vacation for reals

Vacation for reals for me is apparently not a day at the beach, or multiple consecutive days at the beach. Vacation for reals according to me is apparently a day spent alone eating cornflakes and watching lots and lots of tv shows, including possibly more Star Trek: TNG than is possibly healthy for anyone. (God, I love Captain Picard. Dang.)
So today was pretty much awesome, because while it was a day spent doing nothing worthwhile, it wasn't a day spent avoiding doing worthwhile things, so there wasn't any intrinsic guilt involved. If I didn't know that I actually have work to get done tomorrow, I'd quite happily do the same thing again. (Probably not, though. Too much tv. I guess I'd read more, maybe.)
Plus, tomorrow my friend Stefana and her friends fly in from Italy for a few days, so I get to be a tour guide again. I'm looking forward to seeing her and meeting new people too. And having places to go, I guess. A little productivity never hurt anyone.
Also, if you have ever had a dog, or you just enjoy reading things that made you cry with laughter, go read this.
NaNo word count: 30477

fedoras and bullwhips (and phasers?)

I woke up around 4:00 this morning with the most painful cramp in my calf that I have ever felt. I tried to stretch it, and it just wouldn't go away at all. I didn't get any more sleep, and the pain didn't go away until I got home from school, at around 6 pm. It was a long day. Now my leg is fine, though, and I really really hope that never happens again.

smoggy thursday

Cairo was really smoggy this morning, one of the worst days I've seen. I feel a little lucky that the campus doesn't get covered with smog, since it's so far out in the desert, but the bus ride usually makes me forget that one positive side of new campus. (Also, I sat behind rude people twice on the bus today. The first guy talked really loudly on his phone the whole ride to school, and the second guy sat down and immediately reclined his chair all the way, crushing my legs. That was a great way to spend an hour.)
In other, less painful news, I discovered a student newspaper that is suckier than The Bottom Line. Any current UCSB student should know what I'm talking about.
The newspaper did have sudoku (oh, sorry 'sudoko') so that was alright at least. The puzzles were both pretty easy, even though I'm out of practice. Sadly, I couldn't finish the crossword puzzle. It was just too difficult for me.

a hand made crossword puzzle all about finance - a main feature

Good news on the work-study front! I got an official offer of a job in the library archives today, and all I have to do is submit a commitment form to be processed, and then I'm in! I'm a little less enthusiastic about the job than I was when I started looking into it, just because school is starting to get busy, but I think I'll really enjoy the work. I'll let you know more when I get started!
I finally hung out with my friends after school today, and we went to get dinner at Pizza Hut, then wandered Zamalek for a while until we found a bakery/gelato shop. The gelato was amazing, and really cheap, but I'm definitely going back for some desserts sometime soon. They had all kinds of Egyptian cakes, as well as more Western style desserts. It was funny, though, because the kind of cakes they described as 'Western' I've only ever really seen before in Japan:

delicious looking fruity chocolate cakes

Tomorrow I plan to catch a taxi to downtown, just to explore a little bit and find where the old campus is, so I'll know ahead of time when I have to meet there to leave for Tanis on Saturday. I'm so excited! Did I already explain why I'm so excited about Tanis? I'm too lazy tonight to check back and see, so I'll just explain again.
Remember that movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark? It had that one guy? With the hat, and the bullwhip?

yeah, this guy. this guy right here.

Anyway, in case you never saw the movie (it wasn't ever very famous or anything), in it, an archaeologist named Indiana Jones (swoon) goes to Egypt in search of the lost Ark of the Covenant, stolen from the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem by an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, and lost forever when his capitol city, Tanis, was buried by the desert. He also fights some Nazis and gets the girl and shoots a guy in a sword fight. All in a day's work. But I digress.
Basically, the city of Tanis existed. It was the capitol of a pharaoh named Sheshonk I, who is famous now for his tomb at Tanis, and for being mentioned in the Bible as having sacked Jerusalem and plundered Solomon's temple. So, if the Ark of the Covenant is anywhere, why not Tanis?*
So that's pretty much what I'm going to do on Saturday. Go to Tanis, follow in Dr. Jones' illustrious footsteps, find the Ark, and melt some Nazis. That's the rough idea, anyway. I'll let you know how it turns out.

my plan for saturday goes something like this (but i'll keep my eyes closed)

Also, I just wanted to say, I searched "ark of the covenant indiana jones" on google images to get the above picture, but it also gave me this one, and I don't know why:

it must be fate

*Actually, there's a ton of reasons why not Tanis, mostly because there isn't anything really left there that hasn't been dug up, as far as I know. But I can still dream, can't I?
** And it should go without saying that none of the pictures from movies and tv shows belong to me, they are all the property of their respective copyright owners, and I mean no infringement by using them here.