Day 162

Monday June 30th,

Today I finally finished updating the blog at work. Yes, I am very productive at work. It was about 12000 words altogether, so enjoy reading it. I heard from Megan that Chris was showing up on Tuesday, which kind of frightened me, as I didn't know when his plane was arriving and had no way of getting him to the apartment. However, I was finally able to make online contact with Chris and found out it was next Tuesday, which was a great relief. It should be a lot of fun to have Chris around. At work it was the last day for Scott, the presidential intern. He is going back to the states and then looking for gold in Alaska. No joke. I was helping him decide if after he gets done with the gold hunt if he should come back to Cairo or go to Abu Dhabi. I voted for Abu Dhabi. Because of Scott's departure the DDC bought cake and had a little party for him. I had Mountain Dew out of a glass bottle. It didn't taste like Mountain Dew. The cake was super-rich and I could only have one piece. That should be an indicator of how much Egyptians love their sugar. Also because of Scott's departure I get to move to his Desk and he gave me the keys to the office. Basically I got a promotion. Too bad it had to come at the expense of Scott leaving. A real stand-up guy, and I will miss shooting the shit with him. Hopefully I'll get to see him again in some manner or the other.

Day 161

Sunday June 29^th

I returned to work and worked on my blog all day, because I am so far behind. I spent all day writing and still wasn’t even close to be caught up. But at least I was writing and the internet was especially iffy today, meaning that research would have been nearly impossible. After working out again we went to Baracka’s for some of the best shawerrma on the island and then watched the Bourne Ultimatum. I love Jason Bourne, he is a badass.

Day 160

Saturday June 28^th

After waking up after 12, which was amazing, I went over the gym again and then played some more basketball. It was fun, rewarding, and hot as ever. I think the heat doesn’t effect you as much if you are playing with other people, because after 30 minutes or so it was almost tough to keep going. I was also supposed to play ultimate today, but instead I took a nap and slept through the phone call. Oh well. I was really quite bored once I woke up, so we went to Eurodeli, then stopped by and got some black market movies, fanta and chips from the store and watched I am Legend. A low-key day.

Day 159

Friday June 27^th

Friday means the weekend and since I have a normal work schedule that means I get the weekend off too. I spent the first day of the weekend not doing much of anything, it was kind of enjoyable. I thought about going to Khan, ended up not doing it, and ended up just relaxing in the apartment. Eventually, Gaytin a friend of Scotts and somebody I play ultimate with sent me a text and said they were going to mojito. It sounded like a change of pace, so I called up Scott who was also going, and leaving from Zamalek, and Megan S and I went over to his apartment to hang out for awhile. I met Scott’s really cool other friend from Stanford who is a Presidential Intern as well. It was a lot of fun and I got to see more high-brow Egyptians. There is definitely a steroid usage problem in Egypt among the upper-class. It’s kind of gross actually.

Day 158

Thursday June 26^th

Starting to get into a solid routine as I wake up go work-out then head off to the office. I am eating koshery at lunch and saving money that way. At dinner I’ll go for the Shaweerma simply because I need protein after breaking down my muscles all day. I will usually use groceries for breakfast or to supplement by dinner. I still am not getting enough vitamins and minerals in my diet and cannot wait to go back to Notre Dame where there is unlimited amounts of food and its free. Well not really, but at that point its sunk cost and not eating is like wasting money. I am really looking forward to being back in the States and kind of saddened that I won’t have more time in Spokane. It’s going to be tight as I intend on driving back to Notre Dame as having a truck would be absolutely amazing there. However, as gas prices continue to rise the dream of having the truck at ND is starting to look more and more unrealistic. Sadly the gas will not come down in price anytime soon, so I am either going to have to bite the bullet or come up with an alternative.

In other news, one of the satellite’s for our TV stopped working. This doesn’t really effect me too much, other than limiting my options for late night entertainment. However as I should be doing Arabic at that time, it isn’t that big of deal. Speaking of which, I need to go set up my classes for that soon.

Day 157

Wednesday June 25^th

I actually started doing my research today. I worked all day trying to find background information on the food shortage and water shortage facing the planet. Research is slow, because the internet here is god awful slow, plus the material is difficult and writing well about it takes a concentrated effort. All add up to a slow pace. But the research is rewarding and fascinating and I enjoy it, and let’s face it that’s the important thing. It turns out that Scott has to turn in the library books I checked out on his card, so that means I had to swap them over to Tina’s card, but since Tina is leaving I get to use her card until she comes back. A win-win for me and Scott. After work I headed back to the gym worked out, ate some food and then got ready for bed.

Day 156

Tuesday June 24^th

Today I got up went to the gym and then headed off to the office. I didn’t stay long as I just wanted to check in, but then I headed back to the dorm to do some laundry clean up the mess and buy some groceries. I have decided to stop worrying about money so much and just buy the food. I don’t like being hungry and with my lot-in-life I can afford not too. So why put suffering on myself. I try to keep the spending within reason, getting cheap food wherever possible, but I am not so super uptight about spending it now. Its still a hell of a lot cheaper than going to denny’s every night.

Day 155

Monday June 23^rd

So today was kind of a bummer day. I had to take Megan to the airport. Everything worked out fine and she got off safely, although I don’t think there was much food for her to eat at the terminal. Regardless, they security made me leave so I couldn’t watch her leave, so I went back found the cabbie that had taken us over and went back to Zamalek. The cab driver was very nice and I got a good deal out of the whole thing. Having Megan gave me new incentive to take care of myself and at least try and look my best. That was the first step I was going to take towards growing up, so I went and got a haircut. It wasn’t the same experience as I had last time (they didn’t offer any tea) but they did a stand up job, and I walked away looking sharp. It’s ironic that I waited for Megan to leave for me to get my haircut, as she would have preferred me to clean up before she was there. Too bad.

Day 154

Sunday June 22nd

Today we decided to do nothing. Megan was kind of exhausting of seeing things every day or spending massive amounts of time, traveling. So we woke up kind of late and then decided to go to Lucille’s for brunch. Lucille’s is in Maadi, or little America, as I like to call it, and it supposedly has the best burgers on the planet according to time magazine. So we took the metro, an experience that I felt Megan needed anyways, and luckily for her it wasn’t that crowded. So we got there and enjoyed nacho’s and the burger and bottomless ice tea as we reminisced about the memories of the trip so that she could write them down and remember them in the future. Afterwards we decided to go see a movie, and called up Megan S, to see what was available. I voted for The Happening, because it wasn’t a chick-flick with Ryan Reynolds (the one that Megan wanted to watch). It turned out we were the only people in the theatre and that the movie was awful. It wasn’t the worst movie ever, as Megan said, but the writing and acting definitely left something to be desired. An interesting premise nonetheless. After that we took a cab back to Zamalek, where we got dinner at some place that I cannot remember for the life of me, and then made sure Megan was all packed up and ready to go.

Day 153

Saturday June 20^th

Today we did everything in Cairo that we didn’t get around to the first time. When I say everything, I mean of the stuff that I considered important to see. First, we woke up around 10 and actually got Cinnabon. It was the first time in three tries that they actually had it. We then got a taxi and headed out to the Citadel. The Citadel, afterwards I realized is geared more towards the Egyptian enthusiast, not the average tourist. For although I found the walls of Saladin awesome, and going through the Egyptian Military Museum incredibly fascinating as there were artifacts from the Officers Revolt and Maps of the conquests of Muhammad Ali and artifacts and weapons that they used, Megan was not impressed. I guess you actually have to know about Egypt to really enjoy it, and considering the Museum was filled with Egyptians only, it probably is not all that interesting to tourists like Megan. I guess I will just have to go back on my own time.

Mohammad Ali’s Mosque was still as impressive as ever, and Megan enjoyed that for the main part. We also got some shots of overlooking the city. Next we got a cab and headed back to Khan to do some final gift purchasing for Megan’s family. This meant scarves and we did pretty good at finding what we were looking for and getting the price we wanted. I really enjoyed myself at Khan, more than I have ever before.

A quite memorable experience happened as we were walking down one of the main streets in Khan. There was a large pile of dirt just blocking the way, nothing too unusual for Egypt, nonetheless kind of annoying. As I stood in front of it, pondering why the heck it was in the street, one of the store keepers noticed that I was looking at it and shrugged his shoulders in the “what can you do about it” expression. I asked “lee” or why? Pointing to the dirt, he said that it was for the streets, because they are still under construction. I shrugged my shoulders too, and walked around it, and then he said something I won’t forget. “Don’t stop smiling, this is life, what can you do, but smile.” I thought this outlook on life was very profound, and simple. I loved it, because life does give throw a lot of shit at you, a lot of which you can’t control or can’t do anything about it. Although, I don’t like the idea of just giving up and letting bad things happen in a fatalistic manner, when they can be prevented, sometimes you have done all that you can or there are things beyond your control that really suck. At that point, just smile. You can either enjoy the ups and downs as part of the experience that is life, or get mad about them and not enjoy life. Either way they are going to happen, so you might as well enjoy it. Besides, in Egypt and the rest of the world there are bigger problems that should cause you consternation, not little things like dirt in the road or noisy streets.

We went to dido’s for lunch at around 4 that day, and then napped/hung around in the apartment before going on a felucca ride at sunset. I didn’t want to pay for a cab, so we walked back to the apartment, a pleasant walk through the heart of Cairo I might add. We were on an Egyptian schedule for eating and thus went to Aubergine for dinner at around 11. The places were actually crowded at these times, as normally when we go, its empty. We got back from the food and went to bed. Tomorrow will be Megan’s last full day in Egypt. Bummer.

Day 152

Friday June 20^th

This was a day of traveling. We left at like 6 for the trek up to the bus-station but found that we weren’t moving fast enough to get there in time. So we hired a taxi to speed us up a bit. For breakfast there wasn’t any donuts. I was saddened and had to settle for a cinnamon roll. I also got some more Peach tea. I love peach tea. A lot. It’s really good.

So we loaded up on the bus, this time actually sitting next to each other and headed off for Eliat. We left at 7. We stopped at around 10 for a reststop and I found a 1.5 liter of Peach Tea for 10 NIS. I was so happy. Once again, I love Peach Tea.

We finally showed up in Eliat at around 12. The bus didn’t leave until 4, so we killed some time by heading off to the mall and getting some food there. Israel has super security and to get into the malls you have to pass through metal detectors and have people go through your bags. Since we had all our bags from the 2 weeks of traveling this would have sucked. But they pulled us aside, asked for our passports, saw that we were American, and let us go in. I love America.

Since we had a little time we also checked out my favorite store in Israel, the Celio. It has really good sales, and I was looking for more jeans and shirts. However I didn’t see anything that caught my eye. The girl working there did remember me from the last time though, which is pretty impressive. But I guess I am pretty memorable.

After catching a cab to the border, we got stuck behind a huge tour group going to Egypt. Luckily we still had like 3 hours before our bus left, so we got used to waiting. However, once through the passport control on the Israeli side we were able to cut ahead of them. Getting into Egypt was awesome. I gave the guy a big hug and told him how happy I was to be back in the states. After returning my happy greeting he looked at me, and said “I have one question for you.” Obama, good?” I responded enthusiastically, that Obama was good, and insha allah would be the next president. He was very happy to hear this.

Actually getting into Egypt was a bigger problem. The guards for some reason took our passports and held them forever, as the entire Israeli tour group passed through. I had no idea why they took so long, but they had us sit down and told us to wait. I felt as if they were just pulling our legs, but it seemed kind of weird. Eventually they gave to us and we were on our way.

We walked past all the mini-bus drivers pleading with us to have them take us. After my experiences on mini-bus’s I feel lucky to be alive, and I am not tempting fate again. We walked all the way to the bus station and bought tickets for the big safe bus. Although it was slower I felt a lot better about it. It turns out it was cheaper too as we paid the driver the entry fee of 30 each, which was down from the 55 I was expecting. I was expecting to have to pay the rest when we stopped at the checkpoint, but we just blew right by. So that worked out well.

The bus station was a really enjoyable experience. The bus station manager was really nice and funny and we had a good time with each other. I told him that Megan was the “weather that belongs to me,” the Arabic slang term for your girlfriend, and he really enjoyed that I knew the phrase. Megan still doesn’t like me using that phrase as she doesn’t like the idea of belonging to anybody, even after I explained that it translates to the idea “that she means the world, or everything to me.”

During the whole trip I learned a lot. In that way it was a very rewarding vacation. I really enjoyed being around Megan, as she really tells it you straight and although we had some, okay lots, of communication issues, she was able to teach me a lot about myself. Megan has grown up a lot sense I last hung out with her, she’s a much more independent and competent on her feet. She really feels like she has a handle on the world and how to interact with it. She is confident about herself and it shows in a good way. Having her around was refreshing. First, of all she didn’t put up with all my childish or stupid antics like everyone else did. When I did something stupid she let me know that it was stupid. She criticizes me, and I really love that. I like it when people criticize me, because then I take their criticism and make myself better. If people just let me slide by doing the same stuff, I’ll never get any better and I would hate that. She also made me realize how much I still have to grow up. She made me realize that I need to be observant and not make assumptions about situations or what people are thinking or planning on saying. I thought that I had grown up a lot in Cairo or that I would grow up a lot, but having her around made me realize that I hadn’t really changed that much. I still act childish in a lot of ways and don’t take responsibility for a lot things. I let things slide that aren’t academics. I realize that the only real growing up I have done is in academics. However, because of this trip I have taken an important step forward. I have realized that I am not observant and that I need to grow up, and because of this realization I can start to improve it. Also I figured out what I want to do after I graduate. I had been mulling over it a lot, but now I am sure in my desires. It’s something that should be talked about in person though.

Finally getting back into Cairo, we went and got McDonalds because Megan was really craving it. It’s also quick, fairly cheap, and something that you should try while you are in Egypt. After eating, we collapsed in the room.

Day 151

Thursday June 19^th,

After realizing just how much stuff we did yesterday, we decided to take today much slower. I tried to sleep in as much as I could, but sleeping on the roof means it gets hot and noisy and you can’t really sleep past 8. So we got ourselves ready and headed out for another exciting day. Since both of us had already seen the Dead Sea Scrolls, we opted on not going all the way out to the Museum, so instead we headed to the Tower of David where we spent the morning looking at the History of the Jerusalem. They even had this little movie with terrible animation that Megan feel asleep in. The Tower of David refers to a whole fort complex that was used to defend Jerusalem. Now apparently it is used for parties and weddings as when we were walking around they were decorating for what looked like a wedding. For lunch we strolled over to the park beneath the old city found some benches and enjoyed more thai food. It was peaceful and relaxing and I kind of wanted to just take a nap there. But there was still more to do and see, so we headed back to the Old City and checked out the Western Wall. I got hassled three times here for money, which I thought outrageous and kind of disrespectful and the holiest site in Judaism. There was another party going on, and we used the opportunity to take lots of pictures of people, including the orthodox jews, the 18 year old soldiers with guns, and the citizen militia with their WWII era rifles. Didn’t quite understand their story for being there. I did use the opportunity to write another note and stick it in the wall. I wrote it in English, and realizing I knew all the words in Arabic also wrote it in Arabic, thinking well maybe it will have a better chance of being heard if its got more languages. The irony of putting a prayer in Arabic into the holiest spot in Judaism only dawned on me after the fact. Oh well, I don’t think God will care what language it’s in.

After that, or before, the timeline isn’t quite clear to me, we did a lot of shopping. Not for me this time, I had bought enough stuff in Jerusalem before. So this time it was much more relaxing as I didn’t actually have to spend any money. So we picked up a bunch of stuff for Megan’s family and generally had a good time shopping. I really enjoy shopping with Price, not quite sure why, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders, is money-savy in that she spends it, but not too excessively, unlike me which generally errors on spending too little. Then again, I have made some pretty extravagant purchases on this trip. For dinner we looked around for the pizza place that I had last time, found that it was closed, and so went to the pizza place that Lonely Planet recommends. It was really good food and we ate outside right next to the 3^rd station of the cross. Jerusalem is nutty. By this time it was getting late, and knowing that we had to wake up early, we turned in for the night.

Day 150

Wednesday June 18^th

Once again, I forced Megan to wake up early so that we could get ready and head off to the Dome of Rock. We showed up there at about 7:30, 30 minutes before it opened. This was a good sign, as before they would always say it was closed. When 8:00 rolled around, they opened the gates and after walking through a small room with about 8 guys with M-4’s and body armor, we went up through the tunnel and into the Noble Sanctuary. This was amazing for me, as I had been learning about this place since Freshmen year in college and had at least 3 classes spend serious amounts of time on this spot alone. It was gorgeous and all that it was cracked up to be. The Dome of Rock is a gorgeous building and just like everyone said they wouldn’t let us enter for even look into it. They also wouldn’t let look into the Al-Aqsa Mosque which also disappointed me. How would they even know, without asking me that I wasn’t Muslim. Granted the camera and the guidebook might have given it away, but I still feel slightly shafted. After that we headed back to the David Street and started looking at hostels. We finally settled on the Citadel Hostel, where we could sleep on the roof for 30 NIS and had a breathtaking view of Dome of the Rock and Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We wandered back to the Golden Gate, got our stuff, checked out and got set up at our new digs. Afterwards we embarked on the walking tours of walking tours, starting with the Room of the Last Supper and David’s Tomb. These I had seen before, and found a little bit easier the second time. Afterwards we checked out the highly depressing Chamber of the Holocaust Museum, where we saw man’s inhumanity to man. I think the most interesting thing I saw in the museum was a letter that accompanied some gruesome photo’s taken by a US army solider who believed that without photo evidence people would never believe that this could have happened. It was simply too grotesque. The letter said that we should never forget that the people who were responsible for these acts were put to stop by men of higher morals. It reminded me of the line, that the greatest evil is for good men to stand by as evil is committed. It spoke to me, called to me, to be man of higher moral and give truth to the claim that this shall never happen again, through more than just words and thoughts but by action.

After this saddening visit, we wandered over to the Church of All Nations and the Garden of Gethsemane. This was Megan’s favorite site in Jerusalem and you could tell from the way she talked about it and recreated the scene for me from the Bible. We then checked out the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and then headed up the Mount of Olives, seeing the thousands of tombs that cover the mountain. We ended up looking for the Church of Ascension, but only found the Russian and Muslim version. These either were closed or cost money. We did find a group of Mormon’s who were extremely nice and I think wanted to convert us. If I had picked up on that earlier I would have told them that I am Muslim, just for experimental purposes. I feel like I could have pulled it off.

Wandering back down the Mount of Olives we stopped for a water break and enjoyed just overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, chatting about our experiences and life in general. Finally we got up the energy and headed down the Mountain, got another picture of Church of All Nations, had a downright awful encounter with a bathroom attendant, and then headed back to the Old City.

Here we ended up coming right upon the first station of the cross. So we decided to follow the stations, and I wiped out the book and relayed to Megan what happened at each spot. We made our way much easier than before and even found the hidden 9^th station. At the 9^th station we also found something else we were not expecting.

This Arab man came up to us and asked us if we were Christian. Rather than answer that I was in the somewhere in the Middle, I just answered I was Christian as did Megan, because you know she is. This made the man extremely happy, and then he told us that he was from Egypt. When I told him that I too lived in Egypt, he became very very happy and gave me a big-hug. He then insisted on showing us around for no money. Being a little bit skeptical of such situations, we agreed hesitantly. He took us over and showed us from the roof into a church below, which I didn’t really understand what we were looking at. Then he showed insisted on showing us what he called the Jordan River. Now I wasn’t too sure if it was the Jordan river, but rolled up our pant legs and took us down these creepy looking stairs to what opened up into a large underground cave filled with water. There appeared to be a church underneath the water or some time or ruins, there also appeared to be a body, but no closer inspection turned out to be a statue of some kind. The water wasn’t exactly clear and there wasn’t a lot of light to really make it out. Anyways, our friend who took Megan’s hand to help her down, after earnestly asking me if it was okay, took us down to the banks and washed our arms and feet in the water. It was weird and hilarious. He then took us up and got pictures with us, which are no prominently displayed, on Picasa. He wanted to give us bottles of water, but Megan thinking that he wanted us to drink the water, and not wanting to get left down here while he went in search of water decided it was time to go so he told him we had to meet our friends at the Church and that we had to go. He took us up, and it turns out his other buddies made us pay a total of 2 NIS each because we took photos. Not that much, and the guy apologized for it. When we were leaving he was still trying to get us to get Tea or Coffee. I couldn’t tell if he really was just friendly or maybe a little bit off. I feel most Egyptians are a little bit off, maybe because they don’t get enough sleep or just aren’t well educated. Then again, I wouldn’t like them as much if they were so cut-and-dry like Westerners. I think their eccentric nature is what makes them so fun.

Anyways, the guy also kept saying that he loves us, and giving us hugs. At the end he said it one more time, and looked at us expectantly. Megan, in an almost motherly manner, responded with the “we love you too” and he got really happy again and gave us more hugs. We would later see this guy around through our stay in Jerusalem and we would have to change routes or walk slowly as to not actually meet up with him again. Although he was really friendly, we told him we were leaving that day so it would have just been awkward.

Finally making it to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, we finished the stations of the cross by climbing Golgotha and then heading over to Jesus’ tomb. We got in line and waited our turn to go in. I don’t think we were in the right mood for a proper religious experience because of A. the entire incident that happened at the 9^th station, and B. we were standing beside these guys who were also just up on Golgotha and were having a good time, but didn’t really know what they were doing. So when it was our turn, we were allowed into the antechamber, where the guy’s camera died. I told him how much that sucked, and then the usher told us to be quite. As we were chilling in the antechamber waiting for the people to clear our of the tomb room, Megan almost caught on fire as she got too close to the candles. It was pretty funny, and definitely threw off and religious vibes we were going for. So the people before us, finally came out, continuing with their prayers and prostrations and we entered in. The other guys and Megan (who had my camera) all started taking pictures with their phones or with their cameras. After about 20 seconds, the guy who just broke his camera, looked around, and simply said “huh,” and kind of nodded his head in that semi-interested, not quite sure what to think of it way. It summed up the entire experience perfectly. After leaving the tomb, all I could do was laugh about the whole ordeal.

For dinner we wandered out of the old city looking for something interesting and found thai food. So we got that and headed back to the Square at the corner of Jaffa Road and the Old City and ate our thai food in Jerusalem. I love globalization. Also at the Thai place, we meet David, my friend from AUC who was the Palestine expert and was actually staying at the same hostel on the roof just like us. Small world.

Day 149

Tuesday June 17^th

Today was a day of traveling. I knew there was a 9:00 bus to the border crossing of Taba. I knew that it was about 25 pounds. Taxi drivers were offering to take us there for 300 pounds each. This would have been way to expensive, albeit much faster. I had not become a fan of buses in my two days of rest, and if the price had been a bit lower I might just have taken it. However, we didn’t, so we showed up there at about 7:45 and bought tickets to Taba. We meet our nameless fellow American traveler there who knew much about Jerusalem, as he spends ever summer in Israel and recommended a few places for us. The Bus didn’t get into Taba until about 1:30. Which means we would have to take the last bus out of Eliat to Jerusalem at 5. After crossing through border control and getting asked a few more questions, because I had come back so recently since my last visit, we got a taxi and headed off to the bus station. Here we got our bus tickets and waited around. During this time, I learned that our friend had a friend who was related to the Debartolo Family, who basically owned one of the major quads at Notre Dame, and also that being a guy is awesome.

The bus finally came and we headed out to Jerusalem on a very crowded bus. It was so crowded that we couldn’t sit together and apparently Megan had to deal with some other goon trying to sleep on her. I just had to deal with bitchy Israeli teens that thought they were entitled to the world or something. This is one thing I love about Egypt. Most people have a humble sense about them, and don’t complain about the little things in life. There are no teens who are angry at the parents or people who get upset simply because they get stuck without a bus seat. This is life, and complaining about it doesn’t do any good. To the most part I agree with them, there are far too many big things to get bugged about than life’s little inconveniences.

We didn’t arrive in Jerusalem until about 9. After walking the 30-45 minutes to the Old City we finally just picked out the closet, cheap double so we could have a place to collaspe in relative comfort. The Golden Gate Inn was our choice, and they gave us a family size room with bathroom for 80 NIS each. Not that bad.

Day 148

Monday June 16^th

After a long night out, we slept late, giving ourselves just enough time to make the end of breakfast. We then got suited up for the day and headed down to the other beach where the reefs where. The Red Sea is cold when you first jump in, and then immediately warms up to you. It is still salty as ever, as if you swallow any it makes you feel as if you are about to throw up. We picked up some snorkel gear, but found on our first try the Red Sea to be surprisingly lacking in fish, especially when they said June and July are the times to for the fish. But we had the gear for the day, so we dried off in the sun and then headed back for lunch. We got back and hung out on the beach until about 3:00, when we tried again. This time there was a bunch of fish. Not the tons and tons that I expected but more than enough. There were some really pretty ones with many different colors around the sea. The whole thing made me reminiscent of the first time I was there and made me wonder about when the next time I might be there. I wonder with many of these places if I will ever get to see them again, or of the places I have been in the past, If I will ever get to see them. During this time I also finished the Alchemist. A very good book, that I would recommend to pretty much anybody looking for some guidance in life. Since I can never return to the same place again, just like how you can never step in the same river twice, the lesson is too enjoy each experience in the present. To not worry about the past for the future and what you were and what you will be. At the same time, I would say that living in the present, is just like the rest of life, about striking a balance. You can’t just hope the future will be okay, or not worry about it. Plans need to be made for the future and goals set, but don’t let worrying about who you will be and what might happen effect enjoying life for the moment. For you never know, when you might not have another moment to enjoy. At the same time, you must also not forget about the past, you must learn from your mistakes or your triumphs so that you can create a better present. But the key thing is to remain centered on the present to be observant of everything going around you, (signs of the past and signs of the future) in order to make the best out of today. I guess the life-lesson can be simplified to, be confident and smile.

Later that night, we didn’t really feel like doing much, so we just kind of hung around Sol Y Mar, soaked up the sun and enjoyed life. For next morning once again we were getting up awful early to go the bus station.

Day 147

Sunday June 15th

We finally made it to sharm at about 11 in the morning. We promptly got a taxi and headed to the hotel. Once there, they must have given our original room away, because I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a queen or two doubles, and it turned out we got both. A queen and two doubles. Megan naturally got the queen, and I got stuck on one of the doubles.

The Sol y Mar hotel was amazing. The only downside was that the drainage in the shower was awful, so lets just say we could tell from the water all the dirt that we were getting off our body. It was pretty gross.

Other than that it was amazing, probably more so because of the fact that anything was amazing after the bus ride from hell. Our first plan was going eating, which was delicious and then we headed to the free beach. Here we just lounged around and did absolutely nothing. I read a little, had a stella and generally believed that life could not get any better. When it got too hot we would go down and cool off in the red sea, and then come back and lounge around some more. We didn’t really go swimming, as we were much too tired for that. We ended up leaving the beach and spending more time hanging out in Sol y Mar hotel where we could continue to lounge around.

After dinner, we went down to Naama Bay, to check out the town and eventually head to a club or something. In Naama Bay, Megan turned the tables on the hagglers as the first one gave her a free necklace. I think he also offered me 3 million camels for her, and as we learned from our guides in Aswan that a camel is worth about $1900 dollars, I gladly accepted the 3 million. I was later disappointed when he actually did not have 3 million camels to offer me. 3 Million Camels would have helped my monetary situation out greatly. However, in the next few places whenever they wanted us to sign their guestbook or whatever, Megan would ask for something for her. We ended up walking away with a necklace and 2 free little perfume things. It was a pretty good outing. However, the last one, when we really had no interest in buying something, seemed to bug the guy, so we called it a victorious night, and started the search for a good place to hangout. Eventually we settled on the Pacha Bar, supposedly the best club in Egypt. We got in at cheaper then expected, and once inside we, or I at least, was amazed by how nice and big it was inside. It was very different than the Big Easy, and apparently it is considered the number 54 club in the entire world. Unfortunately, for us the music was funky house, which I consider some of the worst club music ever. I didn’t know what to do with it. They didn’t play a single song I knew, and the whole experience was kind of awkward. Oh well, it was nonetheless an experience.

Day 146

Saturday June 14^th

This was our big day to see the West Bank of Luxor, featuring the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings. We had some more amazing people in our tour group, including Sandar, who was really excited about seeing everything. He was just really happy to be alive in general, it seemed, and he was a riot to be around. He was very talkative and energetic and he made the experience much more enjoyable. We also met Andrew, a GWU student studying abroad in the Middle East who was taking vacation in Egypt. We met another student who traveling around the world for the summer. Pretty sweet people all-in-all. They had lots of interesting stories, and makes me wonder if I should be getting out more and seeing more. Probably.

The first place we visited, wasn’t memorable enough for me to remember the name. They were some ruined giant statues out in a field. It felt kind of random and underwhelming. Nevertheless, we did the typical tourist thing, jump out of the van, ignore the hagglers, take a bunch of pictures, look at it a little while, and then jump right back in the van. We then headed off to the Valley of Queens. Here we got to go down to tombs and they were alright, but really they were just a build-up for the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a huge complex with many different tombs. It would easily be a day just in itself, however with the ticket you only get to see 3 tombs. Luckily the three primary tombs, or maybe that’s just what the guide implied, are the tombs right by the entrance. So we got to wander into these muggy rooms and look at all the beautiful cravings and what not. Sandar knew a little bit about Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics and so he shared that information with us.

The main event of the day was the Temple of Hatshepsut, an absolutely amazing and huge temple to Queen Pharaoh Hatshepsut, who was one of the longest ruling women in Egyptian history. This was also the site of the first terrorist attack in Egypt, a sad event that scares the beauty of this massive temple. Adding to the imposing nature of the temple, are the canyon walls that surround the temple. These vertical cliffs climb 100’s of feet over the Temple, a clear reason why the Ancient Egyptians chose this spot. However, by this time, the summer heat was sweltering and after purchasing a delicious bottle of cold water we loaded back into the hot car and headed back to the hotel.

At the hotel we had a good couple hours before we had to catch the bus to sharm. So we followed some of our new friends to this supposed great and cheap place to eat around the corner. It turns out that it was more than just around the corner and it was a rather crowded, disorderly experience. However, it was fun getting some unknown but delicious black melon juice from the juicer across the street and then getting some authentic Egyptian food and authentic Egyptian prices. Always a plus. Rather waiting around for our food for awhile, another authentic Egyptian experience, we headed off to the hotel and hung out around the pool for a little bit before getting everything together and meeting Walid downstairs.

Now here is where the real fun began. Walid had been pulling my leg since the day we met him. Now he was telling us that there was no ferry and that it was a 16 hour bus ride to Sharm. This was basically my worst nightmare. I had repeatedly asked at Safir travel when I was setting this up about the 4 hour bus-ride to Sharm,that included the Ferry. I had no intention of taking a bus, as the one from Cairo to Sharm is awful enough and I knew one from Luxor would be unbearable. I even checked with Walid when we got down there just to make sure everything was good. Now he was telling me there we were stuck on it. I didn’t believe him. I still didn’t believe him when he gave us the tickets, and there was no ferry ticket and when the Bus station manager said we were supposed to arrive in Sharm, sometime around 11 the next day. When he was finally able to convince me I was livid. I hated bus-rides, and 16 hours would be more than awful. Not only did this mean we were paying for a night in sharm that we didn’t get to use, but it meant that people had lied or to me or where just dumbasses. Either way, we suffered for other people’s piss-poor performance. If I had known, I would have just paid the little bit more and flown to Sharm. This was outrageous.

The bus ride was all that it was cracked up to be. Walid called us about three hours in, and we found out we were moving at a snail’s pace. He had been in the same town 30 minutes after he left. (He was going to Cairo too, but on his motorbike). Shortly thereafter they started playing the Quran. Playing the Quran means listening to somebody chant the Quran on high volume, in a way that seems beautiful at first, but after hour 2 you can’t take it anymore. By hour 8, I wanted to stab by ears out. The earplugs didn’t work well enough to block out the sound, and it was starting to get cold and the cramped conditions didn’t allow for very good sleep. Luckily, I was tired enough that my body overcame my ears and mind and forced by body to sleep. Part of that sleep was on Megan, and apparently I am not too comfortable, as everytime the bounce would bounce, (like every 10 seconds) my head would bounce on her shoulder. I gave that up after awhile.

Day 145

Friday June 13^th

Today started off way too early. We woke up at 3:00 in order to catch the convoy heading down to Abu Simbel. Ever since the terrorist attacks in Luxor, the Egyptian government has increased the security of their precious tourist sites. So with Abu-Simbel being so close, 60 km, from the war-zone of Sudan, they make sure all the busses leave together in a convoy. After dragging ourselves downstairs and into the bus, we got good seats in the front with lots of leg-room, and settled down to have a good 3 hour nap. However, after we arrived at the convoy, we were interrupted by another tour-guide who needed a group of two in his bus. Since we were the only group of two, we had to give up our perfect seats and sprint, literally sprint, over to another bus, where we were forced to sit in the Middle fold-down chairs, where the back rest only went to your middle back, and there wasn’t any foot-room or place to rest your head. Basically there was no way were going to be comfortable much less sleep. However, we did get to eavesdrop on a conversation held by two knowledgeable people of Egypt, and although I didn’t learn any actionable information I was able get an idea of how the smart tourist travels in Egypt.

The convoy was the biggest joke ever. I never saw a police presence, and we were spread out and passing other busses. It didn’t make me feel secure at all. In fact, I feel like it would help the terrorists, because they know that every day busses will be passing on this road at 4:00 AM. What better place to camp out? I never thought much of Egyptian security though.

Abu Simbel itself was kind of disappointing. Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe because we no longer had a tour group, it made it less informative. Maybe because we already saw the awe of Karnak temple that this seemed not as dramatic. I mean don’t get me wrong, these are some big impressive statues. But was it the best place in Egypt, hardly. After walking around with our guide-book, Megan and I found our Australian friends who had just shown up and were also without a tour-group. However, not wanting to through it all again, we just picked out a bench that overlooked Lake Nasser and hung out and waited. We made sure we were the first people back to the bus, so that we wouldn’t get stuck with the crappy middle-seats. This was a successful endeavor, although sleeping on the way back did not prove so successful. It was bouncy, loud, warm, and I think my shoulder is too small of a pillow for Megan’s head.

After getting back to Aswan, we were taken around to the same sites as before. First, the tour-group that we were stuck with went to the High Dam. Not wanting to spend the six pounds to see it again, we got dropped off and bought some cold water instead. We hung around for awhile, and then the bus came back, picked us up, and then we headed off to Philae Temple. Luckily we didn’t have to wait around for the couple hours that the Temple takes, and the bus took us back to the hotel. We got dropped off around 1, walked down past the biggest Mcdonalds I had ever seen and were once again the only people eating lunch at this really nice restaurant along the Nile. We started the walk back, avoiding people who wanted to take us on a Felluca ride or carriage ride. We saw the street cleaners, which consisted of a 30 year old dude who would drive the car, get out and smoke, while the 10 year old kid would actually do the work. Kind of pisses me off.

We got back to the hotel and then headed off on the train to Luxor. This train was much faster, for some unknown reason and we slept or chatted all the way there. Arriving in Luxor, we were picked up again by Walid, who took us back to the hotel. After the enjoyable pre-arranged experience of the Nubian village, we decided to take Walid up on his offer of a romantic dinner, much to the chagrin of Megan. More importantly though, he gave us the option of transportation, either get a cab, or we can get the special deal of the motor-bike. We opted for the motorbike as it was free, but the best part of it was definitely cruising through Luxor as Egyptians and Tourists alike turned their heads as we cruised by. Dinner was delicious, although slightly awkward. If we were trying to go for romantic, it would be have been thrown by the fact that since we were the only people there, we had 4 waiters around us all the time. One guy’s sole job was to replace the tiny candle they had on the table every 30 minutes when it was about to burn out. You would think they would just get a bigger candle, but no. Walid returned, and finally became aware that we were just friends, which clarified things for him a bit. After dinner we took a drive around town, which was incredible, and then headed off to the local bar/lounge thing, where we listened to an Egyptian women sing old-fashioned music. A cute elderly couple danced to it, and Walid asked Megan to dance. Apparently, Walid is not the best dancer, but I give him props for trying. It’s not music that I would ever want to dance to.

Walid would later show us the club which looked nice and fun, but we were simply to exhausted from traveling to want to stay up any later. So we hopped back on the bike and headed to the apartment, where we found another club, that was empty and had people desperately wanting us to stay. However, instead we called it a night and went to bed after a long day.

Day 144

Thursday, June 12^th

After waking up god-awful early, earlier for Megan as she had to change and shower and stuff, we headed down for the breakfast. It turned out this was free and there was much rejoicing. By 7, we were heading out to the train station, only to find out it was delayed and were stuck there for awhile. It ended up that were stuck there about 2 hours. For these two hours we just sat in the heat, thinking about how we could have gotten up later and watched as a guy cleaned the sidewalk with a giant palm branch. Walid and his friend showed up later and joked with me that we had missed our train. I fell for it and got defensive. They would continue to pull my leg for our entire trip.

The Train-ride itself wasn’t all that bad. We got to see a lot of poverty and farmland. It was kind of depressing. It was slow though, and we didn’t get down to Aswan for another 3 hours. We arrived unable to find the representative again. I believe the name we finally saw that was supposed to be me was Allan Walters, or Waters. It was pretty far off. Anyways, we walked over to our hotel got set up and then went to see the Philae Temple and the High Dam. The Aswan High Dam, was interesting for me, due to my research and the environmental effects it has reeked on Egypt. The Philae Temple was definitely the best part, as you have to take a boat to the Island Temple and wander about it for a long-time as a guide speaks in a heavy Arabic accent, which I could understand perfectly fine, but apparently other people had serious trouble with. I guess I can count that as one victory for me, being able to understand heavy Arabic accented English. Great.

However, the real fun in aswan came after the temple, as we went on a nile cruise to a Nubian Village for dinner. On the cruise, the guide picked us up some Stellas and we got to hang out with the Australian gang of tourists who were making their eventual way towards Ireland, where they were going to work for a year. Talk about a random life-plan, but one that I really liked. After having some adorable local river kids cling onto our boat and sing us songs, which we eventually gave small fakka too, we stopped in what kind of looked like a disgusting part of the nile, and jumped in. The Nile was really cold. I wasn’t expecting it to be so cold. I mean it wasn’t all that bad, but in Southern Egypt I was expecting the water to be you know, warmer then the Lakes of Idaho. After quickly climbing out, the warm Egyptian wind felt amazing. We then crossed to the other side of the Nile and jumped in again. The Egyptian guides also jumped in with us, stripping down to their boxers and just jumping over board. It was a lot of fun.

We then continued our trek up the nile to the Nubian Village. Although, I question just how authentic the Nubian experience was, as it looked like it was geared for the stereotypical tourist experience, the food and the company was incredible. One of the main attractions was a tiny crocodile. Megan wanted a picture with it, but not to actually touch it, and when she got close, the Egyptian jerked it suddenly to her, making her scream and everyone else laugh. Awesome.

The ride back was relaxing, as it was nighttime and we hung out under the few stars, getting back to our hotel room at around 11, only to have to wake up in about 4 hours.

Day 143

Wednesday June 11^th

The morning consisted of a little bit of panic as we got ready. I was initially under the impression that we would fly into Aswan, then go to Abu-Simbel, and then go to Luxor, before heading off to Sharm. However, looking at the flight plan, it said we were going to Luxor first. Now, I didn’t think much of this, assuming that we were just doing something a little bit different, but the Megans insisted that I call and make sure that everything was okay. First, I had to get more credit, which I am glad I was able to buy at Metro, because traveling with a phone that has no money is kind of worthless. So after checking everything out, and also almost accidentally 14. LE Evian bottled water, because of the shitty Metro labels, we were off to the airport once again. Despite traffic, we arrived with plenty of time, checked our bags, and sat down across from the first of many enjoyable and friendly travelers we would meet on our vacation. The Edwards. Although I forgot their first names, this young couple, was also heading down to Luxor but just staying in Luxor for the same time were in all three places, and then also heading off to Sharm where they were staying in the Ritz-Carlton. Nice.

When the plane was ready for us, we all loaded up onto one of those big buses, which then shuttled us all of 100 feet to the airport. It would have taken less time just to walk door to door. The plane was extremely nice again, not like the EgyptAir stories you here, where there is no food and people standing in the aisles because they sold more tickets than seats. The service was superb, and the lady was also amused when I ordered in Arabic. I don’t know if its because my accent is so funny, or because I am a white-dude speaking quasi-arabic, but many people are amused by my failing attempts to speak the language.

After touching down and not initially finding our “representative” who was supposed to meet us at the airport, the Edwards offered to have us stay at their hotel, which was extremely generous, but we did eventually find our guy, named Walid, who Megan knew from first sight was going to be a really nice guy. After showing up in the hotel, we got about an hour to get settled down and then headed off to see Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. Walid also repeatedly asked us if we would like a romantic dinner, which we did not take him up on, opting to do our own exploring on the town.

Karnak Temple was absolutely amazing. It was my favorite spot in Eygpt, simply because of the immensity of the whole thing. It was enormous, and we had a great guide who explained everything clearly and also told us how it once looked. In its glory-times it was covered in white alabaster with full color engraving and obelisks capped in silver and gold. It must have been amazing. Luxor Temple, although not as impressive as Karnak also featured some impressive statues and engravings. It was large although not as large. Apparently in the future, they are going to reconnect to two temples to make the world’s largest outdoor museum.

The people who we took the tour with were also really nice. There was a daughter and dad from Colorado, but the girl was a student at the University of Washington, and was studying abroad at AUC as well. She spoke really good Arabic. There was also a grad-student dude who had spent some time in Ethiopia and was now just traveling by himself. Crazy.

For dinner, we consulted the guidebook, and walked through Luxor to a famous restaurant. We were haggled most of the time by taxi’s and carriages. We did stop by the Winter Palace, a really nice hotel, with amazing gardens in the back. It was ridiculous, and it would have been awesome to stay there as long as we were not paying for it. The other notable event that happened on our walk was when some dude asked me for help in trying to write a letter to some friends of his in England. I naturally wanted to help, but the story became more and more weird the more we found out and Megan didn’t like the feel of it at all, so on her prompting we declined and eventually found the restaurant. At first we were the only people in the restaurant, until another tour-group showed up. We ordered Egyptian pizza and crappy milkshakes, and surprised the waiter when we asked for separate checks, and he realized we were just friends.

Leaving the restaurant, we then got sucked into a store where I haggled the guy for a scarf. Achieving the price I wanted, I felt victorious although a little ruthless. We really didn’t budge off the price we wanted, which kind of bummed out the seller. But oh well.

Finally we got back to the hotel room, and I took the first shower. When I got done, Megan had already passed down facedown on the bed, and had no intention whatsoever of moving or even changing. So after watching the X-Files, to see if she was just napping, or actually passed out, I set my alarm for six am, so she could have enough time to shower, and then went to sleep myself.

Day 142

Tuesday June 10^th

Today we got up early, like around 7:30 and headed off to the Pyramids. We tried to get breakfast at Cinnibon, but were amazed when they said they didn’t have any ready and wouldn’t for another 30 minutes. This was at 8:15. I guess Cairo doesn’t really start up until about 10. So we left hungry, ate some of Megan’s cliff-bars and then jumped into a taxi that took us along the most round-about way to the Pyramids. We were driving on dirt roads and dogging donkey cars. Before, I wasn’t sure if Megan was going to see how the majority of Egyptians live as we were sticking to mainly the tourist hotspots. Little, did I know, this would be just the first among many of experiences with the abject poverty that defines Egypt.

More annoyingly, the cabbie who I think during the entire cab-ride there was trying to set it up so he would take us back, which I think I kept refusing, took us to meet his friend, who was a tour-guide and wanted to show us the pyramids. When this happened, I curtly explained that the wanted the door only, and nothing else. So after this little affair, we ended up walking up towards the Pyramids by the Sphinx. A pretty spectacular road I must say, as the history is almost palpable. So we headed off to the main Pyramid and surprisingly we weren’t harassed maybe because it looked like we knew what we were doing and what we wanted.

After goofing around the Pyramid for a little while, we tried to get into in, only to find that the tickets were sold out already. I guess we were supposed to show up earlier, but no matter, we headed off to the second one which was much cheaper. The Pyramid itself, must have been made by midgets because the crawl space down was back-breaking low. Plus, it was god-awful hot, and definitely had a smell about it. After descending into the Pyramid for what must have been like 30 meters, we found ourselves in a small room with another ramp leading up. This ramp was equally tiny and this time we were heading up. We finally got to the main room to find ourselves in a crowded, although fairly large room that was sweaty, smelly, and featured a large sarcophagus. I believe, a little boy attributed the smell to dead people. There was also a young lady being fanned by two African males who were chanting to her, in what seemed like some-kind of spiritual, religious activity. It was weird.

He headed back out and emerged to find some overweight women who were about to try and make their way down. I felt bad for them, and for the people who would have to try and get out at the same time they were trying to get down. They definitely would fill the passage. Anyways, we picked up Megan’s camera from the Guard, and headed off to find some Camels.

As we were leaving we meet our first persistent haggler, who wanted us to take a picture of him, or something. I remember refusing and making up some lame excuse. He did however offer 5,000 camels for Megan, which I thought was a pretty good amount. I didn’t know of anybody being offered more than 2000. I was pretty impressed. After he gave up, we walked around the second pyramid and found a guy who would take us on a camel ride. As usual, we ended up getting a cheap first price, then he were charged for the guides, and then tip ontop of that. Luckily it was still all within reason. They took us off and we headed off into the desert. Megan was wearing a skirt, which worked well in the heat, but not so much on a camel. I probably should have told her we would be riding a camel when she was getting ready, but I didn’t. Oh well. Anyways, the camel guys took us about, got a picture of us “shaking hands.”

After taking the pictures we headed back, paid the men and then walked around the third pyramid. After taking a little break for snacks and water, he walked back towards the Sphinx, where we hung out some more, tried to get a picture of Megan kissing the Sphinx, which ultimately turned out kind of funny. Finally, feeling kind of tired and hungry, we decided to go for lunch. However, I didn’t know where to pick up the taxi’s so I asked a soldier, who showed me to his friend who showed me to his friend, who eventually ended up taking us back to Midan Tahrir, downtown Cairo, in just a regular light blue, fiat, that was the definition of a hooptie, and I was thankful just to make it back to downtown.

Downtown we meet up with Courtney and Megan S. at Koshery-tahrir, or K-tah as we call it, so Megan could get a taste of authentic Egyptian food. I also had her try some beloved Apple Fanta, forgetting that she usually doesn’t drink/like soda. Oh well, it just means I got more of it.

After sneaking Megan into the school, and by sneaking just relying on the guards lackadaisical nature not to check our ID’s, we jumped on the internet and printed off the reservation for Sharm. We then got a cab and headed off to Khan. Khan to me was a frustrating sea of hagglers and swindlers, a life-draining tourist trap, that is hardly enjoyable, but nonetheless necessary to buy quintessential Egyptian merchandise. We were looking for a scarf for Megan so she could go to the Mosques and what not. I also picked up one for my Mom. Khan, and Egyptian culture soon wore me out, so we started checking out the Islamic Cairo, meaning the Gates and the Mosques. Since I had taken the class on Islamic Cairo, I was designated the tour guide, and was forced to put my knowledge to the test. I am not sure if they cared at all about the interesting facets of the architecture but I gave it to them and used the guidebook to give them the important dates and architects.

This being my third time checking out these Mosques, I grew tired quickly, luckily so did everyone else, and we soon called it a day and headed off to some quality Italian food at Dido’s. I love cheap food, so Dido’s is always a must stop. The next day we were heading off to Luxor, so we went home packed and feel asleep.

Day 141

Monday June 9^th,

Well today is a pretty big day. Megan arrives. Unfortunately, yesterday, I left the ac adapter for my computer at the DDC, so I had to wake up earlier to catch the bus down there and then catch a taxi from there to the airport. The carbide over was quite enjoyable. The cabbie and I talked all about Egypt, traffic, and life. I think my Arabic amused him. I showed up the airport about the same-time that her airplane was touching down. I asked a bunch of people to make sure this was the terminal where her flight was coming through, because if I was waiting at the wrong gate she would be S.O.L. Once I was sure, I staked out a good spot and began the waiting game. It took a good hour and half for her to finally show up at the gate. She said she was like the last person to go through the Passport control. Not quite sure how that happened, as she already had her visa. But whatever, I was really excited for her to be there and so we made our way back to Zamalek. The taxi cost more than I originally wanted, but at this point I just wanted to get back so we could start our vacation. Besides the cabbie was extremely friendly and pointed out everything on the way, including the Crazy Hospital, which actually looked much nicer than most of Cairo, and the security that lined the street near Mubarak’s Palace all with their backs facing the street and their faces looking at a wall. Didn’t make much sense to us, but the sheer number of security did appear imposing.

Finally back at the Apartments, we got Megan settled in and then got Lunch at Eurodeli. Eurodeli has the best fries in Cairo, as far as I am concerned, and we were trying to be extra careful with Megan’s diet so she wouldn’t get sick in the limited time that she was here. After that we took the bus down to AUC, as it was free and then went to the Egyptian Museum. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and the guidebook and I wasn’t going to pay for a guide so we just had to use my memory of the first time I went back in January. Luckily, I remembered quite a deal, and with the awful the labels were able to put together a somewhat enjoyable experience. Really, though the Egyptian Museum is very poorly done and we were dragging after the first hour.

Then we headed off to get her money exchanged in the Nile Hilton Hotel, and then wandered down the Nile and tried to find the Tabula restaurant. The traffic here was appeared crazy to Megan, and crossing the street seemed down right insane. This amused me greatly. After finding the restaurant, and being asked if we could finish in 2 hours, due to a previous reservation, we jumped in a taxi and headed back to the apartment for the night.

Day 140

Sunday June 8th, 2008

Today was a semi-productive day at the DDC. I woke up an hour earlier, didn't bother to get up for the gym, but still I consider it a success. I got breakfast and then headed off to the DDC where I got caught up on email and then started working. I started my introduction but then got stalled when I needed information about the food commodity market and the global food crisis. There is a lot of discussion about the effects and causes of the current food crisis, but there are no numbers about it. After searching through a number of articles I went to the USDA-FAS webpage and then uncovered why it was so difficult to get numbers. The commodity market is insanely complex. Everything is interconnected and intertwining and basically messed up. Megan arrives tomorrow. I heard it was raining today. I don't believe it. It hasn't rained since week one.

Day 139

Saturday June 7th

Today I had to wait around from 11-2 for a potential buyer of the apartment after we leave to come and check the place out. He never showed up. I was not surprised. However, the utility guy did show up and we owed a whopping 6 pounds for the bill. It was extreme. I happily paid him right there.
Later I went to the hospital to pick up more medicine for the tinea veriscolor, or however you spell it. Luckily my AUC insurance is still working and I didn't have to pay a dime. I was pleased. After walking back to the apartment, I went over to the gym, worked out a little, but found it way too crowded with new people. So I took an early leave got some food and watched Return of the King. I found this movie to be much worse than I remember as people were continually being dumb and getting away lucky. It just didn't make that much sense. I went to bed earlier, hoping to get an early start on the next day.

Day 138

Friday June 6th,

Since I spent Thursday doing nothing, I decided to make Friday productive and spent the entire day doing Arabic. I got about 5 drills into Chapter 4, and learned all the vocabulary. I am going to need to start a more regular schedule to keep myself on it. Other than that, I went grocery shopping and bought stuff to make sandwiches and a lot of eggs. I have food that not being hungry requires protein. Hopefully, these eggs will help in that process. The girls Megan and Courtney were getting ready to head out to Luxor and Aswan at the crack of dawn tomorrow, so I said goodbye to them and went to bed.

Day 137

Thursday June 5th,

Last night my friends that went to Dahab came back. Early this morning Jules headed home. She had some really heavy suitcases. It was nice to have my friends from the semester back with us again. Its going to be lonely without them, but with every ending comes a new beginning. Last night I also played Ultimate at the College of America-Cairo (CAC) which is basically a k-12 school for Americans and other ex-pats. It's apparently one of the best schools abroad, and it seemed like a little America. Granted, the smell and the feel of the air was still like Cairo, and soccer was still the prominent sport played, but everyone spoke English, there were girls in shorts and large open green spaces. Maadi, the neighborhood where the CAC is located, is not Egypt, it is a little America, and I enjoy it.
Thursday, was the last day Ryan was in town, so we went off to get the best fries in Zamalek at Eurodeli and basically just hung out. We didn't do much of anything other than sit around and watch bad movies on Egyptian satellite. It was relaxing. Ryan and Courtney went to dinner at the Revolving restaurant, I don't why, considering there is no booze there. I went to hardy's instead. It was much closer to my price range. After going to the dorms to get internet, we hung around in the apartment some more and watched TV. It was a pretty low-key day. I love summer.

Day 136

Wednesday June 4^th

Today has been an exercise in patience. First I had to wait around in various offices as I got the paperwork done to have my transcript sent off. After that, I tired to get internet access in the DDC, but the internet was too slow to get anything productive done. Then I had to wait around for the bus to leave, because now it is only leaving every hour on the half hour. After that, I returned to the dorms finally hoping to find some fast internet, only to find the internet not working again, even though I have an excellent signal strength and a fairly fast speed. I have been constantly fiddling with the different networks, turning on and off my computer, but nothing has worked yet.

Day 135

Tuesday June 3^rd

Today I woke up later than I wanted to and headed over the dorms. I was hoping to get started on my summer research and perhaps do some Arabic if I ever got sick of searching through papers and wanted to exercise another part of my brain. However, at the dorms I found KC and the crew from yesterday, so in the tradition of JP spent the first half of my afternoon showing these new kids around campus. I showed them where to eat, where to get a cellphone, how to cross the street, and tried to impart some of information on them. Afterwards, I went to the library only to be kicked out because it closed at 3:00. This was very disappointing, and made me value the 2:00 closing time of Notre Dame even more. I think you can judge the academic quality of a school by how late the library stays open. So I went over to Zamalek and met a bunch of people who were still around from the Spring. I went with them to a last dinner at Mason Thomas but didn’t buy anything. After that I returned to the dorm, did some laundry, washed the dishes and then read for awhile. Pretty uneventful life I am leading.

Day 134

Monday June 2^nd,

Today was actually a productive day. I went to the library and used my boss’s id to check out a bunch of books I need for the summer. They shut the library down for me, so I effectively stuck it to the man. It would have been awful if that hadn’t worked out because these books are really sweet and will be really helpful. After hanging out there with Scott, I went back to the dorm and tired to work out, but found that the gym is closed until the sixth. The man wins round two. There are very few study abroad students left from the spring and a lot of summer students are showing up. For dinner we took out KC and Alice from Notre Dame to dinner and tried to give them some information about Cairo. A group of other new students came with them and it kind of felt as if we were passing the torch on to a new generation. It also felt as if we were the experienced, hardened ones of cairo, and here were all these fresh, soft, plastics coming in. They had all the youthful bounce, where everything was new, and they didn’t really know what was going on. I am a seasoned veteran, except my Arabic still isn’t that great. Kind of unfortunate. It’s also weird to think that all these new kids are going to have similar but altogether very different experiences from us. They will have similar expeditions to the khan and take felucca rides and have similar experiences. It makes our experience, the spring semester of 2008 seem like such a drop of sand in a much larger bucket. It kind of makes me feel small and insignificant, and I should realize that I am not special for being in Cairo, but I should make Cairo special for the experiences and relationships we shared. It’s a humbling experience, but also a rewarding one. I will treasure the memories that I have made, for although they may not be special in the grand scheme of things they are special to me and those around me, and I guess that is all we can really hope for.

Day 133

Sunday June 1^st,

People are starting to leave and I see a few new people moving in. I don’t know them and they are invading my space. After once again waking up really late I spent the day moving into the apartment and saying goodbyes to people. John and Kieran left in evening, so I had to say goodbye to them. I have been collecting lots of stuff that people that needs being shipped, I also get a lot of the stuff that people don’t want anymore, so I know have tons of soap, and cleaning products and random food products. We will probably have to throw away a lot of it away. At night we played Marine Corps Monopoly in Arabic, it was incredible.

Day 132

Saturday May 31^st

I woke up ridiculously late again, but this time I think I got up before noon. It was close. Once again I went to the gym again and didn’t really do much of anything. People are starting to get ready to go and its kind of getting sad. I am trying not to think about it, because well these are not the last dinners for me in Cairo. I am stuck here for 2 more months. By the time I leave Cairo, I will have spent more continuous time here, in anyplace since high school. This is crazy. Why I have done this to myself. For dinner I decided to go big or go home and ordered the largest kushery available. Sadly, I finished it and had to stay in Cairo. Afterwards I went over to garden city, it was fun.

Day 131

Friday May 30^th

After waking up at around 12:30 in the afternoon, I really didn’t do much of anything. I went to the gym, messed around on the internet and then took a 2 hour nap. It was a pretty great day. For dinner, I think I got some McDonald’s. After that I stopped my the penthouse, as I like to call the apartment and stole the Italian Job from my roommate and then headed off to my dorm room. After watching the Italian Job, I decided to pop in another movie and watched Full Metal Jacket. I did not find the movie as negatively portraying the marine corps and military life as I did before. I guess with anything, you see what you want to see and can twist the themes and storyline to give me whatever message I want. That’s life.

Day 130

Thursday May 29th

I took my last final for Comparative Politics of the Middle East, and I wrote a lot. I think I wrote all that I had tried to remember, so hopefully that will be enough to push me through. If not, what can you do, its Egypt, and honestly there are more important things than how I do on a test. After the test, I went over to the Arabic tutoring place and signed up for my 8 hours of Arabic a week during the summer. It went smoothly, and hopefully I can start soon.

Getting back to the dorm I worked out, hopefully the start of a regular schedule of working out and then headed off to a celebratory dinner at Chilies, which Megan’s parents picked up the bill for, so thank you for that. It was very nice of you.

Following dinner, we went back to the penthouse, and played spoons and tried to play cards. However, with such a large group of people we really weren’t able to get a good game. So we watched the Bourne Identity. Man that movie is awesome, I wish I was Jason Bourne.