Shalom? Salaam Alaykum? Hello.

In Tel-Aviv now, hijacking Wifi from some unsuspecting resident near our hostel. This is why I always will keep my network open: as a public service to weary travelers just looking for a little communication with their far away home. Is that too cheesy?

In any event...

On my birthday we wandered around the Old City of Jerusalem. We saw the Dome on the Rock, the Holy Church of the Sepulchre, the Wailing Wall, and other stuff whose names I don't remember. When it was dark out we snuck into the church on Mount of Olives, climbed said mountain, and then slid down the slippery road. We were wicked hungry at that point and ate at a delicious vegetarian restaurant on Jaffa street in regular Jerusalem (as in: not Old), after which we made our way to the bus station and rode for an hour here, to Tel-Aviv. At the bus station we asked the taxi drivers how much it would be for a taxi and they wanted four times what we ended up paying for the bus. I used my navigator skills and got us to the hostel recommended by the former ski team captain of Chelsea, where we got a room and crashed.

The next morning we rented bikes, with which Chelsea and I went along the beachfront to the southernmost bit of the city. I read a book while she looked for sea glass and napped, after which there was a meeting with Andy and Corina further up north by the marina that we missed. Lunch was at this wonderful natural foods grocery store, as well as some deliciousness from a nearby falafel place. After wandering a bit we found another hostel that was cheaper, more centrally located, and altogether more hostel-y. Back up to the other hostel to get the others, but they weren't there.

We waited around, found out they were there, but in a room, in which Lauren and Andy decided to stay the night. After returning the bikes, Corina, Chelsea, and I walked all the way back here to the better hostel. The worst game of pool ever attempted was then sucked up by Corina and I, and now it is now.

Later tonight it is off to find a piercing place, tomorrow we shall get lunch with Chelsea's friend who couldn't meet up tonight, and then we head back to Jerusalem for the West Bank, Sulafa and Muniir, as well as the Dead Sea (and friends). If you ask real nice, I might even put up some more pictures.

Kul Sinnah Wa Inta Tayib

Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday to me.
Happy Birthday, dear meeeeeee.
Happy Birthday to me.

I'm in Jerusalem now. I'm eating breakfast which consists of: apple slices, jelly on pita bread, cheese, tomatoes, and cucumber. There is some other stuff that I'm not eating? In any event, here comes an update.

I didn't make the play, not even call-backs. I'm happy because that means my weekends next semester won't be taken up by rehearsals, so I'll be able to travel. Also, who needs theatre?

Chelsea and I spent all of Friday working on homework. Well, she spent some of the day annoying me, but that's usual. In any event, we left at 10:15 PM for Taba, which is the town on the border of Israel and Egypt. There was some sleeping, but there is this thing about Egyptian buses where they play a movie on the screens that come from the ceiling, which wouldn't be so bad, except the volume is at its maximum level and they play them all night long. When we arrived in Taba, we fell back asleep, thinking it was another break, so we had to be woken up by the nice bus people, who just kept asking, "Where you go? Where you go?"

Sidenote: Israel and the Middle East don't get along so well, so when talking about going to Israel or anything of the sort, well, you just really shouldn't do that unless you want to have an heated argument about its legitimacy as a state (Chelsea wants me to point out that this is a gross exaggeration, and mostly we avoid talking about the subject because it's awkward... okay?).

So there we were, trying not to say Israel but at a loss for words. Eventually, they say, "Jerusalem? Where you go? Jerusalem?" and we nod, and they point off the bus up some dark road where Israel is. Off we go!

So after this long empty road, we find that it really does end in the border. The Egyptian side checks us out with really no issues and we enjoy the sunset as we walk through no man's land to the Israel side of the border. When we get there, we are immediately aware that it is very different from Egypt's side, simply because there are women working! La de da, we continue through ten thousand gates and walkways, until we reach passport control.

So, we had been warned by Andy (who had gone earlier than us) that our Lebanon and Syria stamps might be a problem, but it was still really intimidating when they asked me to go in the little room with them and "talk". I do. We do. Mostly she (the interrogator) kept asking questions that I would answer truthfully, but then she'd ask the other questions and point out how my previous answers were inconsistent. Such as:

What are you studying?
Sociology.
Why are you studying sociology in Egypt?
Well, because I wanted to learn Arabic.
But you didn't say you were studying Arabic! Why are you studying Arabic?
Oh, yeah, well, I uhh... I'm also majoring in linguistics and I like to learn languages.
What?!?

What is your religion?
Atheism, I guess?
[angry look] What are your parents' religions?
I am not sure, maybe sort of agnostic or Christian?
[incredulous look] You don't know what religion your parents are?
Umm... no. I guess not.

On the bright side, at least I wasn't Andy. I'm sure he'll tell you what I mean when he updates. Once Chelsea was interrogated as well, and they let us through after our background checks, we entered Israel. The first thing we did is pay $15 for a taxi to the center of Taba where the bus station was. Then we started wandering around, looking for food and Internet.

A lazy day of napping and beach-side people-watching later, and we meet up with Andy, Lauren, and Corina, the other members of our posse. We wandered some more, tried to buy tickets for the 4:30 PM bus, but it was sold out so we got some for the 7:30 PM one instead. Side note: I forgot to mention that from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is the Shabbat in Israel, which means nothing is open and no official services run. Which is why we had to wait until so late in the day to continue on our way. After more time-killing, we rode a five hour bus to our destination, watching most of Love Actually on three different computers. I say "most" because even with three different computers our battery power could not get us through an entire 2 hour movie. Lame.

We arrive, mill about, and then start walking toward the city center. We stop at a pizza place and borrow someone's mobile to call the people we met in Egypt who were going to put us up, who, as it turns out, are both out of town. Whoops! We get directions to Old Town and eventually make our way there and procure a hostel. That is where we now find ourselves now. So, I gotta go and like explore and stuff? :)

For Fox Sake

So, here I am again, a month since any blog updates, with too much to say and not enough time to say it. Why do I get myself into these messes? [sigh]

Here we go again?

There was the birthday party at Sequoia, a really posh restaurant on the northern tip of Zamalek, where there is a 90 LE minimum spending limit. This means a lot of shisha. Also some food? No, but really, their shisha menu was amazing: it consisted of a board with 40 little plastic containers for each of the flavors, like muz (banana), khukh (apricot), and ass (wait, what?).

There was a Halloween party where we overloaded the hammock and then it fell and my tail bone was crushed mercilessly. I felt like puking and passing out, but I resisted the urge because I knew there would be plenty of other people doing the same for different reasons and I didn't want to conform.

There was that time when I lost my AUC ID card, again. I've yet to get it reissued, again, because this time it will cost me 250 LE, or about $50. I'll just be all stealthy-like whenever I need to go in the library, I guess?

There were all those books I have read on my iPhone, which is the best invention evAR. So far: The entire Hitchiker's Guide trilogy, World War Z, Ender in Exile, Fahrenheit 451, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Timeline (yeah, sort of a Michael Crichton kick I guess), The Princess Bride (new second favorite book), Minority Report, Diary, Requiem for a Dream (amazing!, almost better than the movie), and The World without Us. That is "it".

There was that time I uploaded a bunch of new pictures to my Picasa account. You should enjoy them at your leisure.

There was the field trip to Damietta, a town on the coast of the Mediterranean, where our class was supposed to get information about the social movement that blocked a proposed fertilizer factory built by Agrium. Mostly it involved looking at the site and talking to the guy who said he started the revolution, and then eating at a seafood restaurant with the same guy, and then going to the place where the Nile and the sea met with that guy again, and then getting some coffee and leaving. It was fun?

There was that time during the previously described field trip where I was talking to the guy sitting next to me, Amr, and I mentioned I was going to India and he said he was too. Where are you going? he says. Mumbai. Me too! Weird. When are you leaving? he says. Around 30 December. Me too! Weird. (Later: Have you read Catch-22? he says. Oh my god it's my favorite book evAR! Weird.) It was all extremely serendipitous. We decided to combine our trips and now I'm going to India for a month (instead of two weeks) so I can work on an organic, sustainable farm with him. If I fail all my classes this semester, I'll probably just stay. In fact, I might just stay anyway.

There was Thanksgiving, where a few of us decided to go to Maadi house and peruse their offerings. At first no one knew where it was, and then I was told it wasn't in Maadi (a district of Cairo where all the American ex-pats live, essentially: fortress America), and then we heard it was, so we took the metro there and got in a taxi and were soon enjoying mashed potatoes, vegetables, crackers, and pumpkin pie. Other people may have enjoyed the meat selection, which I think was some sort of bird? Anyway, I ate too much pie, and then ate a little bit more because I could, and then went home and slept.

There was scuba diving last weekend in Dahab, which was quite nice. We did three dives on Friday and one on Saturday; I saw jellyfish, lion fish, eels, garbage, blowfish, rock fish?, angelfish, clown fish, and many more whose names I don't know. Also, does anyone else find it odd that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to whether the space between the word "fish" and its descriptor is present or absent? What if I made up a new fish? Which would I choose? Which would you choose?

There were the auditions for The School for Wives, a play by Moliere, that happened last night. I find out today if I was called back, and then sometime next semester we start rehearsals and whatnot. You should all come see it.

There was the time that I was supposed to write two book reports and a lot of reaction papers but then I just did other things. Oh yeah, that was always.

Two days from now is a ten-day trek to Israel/Palestine. My birthday will be celebrated by participating in a desert rave (if all goes to plan). Also, maybe I'll write some papers? We'll see.

Well, that is all I've got for now. Send me stuff. Money, mumkin?.