London!

On the 7th of January, Egypt celebrates Christmas, and I was able take advantage of these two days off plus the weekend to hop over to London. The timing was perfect. I finished work at school, and jumped off the bus right in front of the airport to catch my flight about an hour and a half later. Not only was it good to see my grandfather, my uncle, my aunt, and my cousins, but Michaela flew in to London literally two hours after my flight to live for the next six months on a work visa, and I was able to see a bunch of friends from camp. It was nice to do the typical Jospe things with her; philosophical and reminiscent conversations with my grandfather, enjoying dry martinis, long dinners, as well as taking advantage of being in London to see some museums, the Royal Gallery and Tate Modern, and buy some books. Then having the pleasure of orientating Michaela around London and soak in some of the essence of a clean, cold, European city (coming from Cairo it is a striking difference). Although I am fully enjoying this experience in a foreign land, it was a nice break to be able to ride public transportation where people are actually polite, and where one can hear English as the main language. At one point as I was waiting for the bus to go to my uncle’s there was some guy going on about how annoying it is of people who ask for money in the street. Maybe he was crazy, but he was harmless and just wanted to talk about this to someone, so we debated for a bit. Maybe I’m crazy, but not being able to fully communicate with strangers (when I want to) in Cairo bothers me, so I’ll do it when I can – part of my drive to learn Arabic inshallah.
We went out one night to meet up with Ville and Chi and some of their friends which ended up in a Karaoke place where you rent your own room and rock out with two mics, wigs, hats, and some tambourines. Then another night it was a Alex Moore’s birthday from my first year working at camp four years ago, and basically everyone who worked at camp and lives in London was there about 10 people. All these guys are “grown up,” but all legends who have come and gone at camp, and great to catch up with all of them. I landed back in Cairo, knowing that I would make good on the one month tourist Visa (and not get fined 153 pounds like I did on the way out for staying over) as for my midyear break I will meet up with Michaela in Paris and then go to Morocco!