Can we get just a little sense of propriety please?

I don't know if this will mean as much to you as it does to me, so I'll try to explain a little first.

Egyptians are ultra-conservative. I mean, I thought I was ultra-conservative, but I have nothing on the Egyptians. Please forgive my sweeping generalizations, I'm just going to tell you how I see it daily.

Egyptians generally don't wear shorts outside of the home. In fact, I see a lot of people dress up pretty nicely just to go to the grocery store. Lots of women wear the head veil, and those that don't will often be covered neck to ankles anyway.

Sex before marriage is totally anathema to most Egyptians. To many, a guy and a girl leaving together is bad, or being alone in a car together is bad, or even going into an apartment together is bad. Like really bad. It will ruin your reputation, and you can kiss a reputable marriage goodbye after that.

There's more, but to get to my point, our hot water has been out and is getting fixed today. We've been showering downstairs in the Brits' apartment yesterday and today, and if any of the Egyptians knew, i.e., our our landlady, that just wouldn't look good at all.

So I went to let John in, and he had walked up two flights of steps, past our landlady's apartment, only in his towel.

That's courage.