Fiesta Fiesta

So our dorm decided to throw us a party with an "Aloha" theme but served Mexican food which was really all good because the food was amazingly delicious. It was pretty much my first "home-cooked" meal since I've been in Zamalek and it was most welcome. They decorated our lobby and pretty much the entire downstairs with beautiful bright colors, I wish I had taken more pictures of the decorations. There were cloths draped from the ceiling all in bright colors, and tiki branches covering all of the windows and walls. They also had barrels as decorations with fruits on their sides. The tables all had bowls on the with a flower bed underneath them and there were live goldfish in the bowls on the table. It really was amazing. A lot of people attended which was surprising because all of the other events were half attended by the kids in the dorm. After our little fiesta we just pretty much went to bed since we all had classes the next day.

Susie, The best Receptionist EVER!!!

The next day our RA put this event together for the girls to get to know each other better since there are still a lot of us that don't know each other in the dorms. This is especially true for the Egyptians vs. Americans. I've noticed that we don't really mingle that much and I know it's partly our fault but it seems as though everyone here from previous years have already formed their cliques and don't really welcome outsiders. It's actually the same way on our campus I've noticed which kind of bothers me because I thought that I would be able to mingle with lots of different people here and while I have made a lot of Egyptian friends, I feel as though a lot of people at our school look at us as outsiders and aren't very welcoming. My experiences with people in the streets and in the stores though have been more than what I expected. Everywhere I go, the people who are there are more than willing to accomodate us and are even helpful and patient when we try to speak Arabic with them.

So my whole point in really telling you about the get together that we had for the females in our dorm is that there was free food and you know where there is free food I'm there! They had Euro Deli delivered for us, which as implies in the name is a deli nearby. They have amazing sandwiches and food there though so I was definitely happy to have been fed two days in a row. I didn't really meet anyone new there, the RA mostly talked about the rules of the dorm to us again and it was so cold out that everyone pounced on the food and left really. They had sandwiches, salads, french fries, potatoes, and different drinks.

That was last night and then today I just had class. Mondays and Wednesdays are the days I dislike the most. My days are so long and I usually am so worn out by the end of the day that my bed looks like a little slice of heaven. I wake up at 6:30 to take a 7:00 bus to campus for a class I have at 8:30. Then after that class I don't have class again until 12:30 so I have about 3 hours to do homework or whatever else is on my agenda. I usually just end up falling asleep in the library :). We're not doing anything tonight because everyone is saving up some money so that we can take a trip next weekend or even go out this weekend. We're still not exactly sure what we're going to do though.