Winterbreak

 

From Dahab to winterbreak, how is that possible? I can't think of any specific reason why I haven't been very active on my own dearest blog, but don't worry, every impression I got in Egypt, can be reproduced here in words. To not bore you to death I'll stick to some highlights for now:

Tanned as we were, we had to make an entrance in After Eight, a bar in Downtown we visit once in a while. The dresscode, which only me and Deirdre stuck by, was: WHITE !

Two white rabbits, me and Didi.

Yep, face it girls. Mizo is still interested in me.

Deirdre, Miranda, and then; is Annabell next or Mark?

Little sweaty from dancing...another reason to wear white!

 

Later that week I attented a pretty nice Jazz concert at the Junaina Theatre at Azhar Park. Nice location. Nice musicians (from all over the world). And I did my best to be a  nice piece of audiance. I have a few records from the concert, but I didn't manage to put them on here, so you'll have to take my word for it.

A few hours later I got some henna painted on my hand. The henna that eventually ended up on my face (no picture available!) was my own fault. When I went to bed, the henna wasn't completely dried up and I eventually slept on my hand. So as you've guessed: I got twice the henna for the same price. I could only start laughing about it though when I got all of it off after I rubbed five lemons on it.

Jan, me and Tala

Henna

 

The next few days or weeks, we sometimes chose for a quiet evening at home with the girlzzzz, where we'd watch a movie on MBC 4 (our most favorite channel for the moment; they have Desperate housewives!). But sometimes.....we wanted ACTION!

So we went to Dreampark , a not so small animation park, to get ourselves dizzy. Jolly, did we had some fun there! Mark, Filip and Ali represented the male company for that day, but actually Deirdre, Lene and myself represented the real balls! We tried almost everything that was fast and furious. The guys watched carefully and saw we were ok... ;)

Easy starter, the pirate boat...a classic, isn't it.

Filip and Mark took the dare to enter the ....ooooo teacups!

Top row from the left: Lene, me and Deirdre.

Were we dizzy afterwards?

I think so...

 

Fi layla min ellayali, we went to the Derwish dances, quite a nice spectacle. For those who don't know it; these are Sufi's who dance until they come in a state of trance and become one with Allah. The show may have been a little shorter, but hey, I'm not complaining, we've got a new and free experience.

 

But then there were exams. No stopping to the fun however. We motivated eachother with watching movies, eating healthy vegetables though followed by chocolat. Time to continue this pattern of delicious food; we're heading back home for Christmas and newyear!

Personally I'm passing as well by Tunisia, bledi, which is a treat from my dear mommy...Don't we love her ?

Tomorrow i'm leaving Cairo for four weeks or so. It has been nice, but time for a break. And i'm totally ready, jihaaaaa!

Dahab, memories of gold!

 

A couple of weeks ago, when the late streets of Cairo were getting a little chilly, we decided to spend our holidays  in Dahab, a small coast town at the Red Sea. Leaving early in the morning, Deirdre, Dorien, Jan, Cindy and myself, we almost froze to death in the bus that brought us to Dahab (which still is better than looking into the eye of death like we did on the way back home). About 9 hours later we arrived in Dahab where we took ourselves a pick-up truck to drive us to our charming hotel, Pearl of the South Sinai.

Deirdre, the most beautiful amongst the swans!

As we were planning to take a trip through the desert the next few days, we started our search to the ones that had the best offer in town. In the end Jan, Cindy and Dorien decided to take a very promising two-days jeep/camel tour through the desert whilst me and Deirdre chose a slightly cheaper and also very promising offer. All this discussing made us hungry, and we enjoyed some nice fresh fish followed by a not so delicious home made tiramisu (shame on them!!).  No comment on the "hot and cold" though...

Full of enthousiasm me and little Derdera got into the minibus that would take us to the desert. A true bedouin, Ied Saied, was awaiting us with two of his camels.

Then we set off for a quiet and peaceful trip through the stretched out desert of the Sinaï, making me and Deidre contemplate about life...(or about how our underwear got stuck somewhere...)

A few hours later we settled at an idyllic spot, where our personal bedouin prepared us lunch. And when men are cooking, women should rest...

 

 

 

Then, totally unexpected, we had to climb the canyons that were ahead of us. (You said we were going to SEE them not CLIMB them!). Off course, I didn't pack the right shoewear, but call me adventurous and courageous; I made it! From time to time Ied, the bedouin, had to give a little push but honestly, I have erased that from my memory.

I'm ok!

I'm not ok!!

Don't worry, Ied is right behind you!

Let's say that afterwards I was happy to be on my camel again!

Soooo cute! (the camel, i mean)

We contemplated some more through the blistering sands of the desert thinking about how we had completely outdone ourselves (So proud of you Deirdre!) climbing between those narrow places. A little later we arrived in the bedouin village, where we had to spend the night. At 5 p.m the sun had set and after some macaroni, cola (!) and HIBISCUS tea, we went of to "bed", as in a tiny little matress on the floor. We first were brave enough to go to the "toilet" (thank God for the existence of moist tissues!!) and then we enjoyed watching the falling stars. After rejecting the bedouin that wanted to keep us warm that night, we got into our hut for a quite unpeaceful night ahead of us.

By unpeaceful you should picture two dogs wanting to play with us in the middle of the darkest night ever! Us, thinking it were wolves, grabbed on to eachother and said some prayers...

Barra, Warda, BARRA, I sometimes shout when I have nightmares...

The next day we climbed some more canyons (piece of cake, ha!) and then we headed back home, home sweet Dahab. Determined to go to the beach the same day, we slipped into our bathing suits and felt the first sand between our tows.

 

And we went back the next day, and the day after that and the day after that...

So daytime was preserved for tanning, nighttime was devoted to eating and dancing!! We had so much fun, even some extra fun when Lene, Annabell and Miranda arrived, that we didn't wanted to leave... The day before we left we went snorkling, which was amazing. Some of us almost drowned, some of us left something behind in the water, some of us kissed the fish...

 

But after one week, all money and energy was spent so we had to go back to Cairo. One hell of a nightly busride later I got into my own bed but still hearing the waves of Dahab. To be repeated!!

Laatste activiteitjes

Laat mijn weekendse ziekte mij vooral niet weerhouden om jullie op de hoogte te houden van wat ik allemaal heb uitgespookt de laatste daagjes.

Vorige week maandag kregen we een soort gastcollege/workshop van Jan Hoogland, docent aan Universiteit van Nijmegen en Madiha Dos, docente aan de Universiteit van Cairo, die ons hebben ingeleid in het gebruik van 'amiyya ofwel dialect in het openbare leven van Marokko en de Egyptische literatuur. Interessant, maar geen wakkermakertje.

De volgende dagen gingen de lessen gewoon hun gangetje: mediateksten kwamen en gingen, een egyptisch woordje hier en daar, we leerden solliciteren in het Arabisch, luisterden gehoorzaam naar al-Jazeera en scandeerden dichtverzen van Ibn Sudun.

En helaas, donderdag kwamen de eerste grieperige trillingen. Maar ik volhardde, ging niet naar huis en bleef semi-actief in de klas. Flinke studente, die Sara? Ja, dat ook, maar wat belangrijker was, was het feestje van de Belgische ambassade later die avond. Ik kon de lessen niet skippen wegens ziekte en 's avonds op het feestje opdagen, hé. Héhéhé. En wat bleek nu, ik voelde me effectief veel beter die avond en het klasje ging naar de tuin der ambassadeurs in Giza. Drankjes, hapjes, Belgische pralines (!) en fantastische dansmuziek maakten een perfecte avond.

De dag erna vocht ik alweer tegen de krampjes, maar als wonder bij wonder was ik 's avonds alweer ready to go! Naar het optreden van Wust al-Balad, that is. Ja, je bent groupie of je bent het niet hé. En het was weer ontzettend mooie live muziek, in een overvol cultureel centurm, waar ik, Deirdre en Lene dan ook van genoten hebben.

Deirdre, Lene et moi

Een van de zangers van de band, Adham.

Zaterdagochtend ging het nogmaals richting Mugamma' om mijn re-entry visa in orde te brengen (want joepie, ik kom terug naar België!). Een paar uur later was ook dat in orde, en kon het genezingsproces in gang gezet worden. Na een paar motiliummekes, buscopannekes en dafalgannekes besloot ik het op te lossen door dodokes te doen. Na 12 uren slapen was ik terug de oude. Helaas lijkt mijn lichaam maar niet genoeg te krijgen van het slapen. Hoe lossen we dit nu weer op?

Feestje?

Quote of the day

 

Yesterday, after a fulfilling meal in one of the most famous Egyptian restaurants Abou el-Sid and a surprisingly yammie dessert which is called " Omm 'Ali ", we went to see a smackingly fun egyptian movie "Ahker Kalam". A night to remember, that's for sure, thanks to a new quote of the day.

Heading back home, some guy kept driving real slow beside me and my classmates Jana, Deirdre, Dorien and Lene, irritating us immensly. Wanting to get rid of him, I tried the "angry Sara" look which didn't seem to help. Then,when we wanted to cross the street, he stopped right in front of us. But it was 5 against 1; we had to win this one! We said; "inta 3ayez eeh (which could mean what's up with you) ??" and walked away with a lot of attitude, leaving "it" behind us.

Then Jana came up with the magnificent quote of the day; Whenever you have this problem, she said, you just have to say "inta 3ayez eeh?" and then walk away with a face like you just smelled shit...

No, it really did sounded better in Dutch. Dus tegen vervelende mannen zeggen we voortaan: Wa is da met u? en ge doet alsof ge kak geroken hebt...

Mi casa...

 

My last post was written quite a while ago, but since I didn't had internetaccess in my -oh so cozy- flat until today, I posted it now. Off course, what I called "newsflash" then can be called old news by now. The flat has been cleaned, decorated, fully equipped, given a personal touch and has welcomed a second housemate, Emmanuelle! I will introduce them to you soon, but first:

let me guide you through my crib:

small living room, very charming

big living room with tv (which obviously isn't on the picture, you'll have to take my word on this one ;) )

dining room

kitchen

bathroom

 

my room (if you look closely, you can see Joske is hanging around...)

my new lamp, my personal touch

 

please notice my tigerprinted sheets, made in Egypt :) !

Well, as you can see, I'm completely settled. Whoever likes the look of the flat, is welcome to visit! And if you're planning on staying for dinner, please bring your own refrigerator, because ours doesn't work and Egyptians aren't very hasty to come and fix it appearently...*sigh*...