"To London, to London" ... and onward

Yesterday morning I arrived in Cairo from London on the airline Alitalia, despite an Italian pilots strike that left many angry passengers yelling in various languages at the poor airline employees in Rome. I’m sure that Italy’s beautiful, but at that moment I wasn’t up for trying to find my bag and staying in an airport hotel to wait out the strike. I have no idea why my particular pilot was still working, but I was grateful!

Today I signed up for Arabic lessons at the Fajr School in the neighbourhood of Dokki. The school is about a 25 minute walk from where I’m staying, and the weather was beautiful this morning. It’s warmer here than I expected, although I still need a blanket at night, which I appreciate. I have my Arabic placement/proficiency test on Saturday so they can decide where to begin with my lessons (it’s a one-on-one tutoring course). It’s been over 3 years since I officially studied any Arabic (although living here for a year was a class on its own) so I’m nervous about the test, but really excited about re-visiting the world of being a student.

I’m living with Jenna again, my roommate from 2006-2007, and it’s been great to catch up with her, as she’s been here since September and just returned from a long trip to Palestine where she met with a pile of interesting people, including the Red Crescent (a branch of the Red Cross), and Christian Peacemaker Teams (of the Mennonite Central Committee).

It will take me a few more days to get into the rhythm of life here, especially the rhythm of speaking Arabic on a daily basis, and my brain and my tongue are slightly overwhelmed at the moment. No matter that – I love being back.

Most importantly, on my way to Cairo I got to see a few more friends, which made me very happy:

Ana and BJ – Calgary, Alberta (sorry, no picture of BJ, and I couldn't upload the picture of your kitties)

Carolyn and Ali – Wokingham, England
(That’s Ali’s natural expression, in case you were wondering).


London and Wokingham and England in general were amazing, mostly because I got to see Carolyn (Woop, Woop! “like the Skype sound”) and meet Ali for the first time. Carolyn and I visited London, where we saw the city via the giant London Eye (a Ferris Wheel on steroids), took double-decker buses, got around riding the tube/underground, attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey, watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, walked around the Tower of London, wandered through the extravagance of Harrod’s, took lots of touristy pictures, and last, but not at all least, saw a magical musical stage performance of “The Lion King” at the Lyceum Theatre, which was even better than the movie (even though the movie is what it’s based on) due partly to the absolutely splendid African woman who played Rafiki. The costumes were incredible, the dancing amazing, and the singing made you want to stand up and do the opening “AHHHHHHH, SAVEN-YAHHHHHHHH” at the top of your lungs (we didn’t , but I was tempted, and I could feel Carolyn holding herself back beside me). Also, Mustafa and Simba are very attractive as people with Lion costumes. Just an observation.

With Ali we visited the royal estate of Windsor, where we noticed by the raised flag that the Queen was “in”. Unfortunately she did not, as Carolyn hoped, lean out the window and say “Is Dena here? Would she please come in for tea?” in her posh British accent. Maybe next time.

Also, thanks to my mom and Karen for bringing me to Calgary and just being wonderful in general.


Cheers, cheers, cheers to you all.