Cairo is ______.

If I asked you to fill in the blank in that sentence, I could probably guess some of the words or phrases you might choose. Most of you would probably pick something about the pyramids, the pharaohs, Cleopatra, the river Nile, the desert, the enormous size of the city, Moses, the slavery of the Israelites, the Sphinx, etc. etc. etc. You would probably never choose the word that I'm realizing I use most to describe Cairo. In fact, if I asked you to name ten, or even fifty, words that you associate with Cairo, you still probably wouldn't choose this word.

So how would I fill in that sentence? Cairo is cold.

I realize that your first reaction is probably either disbelief or recall that I'm a wimp when it comes to cold weather and therefore my opinion doesn't count. But hear me out. I checked the temperatures on weather.com, and the lows have been in the 40s and the highs in the high 50s or low 60s. Now I realize that the U.S. has been suffering from a serious cold front, so that may sound like tropical weather to those of you who are buried under five feet of snow, but at least you have central heating and live in an insulated building. When it's cold in Cairo, cement block walls don't do much to keep out the cold. And when your only sources of heat are the clothes you wear (did I mention I only brought one sweater with me?), the blankets you use to cover yourself (my Brookstone travel blanket isn't nearly as warm or large as I want it to be these days) and the small AC unit in your wall (I am SO thankful that I discovered it can put out warm air), it's hard to ever really get warm.

I'm sure some of you still think I'm ridiculous, but it doesn't matter. Cairo is cold. So what am I most looking forward to bringing back from the U.S. with me after my trip next week? Sweaters, long-sleeve shirts and another jacket!