Holy Crap!

***I started this blog entry on October 26th.  We just got internet in our new apt. on Monday (November 29th), so now I am working on it again.  Sorry for the long gap in time!  Miss you guys!***

Holy crap there is a lot of shit going on!  And a lot has happened since my last post!  Currently, I am sick as a dog (bleh) and we are trying to transition into the new apartment.  Where to start, where to start….?

Wow, I just looked at the beginning of the pictures and realized that it has been a reeeeeally long time since I blogged.

Sorry guys   So I guess this will be a really long one.

Last time you heard from me we went to Phil’s parents. Since we’ve been back, we went to the Fire Bar across the street where we ran into the “safer sex team”.

The Safer Sex Team

Lol, apparently instead of going to bars selling lighters, there is a team of people peddling safer sex.  Ha ha ha.  They introduced us to a game of “tails and pussies” [tail=cock] (which I totally need to make a deck of and introduce to everyone else ), and then wanted to give us some free condoms.  But since they didn’t have latex-free, we got extra suckers instead

Cocks and Pussies

This is also, by the way, where I thought I left my camera and was so upset that we couldn’t find it.  Phil called the place and then walked over there.  I was hysterical.  I’m so glad he found it He is awesome! (I apparently left it at the new apartment. )

That same night we had a proper thunderstorm with lightning and everything   Which, Phil told me, doesn’t happen very often around here.  I tried to take a bunch of pictures of the clock tower in the storm, and I got one when the lightning flashed, but it was way too bright, and just looks like an over-exposed picture during the day.  Here’s a good one:

Clock tower in the storm

While we were in Nürtingen, I heard a lot of a song by Robbie Williams.  At first I thought is was one of those christian bands, because he says, “is this why Jesus died for me?” or something to that effect a lot in the song.  But Phil was like, “No, it’s Robbie Williams,” and I got to thinking.  He’s apparently really popular in Europe, but I have only heard one of his songs on MTV 2 when we were living in Arkansas, and hadn’t heard anything since then about him at all.  So I was wondering… do any of you guys know who he is?

Apparently The Corrs are really popular over here, too.  Although I don’t think anyone in the US knows who they are.  I had one of their cds a long time ago but it was stolen (bitch), and I have yet to replace it.    Also, a while ago I recorded the clocks at noon.  Just so everyone knows what kind of craziness I wake up to every day (except that now I have started school so I wake up much earlier, but that’s skipping ahead, and we don’t want to do that now do we? )

**Update**  It took me three days to figure out how to get the audio on this damn blog   Leave me alone, I don’t claim to know computers ok?  Soooooo…..the final result was that I had to make a video to get it on here.  It’s crap, but I like it because I made it and it’s MY crap, lol.  (Plus it felt really good to create something once again.  GOD I need to find the art community here.  I need to do artsy things!!!)  Enjoy:

Okay….so now that all the random stuff is over with, lets try to put some order to this thing.  On the 8th we got all of our stuff off the boat. (furniture and shtuff)  And the poor mover guys had to drag it up 5 flights of stairs to our new flat.

The mover guys going up many many stairs

I have lots of pictures of our new place empty and full of boxes.  I’ll post them all on fb.  I was so excited to get all of our stuff.  I felt bad for the guys and asked Phil to go get them somthing to drink, though.  But I’m soooo glad that I didn’t have to do it, lol.  I love our new place.  I can’t wait for everyone to come and visit.  I think we have enough room to house three families, lol.  (As long as they’re small families and don’t have any children )

Annnd then…on the 10th we went to Cairo for Phil’s sales class.  (If you remember from a few blogs ago, Phil and I were supposed to go back to Houston for a class he had to take, but that was changed to Cairo after about a week of being here.)

Phil (& me) at the hotel in Cairo

Forget anything I ever said about any place being dirty.  Cairo is the filthiest place I have ever been to and probably ever will go.  And it’s not just becuase it’s in the desert, it just really is very trashy.

Just look at the pollution

And you think Houston has bad traffic?  Well you wouldn’t believe the traffic in Cairo.  OMG.  The lines are just there for decoration I think.  And people use the horn just to say hello.  And hey, I’m here.  And Hey! Get outta my way!.  Lol, I’ve never seen people use the car horn so frequently.  And seatbelts are definitely optional.  (Even though half of the time I was WISHING with everything I had that there was a seatbelt in our taxi.)  One of the taxi drivers tried to kill us   On our way back from the pyramids he cut off some guy, and they proceeded to have a shouting and dodging match on the highway.  I was terrified for my life.

But the pyramids are amazing!  I recommend going to see them even if it’s just once in your life.  Pictures do nothing for these things.   They are simply enormous!  I also recommend the night time pyramid light show.  Very nice and very informative:

The pyramid light show

But, if you go, either go A.  With a friend of yours that knows Arabic, or B.  On a tour with a lot of tourists.  I know that hanging out with a bunch of tourists doesn’t sound all that great, but you’ll see the same stuff (if not better stuff) and you won’t get completely ripped off by the locals.  But if you want to go see all the cool stuff off the beaten path, I recommend taking a friend of yours (or someone you can trust.  Not just some random guy off the street) that can speak Arabic.  Then you can go to some of the local places without getting too much of a hassle.  NEVER EVER just take a taxi from the hotel and say, “I want to see the pyramids.”  We got ripped off hardcore.  You have to pay for every little thing that you do.  And even for shit that you didn’t want in the first place.  On the plus side, the Egyptian Pound is worth .12 Euros or .18 Dollars, but the bad thing is by the time we were done with our tour we had no money left.  Yeah.

We went to a Suk (Bazaar) that was so big we got lost.  Seriously.  It’s a good thing we had our tour guide from Saudi (he was actually a guy in Phil’s class.  He was really nice, and it was a good thing we had him around, lol)  But there was tons of stuff to buy.  It was crazy.

lots of stuff

And we went on this dinner cruise one night where a guy did some traditional Egyptian dance.  Although at one point they turned off the lights and he was glowing with led bulbs.  I don’t know how traditional that is

Traditional Egyptian Dance

I would, however, like to go back some day to see everything that I missed.  We were there for two weeks and I rarely left the hotel.  To be honest, I was scared I was going to offend someone if I went outside.  Or break some law that I didn’t know existed and get hauled off to jail. (Which would suck)

Many weeks have gone by since we were in Cairo.  Currently we are in our new apartment.  I love it.  I wish I could take it with me everywhere I go.  I also wish it wasn’t on the FUCKING FIFTH FLOOR!  Ugh.  And the building is so old that they’re not allowed to build an elevator inside due to structural problems.   (Here’s hoping that all of the extra stair climbing that I’m doing will get me into better shape.)  I haven’t taken any pictures of the place furnished, I’ll have to clean up first and then post some.  (Which, those of you who know me, may take a while.)

You would not believe how much paper we had in our house after we unpacked everything.  We had a stack of it taller than me in the corner of our kitchen.  The moving guys finally came to pick it up Tuesday (Dec. 1st).  Which is really nice, because now we have a kitchen.  Yay!

So. Much. PAPER!!

I’ve been going to school to learn German for about six weeks now.  I’m definitely getting better, but there’s still a lot I don’t know.  Two weeks to go and then I take my final exam.  I hope I do ok.  I’m still having trouble with things, but hopefully after a couple more classes I should be doing fairly well.

Christmas here is interesting.  Last week they opened the Weinachts Markt (Christmas Market), which will be open until xmas.  There are a bunch of booths set up in town with food and stuff to buy for christmas presents.  They even had a bunch of booths with faire stuff, which really made me happy.  I hope those booths are still there this weekend, because I want to buy some stuff, just in case I ever get to go to faire again. (Which I’m hoping)  It’s really awesome, and I got to try Glühwein for the first time (with rum)!  Glühwein is kind of like hot spiced red wine.  It’s good for those really cold days. (Philipp hates the stuff)

I miss you guys, and I wish you could be here for all this craziness.  I promise that if my internet connection holds up, I wont make you wait two months for another blog.

*kisses*

Candy

~ by crimsondoll on December 4, 2009.