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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…

Catchin' Up

Time is definitely going by quickly. It’s been three weeks since I’ve blogged and there’s so much that has taken place.

Kent and I watched the Superbowl kick-off on a balcony of the Marriott with the Nile to our backs

Farzina has gone back to Singapore

Meet some new AIESECers from Bahrain

Amanee and I have completed our work on the conference (well there’s still some post-conference stuff going on)

I got “locked” out of Nisrin and Luli’s place

Cooked a Soul Food dinner

Said goodbye to Dody

Saw Shirley at Horreya

Went to a bad belly dancing show, again!

Went to Chocofolie a lot

Picked Jen up from the airport

Ate dinner with Missy, Riley and Mohammed

Bought a crap load of scarfs – I was working my bargaining magic on this one

Went to Dahab

Climbed Mt. Sinai with Nisrin – the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments

Rode a camel for the first time – because I couldn’t actually climb Mt. Sinai :-(

Went Snorkeling at the Blue Lagoon, part of the Red Sea

Came back from Dahab at 7am on Sunday

Went to IPM 2007 Opening Ceremonies at 10am

Watched Missy play the cup game and break the glass

Went to IPM’s Global Village

Hung out at Salman’s for his bday

Wrote this post!

Okay now you are all up to date on my life. I’m about to start packing. Only four more days left in Egypt :-(

24 Hours

The last 24 hours have been slightly crazy and extremely eventful. I woke up early yesterday to go get my ticket back to the states only to be greeted with a mass of people waiting at the place already. After standing around for about 45 minutes I had to leave to make a meeting at the Marriott on time. After a few meetings and mass of emails that I still haven’t made my way through yet :-( I left work in hopes of taking a much needed nap since the theme of this month seems to be lack of sleep but unfortunately that just wasn’t in the cards for me and start catching up on some news back home and emailing.

Finally decided on a date of some get togethers back home – March 10 for the fam and March 31 for my bday party; this will be the first time I’ll be celebrating my bday in Chicago since I was 14!

Later in the evening I headed to this Yemenis restaurant with May, Farzina, Kent and Mustafa. Kudos to Kent; he’s always trying to further my education about the world and made the suggestion to go to this restaurant a few weeks back since the country of the month for me is Yemen. If you ever feel the need to learn more about Canada – I kinda wanna make a joke here but I won’t – then u should definitely check out Kent’s blog. He hooks me up with some pretty interesting info about his country.

Anyways, the food was good. A big bowl of yellow rice with some chicken and lamb plus the awesome bread (pic to come later) and according to Kent some random pieces of animal hair – it’s good protein! And a very nice waiter who was more of a gentlemen than most of my boyfriends.

Afterwards I went over to Nisrin and Luli’s for a sleepover with them and Kait. It was lots of fun; after watching Luli kick Kait’s butt in Scrabble, we watched this clip on how incredible ignorant Americans can be. Then we played Cluedo – I believe the British wanna be version of Clue. It was a seriously intense game. Between Luli, Nisrin and I, we were playing our strategies hard. I just needed one more round. I was soo close but between Nisrin wanting to be funny and move me half way across the board and Luli beating both of us to the punch, I didn’t win :-( It’s all good tho’; next time!

I woke up early this morning to attempt once again at getting my ticket. Got to the office, a five minute walk from Cinema Tahrir, and thankfully didn’t have to wait too long before I could talk to an agent. Gave her all my info and debit card. Then the words, “It was declined” came out of her mouth. I’m saying to myself ok, that’s odd and asked her to try again. “Decline” Now I’m a bit annoyed. I have to say one thing about Egyptians, they don’t seem to care about others hearing your “sensitive” news cause the lady said really loudly, “You must not have enough money in your account.”

I’m standing there trying to figure out what was the problem. I’m asking if she can just manually type in the numbers b/c maybe the strip got demagnetized but she was very persistent in not taking that suggestion. She once again claimed that I didn’t have enough money. So I took my card and told her I’d pay in cash. Walked out the door and headed to the ATM and withdrew the money. I was already a little bothered that the price was a higher than I original had thought and then to have to go and withdraw money from my American account which charges me a nice little service fee every time I take money out here. Not very happy. But after figuring out how to change the payment from credit card to cash – a task that shouldn’t have been that difficult but it apparently was for her - I got my ticket!!!!! It’s official. February 23 I will be back in the states (I’m grinning heavily right now).

I walked home happily taking random pics of Dokki for my mom and was greeted warmly by my one and only doorman who speaks enough English to have a small conversation. I guess he was really please to see me cause he likes to practice his English on me and called the lift (another effect of living with Farzina!) and shook my hand. I was kinda shocked by that one but it’s all good.

It’s a good morning with lots of potential for the future. AND I’m going to Lucielle’s for breakfast; what more can I possibly as for right now ;-)

Catchin' my Breathe

Life has definitely been non stop lately. I’ve been meaning to write but have yet to have the time to really do so. The last two weekends I have been out and about and enjoying my last moments here. Last week I finally went to the Egyptian museum. It was okay but a suggestion to anyone who has yet to go – go there before you go to Luxor or any other museum or you might just be bored. But I have to say that I really enjoyed the mummified animals. There was a crocodile that was mummified and this huge fish from the Nile!

This past weekend I was almost on the brink of having insomnia. I was already tired going into it because last week Farzina, Kent and I hung out a lot plus a nice movie night on Wednesday – Night at the Muesum with Kait and her sister-in law; Pursuit of Happines w/ Farzina, Mustafa and Harrison. Thursday I got home from work only to turn around and start getting ready for yet another party at the Nay-Zine Penthouse (a new name coined by Mustafa). This time we celebrated Megan’s bday. It was really fun; much more chill than the last but just as unforgettable; esp. Kent dancing…classic!

Woke up the next morning and Farzina tried to convince me to go chill at a café near the pyramids, but I decided to go eat lunch with Megan, Kent and Dody – Nisrin was supposed to come but her deep sleep got in the way! After lunch, Megan Kent and I headed back to my place to veg for a few hours only to have a bunch of people randomly drop by. Some people in attendance included some fellow AIESECers from Madison coming to study at AUC, newly arrived IPM teamsters and about another 5 or so people. Oh yea, and May – you get your own shot out!!!

Later headed to a café for some sheesha with Megan Nisrin and the WI boys and decided to hit Alexandria the next day. Woke up early the next morning – had about 5 hours of sleep – and caught a train to the beautiful city. Tho’ it was only slightly beautiful that day; more like windy, cold and rainy. It was so windy, Luli’s car started shaking at one point.

It was a fun and much needed day away from Cairo. Hung out at a café for breakfast, walked around a bit, had lunch at the infamous Mohamed Ahmed headed to Roushdy’s Senter ElSalam (no this isn’t a typo) for bowling where Nisrin totally kicked everyone’s butt. It was a total off day for me; that and Megan kindly jinxing me every other second!

After bowling and some ice, we all headed to Carefour to see AAST Alex. It was good to see some of the LC – Alaa, Bahaa, Salma and Shazly. It had been a minute. I definitely have to head back there again and say a proper good-bye (I’ve been living with Farzina too long)

Anyways, later we got some seafood, a must when you visit Alex. Got to see Ahmed Badr which was kinda sad cause I had to say my first good-bye. I didn’t even realize it til Badr said something. It’s just gonna get worse.

Slept for about 5 or so hours and got up to catch a train back to Cairo. Got home took a much needed nap. Later meet up for Korean food with Kent, Tom, May, Farzina and one of her co-workers. It was really good and my first time eating the cuisine. And of course after we finish a meal decide to head for coffee and sheesha.

When I got home I truly tried to book my ticket home. I had the credit card in hand and everything. Only to read a line that says, this ticket is not available as an e-ticket and a few lines below that, sorry but we can’t ship tickets internationally. Thx expedia :-(

This week doesn’t seem to be getting any better. I got home from work today to be presented with this weeks plan by Farzina and it’s VERY full…