Adventures in the Sinai Peninsular

Epic. An 11-hour overnight bus ride gave way to blue skies, clear seas, hours spent lounging on beach-side cushions drinking juice, fresh calamari, snorkeling and generally making the most of the long weekend. The only time we left Dahab was for the overnight climb of Mt Sinai and the view of the sunrise at 2200km up. The 9-hour overnight bus ride back to Cairo has left me needing sleep, pizza and movies, in some kind of order.

Alexandria

This past weekend saw a potential morning spent in bed exchanged for a trip to the Mediterranean coast and the promise of cool sea breezes and good seafood. I had forgotten the smell of the sea after moving around for so much of this year; future trips will have to be arranged. The only downside? Making friends with the insect community after sleeping next to the window...

Mmm, tasty.

The greatest and best banana juice in the world - apples and ice-cream as standard.

I'm still determining if this sign is offensive or hilarious.

Seriously, I could do with some sleep

Yesterday was a big day...

- Made the last few alterations to the first website I was helping to put together at work, so it should be launched soon;
- Won another game of scrabble with my increasingly fresh scrabble skillz;
- Nearly won the 2nd game as well - after languishing in last place the whole game I jumped into the lead with a well-placed, 50pt scoring "zips". Annika did just enough to secure a 4pt victory but that didn't stop me being chuffed;
- Got home via microbus on my own, and got a handful of peanuts from the guy sitting next to me.

All that was missing was a long sleep - weekend hits in 24hrs...

3 minute movie review - Transfo- Oh, ok. Shrek 3 *Pssh*

Last Saturday, once the Silverkey Demo Day was wrapped up, the need for action and explosions ran strong. After Chili's and a trip to an ahwa for delicious juices, Nisrin, Taher, Dody and I skedaddled to the movies to rock some tasty robots-in-disguise action... only to find that two seats remained. Bastards. We settled on Shrek 3 as a back up; essence of which can be summed up thusly (SPOILERS):

- Excellent montage involving the Gingerbread man
- Eric Idle is the go-to guy if you need an eccentric Englishman in your movie
- Donkey is kinda getting annoying now.

Ultimately it was basically the same movie as Shrek 1: Shrek goes on a journey to find [character] and bring them to [place]. On the way back they argue a lot and get attacked by [well-known fictional character], but end up liking each other. Shrek says something to upset [character] and they go their separate ways. Everyone gets together at the end and everyone likes Shrek now. [Antagonist] is killed by the dragon. Hilarious ending ensues.

Sadly the movie suffered from a lack of new ideas and giant transforming robots that knock the shit out of each other, and as such I rate this movie: "Meh".

Independance Day

"...Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' - a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility - I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
- John F Kennedy, inaugural address, January 20th 1960

Stop - Mogamma Time

The Mogamma. Pretty much everyone that comes to Egypt for a traineeship will see the inside of it - a huge gray block of cement that takes up one side of Midan Tahrir, the main square in Cairo. Within lies the beating heart of Egyptian tourism bureaucracy, and the precious visa extensions we coveted. With Kent, fellow Salaam trainee and former couch-crasher Rhia and myself all requiring business inside, we made a morning of it and trekked in early to avoid the rush.

Of course, the rush is only part of the problem. A great deal of ordinary activities in Egypt - buying juice, getting on the metro, crossing the street - may involve you elbowing someone in order to go about your business. The issue with the Mogamma is that it's like a poorly-constructed role-playing game - you know what the goal is, but there isn't a lot of help in working out how you get from A to B. You need to fill out the form, get a photo, get a photocopy of your passport photo and visa, pay the lady for the stamps, attach the stamps to the form, then hand everything in along with your passport. All of the above points occur in separate locations, none of the above is written on the form and even the prices listed on the wall are inaccurate; fortunately having gone through it all before we knew where everything was so it wasn't too much of an ordeal. Plus, living 10 minutes away meant we could get everything done and then go back to sleep before work...