Meet and Greet

Today at work i met our new batch of Canadian staff: fresh in from British Columbia they are being acclimatized to Cairo via life in maadi. Today was their first day on campus, they got a glimpse of what they were here to do. Glimpse is right, the poor north americans have no idea what they're up for.
Since a lot of what i do at work is 'foreign staff affairs' i have had the chance to stare at their names and pictures thru passports and such long enough. i thought i had everyone memorized. WRONG! i mixed up the first name, mixed up two sisters (in my defense they look freakishly alike in the pics), forgot two names, thought a returning staff member was one of the newbies. So i smiled and talked a lot so i doubt anyone noticed how retarded i was feeling.
i gotta say i admire these people though. if you dont already know, Vancouver has been voted among "Best Cities to Live In" for the past ten or so years, ranking very high too (top five to ten). To leave that and come to Cairo where water heaters blow up in bathrooms is a big move. it takes guts. the taxi drivers and street crossing scares them for the first month then they get used to it. and they being to love it as much as we do. maybe not as much but, most of the time, they definitely love it