Ok so because of Egypt's crappy Internet I have been having trouble posting Videos. I was able to get some onto facebook (short ones) at the start at the semester but since then results ahve been null. Since that is no longer working and blogspot can not handle uploads either I am using youtube. Youtube is sketchy, sometimes it works, sometimes not but I did get a few out. Below are the links to my youtube account as well as the videos them selves. Instead of writing new blogs each time I will just add them to this one and put dates next to each link so you can see which ones are new. Everytime I edit this post (add a video link) I will message you all and let you know. Hope that works out for everyone. I know it is a bit of a hassel, but it is the best I can manage.
My YouTube Channel link: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhw4
Video- At the Pyramids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmhMLJY_hIg
posted 3/25/10
A video I made while we where out in the western desert Sand Boarding!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbRr9Q9o-m4 Posted 3/25/10
This is a 360 degree shot from Wadi Hitan, The Vally of the Whales:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DqDTcF_9Ls Posted 3/25/10
This is a short little video of a couple adorable young boys dancing on the side walk next to our coach bus in Alexandria while we where on our way to the catacombs. They know we where tourists. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5epsA0b5Ch4 Posted 3/25/10
A view of the Cairo skyline from the citadel. Note the smog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81vUCK2zebA Posted 3/25/10
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
A small Hiatus from Egypt
Hello readers!
I wanted to write a small post here to let all of you know that I am going to be gone for a bit. Tomorrow is Friday and is the kick off to my gloriously planned spring break. Tomorrow morning I will be flying from Cairo Egypt to Istanbul Turkey with Sheehan to spend 5 days there. We will be staying in the city for the most part and hopefully not getting to cold since its about 10 degrees C colder there than it is here.
I will be flying back to Cairo on the 31st and sticking around here for that evening. I have a friend from Eau Claire who is studying abroad in Greece right now coming to Egypt for her spring break so I am going to try to meet up with her and some of the people she is traveling with for a little bit. I think that will be a lot of fun. On the first we will be meeting up with our friend Hans (A Norwegian study abroad student-who is awesome) and catching the bus to Dahab. Dahab is on Egypt on the far side of the Sinai on the Red Sea. More or less we are going to hang out on the beach for 4 days and chill. I think it is going to be fantastic.
I will be taking tons of pictures, probably a few videos and hopefully I will be able to write some blogs here and there. It may be difficult to get computer/Internet access.
Also, the word Hiatus in the title of this blog is dedicated to Megan Djerf.
Look forward to pictures and several detailed blog posts to come.
-Smile like you mean it.
I wanted to write a small post here to let all of you know that I am going to be gone for a bit. Tomorrow is Friday and is the kick off to my gloriously planned spring break. Tomorrow morning I will be flying from Cairo Egypt to Istanbul Turkey with Sheehan to spend 5 days there. We will be staying in the city for the most part and hopefully not getting to cold since its about 10 degrees C colder there than it is here.
I will be flying back to Cairo on the 31st and sticking around here for that evening. I have a friend from Eau Claire who is studying abroad in Greece right now coming to Egypt for her spring break so I am going to try to meet up with her and some of the people she is traveling with for a little bit. I think that will be a lot of fun. On the first we will be meeting up with our friend Hans (A Norwegian study abroad student-who is awesome) and catching the bus to Dahab. Dahab is on Egypt on the far side of the Sinai on the Red Sea. More or less we are going to hang out on the beach for 4 days and chill. I think it is going to be fantastic.
I will be taking tons of pictures, probably a few videos and hopefully I will be able to write some blogs here and there. It may be difficult to get computer/Internet access.
Also, the word Hiatus in the title of this blog is dedicated to Megan Djerf.
Look forward to pictures and several detailed blog posts to come.
-Smile like you mean it.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wadi Hitan
Hello again,
So in my last post I wrote that that this weekend I would be going on a geology field trip and although I did do that the plans got changed again. Instead of making the trip and over night adventure my professor decided that we would do it all in a single day. This new travel plan meant meeting at the old campus in Tarhir square at 5:30am and return to Cairo around 11pm. With that all in mind, on Wednesday I came up with a plan. For those of you who know me, you know I am not a morning person and I am not friends with Mr. 5am. So, I decided that since I was done with classes at noon on Thursday I would take the 1pm bus back to campus, take a nap,(which gloriously lasted 5 hours) then do homework through the night and just not go to bed. That way I would have made up for not sleeping the day before and I would not have to get up at 4:30am to make it to the bus on time. I thought it was brilliant. It worked out mostly, but I was pretty exhausted when I finally went to bed last night.
Thursday evening was a little bit of failed execution on my part. After I got up from my wonderful nap I went to Harrys pub in the Marriot hotel with Erin and Katie for a little bit of Saint Patricks day fun. They had a live Irish band playing and while they only played one Irish song (and only because of a request) their music was really good. It was interesting to note that first we where about the only people in there under 35 and second it was and Irish band, in an Irish pub, playing American music, to am American crowd, with all Egyptian workers, in Egypt. It was an elixure of culture.
We came back to the Residence hall a little after 1am. Katie decided to head to bed and Erin stayed down in the lobby with me for a little bit. She was picking rooms and since we are 7 hours ahead now that mean late for us. She left about an hour later which left me chilling alone in the study lounge. I ended talking to my dad on skype for an hour or so which helped the time go by a lot faster. All in all, the goal to get homework done and study for midterms did not happen. That just means that today I really need to be on the ball.
The field trip itself was...long. We went to a desert camp site near Fayoum next to a man made lake and then went off to Wadi Al-Hitan, The Vally of the Whales. (The lake is fed by underground aquifers which in turn are fed by the Nile) It is a large expanse for desert with fossilized whales. What makes it impressive is the number and concentration of them and the species of whales that are present. There are over 100 whale fossils known/uncovered and they are continuously finding new ones. It is thought that the area may have at one point been a shallow inlet bay and when the whales did for what ever reason the winds and currents blew their corpses to the area and they accumulated over thousands of years.
This link is the Egypt Tourist link of you want more details about the area then I am going to give you. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/valleyofwhales.htm
Another important note is that the species of whales found, such as Basilosaurus, provide the evolutionary link between mammals on land and those at sea. In some of the skeletons you can see their stubby little arms such as in the photo to the left. I really recommend the link if you didn't do so already.
After a lot of walking around the area looking at dried up dead things we had some time to just chill and hang out. Since the protected area was the Vally basin, myself and a couple other students decide to climb the sandstone deposits and get a better view. In short, it was awesome. Yes the whales where cool but the geology and topography of the area was what impressed me. Once we finally reached the top of the Plataea the view was amazing. (the wind was impressive too) For as far as you could see in every direction it was just an arid waste land full of nothing. Sand dunes and limestone/sandstone pillars and mounds scattered about everywhere.
I was amazed by it and how cool it was. I was talking with one of the Egyptians about it and he explained to me that he and all of the other Egyptians hate the desert and that he did not understand why I thought it was so neat. As he said it, "Fuck the Desert because it was hot and dry and sand blows in your eyes." I proceeded to ask if he had ever seen snow before. He said no so I asked if he would want to come to Minnesota and spend a day out in a field walking around the snow drifts. He actually said "Yes that would be so cool." I said no, fuck snow, its cold and its wet and also blows in your eyes. He then understood my point.
We boarded the bus and started heading back to Cairo. May note that the trip took 5 hours both ways. It only took 3 hours to get to Fayoum and from Fayoum its only another 30 kilometers but we where driving a couch bus on a "road" designed for large SUV desert going vehicles. Kudos to the driver though.
I will be posting more pictures of the trip to my facebook group page and am still trying to get the videos posted, sorry about that.
So in my last post I wrote that that this weekend I would be going on a geology field trip and although I did do that the plans got changed again. Instead of making the trip and over night adventure my professor decided that we would do it all in a single day. This new travel plan meant meeting at the old campus in Tarhir square at 5:30am and return to Cairo around 11pm. With that all in mind, on Wednesday I came up with a plan. For those of you who know me, you know I am not a morning person and I am not friends with Mr. 5am. So, I decided that since I was done with classes at noon on Thursday I would take the 1pm bus back to campus, take a nap,(which gloriously lasted 5 hours) then do homework through the night and just not go to bed. That way I would have made up for not sleeping the day before and I would not have to get up at 4:30am to make it to the bus on time. I thought it was brilliant. It worked out mostly, but I was pretty exhausted when I finally went to bed last night.
Thursday evening was a little bit of failed execution on my part. After I got up from my wonderful nap I went to Harrys pub in the Marriot hotel with Erin and Katie for a little bit of Saint Patricks day fun. They had a live Irish band playing and while they only played one Irish song (and only because of a request) their music was really good. It was interesting to note that first we where about the only people in there under 35 and second it was and Irish band, in an Irish pub, playing American music, to am American crowd, with all Egyptian workers, in Egypt. It was an elixure of culture.
We came back to the Residence hall a little after 1am. Katie decided to head to bed and Erin stayed down in the lobby with me for a little bit. She was picking rooms and since we are 7 hours ahead now that mean late for us. She left about an hour later which left me chilling alone in the study lounge. I ended talking to my dad on skype for an hour or so which helped the time go by a lot faster. All in all, the goal to get homework done and study for midterms did not happen. That just means that today I really need to be on the ball.
The field trip itself was...long. We went to a desert camp site near Fayoum next to a man made lake and then went off to Wadi Al-Hitan, The Vally of the Whales. (The lake is fed by underground aquifers which in turn are fed by the Nile) It is a large expanse for desert with fossilized whales. What makes it impressive is the number and concentration of them and the species of whales that are present. There are over 100 whale fossils known/uncovered and they are continuously finding new ones. It is thought that the area may have at one point been a shallow inlet bay and when the whales did for what ever reason the winds and currents blew their corpses to the area and they accumulated over thousands of years.
This link is the Egypt Tourist link of you want more details about the area then I am going to give you. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/valleyofwhales.htm
Another important note is that the species of whales found, such as Basilosaurus, provide the evolutionary link between mammals on land and those at sea. In some of the skeletons you can see their stubby little arms such as in the photo to the left. I really recommend the link if you didn't do so already.
After a lot of walking around the area looking at dried up dead things we had some time to just chill and hang out. Since the protected area was the Vally basin, myself and a couple other students decide to climb the sandstone deposits and get a better view. In short, it was awesome. Yes the whales where cool but the geology and topography of the area was what impressed me. Once we finally reached the top of the Plataea the view was amazing. (the wind was impressive too) For as far as you could see in every direction it was just an arid waste land full of nothing. Sand dunes and limestone/sandstone pillars and mounds scattered about everywhere.
I was amazed by it and how cool it was. I was talking with one of the Egyptians about it and he explained to me that he and all of the other Egyptians hate the desert and that he did not understand why I thought it was so neat. As he said it, "Fuck the Desert because it was hot and dry and sand blows in your eyes." I proceeded to ask if he had ever seen snow before. He said no so I asked if he would want to come to Minnesota and spend a day out in a field walking around the snow drifts. He actually said "Yes that would be so cool." I said no, fuck snow, its cold and its wet and also blows in your eyes. He then understood my point.
We boarded the bus and started heading back to Cairo. May note that the trip took 5 hours both ways. It only took 3 hours to get to Fayoum and from Fayoum its only another 30 kilometers but we where driving a couch bus on a "road" designed for large SUV desert going vehicles. Kudos to the driver though.
I will be posting more pictures of the trip to my facebook group page and am still trying to get the videos posted, sorry about that.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Going to the Mall
Hello again, I do not have a lot to write about in this post. About the most exciting thing I have done recently is going to the Mall. That sounds pretty bland at surface level and for those of you who know me you know that I am not a mall person however this mall is special. The trip today took several hours (although I was enformed it was "quick") because I had the privilage to go to the largest mall in all of Africa or the Middle East. Yes, I went to City Stars in Cairo (in Nasr city) and actualy had a pretty good time. The mall is enormous, while it takes up less space physical space than the mall of america it actually contains more stores.
From Wikipedia:
From Wikipedia:"City Stars consists of:[1]
Three international hotels that provide over 1,500 rooms and suites.
Shopping and entertainment centre.
Medical centre.
Residential Towers; offering 266 apartments, duplexes and penthouses.
Office Towers; offering 70,000 m2 of office space.
An International Exhibition Centre (20,000 m2).[2] "
Three international hotels that provide over 1,500 rooms and suites.
Shopping and entertainment centre.
Medical centre.
Residential Towers; offering 266 apartments, duplexes and penthouses.
Office Towers; offering 70,000 m2 of office space.
An International Exhibition Centre (20,000 m2).[2] "
(The pictures are off wikipedia too because I forgot to bring my camera with)
It was a lot of fun to go and see the mall not so much because of the mall itself but because of what it really represents on plateform for Cairo and for Egypt. There are so many areas of Cairo that are bum broken crap holes and places that are labeled as "nice" or "upscale" that it really speaks to the modernization that Cairo and Egypt is trying to attain to continue to be competitive with the western world. Now obviously this also opens the door for questions like "should'nt they work on development in the broken down areas before they build super malls thing" but I am hoping not to get into that. I just throught that it was a really cool mall with tons and tons of stuff.
So for now that is about all I have. This coming weekend I have a geology field trip out into the desert somewhere so be looking forward to a new blog and more photos. I also have some more videos to post but I have not been able to get them uploaded yet, but I will keep trying.
Friday, March 5, 2010
surgeon general warning: This may be hazardous to your health
One of the things that I really love about Cairo is the beauty of everything. Sure a majority of the buildings are falling apart and the word maintenance really does mean that much here whether you apply it to buildings, sidewalks or vehicles; yet everything here is full of character. The walls may not all be strait but they have their own life, it makes for a lot more uniqueness in everything. It also helps me to really realize the luxuries that we so often take for granted back home. I find myself extremely excited when I go to dinner and they serve you water and don't charge you for it or even more so that when you order it at a place that does charge they actually give you an option for which size you want as opposed to just giving you the most expensive one on the menu. I find myself thankful that now having been here and getting to know places with friends and those places getting to know us that they no longer give us a "white" tax with our meal. (Cairo sunset below)
However to get back to the first point, what I find most beautiful here is the sunset; which even that as with everything else here you have to take with a grain of salt. The sunset here is incredible and practically everyday. My favorite place on earth to watch the sun go down is atop Brockway mountain in Copper Harbor Michigan yet dusk here gives Copper Harbor a good run for its money. Copper Harbor is wonderful especially in Autumn because the sun drops all the way down until it is swallowed by the lake and the brilliant colors seem to ping pong off of the lake, the clouds and the ever changing leaves on the trees covering the rolling landscape for miles.
Cairo's sunset on the other hand has the most brilliant and rich colors of red yellow and orange I have ever seen. They ricochet of the windows of several million cars and the rubble of so many deteriorating buildings. It really is its own kind of beauty and takes its own form of appreciation. Where the grain of salt comes in is that here in Cairo the sun literally sets before it actually hits the horizon. Why? Not due to buildings, its due to smog. The smog and pollution here is so bad that it actually blocks out the light of the sun before it hits the horizon. However the CO2 paste in the air does lend its hand to colors that would make some of the great artists of the world cry.
(Somg at right)
In addition to making those great artists cry it would also drastically increase their potential for lung cancer. I have heard several people mention different statistics so don't quote me on the following but I have more or less extrapolated that living here in Cairo for a year is roughly the same as smoking a pack a day for about two years. No matter where you go in the city you are always breathing second hand smoke. 99.9 percent of the locals here smoke and they do so a lot. They are like walking chimneys. That has been one of the hardest aspects to adapt to.
On the health note, in my last blog post I wrote that I got sick and had suspected the water. While I have so far avoided the water on tap since then, unfortunately I was the victim of some very unpleasant sickness again this morning. Last time it caused me to miss a class but this time it caused me to miss my camping trip out into the black and white desert this weekend. I am pretty bumbed about that because I was really looking forward to it. I hope that at some point down the road I will be able to get out there though.
Although I did miss out on the desert this weekend, today Katie, Sheehan and I decided to head on over to the Cairo museum. The Museum itself is a pretty neat building and the stuff is pretty cool however it is not exactly organized very well and a lot of displays are not labeled well...if at all. I did enjoy it though. There really are some impressive displays of large stone works and lots of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
The three of us and a couple other people capped of the evening with dinner at an Indian food place a couple blocks from the dorm. The food was really good but I still find myself fishing for the cheapest options on menus here even with the wonderful exchange rate. I come some kind of rice, almond and raisin dish for an expensive by my standards 20 pounds. Honestly that actually is the higher end of an average meal when it comes to price but realistically when you convert it to dollars it cost me about $3.80. I feel like I am spending way to much money when I put down 50 pounds or more a day between food, taxis and buying things at the store but I constantly have to remind myself that all in all everything here is cheaper. I have a feeling its going to be hard when I return home. I am going to go to the store and see something listed for 10 dollars and say to myself, "yea right, I wouldn't pay 10 pounds for that." All the while keeping in mind that the dollars is worth over five times as much as a pound. My degree of value has changed a little bit and it is going to be a rough struggle to change it back. Until that time I just keep reminding myself that I can two full meals a day and groceries for less then 10 usd a day, and I love it.
However to get back to the first point, what I find most beautiful here is the sunset; which even that as with everything else here you have to take with a grain of salt. The sunset here is incredible and practically everyday. My favorite place on earth to watch the sun go down is atop Brockway mountain in Copper Harbor Michigan yet dusk here gives Copper Harbor a good run for its money. Copper Harbor is wonderful especially in Autumn because the sun drops all the way down until it is swallowed by the lake and the brilliant colors seem to ping pong off of the lake, the clouds and the ever changing leaves on the trees covering the rolling landscape for miles.
Cairo's sunset on the other hand has the most brilliant and rich colors of red yellow and orange I have ever seen. They ricochet of the windows of several million cars and the rubble of so many deteriorating buildings. It really is its own kind of beauty and takes its own form of appreciation. Where the grain of salt comes in is that here in Cairo the sun literally sets before it actually hits the horizon. Why? Not due to buildings, its due to smog. The smog and pollution here is so bad that it actually blocks out the light of the sun before it hits the horizon. However the CO2 paste in the air does lend its hand to colors that would make some of the great artists of the world cry.
(Somg at right)
In addition to making those great artists cry it would also drastically increase their potential for lung cancer. I have heard several people mention different statistics so don't quote me on the following but I have more or less extrapolated that living here in Cairo for a year is roughly the same as smoking a pack a day for about two years. No matter where you go in the city you are always breathing second hand smoke. 99.9 percent of the locals here smoke and they do so a lot. They are like walking chimneys. That has been one of the hardest aspects to adapt to.
On the health note, in my last blog post I wrote that I got sick and had suspected the water. While I have so far avoided the water on tap since then, unfortunately I was the victim of some very unpleasant sickness again this morning. Last time it caused me to miss a class but this time it caused me to miss my camping trip out into the black and white desert this weekend. I am pretty bumbed about that because I was really looking forward to it. I hope that at some point down the road I will be able to get out there though.
Although I did miss out on the desert this weekend, today Katie, Sheehan and I decided to head on over to the Cairo museum. The Museum itself is a pretty neat building and the stuff is pretty cool however it is not exactly organized very well and a lot of displays are not labeled well...if at all. I did enjoy it though. There really are some impressive displays of large stone works and lots of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
The three of us and a couple other people capped of the evening with dinner at an Indian food place a couple blocks from the dorm. The food was really good but I still find myself fishing for the cheapest options on menus here even with the wonderful exchange rate. I come some kind of rice, almond and raisin dish for an expensive by my standards 20 pounds. Honestly that actually is the higher end of an average meal when it comes to price but realistically when you convert it to dollars it cost me about $3.80. I feel like I am spending way to much money when I put down 50 pounds or more a day between food, taxis and buying things at the store but I constantly have to remind myself that all in all everything here is cheaper. I have a feeling its going to be hard when I return home. I am going to go to the store and see something listed for 10 dollars and say to myself, "yea right, I wouldn't pay 10 pounds for that." All the while keeping in mind that the dollars is worth over five times as much as a pound. My degree of value has changed a little bit and it is going to be a rough struggle to change it back. Until that time I just keep reminding myself that I can two full meals a day and groceries for less then 10 usd a day, and I love it.
(I did not take the pictures of the sunsets, I got them offof google images because I dont actualyl have any pictures of it yet but I thought the pictures of it would be a nice aid.)
Monday, March 1, 2010
when it rains it pours
On Feb 25th something happened here in Cairo that is typically very rare and it happened to a degree that is unheard of. Firstly it rained, a lot. Granted I did fly here from the arctic of Minnesota so it has been a little while since I had seen rain but even to that it had been awhile sine I had seen rain as hard as it poured here. Now I am sure some of you are thinking that perhaps it rained but did it last? The answer is yes. In fact, it lasted pretty much all day. It was a lot of fun to watch the mixed reactions from the Egyptians on campus during the day while it was coming down. A lot of them just stood out enjoying while others did everything they could to avoid getting wet. I guess its not very different from any ones reactions at home, just my perception of it is different. At home we get winter storms and traffic goes to hell, a little bit of the rain here and the bus took forever to get back to the dorms. A lot of the cars here simply just don't have windshield wipers and yet people would go out driving anyways. Headlights, if you feel like it.
I went to dinner with a group of people to our favorite cheep local place Alex Top during the down pour. I am pretty sure it is a family run place because the same guys are working in there all the time regardless of the time of day. The server, Tarek, explained to me that he is not a fa of the rain itself but does like that it brings more people to his place for food. Tarek does not speak English hardly at all so that explanation involved a lot of hand gestures and some fill in the blank guessing. Rain is uncommon here but it does happen, usually about twice a year. What made that evening slightly extra ordinary is that we also had hail. The hail was about the size of chick peas. It didn't last long but the locals had a pretty neat mixture of excitement and disgust for it.
Another thing to keep in mind is that there is no drainage system of any kind here so when it does rain (pour) the roads turn into rivers and the parking garages turn into lakes. It was really nice in Cairo the two days or so after the thunderstorm because all the rain cleared a ton of crap out of the air. One of my friends here was wearing a white shirt while out in the rain and when she got back into the residence hall she noticed that ever where the rain hit her shirt it left gray and dark streaks on here from all the dirt and shit the water picked up. Fun stuff, I know.
I did not personally take any pictures of any of it however I did "steal" some off of a face book group made in honor of the event that other people posted. I will post those to the photos in my face book group Phil goes to Egypt so you can get a visual image of it all.
On a different note last night was the men's hockey gold metal game between Canada and the United States. It took me about an hour of searching on google and a couple downloaded programs later and I was able to watch it live on my laptop. It...was...awesome. I love hockey and that game did not disappoint. The game was really intense and very fast paced. I was amazed at how fast paced the game was. It really took it to a new level, the way the Olympic final should be. Canada was up 2-1 in the final minute of the game; in most situations a golden clutch however with 27 seconds left the US rallied back and put one between the pipes to tie it up. I really wish I could express in words how worked up am i am feeling about it now some 12 hours later and after a really long night. (I explain that next) The game went into overtime sudden death and 7 min the 22 year old Canadian Crosby ended his 3 game slump with a light flick of the puck and hung gold around Canada to cap of the Olympics and put down another mark for the country that has now won more gold metals in a single Olympics than any other in history. I love Hockey, I love the Olympics and I loved that game.
After the game and the metals ceremony I was pretty tired (remember the game didn't start until 10:15pm for me) so I decided to head to bed. I got ready, drank a little bit of water and lay ed down. You know how they say that you shouldn't drink the water...well mostly that is not a problem however "mostly" leaves room for sometimes it is. Long story short, I spent all night in the bathroom throwing up and didn't go to class today. I was still up when my roommate go up this morning to head to the bus to go to class. I was feeling better, mostly because I had nothing left in me, and eventually did fall asleep for about 4 or 5 hours. I am fine now, I think I just got a bug or something...who knows. At least now I have the rest of the day to chill out here and get homework done.
I love the schedule here and I am going to miss it when I come back to the states. It is Monday and I only have two days of classes let this week and then I am going camping in the black and white desert. We have classes on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays. Mondays and Thursdays I only have one class also so that is pretty cool. Tuesdays are really nice to catch up on homework or explore around Cairo. The Pyramids and Cairo Zoo where both made possible by Tuesday, my new favorite day of the week.
I went to dinner with a group of people to our favorite cheep local place Alex Top during the down pour. I am pretty sure it is a family run place because the same guys are working in there all the time regardless of the time of day. The server, Tarek, explained to me that he is not a fa of the rain itself but does like that it brings more people to his place for food. Tarek does not speak English hardly at all so that explanation involved a lot of hand gestures and some fill in the blank guessing. Rain is uncommon here but it does happen, usually about twice a year. What made that evening slightly extra ordinary is that we also had hail. The hail was about the size of chick peas. It didn't last long but the locals had a pretty neat mixture of excitement and disgust for it.
Another thing to keep in mind is that there is no drainage system of any kind here so when it does rain (pour) the roads turn into rivers and the parking garages turn into lakes. It was really nice in Cairo the two days or so after the thunderstorm because all the rain cleared a ton of crap out of the air. One of my friends here was wearing a white shirt while out in the rain and when she got back into the residence hall she noticed that ever where the rain hit her shirt it left gray and dark streaks on here from all the dirt and shit the water picked up. Fun stuff, I know.
I did not personally take any pictures of any of it however I did "steal" some off of a face book group made in honor of the event that other people posted. I will post those to the photos in my face book group Phil goes to Egypt so you can get a visual image of it all.
On a different note last night was the men's hockey gold metal game between Canada and the United States. It took me about an hour of searching on google and a couple downloaded programs later and I was able to watch it live on my laptop. It...was...awesome. I love hockey and that game did not disappoint. The game was really intense and very fast paced. I was amazed at how fast paced the game was. It really took it to a new level, the way the Olympic final should be. Canada was up 2-1 in the final minute of the game; in most situations a golden clutch however with 27 seconds left the US rallied back and put one between the pipes to tie it up. I really wish I could express in words how worked up am i am feeling about it now some 12 hours later and after a really long night. (I explain that next) The game went into overtime sudden death and 7 min the 22 year old Canadian Crosby ended his 3 game slump with a light flick of the puck and hung gold around Canada to cap of the Olympics and put down another mark for the country that has now won more gold metals in a single Olympics than any other in history. I love Hockey, I love the Olympics and I loved that game.
After the game and the metals ceremony I was pretty tired (remember the game didn't start until 10:15pm for me) so I decided to head to bed. I got ready, drank a little bit of water and lay ed down. You know how they say that you shouldn't drink the water...well mostly that is not a problem however "mostly" leaves room for sometimes it is. Long story short, I spent all night in the bathroom throwing up and didn't go to class today. I was still up when my roommate go up this morning to head to the bus to go to class. I was feeling better, mostly because I had nothing left in me, and eventually did fall asleep for about 4 or 5 hours. I am fine now, I think I just got a bug or something...who knows. At least now I have the rest of the day to chill out here and get homework done.
I love the schedule here and I am going to miss it when I come back to the states. It is Monday and I only have two days of classes let this week and then I am going camping in the black and white desert. We have classes on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays. Mondays and Thursdays I only have one class also so that is pretty cool. Tuesdays are really nice to catch up on homework or explore around Cairo. The Pyramids and Cairo Zoo where both made possible by Tuesday, my new favorite day of the week.
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