Did we just get kidnapped?

Yesterday morning, we moved back into Flamenco. I finally got a room not on one of the top two floors and instead ended up in a huge Junior Suite with Joyce on the fifth floor. It was pretty sweet. My first objective was laundry. I desperately needed to clean some of my clothes after Siwa and before Abu Dhabi, since we were supposed to look nice through the whole few days. I did that really quickly, in our bathtub, before Syonara was supposed to stop by Flamenco for a quick goodbye. All we had had planned was that she come by the hotel, have a few minutes together, maybe even grab some dinner nearby. She called us when she was down in the lobby and the next we knew, we were sitting in her dining room eating Molokhia and asking each other what happened and how we got there. Her husband actually spoke to us this time, even the five words he did say. The last time we were at her house, for the kids' birthday party, we barely saw him because there were so many unveiled women in the living room and he's very religious. He seemed nice enough. The food. Oh, the food. Definitely interesting. It's this green, leafy, kind-of-slimy vegetable in a broth eaten with bread. It's what I imagine the Egyptian version of collard greens would be. It wasn't bad. I ate most of it, but started to feel a little uneasy towards the end of the bowl. The consistency just isn't something I'm used to, and it didn't really sit well. After we finished eating, we went to sit in the sun room and help Syonara put the pictures of her kids that we had printed in their photo albums, and that turned into her showing us their baby albums and then her wedding album. She looked absolutely gorgeous in her wedding. One thing that I think we all felt a little weird about was when she showed us a picture of the bride's father and the groom's father, and we were all like, oh, they look alike, and then we realized oh yea, it's because they're BROTHERS. Her husband being her first cousin is a little strange, but is acceptable in that culture, so c'est la vie.My favorite thing about going to Syonara's house is playing with Balkheis and Soliman. They're absolutely adorable and have SO much energy. We spent a good 45 minutes playing with them, and chasing them around, giving Syonara and Russell a break, and it was so much fun. When we were looking at the pictures, Balkheis climbed up onto the couch and plopped herself in my lap, and it was pretty cute. I'm glad they started to feel comfortable with us because the last time we were over, they didn't really know what to do with us.

When we finally escaped back to Zamalek, we met up with Bridget and went over by AUC to find fake soccer jerseys. Somehow we found this palce around the corner and down the block and through the whopper layer and ended up buying a few Zamalek jerseys and some L'EgpytiOn [spelled wrong because they're not real] jerseys for various friends and family members, and headed back to Flamenco. We split into our respective rooms and decided to meet back up later to go to Vivant. By the time Joyce and I finally got there, the table was completely packed, and we somehow managed to squeeze in a couple of chairs. I'm definitely going to miss asiir limun wi shisha n3e'na when we get back to America. If I try to order lemon juice anywhere, they'll probably just squeeze some lemons and that'd be gross. It took forever to get our order, and everyone started leaving. Pat, Oscar, Ted, Mohammed, Hussein and Joyce and I were the only ones left. When we went to leave, Joyce and I just wanted to go back to the hotel, but that small group of Egyptians [Mohammed, Adam, and their friend I had never seen before] are not really good people. They tried really hard to convince us to go out for a drink with them, almost to the point where it seemed like they had dishonorable intentions. We all knew Mohamammed had tried things before, and it seemed like this time wouldn't be any different. Joyce and I steered absolutely clear of them, and pretty much ran back to Flamenco, and even Ted apologized for him later on. When we got back, there was a Family Guy party up in Sonja and April's room, so I joined in on that. It was cool to just sit and relax, and pretty much fall asleep before Sherio and Omar came to Flamenco to hang out and say a second goodbye before we leave for Abu Dhabi. By the time they did get to Flamenco, Ted had said they weren't letting visitors in, especially two guys with a bunch of girls, and it was a little late to go anywhere, so we walked over to Coffee Bean, and sat in the comfy chairs upstairs for a little while - probably the calmest night so far. We had another 20 minutes of goodbyes even though we'll be back in a week and finally made it up to our rooms. I'll miss those guys when we're back in the states. They're so much fun, even when we're just sitting and talking.