Soon a Desert Ninja......

Once again, I have decided to exploit my 5 days Eid holiday and go on a trip somewhere in Egypt!!! The final decided destination was another Oasis called Bahriyya. Further South to Siwa, though not as close to the Libyan border!

This time it was only foreigners going there, and no local Egyptians to accompany us, thus we had to rely on our small knowledge of Arabic and sign language!!!!

The trip was amazing!!!!!!

It first started off with waking up at 5am and seeing the beautiful view of the pyramids at Sunrise, then
went on with a long 4hr mini bus ride on a road literally surrounded by nothing but sand!!!!!

Bahriyya is totally different from Siwa. The town is not as developed, and you don't have any donkey pulled taxis, in fact you have no taxis what so ever!!!! The Desert was awesome!!!!! Totally surreal!!!!

Petrol Station in Bawiti

We spent the 3 days we were there visiting different types of deserts!!! The black desert, the white desert, the crystal mountain, the flower desert and I don't know what else!!!

Thea's simple mind imagined the black desert to be just like Siwa but with black sand, and the white desert to just have white sand, and the flower Desert to have flowers (hello Thea, flowers in the desert????).... but it turned out to be pretty different!!!! Even more beautiful!!

The Black Desert, was a vast piece of land covered in little black rocks!! Nobody knows what these rocks are, some say its iron, some others say its lava from an exploded volcano!!!! Who knows!!!

The Black Desert

The flower desert was a normal orange desert with little pieces of iron or rock (couldn't figure out what they were) in the shape of little flowers!!!

Ulli and the Bedouin pick up flowers

The White Desert was my favorite!!!! It did not have white sand, but instead had these weird formations made out of white rock, as white as chalk, coming out of the sand!!! VERY WEIRD!!!!! We felt as though we were on space or on some weird planet!!!! During sunset the white reflected the beautiful colors of the sun, the red, yellow, pink, and orange, at night it reflected the bright moon and the blue of the sky and during the day it was just bright white, you even find it hard to keep your eyes open!!!!Wonderful!!!!

The White Desert

We even got the chance to freeze our ass off and sleep outside, as we later found out that we did not have a tent!!! Was a cool experience, you open your eyes and you can see the stars, feel the heat of the sun in the morning and feel the freezing cold of the desert at night!!!!

Our home for a night!!!

The Bedouins of Bawiti were also really cool!!!!! We attended a Bedouin party and had chats with out Bedouins late at night around the fire!!!

We even got to experience the Bedouin diet made up of soup, rice, potatoes and meat - which we ate every day!!!

Eating our daily Bedouin Meal Ulli and his Donkey Friend

The only disappointing thing of Bahriyya were the springs!!! I had so read that the place is famous for their hot springs, and as the oasis is lower under the ground than in Siwa then there are plenty of hot springs!!! Though if you had a look at what these hot springs may look like, as tempted as you may be, you might not even dare put in a finger!!!!!!

The so called hot water springs

Another one of those Muslim Feasts….

Yet again, I got to experience another one of the bizarre yet wonderful Muslim Feasts. Last time I was exposed to Ramadan, the fasting, the breakfast at 5pm, the continuous shopping and the sweets in the so called 'Small Eid'

This time I got an understanding of the other Eid, or the so called the 'Big Eid' or as the Muslims call it Eid Al Adha. There is not much festivity or celebration or fasting during this feast, some people usually fast 10 days before the feast and others just do the last day, as that is compulsory, there are no celebrations in the Ramadan style during those 10 days!!!

Never the less there are still preparations, farmers get their cows and sheep ready. Families decorate their house and start saving up for that cow or sheep they are going to buy!!

Sheep waiting to get slaughtered in a little alley in Islamic Cairo

Why may you ask, cows and sheep??? Well this Eid commemorates the ransom for a child by slaughtering a sheep. This can be seen in 2 episodes in the Bible; the one which is greatly celebrated is the story of Profit Abraham, who was about to follow God's orders and kill his own son, but in the last minute, God gave him a sheep to slaughter instead. The other episode is the Passover, where God killed the first born of the Egyptians so as to let his people free. Nevertheless, the later is not celebrated for obvious reasons.

Thus the wealthy Egyptians or those who could afford it slaughter a lamb (for one family) or a cow (between families) on the occasion. 1/3 of the animal is kept for the family, 1/3 for the relatives, and 1/3 for the poor. It is usually the butcher who does the slaughtering though many families like keeping it a family tradition and do it themselves.

Unfortunately I did not get to see the whole slaughtering and the blood on the streets and the actual festivities as I was traveling to Bahriyya Oasis. Never the less Purvi and I managed to get the last bit of a cow being slaughtered. We were randomly walking in the street when we noticed there was blood all over the floor, so in our touristy excitement we wanted to know what was happening, so we rushed to a near by street and saw the last part of the cow being slaughtered. It was not as disgusting as I though it would be. The cow's neck was cut, until it bled to death, then a pipe was put in between the skin and meat for the butcher to blow and thus separate the skin and mean, we thus got a first hand experience of the cow being skinned, which I though was a big gross, especially when the butcher jumped on to the cow to pose for us!!! There were good vibes around as everyone was happy and was celebrating; I guess that is where there was not so much disgust!!! I am glad I got to experience my first beast being killed!!!!!

Another Weekend in Cairo with a difference......

This weekend was another great weekend spent in Cairo!!! This time we got to do all the fun things I have been wanting to do!!!

Olivia, a Belgian friend of mine was over in Egypt on a Business Trip, so as soon as I got her message saying she will be in Cairo I made sure to plan a good weekend for her!!!!

The Beautiful Mosques

We went there on Friday, and we spent the day going round the most beautiful mosques in Cairo with the best guide ever - TOM!!!

We then continued our trip with a nice dinner, and a drawing Cafe, with Ossama, Purvi and Kenny!!!!!

Purvi's Drawing My Drawing

And finally, the cherry on the cake was the night of drunkenness and dancing at the Hard Rock Cafe!!!! It was great!!!! Especially if you got to spend the night at the Conrad!!!!! I sneaked into
the Conrad and slept in Oli's room!!! It was the best sleep I had had in a very
long time!!!!!

A Good night out

Now, Purvi and I are getting ready for our girl's trip to Bahriyya, which is an Oasis down south!!! It will be so cool, I can't wait to relax in one of those hot springs, and see the white and black desert and crystal mountains!!!! Unfortunately I might not get to see the killing of the sheep!!! But I am sure that one or two people from bahriyya will be right enough to buy a sheep and kill it, besides I can always tell Tom to take pics! ;)

Promotion...

Six months of slavery, and boredom, have finally paid. Dr Ahmed has decided to give me a promotion and give me the title of Director of Studies.

This does not only mean that i will be head of the Department in Alexandria and Port Said (the two existing Branches), but i will be responsible for the HR of the English Staff, I will be responsible for the syllabus and the development of ideas, activities and new classes, i will be able to think, be creative and implement them (already started! ;))!!!! Plus, which for me is the most exciting, i will be involved with the opening of the new Branch in Cairo!!!

I could not have asked for more on this traineeship!!! Yeah it does mean that i'll have massive responsibility and loads of work (take into consideration 6 yrs of Egyptian disorganization and Egyptian slavery at work!!!), and it also means that i get no salary increase cause its still an AIESEC contract, though it also means that i get to keep my same hours, with my Saturday off, and from may to move from Alex to Cairo!!!!!

Its a great opportunity for me, and believe it or not, this is the first time in the past 6months that i've woken up really excited to go to work!!!!!

Attracted to Gravity....

I thought it was only infatuation, but now it seems to be full on attraction.

For those who know me in Malta and during my first months in Belgium, they are aware of the fact that Thea is known to be the clumsy girl who is always falling, especially when drunk.

Bumping into doors, falling down the stairs and breaking a wrist, falling down the stairs of Footloose in front of everyone, falling off a bench and tearing ligaments, falling off a canon, falling over the ropes they put for queues in airports and many many more.....

After 2 years in Belgium, this seems to have worn off, I was no longer known as the one who is always falling, and thus my attraction to Gravity had worn off...

Nevertheless, after 2 weeks in Malta a slight infatuation started.... it started when i was at home getting ready to go to bed, i suddenly got entangled in my pygama trousers and fell flat on my knees, as though this was not enough i also had to bump my head into the wardrobe, thus waking up the following morning with a big bruise on my head and limping my way around the island.

Now that i'm back in Egypt i had thought that the little infatuation had passed, but it seems to be a full on attraction now. The first incident happened when i fell over my suitcase at home and landed flat on my ass, the subsequent occured when i tripped over my long skirt and landed flat on my knees in the middle of the busiest street of Kafr Abdou in Alexandria.

This did not cause my damage, just added on to the previous knee injury and added a few bruises, cuts and grazes.

The third one, and hopefully the last one, (please God, i don't have any more free body space) was last night when i was walking out of work and tripped over an invisible something and landed flat on my face.

This did not only add to the knee injury (i wonder what my knees will look like when i'm older) with more cuts and grazes and bruises, but also left me with a spraint wrist which i now have in a bandage!!!!

Resulting in an inability to do anything cause of the pain... thus explaining the slow typing for this log!!!!

When will i ever get over Gravity???? I just home that this infatuation....followed by strong attraction.... will not turn into love, or then you'll find me rolling on the floor for the rest of my life!!

Back in Egypt...
After a wonderful 2 weeks in my beautiful home land, and a 3hrs painful flight, I'm finally back in Egypt.

It took me a while to get Egypt all in again…. the chaos, the bargaining, the talking in Arabic, the conservativeness, the stares, and the lack of beers…..

On the other hand, I think I must say I'm glad to be back, the experience is not yet over, and there is still loads I need to see… I must stay that I missed the fresh fruit in the street, the juices, the friendliness of the people…. and funnily enough the chaos which I have learnt to love so much!!!!

Malta was great.. It was great having Tom around too, it was cool driving him around and seeing the places I love so much, and introducing him to my friends and family and food (I actually got to make him eat snails!)


Getting ready for New Year's Eve
Although I did not have much time to spend with my friends, I still loved the day in Gozo I had with Maria and Tom, and the drunken Xmas eve with Cynthia, and the drunken New Years Eve with Geraldine and all the others!!!!


Enjoying Gozo with Maria and Tom
It was also fun to see Tom trying to integrate into the Maltese culture!!! The culture shock of spending New Year with all my grandparents, aunts, cousins etc, the shock of all the drunken people at new year, and the open bar concept etc etc….


Posing with my sister and cousins on New Year's family lunch
It was nice to be back into the Maltese Culture again, eating pastizzi, delicious doughnuts, rabbit and all my daddy's cooking!! :D

I'm now back in Egypt, ready for another 6months, hopefully with more determination to make this experience worthwhile and unforgettable!!!!!