So today was pretty interesting... I planned on waking up early to go to New Cairo so that I could finally get my student ID but of course that didn't happen. I've usually been waking up around 7ish every morning just by myself so I didn't set my alarm clock even though I was supposed to meet up with some people for the bus ride to New Cairo. Soooo I woke up at 12 pm and had to rush to get ready because the bus supposedly only comes once an hour on the 40 minute mark, so I had about 35 mins to get ready and still had to walk to the bus stop. I got ready and left the dorm, rushed to the bus stop where I saw some other kids waiting as well....and I waited....and waited....and waited. When the bus didn't come by 1 we had all figured something was wrong which was most likely this bus schedule which according to my RA is apparantely all made up in the bus drivers mind anyway. When a bus finally came around 1:10ish he told us that he was not leaving until 1:40 so one of the other AUC students and I decided to go and get something to eat. We went to this spot near my dorm where the sold kusheri which is made of pasta noodles with lentil beans and chickpeas. Might not be what I would throw together for dinner at home but it is surprisingly delicious and filling. They also have this tomato sauce that goes on it and hot sauce too!
After eating we rushed back to the bus stop since we only had about 9 minutes to get there and luckily we made it with a few minutes to spare before the bus took off. While eating with this kid, we realized that I know one of the guys he went to high school with who goes to college at Fordham with me only going to show how small the world really is.
So I get to school and my friend Mae was also on the bus so we walk to get our IDs together only to find that the place where you are supposed to get your ID from was closing early for some reason or other and they would not allow us to get our IDs today. Perfecttt. We ran into some other friends of ours who were getting their IDs so we all just walked to the McDonalds on our campus (yes, I know we copped out) to get some ice cream.
There was an event going on tonight which was going to be a type of party with dancing, music, and food so we headed over there even though it was early since there was really nothing else to do. Walking there, we didn't even realize that where it was was even really there! My campus is so huge here it's like 4 times that of Fordham Rose Hill. The event was being held in a sort of ampitheater with a stage and a place on the side which was set up for food.
The SOLs (Student Orientation Leaders) gave us Egyptian scarves and/or thin scarves with small coins on them that jingled every time you move sort of like the ones you see on belly dancers. They were pretty cool to dance with and the music that they were playing was a mixture of American and Egyptian. There was one guy who was dancing the ENTIRE time even when no one was there. He was by far the most energetic person I saw tonight and he looked like he was having a great time. Gradually a bunch of us joined him and more and more people started to come.
We headed over to get some food after a while and at the stands they were serving gyro styled meals with either chicken or beef, a pizza like dish with very thin crustlike covering, fried dough saturated in honey (almost like zeppolis minus the powered sugar and with honey), and kusheri. Sorry I don't know the official names for these dishes I'll have to find them out for you. Everything was so delicious, especially the fried dough dessert but since I had just eaten not too long ago, I didn't eat as much as I usually would have.
After eating, that's when the real party began! We were all just dancing for a while to the music playing but there were official dancers who came out and like the guy from the Nile Cruise began to dance with the skirt that turned into one of those pins that you turn on the floor. But tonight there were 2 kids at first who were doing it and then an older kid and an adult came out to finish up the act. They were very good, even the kids for what the act called for. After they left we danced a bit more and then a group of men came out to dance and it was sooo fun to watch them! The were dressed in white robes and they looked so at ease with their dance moves and very happy to be there with us. We were all called to join them in dance which we did, and we formed a conga line a few times around the dance floor which was fun. So we continued to dance and dance and dance for a while more, and they played some Spanish music and even a Soca song (which really excited me)!
After Marhaba was done (the name of the event) the girls and I decided to take the bus back to Zamalek where I completely knocked out after discussing music tastes with Deb and Mae. I was so exhausted from the night and the nap was a refreshing. So we just got back to Zamalek about an hour ago and now I'm gonna go freshen up and find something to do with the rest of my night. Until tomorrow...
*BTW sorry I forgot my camera in my dorm room today so I'm gonna steal some pics from Deb's page when she puts them up and then post them on here.
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