Lebanon and Sharm el Sheikh...Amazing Spring Break

Sooo it's been quite some time since my last post, partially due to laziness, partially end of semester shenanigans such as papers, presentations, and the like. I have a lot to write about and might not get it all done in one post, but I'll try to catch up on the past couple of weeks festivities in the next couple of days or so and still the events that are going on now.

So April 7th, Me, Mae, Kayla, Deb, Kaitlin, Alex, and Jackie all left to go to Lebanon for spring break. Somehow we were all on the same plane, even though we all booked our tickets on different days and did not do it intentionally at all. Good luck on our part I guess. The first night, Kayla, Deb, and Kaitlin stayed at the Embassy Hotel in Hamra which was about 10 mins drive or so from where Jackie, Alex, Mae and I stayed. Jackie found a great deal on this hostel which was only $9 per night that we stayed, and the other girls who stayed at the Embassy ended up joining us after their first night there which was really nice because then we all got to be together, especially since we couldn't really use our phones to call each other because the rates were 4 LE p/minute to call and 2 LE p/text which is really expensive.

So the first night we got there, we were excited and it was still pretty early since our flight was only about 45 mins or so (less time that it takes for me to get to school in the morning!). We decided to walk around a bit and the guy who ran our hotel, Talel's, gave us a map and some directions and told us a few places that we might like to check out. So we set off on an adventure, first mission: exchange money. The exchange rate was the craziest thing I'd ever heard of.... 1500 Lebanese Lira per $1 US dollar! I felt so rich when I went to the ATM and it gave me 50,000 bills. So we were using the ATM at this gas station and the first thing that we notice about our surroundings is that half of the store is filled with liquor which was pretty shocking because in Egypt hard liquor is barely sold, only in one shop that I know of.

So after leaving the gas station, we decided to walk along this street Gemmayzeh which is supposed to be famous for its nightlife. Walking to get to this street, and even once we get there, we notice how rich people in Beirut must be. I've never seen so many Mercedes-Benz, BMWs, Corvettes, Porches, and even Masartis and Bentleys in my LIFE! and especially not so frequently. All of the clubs and bars that were on the street were so nice and upscale. So we walked around for a bit and ended up at this one place 55 where we hung out for a little bit taking in our surroundings.

The next morning, we wake up to the sound of Kaitlins voice which made all of us happy because since we split up at the airport for us to go to Talel's and them to go to the Embassy, we had no clue of their whereabouts and what they were up to. After they got settled, and got themselves a room at Talel's as well, Jackie and her wonderful Lonely Planet found tons of things for us to do over the next couple of days.

I can't exactly remember every single thing that we did or on what day but for the most part the breakdown went like this:

April 8th: We went to the Jeita grotto which was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. They're actually trying to make the Jeita grottos one of the new 7 wonders of the world, so if you ever get the chance to go to Lebanon, you KNOW you have to visit it! The guy at our hotel called a driver to take us to 3 different sites for about $10 each, or 15,000 LL which was better than taking the public buses but it was definitely more uncomfortable. Being the shortest, everyone decided that it would be best for me to lay across 5 peoples lap in the backseat of a normal sized car for the entire time we drove around...thanks guys if I haven't said so already :-p. So in total, there was 8 people squashed in this regular 4-door but somehow we managed.

The weather was pretty sucky this day... it rained which was amazing because we haven't seen or smelled or felt the freshness of it in so long, but on the other hand, Mae and I had just gotten our hair done about 2 days before, so you know I wasn't happy getting my hair wet (luckily I managed to salvage it for a few more days). Back to the grotto! So we paid for our admission and decided to take one of those air rides, like at Six Flags, to the upper grotto. We weren't supposed to take any pictures so they tried to make us leave our cameras in lockers, but most of us took them with us anyway. The inside of the grotto was a cave with lots of stalactites and stalagmites everywhere. It looked half like the movie The Descent, and half like the Mario Brothers movie because some of the rocks were covered in the same looking slime. It was still amazing, and even the way it was excavated and set up is really impressive. I don't know how people can do things like that without destroying the valuable history inside. Once we finished the path and got a few pictures (which we did get in trouble for taking, even though we tried to be discreet), we went down to the lower grotto which was almost the same thing but instead of walking, it was a body of water and we got into boats which took us around and we got to observe the walls and ceiling of the grotto while in the water. It rained the entire time we were there which gave the place an almost chilling effect but it was definitely the perfect day for it to rain.

After the grotto, our next site to visit was to this place where we took the gondola lift, the Téléférique into the mountains of Lebanon. It was also like the car at Six Flags which you take from one side of the park to another, except this car took us straight up into the mountains which was an AMAZING view of the entire landscape. At the top there was the Lady of Lebanon statue on top of this long, winding staircase that you could take to get to the top. There was also a church there which me and Deb went into for a little while. It's amazing how peaceful and quiet it was and it felt really nice to be in a church again after so long.

We never made it to our 3rd site, I forget exactly why, but pretty much everyone wasn't really in the mood because of the rain so we decided to go to Spinney's instead (a large hypermarket...almost like a Wal-Mart, but more food selections) to get some food to make for dinner and possibly breakfast the next day. We were trying to be conservative since we knew we'd be spending a lot of money going to see different sites. While there we stocked up on meat, cheese, tortillas, tomatoes, and peppers, so you can guess what we had for dinner.... Yep, fajitas!!! They were amazingly good, probably more so since we were starving by the time we got back to the hotel. We also got some pancake mix, eggs, and syrup for the morning so that we could make some breakfast. Oh and yes, we did have an open kitchen while we stayed there which was pretty cool so we didn't have to keep eating out all of the time.

Perhaps I should elaborate a bit more on our living situation, since I know you are all probably confused by the concept of a hotel having an open kitchen for its guests. Our "hotel" was more of a big house, and the entrance was down a little alley, and our rooms for some reason were always damp. We also had no windows in our room (which the 4 of us shared) so we would wake up in the mornings....damp, cold, and sunless only to go outside where it was hot and dry with lots of sunshine. It was very deceiving. When we got there one of the first things that we were informed of was the 15-minute showering policy which we got in trouble for once in a while for not adhering to. The bathrooms consisted of a toilet space as well as the shower in there, just connected in the wall. So just imagine going to your local public bathroom (it was almost the same size as one) and there being a showerhead on the wall as well. Of the two bathrooms on our floor, only one of them had a mirror, so for the most part we all had to share one bathroom, 7 girls...imagine. So that is Talel's New Hotel in a nutshell, but it was also very fair for the price that we paid and the people who ran the hotel were really nice and even more accommodating.

After we ate, we went back out to Gemmayzeh, back to 55 where we hung out for a little and then we all went out for shisha at this sports club a little while away.

April 9th: Today we went to what was supposed to be Byblos, but apparently we all slept on the bus ride PLUS our driver didn't stop so we ended up in a completely different city, Tripoli. Byblos is famous for the crusaders' castle there and while there we also visited the crusader church of St. John the Baptist. The drive there was a little long, it was supposed to take around 45 mins or so but ended up taking double that because we ended up in Tripoli, but it was another adventure nonetheless. We didn't stay at the palace for too long because Alex had to take a midterm online that her professor wouldn't budge on (and then didn't even post her questions on time!) but we got to see pretty much everything in the time that we did spend there. While at the castle though, surprisingly I bumped into a few girls from my class at AUC which was so funny because we weren't even in Beirut which is where we were all staying...but in some random location at this palace!

We went to eat after that at this little restaurant which had really good food (I got a cheeseburger, yum!) and then we went to walk around a little bit more. We needed to find out what time the last bus ran, so everyone besides me and Kaitlin went to figure that out, and us two stayed in the little shops looking at jewelry and such. We had to leave soon after that so we just stopped at this little sweets store on our way to the buses and I got these little cookies, some filled with chocolate and others filled with this sweet, orange stuff (but they were really good!) and the others got ice cream. The ice cream was so fresh though and sooo delicious. I've never had ice cream fresher and that actually tasted like it came from the fruit it's supposed to.

Getting home was quite an adventure, and probably our most daring the entire time we were in Lebanon. So we go to what we were told was the bus station to get our tickets to go back to the hotel only to find that there is no bus that takes you back to Beirut. So the guy who was there instructed us that we pretty much had to hail a cab off of the highway and hop in to get back. Sooo instead of taking the long way around the parking lot, we decided to take the shortcut which meant trailing down through the grass and then jumping off of the ledge onto the freeway. Really safe, I know. On top of that, I was wearing flip flops which made for an even better time. Once everyone was down a minibus pulled up almost immediately and imitated for us to get in, but not knowing exactly what we were supposed to do we waved him off. The next bus that stopped, Mae asked him if he was going to Beirut and he said yes, so we all piled in and was finally on our way back!

After we finally made our way back to our hotel, everyone was a little tired, so most took naps but Kaitlin, Jackie and myself headed out to find the beach and relax a little. We headed out and of course didn't know where we were really going and ended up wandering onto what we thought was a resort but I guess must have been some type of military place because the guard wouldn't let us through. Then we tried wandering off into the desert and got yelled at by another guard so we gave up and just kept walking. We passed some cool architecture and saw some stores that we could never imagine going into, like Versace and Rolex but perhaps one day...

We went back after a little while and ate dinner with the rest of the girls once they woke up from their nap. We ended up having breakfast for dinner which was still yummy all the same.

We went out to this club called Chocolate that night which was a lot of fun. The place was set up really original with mini stages and open areas where people could dance. They played a lot of techno and house music which I didn't really like, but all in all everyone seemed to have a good time for the most part which I was happy about.

April 10th: This morning we went up to the mountains of Lebanon, which were still covered with snow. Surprisingly it wasn't really that cold even though there was snow on the ground and again, I went in my flip flops because I didn't bring any other type of footwear with me to Lebanon. It ended up being alright though since it wasn't freezing and we had a little snowfight, beating each other up and having a nationality driven snowball fight. Colombia vs. Egypt vs. America vs. St. Martin. Apparently there is no peace in the ME and the UN "makes no treaties" LOL. After we left the mountain we stopped at this fountain which produced fresh water which came directly from the mountain and there was a beautiful view of a waterfall. We hung out at this place around there for a little while but then Mae of course got in trouble for debka-ing and we had to leave.

We all went back to the hotel and rested after this since we were all sleep deprived, but then went out again at night to explore the nightlife once again. We walked around for what seemed like hourssss looking for this one place Crystal which we couldn't find for the life of us. We did pass by a Facebook Pub though which was pretty interesting. Also while walking we came into contact with a really weird individual which we literally ran from, 7 girls, most of them in heels. Fun times. We couldn't find any good places to go to within walking distance so we ended up going to this club B018 which was the craziest place I might have ever been to. At one point in the night the roof of the club opened up and we were dancing under what was about to be the morning sky. The place was underground which was really cool, and of course they played techno music as well all night.

April 11th: On our agenda for today was Baalbeck, in the Beqaa Valley, which was Roman and Byzantine influenced. We visited the temple ruins during the Roman period which was amazing to see and take in. Deb and I got our ticket for the Egyptian price because we used the little Arabic that we know...everyone else (except Mae) paid the full amount for their tickets. Thanks mom and dad for my ethnically ambiguous looks ;). The ride here also took quite some time and we only stayed for a few hours because Jackie and Alex were leaving that night for Cyprus and she had to be back in time for her flight. Kayla, Kaitlin, and Deb were also leaving this night but a little later for their flight to Jordan. So we spent a few hours there, climbing different rocks and taking lots of pics. Kayla even got a battle scar from her date with the rock lol. The rest of us managed to leave unharmed. After leaving, we collected a few souvenirs from some women including Hezbollah shirts and K got a Palestinian scarf. And Mae got watermelon ice cream....

The rest of our trip is TO BE CONTINUED for a time when my fingers aren't about to fall off from typing...so until later tonight or tomorrow!

Midterms

Midterms officially suck. I had 3 in a row today, back to back to back and was going off of no sleep and still had to go to an 8:30 AM class. I was physically so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open and the most embarrassing part is that I sometimes talk in my sleep and caught myself doing that in class today! But I got through them...barely. My first midterm was for my International Finance class which wasn't so bad, plus it was all multiple choice and he allowed us a 2 page cheat sheet, so I think I did fairly well on that one LOL. The second midterm was probably the worst. It was for my Anthropology class People and Cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, yea I know it's even tiring to say! His class in itself is boring and I really haven't done much of the work that we've supposed to be continually doing sooo we'll see how that one comes out. My last midterm was for my Ancient Egypt class which was actually very simple but she made it seem as if it were going to be so complicated so I studied all of the hard things and not really any of the easy ones. Plus there was a map where we had to label different sections of Egypt and I don't think that I did too well on that part either.

On to bigger and better things, I'm officially going to Lebanon for spring break! A bunch of us are flying out there together and then kind of breaking up and doing our own things. Mae, Deb, Kayla, Kaitlin, Me and I think Alex are all flying out on the 7th for Lebanon and Mae and I are staying until the 14th where we're going to come back and go to Sharm el-sheikh for the remainder of the break. Kaitlin and Kayla are going to go to Syria and Palestine and I think Deb is going to go to Syria with them and then on to Greece. So we'll all be having a great time, and Mae and I will have awesome tans by the time we come back! I'm so excited to get away for a little while and just RELAXXX, something I haven't really been able to do with school and all of the assignments creeping up my back.

As for goings-on since my last post I can't really remember exactly everything that we did, but we did go to City Stars last week and did a little shopping. I got a nice pair of white linen pants and a black top with some flip flops and everybody else got a little something too. Kerry got this pair of pants which fit her really nicely :) We might be going back again this weekend because Mae wasn't able to go with us since she was spending some time with her mother who's come to Egypt for the past 2 1/2 weeks, but sadly is leaving on Friday. Mae's mom, by the way, is AMAAZZING! I love this woman so much. She's so nice and just.... a mom, she's so loving and kind and you can tell that she loves Mae a LOT. I'm really glad that most of the friends that I've met here don't live too far from me at home and I'll be able to visit them as they will able to visit me as well.

Let's see, what else has been happening? Oh I braided my friend Alysia's hair for her in cornrows which came out looking very nice actually. I didn't take any pics of the aftermath but they looked really nice on her which is crazy because I don't find that many girls look good with just straight cornrows. And I've also opened up my own miniture salon over here. I do eyebrows, hair, mustaches, and that's the breadth of my skills right now but I may be adding more in the future. I've done Kerry's, Deb's, Kaitlin's, and Kayla's eyebrows, cut Kayla's and Jackie's bangs and Alysia's hair. It's fun and I like doing it so I don't mind at all.

On Sunday I actually went to the Egyptian Museum with two kids from my class, Andrew and Kaitlen. We missed out on the field trip the first time around, all for various reasons and so our teacher was nice enough to let us re-do the trip. It was nice to go and not just to look at artifacts like, "Oh, wow, that's really nice". Instead our teacher, who actually works at the museum, told us the history and story behind the statues and explained the gods who were being portrayed. It was very interesting and I'm glad that I went. The tickets to get in for students were 30 LE, and for all other guests was 60 LE. Egyptian tickets were only like 1 or 2 LE and Andrew is Egyptian so he got his ticket for much cheaper than us. We actually tried to get me an Egyptian ticket since everyone tells me that I look it, and I actually did get it but when we had to go through the gates the guards tried talking to me in Arabic, and I couldn't exactly say much back in return, so they knew I wasn't Egyptian and therefore had to go back and get a student ticket. Hey, it was worth a try!

Other than that I don't think that much of anything really has been going on. Everyone has been so busy studying for midterms that we haven't really done too much and plus Mae's mom is here so she hasn't really been in the dorms too much. This weekend we were all going to go away to Dahab but a lot of us have either make-up classes, presentations next week, or field trips (comme moi!).

More to come soon. My class was cancelled for tomorrow so I have no school at all and a 3 day weekend! Yess.....it'll be so nice to sleep in tomorrow :)

Mae's this weekend!!

So Mae's mom has come to town and we're going to go spend the night with her in her villa! I'm so excited and can't wait. It'll be nice to get out of Zamalek, even if only for a little bit. This weekend would also have been nice to travel since we don't have any classes tomorrow, but I have a presentation on Sunday so I would have only really had 3 days to travel. I'm still excited to meet Mae's mom, and have some of her home-made cooking. Yum!

On a heavier note, I got back a paper I did for my anthropology class and also a midterm annnnnnd the results weren't that great. Not terrible, but not great. So I'm going to need to step it up a notch in the classroom. I do admit that I've been slacking but...ahhh I'm in Egypt! How can I think about work when there's so much to do and so many beautiful things around me?

What a hectic day!

Today was a pretty challenging day physically because I choose to make bad decisions sometimes...and fully am aware of it! Last night I went out to see the movie Watchmen with one of my friends from class and then hung out for a bit after so didn't get back to my dorms until really late even though I had a midterm at 8:30 today. So of course I get back and like a good student, begin studying for this midterm for my Professional Selling class which was going very well...I was pumped and ready, had just made a PB&J pita sandwich and everything. And then I start talking to my cousin Jessica who recommends that I take a little nap so that I'm not too exhausted in the morning. I blow off this idea and say "Naw, I can handle it" but as the minutes pass, her idea begins to sound a little better each time so I go into my room and set two alarms to wake me up. Apparently they didn't work too well, at least not for me, because the next thing I knew it was 7:11 and I was supposed to catch the bus at 7:00 in order to get to class on time! I think I remember my roommate waking me up actually since I wasn't waking up to my alarm but I guess I must have just went right back to bed. So I jump out of bed still wearing the jeans and tank top I passed out in, grabbed the necessities for school and headed to the bus stop (no, I didn't brush me teeth, but I did grab my toothbrush and toothpaste) to see if maybe by some miracle it would still be there. After a hasty walk, I arrive at the buses to find out that they are there...but they're not leaving until 8:00. :( At this point I just kept cursing myself over and over in my head and didn't think that I would be able to finish my midterm in time, since it takes about an hour to get to school meaning I would be a half hour late. To my surprise my teacher let me take it with no problem and I still ended up finishing before a majority of the class, but we'll see how that grade turns out. My professor doesn't even make up his own tests, he takes the questions from a teacher's manual and some of the material wasn't even covered in class...but...as Mae Hassanien would say... Welcome to Egypt.

As far as this past weekend goes, I had a ton of fun. Thursday night a bunch of us went to this club called Chopsticks in Mohandissen which is pretty much a Hip-Hop/R&B club. The people in Egypt don't go out until really late and although we got there at 12, people didn't start really appearing until about 1:30 or so. But I still had a great time dancing and meeting a bunch of new people. Everyone I was with seemed to be enjoying themselves as well and it was nice to just let loose and dance for a few hours. Friday night we were invited to this house party and Shelby, DJ, Mae and I went first because the others all had work to do or had other plans, but eventually Kaitlin, Deb, and Kerry showed up (which I was elated about). Unfortunately the night ended a bit abrubtly due to my retardedness once again, but while we were there we had a lot of fun. By the way....I'm so glad to have friends like you guys :)

Saturday was a day of rest, and I woke up around 12 and ate breakfast with Kerry, Shelby, and Deb which was AMAZING I must say. I can't wait until this weekend to have some more of the caf's french toast and pancakes. Yummmmm :) We were supposed to be doing work which didn't really work out too well for us, but I did get some work on a presentation done which was fantastic and pretty much finished it yesterday.

So that's my whole weekend in a nutshell and we'll see what this week brings!

It's been a while, folks

Ok so I admit to becoming lazy and not keeping up to date with my blog which is terrible I know. :( I'll try to sum up everything pretty succinctly since I probably don't remember the details accurately anyway.

I can't remember what happened on which day or at what time, but in the past two weeks I went to see Akon in concert which was a lot of fun once he showed up...5 hours late. I also went to Dahab this past weekend which is around a 9 hour bus ride from Cairo. Dahab is this sleepy little town by the Red Sea where it's really a bedouin community and there isn't a ton of people or tourists, so it's nice to just relax. We had Monday off from school which was nice since I have 4 classes that day and since I only have 1 class on Sunday I just skipped and had a 5 day weekend. I laid out on the beach with Deb getting some sun while Kerry scuba-dived, got offered a snake, and did lots of other cool things. It was Kerry's birthday this past weekend as well so we took her out to dinner at this restaurant called Jasmin and they made her this AMAZING cake by hand just for her, and they didn't even charge us for it which was really nice of them. Everyone was really accommodating and was happy to have us as their guests, except for this one time when we walked out from our room to find a dead sheep in the hall with pools of blood all over the place....weird.

Tonight we're going to go to this place called Chopsticks in Mohandissen which is a Chinese/Malaysian food spot which turns into a club at night that plays hip-hop and R&B music. I've heard that it's a lot of fun by several people and am looking forward to it. Who knows what the rest of the weekend has in store? I still need to work on a presentation for one of my classes and do a little researching for some papers that I have to turn in later in the semester. So that might get done. Might.

Other than that, a holiday was just announced so we will be having no classes on the 19th which falls on a Thursday. Since I again only have 1 class on Sunday I may just miss it again and take another long weekend depending on what people want to do. So we shall see.

An Interesting Set of Events

So the past couple of days have been a little intriguing. Sorry I haven't gotten to write sooner, I've really been slacking off when it comes to blogging. This past weekend was really fun. It started with us girls minus Deb (partly because she was sick, partly because we she's our Karen) going to Cafe Vivant, one of our absolute favorite places to go, for dinner/dessert/cards. Kayla taught us this really intense game that they call "Nubbins" in Michigan. You don't even have to wonder... of course we changed the name. Our version was called Radio-shecck. It's pretty simple to learn but gets really intense the more people that you get to play. So it goes like this.

First off, every teams needs their own deck of cards to play, preferably ones that can be easily differentiated from each other. You play in teams of two and one person is in control of the 10 deck and the other in control of the 3 deck. There are a set of 4 cards laid out between the two set up in a type of solitare setting. The whole point of the game is to be released of your 10 deck and at that point one person on the team (usually the person who has the 10 deck) will call out NUBBINS! (Or Radio-shecck in this case, which was shortened to Shecck). So the game begins and out of the 4 cards laid out, you can lay one card on top of the other, colors must be alternating, to make space for another card from the 10 deck. The person with the 3 deck is constanting flipping over 3 cards at a time trying to find cards to raise the decks in the center of all of the teams. The piles start with the Ace card and everyone contributes to them trying to get as many cards in as possible to win. Everytime someone comes across an Ace they can put it in the middle and everyone has to compete to get their cards in before the next. The cards must be stacked in numerical order until it reaches the King card which is the highest in this game. You can use cards from the 3 deck to put on one of the cards in the pile of 4 to get rid of some. The team to get rid of all 10 cards in the 10 card deck "wins". I put this in parentheses because the team that gets out first isn't necessarily the winning team. So the teams left at the table have to count the cards left in their 10 deck and for every card that they have left, they have -2 points. After totaling this up, the winning team pools together all of the cards piled up in the center and put them in their own stacks according to deck. Each team gets back their cards and count them. They get 1 point for each card. You then total the number of positive points you have with the negative amount from your 10 deck and that is your total score.

It sounds quite complicated but once you get the hang of it, it can get pretty intense. Kerry and I played on a team together, Shelby and Mae, Kaitlin and Cate, and then since we had an odd number Kayla played by herself. We stayed there for HOOOUURS playing this game it was so intense. Kayla and Cate left early because they had things to do in the morning but the rest of us stayed until about 2:30 am playing until we finally left.

Friday, Kaitlin, Kayla, Shelby and some other girls wanted to go around coptic Cairo to see the different mosques and sites. I wanted to go but was tired and didn't really feel like doing anything so Deb, Kerry and I watched Pineapple Express which was pretty hilarious. By the time we were done watching that it was around 2 pm and Kerry had left for a supper party she was invited to. Mae was with her aunt and uncle spending the day, and we were at a loss of ideas on what to do. Deb and I ended up going to Khan el-Khalili and although crowded and harrassing, we had a great time. Turns out Deb is actually good for something and managed to get us amazing prices on everything, even though it was pretty cheap as it was. I finally got my water boiler so I can make tea in the morning, a scarf, and a handmade dress like the Egyptians wear. Deb got some beautiful handmade earrings, a shirt similar to the dress I got but in pink, and a scarf as well. We spent hours there perusing all of the little shops and stands in the market. When we first got there however, we were approached by this man who apparantly remembered me from about two weeks previous (and by my toe nail color, no less). He wanted to show us his shop, promising that between he and his family we would see some of the greatest things ever made.

We were a little skeptical at first but ended up following him down these little streets where Deb got swatted at by an old woman on the ground and cats running all over the place. He was talking to us all the while, asking us about where we were from and telling us how he had just returned from Tailand or someplace where he was learning how to give massages. Apparantly he was a linguist as well, because he spoke to us in French and Spanish as well. So we get to his shop and he tells us that we have to follow him upstairs. The building looked seedy and run down. He (his name is Mohamed by the way) lead us up flights of stairs that seemed to be neverending with Deb telling me the whole way about how we were about to die.

But we got to the top where his shop is and oh my goodness, you wanna talk about beauty? The walls of the place were covered in paintings done on papyrus and the images that were portrayed were so gorgeous. He said that he wasn't going to try to sell us anything but of course tried to anyway but I must admit he was a very good salesman. I didn't end up buying anything but I might actually go back sometime to do just that. He was very polite and offered us some tea, and he made a point to tell us that is was not the Lipton kind but authentic Egyptian. It was good and we drank while we looked and he told us some of the stories on the papyrus, but in the end we still didn't buy anything from him.

He took us back downstairs after giving us some of his cards, and he told us that if we wanted he would take us to see more of Cairo if we could get together a group of friends that wanted to go or he would just take us. Shady sounding, I know. He even offered to take us to Alexandria and to an Egyptian wedding to see what it's like and how they celebrate. So who knows if he was being genuine or not. He also showed us another shop that his family owns where they handmake those jewelry boxes that you see which were also beautiful. They came in all different shapes and sizes and they were covered in shiny materials that shined when you held them up to the light. Turns out that they use real camel bone in them. Go figure.

So Deb and I decided to leave after hours of shopping and had no problem getting back to Zamalek. We were very proud of ourselves and didn't even get lost on the way back! By the time we came back, everyone who went to coptic Cairo was there and we shared all of our stories with them and showed them what we had bought. We were trying to figure out what we were going to do for the night and ultimately we ended up at this kid Tim's apartment in Zamalek where he was having a little house party. It was pretty fun, we met a lot of different people but a lot we already knew as well. We met this guy Mohamed, Omar, and a few others who were talking to and some of them were practicing Arabic with them and helping them with their English. Omar I believe was from Saudi so we were asking him about that. The apartment that they have is really nice and spacious with two balconies and lots of room. Almost makes me wish I had thought about getting one instead of living in the dorms, but then I thought.... housekeeping...more room...caf underneath me...balcony? And then I remembered that I like the dorm life :)

We didn't back until really late...or early depending on how you look at the time so the next day I didn't wake up until 2 in the afternoon. We usually play volleyball at 3 on Saturdays so I kinda just hung out for that hour not doing much. Deb didn't come because she was still feeling sick so Mae, Callie, my roommate Cate and I went downtown to play and had a great time. The two girls who intensified the game last week weren't there so it was even better because we just got to play a normal intramural game. Towards the end one of them showed up and then it became a two person team and at that time we decided to leave. I picked up some apples at one of the little street vendors for during the week and then we headed back to Zamalek.

Sunday's I have class so that we pretty much the extent of my weekend, and I woke up feeling sore as ever from volleyball. I did make a trip to Metro where I got this package box of chocolate covered "digestive" cookies. I had them once and they were really good so I decided to pick some up....bad, bad idea. I went through the box like nothing and really regretted it the next day. :( So today is a much better day for me, but unfortunately for Shelby she did the same thing I did so today's not such a good day for her either.

I witnessed my first rain in Egypt yesterday too! It was a crummy day from the beginning and in the afternoon it rained for a few minutes but didn't last too long. I suppose it's good for things down here especially since it rains less than 1 cm per year. Of course the architect who built our school that that it was a fabbbbulous idea to put tile inlaid in the ground so the entire campus had slippery blocks on it and on my way to the bus I almost busted my head open. While most would find this embarrassing I started laughing, just imagining it happening to someone else. But still...not safe!

Two days ago, a bomb went off in Khan el-Khalili and a French tourist died and several others were hurt. Thankfully, no one I knew was there and as far as I know, no students from AUC was there at that time, so I hope no one is worrying about us. My sincerest regrets goes out to the family of the tourist and I will definitely be keeping her in my prayers; I hope everyone else does the same. I hope that people don't start to see Egypt as this dangerous place now, because it really isn't and anyone who was thinking of visiting, please still do. You cannot live with terror, for then you'll never know what you're missing out on.

On that note...I hope everyone is safe and do not forget to send your prayers out to the family of the tourist who was killed.

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.