Ma'a Salaama Misr! (for now...)
It's my second-to-last night in Cairo! Aaaaaah! (Until next semester, that is). I spent today doing laundry and packing like crazy. I'm really nervous about leaving my computer in storage here at the dorms for a month, but the alternative is lugging it all around Europe...I just hope it a) doesn't get stolen and b) actually turns back on when I come back in late January.
The past few days have been tons o' fun--on Friday, I went to Khan Al-Khalili again with Samantha, Anthony, and this other girl named Sarah. Anthony and I bought cartouches (silver necklaces with our names written on them in hieroglyphics), and mine KICKS ASS. Seriously--it's so pretty and mysterious! Anyone coming to visit me is definitely going to have to pick one up. After the bazaar, we went out to dinner at a really good Egyptian restaurant. Normally Egyptian food sucks balls, but this place was actually incredibly tasty. I'll keep it in mind for next semester. Once we had finished eating, we got dessert at a pretty famous pastry shop downtown--they have ridiculously delicious ice cream. One...uh...*interesting* sidenote there is that they had segregated ice cream lines. Yep, one for men and one for women. IT WAS SO WEIRD. Samantha and I accidentally got in the men's line (silly us for not automatically assuming there was a separate one for us), and everyone was staring. It was embarrassing, very strange, and also kind of funny. Oh, Egypt.
We actually walked back to our dorm in Zamalek from downtown--it took almost an hour, I think, but it was so much fun! We got to walk across one of the huge bridges that goes over the Nile, and Cairo at night is really beautiful (probably because you can't see the layer of smog covering the city, haha). I got back and stayed up till 3:30 doing God knows what, and I didn't get up till 1:00 PM the next day. It was absolutely glorious.
Yesterday, Jill and I went shopping in Zamalek! It was such a gorgeous day--windy and in the high 60s. We went to a Fair Trade craft shop (where I got some awesome beaded bracelets), a store that sells crafts made by Sudanese refugees (I got several bracelets and a keychain), and one more craft shop (where I bought a beautiful pair of earrings). Jill decided to take a taxi home, but I really wanted to walk, so we parted ways...and I took the opportunity to do some SUPER SECRET STEALTH CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!! It was the best thing ever! I went back to the first shop we had visited and I bought Jill one of the purses that she had been eyeing there. I had fun being all suspicioud and sneaking around and such. I amuse myself way too easily...but she really liked my present! Yay!
Today, as I said, I packed and stuff...and then Jill and I watched some South Park and ordered late-night sandwiches and hot chocolate from Euro Deli. I'm really going to miss her so much! I don't even know for sure where I'm living next semester, and I wish we could just be roommates again...but she'll be back at the U of I. She lives in El Paso, and I might go visit her when I get back to the States in June! It all depends on whether I have enough money or not...at the rate I'm going, and after Eurotrip 2006-2007, I'm sensing it will be "not". Oh well.
I leave at 8:45 AM on Tuesday, but I have to put everything into storage tomorrow afternoon, because none of the employees are going to be awake when I go to the airport at 6:00 in the morning. Damn. That means this is my last night with my computer! AUGH! But I'm really, REALLY excited about this trip! Regena and I have everything pretty much planned out, and we're going to have SO MUCH FUN! I'm seriously! And I have some excellent reading material for the planes/trains, because I bought Harry Potter 3 & 4...IN ARABIC! I started reading The Prisoner of Azkaban, and I can understand it with very minimal help from the dictionary! This means I have the reading comprehension skills of about a 9-year-old! Yesssss!! Good times.
Anyhow, I don't really have anything important to be doing, but this is long enough already. Who knows when I'll post next??? Hasta luego, todos!
The past few days have been tons o' fun--on Friday, I went to Khan Al-Khalili again with Samantha, Anthony, and this other girl named Sarah. Anthony and I bought cartouches (silver necklaces with our names written on them in hieroglyphics), and mine KICKS ASS. Seriously--it's so pretty and mysterious! Anyone coming to visit me is definitely going to have to pick one up. After the bazaar, we went out to dinner at a really good Egyptian restaurant. Normally Egyptian food sucks balls, but this place was actually incredibly tasty. I'll keep it in mind for next semester. Once we had finished eating, we got dessert at a pretty famous pastry shop downtown--they have ridiculously delicious ice cream. One...uh...*interesting* sidenote there is that they had segregated ice cream lines. Yep, one for men and one for women. IT WAS SO WEIRD. Samantha and I accidentally got in the men's line (silly us for not automatically assuming there was a separate one for us), and everyone was staring. It was embarrassing, very strange, and also kind of funny. Oh, Egypt.
We actually walked back to our dorm in Zamalek from downtown--it took almost an hour, I think, but it was so much fun! We got to walk across one of the huge bridges that goes over the Nile, and Cairo at night is really beautiful (probably because you can't see the layer of smog covering the city, haha). I got back and stayed up till 3:30 doing God knows what, and I didn't get up till 1:00 PM the next day. It was absolutely glorious.
Yesterday, Jill and I went shopping in Zamalek! It was such a gorgeous day--windy and in the high 60s. We went to a Fair Trade craft shop (where I got some awesome beaded bracelets), a store that sells crafts made by Sudanese refugees (I got several bracelets and a keychain), and one more craft shop (where I bought a beautiful pair of earrings). Jill decided to take a taxi home, but I really wanted to walk, so we parted ways...and I took the opportunity to do some SUPER SECRET STEALTH CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!! It was the best thing ever! I went back to the first shop we had visited and I bought Jill one of the purses that she had been eyeing there. I had fun being all suspicioud and sneaking around and such. I amuse myself way too easily...but she really liked my present! Yay!
Today, as I said, I packed and stuff...and then Jill and I watched some South Park and ordered late-night sandwiches and hot chocolate from Euro Deli. I'm really going to miss her so much! I don't even know for sure where I'm living next semester, and I wish we could just be roommates again...but she'll be back at the U of I. She lives in El Paso, and I might go visit her when I get back to the States in June! It all depends on whether I have enough money or not...at the rate I'm going, and after Eurotrip 2006-2007, I'm sensing it will be "not". Oh well.
I leave at 8:45 AM on Tuesday, but I have to put everything into storage tomorrow afternoon, because none of the employees are going to be awake when I go to the airport at 6:00 in the morning. Damn. That means this is my last night with my computer! AUGH! But I'm really, REALLY excited about this trip! Regena and I have everything pretty much planned out, and we're going to have SO MUCH FUN! I'm seriously! And I have some excellent reading material for the planes/trains, because I bought Harry Potter 3 & 4...IN ARABIC! I started reading The Prisoner of Azkaban, and I can understand it with very minimal help from the dictionary! This means I have the reading comprehension skills of about a 9-year-old! Yesssss!! Good times.
Anyhow, I don't really have anything important to be doing, but this is long enough already. Who knows when I'll post next??? Hasta luego, todos!