Well then.

It seems I have some explaining to do. I have not written in quite a while. I'm so sorry! These things happen, you know. I just keep thinking, oh I should write, and then I just don't. I get all my best ideas on the tram, in the shower. I get all motivated, and then by the time I am actually by a computer that motivation is gone. Someone should invent a shower idea-taking device. I feel like this already exists? Anyway. This is probably not very important to be discussing.

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!!!!

Tamer Hosni Madness

Well, hello! I've had a pretty busy few days, and have some interesting things to tell you about, but I'd rather postpone the in-depth details until such a time when I have photos to supplement. And since my camera is charging right now, that time will not be today. But! I'll give a run-down of my recent activities.

Wednesday: I had a four hour meeting with my language partner, which I was rather nervous about. But happily it turned out okay! We went out to a fruit market, which was really lovely and kind of intense. (Good: so much fruit! Beautiful fresh fish, too! Bad: smelly, dirty, FLIES EVERYWHERE). I bought some apricots and apples, but I haven't actually eaten any of them yet because 1) I keep forgetting fruit goes bad here quicker than in the US, and 2) a lot of it had big bruises that are only getting worse. Oh well. It was a good experience. Then we went to a shopping district, Ibrahamiyya, and my language partner showed me around some stores. It was fun, we looked at purses and shoes, but I felt kind of bad since I am very picky and indecisive. Every time we'd go into a store (and this is true for pretty much all stores here of any kind), it is a much more personal experience than in the US. You say hello to everyone working there, they all immediately come over to try and assist you. I felt really guilty every time I didn't buy something, like I had to explain why I didn't like their products enough. Oh well. I think my language partner understood. She also was being nice and suggesting things for me to try on and such, and that is always awkward when you have to say that something suggested is really not your style. You know? And clothes in Egypt are very weird, the majority of stuff I wouldn't really think to wear ever. But I have faith that there are some good things out there.

After shopping we took a minibus to meet up with her best friend at a club (remember I told you about clubs, it's more like a country club). It was right by the ocean, and the sun was getting close to setting. Very pretty. Her friend was really sweet, I was kind of shy but I think it was okay. They are obviously really close, and became focused on each other when they met up, so I was kind of left out. But I didn't mind. We sat in the club, but then left to eat our food outside (we bought sandwiches and couldn't eat them in the club), then got some amazingly delicious cotton candy. Seriously, it was so good! It melted really quickly, turning all caramel-y and drippy. Lovely. Then I went home, met up with a friend, and got cake and took a walk. A good day!

Thursday: Class. Nap. Fourth of July party? I heard that our program had rented the university stadium for a party with frisbee and BBQ, so I went at the advertised time (5pm). Of course no one was there yet, except people from another program. It was awkward a little. We all sat in the bleachers, and there was an Egypt vs. USA soccer game between people affiliated with our program. Egypt won. We ate cotton candy and a bit of shwarma, I think. Pretty much everyone I know this weekend either went to Cairo or was planning to go to a Tamer Hosni concert Thursday night (he's a pop singer who I think wants to be the Justin Timberlake of Egypt...not even close). I didn't have tickets, so I was feeling a little morose. But! Fortunately, my friends had the hook up through these guys that we keep hanging out with (they took us to the beach last weekend), and apparently not many of them had tickets either. I got to tag along, and I was super pleased.

The concert....it was okay. I mean, yeah. I did not care for the music that much, and the structure of the concert was not pleasing (too many slow love ballads, too much slowing down then speeding up, basically my complaint boils down to NOT ENOUGH DANCING). I was also exhausted, since of course Tamer Hosni went on much later than he was supposed to. Also? Freaking Tamer Hosni was NEVER DONE. Seriously, it was like the third Lord of the Rings movie, you know, when it just never ends? It was like that. So I guess I was just cranky, we were all hungry, and I wasn't digging the whole situation. But it's good to be social. An interesting thing: the guys we were with are very protective of us, to the point where it makes me uncomfortable. They constantly look out for people getting close to us, and actually hold their arms out to kind of fence us in. I really didn't think that there was any harm coming from a guy standing in front of me, but apparently they did, since they made him move away. It just made me feel even more like we stood out, like this little group of foreigners being separated in the middle of the crowd. Oh well.

After the concert, I decided I should probably be social SOME MORE, so I went with everyone to a cafe (the sort of place with shisha, tea, juice). I was beyond tired, and not really making conversation, but I had the most delicious thing! It was lemon juice (so basically sugary lemonade) mixed with vanilla ice cream (it must have been melted, because it was not very thick at all). What resulted was basically like melted lemon ice cream. It was SO GOOD. I need to experiment and make my own some time.

Friday: I was supposed to go on a critical mass bike ride thing (critical mass is where a ton of people all ride bikes together?), but it was early and I didn't know what time, and I was beat. So, I instead got up for breakfast at 10:30, met up with my friends (who at this point consist of mostly Michigan and Maryland people, plus a few Texas), and went to the pool! There is an outdoor pool at the university stadium, and apparently we have two lanes reserved 10-12 on Fridays (allegedly 'no one is there at that time' so it is a good time for girls to go). We got there a bit closer to 12, and lo and behold there were tons of people there, including a large swim team composed of little kids (majority boys). Oh dear. There were all sorts of people (mothers mostly) in the stands watching, and no free lanes. Luckily, we asked one of the coaches, and he cleared a lane for us. So, we swam (I felt weird in a bikini but OH WELL). And discovered that in addition to the million little boys, there was also a group of scuba divers (the pool had a very deep end for diving, etc), who at one point were lurking right underneath our lane. Very awkward. The pool was probably like 50 meters long, and swimming was EXHAUSTING. I always find swimming to be so tiring, it is so different from running. It was really good, though. I swam 10 laps!!!

After swimming we went to McDonalds for ice cream, got water, ate lunch, and then showered and met back up to watch a movie in one girl's room. Remember how I went to see an Arabic movie a while back, called Omar wa Selma 2?? And it was ridiculous and mildly (extremely) full of terrible male-female interactions? Well, one of my friends bought the first Omar wa Selma, so we decided to watch it. Added bonus: Tamer Hosni stars in both films as Omar! There is no escaping him. The film was pretty ridiculous (we only watched the first half). It looked like it was shot in 90's USA (everyone had terrible clothes and hair), and was just strange in general.

Basic Plot:
Omar was seeing this girl, then she dumped him, and he is so sad. There are emotional music video montages of them and her and him like weeping or some nonsense and like sitting at home shirtless under a blanket on his sofa with candles lit everywhere staring at the phone, etc, etc. Then it's like him messing around with his goofy dad, and then it's like he's such a ladies man and there's this girl in his ridiculous bedroom and his dad knows about it, and then they joke about women, and Omar like shoves the girl out the window or something. Then, he's sad about his ex. Then, he meets Selma and is all goofy silly guy at her and she's not interested, but she walks away and then later smells her hand or something (he shook her hand) and gets all dreamy about her Tamer Hosni smelling hand. I don't know. THEN there's all this weirdness where he acts like a clown trying to get her attention and she's all "not amused" but she secretly is, then he like slashes her tires and then acts like a jerk about changing them for her. Then they both like roll around in their own beds, separately, and moon about daydreaming about the other, and over it all is this soundtrack of conversations between the two of them that I'm not sure ever happen in reality, but then suddenly they are dating and at a dinner party together. And THEN Selma's ex is there, and calls her on the phone, and she goes outside to tell him to go away. But! Omar sees that he called on her phone or something, and angrily drags her out of the place. They drive to a secluded outlook spot, and argue hardcore, and he slaps her, and then she cries about her horrible past relationship with this other guy, and they make up because Omar does something goofy. LITTLE DOES SHE KNOW Omar turns out pretty much the same as the other guy in the end.

Whew. Aren't you glad you know that? ANYWAY, after the movie we went to a wedding party (in Arabic the various celebrations for weddings are complicated, so I'm not sure what the technical English name for this would have been). It was very intense. When we were invited we were told it was a Henna Party, which is traditional for the day before the wedding. I guess maybe it still was considered a Henna Party, or I don't even know. It was basically like a village-wide carnival celebration thing held in a field and it was ridiculously.....it was an experience. More to come on that later, as soon as I can get photos and videos up online.

We got home from that late (it was like 2 hours into the countryside, I feel like!), and then today I went to Carrefour (wal-mart basically) with one of my friends. Luckily she had to get lots of stuff, too, so we strategically made the rounds and got all we needed. I got a small basin thing for holding stuff and also for hand washing clothes, some tupperware, some better shampoo and conditioner, orange juice AND apple juice, milk, yogurt, chocolate biscuits (TWO KINDS), some other stuff, 80% chocolate, and GRAPES! And water. Upon arriving home we ate lunch, and happily I got invited to even more stuff.

I really like how things are going here, it's like I somehow accidentally have found myself having a group of friends that I am considered a part of, if that makes sense. A weird thing that happened a while ago with the Texas people was that they had plans to go out to eat, and one girl (who I quite like) asked me if me and my crew were coming. It was sort of strange, like first of all I have a crew? And second of all, am I not in yours? It wasn't a bad thing or like a mean girl moment or anything, it was just a weird social interaction moment. It's easy to forget that with some groups you need to work to be included. Anyway, back to the present, I've been doing pretty well this past week (and weekend especially) with a great group of people, all of whom also keep hanging out with the Egyptian guys from Rotary who hook us up with everything. So, it's a good set up!

Later on today I am going with some of the girls to this market that is especially for women, I'm not sure what to expect there but I'm glad to be going, maybe I'll find some good scarves or jewelery? And tomorrow there is a soccer game in Cairo, Egypt vs. some other African team (I feel like it is a World Cup qualifier game?). The Egyptian guys called to invite us, and it is very hard to say no to them, so we are going. No word yet on whether this is a good idea or not (I do have class, we'd be missing lunch, when would we get back, we'd be driving, etc, etc...), but OH WELL I guess we'll just see! I decided that for the next little while I'll go along with more things even when I don't really want to. I'll agree to more things?

Special bonus side note of no importance: I washed all my grapes, removed them from the stems, and put them in my tupperware. And I bought a cup for drinking juice and milk. This pleases me very much. And! Next weekend! Mt. Sinai AND Sharm el-Sheikh!!!!

Delicious Explosion

Hello! Well, this has been a very update-filled week so far! I really seriously am going to start having more in-depth things to say other than just blow-by-blow 'what I did' posts. But! That will be AFTER I tell you about the delicious times I had yesterday!

We had a meeting at the American Cultural Center (Alexandria's branch of the US Embassy, I guess) which was anti-climactic. Afterwards, me and a couple other people went out to find this fateer place. Fateer is crazy delicious: it is like some kind of flaky pastry dough, thin, in a pancake shape. It is then stuffed with stuff, and cut into pieces. There are savory and sweet ones. We got to this restaurant, Dahab's I think it might be called, and sat down. I ordered a chicken fateer, and got the most amazing meal I've had recently. It was literally packed with chicken and cheese and red and green peppers. The pastry was so flaky and good, and it was all hot and lovely. Very filling. After that we got a sweet one, which was just a ridiculous concoction of cream, sugar, raisins, and who knows what else. I only had a bit of that.

THEN, we went to a juice place next door. I'm sure I've talked about 'juice' in Egypt before, but here is a refresher (haha! Is that funny? I feel like it is): the juice you buy at juice stands here is very thick, basically pureed fruit. Of course it has water and sugar too, but still. The most common kinds are mango, strawberry, orange, guava, and sugarcane, along with lemon (more like sugary lemonade). But there are places that have much more, and this was one of those places. I got kiwi (which was less tangy than I would have liked but still good), and my roommate got watermelon (which looked tasty, at least). The place had a really big menu, and I'm not even sure what half of it is. There are lots of fruits that aren't in season right now, I think, (like pomegranates!!!), so I'm going to have to frequently go back there and check on what's new.

After THAT, we went to Helwiaat Misr (Egypt Sweets), which was probably a bad decision, but oh well! I've told you about that place before, right? Amazing dessert place? Ok, well, I was already beginning to be incredibly sleepy by that point from all the food, but we still went there and ordered delicious nonsense. They have really, really good chocolate mousse! It is unbelievably light and fluffy (imagine clouds made from chocolate mousse), has a tiny bit of chocolate cake in the middle, and is covered in chocolate sauce. And it's a pretty big portion, all for 5LE ($1 or less). Amazing.

We rode the tram to all of these places, and the tram is kind of growing on me. It's nice to ride in the later afternoon and evening, when the sun is not too bad and it's breezy (it's been very windy here lately). The windows are open (and sometimes the doors hang open), you can just sit or stand and watch Alexandria go by. Very nice. I felt more comfortable here yesterday, but it may have just been a side effect of all the food. Oh well!

Today I have like a four hour meeting with my language partner. We were all assigned Egyptian people (students or people affiliated with the program in some way) to meet with four hours a week to practice our Egyptian colloquial. A lot of people seem to have really, really cool partners (tatoos, taking them to get nose piercings, inviting them home, etc). Not to say mine isn't good! We just haven't met that much yet, and she seems like the kind of person that you need to spend a little time getting to know (I'm the same way, so I guess it works out?). We didn't meet enough last week, so this week she declared that today we are going to meet for four hours: we're going shopping, then something else maybe, then eating, then maybe something, then hanging with her friends and a club somewhere??? I'm nervous!!! (NOTE: by 'club' I do not mean like 'in da club'. Clubs here are more like a community center/country club type thing. At least I THINK that's the kind she meant...)

OK ok. Time to go do some homework! I don't have class until 11 today, so hopefully I can at least try and be productive. Ma'asalaama!

Cairo Pictures!

Me and a camel!!!


The dude is twirling his skirt over our heads!!!


Sketch truck stop zoo thing, Egypt-style



...more to come soon!!!

Your values is a disarray, prioritizing horribly!

Man. So. Sometimes, I think a ton of words, and those words end up on paper (or, you know, the internet). And sometimes, recently, for far too long, I think words and I don't even think about putting them anywhere. They just are in my head and then do nothing but sit around. I am in some kind of rut, I think? I forgot Claire had a blog, and then I forgot where it was, and then I forgot what my own blog password or username even was, I mean, dang. What the heck, me. Things are whack right now, but also kind of alright, in a totally disarrayed, bound for mayhem kind of way. I need to start moving more. Being alive and doing and go go go. I have a lot of schoolwork. I have words to say about things, but now is not the time. Now I am going to go drink some milk and eat some cookies maybe (perhaps an ill advised decision considering how I totally had several chocolate+fruit smoothies today but whatever). I am going to read, maybe, or do a crossword, maybe. I have work tomorrow, which is really difficult given my constant urge to jump up, yell, "SUCK IT, WORK!!!!", knock over the computer in front of me, and run out of the room pushing things over and scattering papers as I go. I guess I will 'tough it out'.

Also???? Did I mention that crosswords are totally on, like, the fast track to being in the neighborhood of becoming MY BITCH?!?!? It is true.

Ok. Enough of this silliness for now. Goodnight! Kisses!