interesting

My plans for the Cairo trip are underway! I am officially going this weekend! I will take the 5pm bus on Wednesday afternoon from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to Eilat. It takes around 4 hours and yes, the buses between cities actually leave when they are supposed to! I booked a bed in a hostel in Eilat for the night. I'm not going to have much time in the city, but that's okay. Eilat has a big beach and there are casinos and clubs. I don't feel like gambling or clubbing, and the Tel Aviv beach is way closer. At any rate, I think I might be going to Petra at the end of the month. Petra tours start in Eilat, so I'll have more time to explore the city if I so desire. Anyways, back to my plan. I'll check into my hostel sometime between 9 and 10pm and then find a restaurant/bar and grab dinner. I might do some exploring, but nothing extreme. I'll check out of the hostel by 9am at the latest, stock up on water and food for the rest of my trip (it's a 7 hour bus ride) and catch a taxi to the border between Eilat, Israel and Taba, Egypt. Hopefully all the border crossing things will go smoothly! I'll have my duffel bag searched, show them my passport, pay the border fees, and officially be in Egypt! I will then walk the short distance to the bus station and buy a 10:30am bus ticket to Cairo. I want to get there early to make sure I have a seat...even though the bus apparently runs late. But seeing as how the bus ticket costs around $12.50, that's fine. I'll hopefully get in before 6pm, buy my return ticket and then catch a taxi to Hilary's house. And that's how I'm getting to Cairo.

Ulpan was good. We got a packet photocopied from the ulpan book about direction-related words. These will be very useful, as even with a map, I don't always know where to go.

After ulpan, I went in search of a bookstore, because I need reading material for my trip and I wanted to find an Arabic phrasebook. I bought 2 books and a guidebook to Israel, but there were no phrasebooks. The best thing I could find was a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary...and not only was it too big, but my Hebrew isn't good enough to make it remotely useful. I was proud though, because I conducted this search entirely in Hebrew. Simple Hebrew, but Hebrew nonetheless! I might go to the Malcha mall (maybe the biggest mall in Jerusalem?) and find a larger bookstore there. If I don't, it's not the end of the world. I'm only going to be there from Thursday evening through Saturday evening, and I'm going to the most touristy places ever...and I'm sure Hilary can teach me a few words of Arabic, or lend me a dictionary...or I can buy one there!

Today I did laundry! It was an exciting occasion. Also exciting was figuring out how to open mymirpeset (balcony) door, because it sticks. Even though I'm in a ground-level apartment, I have a mirpeset. It looks out onto trees and bushes and stuff. It's not facing the street. This is good because this is where my clotheslines are. My roommate has a washing machine, but no dryer. Luckily for me, the weather in Jerusalem is hot and (relatively) dry, so hopefully my clothes will be dry tomorrow morning (I put them up as the sun was setting).

Plans for tomorrow:

1. Put away my laundry

2. Go to Tel Aviv and chill on the beach. It turns out that the bus route I took on Thursday when I was going to the hostel that had no rooms runs parallel to the beach! I'll bum around, finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which you all should read) so I can lend it to Hilary, play in the Mediterranean Sea (but not too much or my eczema will probably flair up...ugh), and eat overpriced beach food. Maybe I'll get freckles/sunburnt! I think that this is an excellent way to spend the day. I haven't done it yet because getting motivated to take a 1.5 hour trip someplace requires...motivation.

3. Yoga class! It runs from 8:15pm to 9:45pm. Hopefully it won't be too hard. It's beginner's yoga, but my yoga skills are basically nonexistent.

Plans for Tuesday:

1. Ulpan

2. Possible trip to Malcha Mall to get a phrasebook!

Plans for Wednesday:

1. packpackpackpack

2. meeting at PresenTense at 3pm

3. make sure I have food/water for the ride to Eilat

4. 5pm bus ride to Eilat!