Thursday after class we got on a bus headed for Mt. Sinai. I expected the trip to take a while, and of course we left a little late, got stuck in traffic around Cairo, etc, etc.....so we rolled into our hotel by the mountain at like 1am, just in time for an hour nap before our 2am ascent of the mountain. Hooray! The bus ride was...okay. It was very hot for most of the time, until the sun went down. The seats definitely left something to be desired, although I luckily had two seats to myself so I could configure my sleeping position accordingly. We watched THREE movies! An Arabic drama I do not know the name of, Omar wa Selma PART ONE, and The Fast and the Furious. It was a good time. The first movie, the dramatic one, had this actor in it who played a character in the DVDs that came with our Arabic textbooks. So, naturally, we were all really into it. The storyline was weird, though; I didn't really catch a lot of it, besides drama and people yelling in literally every scene. There was this one girl who just kept pouring gasoline on herself and threatening to light herself on fire, and there was a LOT of violence against women. It was pretty ridiculous.
Anyway! We stayed that night at a hotel close by Mt. Sinai (not at the monastery, where I stayed last time). There were surprisingly few people on the trails, and the moon was ridiculously bright. We didn't even need flashlights, except when the moon was behind the mountain. It was pretty cool. I was kind of worried at first, since I was totally exhausted and really didn't sleep, but I pulled it together admirably in the end and made it to the top before pretty much everyone else. We got the same awesome spot as last time, then snuggled (some smart people brought blankets!) until sunrise. On the way back down I followed some people down the camel path instead of the Steps of Repentance, which I was a little disappointed about but was probably for the best, since I was completely exhausted.
Later in the day (after napping), we headed out to Sharm el-Sheikh, and of course we left late. The bus ride was terrible in many ways, but oh well. Finally we got to our hotel, which was nice of course. I was almost the last person to get a room key, and the saga to our room was totally ridiculous. We had a room in the 700s, so naturally looked for the 7th floor, which, there wasn't one, and the elevator gave us issues, etc, etc, FINALLY we get to the right floor but after walking and walking and not finding it we find a door leading outside....and up some stairs, we discover like a resort village thing, with sweet villas and pools and such. It was crazy. Then we had a showdown with this dude driving a golf cart thing that really wanted us to ride in it too. (picture is view from my awesome balcony)
After that, we rushed back out for a glass bottom boat trip!!! It was so cool! We got to see all sorts of stuff, and then when I looked outside the boat at the water I could see fish! I could actually see all the awesome fish just sitting there. The water was so clear. We got to all jump in and swim around, it was the coolest.
That night we ate at the hotel, which had an amazingly tasty buffet of awesome. The desert was very varied, but a bit disappointing. Food, though, is always good and appreciated. Then, we pretty much just wandered and marveled at how ridiculously touristy Sharm is. Seriously, it was like a totally different world. People were just dressed totally in a silly fashion, and it was basically like the most ridiculous tourists from every country (especially Europe) decided to all come hang out and wear their trashiest clothing and be so trashy. Ridiculous. I felt FAR too modest.
Also interesting: every time we spoke any Arabic at all, the Egyptians were all, "OH MY GOODNESS you speak ARABIC?!?!?!" ......even when all we would say was like, "how much" or "two" or "thank you" (in Arabic of course). Then they would be like, "you speak such good Arabic". Ridiculous. I got really sick of it after some dude got all excited about me and followed me around this store bothering me and trying to be my friend and took my stuff and cut in line for me to help me pay (earning me dirty looks from some trashy Europeans). He then followed me out like we were best friends, all "what are you doing now?!". Creepy.
The next day (Saturday) we got up early, had an awesome breakfast (unnecessary picture of the bread display above), and headed out for our trip to Ras Mohammed! Ras Mohammed is a really cool marine preserve, or something? Look it up, though; it is a cool thing and kind of unique, I think? Anyway. We had a really frustrating and confusing thing at some dive shop, of course, but then headed out on a boat and it was so sweet!
We got to chill out on the top of the boat in the sun, and the water was the most beautiful blue. We stopped at three different places, and I got to snorkel!!! Snorkeling is the coolest, you guys! I had no idea! I was really freaked out at first, because the flippers were all awkward, and the mask was even more awkward. Looking under the water the first time was so strange! I couldn't get used to the fact that I could breath and also have my head under water. Crazy! But man, it was SO COOL. Just being able to see stuff was amazing, and the water is so unbelievably clear that you can see to the bottom even when there isn't stuff to see.
And then! We got to see THINGS! Under the water! Coral and fish and fish and coral! The coral wasn't quite such a color explosion as I was expecting (I really had no idea what to think), but it was pretty cool. And fish! We saw so many fish! A lot of the time, there would be a school of fish just hanging out, by the surface, just inches away. I kept thinking I would hit one, or that I could grab one. I never did. But they would just be right there, they weren't avoiding us at all. We saw tons of cool blue fish, some big dark colored fish with little spots, big flat fish of different kinds (angel fish and other variations on that kind of thing), big round fish, stripy fish, some long skinny pipe-cleaner fish, some really big rainbow fish....we saw a barracuda, and a manta ray! It was just cruising by, down by the bottom. There were some big fish with big eyes and kind of bulldog jaws, and man it was just SO. COOL. I loved it. By the third snorkel expedition, I finally got my nerve up and dove down deeper. Loads of people were doing it, but I was nervous. It was actually pretty easy, with the flippers and all. It was a little tough to manage the snorkel, but I did okay.
It was just the best day. We hung out on a boat, they fed us, we even hooked up an ipod to the speakers. I got a little sea sick at one point, but not too bad. We jumped off the top of the boat!!! It was awesome! And really high! Our director lady, Robyn (who is unquestionably awesome), DOVE off the top of the boat, because that is how she rolls.
Lots of people got pretty sunburnt on their backs, because of the snorkeling. I made out okay, and actually got a lot less sun than I thought, I guess on account of the sunblock I kept reapplying. Yay? Some people did scuba diving, which must have been awesome, and it was cool to see them down there. I dove sort of deep (but not as much as many people) with my snorkel, and kept trying to follow fish. I spent a lot of time in the water at the third stop, and we kept having to avoid these glass bottomed boats or weird 'submarine' things that kept going back and forth over our area. At one point we were just hanging out in the midst of hundreds of different fish, just chillin. I tried so hard to catch one, but the closest I got was feeling the rush of water against my hand as it jetted away from me.
As if the day wasn't already awesome enough, after we got back to the hotel I ate some Movenpick icecream. It was the best thing. I got chocolate and blackberry, and oh my goodness the deliciousness. And later that night? After dinner? I got creme brulee and lemon sorbet. So freaking good. We wanted to go out and go dancing or do some kind of fun thing at night, but we were all pretty exhausted and no one had any definite ideas (and no one wanted to be the one to make decisions), so me and a few people just bought beer and hung out on our awesome balcony.
The next day I really wanted to get up and go to the pool or beach, but I slept in a little too long (because, the bed was AMAZING compared to my bed at the dorm). And then, of course, we had to take our luggage to the lobby at 10:30...and check out at 11...and we were 'supposed' to leave at 11:30....and the freaking bus didn't show up until like 2pm......so I was very frustrated. I really hate feeling like I waste time in a place, particularly time I could be spending doing things specific to a place. Like being immodest and splashing around in an awesome sea. Oh well. I got over it. The bus ride was fine, I guess, if a little (ok a lot) frustrating and uncomfortable. I ate sushi for dinner? We got home at like 2:30am. I just want to turn around and go straight back!
I'm sorry, I feel like that was slightly rambling. The internet in my dorm as just continued to get worse and worse, so I am doing this in the Dar (our common room thing on our floor at the university). I have laundry I should be going home and getting, but I'd rather just get this done. People are talking and playing Arabic scrabble, so I'm not concentrating 100%. We apparently have internet on all floors of the dorm, but I guess it doesn't really work on most floors. On my floor it used to (just really spottily), and the network still shows up, but there is now a password that nobody knows. Very mysterious. The only good internet now is on the 6th floor, and there is basically always tons of Americans up there using it. Very irritating, particularly when I want to be concentrating on something. The girls are always all from the new batch of people that showed up recently, and I don't like to judge prematurely (except how I sometimes do), but they are a bit weird. I don't know about them. But, anyway. Time to go! Oh, and I updated Picassa with pictures and videos, so check it out!
Kisses!!!
1 comment:
what a great time!! I can just imagine it.....
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