Team Burgess!

So today was a crazy day. I woke up late and had a nice shuttle ride into school whilst listening to inspiring music. My day was spent in varying states of despair, and the highlight was when Cassie and I decided to brave the Nile Hilton complex in search of the currency exchange place. We quickly got weirded out by the tourism and subsequently escaped, getting many stares and "welcome"s as we went.

I was falling asleep so hardcore in my foreign policy class today. It was a high point of absolute lows. Whatever that measn. I think that it means I am still very tired!!!

The best part was I got to go to the airport to pick up my dad! The taxi ride over was nice, and finally Senior Burgess is here!!! We went to his hotel, where he proceeded to charm the entire staff, practically. He also declared, as we were leaving the airport, that he loved "this place", and that Cairo was "his kind of town". He has not changed this opinion yet, and has already agreed with me that it will suck pretty hard to leave. We lounged in his (admittedly pretty nice!) hotel for a spell, and then we decided that some tammiyya was in order, and as such we journeyed to Zamalek via metro. Upon our arrival, however, the tammiyya dude told us that they were all out! Dejected, we briefly considered Euro Deli, but thought better of it and hopped in a taxi for Midan Tahrir. A trip to filfila later, the evening found us sitting in the nice little area in the Midan, enjoying our sandwiches and chatting of our plans. We parted ways, myself in a taxi and my dad disappearing into the metro after giving me a quite haram kiss on the cheek and hug right in front of two military police.

I'm exhausted, but this is the best part, I think. Being exhausted and having enough fire to make it work. And the next few days are going to be amazing! I am sure of this. Tomorrow we meet at 10 to kick off Official Egypt Extravaganza 2007 at the museum, and the craziness will, in sha allah, continue from there.

I hope you are all having a delirious and rewarding time also! Christmas is almost here! Illinois folks: our day of reunion is imminent!!!! Oh the excitement. Life is great.