a few photos

Ok I know this is a lame attempt for photos. But blogger really sucks for uploading pictures. I put a whole bunch on facebook for those of you one facebook.

Advance Diver????

So I'm back in Cairo. Hanging out at a hostel waiting until it's time to go to the airport for my flight back home. I just walked down the street and I realized that women in Cairo actually go out unlike in the rest of Egypt where they seem to hide. So that was nice.

I finished my diving course. It's kinda funny that I did the Advance course...because at the beginning I couldn't even submerge into the water. The crappy dive instructors at the first place I went to just kept pulling me under. I kept asking what I was doing wrong and they didn't tell me. Anyways finally I went to another diver center where there weren't Arabic men that wanted to hold my hand underwater...and it went much better.

We did two really famous dive sites, The Canyon and Blue Hole. It was kind of scary as we were walking to Blue Hole there were all these plaques of people that had died there. My instructor reassured us that none of them were recreational divers, all were dive masters and instructors pushing their limits. It was still a little sobering. But they were really fantastic dives. The one dive we went 30m into a canyon. When we were swimming back up everyones bubbles were floating up to the top of the canyon with tons of different colored fish (and I think I was just slightly gorked from the nitrogen) it was beyond spectacular. I also discovered why you're not suppose to drink and dive. One evening after a day of diving I only had 3 beers and I was already buzzed. I can't imagine drinking while diving. Sorry mother if this offends you.

No Mike I took no treasures from the sea. Whats up with you being so corny lately? And Uncle Gil I decided to leave the mummies at the museum. I'm a little disappointed I didn't get back to Cairo in time to see the museum again to check out the mummies after seeing their tombs and temples. But it's all good. Oh and parents, thank you for letting us know you are alive. When do you come back? And Tricia thanks for taking care of the U of M stuff. Now that I'm in the acknowledging mood...thank-you to all who have faithfully read my blog. Likely this will be my last post until I take off around the world again. At this point I'm not sure when or where that will be. Potentially Iceland in August....but no plans yet. If I do end up going to school in Sept this will seriously hamper my travelling. But that's life.

Diving

So here I am so close to Mount Sinai....and I"m probably not going...let alone to Petra. Spending the whole time diving. I ended up at this cheap hostel with a cheap dive club. And well sometimes you get what you pay for...and the first 3 dives I had problems. So now I"m over at another dive club and it went well this am. They've convinced me to do my advanced open water dive course. This means I can dive down to 30 m and do night diving. It also means more stress and money. And that I will be taking a bus back to Cairo on Thurs so I can make my flight Fri am at 0400. Oh well. This way I will get to see some of the cooler dive sites here. The only problem is i haven't studied for the stats course at all, let alone do the material for this weeks assignment. Ooooppps. I knew taking a course would be a bad idea. Oh well. The test is not worth that much in the final mark.

Overnight bus rides

As a rule I try to avoid overnight bus rides at all costs. But when it's to escape an annoying guy, than it's worth it. I had yet another guy decide I was the girl of his dream so I had to leave Luxor. He did take me to a wedding party which was very cool to see. But then it was time to leave. I took an overnight bus trip. It was suppose to be 14 hours turn into 20 hours. We were stopped for 3 hours by the police because our driver didn't have the right registration. Considering how brutal a 20 hours overnight bus ride sounds, it wasn't so bad.

Dahab is overrun by tourists. I have to admit that usually I would find that frustrating, but right now it's welcome to be able to wear shorts and nobody cares. Not sure how long I will spend here. Will probably take a refresher diving course tomorrow and then dive. Can't pass it up when I"m in the Red Sea and it's sooo cheap. They place I am staying offers day trips to Petra. I"m trying to decide if it's worthwhile considering will only be there for a few hours. But would be cool to see it briefly. Ok thats it for now.

My impressions of Egypt

I have been here now two weeks. I am nowhere near understanding the culture or expectations but I do have some observations.

Obviously this country is jam packed with the most and oldest stuff in the world. It's something else to be looking at paintings done 3000 years ago!!! Or wandering through temple ruins 2500-3000 years old or more. It's impossible to even begin to see a fraction of it. I love the rock paintings. Some of them are still so colorful and bright. Here in Luxor there is just tons of tombs with paintings.

Egyptians are some of the friendliest and most hospitable people I have ever met. I probably get invited for tea 10-20 times a day. Sadly I refuse most of these invitations. For one it is impossible to have tea that many times, and secondly I have learned to usually refuse if I am alone and it is a man (an it's always a man asking I haven't had a woman ask yet). But I have had a few opportunities when with another westerner to visit in some of their homes and be fed. This has never happened in any other country I have visited. It's very cool.

I do not understand the role of Egyptian women whatsoever. From a westerners perspective it would be easy to make assumptions, but these would be false. Just as the assumptions that are made about Western women are often false. I try as much as I can to say hello to women and catch their eyes and smile. Very few women work in restaurants or stores, but when I find these businesses I try to frequent them more often as this is more comfortable for me and also gives me a chance to talk to them.

Twenty million times a day I get asked "where are you from" "what is your name" "where are you staying". Often I turn it into a joke saying I'm from Japan and my name is Suzuki. This turns into a laugh which is a good way to avoid answering the question. Otherwise I have found myself chased down the street with them calling out "Canada Dry" or my name.

Egypt is a very poor country. So getting hassled to buy stuff is understandable as people are just trying to feed themselves. It is frustrating at times and I try my best not to get too frustrated.

I hate the comments I get from men. But this is the way it is. I try my best to dress conservatively. This is all I can do. I have not yet been inappropriately touched so that is good. I think they way I dress has something to do with this.

Dorky Photos

Ok these photos took me almost 2 hours to load and post so be greatful. I pretty much chose the dorkiest photos I had, especially the pyramid one. Well the one of me on the camel doing the same thing is probably worse. The middle one is in the Shali at Siwa and the top one is in front of the temple at Abu Simble with the statues of Ramses II which I described in last post. I posted two other photos on facebook for those on face book.