Finally here!!!

I am in Egypt!!! Sorry this took so long to write, but we had a hectic trip getting over here. We were delayed about 10 hours in total. First, our flight was delayed 3 hours going out of Boston because of the volcano. Stupid Iceland. They don't contribute anything useful to society except Bjork (who isn't really awesome) and then WABAM! They jam up world travel for like 2 months. Cool. I really appreciate that. And because that flight was late, we missed our connection to Cairo. We had to wait 5 hours for the next flight and then guess what?! We got delayed again! This time it was from 3:30 to 7:10. It really was a group bonding experience. That much time in the Frankfurt airport really messes with your brain, like by telling you it is OK to by 8 dollar hagen daaz (how do you spell that?).
Anyways, we got here. That is really what matters. Yesterday we had our first full day in Cairo. We did a walking tour of Zamalek. Zamalek is just an area, kinda like the Manhattan of Cairo. I thought it was going to be a lot nicer than it actually is, but I am totally OK with that. After that, we went back and rested for a little bit and then we had our first Arabic assessment. It was SOOO stressful. Most of us are at the same level technically, but some teachers work on different things than others do so we all know different things. But we are learning the Egyptian dialect, which is way different than the Modern Standard that we learn in school, so that levels the playing field a little bit. Needless to say, I feel very unprepared. It takes a lot of confidence that I just don't have yet. I still don't even feel like I am pronouncing things right. I'm sure it will all work out though.

Today, we went to the PYRAMIDS!!!!!!!! It was so amazing. Our group of fourty, all the arabic language, photography, and engineers combined, all rode camels. I have no idea how one place can even have that many camels. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I know, I know, it's really cliche, but things are cliche for a reason, because they are awesome. I am convinced that no picture can ever capture the pyramids. They are so amazing in person. After the pyramids, we went to the sphynx, which is actually like 100 feet from the pyramids. It was cool I guess. There were SO MANY tourists. Which we are so I guess we shouldn't be complaining, especially since we were in a group of about 50 in total. I need to read more about it to appreciate it. After, we went to the Egyptian Papyrus Museum, which is not a museum. It is actually a store but it was really cool cause we got demonstrations of how they make it and everything. And because they love our professor leading the trip, we got 50% off the whole store. That was cool. Then we went to a "typical" middle eastern lunch in Giza. It was cool but very touristy. I prefer getting off the beaten trail. Now, I am just sitting in our hotel, about to get ready to go out tonight. It is an arabic Language guy's birthday today so we are going to celebrate for that. Then we start classes tomorrow morning at 9! AHH!

So....ya. Thats all I can really think to say right now. I am trying to figure out how to upload pictures onto this, so I will let you all know when I can do that. Otherwise just check out my facebook if you can.
XOXO
Katie