06 May, 2009

United We Stand on a Solid Ground to Instigate Unprecedented Prospects with Experience

Greece, the final chapter: Our Santorini to Athens ferry was canceled without anyone informing us, but luckily some friends of ours tried to buy passage on the same boat and discovered this unfortunate news. Sam and I scrambled to get our refunds so that we could afford to buy new tickets for a different ferry (we were down to about €7.25 at that point) and then played cards all night with three Canadians. In Athens we avoided the cold by sitting in the entryway to the hostel we had previously stayed at, then went and got breakfast with the previously mentioned Canucks, then went to the airport using the previously mentioned last bits of money we had. A hop, skip, and jump away and we were back in the suffocating smog and heat of Cairo. I love it!

Back in Egypt: School's oppressive oppressiveness has returned with a vengence. I still haven't written my midterm (and I'm beginning to think I never will). Nobody does their homework in my Arabic class and our teacher keeps threatening to get someone else to teach it. I've got a presentation next week on my volunteering and it's relation to development theory, two three 15 page papers to write on topics I have yet to decide or research, an Arabic final that covers material from a book I don't own, etc. I'm not worried!

A Scottish guy I met in Greece, Graeme, is currently sleeping on my couch because I invited him down for the Pirate Party (which hasn't happened yet, but the next entry should have pictures and a rundown of the awesomeness) and he actually booked a plane and showed up. Nathaniel's aunt and cousin are also staying at the houseboat for a short while during their visit. Also, another friend, Jon, who had to vacate his apartment a bit earlier than the end of the semester has joined the club. That makes seven people in a two bedroom place. No big deal!

Wait a minute? Didn't I already do something like this back in 2005? Who'd have thought I'd be reliving that period in my life all over again?!

Anywho, last night we had a wonderful dinner where our old neighbor Khaldun, plus our new neighbors Jean and Clements, plus all the people staying at our houseboat, plus a few extras cooked vegetables and pasta and beer (well, we didn't cook the beer, but it was there). My pasta sauce was a hit, which is nice. I'm getting better at cooking, mumkin?!

The night before last was the opening performance of Dido and Æneas, an opera that AUC is putting on (the first ever, apparently), featuring my friend David and Kim as Æneas and a seriously wacky witch-lady respectively. It was my first opera, though probably not the last. I kind of liked it!

One of my English students gave me a liter of full cream milk as a present. Thanks?!

Jennifer is coming on 17 May. She'll be here for about three weeks, during which we plan on touring various places in Egypt, doing the Gaza volunteering thing, and visiting Jordan. After she leaves I'm going to be completely out of money, so I'll probably become a couch surfer again and see what I can see with what I can squeeze out of family and friends, killing time until my flight to Munich at the end of June, where I will then do the same until my final flight home on the 19 August. Two days short of a year abroad!

Time sure flies by fast, eh? or was it time's fun when you're having flies? I don't remember!

That's all I've got for now. Bye!

2 comments:

Meg said...

What?! You couldn't hang on just two more days?!

Meg said...

:D