Safely in the US

No passport issues, no flight delays, no problem with visas. Happily in Chicago at my friends' house. Love you all very much - it's been a fantastic summer!

That's All, Folks!

I will pack tonight, stay the night at Sarah's in downtown, and we'll share a taxi to the airport together. And that will be the end of my time in Egypt - for now! I still have much more I want to see and most definitely plan on returning to see all of her beauty.

I will be home soon, at which point I will show all of you many, many, many pictures (I keep trying to upload more pics and videos from the cruise, but Blogger is not cooperating). I love you all very much. It's been a fantastic summer. I have grown more than I expected and learned things I wasn't planning to.

La vie est belle!

Peace be with you, Egypt!
السلام عليكم ، مصر

Back on Campus

Saturday morning I went out snorkeling after trying to figure out how to get back home. Buses were full until late that evening. And once I got back to Cairo, I still had to try and get to campus. I had no problem paying for a cab, but they are notoriously terrible about knowing where the new campus actually is and I did not want to deal with the stress of trying to get there.
So I went snorkeling. I found a lot of really, really cool reefs and went out really far. As a result, I was out for four hours...oops. Sorry, friends.
I got back, and the friend from class I'd been trying to call had finally responded to the text. If I left immediately, I might make their private bus to get back to Cairo. So I packed in five seconds and got into a taxi, barely saying good-bye to my buds. When I reached the hotel the bus was leaving from, turns out the bus was, of course, late. I had accidentally walked away with a bunch of Kim's money. So Tim came out to the hotel and got Kim's money and we actually managed to say good-bye. I called Kim and Kenny and wished the adieu.

The bus ride was without mishap. Sarah (friend from class) had a Egyptian friend on the bus who lives in Rehab. He drove me to Rehab (much closer to campus than downtown Cairo) and got me in a private car that knew exactly where campus was. I don't know I've ever traveled in Egypt so free of stress on my own. It was really nice, given the lateness of the hour.

The Glory of Aswan

Temple of the Two Gods


Valley of the Kings

Temple of Hatshepsut

The Two Obelisks of Memnon

Dahab

It is absolute gorgeous here. We went to the beach and floated in the sea for a while. The town is heavenly and still very much Egyptian. (Sharm el-Sheik was incredibly modern and felt much more a resort than a visit to my favorite country.) Local children are playing on the beaches. It's down season for tourists, so we aren't seeing white folks everywhere. I love the feeling.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

We had quite the adventure getting to Dahab. The 5 o'clock Wednesday bus we were planning to take was completely full when we got to the station. We managed to get seats on the 1 am bus Thursday. That meant we had several hours in Cairo...and we had all of our luggage. We left a bit of stuff at the station (which they weren't supposed to do), but couldn't have done a lot of crazy tourism stuff. So we headed to City Stars, had a good dinner at Wagamama, and saw "Harry Potter." It was phenomenal. I think it may be my favorite of the movies. Which is funny, given it's one of my less favorite books.

Rehab

Rehab is an upper-class neighborhood close to campus. Went there for the first time last night for one last dinner in Cairo with the gang.