Weekend Shenanigans pt. 1

Hello!!! I haven't updated in a while (ok so it was only a week but still!), and I wanted to tell you about last weekend before I get to THIS weekend. Last weekend a group of people went to Siwa (this desert oasis way out by the border with Libya), but I opted to stay in Alexandria and hope to go the weekend after to Siwa with my friends. Speaking of friends, it was one of their birthdays, so the weekend turned into basically a huge celebration. Thursday we went to a salon (ok, this was not part of the celebration since the birthday friend was a boy, but we wanted to be fancy!), where one of my friends got her hair cut and the rest of us got blowouts or manicures. Her haircut looked amazing! Seriously, she came out of the back room looking like a movie star. It's nice to know that there is a good hair place around here, just in case.

Later that night we went out to a bar (there are multiple bars here but we've only ever gone to one) for some celebration, and our Egyptian guy friends met us there. It was a pretty good time, and we managed to play a decent game of King's Cup, despite being crowded around a big long table and having to shout over extremely loud music. After the bar some of us decided to stroll along the Corniche a bit and basically act like hooligans. We ate cotton candy! It was a tasty night.

The next morning we all ate breakfast (Note: Friday morning breakfast is extremely tasty, it is the only time they cool fuul and falafel for us! Ironically it is also the breakfast that all of us are most likely to miss), and then met our Egyptian friends to head out to the beach. We didn't go back to the same beach house we went to last time, since it was being used, but one of their friends said we could use his parents' beach house (or rather, the yard). After the obligatory waiting around in the parking lot of Carrefour (a shopping mall), we headed out. The beach was nice, but a little dirtier than the last one, and there was an unnecessary amount of gross seaweed/plastic bags in the sea. Oh well. We brought snacks, buried a few people in the sand, etc. Good times.

After that, we all went back to the house to clean up, since we weren't returning to Alexandria before our night activities. The girls ended up taking a massive group shower (the 'shower' was just a shower head in a small bathroom, so the entire little room was our shower). We were all wearing bathing suits, but decided to not make that clear to the guys outside. I don't think they really knew what to make of all this. Then the people who owned the house made us this nice big meal, and we hung out in the yard until dark. Then it was off to the next adventure....

We crammed about 7 people in each car and made the 45 minute (something like that) drive back to Alexandria to drop someone off, hung around at Carrefour some more, then turned around and drove for a similar amount of time (now only 5 people per car) to Agami, which is like a suburb area of Alexandria. We got there at like 1:30 or later, then went into this club called Tiajuana. The entry was 100LE (around $20?), and it was totally mostly worth it, just for the experience. Everyone was dressed super scandalously, everyone was dancing, it was outside, there was like pyrotechnics or something. The music wasn't that great, but it was danceable. It wasn't that crowded, either, and it really wasn't the sort of place where creepers come up and try to dance with you. So, we just danced around until it closed at 4am, then made it back to the cars in time to hear the 4:30 call to prayer. (Hearing the morning call to prayer on your way home=the sign of a good night).

We got back to our dorm some time later, to find the doors locked. This was not a surprise, since they lock the doors after 11 or midnight or something, but it was annoying. If we go out late, we have to let them know when we'll be back. This is apparently so they can open the door for us, but even if we tell them, we always still have to wait a while for them to come open the door. This time, we hadn't told anyone when we'd be back (since we hadn't been at the dorm since earlier that day), although we did try to call, only to find that the person we were supposed to call wasn't with her phone. Oh well! We waited for something like 30 minutes, maybe more, I'm not sure. The guard outside gave us a number to call, and we kept calling and calling and finally they woke up I guess and came down to let us in. It was light out by the time we were in bed. Good times.

Later that day (so this is Saturday, now), I neglected my responsibilities and headed out to the movies with the Egyptian guys. We saw Teer Anta (طير أنت), which was a sort of ghost-helping-people-so-he-can-go-to-heaven type thing. It was really good! Really hilarious. The basic plot: There is this main guy, and he is super nerdy and dorky in a 70s glasses, sweater vest kind of way. He's a vet, and a clutz, and has no skills with girls, etc. He sees this girl come out of the vet clinic, and falls in love with her, and gives her his card (and makes a fool of himself). Then he goes out to a bar with his friends, is sad because it's his birthday and he has no women skills, and goes home alone. He lives alone, and starts talking to a photo of his dad (who died long ago). Then, while he is singing himself happy bithday, a creepy voice starts also singing! And there is creepy light, which is coming from a super creepy mysterious birthday cake!!! And then! A ghost!!!! They have a hilarious conversation about who the ghost is and what he wants, and the general outcome is that the ghost is like in ghost school or something, and needs to help people to graduate, or something along those lines. The guy talks about how he loves this girl, and the ghost says he gets 7 tries to be happy (sort of like 7 wishes), but the ghost makes it clear that he can't do anything about love or death.

The first wish turns the guy into this ridiculous blond, muscular, silly exercise instructor guy. He's all getting manicures and dancing to techno music and acting kind of prissy and into himself and like those guys from Night at the Roxbury, you know. He meets the girl, invites her to a party, but fails when bandits come try and rob them on the beach at night and he wusses out. He goes back to the ghost, laments his failure, and says how the girl complained. Each wish he bases off of whatever the girl's complaint was the last time, so for his second one he wants to be more manly or something. He turns into 'El Kabeer' (literally: The Big One), and is this silly mustachioed horseback Arab bandit guy, galloping around with guns stealing cows and being mafia-like. This too fails, because he is too domineering and evil and the girl leads a revolt against him. Then he tries to be sensitive (makeup, super done hair, very emotional, having emotions all over everything, making super emotional movies), then a leader (total failure of being a soccer coach), and a rich person (obnoxious pot-bellied slightly italian seeming guy). There might have been more, but the last one was the most hilarious. It was this indian movie thing, with singing and dancing and fake language. The guy and the girl are dancing together, but then (and he has a super bushy mustache) bandits come take the girl and stab the guy through with a spear. He dies, but then is not dead! He comes busting into the warehouse where the girl is, with the spear still in him, and hilariously kills every person and refuses to die himself. Then he frees the girl, and they are all in love, but THEN an old man appears and tells them it can never be because they are actually brother and sister. They are all, "nooooooooo", and the guy goes back to the ghost, defeated.

The ghost is sad, but it is all sweet, because the guy's like, no, you did good, go on and go to heaven or whatever. Then he's really sad, but the ghost tells him to just be himself and be the person he is on the inside, and not care about the outside. And THEN! One night, he's all alone doodling and writing poetry or whatever, and suddenly the girl's dog gets sick (she has a dog). She's freaking out but finds the card the guy gave her, calls him, and goes to his 'clinic' (his house). He is sweet, doesn't act like too much of a dork (he's sort of resigned to his fate), but she sees his poetry and all his pictures on his walls, and they totally fall in love. Then they hang out together and act like huge dorks together and then they get married!!! The end.

I'm sorry, that was rather epic, but I wanted to share. THE NEXT day, Sunday, WE GOT TO SEE HARRY POTTER!!!! It was the best thing. Ever. Despite the loud kids, and the people answering their phones in the theater, and the obnoxious kids talking super inappropriately loud behind us (much worse than they ever do in the US). Such a good movie. I can't wait to see it again.

Ok, ok, I guess that wraps up this segment of 'what I did recently'. Maybe later today I'll tell you more about this past weekend (in which I had desert adventures!!!), and hopefully my pictures will be loaded by then.