Linda of Arabia

I thought I'd throw in at least one cheesy title since I didn't go with a cutesy blog name. I hope you don't mind.

It's been a while since I last posted since I've been out of Cairo since Wednesday. We went to Siwa, which is an oasis in the Sahara desert in Western Egypt (about 40 miles from Libya). The bus ride was 11 hours and felt longer, but it was so beautiful. Our hotel was gorgeous--it had beds with fuscia mosquito netting; an open courtyard so that you could see the stars; and no electricity, so we had to depend on our kerosene lanterns.

On Thursday the group went into town to see the various sights, but about 8 of us stayed back to relax. I had my arabic midterm the day before, so it was nice to give my brain a break. We swam in the pool, chatted, and relaxed. It was beautiful. Later that night we walked into town and climbed castle rock to see the sunset.

Friday we had a desert safari, which was incredibly cool. We got into five different land rovers, and sped through the desert hills of the Sahara. We got out at a couple of spots, rolled down the hills, took pictures, climbed around, and got sand in absolutely every place possible. My camera got some sand in it so that the shutter wouldn't close, but my amazing intern Steve fixed it in the bus. Woohoo!

We also went to see/swim in some of the natural cold and hot springs. It was amazing to see desert for miles all around, and then to find these lakes in the middle. The wind forms some pretty sweet and steep dunes, andwe had the awesome bedouin driver who went down the steep hills fast fast fast. The girls behind me didn't care for it, but I had a fantastic time.

Later that night we went to a Bedouin camp where we had dinner in their tent, enjoyed a bonfire, and slept underneath the stars. About four or five dirty stray dogs surrounded our blankets all night, but if you pretended that they weren't there, it was a grand time. I got bitten alive by mosquitoes, but watching the sunrise over the Sahara was pretty sweet.

Tonight our MESP group is going to a soccer/football game in Cairo. It's the semi-finals of the African Cup and I think that it's Egypt vs. Libya. Cairo stadium holds 80,000 people, and it should be highly entertaining to see that many rowdy Egyptians rooting for one team. I'll try to post some pictures of all of these adventures tomorrow during open villa if I get the chance. But for tonight, go Egypt!