Blogging FRENZY

Ok ok so wow hey even more blogging!

A girl I went to high school with is super cool (like pretty much everyone I went to high school with) and wrote an article! About PHYSICS! You can find it here. Also, since I was linking to other blogs in my five-minutes-ago post, I'll link to more! One of my good friends from college is this crazy science nerd, and she is doing this ridiculous sounding Masters program (I think it is a Masters?) in Europe where you study at all these different schools in different countries, and it's like half the time I don't even know what she is talking about because she is so sciencey and cool but yeah here is her blog. Another girl I went to college with is doing med school in the Dominican Republic, which I think is super cool also, and you can find her thoughts here.

See? See what I did there? In lieu of ACTUAL things to say, and ACTUAL cultural information, I just gave you links to what other people have to say about other stuff! I do it because I love you.

Back again!!!

So, I'm back in Alexandria. I know, I know, pretty much last time I posted was freaking back in the summer and I was all, "oh I'll post soon about Siwa haha", and I totally didn't, but yeah. I'm sorry! These things happen. I think that the link I posted to another girl's blog that one time about Siwa should about cover it for you, though, and if I ever think of anything I could just write it. But for now I have other things to tell you of. I went home for about 6 or 7 weeks, and it was lovely! Here are some highlights:
-Michigan: saw my cousin who is now in CAMEROON!, ate at Zingerman's (i hope that is right) in Ann Arbor, went to a wedding of a girl I hardly know, had an awesome family picnic in Grosse Pointe Park, and had some nice home cooked meals. It was basically a really good time, and my mum and I listened to a really good story tape on the drives, too.

-Illinois: I relaxed, saw friends, had a special classy evening hosted by Sasha and ending in a drag show at a gay bar (the drag queens! they can dance! like, they will own your shit! in a dance contest, and otherwise!), went running, read books 4-7 of Harry Potter, had Netflix!!! and watched several really good movies I'd missed, and had an all around good time. There were shenanigans, it was awesome. Oh! And I had a bath!

-Austin: Woooo! Ate at some of my favorite places (although Sao Paulo's chicken was not amazing for the first time in recorded memory...), saw my awesome friends, saw old friends, played drunk mini golf, accomplished goals, and basically was forcibly reminded of how totally wonderful Austin is. Then I drove back to Illinois.

So now, that leaves me in Alexandria. I got here, oh, Friday? I think? I left America on last Tuesday, arrived in London (!) on Wednesday, and had a lovely day around town with a boy (!). Then Thursday I did whirlwind shopping and then, weeping dejectedly, boarded a plane for Cairo, where I just got progressively more and more disillusioned and angry. On the plus side, I read The Time Traveler's Wife? It was pretty okay. Crazy premise!

My apartment is nice, so that's a plus. I am feeling really uncertain guilty shadows of feelings about not doing a host family, because I know it would be so nice to have a family just ready made and there to take care of you and love you. Maybe I would come out of this year being the kind of bubbly, exuberant, large-close-family-having person I've always dreamed of! More likely, however, is that it would be rather stressful for me, I think. I'm just not used to that, and however beneficial it would be, at the outset of all of this business I promised myself that I would get an apartment. I figure that I am going through a time (not a rough time or a bad time, but certainly a time) of change, perhaps, or a time of uncertainty or volatility in my personality, so I'd better do what I can while I'm here to ensure success. If that makes any sense. And I already made this decision, so I'm going to stop being wishy-washy and pretending like I regret it, right now! Ok.

Although, honestly having an apartment is weird right now. I haven't really lived with other people much! I mean, there's two years of dorm rooms, and then there's a summer of total stress and other people in an apartment, and then there's a year of solo living/dorm rooms, and then a year of what was basically solo living with an ever-absent roommate. So, I don't know what to do with two other people who I care about liking me. You know? And, plus, I'm all jetlagged and confused, so I keep having these feelings like, what am I supposed to do now? What do we do with our time? It's really stupid. I'm sure I'll get the hang of being a person soon. I mean, I better, because man!

Anyway. Oh, news! The boys got quarantined! It was a stupid swine flu paranoia thing, involving one of our number getting taken to the hospital against his will, breaking out of the hospital, and then getting a whole floor quarantined. And, because Egypt is so great, the staff in the dorms was trying to stop them using AC or showers, because those are things that will make you get sick! (.....) But, good news, I don't think anyone actually has swine flu, and I just got word that the boys organized a breakout in order to go drink beer by the sea. So, good news?

Food is another weird thing right now. I'm not obsessive about my food, by any means, but I am particular. I'll seriously eat anything if I'm hungry enough, but I do like what I like. I like having access to good quality, healthy food, preferably with minimal artificial things in it. Lately, just the idea of tons of extraneous ingredients in food makes me feel weird. But, so far, this kind of thing is going to be difficult to come by here. I mean, I can get vegetables (what's in season, anyway...peppers, tomatoes, some basics). I can get seasonable fruit. I can get bread. I can get white pasta. I can get low fat plain yogurt, juice from concentrate, skim milk, and (from the right places) tuna in water. There are loads of lentils and beans and peas and such. But, I am having a hard time with the following: lack of good cheeses that I am used to, lack of meat that I trust (where is the good old organic chicken behind it's reliable fly-proof counter at Central Market?!), lack of whole grains. I don't know. I know I'll get used to this, but it's hard right now. Little things like this really throw me off kilter. I splurged and paid way more than necessary for brown rice, but am sadly without any kind of hard cheese to grate on top. I'll figure it out?

Speaking of rice, mine has been sitting on the stove for a while, so I should go eat. Oh, we have a gas stove! Which I guess is desirable? Although ours is quite...not modern. Anyway. I'll update soon with more exciting insights (haha)! Chances are, I miss you!

And It Makes Me Feel So Fine

Hello! So, this past weekend I had? It was pretty awesome! I will tell you about it! Right now!!!

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!!!

Oh no oh dear

So, I'm in Washington D.C. I've been here since Wednesday, and we're leaving tonight for Egypt. We fly to Frankfurt at 10pm tonight and get in at noon Frankfurt time, then have like 9 hours in Frankfurt and then leave that night for Alexandria. I am so not excited. Just doing this for 2 months is already bad enough. Like, it is exciting, in theory. I can understand the excitement. I think I'm just tired, and I guess that I am one of those people that needs a break from constant socialization. Like, with people I know well and am friends with, it is okay. But otherwise I don't know. It's like those quizzes that ask about your personality and whether you find being around mass groups of new people exhilarating or exhausting. I find it a little exhausting, particularly on low sleep and when it is raining and we have to sit through long hours of boring orientation on cultural differences and blah blah etc. I am being pretty boring right now, actually, and whiny too. I'm sorry.

On the plus side, I saw the White House! And the Washington Monument! And the Lincoln Memorial! Very cool. Even though it was raining the whole time pretty much, both times I saw it. I'm a little excited about the airport, I do love airports and the idea of being a traveler. In reality it is mostly often tiring and I just end up feeling dirty, but I like the idea. I'll do my best to update semi-frequently on more exciting stuff than my own complaining (my mum is actually offering to pay me to write intelligent, informative blog posts!), but we'll see. Maybe I'll even post some pictures!

I don't really have anything else constructive to say, other than talking nonsense about the various people going on this program with me (most are ok, some are cool, some are weird, several are super annoying, etc). We have to start loading stuff on buses and gathering and milling around in about 15 minutes, so I'm going to go get my stuff prepared. I will update upon my arrival! Kisses!