It's more of a "yulla" than a "yaaahhhlla".

I can't believe it's June 1st already.

Today was probably the nicest day I've had so far. I keep saying that since we've had so many amazing days, and every one seems better than the previous, but today is really among the best.

After last night, getting back at 3am and going to bed at 4am, sleeping until noon was glorious. I prefer waking up because my body says it's time to do something to waking up to an alarm. I got up, moseyed around the room for a little bit and got ready to leave at 1:30pm. At that time, Omar picked us up for some horseback riding [my third time in the past 8 days]. There were 8 of us, plus him, so me, April, Drew and Andrew got into a cab for the ride there.

Instead of going to a stable, we pulled down this extremely narrow alleyway, and got out of the cab. The gate opened, and Omar pulled his BMW - probably the sweetest car I've ever ridden in, by the way - into a sort of parking area next to what looked like an apartment building. His car was parked between 3 other BMWs and a Benz, with a couple of other nice cars on the other side and a cow tied to the pole. An interesting sight. We waited around in the shade just chatting, waiting for Omar's friend who lived there - apparently the building is his house - to come back. Once he did get back, we piled into his SUV and drove to the same stable we went to on the first day, and we all hopped onto horses with no problems. We took the same route we've taken quite a few times, and as soon as we hit open desert, down goes Ruthie. Her saddle wasn't tight enough, so as it slid down, she hopped off. Luckily, we were still at a pretty slow and steady pace, so she was totally fine. She got up laughing and hopped right back on the horse once they tightened everything up and made sure it wouldn't happen again.

Just as Ruthie was getting back on, the funniest thing happened. Both Andrew and Sonja's horses decided to sit down and have a roll in the sand. It was funny to see them just lay down, and the looks on their riders' faces. Sonja dismounted in time, but Andrew went down under his horse, but he's okay too. We have no idea what made them do it, but Bridget and Joyce and I stood off to the side with Karim [Omar's friend]. I don't know what happened, but Karim's horse had a little tantrum and startled our horses, but nothing else happened, so we kept on going. We got over the smaller hills that lead into the flatter part of the general way we go, and Karim and one of the guys who works at the stable were like, "everybody okay? Ready? Let's GO!" and all the horses started running together. Some people didn't feel comfortable and slowed down, but I LOVED it. It felt so liberating to be riding a horse in the sunshine with no restraints. I realized that if I keep a grip on the reigns and the saddle with my right hand, and use my left arm to balance myself, I could keep much better balance and post better. It's so much easier to ride the horses in a full gallop than when they're trotting. It's much smoother, and it's easier to keep balance and get into the rhythm. I never felt like I was going to fall off, or lose my balance or anything of the sort. I was just totally relaxed.

We rode like that for a little bit, and then walked the rest of the way up the hill to the plateau. We got off our horses, and the guys got us some drinks, and we sat down and talked for a while. After about half an hour up there, we were ready to go back, and I managed to figure out which horse was mine, but I guess when I got off of it the first time, the saddle shifted a bit to the right, so it was rubbing my thighs in a weird way that hurt a little more. It was also harder to balance when the horses started galloping. I didn't even care. I had an amazing time. We got back to the stable and piled back into the car to go to the Bazaar that Karim's family owns. I got a huge Khunum statue for my dad and a cartouche for Marcolena and because I'm a friend of a friend of Karim's I got a 25% discount on the statue which ended up being 160LE and a 10% discount on the cartouche, which ended up being 90LE. Not bad for two valuable gifts for two valuable people in my life.

I think we were in the bazaar for about an hour because by the time we were ready to go eat, it was almost 6pm. Omar took us to a seafood restaurant managed by of a friend of his and Karim's. We sat at a table upstairs on a balcony, with a full-on view of the pyramids, in all their glory. The waiters proceeded to lay out the biggest spread of food I've EVER SEEN. There were like, 4 plates of delicious seasoned tomatoes and various other foods to pick at, along with plenty of bread with tahina and babaganough and other dipping dishes that I didn't recognize, and everything was delicious. First they served us a seafood soup, with two things of shisha and after the soup came three plates of fried calamari, two plates with five whole fish on each and then they served us the biggest shrimp even. I think the biggest challenge was finding room on the table to keep putting stuff down, since there was just SO MUCH. It was probably the most delicious seafood meal, and the best part? $13. The soup alone would probably cost that much in the States. I love this country.

We were all starting to feel the effect of being in the sun all day, and how tired our bodies are, so we piled back into Karim's car - me in between him and Omar in the front seat with them singing - and headed back to the beemer. The people who took a cab rode with Omar. The others snagged a yellow cab. We hit hardcore traffic on the way back to Zamalek, so we didn't get back until after 8pm.

With the prospect of yet another night out, April and I both showered and threw some clothes into the tub to be washed. We met in the lobby at around 9:45pm and headed back to Versailles Palace, where we've been more and more frequent visitors as of late. We started with a group of 7 and ended up closer to 15. We just hung out and talked and enjoyed the atmosphere. Omar came a little later with his computer to "study", since he has his last final tomorrow morning but I doubt he got any studying done. We stayed until about 1am, and when everyone else left, he, Bridget, Sonja and I went and got sushi. I'd never had sushi, so Sonja suggested I try a shrimp Maki roll, and it was sooooo good. We talked about Omar coming to visit the US and whether or not our lifestyles are different over there, and got onto the topic of first impressions, which is always fun. Omar said he thought Americans would be just drunk and partying all the time, which we're obviously not. It was funny, when he started telling about his first impression of me he just kept saying how I'm just so cute and that I seemed like I could never be mean [which is partially true] and things like that. I thought it was pretty funny, but very nice.

We all shared some Tiramisu and talked some more, and Omar had us back to the hotel by 2am, which we haven't done in a while. Every time we stay out all night, I think about how he probably still has classes or exams five days a week, and then about how I could never do that. When I have an exam or a class, it's bed time around 9 hours before I have to get up - not bed at 3am, final at 8am.Hopefully he does really well, because if not, I'll feel bad for keeping him out.

Tomorrow night [which is really tonight at this point], Omar wants us to go to dinner at Sequoia to celebrate his being done, so we're going to get all dolled up and go eat an expensive dinner. I probably should start trying to save more money now, since I only have about $120 left, but I don't want to stay home and not go out because of it. I guess at this point, I just keep telling myself that you can't take it with you, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to come back to Egypt and meet people like Omar again, despite how much I want to, so I'm going to enjoy my time here now, and I'll worry about the money when I start going to work again in a few weeks.