Well, it took awhile, but I've managed to upload some pictures. For all of my pictures:

login: jpics
password: easy

Here are pics from the day I arrived:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290633491

Plus, here's over 100 pictures from Luxor. Maybe I should be selective on which ones I post?
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290633453

After a bit of looking, I also found some good maps that show Cairo, where I'm living, and where I take my Arabic classes.
Here is a full map of Cairo so it takes awhile to load, but it's shows how the neighborhoods fit together:
http://home.att.net/~cairo3dmap/map.html
Below are links to area B-1 and E-1 on this big map.

and here's a zoomed-in map of my big part of the city. We're very close to where it says "Heliopolis Sporting Club" right above where it says "Heliopolis" in big letters.
Heliopolis is the name of where I'm living:
http://home.att.net/~cairo3dmap/e-1.html

Also, here's the zoomed-in map for where I'm taking Arabic classes, just above where it says "AGOUZA" is "THE BRITISH COUNCIL":
http://home.att.net/~cairo3dmap/b-1.html

[from Thursday]

Today has been a good day.

It's always good to say that. *smile* I'm definitely feeling back to normal again after 2 days of having an upset
stomach. Well, that's one way to lose a few pounds! *grin* I was feverish on Wednesday, I think but I'm certainly
better now. My appetite has returned, too.

It's now Thursday night, so the weekend is beginning. No big plans for tonight, but Friday should be busy. My
flatmate is around and we had talked about watching a DVD on my computer tonight. we shall see. Yeah, there are
many better things I could be doing in Cairo, but it's been a busy week and I just want some time for relaxation.

Every day, I realize a little more just how huge Cairo is! I fell like I commute quite a bit when I'm on public
transport 1 hr each way, but that's only getting me half-way across the city!

On both Wednesday and Thursday, I managed to make it from where I'm staying and to my arabic class without much
trouble. See, there's no such thing as a bus schedule in this city. Seriously! You just ask random people or the
busdrivers where they are going and then write down or remember which bus took you where.

When I leave the flat, I walk 5 minutes to a small Metro station. We'd think about it more as a "tram". It's
above-ground, running on rails but connected to wires up in the air. Does that make sense? Anyway, I take the
tram to one of the main bus/tram/underground stations and switch to a bus for the rest of my trip to class.

Yup, it's 7pm. I hear one of the call-to-prayers happening. We're fairly close to a mosque, so I can hear
it pretty well. I can't understand any of what they're saying, but...

Good news! I finally got around to setting up my computer to use the phoneline in the flat (the apartment where
I'm staying) to connect to the Internet. This will be my first journal update from my couch! Will this mean more
journal updates and more email. Probably not. I think I'm doing a fairly good job with that right now. Maybe
too good of a job!

What it does mean is that I should soon be uploading some of my pictures. Don't get too excited yet! I haven't
tried it yet to see how slow it is. But the internet connection is cheap. There's no monthly fee, so all you do
is pay per minute. It turns out to be something silly like 1 Egyptian pound per hour. That's about 20 cents...

Maybe I'll try now.

Not a lot to report for today.

I wasn't feeling well Tuesday night and all through Wednesday. Plus, I didn't sleep very well Tuesday night. I'm some better now, but tired. Fortunately, I get to sleep soon.

Arabic went well and I got to/from class without using a cab.

But I also started with a tutor tonight and I had to take a cab of that. Well, I'm still making progress. More tomorrow, maybe...

Went out for dinner tonight after Arabic with a couple of the guys from class. A Canadian who had been working in IT, made some cash in the UK in the late 90's at BBC Online, etc and is now bouncing around the world. The other guy is a Brit and he's just here for a few months to learn some Arabic and travel before going to university in the fall. He's just 18!

The extent of my meeting "real Egyptians" has been on the bus and metro trains. However, I did meet a really helpful guy on the bus today and he gave me all his contact information, so I can call him if I have questions about things. He was really great. I need to ask the Egyptian guy here at the office what I should do to show my gratitude.

Arabic class was better today. We have homework, too. Our teacher gave us a drawing of a bedroom with all sorts of things in it. Toothbrush, rug, bed, picture, book, etc. We have to go up to random people and ask them in Arabic, "what is the name of this object", then listen to their response and write it down. It seems like a fun and weird way to meet people in the neighborhood! I got a couple done by stopping by the gas station this evening. The rest, I'll do in the morning.

So class seems good, and the students are nice. I'm also going to have a tutor a couple of nights a week. At first, we talked about 3 nights/week, but that might be too much. It's 8-10pm in the evening, so that eliminates any potential for going out. Not that I've been doing a whole lot of that, anyway.

But everything is still so new, which means things are still coming together.

Today was a good day and I'm looking forward to some studying and relaxation tonight and Wednesday morning!

Catching up with writing about the few days in Luxor...

When we first arrived on the train, we stopped at one of the hotels that we had called a couple of days before. Of course, the price was different than what was quoted and they weren't able to get Craig, Karen, and the 2 boys all in the same room. So Craig and I went off in search of another hotel. We went to another that he had called and they were able to get their whole family in a quad room. I had a double to myself, but it still wasn't that expensive. The first place had a bad location and would have been about 30 pounds for me. To get the better location and a view of the Nile, I paid 60 pounds a night. Mind you, that's Egyptian Pounds and at the current exchange rate, 60 LE (abbreviation for Egyptian Pound) is less than $12 US.

After settling in, we took a kalesh ride to Karnak temple. A kalesh is a small carriage pulled by a single horse. So we all piled in and for about 5 LE (less than $1), we had a 20 minute tour of the area and got to Karnak temple. Everything is just so old and impressive. I need to go back again after the feeling of awe wears off! The "wow, I'm really seeing this stuff" sensation made it tough to take in much of what I was seeing. We were all tired by early evening, so we went to bed early. Even though we tried to sleep on the train, it still wasn't very restful. So, I slept a long time and was all rested for Friday!

Friday was our day to hire a car and driver for the day so that we could easily see the sights we wanted to see. Sure, we could have done it cheaper by just hopping busses, but this just made things so much more convenient and we knew that we could schedule things how we wanted.

Our first step was the Colossi of Memnon. We're pretty sure that every tourist in Luxor goes there. Sure, they are 2 huge (30 feet?) but they're also free. So, the tour guides can add them to lists of things they offer without costing themselves any money! *laugh* After that, we went to Deir al-Medina. It's a collection of tombs, but they are right within a small, active village. That meant walking past where people were living and working on our way to the historic sights. Much different than the Valley of Kings, which is isolated.

I should really provide links for some of these things, but I'm not going to. *smirk* Maybe sometime I'll pay to get on a fast connection, but for now it's just too hard with a cruddy dial-up.

Anyway, I already wrote about what we saw in the Valley of the Kings, so I won't get into that again. When we finished there and returned to the hotel, I decided that I wanted to take a felucca ride. Feluccas are small sailboats and there were hundreds of them along the Nile. Each one had an eager captain who would talk to any tourist who walked near him! Price had to be negotiated, of course! I just wanted the experience of "being on the Nile", so I only went for 1 hour. Sadly, there wasn't much wind so we went out, let the current carry us for a bit, then came back in. But the captain was friendly and we had tea. While on the water, one of his friends in another felucca came by with customers, but he didn't have tea or sugar. So, we brought both boats together and handed across our tea and sugar. Silly...

But the day wasn't over yet. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go to Luxor Temple, but I decided that since I was there, I really should. When I'm back in Luxor sometime, maybe I'll go again? At any rate, it's all lit up at night, so most people go after it gets dark or at sunset to get some natural light and then the artificial. Hieroglyphics, hundreds of small sphynxes, a huge obelisk, and manymanymany tourists are what I remember.

And that was the Luxor trip...

Here's another one...


As of writing this, I haven't read any emails that people sent while I was in Luxor. Hopefully, I'll read them and reply back in a day or so.

I still haven't written about Luxor and don't feel like writing out the details tonight. Rest assured, it was a
great couple of days and I ate really well! *laugh* That hasn't been a problem at all, really. I have been walking quite a bit, but I need to start getting more exercise since I've been eating well! *smirk*

Tonight, I went to church. For most people, Sunday is a workday, so most Christian services are held on Fridays. That's the Muslim holy day, so everyone has the day off work. But some churches have an extra Sunday service too. I stopped by the Heliopolis Community Church, since it's just a 15 minute walk from where I'm living. Very nice service and nice people! The pastor talked about Exodus 3 and 4. He asked us to think about what God is asking us to do this week and how we respond...

Before the service, the pastor's wife introduced herself and then after the service, I spoke with the pastor and a few other people. As I was getting ready to leave, the pastor asked me to join he, his wife, and a couple of others at their place for dinner and cards. Of course, I said yes...and we went a few minutes later. It turns out that they live very close to where I do. Just a 5 minute walk, maybe less.

We had beef and vegetable soup, plus little sandwiches. Mostly me getting to know them and telling a bit about myself. After eating, we played cards. They called the game "Auctioneers Bridge", I think. Strangely enough, I learned this very game at orientation a few weeks ago. We called it "Wipe-out".

You play with a full deck of cards and deal 7 cards to each player. A card is flipped and that determines trump. Whatever suit is lead, you must play that suit. If not, you can trump or throw off. However, trump cannot be lead until played on another trick. Each person bids how many tricks they will take and you only get points if you bid accurately. So if you bid 2 and get 2 tricks, you get 2 points. But if you bid 3 and only get 2, then you get -3 points.

In the second hand, you only get 6 cards and then just 5 the next time you deal, all the way down to 1 card and then back up 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to 7 for finishing the game.

To my card-playing friends, have you played that? Do we have a name for it?

This is taken from my hand-written journal pages...thoughts on the train back from Luxor on Saturday. More soon about the actual trip...

Beautiful scenes out the window! Palm trees, green fields, mountains on the west bank of the Nile. Sitting in 1st class b/c that's the only ticket we could buy. Supposedly, 2nd class was sold out. So nice and warm in Luxor. Short sleeves, shorts, sunglases, and lotion for our sight-seeing. We went to Karnak Temple on Feb 13 and then to Valley of the Kings and Luxor Temple on Feb. 14th. I saw the Tomb of Merneptah, the Tomb of Ramses III, and the Tomb of Tuthmosis III. They're all numbered, so these were KV (King's Valley) #8, 11, and 34. Lots of tour groups. French groups all over on Feb 14.

It's going to be a 10 hour trip today. We came all night and slept on the way to Luxor, and that was fairly restful. I'd like to nap now, but it's so pretty outside right now.

[1 hour later]

I napped anyway, and it's still pretty outside. Aside from the buildings, the landscape reminds me of Phoenix, Arizona. That makes me happy!

We're stopping frequently over the first half of the trip. After that, it's more like an express. Maybe part of
my "everything is great here" feeling is over. I'm noticing how bad some people smell -- b.o.! *laugh*

The day goes on...now 2:20pm. Many men with guns on the train. I suppose it makes me feel secure, yet it also reminds me of the possibility for trouble. If not, then why have the protection?

Everything crumbles into dust. Tops of buildings, sidewalks, people? No, people seem generally cheerful and hearty.

We're now along to 4pm. Mountains are still in view. Dark smoke rises from the fields. These are sugar cane fields and after the harvest, the fields are burned to clear them for a future crop. Small fires, not huge. Just each little farmer burning his individual field.

Some observations on Egypt...

Cats, cats -- everywhere! Not pets, just in the streets looking for food. Some dogs too, but many more cats. Some look ok, but a few look just 1 step away from mummification!

Things are falling apart, but it's also that buildings are just left unfinished. Potential for more stories on top, or lack of funds? I'm not sure, but many buildings are like that.

Almost 5pm and the sun is starting to set. It will feel cool in Cairo, especially tonight, after being so warm in Luxor.

I just saw a full-sized soccer field, with grass. Not professional, but it must have been a high-priced club where people have memberships. Mostly, kids just play in the streets.