Monday May 31

I want Richie’s! It’s still a million degrees in Cairo and all I can think about now is going to Revere and getting Richie’s Italian Ice. It’s crunch time here. Trying to get everything for the end of the semester may be more intense here then any other end of the semester in my life. Trying to cram a month and a half worth of work into three days does not make for much sleep. I was up almost all night last night just trying to get organized. I didn’t even mean to be up that late, but my mind was just racing. I found myself still messing around on the computer at 3:30 and I finally said no more. I am not staying up to hear the call to prayer again...
I also realize that I am really excited to walk into Stop and Shop, simply because it will be a relief to walk into a grocery store with out getting hit on or a butt pinch.

Sunday May 30

Okay I kinda miss Boston a lot. I would really enjoy some real milk and going to a restaurant and actually receiving the meal I ordered. Not that I will ever go out to dinner again. I miss my kitchen and a home cooked meal! I realized though, there will probably not be another time in my life when it will seem weird not to be exploring a 10,000 year old tomb on a daily basis, but that is what I am in for when I get back. Finding my sell at the base of an ancient artifact has become a daily norm... Remember when running after the 39 was a normal day??... I don’t.
All I can think about though is oreos....mmmmmm and cereal with real milk... not this whole milk bullshit that is served warm.

Secondly I ass planted coming down the stairs in the Kahn today. Nearly destroyed my cmera, but managed to lift it above my head enough to save it. This resulted in me landing directly on my ass and bouncing down a few stairs directly towards a terrifying old lady, who I am convinced was like 1000 years old, she was bling and walking with a cane and I’m pretty sure she was an oracle. So I feared for my life as I went pummeling towards her, I mean I don’t know the ramifications of taking out an oracle, but I am positive nothing good can come of it. I yelled “I’m comin for ya,” which didn’t really seem to get her attention. I stopped my fall before I hit her.

Saturday May 29

Sakkara!! Rob set up a trip to Sakkara, which are the oldest pyramids in Egypt. We were exploring the inside of tombs 1000 years older then the pyramids at Giza. It was awesome, though my ass is sore from all the climbing. It was funny because the security guard that travels with us was looking out for us and keeping people out of the tombs while we took some silly pictures posing on the ruins. We were yelled at initially by a tour guide and once the guard figured out that we were not going to stop, he decided to play along and keep the guides from seeing us in order to make his job easier. Just like anything in Egypt, it’s allowed as long as no one catches you.

Friday May 28

“You know your in Egypt when you wake up and there are birds chirping in your room...” After a rather unfortunate series of events of a window falling out and crashing and some spilled Koshary, a few of the boys were moved to a new room and when they went back to get their belongings they found birds in the room feasting on the spilled Koshary... only in Egypt. Also Alexandria was a total bust for swimming. After some of the girls bought ridiculous children’s bathing suits, and some of the guys bought women’s capris, we planned to go swimming in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, the only beaches in Alexandria are for Egyptians only. The other option was the bay... which was sketchy as all hell and there is just something about bathing in trash that is very in appealing. Needless to say, I did not swim. I did, however, stop for ice cream on two separate occasions in a six hour period.

Thursday May 27

Soooooo I fixed my camera... I came home from class and decided to tinker with it a bit. I kinda freaked Maddie out when when came in the room and I was crawling around the square foot of space between our beds looking for the metal wire that acts as a cage to hold the focusing screen in place. I just looked up at her and said “don’t worry I may have just broke my camera worse.” I’m still on board for the new camera plan... but after my 20 minute reconnaissance figuring out how the damn thing fit in and the 15 minutes wasted looking for the stupid piece of metal I was able to make it just slip right into place using only my finger and some tweezers. So no cannon 5D Mark II for me... damn... If only I wasn’t such a baller tinkerer.

Wednesday May 26

Sooooo I broke my camera... but its okay! It was actually rather eventful. I went to take a picture and heard a weird sound. Rob and I both kind of say at the same time, “Well that’s no good.” I took off the lens to discover the focusing screen (rather important part of the camera) was floating inside the body. Naturally since we were out on the street we had no way of fixing it and since we are in a foreign country none of us had any tools to fix it. I took it to the Kodak store and they very promptly turned me away without even touching it. They just said “NO NIKON!!” We then took it to Tim a friend of Rob’s (long story) who wasn’t able to fix it since he was a little afraid of breaking the whole thing. He and Rob kept telling me to use it as an excuse to get a 5D Mark II. I was on board. After a few phone calls and some failed tinkering, Tim offered me his old Cannon for the rest of the trip. I got to see his place which was awesome, overlooking the Nile on the 24th floor and filled with camera equipment. It’s people like him that really make me love the world of photography.

Tuesday May 25

I got an Eyptian haircut... I said make it shorter... the woman didn’t speak a word of English... But she made it shorter... it doesn’t fit into a ponytail any more and hardly hits my shoulders. However, I like it. It hasn’t been this short probably since I was three. She did a surprisingly good job... real chunky layers which were a little scary at first, but they are growing on me. Also the hot water ran out mid shampoo so then it was freezing water... I found where all the cold water in Egypt is... the hair dresser. She also pulled on my hair super hard... maybe she was trying to make her job easier by pulling it out instead of cutting it? Over all though, a great decision!

Monday May 24

I think our Arabic teacher is teaching us the wrong words on purpose. Apparently Zach and Doug tried out their Arabic over the weekend and were using the wrong word. We were told the word for stop is “bas” so Zach and Doug were trying to tell their cab driver to stop so they could get out, however, it appears the proper word for stop is pronounced more like “bes.” “Bas” means look, so they then understood why the cab driver was pointing out the Marriott rather then stopping. Oh Arabic. We have a wild class and learned the words for “how much” and “free” I am positive that these will be used in the market extensively as well as inappropriately.

Sunday May 23

We went to the Giza zoo today... That was an experience. I'm pretty sure for 50 pounds I could have taken an elephant home with me, for one pound i got to feed it pet it and it waved good bye with its trunk as I left. The first thing we did when we got there was take pictures posing next to two full grown lions, naturally. Now they were in a cage, but it looked to me like it would be very easy for them to just reach out and maul you. The next stop was to the baby lion cage where we got to have more pictures taken of us holding a very "sleepy," in other words very heavily drugged lion cub. The cage itself was really a small room with more cages inside, the one the cub was in, another with some larger lions, and two empty ones, both of which contained large animal bones and a rib cage, presumable from lunch.

Saturday May 22

Belly dancers... not all they are cracked up to be... pretty sure I am a better dancer now that Ugo has given me a few lessons over the past two years. She just kind of jumped around a lot. Though she did accidentally wake a guy up by tapping him on the shoulder. He sort of doesed off and she realized this as she was dancing right in front of him. He jumped when she tapped him and from then on was wide awake for the rest of the show. Whirling dirvish... way cooler. So much so that I hit my head on a window trying to get a better look.

Friday May 21

I woke up this morning spooning with the nightstand... that was unpleasant. You know you’re in Egypt when your bed is inverted at a 45 degree angle and you wake up holding on for dear life. Also I have been waking up randomly right before the call to prayer at 4:30. apparently that is the wake up call and the prayer doesn’t start until 5, but there is another call at 5, so Egyptian snooze button? I also feel like people might be a little less tired mi-day if they moved that prayer back to about 8 am... a little more sleep might just help everybody out.

Thursday May 20

They think we are a terrorist group!... We were somewhat confronted by the people around our school for taking pictures. Even though they seemed to lover the attention and welcome us to the neighborhood, a few people complained about us taking pictures around the school. Naturally they never said anything to us, rather they went thru the engineers professor who is probably the least connected to the program. As Dennis said, “can you imagine 8 Egyptians running out of an unmarked building in the ghetto in the States snapping pictures and then going back in...?” It’s a valid point and as i see it a great opportunity to take the vans and go about as we please taking pictures all over Cairo rather then being confined to one area

Monday May 17

First day of Arabic... we are kind of a disruptive class. Our teacher is so cute, but with this group I think it is going to be next to impossible to get any work done. Between Clancy making us all laugh hysterically and the engineering boys being themselves it’s more of a shit show then a class. Our teacher thinks we are hysterical though and calls us clowns.

Saturday May 15

We saw garbage city today... not really what I was expecting. I was kind of hoping for more garbage to be perfectly honest. I was kind of hoping we could take pictures and stuff too, but that wasn’t an option since we didn’t even get out of the van, just drove thru it. I guess since it is such a poor area it was an effort to keep us safe, but I thought it would be cool to snap so shots there. Though Cairo is kind of cover in garbage, if I want to shoot garbage specifically I don’t have to search too hard... or at all.