Since a lot of my friends in Cairo wanted a taste of Poland, I decided to take on the task of cooking Polish food!?!? I thought it would be best if I had a Polish Party which would include food, drinks and music. When I told my mom that I was throwing a polish party she asked in a surprised tone, "Who is cooking the food!?" Growing up, I would always see my grandma spending hours in the kitchen cooking pierogi or golombki or other traditional polish dishes. It wasn't until I made golombki senior year of college that I realized [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 1 At 6:00pm Monday night, all the residents at the Zamalek Hostel were supposed to find out the results of the swine flu tests. But unfortunately, those the results were delayed until 8:00pm, and then 10:00pm and then by tomorrow morning. That evening, the Associated Press (AP) released an article stating that we would be under quarantine for seven days! The residents of the dorms were never told about this decision by university administration or the Ministry of Health. We were [View Full Entry]

---

---

Several of my friends and I took a couple days off work to head to Basata, located in the Sinai Penninsula. The 6-7 hours it takes to get there is definetly worth it. Life in Basata is simple. As one person I met in Basata said "here you feel every minute as it supposed to felt. Unlike Cairo or any other large city, where time flies by and you don't ever stop to reflect." You sleep in huts with no electricty or running water, these anemities are found in the communial bathrooms, which are designed to decrease water usage. Everything in [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 5 The next morning my family and I had an early flight to Luxor. Upon arrival at 6:30am, I arranged for a private tour of Karnak and Luxor temples with a tour guide recommended by other interns. My favorite part of Upper Egypt was Karnak Temple: a lot of credit could be given to our tour guide, Hasan. Hasan did a great job of explaining the general structure that is used to build all the temples in Ancient Egypt, which we would be seeing on our cruise down the Nile River. At the front is the pylon, followed by an [View Full Entry]

---

---

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I was informed by one of the other interns that the entire AUC hostel building is under a 24 hour quarantine. This lockdown was imposed by the Egyptian Ministry of Health because of two confirmed H1N1 virus cases found in American study abroad students who arrived in Cairo, last week and residing in the university hostel. Reuters and Al Arabiya News have reported on the event. All the residents were tested [View Full Entry]

---

---

I have been patiently waiting to find the right time to travel to this remote oasis located in the Western Desert of the Sahara, only 40 km away from Libya. When I found out in May that my friend from high school, Mushi, was planning to visit me in Egypt, I knew right away that we needed to make the journey to Siwa. After running late and being stuck in horrendous Cairo traffic on the way to the bus station we finally made it onto the overnight public bus. While running through the Turgamon Bus Station to get to our bus [View Full Entry]

---

---

After having both of their flights cancelled in December, my family successfully arrived in Cairo at around 3:00am in April. Although Cairo is The city that never sleeps , at 3:00am there are very few souls awake. A couple days before my family arrived, my coworker laughed when I read off my family’s itinerary to him. In only 8 days, my family and I managed to cover the major things in Egypt. They requested to see as much of Egypt as possible. I did the best I could and I hope they enjoyed themselves. Here is what we squeezed into those [View Full Entry]

---

---

This blog has been LONG overdue, but there is definitely a lot to say about the Journey to Jordan. Lauren, Corey, Muriel, Joslyn and I traveled as a group throughout the entire country of Jordan. We pretty much saw everything you could in 8 days including travel. To begin our journey, we boarded a 10pm Delta bus from Cairo to Nuweiba (6-7 hour ride). It was my first time riding the bus in Egypt. During Thanksgiving I was planning on going to the Siwa Oasis via bus, but got sick and decided not to go. The bus ride was uncomfortable as [View Full Entry]

---

---

The journey began at 6:00am from Cairo. Lauren (my friend and fellow intern) and I traveled south of Cairo to the Western desert's Bahariya Oasis to experience one of Egypt's natural wonders. We arrived at the oasis over an hour ahead of schedule - the drive from Cairo only took 4.5 hours, mostly of which we both slept through. From the town of Bawiti in the oasis, we jumped into a jeep with our Bedouin driver and headed out to the desert. We first visited the Black Desert, which was slightly disappointing. However, the White Desert did not fail to impress. [View Full Entry]

---

---

I have to apologize, because there has been little time for me to sit down and write. It has been about 7 months since I first arrived in Cairo. Although there have been some times that I missed home, family and friends, as well as other aspects of the western world, I haven't had a bad case of "home-sickness." I like to think of myself as a low maintenance person and therefore, the many comforts that I lack in Cairo have not been an issue, because of my ability to adapt to my surroundings. Here are some major events/trips that have [View Full Entry]

---

---