The usual

Sorry for not posting in english recently, I have had a lot of homework and no time. I realize that google translate does not work well in translating colloquial arabic so I guess those of you who don't know arabic are out of luck. Or just get my mom to translate for you :)

Anyway, this week I have been inside doing homework trying to catch up but I won't bore you with those details, mostly because there are no details I was just doing work. Last week however was very exciting between the visit from Caitlin and a weekend in Sharm El Shiekh.

Ill start with Caitlin's visit. So poor Caitlin came in the middle of my program so I was not able to give her my undivided attention, but we were able to go to Cairo for four days which I hope she enjoyed. We left on a thursday afternoon traveling by train. The ride was pleasent, the seats were comfortable and we had lots of leg room, no complaints. Once we arrived we had to find our hostel. This was not so much fun. I didn't know where it was and also didn't know how to call the hostel because here in egypt you have different codes for landlines and cell phones and I didn't know these codes. Fortunatly I had the address of the place and for some reason I was determined on walking there while carrying our heavy bags. Not one of my brightess ideas because it was hot, we didn't know where we were going and my bad was really heavy. Oh yeah and my shirt was falling off on the way as well. So probably not the best way to start out a trip but we eventually found the hostel checked in and went out. That night I took Caitlin to one of my favorite resturants in Cairo, Sequoia. It is right on the nile, very nice food and beautiful atomsphere. The next day we went to the pyramids, this was fun. We rode camals and I haggled with the camal guys :) Yay for me, and we walked around the pyramids saw the sphinx and that took most all morning. Afterwards, I was feeling sick and we were both tired so we rested most of the day before grabbing dinner and hanging out later in the evening. Saturday we went to Khan Eh Khalili, this is a huge market where you can buy all sorts of things. I haggled some more which I am very proud of. Then we went to Al Azhar park. This is a park was built over slums that used to be very popular place to buy drugs. Now it is a really peaceful place and it has lots of gardens and everything. So we walked around there sat in the shade because it was really hot and then left to buy tickets to the world cup qualifying match between Egypt and Rwanda. The game was awesome, Egypt beat Rwanda 3 to 0. So after the match we returned to Alex.

In Alex Caitlin and I went to Quaitbay Fort, and for some reason I made us walk there which again was not a good idea. We also saw the library and sat in cafes and smoked shisha a bit. It was a nice visit and I hope Caitlin enjoyed it. I wish I wasn't in class when she came because then we would have been able to do a lot more.

So after she left the program took us on a trip to Sharm El Shiekh. This was fun except for the 12 hour bus ride. Not so much fun. First we stopped in Saint Catherine to hike up Mt. Sinai. I opted out of this hike for several reasons. 1. I have done it three times 2. after a 12 hour bus ride, no food, and no sleep hiking up a mountain in the middle of the night is not my ideal activity.
So I slept and I am happy I slept. The next day we went to Sharm which is on the Red Sea, so we took a glass bottom boat ride, went swimming ate a lot of food and everyone slept fairly early. The next day was so much fun. We rented a boat to take us snorkling and scuba diving for the entire day. It was awesome. I scuba dove a bit and partied on the boat, we tried to make a bit of a dance party but the music didn't go up loud enough. Afterwards, everyone was tired and burned so we didn't do anything crazy that night, which was dissappointing, I wanted to go dancing. The next day we left and returned to Alexandria. And that is where I started with my staying inside doing homework streak this week. Tomorrow I will go to Cairo and perhaps see Harry Potter because it is not in Alexandria.

I will try to do a better job of updating my blog :)