Time to say goodbye

My heart is breaking :(
I don't want to leave but I must. And before I know it I will be living my old life. The life that I love but the life that I wish I could merge with this one. Night after night I looked out into the sky and saw a new place. Each view was the same but each time it felt new. The heat, somehow through all the misery, has warmed my heart. I truly love Egypt. Ana Masreya Men Kol Alby. And although I know I am still in the honeymoon stage of Culture Chock, I wish that it didn't have to end.

I could sit by the pool, watch movies, and smoke shisha for the rest of my days.

I will be back, sooner rather than later. I miss you guys.

Our journey continues. July 16th

The three rangers arrive back in Cairo. It is night, around 9pm. We make the calls. "Where are we going?" "Who is coming?" Stand at the side of the road, in the road, deciding what to do.

The plan forms and we continue on to a pool in 6th of October, Kheir's place. Don't bother going home, the adventure is still in progress. Swim in the chlorine pool, making it the 3rd type of water that day, and listen to some music. Order food, eat, and hear the prayer calls. Must be around 4:30 am. The idea of horseback riding comes up. Riding at Dawn. Some excitement stirs but with tired eyes remaining. A coin is flipped. Head= horses Tails= sleep. Heads it is, and were off.


The weather, perfect. The pyramid scenery, perfect. The breeze passes along the sand as you watch the pyramids in the distance. The horses run full speed ahead and the wind is in your face. Reach the top of the sand dune and look beyond. Just gorgeous.

Although it is now around 8:30 we still power through. There is a discussion about what to do next. We stand in the street and plan.

The plan forms and we continue onto the Red Sea. 2 hours later we're at the beach where the salt content allows you to float with ease across the surface.

Pool, pictures, Pizza.

The drive back started like all the others, me sleeping. But after a stop for dinner I was back to being alert. By then it was dusk and the sky was filled with colors. Clouds floated over the hills like layers on a cake. Purples, Blues, and Reds. As your eyes continue to look up, you see a slight sliver of the moon and only one bright star at it's side.

If you read nothing else....

July 15th
Today was the journey of my life. I woke up at 8am to being my exciting adventure with my Peruvian friend, Piero and my Egyptian friend, Omar. Of course we didn’t leave until 9am Egyptian time (10am) but we were still ready for anything. We hopped on a microbus* towards Mamsoura. It was hot as hell but we were excited and the maniac driving kept us on our toes. When we got to our first stop we started looking for a café. We into a taxi and asked his to take us to a sheesha bar. He pulls in front of a building with a sign saying, “4 seasons cafe” in English. This was not the kind of place we were looking for. We explained to him in the best way we could that we were looking for something resembling poverty. Now understanding the type of tourist we were, took us straight to a huge Ahwa** in the middle of town. When getting out of the cab Omar began to argue with the driver about pricing. Piero and I rolled our eyes, knowing that this happens with every taxi driver. Then Omar told us that the driver was actually tryin to refuse payment because of his poor suggestion of the 4 seasons café. “What?!” Wow toto, we’re not in Cairo anymore.

• A microbus is a van that holds about 9 people. Often if the journey is short they will allow up to 15 people to squeeze it, or hang off the side. This is rarely used my tourists.
• ** a traditional café that serves sheesha and drinks but no food.

So at the Ahwa we got wonderful lemonade and sheesha. After our break we set off again. Another microbus was next on the list. We took it towards Ras El Bar, our final destination, but planned to hop off somewhere in the middle. About 10 km outside of Ras El Bar they let us out of the bus into the middle of nowhere. We found beautiful palm trees and a nice little boy who wanted to take pictures with us. We kept walking and ran into a herd of cows and eventually a tiny village of tents. The family in there insisted that we stay and eat, but with even Omar weary of the food quality we decided to choose our health.
We continued our walk, passing by melon stands and wood imports. A little over a km later we found a random Ahwa. I don’t know how they got business but we stopped and got drinks. Soon we realized that the first “nice” boy, had been following us the entire way. Omar told this very weird/curious child to go back. We looked at each other in confusion and went on our way.
Soon we found a few donkeys and began taking pictures. Then the guys offered to let me get on them to take a picture. Omar translates them, “We’re going to be on TV, we’re going to be on channel 6”. Not quite guys.







Continuing on, we found a few small bridges that we out to a little lake. It was beautiful so we started to walk along the water. There were some muddy patches ahead so I tried to carefully make my way across. This turned into me shrieking and ankle high in mud. I sloshed along for a few feet and washed my foot in the no-so-clean water on the side. Before we knew it, mud #2 stared us down. Omar was convinced he could jump across, and did… almost. After he made it across one of his feet lost balance and squished right back into the mud. We then knew that we needed some help. We began to look for wood to help us get across, Omar on his side and Piero and I on ours. Soon Omar comes walking back with a big stone and a plank of wood. As he was about to place the wood down and small child approached us. Two steps and he was over the mud with no squish. Piero and I looked in amazement, “how did he do that?” We didn’t risk it and decided to wait for the wood. We made it over and continued in our muddy shoes. We were cutting it close with time so the first truck we saw, we flagged down and asked for a ride. We hopped in the back and we were on our way with the wind in our hair and smiles on our faces.

The story just continues to I will take a break for bullet points.
- LC Meeting
- Pick out fish, bring it to a grill to cook
- Eat on a private beach, drink wine, eat fatih
- Head back the next day.

Side Notes:
- Pesticides get sprayed out of trucks at night to kill the mosquitoes. It may be affected but Piero and I could barely breathe. Bugs vs. Humans.
- Horn Adjustments = Horns are a very important part of the driving techniques in Cairo and you use them to communicate just about anything to other drivers. As we got into the microbus we saw the driver messing with a switch that changed the pitch of the horn. He went back and forth until he found the perfect sound. Classic.

Next Day


We went to a town called Meetghamr and found out quickly that you could not take pictures there. They explained that it was a military area although Omar saw no sign of any building. But one of the men was kind enough to allow me to take a picture with him.. nice try buddy, I don’t think so. So from there we got into a tiny cab called a, tootoo (or something like that) and he took us to the next town over called Zefta. It was really nice there and we found a perfect café right by the Nile. As we were smoking our shisha we saw a few locals swimming across the Nile. Of course this was inspiration and we decided we had to do it to. Piero stayed behind to take pictures and hold out stuff, but Omar and I were off. After getting about halfway I realized that the current was stronger than I expected and I was not really swimming in the right direction. On top of that, there was a lot of grass that was almost impossible to swim in. A little boy, about 11, and his little brother around 6, saw us struggling and started their rescue mission. They paddled there little boat and took as to shore. I was laughing the whole time.
I swam across the Nile, almost.

Our adventure was almost done… or so we thought.

Let the woman cook

Comida por todo.

So I decided I was going to cook for everyone and thought it should be some real American food. Problem is that I don’t really cook that well and when I do cook is usually Asian or Middle Eastern flavors, not really what I was looking for. So I decided to make everyone Mexican food, the good old Californian way.

This lovely girl Sonja offered me her kitchen and we were off to the market to get groceries. The thing about Egypt is that although it is really cheap, if it is imported it is going to be ten times more expensive. But either way I found the goods. Well tortillas were MIA, but mostly everything else. I even was able to find scoops, which were actually the only tortilla chips I found but whatever.

Once we bought the groceries Sonja and I had to walk back to her apartment. We didn’t really think this step through and when the result ended with 10 bags and two girls we began to panic. Luckily this really nice guy that worked at Metro helped us carry the other 6 bags and we were good to go. Yes, yes take your five minutes to bitch about how girls get everything. 

I enter the kitchen and see that I have a big oven with a lot of bowls and a few knives, for Egypt this is golden. I throw some ground beef on the stove and quesadillas in the oven. I then proceed to chop tomatoes and onions that will go with our tacos. The knife failed me. I struggled to cut, even the tomatoes, and ended with huge one inch by one inch slabs. Not the dicing I had in mind. Soon enough the quesadillas were burning and crumbled as I took them about. The only thing that turned out well was the canned chili that I merely placed on the stove. All in all, it was eaten and hopefully the Egyptians enjoyed trying something new. Although I did warn them that this was in now way, shape or form what real Mexican food is like.

so very much

Well I have officially extended my stay, although I don't know how long for. If I could stay all summer I would. Unfortunately I have many adventures ahead of me. And to top it off I got the most exciting news yesterday. My mom is coming to see me in Tunisia. i had been telling her about my travels and her spontaneity kicked in. She took time off work and bought a ticket. So on July 17th I will be meeting my Marmie in Tunis. I am so exited.

Other than that Egypt continues to steal my heart. Everything I see and everywhere I go is so wonderful. Of course I have now seen the pyramids, and ridden a camel. But there is so much more. You can go to the top of a building and look over the horizon and the buildings just go on forever. But if you get just the right view you can see these huge peaks of history just testing the strength of time. They represent what was, what is, and what will be. They give you strength.

The city is filled with noise at all hours. Car horns become music in the night. I think I would worry if it were silent. And then every night before I go to sleep, Qur’ān begins to travel through my window. I don't understand it's meaning but I know how powerful the words are to so many people.

Al salaam a'alaykum

The past few days have been absolutely indescribable. Every moment I see some new and amazing thing. Two days ago Mohammad Anis took my on the adventure of my life. We met pretty early in the morning and headed to the Coptic places. There we found a beautiful mosque with an open air top where you could stand in the sun. I, of course, did not want to stand in the sun because on top of being completely covered I also had to put on a green robe, just in case.

We then continued to see a few Greek Orthodox Churches and then a Jewish temple. Each place we went there were people hassling Anis, asking him to bring me to their shop for a commission.

After, we continued on to the area nearby called Old Egypt. Here we found markets and children playing in the street, vendors at every corner or even carrying their goods on their head. I was in awe. I took pictures of everything, and Anis explained each thing as we went by.


We then walked by the Nile and went to this little museum where they used to measure the depth of the Nile. Apparently not many people get to see it and Anis didn’t even know it was there. He then talked to one of the workers and they unlocked it for us so we could see it first hand. He even let me walk all the way down the chamber where the water actually filled.


For lunch we went to his friend’s shop where I was lucky enough to try brain and liver. Quite the experience. I have tried some random things in my life but I don’t think brain has ever been on the list. So I took my first few bites on brain, and let the taste sync in. I couldn’t tell if I liked it or not. I decided to chomp into the liver next. I liked it more at first and immediately took another bite. Soon the after taste was too much to bear and I had to switch back to the brain. Then the brain didn’t taste as good either. I stuck with the meat and shrimp from that point on. But at least I tried it.

After the interesting tastes in my mouth I was ready for some sweets. We first picked up Kharop, which is this dried plant that is really sweet. Anis actually didn’t know what it was, but it tasted good. Then we went to get Asap which is pure sugar cane. It was so good and cold, perfect for a hot Egyptian day. I was so happy, like a little kid, so the shop keep let me take pictures with the machine. They were all laughing at me.

Next, more food… I saw these little spiky things being sold on the street and decided I should try them. They looked familiar but I don’t know where I would have had one before this. Anyways I got to pick one up for a picture and Anis tells me that I can’t pick them up, that they will spike me. They didn’t look too harmful so I figured it was poison or something, but no. The vendor told Anis that anything that happened to me was his fault. But I was fine. I think it is an urban myth.

Then I went to go get a borio shake. This is basically an Oreo milkshake and very delicious. The only problem is that I had eaten the world the day and felt like I was going to throw up after.

After all the food I met up with Ma’andi and went to Khan El-Khalili. There I found a cheap women’s Galabya. I was also able to find rings for my girls, also very cheap. But after a while the bazaar was just too hectic so we sat down and smoked Shisha on a balcony and watched the shoppers pass by.

It was a very long day, but then it was time for the party. There were a mix of AIESECers from Peru, US, and Turkey. It was a lot of fun and I got to play with a little kitten that was one big fluff ball.

The little boy that could

So I have been sitting in the airport for less than a half hour updating my blog, when a little boy comes up and starts asking me questions.

"What you name is?"
"You are beautiful"
"Where from you?"
"First time in Egypt?
"How long here for?"
"Can I have my e-mail, ... your e-mail"

etc.
So I started talking to the little guys and brushed up on some Arabic.
He wrote out these words for me, but I don't know if it is the correct english spelling.
Salam Alekom - Hello
Ahla- Hello
Shokra- Thank you

So I got my little lesson and I'm off to go try them out. Ahla Egypt!

One "Lost" note

I also forgot to mention that although my most valuable items are still in my possession. I sort of left my battery and charger for my camera plugged into the wall at the airport in Athens. Which means I might as well not have a camera. So once again the great Mal-bones sucks at life.

A bumpy flight

I was fortunate enough to get a seat by the window on my way to Cairo. I looked out like a little child on Christmas, not knowing what would lie ahead.

When the city was in view I could stop smiling. It seemed to go on forever, with amazing buildings back to back. It is like no city I have ever seen.

Soon enough the plane started doing some weird turns. It seemed as the though the wings were going to dip down and hit the building. It corrected itself and then did the same this on the other side. I wasn't sure if it was normal, but I felt like he was giving us a close up tour of the city. My smile remained but some of it may have been fear.

As the bumps started coming i thought, "well if i do die at least I got to see Cairo" hmm not the best thinking. But then I realized that I hadn't even seen the piramids, and got pissed.

Anyways as you can tell it was safe landing. All you could see was sand below you as we approached the jetway. And when the plane finally stopped the was a big round of applause.

Now I am in the airport waiting to get picked up by the AIESECers. I am keeping my eyes open for people but it seems that everyone is staring at me. I keep thinking that they recognize me but then realize that they are probably just thinking, "who is this freak with the pink hair" :)

A side note: Some guy is wearing a shirt that says "I'll 'clover' your world". Does anyone know what this means?

the long layover

Well after spending the night in Copenhagen airport I finally made it to athens. I had a ten hour layover so I went into the City. I went online to e-mail AIESEC Cairo and let them know I was coming and what do you know? Errikos is online from Athens.

So I decided to stay the night and hang out with a fellow AIESECer. At this point my AIESEC talk had consisted of me explaining to everyone in my program what it was, so being with an AIESECer was a breath of fresh air.

We walked around town and drank Ouzo. What a beautiful city.

What a strange feeling

02 July 2007

Then program in Copenhagen is over and I'm off to my big adventure. The adventure that I could not wait to go to before I left.

The night before leaving the states I was impatient. I was packing for a trip that I wouldn't start for 5 weeks. The fact that I was studying in Copenhagen didn't interest me, it was just something i had to get done.

When i arrived I thought the program was shit. We went to school with all Americans and were almost never exposed to the Danish culture. I was one of the few that got a Kollegium (dorm) filled with outgoing Danes ready to show me the ropes. For this I was greatful.

The program then forced on two trips, again with all Americans. We went to the same dinners, the same hostels, and the same museums. This is what we called "Sheep".

My marmie called me the night before I left on the first study tour and I was miserable. I didn't want to leave the Danes, broken finger and all. Then something strage happened the next day. The VIP bus. This was the bus we would be riding for the next hour days. This bus contained all the business kids in the program with a total of 25 of us.

When you are in a small enclosed space stories are bound to start flying. Everyone was talking and more often than not a Chappelle quote was being thrown around. These are the times that make you love your country. Because as different as we all were, we understood each other.

From those nights on is was non-stop-non-sense. You round the tropps and head out.

Then slowly but surely it was time to leave and one by one the group got smaller. Now is is time to say goodbye, the last remaining survivor.

And then there was one. What a strange feeling.