In Your Arms Tonight

~~~~ Tired

I really should keep up with this. It certainly would be fun to document EVERYTHING about this adventure instead of just the big things.

Thursday - Started out okay. Went to historiography and the prof tried to argue with me again. She asks me the most opinionated questions ever and then tells me my opinions are wrong. Ummmm, they're opinions... can they really be wrong? Afterward got some coffee and sat in the courtyard and did some work with Random Dan who, once more, showed up randomly! I love that kid... Went to Egyptology and made Brian promise he'd go to the Anitquities museum and Khan el-Kalili with us this weekend. I told him Katie and I needed male escorts... more on that later. After class I went back to the flat and roomie and I went to CityStars. I mean, I read it was the second largest mall in the world but I was sooo not ready for it! Crazy! We ate at this restaurant called the Crazy Crocodile... yeah, it was based in California... the entire mall was so American. I had onion rings and a banana milkshake... more America. Then we shopped for a while. We were there for three hours and I think we barely saw a quarter of the mall. We did manage to make it to the Virgin Megastore and I got two arabic cds... ZeeZee and Cheb Mami. Then we grabbed a cab to go back. The cab driver took one look at us, pulled out a tape, said "just for you" and stuck in a tape of all sorts of '90s power love ballads. He was so cute :) Trying to impress the Americans! I didn't know many of the songs but then "Take My Breath Away" came on and the driver got a kick out of watching me and Cori sing our hearts out. After I got back, Katie and I decided to be antisocial and walk to the Hard Rock Cafe and get desserts to go and come back and watch Rent. mmmmm, Apple Cobbler, Brownie Sunday, and beer... what could be better! We did manage to get a little lost on the walk home but it ended up working out really well because we found a grocery store, a bakery, and koshari right down the street! :D Why do we turn left all the time? Right at the Co-op is amazing!!!

Friday - Me, Katie, Allison, Brian, Dan, and Nate went to the museum of Egyptian Antiquities. I totally picked the right career. Everything took my breath away. I could have stayed in that museum forever. I already know I'm gonna be the annoying old Egyptologist who walks around the museum yelling at tourist not to touch the artifacts! We went to the mummy room and I looked into the face of Ramses II! I totally sketched out my friends by my fascination with the mummies but, hey, it's my career, not theirs! Then of course we had to check out King Tut's goodies. I've seen his head mask of solid gold. But it's a big museum and Katie has a little stomach ;) so about 3 / 4 of the way through it we were beginning to lose some steam. So we headed over to Tahir for some Koshari! After a quick stop by my fruitvendor friend for some oranges for Allison we went back to our flat to play cards. Yeah, just so you know, four of a kind is four of the same number... not four of the same suite :rolleyes: totally learned that one the hard way! After that we went to a local cafe. I had karkaday hot without sugar. I think I need sugar in my karkaday! Brian and I decided to get some apple sheesha and smoke it... not bad! After relaxing at our favorite cafe we caught a cab to Zamalek for a party hosted by Pete from Pomona. I told him Chanda was almost for sure coming and he got really excited... of course he was also quite intoxicated by the time I got there! :laugh: We met Adam, the other guy from CMC who was also nice and hung out with him. We ended up on Pete's balcony which has this amazing view of the Nile... sooo perfect!

Saturday - Not quite as early of a start as Friday. I needed to sleep in! We met our male escort at AUC to go to Khan al-Kalili. Hahaha it was me and Katie and Brian 1, Brian 2, Dan, Nate, and Adam. We got our male escort... that's for sure! We climbed into our cabs and got to the market. After some wandering (and an offer of a dowry!... 'how many camels? i pay any price for you' 'shakira! shakira!' and 'if you buy this shirt, i have sex with you') we stumbled across some fantastic shops. I got a headscarf, a wall hanging, a pair of earrings, and a cartouche with my name in hieroglyphics! We found the cartouche shop up some stairs and in this quiet corner away from mose of the tourists. There were two men sitting at this table just metalworking. It was the best way to have cartouches made ever! It was a long day but I got so much, bargained, and spoke so much arabic I felt like it was so worth it!

Today - Back to school. Another uneventful Historiography class, work at the library, Fateer for lunch (the love of my life wasn't working :@ ) Egyptology where Brian and I spent most of the time passing notes about our prof's man-boobs... hahaha. Don't get me wrong though, he's a really sweet guy! I should tell him I want to go to Greece for my spring break and see if he has any suggestions... he's Greek. After class I came back here for some paper-writing and laundry. I got my paper done around six and Katie and I walked to the bakery for some figgy goodness! Then Katie got a chocolate fateer for dinner... whatever, we're in Egypt, we can do what we want! Then I printed off my paper at the library and we wandered back. I've been trying to do my Egyptology reading for Tuesday but I just lack the energy... and I have everything else done up til then. I made myself couscous for dinner. It wasn't very good couscous because it was really mushy (that's what you get for buying the one pound pack with the box that was practically falling apart) but it was still fun to cook for myself like that! Now I think I'll go to bed a little early and try to catch up on some sleep.

This weekend? THE PYRAMIDS!!!

i love this place.