Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. It has been a busy last few weeks. Meredith got here on Saturday, and while we have done NOTHING really Egypty, we have been having a grand old time, and frankly, the pyramids can wait. Haha. Actually, we are going on Friday, so get ready for some camel pictures! Oh get ready!
Anyhow, it is wonderful having her here. While Brandon and I have been at school, Mer’s been recovering from jetlag at home with Marti and Alie. But today, we all took the bus and came to campus. And now I am sitting with Meredith in the shade of the beautiful buildings, recovering from the whirlwind of confusion that surrounds just about everything that involves something out of the ordinary and a tremendously lacking Arabic vocabulary.
Meredith and my mom packed up some wonderful stuff for us. Imagine seeing pretty much nothing but desert and some AZ-style foliage for a few months and how absolutely delightful it would be to have someone bring you a collection of beautiful fall leaves. Imagine that. Incredible. I had almost forgotten how much I love the beautiful reds and oranges. Meredith is pressing them for us. Yeah, pressing them. My mom and sis are awesome.
We also got some baking chocolate and chipotles and a few other necessary things like THE floss I NEED and can’t find anywhere (there are no substitutions for these gums!). It was delightful! Goldfish crackers, black licorice for Brandon, and the real kicker, home-baked amazingly delicious oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and cranberries made with love by my Mom. It was a delightful surprise!!
It has been great having Meredith here. All of the things I was essentially over are now novel again. Donkeys pulling festive colored carts down the freeway are charming and the Maadi dogs never looked so cute and friendly. We have taken Meredith around to all the must-see sites — Seoudi Market, Kimo grocery, and the Italian deli. We did a little vegetable shopping and we’ve chatted through my hours of homework. It’s been a lot of fun, but since I know she didn’t come to Egypt just to see me, we are going to see the pyramids at Giza this weekend and check out the Nile. It will be a lot of fun!
In other exciting news, you will never guess what happened yesterday. It… rained. I know, I was as shocked as you are, it was incredible! My initial reaction was, ewwwwwwwwww grosssssss, something wet dripped on me. Then I realized it was, in fact, RAIN. Here is the proof…
This is when I knew something was going to happen…
And then I saw this.
And then this.
And then I took cover in the bus.
Here are a few pictures Meredith took from the bus ride to campus today…
well, I took this one.
This is just plain weird. There were lots of these giant billboard cutouts around, and that is Future University in the background.
These are some photos Meredith took around campus…
And this is my Arabic classroom…
Now we are heading to the travel office to get some info about travel in Egypt for future visitors. Then it’s off to class. I love “take your twin to work” day!
How could you NOT have danced out in that rain?!!
I guess we take things like rain, green grass and fall leaves for granted..
Oregon, we DO love you! Regan and Sailor and I each collected fall colored
leaves on our neighborhood walk. After pressing them we made small leaf wreaths
and hung them by ribbon in front of the living room windows.
I’m glad you have your sister with you…have fun girls!
How exciting that Meredith is with you. How long is she staying? I love all the pictures. Have fun and I can’t wait for the camel pictures.
Wonderful to hear from you! I love it! Glad you liked the cookies–I didn’t really think they would let Mer take them through security–so it was a good surprise for both of us. Fall leaves–it really is the simple things sometimes. The crepe myrtle outside the screened porch looks like a burning bush this week. It glows in the morning light. Your necklace looks darling! Mer is a clever girl isn’t she?! You two must be twins!
Glad you are both having fun!!! Love you both!!!