So clearly I am not very good at remembering to blog.
The last time I posted was right before my roommate was to leave. Much has happened since then.
After she left I had the luxury of having a room to myself for a few weeks, which was nice and gave me a chance to get a little more organized and to be a little more on top of my studies. However, a few days ago, because I am only paying for a double, I was given a new roommate, a very sweet girl who welcomed me openly to her room on a different floor. Now I have a dryer that works!
School has been going really well. I've figured out a system for my work and am staying on top of it, not an easy task in an intensive program. However, I still am finding that it is very hard to learn arabic here. Basically, the arabic that I was learning for the last two years at my college in America is a very high level arabic which is used in the media. So I am taking classes in that, and have found that my listening, reading, and writing levels have increased considerably. However, because it is higher level, and because Egypt uses a different dialect, I am not able to practice speaking it barely at all. In my classes we speak, but I am not able to benefit from being in the country and learning to speak that way. However, I am learning the Egyptian dialect as well, but it is a very different language from the one I have learned, so although I am not starting completely from scratch, my speaking in Egyptian arabic is nowhere near my ability in the media arabic. But hopefully after more classes in the egyptian dialect I will begin to be able to go out and practice it a lot more, and will be able to utilize the fact that I am in egypt.
School aside, I am really starting to enjoy living in this country. Culture shock has worn off, and I am learning to love the differences instead of being bothered by them. I would not choose to live here for any amount of time by choice in the future, of that I am almost certain, but I am certainly learning a lot about a new world.
This past weekend I took a trip to St. Catherine and Sinai. It was postponed from a few weekends ago, due to sandstorm (only in Egypt!). That weekend we instead took an impromptu trip to Alexandria, a beach town about 2 hours away. It was only a day trip but it was nice to get a look at the town for future trips.
But this past weeked was worth the wait. We spent a day at a beach town near the mountain, which was nice and a cool experience to be able to swim in the red sea and be able to see Saudi across the ocean. But the beach paled in comparison to Sinai. We left our hotel at 10 pm, got to the mountain at midnight, and begun our climb then. We hiked in the darkness, witnessing the amazingness that is Mount Sinai while being able to stargaze at the most stars any of us have ever seen at one time. We took frequent breaks, but hiking was a new experience for me, and definitely one which I would like to have again in the future! We reached the top just as the sun began to rise. It was probably the most breathtaking thing I have ever seen. The top was filled with tourists, as it was a weekend, and the day before Sunday, a day when the mountain is closed to hikers. So instead of standing and trying to peak through a packed balcony of tourists, I decided to go down a bit, walk to another peak, and climb! I found myself on the highest point of Sinai (reachable to me) all alone as the sun rose. I do not have words for the beauty of it.
A few hours later, for the first time since we arrived to Egypt, we were chilled, and started to make our climb down. Less excited, but a way better view, the hike down took about half of the time. We ended the trip by seeing the St. Catherine Monastery and the burning bush. Wow.
Slightly less authentic, yet equally amazing was my birthday trip to Dubai. We left on my actual birthday, and arrived early in the morning the next day. We got to the hotel an hour before check in, so in a fit of excitement and stupidity decided to go up to the pool on the roof and jump in with our clothes on. Very fun. We napped then began to explore dubai! We went to a couple beautiful beaches during our trip, and swam in the perfectly emerald and luke warm Persian Gulf. We went up, into, around all of the many superlatives of which dubai can brag: tallest building in the world, biggest mall the in the world, most expensive hotel in the world, highest rated hotel in the world, biggest fountain, biggest fountain show (like the bellagio but better), world's only man-made islands in the shape of the arab emirates symbol, the beginning of the world map made of man-made islands, and so many more cool things. We went skiing while sunburnt from the beach earlier that morning, ATVing over dunes in the red desert, and saw the Sheikh's grand palace. Dubai's extravagance was almost unbelievable. Honestly, it was a little sickening how much wealth was used (wasted) to make such a frivolous place, but to visit it was interesting and unforgettable. Definitely a good choice for my birthday.
I am probably going to be finished with travelling for a while, because I have now spent the majority of my weekends not in Cairo, and want to stay here more. I am making many Egyptian friends which is wonderful for my arabic, but also for my mind and soul! I am finding good friends here and good experiences too.
Hopefully I will update again soon, but for now I will say goodbye.
Hope that chilly Philly is as wonderful as I remember it, and that everyone is doing well.
