June 21: Bus to Dahab

Location: Cairo, Egypt; Dahab, Egypt

Yay! I survived ECA and MSA with As in each!

This morning I got up late, luckily I only woke up 45 minutes later than usual so, I still had plenty of time to eat breakfast and get ready before I went to class.

I made a B+ on my MSA test:) Today all we did was review and take pictures. Everyone was leaving, so it sort of made me sad:(

Me and the guys are meeting at Tasters at 3:15 to get to the bus station to go to Dahab. It's a LONG bus ride there, and I'm bringing lots of books and my laptop.

After class, I had to head back to my room to pack for the trip to Jordan and Israel. I finished packing everything neatly into one of my suitcases, and my laptop and all my ID stuff into the small bag that I used as a carry on. The small bag weighs twice as much as the larger one. Nathan came over to check his email while we were waiting to leave for the bus station, and I headed to Radio Shack to get some more mini tapes for my tape recorder, and a book light for the bus rides.

Celia and Amelia came over, and we said good bye. Both of them are leaving for the UK and Russia, respectively. We took some pictures, and then Nathan and I had to go down to Tasters to meet David and Jacek.

All four of us crammed into a taxi and rode to the bus station. We bought a ticket for Dahab that was going to leave at 5:30 pm, so we had to wait an hour and a half before it left.

The guys got something to eat, and I ate a bag of skittles that I brought from the apartment. We got on the bus a little after 5 and settled in. I was sitting next to Jacek and across the aisle from David and Nathan.

I had my passport checked no less than 5 times. A few of the times, they just took one look at the cover, saw that it was a U.S. passport, and let me go.

It was a long bus ride. I read about 350 pages of the Dan Brown book I brought, Deception Point, Jacek slept for most of the ride, Nathan listened to his ipod and slept, and David finished his book, No god but God (not the Reza Aslan book, an earlier one) then I let him borrow The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to read. The bus left at 5:30 pm…we got to Dahab at 4 am. Ten and a half hours…so long…

We took a truck to the hotel. And by took a truck I mean, we put our suitcases in the back of the truck and then got in the back as well. Dahab is really quiet at 4 am…no one out and about like in Cairo. We got settled into our rooms. The guys are staying in a triple and I’m in a single…with A/C…thankfully. It’s a big room for one person…but still rather rough, and not very clean, but I’ll get over it.

After we put down our stuff, we went and found a market that was open. I bought chips, a Coke, and a bottle of water, then played with a cat for a while, while the guys talked themselves out of buying beer…at 4:30 in the morning…

We walked back and crashed. I think we’re planning on getting up around eleven or so. We’re all really tired. I think I’m going to head to sleep right now…on this sketchy looking bed…