I can't believe our time in Cairo is gone.

Since we had our final yesterday, we asked Syonara to show us some nice shops on Zamalek that we could finish up some gift-shopping at. We planned to meet at 10 in the lobby of Flamenco, and at 9:45am, I got a call from Joyce saying that Syonara was already there waiting. I finished up getting ready and met her down there to bring her up to breakfast. When the guy asked her what room she was is, she said something in Arabic that I didn't recognize as any kind of number, but he let her in, so we sat down and I ate and she had coffee and after a little bit, we were joined by Joyce, April and the rest of the class. Bridget stayed in because her stomach was acting up and we weren't really doing anything that important worth risking anything. We ended up waiting for Professor Sullivan for something, and I went back up to the room to put the pictures from the birthday parties on a flash drive so we could take her to the Kodak store and have them printed. We ended up leaving around 11am and the first place we went was right around the corner from Flamenco. It was this big, red building named And Company Inc.. They had all kinds of towels and Egyptian Cotton sheets and jewelry and books and clothes, but everything was pretty expensive. One set of sheets was 700LE [roughly $140]. They're nice, but I definitely don't have that kind of bread to spend on one set of sheets. I bought a pair of really pretty earrings for Jess, since I couldn't decide what to get her before, and they just kind of jumped out at me. We wandered around there for a good 45 minutes, and then walked down the street Flamenco is on farther than I had walked down that street to another shop with no sign or name. Go figure. This was the natural body-products shop that Syonara was telling Rebecca about. The shop was fairly small, but the walls were lined with all kinds of soaps and sea salts and essences. I wasn't really feeling it, so I took a seat near the door, and waited another 45-ish minutes for people to finish their shopping and we left the shop in the opposite direction of the hotel. We took the next corner and headed back in the right direction along the Nile. They decided to have lunch at McDonald's but my stomach was unhappy, so I wet back to the hotel for a little bit.

I ended up down in Bridget and Diana's room because I had wanted to talk to Bridget about a little problem that had transpired the night before, but it turns out that it was just a misunderstanding rooted in things being said that shouldn't have been, etc.. It's all cleared up now, but it was a step in the right direction for me to even confront Bridget and asking her if we could talk about it. Not too long ago I would've just let the issue lie until it either blew over or the other person brought it up. By the time we were done talking, Bridget had to leave for service at St. Andrew's, so it was just me and Diana, and we decided a nap was in order. I don't usually nap, and this day was no different, so I just laid with my eyes closed for a while, and it was very refreshing. I semi-watched whatever movie was on the American movie channel and dozed. When I really started to wake up and move around, Bridget was back, and then Diana woke up too. We decided to eat yet another dinner at Vivant. A few of us went over there and ate a quick dinner with some shisha. Bridget wasn't feeling very well, so we went back to Flamenco to hang out for a bit. Diana and I went over to Ted's room to check out the happenings. We hung out for a little, played some Pharaohs, and then some people suggested going to a club. I was definitely not down for that, so I suggested Versailles, and a group of us headed over there instead.

We ended up there for a while, so of course Ziko and Omar ended up there as well, and we had a bunch of tables pushed together as per our usual. We hung out and talked for a couple of hours before Omar had to leave, and the rest of us decided we were hungry. Hanging out around Omar long enough, your body gets accustomed to fourth meal, sometime between 1 and 2am. Five of us piled into his car and headed for Route 66. It was Joyce's first time there, and she got one of the biggest burgers and as soon as she got a whiff of the beef, she knew she wasn't in Kansas anymore. The beef here isn't genetically altered like it is in the States, so it has a distinctly different flavor to it. It's a bit salty and generally tastes weird, but I guess eating that much of it makes it seem worse. She was so hungry that despite her adverse reaction to each bite, she persevered and ate the whole thing, while the rest of us got some enjoyment out of her facial expressions. Around 3am we were all dead tired, so Ziko took us home to crash. It's funny how I've been referring to Flamenco as home, and never realized it until now, but that's what it became in the past month and a half that we've been living there. All the staff has gotten to know us, and it's nice to come back at night to a familiar face at the metal detector and at the front desk, where you don't even have to say your room number because they already have your key ready. It does kind of feel like home, in a way.

Friday morning, we didn't have class or anything, so we finally got to sleep in. Since my body hates to let me sleep at any time of day, let alone when it's bright out, I woke up around 9:45am. It's still nicer than waking up at 7:45am for class, so I wasn't complaining. We lounged around the hotel for a bit before Bridget, Diana, April and I went for a walk to find a souvenir shop that Ruthie had suggested. She said they had a few things from the knitting workshop from our service-learning project in Muquttam. We eventually found it, along with another little shop where I got a big skerub for Dennis and some bracelets for Diana. I'm almost done with shopping at this point, but I still need to find something for Brandon. I was thinking of getting him a soccer jersey, but I have a feeling whatever I get him, he's just going to hand right back to me. Anyway, we spent a few hours walking around Zamalek and ended up at Vivant again that night for dinner and shisha. I think that might've been the worst time at Vivant that any of us had experienced because we had to baby-sit two intoxicated people who, in their drunkenness, had forgotten where they were and completely forgot what was culturally acceptable and not. After a while, we gave up and left, taking them with us. It's frustrating to have to deal with that sometimes, but I'm glad we were there with them to keep an eye out and stop things when they got too far.

After that, Bridget, April and I went over to Longchamps to visit Grace and it turned into a cuddlefest. It was how Egypt was "supposed" to be, I think. We talked for a while about our lives, and Grace had a short vent-session and we called Andrew and decided to go to Versailles. Again. Even though we go there maybe 3 or 4 times a week, I haven’t gotten tired of it. I love the atmosphere there and the shisha is good, so no complaints aside from the recent decline in the already not-so-great service. We chose the table next to the fountain, which resulted in some new bug bites. Some time later, Shady showed up and then Omar and Ziko followed and we ended up pulling up still more tables. Maybe that's why we get such bad service there - every time we go, we rearrange half of the seating. Around 1am, Omar was hungry for Sushi, so we split into his and Ziko's cars and rode out to Makani, and there ended up being like, eight of us. We got there as the place was starting to close, but being with Omar, he wouldn't take no for an answer, and we ended up sitting down. He and Drew ordered the MOST sushi for as late as it was, but like I’ve said, we’re used to eating at that time now. We talked for an hour or so, and then went home. I’m definitely going to miss going out all together and ending up in some random places talking and laughing and having fun, and, of course, eating.

Yesterday morning was another time to sleep late. This time, instead of getting up and out of bed as soon as I was up, I lazed around until around almost 2pm and then decided to get dressed and do something with my life. A few of us wanted to get soccer jerseys, so Omar picked us up in the Mitsubishi, which I had never seen - sometime between 4 and 5pm to take us to a few places he knew to get them. The first place we went was, I think, an Ahly Club store. I think. Everything was red. The entire store. They had polos and t-shirts, but no jerseys, and everything was mad spens, so we all passed and left that shop in about a minute and a half. The theme of the day was “Things We Can’t Afford”. At the Adidas store, we all got out and looked around at the 190LE t-shirts and the boys bought shirts, but me, Bridget and Diana weren’t up for it. The next two places – I think they were Puma and Diadora – we stayed in the car and waited while Andrew and Pat looked around. Since none of us really wanted to shell out that much bread for the real thing, Omar asked about fake jerseys, and there turned out to be a shop nearby, so we went there last, but, alas, they had NO Egyptian jerseys. That was odd. We left there, and Omar said he had to go get his car washed and then had a dinner date with his mom, so before we knew it, we were back in front of Flamenco.

Now, all I’ve wanted to do while in Cairo is go to the Opera House and see the CSO perform. Well, last night, they performed. While Omar was driving us home, Ruthie called me and wanted to know about the Symphony and where/when/what they were performing so she could plan to come with me, along with Sonja and Joyce. I got really pumped up for this, because I was afraid that no one would want to go with me and I wouldn’t be able to go. I didn’t have much information about the performance at that specific time, but I promised I would call back when I did. As soon as I got back to the hotel, I searched for a good 20 minutes before I could find which hall the performance was in, along with the time and the program, since Yallabina sucks and couldn’t give me ANY of that information. Once I knew that, I got a number for the House at the front desk and called to find out about ticket prices. I got to practice a little bit of my Arabic by asking if the woman who answered the phone spoke English and when she said yes, I asked about ticket prices for the Main Hall. The best seats? 75LE. That’s like, $15. I think I had a minor stroke out of excitement, since I was expecting over 100LE, and there were tickets down to 15LE. Ruthie wasn’t answering her phone, so I called Joyce to let her know the deal. It seemed as if everyone was down for it. A little bit later, they called me to come to dinner with them, and I figured that would mean we would go to dinner and then to the Opera House before the doors opened at 8pm for the 9pm start. Boy, was I wrong. Apparently, in the time between when I had spoken with them and when we were getting ready to get dinner, they had all decided they didn’t want to go. I was pretty upset. It would’ve been different if they had told me earlier so I could’ve at least tried to find someone else who wanted to go, but, by then, there was a slim chance that I could find someone without plans to go along. I would’ve gone if we were somewhere else, but I didn’t want to go alone, in a cab, to somewhere I’ve never been, at night, as a girl. It sucked, but I chose being safe rather than potentially sorry.

Sonja, Joyce, Ruthie, Matt and I went and got dinner at Dido’s and ended up running into Karim and Moustafa with Tara, Katherine and Lily, but didn’t sit with them. That place is too tiny for such a big group. We waited a good half an hour for a table, and were all starving by the time we sat down. One of the things I won’t be missing about Cairo, or just Egypt in general, is crappy service. It took way too long for us to order some pretty standard dishes, and Joyce ordered plain bread, which she asked for three times, and it never came. We were there for a while and April texted me to say she’d go to the Symphony with me, but by then it was too late and we wouldn’t have made it there on time. The food was okay, and it was some nice quality time with people I spent a little less time with than the ones I usually do.

We got back to Flamenco and decided to go over to Khan El Khalili and get some shisha and hang out at El Fish Awy. We split into two cabs, and, of course, since I was already feeling a little uneasy in my stomach, I got in the cab that weaved in and out of traffic and had bad tires and was just generally really motion-sickness-inducing. I wasn’t feeling so great when we got out. I had never really gone to the khan before, so this was a new experience, and this souk was much more intense than the one we went to in Aswan. It was livelier and busier and dirtier, and there was generally just a lot more going on, even as close to eleven ‘o’clock at night as it was. We got in and met up with the rest of our group, eight, altogether, and fixed up a big table in the back. As soon as we got in, we were swarmed by people trying to sell us various trinkets and toys, and even a little electronic keyboard, despite the venue seeming like one frequented by more Egyptians than hawagga. The first thing I noticed, aside from the patrons, was the fact that it was ridiculously hot inside. Already feeling shitty and being in a hot, café full of shisha smoke kind of sucked. A bunch of people got henna tattoos, and I thought about it, but decided against it once I realized that it might not come off before I have to go home and start working for the Republican Legislator boss man at home. I don’t think that would’ve gone over very well.


Of course, after we’d been there for maybe half an hour, more people came and joined us, and eventually we were moved into a different, private, room so we wouldn’t be blocking the paths within the café. We ended up playing spin-the-bottle-truth-or-dare, which just became dare or dare when everyone kept picking truth and it got boring. We had Joyce serenading the whole place with some Celine, since we know they love her here, Diana giving an aerobics lesson, Mohammed spilling water on his pants so it looked like he peed, and some other classics. It was a pretty good time. Once we realized it was 2am, we started saying that we should leave, and by 3, we were gone. Three cars sufficed, and we all made it back around the same time.

Today was our last day in Cairo, for the first round of leaving and coming back. April and I spent the morning fighting with the internet and getting the last of our stuff packed before we have to check out of Flamenco tomorrow morning. At 3:30pm, we packed into the buses for our last dinner at Abduh and Hayaam’s. That’s another thing on my list of things I’ll miss about Egypt; Abduh’s presence in general, but partially the massive feasts that we had. After eating, we were supposed to have debrief the trip, since the Engineers are leaving tomorrow. I was really disappointed in our debrief, to be totally honest. What I was expecting, or hoping for, really, was for everyone to get a chance to say something they really loved about the trip, and something they really thought should change, along with one suggestion for future improvement. I know it would’ve taken a little bit of time, but it would be more effective than what we did. Not even half of the group spoke. It was less than 15 minutes of maybe three or four people talking, and that was it. I’m sorry, but that is NOT what a debrief is or should be for something like this. There has been too much that we’ve experienced for it to be that concise. After that, we were supposed to go to Al Azhar park, but it was getting late, so we had the option of going to the park or going back to Flamenco. I opted for Flamenco, just so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting all my things together later that night or in the morning. It’s weird to see all my stuff packed up into my suitcase when it has been strewn about the room for the past five or six weeks.

Once everyone came back and naps were taken and belongings were packed, a bunch of people headed over to Versailles. April and I were supposed to meet them there, but once April heard about the cover charge of 25LE to get in because of the Euro2008 game that was on, she ditched, and I got to walk over there by myself. That was pretty sweet, except totally not. I was fine until I got to the Hardee’s near Longchamps. That’s where troupes of guys hang out, trolling for people to harass, and lucky me, I was a foreign girl, out at night, by myself [read: easy target]. It was the first time I was harassed and had men try to grab at me. The verbal things I can deal with, but I never had to actually try to fend off men trying to touch me. That I was not okay with. Once I got there, everyone just kept saying that I should’ve called someone to meet me or do something besides just yell and walk away, but I couldn’t exactly stop or stand and wait for someone, so I just kept going. I got there, and ended up going in the wrong entrance because I couldn’t get upstairs from where we usually go in, so I had to get my money back and re-buy a ticket to go upstairs. Being inside, I really got the “palace” feeling of Versailles Palace. It doesn’t exactly come across on the outside, but the inside is gorgeous. It was the usual crowd and we did our usual growing over time until there were more chairs in our section than the rest of the café. Omar and Ziko were there, along with Lyna and even Cynthia joined us for a while. It was a really nice way to spend our last night of the Dialogue. The engineers came out when we were getting ready to leave and we all said goodbye to them. I remember seeing them in Mary’s Arabic class a couple of months ago and not knowing anything about them to being sad that they have to leave.

We decided to get something to eat, so we took Sherio’s and Omar’s cars first to pick up April from Flamenco, and then to Route 66. Sonja and I shared some fries and the guys got massive burgers and joked about the poor cat with the stiff leg and what the guys are going to do with their lives when we’re not around to entertain them and it was funny when they couldn’t answer. I don’t know what they did at night before we started hanging out every night, but they’re going to have to figure it out when we leave.

We all knew it was going to be goodbyes when we finally got back to Flamenco, so we stalled as much as possible, just so we wouldn’t have to do it. It was probably our last good chance to get a video of Omar’s driving, so April handed me her camera in the front seat, and the whole 25-minute ride back from Route 66 in Ma’adi, I took a video of the road and Omar and all of us singing some Shania Twain along with the radio. It’s classic. We got back, and stood outside Flamenco for probably close to another hour [minus Sherio because Ziko dropped him off on the way back :(] talking and making sad faces and hugging and pinky-promising that Omar is coming to the States in April and various other things. Even though we’re only going to be in Siwa and Marsa Matruh for four days, it’s still sad. We’ve grown so attached to each other over these past few weeks that saying goodbye and not knowing whether or not we’re going to see each other again is really shitty. As much as I love Cairo as a city and a place that I see myself in, part of my love for it is in the people that I’ve met and grown close to and the comfort that I find in company here. It’s all part of the same sphere. We started trickling back into the hotel, and soon it was just Bridget, Sonja, Ziko, Omar and me, and we had a nice group hug, in which I got lost in the middle somewhere, and then more general stalling. The worst part is, it wasn’t even the final goodbye. I loathe to think of what’s going to happen on the 19th when we’re leaving to go back to the states and won’t be coming back to Cairo in a few days.

Tomorrow morning, we’re leaving bright and early for Marsa Matruh, and I’m looking forward to time on the beach and a summer vacation preview, finally.