Meine Damen und Herren

(If you correct my German, oh well.)

Well, I'm here. Here being Cairo, Egypt. The muezzin called sunset prayer a few minutes ago. It's 5:40 pm, my body isn't quite sure what to think still. I, myself, am even less sure.

Saturday morning I got up extra early and went down to GU. Met up with Lizzie and Lindsey, had coffee and hung out, then went to work out one last time with the Tri Team. It was definitely worth it. I missed them over the 4 weeks that was break. I'll miss them more over these 5 months. They're motivation in the extreme. To the point that I watered some early daffodils with puke. Showered and drove to Dulles. Parents and Suzanne were there, said goodbye (Suzanne and I shared a Cinnabon, for obvious reasons).

The flight out wasn't too bad. I met three other people going to Cairo who were on my flight. The in-flight movie was Neverwas....I slept instead. Food wasn't great, but certainly do-able.

Made it to Frankfurt around 630 local time (something like 0030 home time), then hung out for another two hours to board the flight on Lufthansa. There were about 20 of us on that flight, including a guy from Georgetown. Lufthansa was definitely more cramped than United Airlines, but I tried to sleep nonetheless. Unfortunately my seat partner was a well-intentioned but nosy German named Freidrich. No in-flight movie. Apparently the Germans don't approve of such frivolous pursuits. Freidrich hindered my sleep. This flight was, however, better than UA because I had a window seat. The Alps. Wow. Absolutely amazing. Greece wasn't bad either, and I saw the pyramids on our approach.

I was greeted by the smiling and alluring face of one Nancy Ajram, who wanted me to buy "Coca Cola....wa bass!" (Coca-Cola...or nothing!). Lizzie, I thought you'd appreciate.

Customs was mostly a breeze. The two young men who examined my passport seemed less interested in my passport and more interested in making crude comments in a language they didn't think I speak. I don't, mind you, speak Arabic well, but I know enough to know what you're saying. Got luggage, got a cart that was about 30 years old and drove like it, and made the trek with the other AUCians to the buses. Then the classic "hurry up and wait." For about an hour on the buses with our luggage. Sweet. Drove from the airport to the dorms, which used to be a hotel. Saw some familiar stores. Including a Timberland store. So I can keep it real and such.

Smoking here is the national pastime (don't let anyone tell you it's football), so I'll probably get lung cancer within a month. It was funny to see the American kids who are so unused to smoking inside light up in the lobby and think they were some hot stuff.

I'm in a triple. I signed up for a double but oh well. I probably won't die. But they put me in the corner so the internet jack is all the way across the room and I can't reach it from my desk. We'll have to look into (a) longer cord (b) room restructuring or (c) learning to love typing on my bed.

Now I have to figure out fun little details like the fact that all I have is American dollars (and very few of those!) and travelers' checks (a lot of those). Dorms are strictly segregated by gender. I want to see someone try to break the rules. Won't be me but I want to see what will happen.

So far I haven't insulted anyone. Will try to keep that up.