June 16: Egyptian Museum

Whew.

Today I tackled the Egyptian Museum. So much stuff...

I met Nathan, Cylya, and Professor Jacek in front of the museum at 10 and we spent three hours going through the rooms. There is so much stuff in there... No pictures, because they don't let you take cameras inside, and I didn't want to buy post cards because they were 5 pounds a piece, and that's just ridiculous...I'm going to buy cheaper ones at Khan al-Khalili. If anyone has requests as to the sort of thing they want as a souvenir, please email me about it:) I've gotten a few things, but I'm not exactly sure who wants "touristy" things, and who wants Egyptian things.

After the museum we went to eat at The Pottery Cafe on Medan Tahrir (I had cheesecake...omg so good...) then I stopped at the stationary store and picked up some note cards for me and binders for Meg, because she hasn't been able to find any. I took a taxi back to Mohandseen with a taxi driver that wanted to speak Arabic the entire way back. I understood maybe 20% of what he said. Enough to ask what his name was, tell him my name, and tell him where in Cairo I've visited so far. When I got back to the apartment, I started a load of clothes and fell asleep for a few hours. I love naps so much...

After I woke up, I cleaned up my room a little and started a load of laundry. The laundry bit turned out to be a rather messy adventure. When the laundry was done, I couldn't get the door to open again. It was stuck between the last cycle and the finished mark. I came back to it later, and the door opened, only the washing machine hadn't drained any of the water...after I spent 30 minutes cleaning the three gallons of water off the floor, I laid out my clothes and talked online for a bit. I've been trying to clean my room for a while, mostly tidying up stuff. Meg got back around 2 am, and we decided to go to the Mogamma (Egyptian Extension Office) to get our visas extended through our stay, since they are going to be expiring soon. Yeah...don't want to cause an international incident since the penalty is 65 pounds and a letter of apology from the U.S. embassy. I'll just go and stand in line for four hours. Meg and I are going at 8:30 am to stand in line for however long that takes...

Now...sleep.