progress is progress

Today started out well, despite my weird freak-out this morning when my clock said it was 10 am and my room was still really dark. Then I realized the curtains were closed and felt better. Well, actually, I felt stupid. Never mind.
I started work on my essay right away (I know, surprising, right?) and worked until about 2 o'clock reading through all my sources and taking notes, then making my rough outline.
It was a little hard, because the prompt I'm using is one I made up myself, not one that was given out by the professor. Since I already had that freedom, I'm having a little bit of trouble sticking to it, because I can see all sorts of interesting essays to write about the Oresteia now. Especially about Clytemnestra. She is one messed up lady.
Speaking of messed up ladies in Greek mythology, how about Medea? I love her even more than I love Clytemnestra. Sure, she killed her kids, but you gotta admit, she killed them with style. And flying off in that dragon chariot at the end of the play? Classy.
Can you tell I kind of want to reread Medea? I bet the school library has it. Hmm.
At 2 o'clock, I took a break and went to Alfa Mart with Maggie for some more shopping. The food I buy just keeps disappearing, imagine that. How strange... I also finally went to the ATM again, and am now fully stocked up on cash. As you may remember, for the first few weeks I was here, I was going to ATMs all the time, because of all the cash expenses like stupid bus passes and exciting trips that I needed to take care of. Since that's been over and done with, I haven't needed to go to an ATM since the second week of September. Thank goodness.
One good thing about using the different ATM this time was that I didn't get my cash in terrible 200 pound notes. Yes, they may just be worth about $40, but that doesn't mean that anywhere and everywhere I try to spend them in Cairo will let me. They are the hardest damn bills to break, and I hate them! Honestly, I don't care how inconvenient it would be, I would die of happiness if an ATM here miraculously gave me just 20s and 10s and 5s. Even cashing 20s can be a pain sometimes, and they're only worth $4! Can you imagine that? It's insane.
I'll do a blog about the money in Egypt sometime soon, it's actually pretty cool. With pictures of the bills and coins and everything.
Anyway, after we got back I ate lunch at the cafeteria, finished rereading and marking all three plays for relevant quotes and stuff, then came back upstairs to write. And I did write, I did. I just took a while to actually make any relevant progress. However, I met my goal for the day of about a third of my paper, so I'm on track to finish the whole thing tomorrow on the early side. I really want to go out to dinner tomorrow, because I'm bored with being stuck near the dorms all the time. Most of my friends are trying to save money and/or will be exhausted from returning from their crazy vacations though, so that might not work out as I'm planning.
One more day of this freaky four day vacation with a day of school stuck in the middle, then it's back to school/work stuff. And onto Al-Kitaab in Arabic class, the textbook commonly known by international students around AUC as "that stupid, stupid book, why did we need to learn how to say United Nations as our first vocab word?" I'm kinda looking forward to it. (No, that's a lie. Dread is a more appropriate word, I think.)