Spring Break

So Spring Break was really fun. Through out the course of the 11 days I swam in three different seas- the Red, the Dead, and the Mediterranean. It was really cool floating in the Dead Sea. All three of the seas are significantly prettier and warmer than the Atlantic, at least the part of the Atlantic that I generally go in.

Anyway, the flight to Amman was only around an hour and the hotel sent a BMW to pick us up! We napped then explored the city. We went to the Citadel which had a lot of old Roman ruins and a cool museum. Then we went to the Roman Theater and wandered around the city. At lunch we talked to some other Americans who walked in (it's gotten pretty easy to tell which of the white tourists are Americans and which are Europeans, even before hearing them speak). One of the kids in the group had been at AUC last semester. Small world. We stopped at a pastry shop and had kunafa and baklava. So delicious. The next day we went to Madaba where there was a really old mosaic, then Mt. Nebo where Moses did something (I forget quite what. Saw the Promised Land?) and finally to the Dead Sea. On the way to the Dead Sea we could see Jericho in the distance. It was weird being able to see Israel/Palestine. It was really close across the water. As in a good swimmer could probably have made it across the way. Pretty crazy. Floating was really cool as I mentioned.

On Sunday we headed to Syria. We took a cab because we needed to wait at the border to get visas. We had heard it could take 8 or 9 hours and then we might not even get them, but it took us less than 3 hours which was pretty painless. We read, played some backgammon, ate lunch and then our visas were done. We met an American guy who had been traveling for the past 15 months and in that time had been to 41 countries. Crazy. In Damascus we stayed in an apt this random Syrian guy rents out to travelers. Through out the 4 days we were there we ate lots of shawerma (way better than the shawerma in Cairo), kunafa (a delicious dessert of cheese and honey. i'm not really sure how to describe it), and took lots of naps. We went to the huge souq (marketplace) that we read about in Arabic class almost every day and I got some souvenirs for people :) One of the days we went to the huge mosque where we had to wear cloaks because we had the audacity to wear pants that day (don't worry I have a picture of us in the cloaks) and another day we went to a bathhouse for massages. That was an interesting experience. Overall Damascus was really beautiful. Oh and we ran into 3 different groups of AUC kids while we were in Damascus. Some of the kids were even on our flight. Oh and we spoke a lot more Arabic while in Amman and Damascus than in Cairo. The Arabic there is a lot closer to what we've learned in school and in some places people knew less English. People were generally surprised to hear us speak Arabic. Oh and most people guessed that we were Russian, not American. I guess because we're both tall.

We got back to Cairo Thursday night and took the bus to Alexandria Friday afternoon. We had really delicious seafood for dinner. Grilled fish and shrimp and some fried fish in addition to pita and lots of dips for the bread; it was more food than the three of us could eat (we had dinner with one of Alix's friends. I took some pictures of our spread). And it only cost us around $10 a person. We went to the beach the next day. Long story short, but we were not only the only white people on the beach (and we went to a nice private one) we were the only females in bathing suits. So we got stared at a lot. Some guys took pictures of us. The brave ones came up and asked if they could have their picture taken with us. The water was really pretty there too and it was really nice to lie on the beach. The second day we hung out with a guy who works at the hotel who Alix befriended. Another relaxing day before going back to Cairo.

Yesterday was our last day of break, and we went to Ain el-Sokhna with some of our Egyptian friends. Ain el-Sokhna is a beach about an hour and half away from Cairo, on the Red Sea. It was a lot more crowded than Dahab but the water was just as nice. Swimming in clear water is much nicer than the mostly opaque Atlantic. After hanging out on the beach, we went to someone's beach house for dinner and then went to a cafe on the beach to hang out in the evening. I made friends with a guy who plays for Egypt's best pro soccer team (Ahly) and is also on the Egyptian National Team so that's pretty cool.

Luckily I only had one class today because I was not looking forward to going back to school. I'll be home in around 5 weeks. Pretty crazy!