Oh the irony...

so if i have one issue with cairo (and i do. in fact i have more than one issue. but lets not get into that now), its gotta be this: i have work. work? you ask

ok before i go on with this id like to point out how awkward that sentence is. really, the question mark should go after the word "work". however, when i say that sentence, the voice inflection comes at the end of the sentence. hm. dilemma. moving on...

work you ask? what is this thing called work? now i totally understand where youre coming from bc that is EXACTLY what i said - and i am equally confused. to be honest, i dont think ive had actual real day-to-day work since...well...(if this was a conversation there would be an awkward pause here because i literally cant remember when the last time was. it couldnt have been highschool...could it?) anyway suffice to say im used to having mamoth papers or presentations, which allow for relaxation during a procrastination period, followed by a frantic day/few days/mumkin a week of actual necessary work. now at middlebury i did have hw due everyday, but the hw was easy enough that i could squeeze the natural pattern, ie total lack of brain function for most of the day after class followed by a reluctant semi-focused period when the hw got done, into the single day where i wouldnt actually have to start work until 11pm. and even after that id still be in bed by a reasonable hour. i know. mad skills, right? cairo, however, seems determined to disrupt my natural student behavior. i have arabic hw every.single.day. and more, bc i have chosen the masochistic route once again, the hw is actually difficult (read: impossible, and will continue to be impossible until i catch up the 5 chapters i am behind) and when i start it at 11pm, i am unable to get my required 8hrs of sleep. oh no. as has been proven the last couple of nights, starting hw at 11pm when you have 8am class leaves you 5 hrs of sleep tops, and makes you a generally bitter person.

so, with the help of my well-honed powers of perception, i have come to the realization that this is part of auc's conspiracy to suck the fun out the lives of young americans everywhere. and its working! bc i have started (and this is horrible) readjusting my schedule to allow more time for work. i know i know. im so ashamed. but how ironic is it that its going to take auc to teach me time management skills. oh stanford. how i do miss thee.

anyway...so today was exciting. 8am three hour arabic class. pain. we had to bring in pictures to practice using a certain grammatical structure, and i brought in my 10th grade prom picture of me and taha. random, what? taha was, still is i suppose, this gorgeous pakistani boy....-dreamy sigh-. havent talked to him in a while. we made quite an attractive couple though i must say...following this i went to sign up to take a trip to alexandria next weekend (yes my life is ridiculously awesome) but when i got there and tried to pay the $54 fee to go on the trip - this includes the hotel room, food and transportation btw. third world countries are fun - i reach into my purse to get out my wallet and dum dum dummm my wallet isnt there. i am absolutely certain the level of panic i experienced upon this discovery cost me at least 6 days my life. god had originally planned that i would die on a wednesday. now, unfortunately, im going to die on the thursday before that. watch that friday be the day they discover that dinosaurs never actually went extinct and instead have been living in caves underground, maliciously controlling the oil supply. "ha! they think theyve run out of oil. look at them squirm."

anyway it turns out my wallet fell out of my bag in my arabic class. i found it lying on the floor in the empty classroom, waheeda. thank god i stopped to check in the classroom before heading back to the apartment - i doubt it would have stayed lonely for long and some very lucky janitor would have found himself with a bit extra spending money as well as my credit cards, drivers licence and all 3 of my auc student ids which would have taken bloody FOREVER to replace. so yes. al-humdilallah i managed to avoid this particular catastrophe. althogh i would have gotten to have one of those hysterical scenes where someone has to throw a glass of cold water at me.... ive never gotten one of those. oh well maybe next time.

so post-wallet recovery i finally got around to going to check out this potential gym membership they apparently have at the ramses hilton here. ive been avoiding it bc, despite the hotel being within sight of the university, it is impossible to walk there without getting run over. scientifically proven to be impossible. so i need to take a taxi and id never gotten a taxi by myself before and i was kind of scared... but after the terror of losing my wallet, the fear of being raped and sold into the eastern european sex trade seemed petty in comparison. of course my taxi driver once again didnt really seem to know where he was going beyond being sure that he should not be going in the direction i could have sworn the ramses hilton was in... no big. i sort of sat back and figured that getting lost in cairo by yourself was just one of those experiences every girl should have. i did eventually get dropped off at a hilton... im not sure it was the right one. their membership didnt include use of their pool which is a must though, and i dont know if i can pass as a guest for a full year. youd think someone would get suspicious. here's hoping all white ppl look alike. anyway i had lunch by myself in a restaurant near the hilton and the waiters were really nice to me... they were probably hoping id take one of them home or something. and then i got jipped by a goorgeous taxi driver on the way home. but i forgave, because im willing to spend an extra dollar to buy that smile. wow. maybe i was a creepy old man in my past life.

and tonight we're doing greek food in a rooftop restaurant with the guys (apparently we have a "the guys" now?) and then our supposedly-weekly falucca boat ride. and then no class till 3pm tomorrow... things are looking up.

ps- the good witch of the north by everclear. that is all.