The Gods of Egypt Do Not Want Me to Leave!

2 a.m....all my luggage is packed up. I said my last tearful goodbyes and got in the cab headed for Alexandria airport. My itinerary: Alexandria , Egypt to Athens, Greece via Olympic Airlines. Then Delta Airlines to Atlanta, Georgia and on to Cleveland.

I got there and show the guards my itinerary. They squinched up their faces and then one of them said to me, "No Olympic Air this airport." What??!! Crap! I have heard of people being diverted to another aitrport about an hour away. I begin to panic. "How do I get there?"

"Cairo." They guy says.

"Cairo?" You have got to be kidding!!! Nooooooo!

I began to make some calls...but they KICKED me out of the airport! I was soooooo unbelievably pissed! They escorted me right out. I grabbed my bags and sat down in the parking lot trying to figure out what to do.

No you have to understand that Alexandria Airport is the smallest, crappiest airport on earth. There was NO ONE that would have been able to help me anyway.

Luckily I had a fully charged net book computer. Most importantly, I had a USB satellite internet so I was able to sit in the parking lot and get online. I called my parents and started to cry and let them know I wasn't coming home. Next step was to call Olympic Airlines and find out what the hell was going on. No luck! They don't have 24hr. customer service! Ugh.

Ok. Next step, I went to their website- not seeing any flights for that night. Ok....next I got on Expedia to find a way - ANY way to get to Athens before noon to make my connecting flight. Nothing!!!

Last ditch effort: call Delta Airlines. I got a hold of their customer service and told them my dilemma. Long story short: they were able to re-route me out of Cairo the next night with no fees. Yay! Thank you Delta.

What now? Again. Very lucky. I just HAPPENED to make a spare apartment key for myself just that very afternoon. Thank God. So I was able to call a cab, go home and SLEEP!

Next night. 11 pm. More tearful goodbyes. Now a cab comes to pick me up to drive me 3 hours to Cairo. So far so good. We arrive 2 hours ahead and thank God we did!

I went to the counter, checked my VERY overweight bag (no extra charge) when I was informed: You need to call Delta because we do not have your ticket number. Ok fine. I went to a semi-quiet corner and got on Skype. I could not hear worth a crap! I finally got a ticket number and gave it to the guy at the counter. Still no good.

They made me talk to some lady behind the counter (at least there was someone to talk to this time.) They kept insisting that I had the wrong ticket number. I said (actually I yelled), "I just talked to the guy! This is the number he gave me! I WILL be on that plane! I have spent a year in this stupid country and DO NOT want to be here another day!!" The clock was ticking. Only 40 minutes now until take off. "YOU have the problem with Delta! YOU call them!"

Oooohhh.they HATE it when you make a scene. The lady called Delta and straightened out the ticket problem. It seems that Delta gave me the old ticket number and hadn't reissued a new one.

20 minutes before take-off and off I went. The Gods of Egypt have finally set me free!!!!

The Mozzarella Orchid

So, Gavin and I spotted a brand new restaurant on the Corniche right by the water. It is a Thai / Italian restaurant. One side is called Orchid. The other is called Mozzarella. You can sit on either the Thai or Italian side of the restaurant and order from either menu. The food was really good! We went back for my "last supper" as well. So, if you go to Alex check it out!

Why does it look like Mike is licking the bottle??

Another beautiful sunset.

Bye Alexandria!

Last Hash and Jellyfish!

It is Friday. last day for me to hit the beach and time for my last Hash run. Gavin, Mary and I got up early and decided to head to the beach with about 3 million other people. Seriously. We went back to the "private" beach. Ugh. The waves were super rough but it was very hot and we needed to cool off. We went to get in the water and a huge group of men from the public side decided to cheer for us as we entered the water. Imagine being at a baseball game and someone gets a hit...it was the weird roar of the crowd. Very unnerving. I wore a shirt over my bathing suit for the rest of the afternoon! At one point while we were in the water my thigh started to sting really badly! Yikes! A jellyfish must've got me. My first sting in my life. Gavin and Mary got stung too. The lifeguard squeezed some fresh lime juice on it which surprisingly helped.
Around 3pm it was time to get ready for my last Hash.

The sea of hundreds of white sun umbrellas is unreal!

Time for me to go. Time to say goodbye. Time for my last Hash. One more Hash! I got a cute certificate for completing 11 runs! 11??? I think I did more than that, but that's ok!

Horsey!

Last run!

Mummy baby!

Get me out of here!

I'll miss you all!

The Famous (or perhaps infamous) PC

The PC Club (aka Portuguese Club or Centro de Portugal) is pretty much the only expat club around. I happen to live right behind it. It is the only place in a city of 4 million people where you can play some pool, shoot some darts and drink some alcohol! Here are a few pics of the good times we had there this past year!

Farewell Zac! We will miss you!

Hey! Isn't that David Caruso?

Ummm...yeah.

Mikey!

Arm wrestling with Mr. Burns.

I guess he'll settle for pinky wrestling.

Me and...Mohamed?

My last night at the PC! I will miss it...sort of.

Last Bits of Randomness

I learned to never leave the house without my camera because, in the famous words of Forrest Gump: "You never know what you're gonna get."

What is this thing..and why does he have cigarettes and booze in his pockets? (click on the pic to see)

WTF?

Dude selling drinks in Manshea.

Cecil rooftop again.

Why don't we fit one more guy in the driver's seat?

Lavender or lilac?

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

You have to live here to get why it's so funny!

Now that's an ad campaign!

Kids in the boot of a car! Seriously!

And here is some video!

Yes, Another Run!

Just some random pictures from my next-to-last Hash run!

Sunflowers!

Gavin, sometimes you are such an a**! Just kidding! You know I love you!

Egyptian trash compactors.

Just another day on the farm.

Tradition dictates that if any one is wearing new shoes, a designated person must drink from said shoe...baby shoes...yumm.

I thought drinking was supposed to be a "punishment?!"

My Apartment

I have had many people ask me what my apartment looks like. I took some pictures when I first moved in (you will notice the mess) and intended to redo them once I got the place organized and cleaned up, but never got around to it. My apartment was pretty decent. The only real complaint I had (besides and ant problem early) on was the lighting or lack of. I am on the 1st floor (or American 2nd floor) and surrounded by big buildings. It always felt like a cloudy, rainy day inside which got really depressing if I didn't get outside daily.

Generally Egyptian decor is awful. Gaudy, uncomfortable furniture with lots of gold trim. My apartment wasn't too bad. At least everything matched!

I had a small balcony which just overlooked a junk pile, unlike many of my friends that were on the 10th floor with a beautiful view of the city. Oh well. I did have a nice big bathroom, so that was good (forgot to take a pic of it I guess). All the rooms had a/c which was probably the most important thing. Plus, I was living behind the only expat club in the whole city so that was convenient.

Master bedroom. I slept in the this room for a few nights, but the bed was WAY too hard!

My bedroom, plus an extra sitting room.

Spare bedroom...even has a crib!

Living room which I never really used. There was a fake fireplace on the right.

Kitchen.

This was where I spent ALL of my time when I wasn't sleeping!

View from another angle with t.v.

Dining room and makeshift office.

Giant wad of money I got when I cashed my check for 5 months worth of rent!

Independance Day in Egypt!

Part of my job is to teach American culture to students. I had to teach them about Independence Day and tried to keep it simple by showing them the Declaration of Independence and explaining what it is about. Then I showed them the Schoolhouse Rock videos: No More Kings and Fireworks. Love Schoolhouse Rock!!!!

We celebrated Independence Day by having a cookout of hot dogs and hamburgers and playing games. At Easter we had 3 adults to supervise and entertain 45 teenagers. Today it was only me. Crap.

In one game I had them tie balloons to their ankles and try to pop the others' balloons. After all the balloons were gone I had no clue what else to do with them. Then I remembered a childhood game that I thought was just their speed: Red Rover!! Of course the girls didn't want to hold hands with the boys. No problem, I had a separate boys and girls game. The kids really enjoyed themselves.