There and Back Again

Back in the Yarsk, spending 15 minutes arming myself against the cold before leaving the house, keeping a constant eye to the sky on the lookout for falling icicles, breathing the icy air and savoring the few rays of sun that make it in through the haze. My trip to Egypt was too action packed to thoroughly describe, so I'll do a little review list-style:

1. Passed many nights at Horreya and Stella Bars, drinking the exeptional Egyptian brew "Stella" with Max S. and Max W., talking mostly about Egypt, Oberlin, and the future. The fact is I went to Egypt for the company, and the company was exceptional.

2. Max and I went to Siwa and saw what I can only imagine must be the most beautiful Oasis in the world and the surrounding Great Sand Sea. It is a truly spectacular place--historically, culturally, and aesthetically. I felt like I was in a cartoon.

3. I ate some good food despite the fact that Egypt has a pretty abysmal culinary tradition involving a lot of pasta with a side of rice on bread, and that I was constantly fighting to keep my poops solid (TMI?) Some highlights were a delicious pigeon stuffed with rice on a bed of grains, camel stew, and a mountain of fresh, tasty, and incredibly cheap crabs in Port Said on the Suez Canal.

4. We met a real British ship captain at the bar in Port Said. He told us about big ships and how there used to be brothels all over the place and how he had a wife and "uh... four children" in Thailand. He didn't seem totally solid on the number of children he had out there in Thailand and we couldn't really figure out how he was swinging living simultaneously in Port Said and on his rice farm in the tropics, but we were thoroughly charmed by his Irish sailory-ness and his Irish sailor tattoo.

5. I saw the pyramids with Max W. while Max S. was busy being a working man. We got swindled despite our best efforts to avoid it and we got followed around by crowds of dudes with camels trying to sell us camel rides. But nonetheless we succeeded in seeing the pyramids. They're pretty spectacular even though navigating the hustlers and tourists is kind of a nightmare.

That's not really all, but it's all I've got for now.

Upcoming: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Transsiberian Railroad, Fulbright comaraderie