We kept our same group, with a few less people, and discussed schooling systems in both Egypt and America, talked about health care in Egypt, and then, the most uncomfortable thing we've could've possibly discussed, affirmative action. Because of present company [not the Egyptians, one of the American students], a few of us who were talking about it later on shared the same feeling that we didn't really express our true feelings about affirmative action. I know none of us are truly dead-set against it, but we know it's a severely flawed system, and that a lot of people [my dad, included] have suffered because of it. I would've spoken more openly about it, but I knew one person would not accept my opinion and probably try to beat me up for it. But it's not a big deal. I said my piece, and let everyone know how I essentially feel about it, and that's all I can do. At right about that point, we were summoned for a rooftop dinner provided by the Fulbright people, and it was really cute the way it was set up for us.
The roof was pretty low, so we had a sweet view of the apartment buildings around us, but the food was good and the conversation was nice. Shady and I got to talking about music, since we were talking about our fields of study [which seems to happen more often here than anywhere else]. I got a reaction to my being a violinist that I've never heard before: I told him how I've been playing for over 14 years now, and he just said "That is soooooooooo... hot." I was a little taken aback by it at first, since I usually just get the "wow" or the "that's so nerdy" reactions, but then I just laughed because it really is kind of funny. He told me about the kinds of drums he plays and he was generally pretty gushy about how much he loves the sound of a solo violin. It was nice to talk about that. I miss my violin something fierce, and as much as I would give to have it here with me and to be able to play it, even just talking about it helps a little bit.
Everyone decided that a Felucca ride was in order, so people jumped in vans and whichever cars were available [I ended up riding with Shady, his friend Adam, Grace and Asha] to go to the same felucca place we went to at the beginning of the trip.
Our boat had a traditional Egyptian drum and two pairs of castanets, and it was a party. We sang some Egyptian folk songs, some American/British pop songs, took lots of pictures and generally had an amazing time. We stayed out on the river for about an hour and a half, and by the end, any people who didn't know each other were talking and laughing like old friends would. 
I guess there's no better way to bring people together than to stick them all on a boat with some music and dancing, and send them out to When we got off the felucca and were trying to figure out something fun to do for a while, Shady suggested that we go horseback riding back to the Pyramids. At this point, I'm hopping on any opportunity that seems like it most likely won't come up again, and I've hung out with Shady before, so I had no problem saying okay to that plan. We dropped a few people off and set out for Giza. We got stuck in some hardcore Cairo traffic, even though it was after 11pm. We were shocked by it, but Shady and Adam were just like, "hey, it's Cairo". It was not a bad ride though. The boys bought us strands of Jasmine flowers from an old man selling them on the street. I think they really just wanted to cover up some other smells in the car, but they smelled amazing, and my bag still smells like it today. I got a whiff of it in class and it relaxed me to the point where I almost fell asleep [since I was already half-asleep anyway].
We drove to a stable down almost to the end of the row and waited for a bit to get the horses ready. As soon as some of other girls saw the horses, and how big they actually are, they started getting nervous, which was a mistake in itself. A couple had never been on a horse before, and the few tips they got from those who have they totally did the exact opposite. I don't ride horses all that often, and I definitely wouldn't call myself anything close to an equestrian, but one of the basic pieces of knowledge to have when riding a horse is that if you get nervous, the horse will know whether you express it or not. So, that was mistake number one. As soon as they were up on the horses, and we started walking toward the entrance to the desert [that sounds weird, but I don't know what else to call it], it was a whine-fest. The general population was fine, but one or two girls were not happy and just couldn't see that the horse wouldn't freak out if they weren't freaking out. The whole walk [which only lasted about ten minutes], we all had to listen to "I don't like this" or "I want to get off" or "this horse doesn't like me", and to be totally honest, it was pretty annoying. One of the horses kind of reared its head back and the girl on its back screamed, and everything pretty much unraveled from there. People were jumping off their horses and refusing to go any further, so about halfway to the pyramids, we had to turn and go back to the stable.
I know that at least Shady, Adam, another girl and I were really bummed because as stubborn as my horse was, I was fine and we wanted to keep going. I didn't say anything to the people who wanted to go back because they were already whining enough already, and I was getting pretty cold, anyway. Shady ended up walking with everyone except for me, girl #1 and Adam, who went ahead and rode our horses back to the stable, mostly because my horse refused to stop walking, but we got back a good 20 minutes before everyone else. We waited for everyone to come back, and Shady drove a bunch of people to civilization to grab a taxi, and a few of us waited back for him to drive us home. It was obvious he was a little bummed. He played it off as if he was disappointed about the horses freaking out, but I saw through that. By the time we got out of Giza and back into Cairo, it was after 2am, and I still had Arabic homework to do. I ended up falling into bed around 3am, and sleeping straight through until April's alarm went off at 7am. I need to stop staying out so late on school nights. It's going to catch up with me pretty soon.
Overall, it was a really great night, and I'm glad I got to know Shady better because he seems like a really cool guy. Now that we're starting to meet all these Egyptians and get closer to them and spend a lot of time with them, I'm just thinking about what happens when we go back to the states, and we don't get to see them again. One thing I'm really bad at is goodbyes, and I know we've only known these people for maybe two weeks, if that at all, but in those two weeks, I've had some of the best, most adventurous times of my life, and it's going to suck to have to leave that. I'm glad we still have at least a few more weeks, though.
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