One Week!

Is it bad that I will be on vacation one week from today and I haven't even started teaching yet? I'm going to say that it's not because I have been in inservice for three weeks! I am so excited for vacation! One week from today I will be in beautiful Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula. I'll be there for four days laying on the beach, snorkeling, relaxing, and taking in the sun. It will be perfect! I think it will be nice to get away from the city for a while (even though I've only been here for 3 weeks)... but it gets tiring hearing traffic all the time and dogs barking and people yelling and everything 24/7. The only downside of the trip is that it's a 7 hour bus ride, but luckily it's with people that I know and like. We're also coming back on my birthday (September 10 for anyone that still needs to send me a gift, haha!)... which means I'll be sitting on a bus for 7 hours on the glorious day that I turn 24 in Cairo. But I've already made everyone promise that no matter how tired we are, we WILL be going out to celebrate that night. And they agreed. What choice did they have?

My Egyptian life was made a lot better today by a few events. First, I had Mexican food! I adore Mexican food and can't live without it, and realized that there's a Mexican restaurant about 15 minutes away from my house. I love Maadi. Next, I went to a house where a couple lives who works at the school. They had a bunch of stuff left over from someone who left last year to move back home. This was perfect for me because they offered to give me whatever I needed! It's really difficult moving to a foreign country and not having a lot of kitchen supplies for example and learning where to go buy everything and also not having a ton of money to buy stuff. So I took everything! I now have more glasses, a strainer, picture frames, towels, sheets, and a blow dryer!! I have been living with NO hair supplies since I got here. I also lived without a fingernail clipper for 2 weeks. Gross, right? So I was pumped! It was so much stuff that I couldn't carry it all back to my house today... I'm getting the rest tomorrow.

One last thing made me have a nice day. I hung up pictures of my friends and family in my apartment. I am slowly working on making my apartment more home-y. I figure I better try since I am going to be here for 2 years. It made me so happy to be able to look around and see pictures of the people I love! I also have the pictures of playwrights on my wall because they're my inspiration and because I'm just that cool. So overall, I'm feeling better about making this apartment feel like it's more my own.

But one bad thing did happen today. I went on a huge rant in my blog yesterday about Coke products and I stand by them! And I don't drink any soda. But I have been drinking Fanta Orange sometimes since I've been here. Well... I was looking on the can and realized that Fanta is a Coke product!!! I feel so ashamed. It really quenches my thirst because it's so hot here and it doesn't taste like soda. So now I don't know what to do. Maybe it's okay because I only drink it sometimes? But maybe I just shouldn't to stand my ground against Coke. But then again maybe it's okay because I won't be shopping at other evil corporations like Wal-Mart for 2 years. So it's a give and take. I'm going to give in and say it's okay once in a while. But only while I'm here and only when I'm really thirsty and hot. So there.

Tomorrow's my hump day! Yay! Only 3 more days left of work until vacation starts!