Due to all the fighting to get DSL here in Egypt, I have been unable to upload the pictures from traveling with Paul back in August. In case I didn’t already state this, London is a fabulous city and we had a blast.

There are over 1000 pictures from our exploits in London, Amsterdam, Cairo, and Luxor. I haven’t filtered them or added captions for anything, so just ooh and aww at their prettiness without explanation…. Besides, you probably know just as much as I do about what you’re looking at….

Enjoy! (more…)

The latest battles that I have been undertaking, (that would be moving and trying to get DSL again), have now been completed. It was pretty touch and go for quite a while there, but the battles have been won. We are completely moved out of our old place, turned in the keys and all, and pretty much all moved into our new place. Also, the DSL finally started working this morning, only took 1 week of fighting this time…. So all the battles have been won at this point, but if I know anything about Egypt, it’s that this war is still far from over…

Today was fun…. I decided to go to the DSL company’s office and demand a refund for their laziness. You would think such an errand wouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish. Well in Egypt it is. I had a friend drop me off after my classes with a binder and 4 books in my possession. After waiting for 20 minutes and arguing with the guy for another 10, I discovered that I cannot even accomplish anything at this office. Apparently, all refunds are handled at an office on the other side of town. So after accomplishing nothing, I decided to head on home. Before stopping a taxi, I reach into my pocket to find that I only have a half a pound. I then proceeded to walk 3 blocks to the nearest ATM to withdraw some cash. This still should not be too big a deal. Well that ATM did not work, nor did any other ATM I could find for over a kilometer. Keep in mind, I am carrying a binder and 4 not so compact books with me. Also, of course, as soon as I do finally find a functioning ATM, and get into a taxi, I pass about 908 ATMs on the way home….

So after arriving home, we decided to have another go at seeing the crazy old lady’s cheap apartment. And off we go again. About 2 hours and 7 or 8 people later, we finally get into this apartment…. Let’s just say there was a reason it was so cheap….

Today we attempted to locate a place to live that doesn’t make a box under a bridge appealing… It was an adventure, as with anything in this crazy place. We began by meeting with this guy to show us a place that appears that the Easter Bunny, in all his pastel glory, was slaughtered in a fun-house… After that, we saw another really nice place, but they were wanting a small fortune for it. We then saw a place that looked like it should have been condemned a few years prior. All along this journey, we collected more and more people. By the end of this quest, we were heading to see the final place, driving down the road with three people in the back, and three in front of this tiny little car. The final addition to our posse, the owner of the apartment we were venturing to view, was a crazy old lady. This final apartment, all I can say about it, is that it had a very nice door. We spent a good 10-15 minutes staring at this door, while the crazy old lady searched her person for the key with complete failure….

We do plan on finding a place to live by the end of this month, but I just felt you should all feel lucky that finding apartments in the states is nothing like this!

Enjoy!

Halloween in Egypt is nothing like it is in the states. It was so very disappointing to walk down the street and find nobody dressed up. However, it was so fun to confuse the locals by walking around all day as a pirate. To top it off, due to the lack to participation in the coolest holiday ever, I have secured myself a legacy at AUC. I will now forever be known as that guy that came to school dressed as a pirate….Enjoy! (more…)