How We Spent an Egyptian Day in 1996 Vs. 2016

Technology has ruined and saved us for good. I remember the days when it would take me hours just to reach someone at home on their land line, the pre-Google and Wi-Fi days when I had to find a library in Cairo for proper information, the days when school fees made sense and when I had to write a letter instead of sending a Facebook message.

Here is walk down a daily Egyptian lane in the year 1995 Vs. 2016 that will show you just how different life is.

 

 

The year 1996:

 

 

It’s 7 am and an actual alarm clock woke me up. For the oblivious millennials, it’s a small box, with numbers and it makes noises upon request

 

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But sometimes I had to wake up like this

 

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On the most luxurious mornings, breakfast would be a fino sandwich with rumi cheese and lancheon because TBS’s creators were still kids in school

 

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I would take the bus to my national school without being ashamed of my parent’s educational choices and speak in Arabic to my friends on the bus

 

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Classrooms had chalk and blackboards and my favorite time would be turning our desks into a tabla

 

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I had to read my 100-page ‘Prisoner of Zenda’ before my English class

 

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On my way back home, I would devour only the greatest creations God ever intended for us to experience: Rocket chocolate, the purple Samba, Bimbo and Katakito

 

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It took me 15 minutes to get home

 

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I would enjoy an evening with ‘Power Rangers’ or ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ episodes, which of course had to be translated by Anis Ebid

 

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And when it was time for the club, I would get the agenda to find my friend’s phone number

 

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I would grab telephone elsama3a and call my school friend and her father would answer. I would wait for him to get her for 12 minutes and she would promise to meet me at our spot at 6 PM and I believed her

 

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It’s 7 PM, she still wouldn’t be there, there was no way to reach her and that was the biggest 90s struggle

 

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The year 2016:

 

It’s 7 AM and my phone is snoozing for the fifth time

 

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On a luxurious morning, breakfast would be a 150 LE omlette or cheese sandwich at Paul’s

 

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And of course I’m in an international school because my parents couldn’t handle the social pressure and my friends only speak in English

 

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I have a mobile in class and WhatsApp my parents to tell them I’m OK

 

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My classroom has smart boards and I feel like the movie ‘The Matrix’ is based on a true story where we use iPads and read E-books

 

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On my way back home, I don’t eat chocolates or gluten because I want to be a fashion blogger and my figure matters

 

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It takes me 90 minutes to get home

 

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If there’s anything I don’t understand in science, I simply Google

 

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I check my WhatsApp, update my Facebook status, Tweet something useless, Instagram my dinner and Snapchat my homework

 

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It’s time to meet my 15-year-old school friends so I text them on the group, “I’ll be at Mori sushi in an hour, I’m waiting for Uber”

 

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WE SAID THIS: Don’t miss 13 Egyptian Celebrities Now Vs. Ten Years Ago.

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