I've neglected my blog for several weeks now and I feel bad.
the truth of it is that I haven't been on many adventures lately. My life is mostly just classes and friends and arabic, pretty normal (or atleast as normal as living in cairo gets) so there hasn't been much to update about.

some pictures from when my parents were here:

coptic cairo.


at the pyramids (obviously) it was really bright that day..

This weekend I went to the Khan with my friends and I picked up a nice scarf and some keffiyehs (like the one Arafat wore)


I get an extra day off of classes for Thanksgiving, and I've been talking about going over to Mount Sinai with some friends. I hope it works out because I hear the view is amazing. Also, getting out of this cairo air would surely do my lungs some good.

I have just a little over a month left here now. I miss my bike..

My friends and I at Al-Azhar park right before Iftar:

Thanks for the great picture, dad!

busy!

Alright the last 2 weeks have been pretty busy with midterms, the parents visiting, and now a 20 page paper. Midterms went well for the most part and the parents coming was great. 20 page paper is a little tedious, but I'll get through it.

My parents brought me all sort of goodies from the states. DVDs, killer brownies, chocolates, ear plugs, everything that an American living in Cairo could possibly want.

Soon I'll post pictures from all the traveling and touristing that we did.
here is a taste of what we got to see:

Pyramids
Alexandria
Khan El-Khalili
Al-Azhar
Catacombs
..and hundreds of dirty streets in Cairo

the best/worst/most memorable part was probably my parents riding horses with a "tour guide" around the "back entrance" of the pyramids while my eyes swelled shut because I'm allergic to horses at 6 am.

really, you'll have to see the pictures.

So far I've turned in 9 ID-sized photos of myself. I've gotten back 3 IDs. Now that is 3 pictures to one ID, where could all these pictures be going? I could see the need to make a file of the ID mae with my picture attached to it, but that only accounts for one picture. Does the other picture go to a file to verify the other file?
at any rate, the passport-sized photo makers here are making a fortune.

that is my roommate, John, modeling my new African masks.

Address

AUC dormitory
16 Mohamed Thakeb Street
(in front of Marashly Church)
Zamalek 11211
Cairo, Egypt

Hand Tailored Shirt.

46 L.E.

I might get some pants later.

Only in Egypt...

Today when I bought a 1.25 L.E. cup of coffee, I gave the cashier 1.50 L.E.
The cashier looked worried for a second as she glanced into the cash register, but then brightend up and handed me a stick of gum instead of my 25 piastres in change.

Change is rare in this country. Whenever I don't pay in exact change, the cashier gives me an angry look and says "no change?". I then have to wince and shake my head and look concerned about the transaction. They usually look around in their drawer for a few moments before reluctantly handing me a dull wad of crumpled bills (usually with about 25-50 piastres missing from the pile depending on how much change they had to dig up for me).

To add to the problem, most ATMs only give out 100 pound notes and most things I want are between 1 and 5 pounds.