DISNEY

Disney was amazing. Which is saying a lot considering this was my third time going. But I don’t think I ever experienced Disney like I did this time. The first two times, my time was split between Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios. This time it was strictly a Disney event. We arrived on a Saturday and left the following Friday. I hit all four parks; actually I went to them all twice except for Epcot which is funning considering that’s the area of Disney we were staying in.

I can’t even go into detail all of what we did; it was just too much. We ate a lot, we walked a lot and took a crap load of pics - well my sister Charli took the majority of them!

So my trip in a nutshell:
-2 dinner shows
-2 character breakfasts: Cinderella’s Castle and Chef Mickey’s
-Saw my two former roomies: Maressa and Carebear
-Wishes (fireworks show over Cinderella’s Castle)
-Fantastic (a water & lights show - the best thing EVER; if you ever go to Disney and don’t see this, you’re experience isn’t complete)
-Illuminations (lights and fireworks show at Epcot)
-Cirque du Soleil
-Saw Mickey three times (totally making up for not seeing him the first time I went to Disney)
-Little Sleep
-Plenty of Mickey Waffles

That’s about it. If you wanna know something more specific, ask!

What's a Geisha?

In preparation for my trip to Florida, I went to get a pedicure. As I'm sitting in the chair, I over hear this woman talking to the man who's doing her nails. In the middle of their conversation, the woman asked the man, "What is a geisha?" The man looks at her like she's crazy, and replies, "How should I know?" The appearance of the man would lead you to believe that his family originates from a country in Asia or Pacific Islands. The woman then remarks something along the lines of "You should know. It's part of your culture." Now I'm sitting here thinking, does this woman actually know where this man's family is from or is she just assuming that he should know because he can be categorized as AAPI. From the response of the man, I'm guessing she didn't because he started looking really pissed and more aggressively states, "I have no clue what a geisha is or does." The woman keeps going on for another 5 minutes insisting that this guy knows what the answer to her question is and starts to appear in a very airheadish manner. Finally, she remarks, "You're Cambodian right? Then you should definitely know what a geisha is!"

I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe that this woman had the audacity to sit there and try and tell this guy what his culture was and insult him for not knowing. Because of the way the beginning of their conversation had gone, I figured that she knew a bit about this man and she's a regular customer of his. But the minute she mentioned that he's Cambodian and still insisted that he knows about geishas, I just wanted to yell at her and say stop assuming one Asian culture knows everything about the next. And get your facts straight, geisha's are part of the Japanese culture. Maybe if she had watched the movie - that's what brought upon the topic - it would've clued her in.

In Egypt...

Here’s a list of random things that I noticed during my stay in Egypt. I’m sure there’s more but I can’t remember everything! If you can think of anything else that should be added leave a comment!

In Egypt...

• You can stay in the mall till 1am
• You can smoke in the mall
• Nonsmoking areas are the minority
• You can buy two bars of soap, popcorn and bread for a dollar twenty-five
• Two men can walk arm and arm without looking homosexual
• Funerals are held on side streets
• At conferences you have to pay for all your own drinks
• One phone number for every Pizza Hut in the country - the same is true for McDonald's, KFC, Domino's etc.
• Women aren't allowed to smoke on certain campuses
• Shops have to have "no hassle signs"
• You can have a french fry sandwiches - this is true with beans and chips
• Pizza is served and eaten with ketchup
• You can smoke sheesha til 5am
• You can get drugs from the pharmacy without a prescription
• The police officers fall asleep at post
• EVERYTHING delivers
• Everyone says bye-bye the same way
• You can leave the site of an accident and not get into trouble
• Money buys you everything
• Getting a cleaning lady for 3 hrs = $5
• A four lane road can become a six lane road
• Road signs are only suggestions
• You can see people fishing in the nile at 4am
• Cats everywhere
• The movie theater says the show will start at 6pm but it really starts at 6:50ish
• There’s an intermission during the movie for those who smoke
• You can find families walking on the corniche (boardwalk) at 1am with small children on a school night (in Alexandria at least)
• Janitors can do all your errands, i.e. get your prescription from the pharmacy, withdraw money from your banking account or get a train ticket
• You have a love/hate relationship with all taxi drivers
• Bawebs (doorman) are the nosiest people in society
• Your experience isn’t complete until you’ve been asked to leave your apartment at least once and only have two weeks to find a new place
• A party isn’t complete unless Nisrin takes a nap!

Back Home

I have now been back in the states for a week now and I’m trying to recap on the last 7+ months of my life. It’s gone by way too quickly and my automatic response when people ask me “How was your trip to Egypt” is “It was too short.” I wish I could’ve stayed longer but I know that this will give me the drive to go back and visit later in life - especially since I didn’t get a chance to see and do all the things that I wanted to do. My last week seemed rushed and came to an end rather abruptly. I left Dahab to enter into a time when I tried to cram in a lot of visits. For the most part, I was able to see everyone that I wanted to.

The last day/night I spent in Egypt was definitely filled with the presence of a lot of friends. Kait and I walked around Dokki to find some sheesha’s since I was too tired and annoyed of Khan from the previous day. Later Nisrin, Kait and I went to the Cairo Opera House to watch One Thousand and One Nights. Although it was incredibly short and started late, it wasn’t a bad show. I actually got to see some belly dancing that looked half way decent.

Afterwards I headed to Rhea’s for my last party in the country :-( which lasted til about 4am I believe. It was a good time and a great way to go. Went back to Nisrin’s with May and did some final packing. My duration in the airport wasn’t long at all. I think I was only idle for 5 min max. At first I thought my flight home would’ve been a grueling 12 hour flight but considering I hadn’t slept in over 24 hours nor was my audio equipment working to watch all the movies, I slept for the majority of the ride. Plus the flight landed an hour early which I have to say I was highly impressed since the airline was EgyptAir.

Kicked it in NYC for the weekend with one of my closest friends and my sib, Tiffany. Besides walking in some stilettos which ended up causing me great pain, the trip was great. It was a nice transition between Cairo and Chicago. Landed in Chicago almost 2 hours late and was greeted by my dad, mom, step dad, both sisters, my grandmother and her boo. They took me out to dinner and aunt Raven “surprised” me with her presence there. Unfortunately the person who came up with this idea, my uncle Troy, couldn’t make it because of the weather. Did I mention that Chicago has a crap load of snow - it’s actually snowing now and on the brink of a storm!

Since last Friday, I haven’t really done much of anything. Watched a lot of Law & Order thanks to my dad and the DVR. Currently I’m sitting at my moms listening to 4 little kids playing in the basement for my youngest sister’s pseudo birthday sleepover. Only two more days til my road trip begins tho’ that might get postponed if my phone doesn’t show up. I’m cursing the usps right now cause my phone has yet to arrive. And I realized that all but one biological aunt works for them.

I start work in about three weeks following a family trip to Florida and I’ve got a few plans to see friends. Besides that, no real idea what will be happening. And the year of displacement begins…