Sharm Pictures

Sharm el-Sheikh

This past weekend I went to Sharm el-Sheikh with two of my friends, Celeste and Laura. Sharm is located at the very tip of Sinai on the Red Sea, and is very popular with European tourists. Once again, our trip started off interesting (this seems to be a trend in Egypt). Our flight was at 11:30 pm on Thursday and as we were nearing the airport in Sharm our plane seemed to be gaining too much speed as it neared the runway. Apparently the air speed caused us to over-shoot the runway, so just before nearing the ground, the pilot quickly began an ascent. We had to fly around for another twenty minutes, the plane continuously bouncing. One of my friends almost got sick. Luckily, the second landing attempt was successful. Our plane landed about a half hour late, but we still assumed that the airport transit we'd arranged from the hotel would be waiting for us. Silly us for assuming anything would run smoothly in Egypt. Our driver was no where to be found and because Sharm is such a tourist destination, the taxis charge exorbitant prices. To go to our hotel 15 minutes away, we had to pay 80 Egyptian pounds. In Cairo to go some place 15 minutes away, it will normally be about 25 tops.

Finally we got to our hotel, Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village. We found this place in one of my guide books, and it had great ratings and prices. There are three options for rooms and because the plane ride was so expensive, we picked the budget-option called the View-Huts. To get to the view huts, you have to climb 133 stairs (yay beach-butt work-out!), once you get to the top, the view is beautiful. We had a view of the Red Sea and surrounding islands. Our hut was literally a hut, although a nice one. It was maybe at most 10ft x 10ft and we had three beds squished in there. The floor was tiled and the wall and roof were thatch. We didn't have air conditioning, just a fan, which made it a bit difficult to sleep. We did, however, have mosquito nets!! The bathrooms were communal and required us to go outside. We had flushing toilets and running water, but just barely. The showers mearly dribbled water.

The lack of luxury in our sleeping arrangements didn't really matter though, because we didn't have time to sleep. Our first full day there (Friday) we got up early, had breakfast, sat on the beach for a bit, and then arranged for a snokeling trip to Tiran Island. The speed-boat ride was terrifying! Our driver was going super fast over the waves and I felt like we were either going to flip over, or I was going to fly out of the boat! We stopped somewhere in the middle of the Red Sea and snokeled a bit. There were so many exotic fish! We then got to see a wreck on one of the reefs from the 70s caused by some drunk Russians. Once we got to Tiran Island, we were all blown away. It was gorgeous. The Island is completely uninhabited and has beautiful rock formations jutting out to sea. It was amazing seeing the desert and sea, two contrasting images, side by side. We were allowed to explore the island and swim in the crystal clear water. Later that day we had lunch, and my two friends went parasailing. In the evening we went to Naama Bay, which is right near Sharks Bay, but it has more restaurants, shops, clubs, casinos, etc. We had a delicious dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then walked around the shops a bit. It's a amzing how many Europeans vacation in Sharm. The shopkeepers were so suprised we were from America, and even more suprised when we said 'thank you' in Arabic.

The cab ride back from Naama was once again eventful. In looking for a taxi, we told the guy the name of our hotel and asked how much it would cost in Arabic. The cab driver wanted 80 pounds, but we refused and told him we'd only paid 50 to get there. We were about to walk away to find a cheaper cab down the road when the man changed his mind and offered 60. We accepted and got into the car. Apparently the driver had no idea where he was going. He only stopped to ask for directions when we told him he should. The people he asked, however, didn't understand that our hotel was named Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village. They kept saying 'this is Sharks Bay.' Finally we were semi-able to direct him and once we got to our hotel, he demanded we pay him 80 pounds because he had driven around for so long. We refused and sternly told him that we had told him the name of our hotel in the beginning and that he shouldn't have taken us if he didn't know how to get there. We shoved the 60 pounds plus a few pounds extra in his hand and scurried away.

The next morning (Saturday) we got up at 5 am to go on a camel excursion through the desert to watch the sun rise. We were led to a bedouin hut where the "bedouins" (men sleeping beside their pick-up) made us fresh pita bread and tea. We watched the beautiful sun rise as we ate and then got back on our camels. Just fyi, camel riding is painful! All of our legs/butts killed, and it felt like we'd been on an intense bike-ride for hours. We even had marks on our backs from where our spines hit the back of the saddle! Luckily, we didn't have much else planned for the day, so when we were back at the hotel (8am) we just plopped down on some beach chairs and napped.

After a day of napping and swimming, we ate dinner at our hotel where we were mistaken for doctors (because of our glasses) and asked to hang out at the beach with some Egyptian boys (whom we politely refused) and then hung out at the cafe/bedouin bar/hut. We watched the sunset and the beginning of the US-Ghana world cup game. We were the only Americans in a sea of Egyptians and they kept looking back at us and laughing when Ghana scored. Soon it was time for us to go to the airport. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 1am but when we checked in, we managed to get on a flight leaving at 11pm! Since we had school the next day, and we'd hardly gotten any sleep, this was wonderful news!

The Land of Luxor

This past weekend, four of my friends and I flew down to Luxor. We left Thursday night around 9pm and arrived in Luxor just after 10. Since we were splurging on the flight, we had decided to rough it a little in a very cheap hotel. The hotel sent a van to pick us up, which began the strangeness of this trip. The driver was very nice, but kept talking on the phone and at some point stopped on the side of the road. He appologized and said something about the hospital and we waited in the van for a little while. Eventually, another man showed up and popped in the passenger seat in front. Apparently this was the person we had been waiting for...Anyway, we continued our drive to the hotel, dropped off the man who had just gotten in and picked up and dropped off another person. The driver then pulls onto a small dirt road with houses on it in surrounded by cornfields. Stray dogs begin chasing our vehicle and we eventually stop in front a beautiful house...Apparently there was some confusing with the hotel booking in that when we booked a room for 5 people we thought we would get a room at the hotel for 5 people. The hotel, however, thought this meant we wanted the "flat," which is where we were, which consisted of this whole house to ourselves. The flat was gorgeous. It had beautiful decorations, nice bedrooms, two kitchens, and a rooftop terrace, however this was not where we were supposed to be. The flat was located on the complete opposite side of the river than the actual hotel and we were in the middle of nowhere. To top that, the houses caretaker, Muhammad (who seemes sweet) would be sleeping downstairs in the hallway (a little creepy), and he didn't even know the street we were on or the phone number of the hotel. Oh yeah, and there were little lizards on the walls and the lights were flickering and eventually went out! So yeah, luckily we had the number for the hotel and called them and told them we had thought we had booked at the hotel and would like to switch. We made them send a car for us. Finally after that strange ordela we got to our "lovely" hotel. You get what you pay for, it turns out. This was a step above a hostel. We had our own bathroom...but the showers didn't work. We had AC, but, when the sheets are stained and you just end up sleeping on top of them, it's a bit chilly. Oh yeah, and there was a dead cockroach in the corner - delightful. Luckily or unluckily, we got up early in the morning to start our sight-seeing on four hours of sleep!

My friend Laura, had a family friend visit Egypt a little while back, and she recommended a driver that she'd used. He was wonderful!! His name was Reda, and he was basically like our father for the trip. He took us anywhere we wanted to go, bought us tea, water, juice, etc, showed us places to eat, and told us he wanted us to live like actual Egyptians. The first day, we went to the Valley of the Kings and saw various tombs. We saw Thutmos III's, Seti I's, Ramseses IX's, and King Tut's tomb! Thutmos III's was really far underground and extremely hot and smelly! The hot Luxor sun almost felt cool oce we'd emerged from that tomb. Seti I's tomb was my favorite. It was very open, very big, and had beautiful carvings on the wall - quite a site to see. King Tut's tomb was a bit smaller than I anticipated, but it was pretty amazing to see his body and burial chamber.

After the tombs, we went to Howard Carter's house - the man who had found King Tut's tomb. After that, we went to Hatshepsut's temple. It was amazing! The straight lines and its location in part of the sand/rock behind it was stunning.

By now we were starving, so we went back into town and had lunch with Reda at a restaurant known for its BBQ. It was pretty good. They had great pita bread and babaganoush. Some of us had chicken and rice, and otehrs had lamb kebab. We were so tired by now (it was only 1230!), that we we went back to our hotel for a bit. Luxor is extrememly different from Cairo. It's so much hotter and really not safe to be out between 1 and 4. It's also a lot greener than Cairo, which I wasn't expecting. There are more fields, trees, and flowers, and the Nile is a lot cleaner. We stayed in our room and napped a bit until about 330, and then we went to see the Luxor Temple. This was probably my favorite thing that we saw. Everything was just so HUGE!! I couldn't believe people had built these structures. There were intricate and giant statues, and massive obelisks that were carved all the way up to the top. It was just gorgeous. What was also striking, is that this temple is located right in the middle of the East bank in Luxor. The Nile is on one side, and the city just moves around this ancient structure.

After the temple, we met up with Reda again who drove us around a bit. He bought us sugarcane juice which they make from squeezing the sugarcane plants through a machine. It was very interesting, but tasty nonetheless. Next, we drove towards the West Bank of the Nile and stopped on the side to dip our feet in. Apparently if you touch the Nile, you're destined to return, and if you drink it, you'll never leave. I just touched it lol. We then went to dinner at a little roof top restuarant overlooking the corn fields, and the Nile. From the roof, you could see Hatshepsut's temple in the distance. Once full, we went back to the eastside and visited the Souq (bazzar). It was quite an experience with everyone trying to get us to look at their selection of items. I wish these people would realize, however, that I'd be more likely to stop and look and they didn't pester me to. Oh well. We all had fun and bought some nice items. (We also bargained in arabic!) I bought a scarf and a pretty geometric star lamp made of copper.

Finally it was time for sleep in our delightful hotel room. We got up early again the next day and went to Karnak Temple. This temple was enormous and spanned a vast distance. I still prefered the carvings of Luxor temple, but this was jaw-dropping regardless. Later, we got lunch at a restaurant on the Nile. Reda then organized and got us a deal for a felucca ride (this time with a sail and not a motor) on the Nile to Banana Island. Since the river is so much cleaner in Luxor, this ride was much more pleasant than in Cairo. People were swimming, playing, etc.

Saturday was also my friend, Celeste's birthday. Reda was so sweet and bought her a cake, that we ate on the boat. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a birthday then eating cake on the Nile. Our boat captain was hilarious. Words don't do him justice. He loved to do different accents and would show us his British and French accents. He would also constantly say something was "absolutely fab" and then quote Macbeth. So funny.

I've never heard of Banana Island, but apparently it is just that. An Island on the Nile, with a bunch of bananas on it. It was so great. Our captain showed us around, linking arms with us and spewing french amd shakespeare. We then filled our stomachs with the local bananas.

After the short, but adventurous and busy trip, Reda took us to the airport where we said "see you when we come back."

Ataturk Restaurant and Crazy Drivers

Tonight three of my friends and I went into downtown Cairo to have dinner. Perusing through a guide book, we found a relatively inexpensive restaurant on the otherside of the Nile. We took a taxi there from our bus stop and were ushered into the restaurant by the owner. The restaurant, Ataturk, a Turkish and Levant restaurant, was gorgeous inside. The walls were ornately painted with gold. The menu and food were fantastic! Our meals were served with a traditional and delicious flat bread called manakish that has black sesame seeds on it. For dinner we split an appetizer of spinach filled puff pastries called Borka (I think that's its name), and then I had hummus and stuffed wine leaves (really grape leaves, but they like to call them wine leaves). Others had chicken in a walnut sauce that came in a metal bowl and sat on a metal container with stars and moons cut into it, and sat over a flame to keep it warm. Overall the meal was fantastic, filling, and inexpensive.

After dinner we of course needed dessert, so we stopped at a patisserie around the corner. We each got something, and I treated myself to a filo dough pastry filled with a caramel-tasting mouse, garnished with chocolate bits :) YuMMY

Then our trip got interesting. We had to catch a cab to get back to the bus stop across the river for our 8 o'clock departure time. We hailed a cab, but somehow the cab driver misunderstood and took us to the University of Cairo instead the American University in Cairo. We were already cutting it close in time and now we had to make out way through traffic to get to our correct destination. The drive was terrifying and surreal. The cab driver was listening to innappropriate 50-cent songs (he didn't speak english, so I'm not sure if he understood the lyrics) and speeding through traffic. We were traveling at high speeds, winding, and weaving around cars, narrowly missing pedestrians and other vehicles. I have no idea how we fit through some of the spaces we did. I swear, Egyptians are fearless drivers. They some how manage to make a three lane highway into a seven lane highway. Ridiculous. Anyway, we were running late, so we called the bus company to see if they could wait a couple minutes for us. Once we got there, we though we had missed it but in the distance we saw it pulling up with our Palestinian friend, Khalil inside! Praise Khalil! He had spoken with the driver and convinced him to circle the block and wait for us!

On the bus ride back to the university, we had a very interesting and enlightening conversation with Khalil. Khalil is studying at AUC but the rest of his family remains in Gaza or spread out between Syria, Jordan, and parts of Egypt. Khalil was telling us that most of his extended family cannot claim Palestinian nationality or travel to see one anther. Their passports are essentially invalid, and in his words, "The world does not welcome them." I found this statement to be particularly heartwrenching.

We talked a bit about the conflict between his country and Israel. Khalil is a Christian and he himself harbors no ill-will toward the Israelis. He believes that both countries are at fault and have suffered greatly. He believes that in order to have peace, both countries must first improve and stablize their own governments, and then work towards developing a solution to the problem. Most importantly Khalil feels that the Palestinians and Israelis should be using their minds and not their arms to solve the conflict.

A satisfying, terrifying, and enlightening day.

Luxor this weekend to visit the Valley of the Kings and Queens!

Shopping and Food Delicacies

Today in my Ancient Egypt class, I had a map quiz. We were given a map of Egypt and had to label about 40 key sites. It wasn't too bad, however the map the teacher chose was poorly drawn and it was difficult to decipher the reference points.

My Colloquial Arabic class was fun today. After repeating after the teacher for most of the class, our teacher made us go out and find an Egyptian to talk to in Arabic and practice our greetings and situational responses and have the other student correct us. I met an Egyptian girl named Rikhena who was really nice and helpful. She found some of the things we were saying/and learning to be very entertaining haha. We agreed that I would help her with her English classes if she helped me with my Arabic classes.

The food on campus gets very old very quickly. Because of this, we decided that since none of us had that much homework, we'd go downtown into Cairo to eat and walk around. We walked around for a bit and window-shopped. We found a beautiful bookstore that sold both American and Arabic books. The store is called Alif, which is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet and makes an "a" sound. I've been wanting to buy a Qur'an in Arabic for a while, and the bookstore had a great selection. The books are intricately decorated and gorgeous. For around $10 I got a beautiful Qur'an in green with gold, green, and rose designs all over it. The bookstore also had some cute arabic children's books, which are on our level with Arabic reading, haha. One of my friends got a copy of Harry Potter in Arabic, which certainly maked a great suvenior.

After shopping, we went to eat at this crepe place called "Munchies" that we'd heard about. It was so good!!! I had the banana bahama crepe, which consisted of a crepe filled with chocolate, bananas, and topped with cinnamon. It was so delicious. The place had sweet and savoury crepes and is definitely worth a second visit :)

Nothing much else happening here. The Egyptians are happy the Celtics won :) and also that Algeria lost its first soccer game (Algeria is responsible for keeping Egypt out of the World cup). Other news, apparently in Alexandria, there are a bunch of protests because someone allegedly caught police dealing or buying drugs and posted it on the internet. This person was then beaten by the cops, and now students and other citizens are rising up.

This past week I started classes. I'm taking Ancient Egyptian Egypt and Colloquial Arabic. My classes seem interesting and the teachers seem really nice. I particularly like my Arabic class because I can already tell that I am learning much more than I did in my Arabic class at Muhlenberg. For two hours in the class each day, we basically just repeat after our teacher in a cadence. It sounds funny, but it actually enforces the words in my head. For my Ancient Egypt class, I'm looking forward to taking a field trip to the Egyptian Museum. Although I've already visited it, the museum is so big that it's worth a second trip.

The other night, being sick of campus food, we ordered delivery from Papa John's. Apparently Egypt has all fast food chains except for Chipotle, and almost all delievery is done on mo-peds. The night after we had Papa John's, we went to El Rihab again to walk around and eat Egyptian food. Afterwards, we went bought some groceries from vendors. I bought some freshly baked pita bread and some nutella to go with it. Yum!

Friday, the school organized a trip for study abroad students to go to the pyramids. They were amazing! I couldn't believe how big they were and what it must have taken to build them. I took a bunch of pictures, including really cheesy touristy ones, which I'll put up shortly. After the pyramids we saw the Sphinx. It was a bit smaller than I expected, but still impressive and well-kept. After seeing these historic sites, the school took us to a restaurant/cheap resort for lunch. It was really good, but very touristy. A tour group complete with matching safari vests were taking turns sitting on camel, all the while screaming and shrieking in a mixture of terror and delight.

Today we went to Old Cairo, which is where a bunch of churches are located. The architechture and inlaid wood was gorgeous. The history was also impressive. We saw one church where it is said that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph stayed before they moved to Nazareth. We also saw a synogogue located by the place that Moses is believed to have been found as a baby. We also got to go into one of the oldest mosques in Egypt and hear the "call to prayer" and observe people praying and attending service. The girls in my groups and I, as women, had to put on these green robes complete with hoods, before being allowed to enter the mosque. Overall, it was a very interesting experience, and I would like to go back to the area surrounding Old Cairo to some of the artisan shops.

That's it, more soon! I have class tomorrow (school week is Sunday-Thursday here)! :(

Relaxing Day Before Classes Begin

Today was a pretty relaxing day. We start classes tomorrow so I made sure to sleep in one last time. After a slow morning, we bought some school supplies, located our classrooms in the most confusing building ever (there is no order or sense to it - much like a lot of Cairo) and then we ate some falafel on campus.

After spending the rest of the afternoon pleasure reading under an umbrella outside in the common area, about 8 of us went into the town of El Rihab (about 15 minutes away). We sat down for dinner outside at an Egyptian restaurant called something like Arabiata (not sure exactly). I love how since it's so warm during the day and it hardly rains, we're able to eat outside comfortably when the temp goes to about 70 degrees. The food was delicious here. Some people ordered moussaka, which is an eggplant dish sometimes sered with meat. I tried fatta with lentils, which basically consists of pita chips topped with rice and then covered with pureed lentils. It was sooo good and only cost $2 for a huge portion. The restaurant also served freshly mad pita bread, which put any store-bought brand to shame.

Following dinner, we walked around and found a French-Arab pastry shop called La Poire :) We all got a little cake or baklava. It was really funny seeing such a classy pastry shop mixed in with some "slummy" shops.

All in all the day was very relaxing and tasty ;)

I'm not looking forward to starting class tomorrow though!

Egyptian Museum and Bab Zuweila Mosque

Today we got up early to take a bus into Cairo to visit the Egyptian Museum and see a few mosques. We got into Cairo around 11 and from there had to traverse 4 lanes of traffic to walk to the museum. It was insane. So scary, but the adrenaline rush felt awesome once we crossed safely and were still alive and on our feet.

Once we got to the museum we bought tickets for the entrance fee for under ten dollars. The place is very popular to Egyptians and tourists and it was interesting to see how unconservative some tourists were dressing. Tank tops and short-shorts in Islamic Cairo - not so attractive. My friends and I had dressed in loose pants and 3/4 length shirts and were wearing scarves in preparation for our visits to the mosques.

Once inside we were able to see the mummies! They were so cool and well preserved - some had hair still and teeth!

After visited the museum, we ate more koushary (seems to be a staple in Egyptian cuisine) and took a taxi to the msoque, Al-Azhar. Prayers and service were still going on though, for another 40 minutes so the 5 of us went exploring around the area. We stumbled upon a souq or local bazzar and then were able to see an old synogogue and go into the mosque, Bab Zuweila. Bab Zuweila was amazing. We climbed to the roof top to take pictures and could see most of Cairo. After all that exploring and walking around, however, we were all exhausted and decided to just sit inside somewhere, drink water, and eat some food before catching the bus back to campus. We decided to eat at a Pizza Hut, which unlike in America, consists of waiters and waitresses. All and all, a tiring but good day. We may go back to the Museum to explore more and we still need to visit Al-Azhar and eventually the Citadel.

Zamalek/Downtown Cairo

Yesterday, I went into Cairo near the other campus located in Zamalek. Since it was the weekend and there is pretty much nothing to do on campus, almost every study abroad student went into town.

We left around 2pm and arrived in Cairo around 3. We had a big group with us so be eventually split up into about three groups of five. My group walked around a bit to get our bearings and then we sat down to eat at restaurant called Cafe Noir. It had a ranch of items on the menu, and was pretty good! I had a hulumi panini, which consised of hulumi cheese, tomatoes, pickles, and pesto sauce. I also had a mango juice, that was so thick, it had chunks of real mango in it! AMAZING.

After lunch, we walked around a bit. This part of Cairo didn't have too many shops necessarily, but it had lots of cafes. After a bit of jay-walking (I'm going to be a pro when I get back), we met up with one of the other groups at a cafe overlooking the Nile. This seemed to be a more local and less touristy place. People inside were smoking sheesha, doing work on the computer, and playing batgammon. My group got drink and tea and a few people smoked some sheesha. I ordered a hibiscus juice which I've heard is supposed to be very popular. It was very sweet and tart, but very refreshing.

After sitting for a while, a student at AUC who is from Palestine and has been hanging out with us,, Khalil, organized a fulluca (sp?) ride on the nile us. We took a taxi to the place, and our taxi driver was hilarious. He spoke English really well and was making jokes and talking about how much he loved Obama. He gave us his card after the trip, so we may see him again.

The cruise was amazing. For an hour and a half, it cost less than 2 US dollars per person! We rode up and down the river, and our captain/boat driver was a kid about the age of 12. What was hilarious was when the kid put on music for us. We were all probably expecting some nice Arabic music as a backdrop, but instead, Britney Spears' popped on! haha

Following the boat ride we got dinner at a local eatery called Alex Top's. They served koushary, which is a popular and traditional dish consiting of lentils, chickpeas, pasta noodles, and marinara sauce. It was delicious and cost just under $1. After quickly eating we had to rush back to meet our 10 o'clock bus. The day was great, and I can't wait to explore more of Cairo.

Experiencing local spots

The other night we had an orientation gathering for all study abroad students. Free food was provided (yay!) and it was all Egyptian style. The food venues on campus are all pretty disapointing and include places that the University thinks Americans might enjoy like Macdonald's, Cinabon, Subway, Pizza, bagels, etc. Not the best options. There is one ethnic food place and it's really good, but it's hours are limited.

After the meal, in which the RAs attempted to teach some people bellydancing, one RA took us into a town caled El Rehab to get cell phones. The place he took us, however, only sold the Sym cards, so then we had to go in search of a place that sold phones. This was no easy task, as we had to dodge speeding cars and motorcycles. Also, since this was the first time most of us had been off campus, it was also the first time we experienced any unwanted attention. None of the girls including myself were covered because we were in such a big group and didn't really know what to expect from the town. It was almost comical how much they stared, like we were from a different planet almost.
After trying two different phone places, we finally found one that offered cheap ones for about 30 US dollars.

Today, one of my friends here and I decided to go running. The gym was closed, so we ran around campus, with the sand hills of the desert surrounding us. It was pretty amazing. It wasn't too oppressive heat-wise, but we may try to go earlier in the day or later in the evening another time.

Since today is Friday, one of the holy days in Muslim countries, most things on campus were closed or had limited hours. Some of my friends and I decided to take one of the busses running to City Stars, which is a hugs shopping mall about a half-hour away. We found out that Egyptians are very much like Italians in that they work on their own clock. A 2:00 bus didn't appear until 2:20 for instance. Once we got to the mall, we were surprised to see how posh it was. It sold mostly designer items, and was packed with wealthy Egyptians and Europeans. Since we had felt uncomfortable the previous night being uncovered, we had worn scarves to the mall, but since it was very upscale, we really didn't have to. After looking through the mall we went to a grocery store in the basement of it. This store was certainly a change from the upscale stores upstairs. This was where real Egyptians were. The store was sort of like a walmart and it was packed with people shoving and pushing to get food and household items. Crazy.

After our purchases we went to meet the 6:00 bus to take us back to campus. Prior to leaving campus we had asked the front desk to make sure the bus picked up at 6, and, on top of that we had also asked the bus driver who had let us off the same question. Both had assured us yes. The bus did not show up. By 610 we decided to call because we new how slow Egyptians moved. No one answered. We called a different number. No one answered. Finally we tried again and some one answered and said she'd call us back. A man eventually called us back, and we asked where the bus was. He said he would call the driver and call us back. Once the man called us again, he informed us that there was no 6:00 bus, which is totally bs. We were so pissed. We had waited almost an hour and now had to pay for a cab to take us the thirty minutes back to campus. The cab driver was nice, and it was good to learn how to get one, however, it still baffles me how unreliable most services here can be.

That's all, downtown Cairo tomorrow!

First Days

Finally have some time to write:

The flights went suprisingly very smoothly, although I wasn't able to sleep at all on either the flight from Boston or from Paris. I landed in Paris around 11:35, but somehow through changing terminals across the airport and going through security again, I got to my next gate with only 15 to spare before boarding. Although I was a little flustered I was happy that I successfully transfered on my own, and to make things better, in the line to board, I met two other American students, Laura and Brian, going to study at AUC. We began talking and decided to wait for each other after the flight so that we could all traverse the Egypt airport together. This was definitely a good idea because the airport was packed with Egyptian families when we landed. We made it through immigration, custums, and the baggage claim really quickly, and then went to find the driver scheduled to pick us up. The driver didn't speak much English, but somehow he managed to get across that we were to wait for one other person. It was about 7pm on tuesday now, but we waited until 845 for some kid who never showed up! I don't know whether he missed his flight, but I felt bad that he had to tackle everything by himself.

The ride to AUC took about 35 minutes, but it was TERRIFYING!!! I was covering my mouth the entire time, expecting to hear the scraping of metal as our van narrowly missed other cars squeezing between them. I swear we almost got in 10 accidents and almost hit three people!

Once we arrived at AUC (around 940) it was pretty desolate. We had to run our bags through security and then the guards pointed us in the direction we were supposed to go. We wandered a bit, but eventually found the check-in (one check-in for boys, one for girls). There were two other girls waiting there as well, one of which happened to be my roommate. Her name is Michelle and she's form Georgia. I'm really glad I got an American roommate because it just allowed for us to explore the campus and figure everything out together.

The rooms are really nice! Huge, and they have lots of storage space. AND AC!! The bathrooms are a bit gross though - two showers and two toilets, and the showers tend to flood.

The next day Michelle and I met up with Laura and this other girls Liz to get breakfast and start getting our IDs, bus passes, registration, money, etc. They have a "Quick 24" which is open 24 hours and sells breakfast items, candy, drinks, toiletries, etc. AND, THEY HAVE HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS! Made my morning. I got some cereal and then a really good MANGO juice box :) After breakfast we began to tackle all that we needed to get done.

For an American University, it was really surprising how little english many of the workers and guards know. It was pretty difficult locating where we needed to go to do everything. The best part was when we went to get our bus passes, I asked the attendent where the bus picked us up, or where we met the bus, and he said he didn't know! AUC has proven to be very helpful.

Throughout the day, we continued to meet people. There are about 10 of us who have been meeting up and grabbing meals. Since we all don't have cell phones right now, we've had to go back to setting a time and place in advance to meet. Tonight, however, an RA may take us into town to get cell phones for a good price.

There isn't much to do on campus, at least as of yet. It's pretty isolated, being about 40 minutes from downtown Cairo. Mostly, we've just been hanging out and talking in the common area that has one tv with one channel that plays horrible movies constantly. We hope to go into Cairo soon, perhaps later this evening. We're also starting to plan trips/places to visit. The school offers a trip to the pyramids, a nile river cruise dinner, a trip to a bazaar, and a trip to old/coptic Cairo. Since they don't offer trips to Luxor, ALexandria, or Sharm el Sheikh, we're looking into that. We found a reallllllyyyy cheap place to stay in Sharm el Sheikh for about 8 US dollars a night, per room. RIDICULOUS. And the place looks amazing. It offers diving, safari, and desert excursions. We were going to try and fly there (1hr flight from here for about $100 each way) this weekend because we don't start class until the 9th, but we found out we need to give the schools ten days notice if we want a ride to the airport. So we just do a trip some weekend in the future after class on thursday until saturday.

That's it for now, more later!