Cairo Tower!

I'm starting to finally feel like Im in Egypt, it always takes me a while for things to hit me, but yesterday I realize wow... Im in EGYPT!!

The day was amazing. I leisurely woke up at about 1pm, we went out the night before with Egyptian guys from school, they took us to

another "bar" on top of a hotel with a gorgeous view of the Nile. Oh and by bar here I mean you go and sit down and order guava or mango or banana juice, and you stay out till 4am but its not for the sake of partying its for the sake of being in nice weather and being awake during the only hours Muslims can eat during Ramadan.

So at about 1pm we left for Zamelek, a section of Cairo. Sophie called cabs and organized the whole thing, she's wonderful =) It was Margaux, Sophie, Gwen, Alex and I (Alex is half egyptian from Texas). The drive was awesome actually, your usual near death experience, but it was so nice to go into the city in the day time so you can see more. We took a different rout then usual too so we saw a lot of new interesting buildings and people. As we came up one little hill I saw my first glimpse of the pyramids =))) They're still so unreal from far away, just lingering on the horizon past the city, surrounded by a layer of fog/ clouds/ smog (who am I kidding)

It was incredible. The three of us that had never seen them before were literally squealing. =)

So we got into Cairo and walked around for about an hour just exploring with no map or schedule, just with the idea that we'd go to the tower for Iftar. We took some pictures with giant lion statues that guard a bridge, saw a statue of man with a fez hat and the Cairo Opera House, and walked along the Nile. Then we went to Cairo Tower!!!

Cairo Tower, or Burg Al-quarera, is just a huge tower in the center of Cairo with a restaurant on top and an unbelievable view. It's taller than the pyramids and claims to be taller than the Eiffel tower and stuff like that too but Im not sure about that one.

We spend I think 4 hours up there. The view is INCREDIBLE. It might be my favorite thing that Ive done here so far =) Sooo amazing. You can see most of Cairo!! I loved looking down at the mosques and high rises and hotels and homes, it was incredible. Also, now I feel like I can get around easier. And it showed us how much we walk too, crazy!

After looking around at the top the first time we went into the restaurant to kill time before Iftar so we could watch the sun go down. We bought fancy icecream drinks and talked for an hour or so before heading back up. It was such a beautiful day =)

And thennn we heard call to prayer!! From several different mosques!! It was gooorgeous, it was really such a beautiful experience. I'm going to try to learn the prayers while Im here, they are so pretty!! Then we watched the sun go down and the city come to life =) Or night life, yeaknow. It was incredible. Im so glad we went!!!

Then for the rest of the evening we walked around some more and went to dinner near the other campus dorms and caught the bus home. It was an awesome day!!

Tomorrrrrrow, school starts!! No more vacation!! Well except tuesdays when we dont have class, and this thursday which is a holiday, and a few weeks from now when we get the week off =) Hahahaha.

Wish me luck! Im nervous but excited, just like the first day of CLU.

Maaaan, I love it here <3