interesting week of sickness

This week has been interesting. We have had mysterious sicknesses which are hopefully over. The Nile cruise went wonderful and we will be giving the update as soon as we can figure out how we want to post many of the amazing pictures we took. It's not in Casey or my personality to shoot pictures like a tourist. I remember when I took Casey to the Marine Corps Ball we were both so excited and Kristen and Brenna made us promise to take pictures--they even provided the camera! The only pictures taken that night where the ones they took of us before handing the camera over. I don't think it's b/c we hate pictures--I'm pretty sure we are quite fond of them actually, it's the fact that they are burdensome to take and we always forget! I can assure you that has not been the case here in Cairo. There were so many amazing things to see on the tours of the areas in Upper Egypt we took over 500 pics--well closer to 600! Glad we picked up a 2 GB memory card for our camera before we left Denton!

The last day of our trip my throat started to hurt. I started feeling post nasal drip going on and thought to myself oh no this is not good. I decided during out vacation not to bring one page of Arabic with me. I know Casey was getting sick of me studying all the time, which I understand completely. I'm just glad she is so unselfish and supportive! One week before our trip I was spending 12-15hr days at school the entire week. I didn't realize I was spending that much time everyday at school. It seems like when I spend a little extra time on top of the normal load a strange unquenchable appetite for Arabic comes over me. It has to be hard on Casey sometimes b/c Arabic is so time consuming then when we do get time together(which is a lot cause it's just us!) I can't stop talking about it! I guess it comes with the territory of studying one subject hrs and hrs a day. Since I wanted to have quality time with Casey and knew we both needed it I decided to do something quite difficult. I unloaded my backpack of every Arabic piece of material and filled it with travel items. I didn't even lecture her on the beauties or fun facts of the language either! However, it did feel quite strange. Thinking back I don't think there has been 3 days where I haven't cracked open an Arabic book or crammed more vocab into my feeble little mind.

In saying I didn't touch Arabic, I guess I should express that it was not completely shut out of my life. Arabic came in handy at the Markets. I was excited to rush to the markets outside of the Temples so I could have fun with my limited language skills while neg. for sweet 'Egyptian' items. It worked out great we were able to talk the merchants down from 250pounds to 70pounds on some items. It was a lot of fun. I enjoy negotiating and will surely miss it when I come home. Casey & I always talk about getting kicked out of McDonalds b/c we will try to neg. the price of a hamburger. In Egypt EVERYTHING is negotiable and if you offer more than 1/3 of the price at first offer you are not very smart and will get ripped off. It is a sign of great disrespect not to negotiate and sometimes if you are a 'hardliner' and won't play the game they will turn their nose up and walk away b/c you are rude even if they turn around and sell it much cheaper to an individual who will to be friendly and negotiate. During negotiations it not just explanations of why its this price and rebuttals of why I will only pay that price. It's much more than that. Conversation goes on like where are you from, what's your name, how are you, do you like Egypt,etc. etc. It's very fun to get to know a stranger, make a friend and beat someone down for 10min about a price until they break and give it to you for an excellent price b/c you are nice, trying to learn Arabic, and they like you. It made Casey and I very uncomfortable for a long time, but after 3 months of trying we have finally gotten used to it and love it!

Back to the narrative about getting sick--The last day of the trip When I started getting sick I swallowed hard and thought uh-oh this is not good. I had a 400 hundred word paper due in Arabic about the trip and needed to really bust my tail before exit exams, which will place me in a level for next semester. The morning after we got home we both were VARY sick. I missed school and thought it's okay there are only 2 classes on Sunday a drills class which is like a review class we have twice a week and a grammar class. Then the next day I was still sick with what I thought was a horrible Sinus Infection so I stayed home again which made me more concerned. My head felt like it was going to pop and I couldn't try to study Arabic or sit in a class. The following day I had horrible stomach problems and had all the symptoms of food poisoning--i'll save you from the details. Casey was sick one day the okay the next then sick again and now she is okay again-kida like a roller coaster. Finally, today I got some medicine. It's so wonderful in Egypt not to have to get a prescription for prescription medication! I just walked around the corner to our friendly pharmacist asked them in Arabic if they had zithromax and picked up a 3 days supply! The catch is the pharmacist close to us only speaks Arabic, so until recently it's been difficult to communicate.

I'm currently scared to death about this exam I have to take on monday. Brimha, a fellow Indian student, told me not to sweat it. He told the teacher why I haven't been there and informed me that not too much new material has been introduced and the exit exam is supposedly easy. I guess we'll have to see about that. I only have tomorrow left! Our Thursday is ya'lls Friday, so I will go to school get all the classwork and study all weekend and maybe I will manage to be in decent shape come the exit exam on Monday.

Whelp that's all for the post Nile trip. Casey is currently all better and is playing piano at the Church right now. She found a copy center that copies books for 15 egyptian cents per page which is well below 1 amercian cent, so she copied a bunch of piano books from a friend and is sounding pretty great. Since we have a nice Bowab that speaks great english guarding our church 'villa' she can stop by and play whenever she wants. As for me I'm drugged up and sniffling as I type this piece for your enjoyment.

We will be sure to post some entries about our amazing trip to Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simble.