1st Sightseeing Day!

Itinerary:
-Citadel
-Al Rifa'i Mosque
-Al Azhar Park

view from the Citadel

Allah

Kareem wishing he'd worn some socks...

Awwww I love his smile :)

Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Military Museum

Look at the label: modest, much?

Kareem, Louise, and Ahmed

The sign says, "Don't Touch."

the guy closest to the camera is missing his head, its floating next to the boat infront of him...

Al Rifa'i Mosque

Louise and I went with Ahmed and Kareem.  I loved it, so, shukranshukranshukran you guys! :)  The view from the Citadel was great and the outside of the mosque was really cool, well it was covered in dust and sand, but it just reminded me that I was in the middle east, where dust and sand are impossible to get rid of, which made it seem like something out of Prince of Persia instead of my own life :)  Inside the Citadel, we also visited the Military Museum that went all the way from Pharonic times to Modern times.  Ahmed and Kareem got in for two pounds, while Louise and I had to pay 25 each haha oh well.  Afterwards, we went to Al Rifa'i mosque, and the boys got in free :) We only payed 15 this time haha.  It was really beautiful :)  Its hard to capture it in pictures, but I tried my best.  Next, we were headed somewhere, but no one knew the exact way, so we spent a while just wondering through the tiny, winding, dilapadated streets of Old Cairo until we finally found an acctual paved road.  I love Egypt :) Once we found the road, Kareem gave up trying to find the mystery place and we all went and had lunch at Al Azhar park, which was also gorgeous :)  Overall, it was a great day and it wouldn't have been near as much fun alone as it was with my wonderful friends.  It definetly beat staying at home alone!

That Time of Year...

my guy's in the red sweater and santa hat :)

Amr doing facepainting

Hossam doing facepainting

stuffing!

Lalli making guacamole

Adam's duck

Adam with his friend

First course and Adam dressed as Santa

The final product

Course numero dos! and Louise

Momo and Adam

Paper snowflakes

Lallis flan

Christmas!  On Thursday my school had a christmas day with all of the classes organizing food sales and face painting, there was a DJ, and football matchs.  Then, on saturday (christmas eve) we went to CityStars and bought food and then had a great time cooking the food at Lalli's house, but we had an even better time eating said food!  Lalli and I thought it was going to be horrible, but it was to die for and probably one of my best Christmas dinners yet!  We had to split it into two courses with a one hour nap inbetween while Adam cooked his duck.  It was an amazing way to make up for missing my friends and family back home during Christmas :)

The Wedding and Arabian Nights

Habiba

Menna, Sharaf, and Habiba

the hallway leading to the reception room, 7elwa awi!

Arabian Nights 'Resort'

Gabriel from Brazil

Lalli and Louise! <3

a little girl dancing on a table :D

Haram, haram (poor thing)

Last weekend was packed full to bursting with my friend Malak's sister's wedding on friday and a school trip to Arabian Nights resort.  The wedding was amazing, it was more like prom than a wedding, though. :)  It started at "8 p.m." which in Egypt is at least 9.  We ate, danced, and there was a procession after the bride and groom of family and friends from another room to the reception room and there were men playing some instruments that looked kindof like an oboe and sounded like bag pipes, I think it was a mizmar, but I don't know for sure.  The bride was Egyptian and the groom was German, and you could tell who was who, because they were all blonde.  We were some of the first people to leave (around 3 a.m.) and I was so surprised that all of the parents and grandparents were still partying!  The musicans played a huge variety of music, from Hotel Californa, Moves Like Jagger, and the Beatles to Lebanese and Egyptian music to I think German (I think that cause there was this song no one recognised and an old blonde guy was going crazy on the dance floor ;)  I decided if I ever marry an Egyptian guy I will have an Egyptian wedding instead of an American one :) Then we had to wake up early the next day and go to the campus to get on the buses to take us to Arabian Nights.  I saw the pyramids again closer and got some much needed sleep on the ride there.  It was pretty run down.  There were poor, underfeed horses and camels and I felt bad so I decided I'd wait to ride a camel until the pyramids.  There were also 4-wheelers, but they were really popular so I didn't get a chance to ride them.  So I just wandered around with my friends, happy to just be out of the house.  There was also a pool, but no one knew so we didn't have our swim suits (not that it mattered much, I wouldn't want to strip down to almost nothing around the guys that were there, it wasn't very classy...)