To Egypt and Back

This lack of internet thing is driving me up the wall. I was supposed to have it back on Saturday and now thats been changed. Now its been moved to Friday. So another week of waiting. I really wish they would make up their minds as to what they want. And I found out why the internet was cut off. It wasn't because of this whole we are speeding up the connection thing like I thought it was before. It was because the numerous people who are on the connection haven't been paying their bills. So the company cut them off. But I found out the people who have to router and such in their house are collecting money from the people twice a month, once at the beginning and once at the end. Somewhere along the line leading up to paying the bill someone is stealing the money. But by Friday I will have internet again all because we paid more money. But I'm looking forward to having it again because I can talk to everyone from the house instead of from the sketchy internet cafe. But enough of that.

Today was interesting. I enjoyed it so much. I went and spent the day with my mom's brother and his family. Visiting with them is so relaxing and funny. I enjoy it so much. He's also the uncle that been taking me around and showing me the highlights of the city. Anyways, we went to his house early in the morning and had breakfast with them. Seriously, the best breakfast ever. At least it felt like it. My brother and I haven't been eating all that well at my mom's sisters place. Due to the fact that she can't cook and orders out always. Anyways, breakfast was traditional Egyptian food. And it tasted almost as good as my mom's cooking. Then after breakfast was visiting time and planning time as well. We planned what we would be doing for the rest of the day. It was nice just being able to relax and not feel like I was being pressured into having to say something. By the time we finished planning it was lunch time. Time sure flew with them. Lunch was also yummy. I'd share but I don't know the names of the food in English and if I did it would be gross and no one would talk to me again after know the things I eat. But yes moving on....After we ate that, I got jello. I haven't eaten jello in years. Gotta love those allergic reactions. But yes, I ate alot of jello. I think I'm over any jello cravings I may have had. Then after my jello craze, I fixed their internet. They have dial up. I forgot how slow it was. Not looking forward to having to go and put a program on to it. After that we were off. We took the metro again and ended up at the Nile. So much fun. We got to ride on a boat for a bit. Then walked across the bridge a few times. Grabbed something to drink and then sat in a park just enjoying the view. Before I knew it, it was 11 at night. So it was off to my aunt's place again. While on the train my brother tried jumping some guy. When we got over the apologizing to the man we asked why he did that. Turns out the man was trying to take my picture with his cell phone. So I gave the man the evil eye and got off the train. But tragically it wasn't all the sauve of a evil eye because man had a monsterous unibrow and I laughed. I'm horrible person but it couldn't have been helped the unibrow was too funny. Got home and talked to my mom for a bit. Made my cousin mad at me because everyone was telling her she should be more like me when it comes to school. Also,because her boy wasn't allowed to come with us to Alexandria when we went and a million other things that apparently happened during the day. Its been determined that she is just jealous of me and way to spoiled.

But that is my day. Hopefully the internet resolves itself soon. And I really need to have me some more adventures. Alexandria is next on the list of things to do. Then when I get back, I'm off to the pyramids for the day. I'm so excited for that. I got to see that stuff that was inside of them now I actually get to see them. Yay!!!

I have no internet at the moment. This is due to the fact that internet here is weird. Everyone in one area is on one connection. So, when they have enough new people they disconnect the internet add the new people and then speed up the connection. Once that is done, they reconnect the internet. It really really sucks because it means I have to come to a sketchy internet cafe jut to tell people that I'm not going to be on because of the lack of internet goodness at the house. So, this is going to be a few days worth of stuff.

I've been sick the last few days. Due to the food being strange. This has limited my going out and adventuring alot seeing as how for almost a week I was living in the bathroom of my aunt' apartment. To make it even better, my brother had the same thing I did. So we had to share said washroom. So it always worked out that we would need to use it at the same time. This meant that one of us had to wait while the other was in there. That person who did the waiting was me. I'm going to say that the waiting made me get better faster. He's still sick and I'm not. Wooohooo!!!!

So once I was better I was out of the house. First on the list was to visit one of my favorite places here. Its a rather dreamy place. This place is a bakery called Venice Bakery. My mom grew up dowm the street from this place and went there everyday for breakfast. And it was/is tradition for me to get breakfast from there when I'm here. Tragically I can't go everyday. So, I buy enough to last me a week and make it a weekly adventure. It smells so good inside this place. Not only does it smell good, you get to try everything that makes the place smell so yummy. So as you are standing around the people who work there give you a piece of everything. I know its a marketing thing and it works becaues I can't pass up free food. Especially good free food. So, when I went there I made sure that I hadn't eaten anything before hand. And had bakery food for lunch. Yum...

Then it wa off to my second favorite place which was just across the street. Itwas another bakery. Not a bakery of breads and such but a bakery of sweets that are traditional to here. Sadly, I didn't have any of that stuff. I had ice cream. But its not like the ice cream like in Canada. Its made from homemade yogurt. It was awesome. After that it was off to home for me. Where I spent the rest of my Friday.

Saturday I was hoping would be a home day. My cousin had a final that day. We were planning on going to the bazaar street in the early evening with her boy. Tragically boy was late and we didn't want to go but went anyways. We left the house at 9:30pm. Boy was an hour and a half late. Then he promptly got lost on the way there. What should have been a 25 minute drive turned into 2 hours because he didn't know the way. Then he went to find a friend to help him find the place, his friend didn't know the way either. Joy....When we got there we went to a little cafe and had something cold to drink. Which turned my stomach a bit. We sat there for an hour then it was off to home. While we were sitting there enjoying our drinks, people were coming up to us trying to sell some stuff or to jut plain beg for money. Things they were selling were small packets of klennex, necklaces, wallets, henna tattoos and bongs. It was funny. One lady came by with her daughter and put peanuts on our table and then proceeded to beg for money. This lady was a professional begger you could tell because she brought her daughter and was milking it for all it was worth. But you could see under her beggar clothes some jewllery that she was wearing. It was funny. Anyways, as we were sitting there, she got her daughter to blow kisses. First to my brother then to me then to the boy and the friend he had went to to ask for directions. Then the kid came back to me and wouldn't stop. We all thought it was funny and gave the lady 1 pound, which is alot here. My brother on the other had gave her 10. He didn't realize the mistake he made. Because beggars here talk. So the lady left, told all the other beggars and they all proceeded to come. We were bombarded. Not fun. Took us an hour just to extract ourselves from the cafe. My brother got a talking to from me. And then this part made me mad, my cousins boy and his friend decided that they needed to do this as well. So once they were done, I was like punks he knows already. Then I told boy he was taking us home because he was really rude and disrespectful to people that he had just met. Took the boy an hour to find the way home. As you can tell I am not impressed with this boy. My cousin wants to marry him. She's 19 and he's 21. She's changes her personality when she' with him to something she's not. It drives me up the wall. He is horrible to her. He get frustrated when she forgets something, or when she doesn't understand something he's talking about. I seriously must have driven him up the wall with my broken arabic. Anyways, after the night was over my aunt asked me what I thought of said boy so I told her. She was happy that I told her what I thought and she's hoping my cousin will grow up and realize that the first boy who looks at her doesn't really mean its the guy she's going to marry. My grandma on the other hand thinks he's a gift from God and happy that he wants to marry my cousin. I'm hoping for the growing up part myself.

Sunday was a day with my uncle. Went to his house for the afternoon and had lunch. His granddaughter fell in love with me. They were all shocked by such a thing. She normally doens't take to anyone who isn't her mother. But she was all over me. This made my grandma realize that I attract kids well because my other cousin did the same thing. My grandma got made at me for studying forensics and said I should get a job with children. Anyways, I left my uncles house practically after I ate. There were multiple reasons for this. One, aunt's husband was leaving for Saudi Arabia and I wante to say bye to him. Two, my mom was gonna call in 15 minutes. And three, I don't like my uncle's wife or his eldest daughter overly much. They both insist on laughing at my broken accented Arabic. Which I find annoying because it is difficult for me to make sene sometimes and when you laugh it makes things worse. So I pulled an eat an run thingy. I'll get to see my uncle again on Sunday. I'm excited for that.

Today was another adventure filled day. I rode a micro bus, then the metro so as to get to the Museum. I got to see mummies today. So much fun. Tragically no pictures. I seriously think the police here are thinking that I am going to blow something up. THey took my camera away from me this time. Gave my a number and said I could pick it up on my way out. Sad because there was so much cool stuff inside and so many things that we did that were picture worthy. Like my coffin climbing. I took a nap in a coffin. It was so hard not to. Probably one of the more comfortable places that I have fallen asleep too. Ohhh I forgot to mention. It only cost me 2 Egyptian pounds to get in. I was able to get in for the Egyptian price. Tragic for my brother though. It cost him 50 Egyptian pound to get in. The guard said if he spoke arabic he could get in for cheap. Tragically he doesn't I was saddened by this. Here's hoping that the next place we go will be like your parents are Egyptian then so are you. But yes, I spent 5 hours in the museum and have only 2 pictures to show of it. But for all anyones knows I could have taken those 2 anywhere because they are outside. Le sigh....

Last night, I some how acquired 11 mosquito bites. One of these happen to be on the bottom of my right foot. My grandma and cousin didn't get bit once. I think because its foreign blood that the mosquito's are all like ohh something different and attacking me. My left had is swollen and there is only 2 bite on it. Not impressed at all.

Anyways, I'm out. This place is pure sketch. And the 's' doesn't work at all. I have to pound on it to make it work. So hopefully, I get internet sooner rather then later. Saturday can't come fast enough...

So I went to the Palace of Mohammed Ali. Must say I can't remember a thing about being there. But I took pictures and they make me remember how much fun it was.

I was supposed to go to bed early the night before I was to go to the palace. But, my uncle showed up at 10 at night. And well I had to visit with him because that was th first time I had seen him this trip. So I visited and then all of a sudden it was 12:30. So he left and we were hungry so we ordered food and ate. And then it was 2:00 am and then I was like bedtime. So I slept at 2:30. I had to be up at 7:30am. So five hours of sleep. Which isn't as fun as it sounds. So I woke up and went to wake my brother and cousin up. And as soon as I got them awake, they fell asleep again. So I went into my room to get my stuff and all of a sudden it was 9 am. I fell asleep and don't remember it happening. All I remember is hearing my uncles voice and running to get into the shower. once that was done, I woke my brother and cousin up again. Ate breakfast and then was off. We took a taxi there. The taxi system is different here. Instead of getting in and then charging you a fare they barter a price. So the rider offers a price after saying where they want to go and then the driver offers a counter price and then they negotiate. So my trip to the palace was 10 egyptian pounds, which is practically pennies there. So taxi's here are dirt cheap. Which is nice.

When we got there, we had to go through security and then pay and then go through security again. Anyways, while we were paying, my brother and I were told not to say anything. So my uncle paid for us to get into the palace and it cost 2 Egyptian pounds. As we were going through the second set of security checks, a lady asked me where I was from so I said Egypt, of course I said it n Arabic. She was happy, then she asked my brother. And well he just looked at her. So she asked him again and he continued to just look at her. She asked him 2 more times and as she was asking I was saying Egypt, Egypt Egypt. Finally my brother got fedup with not understanding what she was saying. He turned to me and and asked me what she was saying. That made the lady point to me and my brother and say these two aren't from Egypt. My uncle was like no they are from here they are my sister's children. Then a man came up and was like do they live here? ANd my uncle told him no we didn't. The man said they have to be living here in order to be from here and we had to go and buy a tourist priced ticket. But then the man saw that we had paid for one ticket each already and said that we only had to buy two half tickets. A tourist ticket costs 40 Egyptian pounds. So I had to pay 20 pounds for me and 20 pounds for my brother. Which isn't that bad but it is all at the same time. I was hoping to have things cheap. So, I now have to carry my citizenship papers with me. Which isn't fun because its so much paper. But if it means getting into places cheaper then so be it.

I don't really remember much about the palace. Mainly because I was practically sleep walking. All I know is that I had fun. I know this because when I look at the pictures I'm like oh man that was fun and awesome. I do remember being scared though. We walked past the jail area of the palace. And I grabbed onto the bars of one of the cells while I was talking to my cousin. I was telling him a story about how the last time I was here I walked into the cell that I was holding on to and then closed the door behind me. Which made me lock myself in the cell. And as I was telling him this story I looked into the cell really quickly and then looked back at him. This quick little look lead to my being scared. That is because there was a man in the cell. He was just sitting there. I thought he was going to jump me or something so I pulled my hand back to save myself. My being scared, scared my cousin. When we both had the courage to look again, we saw that the man wasn't a man but a mannequin. So I had a heart attack for no reason other then an over active imagination. I also remember a green dress. I went into a mosque while I was there. Apparently I was showing too much cleavage. When I went in I saw a lady who was wearing a practically no shirt. It made me sad that tourists could get away with soemthing like that. But what can you do. And I remember the dude who was follwing me around. He scared me. My cousin was gonna beat him. iI pointed him out to my uncle and he spoke to him. Turns out the man was working. He was dressed in street clothes and pretending to take in the scenery. But really he was a cop. Go figure.

But other then that I don't really remember much about the day. I had a nap. Thoguht it would make me feel better but it didn't.

So yesterday I didn't really do much. Due to the fact that we were spending time with my uncle. And one of my cousins was studying for finals with her friend at the friends house. Then in the evening my cousins decided to give me a taste of Canada. Its was boring. I was like but I'm in Egypt and want Egyptian food.

So yeah, we went out after we picked up my cousin. we came back to the apartment so she could pick up some money from her mom so she'd have some with her for the evening. As her and I were sitting in the car, my brother and her brother went upstairs to get the money, something scary happened. we were sitting in the car and a man ran by us with a big stick. It was pure sketch. The man was cursing and running around, and his friend was holding him back. We were like oh my goodness. Then all of a sudden a man came up and jumped him from behind. There was a fight in the streets. Then this lady came along and was like go home you are nothing but a bunch of children. It was funny that it took a lady to break up a fight. Scary because it was a fight in the street and it involved sticks and belts and rocks. Once that broke up we were off to the mall again. The only reason we went was because my cousins wanted to give me a taste of home. They took my to Starbucks. Yay for coffee. That was pretty much all we did out. Then we got home and was like hmmm food. So we ordered KFC. Even more of a taste of home.

Then later that night, we were sitting upstairs watching a movie and the all of sudden we hear screaming from outside. This person has been screaming on the streets since I got here. Apparently he has been doing it for the last year. And people have been giving him money to make him go away. And well last night, everyone got fed up. So it started with some people telling him to go away. Then all off a sudden someone yelled at him for a few mintues and the man on the streets then threw himself onto the ground and started pounding his head on the street. After that when people came out to see if he was okay he took off down the street. Then the people were like come back and get your stuff. But he didn't, he sat on the corner and ried a bit. Finally he came back grabbed his stuff and the people tried to grab him. They were telling him they were going to call the police on him and send him somewhere better. But the man was like no and took off again. The man comes around at 3am and wakes everyone up. He didn't deserve what happened to him the street. But it wasn't right that he come and wake an entire street up. He hasn't come by yet today. But its only 10 pm at the moment. So we'll see. Still a few hours to go.

Tomorrow I am off to the palace of King Mohammed Ali. I'm excited.

So today wasn't overly eventful. Minus the fact that I got wet randomly. Let me start from the beginning.

After spending the afternoon with my uncle, my cousins decided to take me out to the mall for a bit. Just to show me how much the city has chaned since last I was here. So we went to the mall and wandered around for a bit. The mall has 8 floors. I was shocked. So I and my brother tried to take a picture of this. Then the police officer came up to us and told us to stop because it wasn't allowed. My cousins told me that they let the tourist and he only stopped us because we looked Egyptian. I laughed at this. So m brother and I went down one floor and took the picture. Then we reaized the police officer thought we were taking pictures so as to bomb the mall or something. So we laughed some more. Then it was off from there for some food. We ate some Traditional food, ie donairs. Then we decided to leave. As we were walking to the car, I decided to step on something. This someting was the water system that they use to water the grass. Anyways, I go and step on it and it breaks. My fat foot broke it and I ended up getting wet and I splashed my cousin. My other cousin laughed at me so not even five mminutes later, he steps in a giant mud puddle that formed from the grass being watered. He gets his white pants all covered in mud. Thats what happens when you laugh at me.

Then they took me out for a drive. I got to see some of the city and where my mom lived after she had been evacuated from Suez during the war. So we took pictures of that to send her.

But yes, that was the high light of my day. The water was rather refreshing in the crazy heat.