Best Day Yet

Friday:

sleep in real late, miss breakfast which kinda sucked…went to the Lebanese place for brunchish meal…it was awesome...again, I am still in love with manakoush…chilled out at the hotel for the rest of the day doing some photo editing and a little bit of homework...I don’t remember if I had said this earlier but I am playing soccer today with Mohammed my friend from the dialogue, and he is picking me up at 8…so I hung out at the hotel till then. Unfortunately it is Pete’s birthday and I will be missing his birthday dinner, but I'm hoping to be back in time to party with everyone. So 8 o’clock rolls around and Ted and I head down to the lobby to meet Mohammed. He gets there right when we get down the stairs…perfect timing…now the best day of the trip begins…we get in Mohammed’s car, its an old school Sahin, which is a Turkish car, common here in Cairo and he takes off…I instantly realize that Mohammed is a college student just like myself, and he would do what any college student would love to do in a city with virtually no traffic laws…throw caution to the wind and drive like an absolute mad man…He TAKES off and is flying through the streets of Cairo, in the on coming traffic lane, dodging and swerving like something out of fast in the furious, and no dad I did not have my seat belt on because there were no seat belts in the back seat…apparently shotgun in Cairo is more than just bragging rights, it’s a matter life and death…me and Ted are looking at each other like “what did we get our selves into”. So for about the first 5 minutes of the rally race I was clenching the handle of the door hoping to not die, and being extremely nervous. But then I had an epiphany. I remembered that this trip is all about new experiences and embracing differences. So I began to start laughing and having a great time…It was like a roller coaster ride, constantly accelerating and weaving in and out of cars like it was nothing. He explained to us the reason why everyone honks the way they do. Apparently there is a honking language. Different honks mean different things. Short honks mean I am coming get out of my way…he used that a lot…long honks are mean ones. And there is a honk combo for friendly honking as well, so crazy…Mohammed was having a great time showing off for us, mind you the whole time he was smoking a cigarette and talking on the phone…absolutely ridiculous…so he drives us past his house, and shows us his university, and then we meet up with one of his buddies who is going to play with us, and we race to the field…again flying in and out of lanes, no blinkers, and endless honking…oh yea I almost forgot, Mohammed loves metal (heavy metal is a loud fast music for those who don’t understand the lingo), so he had that blaring as well…so lets recap: Metal Blaring, Smoking a cigarette, on the phone, flying, dodging, weaving, and honking ubsurdly…probably some of the most fun I have had in a long time…we get to the club where the field is. Change, and wait around for the rest of the players to get there. The field is an outdoor basketball court with soccer nets on it, kind of like a super sized futsal court (futsal is like mini soccer)…so everyone gets there and we begin to play…I havnt had this much fun in the longest time…it was street ball soccer for 3 hours straight, so much fun. The game was filled with no looker lazer passes, everyone was pulling moves the whole time, it was so awesome. I unleashed a few rips, and raised a few brows…apparently they aren’t used to hard shots haha, they don’t need them here because they are good enough without them…it was cool to learn a new style and still be able to hang with them. I didn’t want to stop playing. The other thing that was so cool was that only mohammed and his friend new English, everyone else was speaking Arabic. But it didn’t matter, because soccer is Futbol is football, is Calcio and I that’s the only language I needed to know…3 hours of soccer in Egypt with Egyptians, and I didn’t want to leave. I had a smile on my face the whole time, and for the first time this trip I didn’t want to come home at all…so awesome. So after playing we grabbed a few waters, and headed back to Zamalek…flying through the streets and on overpasses, just as crazy as before. Got to the hotel, and get up to my room, and everyone is in there hanging out for petes birthday…perfect timing again…this day couldn’t have been any better. I took a quick shower and then hung out with everyone. Introduced everyone to Mohammed and his friend adam. And then we decided to go out. So we all head out and are planning on going to a club that Adam knew about. So a bunch of pile into Mohammeds car and in less than 3 seconds, this master rally car driver backs right into a car pulling out of his parking spot…and as I have talked about, there are policemen on every corner. So instantly they were at the scene and they told him to wait here. So we ended up having to just go back to the hotel, while he and adam talked with the police and waited for the owner of the car to come back. I wanted to stay with them to make sure everything would be OK, but they kept reassuring me that everything would be fine. They gave ted a call about an hour later letting us know that everything was fine…apparently they are from fairly well off families, and in Egypt that’s all that matters…so they didn’t have to pay anything…imagine if it were like that in the states?? Ridiculous! So, head back to the hotel, hang out till late, and then crash…best day of the trip by far…so many stories, so much fun…

Peace

-Al