A Trip to Cleopatra's Old Stomping Grounds

Mia, me, and Kathryn eating our lovely breakfast at the Desert Development Center.
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Hello all.

I just got back last night from our weekend orientation in Alexandria.  It was such an amazing time!  Unfortunately, 2 days there was not long enough.  I think a lot of people from the program are looking forward to returning there at least one more time.

We left early Friday morning on 4 buses heading for Alexandria.  We stopped along the way at the Desert Development Center, which is a part of AUC and pretty much located in the middle of nowhere.  We had breakfast there-- a mediocre platter of some weird pastry pancake things, weird cheese, and baked beans, but hey, at least it was free!  A maggot came crawling out of the cheese though which added to our breakfast conversation.  After we finished eating, we got a tour of the grounds.  It was pretty interesting, but there were about 150 people on the tour, so it was really hard to hear what the guide was saying.  I did manage to catch some stuff about Egypt's agricultural system, etc.

The Hilton.
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Afterwards we got back on the buses and continued to head for Alexandria.  They divided us according to first name, which meant that most of the Katie's and Kathryn's were together on one bus.  Trust me, there are a lot of us.  I think about 8 out of the 150 people have some form of that first name.  Nicknames have been given to make things a little easier.  I've been assigned "Maple" due to my Canadian origin...

On the way to Alexandria, the bus carrying the people "A through D" broke down on the side of the road.  All the buses pulled over and we squished together to accommodate those people from bus 1.  That put us a bit behind schedule and we made a quick stop to pick up sandwiches to eat along the way.  We pulled into the Hilton (yes, the Hilton) about an hour behind schedule.  The hotel was great though.  It was located right on the beach.  Needless to say, once we had our room assignments I think most of us were down at the beach within minutes.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very good.  It started raining a little bit.  Some people were still brave enough to go into the water, but most of us just watched them and took pictures of the water.  It was so gorgeous (even with the bad weather)!!

Me, Cate, Lauren, and one of the other Katie's.
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The school paid for all of our meals for the weekend, which included both the dinner and the breakfast buffets at the hotel.  The food was so good!  I think I ate until I was almost sick.  Likely not smart, but I figured that I should enjoy the good food while I can (especially when I don't have to pay for it).

After dinner we went back out to the beach for a bit before heading down to the "disco" in the hotel.  It was interesting.  That's really the best word to describe it.  Not the best time ever, but it still wasn't bad.  About half the people there had way too much to drink, which meant that there were fewer people in line at breakfast in the morning.

Me and Cate (with the other Katie and Megan in the background).
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The next day we got back on the buses (including a new bus for the "A through D" people).  We went to a different Hilton place to hear some more orientation speeches, the typical do's and don't's of Egypt.  The women who is in charge of the international program told us some past stories, some funny and some scary.  At one point she was talking about the "behaviour" of some of the people the night before.  It was funny because she's like, "you are all aware that you signed the waiver saying that there would be no alcohol on this trip, right?"  Everyone kind of laughed, because as usual everyone just signed the waivers without reading them... 

Yet another Katie (you know see the reason for nicknames), me, Cate, Lauren, Katie, and Megan at the fortess of Alexandria.
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We had yet another buffet (lunch this time) before heading back to our hotel.  When we got back we had some free time.  A group of us decided that we had to go into the water despite it being January and freezing out.  It was well worth it!  The water was really rough and we all got thrown around by the waves (to the point that bathing suits were almost lost).  Still, it was amazing!!  I'm now a proud member of the Mediterranean in January Polar Bear Club (not to be confused with the New Year's Eve Polar Bear Club)...

After yet another amazing dinner buffet we went back down to the "disco" to watch a bellydancer.  She was pretty good, but I didn't think that she was amazing.  We didn't stay up too late because we had to get up early to go on our whirlwind tourist adventure the next day.

Despite the international office's intention of having all 150 of us on the bus and pulling out of the hotel parking lot by 9 am, I don't think we actually left until closer to 10 am.  A couple of people in the group had some of their stuff stolen from the hotel.  That took some time to sort out.  More on this story later.

We first went to the catacombs.  We stopped to pick up our guide on the way.  I can't remember exactly what her name was, but it translated into "Paradise", so that's what we called her and that's what she called our group.  It was pretty funny because we were really running behind and had only a short time in each place.  And by short, I mean like 10-20 minutes.  She was like a drill sergeant.  We'd pull up in front of the tourist sight and she'd be like, "everyone off the bus!! move, move!! paradise, out now!!"  It was so crazy!  So, in the course of about 2 1/2 hours we somehow managed to navigate 4 buses through crazy traffic (including pulling U-turns in the middle of a packed highway) and see the catacombs, the Roman Amphitheatre, and the old fortess of Alexandria.  The entire time that we had our tour guide yelling at us, we also had Mohamed, one of the international program coordinators, yelling at us with his megaphone, which was permanently attached to him all weekend long.  I'm sure that I'll be hearing "yallah, yallah, yallah" ("hurry, hurry, hurry") in my sleep for the rest of the week.  We were treated to lunch at a great restaurant before getting to the brand new library of Alexandria for a tour.  It's an amazing building, an engineering marvel.  So much thought was put into the building that it's incredible.  The roof was designed in such a way that allows sunlight in, but doesn't allow direct sunlight to touch anything. 

We left Alexandria at about 5 pm and headed for a local mall for some shopping.  The mall was extremely westernized, complete with western prices.  No one really bought anything, but it was still fun to look around.  We got back into Cairo at about 9 pm.  I later heard a story about the people who had their stuff stolen.  When they were at the mall, 1 of the guys went to asked about buying a replacement ipod.  The guy at the electronics store told him about a guy who works at the Hilton and is selling electronics for cheap...  Interesting, huh?  I wonder what will happen there. 

Anyways, congrats to those people who invested the time to read this entire entry.  I realize that it was really long.  My apologies! 

Until next time,

Katie