Hello everyone! I guess I'm a bit overdue on my weekly updates...
Mom, I apologize in advance that so much of this blog entry is copied almost word for word from emails I've already sent you... but I didn't feel like re-writing everything :)
I'll start with the horseback riding, since that's where I left off last time: It was a completely surreal experience. It was dark by the time we got to the horse place, but my friend Said told us it's normal to go at night. His friend knows some people, and hooked us up with really high quality Arabian horses. Like horses that would cost a lottt of money in the states. Holy crap so beautiful!! There was a chestnut stallion in a red saddle that I was so in love with... I was originally going to ride him, but he was definitely waaaay too much horse for me being so out of practice. Instead I rode a beautiful dark brown mare. The stable was literally like a house with a little yard out of which we rode onto the streets of the edge of Cairo, passing people on atvs, donkeys, cars, etc. The horses didn't spook at any of it, although they were certainly typical high strung Arabians who wanted to just let loose and run. As usual with Egypt, nothing waits for me to prepare mentally or hesitate or remember how to do whatever we are doing, and I just have to jump in and improvise as we go... We went down the street at a canter, reaching a break in the wall next to the road and entering the desert. Over a hill were the pyramids, like a scene from a movie. We were galloping through the desert faster than I have ever gone in a horse, it was like the most legitimately awesome experience ever!! We finally reached the top of a huge dune, where a camp was set up and we dismounted and had tea. While we were there, I got to ride around on the back of Said's friend's atv, flying over dunes and coming really close to falling off several times. So so so much fun!!! As we went home, it felt like being part of of a heard of wild Arabians... I was holding onto the saddle so tight that my left arm was useless the next day - like it was shaking if I tried to put it in certain positions.... Amazing. Unfortunately there are no pictures because it was dark out and Christina and I forgot our cameras... Oh I was soo saddle sore... I think my butt got bruised.
Sooooo then couple of days later, we set off for a weekend adventure to the beach:
Thursday night we left on a seven hour overnight bus ride to Sharm el Sheikh then took a cab the additional hour to Dahab. We got to our hotel around 5:30am and got two rooms - me and Christina shared and Said got his own. We slept in until about 11 and then got up to enjoy the rest if the day on the beach. It is so so so beautiful there... You can see Saudi Arabia across the sea! The landscape in Dahab is like mountainous desert that eases into the beach. It is a very small town where people go to get away from things and relax. There were plenty of people chilling in bikinis, so I wasn't shy about joining in - there are all these restaurant/hangout spots along the beach where you can go and eat and spend time in the sun. Apparently there are usually a ton of people there, but due to the revolution, we had a lot of space to ourselves. :)
Anyways, we woke up and went out to breakfast on the shore, then took a jeep ride to a different part of the beach about 15 minutes down the road. There were all these tents set up for people to spend time on the beach under and around, each with its own bedouin dude and family there to make you tea and cook for you if you want. It was very relaxing, just what I needed for a quiet escape from Cairo. Christina and Said went snorkeling but I didn't want to get wet because I was feeling cold already from the breeze, so I just laid out in the sun listening to music and napping on and off. After the sun started going down, we headed back to town and ate dinner on the water again. We had really delicious grilled fish and veggies. Mmmmmm!!!
After dinner, we walked around a bit and scoped out the shopping, which was fun - a lot of fun art shops actually! We talked to some atv guys because Said wanted to go off-roading in the morning to see the sunrise. I went to bed as soon as we got back because we were going to have to get up early (4am) for atvs, while Christina and Said decided to stay up all night and just go to sleep after we got back in the morning. You safety-freaks will be pleased to know that I wore a helmet on the atv! It was super fun! We first went up a road to a ridge where we watched the sunrise. Then we went into the desert and rode around on a bunch of trails and took goofy pictures of ourselves pretending to be badass :D. Freedom is amazing.
When we got back to town, Said and Christina needed sleep really badly since they had stayed up all night, so they took a long nap while I went and tanned more on the beach from about 9:30 to 1:30 in the afternoon. I put sunscreen on, but missed a bunch of random places, so now I have awkward sunburn splotches everywhere. Heheeeee!
I finally managed to drag the sleepy ones out of bed at two ish, and we walked around and went shopping and did a nice amount of nothing hanging out and chatting at restaurants and such. We ate some delicious Indian food. After dinner, we went back to the hotel, packed, and hopped on the 10pm overnight bus back to Cairo. I slept almost the entire way, including basically sleep walking through an army checkpoint by the Suez canal. We got delayed for about an hour or two at the canal waiting for the tunnel under it to open up for us... Which messed up my plans to get to class on time in the morning for a 10am exam... But I finally made it back to zamalek where I got onto the next bus to campus and made it in time for my 11:30 class and a different test. I was feeling surprisingly rested after such a long trip home. The day after, I made up the colloquial Arabic exam I missed and aced it - my professor said that she was very pleased with my level and progress :).
The week since then has been a whirlwind of busy-ness.... The class that I TA for had an exam this week on Thursday, so I was grading papers like crazy to get caught up before the exam-grading rush. Tuesday night I stayed up really late doing pretty much nothing - just chatting with friends on skype - I was so exhausted on Wednesday that I slept in until noon and missed all my classes :). I intended on spending most of Wednesday afternoon studying for a biology exam that I had on Thursday, but I somehow managed to waste the entire afternoon doing nothing as well. I don't know what is up with my brain... I just couldn't motivate to be productive at all this week! Finally Wednesday night, I ended up going salsa dancing (where I danced *horribly*), then going to get food at a yummy Egyptian drive-up place around midnight. This was a brilliant move considering that I then had to wake up at 6am the next morning, catch the 7am bus to campus, and read 3 chapters of my developmental biology textbook before my exam at 8:30. I really have no idea how I did it, but I still somehow managed to make it to my exam on time and feel pretty good about most of my answers. I guess I will find out if my confidence was justified or not when we get our exam scores back...
Last night (which doesn't even feel like the same day as the Thursday during which all this biology exam crap happened) was Saint Patrick's Day... Which I celebrated by eating Pizza Hut, watching The Hangover, staying up until 6am, and sleeping in until 1pm today. Now I am sitting on my couch, trying once again to motivate myself to do something productive, and failing. But at least I'm writing this blog entry and posted some pictures on facebook. Good job Kerry.
Here are some pics from Dahab!!
Restaurant next to our hotel, right on the water:
Our hotel - gorgeous right?
View from a road up above town:
The town... and the beautiful ocean:
From our ATV trip... We were all exhausted and goofy:
Me next to the ocean:
Christina and I being goofy again:
Mom, I apologize in advance that so much of this blog entry is copied almost word for word from emails I've already sent you... but I didn't feel like re-writing everything :)
I'll start with the horseback riding, since that's where I left off last time: It was a completely surreal experience. It was dark by the time we got to the horse place, but my friend Said told us it's normal to go at night. His friend knows some people, and hooked us up with really high quality Arabian horses. Like horses that would cost a lottt of money in the states. Holy crap so beautiful!! There was a chestnut stallion in a red saddle that I was so in love with... I was originally going to ride him, but he was definitely waaaay too much horse for me being so out of practice. Instead I rode a beautiful dark brown mare. The stable was literally like a house with a little yard out of which we rode onto the streets of the edge of Cairo, passing people on atvs, donkeys, cars, etc. The horses didn't spook at any of it, although they were certainly typical high strung Arabians who wanted to just let loose and run. As usual with Egypt, nothing waits for me to prepare mentally or hesitate or remember how to do whatever we are doing, and I just have to jump in and improvise as we go... We went down the street at a canter, reaching a break in the wall next to the road and entering the desert. Over a hill were the pyramids, like a scene from a movie. We were galloping through the desert faster than I have ever gone in a horse, it was like the most legitimately awesome experience ever!! We finally reached the top of a huge dune, where a camp was set up and we dismounted and had tea. While we were there, I got to ride around on the back of Said's friend's atv, flying over dunes and coming really close to falling off several times. So so so much fun!!! As we went home, it felt like being part of of a heard of wild Arabians... I was holding onto the saddle so tight that my left arm was useless the next day - like it was shaking if I tried to put it in certain positions.... Amazing. Unfortunately there are no pictures because it was dark out and Christina and I forgot our cameras... Oh I was soo saddle sore... I think my butt got bruised.
Sooooo then couple of days later, we set off for a weekend adventure to the beach:
Thursday night we left on a seven hour overnight bus ride to Sharm el Sheikh then took a cab the additional hour to Dahab. We got to our hotel around 5:30am and got two rooms - me and Christina shared and Said got his own. We slept in until about 11 and then got up to enjoy the rest if the day on the beach. It is so so so beautiful there... You can see Saudi Arabia across the sea! The landscape in Dahab is like mountainous desert that eases into the beach. It is a very small town where people go to get away from things and relax. There were plenty of people chilling in bikinis, so I wasn't shy about joining in - there are all these restaurant/hangout spots along the beach where you can go and eat and spend time in the sun. Apparently there are usually a ton of people there, but due to the revolution, we had a lot of space to ourselves. :)
Anyways, we woke up and went out to breakfast on the shore, then took a jeep ride to a different part of the beach about 15 minutes down the road. There were all these tents set up for people to spend time on the beach under and around, each with its own bedouin dude and family there to make you tea and cook for you if you want. It was very relaxing, just what I needed for a quiet escape from Cairo. Christina and Said went snorkeling but I didn't want to get wet because I was feeling cold already from the breeze, so I just laid out in the sun listening to music and napping on and off. After the sun started going down, we headed back to town and ate dinner on the water again. We had really delicious grilled fish and veggies. Mmmmmm!!!
After dinner, we walked around a bit and scoped out the shopping, which was fun - a lot of fun art shops actually! We talked to some atv guys because Said wanted to go off-roading in the morning to see the sunrise. I went to bed as soon as we got back because we were going to have to get up early (4am) for atvs, while Christina and Said decided to stay up all night and just go to sleep after we got back in the morning. You safety-freaks will be pleased to know that I wore a helmet on the atv! It was super fun! We first went up a road to a ridge where we watched the sunrise. Then we went into the desert and rode around on a bunch of trails and took goofy pictures of ourselves pretending to be badass :D. Freedom is amazing.
When we got back to town, Said and Christina needed sleep really badly since they had stayed up all night, so they took a long nap while I went and tanned more on the beach from about 9:30 to 1:30 in the afternoon. I put sunscreen on, but missed a bunch of random places, so now I have awkward sunburn splotches everywhere. Heheeeee!
I finally managed to drag the sleepy ones out of bed at two ish, and we walked around and went shopping and did a nice amount of nothing hanging out and chatting at restaurants and such. We ate some delicious Indian food. After dinner, we went back to the hotel, packed, and hopped on the 10pm overnight bus back to Cairo. I slept almost the entire way, including basically sleep walking through an army checkpoint by the Suez canal. We got delayed for about an hour or two at the canal waiting for the tunnel under it to open up for us... Which messed up my plans to get to class on time in the morning for a 10am exam... But I finally made it back to zamalek where I got onto the next bus to campus and made it in time for my 11:30 class and a different test. I was feeling surprisingly rested after such a long trip home. The day after, I made up the colloquial Arabic exam I missed and aced it - my professor said that she was very pleased with my level and progress :).
The week since then has been a whirlwind of busy-ness.... The class that I TA for had an exam this week on Thursday, so I was grading papers like crazy to get caught up before the exam-grading rush. Tuesday night I stayed up really late doing pretty much nothing - just chatting with friends on skype - I was so exhausted on Wednesday that I slept in until noon and missed all my classes :). I intended on spending most of Wednesday afternoon studying for a biology exam that I had on Thursday, but I somehow managed to waste the entire afternoon doing nothing as well. I don't know what is up with my brain... I just couldn't motivate to be productive at all this week! Finally Wednesday night, I ended up going salsa dancing (where I danced *horribly*), then going to get food at a yummy Egyptian drive-up place around midnight. This was a brilliant move considering that I then had to wake up at 6am the next morning, catch the 7am bus to campus, and read 3 chapters of my developmental biology textbook before my exam at 8:30. I really have no idea how I did it, but I still somehow managed to make it to my exam on time and feel pretty good about most of my answers. I guess I will find out if my confidence was justified or not when we get our exam scores back...
Last night (which doesn't even feel like the same day as the Thursday during which all this biology exam crap happened) was Saint Patrick's Day... Which I celebrated by eating Pizza Hut, watching The Hangover, staying up until 6am, and sleeping in until 1pm today. Now I am sitting on my couch, trying once again to motivate myself to do something productive, and failing. But at least I'm writing this blog entry and posted some pictures on facebook. Good job Kerry.
Here are some pics from Dahab!!
Restaurant next to our hotel, right on the water:
Our hotel - gorgeous right?
View from a road up above town:
The town... and the beautiful ocean:
From our ATV trip... We were all exhausted and goofy:
Me next to the ocean:
Christina and I being goofy again:
