I also haven't posted to our flagship blog (the program's blog, where we all contribute), which I also feel bad about. Again with the ideas and empty promises. But anyway. I should move on. What has been happening lately? What are the haps?! How is it where you are?? I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving, and also a good November in general. This was quite an epic month for all involved, I feel like. I will attempt to recap.
Siwa
We went to Siwa! I can't even remember how many times I promised to write about Siwa (I even did that the first time we went, over the summer! Haha oh good times). Here is what you should know: Siwa is fantastic. It is very relaxed and laid back and the best place to go if you enjoy things like palm trees and relaxing around fires and riding in jeeps in the desert and rolling in the sand and having dance parties under the full moon and stars and having midnight parties at hot springs in the desert. We all got the desert madness, some people saw like tracks from a one-legged creature of some sort, we partied with Bedouins, we had some truly epic cuddling. It was magical.
Wednesday is the new Thursday
Remember how sometimes, in college, Thursday is the new Friday? Well, since our weekends here start on Friday, we finally made Wednesday the new Thursday after we totally accidentally had a ridiculously epic party on a Wednesday after class. Seriously, it started at like 2pm, and then next thing I know, someone is building a pyramid out of beer cans and calling it a beeramid, there is crazy dancing going on, everyone is ridiculous, and we're all passed out by 9pm. It was magic. Then we spent the entire weekend watching movies and having more parties. Truly productive. (picture: festive times commence! aka we bought Christmas lights)
Sick, and also Secret Clubs
Then I got sick for like a week. I just felt really run down, and had a sore throat a lot, and felt really nauseous a lot, and threw up a few times. Oh also there was some football madness for a while, Egypt vs. Algeria for a spot in the World Cup? They played twice, and Egypt won the first round but lost the second. I saw one of the games at this magical place called the Portuguese Club, which is ridiculous for a few reasons. Reason number one: there is no sign on the door, just a gate which you knock on and there is even a little panel that gets pulled back so someone can see who is outside. I really wanted to give the guy a password but couldn't think of anything, and he let us in anyway.
Thanksgiving!!! (Flagship style)
So, that brings us to Thanksgiving. Not real, America Thanksgiving, but our fake Thanksgiving the weekend before the real thing. We did it on Saturday, and the day before we went shopping and got some Christmas decorations. Nothing major, just some tinsel and lights. So, now our bookshelf in the living room has become a Christmas tree, and our balcony is extra festive. Anyway, Thanksgiving. We all made a list of who would make what, and spent the day preparing. We wanted a Turkey, and I was skeptical about that but lo and behold, Jake suddenly showed up with a 28lb turkey and proceeded to cook it to deliciousness. It was really impressive. Also, I elected to make pumpkin pie, which would've been easy if we had gone to Cairo and bought canned pumpkin stuff, but we didn't. So, I set about looking for pumpkins, and actually got lucky. The fruit guy down our street had some nice, pumkin-y looking things (they are small, roundish, and like tan coloured?). I didn't ask what they were, so I'm still not sure. I read that there are pie pumpkins and regular, and regular aren't as sweet, but my pie turned out lovely. So, verdict is out on what I actually cooked. But anyway. We also didn't have evaporated milk, so I evaporated some of my own, and used half condensed milk to make it sweeter. I also made my own crust, didn't even roll it out, and cooked the whole thing in a metal frying pan because we don't have a pie dish. I also hand ground some cloves, steamed a pumpkin, and 'pureed' it by hand with a fork. And guess what? It turned out amazing! I plan on making another soon, since I definitely have the second half of the sketchy pumpkin left. (picture: my pie! It sort of looks like quiche or something, so I figured I'd best clarify)
Real Thanksgiving!
We had half the week off for the holiday (there is a Muslim holiday at the same time, Eid al-Adha, which is all about slaughtering sheep! Look it up! Apparently the streets were running with blood, slaughter happening in the streets, good times!). I ended up going to Dahab with a friend, and we had an amazing time. We literally did nothing except sleep, eat, nap, read in the sun, and eat and sleep some more. Very very nice. Dahab is so ridiculous, there was this tiny militia of 7-year-old boys with fake guns that roamed the streets looking menacing, and they had this fierce rivalry with this band of dogs that also roamed the streets. I also saw way too many pantless guys (in all fairness they were wearing t-shirts and speedos, but come on). Oh, new favorite? Lemon milkshake. Think really good lemonade juice (basically lemonade) and vanilla ice cream, blended. Amazing. It tastes like melted lemon ice cream.
Hilarious
So, we almost missed our bus back to Alexandria! We took a bus from Dahab to Sharm al-Sheikh, and then had to buy tickets and wait for another bus. I had taken some Egyptian motion sickness medicine, which had totally kicked my ass, so I felt incredibly loopy and like I was dreaming. We were awaiting the bus, and guys kept coming over and being like, "you want bus to Dahab?" and we were like, no, Alexandria, and they said that bus wasn't there yet. So, we had faith that someone would come get the two foreigners once the Alexandria bus showed up. I guess we weren't keeping track of time, since suddenly one guy is like, "the bus is here!". So we gather our stuff, go outside, and look around. No buses look particularly like people are getting on, so we ask some old men, and one of them gets up and starts rushing around the side of the building. We follow, only to see our bus driving off through the gates of the station. This old guy starts running after, yelling at the driver, but to no avail. We're standing around stunned when a Bedouin guy jumps out of the bushes and is like, "come on! come on!". We follow to his pickup truck, throw our stuff in the back, and have barely climbed inside when he peels out of the parking lot and takes off after the bus. Meanwhile, I'm rolling around in the back of the pickup, having failed to secure myself properly, feeling quite groggy, and wondering what the heck is going on. The bus was really booking it, and we didn't catch up for quite some time, but finally we made it, pulled up along side, and after much horn honking and whatever the bus pulled over and we climbed aboard. I was super embarrassed, but there turned out to only be like 5 people on the bus, so not too many accusing stares were given at the stupid foreigners. Good times.
Ok! That was fun. I might have other stories to tell later, but mostly they are all boring and about how I hate going to classes. It is the birthday of one of the guys today, so we're having a party. We got party hats and a cake and sparkly pink candles that say '63' because we couldn't find any other numbers. We're going to have balloons, and play Apples to Apples! It's going to be great. And then it's Thursday! And the weekend! And oh my goodness guess what in less than three weeks I'll be home!!!! Like, America style!!!!
