When it rains, it pours.

I’m sure this is the title of some cheesy pop song and I know it’s an overused cliché, but it sure applies to the situation. It doesn’t normally rain in Cairo but it has rained several times since we’ve been here and it rained really hard two evenings ago/yesterday morning and it was not fun. Cairo does not know how to deal with water at all so when it rains they pretty much have to manually sweep the water into the drains. Walking around in such weather is interesting to say the least.

We went to the pryamids on Friday. We're only about 20 or so minutes away but Friday was our first free chance to see them. They keep us incredibly busy so it was nice to just mull around! It was a bit foggy (which is the norm in Egypt with all of the pollution) but still very nice. The sphynx was really cool. We also went to see the Cairo Symphony orchestra yesterday at the Opera House. We had to get dressed up (ties were required) it was a really good cultural experience. Afterwards some of us went to the 40th floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel for dessert. Once we got up their we found out they had an $94 pound minimum. (with everything my total came to about 22 dollars) Some of my peers left but I was part of the group that decided to stay. They give us 100 pounds per week for food and I've been good about not spending too much money. We had an amazing view of Cairo from the top floor so it was really nice. I got this plate of french cheeses and it came with a lot of food (they brought rolls and two bowls--one with Kiwi's and one with Strawberry's)
When we we're finished me and two others got into a cab to go back to our neighborhood. Usually on shorter trips you don't really have to barter with the taxi driver before--it's obviously no more than 5 pounds and no less than 3. The general rule is to get older drivers because the younger ones try to scam you. We got in and this young guy who was full of himself asks us in english how much we are going to pay him. We start with 3 pounds and he says that's too little. Finally I said that the highest we would pay him was 7 pounds which was still too much. He told us his minimum was 20 pounds so we got out of the cab! He dropped us off in the huge puddle which was annoying but there was no way we'd pay 20 pounds. We were able to get into a cab not long after that and paid 10 which is still a little too high but not that bad.

Today's my 21st birthday and it was a bit sad not to spend it with family/friends back in the states. The program does a good job of making you feel loved on your birthday. We had cake after lunch and my flatmates and I went out for Kosheri.

Well, I think that's it for now. I hope everyone is doing well!