pyramids with stefana and co

Today was a really excellent last day of vacation. It started out with me sneaking into my friends' hotel to munch on their free continental breakfast, and then we took off for the pyramids. When we got there, we learned that the second pyramid (my favorite) had been closed for repairs, but that the third one was now open. This was exciting because I had never been in Menkaure's pyramid before, so we all bought tickets and visited it. There was a lot more going on inside that little pyramid than in either of the giant ones, which was pretty cool. The other three girls also bought tickets to go inside the great pyramid, but I passed on that one, because like I've said before, once was enough. (Also, side note, I've now hit my head on the inside of all three Giza pyramids. No, not on purpose. Ouch.) If anyone got cool pictures of us by Menkaure's pyramid, I'll link to them when they're posted, because my camera is still broken. I should do something about that.
After the pyramids, we took a cab to Khan el-Khalili, where we had juice (banana for me, pomegranate for Stefana, and pineapple for the other two), and I pointed them toward the market, then headed home to study for my quiz that's coming up this week, and to write for NaNo.
Then we all met up again for dinner at Crave, which was delicious again, especially the desserts: chocolate lava cake and strawberry cheesecake. So good. If it weren't so expensive, I would eat there all the time.
Tomorrow, I've got school again, and the girls are heading off to the museum, and possibly back to Khan for some more shopping, then we're going to try dinner at Abu el-Sid (with proper reservations!) and a felucca ride. Nothing can possibly go wrong.
NaNo word count: 34855

complaining - a good way to get what you want?

Sometimes, complaining seems like the only way to get stuff done at AUC. If you talk to the right people at the right time and tell them your problems and make a big enough deal about it, your problem will most likely get solved. This is fairly contrary to the way I generally go about getting things done in the States. It does seem to work in Egypt, though, sometimes in magical ways.
For instance, I was talking to my friend today about scholarships, and how I hadn't even been told of the result of the largest scholarship I applied to, even though it was long past the notification date. Not three hours later, I checked my email in the library to find that I had been accepted for the scholarship. Clearly, my complaining about it made it happen. What else could it be? Crazy random happenstance, maybe.
The scholarship is for international students studying Egyptology at AUC, and I didn't really expect to get it when I applied, because I'd heard that the competition was really intense. I'm so excited, though, because I've never won anything like this before! As long as crazy Egyptian/AUC-ian bureaucracy doesn't screw things up, everything should go great. It's a big relief since I was starting to wonder about money for my travels around Europe this winter break, but now I don't have to. Yay!
I also studied for my map quiz in the library today. Thankfully the quiz turned out to not be today, but at least I've already started studying. Here's one of my practice maps, and my tempting alternative to studying, no matter how many times I've already read it:

which looks like a better use of my time?

Today on campus all the students in the plaza, including myself, were treated to an impromptu guitar and singing duet of that classic American tune "Rockstar", by Nickelback. I'd post the video here, but I really can't stand that song, so I won't. I'm sure you know it, though. The guys who were playing looked like they were having fun, though, so good for them. I certainly wouldn't be brave enough to play that song (or any other, for that matter) in public that loudly.

yay for enthusiastic covers of sucky songs!

After I got home, I met up with my friends to go out to dinner. Well, I say dinner. I mean waffles. Well, I say waffles. I mean waffles covered with chocolate. Well, I say chocolate. I mean nutella and ice cream. Yeah. That's what I mean. It was delicious, and while I probably won't substitute it for dinner again, I'll definitely go back for dessert!

waffles and nutella = love (probably a bad life strategy...)

And that's it for this Monday. Tomorrow is my day off, and I'm planning on sleeping in for as long as possible, and maybe taking a trip to the Cairo Museum. I'll let you know!

(Also, since maybe my luck will hold, I'm going to complain about something else: my roommate goes to bed so early! I hate to disturb her, but to avoid that, I have to leave the room completely just to talk to my family on Skype or do my Arabic homework. I feel like I can't say that she's disturbing me by going to sleep, because I know that's a horrible thing to say, but still. I would rather her wake me up in the middle of the night by coming in late than her go to bed early and force me out of the room. I guess that's just because I'd rather have something real to complain about, huh? Yeah, I'll stop whining now. Sorry.)

borders recommended this to me today.
get your own ideas, james patterson!

Luxor and Aswan 2 (9/11/10)

I woke up on a cruise ship. It was pretty sweet. We hadn't sailed at all during the night, which was surprising. Breakfast was delicious and after it was over, maggie and I sat up on the top deck (the 'solarium') and read and talked for a while until it got too hot. We were really surprised when we got back to the room and found a surprise waiting for us (and not a very good surprise). It pretty much scared us to death. Well-intentioned maybe, well-thought out, no.

surprise! right in our doorway.

my bananagram letters

After our surprise, I learned how to play 'bananagrams' with small pieces of paper with letters written on them. It's basically scrabble, but faster and much more interesting. I didn't win, but I still had fun. While we were playing, the boat started moving for the first time. I didn't expect it to go so fast!
In only a few hours (just in time to put us in the hottest part of the day) we landed at Kom Ombu, an ancient temple on the bank of the Nile. After exploring the temple, we visited a traditional Egyptian house nearby and saw some animals and stuff.

my little buddy gryphon-thing

the original paint - it's lasted about 2000 years!

four different pillars at kom ombu

moo cow

the boat's wake (side wake?)

Then we returned to the ship and it started sailing again for a few hours, until it was dark, and we spent the whole time 'doing homework' (ie: talking about subjects ranging from BBC shows to Catholic school to books about time travel). Then we went to dinner, which was delicious as usual. [Edit to add: I keep gushing about the food in these blogs and never describing it. Basically, it was every kind of carbohydrate every night, always in some new sauce or cheese or something. Dessert was either fancy Western cakes (okay) or traditional Egyptian desserts (absolutely fabulous). I would have gotten pictures, but I was too busy stuffing my face to pick up my camera.]

okay, one lunch picture. see what i mean about carbs?

After dinner, there was a galabeya (traditional Egyptian dress) party, for which Maggie and I had purchased two (moderately expensive) galabeya earlier. We didn't end up going to the party because it looked a little bit lame. When we got back to our room, though, we found another surprise waiting for us. This one was much better: surprising but not incredibly freaky.

our friends the towel swans.
mine (r) is named clyde, and maggie's (l) is named gibson.

Anyway, tomorrow we have to get up and be off the boat to go to Edfu by 6:00 am, so it's time to get some sleep. 'Tomorrow' will stretch all the way to Monday night without stopping, so we need to take our sleep where we can get it.