Christmas Pageant

Since the very first day i arrived to Cairo i was told about MCC's Christmas pageant. Everybody talked about real camels being involved, bright lights, sheep, donkey, a real baby and so on.

I've been looking forward to it and the time came! Nichole was actually part of it - she joined the choir.

Apart from the story that we all know, there were comic episodes that brought up everybody's laugh, starting with 3 funny wise men and the best of all, the King - Elvis!! Nobody actually anticipated that!! Travis, the youth pastor played Elvis and got to sing one of his songs as well.

i have to say i enjoyed it a lot and i did not regret that i got tickets for both shows (there were two).

Nichole had a whole row of supporters - me, Chase, Luke, Karabo, Ben, Rachel - we were all there and Chase even shouted her name at the end, just to embarass her. :D

There were some Irish dancing angels involved as well... very beautiful!!

Happy New Year

This year's New Years' Eve was different than any other i've had before... together with the gang we went to SPectra for dinner and then to kathy's house for a glass of "...". Right after that, everyone went to their house and slept. It was 1 am when i went to bed. But in the end it was worth it, as we woke up early to catch the morning train to Alexandria.
It is weird how, as you grow up/mature you dont' stay up for the whole night on New Years' Eve. Anyways, i promised myself that next year i will celebrate it in another country. Looking forward to see how that goes! :P

Trip to Aswan - Day 3

We had to wake up at 3 am to take a bus to see all the touristic places around Aswan: Abu el Sid, Philae Temple, the Dam and unfinished obelisk..

We were all tired and sitting in a packed little mini van; one Russian lady was sick and she threw up. It was a nice day, althoug tiring and we decided to go and see the unfinished Obelisk.

it has been an amazing trip, we enjoyed seeing all the monuments, making fun of the Brits (even though Rach was with us), trying to survive one more temple, or one more Egyptian trying to get an unrealistic amount of money off us just for a 5 min ride on a boat...

When we got back to Aswan we were exhausted! We walked on Sharia El Souk to get some food and most of the shops were closed. What we found, though, were piles of cows' skins, as they slaughtered the animals that morning. It looked and smelt like blood everywhere.

Trip to Aswan - Day 2

So, we found our way to Aswan ... got picked up at the train station by somebody from our hotel. We shared a room, the three of us. Next morning we had breakfast and right after that we adventured ourselves down the corniche, having in mind all the touristic places the Lonely Planet guide talks about: Elephantine Island, Botanical garden etc.

We found a guy and after bargaining we got a felucca for 50 LE for 2 hours. Captain Ziko and his felucca "Relax". We had a good laugh in the beggining of our trip about his felucca and the sign on it, as you can see, but it was only later that we figured out that that was the name of the felucca.

We had a relaxing day ... saw the botanical gardens and just chilled on the Nile.

After that we went to the souk ... that was a challenge.. even for me (and people say i am a good bargainer). Most of the shops had signs that said: "No hassle", but that is what exactly what they were doing. All the vendors were trying to get us to come into their shops. We have met an Egyptian guy who was trying to sell me a silver bracelet.. i have to admit that i liked the bracelet, but could simply not afford it. He was charging 350 LE; he was so funny and kept saying: "What does the computer say?" "The computer says no!". This is from an English commercial. he was married to an English lady. :)

Later in the evening, one guy was shouting that he sells scarves for 5 Le, so we went into his shop. We kept asking how much ofr a particular scarf and he kept ignoring us and showing what he has in his shop. I got mad and said: "how much is this? is it 5 pounds?" He said: "Of course not, madame... who sells this for 5 pounds?". To his astonishment, i said "but you said you have scarves for 5 pounds!". Then he tried to explain that he was just joking to attract us in his shop. I looked at him and said: "Listen, you cant do that! You are wasting my time!!! the foreigners do not like these kind of jokes!" and i left.

We had tea in a very obscure place, but we had so much fun there!! There was a little boy - he was not more than 3 yrs old and he loved Esther's camera.

It seemed that Aswan was very quiet that evening, at least down on the corniche where we had dinner; there was nobody at the restaurant. We had pizza on a boat restaurant that smelled like gas, but we were done quickly and headed back to our hotel for a good rest.

Trip to Aswan - Day 1

We had a short break, for the December Eid, so we decided to go to Aswan. the whole group was suppose to go, but people changed theird mind - so in the end it was just me, Nichole, Rachel and Esther. After a busy week, Esther and Rach went to the train station to get tickets the day before we left. Surprise: there were no more tickets. We decided to go early in the morning - maybe they will add another car to the train.
Early in the morning - we wake up - NIchole is sick. We make it to the metro station ... Nichole throws up. My oppinion - she will get better once she's thrown up. We manage to buy our tickets for 136 LE, French class (whatever that was suppose to mean) while NIchole keeps throwing up.
We were told to go to car 7, where 1st class was - we get on through the crowd of people, find our seats taken. Rach talks to them, NIchole is still sick, telling me she wants to go back home. I feel bad and try to convince her to stay. At the same time, men on the train laugh and make jokes. Angry, i turn around and shout - then the crowd starts calming down.
We found some empty seats, surrounded by Egyptian men. Nichole decides to get off. I accompany her. When i returned, there's a new scenario: our seats might be at the end of the train.
Let me try and describe you how the train looked: PACKED!!!!!!!There were people on the seats, under the seats, on top where you put your luggage, in between seats, on the aisle, pilled up on top of each other like a pyramid.... etc
Me and Rach adventure ourselves to the end of the train, passing from car to car, to see if we can find our places, telling Esther to keep the seats that we already occupied. We get to the end of the train and to ur surprise there was no 1st class there. We come back. Meanwhile, new people claim our seats - the ones we were sitting on. Esther willingly gives them our tickets. At this point we are all standing, led by a man who claims to know what he is doing. He tries to tell us that we have seats at the back of the train, so there we go again. We take our bags and carry it through the train, through the crowd of people. The man didnt even give us the chance to tell him that we've already checked the back of the train. We get to the end of the train - car 12
At this stage we dont knwo what to do ... We talk about getting off the train and heading back to Cairo. Hardly anyody spoke English on that train - our Arabic was limited ... and all around us there are oppionionated people - some say our seats are at the front of the train - car 1. At this point all i wanted was to get off the train and go home. I almost had tears in my eyes. After many debates, plus finding out that the next stop is in 2 hours, we decide to adventure ourselves and walk back - this time through the whole train to get to 1st class.
I an't describe how people were sitting, standing ... unbelieveable!! We managed to get to 1st class, but other people were sitting our on seats. At this point we are standing. I texted Nichole and told her she should be happy, that she returned, coz i was almost in tears.
Many people tried to help - Egyptian help - but htey had no idea what to do. We managed to get two seats - after an old man stood up and let us sit down. I felt so bad and tried to explain that i am ok and i feel bad having him standing. Rach is on the floor...
There was one man, in his 20's that tried to help us - his English was good and he said those are our seats, we paid for them bla bla .... while i was trying to tell him how bad i feel. Later, during our journey, he came back to check on us. After many smiles, he turned to me and said: "you know, earlier, your behavior was totally unacceptable here". Luckily, for him, i kept calm, smiled but inside i was burning .... Don't you tell me what is acceptable, or not acceptable!!!! It is not acceptable for me to argue that i cant have an older man standing, but it is acceptable for men to grab my ass while i go through the train!! Whatever... But, once again, i live in a country that is not my own, so i guess i should live according to their rules.
If you hadnt been through all the hassle and classes, we wouldnt have appreciated as much our 1st class seats.
The train ride was 16 hours, btw ... we got to Aswan at 11 pm... completely tired!!

Christmas present

Hey!

Right before i went to Aswan, i arranged Nichole's Christmas present to be delivered to our house. We've both been waiting for it anxiously - a piano!! Nichole loves playing the piano and missed it a lot, so i decided the best present would be one.

I didnt buy it, i just rented it!

Anything is possible here in Egypt!! It is not a lot of money, so we are sharing the cost. Nichole asked me if it can come with a red bow on it, but i couldnt really arrange that, so i improvised something that evening, as you can see in the pic. It is a beautiful piano and it adds a lot of "flavour" to our flat.

My computer is back!!!!!!!!!!

After 4 weeks i got my computer back!!!!!!!!! It's been out of order and i gave it to some guys to have it fixed ... it took them a while....

Anyways ... i am happy i can blog :) I will try and update asap.. probably during this weekend, as we start our winter hols and i am kind of stuck in Cairo over the break. Tomorrow we have Chase's cousin coming over for 3 weeks, so we need to accomodate her in my room. Luckily, Mohammed is coming tomorrow to clean, coz our house is a bit of a mess. However, i did tidy up more than usual while i did not have my comp.

Funny thing: we always make fun of Egyptians, as they cannot say "Pepsi" but "Bebzi"; Arabic doesnt have the "p" sound". The funny part comes now: i went to Saudi today to buy bread and i looked around to see what kind of meat they have; well, it was written in English: "Lamp meat". It cracked me up! They try and use the "p" sound, but it always comes out wrong!

Btw, talking about Arabic, both me and Nichole admit that we are rubbish at it! We've

been in such an international context that we hardly speak any Arabic; actually, the Arabic we know is called "taxi Arabic" - enough to tell the taxi driver where to go. We keep talking about enrolling in a course, but we never have time!