100 posts?

It honestly snuck up on me. This is the 100th time I've posted on this blog, starting the night before I left home to come to Cairo. Wow.
Today was a good Tuesday, again. I went to Coffee Bean and worked on my essay, and made a good amount of progress. Then I went to lunch with friends and then came home to essay a bit more, a goal which I completely failed to accomplish. That was okay, though.
I made my vlog for today, and had a really good time doing it.
If you watch the video, which is at the bottom of this post, I suggest clicking through to the video page and watching the linked video in the doobly-doo. Well, I suggest that if you're a huge nerd, or a nerdfighter. Otherwise, I guess it might be slightly confusing or off-putting.
Tomorrow I've got to get to school early and read The Caucasian Chalk Circle for Dramatic Lit, because I totally forgot to get a copy from the copy shop on campus, so I couldn't read it today like I meant to. I hope I can finish it before class and still have time to work on my Art and Architecture paper or the Dramatic Lit paper. If that doesn't work out, though, I'll settle for just finishing the play on time. I hate it when I totally blank on reading assignments like that, especially when they're for a class that is completely made up of discussion of the reading.
And that was a really boring 100th post! What can I say? It was a Tuesday.

tuesdays are the best

It's just like a mini weekend in the middle of my week. Of course, the feelings of relaxation that come with a Tuesday are always hopelessly crushed by nighttime when I remember that it's not a real weekend and I still have to go to school the next day. It's better than what all those poor ALI students have to go through, though, taking nothing but Arabic classes with school five days a week. So sad.
I finished my term paper today, bibliography and all, and it's ready to turn in tomorrow, unless class is cancelled again. I actually still liked my paper by the end of it, which is a pretty rare thing. Hopefully my professor will like it too. Actually, if she doesn't, it's a good enough paper that I don't think it will get a bad grade, even if she hates it. At least, it won't deserve a bad grade, which is what I care about more.
More work tomorrow, yay. I need to talk to my boss and see about being done with work after this week or next, just because of finals coming up and everything. All the other girls I work with are grad students, so they're even more stressed out than I am!
Did anyone who read yesterday's blog actually go listen to Erase This? What did you think about it if you did?
I'll edit this post later, probably tomorrow to add in the video I made today, which is boring. But I don't think the slow internet will let me upload it tonight. It will get posted eventually. Everything gets posted eventually. [Here it is, the most boring vlog in the entire world! Also the most weirdly framed one. I am just a talking head, thanks to iMovie and youtube...]

Also, it's the last day of NaNoWriMo! Congratulations to any wrimos out there who finished/will finish their novels today!

coffee bean tuesday 2.0

I had a much less productive trip to Coffee Bean today than I did a few weeks ago. To start, I wasn't even done with my reading, so I couldn't get to work on my essay right away.
Then, part way through my research, I realized that the essay topic I had chosen and gotten approved wasn't really what I wanted to write about at all. I figured out a new, much more interesting topic, and plotted an outline for it.
I tried to buy a few hours of internet from Coffee Bean, but apparently they were 'out' so I had to come home to do more research. So, basically, I'm no farther along on my paper than I was this morning, but writing it will definitely be much easier now that I'm actually interested in my topic.
NaNoWriMo went amazingly today, and I wrote way more than I needed to to meet my goal, but it didn't drag on at all. Unfortunately, I pretty much know for certain now that the novel itself won't be finished when it hits 50,000 words. That's better than the alternative, I guess, but rather dramatically increases the chances that I won't ever finish it. I'm kind of thinking about skipping ahead and writing some major plot points, just to have them done and the story all tied up, so it will be easier to go back and fill in the blanks, rather than have to finish the whole story cold. I'll let you know.
Essay research and planning took up most of the day, except for the fifteen minutes or so in which I made my video for the week, and the three hundred minutes or so that video took to upload to youtube. Really, Zamalek dorms? Really?

NaNo word count: 40876

dahab!

Wow, I really haven't blogged for a long time! Dahab was amazing, and although I did find internet, I didn't make time to blog while I was there, which I think was probably a good thing. I had a hard time relaxing as it was, so that little bit of stress off my mind helped, I think.
We left Cairo on the bus at 7:30 pm on Thursday and arrived in Dahab around 5 or 6 o'clock Friday morning. Even though the five of us had all our bags, we were too stubborn to take a taxi to our hotel, which was a bad idea. Dahab, at least the touristy part, is laid out in a giant line. We walked from the middle-ish, where the bus station was (far back from the beach) to one far end, then along the beach to the other far end where we eventually found our hotel. We were really really tired by then, but our room wasn't ready, so we had to chill on the beach for a while and watch the stray puppies play in the sand.
Our rooms turned out to be pretty nice, although they didn't come with toilet paper. Oh well.
That first day, we spent mostly by the beach right by the hotel, although we did walk back along the boardwalk street for dinner and to meet up with other friends from AUC. The best part of that night was definitely our thick shakes at a restaurant called Yalla. Basically, a thick shake is ice cream in a glass, served with a spoon and superfluous straws.
All the days we spent in Dahab kind of blended together, so from here on, I'm just going to give highlights. The best restaurant in town is Chinese, called the Three Brothers, run by three actual Chinese men, possibly actually brothers. The main server is nicknamed Baba, and he doesn't speak any English or Arabic, so to order, everyone has to point at the item they want in the menu. Then when it's time to pay the bill, he comes over and adds everything up on his pocket calculator. We ate there a lot, and it was always delicious.
After the first night, I woke up with countless mosquito bites on both my calves, which made the rest of the weekend much less fun. I would show you a picture of how many bites I got, but the camera's still broken, so that's a no go. Plus, it's kind of awful to look at.
For our third night, we moved from one side of town to the other, into a villa owned by the same hotel. It was amazing, and I would love to stay there again if I could be with a group of people that would make it more affordable. Since the kitchen was fully supplied, we got to go grocery shopping and cook dinner for two nights, the first time any of us had cooked in three months. It was amazing. We had spaghetti one night and chicken and rice the next.
The fourth night, another friend arrived and brought friends over with her that she had met at the bus station, telling us only that they were Tanzanian. This turned out to be not quite true, they were actually two Peace Corps volunteers visiting Egypt before heading home after their two years service. It was really interesting to talk to them, because I had never really considered the Peace Corps before, but they made it seem wonderful. I'm still not really considering it, but it's not a completely invalid option any longer.
By around the third or fourth day, I was going kind of crazy, what with staying in one place and not really having anything to do, not to mention the insanity that so many mosquito bites brings. Because of all that and a host of other stuff, I decided to go home early, which is why you're getting this blog post tonight (Wednesday) instead of on Saturday, when I was supposed to get home.
Long story short, I bought my bus ticket Tuesday morning, had a wonderful last day in Dahab, snorkeling the famous Blue Hole reef, and caught the bus at 10 pm to take me back to Cairo, where I arrived this morning. Now I'm really tired, so I won't tell you all about my bus trip home adventures, I'll just say that instead of a cab from the bus station, I took a taxi to the Metro with a guy I had just met, who's studying in Alex and had just gone to Dahab for Eid, and who was extremely helpful and gave me a pound for my Metro ticket, then got off in Tahrir square and took a taxi home to Zamalek, where I lazed the day away watching stupid television shows and skyping with my mom. Oh, and NaNoWriMo, which actually went really well in Dahab.
Here's my Tuesday vlog about my last day in Dahab, hope you enjoy:

NaNo word count: 29381
p.s. If anyone has any helpful suggestions about making mosquito bites stop itching or making me start being able to ignore them, please leave a comment! Or leave a comment with sympathy, and we'll see if that helps!

misanthrope and munch 'n' bagel

Another remarkably productive Tuesday for me. I woke up early, did some homework, watched some tv, made a video, skyped with some friends, did some more homework, and read a play for Dramatic Lit. The play, in all honesty, may have been the highlight of my day. It's called The Misanthrope, and it's by Moliere, a French playwright and actor of the 17th century. Obviously, the play was originally in French, but I read an English translation that was just amazing. The original rhyme scheme was preserved, and so was the meter, and it was wonderful. How could it not be, when it contained lines like "She holds that naked statues are immoral / But with a naked man she'd have no quarrel" and "Lovers are no trouble to collect / If one prefers them to one's self-respect." So awesome! </Moliere geek-out>
I also went to the grocery store this morning, and bought apples and shampoo. It was odd being out on the streets by myself, but I knew exactly where I was going, and wasn't wearing any clothing that could have attracted any unwanted attention. I couldn't really help being a tall pale girl with short reddish hair, though, so I still got a few stares. No one harassed me, though, so it was a good trip. What made it an especially good trip was that I took a different route back to the dorms than normal, and stumbled upon a building that I didn't even know was there, just about five blocks from my dorm. The Supreme Council of Antiquities Building. In other words, the building where Zahi Hawass works. If you don't know Zahi Hawass, please google him or something. If you think you've heard of him but aren't sure, he's the guy who's on the Discovery channel when they talk about Egyptology and aren't interviewing Salima Ikram instead.
The other highlight of my day was dinner. Instead of going out or relying on the cafeteria, some friends and I ordered in from Munch 'n' Bagel. I got a turkey sandwich bagel with fresh lettuce and tomato and turkey that actually tasted normal and not disgusting, for twenty pounds, or four dollars. Including the delivery charge. Yeah, I'll be eating there again.
We did have a fairly awkward time actually paying for our order when it arrived, though. We saw our package on the table, and paid the delivery man standing next to it 60 pounds for our order. He then went down to his bike and got out a package of sushi and tried to give it to us. That's not what we ordered... It all got sorted eventually and we got our money back, paid the right delivery man and got our food, but the dorm security guards were definitely laughing at us. It was pretty funny.
And because I have absolutely nothing else to talk about, here's my new vlog, a really really nerdy one that won't make much sense taken out of its youtube context and put here on my blog. Whatever:

'hint, hint,' says my subconscious

I woke up super early this morning to have some skype time with my friend Teresa from home, which was really nice. We were both sleepy, her because it was bedtime, and me because I'd just woken up. We also had some problems with weird noises coming through skype, and the sound randomly cutting out for one or both of us. Still, what are you gonna do? We are halfway around the world from each other!
After talking to Teresa, I talked to other friends, namely Audrey and Caira. This conversation ranged all across the internet, from facebook chat to skype to gmail chat/video. Everything we tried was frustrating, because we couldn't make three-way calling work at all. We still got to talk and catch up a little bit though, and I really had a good time.
I spent about an hour today watching cooking videos from SortedFood. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for something to make for any meal, ever. Of course, I say this as a person who hasn't had, and won't have, access to a real kitchen for two months. While I watched the guys at Sorted making strawberry shortcake, chicken quesadillas, jambalaya, rocky road, and tons of other delicious foods, I apparently got a little bit drawn in. At one point, I looked up from a video to notice that I was leaning all the way over the desk, and had my nose about six inches away from the computer screen. It's like my subconscious was trying to tell me something.
So I went downstairs and had rice and some cucumbers for lunch. Yay for imaginative Egyptian cooking.
Aside from that little adventure, and studying for my Arabic quiz tomorrow, today was a pretty empty day. It was definitely the good kind of empty, though, because that's how I wanted it to be, and I didn't have anything I had to fill it up with.
I did film another video blog today, the theme for this week being the google verb meme. I didn't really explain it in the video, but the gist of it is, you google "[your name] [verb]s" and see what google throws up for you. The entire list is -needs, -looks, -says, -wants, -does, -hates, -asks, -likes, -eats, -wears, -was arrested for, -loves. It's actually pretty fun just to do for kicks. My favorite result was definitely 'elise needs to learn how to live in the world' which was actually a result from a website telling a made-up story about a little girl named Elise with a peanut allergy who needed to learn how to not be so sheltered. Or something. Whatever. Here's my video:

P.s. about the video, it took me forever to make the damned thing, because I wanted to include a clip of courtyard cat for everyone to see. iMovie was being ridiculous though, so I couldn't make it work. Sadface.
So that's it. Except for this: 'Things I Don't Have to Think About Today', written by John Scalzi for his website, which I just wanted to share. I think it's something that people ought to read. And think about.

fiftieth post! wow.

That's a lot of posts. Apparently, according to my blog clock, I have been in Egypt for 49 days, or 50 days by tomorrow. That seems like a lot when it's written down, but it really doesn't feel like I've been here that long. Well, that's not completely true. Sometimes it feels like I've been here forever, and sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes it's a bad thing. I'm glad to be here, though.
Last night, I got back to late to tell you all about my adventures in my blog, but I can assure you, I had adventures. They involved hanging out with lots of new European friends on a 5th floor balcony until 2 am, talking about the metric system and scuba diving and Norway and other worldly and fascinating subjects. Then we walked home to the dorms and I got questioned by the guards for being out so late, which was really annoying. And then it was today, and so on to the real blog post.
Congratulations to me for not procrastinating today, and getting all of my homework (well, the homework due tomorrow) done before 3 pm. Round of applause. Of course, that only happened because the internet was being horribly slow and wouldn't let me watch television. Once I was done with my homework, though, I didn't have to feel bad about watching television, so I guess it worked out pretty well.
This morning, I went with my friends Emily and Michelle to get breakfast at the delicious waffle place we went to before. We had some issues, not the least of which was the fact that after 15 minutes of walking, we found out that the waffle shop was closed. We went somewhere else instead, and you can see where it was in my newest vlog, which I mostly filmed walking around Zamalek and suchlike:

I hope you like the video, it took a while to make.
And now I'm stuck with an interesting dilemma. What is the protocol for when one's Egyptian roommate comes in for the night and starts to pray? One has turned off one's music, and is about to cease typing. I hope that will do it.

egyptian museum and suuuupeeeerrnooooteee

Woops, late blog tonight. I'm here now, it's okay. (I know you were worried.)
Today I had two goals, 1) make my way to Alfa Mart to finally buy some food, and 2) go to the Egyptian Museum with Professor Ikram for my Art and Architecture class. Both were eventually accomplished, although the second one involved much more drama than it should have.
Emily and I guessed our way to Alfa Mart, and braved its frightening escalators (they don't start moving until you step onto them) in search of snacks, flashlights, and goggles. Well, the goggles were just for me. I'll take a picture of them for you tomorrow and post it here. They're mildly hilarious, but the best they had.
I bought bananas, shredded wheat, and Jif peanut butter. I didn't know they even had Jif here, but the fact that they did kind of made my week. [Disclaimer: I am not endorsed by Jif. Duh.]
After our wildly successful grocery shopping trip, Emily and I split up, her to pack for her trip to Dubai this weekend, and me to film the video that's at the bottom of this blog. More on that later.
At 2 pm, I met up with Kim to catch a taxi to the Egyptian Museum. We waited for another girl for a while, but she didn't show, so we left the dorms and started walking, expecting a taxi to solicit us at any moment. This was not what happened. Traffic outside the dorm was completely stopped, and we walked almost 5 blocks before we saw any cabs at all. The streets were also filled with school children, which was strange because I hardly ever see any kids at all. At one point, we thought there might have been a car accident, putting together two and two from the stalled traffic, the crowds, and a persistent siren whose source we couldn't exactly determine. It turned out to be the sound of the horn of a nearby McDonald's delivery motorcycle. Apparently, in Cairo, McDonald's holds the same precedence in traffic that an ambulance does elsewhere.
Eventually, we did find a cab though, and he agreed to take us to the museum for 10 pounds, which is a little bit more than it should have cost, but not enough more that either Kim or I cared. On the way, he pulled over to get another fare, but that didn't take too long. Eventually traffic cleared up, and we made it to the museum in about 25 minutes, a drive which I've never seen take more than 15.
We figured out how to get past security, with lots of help (thanks Vince!), and Professor Ikram met us at the front steps, and got us into the museum without tickets thanks to her handy psychic paper. Or something.
The museum was ridiculously crowded and hot, and we had to run through it, from exhibit to exhibit, because that's the way our class travels when following Professor Ikram. Everything she showed us was interesting, and it was equally fun watching other tourists try to hear her lectures instead of what their own tour guides were saying. When our class trip was done, Kim and I stayed for a while to explore a bit more and check out the tiny gift shop. All in all, I don't think I saw even a fifth of what's on display in the museum, and I definitely plan to go back. One interesting thing I did see was a chunk of the sphinx's beard that had broken off and was then found and eventually ended up in the museum. In a corner. Behind a forklift. This might help you get some idea of the sheer number of important artefacts the museum holds and how well they are 'organized'.
When we left the museum, we tried to catch a taxi back to Zamalek. One man offered to get us a cab, whose fare, he said, would be 50 pounds. Way too much. We turned him down and tried on our own, only to find that taxis didn't want to go to Zamalek, at least not for 10 pounds, which was all we were willing to pay. We kept walking, and eventually ended up at a metro station, which we used to cross the busy street underneath, and found ourselves by the old American University campus. We finally caught a taxi, and miracle of miracles, the driver actually knew where our dorms were. I cannot tell you enough how impressive that was. I've never taken a taxi home before that didn't need to be given directions, so this was amazing.
After that highlight of my day was over, I lazed around for a while, then went down to the cafeteria for dinner, where I met Maggie and Geoff. We hung out for a while in the garden, and I read A Midsummer Night's Dream for my Lit class, which was just as good as I remember it, and a whole lot funnier.
Then I went back upstairs and edited my vlog. I said I would explain so I will. This week's vlog is mostly dedicated to SuperNote, a competition held by youtube superstars Rhett and Link. It's kind of hard to explain, so click here to watch their video about it if you're interested.
Suffice it to say, lots of this video is just me trying to sing one long note in one breath. Pretty boring. There's a surprise at the end for anyone who's curious what life in the Zamalek girl's dorms sounds like, though. Stay tuned.

And that's it for today. Except for the extremely silly skype conversation I had with my little sister a little while ago. It consisted mainly of us laughing hysterically and trying to hold silly faces to convince the other one that the video chat had frozen. It was one of the funniest things we've done in a while. Unfortunately, I was laughing too hard to get any screenshots of either of our faces. Sorry. I love you, Erin!

quick unfortunate arabic lessons with elise

I had another lazy day today. With naps. Unfortunately, I also got some work done. How dare I?
I read a morality play called Everyman for my dramatic literature class, which was actually kind of interesting, since I knew to look at it through a lens of medieval church propaganda. Of course, I also spotted this:

look at the last two characters. really? yeah.

I don't know this particular Doctor Who episode seems to be stalking me, but it definitely is. (For those readers who don't watch the Doctor, which, by the way, you should, the episode is Blink, the one Charlie sang about in my last blog.)

Basically, the day was wasted on homework and sleeping and lazing about. It was pretty nice to have another short break from school, though. I'm starting to like the weird schedule that AUC keeps. School on Sundays is still pretty odd, though.
My only other accomplishment for the day was making another vlog, this one teaching some common Arabic words and phrases.

If you have time, check out the other videos on the channel that my friends and I share. I think you'll enjoy them, and don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe!

it's so fluffy i'm gonna die

I thought my hair was going to kill me today. I really did. It was fine in the morning, when I was walking around campus slowly roasting in the sun, getting important items of business done, or as the case may be, not getting important items of business done. It was fine at noon, when I sat in the freezing cold rare books archive, learning about the proportions and grids Ancient Egyptian artists used to make their tomb paintings so regular. It was even fine when I swam laps in the AUC pool, although it was a bit weird to not have to wear a cap.

not me, but what i felt like. (and not my picture.)

My hair was not fine after I swam. I didn't bring shampoo to campus, because I didn't think I'd need it. I was wrong. Apparently, aside from making my hair clean, my shampoo also keeps it from being fluffy. I don't know how this works, but I know it does. As soon as my hair started to dry after my post-swim shower, I noticed something was wrong. My hair wouldn't stay still. It wouldn't lie flat. It was fluffy. I don't like my hair to be fluffy, so this was not a great feeling. Plus, it was really windy out, which meant my hair was fluffy and messy, which is a lovely combination.
Anyway, no one cares about my hair. Unfortunately, there's not a lot else to talk about today. Most of what I needed to do on campus today I did, except for reserving my spot on the Tanis trip, which hopefully I'll get to do tomorrow. Swimming was actually really fun, and I'm glad that it worked out. I rented my locker and borrowed a towel, and went swimming. Really, the only problem was the towel, which was about the size of a bath mat and about as useful for drying off. Whatever, though. Now I've got my locker, I can bring my own towel if I want. Problem solved.
And that was pretty much my day. Sounds exciting, huh? Back to school tomorrow, for adventures in Art and Architecture, Literature, and Arabic.
I did spend some time today filming a new video blog. Two in a week is hard, but hopefully this is the last time I'll have to do that. Hope you enjoy!

"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and why nobody comments on Elise's blog posts."
I really, really like comments, I swear. Even just a few words can make my day. I won't think you're a creeper, I promise. (If this sounds like a plea for attention, that's because it is. And I've decided I'm okay with that.)

Alexandria 1 (9/17/10)

[Catch-up blog again. Sigh. You know the drill, no editing, lots of pictures.]
We met in the dorm lobby this mornig at 7:00 am to meet the bus from the campus dorms that would take us to Alexandria. I was a little late coming down to the lobby because I was running slow due to last minute issues (mostly having to do with being super quiet for the new roommate) up in my room.
I got to the lobby at 7:05, to find my friends already waiting. Then we waited together for an hour and half for the bus from new campus to arrive. By the time it did, I was more than ready for my early morning nap, which lasted me almost all the way to Alexandria (about a three hour drive). It was one of those nice naps where I was asleep enough to not be bothered by anything, but awake enough to hear my music and avoid snoring and/or drooling.
I mostly listened to MIKA and Molly Lewis during the drive. Here's one of my favorite songs of Molly's, called Our American Cousin: (the actual song starts at about 57 seconds.)

Our first stop in the city was the Citadel of Qaitbay. It was built on the ruins of the lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the world, and it was the closest I've ever gotten to exploring a medieval castle. We took lots of pictures, including some really touristy ones. Our group for this trip is about twenty-five people, and only seven are from Zamalek. The smaller group of my friends included Emily, Jen, Michelle, Cheryl, and myself.

the citadel

view through an arrow slit

window grills

really really touristy picture

up on the battlements

After exploring the citadel, we went to lunch at a famous seafood restaurant. The pita and various dips were delicious, especially the yogurt dip, which I really hadn't expected to like. However, then they brought out the main course:

well, i liked the rice

Here's the view from our table, out across the Mediterranean:
None of of ate our entire lunch, some because it was looking back at them, but me mostly because it didn't taste very good. It may have been caught that very morning, but I didn't care, because it tasted exactly like the Nile and the Mediterranean (in some parts, at least) smell on a bad day - full of pollution and dead things.
After lunch, we visited the Library of Alexandria, or the Bibliotheque. The ancient library of course hasn't existed for hundreds and hundreds of years, but the new museum and library on the site was opened in 2001.

alexander himself!

It's a gorgeous building, full of skylights and glass and most importantl, books. It currently holds 1.5 million volumes if I remember correctly, but has enough space for 8 million.

the outer wall, with writing from all over the world

the guestbook we signed, in 4 different languages

the stack and study desks

the library skylights, designed to look like eyes

Our visit wasn't very long and I look forward to returning one day to actually browse the shelves and even see the only surviving scroll form the original library itself.
Also, the library has an extensive online presence with databases ad catalogs open free of charge to anyone; you can find that here.
We checked into our hotel (fundoq Kaoud) after visiting the library, and found it only slightly creepier than we thought it might be.
It's not really the kind of hotel to leave towel surprises for its guests, either. If it did, we probably wouldn't like them. (Speaking of towels, we had three people in our room and just one hand towel. And toilet paper that ran out after one use. We spoke to reception and got more towels, but they never did give us the toilet paper.)
Here's the view from our hotel balcony, out over the Mediterranean. It almost made up for everything else...

sunsets are the best part of the day

[edit to add: at least we didn't have cockroaches, like some of the guys I talked to. Makes me think they saved the 'nice' rooms for the girls!]
After a few hours rest in our rooms, the five of us set out for dinner and adventure. Our first step was the beach right across the street. We crossed eight lanes of traffic using a handy (and safe) tunnel underneath the road.

tunnels for safety!

We took lots of pictures of the beach for a while, and then I climbed down to the next lowest level to touch the water. The sea spray was amazing, and it was a phenomenal experience. I didn't even come close to slipping on the algae and cracking my head open like a melon.

When it started getting dark, we began to look for a place to eat dinner. After wandering about half an hour with no luck, our group met up with two guys also from AUC, and we split up, Jen and Cheryl catching a taxi downtown with them to search for food, and Michelle, Emily and I returning to the hotel to order Pizza Hut delivery. We like to keep it classy.
It took a really long time to order and actually receive our food, but it was totally worth it. Egyptian pizza is so good. Now it's time for bed, and with any luck we won't run late tomorrow so we won't have to miss visiting anything extremely cool, like the catacombs or the Roman theatre. And with any luck this blog will get posted tomorrow night along with tomorrow's blog [Hey look, I did it!]
Also, here's my newest video from themicrowavesafe:

lazy days

Sometimes I think lazy days are for the best. I woke up today around 9 am with this in mind, and gosh darn it if I didn't leave the dorm building until 7 at night.
I woke up, I showered, I took a nap. I woke up, realized I had drooled all over my pillow and decided it was time to do something. Then I watched some youtube videos, and checked twitter and facebook. I haven't mentioned this before, but the time difference really annoys me sometimes. I'm used to being able to check facebook and twitter in the mornings and have a lot of interesting stuff to read, but because of the time difference, that just doesn't work here. All the interesting posts come through while I'm in class, and obviously I can't read them then. I can't explain why it happens, I just know it bugs me. The only good thing I've discovered about the internet and the time difference is that the web comics I read get posted about mid-morning, instead of a few hours after midnight, which lets me catch up on sleep instead of waiting for them.
Basically, the only real accomplishments I've made today are finishing my Arabic homework, walking to McDonald's for dinner (it's the last day of Ramadan, by the way, and I'm really excited), and filming this week's vlog. I'll post the vlog below when I can; it's not uploaded to youtube yet, so it might be a while. (Warning: this vlog doesn't have cool Egypt footage of me visiting places. It's just me in my bedroom talking to my friends about stuff.)

Okay, I'm going to try and catch a few hours sleep before I have to wake up to leave for Luxor. The time changes for all of Egypt tonight, in a very confusing fashion, which means I get one hour less sleep than I thought, but that's okay.
If you're confused about why the time is changing, don't be. It's really very simple. Normally, Egypt practices Daylight Saving Time (otherwise known as this), but during Ramadan, switches back to normal time to make it easier on people who are fasting. Since Ramadan is over, DST comes back, we lose an hour (making the time difference back home 10 hours instead of 9), and then we wait a few weeks, and then go off DST like normal. Understand? Now try catching the bus or making it to class on time.
My next vlog will be written in Luxor or Aswan tomorrow, but won't get posted here until Monday because I've decided to leave my computer here where it's safe.
Here's a youtube video I've been watching a lot lately, Ben Folds performing one of my favorite Dresden Dolls songs: