HELLO.

So sorry for not updating sooner...I've tried to distribute messages among people to tell other people I was okay!

Anyway, the long and longer of it is THERE IS NO INTERNETZ IN THE PYRAMIDZ. I mean, there is, but I've had insane amounts of trubble finding a net cafe that was close. I've found one that is almost next door to the first one we went to (which was RUBBISH), and the secind one we went to (a week later) was okay, but faaaaar. Leaving the house is no joke - 6 floors, and the lift doesn't work. I will be so fit by the end of the year, if the lift never gets fixed! I might not be recognisable! wishful thinkingXD XD

I've paper-diarised for a few days, so I'll save that for later. In the meantime - school, builders, dodgy stomachs and watermelons!

Not yet seen a camel, but my friend Pirosa (sp?) is going to see them on Thursday.

School! We had placement tests and they put me in level 2. The Markaz (centre) is a 12-minute walk from my house, and my classes start at 8. It's 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Our weekends are Thursday and Friday - this is unusual even for Misr (Egypt), since the normal weekend is Friday and Saturday (yawm al jum'uah, and yawm al sabt - i.e. Jumuah and Sabbath). It's a bit odd when you think of Monday as midweek.

I really like the girls in my class - there's 7-ish of us - 2 Americans, a French girl, a couple of Russians/Slovenian/Dagistani, etc, most of whom speak good English. AND AND. ZAKIA. I bumped into Zax on our third day here, right at the school - turns out she was enrolling, too, and also lives ten minutes from us! She's over when she's free, and our class is at the same time, although she's in mustawa' level 3. So I get to meet the cool people in her class and we hang out together in our break. Our parallel lives continue, it seems. Isn't it funny? We cross continents and STILL we're only ten minutes away from each other.

The flat was a bit of a shock when we walked in - from what my cousin told us we were expecting...I don't know, something vaguely palatial, I guess. And I suppose it was - if you left the palace for about 16 years, and then flooded it so all the floorboards came off. So anyway, the floors are being retiled, which means builders everywhere, and then it will be repainted - which means painters will be everywhere. Woo.

8 minutes left, I'ma reply to some comments, kthxbye!