First few days!

So I've spent 2 full days in Cairo and it's been pretty good so far.

Quickly about London. After dropping off our extra bags, buying international calling cards, and getting some English pounds (which was tragic) we got on the underground and headed into London. We got off the underground right at the Palace of Westminster where Big Ben is. It was beautiful. We also saw the London Eye, which was really cool to see in person and not just in pictures. Then we got lunch at a cute little pub, and of course we each got a pint of beer. It was weird be able to be served alcohol in a restaurant. And by the time I come back to the states I'll be legal there. Weird. Anyway then we saw Buckingham Palace and got back on the underground to go back to Heathrow.

The flight to Cairo was fine. We landed at night, so we couldn't really see the city which was sad. But I'm leaving during the day in May so I'll get to see it then. We didn't get into the city until pretty late and then we just got our room assignments and went to bed. Yesterday I didn't do too much except get my phone and walk around a bit. Today we had our first day of "Survival Arabic" where we're learning colloquial Egyptian which is pretty different than what I've been learning at GW. Tonight I went to dinner with Alix and we got falafel (called something different in Egyptian) which cost about 50 American cents. It's really nice getting 5.5 Egyptian Pounds for each American dollar.

Tomorrow we start real orientation things. And classes start a week from today.

Also here are some pictures of my room. I'll take a better picture of the courtyard when it's light out!

P.S. for Kaitlin- As embarrassing as it is to say, Twilight is actually awesome. I'm about halfway done it because I stayed up way too late reading last night. I'll have to see if I can find the rest of them over here...