Rectifying My Huge Mistake

I had made a huge mistake here in Egypt. When I went to Mohammed Ahmed's the first time (the famous falafel and ful place) I only ordered a falafel sandwich for take away and then deemed Abu Rabea's falafel much better. That was until a few weeks ago when my friend Eman and my language partner, Ali, took me back to Mohammed Ahmed's a made me sit down there and eat a meal. I have since learned the truth. Mohammed Ahmed has the best ful and falafel in Alexandria.

First and foremost, there is the Ful Iskandarani



This is ful with vegetables (cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and some cilantro) and then some tehina on top. Outstanding.

Then, there is ful and hummous and just plain old hummous (except the hummous has chickpeas which makes it awesome). Best hummous I've had in Egypt. No contest. Creamy and delicious and you can eat it with a fork.




Next, Gibna Maleeya


I don't know what exactly they do with this cheese but it looks like its been fried in some sort of amazing sauce, so it's kind of crunchy and fried on the outside but gooey and cheesy on the inside.

Next, Shakshuka:

Just plain old awesome.

And of course, falafel.

Keep in mind, they give you as much pita as you want (and they are all really soft and fresh), salata which is a lot of pickles vegetables, babaganoush, and tehina.

We were pleased with our meal.


BTW- this is Ali, my language partner, and this is Laura and Eman (not Eman my roommate but another important one).



لجطا الكبير بتاعي
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اخطات خطا كبير هنا في مصر. لما روحت محمد احمد اول مرة (مطعم الفلافل والفول المشهور)، طلبت سندويش فلافل للتيك اوي وقررت ان ابو ربيع احسن. لكن، ظننت كدة لغاية بعض الاسابيع اللى فاتت لما صاحبتي ايمان والمشرك اللغاوي بتاعي حدونا على محمد احمد واحنا وقدنا واكلنا واجبة كاملة. واتعلمت الحقيقة. محمد احمد عنده احسن فول وفلافل في اسكندرية.
اولا، في الفول الاسكندراني:
الفول دا فيه خضارات (خيار، بصل، طماطم، وبعض الكزبرة) وفي تحينة بردو.
وفي فول وحمس وحمس للوحده. احسن حمس اكلته في مصر. مفيش منفسة. دسم وممكن ناكل مع شوكة.
وبعدين: جبنة مقلية: مش عارفة هم بيعملون بالضبط مع الجبنة ولكن هو مقلية في سوس ممتاز.
بعدين: شكشوكة
وطبعا: فلافل
وهم بيدوكي عيش كتير وسلطة وبابا غنوج وتحينة.
كنا مبسوطين! وعلى فكرة: دا على مشركي اللغاوي، ودول ايمان ولورة (مش الايمان اللي معايا في الاوضة لكن ايمان تانية مهمة).

Best Weekend Ever- Siwa...

So, I know these two posts are one after the other, but I think they both needed their own spaces and not to be shared.
After I got back from Fuwa, I had classes and had about a minute to collect my things because at 10 pm, a group of 13 of us (including my 2 Egyptian friends Bazooka and Karim (Bazooka is actually named Mohammed but since everyone is named Mohammed, all the Mohammeds have nicknames) took the night bus over to Siwa.
Siwa is the most famous and biggest Egyptian oasis and it is right smack in the middle of the Sahara Desert. So at 6 am, we arrived in Siwa in enough time to watch the sunrise. We met our awesome guide, Nasr, and ate breakfast and started our day.
I will divide this post into chapters, as they were indeed chapters in our adventure saga.
Prologue:
Imagine Siwa as a giant series of circles. On the outer most circle is desert desert desert- sand dunes kind of desert from Lawrence of Arabia. The next circle is a layer of palm and date trees. Thousands and thousands of trees. The next layer is the city itself. Similarly, scattered throughout these circles are hot springs, cold springs, and a giant salt lake. This place is a geological wonder. I don't know how it exists. It is also really isolated from the rest of Egypt so it has its own language, a kind of Berber dialect of Arabic.
Chapter 1: History.
Siwa is really really old. Alexander the Great stopped there on the way across the North African Coast, and lots of other cultures and people have stopped there, thought it was awesome, spent some time, built stuff, and you can still see all of it today. So we hopped on donkey carts and headed over to Shali AlAdeem (the ruins of Shali). Shali used to be the citadel and fortress of the city and has a mosque and just an awesome view of modern Siwa.



Next, was Gabl Mota (the Mountain of the Dead) where there are lots of tombs from Ancient Egypt- specifically a tomb of a dude named Si-Amun (who actually kind of looks like Dad according to his portrait inside of the tomb) and someone named Mesu-Isis. Tombs are always really cool to see. And they all kind of looked like mole hills on the mountain. Plus, there was another really cool view of the city.




Next: Mabad Aleskander (Alexander's temple). So remember how Alexander the Great went there? It was to consult an oracle. So there's a temple there on top of a mountain and despite all the sun exposure, you can still see the carvings of the gods on the walls of the temple. The Temple also looks across at another temple, Temple Amon, and once a year there used to be a pilgrimage from one to the other. It was pretty cool.



So not everyone else cared about the history, and it was getting super warm out, so we stopped at a restaurant next to a cold spring to relax a little bit.

Chapter 2: Lunch.
Our awesome tour guide, Nasr, invited us to his house for lunch. So we hopped in our jeeps and head over to his house where we were immediately separated into boys and girls and we each went into different parts of the house. We walked into our part and the father, mother, 4 girls, and a boy are there waiting for us. So we helped cut up some melon, chatted a bit, and found out that they have 13 kids. 13! Whew. And the first question the mother asked us was who was engaged, and she was very disappointed when she found out that we were all between the ages of 19-22 and non of us engaged, as the kids get engaged there at the age of around 12. So we chatted, and then they brought out an AWESOME lunch. There was delicious pita, the best ful I've had yet in Egypt, shakshuka (a tomatoey eggy dish), tuna (which I didn't eat but I hear was yummy and spicey), melon, cucumbers, chips and tea with mint. Really really delicious. Then after lunch, the mother and 2 of the daughters gave us henna on our hands, and then they saw that we were all dying and falling asleep, so they let us take naps in the house. Wonderful wonderful people.



Chapter 3: DESERT.
So after our naps, we were all refreshed and the sun was past its hottest point, which only meant one thing. Time for the desert. So we hopped in these desert ready jeeps and drove out into the sand dunes. Nasr and our other driver were awesome. They were driving fast up and down the sand dunes and it was so so much fun. We got out at a few different stops.
1. Just for pictures.

2. SAND SURFING. They gave us these snow-board-esque pieces of equipment and we went sledding and boarding down these giant sand dunes (or flopping down if you're named Monica). It was an impossible trek back up the dune, but the way down was totally totally worth it.

3. Swimming. Now, I know what you're thinking. You were in the middle of sand dunes, how could you have gone swimming? You must mean swimming in sand, right? Wrong! Swimming in water! In the middle of the sand dunes is a giant pond of fresh water. How? I have no idea. But we got to swim in the middle of the desert.

4. Since this desert used to be an ocean, we made a stop and saw a fossilized fish.
5. Went swimming in hot springs

6. Watch the sunset on the dunes.

After all these fun activities, we went and ate dinner at a camp near by, but then packed up again and went straight to the middle of the desert for sleep. We laid out blankets and each had an exercise mat for a bed. It was pitch black and the stars were the brightest I had ever seen. It got to be freezing by the middle of the night, and none of us had blankets, but we were all so exhausted, we managed to sleep really well. And the stars and the atmosphere were totally totally worth it.


Chapter 4: Swimming and Salt:
The next day, we all packed up camp, had a quick breakfast, dropped half of our crew off at the bus (since they wanted to leave early) and the rest of us stayed in Siwa. We got a pick up truck and Nasr drove us all around while we were standing and sitting in the back. (Unfortunately, because of all the wind on the truck, my sunglasses didn't make it through the trip and are now somewhere lost in the desert. So long, good friends! You served me so well!)
First stop: The salt lake. The whole lake looks completely frozen over with snow from far away, but as you get closer and closer, you realize the ice is not ice but salt. The whole top of the lake is covered with crystalized salt! And we found a hole in the salt, and Jake hopped in, and like the Dead Sea, he just floated up. It was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.



Next: Cold Springs. We stopped and went for an awesome swim at one of the hundred cold springs in the area.

Next: lunch and naps (its so hot you can't be outside), and then we did a little touristy shopping.

Last stop: The Salt Lake again. Now this is really wild. We went to an island in the middle of the Salt Lake (so get these circles in your head again, theres the desert, date trees, city, salt lake, then an island in the salt lake, and then somehow, there's also fresh water cold springs! It doesn't make any sense! So we went from swimming in the salt lake, which is just like the Dead Sea because you just float, to the fresh water to swim, then back to the salt water, and back to the fresh water. Also, all in the lake, there are branches and rocks that are just completely crystalized in the salt. It's so so cool looking. So we watched the sunset and then sadly had to head back to Alex on the night bus again.







ن اجازة في حياتي- سيوة
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بعد ما رجعت من فوة، كان عندي فصول ودقيقة بس لاخضر شنطتي العشان في الساعة ١٠ في الليل، ١٣ منا (وبردو صاحبيني كريم وبازوكا (اسم بازوكا في الحقيقة محمد، لكن اسما كل الرجالة في مصر محمد وعشان كدة عندهم لقبات) واحنا حدنا اوتوبيس الليلي للسيوة.
سيوة هو اشهر واكبر واحة في مصر وهو في منتصف الصحراء الكبرى. وصلنا الساعة ٦ في الصبح، واتفرجنا على الفجر.اتقابلنا دليلنا، ناصر، فطرنا وبدانا اليوم.
انا باقسم البوست دا في فصول.
مقدمة:
تخيل سيوة كسلسلة دائرات كبيرة. الدائرة الابعد هو صحراء صحراء صحراء- في كثبان رملية زاي في الفيلم لورانس من جزيرة العرب. في الدائرة التالية طبقة من النخيل واشجار الميلاد. الف من الاشجار. والطبقة التالية هو المدينة نفسها. وخلال الدائرات دول في مياة سخنة وماية سائة وبحيرة ملحية كبيرة. المكان دا عجب جيولوجية. انا مش فهمة ازاي يوجد المكان دا. وهو بردو معزل من بقية مصر وعنده لغة خاصة وهي نوع من اللهجة البربرية.
الفصل الاول: تاريخ.
سيوة قديمة جدا. وقف السكندر الكبير هناك في رحلته على ساحل الشمالي الافريقي، ووقفت كتير من الثقافات التانية هناك، احبته، قصيت وقت، بنيت حاجات، ويمكت تشوف كله اليوم. ركبنا عربات الحمير وروحنا للشالي القديم. كان شالي قلاء مرة وفيه مسجد ومنظر سيوة الحديثة جميل.
بعدين كان جبل موتى حيث كان في مقابر كتيرة من مصر القديمة- وخصة مقبر شخص اسمه سي امون (وهو يشبه باباية في صورته) وبردو مقبر شخص اسمه مسو اسيس. مراقب دائما جامدة. وكان منظر جميل تاني.
بعدين: مبعد السكاندر. تفكر اننى ذكرت ان السكندر الكبير راح الى سيوة؟ هدف الزيارة كان للتشاور مع وحي. وفي مبعد هناك فوق الجبل ومن الغرم كل تعرض من الشمس، لسة ممكن تشوف صور الالهة على حيطة. المبعد قدام مبعد تاني، مبعد امون، ومرة في السنة كان في حج من مبعد الى مبعد. كان جامد.
ما كانش كل حد مهتم بالتاريخ وكان حار قوي برة، ووفقنا في مطعم جنب ماية سائة واسترحنا شواية.
الفصل التاني: غداء
الدليل بتاعنا عازمنا الى بيته للغداء. وركبنا الجيبس بتاعنا وروحنا بيته وانفصلنا بين الرجالة والستات وروحنا اجزاء مختلفة في البيت. مشينا الى الجز بتاعنا والاب، ٤ بنات، وولد كانوا بيستنوا لنا. وساعدنا مع الغداء وقصرنا شمام ودردشنا شواية، وهم قالوا لنا ان عندهم ١٣ طفل! ١٣! واول سوال سالته الام كان لو احنا كنا متزوجات او مخطوبات، وهي كانت مخيبة لما قولنا ان ما حدش منا متزوجات او مخطوبات واعمارنا بين ١٩-٢٢ سنة، وهي قالت لنا ان الاطفال متخطبون لما اعمارهم حولي ١٢ سنة. ودردشنا اكتر وهم جيبوا لنا غداء لذيذ جدا. كان في عيش، احسن فول اكلته في مصر لغاية دلوقتي، شكشوكة، سمك، شمام، خيار، شيبسي، وشائ بالنعنع. لذيذ جدا. وبعد الغداء، الام البنتين خطوا حناء على ايدنا. وهم شافوا ان كلنا كانوا بنموت من التعب، وهم سمحوا لنا ان ننام شوية في بيتهم. ناس طيبين.
الفصل التالت: صحراء.
بعد ما نمنا، كان ابرد برة (لسة حار ولكن اكتر متعدل) وكان وقت للصحراء! ركبنا الجيبس للصحراء والسواق سوق في الرمل. هم ساقوا بسرعة قوي فوق وتحت الرمل وكان ممتع قوي! ووقفنا في بعض الاماكن:
١. للصور
٢. تزلج في الرملة: هم ادونا الات تشبه مزلجات وركبنا المزلجات دول تحت. وكان صعب اطلع الرمل، لكن الطريقة تحت كانت ممتعة!
٣. العوم: انا عارفة اننكم بيعتقدون انا احنا كنا في الصحراء، ازاي بالضبط عومتو؟ قصدك العوم في الرمل، صح؟ غلط! العوم في ماية! في نص الرمل كان في بحيرة مليانة من ماية طاظة. ازاي؟ مش عارفة. لكن عومنا في نص الصحراء.
٤. عشان الصحراء كان في الماضي محيط، وقفنا وشوفنا سمك متحجر.
٥. عومنا في ماية صخنة
٦. اتفرجنا على المغرب
وبعد كل النشطاء الممتعة دول، اتعشئنا في مخيم قريب، ولكن مشينا على طول ورجعنا علي الصحراء ونامنا هناك. كان عندنا حصير مارسة كصرير. وكان في ضلمة كتيرة والنجوم كانت لامعات والمع اللى شوفت في حايتي. ولكن كان بارد جدا في نص الليل وماكانش عندنا بطانيات، ولكن كنا مرهقين وعارفنا انام كويس. والجو والنجوم كانوا جميل.
فصل الرابع: عوم وملح:
اليوم اللي جاي، خضرنا المخيم، فطرنا، سيبنا ناس في الاوتوبيس، والبقية بقنا في سيوة. ركبنا في عربية بيك-اب (pick up) ناصر وهو اوصلنا حول سيوة واحنا قعدنا ورا. (لكن، للاسف، الهوا كان شديد وضيعت نضارات الشمس بتاعتي. مع سلامة صديقي!)
اول وقف كان في البحيرة الملحية. يبدو من بعيد ان في ثلج على البحيرة لكن لما تقرب، بتشوف ان الثلج ملح. الملح يغطي الجز العلي من البحيرة! ولقينا ثقب في الملح، وجيك قفز فيه، وزاي البحر الموت، هو عوم فوق.
بعدين: الماية السائة. وقفنا وعومنا في واحد من ميت المايات السائة في المنطقة.
بعدين: غدا ونوم. كان حار ومش قادر تمشي برة وكمان عملنا شوبينج
اخر وقف: البحيرة الملحية مرة تانية. دا عجبني جدا. روحنا جزيرة في منتصف البحيرة وكان في الجزيرة ماية طاظة! في منتصف البحيرة الملحية! مش منطقي!! وعومنا شوية في البحيرة وزاي البحر الموت، مش قادر تغرق. وفي البحيرة، في فروع وصجور تغطي من الملح. واتفرجنا على المغرب وللاسف كنا لازم نرجع اسكندرية.

Fuwa and Desuk

Monday night, my roommate, Eman, invited me to come to her house with her, so of course I agreed to ditch my classes and head over with her to meet her family and see her baled, her home town.
Eman lives in Kofr El Sheikh, the same province as Gehad (the same one as the wedding) and grew up in the same town as Gehad, Desuk, but moved when she was a little older to the town next door called Fuwa. All of these towns are right on the Nile.
So on Tuesday, we got up and took a minibus (sort of like a Sheirut in Israel) and first stopped in Metubis, where her brother Mustafa, picked us up. First stop: the market to buy dessert. Then, while we were driving to Fuwa, Mustafa pulled over, got out of the car, and made me drive for about 5 minutes. I was terrified but handled it like a rockstar and drove Egyptian style all over the place (keep in mind for 5 minutes) but I was passing people and honking like a true Egyptian! It was awesome.
So, we drove from Metubis to Fuwa to Eman's house and met her sister, Elham, there and we all sat and ate lunch together, and since it was about a million degrees, we hung inside for a few hours to beat the sun.
Once the weather got a little more tolerable, Mustafa took the 3 of us on a driving tour of Fuwa and Desuk. First, we went to a bridge that overlooked the Nile and had a little photo shoot there.

This is Eman and Elham (Elham is the one in orange).


Next, we went to a little park and then on a boat ride on the Nile, where we had photo shoot number two! It was very pleasant and had really nice views.


Here's the 3 siblings (there are more of them but who were not present at this gathering).


We also went and walked around the city a bit and saw the huge mosque there and just saw what street life is like.


Eman's family owns a piece of land next to the Nile where the family grows bananas, honey, meluchia (a very Egyptian vegetable and dish), tomatoes, lemons, and all kinds of things. So we went and watched the sunset on their piece of land.



Next, we drove around for the rest of the night. We went and saw the gate that Mohammed Ali (the conquerer, not the boxer) built in Fuwa, had some tea at a restaurant on the Nile, tried to crash a wedding (but didn't because it was still too early) and then went to her Great Aunt's house. Her Great Aunt (Ama Maryam) lives with 2 of her kids who each have families, so we got there, and she stuffed my face with melon and grapes and all kinds of drinks, and we got to play with little kids. There was a set of 3 year old twins, a boy and a girl, and they all loved playing with forks and the little girl had the cutest smile and laugh ever. There was also a 1 year old and a 9 year old. It was really nice to hang out with a family and talk to them a lot. They were all so welcoming and wonderful and were trying to get us to stay until the next day to each lunch with them, and were just great. But alas, we had to leave for the next day I was going to Siwa. So after a long night, we went back to Eman's house, had homemade pizza for dinner, and went to sleep.

Overall, it was awesome to meet Eman's family and see where she's from and actually get to walk around and see the countryside.

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فوة وديسوق
ليلة يوم الاتنين، ايمان، البنت اللي معايا في الاوضة عازمتني لبيتها لليلة، وانا طبعا اتفقت وفاتت فصولي وروحت معاها وقابلت اسرتها وشوفت بلدها. ايمان ساكنة في كوفر الشيخ، نفس البلد زاي جيهاد (بلد الفرح) وهي كبرت في نفس البلد زاي جيهاد اسمه ديسوق، ولكن انتقلت لما هي كانت اكبر في السن الى بلد حنب ديسوق اسمه فوة. كل البلاد دول على النيل.
التلات، ركبنا مشروع ووقفنا اولا في متوبيس، حيث اخوها، مستفى، اقلنا. المحطة الاولى كانت في السوق واسترينا حلويات. ولما كنا بنسوق، مستفى سوق العربية في الناحية التانية، سابها، وقال لي "سوقي!" وانا سوقت جمس دقايق. وكنت خايفة جدا، ولكن عملت كويسة جدا وسوقت زاي مصرية بالضبط (بس خمس دقايق).
وسوقنا من متوبيس الى فوة الى بيت ايمان وقابلنا اختها، الهام، وكلنا قعدنا واتغدنا، والعشان كان حار جدا، قعدنا في بيتها ساعات كتيرة. ولما الجو بقى اكتر متعدل، مستفى اوصلنا في جولة فوة وديسوق. اولا، روحنا جسر وشوفنا منظر النيل وصورنا صور كتيرة.

دول ايمان والهام (الهام لابسة برتقان).

بعدين، روحنا جنينة صغيرة وبعدين ركتنا مركب على النيل، وصورنا اكتر صور. كان جميل جدا والمناظر كانت حلوة.
دول الاخاوان (في اكتر منهم ولكن ما كانوش موجودين)
روحنا كمان حول المدينة وشوفنا جامع كبير وشوفنا الحاية في الشواريع. اسرة ايمان تملك ارض جنب النيل وهم يمنوا موز، واسل، ملوخية (اكل شعبي مصري جدا)، تاماتس، ليمون، وحاجات كتيرة جدا. واتفرجنا على المغرب.
بعدين، سوقنا في المدينة كتيرة. روحنا بوابة بنيها محمد على في فوة، شربنا شاي في مطعم جنب النيل، حاولنا نروح فرح (لكن لسة كان بدري) وروحنا بيت عامتها. عامتها (عامة مريام) ساكنة مع اتنين من اولادها وعندهم اسر، وروحنا بيتها وهي ادتني اكل كتير (عنب وفواكة) ومشروبات، ولعبت مع اطفال. كان في توام عمرهم ٣ سنين، واحد كان ولد وواحدة بنت، وهم بيحبوا يلعبوا والبنت كانت كاتكوتا وكان عندها باسم جميلة! وكان طفل عمره سنة واحدة وايضا ولد عمره ٩ سنين. كان لطيف جدا اكون مع اسرة واتكلام معاهم كتير. هم كانوا كاريمين ولطاف وكانوا عيازين احنا نبقي ونتغدا معاهم اليوم اللى جاي. ولكن، كنا لازم نمشي بدري في الصبح. وبعد ليلة طويلة، روحنا بيت ايمان واكلنا بيزة ونمنا.
بشكل عام، كنت مبسوطة اقابل اسرة ايمان واشوف هي منين وامشي في الريف.

I'm Famous!

It's true. I'm famous. I'm in an Egyptian magazine.

Life goal number one: reach Egyptian stardom and fame and be beloved in the hearts of all Egyptians the world over: Check!

The magazine is called "Nusf Al Dunya" (half of the world) (aka- women) and it's a picture of me and the crew at the Tamer Hosny concert.





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انا مشهورة!

دا صحيح. انا مشهورة. صورتي في مجالة مصرية.
حققت اول هدف في حياتي: انا محبوبة في قلوب كل المصريين. انا مشهورة!
اسم المجلة "نصف الدونيا" (النساء) وفي صورة معايا واصحابي في حفلة تامر حسني.

Mt. Sinai and Sharm El Sheikh

Hi all! I am fresh off the bus from Sinai and thoroughly sunburnt, but missing the beach already.
This weekend, our group had a long break from classes and took the trek from Africa to Asia and hit the Sinai Peninsula.
Thursday, we left after classes and drove for 11 hours to San Katrine, also known as Mt. Sinai, Gabl Mosa (Moses' mountain).

And at 2 am, the whole group gathered at the base of the mountain and made the trek up to the top. It was very very cold outside and there were a lot of camels (and camel poo) which made for a lot of traffic, but the moon was so bright that we could still see where we were walking. So after about 2 hours, we made it to the top of the mountain, snuggled all together underneath blankets on a cliff and watched the sunrise.
We got to watch the sky go from this

to this

to this

to this


It was absolutely beautiful. And the way the hike is set up is that there is a path going around the mountain until you reach a certain peak where it just turns completely into stairs. So after hiking up for and hour and a half, we trekked up hundreds of steps. It was exhausting but totally worth it. Plus God gave me a new set of commandments, so really it was worth it for all of humanity (haha, oh, Monica...)

These are some views from the top




Anyway, after we ran down the mountain, we got to nap for about a minute on the bus, have a quick bite, and then shower, we (and by we i mean the small group of courageous troopers who opted to go to the monastery instead of being lame and napping) went to the monastery of San Katrine located at the bottom of Mt. Sinai. The monastery's pretty cool because the have a huge garden with olive trees, grape vineyards, sunflowers, almond trees, tons of agriculture that sustains the monastery.

So we learned all about the monastery and then got to see the burning bush! Yes, THE burning bush. Unfortunately, it is no longer burning. So it pretty much looks just like a bush.

So after the monastery, we bussed to Sharm El-Sheikh. Sharm is pretty much a foreigners haven inside of Egypt. There are naked Europeans running around everywhere while Egyptians rip them off and try to sell them water for 8 times the actual price. Everybody wins! So we got to Sharm and immediately got on a glass boat and went out on the water. We got to see the coral reefs from the glass on the bottom of the boat and then got to swim and snorkel a little bit! Then we treated ourselves to a little Mexican food and passed out.

Saturday:
Boat trip all day. We went to Ras Mohammed (translation: Mohammed's head) which is a huge national park that is trying to preserve the rapidly dying coral reefs. We got to sunbathe on the boat (or sunburn) and we stopped at 3 different diving and snorkeling stops. We saw all kinds of awesome fish. There were big bright yellow ones, nemo fish, black ones with blue polka dots, bright purple with yellow tails and fins (my personal fav), bright purple with lots of neon stripes, and we even saw the blendy-into-the environment fish, octopi, funny red spiky fish, and a string ray with periwinkle dots and stripes! And the people who ran the boat were really chill and let us jump and dive off the boat from all different spots. It was awesome.


Sadly, we had to come back home and go to class, but after the program, I'm definitely going back to Sinai!


جبل موسى وشرم الشيخ
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انا نزلت من الاوتوبيس من سينا و اتحرقت من الشمس، ولكن وحشني الشاطىء! الاجازة دي، كان عندنا فاصل طويل من الفصول وروحنا من افريقيا الى اسيا وروحنا سينا.

الخميس، مشينا على طول بعد الصف وسوقنا ١١ ساعة الى سان كاترين او جبل موسى.
الساعة ٢ الصبح، جمعنا تحت الجبل ومشينا فوق. الجو كان بارد جدا وكان في جمال كتيرة وعشان كدة كان في زحمة، ولكن القمر كان لامع وكانا قادرين نشوف كل حاجة لما مشينا. وبعد ساعتين، وصلنا فوق، قربنا كلنا الي بعض تحت بطانيات واتفرجنا على الفجر. كان جميل جدا جدا. وفي سبيل على الجبل مشينا عليه ولكن السبيل تحول للسلم، وبعد ما طلعنا الجبل نفسه لمدة ساعة ونص، طلعنا مئات سلم! كننا مرهقين بعدين لكن كننا مبسوطين.
بعدين، نزلنا، ونمنا في الاوتوبيس نص ساعة، اكلنا شوية، استحمنا، وانا ومجموعة صغيرة روحنا دير سان كاترين اللي تحت الجبل. الدير رائع العشان في جنينة كبيرة فيها اشجار زيتون، العنب، عباد الشمس، واشجار لوز، وزراعة كتيرة تحافظ على دير.
اتعلمنا كتير عن الدير وشوفنا العليقة المحترقة وهو مش لسة محترقة وشكله زاي شجرة عادية. بعد الدير، روحنا شارم الشيخ. في اجانب كتيرة في شارم واوروبيين عارين في كل مكان ومصريين اللى بيحاولوا يحدوا فلوسهم وبيبعوا مياة لثمن عالي جدا! كل حد بيكسب! وصلنا في شارم وعلى طول ركبنا مركب قزاز وقدرنا نشوف الشعاب المرجانية من المركب وعومنا شوية وعملنا سنوركلينج! وبعدين اكلنا اكل مكسيكي ونمنا كتير!

السبت:
ركبنا مركب طول اليوم. روحنا راس محمد اللى حديقة وطنية كبيرة بتحاول تحفظ على الطبيعة الموت. سمرنا علي المركب (او اتحرقنا!) ووقفنا في تلات اماكن مختلفة للعوم وغطس. شوفنا انواع السمك كتيرة في الوان مختلفة وجميلة كننا قادرين تقفز من المركب الى الماية. كان جامد جدا!
لكن كننا لازم نرجع الى فصولنا، ولكن بعد نهاية البرنامج انا اكيد هارجع!