Four wheel drive.... CHECK.

I think I made a few new legitimate friends today. That is pretty exciting.

This morning I woke (at a slightly more reasonable time than yesterday) and went over to the McIntosh’s house (I swear they have to be getting sick of me… luckily they insist otherwise and I am just selfish and needy enough to believe them…). After some emailing and some coffee, Sheryl and I went and picked up Becky (the woman who I met my first day who has already acted as another surrogate mother for me) and her son, Ryan, a student in his final year of college who is studying abroad in Cairo, and we all went to Carrefour, a French grocery store/Wal-Mart that has grown into this massive American-style mall in the middle of Cairo.

The journey over was comical and made me thankful for four wheel drive. One of the most remarkable things about Cairo is that you can be in the middle of the city… and then all of a sudden the buildings stop and surrounding you in a 200 meter diameter is dessert… and then the city starts again. In the desserty parts there are mounds and rocks and valleys and plateaus…. And the road is little more than tread-marks from the vehicles in front of you. The tread mark road doesn’t really matter though. It is really just a suggestion as to where you should go. The road was too windy for us at one point so we just cut over the mounds in the middle. It was bumpy. It was hilarious. The picture that I took does not do it any kind of justice.

When we got to Carrefour I felt like I was in America. There was a Starbucks and McDonalds and a Chiles. At least I know where I can get a good margarita should I need one. I’ll spare you any further descriptions of this experience. Suffice it to say that I was entirely too comfortable there.

After our delightful shopping experience Ryan and I made some tentative plans to meet up and he promised to introduce me to some of his American University in Cairo friends. We traded numbers. He has already called…. Friend number one…. CHECK.

When we got home I entered into spy training with Rachel, the McIntosh’s 10-year-old daughter. I cannot do much… but I do know the secret code to punch into my pretend lap top in order to have chocolate chip cookies shot at my face. Praise the Lord.

At six I went over to one of the other church family’s houses and helped out with the junior high youth group. There were almost 40 kids and they were all pretty amazing. So precious. We hung out, played silly games, had a snack, sang a little, listened to a talk and then broke up into small groups. I think I am definitely going to want to spend more time with them. I fell particularly in love with one little sixth grade girl from Holland. It was great to feel involved in something but I feel like this also helped solidify my standing with the Interns…. So….. friends two through six….. CHECK.

After all of this I ended up chatting on the phone with Josh, the guy that I smoked shisha (spelling? I don’t know…. The crazy Egyptian pipe) and had martinis with my second night in Egypt. We made some plans to hang out tomorrow. So….. friend number seven…. CHECK.

Ramadan is in full swing which means lethargy during the day and general craziness during the night for 90% of the Egyptian population. I still have not had to deal with the inconveniences that I have heard that it creates… but I am interested in seeing the effect that this will have on my daily life.

I guess this is all for now… I know you are all wishing I would go into more detail…. Maybe tomorrow I will detail everything that I have to eat. And the number of times I use the toilet. Thanks for reading.