Week 1

Tomorrow, Saturday, will be a full week here in Egypt. This time last week, I was about to get on a plane for this place.

It really seems like the longest week of my life. Not that it's been miserable, not at all, it's just the amount of focusing that's necessary when trying to learn and use a new language is incredible. Factor in the cultural adjustments, time changes, et cetera, and it equals to a loaded plate. I'm anticipating the next week being a bit quicker than previous, but we'll see.

Next weekend (the weekends here are Friday and Saturday), we go to the Pyramids for 3 days I think. I'm obviously excited about that; it's what I've been looking forward to the most. I've already about maxed out a 2GB sd Card for my camera, and I've only been here a week. I might have to start a memory rationing campaign.

Yesterday, I went to the old castle on the western side of Alexandria, called in Arabic "Qallat Baiy" or something like that. I went with a friend, and a soldier posted at the entrance said it was closed for touring. After some haggling, during which I'm certain my friend told the soldier I wa American and going back home "tomorrow," the soldier said I could have 5 minutes only. What eventually transpired was the soldier asking to get in pictures with me, and he asked if I wanted to climb the real lighthouse used in operation today. I think he was joking with me, or thinking I'd say no, but I said yes anyways. I go to the end of what essentially was a long strip of rocks, and the wind there was incredible; easily 50 mph. I shot a video from the base of lighthouse, which I'll have to wait awhile to post on here due to the slow internet speed.

On my way back, I passed an old fisherman, who started talking to me. He appreciated that I was trying to speak his language, and offered me some form of breaded dessert. I of course had to accept, regardless of the fact my immune system was essentially waving a white flag of surrender towards whatever bacteria might've been on the food. That may sound arrogant, but there are certainly massively different hygene practices between us, so I count myself fortunate not to have been received a call from nature last night.

Speaking of that, it's been a week here with no one getting seriously sick. We're all surprised but still expecting an eventual onslaught of something. Our stomachs feel somewhat upset everyday at some time, but never anything long term. But when nature calls here, you have to answer. Your body doesn't mess around in telling you when there's something rotten in the state of Denmark.

Anyways, yesterday evening and today I spent time with the brother and a friend of a friend of mine back home, who's from Alexandria. We went to San Stefano, which I must say is a very nice area. It's on the far eastern side of the bay, whereas everything I've experienced so far has been on the west. I think I'm going to make it my new hangout spot.

It's weird how whenever I speak English now, my mind kinda has a weirdness to it. Although I of course speak english much better than Arabic, 90% of everything I do now is in Arabic, so when some English takes place, it's a bit out of the norm.

That's all for now; I'll probably post tomorrow, since it's another weekend day. I'm off to watch France and Uruguay play. I apologize if there are any massive grammatical weaknesses in this, as it has not been proofread. Later