Happy

I am back in a routine, comfortably trying to break out of it as usual, but this time I really think it is a good one. I enjoy school more and more everyday, and this is a huge improvement in comparison to how miserable it was in the begining. My newest discoveries/adventures are teaching me new things all the time. I found out that there are buses near my house that will take me to the main street in Zamalek and also to Tahrir. Also near Tahrir Michelle and I explored the market "Wakalat Al Bala7" (The Date Agencies) It is a HUGE used clothing market with things from 5LE to about 60LE for fancy clothing and there are no dates....
In Maadi Kariko, Anne, Madeline, and I found this amazing book store with used and new books. The used books are fairly well priced and you can return them for half of your money back. There is also a bargain section with books 3 for 10LE. On this adventure I also got my first map of Cairo (something I thought didn't exist) at Cinabon. During this excursion all hell broke loose in Cairo. Guess what happend?! There was a thunderstorm! That may not sound too crazy, but when you are in a city that is not designed to deal with any rain much less 3 or 4 inches plus HAIL it gets pretty wild. We ran into a McDonalds to escape the rain only to see that the roof leaked. Moments later we heard this pounding and looked out the window to see hail. We danced and sang and skipped in the rain in joy while most people ran for their lives to get out of it. On the way back in the metro there were problems with the power so we stopped at each station for a couple minutes each. A long trip back. Today, we went back to the book store to return some books and get some new ones. Then I dragged Madeline and Anne to Attaba where we got more books. We went in search of some good foul and t3meya (beans and fallafal) but ended up in a very large shoe market. When we found our way back to the metro and tahrir we decided to go for icecream at Al 3bd. That was some pretty good icecream!
In school this week I convinced a couple kids to teach me the national anthem of Egypt and in return I attemped to teach them the U.S. anthem and the Pledge of Alligance. It took me awhile to remember them...kinda sad! At least I remember them now!
I've come so far and learned so much, I can't wait for the next four months!