Holiday Season Recap

Well, the holidays came and went and I hardly noticed. I suppose that's what happens when Christmas songs are not forced upon me for two months solid. I spent Christmas Eve with some friends, and there was much eating, drinking, and merry-making. Christmas day I spent with Sherif. Santa ate the cookies I left out for him, but was disappointed by the lack of beer or milk. In place of a Christmas tree, I went out and bought some poinsettias, and pretty much skipped the gift-giving entirely. Alone for most of the day, I spent a good deal of Christmas Day crying and missing my family, but felt much better once Sherif showed up. We went out to dinner and saw an Arabic movie together, called Amir al-Bahr (Prince of the Sea). I didn't understand 98% of it, but it was a comedy with a simple enough plot that understanding the language was not entirely necessary.

On the 27th I left for Paris to spend New Year's Eve with some Hampshire friends-- Ellen, Max and Chris. Chris is from Paris, and his family was nice enough to let us all stay at their house. I don't know how we crammed so much stuff into one week. As soon as I arrived, we walked down to the Christmas market for some hot wine. We crossed the Seine river and saw the church of Saint Germain l'Auxerrois. Somewhere along the way we ran into a Gaza protest, where there were more police and riot cops than I care to be around. We took the metro to Montmartre, where we climbed some steep steps that seemed to go on forever until we reached the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. We also went to Moulin Rouge and looked at sexy things, then smoked shisha at a place called The Prince? with a question mark.

Dec. 28 - Chris, Ellen and I went to the Louvre. We all got in for free. Chris, for being a French citizen, and Ellen and I because some woman came up and gave us her tickets. The Louvre was amazing. The statues were my favorite. Pictures are on facebook. We went to the Egypt exhibit (because I don't see enough of Egypt!), and on our way out, we ran into the Venus de Milo quite by accident. Afterward we met up with Max and went to a cafe on the Seine, followed by happy hour at the Fumoir. That night we went to a boat party, which turned out to be full primarily of drunk high school students. I was definitely the oldest person there. Still, we had a good time. I learned how to say "I am from America" and "Where is the crepe?" in French. I was quite proud of myself. We got a little lost on the way home, and wandered about in the rain for awhile. Cold and rain are two weather conditions that I am not used to in Egypt, and to have them both together was a bit of a shock to my system.

Dec. 29 - Ellen, Max and I went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where Ellen kissed the grave of Oscar Wilde. After some happy hour cocktails and chocolate croissants, we went home. There, I met Najiba, a friend of Chris's family. She's from Algeria and didn't speak English, so we chatted entirely in Arabic. Our Arabic was at about the same level, which made it much easier to communicate. We both tripped over our Fusha, but ultimately did a pretty good job of communicating. That night, I met up with my friends Julia and Katrina who I went to Morocco with in the summer of 2008. Julia's also from France and knows Chris's family. (It seems like every time I travel abroad, I meet someone who knows Chris. Here in Cairo, I met a girl who used to date his brother). Anyway, it was really awesome to see them again. We reminisced about all the crazy stuff we did in Morocco. Also ran into a few brawls in the street and possibly saw a dead body. Paris is a scary place at night.
Dec. 30 - Saw the Eiffel Tower with Ellen and Chris, then went to an English-language bookstore. That night we went out with Chris's friend Helene to her favorite bar (where we drank mojitos straight out of a pitcher) with Chris's brother and another girl from Cairo.
New Year's Eve - Max and I went to the Museum of Islamic Art with Najiba. I got to practice my Arabic some more and see some really cool stuff. That night there was a cocktail party at Chris's house. I pigged out on foie gras, shrimp and champagne. Afterward we went to a party at Helene's house, where I felt much more in my element. I met a lot of really cool people and got plenty of kisses at midnight.
Jan. 1 - We took it easy on New Year's Day. We woke up late and ate some eggs at home (no black eyed peas or collard greens, unfortunately). I read for most of the day, then we went to a carnival at the grand palace. Max and I pwned everyone at bumper cars, but I skipped the rest of the rides because they were so ridiculously expensive (7 euros to be spun around upside-down? No thanks!). Max and I got some McDonalds (French McDonalds is tasty!) on the way to a fondue restaurant where we met Chris's family for dinner. We all ate way too much and passed out pretty much as soon as we got home.
Jan. 2 - Max and Chris left early in the morning to go back to the states, so Ellen and I had a shopping day just the two of us. My goal was to find some shoes, since Egypt does not carry my size, but I quickly found that Paris doesn't either. One guy literally started laughing at me when I told him how big my feet were.
Jan. 3 - Ellen left early for the states. I love my friends, but they are not always good about communication, which meant that I was accidentally staying with Chris's family by myself for 24 hours. I felt like I was overstaying my welcome, but they were super nice about it. I finished the book I was reading, did some exploring on my own (kind of terrifying), and went out to a bar with Julia, Chris's sister. The bar we went to was really strange and a lot of fun. They had board games to play with, they served their drinks in baby bottles, and instead of peanuts they gave us candy to snack on.
Jan. 4 - Somehow managed to make my way to the airport by myself, knowing only a few words in French. When I got home to Cairo five hours later, I discovered that both the electricity and the water had been cut off. My fridge was full of nasty rotting food and there was a giant cockroach lurking in the kitchen. What a welcome home! Fortunatley, I got all that fixed fairly quickly.

Mom arrived in Cairo the next day, but I'm going to save our adventures for another post!