You're just going to have to trust me.

ok so since i actually got scolded for not posting yesterday, i am now writing a blog despite the fact that its 2:15am and i am le tired jiddon. or rather, giddon i suppose.

where to begin where to begin. i suppose that is the danger in not writing everyday. everything oozes together in my mind to create one great mushy memory of heat and cute clothes. what did i do the last 2 days? ok hold on im trying to remember.

ah yes. so yesterday i slept in until 2:30 in the afternoon. it was glorious. not setting an alarm is a truly liberating experience. even if it does mean skipping the tour of your new college campus. psh. people who actually know their way around live incredibly boring lives.

oh i fell down the stairs btw. did i mention this to you? there are these marble spiral stairs in one of the campus buildings. swear to god the steps arent actually parallel to the ground. they slope downwards, which means walking down them in flipflops (read: cute but frictionless) can be an adventure. basically, i managed to slide down about 20 stairs, choosing, of course, to wait just until there are enough people around to cause true humiliation. my sophisticated veneer barely survived. barely. it probably was not helped by the fact that i was wearing a skirt. by the time i reached the bottom of the stairs i did not pass anyone's but perhaps the french's test of modesty. i had a similar experience at breakfast earlier this summer. it didnt involve stairs but i ended up in about the same position. i need to either stop falling over or to re-think my clothing choices.

oh. and i also managed to shatter a window in my apartment. and i mean SHATTER, as in there is no more glass in the window frame except for one lonely little fin-shaped shard at the bottom. and i exploded a juice carton at the grocery store. well, it exploded by itself, with a little help from gravity and one of my elbows. awkward. i dont think ive done much for the less-than-flattering american stereotype just yet. still working on it.

anyway i had my first clubbing-in-cairo experience last night. woot. we went to the odeon palace hotel. very chic. its this roof-top bar, with a goorgeous view of cairo. it took us a while to get there since our taxi driver didn't know where it was and, of course, spoke no english. not that we knew where it was either, so i dont know whether english would have helped but somehow it lends a certain feeling of comfort. he pulled up at another hotel and i understood enough of the conversation to warn the other girls in the car that yes, as expected, he had lied to us when he said he knew where he was going and no, the other hotel guy didnt know where it was either but he recommended just driving into downtown and asking people on the streets for directions. which i guess i didnt really have a problem with except i probably would have prefered just to stay ignorant and make the logical assumption that our taxi driver, as a man who makes his living off driving people around the city, might actually know his way around the city.

but we made it there eventually and spent just enough time in the lobby of the hotel waiting for the other girls to arrive to make the hotel staff reeally nervous. although this didnt stop them from adjusting their security camera to point at us instead of the door. the actual bar itself was really nice, blah blah blah. we had to tip a guy to get toilet paper for the bathroom, but i suppose you win some you lose some. we tried "stella" which is the "beer of egypt" according to the billboards. i really dont know how much that says. and we had apple sheesha and felt very middle eastern. the liquour in the turkish coffee was a nice combo also. soo we just sort of hung out and had girls-that-live-in-apts bonding time. which is always helped along by alcohol. and ridiculous picture taking, many of which will hopefully soon be posted on facebook for all of our viewing pleasure. oh, and some of the other girls knocked over their sheesha and almost set the building on fire. but it WASNT ME. and i was rather proud of that.

oh and i was describing one of my friends - i wont say who - to one of the other girls when i had another one of my memory leaks. they asked for his name and i was completely unable to give it to them! nope. had no earthly idea what it was. i could picture his face in my head. could remember every time id hung out with him. and could not, for the life of me, remember his name. this was a guy i lived in the same dorm with for an ENTIRE YEAR. yeah. and this isnt the first time this has happened to me. its like sometimes the little nerve endings that store information in my brain are just a tad bit slippery or something. or every once in a while one of the connectors will morph from puzzle-piece form to tiny woman holding on to only the hand of a really fat man dangling off a cliff. and theyve both been hiking all day. in cairo. and she never liked him that much anyway. and its almost easier for her to just...let go.

or maybe im just going prematurely demented.

or maybe thats what dementia IS - when the nerve endings in your brain change from cute little children being frantically held on to by their loving mothers (the puzzle pieces) to fat unattractive men who would be doing the world a disservice if they reproduced.

i think i might just be tired.

but basically what im trying to say is we had a lot of fun clubbing. and we left the hotel at some hour in the morning (nothing too late wouldnt want to traumatize the caironians) and created a huge scene just by walking down the street. it was ridiculous; literally every man (and there were only men out at this hour) on the street turned, stared, and catcalled at us IN UNiSON as we walked down the street. it was almost like a musical - i expected dancing and was disapointed. and then we went home and played jenga. another good bonding game. and ate trailmix. and i must say it was overall a fantastic way to finish the evening.

so that was yesterday. and i am much too tired to write too much about what i did today so i will give you only the highlight: we watched 8 episodes of season 1 of 24. in a row. and it was beautiful. i dont think ive ever screamed at the characters of a fictional story so much in my life. and i tend to interact with my television characters (and book characters, and movie characters, much to the dismay of the other ppl in the movie theatre. specifically my mother.), so thats saying something.

ok i am exhausted and not seeing entirely straight. planning on sleeping in tomorrow. and then cleaning the bathroom with our NEW CLEANING SUPPLIES. which was a whole different adventure. which you guys will probably never hear about. so come up with something exciting for me, would you? awesome.

Well now that you mention it an Egyptian husband does sound rather appealing...

Hello again! wow 2 blogs in 2 days. rachel must be bored, you think. but i say ha! rachel is in cairo! and boredom in cairo is about as likely as peace in the middle east.
...too much too soon? ill try to contain myself.

soo my first full day in cairo. rachel strides fearlessly out into the city. well, sort of. i had company - two girls next door were also taking the placement test and were planning to get coffee beforehand, so i of course invited half the hallway and a whole group of us took off towards the university this morning. safety in large numbers. yes.

ive been trying to pinpoint the exact differences between cities in the states and cities in the middle east. on first glance, the exotic-? (exoticness? exoticity? right) the exotic feel of the city is kind of overwhelming. but one specific difference i noticed today was the number of people, specifically men, in the streets of the city. and, i mean, you'll get people in the streets of cities in the US, but most of them are GOING places. places to be people to meet and whatnot. the majority of the people here, however, really dont seem to be doing anything. theyre just, you know, hangin out. men will literally just have pulled a plastic chair up next to the road and just be sitting there. its like people watching is a national past time. and while normally i wouldnt have a problem with this, here the people theyre watching is ME. and they dont just watch. oh no. they comment. the whistle. they hiss. they propose marriage. and its all fun and games until someone gets hit by a car bc they were too busy staring at my scandalously bare arms to pay attention. not that thats happened. but im just saying

anyway so we went for coffee and by the time we finished our 10 min walk to the university i had just about passed out from heat exhaustion and couldnt manage anything more than a bottle of water. oh, and the man in the cafe and i have a less than successful conversation.

man: (in reeeeally accented english) for here or to go?
me: pardon? (in my very proper little accent that always seems to pop up when i have no idea whats going on)
man: for here or to go?!
me: im sorry i dont speak arabic
man: (getting frustrated) la la la for here or to go???
me: im SORRY you dont have to get mad at me but i DONT SPEAK.....

at this point what he had said had finally worked its way through my thick skull and i announce "we're staying!". of course the man has given up on me at this point, and i say it uselessly to his back and then wander off to find a table. for someone who's spent SO MUCH TIME in other countries surrounded by people with accents as thick as the cloud of dust that hovers over cairo, devouring our happiness, and men's manners, you'd think my comprehension skills would be at a slightly higher level.

did you notice that metaphore? yeah. i thought you did.

ps its not really devouring my happiness. it just makes everything a little hazy. and it isnt very friendly to my clothes. but its ok, theyre used to it because of my ACTIVE LIFESTYLE. what.

anyway so i took my arabic placement test and they put me in arabic 211 which is awesome...except the class starts 5 chapters ahead of where i left off. and at 60 vocab words per chapter plus grammer... pain. but its either that or 201 which only meets 5 hrs a week instead of 10 and only covers like 8 chapters in the entire semester. decisions decisions. just how willing am i to torture myself? ha. stupid question.

so i was the first person to leave the placement test. nothing new there. i got bored of trying to understand passages that were, well, incomprehensible. and post placement test i was a goodgirl and did all my paperwork etc. ps i totally didnt need any of the receipts and whatnot that they had told us we NEEDED to bring on. pain. of. death. typical. oh, and i cant register for classes until sept. 4 which means i probably am going to end up taking like econ or something equally ridiculous. (lol sry cat) i wonder if i could switch to all arabic if i dont get into the classes i want? oh the possibilities. but the classes offered are sooooooooooooooooo cool im ridiculously excited and why doesnt stanford offer anything even half as cool? for a college rated 2nd in the world by newsweek, i must say i am disapointed.

so after paperwork and whatnot one of my many roommates and i went with some girls i picked up (yes i pulled the "hey pretty lady want to go for a ride" line) to a really truly authentic egyptian bazaar! oh the excitement. so this pretty much sums up my experience:

desperate shop man: (heavy accent, but understandable) hello! ahlan! please come into my shop! special price just for you!
rachel: no thank you (i am very polite at all times)
d.s.m.: do you want discount?
rachel: no thank you
d.s.m.: do you want half off? everything half off just for you
rachel: no thank you (at this point i was walking away bc there is only so long you can actually listen to these ppl. in fact i had really given him a lot more time than he deserved - most of the time you just have to ignore them or they will grab you by the hair and drag you into their shop and force-feed you discounts)
d.s.m.: DO YOU WANT EGYPTIAN HUSBAND??

now you'd think that there would be an awkward silence after this in the bazaar, but no. this is normal.

oh and i was supposed to have dinner with a friend tonight but she DITCHED me so im having dinner with my roommates but in my quest to have dinner with my plan A i experienced my first solo-walk through downtown cairo. lets just put it this way, i was even honked at by the guy driving the pizza hut moped. i mean honestly, how low have you sunk when even the pizza hut guy thinks he has the right to honk at you? or is that an elitest attitude. well i also got asked "kem touride?" by a pre-pubescent egyptian boy which translates to "how much do you want?" no, despite my incredible beauty and obvious class, i am not a prostitute.

and on that note.

I'm on my own, I'm on my way

ok so maybe cairo isnt quite utopia parkway but dammit its close enough.

so yeah. ive decided, after much heartfelt deliberation, to start a blog. get excited.

this blog was actually started by my older sister when she was living in jeddah last year so she might be posting from time to time. but i have confidence that you all will not be overly confused - the name of the person writing is at the end of the blog. my blog will be slightly different from libby's, for those of you who have read both. she was a bit more...intellectual in her observations then i will be. do not read this blog if you are looking for deep thoughts. i have none that i could broadcast without feeling like a pretentious git. this will be something more along the lines of a cross between a mass email and a record of what ive been doing for my own amusement. but i do it for love of mes amis who, surprisingly enough, seem to care enough about what im doing with my life to give my blog a place in their procrastination schedules. read email, check. read aim away msgs, check. stalk ppl on facebook, check. aaand read rachel's blog, check! beautiful.

sooo where to begin. i arrived in cairo (for those of you not in the know im taking a year off and spending it in cairo. thats in egypt.) at 4:45pm this afternoon - with a 7 hr time difference to the east coast. those on the west coast can do their own mental math. i went through paris and after the amount of time and effort my parents put into preparing me to miss my transfer flight in paris, i was almost disapointed when i had absolutely no trouble getting to my plane on time. life is so cruel. but i slept. a lot. and pretended i knew french for most of the trip which worked pretty well unless the ppl expected me to respond to them.

stewardess: -incomprehensible frenchy babble-
rachel: -smiles. nods. feels ridiculously sophisticated. considers buying a cigarette just to complete the image-
stewardess: -pauses and looks on expectantly-
rachel: -continues to smile until pause reaches awkward length-
stewardess: -more frenchy babble, presumably along the lines of, "whats wrong with you woman! answer the damn question!"-
rachel: -finally realizes the stewardess wants an answer. looks around frantically. makes rolling dive for the exit-

cairo is beauuutiful. looks suspiciously like riyadh. less dry. very hot. it has that same chaotic feel to it, like nobody really knows quite what theyre doing, but theyre doing it anyway bc also, nobody really cares. and i understood arabic at the airport!!! -patpat patpat- of course, despite understanding it, i didnt speak any of it. nope. not a word. when i had to get my luggage i went looking for a cart, and found a bunch but there was this official-ish looking guy sitting in a desk next to them so i wasnt sure whether or not i had to rent the cart, or if i could just take it. and i didnt really want to start out my cairo experience by being wrestled to the ground by the poor cart owner whose children would go dinner-less tonight bc the stingy american female stole his cart. (and i was sure he would call me "imrah" in his stories. "al-imrah al-amrikia al-stingia") and so, to avoid said situation, i went to talk to the cart guy. of course he didnt speak english. so he called over his friend, who also didnt understand my question. so he called over another guy, who also didnt understand my question. no big deal. we were all enjoying the absurdity of the situation blah blah blah, total incomprehension on both sides. mind you, i know how to say "to rent" in arabic. i fact, i know EXACTLY how to say "do i need to rent this?" admittedly i dont know the word for cart, but i feel like i could have gotten around that one. now you may ask, why then did i not simply ask in arabic? i have a theory. maybe thats how middlebury keeps ppl coming back. along with brainwashing us to kill world leaders at certain times as was the general consensus of students actually at middlebury, they also brainwash us so we cant actual use any of the arabic we know. we can just repeat things over and over in english at a gradually increasing volume until we give up and walk away in disgust left with nothing but the constant fear of angry cart owners hanging over us. it is a conspiracy.

moving on...i am now sitting in my apartment, which is quite nice actually. view of the nile from the window :) if you have a webcam i can give you a virtual tour if you im me and i like you enough. nice big living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. and did i mention one of the girls actually arranged some fashion "101 sex tricks to try before you die" magazines on the livingroom table? cute. one problem - there are 6 girls, 5 beds. and i was the last one to get here so i am, at least for now, bedless. maybe ill buy a blowup mattress and set it up in the corner, ghetto-style. actually the bed isnt so much the issue as the clothing space... but i will manage. somehow. inshaallah. -cue dramatic music- on my way to the apt my driver says, "now we are crossing al-whatever street and after that we will reach Garden City (where my apt is). Inshaallah". i was like..yes i will commense prayer immediately in the hopes that god will not move the district before we get there. awesome.

ok children i feel like i have droned on for long enough. im listening to architecture in helsinki. and i think i might sleep on the couch. miss you all muchly-