how many times in the airport?

On the flight in last night, feeling like a seasoned veteran of Cairo Airport procedures, I was reflecting on how my feeling of infinite experience with entry into Cairo was really just a mask for some finite number of experiences. How many experiences? I estimated around 30-40 times.

Now I’ve checked my meticulous travel records, and found that I have flown into Cairo exactly 45 times (an average of 5 times per year). I guess that’s a lot, but it’s still a finite number, and not an especially frightening one.

The lesson in this, I suppose, is that the jump between no experience and some experience is much greater than the jump between some experience and a lot of experience. After 7 or 8 entries into Cairo, I probably already felt like as big an expert on the procedures as I do now after 45. But the first time, it was a complete confusion of course, and a bit intimidating. (I was reminded of this when I had the chance at the airport last night to help three completely baffled American girls who had never been here before. They didn’t have any idea where to buy the tourist visa stamp, etc.)

But if you do anything 45 times, you’ll probably feel like a bit of an expert in it.