loving life today in Wadi Degla

hi people i love! i havent written in a while. let me share a list of recent on-goings, comprised of the things i can think of off the top of my head on this beautiful sabbath morning:

1. I finally got an internet connection here in the cafe after trying on multiple days, and there's AC here! (it turns out that AC is something i DONT have in my room, nor in the entire apartment recently since our electricity was cut 2 days ago. its like sleeping in an oven, or not sleeping at all really). Anyway, i'm pretty sure God blessed the cafe with wireless just for me today, as i told mom in an email a few minutes ago. I think without it i would've burst out crying from all the things going wrong lately. ha, but i'm feeling fantastic now! only the middle east can make me go to such extremes like this.

2. The US won in the Egypt vs. USA soccer game a few days ago. 3 - 0. HAHA! i was surprised by my own patriotism. The game started when i was finishing up my last swim lesson. i went home to change and on my way back to the club to watch it, i stopped to check the score with the doorman of my old apartment. he had it on a small black and white screen. he told me "wahid safr amrika!!" 1-0 america! The next day, whenever a fellow coach brought it up, I did a little jig and sang my little song "talata - sifr, talata- sifr" (three - zero)while i showed the score on my fingers. I had to be careful though, they'd get pretty testy. And yes dad, we beat spain too! that was amazing.

3. Madalina, my Romanian olympic swimmer roommate went back to romania, but there's another Romanian named Lakra, who has taken her place and she's great. we all lived together for a couple weeks until mada left. mada was fun, but she had her drama and she was pregnant so uh, she couldnt exactly stay. we went out dancing with the coaches for her going away party, and we all had a blast. Even Will, our boss, came. he's the white guy. anway, i'm happy for her to leave this place, i dont think she was happy. So the female coach count is currently 2. me and lakra. i think we're the only female coaches in the whole club as far as i can tell. i'm used to being in the spotlight now, even though its really tiring. (ps- "spotlight" not always a fun thing)

4. Last night i went midnight horseback riding with 5 of my fellow coaches. it was amazing. we went out in the desert near the pyramids. I told shehab, the one who arranged everything, that i like going fast. usually when i've gone horse riding, its with a tourist group in MT, UT, Africa, Jordan, or whatever. Little did i know that the guys are avid riders. when they gave me the fastest horse i almost killed myself, and i had to switch horses. still, i went off into the desert night on my galloping horse with the pyramids as my backdrop, completely thrilled and pumping adrenaline. I've never ridden that fast in my life and shehab promises to teach me how to do it more like a pro next time. after riding we went and got malaki, a rice pudding dessert with cake layers and fruit on top. i love egypt. really. i almost want to stay. things like no electricity are what make me want to go.

5. A few nights ago i fought through traffic with three coach friends to see the end of a music festival held at the citadel. We got there in time to see an Algerian band play for a while. it was a lot of fun, and afterward we pulled over somewhere to chug down 4 mugs of sugarcane juice, which i decided was totally my style and i was happy that the guys chugged as fast as i did. Honestly, i still feel like i eat/drink more than anyone i know, so it was a happy moment to share with them in my own secret way.

6. Elections in Iran - wow. Was there a recount, or is it in progress? Sometimes the Middle East makes me literally want to blow things up because of obvious laziness, pride, or other self-inhibiting things that hold whole nations back. that must be why a lot of things ARE blown up here, because i'm not the only one that feels this way. A few days ago i was watching Al Jazeera news about Palestinian properties being sold by the Israeli government and i turned the tv off after about 10 minutes of pointless fighting between an Israeli rep and a Palestinian refugee rep. The Israeli couldn't stop himself from yelling. he even brought up old offenses against Jews to prove his case. wow. It's not just him though, it comes from both sides. STUPID

7.I'm getting along pretty well with my Arabic, and i'm even learning a little french since a lot of people here speak it. i LOVE languages.

8. I feel like i fit into this world of athletes at the sports club because i've never been surrounded by so many people that like so many of the same things that i do. I'm surrounded by people who are amazing at what they do though. Mada really was on the Romanian olympic team. A lot of the swim coaches still swim competitively in college or after college. Half of them are champion athletes in other sports like Judo, boxing, hammer-throwing, etc. Here's a fun fact: my Arabic speaking TA at BYU, Rana, is on the BYU tennis team. she actually trained here at Wadi Degla Sports Club, where i work! Interesting fact: All Egyptians like to mention their accomplishments (like the sports champions i've mentioned), AND everyone always tells you their exact age or how old they WILL be on their next birthday. ie: "i'm 22 and 6 months, so i'm almost 23" or "my child is 4 and 8 months, he'll be 5 in november."

9. MY IPOD nano was stolen out of my bag last week. i was mostly upset that my precious skullcandy earphones are now gone. oh well. oh well. OH WELL. speaking of music and such, i must put a plug in for certain podcasts. i love podcasts. You should check out LDS podcasts to download talks and conference sessions (whether you're mormon or not, but most of you are), they're great. Also, check out
"Stuff You Should Know" podcasts.
I absolutely love them. They're random but very informative from explaining OCD or the bailout, to cannibalism and who owns the oceans. They have saved me in some of my late sleepless nights. The casual talk and banter of the hosts, Josh and Chuck, is hilarious.

Ok, i've written too much already. This has satisfied my journalish writing tendencies and maybe my next post will be more interesting and less about....me. Pictures soon....