the last thing I expected

Surprisingly, I am actually posting this ALMOST on the correct day because I haven't gone to bed yet so it's still Friday to me (well, my computer also thinks it's Friday because it's still on U.S. time...) but it's actually almost 2am on Saturday here. Anyways, today I woke up late and had some breakfast and then worked on my Coptic Cairo snap writing assignment for when we go on our tour tomorrow. It's actually kind of a cool idea:we each got assigned to a group and each group member has to do some research on one location on the tour and speak about it when we get there. I got the Ben Ezra Synagogue, which has a torah from the 6th century and houses a well where the basket that Moses' mother sent him off in was supposedly found.

We were supposed to meet up with our TA from Arabic, Nahda, at 4:00 today, but she never showed up. Hopefully we can meet up with her eventually, seeing as she lives in Cairo. At 5:00 we left for the pyramids to go watch a motorcross competition. This was definitely the last thing I expected to be doing in Egypt, but I'm actually really glad that I went, even though I was feeling some regrets about buying the ticket at first. It was a head-on view of the Sphynx and you could see all 3 of the Giza pyramids at sunset and when they were lit up at night. It was a very interesting justaposition of motorcross bikes flying through the air with that as the backdrop, and I just thought to myself the whole time "when is this ever going to happen again?" It was also really interesting to see the kind of Arab people that showed up to the event. It was definitely mostly people with a heavy western influence, but there were some people who were more conservative too.

1. water: I just drink SO. MUCH. WATER. I refuse to get dehydrated. They sell huge water bottles almost everywhere, and the other day I only paid 1.95 pounds per bottle, which is roughly 35 cents, so this exchange rate is really supporting my water habit.

2. I know I already posted pictures from the pyramids, but motorcross + pyramids is just a whole new animal.


the best police EVER? camel police.


3.

one of my top 3 strangest panoramic views of all time, hands down.