Back from Dahab after a long and uncomfortable journey on a minibus with a shouty policeman and a driver who had never been to and had no idea where Alex was. 9 hours of unadulterated fun. Once again I feel I must apologise for the lack of photos. I'm all too aware that I'm getting textually heavy and after some criticism about my style (mainly from my own dearest mother) I would have liked to break up the blog with some nice visuals but the internet is still lacking here and, in fairness, I've not taken too many pictures of late. There's always room for improvement!

Back into university on Monday I got my results from the mid-term exams I sat before my oh-so-strenuous week on the Red Sea. I'm very pleased and have been moved up a level, although I'm not too sure what this means as quite a few of us have moved up and most of the group above has moved down: along with many other things Egypt may need to work on it's concept of streaming. Tomorrow will be my first day in my new(ish) class, so I'll have more idea about what the new level is going to involve and maybe, just maybe, I'll let y'all know in the next week or so.

Last night I started back at training and was somewhat rusty, once again I'm blaming Dahab. No matter, I'm in the team to play in Cairo on Friday. Prayer would be much appreciated!

In other news, my housemate Tom and I have decided to solve the problems we've been having with the flat (see earlier posts re: irate neighbour, floods and droughts) by moving out. Alas to where we do not yet know, but there are some enormously helpful people looking around for us and hopefully we'll be sorted before the end of the week, although this may be an optimistic estimate. Really we'd just like to live somewhere that works, as although what we're paying here is cheap by UK standards, it certainly isn't by Egyptian standards. I wouldn't mind this if we had everything functioning as it should, but after a visit to one of the Germans very swish pad for a party last week I reckon we could do much better for the money! هنشوف - We'll see!

More soon - providing I still have both arms intact after Friday and am thus still able to type - hopefully avec photos.

توم xxx

NB. For the Arabic speaking literati amongst you, you may have noticed that after much pressure and yet more chastisement I have replaced the apparently offensive "توم في المصر " with "توم في مصر ". Yes I knew it was there it's just taken a while to get around to changing it. Tsk, there's no pleasing some people!

Thursday afternoon saw the end of our first real set of exams, which passed without event. Seeing as we had a whopping 10 day break, a group of 8 (it's always 8, but never the same 8) decided the destination of our next jaunt would be the hippy backpacker town of Dahab on the eastern coast of Sinai, and 'tis from there that I write the latest update to the TomInEgypt saga.

10 hours overnight on the bus here wasn't the most fun you can have but I seem to have developed an excellent ability to fall asleep anywhere I'm sat for longer than about 20mins or so, so the journey was all too easy. This is actually the second time I've been to Dahab, I was here the summer before I started Uni for a day with Michael my godfather (MichaelInPakistan.blogspot.com) and my memory of Dahab is a little hazy but I'm fairly sure that it's quite a lot more developed than it was 2 years ago. It's fairly touristy here, but unlike Sharm, it still manages to retain some of it's small-town charm. The views over the sea to Saudi are amazing, and it's enormously relaxing to watch the sunset (or sunrise if you're still up from the night before ;) over Sinai sat by the Red Sea with a sheesha and a beer. It's also really nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Alex and to not really have anything to do apart from sit on a beach or go snorkeling, which is really unbelievable here. I'm fairly easily pleased when it comes to snorkeling - if I see a fish I'm happy. But here the colours and the movement and the shapes and the sizes....unreal, an absolute wonder of creation. I don't think I could ever get tired of swimming over the drop-off and seeing a new world open up underneath you.

Sadly, my living the high life on the Red Sea Riviera has once again cost me my place in the Alexandria rugby team for the game in Cairo on Friday, although I have my sights set on the return in Alex in a couple of weeks. We watched the big match last night in a bar shaped like a boat with a name that means something very rude in Mexican Spanish, and I have to say "we was robbed". Even the American girls we were watching with knew that it was a try. What a travesty. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday we're off to Mount Sinai and St.Catherine's monastery, which is something I'm very much looking forward to. For now though, I'm off for the aforementioned sheesha and a beer although it looks like I've missed sunset. Adios amigos I hope the weather back home isn't too depressingly wet and rainy, life the 30 degree heat here is tough, but someone has to be here.
txx

So, after some chastisement regarding the infrequent of late nature of my postings, I have returned to the fold of TomInEgypt.blogspot.com to bring a clearly long-awaited update to how things are going.

Looking back at my last post rugby seemed to be something of a leitmotiv, so an update on the progress of my late blossoming career may be appropriate. After two very different training sessions last week (the first of which I was somewhat shown up by the first team backs, the second of which I displayed a much improved passing game and was fairly comfortable on the ball) I was selected for the squad to play vs.Cairo on Friday! With the delight of being selected came the frustration of having to tell the coach I couldn't play because I'd already booked to go to Cairo that weekend as I wasn't really anticipating the call up. Anyway, I was selected and can now wear my Alexandria Rugby Club shirt with pride. Oh, and we beat Cairo :D

Since my 3 1/2 weeks update I've also spent two weekends in Cairo, both of which have been hugely enjoyable and very interesting. In Egypt there is a general consensus that Alex is like Cairo's calmer, more beautiful little sister, and over the last two weekends I think I've come to agree. It's very hard to explain or even describe how crazy a place Cairo is. I can't think of anywhere I've been that's so, well, chaotic. Chaotic and yet, in places, totally amazing and breathtaking. The contrast between the mad crowds of Khan el-Khalili and Al-Azhar mosque only across the road couldn't be more stark.

*later addition*
Also forgot to mention the defining moment of my second tour of duty in Cairo: the McChicken Sandwich that poleaxed me on the train home. After a fairly big and entirely surreal house party with a bunch of "hipster" Americans, I dared a visit to the golden arches in the morning to give me the extra energy needed to see me through the 2 1/2 hour journey north. Little did I know that the very same sandwich would strike me down en route home and rule me out of Uni for a day, vomiting on the train was amongst the least enjoyable of my experiences over the entire five weeks, and it's going to take much rehabilitation and considerable time before I once again am able to trust Ronald.

In other news we've had various rows with the police captain neighbour about the legality/appropriacy of us having females in the flat. At the moment it's looking illegal/inappropriate so we're keeping a low profile, although this is one of several irritating inconsistencies in Egyptian society and is an issue that will be raised again in the future when I'm feeling more eloquent or when I learn how to say "stop being so bloody unreasonable".

All in all an action packed few weeks, this weekend is Eid al-Fitr (Little Eid) which should be fun and hopefully (inshallah) we're off to a nice beach town about 300km west of Alex for Sunday and Monday before our midterm exams next week. I hereby solemnly swear to update more regularly, sorry mum!

Love to all,

Tom xxx


 

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