time flies

I can't believe I've already been here for over 2 weeks. And I also can't believe that most of the friends I have made at school are leaving in about 2 weeks, including my roommate. Crazy. Time is really flying by.

Well I have done so much since my last thing...I won't bore with the nitty gritty details, but I'll try to explain a little bit since I can't post pics at the moment. Last weekend I went to the pyramids, and of course it was pretty fantastic. They are so large. But it is interesting how they are kind of in the middle of town, not off in the middle of nowhere like you would imagine. We took horse/camels with some random guy on the side of the road. He was a little weird to say the least, and kind of jipped us out of our money when we thought we had already paid. But it ended up being a good time anyway. We took the horses camels off to the outskirts of the pyramid grounds so that we could see the whole panorama. Then all of the sudden our tour guy got into a shouting match with one of the tourism policemen (they are everywhere) who had an AK. I'm pretty sure he was fighting with him because we got in through the back door and I don't think that's allowed...he's probably making lots of $$. The people around Cairo are very willing to make a quick buck by screwing foreigners & tourists any way they can. Unfortunately it will always happen, so oh well. At least we had fun.

Then another week went by, and I did a few things...I've been to the Cairo Jazz Club a couple of times and it is a hangout for younger/richer Egyptians. The people in there are so different looking than the people in the middle of Cairo. Egyptian women are wearing the same clothes that you would see in the United States and are acting just they way they would there. People are drinking lots of alochol (most tables I saw bought bottles of whiskey or vodka) and dancing and having a great time. It is very different than all of the hijabbed women in the streets of Cairo. The modern/Western Cairo is mostly hidden when you walk around during the day... most people who are modern and Western drive cars and you don't see them walking around. But if you go to certain places, like the jazz club, they will be there. There is also the extreme poor of Cairo. It is very sad and intense. Children beg a lot, and sometiems it is hard to tell if the beggars are for real or if they are faking it. I have heard on the news about the food crisis around Egypt and Cairo, but I have yet to see the long lines for bread or anyone protesting. I suppose I am not really around those areas much. I hope things start getting better soon for these poor people. I feel really bad seeing mothers on the side of the road with their small children. Sad sad.

This last weekend I camped out in the Great White Desert near the Bahariya Oasis for 2 nights. It was absolutely amazing and it is the exact opposite of Cairo. There is no one around...you are isolated from everyone, and you don't even think about the bustling wild streets of Cairo or any other city. We arrived in the late afternoon on Friday to the Bahariya Oasis and got our driver (who I named Sharky) and his helper (who I named George). At first I was a little bit iffy about them...Sharky was very quiet and a very large man and George just seemed strange. But Sharky ended up being very fatherly and he is so skilled at what he does (driving on sand/rocks, cooking fantastic meals on an open fire, etc...)....George was still strange the whole time. Haha...but a good guy.

Nothing lives in the desert except a couple of things, not even small bushes or weeds or bugs. It mostly rocks and sand. But a long time ago it was a large sea, so there are signs of past life everywhere like sea shells (I collected a few). Right when we arrived we saw amazing rock formations and fossils, including a huge fossil of a shark that we stood inside. We stopped in the white desert and camped on Friday night, eating some great chicken, rice, and potatoes that Sharky cooked along with some great sweet tea with mint. I thought no life could possibly sustain itself, but all of the sudden we saw some shadows scuttering along in the dark. They ended up being desert foxes! In the middle of the night I woke up and looked up at the sky and saw all of the galaxies and millions of stars. It was so quiet. I fell back asleep and I woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of completely silence. You don't really know what silence is until you are in the middle of the desert with no wind and no life. It is like you are in a vacuum of space. I could barely open my eyes because it was so bright everywhere....the sun reflected off the white rocks and it was shocking after a dark night. That day we stopped at a small oasis where 5 men have been living for about a month and had lunch for a few hours. We also swam in a natural spring pool...it was so refreshing and amazing. Randomly in the middle of the desert there was a large tree with blooming flowers on top of a hill surrounded by no other life except bees buzzing around. Sharky said it has been there for 3000 years. Incredible. We stopped that day and had another delicious dinner of pasta and tea. Then me & my travelling buddies played hide and out in the dark.

Our travel back from the desert was not as nice. We got back to the Bahariya desert and said goodbye to Sharky & George. Then we got in a van with a young driver guy who looked a little bit out of it. We got to a checkpoint (where, by the way, I had to claim I was not American so we would not be escorted by armed guards all the way back to Cairo....don't know why, I guess to keep Americans safe....?). Right before we got to the checkpoint, our driver HIT a small boy on a bicycle. Now, the kid was acting a little recklessly, but I'm pretty sure our driver could've easily avoided the situation. It was a bit shocking, but I moved on without thinking about it. We got passed the checkpoint. I fell asleep, and the next thing I know I hear a very loud THUMP THUMP THUMP... I was a little shaken and finally our driver pulled over and got out of the car and looked at the tire and was a little shocked. Then we got out of the car, and looked at it, and it was completely ripped to shreds. NOt only that, part of the front bumper was smashed off and there were wires hanging out. We were all a bit upset to say the least, but he fixed the tire and we were on our way. The rest of the time I couldn't sleep and I was just watching the road. He was still driving kind of funny...I think something was wrong with him. We got back and demanded to go straight to the office to get our money back for the trip. I think we are going to get it back. If not, we are going to tell everyone on internet sights not to use their company because it is unsafe. They should compensate us considering how scary it could have been. The accident could have been much worse. Thank God it wasn't.

I'm learning Arabic, too. :) It is good, I feel like my classes are intensive and I am learning a lot. I can kind of communicate to cab drivers now.

Ok, well, I will write again soon. Still not letting me post pictures, but I will do it as soon as I can. Miss and love you all.