 2012 novel is a page-turner and the first book in the Kate Moore series. She is ex-CIA and her husband is involved in international banking. It has a lot of action and suspense. The book has a satisfying ending and a believable plot. I learned a lot about digital bank transfers, tax havens, and cyber security.

We made our first sojourn outside of Cairo last weekend for a leadership retreat on the Gulf of Suez. The Gulf is a finger in the far north part of the Red Sea leading into the Suez Canal. It is where the Red Sea is closest to Cairo and the drive from New Cairo is about an 1 hour and 15 minutes. We stayed an extra night at the Stella di Mare Hotel just outside the resort town of Ain Sokhna. It is not one of the famous Red Sea resorts and is more for locals and expats living in Cairo. It is a quick weekend getaway. We were not particularly impressed with the hotel, it was not five star luxury but it was clean and comfortable. It was the first time we have been at an ocean beach since Thailand in the March 2025. It was just so nice to swim in the saltwater and soak up the sun.

I would however, highly recommend the seafood restaurant on the expansive hotel grounds. We had a fabulous meal at the Yemaya Restaurant. Nadia had fresh jumbo prawns and I had a fresh whole dorado fish. We watched the sunset and the freighters lining up to go into the Suez Canal. It was one of the two highlights of the day, the other was seeing bottlenose dolphins while we were swimming.

I was awestruck in seeing the Nile River for the first time. It was not because of the views, but from the historical significance it has. It was like the first time I flew to Leticia, Colombia and from the plane window, saw the Amazon River. Humans first became “civilized” along the Nile, the story of the baby Moses being put in a basket and floated down the Nile, British explorers searching for the source of the Nile, Cleopatra, Pharoahs etc., etc. It was satisfying to finally experience the river first hand.

The school arranged a dinner cruise for the new faculty. It was our first time in downtown Cairo and it was not as crazy as I expected. It is busy with a Mumbai/Bangkok vibe. We didn’t go to far, going downstream for an hour and then returning to the dock.

We had an enjoyable evening with a solid buffet dinner and engaging conversations with the new teachers on the outdoor top deck. I was surprised to see several of the ancient felucca sailboats on the river, but there was a strong evening breeze. It was a lovely cruise and reminded me of Chao Phraya River in Bangkok with a busy river through a densely packed downtown area.

I am looking forward to exploring more of the Nile. It is the longest river in the world and I’ve only seen a fraction of it. The Nile if in the USA would stretch from Seattle to Miami and then would have to curve north to North Carolina. That is a long river! The Egyptians pronounce it [neel] and it comes from the ancient Greek word for river, neilos.

I heard several stories of difficulties traveling with pets, costly overnight stays in quarantines, problems with documents and vaccinations, last-minute cancellations, etc. Nadia and I did not know what to expect from our experience of taking our dog Obi from Tashkent to Cairo. We had a suprisingly easy transition mostly because both Uzbekistan and Egypt do not have rigorous regulations for importing and exporting family pets. Nadia was great in getting all of the vaccinations and Obi’s paperwork in order for us to present to airport officials in Tashkent and Turkish Airlines. It was easy and inexpensive ($200) to book him in our carrier under our seat.

During the check-in, connections, and arrival, no one looked at our documents or asked about the dog. We discovered an outdoor grassy park area in the Tashkent airport that I walked Obi before we started the boarding process. Obi is a calm and quiet dog and besides a tiny bit of whimpering for a short time, he was quiet and peaceful during both flights under the seat in front of me. Fortunately, both flights were not full and Nadia and I had a free seat between us. We walked Obi through the Istanbul Airport and he enjoyed the duty free shopping. The airport had a pet relief room with artificial grass, dry food, a fake fire hydrant, litter box, etc. but it was small and Obi didn’t spend a lot of time in there.

When we landed in Cairo fortunately all 20 pieces of luggage made it and we got through customs unscathed. Diplomatic Express, a shipping company in Tashkent did a really great job in helping us. I would like to thank Pim for his support. I would also like to thank Sarah for her hospitality and support of the moving process.

The school is putting us up in the Renaissance Hotel and we are really enjoying it. Because of Obi, they gave us a poolside family villa and it almost feels like a holiday. We realized again that we are in the middle of the Sahara Desert, not much green, especially in New Cairo where the school is located.

We spent 4 days in Tashkent this week to collect our beloved dog Obi, some more baggage and for me to wrap up my position as Director of the Tashkent International School. The week felt strange culminating with putting a “Visitor” badge while at school on Wednesday. Leaving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Thursday, July 30 to fly out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, with a 24-hour layover at JFK airport, followed by a few days in Tashkent felt like a liminal time between summer holidays and starting our new lives in Cairo. I always love these times in my life, these transition periods between leading different schools. It feels like time mercifully slows down for a few days.

There were a lot of logistics we needed to take care of. Completing the transfer of the title of our car to its new owners, closing personal and school bank accounts, turning in our computers to school, signing my final bunch of documents in the business office on behalf of the school, organizing our excess baggage for Turkish Airlines, turning in the travel documents to airport officials for Obi, etc.

I did however enjoy a few days in Tashkent, a city that has been our home for seven years. The bright sunny skies, tree-lined boulevards, Soviet era buildings and all the memories of raising our adolescent children there will forever keep Tashkent in my heart.

The highlight was visiting with friends one last time before departing Tashkent. Our good friend Sarah kindly hosted us at her home and the support she provided was so much appreciated. We go back to our time in Japan and her, Beau, and Emma are very close to Nadia and I. We hosted an impromptu dinner party with Sean and Elena, other good friends of ours. We will miss them but we will make a point to continue our friendship. The social connections are like medicine and getting and giving help to others is so good for the soul. I think about what I eat, get exercise, limit unhealthy vices, try to get 8 hours sleep, but probably the most important factor in one’s health is relationships with family, friends, and other community members. I also was thinking about a podcast I listened to recently with Scott Galloway about digital communications and entertainment creating the perception that we do not need to physically interact with people and the world. Being alone is so much less boring and lonely when you can watch whatever you want, scroll social media and the internet, etc. However, you need friends and others when things go wrong in your life, and they always do. Humans evolved as social animals and it is key to being human and living a full life.

My favorite place in the city is the Ankhor Canal. I racked up many kilometers moving up and down the canal with bicycle, running, and walking Obi. Beau and I went for a final 8 kilometer run and with temperatures in the mid 80s at 8:30 AM, we jumped into the cold water to cool off. The Chirchiq River coming out of the nearby Tien Shan Mountains was diverted into a network of canals through the city. It was a fantastic way to say goodbye to the canal.

Of course I walked Obi around the city. I noticed two new developments in the city. The first is the proliferation of Yandex and Uzem delivery electric mopeds. Online ordering for groceries, restaurant take out and Uzum (the Uzbek Amazon) orders has come to Tashkent. We probably encountered between 50 and 100 delivery people in our 11 kilometer walk around the city on Monday evening. The second observation is the increased Chinese presence in the city. It started with Chinese electric cars showing up in the streets. In speaking with an official at the Chinese Embassy last school year, he estimated between 4,000 and 5,000 Chinese businesses were setting up in Tashkent. I am seeing more and more Chinese restaurants and seeing Chinese people in the airport.

I spent a lot of time at the airport this week. Besides landing on Sunday afternoon, I went back to help Sarah retrieve her lost baggage on Monday night, submitted Obi’s paperwork to airport officials on Tuesday, and we flew out on Wednesday. The rate of renovations of the airport is incredible! It seems like every time I visit, there is a new arrivals hall, parking lot, etc. Nadia and I were remembering our first arrival for my interview visit in September 2018. She wanted to turn around and go home as it felt like arriving to a Soviet gulag facility. Today it is fresh and modern. I also want to compliment Uzbekistan Airways for their improvements over the years. The flagship flight between JFK and Tashkent was very comfortable.

It was fascinating to see the growth of the city between 2018 on my first visit until this week in 2026. The growth of business in the city is amazing! The negative side is increased traffic, rising cost-of-living, poor air quality in the winter, hundreds of massive developments being constructed that are making Tashkent feel more urban and like any other city in the world. The positive side are more options for consumers and a higher standard of living for many citizens. The Uzbek government will struggle with income inequality and jobs for young people. I’ll be watching Tashkent’s development from afar to see where it goes.

We had to drive up to Marquette to pick up my new eye glasses and sort out our children’s medical insurance through Blue Cross / Blue Shield. That is a fact of life when you live in a remote area, driving 90 minutes through forest to run some errands. It turned out to be a fantastic day with the kids and my brother Jimmer. We had a delicious Lake Superior Whitefish meal at the famous Vierlings Restaurant near the Marquette harbor. We then headed out to Wetmore Landing to spend the afternoon swimming and sunbathing. It was an absolutely perfect day on Lake Superior on our final full day in my beloved Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was a rare calm day on the lake with no waves, temperatures in the 80s, and clear blue water. It was a great way to say goodbye to another glorious UP summer.

The Pines (2012) is a classic airplane read. The science fiction thriller has tight chapters ending with a hook, a protagonist trying to put together the mystery along with the reader, and a plot that keeps escalating. It is easy to pick up and read on my phone between travel disruptions. The North Carolina native author Blake Crouch is most famous for his novel, Dark Matter, and he is the head writer and showrunner of the Apple TV series based on the book. This novel is the first of three novels called the Wayward Pines Trilogy. It too was adapted into a television series back in 2016.

I don’t want to spoil the book too much in this blog post. Stop reading here if you want to pick up the book yourself.

The book begins with Ethan Burker, a secret service agent, surviving and car crash and waking up in the small Idaho mountain town of Wayward Pines. Crouch writes in the Afterward that he was inspired by David Lynch’s 1990 television series Twin Peaks. I have not seen the series but know it is set in a seemingly idyllic small town that has dark and mysterious undertones. The science behind the science fiction is decent and thought provoking. It turns out to be a apocalypse story set thousands of years in the future. I particularly like the “abbies” creatures evolved from humans through the effects of climate change on our DNA over the generations. I am mulling over reading Book Two in the trilogy and checking out the Apple TV series Dark Matter. Idaho is a beautiful state, most of it in the Rocky Mountains. I’ve been Twin Falls, Boise, and the Snake River Canyon and would like to travel to the northern part of the state someday.

The Idaho theme continues…

True Crime novels and documentaries are a guilty pleasure of mine. I call it “guilty” because they can be a bit low-brow and can be disrespectful towards the victims and their families. They are popular because of the story telling and the “whodoneit” aspect that turns the consumer into an armchair detective. I think is a great genre for adolescents to become interested in reading, podcasts, and deep-dive documentaries. I downloaded the three-episode Netflix Series, “Idaho Murders: College Nightmare” on my phone and finished watching the second half of the series on the journey between JFK and Tashkent.

This is the story of four university students from the University of Idaho in the small town of Moscow. On Sunday, November 13, four students (Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin). The documentary really hit home for Nadia and I with two of our three children currently in university. The interviews with the parents and family members of the victims were particularly heart wrenching. It was such a tragedy to end the lives of the promising, enthusiastic youth with everything in front of them, careers, marriage, children, etc.

It was a difficult crime for the police and FBI to solve because it was not a crime of passion, involving an ex-boyfriend, or someone who personally knew the victims. They eventually found the murderer because he left a knife sheath with his DNA at the scene. Forensic scientists eventually matched the DNA to him and from there, they matched his car, that was spotted on several security cameras in the neighborhood and is mobile phone pings to local towers. Without the sheath, I don’t think this crime would have been solved. The murderer is a psychopath who formally and informally studied serial killers and criminology. I think his goal was to become a serial killer and this was his first attempt. Modern tracking technology, CCTV, mobile phones, DNA analysis, etc. make it much more difficult for serial killers to get away with their crimes than previous generations. He was in the news lately because he wants to get out of the plea deal he made instead of taking it to trial. He is currently serving four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. From watching the documentary, it looks like they have enough evidence to convict him (his DNA at the scene, receipt of purchasing that type of knife, his car and mobile phone in the area that night, etc.). The series did receive some criticism from people who thought it was released too soon after the events and it was a money grab for Netflix. There were two other documentaries (Amazon and Peacock) already released. I thought the producers and writers of the documentary did a good job respecting the victims and portraying the students. None of this brings back the kids and my condolences go out to the victims and their families. The Moscow Chief of Police, Anthony Dahlinger, really did a good job of telling the story with compassion, dignity, discretion, thoughtfulness and authenticity. He is a role model for policemen everywhere.

We spent the last night of July in the Dauble Tree by Hilton NYC Airport Hotel. The hotel is located just outside JFK airport in the Borough of Queens New York in the neighborhood of Jamaica. Our only familiarity with Queens is from the 1988 movie, “Coming to America”. Eddie Murphy played an African Prince who journeyed to Queens, NYC to find a wife. The neighborhood around the hotel matched the movie, with it being poor and a bit sketchy. We were warned by two different hotel employees to be careful, especially at night. We managed to go for a walk down 140th Street to the Rockaway Boulevard restaurant district. It was quite unpleasant so we turned around and ate at the hotel. We were surprised to see that it was a predominately East Indian neighborhood and the homes were actually well kept, although close together and protected with iron gates on windows and doors and fences. The streets in the Indian section were free of litter and pleasant, but Rockaway Boulevard was full of trash and dilapidated buildings. We didn’t see any white people on our 30-minute walk, a big change from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where 99% of people are white.The name Jamaica has nothing to do with the Caribbean Island nation, but is the early English colonists in the 1650s changing the Lenape indigenous name of “Jameca” or “Yameco” meaning beaver pond. Looking at the map I didn’t realize that Queens is actually on Long Island.

One of the zippers in a large front pocket of one of our suitcases broke. Thanks to being in the USA, Nadia ordered the delivery of kilt or sewing pins to temporarily repair it. You can get anything at anytime in America, the consumers paradise. Kilt pins are heavy duty safety pins and something I will add to my travel pack in the future as they are very handy. We had a nice dinner and watched a Netflix Documentary on the murders of four students from the University of Idaho in 2022. I got halfway through the second episode when I fell asleep. 

I listened to a portion of one of my favorite podcasts, The David Frum Show “Making sense instead of making noise.”  He was interviewing fellow Atlantic writer Jonathan Chait. Chait mentioned Presidents and politicians using humor was not in opposition to dignity and insight, but was a display of intelligence. He went on to say that humor is how humans adjust to discomfort and are able to discuss possibly taboo subjects. I use a lot of humor in my leadership and interactions with people. A day without laughter is not a good day. 

It is always sad to end our summer holidays, but this year was even more emotional. For the last 24 years, Nadia and I have always travelled back to school with at least one of our three children with us. Today marked a milestone of beginning our lives as “empty nesters”. Ocean graduated in May and will be starting her freshman year at Northern Michigan University in August. I gave Oliver and Ocean the biggest hugs. I hope they can take care of each other.

We spent our final full day by running errands and finish packing in Caspian in the morning. My brother Jimmer kindly helped us and lent moral support as we were running around doing last minute things. He and I drove together from Caspian to Green Bay, and Nadia went with Oliver, Ocean, and Ollie’s friend Aurelle. We met patches of heavy rain as we made the 2 hour and 40 minute drive southwest to stay at a friend’s house. We stayed at Mark and Danell Bonnetti’s farm near Green Bay’s Austin Straubel Airport. Jimmer and I were trying to detect the point where the Northwoods becomes Wisconsin farming country. We surmised around Gillette, Wisconsin. We laughed at the memories of frequent family trips south that we took at kids as my parents visited with my mother’s relatives in Green Bay. The trip south on highway 32 brought back many fond memories for us. 

Mark and Donnell are always gracious hosts. They provide a “Wisconsin farming” experience for us. We fed the chickens, made flower bouquets, and talked about the challenges of raising adult children. Mark, Jim and I have been friends since high school in the 1980s, so it is great to catch up. Donnell taught us a lot about chicken behavior and I learned the origin of the term “pecking order”. Chickens have a social hierarchy on who sleeps where on their roosting areas. 

We ate a Scott Subs, a shop near their home that is a franchise of the original Scott’s Subs in Iron River, Michigan. We were good friends with the owners, Scott and Marylin Radloff when they were first starting store. I remember he took over the Friendly Store, a candy shop and turned it into a fantastic and highly successful submarine sandwich restaurant. 

We woke up, showered and packed and headed to Austin Straubel Airport. It was a tearful goodbye for Nadia as we gave Oliver and Ocean a lot of hugs and kisses as we left the USA.