Warehouse

~~~~ Okay

What an exhausting weekend!

Thursday - Started out really weird. Allison and I went to Historiography and our crazy teacher went on several seperate tangents. The two weirdest? The Jews built the pyramids and I didn't learn evolution in high school [even though I did] because creationalism is still a scientific argument for the creation of the world... awkward! After class I ran some errands. Went to the bank, picked up my gym I.D. (I'm gonna start going to the gym at 7:30 in the morning... I know it's crazy but at the hour only girls are allowed in the gym and that'll be nice), then ran into Random Dan in the cafeteria. So I got a soda and sat and did work with him until Egyptology. Favorite part of the little study session?
Dan: Yeah, Jews don't write down God's name. We spell it G-d because paper is disposible and if you write down his full name you have the chance of just throwing it away.
Me: *Tries desperatley to digest the new, strange information*
Dan: You are so judging me right now...

:D Hahahaha

So anyways after that I went to class. It was really ironic because Nicholas (I just learned that's my prof's name... good Greek name ;) ) went on his own mini-tangent about how slaves DID NOT build any of the pyramids! So after class I went back to the apartments to putz around until Katie got out of class. When she did we did a little grocery run to the fabulous grocery 2 minutes away. No more Alfa for me! I got some toast (what they called sliced bread) and now I can make grilled cheese! After that we were still bored and the boys weren't answering their mobiles so we decided to be total girls and get our nails done! So we grabbed a cab, headed over to Mohandeseen, and got manicures at Twins! 5 pounds of cuticles and a French manicure later my nails are so pretty I think I might buy some clear nailpolish and keep this female thing up! After our O.D. on estrogen we got a came over to Zamalek and Nick made his infamous soup. He even cooked the chicken seperatley so I could have some too :) awwww. It was actually pretty good... I approve. We made it a short night after dinner because I had to get up early on...

Friday - Oh my goodness! Allison and I got up at 6 AM for a fun-filled day with Dr. Swanson. We got on a bus and took a three hour drive to a site called Buto. It use to be a temple but it's mostly ruioned now with the exception of a few statues and a Nilometer. Then we headed on to the fort in Roshied where the Rosetta stone was found. I mean, that sounds impressive but really? It wasn't... so we continued on to the site where the Nile meets the Meditteranean. Once more, sounds impressive but not so much. Afterward it was getting later so we stopped by Alexandria for lunch. Okay, I wasn't especially in love with Alex the first time... the second time didn't change my mind about much. We went to this little cafe that is suppose to be featured in a lot of famous mystery novels about Egypt. Well, it had a fun atmosphere and the food was decent but we had to be back on the bus at a certain time... seeing Dr. Swanson angry at the waitstaff for taking too long encouraged me to never turn in any papers late :) We finally made it back on the bus and headed out to our final site. It was a 3rd century (BCE) temple to Osiris. It was situated right between the Med and a half ruioned lighthouse. This site was pretty cool. A lot of the foundation was still intact so it was great to explore and the sun was setting so those views were great. After everyone had their fill of sightseeing we got back on the bus ready to head back to Cairo. But apparently the bus wasn't ready. The clutch broke or something and we were stuck on the side of the road for an hour! By some miracle, our bus driver was able to fix it and we did make good time back to Cairo but the thought of being stuck on the side of the road for four hours kinda ruioned the night. Needless to say... I went home and hide in my room for the rest of the night. It had been a 15-hour bus ride.

Today - Hahaha what a day! Got up at 9 to meet Brian and Dan at Zamalek to catch a cab to Saqara and Dahshur. Brian had hired out one of the yellow cabs for the day so we were actually paying a meter instead of bargaining because that's cheaper for longer rides. Our first stop was Saqara. That was fun. It was a refreshing change from the harassment at Giza. We could just wander on our own and not be asked if we wanted to ride a camel every 2 minutes. There were some fantastic tombs we went into that had a lot of beautiful paintings still intact. Afterward we climbed back into our cab and headed to Dahshur. First we went into the Red Pyramid. That was exciting because it was a high climb up the side of the pyramid on the outside then an even longer climb down the pyramid inside. Inside was just as hot as the other two pyramids I've been in but it was a little more exciting because there were more rooms open to the public inside. It was an exhausting climb but we were allowed to take pictures inside this pyramid! So after that we wanted to go to the Bent Pyramid. After a little misunderstanding with the driver where we ended up going out of our way a big we ended up where we wanted to be. The Bent Pyramid is my favorite because even when the ancient Egyptians get their math wrong and they have to change the angle of the pyramid in the middle of construction it still stands tall for thousands of years! We couldn't go inside this pyramid but we were the only tourists around so it was kinda fun to wander around completely alone. After that we went back to Zamalek and had lunchish dinner at a pizza parlor. It was a fun atmosphere and our waiter was such a cute little man! The pizza was pretty good too! We finally said goodbye to the boys and Katie, Allison, and I tried to catch a cab back to Garden City. Unfortunatley, we were near a bunch of hotels and the cab drivers weren't willing to take us on the fair we normally pay... being such Cairo-cab-saavy girls we knew it only cost five pounds to Garden City and the cab drivers were intent on riping us off and charging us ten. So we decided to have one last mini-adventure and walk. It was a pretty easy-going walk. My favorite part was crossing the bridge to get back to Tahir Square. Now I know that walking to Zamalek isn't as bad as I thought and I may try it more often.

It was kinda a short day but a nice compliment to the freakishly long day I had yesterday. I've been doing laundry and watching internet tv for the rest of the night. I'll probably go to bed soon because I have to deal with the raging inferno tomorrow morning.

This weekend? SINAI!