Chapter 1

I couldn't help but grin while I got into the back seat of the car. My driver looked at me suspiciously, and asked if he should congratulate me.

"Yes! Finally! Thank God. Five months of searching for a job and I finally will be making my own salary."

"Congratulations, sir. That's excellent news. Do your parents know?"

I frowned. I remembered how I had to break the news to my parents. Parents usually are ecstatic when their children find a job. I'm skeptical how my parents will react. I mean, when my dad was young he traveled to England and cleaned dishes for several months to make some cash and get some experience. He had a medical degree. But was washing dishes in England comparable to the new job I was offered?

I told Mr. Sayed about my dilemma and he assured me that my parents were good people. They will be shocked at first, but will eventually come to accept my decision. The pay is pretty low--even lower than what Mr. Sayed, makes, but still. I will gain experience in dealing with different people, learn some patience, learn a thing of two about hard work, make some money to use for my project, and most importantly, I will have a job.

It wasn't a shameful job. It was just strange -- for a person like me to have. But this wouldn't be permanent. It would just be until I found a regular engineering career. It's so much better than staying at home; waking up at 2:00 in the afternoon and going to bed after sunrise, eating and playing video games all day and going out with friends. My friends. How would they take the news? Would they be happy for me? Would they be embarrassed or laugh at me? Should I even tell them?

"Sir, we're home," Mr. Sayed said as he looked at me concernedly through the rear view mirror.

"Thanks Mr. Sayed. My mother will call you in a little bit, I think she has plans later on today." I smiled at him graciously as I closed the door to the car.

"Go ahead, Tant Mervat," I held the elevator door open to our neighbor.

"Thank you habibi, how is your mother? How's the job search going, any luck?"

More ideas

Guy's name: Sherif, Mohsen, Zakaria, Hani, Haysam, Tamer, Seif, Zein?

I think I will go with the microbus idea. I like the taxi idea more, but it's too similar to Taxi, the book. Microbus will be fun too,especially since so many different people ride it and people have certain expectations of the driver (crazy, low-class, rude, dirty, poor, crook, etc). So i love the irony of how my guy will be that driver, but totally the opposite of that description. I want a nice name. I like Seif and Hani the most now. How about Hani Seif! I like it. Okay so Hani Seif. Maybe Ill even play with the title of the book and have the name involved since seif means sword. We'll see how that goes.

So Hani Seif graduated from Cairo University in the summer of 2009 with a degree in ... let's say engineering. He had excellent grades. His dad is a businessman and his mother is an English-Arabic translator at a small company. Let's say he has relatives in the U.S., and he has visited twice. His English is very good. He dresses in a preppy, American style with a touch of Egyptian (no white tight pants with skin tight shirts).

So Hani Seif graduates. He looks for jobs. Nothing. He does an internship. They don't hire him because the economy basically sucks. His English is very good so there's no need for him to take some extra English courses that others took from his class. Two months later, he's still searching for a job. His dad and mom are nagging. His dad is telling him to travel to the U.S. and find a job. He doesn't agree. If Americans themselves find it hard to find a job, why the heck would htey hire him? And if they would hire him, wouldn't it be unfair to those Americans who could have been working at that job? It's their countries. They have the first rights to the jobs. And plus, he wants to live in Egypt for now. He was the oldest child and his dad traveled a lot, therefore he takes care of his family often. He has a younger sister in college and a younger brother in let's say middle school. He still can't find a job and it's been three months. None of the engineering companies or enything engneering related is hiring. And if they are hiring, they would rather accept those elite small percent who graduated from AUC and GUC. His friends he knew from college basically chilled out at home and with their friends. Hani Seif is different. He knew that time was precious. Time is like a sword, isn't it? I'm excited now the next post will be the first chapter!!

Novel idea

I want it to be about an Egyptian guy. A middle classed-rich Egyptian guy who graduated from a good university in Egypt. Yet, like millions of other recent graduates, can not find a job that relates to their majors. And if it doesn't relate, then why take it? Especially if you went to a good university and worked hard your whole life? I mean, it's like in the U.S., if you graduate from college you expect to find a job relating to your major. If not, then you're stuck at a random job. Or McDonalds. Well my character will be doing just that. Except not work at McDonalds. He'll be a taxi drive. A middle-classed recent graduate who comes from a rich family, and the only job he found was to be a taxi driver -- in Cairo. And I will follow him around. My inspiration is from a book called Taxi actually by an Egyptian guy. I don't know if this is close enough to his? It might be. If it is, I'll change the whole taxi thing and maybe let him be a bus driver? Or a bawab (apartment security/doorsmen thing). Oh and call the book Bawab. I like it. I'lll think about it. I'm excited now.

What is this?

I've always wanted to write a novel. I started one a couple years ago but really didn't get anywhere with it and I don't even like the idea of it any more. I want to begin another one because I have so many ideas. Here I will write some drafts, ideas, characters and so on. Who knows, maybe a publisher will be interested one day and publish it. And maybe it'll become a movie one day? Ahh sometimes I can't distinguish between dreams and reality. Here goes nothing